Racing into the parking lot, I'm briefly surprised to see that Frank's RV isn't there this time until I spot the pair of police patrol cars that are.

Chloe's truck, of course, is right where I'd expect it to be: parked sideways across two spaces one of which is handicapped only. We're lucky the cops are all too busy dealing with Nathan to have her ticketed. Or towed.

I'm depressingly out of breath when I reach said truck, hauling the passenger side door open to throw myself inside. The important thing though is that I managed to make it to safety before Chloe could catch me. And without needing to rewind at all, go me!

"So…" Chloe opens and climbs in the drivers side. "I dared you to kiss me?"

"Double dared me."

"And then..?"

"And then…" I shrug as nonchalantly as I can. "You didn't catch me."

"What?"

"I said I'd explain when you caught me." I make a show of inspecting my fingernails. "I got to the truck before you."

"Fair enough."

"Really?" I up from my fingernails just in time to see her leaning towards me before the tickling starts.

"Chloe," I manage to get out between laughs, "no!"

"Chloe, yes!"

We're both smiling like the idiots we are as she relents. "It's not even a good story, you just laughed, called me hardcore, and then Joyce and I made breakfast."

"You kissed me in front of mom!?"

"What? Oh, no… she was downstairs making breakfast when you dared me, I went down to help her afterwards while you smoked."

"Damn, Max." Chloe laughs. "That is pretty hardcore if I needed a cigarette after just a kiss."

I open my mouth, but then close it again, deciding I don't want to bother with correcting her.

"So…" Chloe starts up the truck. "What's the plan, Future-girl?"

"Plan?" I can feel another round of giggles force its way out of me as I think about how many different things went wrong just trying to escape a bathroom. "You think I have a plan? "

"Uhh…" she pauses in the middle of buckling her seatbelt to look over at me. "Yeah..? I mean, you have superpowers, Max. You can't have come back in time just to like… save me from getting shot or whatever."

Oh.

"No, I uh…"

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Nope, not working. Apparently it's sob like a baby time.

"I was supposed to-"

Pulling my feet up onto the seat, I hug my knees. That's supposed to help, right?

"I can't believe I almost-"

It's not helping.

"I was supposed to let you die."

Oh, yeah. It's totally sob like a baby time.

"But I couldn't do it and then when I tried to go back to you and I couldn't do that either."

"...and then you kissed me, and made me promise to never forget you."

"...Fuck." The shoulder I'm leaning against shakes as the back of Chloe's head bounces against her headrest. Staring at the ceiling, she exhales a deep breath while I try and get myself under control. "The whole town?"

"Yeah."

"That's…"

"Yeah."

We both sit in silence for a moment that just seems to stretch into infinity, staring at the trees surrounding the parking lot.

I have no idea how long actually passes before Chloe starts to drum her thumb on the steering wheel, glancing down at me. "Was it good?"

"What?" I lift my head off her shoulder to look back at her.

"The kiss, Dork. Was it good?"

"So good! I think you turned my brain to mush with it. Mush-brain is the only reason I can think of for why I ever thought I'd be able to go through with…" Letting you die. I make another attempt at wiping my face clean with my sleeve instead of finishing my sentence. "Pretty dumb, right? I mean I barely even recognized you the first time and seeing you get shot upset me so much I got superpowers to fix it."

"That's still so… amazeballs to me. Like, I literally get chills all over my neck just thinking about it." Her head bobbles back and forth as she tries to show me the back of her neck while strapped in. "Did the other me totally freak too when she saw you teleporting around?"

"I... didn't actually know I could do that yet when I told you about it last time. I wound up playing pretend psychic by 'predicting' what was in your pockets and stuff to convince you."

"Lame!"

"Really? You don't think being psychic would be cool?"

She pauses, looking thoughtful. "I mean, okay, yeah that's cool too… but it's not Nightcrawler Max cool. Plus, you'd look hella weird with no hair."

"Chlo-eeee… and you called me a dork." I stick my tongue out at her, giggling for a moment before I get myself under control. "Really? Having blue skin and a tail wouldn't look even weirder?"

"Nah… you'd look hot with blue skin."

"Whatever, Dork. You really should pay those parking tickets."

"Not happening, Maxaroni. I owe big time-"

"Oh, yeah. Frank." I sit up, stretching my neck side to side, before reaching for the glove compartment. "I almost forgot."

"She told you?"

"She?" I turn back to Chloe.

"Future Chloe. I just-" She pauses, huffing out a breath. "It's hella weird talking about stuff I haven't done yet and I know you talk about her like we're the same person, which I guess makes sense cause-" Her mouth clicks audibly shut, eyes widening. "...Ah."

"What?"

"Nothing." She reaches over and brushes my hair out of my face. "Just a lot to wrap my brain around, you know? So I told you about Frank already?"

"Yeah." I pop the glove compartment open. "I guess I kind of left a lot out of my recap." Like finding Rachel and The Dark Room and…

Chloe's rubbing circles on my back. When did that happen? "That bad, huh?"

"Yeah." I sigh. "This is helping though."

"Rachel used to do this for me when I… When it got really bad. Sh- I told you about Rachel, right?"

"...Yeah."

Her hands stop moving. "We didn't find her did we?" Her voice comes out choppy.

"We-" Something must show on my face, because Chloe nods, pulling me into a hug as I try to do the same to her. "I'm sorry." I mutter into her ear. "This isn't how I wanted to tell you."

"I… kind of figured when you said I kissed you."

"Oh. Yeah. Shit."

"Heh." There's no humor in her laugh. "This is going to sound pretty shitty," she pulls back and looks at me, "but can you..." Her finger twirls counter-clockwise. "I think I'd rather be high for this. Or drunk."

"Are you sure?"

"...No?" A few tears start to roll down her face. "I don't know. Do I?"

"How about I let you decide that for yourself when we get to your house. You probably shouldn't be driving with this stuff on your mind."

She nods. "Th-"

... Rewind.

"...I told you about Frank already?"

"Yeah. You did." I force a grin, looking away from her so she doesn't have time to realize how faked it is. I wind up looking at the cops walking towards- oh, yeah... "His RV was actually parked right over there where those cops are standing last time."

Chloe laughs. "Three guesses why he isn't here this time."

"...Yeah. But I uh…" I pop open the glove compartment again and take out the envelope I'd stashed there with David's gun during my fit of pique at Principal Wells. "Kinda took care of that whole debt thing in advance this time."

I can't help but smile at the way the baffled expression on her face shifts to pure glee as she takes the envelop and looks inside. "Dude! There's got to be close to five thousand dollars here."

"Yeah, it's allegedly supposed to be the," I make air quotes, "Blackwell Handicapped Fund, and I still feel kinda shitty taking it, but…" I shrug. "I know for a fact that Principal Wells wouldn't actually use it for anything like that so…" I shrug at her curious expression, waving her off. " Long story. Weird story too. I'll explain after we get to your place. The important bit is that I figured we might as well put some of his bribe money from the Prescotts to good use."

"Hells yeah! I could pay Frank back tonight!"

"I think Frank can wait a night, Chlo."