All that Remains

All that Remains

"Wherever I end up after this...in whatever reality...all those moments between us were real, and they'll always be ours." Chloe's eyes were brimming with tears, the wind of the storm blowing around them. Max felt her heart being ripped out of her chest as she heard her best friend telling her to go back in time and just let her...die. After everything she had done to save her from this fate.

The only other option was to have the tornado destroy the whole town, dooming all the people within.

"No matter what you choose, I know you'll make the right decision."

"Chloe... I can't make this choice," Max said, close to tears herself. Oh god, what had she done? If only she hadn't rewound so many times...

Chloe gently grabbed her by her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. "No, Max. You're the only one who can."

Max finally realized it. This feeling inside her chest she felt whenever she had looked at Chloe this past week, this need to protect her no matter what.

She didn't know since when she felt it, but in this moment, as the repercussion of all she did was heading mercilessly towards the town where they both met and grew up in, she knew it deep inside her heart. And now she was faced with the possibility of losing her forever. Dying in a dirty bathroom thinking that everyone she loved had abandoned her, not knowing that people did care about her. Dying without knowing how much Max loved her.

"Max...It's time." Max forced herself not to step forward and kiss Chloe, despite every fiber of her being telling her to do so. Instead she took one last look into Chloe's blue eyes, took a step back...

...And tore the photo in two.

“-Name please.” a voice startled Max out of her reverie. She blinked for a second and looked at the woman holding a clipboard andbalso wore a jacket that identified her as part of the disaster relief.

“Sorry, I was kind of spaced out there,” Max said and the woman gave a her a kind look and tapped the clipboard with her pen.

“Could you give me your name please?” she asked.

“Yes. Sorry. Max Caulfield.”

“That would be short for Maxine, right?” she wrote something on her clipboard.

“Yes,” Max said simply, not bothering her usual retort of “Max, never Maxine”.

“Thank you,” the woman said and went to go to a small group of people sitting nearby to ask them about their names.

Max was sitting on cot inside one of the manyrelief tents camped outside of town. It's been a day after the tornado had passed and the relief teams were busy helping survivors and rounding up the dead. In her right hand she was holding her phone. Before she started to think back on the events up on the cliff she had been texting with her parents, who had been beyond worriedby the time she was finally able to make contact this morning.

Sorry, I'm a bit tired. I'll talk to you later. She send her Dad and put the phone into her pocket. In truth she was exhausted. She hadn't slept a wink since yesterday, couldn't in fact. Not with all the destruction she had caused in her vicinity.

She felt a pair of eyes on her and turned her head to find Chloe watching her intensely from where she was sitting with Joyce and David. She couldn't even describe how relieved she had been when they discovered that Joyce was alright, save for a few scrapes and a sprained ankle.

When Chloe and her had made their way back into town their first stop had been Two Whales Diner. The first thing that Max had noticed was the lack of burn marks, so the diner clearly hadn't blown up like in the other timeline. When they looked inside through the shattered windows they had found the whole building empty.

Later, when they made their way into the center of town, Chloe had gotten a call from David. With a bright smile on her lips and tears running down her face she relayed to Max where they were. When he saw the storm forming he had dropped everything and drove his car to the diner to get Joyce to safety and had taken Warren and everyone else holed up in the diner with him. Where they had sat out the storm? The Dark Room.

Since they had told him about it the previous night and he had gone with the police to apprehend Jefferson he knew of it's location and it was the perfect place to hide during the storm.

At least the sick fucker had been good for one thing. If only for that. Luckily a lot of the stuff in there had been moved out too, so they didn't have to see all the sick shit Jefferson had done in there.

A shudder went through her body as she thought back to when it was herself in front of his camera. Note to self, burn everything related to Mark Jefferson.

She gave Chloe a half-smile and got off her cot. Chloe looked like she wanted to get up herself, but seemed to have thought better of it. Giving Max a smile that made her feel warm inside she turned to David to talk to him about something.

At least they seemed to be getting along.

With a sigh Max left the tent and started to walk in between the tents, her gaze held low, not wanting to look anyone present here in the eye. If it wasn't for her, they wouldn't be here. She didn't notice the person in front of her until she ran into them.

“Sorry-Max?” That voice...

“Kate?” Max turned her gaze upward to look into the face of Kate Marsh. She almost didn't recognize her with her hair down. Without thinking Max wrapped her in a tight hug, tears stinging her eyes. “Thank God.”

Kate too wrapped her arms around Max, albeit much more gently. “We were lucky. My family was picking me up from the hospital when the storm started and we were all moved into the basement.”

They pulled apart but Max left her hands on Kate's shoulders. “I'm so glad that you're alright.”

“I feared the worst when I tried to text you and I didn't get an answer.”

“Yeah. Chloe and I we...we were at the lighthouse and we-” she swallowed and felt a single tear run down her cheek. “We saw the tornado and the destruction...”

She took a deep breath. “Do you know anything about the others?”

Kate's expression became one of worry. “I only heard from Stella and Alyssa. Alyssa told me you and your friend Chloe helped her." she sighed "I pray that the others are alright.”

“Me too.” Max looked at Kate. She deserved so much better than what happened. “I-I think I'll go take a look around. See if I can find any of the others.”

“OK. Try to get a bit of rest, though. You look tired.”

“I am,” Max admitted, finally letting go of Kate and started to walk past her. “See you later.”

She didn't turn around and just kept walking.

It was a few hours later that she returned to 'her' cot. Max slumped down on it and covered her face with her hands. “Fuck...” she muttered. She did indeed find some of others. Victoria and Taylor and she did indeed learn about some of the students.

Courtney was dead. Victoria had been in tears when she told her that and she had her arms wrapped around Taylor in a hug. “I've been a major bitch to her all this time. And now she's dead!” she had shouted in between tears and all that Max could do was offer her words of comfort, to which Victoria had been grateful enough.

But Courtney wasn't the only one. Afterwards she encountered a weary looking Dana, who had been at Blackwell as the storm hit town.

Hayden was dead. So were Logan and Luke. A few other students that she didn't know were also among the casualties of the tornado.

All dead because of her.

“Fuck,” she said again, much more louder this time but still muffled by her hands. She remained that way for some minutes until she felt someone sit down beside her. Removing her hands she looked sideways and into the face of David Madsen.

“You alright, Max?” he asked her. It was funny. At the start of the week she had thought of him as a major douche, or step-douche as Chloe would say, who clearly had some serious issues. And now she wished she had trusted him earlier. Maybe she would've used her rewind powers less and avoided everything being so fucked up like it was now.

“I don't think I'll be alright for quite some time,” Max said and looked at the floor.

“I'm sorry to hear that. Young people shouldn't have to see destruction like this.” David looked at his hands. “Reminds me of the war in some ways.”

They fell silent for a while and Max didn't really know what to say. After a while David broke the silence and said: “I, uh, wanted to thank you. For helping me find out about that dirty bastard. I always knew there was something fishy about him.”

“It had to be done. What he did to Kate and Rachel and all those other girls...”

“Listen. I'm sorry about everything that happened. I hope we can start over, like Chloe and I are doing?” This made Max smile a little. And it only had taken a tornado to make them get along.

“I'd like that.” she stifled a yawn. “Sorry.”

“You should lie down for a bit, you look damn tired if I may say so,” David said with his very own brand of concern in his voice.

“Yeah, I think I'm going to sleep for a bit.” Truth be told she felt like she was about to collapse. David stood up and gave her a nod before leaving so that she could have some rest. Taking her camera bag off her shoulder and placing it beside her on the ground she laid down on the cot and closed her eyes, drifting off almost instantly.