Author's note: So while looking for inspiration, I stumbled onto Timeless by Koethe on YouTube ( watch?v=notrG5cO_08). Check it out! Koethe has a great talent for music and is able to capture the way Life is Strange feels.

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day to you all! :)

is Short

Sunday, October 13

Morning again. Quiet, calm, dimly lit with golden light. Her parents asked her if she wanted breakfast and she turned them down without any protest on their part. Hopefully that meant they'd learned their lesson and would be giving her some much needed space, without bringing up things like going back to Seattle.

There was a knock on her door- the main door, not the one to the adjoining room. She ignored it, but then her phone started buzzing insistently on the bedside table.

Dana Ward

Accept – Reject

"Mmf?" she mumbled into the phone, pressing it sleepily against her ear.

"Hey Max. Were you still asleep? We're outside. Your parents said we could take you out to lunch..."

"Lunch?"

"It is past twelve."

"...Oh." A bright line of light shone through the crack in the curtains. Funny, how time flies when you can't sleep. It felt like it should have been eight in the morning- just a minute ago Max had checked and the clock had said 8:11. "I'm not really hungry."

"Well they gave us a key and a mission, so this is totally happening, Max," Dana said, but not unkindly.

Max rubbed the grit out of her eyes and tried to look at the bedside clock. Ugh. God. "...Fifteen minutes. I'll see you at the lobby."

There was a lot less effort this time to look like she was doing okay. She checked her parents' room but they were gone- she had a text from them saying they'd be out until the afternoon, but some of her friends wanted to see her for lunch.

More like her parents asked them to keep an eye on her, right? She wondered if the psychiatrist had told them anything. That would breach some sort of confidentiality thing, wouldn't it? She should be allowed her privacy.

Dana was seated at a coffee table in the hotel lobby, accompanied by Warren and Stella. Kind of an awkward crowd, really, but they all seemed genuinely happy to see her- Warren stood the moment she walked in, approaching her to give what was surely a well-rehearsed hug in his mind, calling out at the same time. "Hey Maaax!"

But Dana got there first, wrapping her arms around Max's shoulders. Go Dana. "Max! How are you?" she asked enthusiastically.

Since when do we do hugs? was what Max actually wanted to say. She settled for an "Okay" instead, as Stella and Warren looked on with smiles.

"Come on," Warren said as he gestured toward the door and they all started to follow. "My car's just out back. We never got to go ape!"

Yeah, Warren, I was pretty busy.

"And this is the first time you get to ride the Warren-mobile. I gotta warn you- it'll blow your socks right off."

Dana touched Max's shoulder, and when Max turned to look she gave her a teasing smile. Max tried to smile in response, but she only felt the corner of her mouth twitch. The group all boarded into Warren's beat-up second hand car and somehow Max ended up riding shotgun, next to Warren. The engine started with a sad puttering sound.

"Socks blown," Stella joked, and Dana suppressed a snort.

"Where are we going?" Max added as they pulled out of the parking lot, wary after what had happened the previous day.

"There's this cool diner down by the ocean- the Two Whales?" Warren suggested

"Or we could-" Stella began.

"N-no, let's- let's go to the Two Whales." The request from Max drew no suspicions from anyone. Apparently no one knew about Joyce working there. Warren pulled onto a main road and the group was quiet as they warily watched him merge with traffic.

"So, Max? Are you doing okay?" Dana asked from the back seat. "You've been radio silent all week."

"Oh. Yeah." Max gripped her seatbelt tightly, only now realizing how unique Warren's driving skills were.

"Are you? Okay?" Stella followed-up after a short silence.

"Uhh. What do you mean?"

"Max, everyone's worried about you. What you went through was- insane."

Everyone, huh? It was only then, with a chill up her spine, that Max realized who should've come to visit, but didn't. "Where's Kate?" she asked, turning in her seat to glance at the two girls.

They exchanged a look. People seemed to be doing that a lot. "She went home," Dana answered. "You can probably imagine how infuriated her parents were... with Blackwell. And those two sickos."

"Hmm."

"She would've wanted to see you."

"Yeah… I bet." Especially because Max saved her life, right? In some timeline, somewhere. It was all a little muddled up. But in any universe, she was glad to know that Kate was doing okay. Or... better, anyway.

"...Max?" Stella leaned forward in her seat, hand on Max's chair. "She told you about it. Last week. I was there."

"Sure," Max replied, not thinking. "I mean, yes."

Kate's favourite Bible verse was Matthew 11:28. Somehow Max still remembered that, knowledge from another timeline, or universe, or something. But it stuck in her brain and helped her save one life. Just the one.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Chloe was so quiet, face down on her bed. It was 2007 and they'd just buried Bongo, Chloe's white and somewhat spotty cat, in the Price's backyard. The little white gravestone was only slightly smaller than Bongo was. Max sat with her head in her hands, tired from crying, staring at the floor. And Chloe was so, so quiet, which she never ever was.

Minutes passed. Max looked up at one of their drawings, taped to the wall, entitled She's a Killer, starring Kitty Cat.

"Do you think he's gone?"

She was slightly startled, and looked quickly at her best friend. Chloe looked back at her with reddish eyes.

"...What do you mean, Chloe?"

"I dunno..." Chloe fiddled with the bed sheet, looked away. "Do you think we'll see him again?"

"Bongo...?"

The other girl sat up with a huff and an amused expression, but the smile was rather bland. Her gaze turned toward the window. "What, you don't think kitty's out conquering the universe right now?"

Max smiled back with suspicious eyes. "In the cat afterlife?"

"Sure." Chloe looked Max dead in the eye. "Why not? Then he's not just gone. And we'll see him again."

Max stared back, eyes wide, smile fading. Seconds passed.

Chloe's eyes narrowed, tears building up in the corners. Her mouth pulled down into a frown, lower lip quivering. "Why not?"

"We're here!" Warren declared loudly, opening his door. Stella mumbled as he got out- "and still alive!" to which Dana chuckled. Warren tried to rush around the car and open Max's door, but she'd already gotten out by the time he reached it.

"Oh, sorry," she mumbled, and his only reply was a cheeky grin and a thumbs up.

The four of them filed into the diner, Max trailing behind as she paused to look across the road, where the beach was empty and the waves were calm. She traced in her mind the path that she'd ridden in Chloe's truck, pulling out of the parking lot and driving off toward Blackwell.

The diner door opened with a creak and immediately the smell of pancakes, waffles, and greasy burgers filled Max's nose. Spoons and forks clinked against plates and the sound of sizzling food came from the kitchen. An onrush of memories filled her: visiting as a kid, with Chloe, Joyce watching them patiently from behind the counter. Bacon omelettes. Chocolate milkshakes, which apparently only Chloe and Max ever ordered. The jukebox whined out some weird country song. Chloe hated that.

Chloe.

The group found a table, but Max followed slowly, craning her neck to try and see into the kitchen, wondering where Joyce was.

Duh. At home. Mourning. Immediately Max lost all interest in the little diner, and it seemed to her like an overcrowded, noisy place that should've burned to the ground when it had the chance.

She should be at home too, wherever that was- it definitely wasn't Seattle or Blackwell.

"Max?" Warren asked, all three of them staring at her. She turned and took her seat without another word. A waitress came up and took their order- Max didn't think it would matter, so she jabbed her finger at a random item on the menu and ended up ordering a cheeseburger.

And a chocolate milkshake.

Dana smiled at Max and began talking. "Did you kn-"

"What happened to Jefferson?"

Dana's face fell. She looked at the other two for support, Stella returning a worried look and Warren with his mouth pressed into a thin line. "You... you don't know?"

Max ran a hand over her forehead, brushing aside hair and sweat. "I'm asking you aren't I?"

"Max, I can't even imagine how you must feel, but if-"

Enough of this ridiculous teen shit.

She laid her hands flat on the table, knocking over a salt shaker. Her friends fell silent as it clanged loudly. "Dana. I don't need sympathy, I don't need lunch, I need to know what the fuck happened to Jefferson!" She stared straight at Dana, who averted her eyes. Stella did the same as Max turned to her. She didn't even bother looking at Warren. There was silence for a good fifteen seconds as she looked back and forth between the two girls. Other diners continued to finish their meals, chatting without having noticed the confrontation taking place. "Please."

Dana let out a long sigh and finally spoke. "He's in jail, Max. There's going to be some sort of trial, but they haven't said when. Everyone knows he's screwed because Nathan's confessed everything anyway."

"David Madsen said the asshole's going to rot in jail for life," Stella added helpfully.

Max fell back against her seat, exhaling slowly. She closed her eyes and thought about Jefferson getting locked up, thought about how shitty she hoped prison was, how ruined he was as a photographer. It felt like a dumb consolation prize but a prize nonetheless. She had to force herself not to smile.

"Nathan's going to have a trial, too," Dana went on. "The Prescotts are trying to stop it, of course, but he told the police everything before they could get him a lawyer."

Stella pitched in again. "They're pushing for an insanity plea, but he's too... not insane for that. He has a spotless Blackwell record, even."

Max chuckled with the irony of that. Looks like that squeaky-clean record turned around and bit him in the ass. Everyone looked at her with worried expressions but she didn't care, and smirked with satisfaction.

"Max..." Warren started, carefully. When she didn't jump in, and just continued to lean back and stare at the ceiling, a content look on her face, he went on. "They'll get what they deserve."

Max turned to him. Saw his concern and empathy. "They will," Max replied with a smile and a certainty born from anger. "Because Chloe can't anymore."

The rest of the lunch felt better.