Chapter 9

Max waited as the picture emerged from the front of her instant camera. She shook it to get it to develop as she felt her heart begin to speed up in her chest. The moment was coming and she knew already what the outcome was going to be. Sure enough, there was a bang as the door burst open. Nathan came in and began ranting to himself, just as Max had heard him do before. Shortly after, Chloe arrived and started checking the stalls before turning to Nathan.

As their argument escalated, Max found that the worst possible thing was happening: she was going into shock. She felt her muscles seize up as fear completely gripped her. Mentally she slapped herself as she screwed her eyes shut and dug her nails into her palms. She had to snap herself out of this! This was the worst case scenario!

"Where did you get that?" Max heard Chloe's voice lose its base and knew he was aiming the gun at her. Time was short. She was moving now or not at all. Nathan was showing no signs of calming down. She dropped her bag to make sure it stayed safe and steeled her resolve before she lost her nerve. "Get that gun away from me, psycho!" That was it. It was time.

"Nathan!" Max roared, throwing her fear aside and breaking cover. On reflex, he whirled around and fired three times. The first bullet struck low, hitting just below her stomach and causing all feeling in her legs to vanish instantly. The other two slammed into her chest on the left side. As such close range, the force was enough to take her off her feet. She landed in a heap on the floor. There was no pain. There was just a weird numbing sensation where she'd been hit. Everything seemed distant and far away, including the sound of Chloe's scream of rage as Nathan dropped the gun in shock. As soon as he was unarmed, Chloe wasted no time in slamming his head into the edge of one of the basins hard enough to drop him to the floor in a groaning heap. Chloe walked over and grabbed the gun from the floor, going to aim it for Nathan's head. In the heat of the moment, Max knew she'd do it. She'd seen her do it the first time they'd failed getting Frank to give them his client list. It had been purely on instinct and it had almost destroyed her with regret afterwards.

"Chloe..." Max's voice sounded weak even to her own ears. She doubted Chloe had heard her, but she had to assume she had. "Don't..." Miraculously, Max saw Chloe's shoulders sag. She'd heard. She ripped the clip from the gun, flipped it around and mercilessly bashed Nathan's skull with it hard enough to split the skin. Nathan flopped to the floor like a dead fish. He wasn't dead, but there was no chance of him waking up before security got there.

"Max!" Chloe ran over to her, scooping the smaller girl into her arms and holding her close. "Oh fuck! I'll get help!"

"No." Max gripped Chloe's arm lightly, her strength leaving her rapidly. "Stay... My bag... My diary..." She paused and forced herself to breathe enough that she could say what she needed to as Chloe set her down and checked around the side of the stalls, finding her bag and fishing the diary out. "Get my diary to David."

"Max, I don't understand!" Chloe crouched down next to Max and pulled her close again. "What is going on here?" Unfortunately, Max could feel herself getting weaker by the second and she knew there was still one thing she had to say that her diary never could. With the last of her strength, she grabbed Chloe by the back of the head and pulled herself in, smashing their mouths together. This was nothing like at the lighthouse. This was passionate, it was desperate and it was something she knew Chloe would remember for the rest of her life. She let herself lie back, finally saying the one thing she'd been so desperate to ever since she'd first realised how she'd felt back when she'd finally seen Chloe again after all those years apart.

"I love you, Chloe." As she said that, she felt herself becoming lighter. She could feel herself leaving her body and leaving the world behind. As everything faded away, the last thing she heard brought a smile to her face. Hearing those words made everything she'd been through suddenly feel totally worth it.

"I love you too, Max." As she heard Chloe say that, reality faded away. This time, it wasn't replaced by the vortex of alternate realities she'd been trapped in and enslaved to ever since she'd first rewound. This time, it was quiet. It was finally quiet. There was no Jefferson. There was no impossible burden on her shoulders. There was only silence. It was a silence she eagerly ran towards, no longer caring about her body and knowing that she'd managed to save Chloe. It was painfully apparent that there wasn't a single reality where she and Chloe could live together peacefully. The only way to avoid creating alternate realities was to not rewind. Without rewinding, there was no way to save Chloe and make sure she also survived. Max knew that at the end of the game, the king and the pawn went back into the same box. Only she could have decided what she was willing to sacrifice.

'I made my decision.' Max thought to herself. 'I have no regrets.'

"Oh, don't you?" Max spun where she was. The voice had sounded far away, but there was something familiar about it. When she turned around, it took her a second to realise that the horse standing behind her was the one from the farm where she'd met Dom and Rae. A grin spread over her face as she realised she was among friends.

"Hello, Rachel." The horse's shape shrank and shifted, reforming into a human figure. What was once a mane became flowing golden hair that fell elegantly down her back and highlighted her radiant face. A face that carried a decidedly annoyed expression.

"When did you know it was me?" she asked. Max could only stifle a laugh in response.

"Chelra? You need to work on your fake names. My big question is how you did it." At that, Rachel's face cracked into a smile. She visibly relaxed and it was like a lot of the tension had left the empty space around them. As soon as it happened, Max felt herself relaxing too.

"When you died in the hospital fighting Jefferson's possession, I used my share of the rewind power that bled over to me. I didn't know what I did at the time but it turned out that I'd placed my own consciousness into the reality you'd been sent to. I thought you might need some assistance and to see a friendly face. I just had to follow you and pick my moment."

"You gave me the photo back." It was a statement, not a question. Max knew Rachel would be smart enough to tell that.

"I did." Rachel nodded. With that, she stepped up closer to Max. "And now you have a choice to make." As Max watched, the dark expanse in front of her split in two, lighting up on one side. Inside the light, Max could see everyone she knew who'd been taken too soon. There was William standing at the front. Max could make out Chen and Ellie just behind him. As she looked on, Rachel walked over and stepped through the light. She stood beside William, the glow around them making her look even more like a model on a well-lit catwalk. She was a picture of serene and effortless beauty. Turning to the other side, she saw the world below. Her body was still on the floor of the girls' bathroom at Blackwell with Chloe leaning over her, frantically trying to get her to wake up again as though it was going to do anything.

"Are you trying to tell me I can go back?" Max asked, bewildered. "How could I have survived something like that?"

"Oh, no." Rachel shook her head, her voice slightly distorted behind the wall of light. "One of those bullets hit your spine and the other two got you in the heart. You're dead as shit. There's no way you're coming back from that. But you can go back without a body. You can look on as an observer as Chloe lives out her natural life and see what happens. But you can't change what happens. You will be unseen, unheard and unnoticed for as long as you wish."

"Yet you took the form of a horse and a ghost deer." Max pointed out.

"That was after you started messing with time." Rachel lectured her. "Plus, my case was different. There was something that was stopping me from resting peacefully. But your diary will take care of that now. Thanks for that, by the way. You, on the other hand, have done what you need to do to rest. Your interaction with the world will be minimal if anything at all. Look, I know it's not fair but that's what you're agreeing to if you take that path. It will be agony for you just as it was for me."

"Maybe so, Rachel." Max nodded as she stepped closer to the image of Chloe. "It changes nothing. She's my priority and I will never leave her."

"Never?"

"Never!" Max practically spat. She could see William's expression was one of pride. Chen and Ellie were grinning too. For her, it was the final elimination of any doubt that she'd made the right choice. Rachel nodded in acceptance, stepping out from the light again. She walked over and took Max by the hands, looking her directly in the eyes.

"The burden of your death shall be this, then: you will live on, always staying by Chloe's side. You will no longer life your life as Max Caulfield. You will sacrifice the pleasures of a physical life or the freedom that lies beyond to remain with the one you love until it's her own time to join us here. You will watch unacknowledged as she lives out her own natural life and moves forward into a future without you, whatever that may be." Max embraced Rachel, tears streaming down her face. She made no move to stop them.

"I'll accept that burden with all that I am." Rachel broke the embrace and pulled back to look Max over. Max met her gaze head-on, never having felt more determined than she did in that second.

"I believe you." With that, the two girls turned away from each other and walked their separate ways. As Max stepped into the image and felt herself re-materialise next to Chloe, she knew in her heart that there was no place she'd rather be at that moment. There were some distressing times ahead, but knowing that wouldn't change her mind. She was where she belonged.