Prologue: Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

Chapter 3: Always Take The Shot

Saturday, September 14th, 2013

I sat in my bedroom, staring at my phone. Now that I had Chloe's phone number, it was this big, looming spectre. Should I call her? Text her? How soon after meeting someone you thought was cute did you have to wait before texting someone? I mean, she talked to Rachel, but did she ask Rachel to get me her phone number again or did Rachel do that on her own? Sooo confusing…

I inched towards it on the bed when there was a knock on my door. Startled, I leapt off the bed and fell over, hitting my head on my table. Pulling myself up, I walked to the door and opened it. There stood Rachel Amber.

"Are you okay? I swear I heard something fall." I blushed and rubbed my head.

"Yeah you startled me when you knocked. I kinda tripped while getting up."

"Oh I'm so sorry." She actually did look genuinely sorry, like Kate would be when something happened that wasn't her fault. "Are you okay? Did you hit your head? That can be serious… and you might need to see a doctor... " She seemed to realize she was rambling, and cut herself off.

I pulled my hand away from my head and looked at it. The top of my three fingers were tinged red.

"Maybe you have a point…" And then everything went black.

Sunday, September 15th, 2013 (12:00 PM)

I woke up. I was in a room and everything was white. Rubbing my eyes, I quickly realized this was a hospital room. I was wearing a hospital gown. God, these things were uncomfortable. Looking around, I examined the room. It was small, not any bigger than my dorm room. There were two chairs and a table in between my bed and the wall, which had two windows. The door was on the other side of my bed, and the place seemed very tastefully decorated, considering it was, you know, a hospital room.

Examining the table on the other side of my bed, I found that there were a small pile of get well cards, chocolates, flowers, and other general pleasantries. So many people had decided to send me cards. Warren, Kate, Dana, Brooke. I mean, I just moved here a week ago. There was one envelope which was sealed, no name, nothing on it. Weird. I'd look at it later. Just as I was opening up some of the chocolates, there was a knock at the door.

"Um… come in?" I wasn't sure. Why would a doctor or nurse knock? I mean, this was the first time I had woken up, and there was no-one else in the room. The door opened, and Rachel walked in, Kate trailing behind her. The second Rachel saw I was awake, she rushed over to my bedside, hastily pulling forward one of the chairs from the table to sit in.

"Oh My God are you okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to startle you yesterday, and you hurt my head, and it's all my fault," She looked really upset, and I grabbed her hand.

"Rachel, it is not your fault that I hit my head. That honor goes to me, and me alone, for being the clumsiest person in Arcadia Bay." She laughed, and she seemed much less panicked. I looked over to Kate. She was smiling a bit, and she was carrying a small package in her hands.

"Kate, what's that?" Kate smiled again and gave the small package to me.

"It's a present. Here, open it."

It wasn't very large, and I tore the brown paper wrapping off immediately. Inside was some film for my camera. Yes! I was running low anyways.

"Thank you Kate!" I sat up a little bit more, and she leaned down, hugging me. I put the film on the table besides me, and looked over to Rachel.

"So, did you talk to any doctors, or…" Rachel seemed to get what I meant and started talking in a fast-paced tone, though admittedly not too fast for me to understand.

"So you hit your head on the table pretty hard. You have a concussion, though admittedly a mild one. I rushed you to the hospital right after you blacked out, and they admitted you right away. They said they should be able to release you soon after you woke up, so you'll be able to have lunch and dinner normally, no terrible hospital food for you. Anything else you need to know?" She said all of this in one breath, and I poked her.

"That's fine, Rachel. Breathe." She exhaled, and she seemed fine again. A doctor came in, and ushered Rachel and Kate out. They waved to me as they left, and I waved back. The doctor walked up to my bed and checked the charts, reading through them quickly, before sitting down in the chair besides my bed that Rachel had left behind. He was sandy-haired, and moderately handsome.

"Hey there, Max. I'm Dr. Aaron Evans, you can call me Aaron. Are you feeling alright?" I nodded my head, and he continued. "You hit your head on a table, did I get that right?" I nodded again. "Well we put you through a CT scan while you were out, and you have a minor concussion. Seeing you now that you've woken up, and from what we observed from the scan, you should be fine, though there will be some minor after-effects, as there are with every concussion."

"After effects?" I shuddered. Dr. Aaron immediately looked concerned, and he placed his hand over mine on the side table.

"Listen, Max. Any after-effects you experience will be minor. He pulled out a pad of paper from his doctor's coat, and jotted down a small bullet-point list. Ripping off the piece of paper, he handed it to me. "If you experience any of the the things listed on this list, that's normal. If you hurt yourself anymore in the next week, or experience anything out of the ordinary that's not on this list, you let an adult you can trust know, and tell them you need to go to the hospital. But, in my opinion as a medical professional, everything will be fine. Okay?"

I felt a little better after that, and I nodded, picking up the piece of paper he had handed me. It had a small list on it written in messy handwriting, which I read:

-Nosebleeds

-Lethargy

-Blackouts

-Loss of Balance

When I finished reading the list, and looked up, resumed talking.

"So I called your parents," I groaned, and he smiled sympathetically. "Let them know what happened, and assured them you would be fine, back to normal within a week at the most." I beamed at him.

"Thank you!"

He grinned, and I got the feeling this was his real smile, not the one he just used for patients, though I had no way of knowing if my guess was correct.

"It's the least I can do for a young girl who's had a stroke of misfortune. Now if you'd sit up a bit, I do need to do a proper examination before I can release you."

He shined his flashlight in my eye and did a few other tests, before getting up from the chair.

"Alright, I, Doctor Aaron Stone, release you from hospital custody." He said this with the mindless tedium that one could only manage after saying something hundreds of times.

"Thank you." I said politely, and he walked out of the room.

Closing the curtains, I stripped off the hospital gown, and put on my clothes, which, having searched the room, I found in my bedside table. After doing so, I grabbed my bag, filling it with the get-well cards and chocolates, well at least the chocolates I hadn't eaten. Then I left the hospital, hoping to never come back.

Sunday, September 15th, 2013 (3:00 PM)

I sat in my dorm room once more. I was listening to my music and finishing up some of my schoolwork. My head hurt a little, but it didn't seem like a big deal. My phone buzzed, and I saw that it was Rachel.

Rachel Amber: I'm at the door to your room. Figured I'd do this instead of knocking.

(3:02 PM 09/15/13)

I walked to the door and opened it. Standing there was, indeed, Rachel Amber. I let her into the room, and she plopped down onto the bed. I pulled up the chair I had been using so that I was sitting across from her, and she started to speak.

"So, I just wanted to say, again, that I'm sorry. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you, let me know. I owe you one"

I shook my head. "No you don't. I slipped and fell. It is in no way your fault."

She nodded, and she got up to leave, but I grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down.

"Although, Rachel. This has been bothering me. Why did you knock on my door? What did you want to talk about?"

She sat for a few moments in silence, before she spoke.

"So, I know this is weird now that you hit your head, but have you talked to Chloe? She said to me that you haven't texted her at all since yesterday."

I bit my lip. I wasn't sure, what should I say, what did I feel?

"Do you like her?" Rachel was looking at me intensely, she had that examining look in her eyes, and I burst like a dam.

"Yes! I mean I'm not sure. I saw her, and my stomach did a full gymnastic routine. I talked to her, and I felt more confident than I ever have in my life! She kissed me on the cheek, and I melted. Surely if anything, that means I like her! But I've had one conversation with her, how can I know… how can I know if... " I trailed off, not wanting to finish, not wanting to finish the sentence.

"If it's love?" Rachel said that, and I almost collapsed in my chair. "You can't. But what you can do, is have another conversation with her. And another, and another. Pick up that phone, and text her. Get to know her, and if you still feel the way you do, then you'll be a lot closer to answering that question."

"But what if-? I started to ask, but Rachel cut me off.

"What if you get hurt? Max, you're never going to get hurt if you never put yourself out there Max. Sure. But is that how you want to live life? You're young, you're almost in college. Live your life. This is the best time for it. If you get hurt now, you will recover. Time heals all wounds. But if anything bad happens from this, that matters 5, 10 years from now, it'll be that you have regrets. It won't be that you were hurt."

She got up and walked over to my table, and grabbed my phone. She placed it in my hand, and closed my other hand over it. "Try." She said that, and walked off, leaving my room. I sat there, shocked. Was what she was saying right? Wrong? Well, I supposed there was only one way to find out.

I picked up my phone, scrolled down to Chloe's contact number, and sent her a text.

AN: Shorter chapter. There was a lot of rewriting on this one. I knew that Chloe wasn't going to appear in this one, I'm trying to build up to the next chapter. But I was unsure whether or not Max was going to talk to Chloe via text. I changed my mind a few times, and settled on this. If you're liking the story, leave a review! Please.

Uploaded Thursday, March 24th, 2016