Seventeen: Not Broken

The light coming from beneath Principal Wells's door moved again. Properly speaking it was the door to the school secretary's office, located outside Well's office proper, but Chloe didn't think it was the secretary working late somehow.

Clamped around her arm, Max's fingers threatened to cut off her circulation, but Chloe didn't dare speak or even whisper. The hammering of her heart seemed louder than the roar of her truck's ancient engine. She was surprised it didn't echo through the empty hallways. They were so close to the door, so close to getting the hell out of here. They just needed to get past here and then they'd be in the clear. Max sniffled. Chloe elbowed her and she gave a helpless shrug and pinched her nose.

Oh for fuck's sake, don't sneeze. She tried to send the thought-vibe Max's way. It was like something out of low-budget horror movie: the congested heroine lets loose an badly-timed sneeze, alerting the psycho killer to her location.

Chloe put her finger to her lips and then used her index and middle finger to mime walking towards the door. Max nodded.

They crept forward, stepping lightly. Stepping slowly. Max sniffled and Chloe's heart leaped into her throat. But then she reached up and pinched her nostrils together for a few seconds. Disaster averted.

A clatter from Wells's office.

Or not.

The door creaked open. "Shitballs. Run!"

They made a dash for it, boots clattering on the linoleum, and echoing through the halls as if an entire track team were in there with them. Another set of footsteps joined the cacophony, echoing out of sync with theirs just before they crashed through the door. They kept running.

Chloe darted a glance over her shoulder. Standing on the front steps of the school was a figure. Not David Madsen. Had to be a woman. She didn't make out more than that; instead, her eyes fixed on the shiny black barrel of a revolver.

For a second her mind flashed back to the vision earlier that evening. Max's blood on the pavement, her face contorted with pain. Lying there with her hands pressed against the bleeding hole in Max's belly. Her heart thumped out of time and she stumbled. Max slowed and steadied her and they kept running. Super Max to the rescue. Always the hero. Her hero.

Dashing across the law, Max swerved in the direction of football field. Chloe snagged her arm and tugged her off course. "Not that way."

"But–"

"Just come on!"

They kept running and she didn't look back. Pulling Max along, she headed for the girls' dorm. The building had suffered some damage during the storm from downed trees and several of the windows were boarded up. Darkened as they were, the remaining windows stared down at them like empty eye sockets. Chloe took Max's hand and pulled her along to the side of the building, finally slowing down as they rounded the corner.

Another boarded up window greeted them. Before Max could ask, Chloe tugged at the plywood, lifting it from the bottom. "Get in!" After only a moment's hesitation, Max squeezed under the board and stumbled through the empty window frame. Chloe followed, throwing one leg up over the window frame and then the other. Her boots crunched on broken glass.

The interior of the dorm was even darker than outside, and it took her eyes several seconds to adjust. Looked like a common room judging by the chairs, couch, and broken TV. For several minutes, they waited, crouched low in the corner where no one could see them even if they peered through one of the remaining windows.

But no lights flickered outside and there was no knocking, no movement. No nothing. Chloe's heart began to thrum not with fear, but with triumph. "Think we're clear." Max nodded. Grinning, Chloe shot to her feet. "Hella yes!"

Looking a bit shaky, Max stood. "Did you see who it was?"

Chloe shook her head. "No. But she had a gun."

"Why is everyone in Arcadia Bay armed?" Max heaved a sigh but then she tilted her head and peered at Chloe. "How did you know the board would be loose?"

"Cuz I loosened it."

"Why?"

"So we'd have an escape route in case we ran into Mr. mall cop. Come on, Max, that was serious ninja shit right there."

Max was smiling at her, looking pleased. She cocked her head and crossed her arms. "Planning ahead. What have you done with the real Chloe Price?"

"You're not the only one who's new and improved, Max-Attack."

"Have you got the file?" Chloe reached into the back of her pants where she'd stuffed the file before they'd started running. It was a little crumpled but safe and sound. "We really did it. Even without my rewind powers."

She took Max's face in her hands and locked gazes. "You don't need super powers to be Super Max."

Instead of answering, Max pushed herself up on her toes and pressed her lips to Chloe's. Chloe wound her arms around Max's waist and pulled her in close. Their jackets were bulky and she so wanted to feel Max's warmth. After everything tonight she wanted so badly to be close, to feel Max's heartbeat, to make sure she was really real and safe and all in one hella awesome piece.

When Max drew back for breath, she was grinning, a giddy laugh tripping from her lips. "We should head back."

"No way." She took Max's hand and gave her arm a tug towards the main hall. "Dude we're in your dorm! You have to show me your room."

"Chloe."

"Come on. No one even knows we're here. You can give me the private tour." When Max turned on her flashlight app, Chloe knew she'd won.

Max led her upstairs and along the corridor lined with doors at short intervals. Cork boards on the walls were still festooned with posters announcing the next Vortex club party and notices about a missing tablet with cat pics. They stopped outside a door whose whiteboard featured an expressionless stick person with the name Max hovering over its head. While Max was searching through her pockets for her dorm key, Chloe grabbed the marker and scrawled an addendum. She stood back to admire her handiwork.

The sign now boasted, "Max rulz" and the stick figure looked happier. Also it had a mohawk.

"Found it!" Max said, finally digging the key out of the back pocket of her jeans. "Sorry. I kept it secret, kept it safe." She turned the key in the lock and pushed open the door.

Chloe stepped in after her and pawed around till she found a light switch.

"What are you doing? Someone will see the light from outside. I thought we were in stealth mode."

"Chill. Just pull the blinds."

The window was intact–or mostly intact anyway. The one on the left sported a duct-tape X over one pane, like a bandage holding it together. It had cracked but it had not broken. Max lingered there for a moment, her fingers poised over the damaged pane.

"Max?"

She gave herself a shake and closed the blinds on each window while Chloe did a 360 of the room. Max's valuables had been packed up by one of her friends, so the room looked a bit more bare that it normally would have–no electronics, no DVDs, no photography gear. Piles of books and clothes, though, scattered here and there. Posters and pin-ups covering the walls. And a comfy looking bed, blankets still in a disorderly heap where they'd been tossed the last time Max had slept here.

"So..." Max said shrugging. "This is it."

"It's awesome. Way less neat than I was expecting." Chloe's eyes lingered for some moments on Max's unmade bed before she really took in the wall of selfies. "Ah the wall of fame!" She strode over and leaned in to get a look at the collection. Dozens of Maxes gazed at her, looking alternately uncertain, anxious, tentative, and–on rare occasion–happy.

Max came up next to her, inspecting the wall and then dropping down onto the bed, back to the photos. "I really should redecorate. I think I'm done with selfies."

Chloe sat and put an arm around her waist. "You just need some new inspiration."

"Maybe I'll just cover it with pictures of you." There wasn't time for a snappy comeback before Max added, "You're my inspiration."

Turning to look at her, at the way Max was gazing up at her like she was... like she was something special, like she was someone worth sacrificing a town for. Chloe rubbed the back of her neck. "But I'm just–"

"My faithful companion?" Max suggested.

Chloe grinned. "And chauffeur."

Though power had been restored, the heat still wasn't on in the dorms and Max's fingers were cold on Chloe's neck as she gently pulled Chloe down to kiss her. Icy fingers, mussed hair, chapped lips–Chloe loved all of it. They'd run a successful raid, escaped, and even snuck into a sealed building. And now Max was kissing her. It was perfect.

When she drew back for breath, Max didn't speak; she just looked at her. Chloe could never figure what Max saw that was worth all this drama, what she saw that was so different from what everyone else did. But she must have seen it because she leaned in again and kept kissing her.

Max's fingers fumbled at Chloe's throat until she found the jacket's zipper and tugged it down. Chloe obliged and shrugged off her jacket. It was when Max started to tug at hem of her shirt that it really dawned on her: Max Caulfield was undressing her.

She pulled back, breathless and giddy. "Max? Are we doing this?"

Max's face was flushed. She bit her lip for a second and then nodded. "Yes. We are." Chloe leaned in to kiss her again but Max drew back, hand raised. "But if you say 'hot monkey sex' even once, I'm changing my mind. Immediately."

"What? You don't like h–"

"Even once."

Chloe snapped her jaws shut. And then, glancing at the crumpled sheets, "We are so going to freeze our asses off."

"I've got some extra blankets." Max hurried over to her closet and fumbled with the blankets as Chloe watched her; Max's hands were trembling, her face and neck still beet red.

Chloe lay back on Max's bed, her head on Max's pillow, every nerve tingling, waiting for Max to settle down and work up the nerve to come back over to her. She folded her hands under her head and let out a long sigh. "Hella comfier than the tent. And," Chloe drawled, turning over and propping herself up on one elbow, "no one will hear you if you turn out to be a scream–" And for that she got a blanket to the face.

"I am not a screamer."

"Interesting hypothesis, Doctor Maximus. But I'm going to need some convincing evidence before I can accept your theory." She patted the mattress.

That twitch of Max's lips was exactly what Chloe had been hoping for. "You are such a dork."

"Good thing you're hella into dorks."

She held out a hand. Stepping forward, Max took it and closed the distance between them.