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Chapter 14: Troubled State of Mind

It was now the middle of the afternoon when Max, Chloe and Joyce had made it to the hospital to get Max check out after her incident earlier. As they entered they noticed that it was not as busy as it was the last week but still had a good amount of things happening within still. It took them about five minutes to fill out some paper work and another ten to finally get to see a doctor in a room. As the doctor entered the room Chloe called out "Hey you are Dr. Bagwell right? We met you the day of the storm."

Dr. Bagwell said "That is correct. I remember you now you are friends of Kate Marsh, am I right?"

"Yes I go to school with her." Max told him.

The doctor asked "Well what seems to be the problem today? How can I help?"

The brunette told him "Well earlier today I had passed out and my nose began to bleed a good bit as well. But what was weird was that this just came out of nowhere."

Joyce spoke up "It may not seem like much but it seems like something worth getting checked out."

After a moment of silence the doctor asked "Were you hurt during the storm and or examined afterwards?"

Max answered "I was not injured during the storm and I did not get check out either."

Dr. Bagwell then asked "Ok have you been eating enough and drinking enough fluids?"

"Yes." The brunette told him.

Taking a moment for more consideration the doctor then said "How have you been feeling lately?"

Max stated "To be honest I was fine until a week ago. Every now and then I get these head pains and feel light headed. My nose also bleeds from time to time as well."

"I see." Dr. Bagwell said. "Do you have any previous medical history I should know about?"

Max replied "No."

The doctor took a few notes and stated "Well I will need to do a few tests to see if there is anything wrong."

Chloe and her mother had to wait outside while the tests were being done. Neither one really liked that they had to wait outside but they understood. As they sat down in the waiting room Joyce asked "So how did it go with David this morning?"

"It went ok I suppose." Chloe answered.

Her mother asked "Was there a fight between you two?"

The blue haired girl responded "No we did not. To be honest I just mostly contemplated things while we were gone."

Joyce said "I see."

Chloe said "If you don't mind I really do not have it in me to talk about anything else right now."

Her mother told her "I understand sweetie, it will be ok. I am sure they will help Max. Do you know if this has been going on long with her?"

The punk responded "I do not think so I have not noticed it." But in the back of her mind Chloe had to wonder if this had anything to do with Max's ability to rewind but could not tell her mother that. "If you must know though, what is really bothering me is that I am worried that something terrible will happen and end up taking Max away from me like it did with dad and Rachel."

"Oh sweetie." Joyce exclaimed. "I understand that you have had it bad these past few years I really do. But you can't think like that hon. It is not good for you. On top of that Max came back. I am sure this will be fine and she will be ok."

The punk replied "I know mom but... life has just been so rough I do not know if I can take another loss like that."

Joyce told her daughter "Chloe if there is one thing I have learned in life, it is that life can be unfair at times, hell it can even be downright hard to get through. But it can also be good and joyous. A big part of life is learning to deal with the bad that it throws at you. It can be bad but it is not about how bad it is. It is about how bad it can get and how you can keep on going and push through the bad to see the light of day for the good as well."

With tears in her eyes Chloe looked at her mother and told her "I get that. But life has thrown so much shit at me it is ridiculous."

Her mother responded "Do not worry we will get through this, and we will help Max get through whatever it is with her as well." Chloe then moved over to give her mother a big hug and cried into her shoulder. Joyce was surprised at this amount of emotion coming from her daughter. It had been some time since she has seen Chloe like this. Joyce wrapped her arms around her daughter and hugged her back.

After Chloe and her mother left the room the doctor gathered a few things then moved over to Max. The doctor asked "How long has this been going on?"

After a moment Max answered "Only recently. A week before the storm I had a few nose bleeds and only one or two times I felt lightheaded."

"I see. Ok please keep your eyes open for me." The doctor then shined a light in one of Max's eyes to examine it then did the same to the other. "Has this ever happened before?"

The brunette told him "No. Like I said this all started only recently."

Dr. Bagwell said "Ok well to see what might be wrong we need to do a cat scan, which we can get done here momentarily if you want. Before that though I need to do some blood work."

Max hesitantly said "Oh, ok."

The doctor then moved to a nearby shelf and grabbed a small syringe to draw some blood. As he turned and approached Max her eyes widened and she began to instinctively back away. Images of Jefferson with his doses flooded her mind. As she rose her right arm in a defensive manner she heard the doctor say "It is ok Max. I see you are afraid of needles but please do not be afraid of me. I will only last a moment."

"I'm sorry." Max said quietly.

The doctor noticed the look in Max's eyes though, he had to ask "Max I have to ask, has something happened to you in the past?"

Shocked Max asked "What? What do you mean?"

Dr. Bagwell responded "I have seen many of people with a fear of needles. But none of them have back away in fear like that before. Also the look in your eyes was one of someone who has been through something traumatic."

The brunette responded "I am sorry I am just very easily frightened. I am ok, nothing has happened." She thought to herself however that there is no way she could tell him about what happened in the dark room. Especially since she technically not been there in this timeline. But it did not change the fact that she was there.

As the doctor drew some blood to be tested Max winced at the pain from the needle. Shortly after that she got ready for the cat scan. The process took about twenty minutes. As the test was going the doctor made some notes about what he saw and tried to come to a conclusion about what could possibly be wrong.

When the scan was finished and the doctor entered the room he asked "The other two women can be here to hear the results if you want, or you can tell them yourself if you want.

Max told him "You can go ahead and let them in. I know Joyce will have questions you can answer better than me anyways." The doctor gave her a small nod then left the room. Max braced herself for what he could have found out. When the door opened Chloe went straight to Max and grabbed her right hand. Joyce went and stood to her left. Dr. Bagwell then closed the door behind them once he entered the room.

Joyce asked "So what did you find out?"

Dr. Bagwell pick up his clip board and cleared his throat, "Well to be honest I am not entirely sure. As the cat scan went it showed that she has recently had a massive amount of brain activity. But for the time being has not had nearly as much."

Max asked "Is that a good or bad thing?"

The doctor answered "Well from what I have gathered you have been experiencing this due to massive stress and possibly some sort of mental trauma. From what it seems like your brain was close to having an anyrsism but did not quite make it to that point."

Joyce called out "Oh my lord."

The doctor continued "The main thing to do now is to keep your stress down and try to relax. Whatever it is that is bothering you seems to be going for your mental state."

The brunette spoke up "Ok thank you doctor. I will do the best I can to keep my stress down."

Joyce asked "How did something like this happen?"

Dr. Bagwell answered "To be honest I do not have an answer for you. Max?"

Max said "I really do not know myself."

Joyce spoke up "Well we will have to make sure you take it easy for a while."

The three of them rode home with mostly Joyce asking a question here and there. When the made it back to the house and entered Joyce told the girls "Ok girls I am going to go explain everything to David then get to work on fixing dinner."

As she walked away the girls made their way back to Chloe's room. Once they were inside and the door was shut Chloe sat down on her bed. Max looked at Chloe and told her "Ok Chloe you have been very quiet since you entered the hospital room. What is on your mind?"

The blue haired girl sat there in silence for a few moments before she spoke up. "Max be honest with me, Have you used your powers since the storm?"

Shocked Max asked back "Chloe how could you even ask me that?"

"Well, have you?" Chloe responded.

Max replied "No! I have not. Anything else you do not believe me on?"

The punk answered "Well I had to know. Because you only ever passed out like that when you over used you powers so I began to worry when I saw you passed out like that. I am sorry but I just had to be sure."

The shorter girl told her "Ugh. I guess I understand that. I am sorry you had to worry like that. But I really do have no idea what happened. I do have to tell you though... my mind has been messing with me the past few days."

Chloe asked "What do you mean?"

Max told her "Well when I passed out on the way to the lighthouse during the storm my conscious made another form of me that was showing me all of the bad and self-doubt within me and trying to convince me that I am completely evil in everything. But the past few days she has been back in nightmare making me hate myself. I am trying to resist it but she just keeps coming back."

"Oh Max." Chloe said. "That sounds hella bad."

The brunette said "It is." The two both sighed then sat there in silence for a few minutes. Neither one really knew what to say after that. After a little bit Max finally broke the silence "I am afraid I might be losing my mind."

The punk replied "You know you could try my weed. It might help. I sure know it helps me calm down and not over use my mind, most of the time."

Max responded "I am being serious here."

Chloe said "I know sorry. But you could if you want to."

Seeing as how Chloe was joking but also maybe somewhat serious Max sighed "I know but I do not think that will help right now. Besides that needs to be the last thing I deal with right now."

"Sorry not trying to force anything on you." The punk said.

Max moved over to the desk and sat down in the chair and said "I just need everything to stop for awhile."

Chloe told her "I hear that. You have been through a hella amount of shit this past so many days you deserve a break."