Episode 3

Bearing all

Max let her eye's wonder around the room searching for something she could use until her gaze came to rest on a notepad and pen on the kitchen counter. Shakily she got up her leg's feeling like lead but she forced herself across to the kitchen where she picked up the pad and paper and made her way to the dining table. "Max, What are you.." David began but Joyce cut him off with a slight shake of her head, "Let her be David" Joyce interjected as she looked at Max she got the feeling that she was running on past empty.

Max placed the pad down on the table and walked back over to the couch where she had been sitting before and slumped down as her legs gave way again. After a few moments and taking a deep breath Max spoke "Joyce, David" Looking at them in turn as she said their names "Please can both write something on that pad it can be anything but don't tell me what it is" As she spoke she pointed to the pad behind her on the dining table. Without hesitation Joyce walked across the room opened the pad and began to write something, While David stared at Max She could feel David's gaze on her and she knew he was trying to figure her out, But she couldn't even bring herself to look up at him instead choosing to focus on a spot on the floor, She could feel everything bubbling just under the surface as flashes of Chloe getting shot, Hit by a train and laying on the ground in own blood whizzed through her mind, Pushing the images out of her head she focused on just one, the last night she saw Chloe on that cliff top.

"David" Joyce called, David let out a sigh "ok let's see where this leads" he replied as he walked over to the dining table and took the pen from Joyce's outstretched hand and did a quick few scratches on the paper and then closed the pad. "Now, what," David asked in a softer tone.

After a few moments Max turned at look to David "Could you please bring it to me, I need to see it first for this to work" Max would normally have gotten up and looked herself but she felt like she was being crushed by an invisible weight. Looking puzzled David picked up the pad and walked over to Max opening the pad to show Max what had been written "Bit of a crappy magic trick if ya have to see it" David muttered. Joyce scowled him from across the room but Max ignored them both, It didn't matter what happened for the moment it was going to be erased in a few minutes anyway. Max's eyes scanned the page "7171" she thought to herself, That is Davids but why are those numbers familiar, She tried to recall but with so much going on in her head she just couldn't place it. "Nevermind," she thought and she looked at what Joyce had written and her heart stopped as she fought back the welling in her eyes "I love you, Chloe, Fly free my butterfly" she read the words and a single tear rolled down her cheek as she looked at David and nodded.

A little confused David closed the pad and went to walk back to his wife's side. Max looked at them both and without saying a word and focusing on the thought of Chloe she raised her arm and the scene slowed down, David was a few feet from Joyce stopping mid-stride and slowly started walking backwards back towards where she was sat and a few moments longer and he was again back by the table opening the pad and about to unwrite what he had written. "There," she thought to herself lowering her arm and allowed time to return to normal flow.

David closed the pad once again "Now what" David asked once again in a soft tone just as Joyce gasped and rushed to Max's side. It took her a second but Max realized that she could feel a familiar warm wet sensation running over her top lip, She instinctively brought her hand up to her nose before realizing that Joyce already had a tissue on hand. "Thanks," Max said taking the offering and wiping away the blood, "Are you ok Max," Joyce asked concerned. Max looked at her and forced a small grin "It comes with the gag I'm afraid" Max replied as she continued to wipe away the blood.

Without even looking at David Max rattled off the four numbers David had written on the pad "7171". David looked in disbelief at Max, his mouth opened and closed but nothing came out, And then looking to Joyce she took a deep breath "I love you, Chloe, Fly free my butterfly" Max's eyes welled as she fought back the wave of emotions trying to force their way out of her. Joyce just stood there stunned as she looked at David's very confused expression.

"How did you know Max," David asked slowly still a little dumbstruck at what just occurred. Max looked at Joyce and took a deep breath "I can rewind time" she replied, "I've been able to do it..." She trailed off Trying to gauge Joyce's reaction "Go on hun, were listening," Joyce said softly. "I've been able to do it since I saw Chloe get shot" Max trailed off on the last part trying desperately to hold it together.

Joyce and David looked at each other for a second until David looked at Max "Then why didn't you save Chloe" He said in a flat voice, The question shot through Max's heart like a knife but she had braced herself for it, It was obvious after all. "I..." She whimpered trying to hold it all back, "I did, Several times in fact but we thought, I thought, The storm it had killed everyone..." Tears were now streaming down her face, All of her guilt laid bare ready to be judged. "We thought it was because of me that the storm destroyed the bay so Chloe convinced me not save her, But it didn't make a difference it's still coming" Max forced the last part before being reduced to a torrent of tears and apologies.

Joyce still stood next to Max knelt down beside her and put her arm around her. Max made herself look at Joyce. "Max, I want you to tell me everything," Joyce said softly as she pulled the tearful teenager into her and wrapping her arms around Max snugly.

After what seemed like hours, countless tissues and apologies Max had finally finished telling her tale to Chloe's parents, She told them everything, How she went back and saved William and the consequences of that reality, How she and Chloe had uncovered what was going on at Blackwell, All five occasions she watched her friend die. But when it came to recalling their final cliff top meeting she couldn't finish it, she just had nothing left.

David who had been at the dining table the whole time listening in disbelief got up from his chair and marched over to the couch stood in front of Max and knelt down looking her square in the face his expression flat "I thought it was cruel, coming so close to seeing her again and having to see what we thought you saw..." He trailed a little and continued "Max when I saw you sit up on this couch the first time I knew you were holding something back" He placed his rough hands gently on Max's shoulders and pulled her into an embrace "But I had no idea of the scale" He finished a single tear rolled down his cheek as he tried to show some comfort.

"But Max if it didn't work why not just go back again," Joyce said after thinking for a long while. Max pulled herself out of Davids bear like hug and brushed another tear off her cheek and turned to Joyce. "At first I thought it did work, But that snowstorm earlier today was how it started the first time around, I know what I have to do but..." Max turned to David "I need your help" She finished. Max found that as hard as it was telling Joyce and David everything that happened it had given her a new strength.

David looked a little taken back as he blinked "Compared to you Max I got nothing" He said sounding unsure of what he could possibly do. "The day Chloe was shot I only took two pictures, A selfie in that creepy bastards Jefferson's class and a Blue butterfly resting on a bucket in the girl's bathroom, I need that picture it's the only shot I have of fixing this mess" Max explained in a battered but slightly stronger voice.

David shook his head "I don't recall seeing a picture" he said glumly, Max's heart sank "It's got to be somewhere" she muttered. "What about Sam" Joyce interjected, "I'm guessing he..cleaned up afterward" She finished the sentence with a bit of a wince trying not to think about it too much. David looked thoughtful for a second "Possibly, I'll give him a call" He said as he reached for his phone in his back pocket and scrolled through the menu to find the number and rang it.

"Max" Joyce's voice came quietly as she pulled max a few feet from David, "Will you be ok doing this" Joyce's gaze fixed firmly on hers. She knew Joyce was referring to side effects of rewinding time. "Joyce I.. " Max started to reply but overheard David on the phone "Hi Samual it's David, Yeah were doing as well as can be expected, Look I don't mean to be to direct but the day of the shooting did you happen to see a picture of a butterfly in the girl's bathroom" He spoke with a hint of hope in his voice.

Max turned her focus back to Joyce " Joyce I" She took a deep breath and shook her head "I can't live without her I...Need her" Max's voice trailed off as she clutched her chest. "It's ok Max I think I understand" Joyce sighed mid-sentence, "As Chloe would put it it's gonna be hella weird thinking of you two in that way but I guess I always saw it coming" She finished her sentence with a little bit of a smirk. Max felt her cheeks burn up, Thankfully covered by the redness from all the crying. "If she will even want me after everything I've done, " She thought to herself.

Joyce looked at Max's expression "Maxine Caulfield don't you even think that, From what you told me it sounds like it wasn't just you that had a hard time saying...goodbye" Her voice faltered at the end

"You have it" David's voice came from across the room with more energy than he had shown all afternoon, "Are you sure, Ok, thank you, Sam, see you soon" David hung up the phone and looked at Joyce with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "He has it, He's going to bring it round this evening," He said to the two girls trying to keep himself in check.

Joyce sighed and looked at Max who was now looking towards the floor "Don't think about that Max, You can still save her" Joyce said with a comforting smile. Max looked up at her and shook her head "It's not that" Pausing she turned to David "I'm afraid I need your help again and this is really only something you can do" She finished looking at David with her brown eyes framed by her red blotchy face. David looked thoughtful for a second but had a hunch of what Max was about to ask. "You realize how dangerous what your thinking is right, And if you just end up swapping with Chloe it would probably finish her," He said in a solemn voice.

More feels, lot's more tears in the next few I'm afraid.

As always comments and critique welcome