Rachel's alarm woke her up on time as usual and Max got up with her, as they had agreed to the night before. Today was Max's big day, as she would be flying to San Francisco alongside her teacher and Victoria.
"What would you like for breakfast dear?", she asked Max they went downstairs to eat.
"I was gonna make myself a sandwich, why?", Max asked somewhat sleep drunk. She must not have slept well. Rachel didn't entirely blame her, considering what she was about to get into.
"I can make you one, I know what you like.", she offered her.
"Oh? How come?"
"Well, Max, because today is exciting enough and I thought I'd do you a favor while I still can."
"I'm not gonna argue, thanks."
"Always. Just sit down and let me worry about the rest. Chocolate milk? And if so, warm or cold?"
"Cold, something to wake me up.", Max responded.
Rachel fixed them both something to eat, a bologna and cheese sandwich for Max and cereal for herself.
"Here you go.", she said as she passed Max her plate.
"I have like zero appetite, but I will do my best.", Max admitted.
"That's just the jitters. Once its over, you will be glad you went. Did you... uh... decide on what you wanna do? Are you willing to go through with the scholarship offer?", Rachel asked.
"I think I will, it seems like the right thing to do and since I have your blessing I feel a lot better about it."
"The sky is the limit, Max, but I will be with you all the way to the top. Sorry if that sounded corny, but I couldn't think of a better way to phrase myself there."
"I appreciate you nonetheless, I feel like together we can take on anything."
"That's the idea."
After filling up on breakfast, it was time for Rachel to go. Max would be leaving soon herself, taking the school bus to Blackwell and from there she would accompany Mr. West and Victoria to Portland and its airport. She couldn't take her truck today, as she didn't want to leave it parked at Blackwell this whole time and instead entrusted Rachel with it.
"Here's the truck keys, take good care of it."
"Of course I will, although I might take it for a ride."
"I don't mind that."
Having put the keys into her pocket for the moment, Rachel looked Max into the eyes one more time before leaving.
"I never get tired of looking into your eyes.", Max said softly.
"I could say the same about yours, with that lovely shade of blue in them. Are you feeling like an everyday hero yet?", she responded, stroking Max's cheeks gently.
"Not really."
"Well, you are mine."
Rachel initiated one more kiss before they would go their separate ways.
"I will see you tomorrow evening, say hello to California from me.", Rachel said as she opened the door to her car.
"You bet. I love you, Rachel, please take care."
"I love you too, Max."
Driving away from Max standing there by the door wasn't exactly what Rachel would call one of her fondest memories she had of her wife, but she took comfort in the thought that Max was getting her name out there soon. A part of Rachel envied her partner for her success, but Rachel knew better than to get jealous and instead looked forward to hearing what stories she would have to tell her upon returning.
Having arrived at work, Rachel got herself ready for her shift. Joyce was already there and was getting the countertops ready for service. She was early and there was still time before opening.
"Good morning, Rachel!", she said when Rachel had gone inside. "Did you tell Max the news?"
"I did, she was caught completely off-guard, you should have seen her face!"
"I can imagine."
"Pretty sure she looks forward to seeing the little guy or girl when the time comes."
"That will be a while yet. Any day now I expect to get a call from the hospital though. I told them that we wish to know what the baby is. I didn't mind the mystery with Chloe but being short on money, I can't afford to buy anything unnecessary, you know what I mean?", Joyce said.
"I get it, you don't wanna buy all girls stuff only to end up with a boy at the end, is that it?"
"You are quite perceptive, that's what I meant. By the way, did you read the news this morning?"
"Nah, I haven't. Did the world blow up and we just haven't noticed yet?"
"Ha. No, but another dead person turned up in the woods."
"Again?"
"Yep, again. Makes you wonder what is going on in this town. I'm convinced it's cursed at this point."
"Max and I might be out of here sometime next year."
"Really?"
Rachel told Joyce all about the scholarship offer that Max had received the day before.
"Oh my goodness, that is great! That could really be a great career for her. Has she agreed to it yet?", Joyce asked after Rachel had finished.
"Not yet, but she says she wants to once the offer is officially made. I'm proud of her either way though."
"You and me both, I remember the days when she was just a little girl, playing around and enjoying herself with Chloe and their pirate shenanigans. I miss those days..."
"I wish I could have seen that."
"You would have fit right in with them I'm sure."
"But, you never know, those days might just come back."
"Oh, you think our little one will have a playmate like Max?"
"Something tells me so, history has a thing for repeating itself."
"I hope you are right darling."
Joyce checked the time.
"Alright, time to open the doors!"
It was time for Rachel to impress again, not just Joyce, but also her numerous customers. Scoring some nice tips, her day went mostly smoothly. That is until Nathan arrived a few hours in.
"I don't wanna be a problem, but you better take this one.", she said to Joyce pointing out Nathan. She had previously told her about the encounter she had with him when Max had intervened.
"It's ok honey, you can tend to the next table.", she responded.
Despite the fact that Joyce covered for her, she could tell that Nathan was watching her and she could overhear every word they spoke. The place wasn't as full as it usually was, which kept the ambient noise levels low enough for her to hear it all.
"Why isn't she serving me?", she could hear Nathan say.
"You know damn well why. Now, what's it gonna be for ya?", Joyce said, trying to get his attention.
"That is so stupid, I demand her to serve me."
"Your demands extend as far as the menu goes, so let me ask you one more time. What are you having?"
"Do you even know who you are talking to? I could step on you insignificant insects just like that.", he boasted, slamming his foot on the floor.
"I know exactly who I am talking to and I suggest you get out of here before I have you removed by the police!"
"I'd love to see you try."
"Very well, in that case, I suggest you sit back and watch."
A coworker of them saw Joyce giving him a sign to call the police, as he had seen everything as well. Picking up the phone, he contacted the authorities.
"You are going to regret this! You fuck with my family, you are gonna get it! Just watch!"
Joyce ignored his threats and walked away. His ranting continued for another minute by which time a policeman came in the door to take him in.
"Fucking insects!", Nathan sneered as the cop pulled him outside and into a police car.
The whole place remained silent for a moment. A collective sigh of relief could be heard from a great many customers who were glad to be rid of Nathan as well. No one wanted to have anything to do with the Prescotts. After a conversation with the police as to what happened and having filed a report, they could finally continue service, without further interruptions.
At the end of the shift, before leaving, Rachel spoke with Joyce one more time.
"Thank you for earlier, you didn't have to do that.", she said.
"Honey, it's fine. That jerk doesn't deserve your attention quite frankly. If you hadn't pointed him out to me, I would have stepped in and taken over for you. It's not like he would have tipped you anyway."
"I appreciate that."
"Have a safe trip home."
"Thanks, you too."
"See you tomorrow morning!"
"Later."
On her way to the car, she thought about how great she and Joyce got along. No doubt her counterpart had gotten along well with her too. It made her feel regretful for not having made an effort to get to know Chloe better while she still could have done so. She was about to turn on the car's engine when she received a phone call.
"Hello?", she answered.
"Hey, Rachel, it's Megan."
Megan clearly sounded concerned about something, that much Rachel could tell right away.
"What's up?", she asked.
"Have you seen Sera lately?"
"No I haven't, why are you asking?"
"She hadn't come back home last night and I'm getting kinda worried. No one else I asked had seen her either."
"Shit... ok. Do you know where she went?"
"She was attending a union meeting last night. I'm pretty sure that wasn't meant to be an overnight thing though. What do I do?"
Rachel became anxious herself, which didn't help.
"Listen, Megan, just relax, I'm sure she will come home soon. But... if she doesn't come back by tomorrow morning, can you let me know?"
"Of course. I will stay in touch."
"Ok, let's hope this is nothing bad. I will see if I can find out something on my end. Talk to you later."
"Later, Rachel."
On the way home Rachel tried to keep her emotions in check. Whenever her mother was concerned it has always spurred strong reactions from her and rarely good ones. She had no idea where her mother could have been, so instead, she decided to ask the one person that was most likely to know if something happened to her.
Back at the house, he walked in to see Rose preparing dinner as usual around this time.
"Hey, Rose."
"Hi, Rachel, how was your day?", Rose asked her.
Rachel sincerely hoped at that moment that Max's day was better than her own.
"It was... ok I guess. Is James around?"
"He's in his office. Is there something you need?"
"I need to speak with him."
"Ok, I'm glad to hear that."
"Don't sell the pig before you've slaughtered it. I have important business to discuss."
She went ahead, knocked on the office door and waited for a response. She could have simply walked in since she knew the code to the door but that was something she'd prefer to keep secret, just in case.
After a moment, the door opened.
"Rachel? I wasn't expecting you."
"Well, I guess today is full of surprises. Can I come in?"
"Yes, yes of course."
Her father clearly hadn't expected her to suddenly come talk to him, after pretty much ignoring his existence for the last several months. She sat down in a chair across from his desk, where he took his seat.
"You look like you have something to ask me.", he remarked.
Forcing herself to look at him in order to set a neutral tone for this conversation, she made her best effort to remain diplomatic. If James knew something, she needed him to be in a good mood.
"Something happened.", she said.
She expected him to react, but he didn't. His expression remained unchanged so far.
"What happened?", he asked back.
"Sera has disappeared last night and no one knows where she is. I... I was hoping you might know what's going on.", she said.
A part of her wanted to yell at him and demand to know where she was, but it wasn't guaranteed that James was behind this. Using Max's advice, Rachel managed to remain calm. Calm as can be given the circumstances.
James leaned back in his chair and folded his hands into a thinking posture.
"I do not know where she is, Rachel. This is the first time I hear about this. You do realize that given her background, a great many things could have happened to her, right?"
"Don't patronize me. She has improved so much, you couldn't even tell that she had been an addict once. If you had bothered to see her, you'd know that too."
"I didn't mean to sound patronizing. It's just that I know her in a way that you don't. Where was she last?"
"A union meeting, that's what her roommate Megan told me if you remember her."
"I do, I haven't seen or heard from her in a while."
"They live together, sharing an apartment. Sera went to this meeting last night and never returned."
"Do you know where she works?"
"No, it hadn't come up yet. I visited her only once since Max and I came back from our honeymoon. A choice I'm seriously starting to regret at this point."
"Do you trust Megan?"
What kind of question was that? Was he seriously implying Megan might have a hand in her mother's disappearance?
"I do, I have known her long enough."
"The same applies to me, yet I managed to fool you for 15 years. However, I do not take pride in that fact, no matter what you might think."
Unfortunately, he had a point there.
"I know you don't particularly trust me these days, Rachel. But believe me when I say that I have nothing to do with this. I have accepted that you want Sera in your life, despite my warnings."
"It was never your right to decide for me."
"It was at the time, but I will concede that this is indeed no longer the case. I will see what I can do, but currently, we have our hands full with this ongoing mystery with these starvation victims. Another one was found yesterday and just like before, there was no indication of foul play, which I find more and more unlikely to be the case at this point. Someone must be doing something to someone for this to happen this frequently."
"Do you think that this has anything to do with Sera?"
"I can't say, not without an investigation. I do not wish for any further harm to come to her though."
Rachel couldn't but feel that these incidents might be connected.
"There has to be something about all these missing person cases that we are not seeing."
"I agree with you. Here, I made a map of all the places we had found the victims to see if there was a pattern. But these places are in rural areas where these sort of accidents happened before."
Rachel looked at the map. It was one of Arcadia Bay and its surrounding communities and land. Nine red "X's" were marked on it, each one representing a victim of starvation in the last few months. At first, she also did not notice anything unusual, but upon closer inspection, she noticed something.
"What is this thing?", she asked, pointing out a spot on the map.
"That's an abandoned barn. It's been there for over a century and as far as I know, no one is using it anymore.", James said.
"I will have to disagree with that.", Rachel responded.
"What do you mean?"
"Look at the location of this thing. If you look close enough, you will see that all the X's are more or less dotted around it."
James had a closer look for himself now as well.
"We've been over that building, there's nothing there."
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure.", he reaffirmed himself.
"You said that no one uses it right?"
"That is correct."
Rachel felt her pulse quicken for a moment. Whatever she was going to say, she had to really be careful about it. If she was wrong, then she was looking into the eyes of a possible killer, if she was right, then she knew for sure that James was innocent. It would all depend on his reaction to her next sentence.
"On Max's birthday, we drove past the barn and we saw a well-dressed man in a suit walk inside.", she stated, watching James closely like a dangerous animal that could pounce her any second.
"You said you saw someone enter?", he ended up asking calmly but with concern.
"Yes, some guy in a fancy suit. He was too far away for us to tell who it was and we weren't about to stop and question a stranger in the middle of nowhere. I've seen too many horror movies for that."
James looked at the spot on the map again.
"That is strange. But based on this I cannot tell the police to go looking. You saw someone but they weren't doing anything illegal. Also, the police were already there and had found nothing."
"Then what do you suggest?"
"I know a private investigator who I can send in and have another look, maybe he can find something the police missed. He's fairly reliable and has been a great asset to local law enforcement in the past."
"Must be a hell of a guy for you to speak so highly of him."
"In fact, you know him, his name is David Madsen. He was there when that dreadful robbery happened at the bank last year."
Rachel remembered him, but she mostly knew him based on what Max had told her about David. He was Joyce Price's husband in the other timeline.
"If he hadn't been there...", she said to herself.
"I owed him big time for saving your life, so I agreed to hire him from time to time, whenever his services were required."
"I thought he was just a bus driver?"
"And that is how he'd like people to know him, but he wanted to do more with his life, so he does this job on the side. I will send him to this barn and have a look. If Sera has anything to do with this, we might get our answers there."
"When do you want to do that?"
"Soon, I will let you know."
Awkward silenced commenced for a moment.
"Rachel...", James said, clearly with something on his mind. "I know it hasn't been easy for you and Max to be here. I wish things had turned out differently and I admit that I have made mistakes in the past. I'm not asking for your forgiveness, but I appreciate that you came to me, even if it was only by process of elimination."
It was indeed impossible for her to forgive him yet, but the fact that he offered her the assistance she needed while also putting her concerns about him to rest did not go unnoticed. He was not the one she saw at the barn that day, that she was convinced of. Also, it seemed unlikely that he would do what her dream vision had implied. Imagining him shooting Sera seemed a bit farfetched at this point.
"I'm... I'm glad we talked.", she said, finally looking her father in the eye for the first time in a long while.
"So am I. You know where to find me if you need me.", he replied.
"I do, thanks."
She got up and started to walk out of the office.
"Say hello to Max from me if you contact her and tell her that we hope that she has a good time."
"I will."
With that, she headed upstairs, now being alone for the first time all day. She dressed in her regular clothes again and beheld herself in the mirror like she always loved to do. But something was missing.
Max was not there with her.
She got her phone out and texted her, although she didn't expect a response any time soon. No doubt Max was being praised to high heavens by the art world right now, so she put the phone aside and wrote a diary entry while waiting on Max's reply or a call to dinner, whichever would come first.
About 800 miles south from Arcadia Bay, Max had just been through an onslaught of interviews and questions from visitors of the gallery. Donning her yellow blazer, she managed to fit in visually, just fine, but felt out of place regardless. However, her picture garnered the attention of a great many onlookers and press people. By the time the event was over for the day, she had been given over a dozen contact information cards and suffered a headache from the stress. She was about to retreat to her hotel room for the evening, when Mr. West addressed both her and Victoria, who had adjacent rooms to her, stopping them in the hotel lobby.
"Ladies, there is something we need to discuss if you have a minute?"
"What's wrong, Mr. West?", Victoria asked.
"I will tell you when we get upstairs, follow me."
Max wasn't sure what this was about, but her teacher seemed somewhat grave and embarrassed about something.
Together, they all entered his hotel room.
"Have a seat, anything to drink?"
"I'll take a water if you don't mind, my throat is still scratchy from talking all day.", Max said.
"Same here.", Victoria agreed.
With a glass of water in hand each, they now sat at a table and Mr. West's expression turned serious.
"First of all, I'm so proud of how you to held your own and conducted yourself today. The jury was right not to exclude either of you and you should be proud of what you have achieved."
Max did not like where this was going. For so much praise, it sounded too serious and it was clearly meant to soften the impact of what the real issue was.
"But, unfortunately, we have been blindsided."
"Blindsided?", Victoria asked in confusion. "In what way, Mr. West?"
He sighed audibly, clearly not wanting to share this next bit of information.
"The Prescott foundation has rescinded their offer of a scholarship for both winners of the contest.", he said plainly.
"Are you serious?", Max said in reaction.
"What? That can't be right!", Victoria fumed.
"I'm afraid it is the truth. Even though Caroline Prescott herself had given me assurances beforehand. It would seem that she was either overruled or never intended to keep her word."
"So... what now?", Max asked.
"Now, we are stuck with two legitimate winners but only one prize. We have one scholarship and that is unfortunately it."
Victoria slammed her fist down on her knee in reaction.
"That is unacceptable! We earned this!"
"You are completely right, Ms. Chase. But the Prescotts have more power than I do in this matter. I tried to reason with them, I even called them earlier while you two were busy giving interviews to try to come to an agreement but they weren't listening."
Both Max and Victoria looked down at the floor, with Victoria on the verge of crying.
"I am so sorry, that this happened. It is not how I wanted this to go. Only one of you can receive it now and while I hate to do this to you, I must leave the choice up to you. I do not wish to pick between you and have one of you hate me for the rest of their lives. It wouldn't be fair either."
"How much time do we have to decide?", Max asked.
"I will give you a week, by then I need to know so I can hand over the prize in person."
She hated the very thought of this. Going into this trip, she fully anticipated hating Victoria's guts the whole time. Much to her surprise, however, once they were actually forced to spend time with one another, they got along very well, even if she was very talkative. This Victoria was very different from what Max expected indeed. And now, one of them would have to surrender their prize because the Prescotts were being stingy with their precious money.
"I wish I had better news for you, but I'm afraid the situation is what it is. I meant to wish you both a good night, but that sounds like a very wrong thing to say at this point. Instead, I hope to see you again in the morning. There will be a few more hours of interviews until we fly back to Oregon in the afternoon. Once again, I'm sorry it's come to this."
In silence, they left his hotel room, with both Max and Victoria finding themselves alone in the hallway now.
"This is such bullshit, I cannot believe the Prescotts would do this to us! Why was I ever friends with Nathan again?!", Victoria spewed angrily.
"You see now why I gave up on the Vortex Club?", Max asked, almost expecting Victoria to lash out in response.
"I'm starting to, they had money for all our parties but not for something like this? Something that actually mattered?! Something that could change our lives? What do we do?"
"I don't wanna decide this right now, to be honest.", Max stated.
She could feel her stomach rumbling. While the buffet at the event had been plentiful, she didn't get as much time to eat as she would have liked and therefore had barely eaten anything all day.
"Would you care to join me for dinner somewhere?", she asked Victoria, who was surprised by the sudden offer.
"I didn't expect that from you, especially not after that curve ball just now. But sure, let's go, bound to be something nice around here at least.", she responded, and they headed down the elevator and outside of the hotel.
Together, they browsed the nearby street and found a simple fast food joint. Max wasn't picky and neither was Victoria, they just wanted to eat. Max decided to vent her frustration on a burger, while Victoria preferred chicken strips, both with a helping of french fries and soda.
"Are you sure Rachel won't mind us hanging out like this?", Victoria asked after they had finished gorging themselves.
"No, she wants me to make friends and socialize.", Max replied.
"She must trust you a great deal, I wish she had shown me that sort of trust and not treat me like a threat all the time.", Victoria remarked, taking another sip from her soda cup.
"Rachel is... hard to impress, I admit. But once you do and earn her trust, she is the most incredible person you will ever know."
"Hearing you say that like that makes me believe that. I've been meaning to ask you but avoided the question for a while. Why did you stop hanging with the Vortex anyway?"
"Because... the Vortex just wasn't what I thought it was. I thought it would be a group for students to hang out and help each other, but quite frankly, it looks more like Nathan and Courtney's personal fan club at this point."
"You aren't entirely wrong about that. I used to love hanging there myself, organizing parties and stuff. But ever since that incident with Kate where Nathan got her suspended, I had my own doubts, but was too scared to act on it and leave. I was afraid of the consequences."
"You wanna talk about consequences? I could tell you things about consequences that would turn you white."
"You seem so wise and mature, Maxine."
"Max, never Maxine, remember?"
"Sorry! Old habit, I'm still trying to get used to it. I didn't mess that up every time have I?"
"You haven't, not all the time."
"Oh good. Well anyway, you seem to have changed a lot since we last spoke, which now that I think about it, has been like forever."
"I take that as a compliment. You have changed too."
"I have? Huh, I didn't really notice, but thanks I suppose. I try to live up to my family's expectations too, and they expect a lot! They own a gallery of their own, you must know."
"So I heard, the "Chase Space" in Seattle. I've been there once. It's quite impressive actually."
"That's the one! I forgot for a moment that you lived in Seattle once."
"I did, for a while. My parents are still up there."
"Bet they approve of their daughter-in-law. Tell me, what is it like to be married to Rachel Amber?"
"Amazing, insane, unpredictable, intense... yeah, you get the picture. Speaking of which, I wanna check if she messaged me, hang on."
Max grabbed her phone and it had a bunch of messages on it.
"I'm such a dumbass, I still had this thing muted, no wonder I didn't check it sooner."
Finally, she found what she was looking for and the news was not good.
"Just when you thought you had your life in order. Fuck!", she exclaimed.
"What's wrong?", Victoria asked.
Max explained the situation based on what Rachel told her about Sera's disappearance.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I hope they can find her soon."
"You and me both Victoria, you and me both."
They headed back to the hotel and to their rooms. Max appreciated the fact that Victoria didn't bring up the scholarship dispute so far and hoped that she could forget about that just for a moment to comfort her wife who was without a doubt awaiting her phone call.