Chloe woke alone, again. From another nightmare. She had been back in the Dark Room. She had the shotgun ready, ready for Jefferson, but it hadn't been Jefferson that stepped around the corner. It was Max. And Max said something, but it was garbled. Backwards. It made Chloe think of that scene in Twin Peaks. Cooper's dream, Laura talking backwards. It wasn't the first time she'd had this kind of dream. Or made that comparison. And Chloe had been about to pull the trigger, she couldn't stop herself, she tried, but she had no control, she felt her finger moving on the trigger and woke up sweating. Screaming. Crying. She immediately rolled over and screamed into the shoddy pillow, until her throat hurt. She didn't even know why she was screaming. Why wasn't she screaming, would have been a better question.

Chloe eventually rolled over, out of breath and stared straight up. She reached over to the nightstand next to the uncomfortable cabin bed and grabbed her cigarettes.

Wonderful, two left.

She lit one and laid there for a moment, watching the smoke disperse in the morning light shining through the window behind the bed. She had almost been caught last night, by a ranger doing his rounds. She had to kill the camping lantern someone left behind and pray he didn't notice the broken window, how she'd gotten in to begin with. He didn't. But the panic that had come over her was immense. He was just a park ranger. A rent-a-cop, but he was an authority figure, something Chloe had never feared before. But now, she had imagined what going to prison, not spending the night in jail, actual prison would be like. Leaving Max alone. Leaving Rachel alone. The truth never coming to light. Joyce thinking she had actually lost it and murdered someone….well, she had, but she had a reason. Though, she still wasn't alright, clearly. Jefferson had deserved it. But Chloe's conscious still couldn't deal with it. She had finished what was left of the bottle of whiskey the night before, but it wasn't enough. And she thought that was good. She did not want to slip too far back into old habits. Not after her past life.

She knew she couldn't do this for much longer. Even if she could keep avoiding detection, she was lonely. And that was always her achilles heel. She still hadn't really worked out what to do about the Rachel situation, which she knew shouldn't have been the first thing on her mind, but it was. She also felt horrible for lying to Alain, who had been so open with her. She had told him a lot, but she had to change things around. He didn't even know her real name. She decided she was going to tell him, when it was safe. She needed to sort out how she was going to survive until she could go back to Arcadia...or, maybe she would just have to run. And keep running. She would never let herself be confined again. She didn't know. She didn't know which was better, for everyone. She was fairly certain Rachel could take care of Gail. And she had seen the attraction between them, even if she didn't exactly like it. The awkwardness between them. That had been part of why she had trusted Rachel to look out for her.

She could only imagine what they had done in her absence, Max of course would never have been unfaithful to Chloe, but Gail wasn't totally Max. Max was there, in total, but Gail also had her own personality. And Chloe loved them both. And Rachel was...well, Rachel. The thought of them together didn't anger her, though. It wasn't really unfaithful, if anything had happened, since they had all slept together...and Chloe did still love Rachel. She found herself again wondering if they could work it out between the three of them, which a place her mind never would have gone before. But that was, of course, if there was actually anything between Gail and Rachel. She wasn't positive, and she felt horrible, because if there wasn't, she was still thinking these thoughts. She had no way of knowing that somewhere nearby, Rachel and Gail were waking up together after a night they would both regret for a long time. If Chloe had known, she probably would have been laughing. But right now, she wasn't. Right now, Chloe was crying. It was all too much. And she shouldn't have gotten high or drunk the day before, because it reminded her how much easier everything was to deal with when she was impaired. But she refused to fall back into that. She couldn't afford that. None of them could.

She eventually stumbled out of bed, and went to the small kitchen area to cook her instant noodles and make her instant coffee, not that she was even hungry, it was just something to do. She cleaned the burn on her arm in the meantime, before eating, replacing the bandage. It didn't look good, but it didn't look or feel infected or anything. She took her noodles and coffee back to the bed, though there was a small dining area in the kitchen, and sat on the bed, barely eating and drinking her coffee. She knew she was going to have to walk into town to get cigarettes. She wasn't looking forward to it. And she was scared that by now, they may be looking for her.

"Well, I fucked up again. Big surprise, right?", she said, to nobody in particular.

Rachel woke gently, from a peaceful sleep. She had no bad dreams, hadn't woken up in the middle of the night...though, by the time they'd actually gone to sleep it was probably closer to morning. She...had needed last night. She felt more grounded than she had in a long time. She looked over at Gail, asleep peacefully beside her. Her hair was a mess and she was totally naked. Rachel looked exactly the same. She sat up. It was chilly in the room. Rachel pulled the sheets back up to Gail's shoulders, they had slipped down to her waist. She gently kissed the top of her head and brushed her messy hair out of her face.

So fucking cute….perfect….i'm sorry, Chloe...i'm so sorry.

Rachel pulled her flannel from the floor and pulled it on, not bothering to button it, she sat on the bed next to Gail, gently stroking her hair.

"...mmm...hey", Gail said sleepily.

"Hey...", Rachel said, not sure how this was going to go. She kept petting Gail's hair, very gently.

"That feels...nice...", Gail said, still sleepily, "...especially after last night...we got a little...rough."

"I'm sorry. And i'm sorry for all of it. I-"

"Rachel...don't, just...don't."

"But-"

"I know. We did a bad. We'll deal with it later. I feel terrible, but...I feel better too."

"...yeah."

"Are you okay, Rachel?"

"...I think so. For the first time in a long time...I...think so, Gail."

"Good. We need to focus on Chloe. I...have a bad feeling. Like…"

"I know. I do too. Like...shit is about to get real?"

"Realer than it already is, yes."

"We find her today. Somehow."

"Yes."

Rachel was still playing with Gail's hair, and hadn't moved.

"Rachel…", Gail said, sitting up, holding the sheets up to her chest.

There's Max…, Rachel thought, seeing that, and seeing Gail avoiding looking at Rachel's mostly exposed breasts.

"Right, sorry", she said, she got up and started getting their stuff together, still not bothering to get dressed, she had at least partially buttoned the flannel.

Gail felt around for her clothes and pulled them on, under the covers, before getting up.

"We really need showers", Rachel said, "...we both reek of sweat and sex and bad decisions.'

"Those are Chloe's favorite things, though", Gail said, smirking.

"True, but not when she isn't involved", Rachel said, stifling a laugh.

Gail grabbed an armful of mostly clean clothes from their bags.

"What would she say if she were here right now?"

"That your breath smells like puss-"

"NOT WHAT I MEANT."

"Oh...seriously? I have no idea. She'd either be killing me or laughing. Or laughing while she was killing me."

"...is she our Dark Knight, or our Joker?"

"Both. And that's why we love her."

Gail sighed a confused, but loving, sigh.

Chloe was walking towards town. She never thought she'd actually miss her truck, but right now, she did. It was getting colder and the wind was terrible, she walked on the side of the road, not on the beach like she had before. She was well aware going into town for cigarettes was fucking ridiculous given the circumstances, but she also wasn't really thinking. She was, to put it simply, breaking. She had been wrong, thinking she could deal with all of this on her own. She realized that she had never really considered if she could or not, she had just done what she thought was right at the time. Which had been clouded by her own selfishness. Maybe running like this hadn't been the best way to protect them, but she didn't know how to deal with whatever they had between the three of them, either.

For the first time, terms like "plea bargain" and "insanity defense" entered her mind, but she shoved them right back out. She would not let herself be confined.

But...if that was the only way to end this...it would be better for Max...and Rachel, both-

"No", she said to herself.

She had been walking for a while, and was getting to the point of actually considering hitching, it was cold, she was tired and she had no patience, at all. But she knew she couldn't. A passing car may be coming from somewhere a lot less isolated than here. And now the news had spread. Though she wasn't aware how far, she could imagine. She considered quitting, turning around, going back to the cabin and going back to sleep for however long she could, but she was further from there than town, now. She walked on, trying to keep her mind clear, but it wasn't really working.

What a fucking mess we've made. Christ. Maybe this was our storm…

"So, what exactly do we do, just check every open shop, keep walking around in the woods, comb the beach some more? We're never going to find her like this", Gail said, her patience was nearing it's end.

This town was tiny, it should not have been that hard to find someone here, especially off-season. Still, they had checked places the thought might catch Chloe's interest, neither of them really prepared to admit they were going to have to look in the campgrounds and scenic areas a lot harder than they had already.

"I think I have an idea", Rachel said, they walked down the main street of the town, passing closed storefronts. There were not many people around. There wasn't much traffic.

"I'm listening."

"Think like Chloe."

"What?"

"Think like Chloe. Where would you have gone, if you were her, knowing her?"

Gail considered this for a moment.

"Somewhere...isolated."

"We've got that down already."

"I don't know, Rachel. I don't."

"Chloe is a lot like...electricity."

"What the hell are you talking about, Rachel?"

"She follows the path of least resistance. Almost always. Obviously there are exceptions, this entire thing being one of them, but in general…"

"She would have gone to the first place she saw that looked remote enough."

"Most likely. So we're more than likely in the right place."

"But she could still be anywhere."

"She can't just stay in the woods, if that's where she is, all the fucking time. She has to come here, eventually. Unless she stocked up for months, and I can't really imagine her doing that. Even if she did, she'd still run out of cigarettes in a day or two."

"Brutal. But...true."

"What's open? Some tourist shops, coffee places, convenience stores? That doesn't leave her a lot of places to go."

"So you're saying we should just keep walking around until we run into her?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No", Gail sighed.

Just then a primer grey muscle car passed by them, Gail didn't really care, it caught Rachel's interest, though. It roared, and it had a huge wing on the back. It pulled down a side street and then Rachel heard the engine cut out. From around the corner walked a boy around their age with very long blonde hair, dressed all in black, save a faded blue denim jacket with band patches on it. He looked extremely distressed and took no notice of them, he vanished into the entrance of a picturesque coffee shop, one of many picturesque storefronts here.

"Well, that place is open, I guess", Rachel said.

"You're really going to start asking around?"

Rachel had somewhat prepared for this.

"Look, we can leave out the details like the blue hair, the tattoos. We're looking for our friend. A tall, skinny girl, probably alone. We were camping, we got in a fight, she stormed off. She forgot her phone, so here we are."

"It's...risky, Rachel."

"What part of any of this hasn't been?"

Gail sighed.

"Alright."

They entered the coffee shop, one of the very few places open on the street. The boy had vanished, but they heard yelling from the back.

"This is already looking great", Gail said, flippantly.

"Shh", Rachel was trying to listen, out of pure nosiness, and a little fear. A feeling like everyone was out to get them. She'd had it since she saw the news report last night. Now, they had mentioned that Rachel Amber and Gail Roberts were missing, she'd checked it earlier, while Gail was in the shower, but said nothing, she didn't want to scare her more.

"Where have I been?...Hanging out...mom...just...with a friend…"

"You don't have friends, Alain."

Ouch, Rachel thought.

"….that girl that was in here…Elizabeth, yeah...Elizabeth Caulfield…"

Caulfield...Elizabeth…, Gail thought.

"...She looks like that girl on the news Alain, I should call the police…."

"She has blonde hair...and her name is Elizabeth, not Chloe...what was it...Price?"

"Yeah. What a sick little…"

"I know. I've heard. And read about it."

"Of course you have."

"Are you going to pay me or not?"

"Don't take that tone with me, young man."

"Mom, i've been busting my ass in here, off season. I've cleaned things I didn't even know we had-"

"More money for grass, or just to dump into that horrible car?"

"Neither. And please don't bring that-"

"What? The car that killed your father and almost killed you? That you feel the need to parade around here, like a reminder-"

"A reminder of what? Dad? Maybe some of us don't want to forget."

"Here...just take your money and go do whatever it is you do. Don't hang around our customers either. Like Anna. Take a note and leave Elizabeth alone."

"Oh, fuck y-"

"What!?"

"Nothing. I'll see you later."

"You better. I shouldn't even be letting you have today off. And paying your worthless ass."

"I love you too, mom", this was said with incredible venom.

"Rachel…"

"I know, I heard."

The boy came out of the back, and stomped around the counter, walking right by them.

An older woman, blonde, around Joyce's age came out from the back, to the counter.

"Can I help you?", she asked.

"Not after what the fuck I just heard, and I thought my mother hated me", Rachel said flatly, already turning to follow the boy. Gail followed. The woman said something about minding their own business, but neither of them really paid attention. They followed the boy around the corner, where he was getting in the "horrible" car.

"HEY", Rachel called.

"Huh, what?", he said, his voice somewhere between anger and sadness.

"We couldn't help but overhear-"

"Look, whatever it is, i'm not interested", he said.

"You mentioned a girl…", Gail said, timidly.

"Liz? What about her?", he asked, a little more interested.

"Uh, I think we know her, do you know where she is?", Rachel asked.

"You..think...you know her?"

"Tall...like...really tall? Skinny...like...really skinny? Kinda brash...like...kind of a bitch sometimes?", Rachel tried.

"That sounds like her", he said, he closed the door of the car and leaned against it.

Gail and Rachel looked at each other.

"We need to find her...Alain..was it?", Rachel asked.

"Why? She told me she wanted to be left alone...unless...nah, can't be."

"What?", Rachel asked, starting to get annoyed.

"Are you...Rachel and...Max...Gail...whoever you are?"

Rachel didn't know how to answer the second part of that, or why he knew their names.

"Yes", Gail said immediately.

"Holy shit", was all he said, his expression turned even more grim, if that was even possible.

"What? Do you know where she is or not?", Rachel asked.

"I might. But I need some answers."

"Like?"

"Is she...Chloe Price?", he asked. Having seen better quality pictures of Chloe on the news and internet, he had already come to the conclusion that it was a possibility, he also realized he'd never seen her arms uncovered. And now...this. He heard a Rachel Amber was wanted for questioning and that a Gail Roberts was missing. It was falling into place, all of it, but he couldn't see "Liz", as a killer. She was brash, like Rachel had said, but she was also very...gentle. And kind.

Gail shuddered, Rachel tensed.

"...how much do you know, Alain?", Rachel asked.

"Not as much as i'm about to, if you want to find her. I'm no fucking rat, so please just tell me what the fuck is going on."

Rachel sighed, but she knew this was most likely their only chance.

Chloe had something of a breakdown, she gave up on walking towards town, and sat on

bench by the beach, head in her hands, crying. She was starting to see the futility in all of this.

Everything.

I'm going to prison. Gail is never going to remember. Rachel gets screwed over again. I fucked this all up. Useless. Worthless. Fucking should have stayed dead. Everyone was better off. I'm sorry, David. You got hurt. Who the fuck knows what's going to happen now. Mom…

Chloe lit her last cigarette. She found herself rubbing at her cauterized wound. It hurt like hell. And she liked it. She began punching her own arm, lightly, and then harder.

Stop it.

She forced herself to stop.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!", she screamed, just for the sake of screaming. Again.

She stood, unsteadily, and walked back to the road. She started walking towards town again, she didn't even care about the cigarettes anymore, but she was closer to town to than the cabin. She hoped maybe she'd run into Alain, who she'd tell everything, and then if he didn't call the police, she would herself.

Plea bargain...insanity plea….suici-

Her dark thought pattern was interrupted by a familiar, loud sound.

"Perfect timing", she said to herself, completely seriously.

She stopped, and watched the Superbird approach. She was so lost in her own thoughts she didn't even notice Alain wasn't alone this time. She simply sat down, on the side of the road. And waited. She was just going to spill everything. She couldn't live like this. The nightmares. The fear. The guilt. She realized this is probably exactly how Max had felt after the storm. Which made her feel even worse. But after the now non-existent storm, they had each other. She was alone.

At least you have Rachel, Max...I hope...

She sat, holding her legs, head down. And waited. The car stopped a few feet away.

"Chloe!", Alain called.

What the fuck…

"CHLOE!", said a more familiar voice, and before she even had a chance to look up, Gail was embracing her, she hit Chloe running, so hard they both collapsed backward to the ground.

"What the fu-", Chloe tried, but Gail interrupted her with a kiss and was holding onto her so tight she couldn't breathe.

"I thought we'd never find you...you weren't here...I...missed you so much. Chloe. Don't ever fucking run off on us again. Fucking ever. We've been through so much shit trying to find you. I love you, Chloe, I forgive you for everything, I remember, I remember everything, Chloe, I-", Gail was rambling, sounding much more like Max than Gail, Chloe wasn't sure she was even listening to herself. Gail pulled her up and Chloe found herself hugging Gail back, extremely tightly. She couldn't say anything, she just cried into Gail's shoulder.

Rachel stood leaning against the hood of the car, watching, but not approaching, she had mixed emotions about the display of affection she was seeing, but she knew she was going to. And she knew this was right. The exact opposite of what last night had been. Alain stood with his back against the driver's door, running a hand through his hair, not sure what the hell to make of any of this. Rachel had filled him in, as much as she knew, or she knew he would believe, after he swore up and down he wasn't going to rat them out. Even if Chloe had lied to him, he knew she wasn't lying about everything she'd told him. Just her name and where she'd come from. She was his friend. And he didn't have many. Besides, even if she was a killer, he wasn't scared of her. He had morbid tastes.

Still, he found himself having a very hard time believing the tall, crying girl embracing the much smaller girl in front of him was capable of even hurting anyone, let alone brutally murdering someone. Sure, now it all made sense, but it still really didn't. And Rachel had told him exactly that, 'this will maybe make things make more sense, but probably not'.

"Rachel...", Chloe said gently, snapping Rachel out of her emotional void, Chloe held her arms open, and Rachel couldn't help but walk over and embrace Chloe just as hard as Gail had. The only difference was Rachel was crying too. For more reasons than she could count. Gail hugged them both. And all three of them kind of wished that this embrace could last forever. They could just shut the world out and stay here, in this moment, forever.

Chloe wasn't thrilled they had come after her, but she had missed them too much to care right now. She wasn't angry. She wasn't even concerned, at that moment, anyway. She found the images of prison, people getting hurt because of her actions, the 's' word she had almost considered considering, if it came to that, leaving her mind, for now.

The moment was broken by Alain awkwardly clearing his throat. Rachel let go, Gail did too, but she locked her hand around Chloe's.

"Alain...Gail...Rachel….how...", Chloe stammered.

"These two found me. I was already going to go look for you, and find out if...well, you were who you are", he said, gently.

"But then...you know...i'm sorry, Alain. I'm so fucking sorry."

"I had my suspicions. I'm not even mad, Chloe. If anyone understands the lengths people would go to for someone they love, I do. And if the story is really what your girlfriends told me, I don't blame you. I would have done the same thing."

Chloe walked over to him, kind of dragging Gail with her and awkwardly hugged him.

"Thank you", she said, barely a whisper.

"Hey…don't mention it."

"But...you're part of this now", Chloe said, sadly. She didn't want him to know, for this reason, and many others. She had been planning on telling him, but she hadn't planned on Gail and Rachel being with him. This changed things.

"You really think I care, Chloe? I don't have much of a life to get fucked up."

"Don't say that. Things will get better for you, I know it. Assuming the black helicopters aren't on their way already."

"Yeah...about that", he said, "...maybe we could like, get in the car and go to wherever you've been hiding, because, believe me, the news is not painting a good picture of you right now. I don't like how exposed we are here, you look different, but now that there's more than just a shitty mugshot of you out there, hell, I recognized you, and you look...really different."

A few cars had passed by them, but it being well into Autumn in a seaside resort area was working well in their favor, since they were literally parked on the side of the main road.

"Yeah, you do. Please dye it blue again, when you can...and the clothes...", Rachel said from behind them, she was torn up inside right now, but she was still Rachel.

"Bite me", Chloe said, without turning.

"I'm just so fucking glad you're safe...you're...here...we're together again", Gail said.

"Me too, but this could go south real hella fucking quick, Alain's right, we need to get somewhere more secluded. And you guys need to tell me everything that is going on, because I have no idea, really."

Rachel felt horrible for not telling Gale what she'd heard, but she didn't want her to lose hope, before they found her. She also felt horrible for just about everything else. But she was happy they were together again. Even if Chloe was going to be very, very angry at her, very, very soon. She still stood awkwardly off to the side, like she wasn't part of their little circle. Even though she was arguably the center of it. And always had been.

They got in the car, Gail refusing to let go of Chloe, so Chloe sat in the back with her, Rachel got in the front passenger seat, last. She had no idea how this was going to play out. But then, neither did any of them. Gail didn't seem too worried, but Gail was also in full-Max mode right now, Rachel already felt unneeded. Unwanted. She subconsciously shook her head and took a deep breath and tried to get a better grip on the situation, as they headed back towards the camping areas to discuss what to do next.