A/N : Takes place in volume 1 immediately after Max passes out in chapter 2
"Chloe, I... I don't think... That was... The fix..." Max muttered out in exhaustion before collapsing to the floor, blood running out of her nose and down her chin. Chloe, who was already in a fragile mood after that weird, non-encounter with Joyce, looked over at her collapsed body with wide eyes as panic seized her body.
"Max?" she asked, a bit frantic as she stumbled over to where her friend had collapsed. She lifted Max's head and tried to shake her awake. The time traveler briefly opened her eyes in a lost expression before they shut once again. "Shit" Chloe muttered out as she frantically checked the girl for any injuries she may have sustained when she fell. "Max!"
In the back of her head, she knew that Max was probably fine. This wasn't the first time she had randomly passed out due to power-related stuff, and she knew she wasn't in any mortal danger. But logic had no place in her panicked brain. So far as she knew at that moment, Max was a corpse in her arms.
"Shit shit shit shit shit" the blue haired girl muttered under her breath as she slowly took her and Max over to a wall so she could lean back while still holding her. "Fuck!" she yelled, though Max did not so much as stir in her sleep due to the noise. Chloe slammed her head back into the wall, not even fully aware of what she was doing. All she knew was that it felt like the walls were closing in on her.
"Calm down, you dumbass" she told herself. She wanted to take Max upstairs and put her down on the bed, because at least then she would be able to rest comfortably. But she couldn't really do that in her current state. Not when she was so fucking panicked. So, she tried to calm herself down and remember how Rachel had told her to ground herself from panic attacks. Something about counting down from 5...
"Um..." she swallowed as she looked around the destroyed kitchen with wide eyes. "5 things I see, okay..."
Eventually, she had gone through all 5 senses, focused on her breathing a bit, and found herself calm once again. She still needed a moment to recover, but decided she could do so upstairs. So, she carefully stood up, picked Max up in her arms, and made her way up the destroyed stairs. A few steps were broken in, but she managed it.
She entered her room, and had to ignore the pit in her stomach that had formed upon walking in and seeing the all too familiar decor. She carefully set Max down on the bed before sitting next to her.
Now she just had to wait for the girl to wake up...