Chloe woke up to the sound of someone retching in the bathroom. She thought nothing of it, nor the toilet flushing, and moved to pull Max closer to her before she realized she was alone.
She shot upright, heart pounding. She quickly climbed out of bed, glad she had worn a shirt and sweatpants to bed last night. Seattle was cold in February, and the furnace could only do so much in the middle of the night. "Max?" she called quietly as she poked her head into the hallway. A familiar groan came from the bathroom, and she hustled to open the door, panicking.
Max was sitting on the bathroom floor, leaning against the wall across from the toilet. She looked exhausted, either from her current situation or as a side effect of her meds. "Max, are you okay?" Chloe asked, taking in her haggard appearance.
Max groaned in response, her eyes half closed. "Stomach hurts," she muttered, swaying a little where she sat.
"Well, thanks for not upchucking on me, at least." Chloe crouched down, rubbing a hand on Max's back. She could feel how warm Max was through her shirt. Hopefully she wasn't coming down with something - or had something, seeing as she was throwing up. "You feeling any better?"
Max shook her head, taking a deep breath. "I was hoping that would do it."
"That time of the month?" Chloe offered, although she was pretty sure that wasn't the case. They were synced up within a few days of each other by now.
"Not for another week. Probably just food poisoning, or something." She slowly got to her feet, using the wall to help herself up. Chloe stood up with her, watching her in case she suddenly went down. Max's face was contorted in pain as she stopped just shy of fully upright, holding her breath. "Shit, that hurts."
"Do you want to just go back to bed, or..." She didn't want to suggest going to the hospital for food poisoning, but if Max was sick, really sick...
Max nodded weakly, gripping Chloe's forearms as she tried to keep her balance. "Lesgo," she mumbled, leaning heavily into Chloe as they walked back into the bedroom. Chloe could hear Max's breath cut off as she slowly laid down in the bed, eyes closed tightly.
"Max, are you sure you're okay?" Chloe asked, worried. Max's level of discomfort was not something she was familiar with - hell, she'd take a nightmare over this any day. At least she knew how to help with that.
"It feels better, okay? I just...I want to sleep." Chloe didn't take a lot of confidence in Max's mumbled words, and carefully curled around her, trying to keep her arm away from Max's stomach. Somehow, she fell asleep back asleep.
When Chloe woke up a few hours later, sky still dark, she found Max already awake. She was laying on her back, her hands clenched into fists over her stomach. "Hey, still hurting?" Chloe asked, every trace of sleepiness instantaneously replaced by concern.
"Yes," Max muttered through clenched teeth. She probably hadn't slept - she had definite bags under her eyes. It almost looked like she was about to fall asleep, if not for her sudden inhales and clenching fists.
Chloe's mouth was a little dry. "Max, I...I think we need to take you to a hospital."
Max was shaking her head before Chloe had even finished her sentence. "I'm fine, Chloe. Probably just got food poisoning, or something."
Chloe scoffed, sitting up. The bed jostling made Max's face crumple in pain again. "If that was the case, throwing up would have solved that. Or you'd keep throwing up. Or I'd be throwing up." Chloe gently pushed the long bangs out of Max's face, frowning as her fingers made contact with her forehead. "Shit, you've got a fever, Max."
"I'm just warm from sleeping, I'll be fine once I get up," she replied, sounding slightly confident.
But it was obvious that she wasn't fine as she got up, hissing as she tried to sit upright. Her hands clamped down around her stomach, and Chloe carefully rested an arm around her, holding her up. "Max, you're not okay. We're going to the hospital."
Thankfully, Max didn't try to argue again. Chloe helped her get sweatpants on, then escorted her slowly down the stairs. Her parents must have still been sleeping, and they slipped out of the house unnoticed.
Chloe panicked about every imperfection in the road. For the first time in a long time, she wished she had a vehicle with decent shocks. Max wasn't making any more noise, but the hand that was visible on the bench kept clenching into a fist with each bump.
The ER experience felt like a whirlwind, and for the briefest moment Chloe thought they weren't going to let her come in. Max, of all people, lied on the spot that she was her sister. Chloe wasn't sure if the staff members believed her, but they at least didn't argue as they were guided back to a bed, pulling the sheets around them.
Max had gripped her hand almost painfully as they inserted her IV, and thankfully the nurse passed it off as general hospital nerves. Chloe was still talking Max down from her minor needle-induced panic when the doctor came in, pressing into Max's stomach as she yelped, and quickly rolling her away for a CT scan. Thankfully, she was only gone for a few minutes before being rolled back, her face a little paler than before.
It took almost another hour of them sitting in silence before the doctor came back in. Chloe was only partially listening as he confirmed Max had appendicitis, and would be going into surgery shortly. The doctor sounded a little too cheery as he explained the procedure, and Chloe had to work to keep a scowl off of her face. She focused on Max's hand instead, which kept clenching in her own as the pain came and went. "Nothing looks abnormal, should be a quick in and out," the doctor finished, patiently waiting for either of them to speak.
"How long?" Max whispered, eyes closing for a second. Chloe squeezed her hand reflexively.
"We're getting the OR prepped now, we should be coming by to wheel you away in about an hour." Max nodded, her eyes not entirely focusing on the doctor. "All said and done, you'll be able to get out of here this afternoon, as long as we don't run into any complications."
"Thanks, Doc," Chloe said quietly, not taking her eyes off of her girlfriend as he left the room. Max seemed to be in more pain than before - not entirely surprising, as she had refused all offered drugs. Chloe assumed she didn't want to feel out of control - cognitively, at least.
Max looked over at her, smiling weakly. "Guessing this is how your morning usually goes when I'm in school?"
"Only the finest of Mondays start with ER visits." Max started giggling before cutting off suddenly, wincing. Chloe frowned, feeling guilty. "Shit, I shouldn't be making you laugh."
"It's fine." Max squeezed her hand. "I'm glad you're here, Chloe."
Chloe stared back, confused. "Where else would I be?" Besides her college work, she wasn't doing much, and nothing in her life was more important than Max, anyways.
"No, I'm...I'm glad you're here. Safe. Alive." Max's voice wavered a little as her eyes closed, and Chloe felt a pit at the bottom of her stomach. She knew what Max was implying.
Chloe's felt an empty pang somewhere inside of her, along with a little residual guilt."You sure they didn't give you any pain meds?" She tried to joke, but her voice sounded utterly humorless.
"I've never been surer about anything." Chloe didn't want to ask, but she was fairly certain Max wasn't talking about the drugs.
Chloe paced back and forth in the waiting room. Vanessa and Ryan were at work, and didn't seem worried when she called to fill them in. They seemed perfectly happy to let Chloe continue being the middleman, and were planning on stopping by if Max ended up needing to stay the night.
They, however, didn't have a history of best friends being in hospitals.
The more Chloe paced, the more she worried. She knew Max was always worried about her, and would probably jump back through fucking time if something happened to her, but never in a million years did Chloe think about what would happen if Max got hurt, if Max-
No, she wouldn't think about that. Max was going to be fine, she'd have a couple of little scars and a story to tell, but otherwise would be fine. She didn't know what she would do if Max wasn't fine.
She finally threw herself into a chair, scowling. "Fuck, it's been an hour already," Chloe complained to no one in particular, her leg bouncing up and down. She had wanted to be there when Max woke up, but apparently that only happened in the movies. She wanted to hear whatever adorable loopy things a drugged up Max would say, but hospital protocol had stolen that away from her.
Finally, finally, a nurse called for her. Well, she called for "Ms. Caulfield", but what the nurse wouldn't know didn't hurt her. Chloe leapt to her feet, anxious, but the nurse smiled kindly as she approached. "Maxine is doing great. We just moved her into her room, if you would like to see her." She followed obediently behind the nurse, who assured her that Max was up, talking, and had asked for her already. The nurse opened the door for her, but let Chloe enter alone.
She hated seeing Max hooked up to all of the machines, but seeing that adoring smile as she walked into the room overrode every negative feeling. Max's eyes were fluttering closed, obviously still drowsy, but the hand that wasn't covered in wires reached out for her.
Chloe quickly covered the ground between them, clasping that hovering hand. "Hey, Max," she said quietly, blindly sitting down on the chair next to the bed. Max squeezed her hand once, opening her eyes briefly to look at Chloe. She looked like she was half asleep, but content, and Chloe felt herself relax for the first time that day. She's okay, the surgery was fine, she's okay.
"How you feeling?" Chloe asked, eyes darting around Max's form to try to catch anything out-of-place. At least she wasn't suddenly missing a leg.
"Like I just got out of surgery," Max muttered. Her voice sounded raspy, and her eyebrows scrunched together in discomfort. "Breathing tubes suck."
"Well, not breathing sucks harder," Chloe responded, with only a pinch of her usual bravado. She nodded her head towards Max's stomach. "How're the stab wounds?"
Max giggled, struggling to keep her eyes open to watch Chloe. "It looks like I was stabbed. There's blood all over the bandages." She frowned, waving their hands a little as Chloe perked up. "Stop looking so happy about it. They said it'll heal up and you'll never be able to tell. Just like yours."
Chloe frowned, covering her forehead with her free hand. There was just a faint red line where the metal windmill had ripped her head open, and unless she made a big deal about it, no one seemed to notice it. "Stop bringing it up, Max, I thought it was gonna be badass," she complained.
"Of course you did." Max wiggled a little, trying to get herself more comfortable without taking her eyes off of Chloe. Her long bangs threatened to cover her eyes, but she didn't seem to care. There was a little dreamy smile on her face, and Chloe felt a laugh building.
"What are you smiling about?" Chloe asked, the laugh bubbling out alongside her words.
"Nothing," Max responded, but the smile didn't go anywhere - if anything, it grew wider.
Chloe snickered at her. "Uh huh, that sure looks like a lot like nothing."
Max was still watching her, but her eyes were starting to flutter shut again. "I'm just...I'm lucky. Real lucky."
"Getting your appendix removed is lucky?" Chloe teased, reaching over and pushing Max's hair back behind her ear so it was out of her face.
Max scowled in response, squeezing Chloe's hand. "No, you, dummy. I'm lucky I have you." Chloe kissed her hand in response, feeling butterflies in her stomach at that. Max is such a sap...and she knows I am, too. She heard a little sigh coming from Max, who was fighting to keep her eyes open. "I'm tired."
Chloe smirked, not that Max could see it with her eyes closed. "Go to sleep, Max. I'll still be here when you wake up."
She forced her eyes open again, struggling to focus on Chloe. "Promise?"
"I promise," Chloe said, kissing her hand again.
Max's eyes finally closed again, and she sighed heavily. "Love you," she muttered as her body grew still, save for her chest moving as she breathed.
Chloe stood up so she could give her a kiss on the forehead. "Love you too, Max."
For a few minutes, Chloe just sat there, watching her. She was pretty sure every iteration of Max was her favorite, but watching her sleep was still in the top ten. It was a relief to see her with no stress, no thoughts causing her to chew on her lip or frown. Chloe could sit there forever, watching Max, but she'd settle for a few hours, and shifted in her chair to get comfortable as she waited for Max to wake back up.