Gunshots are loud. Something I'd somehow managed to forget in the hour that I'd spent freaking the fuck out over being back in Jefferson's class.

Walking out of the bathroom with Chloe after I'd explained the basics enough to calm her down, I'd sort of assumed we'd need to go looking for David and Principal Wells, not have the two of them-

"...all up in our bidness!"

Yeah, that. Thank you, Chloe. Rewind!

Captain Chloe 'Bluebeard' Price and her trusty First Mate Supermax Silver versus... The Dread Bathroom Door. Round 2. Fight!

Er- Actually... if I'm rewinding anyway … Might as well go just a touch further...

"First Mate Supermax reporting for duty, Captain." This time I remember to salute, though… given how startled she looks at my sudden appearance, I don't know if she even noticed. Ah well. "We have to hurry, Campus Security are already on their way."

"Shit!" In the face of time travel happening right in front of her, well… face … Chloe latches onto the less crazy idea like a lifeline. "I'm not supposed to be here."

"I know, that's what they're going to say too."

"What?"

"Oh, right... 'I'm a Time Traveler, the Cliff Notes edition,' round 2…"

"...anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."

Ungh. Rewind!

"Give me the gun, Chloe."

"What?" She glances over at Nathan's gun laying on the ground in one of the stalls.

"Not that gun." I point at her back left pocket. "The one you took from David's safe."

"How the fuck did you..."

I stare, dumbstruck, at Principal Wells.

ARE.

YOU.

CEREAL!?

Re- no. First, I'm taking a moment to scream incoherently at Principal Wells until my frustrations start to ebb. Fuck it, I am so re-stealing that money from his desk before I leave.

There, all screamed out, I feel much better now. Rewind!

Pulling out my phone, I shoot off a couple of quick texts to Juliet.

"Those are some very serious charges, Miss Caulfield. Mr. Prescott happens to be from the town's most distinguished family. And one of Blackwell's most honored students. I'll look into the matter personally, however, I think it would be for the best if we didn't go needlessly ruining anyone's reputation until the investigation is complete."

"Ooooh… Umm… sir?" I try to sound apologetic, or at least not smug. I have no idea if I actually succeed or not. "I kind of already told Juliet Watson about everything." I feign confusion over why Principal Wells looks like he just sucked on a lemon.

Chloe has no such success at subtlety, snorting loudly in the chair next to me as she tries to hold in a laugh. "Was she the chick I saw snapping pics of the bullet hole while we were being hauled in here?"

"Yeah, she runs the school paper."

Not joining Chloe in cackling like a mad woman gets harder as Principal Wells starts eyeing the drawer he hides his booze in.

Chloe, why!? Why would you say that to him!?

"Now you listen here, Soldier…"

We were so close!

Rewind!

"And I need you to please try not to antagonize Dav-"

"How the fuck are you doing that!?"

"Doing what?"

"Teleporting around like that!"

"Huh? I told you, time travel."

"You told me no such thing!"

"Yes I did! I-" I check my watch. "Fuck! Went back too far!"

...I have to do it all again now. Move one step to the right, start saluting, and... Rewind!

"First Mate Supermax reporting in from the future, Captain."

"That was hella cool, Maximus. I've never seen anyone so thoroughly handle Step-Douche like that before."

"Chloe…" Glancing at the happy grin on Chloe's face, I decide not to bother her with being nice to David just yet and just let her enjoy her moment. Taking a look around for eavesdroppers as we finally make our way out of the main building and towards the parking lot, I drop my voice to a whisper even though I don't see anyone. "Do you really think they bought it?"

"Hook, line and sinker! Mad Max has got one bad ass poker face."

"Pfft. Yeah right, I so don't." I drag my hand down my face, checking to make sure my nose isn't bleeding. "What I have is a migraine. I really don't want to have to go through all that a seventh time."

"A seventh… Hold up! You only flickered in and out or whatever twice."

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, that only happens if I don't rewind myself back into position along with everyone else."

"So, wait... you mean you can just go back time whenever you want and no one would ever know? Even if I was staring right at you?"

"Uh… basically?"

"That's… Amazeballs! When you said you were from the future I thought you meant like in Terminator or something. I was kinda waiting for the evil robot to bust into the office this whole time."

"Oh, Dog, I can't believe I didn't think of that!" I hold out my hand. "Come with me if you want to live!"

"Chloe and Max, together again!" She grabs my hand. "This is gonna be so awesome!"

Pulling her over to me by our joined hands, I fish my camera out of my bag and hold it up to capture the moment. "Partners in crime, partners in time!"

"Seriously, Max? You're such a dork."

"Hey! You came up with it."

"I did?"

"Yeah, after we-"

"Max!" Turning, we spot Dana waving at us as she walks towards us from the parking lot. "Hey, Max!"

"Hey, Dana!"

"I was just about to text you to let you know I gave Warren back his flash drive. You actually just missed him by like... minutes."

"Thank you so much for doing that. I really didn't want to make him wait around while I…" I wave my hand dismissively towards the school, shrugging my shoulders in a 'you know' gesture.

"Jeez. Are Wells and Madsen seriously only just letting you guys out? Oh!" She smiles at Chloe. "I'm Dana by the way. You're the girl who put all those flyer's right?"

"Yeah. Chloe. And yeah, apparently school shootings are like this whole thing or whatever."

Dana opens her mouth and then closes it again. "... Good point. Juliet showed me the pictures she got of the cracked tiles. Scary stuff." Her eyes widen. "Oh, jeez. And you two were right there . That must have been terrifying."

I shrug, having calmed down considerably in the past- for me, anyway- 6 hours. "I'm fine. Chloe was there with me the whole time and-"

Wait, no. I need to stick to the story I told David.

Dana looks at me, apparently alarmed by my abrupt silence. "Are you okay?"

Ungh… I hate lying to people.

Rewind!

"...That must have been terrifying."

"It. Was. Awful." Hopefully the twinge of pain in my voice from the way my head is throbbing comes across as fear or distress or whatever. "Nathan was being a total loon. Like full on waving a gun around while talking to himself and everything." Talking about it directly like this actually is bringing back a little bit of the panic I felt watching the bullet come so close to my face. ...Fuck. "He missed me by inches! "

Apparently, my feelings are on full display because this time Dana goes so far as to put a hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… I almost died but-"

But doesn't it say something about my life that a bullet missing me by inches isn't the closest I've gotten to dying in the past few days?

No. Bad, Max. Do not think about The Dark Room.

Deep breath in...

...And out.

"Jesus, Max."

Deep breath in...

...And out.

"I'm…" I don't know when Chloe started rubbing circles on my back, but it's helping. "I'm okay. Thanks guys. I'm actually more worried about Kate than me."

Dana's expression turns puzzled. "Because got caught on video being a-"

"Nathan drugged her."

"...What?" Dana pales. "Are you sure?"

I glance over at Chloe, hoping she'll be able to back me up here since despite what she says, I really don't have a good poker face. "It was one of the things he was going on about before he realized I was in the bathroom with him."

"Yeah." Chloe sighs loudly, scratching the back of her head uncomfortably. "He… uh... did it to me too a few weeks ago. Put something in my beer. Next thing I know I'm waking up on the floor of his dorm with the creep taking pictures of me. I woke up before anything more could happen, still had all my clothes on and shit, thank god, but..." She shudders.

Wow… I didn't actually expect her to bring that up. Grabbing her hand, I give it a squeeze that she returns.

"Oh, God." Dana looks like she wants to puke. "Juliet and I were laughing about- Oh, God."

"Hey." I pull her into a hug. "You didn't know."

"Still! I feel like such a bitch."

"Come on, don't blame yourself. You didn't post that video."

Dana sniffs against my shoulder before pulling back, her face twisting into a scowl. "No, that honor goes to Victoria Chase." She frowns. "I think."

"Probably." I shrug. "But I doubt even Queen Bitchtoria would have posted that video if she'd known."

"Maybe not." Dana sighs. "I'm... I think I'm going to go talk to Juliet, let her know."

"That sounds good. Hey… Do me a favor? I don't know when I'm going to be back tonight, so could you check in on Kate for me? Let her know we're here for her and that she can call me any time if she needs anything?"

"Of course, Max. You really are too nice for words."

Oh, Dana, if only knew even half the stuff I've done.

Waving goodbye to Dana, I start to resume our trek towards the parking lot when Chloe suddenly stops me, grabbing my arm and spinning me around to face her. "Holy shitballs, Max!" She grins broadly, her eyes following Dana as she walks away. "I just realized something: You can bang anyone you want with no strings attached! Just… rewind time, and boom, it's like it never happened!"

"Ha!" Despite the mounting headache and the slight hurt in my chest that Chloe got that idea this time while staring at Dana's- Okay, so admittedly the way Dana's hips sway back and forth as she walks is pretty hypnotic and- Are you cereal, Brain? How in Dog's name did we never notice I was gay? Meh.- I still can't help the fond smile creeping onto my face as I turn back towards her lecherous grin. "You know, you said the exact same thing last time too… But I would never-"

...Oh.

Shit.

I already did.

Chloe's never going to remember our first kiss. Or second.

"Oh, c'mon. You can't tell me you've never thought about it. Ooooh…" Her eyes focus back on me with a smirk on her lips. Knowing what she's going to say next, I force myself to smile despite how close to home she's about to hit. "Maybe you even made a move on me! I would never..." She trails off as she looks at me, frowning. "Hey, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah..." I guess I'm not doing such good job faking it, that sounded weak even to me. "...No…"

Chloe's left eyebrow goes up. "There something you wanna tell your Captain, First Mate Supermax?"

"Everything, Chloe. I want to tell you everything."

"Everything, huh?"

"Yes, everything, you Perv." I roll my eyes at her. "Just as soon as we get to your truck and away from all... this. Now drag your mind out of the gutter for a few minutes so we can get a move on!"

"Hey, I like my gutter."

"Fine, but if you don't hurry up I'll do things like let you know that you're the one that double dared me to kiss you-" I take off running for the parking lot. "-and then not explain til you catch me!"

"Wait, what? Max? Max, come back here! Max!"