Oct 11, 2013 - [7:06 am]
Prescott Barn
Southeast of Arcadia Bay, Oregon
This has to be the weirdest fucking night of my life, and I've had some pretty weird fucking nights.
Victoria appeared here right from 2015. No interruption, no delay, and apparently not much sleep the night before. Meanwhile, Max and I have been on the go for almost thirty-six hours. Sure, we got some sleep last night, but not a ton of it. And unlike me, Max has been running herself ragged by fucking around with time. To the point that she's pretty sure she's broken whatever it is that let her do it in the first place; maybe even permanently. And while adrenaline (or maybe epinephrine, which these two got into a surprisingly heated argument about) kept them on their feet for a while, it didn't last forever.
Long story short, Max and Victoria got very tired, very fast. But since neither of them were willing to go down to the bunker until it was 'absolutely necessary', the three of us ended up sitting above it, backs against the barn wall, talking about pretty much anything that came to mind.
We got Victoria caught up on the last couple of days, and while she'd particularly enjoyed hearing about how Max kicked Frank's ass, she'd sobered up pretty quick when we broke the news about Nathan. She didn't break down in tears or anything, which was a little surprising considering how much her younger self had been all about helping and protecting the little psycho. New & improved Victoria was disappointed, but admitted that she'd accepted Nathan was beyond help a long time ago.
After that, most of the conversation was her and Max telling me about stuff that happens in the future. Nothing big or important; mostly just everyday things like funny work stories (Victoria gave me about a dozen good examples of why you should never take your eyes off an idiot in an art gallery), dumb roommate stuff (I need to see this super-caffeinated version of Max for myself), and even some movies that are going to come out. I'm already looking forward to some of them, actually. John Wick and Fury Road both sound fucking badass, and I'm pretty sure Victoria is hot for whoever this Furiosa chick is.
The conversation kinda tapered off after a while. Eventually Max got cold (or so she claimed) and cuddled up next to me (not that I was complaining). A minute later her breathing evened out and I looked down to find her fast asleep on my shoulder. It was fucking adorable, and everything would be awesome if that were all that'd happened.
I was so busy watching Max sleep that I didn't notice the sound of fleece sliding against wood. If I had, it would have given me a second or two of warning before Victoria's head landed on my other shoulder. She'd fallen asleep as well, then keeled over like some obnoxious asshole on the bus and landed on my goddamned shoulder. I'd tried to wake her up, hissing her name and bucking my shoulder a little, but she was out like a light, and I didn't want to accidentally wake Max up, too.
That was about an hour ago, and the two of them are still asleep. Meanwhile, here I am in the middle, playing headrest to a pair of tuckered-out time travelers. On my right shoulder, Max breathes softly, looking cute as fuck. On my left, Victoria is actually drooling a little. If I could get to my phone without maybe waking Max up, I'd totally want a picture of her. That kind of primo blackmail material doesn't come along every day.
The weather outside started getting nasty a little while ago. I can already hear the wind howling through the trees and the heavy rain pounding the barn's roof. I guess we're lucky it's still in decent-ish condition. The part we're sitting under is, at least; there's definitely water dripping down in a few places. Every now and then I hear the rumble of thunder and see a flicker of lightening outside. Both of them have been getting steadily closer, and I figure I'm going to have to wake these two up pretty soon.
Shifting in place a little, I briefly think that if I'd ever had a dream just one time after getting way too high about being the meat in a Max and Victoria sandwich (which I never ever have and fuck you sideways for suggesting otherwise), it sure didn't look anything like this.
Wouldn't have looked anything like this, I mean.
If it had ever happened.
Which it fucking didn't.
...seriously, way too high.
Suddenly I feel a buzz in my pocket, followed a half-second later by a loud chirp. Then another buzz/chirp combo. Then another. Beside me, Max stirs and makes an unhappy sound, so I take a risk and pull my phone out to silence it. At the top of the screen I'm surprised to see I've got full bars. I guess the cell tower is up and running again. Someone's sure as hell earning their overtime tonight.
I only turned my phone on a couple of hours ago to use the flashlight, but now that it's got a signal again it won't shut up about the hundred or so messages and voicemails I've got waiting for me. It looks like about three-quarters of them are from my mom, and a few are from David. The rest are from a couple of numbers with 206 area codes. I don't recognize them, but I bet they belong to Max's parents.
Fuck, we're going to have a lot of explaining to do. And that's going to be a whole lot harder without Max's powers to back up the story. As much as I want to make sure my mom is okay, I'm really not looking forward to our next conversation.
Naturally, my screen lights up almost as soon as I think that. Incoming call, from Joyce, because of course. I hesitate before rejecting it, but only for a second. I doubt that'll stop her, but it's worth a...nope. Text message. Gotta hand it to her; the woman has fast thumbs.
Joyce: Chloe I know we fight sometimes but I love you! Please come home!
Ugh. Way to lay on the guilt, Joyce. Now I just feel like a...wait.
Did she just...
I re-read the message. Then I re-read it again, a sinking feeling settling in my stomach. She can't have meant it like that. She can't have. I stare at the small screen, my thumb hovering over the keyboard.
I have to know for sure.
Chloe: where r u?
The call is practically instant, but I reject it. I do the same with the two calls that follow immediately after. I want an answer, not an argument. After the fourth rejected call, she takes the hint.
Joyce: Chloe Price you pick up the phone right this minute!
Chloe: where r u?
Joyce: I'm not kidding! Answer the phone!
Chloe: where r u?
Joyce: Please I need to know you're alright!
Chloe: WHERE THE FUCK R U RIGHT NOW?
Joyce: At home Chloe! I'm here with Max's parents. Please come back!
"Fuck!" I shout, scrambling to my feet so fast that Max and Victoria don't even have time to wake up; the two of them fall against one another and I turn to find them in a confused, barely-awake tangle.
Victoria jerks herself upright first, glaring up at me with a mix of annoyance and confusion. "What the hell, Price?!"
Max is a half-second behind her, but only half as aware. "Huh? Whazzit?"
"She's still here! She didn't leave!" I shout, too loud and too fast for Max's struggling brain to catch.
Victoria, on the other hand, is already firing on all cylinders. If I weren't so fucking scared, I'd probably be impressed. "Do you mean your mother?" she asks, sharply, and I nod. "She's still at your house?" I nod again. "But the plan was for David to tell her to get out!"
"I know what the fucking plan was, Victoria!" I snap back. Either David didn't tell her, or she didn't listen. Probably the second one. Fuck knows I don't get my stubbornness from my dad. "She probably lied and said she was leaving. He would've dragged her kicking and screaming if she'd said no."
Forcing my hands to stay steady, I call David's number. It doesn't even ring, going straight to voicemail. "You've reached David Madsen. Please leave a message."
Hanging up, I try again.
"You've reached David Madsen. Pleas-"
I can feel the panic starting to claw at me as I end the call and try one last time.
"You've reached Da-"
"Fuck!" I scream, barely able to keep myself from hurling my phone across the barn. "God fucking damn it, David!"
"What about my parents?" Max asks. She looks a lot more awake now, but I guess watching someone freak the fuck out will do that to you. "Are they still..."
I nod, and her face goes white.
"Alright," Victoria says, putting a hand on Max's shoulder. She sounds calm, but she can't hide the fear in her eyes. "We can't freak out. The phones are back up, so you just need to call your mom and tell her to get out of town. I'm going to call m-"
A flash of lightning briefly lights up the world outside the barn, a roar of thunder right on top of it. Through the half-broken windows, I catch a glimpse of driving rain over the surrounding fields. The trees are already bending heavily in the wind.
"When is the storm supposed to get here?" I ask, dragging my eyes back to Max and Victoria. "How long do they have?"
"It was about seven-thirty when I drove back to town," Max says, her gaze distant. "And the weather was already pretty scary."
"The NOAA report we dug up said the tornado itself didn't make landfall until a few minutes after eight, but the winds are going to get really high before then." Victoria glances at the clock on her past-self's iPhone. "They've probably got about half an hour to safely get out. Maybe forty minutes. After that..."
I feel a wave of nausea wash over me. Forty minutes? It takes me longer than that to get Joyce to quit badgering me about cleaning my room.
"Chloe," Max says, laying her hand on my arm.
"Max, I...how the fuck am I supposed to convince her to leave town without me?"
"I don't know, but we've got to try."
I barely notice Victoria move away; her phone pressed to her ear. Sharing a final anxious look with Max, I take a deep breath and call Joyce. The line barely has time to ring before she picks up. "Chloe?! Chloe, is that you?!
"Hey, Mo-"
"Where in god's name have you been?! I've been scared sick! Are you alright?!"
That's cool, Joyce. It's not like I needed that eardrum for anything. "I'm okay. We're both okay, but you need to-"
"Where are you?!"
"Mom, seriously, you guys all need t-"
"I don't need to do anything, Chloe! You need to tell me where the two of you are rig-"
"Holy fuck, Joyce! Just shut the fuck up and listen!" I love my mom (as crap as I am at showing it sometimes), but when she gets going the only thing to do is yell right over her. "You can be pissed at me all you want later, but right now you all have to-"
There's a loud fumbling sound, then a very different voice comes through. "Chloe?! Is Max there?! Is she alright?!"
"I...uh...hold please." I lower the phone, slapping my free hand over it. It might be my imagination, but I swear I can feel it buzzing under my palm as I turn to Max. "It's your dad."
She winces, letting out a noise that doesn't quite sound nervous, but doesn't offer any helpful suggestions.
"I'm gonna put it on speaker, okay?"
She looks about as happy with the idea as I feel, but our collection of parents need to get out of town, and they'll never go unless they know we're safe. She eventually nods, so I lift my hand and hit the speaker button.
"-ill there?! Chloe?! Answer m-"
"Hey, Dad," Max interrupts, and a solid second of dead silence follows.
"MAX?!" I'm surprised Mr. C's shout doesn't knock the phone right out of my hand. That dude has some lungs. "OH MY GOD ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"
"I'm okay, Dad. I'm with Chloe."
"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?! WE'VE BEEN LOSING OUR MINDS OVER H-" There's some more scuffling on the other end, a brief conversation I can't quite make out, then someone else comes on.
"Maxine."
Aw, shit. I remember that voice.
When Max and I were kids, Mrs. C's dreaded 'you girls are in deep, deep trouble' voice was one of the few things we were both legit scared of; probably because it was so rare. The last time I heard that voice was about six months before Max left for Seattle, after the two of us decided we wanted to go into town for ice cream. Then, reasoning that driving couldn't be that hard, we went and accidentally ran her parents' car halfway through their garage door.
The only thing more worrying than that voice is the fact that she used it to say Max's full name. Suddenly, the coming storm doesn't seem like our biggest problem.
"H-hey, Mom."
"Where have you been?"
Max opens her mouth to answer, shuts it, and gives me a panicked look. Apparently little miss 'I'm-from-the-future-and-I-have-a-plan' has no idea what to say.
"I'm waiting."
"I...uh..."
"She was with me!" I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm totally unprepared for literally any follow-up question, and I know there's a distinct possibility that I just made things worse. But it was either let Max get run over by a bus or jump in front of it myself.
Easy choice when we were kids.
Easy choice now.
"Hello, Chloe." Holy fuck. She's just a voice coming out of a little speaker, but it still feels like she just turned to glare at me. "Care to explain why Max was with you, instead of in her hospital bed?"
"Because, uh..." I look up at Max, who is now officially freaking. If I know anything about her at all, that means she's about to say something stupid. Like when she tried to explain the garage door incident by suggesting the parking brake had failed, somehow forgetting that the car would've had to roll uphill to hit the garage. I start moving to cover her mouth, but my hand isn't even above my waist before I know it's too late.
"It's all my fault!"
What the hell?! Is she seriously going to try to take the heat for me while I'm trying to take the heat for her? For fuck's sake, the whole 'heroically jumping on the grenade' thing doesn't work if we both do it.
"She can speak for herself, Maxine." Okay, am I crazy or did Mrs. C somehow just get scarier? I feel like if I'd ever met an old gypsy woman, now would be a perfect moment to gasp and say 'just like the old gypsy woman said!'.
I think I might be panicking a little, too.
"I'm serious. Chloe kept trying to get me to come back!"
"That is ENOUGH! I want to know where Chloe Price gets off kidnapping my little girl!"
I see it happen the moment the words come out of Mrs. C's mouth, because I'm looking right at Max when they do. All the guilt and uncertainty vanishes from her face, and she glares at the phone like it just insulted her personally. I think her mom just fucked up.
"Hey, Mom? What's the date today?" Max asks, her tone casual. It's unnervingly close to the way she sounded on Wednesday, when I was certain she was about to blow Jefferson's head off outside the Blackwell dorms. (In hindsight, I almost wish I'd let her do it.)
It seems to catch her mom by surprise, too, because it takes her a second to respond. "I beg your pardon?"
"The date today," Max repeats, her voice slow and a little patronizing. This is all wrong. She's the level-headed peacemaker. Unnecessary sarcasm is supposed to be my thing. "What is it?"
"Wha..."
"Let me help you out. It's October eleventh. Twenty days after my eighteenth birthday."
"That doesn't matt-"
"Which makes me a legal adult," she continues, steamrolling right over her mom's argument. "Who doesn't have to justify herself to you or anyone else."
Somehow the long silence that comes from the phone feels really, scarily loud. "Maxine Ange-"
"Stop it!" Max interrupts. "You can say my full name or use the scary parent voice all you want, but whether you like it or not, I don't answer to you anymore."
"I...that's...don't you forget who's paying your tuition to Blackwell!" Her mom is grasping at straws, but I guess I can't blame her. She's scared for Max, and she's got no way of knowing that the person she's talking to is two years older than the one she's expecting.
"Blackwell is about to be a pile of rubble, Mom! The whole town is! This storm is going to wipe Arcadia Bay off the map, and you need to get out before it takes you with it!"
"That's enough! There is no way we're leaving without you! Get back to the Price's house right now, young lady, or else!"
I don't have time to worry about Max's sudden eye twitch before she snatches the phone out of my hand. Taking it off speaker, she lifts it to her mouth and screams, "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
Oh shit.
I think Angry Max just reached her final form.
"I'm going to talk and you're going to listen, or I swear to fucking god I'll hang up right now! We are in a reinforced shelter where the storm can't touch us. I can absolutely guarantee we'll be safe here. You are in a regular house that will get torn to shreds. If you stay there, you'll die. If you try to come here, you'll die. And guess what, Mom?" She holds the phone out again. "I DON'T WANT YOU TO FUCKING DIE!"
She pauses to take a breath, and I don't think her mom even tries to get a word in.
"You, Dad, and Joyce are going to get in the car right now. The storm is coming in from the southwest, so you're going to drive north and you're not going to stop until you reach Neahkahnie Beach, at least. That is literally the only way you'll survive. Get in the car and drive north to Neahkahnie Beach. Say those words back, so I know you heard me."
She goes quiet, waiting for an answer, then her entire body seems to sag with relief. "Thank you. I love you, too. I'm going to put the phone back on speaker so Chloe can hear, then you'll have thirty seconds before I hang up. Just thirty seconds."
Holding the phone out, she taps the speakerphone icon.
"Okay, you're on speaker."
"Chloe, honey? Are you there?"
"H-hey, Mom." Damn it, she sounds like she's trying not to cry. Why am I always making her sound like that? "Yeah, I'm here."
"Are you...are you really safe where you are?"
"We're safe, Mom. I promise. We'll see you after the storm is over, okay?"
"Okay. I..." She hesitates, and I can feel our time ticking away. There isn't a doubt in my mind that when Max said thirty seconds, she meant thirty seconds. "I love you, sweetie. So much."
"I love you, too." My voice cracks a little at the end.
There's only a little time left when one last voice comes through. "Max?"
Despite her whole hardcore act, for a second it looks like Max might start crying, too. "Hey, Dad."
"I'm sorry I yelled before."
"It's fine, Dad. It's okay."
"We love you, Max. Please be safe."
"Please come back to us," her mom adds.
"I will. I love you guys so, so much. Time's up now. Get moving." She taps the end call button before they can reply, then turns the phone off and hands it back to me.
"That's all we can do," she says; more to herself than to me, I think. I can barely hear the dull note in her voice over the storm outside.
"They'll make it, Max." I have no idea if that's true, but like Max said, we've done all we can. Pulling her into my arms, I gently rub her back and look over to where Victoria is pacing back and forth. She still has her phone pressed to her ear, but when she notices me watching she gives me a small thumbs-up.
She doesn't say much - just the occasional 'okay' or 'I know' – but despite the tears in her eyes she smiling like all her birthdays came at once. Finally, with a murmured 'I love you, too', she hangs up and walks over to us.
"Mom and Pop Chase got out okay?"
She nods, wiping at her eyes. "They left town hours before the storm warning went out. The younger version of me got my Aunt Jessica to call them up to Seattle. I've got no idea how she pulled that off, but apparently I owe them a full explanation by nine AM." She turns to Max. "What about your parents?"
Max doesn't say anything, so I answer for her. "They're on their way out of town now, hopefully. Max kinda tore into them."
"I heard that." Victoria's lips curl into a watery smile. "My mom wanted to know who was yelling and swearing on my end."
"I was worried about them, okay?" Max murmurs, embarrassed. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah. I just...uh..." Victoria tries for what I think is supposed to be a laugh, but it comes out a little like a sob. "I kinda forgot what their voices sounded like."
Max glances up at me, and she doesn't even have to ask the question out loud; it's practically shining from her eyes and (as much as I want to) I can't say no. "Ugh. C'mere, you big crybaby."
"Wha-" Before Victoria can react, Max and I reach out and pull her into an awkward, three-sided hug. Her whole body stiffens, like the feeling of actual human contact is new to her.
"Lemme go," she grumbles, making absolutely no effort to actually get away.
"Nope," Max replies, her hand rubbing circles on Victoria's back. "We're friends. Accept our comfort."
"It's okay, Vic," I murmur as I gently squeeze her shoulders. "This is super fucking weird for me, too."
She lets out an amused snort, slowly relaxes, and a few seconds later the three of us separate. "Uh...thanks."
"Don't mention it." Laughing softly, I tilt my head toward the bunker's entrance. "It's probably about time we head inside."
"I guess so," Victoria agrees, and Max just sighs.
"We're sure that thing is going to hold up, right?"
"It'll hold," Victoria murmurs absently.
"You sure?"
She nods, rubbing her arms like she's fighting off a chill. "Yeah. I'm sure."
"Right." Once again, I've managed to swallow my own foot. Go me. "Well, no sense hanging around th-"
The roll of thunder that cuts me off feels like it's right overhead and seems to shake the whole barn. Another roll of thunder follows right after, the lightning casting wild shadows through the windows, and Victoria slowly comes to a stop.
"Fuck you," she murmurs, glaring upward. The wind is clawing at the roof, and I actually see a couple of shingles rip loose.
"Vic, now isn't the time t-"
"Fuck you!" Victoria screams, startling me into silence.
Turning around, she runs out the half-open barn door and into the driving rain. She's pretty much soaked to the bone before she's gone more than a few steps, but she doesn't even seem to notice.
"Fuck you!" she roars upward, her voice battling against the wind. "You took everything from me! I hate you!"
I move to drag Victoria back inside (kicking and screaming, if necessary), but Max stops me with a light hand on my arm. "Just give her a second."
"Not this time, you bastard! This time you lose!" Victoria shouts, her voice carrying into the sky. "Do you hear me?! You fucking lose!"
A bolt of lightning slams into a nearby tree, splitting its trunk right down the middle. Another bolt strikes Nathan Prescott's truck, barely ten feet away from her, shattering the windshield and leaving a smoldering hole in the hood. The thunder is so loud I can feel it in my bones, but Victoria doesn't even flinch.
She glares upward, utterly unintimidated by the raging storm. "That's nothing! You're nothing! This is my life now!" She stabs an angry finger at the sky. "I'm not scared of you anymore!"
With that, she goes quiet. She's still staring upward, panting like she just ran a marathon and eyes blazing with a fury like I've never even seen. I don't know if she's waiting for a response or something, but I'm not about to let her get hit by lightning just because she felt the need to literally shout at the rain.
"Yeah, her second's up." Pulling away from Max, I rush outside, grab Victoria by the wrist, and drag her back into the barn. Practically shoving her toward the stairs and through the bunker entrance, Max following close behind, I growl, "Feel better, you fucking idiot?"
"Yeah," Victoria murmurs along the way, smiling weakly. She's already shivering in her soaked clothes. "I kinda do."
"Super." Shaking my head, I wave toward the shelves of survive-the-apocalypse crap. "There's gotta be some blankets or something in with all that junk. Go dry off before you freeze to death."
Making sure the heavy steel door is closed and locked, I take a couple of minutes helping Victoria find something to dry off with, then I head to the other side of the plastic curtain that divides this weird fucking place to find Max hard at work. Jeffershit's desk has already been pushed against the cabinets, and she's already started stacking boxes on top of it.
"Uh...whatcha doing?"
"Stacking stuff," Max answers shortly.
"I noticed that." I move closer. "But what if there's something in those cabinets we need?"
"There isn't."
"Are you sur-"
"There isn't," she practically snarls, not looking at me.
"Oh."
Whatever people might say about me, I'm a pretty clever girl. And the fierce determination in Max's every move makes it pretty easy to connect the dots. All the photos Jefferson took of the girls he kidnapped have to be somewhere, and those cabinets are a pretty likely spot. There's probably photos of Kate in there, depicting a sweet girl in a way no one should ever see. Photos of Rachel (dontthinkaboutitbutdontbescareditsokaymaxishere), too, just waiting to burn themselves into my mind.
But that's not going to happen. Max isn't going to let it. She's here for me, and she'll always be there for me. Just like I'll always be there for her. After a second, I walk over to grab one end of a big storage box she's struggling with. She hesitates, eyeing me curiously before nodding. Between the two of us it's easy to lift it up and onto the desk.
"Thanks," she murmurs. "That one was pretty heav-"
I raise my hand, lightly pressing my fingertips to her mouth, silencing her. Cupping her cheek, I gently tilt her head up and bring her lips to mine. I pour everything I'm feeling into the kiss, the storm of emotion whirling inside me that makes the wind outside look like a light breeze.
Very slowly, the aching tension that's been inside me since I first saw her in the Blackwell parking lot begins to fade away. I've been wasting my time being scared of how I may or may not feel about Max, because the only thing that really scares me is the idea of going back to being without her. She's my Max, and I'm her Chloe. We've always been Max and Chloe, even if we forgot how to be for a while, and my world has only ever felt steady when she's in it.
"W-wow..." she giggles as we part, her eyes still half-lidded. "What was that for?"
"I love you, Max," I murmur. For a second, I'm afraid I'll feel a twinge of anxiety or even regret, but the words fell so naturally from my lips that I kinda wonder why I ever doubted them in the first place. I can't help but grin at her shocked expression and, a little shyly, I lean in to give her another kiss. "Sorry it took me a while to figure that out."
"I would've waited," she murmurs, wide-eyed.
"I know."
"I'd have given you all the time you needed," she insists.
"Hey, I can take it back if you want."
"No!" Wrapping her arms around my neck, she draws me into another deep kiss. I let my lips crash into hers as my hands roam from her waist to her back. We pull each other closer, our bodies pressing together as though we never want to be separate again. We eventually come up for air, but she still holds me close. "I love you, too, Chloe. With everything I have."
"You know, I had a feeling you might."
"I'm being romantic!" Her beaming smile kinda ruins the scolding tone in her voice. "Quit being a smartass!"
"Oh, you love it."
"I love you."
"I love you, too." Wow. Just saying that feels awesome.
"You know what I'd love?" Startled out of our little bubble, we both look over to find Victoria standing nearby. She's wrapped in a blanket, her hair still damp, and giving us a very unimpressed look. "To not be forced to watch the two of you make out the whole time we're stuck in here."
"Yeah? Well maybe you should go f-" Before I can finish, Max pulls me into another fiery kiss, running her fingers through my hair. It feels so good that I'm not even thinking about her other hand until it's squeezing my butt, and I let out a surprised squeak that I'm absolutely going to deny later. I'm barely aware of Victoria's annoyed groan before I give in and surrender to the girl in my arms.