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 4: What Are You Doing Here?

Sunday, September 15th, 2013

I stood in front of 9 Blue Jay Lane, a house I had never been to. If that was true, then why did it feel so damn familiar? When I saw this house, I didn't see just another house on the street, I didn't see just another building where I supposed some family lived. I saw a house with a history, a house with a past. Maybe my concussion was acting up… but I got the feeling there was something else there.

I walked up to the door, and as I passed the driveway, I noticed a beat-up pick-up truck sitting there. It looked exactly like the truck Rachel had driven me and Kate around in yesterday. Maybe Rachel had borrowed it from Joyce? Kate had said they were close. Yeah, that was probably it.

Standing at the door, I pressed the doorbell, tapping my foot against the ground anxiously. It was almost immediately opened by a tall man with a crew cut and a mustache. He looked really familiar. Wait…

"You're David Madsen! The, the, the security officer at Blackwell!" I blurted out, and I swear a ghost of a smile stretched across his face.

"That I am little lady. Now why don't you come in, sit down, and I'll see about getting you and me some of my wife's delicious cooking." He stepped back, and I followed him inside.

David led me through the house, and I noticed several trinkets almost scattered about the house. There was a beanie hat sitting on the railing of the stairs, a small totem pole, a wine stain on the floor, and a snow globe with a doe. It's like the past and present of this house were taken and placed in these small trinkets, scattered all about. But the one thing my eyes settled on as I walked was a small photograph on the fireplace. It was of a man with blondish hair, along with Joyce and a teenage girl at a fair. They all looked very happy, and Joyce looked just beautiful in her outfit. The man with blondish hair obviously wasn't David, and I guessed he was the girl's father. So he either died, or left, or was was divorced, and Joyce married David. But that wasn't what mattered in this photo to me.

This girl… she looked incredibly familiar. I couldn't quite tell who it was in particular, but this girl's face definitely reminded me of someone I knew. Not Kate, not Rachel, definitely not Victoria… who was she? This bothered me the entire time I walked through the house, and I didn't notice when Joyce stepped out of the kitchen, nearly bowling me over.

"Whoa there, Max. You don't want to fall over so soon after yesterday, now do you." She winked at me, and I laughed. Then her eyes looked me up and down, seeing my outfit.

"Why Maxine, you look beautiful."

I blushed. Rachel, for some reason, had insisted that I wear the only dress I owned to this dinner. It was a simple white dress that cut off just above my knees, nothing fancy. It made sense to be polite I suppose, but a dress? Then again, I supposed I wasn't really into formal wear. Joyce seemed to like it, so I'd thank Rachel later.

David pulled out a seat for me, and I sat down, twiddling my thumbs. Well, not literally twiddling my thumbs, but you get the idea. After about a minute, David sat down to join me and Joyce set down dinner on the table. It was some sort of steak drizzled in sauce along with mashed potatoes, and it looked delicious. Everything was ready. Except even with Joyce sitting down, there was an empty seat at the table. Oh right! Joyce's daughter.

Joyce also seemed to notice the empty seat and crinkled her eyebrows. "Oh where is that girl?" She walked over to the stairs and called up. "Would you come down? Our guest is here, and dinner is ready." Another voice called down the stairs, sounding oddly familiar.

"Keep your skirt on, Mom, I'll be down in a sec!" It was probably just me imagining things. There was no reason I would have met Joyce's daughter, I knew for sure it was no one at Blackwell.

What would she look like? Would it be anything like in the photo? No, stupid, that was a while ago from what you saw. Do you look anything like you did 4 or 5 years ago? Of course not. I heard someone stomping down the stairs, and when they stepped into the dining room, I was stunned.

It was Chloe. Wearing a white tank top and acid-washed jeans, along with her beanie. Blue hair poked out from it, and I took in a deep breath of air. It didn't matter what she was wearing, she was beautiful. I think she froze up when she saw me as well, but then she sat down at the table with the same demeanor as before.

"Boy do I feel underdressed." She joked, looking me up and down. I blushed, and Joyce smacked Chloe in the arm.

"Stop, Chloe. I think it's nice that our guest decided to dress up. Speaking of which, take off your hat." Chloe shrugged, and took off her hat, throwing it down the corridor adjacent to the kitchen, expertly landing it on the hook. I got the feeling this was something she had done many times.

When she did this, her hair spilled out from under it, and she brushed it out of her face. I saw that it was purplish pink closer to the top of her head, and blonde at the roots. It took my breath away.

Joyce coughed, getting both of our attentions.

"Anyways, I've yet to introduce you two. Max, this is Chloe. Chloe, this is Max."

"Umm we've before." I said, smiling a little. Joyce blinked owlishly, and turned to Chloe.

"Is this true, young lady?"

"Yeah," Chloe responded. "I swung by Blackwell on Friday to say hi to Justin and Rachel. Ran into her there."

"I should've known." Joyce was smiling now. "In this small town, I think Fate has a way of making sure certain people meet. Now let's eat!" She started to serve out the food, and in no time, everyone at the table was chatting away and having a good time. Well, mostly everyone.

"What do you mean, you want to put up security cameras all over Blackwell?" Chloe exclaimed indignantly, her blue eyes shining in anger. They had been talking about my education so far there, and David had brought up his proposal. Chloe had exploded, and I felt like I was watching a trainwreck in slow-motion. I looked at Joyce, and saw that she was also looking between David and Chloe, trying to see how exactly this would play out.

"Well, I think that Blackwell should have some better surveillance. That way, we won't have any of the drug-dealing and rampant partying that happens now. What's wrong with that?" David responded, his eyebrows furrowing, as he tried to understand why his step-daughter was reacting with such anger.

"When's the last time ANY of that hurt ANYONE, huh?" Chloe was almost out of her seat, and yet the only thing I could think is how beautiful she was. Her tattoos almost moved on their own, as the intricate patterns stood out on her pale skin. Her hair flowed beautifully, not too long or too short. And her eyes… her eyes were on fire. They reminded me of the flame of a lighter, blue, both soft and harsh, both gentle and with the potential to burn everything around them. Beautiful.

I was jolted out of my admiration of Chloe as David responded to her question. Well, tried to respond.

"Never, but-"

"But nothing! Who cares if some kids are partying and wreaking a little havoc, so long as no one's dead, so long as nothing actually bad happens. Does the chaos bother you? Do you need to control everything?"

David froze. He had been calm and quiet for a while, but now he just stopped. And then he exploded.

"It's illegal, Chloe! Maybe a snot-nosed punk like you wouldn't understand that, but the law exists for a reason. The money from those drug deals doesn't go towards a good cause, it's what fuels the oppression of people all around this town, all around this state, all around this country!" He banged his fist on the table, and Joyce swooped in.

"Both of you, stop this nonsense! I will not abide this kind of arguing at my table. Stop!" They both backed down, but continued to shoot glares at each other for the rest of the meal, which consisted of me and Joyce making polite conversation to fill the awkward silence while we all ate dessert.

Afterwards, Joyce got Chloe and David to put the dishes away ("As an apology for arguing in front of our guest.") They glared at each other the entire time, and I laughed at that. Me and Joyce entertained each other with a bit more polite small talk, until I checked the time on my phone. It was 8:54

"Oh Joyce I'm so sorry! I need to get back to Blackwell, I have school tomorrow, and the last bus leaves soon." Joyce shook her head.

"No guest in my house is going to take the bus at this time of night. Chloe will drive you, is that okay?" I nodded, and told the butterflies in my stomach to shut up already.

I got out of my chair and stood up. Well, I meant to stand up. What actually happened is that the world started spinning and I fell to the ground. Dr. Aaron had said that loss of balance was one of the possible after-effects of my concussion, right? The other ones were nosebleeds, headaches, and blackouts. I was pretty sure blackouts meant passing out, because that was what was happening right now.

The last thing I heard before I passed out was Joyce cry out for help. The last thing I saw was the look of worry of Chloe's face as she rushed over.

Monday, September 16th, 2013 (12:54 AM)

I woke up on a soft bed, blearily opening my eyes. The room was dark, but the harsh glow of a computer screen gave it some light. I saw Chloe sitting there, and wondered why I was there. I had passed out at dinner, so Chloe had carried me up to her room? That kind of made sense, I suppose. You shouldn't drive around people who were unconscious with brain injuries.

I sat there for a little bit, trying to fall back asleep. Sleep was good. When you were sleeping, you didn't have to worry about whether or not you loved someone. When you were sleeping, you didn't have to worry about whether or not someone loved you.

But try as I could, I couldn't. I just sat there, staring at the ceiling, worrying and contemplating about my emotions. Eventually, I guess I must have shifted around too much or something, because Chloe looked over, and realized I was awake.

"You're awake?" I nodded, wishing I wasn't. Then again, I was talking to Chloe, so it wasn't all bad. "Go back to sleep. I'll drive you to Blackwell in the morning, it'll be fine." I nodded, and then opened my mouth to speak.

"I can't fall asleep." I could make out Chloe frowning, even in the pale light of her computer.

"Can I help you sleep? Like, get you a glass of warm milk or something?" She squinted at me, and I was awed by the way her hair looked in the light of her computer. It was beautiful…

"Um, dude? You still awake?" I realized several seconds had passed, and I nodded again. I rolled over, facing away from her, trying to fall back asleep. Well I don't think I had ever fallen asleep to begin with. I had blacked out. Maybe that's why I was having trouble falling back asleep.

I heard movement from behind me, and I felt a pair of arms wrap around me as Chloe lied down on the bed behind me. I could feel her body pressing up against me, and I realized she was only wearing her bra and panties.

"Is this okay? I can sleep on the floor, if you feel uncomfortable. I just remembered that when I was small, crawling into my parents bed and sleeping against them always helped me fall asleep." I nodded sharply, and then realizing I was still facing away from her, let out a quiet

"It's okay." Then I added a small "It's nice," not wanting her to think she was doing anything wrong.

Chloe was warm, and she was definitely helping me fall asleep, but I still couldn't, try as I might. There was something niggling away at me, in the back of my head, doubting.

"Chloe?" I asked, still very quiet.

"Yeah?" She responded, clearly at least a little tired.

"Do you think…" I trailed off, before starting again. "Do you think you could ever love me?"

She let out a small laugh, and wrapped her arms around me a little tighter.

"That's not the question you need to ask, Maxie. Of course I could, I think I might right now. The question is whether or not I can find it in myself to deserve you."

She leaned over, and I felt a small kiss on my cheek. With that touch of her lips on my skin, all my doubts faded, and I drifted off into Dreamland.

AN: Hey guys, we finally got some actual Pricefield. Yay! I also figured out how the update schedule is going to work. Yay! So we're going to have updates twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays. If I'm really overworked with my personal life, we might occasionally have it once a week, but I'll always let you guys know in the AN of the previous chapter. Also I have to apologize to one reviewer (I forget who). I stated to them in a PM that chapters would be around 3000-4000 words. That, sadly, is not accurate. Chapters will be around 2500-3000 words, with the occasional exception like Chapter 2, which clocked in around 4000 words.

See you guys on Thursday!

PS. Keep up the reviews. They're amazing, and so are you guys!

Uploaded Sunday March 27th, 2016