Max was standing behind the door of their apartment. She was holding a bag of groceries. She had had to get away from the apartment to clear her thoughts and to figure what to say to Victoria.

It was pretty obvious that she had to come clean about what had happened on that week that in this reality had not ever happened. What would Victoria think, when she told her about her time rewinding powers and those events? Would she think that Max has completely lost it, or would she just laugh at her? Even after all these years, Max had a lingering fear that the queen bee-atch would return and she didn't know if she could bear it.

Might as well face the music, Max sighed and turned the key in the lock. She stepped inside to see Victoria sitting on the living room couch. The blonde had her arms crossed and her expression was dead serious.

"Hey," Max said quietly.

"Hey yourself," Victoria answered almost as quietly.

Max put the bag of groceries on the desk and took out a smaller bag, containing a bottle of pinot noir.

Victoria let out a disapproving gaze but Max ignored that and took two wine glasses from the cabinet.

"I know what you think," Max said. "But for what I'm about to tell you, we both could use a drink."

Victoria looked down and sighed."You may be more right than you think. I also have something I need to tell you."

Max raised her brows but didn't say anything. She poured some wine in the glasses and gave the other one to Victoria. Max sat down next to her roommate and crossed her legs.

"It all started just moments before Chloe was shot..." Max began her story.

Max told Victoria everything about how she discovered her powers and how she was able to turn the course of events.

She told her how she had been able to save Chloe from certain death several times with her powers and how they had begun to look into Rachel Amber's disappearance.

She told how she had actually been able to create a completely alternative timeline, where Chloe had been paralyzed and how she had had to make the heartbreaking decision to help Chloe die.

She told how they had found out the truth about Rachel and how Mark Jefferson had captured both Max and Victoria. Victoria gasped, when Max told that Jefferson had killed her.

Finally she told the consequences that had come from using her powers and how, in order to save Arcadia Bay from destruction, she had had to sacrifice Chloe and undo everything.

Max turned to look at her friend and was surprised to see tears flowing on her cheeks.

Victoria wiped her tears and moved closer to close the small brunette in her embrace.

"Oh Max! I can't even imagine the burden of living with that kind of knowledge must've been." Victoria soothed her. "I'm glad that you told me."

"You don't think I've gone mad?" Max asked.

"No, Max," Victoria answered. "Well, it's partly because of what I'm about to tell you. In fact, what you just told me makes it easier." She emptied her glass and stood up. "We may need a refill."

Victoria filled both glasses and returned on the couch.

"You are not the only one with special gifts," Victoria started. "Ever since I was a kid, I've had the ability to see and talk to dead people."

Max's eyes opened wide, when she heard Victoria's words.

"Yeah, pretty amazing, I know," Victoria said. "I was actually bullied about it in school and my parents saw it best to send me to a pshrink, who prescribed me so heavy medication that I became emotionally numb. - That was, when the queen bee-atch was born." She looked down, when she finished the sentence.

"Long story short, I stopped seeing the spirits and life went on, - until you came into my life." Victoria turned took Max again.

"I had been off the medication for some time but it wasn't until you got me to face my fears and embrace the true me, before I started seeing spirits again."

"At first I was lost and I had no one to go to, to help me process it," Victoria continued. "I wanted so much to talk you about it but our friendship had just begun and I dared not to jeopardize that."

Max listened Victoria's story in awe, as she told how she had come in terms with her gift and make some use of it. Still, she couldn't be less prepared for what Victoria was about to say next.

"Chloe's spirit is here with us."

"What?" Max blurted and tried to look around her to no avail. "Victoria Maribeth Chase, I didn't open up for you so that you could make fun of it!" she said in a stern voice. "I swear to god…"

Victoria looked briefly to the middle of the living room. "When you broke into Blackwell, you told Chloe that you were so glad that she was your partner in crime, and she told you…"

"…as long as you're my partner in time," Max completed the sentence. She had not told Victoria that they had broken into Blackwell and the principal's office. She calmed down. "Chloe, is it really you?"

"Yes it is," Victoria relayed Chloe's words, before she realized what Chloe had said earlier. "You broke into Blackwell?!"

"As I said, we were trying to figure out what had happened to Rachel," Max said. "We wanted to take a look at the student records. – But that's not important right now. How is it possible that Chloe is here?"

"I saw her briefly yesterday evening, when you had already gone to sleep," Victoria answered. "When I came home today, she was waiting for me and we had a talk."

"She's been watching over you ever since she died," Victoria continued. "She's tried to keep you out of harm's way, whenever necessary but she has not been allowed to be in direct contact with you, until now. Apparently her time amongst the living is coming to an end, so she wanted to get in touch before her time is up."

"She didn't tell me anything about your time together. Just that I'd be open minded to what you might want to tell me."

"Wowser!" Max gasped. "This is totally amazeballs!" She felt weak.

Victoria turned her attention to the middle of the room. "Um, I suppose it's all right," she said and turned to face Max. "Chloe said that she can take over a living person's body. She asked if she could possess mine so that she could speak to you directly."

Victoria stood up. "Ok, I'm ready."

At first, nothing seemed to happen but suddenly Victoria's body jerked slightly. She still looked the same but her normally upright posture and subtle mannerisms became noticeably more laid back.

Max's eyes brightened as she images of the blue haired punk girl sporting that posture rushed into her mind.

"Chloe?"

"Yes, Max," Chloe said to her and extended her arms. "C'mere, you!"

Max leaped to her lost love and enclosed into Chloe's embrace. Their eyes met and Max placed her lips on Chloe's for a long, passionate kiss. On a conscious level she knew that it was Victoria she was kissing but in every other level she felt like Chloe.

"Chloe! It really is you!" Tears flowed as Max held Chloe tightly. "I've missed you so much!"

"I've missed you too, Super Max," Chloe gasped. "Dude, you're squeezing me so tightly that I can't breathe."

"Uh, sorry," Max eased up a bit. "I-, I don't know what to say," Max said. "This is so unbelievable!"

"Pretty hella amazeballs, ain't it," Chloe concurred.

"I mean, I never could've hoped that I'd ever see you again," Max finally let go of her friend and lead her to the couch. "How is this possible?"

"Well, I can't tell you all but, when I died, I came around on this flowery meadow which was straight out of Windows XP desktop," Chloe began her story. "It's supposed to be a representation of some memory or event of mine, but I've never used XP."

Max grinned, when she heard Chloe's words. "You don't remember, do you?"

"What?"

"We had a bet," Max said. "You insisted that the XP background was hand painted and I said it was a photo." Max's grin became even wider. "I won. You had to call me 'your well of wisdom and enlightenment' for a whole week."

Chloe smirked. "Well that's why I don't remember it. Only you can come up with such a dork title."

"Is that so, Miss 'you have to call me my everlasting chalet of fortitude and dare'?"

Chloe smiled. "Those were good times."

"So you ended up in purgatory?" Max asked.

"Of sorts," Chloe said. "I met Rachel there." She closed her eyes.

Max took Chloe's hand. "We found out what had happened to her, when Nathan confessed everything. We had her memorial soon after yours."

"Rachel told me that it wasn't my time to cross over yet," Chloe said. "She also showed me what had happened during that week, when we were together."

"So you have been watching over me all these years?" Max asked.

"I was appointed as your guardian angel," Chloe answered. "Even though I wasn't allowed to be in contact with you, I could still keep you safe."

"But now your time here is coming to an end?"

"I've fulfilled my duty and my time has come to cross over." Chloe's heart broke, when she had to lie to Max but she wasn't in liberty to tell her the real term of fulfilling her duty.

"Well, I'm glad I got to see you once more," Max said.

"Me too, Maximus, me too," Chloe said. That wasn't exactly true either, as she wasn't supposed to make contact with Max under any circumstances. Well, screw that, she thought.

"Victoria told me that you were at the precinct today," Chloe changed the subject. "What was that about?"

"There's a killer on the loose here in Seattle that likes to drug people and take photos of them like that bastard, Jefferson," Max explained.

"A copycat?"

"That's what the police think. They asked, if Jefferson had told us anything about his time in Seattle." Max grasped her upper arm. "He had told us nothing. - Well, nothing that could be told, at least."

"So they think it might be someone he knew in his Seattle years?"

"Yeah, which reminds me that I need to tell you something."

"What is it, Max?"

"I thought I had lost my time rewinding powers for good after-, after what went down that day." The small brunette looked to the floor. "And I no longer can rewind time, but yesterday I found out that I'm still able to focus on pictures."

"You mean you can still travel into pictures and change the course of time?" Chloe of course already knew all of that, but since Max had not yet brought up the subject of being followed all the time, Chloe saw it best not to make the initiative.

"Yes, but until now I've thought I can only focus on pictures I've taken or been in," Max said. "Today at the police station I unexpectedly began to focus on the picture that was left where the body of the victim was found."

"I can sense that this is leading to somewhere," Chloe said, unsure what to think of this new revelation.

"If I went into that picture, I could see who the killer is and we could tip off the police," Max said almost enthusiastically.

Chloe wasn't as excited about this as the small brunette. "I'm not sure that it is a good idea, Max," she objected. "First of all, since you're not originally in that picture, who knows, what may happen? You could end up being the victim, or worse yet, the killer, and since you wouldn't know what to do, you'd end up changing the course of history. - And we know where that might lead."

"Um, I really hadn't thought of that," Max admitted.

"How you can be sure you'll ever get out as you never were part of that event?" Chloe continued.

"Well, on the other hand, I didn't know what would happen, when I first jumped into the picture of us," Max argued. "If there's a slightest chance we can prevent the killer from killing again, I'm willing to take that chance!"

Chloe sighed. "I suppose I can't talk you out of this. - But there is one thing. If you're going in, as much as you wanted to, you can't interfere in any way." Chloe's voice was adamant. "You can't save that girl!"

Max gave a defiant look at Chloe but she conceded. "Very well."

"Do you have that picture?" Chloe asked.

"No," Max said. "That's where we could actually use your special abilities," the brunette grinned. "You'd better release Victoria; we should fill her in too."

Now, how did I let myself to be talked into this, Chloe asked herself, as she was standing behind Stacy Kowalski's back at the East Precinct.

The detective was sitting at her desk and going through files on her computer. Max had asked Chloe to go to the police station and try to get the picture and any other information she could find related to the case. Chloe had not been very enthusiastic about this either but she had relented, when Max had said: "Let's be Blackwell ninjas one more time."

Might be a good idea to get her user id and password, Chloe thought and took over Kowalski's body. Here goes. Chloe locked the computer and left Kowalski's body.

Stacy Kowalski looked at her computer dumbfounded. "How did that get locked?" Kowalski pressed ctrl-alt-del and typed 'D3r3kM0rgan15H0t' into the password field.

Mmm-kay, now I can't get that image out of my head, Chloe thought as she read Kowalski's user id and watched her type the password. Time to get to work. Chloe took over Kowalski again.

Now, let's see what we have here, Chloe thought as she was going through the files related to the case.

She found Jefferson's file. His Seattle years and his assistant, Joseph Adams was highlighted. There was also a picture of him and a note that he'd gone missing around the same time Jefferson left Seattle.

Then Chloe noticed that Kowalski had Max's school record from Blackwell open. Why is she looking into Max? Does she really think Max has something to do with this?

But where is that picture? The original is probably in the evidence but I bet she has a copy somewhere, Chloe thought as she began to go through the files on the computer.

Ok, here it is. Chloe opened the file. Now, how can I get it to Max and Victoria?

She couldn't simply just email it, because the mail traffic was probably monitored. She looked into Kowalski's handbag and found her personal phone. That might work.

Luckily this thing has a fingerprint lock, Chloe thought as she swiped Kowalski's thumb on the sensor. The phone opened. Chloe turned on the camera and took picture of the picture on the computer screen. She then opened the messaging app, attached the picture into the message and sent it to Max. Finally, she erased both the picture and the message.

Back at Max's and Victoria's apartment, Chloe watched over as Max and Victoria were examining the picture on Max's phone.

"So how does this work?" Victoria asked. "You just focus on the picture and get sucked into it?"

"More or less," Max answered. "I actually don't know what happens on this time, when I am in the time and place of the picture. I do know, however, that if I change the course of history, I don't have any memories of the changed timeline's me from the point of the picture to the point, where I return."

Victoria looked over her shoulder. "Chloe here tells not to…"

"…fuck up the timeline, check," Max affirmed.

"Be careful, Max," Victoria said and put her hand on the freckled brunette's shoulder. "That's from the both of us."

"I will," Max smiled. She placed the phone directly in front of her and focused. First, nothing seemed to happen, but eventually the picture started pulsating and she began to hear ambient noises. She kept her focus on the picture and all of a sudden her surroundings changed.

Max looked around. She appeared to be in a studio decorated in a similar fashion as the dark room of Mark Jefferson was. A figure was lying in front of a whitewall, who Max recognized to be Gwen Purdeau. She was tied on the floor as she was in the picture and appeared to be under the influence of some sedative. She didn't seem to notice Max's presence.

If she's lying there and I'm here, does this mean that... An opening door interrupted her thoughts.

"Darling, I hope you're resting comfortably. We'll continue our session in a moment," Max heard a voice behind her say.

Even if Max immediately recognized the voice, she couldn't be less shocked, when she turned around to face her boss, Julia Bennett.

To be continued...