Chapter VII: Catch and Retrieval - Sunday Afternoon/Evening
AN:
Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!
Two-chapter update again. This is chapter 2, if you haven't read the previous one please check it. Also, the final chapter here! Finally completed another story.
Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.
"Fucking exercise."
"Hey, you were the one who didn't want to park in the Two Whales. This walk is your own doing, Chloe."
"Do you wanna be the one to tell my mom how we lost three kids we were supposed to be responsible for? No? Me neither. That's why I didn't wanna park there." I stop, take a breath. "Sorry for bein' snippy."
"That's okay." Max taps my shoulder. "I'm stressed about the kids too."
"I'm not stressed about those-" Max and Sarah look at me. "-kids... I just don't want mom doing her disappointed thing again."
"Then we can avoid the diner. It's okay, Chlo'." Max turns to Sarah. "She's not in the Diner. Right?"
Sarah looks like she's going to fuck about a minute, but shakes her head. "No. That wouldn't be fun."
"Exactly. So, don't worry Chloe. We got this." With a grin, she grabs onto my arm and marches us towards the waterfront.
As you'd expect from a dying fishing town, the waterfront is a bit pathetic. There's a tonne of buildings, true, and the docks and piers are still pretty impressive, but the buildings are boarded-up and the docks are dingy and decrepit, bits of wood wearing away in a way that's probably real fuckin' unsafe.
The beach is littered with the mess of a dozen Blackwell parties, and all the littering crap you'd expect from what we dump into the ocean these days. Not many people around. There's one homeless person on a guitar a little ways down the road, long hair pulled into a tight ponytail, busking their way through a not-half bad cover of an old Beatles song. Bit pitchy though. A couple of elderly couples hobble together, crossing the street as the four of them head over to the Two Whales.
The Diner really is the highlight of the waterfront. Not much else here, aside from an arcade that barely works, the town's only bank, and a couple of tiny convenience store franchises.
I kind of hate coming here. Arcadia Bay's a shithole, but normally I can sort of ignore the fact that my home is slowly dying. The closer you get to the water, the less illusions there are. Washes all the bullshit away and just leaves the cooling corpse of my childhood home.
I grab onto Max's hand. "Lets make this fuckin' quick."
She nods, and starts scanning the area for clues. I almost wanna ask her where her big magnifying glass is, crack a joke about Inspector Clouseau or something, but I'm too on edge. I just trail her as we walk along the water.
Sarah smirks from behind us. I can feel it. But we were on the right track. I knew it.
We pick randomly and head over towards the Arcade. Three steps in, Sarah mutters, "Colder."
I turn to her. "Seriously?"
"What? I didn't say anything?"
"Fine. Be like that. Maxie, lets try over-"
"Colder." Another mutter.
Seriously!? I throw up my arms in frustration. "You didn't even let me finish what I was gonna fuckin' say!"
"What? I didn't say anything! Max, you didn't hear anything, right?" She turns on Max, puppy-dog kid eyes in full glow.
"No…" Max says slowly.
"Fine. We'll try this way." I pull Max along the street to the busker. I glare pointedly at Sarah as I do, and she smiles innocently at me - says nothing, the… rude word I probably shouldn't say out loud. Damn Max's disapproving doe eyes.
We head past the busker, and Sarah slows. She smiles at the busker, taps her foot to the tune. "You know, I'll stick around here. The song is good, and now you're in the right place you don't really need me, right?"
"No. But we're not letting you out of our sight until everyone is rounded up and back at the bloody house." Max growls. "We're not doing this for fun, Sarah, it's not safe."
"Well, I'll be safer right here than wandering around dark alleys with you, right?"
The busker nods, though I'm not sure if they're nodding along to the song or in agreement. For a moment, Max seems to get distracted by the song. Just swaying gently to the tune.
"Uh, Max." She jumps suddenly, and blushes. "Not to ruin your mood, but we do kind of have a job to do."
"Right. You're right." She sighs, shakes her head and rubs a hand at her eyes. She smiles at the busker. "You're great." She turns to Sarah. "Fine. Stick around here, if anything goes wrong, go to the Diner and ask for Joyce Price. We're just going to take a quick look around."
She grabs me again, and drags me away. "Are you sure it's okay to leave her here?"
"We literally won't be out of sight, it's just up and down the road. If we can't see Kate immediately, we'll come back and get her to give us another clue."
Yeah. Fair enough. "Good plan, General Maximus. So, Sarah said she was on the waterfront, right?"
"Yes. Which means she's got to be somewhere around here!" Max groans. "We had one job, Chloe. Literally one job. And I screwed it up."
"Technically they screwed-"
"No, Chloe. We had responsibility. I had responsibility. And I couldn't keep it up." She sighs. "When we get them back, I'm gonna tell their parents what happened and that they shouldn't trust me again."
She folds in on herself, just like she always does when she's upset. I shuffle in and wrap my arm around her shoulder. She shakes, just a little, but manages not to cry. "I really wanted this to go well, Chloe. I thought this would go okay."
Oh. Suddenly a lot of this makes more sense. "Your mom been bugging you about the job again?"
She nods. "And I really don't think I could do a shift at the Two Whales. I love your mom, and I love the diner, but-"
I laugh. "Yeah, it's really not your scene."
She grins. "No, not at all."
I think for a second. "Well. I think it's gone better than you think. The kids like you, and they're having fun, right?"
"You think?"
"I mean, I'm pretty sure at least 25% of their fun is at my expense, but yeah, I'm sure. And besides, who wouldn't like you, Maxie?" I lean in and pull her close to my side. My goddamn crush leaks to the surface. "You're kind, you're way more patient than any of us deserve, and you have that massive heart of gold. You care about people, Max. Makes it hard not to lo- like you." I grin, trying to cover my blush at that fucking slip. "Besides, with those freckles and cute little doe eyes, who wouldn't dig you?"
"I like your eyes too, Chloe. They're so clear and deep. It's like looking into the ocean." Her voice breaks partway through the last word. Then she stops, eyes bulging. She blushes almost literally head to toe. She does not look at me.
I blink. Yep. Definitely didn't expect that. My crush rears up, another dose of hope straight into its bloodstream. "So," My voice is way higher and more panicked than it should be. "No Kate here. Lets go check in with Sarah again."
"Yep! Lets… go do that."
We quickly head back to Sarah and the busker. The girl was still swaying along to the busker's song. I strode over. I cough, to clear my throat. "Look, we can't find her. Can we get a clue?"
Sarah turns to us in surprise. "You really can't find her? I thought it was obvious. I spotted her the moment we walked down here."
"Alright. So, she's somewhere visible. Or was, when we got here. You're sure she's not in the diner?" I look back to Sarah, trying to sense if she's pulling any more Marshy Shenanigans.
"Nope." She thinks, amends, "Well, yes, I'm sure she's not in the diner." She shrugs. "English is weird."
It really is. "So, she's somewhere back the other way, maybe? If she was on the route, she'd have to be back. And she's still near the waterfront, right?"
"On the waterfront, I said." Sarah says. "And she still is, yeah."
I groan. "What, is she hiding under the fucking water?"
Sarah laughs, and even the busker huffs a chuckle, jaunting their tune a bit. I glare at them, and their wrapped up face gleams at me with amusement. I look back to Sarah. "That's not an answer."
"No, Chloe. Honestly, Kate kind of sucks at swimming. She gets weird about wetting her hair."
"Fine. I guess she's somewhere up the other way then. Gotta be visible from where we drove from, right?"
Sarah looks around. "Yep. Visible from your truck, even."
I look back at the truck. "Where it is now?"
"Yep. Clear eyesight."
"Ah, shit. Fine. Come on, Maxie. Lets go take a look back here."
We head down, wander around, and find nothing. This is getting ridiculous. I stomp back to Sarah. "You said she'd be visible!"
"She is!" She shakes her head. "Look, Chloe, you're getting too stressed. Why don't you just sit a while, enjoy this person's lovely music?"
The busker is playing another song I don't recognise, something sad and warbling about broken ankles. I watch for a minute, then sigh. Shit.
I make direct eye contact with the busker. "Hi Kate."
The busker pauses, then grins. "Hey Chloe."
—
The lighthouse always was impressive, close-up. It was all looming and shit and was still cool, even with all the boarded up bits and wear and tear.
Me and Max were leading the way, as Kate and Sarah follow us a little ways behind, chatting shit about something or other.
With the ease of people who know this route like the back of our hands, Max and I veer past the broken warning sign and brambled-over ravine. Kate and Sarah keep chatting. "Hey!" I call back. "Watch where you step, some of the cliffs up here are kind fu- falling apart." I quickly amend at Max's warning look.
They shrug and actually do as I say, and we make it up the rest of the path and all the way up to the little lighthouse area. It's not just the lighthouse here, there's a few other buildings around, outbuildings and whatever - and I'm pretty sure one is an actual outhouse - but she was gonna be in the main lighthouse. It was just... obvious.
We head up to the door of the Lighthouse and push it open.
The inside of the lighthouse was a bit warped, a bit old. Pieces of the stairs were missing as we headed up to the middle floor - the place looks like it used to be a bedroom or something, back when we actually had a dude living up here. I think that was over a hundred years ago by this point though.
In the back, across a couple of large gaps in the worn wood, sat Lynn. Tiny little pre-teen Lynn grins as she sees us come up. "Hi! You found me!" She hops to her feet, then does a weird twirly spin thing. "Are you going to come and tag me now?"
A couple of the gaps were longer than Max was. I could maybe make them, but it'd be ugly. "How did you even get over there? Is there a ladder downstairs or something?"
"No? Why would I need a ladder?" She says.
Then she hops across the gap, swinging her arms to give her some momentum. Both of us take a sharp breath in. She makes it without much bother. We breath out in relief. When we both look at her, she shrugs. "I've been doing gymnastics since I was four."
Kate, listening from the stairs, chimes in - "She's a regional champion. Competes in all sorts of competitions." At our baffled looks, Sarah nods in confirmation. We turn back just in time to see Lynn do some kind of triple flip thing over the last gap and neatly land in a superhero post on the platform next to us. I barely resist the urge to clap.
Max reaches out and taps her. "Tag."
Lynn grins, laughs amusedly as she goes to unite with her sisters.
Great. We got them all. We should fucking go back and lock all the doors. Wait. "Aren't their folks supposed to be back today?"
"Shit. Yes. In about an hour." Max groans. "You're going to have to drive quickly, Chloe." She turns to the Marsh sisters, now three and watching us like the Morrigan. Or the Moirai. "Are you going to come with us?"
"Sure!"
—
We settle in front of the TV just as the door clicks. A few seconds later, the girls file downstairs and wait patiently in the... whatever you call the bit at the bottom of the stairs. We trot in a few seconds afterwards just in time to see the two Marsh Parentals gently embracing and greeting their kids. Lynn gives her dad a disgruntled look as he ruffles her hair, and he laughs before tidying her up again.
Something in it makes me miss my own dad.
The two of them settle up with their kids and turn to us. "Hello you two. How was your weekend?"
"Oh, pretty quiet." Max says with a smile. "You've raised some great kids."
Mrs Marsh smiles. "We quite agree."
"And kids, did you like them?" Richard beams at his children.
"Yes, Father." Kate responds. "They were very good - Chloe even helped us with some of our homework."
Mrs Marsh's eyebrow arches like... I dunno, half a McDonald's logo. "Oh really? Which homework was that?"
"Physics and math, mostly." I shrug. "I'm good with numbers."
Beverly eyes me. "Yes. I'm sure." Her eyes suddenly focus around the house. "Well, the house looks like it's still standing. Did you have any trouble?"
"None at all. We had fun."
"Well excellent. A very good job to you both!" Richard booms pleasantly. "When Beverly and I go anywhere again, we'll have to hire you!"
He wanders off upstairs for a few minutes, giving us time to grab our crap and make sure we had everything. He reappears again and hands Max an envelope filled with cash. "I added a bonus in there, as a thanks for doing so well. The kids really like you."
"Anytime, Mr Marsh." I quip.
Max nods. "Yes. And we- we really like them too."
He shakes my hand, and he shakes Max's hand, and guides us to the door. I awkwardly wave back to the Marsh sisters, who give me graceful and dignified nods and subtle, amused grins.
As the door shuts gently behind us, Max and I head out to my truck, neither of us speaking. We get in, and I return my stuff to under the seat. Max rolls her eyes, but still says nothing. Then I set off, the truck roaring like a graceful beast.
Max and I still don't speak. It's weirdly comfortable, just the growl of the engine and the late evening sounds of the town around us. As I turn back onto Max's street, I suddenly realise something and look down. "Shit."
"What?"
"I left my fancy tie back there."
She groans.
—
AN1 -
And that's it! Another story done. Thanks for reading, y'all. Hope you enjoyed it. I was thinking of actually getting the two together when I started, but it somehow ended up as more of a future-tease. I liked the mutual crushing, mutual confusion dynamic of two fumbling idiots trying to navigate a first love while trying to navigate a town in pursuit of missing children. Very on theme for the source material, you know?
