Kaukasos

by TheOV

Two nights after Firewalk, Chloe stood on stage, accepting her descent into the madness of Rachel Amber's life, but out there in the crowd, Max Caulfield's face awaited her. Struggling to navigate life at Blackwell, Chloe, Rachel and Max face curve balls, blooming romances and all three of them are plagued by demons from without and within.

23. Interlude I - The Mountains Say

Disclaimer: Anything familiar to you, I don't own. This is a work of fanfiction for personal amusement, fulfillment and maybe a bit of self-therapy. I make nothing from any of it. Cheers.

Notes: If anyone's read my other Life is Strange work, formerly generically titled 'Life is Still Strange' (it was originally supposed to be a one-shot, not a several chapter long story) then I thought I'd let you know that the title has now been changed to Fools of us All. If you haven't, I really recommend you go give it a read through. Really recommend. Finally, I wanted to fill you in on what's coming in this story.

Due to personal life, I've been slowed greatly on my planning for Kaukasos. You're tearing through backlog. I generally am going to try to post on Sundays and Wednesdays (I'm going to be a couple hours early this time) but as noted, things are a little intense right now and my progress has not been what I want it to be. As of today I've finally jumped back on the horse and proceeded with outlining Part 3 of Kaukasos. So, as long as that remains possible I will keep up a Sun/Weds schedule. If it looks unlikely to be maintainable, I will let you all know in a coming chapter. I appreciate the patience.

Finally, today I post the first of four Interludes. These four extended sections of story exist to bridge a gap between the setting and themes of Parts 1 and 2 and Parts 3 and 4. Here in Interlude I, I want to begin to curb the edges on plotlines from Parts 1 and 2. In the next Interlude, we ease toward forward progress. I hope you enjoy, but be forewarned these are longer than your typical chapter.

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Interlude I: The Mountains Say

November 23rd, 2010 - Early Evening.

It was expected that as the days grew shorter, the days and nights of Arcadia Bay would grow colder. They did. That being said, Chloe hadn't expected the turnaround to be so immediate and so severe. If this was what the end of November was going to be like for the town of Arcadia Bay then before long, days like the one they had just experienced would be difficult without a few extra layers of clothing. For a moment Chloe shifted, pressing her back against the truck's cab behind her. Air that was not so much chill as freezing brushed past her, not really dulled even by the body curled up at her side nor the sweatshirts either of them wore as they sat in open enjoyment of the setting sun. Now, as Chloe looked out at the horizon and not the blonde at her side, the orb hung low enough that soon it would touch the outer wall of junk that lined the edges of American Rust.

In response to Chloe sitting straighter up, Rachel did too. She did so much more slowly than she might have otherwise and, as Chloe moved her left hand, she recognized that it was to avoid any undue jostling to the thespian's injured right. Eventually that right hand rested on top of her left, softly. Chloe tightened her arm around Rachel's shoulder for a second, an attempt to distract her from any thoughts of pain or discomfort, either from the (frankly) uncomfortable trunk bed or her splinted fingers. The blonde looked up, gave Chloe a brief smile and, almost sleepily leaned back against her, head resting against Chloe's side. Then again, Choe thought, kind of a long day today, wasn't it? It was also, she admitted to herself, one of the most fun she had had in months. Ahah, Chloe thought as she spotted a small twig stuck in her girlfriend's thick hair.

"Hold still," she told her, and carefully freed it. Rachel glanced up when Chloe loosed the twig and waved it once, for emphasis. "Okay, so maybe we ought to stick to actual paths?" Chloe asked her. Rachel shook her head as if to say that she was fine with whatever Chloe wanted when they were out wandering the woods, but before she could talk the thespian had to stop and stifle a yawn. Damn, I'm lucky to have her. How many people are down for just being dragged off into the wilderness because their girlfriend's feeling dissatisfied with society? Chloe only grinned at her and let the girl think she was teasing. Rachel's customary raised eyebrow met her in response. Chloe just hugged her more tightly.

Between all the bullshit leading up to the play and the joys of Thanksgiving 'Break' when was the last time we actually did this? When did we actually just sit down with each other somewhere? In all too short a time Thanksgiving would have come and passed. Chloe had to be honest: other than the joys of the joint Madsen-Price-Amber 'early Thanksgiving dinner' and getting to spend some time with Rachel, talking about their feelings, their needs and their frustrations, she could see the break firmly behind her without too many tears. Spending so much time in the same building with David, even if his attitude had changed toward her, was grating. At any point, he seemed likely to become a danger. And when school starts back up, we won't have to spend all day either in a house with him, in a house with James Amber or in the truck. Given how fast it was getting cold, they couldn't keep making a habit of spending long hours in the truck, even if its heater did work, contrary to Rachel's apparent hypothermic experience.

As if to remind her of the concept, a gust of cold wind screamed over the junkyard. It sometimes sounded like a very literal scream if Chloe closed her eyes and focused on it. She shivered, causing Rachel to look up, face contorted in concern. Yeah, just because you're wearing like two more layers than me doesn't mean you have to freak out every time I move. Chloe responded to the concern by rubbing Rachel's shoulder lightly, as much as to say she was okay as to work any warmth into it. Knowing Rachel, she would have been fine without a layer or two. At least the fact that she can literally warm up rooms makes sense… if anything makes sense anymore.

"Thanksgiving Dinner was worth coming back to the house," Chloe told Rachel as the girl searched her face for something. Chloe did not try to obscure whatever it was, but she wasn't sure. Rewarded with laughter, Chloe leaned her head back slightly, toying with memories from the night. Equal parts awkward and empowering, Chloe had learned a few lessons from that dinner. None of them really came from Rose Amber's stoically upper class attitude though there had been a moment there where Chloe wondered if David was going to ask to marry her instead. He seemed to be quite the fan of her 'manners.' When Rachel didn't stop laughing, Chloe reached up and wiped hair behind the girl's ear, leaning in to whisper and ask what was so funny. Bingo, Chloe thought when she grew still and did not turn immediately to face her.

"The look on David's face when you kissed me on the cheek in front of them," she finally said, though there was less humor in her voice. Chloe continued to grin. Then suddenly, Rachel turned, raising both hands halfway up as if gripping something small between them. "It was absolutely-" the girl mimicked settling a pair of glasses on her nose, invisible frames around hazel pools, "Priceless." Chloe groaned, pulling her right arm from around Rachel's shoulders and crossing both of hers over her chest. "Oh come on."

"That one was horrible," Chloe insisted, "you've spent way too much time with Max and Mikey and you should feel bad." When Rachel nudged against her shoulder as if to admonish her for moving her arm, Chloe replaced it. Horrid pun or not, Rachel was right. Though David had been less than his usual self the look on his face in that moment had been almost the essence of unadulterated frustration. Chloe was still not entirely sure of where it was coming from but she was going to be damned if she was going to let that get in the way of her and Rachel patching things up as they still had been. Perhaps it was the asshole's recent peak in assholery, but Chloe could not quite laugh at the image, even if she did enjoy souring his mood. After a second, she realized the blonde was looking searchingly at her again. Is she trying to make sure I'm not upset? In response, Chloe went back to stroking Rachel's shoulder in slow, repetitive motions, just a gesture of peace and affection.

Rachel relaxed against her and Chloe moved her left hand carefully beneath Rachel's right, almost cradling it. The injury must hurt her but it brought back a lot of unpleasant thoughts and considerations for Chloe. David was not the only demon to exorcise in their immediate vicinity. I still regret that I wasn't right beside Rachel when that call came in. I wish I could have kicked that shithead right in the face. Then again, with still no information on his ultimate fate and only the knowledge that part of the dormitory smelled of smoke as a mark of Rachel's vengeance (self-defense, Chloe reminded herself; revenge was still to come) it was hard to say whether or not Nathan Prescott could be moved to the backburner (pun so, so intended,) and David brought forward. Nathan had crossed lines that could not be uncrossed and in doing so, hurt Max. That was an unforgivable crime where Chloe and Rachel were concerned. Still, their thoughts were clearly on two different pricks that needed dealing with.

"What are we going to do about David the Douchefaucet?" Rachel asked. "He's playing possum right now, but that won't last forever. Not with fuckers like him." Chloe didn't need telling that, but she knew Rachel was just trying to jolt her into taking care of herself.

"I thought we were going with David the Douchecanoe this week?" Chloe protested.

"You decided on 'douchecanoe,'" Rachel corrected her, using the outer edge of her right hand to pat Chloe's leg a couple of times. It was a fair way to make sure she didn't mistreat her injured fingers, but Chloe had to stifle a laugh at the mental image of Rachel karate chopping someone. "I think douchefaucet rolls off the tongue better." Chloe gagged loudly.

"God, I hope not," Chloe said. "Phrasing, damn it." This seemed to be amusement enough for Rachel, who leaned back against her properly. She felt warmer than a moment before and part of Chloe wondered if she wasn't getting worked up thinking about what David had nearly done to Chloe. I mean, don't you get worked up about it? She asked herself. Marking that down as a fair point, Chloe went on. "I'm kind of scared to be in the same house with him, but less than I was."

"Why's that?" Rachel questioned.

"Because he's scared I'm going to tell the truth," she told Rachel. "For now he's scared I'm going to out him and mom's going to get pissed off or he's going to lose his job because Ms. Grant saw it." Rachel's hand moved from on top of hers back to her leg and her ring finger, pinky finger and thumb tried to squeeze it comfortingly. "I think I'm going to start using the lock on the door at night. If he breaks it down, I'll tell mom. It's that simple, either I get to protect myself or I spill." In response to something she said, Rachel perked up slightly, turning her head upward a bit. "What?"

"I meant to ask, when I came up to your room yesterday," she started and then cut off. Chloe looked into the girl's scrunched up face for a second but couldn't read the question. "I mean, what happened to it? Why does it look like that?"

"You mean why is there not much sitting out other than on the bed, the desk or the walls?" Chloe asked, carefully. She absentmindedly went back to rubbing Rachel's shoulder. Perhaps by now it was the physical act of the gesture, but it was as comforting to her as she hoped it was to Rachel. The girl nodded. "Um," Chloe considered the best way to say it.

"I'm just worried that you're… you know."

"Going to up and disappear?" Chloe asked. Rachel nodded once, and then pressed back against her, trying to either get comfortable or soak up more warmth. Chloe sincerely doubted that the second was the case. "I'm not planning to run off," Chloe told her. "I mean, when I thought that maybe you were done with me… the idea occurred." Rachel gave one more squeeze of her knee, as if to spur her on. "I didn't feel like the house was home, so I put everything I cared about up," she finished, feeling lame. "It felt good. It felt like saying 'fuck you' in a way they couldn't really yell at me for. As for the desk, bed and walls, well I wasn't going to not have the bed ready, or not have the stuff I need for school sitting out and I wasn't going to repaint the fucking walls. I even decided to put a lot of the pictures Max took of all of us up everywhere."

"I noticed," Rachel told her. "It was cool. Everywhere I looked there was Max or me or Mikey or Steph."

"Yeah," Chloe said. "Isn't that what you're supposed to do, keep pictures of your family around?" This time, Chloe didn't really understand how she was supposed to interpret Rachel squeezing again. She also didn't bother trying. "Besides," she changed the subject, "I need my graffiti practice space." This last seemed to cause Rachel to sit up halfway, turning to face Chloe more directly.

"That reminds me," she started, her voice chiding. "There was a lot of new tagging on your walls." Chloe shrugged.

"I basically practice any tag I think is going to be really cool. What better place?" she asked. "If you want to maintain aesthetic, you've got to get it right."

"And is there a reason that the new line on the door to that stall in the girl's room looks like it's in your handwriting?" Rachel asked her, squinting slightly. Chloe only fixed the largest smile she could on Rachel, who waited.

"Yup," she said. "That was me." Rachel sighed, dramatically, her left hand rising as if in frustration.

"'These hallowed halls can suck my balls'?" Rachel asked her. Chloe's grin did not falter. Instead, borrowing a tactic from Rachel, Chloe simply continued to smile at her until Rachel looked away in faux disgust. Oh yeah, two can play at that game, Chloe gloated, gleefully.

"Anatomically incorrect in my specific case, but the rhyme worked and the sentiment felt so true to my heart. I don't rhyme often, Rachel. You have to indulge me when I do."

"No I don't," she disagreed but the rueful smile overtaking the disappointed look undermined any air of judgment the girl was trying to give off.

"Damn it," Chloe started, stretching now that they were both sitting more completely up. "I missed this."

"The junkyard?" Rachel asked her, tone innocent and naive. Chloe shoved her lightly in response. Scooting bodily closer, Rachel retaliated once and then added, "Today was awesome actually. I just haven't gone running around in a woods since I was a kid."

"It's been a couple years for me," Chloe told her. "But I missed it. Like, a lot."

"I think mom and… my father thought that there was a point at which a good proper girl stopped doing shit like that," Rachel told her. "I guess part of me listened."

"We all make mistakes," Chloe responded, sticking her tongue out.

"Mom passed me a little money at dinner yesterday, said to do something fun with it," Rachel told her. Chloe paused, waiting. "I was thinking, give me like an hour to soak up some extra Chloe time and then we call Steph and Mikey and we go get absurd amounts of greasy delicious burgers and bullshit for a while." Chloe reached over and tapped the side of Rachel's head, about at her temple.

"You need to stop reading my mind," Chloe told her.

"Says the person who goes into peoples' dreams."

"You might find something in there that makes you blush," Chloe continued, as if she hadn't heard her.

"Nothing in that head of yours is going to surprise me," Rachel responded, flatly. Her voice was flat but her eyes screamed for Chloe to just go ahead and try her. How different is this from like, a few days ago - from being stupid and standing out here not knowing what the other was thinking even though who else but maybe Max has any excuse to know us as well? "You kicked ass in the play," Rachel told her, showing that perhaps she was thinking of that night, too. At least, Chloe thought, grimly, she's able to think of a less shitty part.

"You too," Chloe told her.

"You should read the school paper's article next time you get on your laptop," Rachel suggested, a peculiar tone sneaking into her voice. The girl turned slightly, legs resting over Chloe's lap. She scooted closer.

"Why?" Chloe asked her, leaning in closer. "Is it bad?"

"Juliet wrote it," Rachel started glancing off toward the setting sun. The bottom of it was disappearing behind twisted metal and old vehicles. "If I didn't know better I'd guess she has some sapphic tendencies of her own." Sapphic, Chloe thought, now there's a word I wouldn't have known without Rachel. Still….

"What do you mean?" Chloe asked, more directly, though she was beginning to get the feeling she might not really want to know. When Rachel spoke, she was speaking in a slightly more formal voice, yet every once in a while her tone turned absolutely sultry. Chloe realized quickly she was quoting the article.

"Chloe Price, who last year made a brief appearance in the school's production of the Tempest, was breathtaking and otherworldly in her performance as Oberon," Chloe shook her head and told Rachel that it was alright, she could stop. Rachel did not. Chloe glared slightly, leaning in closer. Chloe did her best to not think about the color creeping into her cheeks. "After giving a show stopping performance-" Rachel started. She was cut off as Chloe reached out with both hands and lightly shoved against her shoulders, rocking back just slightly. When the girl opened her mouth to protect, Chloe leaned the rest of the way forward and pressed her lips against Rachel's.

The kiss was brief in comparison to their last one but Chloe was absolutely no longer cold and had no delusions about whether she was capable of taking someone's breath when they pulled apart. She could feel just the slightest dampness-maybe her own, maybe Rachel's- cooling on her bottom lip in the breeze as they split, and she could not be bothered to mind. She was lost to the sight of Rachel, just a little bothered but smiling wildly up at her, as if she were the successful one, as if this had been her plan all along. I've been played, Chloe realized. I've never enjoyed being played before. I hope that doesn't become a common thing….

"I should read you the news more of-" Revenge, Chloe thought, pulling Rachel closer, all at once. She could almost feel Rachel's eagerness as she was cut off. She pulled up at the last moment, lips pressing against the tip of the blonde's nose. This earned a frustrated noise which Chloe took as a mission accomplished before she turned out toward the sight of the junkyard herself, a hand rubbing casually up and down the length of the girl's right calf, just over the dragon whose ferocity she would never again doubt.

Rachel did not immediately speak to her. Gloating silently to herself, Chloe closed her eyes. Not distracted by sight, other sensations became easier to focus on. She could swear that Rachel was oozing warmth. Being near her was like huddling around a small heater. Oh yeah, we're two of the weirdest fuckers Arcadia Bay has ever seen. Circus freaks. Rachel did want to run away, I just don't think she had joining the circus in mind. Sometimes it felt like a workout to smile. In that moment it felt impossible to stop. It felt hard to believe anything could wipe this feeling away from her. She was Rachel's and that was something that meant the world to her.

"Are you ready for Friday?" Rachel asked her. Chloe only nodded. "Me too. And what are we not going to do the minute we see her?" This leading question earned a small, if tongue in cheek pout. "Chloe?" Rachel asked, scoldingly.

"Bother her about why she barely answered her texts," Chloe relented, still not quite opening her eyes. This was peaceful. Besides, it was no mystery why Max might be partly incommunicado. They could both easily guess that she was upset about the events of the 19th, about what Nathan Prescott did or might have done to her. Or might have done if Rachel hadn't shown up like the badass real life Warren Peace she is. Only less douchey. When the bottom of one of Rachel's shoes nudged her leg twice, Chloe opened her eyes.

"Hey, you, are you okay?" Chloe nodded and then stretched her arms again.

"Yep," Chloe said. "Just keep thinking about Nathan's chestnuts roasting over an open fire." Rachel was notably and very obviously unamused. "Sorry, not funny."

"No," Rachel agreed. "Not funny."

"It's just, I get it, she doesn't wanna risk running up against Nathan without evidence but when I asked if we could go looking for other witnesses she got like, really upset about the idea."

"I mean, think about it. Would you really want Max and I going around asking everyone about it if it happened to you? People would start asking questions, gossiping, talking about it behind your back." Chloe shook her head. She wouldn't enjoy that, no. "And all the time it's fucking Nathan Prescott so if you accuse him of drugging you he says you took the drugs and came back to his room by choice. Then, he says, you left early anyway, because you weren't there when the fire broke out, right?" And that, Chloe thought, brings us back to the fire, which Max wouldn't be able to talk about even if she does know. "Then he's already a sympathetic figure because he was hospitalized and no one's even seen him since." Chloe threw her hands up once, as if in surrender. She recognized when Max and Rachel outhought her, she just didn't like the idea of letting Nathan get away with this, not even in the short term.

"If he does come back, I'm still kicking him the balls the first excuse I get," Chloe told her, stubbornly. Rachel didn't really argue against the idea though she did look down at her hands for a moment. Chloe tried to distract her. "It's gonna be alright, you know?"

"Do you think Max is going to go for this?" Rachel said, moving her legs from Chloe's lap to stretch out in front of her. Chloe lifted her hands to make the process easier and then raised an eyebrow.

"Kicking Nathan in the balls?" Chloe asked. "I think so."

"No," Rachel insisted, her voice louder, more emphatic, more confident. She gestured to the empty space that remained between them. If, Chloe thought, she wanted to, Max could fit there. Chloe sighed, knowing precisely what Rachel meant. "I mean this."

"I've kind of been thinking about that ever since we decided," Chloe confessed, pulling the beanie down farther over her head, so that it covered just the tip of her ears, which were starting to feel cool again. I picked a shitty time to cut my hair this low, she thought. The light was rapidly slipping away from them. "Like, a lot." Chloe paused. "A lot, a lot." Then again, as if for emphasis, "A lot, a lot, a lot."

"Chloe," Rachel exclaimed, frustration in her voice.

"Sorry," she chortled, unable to pretend to be sorry, unable to pretend she hadn't been stringing the thought along to give Rachel a little hell. If they stopped giving each other hell they would have lost what made them them. "I actually really don't know," Chloe added, finally. "I hope so. I mean, I know I wanted to approach it like, more one-on-one?" Rachel nodded, her face understanding. "But I still can't come up with a reason for us not to sit down together to start with. I want it to be clear, you know? I want her to understand this is serious and it's not more drama or more bullshit."

"Me too," Rachel said. "I'm glad you understand." Chloe reached out with her right hand and rested it on Rachel's knee. Their fingers intertwined. "If Max is having trouble with shit-which, if she's not then I'm worried-we'll need to take it carefully and maybe give her some time."

"Which is going to suck," Chloe said, "after all this, but I see your point." Chloe cleared her throat and said, "'Hey Max, welcome back? How was break? Any nightmares about Nathan Prescott? Wanna get involved with me and Rachel? Yeah? No? Okay.'" Rachel shook her head, giving one humorless chuckle as a pity laugh. Really, this was just Chloe working some nerves out about the coming discussion. "I mean, it's not like things change a lot if she says yes, but they actually kind of really do?"

"I was thinking the same thing earlier," Rachel replied, "but I mean, I don't see how it's not for the better." Chloe hoped she was right. "Alright, lover girl, I'm hungry and you're cold."

"I am also hungry," Chloe corrected her. "I am never not hungry. It's actually kind of a problem." After a pause, Chloe freed her phone from her pocket. "I call Mikey, you call Steph?" Rachel nodded and, with her left hand, began to dig around in her own. Burger time, mother fuckers, answer your phones.

November 26th, 2010 - 2:32 PM

What's in your head?

In your head

Zombie, zombie, zombie-ei-ei-ei

Rachel allowed herself to casually sway to the music pumping into her left ear. It was a lot better than sitting on the steps to Blackwell Academy's parking lot, silent and anxious. The music was slightly less effective in Chloe's case: Rachel watched the girl's leg bouncing up and down on the step below them. She reached out and found Chloe's hand waiting for her, as if on instinct. Turning, she offered a smile and received a dose of Chloe's eagerness in exchange. It wasn't that she didn't share it, far from it. The issue was the old refrain that Chloe and Max both just tended to feel more than anyone Rachel had ever met before. Gripping at Rachel's left hand, Chloe's checked the time on her phone for about the third time. Nothing's going to change, Rachel wanted to tell her. Max is still a little late and it's still going to be okay. She figured that was her own anxiety making her want to calm Chloe's, though.

Rachel leaned her head to one side to make it easier to reach across with her injured hand and free the earbud from her left ear. She didn't want to let go of Chloe's hand. The earbud slipped from between her ring finger and thumb, bouncing harmlessly against the dangling blue feather hanging from her ear and then hung within the rough grasp she could get on it. Chloe, having apparently been paying some attention to her or the music, stopped running her hand through short, neon-green hair and jerked her own earbud free with far less trouble. She also has more fingers than me, Rachel felt like protesting to no one. Grumbling about it wasn't going to make her fingers heal any faster.

"Alright you," Rachel said, once Chloe paused the MP3 player, silencing The Cranberries. "You're going to drive me crazy if you just sit there freaking out." Chloe gave her a look as if she was halfway to rolling her eyes and then sort of hunched forward.

"You're right," Chloe told her. The girl loosed her hand from Rachel's and carefully wrapped the earbuds around the MP3 player and put it away. Rachel adjusted her position a bit to watch Chloe. Maybe it was their argument in the junkyard still fresh in her mind but sometimes she couldn't help but wonder if she comprehended even the surface layer of how and what Chloe was feeling at any given moment. It was hard for her not to watch the way her girlfriend's mouth turned downward, the way her leg shook, the way she chewed on her bottom lip (it was similar to something Max sometimes did, where she would absentmindedly trap her own bottom lip between her teeth, but Rachel was fairly certain it meant something else entirely when she did it,) or the way her eyes seemed to openly proclaim everything she was feeling when she got nervous. One thing that Rachel noticed in the moment was that where Rachel kept shooting her looks toward the turn-in to the parking lot, Chloe was looking at the ground or back at the school or maybe at Rachel herself.

"You're not just excited to see her," Rachel realized, "You're nervous to see her." There was a big enough difference between the two that Rachel felt guilty for not having caught it earlier. This had been building for a couple of days.

"No," Chloe said. "Well, yes, hell yes, but that's not what's going on up here right now?" Chloe shifted. The dark red sweatshirt she was wearing rode up slightly. Rachel had at first thought this was an endearing enough sight, but she had come to wonder what the sweatshirt was all about. It was clearly ancient and torn in multiple places. Then again, Chloe didn't particularly care if her stuff was ratty, it was just that this was also too small for her. It couldn't be keeping her too warm. This was just one more kind of mystery for Rachel to try to figure out.

"Then what's got you so upset?" Rachel asked, pursuing that mystery first. Chloe reached across, hand halfway to Rachel for a gesture that Rachel had come to find incredibly personal. It was simple, just the physical act of wiping a lock of hair behind her ear but the first time Chloe had done it, only a couple of nights ago, it had been accompanied by the first time Chloe had ever said the words, 'I love you' to her. The words were difficult for Chloe for some reason but the gesture wasn't. This was Chloe's reassurance, her confession, her repetition of this fact. Rachel only smiled when Chloe did it again, at the feel of fingertips against her skin.

"Last night something happened," Chloe told her, settling her hands together in her tone in the girl's voice was bizarre, like she wanted to talk about it but at the same time wanted Rachel to change the subject immediately. Rachel crossed her arms-jarring her injured fingers in the process-and waited for Chloe to continue. Seeing that she had no easy out of the conversation and could not backtrack on it, the punk nodded. "Do you know," Chloe half-whispered as if she was exposing a secret, "how we're not exactly average people?"

"Do you mean the whole thing where we're trying to figure out how to ask another person out or the fact that I start fires with my brain and you can spy on peoples' dreams if they're sleeping close by?" It sounded utterly ridiculous to put voice to the thoughts but it felt, perhaps, a little stranger that they did not think about those last two points anywhere near as much as they thought about cuddling in the cold in the back of an old pickup or how they were going to convince Max that they weren't nuts.

"The second," Chloe said, put at ease by the candor. Rachel smiled at the punk opposite of her, happy that Chloe no longer doubted her realization about the fire. Rachel could not help but want to talk to her and Max about it, to tell them about her guilt and to talk about the homes that burned down.

"I've thought about you being able to go into other peoples' dreams a lot, actually."

"I absolutely do not want to know why," Chloe deadpanned. Rachel responded with a grin and a gesture for Chloe to continue. I'll leave it to her imagination for now. "It's just, it turns out they don't have to sleep all that close by and it doesn't have to be an accident." This seemed to be the heart of the matter, the part which had her so concerned she could take her mind off of Max's impending arrival or the fact that she was late which was concerning Rachel just a bit more than she had let on. "So last night I was having this stupid dream, right?"

"Right?" Rachel prompted.

"I was trying to cut down this tree, don't ask me why. I just know that every time I swung at it, I couldn't even make a mark. So I wasn't going to cut down the damn tree." Rachel couldn't help but chuckle at the mental image of Chloe dressed as a lumberjack. She could handle the plaid, at least, Rachel thought. "Stop laughing, dammit," Chloe complained. Rachel dutifully swallowed her amusement, but nothing could wipe the smile off her face. "So, there I was and it hit me, why am I doing this? Then I realized there wasn't a reason, right?' Chloe was eager in her explanation suddenly, turning to face Rachel and wrapping leg up beneath her to make that easier. Rachel just thought it would hurt her knee, instead. "I figured out I was dreaming and I got annoyed. This was a stupid dream. It didn't mean anything. So I started to think about how to change it. I didn't come up with anything. I could have like, called up anyone or anything."

"Your own private high def fantasy world," Rachel said. Chloe shook her head, perhaps sensing precisely what version of 'fantasy' Rachel was referencing and passing judgment. "I'm not going to pretend I'm not jealous."

"Well, I couldn't come up with anything. So I just wanted the stupid dream to end, and then it did." Chloe seemed to come to a pause in her story and Rachel wasn't sure if she wanted to see some particular reaction or was just thinking. She responded with the first thing that came to mind.

"That'd be useful during a nightmare," she offered. Chloe seized onto it.

"Yeah," Chloe mused, "Yeah it would. But, like, instead of waking up, I just kind of… floated there."

"There where?" Rachel asked.

"Well, it was like, grey, everywhere. And it felt a little like floating in water, only I could breathe just fine. I don't even think I needed to." Chloe hummed for a moment. "I couldn't really feel anything or hear anything or even see anything. It was just grey at first. Like, a void." Rachel's stomach twisted itself up at the thought. Her right hand rested on it in an unintentional physical gesture against a wave of nausea. "What? What is it?"

"I just, hate shit like that," Rachel responded, waving the worry off with her left hand. "The idea of it, of a void. I think I'd lose my fucking mind." The truth was, if she thought too terribly about the act of going to sleep, the act of sleeping, it started to feel unnatural and disturbing to her, as well. Maybe I'd rather have the nightmare, she mused. Chloe took her silence as a cue to continue. A car turned into the lot, momentarily cutting Chloe off. They both rose in silence and watched, eager to see their friend's face looking through the back window of some kind of vehicle or another. Hayden pulled his truck to a stop in a favored parking spot. Son of a bitch.

"Well, anyway, it wasn't really a void," Chloe said, once she settled back down on the step and managed to wipe the look of defeat off her face. Her own stomach settling, Rachel felt a little beaten herself. So much for pretending to be calm, she thought, before settling herself down beside Chloe and wrapping an arm around the girl's shoulders. It was easier for Chloe, since she was taller, but Rachel wasn't about to give the girl the satisfaction of letting that stop her. "I started to hear something. I thought it was like, a sick ass drum beat or something and I kind if… heard toward it. It's really hard to describe."

"Yeah, I don't quite get it."

"Like, I heard it and by hearing it, I went toward it? It's not like I could walk or anything. Or fly or swim. Though maybe next time I'll see if I can." Next time? Rachel thought. She's really thinking about this stuff a lot. Rachel ran her left hand down Chloe's left arm. For a moment, Chloe stopped talking and shivered, staring Rachel directly in the face as if challenging her. Rachel stopped, but moved her hand back up to Chloe's shoulder. She was rewarded with a taunting smile. Asshole, Rachel thought at her, eyes narrowed. "Anyway, one second I was kind of going toward the sound and the second I was standing on a street."

"Where?" Rachel asked, forgiving Chloe her petty victory. There was plenty of time to win the war and she was confident in her ability to do that, if nothing else.

"The road was dirty, sandy. There were a lot of low, small buildings all pushed up together and looking like they hadn't been painted in a while. It wasn't the kind of building you'd see here," Chloe said, before chewing on the corner of her bottom lip. Rachel reached out and pressed her ring finger to Chloe's lip, as if in admonishment. The girl stopped, but Rachel counted it a blow struck back when her face lit up brighter red than Rachel remembered ever seeing before. She pulled her right hand back and waited for Chloe to continue. "A-anyway. The drums weren't drums. It was a firefight." Cooling down slightly, Rachel was almost sure she knew what was coming next. "I was kind of, standing in the middle of a road, and David and some guy were hiding behind a building beside me." Chloe's voice quieted as she spoke until it was back to being nearly a whisper.

"Oh shit," Rachel said, "I'm so sorry. It was bad, wasn't it?" This time she tightened the arm around Chloe's shoulders and pulled herself in closer. Chloe gave a crooked half smile, as thanks.

"It really was. I uh, I kind of don't want to go deep into it, but… people got shot. The guy with David was bleeding bad, and I don't think he made it." Rachel squeezed her shoulder. "It kind of felt like the dream you had about the night of the fire. I think it might've been him reliving some kind of memory and, I never want to get shot at again.

"You got shot at?"

"No," Chloe told her, shaking her head twice, "But it's kind of weird. I could feel what it felt like to get shot at," she confessed. Rachel was going to press her for more information when Chloe's eyes drifted from Rachel toward the road and she sibilated, "Shit." Rachel followed her gaze to the large, old yellow car turning into the parking lot. "That piece of shit still runs?" It was hard to get a good look at the people in the front of the vehicle but a woman with dark, cropped hair was behind the wheel. The man in the passenger seat was a little on the rounder side, with a thick reddish-brown beard. "That should not be allowed to run still," Chloe told her. "Ryan is absolute shit under a hood. He basically used to come to mom and dad for help with that thing." It was easy to forget sometimes, that there was an entire lifetime behind Chloe's connection with Max and that extended to their families.

"Think it's time to go find our girl?" Rachel asked, pressing her hand between Chloe's shoulder blades. It was supposed to be a comforting gesture more than a teasing or enticing one but Chloe still shivered. Have I been reading her reactions wrong this whole time? Rachel mused, moving her left hand down to curl around Chloe's hip.

"Think so," Chloe told her, when she recovered. The vehicle in question pulled into a parking spot still open near the stairs where they sat. Chloe stood and all but pulled her over to the car. Rachel tried to slow them down, to approach casually in an attempt to not crowd the Caulfield family as they tried to get out of the car after what was probably a long trip. Try as Rachel might, the two of them were still at the back right door to the vehicle before Max could get it open. It's not fair, Rachel thought, grumbling at Chloe's back. You have longer legs. You could drag me damn near anywhere. The thought faded from her mind as Chloe exclaimed, "Whoa!" Rachel leaned down to look into the window as Max pushed her door open.

"Whoa," Rachel agreed as the brunette leaned out to stare up at them. Rachel hoped her face wasn't shock personified. She wouldn't want to give Max the wrong idea, it was just….

"Whoa what?" Max asked her, giving an amused chuckle as she shifted the messenger bag onto her shoulder. It was as if she thought they were supposed to completely miss the fact that her hair had gone from between her shoulder blades to almost as short as Chloe's new style in the span of a few days. It's kind of super fucking cute, Rachel thought.

"Whoa this," Chloe proclaimed. She reached up to pat Max on the top of her skull. Max's head dipped just slightly under the attention. "Trying to steal my gimmick?" The front doors to the vehicle opened and Rachel shot a glance toward the man stepping from the passenger seat. He wasn't round like she first thought. It was more that Max's father was broad like a bear. If there was someone you wouldn't want to get into a fight with, it might be Ryan Caulfield. "We'll talk about this later, young lady," Chloe added in a stern voice before Max could respond. Rachel matched eyes with Max's blue and rolled her own. It earned a wide smile that could make her heart skip a beat. "Ryan," Chloe called, jutting her chin up as she tilted her head back to look him in the eyes. "How the hell did you keep this thing running all these years?"

"Get the fuck over here, champ," the man demanded. Chloe crossed a couple steps between herself and Max's father and he opened his arms up wide. The two shared a quick embrace which ended when Chloe pulled back to escape the ruffling of her hair. "Look at you giving Max shit about cutting it all off? You should be tripping over your hair by this point. You're way too young for male pattern baldness."

"Yes, Ryan, that's what's wrong with that," Chloe retorted. Rachel tilted her head for a second and watched the way Chloe looked up at him like he was… like he was her own father. Even confused as she often was about how Chloe felt so intensely, Rachel's heart hurt a little as she realized Chloe was connecting with the Caulfields on a borderline parental level.

"And who says he keeps this old bucket of bolts running?" Max's mother teased as she stepped around the front of the vehicle. Chloe grabbed the woman in another hug, which Vanessa returned with a chuckle. Chloe was over the moon. I guess if you grew up with someone always around, you miss the hell out of them. "Who do you think your mom and dad were always teaching about this stuff? Ryan just stood in the corner with a beer."

"Hey Vanessa," Chloe said by way of answer. Rachel was watching the interaction between the two when she felt a pair of arms around her shoulders and turned to react. It wasn't her intent, but the minute that she realized Max had reached out to hug her, Rachel's eyes shut and she squeezed back hard enough to earn a grunt from the girl in her arms. "Now," Chloe declared, when Rachel released Max and stepped back to eye the short, side-swept pixie cut, "my turn." Rachel stepped to the side, swearing she was able to hear Chloe throwing herself at Max. Impressive, Rachel thought to herself as Chloe lifted the girl just high enough that only her toes dragged the ground. Very impressive.

"We've missed the hell out of you, Max Caulfield," Chloe muttered, refusing to let go of Max quite yet, despite Max tapping at her back as if someone trying to get out of a chokehold. "Don't go thinking you're getting away from us for the next few hours."

"Alright, alright," Max laughed and over Chloe's shoulder Rachel watched Max's face intently. She didn't look like she'd been suffering for the last few days and this was the most rested Rachel could remember Max looking. Maybe Seattle had done her some good. Or maybe Arcadia Bay is bad for her, Rachel wondered, concerned as she recalled the girl's confession that sometimes Blackwell 'fucked with' her. Then again, she looked happy. "Okay, Chloe, I need to breathe, put me down."

"Hey, killer, if you're feeling strong and all," Ryan Caulfield started, stroking his thick beard, "You can carry this box up to her room for me." Chloe released the girl and Rachel realized in that moment that Vanessa was looking at her. Oh right, Rachel thought. I'm sort of not invisible and should do something other than stare at people. Max glanced from Rachel to her mother for a second before talking.

"Mom, this is Rachel," the photographer said.

"I remember," Vanessa replied, her voice a little serious, if amiable. "It's lovely to meet you. You were incredible in the play," she added, then, glancing at Chloe, finished, "both of you."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Chloe apologized. "I was kind of upset and didn't want to be around a lot of people. Rachel kept me company."

"Oh, it's alright," Ryan said, "we've heard more or less nothing but 'Chloe and Rachel' this or 'Chloe and Rachel' that, for about three days straight."

"Dad," Max said, sounding mortified. Her cheeks flared. Rachel grinned brightly, which was only made worse when Vanessa turned so that her daughter could not see her face and chuckled. Max really did strike her, in a lot of ways, as having picked up so much from her parents. She could be more serious than her mother was acting when shit hit the fan but when she was in a good mood-especially drunk-she was as goofy as Ryan seemed to be, any day.

"Well, if no one's going to help poor old me with this really heavy box of blankets and pillows," Ryan said, leaning into the car and pulling loose a cardboard box, "Then so be it. I guess I'll bear the burden."

"We'll mourn for you, dear," Vanessa responded. The man's beard twitched as he smirked at his wife's back. Max continued to look slightly as if her parents made her want to crawl into a hole. To Rachel though, this was a kind of dream. The Caulfields were so emotionally available and obviously doted not just on Max but also Chloe. Even in her parents' softest moments there was always some sort of air or distance between them, some sort of need to be upright. Chloe took the lead toward the dormitories, giving Rachel a second to fall back and toss an arm around Max's shoulders. The girl stiffened slightly beneath it but Rachel promised herself it was going to be okay: soon they would be able to be honest with her about everything and she wouldn't have to get so freaked out over something so simple as a one-armed hug. She slowed Max down a little so that the two could fall behind the group and get a little freedom to talk.

"Don't worry," she told Max when she thought they had some privacy at a mumble. "Everything's a little better on our end, okay?" For a moment Max looked her over for any sense she might be exaggerating and then seemed to decide Rachel was telling the truth and calmed down under her arm. "We did kind of miss the ever loving shit out of you, though." Max bumped against her, as much in acknowledgement as in affection. It was odd how universal that gesture seemed to be between the three of them.

"Chloe made that pretty clear when she followed up you trying to break my ribs by doing the same."

"Yeah, sorry," Rachel said, though her voice made it clear she didn't mean it. "It's just kind of great to have you back." The girl looked momentarily touched but Rachel wiped that look off her face when she asked, "now what's with the hair?"

"What?' Max mumbled in return as they turned down another path and passed Samuel hard at work. "Chloe can cut like three inches off of her hair, dye it bright green and no one bats an eye. I cut mine and it's the grand inquisition?"

"Fair enough," Rachel responded, backing down from the subject. She wasn't sure if Max was actually being touchy about it or just playing. "It's just a radical change."

"You like?" Max asked her. "I just wanted a change. It felt like a good idea to get a good, fresh start." She does look fresh. Transformed. A little. Not as much as she might think, though.

"I like it," Rachel replied. "Chloe did too," she couldn't help but grin a little wolfishly at the photographer. When Rachel released Max, she stepped up just slightly and called past her parents to Chloe.

"I'm glad to see you wearing that," Rachel realized she must be referring to the hoodie. That probably explained it, it had some meaning she wasn't privy to. "It's kind of short on you."

"Affirmative," Chloe replied from the front, turning to walk backward as she talked to Max.

"Hey, you don't get rid of a classic," Vanessa told her daughter. "It's why I keep your dad around."

"Ouch," Ryan replied, seeming to stagger backward for a second. "Max? Rachel? Can one of you pull that knife out of my back?"

"I'm gonna retire it after today," Chloe spoke over Ryan's antics. "Though, I think maybe instead I'm going to put it somewhere special for safekeeping." Max nodded with a smile. "I'm glad you kept it all this time," Chloe added. Their stolen moment or two of discussion set Rachel more at ease than she first thought it would. Though Max still looked conflicted and as if she was having trouble closing the door on a lot of different emotions, she moved as if she was more sure of herself than Rachel had seen in a long time. She sounded self-aware but kind of proud of herself, as well. It reminded her not so much of Max in May, but maybe back in early September when they were still dancing around getting to know each other, when Max was trying to figure out what Rachel was all about and vice versa. Oh this is gonna be an interesting few weeks. She glanced past the Caulfields to Chloe, who winked once at her before turning around so as not to trip on their way to the dorms. Can Chloe make it to Christmas break if it takes Max that long to feel a little better? I suppose I can distract her, if I have to.

December 22nd, 2010 - 4:45 PM

Max was still closing the door when Chloe found herself an empty stretch of the dorm room floor, swung her backpack off her shoulder to hang from her hand and unceremoniously dropped to a sitting position. Rachel follow suit, placing her own bag on her lap, but not opening it as Chloe did her own. Max turned back to them and blinked in surprise when she realized she was looking down at them both. Chloe simply smiled at her, waiting for her to say something. This was a habit she'd picked up a long time ago from Rachel and it was deliciously cruel. The idea of confusing the hell out of someone and then, when they looked to you for answers, simply smiling at them only had one purpose: to frustrate or fluster the person until you got a reaction from them. Max looked at them as if they were crazy.

"There's a computer chair and enough space for us all to sit on the bed," Max informed them, as if speaking to two people who were a little too drunk.

"Yeah, and there's lots of space on the floor," Chloe insisted. "What the hell are you doing up there? Are you nuts?" Max sighed exaggeratedly and Chloe turned her smile on Rachel. The girl was in a good enough mood, she saw, to get in on the act a bit. Rachel scooted closer to her and glanced up at Max with the same 'I'm so confused' look on her face. Chloe watched the two of them stare at each other for a good ten seconds until Max crossed her arms across her chest and then sat down on the floor in front of the two of them. Chloe would have called it a pout coming from anyone else.

Max's attitude had still been rather unstable when she came back from Thanksgiving Break. It was nearly Christmas Break, now, almost a month farther down the line, but Max seemed to be getting a bit back to her old self. The change came over her all at once a few days ago and when pressed for explanation, Max told them that she had 'gotten some answers.' Those answers, she explained, didn't fix anything but they put her at ease for now. Considering the number of times Rachel had slept on Max's floor since then and reported that the nightmares had become far less frequent, the girls had agreed to trust her on that. They didn't, however, tell her that Rachel was keeping tabs on her bad dreams. Even if I probably would be the logical choice for that.

Chloe dropped her backpack in her lap and Rachel sat her own aside. Max glanced between them in the second or two of silence, still looking utterly confused about their behavior and then sighed in surrender. About any time you got that reaction out of Max you counted yourself a victor, in Chloe's book. Price and Amber 1, Caulfield 0! The crowd goes wild! Instead of confronting them quite yet, Max took a second to remove and set aside her shoes, suggesting to Chloe that she had only narrowly beat them to the room. And where was Max hanging out, she wondered. Maybe she went into town to get a little puff-puff-pass? The thought was enough to remind Chloe that she was going to have to face Frank and talk to him soon. To do that she would probably need to think about whether she actually blamed him for what Nathan did. I mean, I guess not. I'll blame him if he does it again, though.

"Alright, alright," Max said, finally. "Present time." Chloe pumped her fist and promptly unzipped her bag, smirking at Rachel as if to say, I told you that would work. Turning and stretching a bit, the photographer reached behind her head and brought down a plastic bag from the pile of stuff dropped hazhardly on the bed. As Max adjusted herself, leaning back against the frame, Chloe got a good look at the bag. It was bulky and oddly shaped, whatever was in it was dark and heavy. She shot a look to the girl to her right, intending to see if she noticed, too, but paused. Rachel had one hand on her backpack (as Chloe did) but was not looking down at it. She was glancing from Max to Chloe and there was a look about her. Not just her face, not just her eyes, but her whole body. She was practically humming with excitement. Rachel's really big on this holiday season shit, Chloe thought to herself, remembering the numerous times Rachel had gotten lost singing Christmas songs that made Chloe cringe. Everyone around me is fuckin adorable, and I can't even be mad at them for it. Their excitement, at least, was infectious. Chloe nudged her, harder than usual. Rachel responded in kind. It took a lot of effort not to just reach out to the girl.

"Me first," Max said, and she reached into the bag. First she came up with a small, wrapped stack of red solo cups. Oh shit, Chloe thought, getting a little eager herself. "Look at the way your eyes lit up," Max told her. Chloe shrugged, not looking to deny it. While Rachel secured and sat out three cups, Max reached back into the bag and pulled out a large, thick looking dark bottle. Chloe read the purple label across the front of the bottle and listened to the satisfying pop the cork made when Max grabbed hold and pulled it out. Whether it was Max sitting happily opposite of them exchanging Christmas gifts with them, or both girls' eagerness for the holidays or maybe the promise of alcohol, Chloe felt in the moment like all the bullshit of life was worth it for moments like this one. There were always ways they could make those moments a little better, but there would be more of them if she lived her life the way she wanted to. It was about not looking a gift horse in the mouth. "This one is a gift for all three of us."

"Mead?" Rachel asked, sounding a little incredulous. "What are we, viking warrior princesses?"

"I could think of worse group cosplays," Max deadpanned before beginning to half fill each cup. "This stuff's about 19% so take it easy. It's really awesome for cold days though, even if they're cold wet days and not cold snowy ones." Chloe ignored the glare Max shot at the window as if the weather had wronged her. So she's had this stuff before, Chloe thought, taking the proffered glass.

"I'm not complaining," Chloe told her, squinting at the label again. "But is it healthy or ethical to drink something called Viking Blod?"

"What," Rachel teased, "Got a problem with Nordic vampires?"

"Cheers," Max called, as soon as the three of them each had a glass in hand. With her cup halfway to her mouth, Chloe paused.

"To next year not sucking anywhere near as much."

"Yeah," Max said. "I'll drink to that."

"Sounds good," opined Rachel. Chloe realized they were both staring at her as if waiting permission.

"What the hell are you waiting on, fuckers? Drink." Chloe tilted the cup back. There was a fair amount of alcohol burn as the drink hit her mouth. It was, however, honey-sweet and fruity, with something bitter added on top almost as an afterthought. In the end it was way too good to carry as much alcohol as it did. Chloe realized she didn't want to think about what it cost or what it would do to her if she just drank a fair amount of it without paying attention. Rachel and Max would definitely have to hide me in their room. I'd be floored.

"Shit," Max called, before coughing into her cup. Rachel's left hand reached out to steady her own cup as she sat it down. Chloe waited, not too concerned as Max continued to cough, probably in response to a bit of the drink going down the wrong pipe. "Holy crap, that's sweeter than I thought it'd be." Okay maybe she hasn't had it before. She talks like she has.

"Cute," Rachel muttered, seeing the girl's face redden in embarrassment. It only worsened in response. Chloe understood that.

"So, I've never seen the ID you use to get this shit," Chloe told her. Max waved a finger back and forth, as if to say 'tsk tsk.'

"Just you wait," she coughed. "I can't exactly hook you up with my guy back in Seattle but I know someone here who knows someone." Rachel raised an eyebrow at her.

"Who do you know and who do they know?" Rachel asked, scooting a bit forward. This caused Max to slowly regain her composure as if making sure to set herself straight and not say or do something which might upset one of them. Yeah, we're gonna have to make our move tonight, Chloe thought. Before the mead starts to matter much. Somehow, Chloe felt like she was being set up to fall on that grenade.

"A good magician never reveals her tricks," Max told her, eyeing Rachel a little suspiciously. "Let's just say the gifts I've got here aren't the end of it, but it's gonna have to wait until after break." Then, as if the subject was closed, Max took another sip of her drink and seemed to handle it better. It's better than that fucking vodka she likes, Chloe thought. This did make her realize that Max drank a bit more than either of them. Certainly more often. Probably more than both of us combined. With that in mind, I probably ought to bring this up before I get all tipsy. Well, you know what they say: there's no time like during presents. Congratulating herself on the pun, Chloe decided to kick things off. From her backpack Chloe pulled a plastic bag of her own, something wrapped in the center. With Rachel still slightly humming beside her, Chloe pushed the bag toward Max.

Max took one look at it, saw that Chloe had wrapped it fairly tight and that the plastic bag was obviously old and already had a hole in it, then simply extended the hole, tearing it open. Chloe laughed to herself: Max had always been this way at Christmas. Wrapping paper usually ended up laying in shreds all around her. Max paused a little as she seemed to realize what she had her hands on. Chloe watched Max's confusion as she looked up at Chloe.

"I know it looks like regifting, but then again it was kind of regifting when you gave it to me in May," Chloe told her. Max pulled the old sweatshirt free of the bag and unfurled it. It made Chloe smile looking at it in her hands. Yeah, she couldn't wear it anymore; it was just too short. Max, on the other hand, was also a little short. If she chose to, she could wear it and she was about the only person in the world who would really get what something silly like that sweatshirt meant to her. "I told you, though, that I was going to send it somewhere really special. I guess I should've said to someone special." Rachel let out an exaggerated 'awwwwww' and then took a drink from the mead. Chloe knew she was trying to embarrass her but found it a halfhearted attempt, this time. For just a moment, Chloe saw Max on the borderline of tearing up, and then the emotion was buried beneath general happiness. If it wasn't the mead, then the girls' attitudes were going to warm her inky, frozen black heart before the night was up.

"I actually don't know what to say," Max replied, even if could not wipe the touched smile from her face. Chloe wondered how much of that was because Max thought she had to watch what she said to them both, now.

"Check the pocket," Chloe said in answer, feeling a bit cheeky as she the tables were turned from their conversation in May. Max reached in and pulled out two objects.

"That one's from me," Rachel said as Max held up first a card. "I wanted to get you something camera related but I have to admit I'm fucking clueless about that. So I kind of wanted you to be able to get something you wanted or needed." Max glanced down at the gift card for the one specialized camera shop in town and then, red in the cheeks again, reached back up onto her bed. Chloe thought it was to store the card somewhere safe, but she came down with the camera that used to belong to Chloe's father in her hand. Of course she's been hiding that, waiting for the perfect moment. Photobug.

"Thank you, Rachel," Max told her, settling the camera on the floor beside her knee. "I'm really fucking happy to have you in my life." Something about the way Max said it was so painfully honest that Chloe did not blame Rachel for reaching carefully across and hugging Max for several seconds. Judging by the look on Max's face when they separated, it had been a tight one, too. Chloe reached behind Rachel as she got comfortable and rested her right hand on her right hip.

"Okay, we're all getting waaaaaay sappy," Chloe said. Unfortunately, it was too little too late, because Max picked up the second object to come from the pocket of the sweatshirt. Chloe smiled at the look on the girl's face. Trailing a thin chain behind it, the 'amulet' from their childhood pirate fantasies rested in Max's right hand. The reality was that it was the bottom of a busted jar that they had carefully worn the edges down on to make as not deadly as possible. Drawn on it in marker that was rapidly fading from the years, a miniature map of sorts was visible even from here. "Look," Chloe said. "I've got the spyglass somewhere, and it doesn't seem too smart to me to keep both the keys to our treasure in one spot." Max chuckled at her. "Just, keep it for me, okay?" Maybe it was all in Chloe's imagination but the room seemed to be smaller, quieter (even though they were the only ones in it making sound) and more self-aware when she continued. "If you ever doubt how much you mean to me, bust down my bedroom door, grab the spyglass hidden behind Mr. Sharkie," Chloe congratulated herself on not feeling silly as hell as she said the words, "and go find the treasure."

"I will," Max told her, seriously. Several seconds of silence hung between the three of them, during which Rachel leaned over and pressed her lips to Chloe's cheek and then shoulder. Chloe didn't try to psychoanalyze the action, she just enjoyed it. "Now it's my turn, you two," Max declared when she looked to be more in control of her emotions. Chloe took a long drink as Max opened her own bag more fully, revealing some large, black mass. This was the first thing Max pulled out. "I'm not sure you'll like it but I think it's down your alley," Max told Rachel, passing her this mass. As Rachel reached out to take it, Chloe saw what it was and understood why Rachel exclaimed, 'oh fuckin' awesome!'

The jacket was made of nice, sleek, clean leather, with far too many zippers along the shoulders and arms and long, thin strips of black leather hanging down from those arms. As Rachel unfolded it and turned it first one way, then another, Chloe saw that on the back, in a white outline against the dark material, was the shape of a raven. It looked familiar, Chloe thought, like it was something she had seen in a dream, just briefly a long time ago. You know, it could be, for all I know. Rachel gave a low whistle in appreciation, something she'd picked up from Chloe.

"God damn, this is awesome." Rachel took a second to pick up her cup as she stood so it wouldn't spill. Eventually, she sat the red solo cup onto Max's bedside table and pulled the jacket on. It looked from where Chloe sat like a perfect fit. Rachel swung her arms wide and then crossed them across her chest as she stared into the mirror and then turned back to the two of them. Chloe was struck by the memory of the Firewalk show, by Rachel's appearance, looking some mix of punkrocker and ass kicker. Rachel threw her arms open. "What do you think?" she asked them both.

"I think it kicks ass," Chloe said, glancing between her and Max. And I think I forgot how nice Rachel looked in leather. "Don't tell me you don't think that's hot, Max?"

"No, sorry, but 'hot' doesn't cover it," Max finally said, though she looked a little awkward as she spoke, not quite matching either of their eyes. Oh right, I need to get a move on there. Still, it would be rude to interrupt before Max was done. Chloe drained the rest of her cup.

"This is so cool, Max, thank you," Rachel told her. "Like, it even fits perfect."

"We're basically the same size," Max clarified. "You're welcome, though." Rachel didn't look inclined to remove the jacket when she sat back down, so Chloe couldn't help but wonder how long it would take the girl to get warm. By the time she was turned back toward Max, the girl was offering what at first look seemed to be a leather-bound binder. Then Chloe remembered who she was taking the gift from and realized what was actually in her hands: a photo album, and a pretty thick one if she did say so, herself. "Okay, so, like, not all of these are labeled because I didn't take most of them, but, I labeled the ones at the back as accurately as I could," Max told her. Chloe paused as she noticed that Max hadn't moved that dark red sweatshirt from her lap, and had one hand on it. The other joined the first when Chloe finally took the album's full weight in both hands. Rachel pushed herself in close to Chloe as Chloe popped the album open.

At the front, the very first photo, was labeled to show Chloe and Max at 'Max's 4th birthday.' Chloe swallowed against a lump in her throat she hadn't expected to see the two of them there, faces half covered in ice cream, unawares of the photo being taken. Judging by the fact that it was a polaroid and very old, Chloe had a suspicion and fixed narrowed eyes on Max.

"Dad took this one, didn't he?" Max nodded quickly, her face a little concerned.

"That's what mom and dad told me," Max said. "I went through boxes and boxes of stuff that first night I was home. I just wanted to find everything that I thought you'd like and mom and dad would be okay to part with."

"It's sweet," Rachel said, looking between the two of them. Chloe swallowed again, and turned the page. As they flipped through the pages, Chloe tried to find words. Before her eyes their childhood together played out, sometimes with as many as eight or nine photos per year, some of them polaroids from the camera sitting at Max's side and others slightly more modern photos that were probably taken by Max's parents and developed elsewhere. This isn't fair, I was just telling them not to be soppy. Try as she might, she felt that if she tried to talk she was probably going to cry. They grew up fast judging by these photos but after a certain point Chloe remembered bits and pieces of the events being depicted as if they were year-long sequences. "Chloe, are you okay?" Rachel teased. Chloe glared at her, but was aware that watering eyes weakened the effect, so she just looked back down and kept turning as Rachel rubbed her back. Max shifted a bit to join her in watching them grow up.

Then, there, Max's photos started. They were just a handful from before her father died and Max left, but they were labeled with scary specificity. Like, down to the minute. Chloe had no reason to doubt the girl's accuracy, either. Everything checked out in her mind but she had no idea at all how Max did it. Chloe looked up at her and saw that Max was trying to keep her face impassive. Chloe didn't bother trying as she turned to the fourth to last page. It started with a photo of Rachel and Chloe in the truck. Judging by Rachel's jacket and Chloe's hair it was taken only minutes after Max first knocked the town's big villainous drug dealer out and sent Frank scuttling for his RV. The rest of the album only featured Max in two more photos, because she had a thing against 'selfies' that Chloe was now determined to break. They were random moments at play practice, or around Steph's kitchen table or in Steph's living room, even a couple in the junkyard from the night of Max's birthday party. One that stood out to Chloe was a little risky. Chloe was raising a can of beer to her lips, looking at Max in surprise. The label was obscured by her hand, mercifully, but laying there with her face red, her head in Chloe's lap, was Rachel. Photo Rachel was looking up at Chloe as if utterly devoted to and captivated by her. Chloe tried not to think about how this was the night she first began to fear Rachel was going to leave her.

On the last page Max had left a spot empty. Chloe looked up to thank her, but Max's arm settled across one shoulder and Rachel's another. The two girls pressed close to either side of her and Chloe tried her best not to look like she was on the verge of tears when Max raised her father's old camera up and snapped that final photo: a picture of the three of them which Chloe would come to look at in its place, almost daily during Christmas break. It highlighted the moment beautifully: in her new leather jacket that she was so excited about, Rachel was leaned in, smiling teasingly at the camera. Max with, featured in the album for the first time with her new pixie cut, was bright red in the face and Chloe, smiling despite watering eyes, had an arm around either of them.

While the photo developed, though, in the moment, Chloe grabbed Max rather openly and pulled her in tight. For a moment she wanted to bury her face against the top of Max's head, but the height difference was pronounced enough all she could really do was lean down and press her cheek against the girl's. Her thanks was probably gibberish as she struggled to maintain composure. Fuck the holidays, Chloe thought to herself when she released Max. They always do this shit to you.

"Alright, that's officially enough mead for Chloe," Rachel declared when Chloe finally recovered her wits about her. Chloe laughed despite herself and Max settled back into her spot opposite of the two of them, stretching her legs out in front of her. Chloe placed one hand on Max's left ankle and jostled it a bit.

"Okay, you, now that you've made me cry, we need to talk about something." This seemed no better or worse a time to bring the subject up than any other that night but she felt silly at the sound left behind in her voice by the tears. Max seemed to stiffen slightly in concern. Rachel's smile faded a little, but only to be replaced by an encouraging look. Rachel's left hand rested on Chloe's knee and she took the encouragement. Okay, Chloe, time to be good with words like Rachel always says you are. She cleared her throat, "Um, well," Great start, now add in some stuttering and passing out while you're at it, so you can really sound like a lovestruck teenager. She glanced to Rachel for some more literal help only to find that the girl met her eyes with that same smile on her face. She's going to enjoy this, Chloe told herself, feeling both hard done by Rachel and the urge to laugh at her antics. Bitch.

"Okay, let me try that again," Chloe said. This time she tried to keep her voice even. The photographer's blue eyes were beginning to get more and more concerned. Chloe wanted to hurry herself along for Max's sake but she realized as she opened her mouth that not once had she and Rachel actually discussed the words to say. "Oh, fuck, uh. Do you- um. Rachel and I were talking, like, we talked a lot over break. At first we wanted to talk to you about this separately but then it seemed like a stupid idea so we were going to talk to you together and then it didn't seem like you were in the best place when you got back so we- uh." You're rambling, Chloe Price. "Shit, let me try that again." This would be easier if I could just push her against the bed and kiss her until she got the message. Rachel speaks that language. I like that language.

"Go on," Rachel said. Despite her amusement, she did not sound teasing in this moment. Max's confused look shot between their faces for a second then refocused on Chloe's. Rachel squeezed her knee and Chloe irritably removed her beanie with her left hand, suddenly feeling warm. You're not blushing, fucker, so just pull it together. Max began to nervously work her right hand up and down along her right leg, something that Chloe knew she did when wearing jeans because the texture either calmed her or stimulated her. She wasn't sure which.

"You know about uh," Chloe sighed and decided to go 'technical' with it, because that felt less awkward. "Polyamory, right?" Chloe watched Max's face go from confused to almost suspicious. Her eyes narrowed and she turned her head, trying to read Chloe. Shit, she thinks I'm fucking with her, Chloe realized. Panic threatened to sit in. "Um, well…" at this, as if Chloe had just clarified something instead of mumbling half-assedly, Max's eyes widened slightly.

"Oh," Max said. She gets it? "Oh." Pink tinged her cheeks, though nowhere nearly as bad as before. Oh thank fuck, Chloe thought. Max didn't seem upset, just surprised. Chloe sighed in relief and when she did that Max glared. "No fair feeling better when I feel awkward," Max declared.

"It's just- I didn't know how to say it, alright?" Chloe defended herself. "Okay, and I like," absentmindedly she reached out for her discarded beanie, as if it was going to grow legs and walk off.

"I do," Max told her. "Know about it. I knew someone who was. I used to have dinner with her, her husband, her boyfriend and her husband's boyfriend."

"First," Rachel replied, sounding impressed, "Some dinner. Second, your friend was married?"

"Yeah," Max said, then grew quiet, looking, Chloe thought, curiously at Rachel.

"So," Chloe interjected, "We didn't know how to bring it up…."

"But we're both kind of crazy about you, which you're not stupid, so you already know." Rachel finished. "And it took us a while to figure out what to do about that… and I guess maybe you know what we decided since we brought it up, but I really kind of want to make Chloe say it, so can you please pretend to be ignorant?" Chloe turned and glared, pointedly at Rachel. Rachel notably did not look away from Max's face. The red was starting to fade from the photographer's cheeks. That being said, her earlier embarrassment suggested she knew damn well what Chloe was saying, so Chloe did not for a moment buy what Max said next.

"So what did you guys decide?" Max asked, her voice lowering, eyebrows raising as she leaned toward Chloe. Fucker, Chloe wanted to yell. Motherfucker! Don't play with me like this. Rachel's been a very, very bad influence on you! "Don't you want to tell me, Chloe?"

"We decided," she started, feeling sure of herself. She trailed off, swallowed once and continued. "We decided if you're ever… you know, okay with it… we are." Feels weak, feels like welching, Chloe told herself. "Ugh, you're gonna make me say it."

"For about five different reasons," Max told her. "The least of which is because you should be the one who gets all red and stuttery sometimes. This way you know what you do to others." Flustered, Chloe reached out at the same time Max did, for the heavy ceramic bottle of mead between them. Forgetting Rachel's declaration, she wanted another drink. Her hand closed over Max's on it and she seized on the opportunity.

"We're into you," she said, feeling more confident. "You knew that, though, and just because Rachel and I are together doesn't mean that you and I or you and Rachel can't be together a-and if you need it spelled out anymore, I'm going to think your parents replaced you with a defective Max clone and have to send you back to Seattle to get the real thing back." Max laughed and released her grip on the bottle. Chloe took it and poured the three of them each a glass while giving the room time to settle around the statement. This is not how I imagined it at all, she told herself.

"As much as it might feel awkward saying it, we're into you," Rachel said. "And you're into us, so why the hell does it make any sense for us not to like, acknowledge that and do with it whatever we want?" Max turned away from Chloe as she poured to look at Rachel. Chloe watched her face, confronted with Rachel's boldness in contrast to Chloe's stumbling, bumbling mess of a confession. "I mean we get it if you want time to think. I think Chloe and I were just kind of getting to the end of our rope with this not telling you that we both really want to be with you, thing."

"I do," Max said, slowly. "Need some time to think. If you can, you know, hold on 'til after break. It's not that long now."

"Au contraire," Chloe replied, shoving a cup into Max's hand. "It's going to be shitty to lose you for so long after you've barely been back a month. I'm gonna miss the hell out of you, even if you are an evil, scheming punk who would take advantage of a close friend's awkwardness just for a cheap laugh." Max grinned unapologetically, wiggling her eyebrows in Chloe's direction before taking a long, deep drink of the sweet amber-gold honey mead. The smile that remained after on the photographer's face was passive, small, as if it was effortless to maintain. As if she's actually happy. Chloe glanced sideways at Rachel. I guess that makes three of us. Rachel's left hand came to rest on Chloe's left hip, mirroring Chloe.

"I haven't really adjusted as easily as I wanted," Max mused, staring into her cup. Chloe wondered if she was getting to the 'loose' stage of buzzed, but then concentration crossed her face and wrecked that notion. Max was picking her words carefully.

"We were worried about that," Chloe murmured. "We just didn't want to push things by asking too many questions. It's just that we felt like we were being dishonest about not coming out with it." Rachel nodded and Max shrugged as if to say she understood. Chloe took another drink. Last one of these for me. "I am gonna have to ask for a hug before I go, though because this album thing is really fucking awesome." Max laughed into her glass. The moment was gone and with it some kind of pressure that Chloe had had very little awareness of. She felt lighter.

"I think I'll know what to do after I've had a think," Max told her, nodding. "And I also have a plan for getting better about handling what Nathan did to me." The mood darkened a little bit, but there wasn't a ton that could be thrown against the relief flooding into Chloe's chest from her extremities. "I'll start by finding evidence of him doing something shitty enough that the police in this town have to arrest his ass."

"Shouldn't be hard," Chloe responded. "He already did something he should be seeing bars for."

"It's gonna have to be more than that and there's going to have to be proof, in this town," Max said. "Nathan Prescott always gets away with his shit." The girl's bitter tone was a little disconcerting, but it was certainly deserved. "If he were a normal person I would have reported him the next day and figured everything else out after but this is a Prescott and the Prescotts have pull in more and weirder places than you think." She seemed to be addressing Chloe specifically with this one.

"And how would you know that?" Rachel asked her, calmly, as if afraid to upset Max.

"Because I didn't spent the last month on my ass doing nothing, even if it looked like it because I sleep so damn much." Max sighed. "I've been digging. Managed not to get in any trouble so far, but that's because, face it, I'm the best at finding out what people don't want known."

"Nosy as fuck," Chloe agreed. This earned a smile from the photographer and an exaggerated, prideful preening. Maybe it was Max's new short hair, but the gesture reminded Chloe too much of Victoria Chase. "What's the sleeping late about?" Chloe asked her, softly.

"Unhealthy avoidance mechanism," Max answered. "Hypersomnia. But, I have other unhealthy obsessions, like digging dirt up on the Prescotts and their cronies and I'm going to keep doing that."

"You're not alone in this, you know," the thespian told Max, reaching out to tilt the girl's head up so they matched eyes. "I want you to tell me you know."

"I know," Max whispered after several seconds. "I do. I'll never forget what you did for me."

"You remember?" Rachel asked her, quietly.

"Most of it," Max admitted.

"You remember what I did in the dorm room?" Rachel asked, this time a little more emphatically. Chloe felt the air warming up around her and fidgeted a little in her spot.

"I know enough to think that there wasn't an electrical problem, or if there was it wasn't just some coincidence." Max swallowed under Rachel's gaze. "Thank you."

"Okay," Rachel told her. "Don't have to thank me for that, though," she said. "Just know that I'd never hurt you and I'd do what I did again in a heartbeat."

"We want Nathan to get what's coming to him," Chloe said. "I don't care if it's the last thing I do, he's going to." Max exhaled a shaky sigh. "Not to be glib about something horrible happening to you," Chloe said, glancing at Rachel, "but the three of us sort of brought down a corrupt district attorney, so fuck Nathan. So you'll be bringing us along on future digs, right, Max?" Max rose to her knees slowly and reached past the corked bottle to rest a hand on either of their shoulders.

"I promise you," Max agreed, her face suddenly serious. No thoughts of romantic relationships or teasing one another waited in Max's eyes when she looked at them each in turn. This was serious face Max, and Chloe felt no pity for Nathan Prescott as she imagined the revenge that the three of them could bring down on his head. We have to. Not just for Max, but for whoever comes next if we do nothing. "He's going to get his before this is all over. I don't care how long it takes." When Rachel nodded in agreement, continuing to rub Chloe's back soothingly, Max's face brightened. "Now, it's time for the portion of the night where we annoy the fuck out of Chloe," Max exclaimed, turning to Rachel. "Christmas music."

Fuckers!

"The weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful-" Chloe placed both palms in her hands as Rachel sang, rocking the both of them back and forth. Max dug out her laptop, presumably to actually play the music. Chloe wondered if she could get away with one more cup and still be good to drive before curfew. Better not risk it. Time to face Christmas music in the sober light of day.