Chapter Text
The only surprising thing about Chloe's surprise 30th birthday party is that Max thought she could keep it a secret.
For one thing, while Chloe is wearing her nicest pants and a clean button-down, Max has made effort tonight. She's wearing a dress and has fancy hair and makeup. Just seeing her show up at the restaurant made Chloe feel shy about talking to the person she's shared most of her life with. Max wanting to go to the bar without changing kinda suggests that something's up.
The other thing is, though, that she told Kate about her plans and Kate blushes when she lies. She blushes every bit as hard now as she did when she was eighteen. Max expecting Kate to hide her reddening cheeks from Chloe during a video call planning her Seattle visit--which just so happens to coincide with Chloe's birthday--was wildly optimistic.
Chloe tries not to look too smug when Max takes her to their favourite bar for a post-dinner drink and Max slips inside ahead of her, holding the door. Chloe fully intends to walk in, blink a few times, and gasp 'wowser' in a breathy voice, just so Max knows she'll need to up her game in future.
But her smirk dies when she walks into Go With The Grain and everyone inside yells 'Surprise!' Because there's a lot of everyone in the bar: Max's friends she's picked up with seemingly no effort across various jobs and her artistic connections, Chloe's much smaller pool of friends mostly gathered from her forays into Seattle's music scene, Kate, of course, Kristen, of course, Fernando...?
"Happy Birthday, Chloe!" Fernando grins and presses a bottle of beer into Chloe's hand. He leans in and stage whispers, "Are you still treating our girl right? I'd hate to have to try to kick your ass and make you kick my ass."
"Uh, I'm pretty sure your ass will live to fight another day." Chloe laughs and takes a quick gulp of beer. A quick look around suggests that Max rented the whole fucking place out. It also shows her Max giving Chloe a smug grin as she heads to the bar. "Shit, dude! Especially since you dragged it all the way from fucking Lisbon! For my birthday? What the fuck!"
"Oh, no, no, no!" Fernando takes her elbow and guides Chloe towards the press of people. "I'm in town for other business! It just so happened that other business lined up with your birthday, and how could I resist getting all up in your business?"
"Yeah, sure..." Chloe looks around, but Max has vanished. There were times when that would have made Chloe panic, but these days it merely causes her throat to briefly tighten and her heart to speed up slightly. "How, uh, how's the life of an academic?"
"I teach dance, Chloe. In barely passable Portuguese. I don't think I quite count as an academic."
"Uh, it counts when you're at a fancy fucking Conservatoire!" Chloe makes the mistake of catching Persephone's eye and tries to turn her reflexive grimace into a smile. "The fuck is she doing here?"
"Huh?"
"Fucking Parsley! Uh, actually, it doesn't matter." Chloe doesn't intend to loop Fernando in on her mildly paranoid thoughts on Max's former work colleague and overly persistent friend, Persephone. To Chloe's relief, she finally spots Max. She’s near the bar, talking to her mom. "Vanessa's here?"
"She is." Fernando smirks, and focusing his attention in the opposite direction. "More importantly, Ryan is here, too. Still rocking the lumberjack look and bearing some distinguished grey in his beard, which frankly--"
"Oh, Jesus, stop!" Kristen materialises beside Chloe. She punches Fernando's arm. "You pretending to have a crush on Mr Caulfield has never been funny. Hey, Chlo! Happy birthday, babe!"
Chloe is promptly smothered in one of Kristen's bear hugs. Fernando winks at her over Kristen's shoulder and turns an appreciative leer towards Ryan Caulfield, who is busy setting up a projector on the other side of the room.
"Who says I'm pretending?" Fernando says cheerfully.
Chloe detaches herself from Kristen when her ribs begin to creak under the pressure. "My gag reflex sure hopes you are. He's Max's dad! He's..." Chloe almost says that Ryan is her father-in-law. But he isn't, of course. As good as he's been to Chloe, he isn't legally any kind of relation at all. Weakly, Chloe says, "He's...nearly sixty!"
"He's fifty-three!" Fernando protests. He subsides in the face of Chloe and Kristen's combined glares. "Fine, fine! No hot dad talk!"
Kristen snorts. "Good. Because Chloe has an appointment with everybody and you've had your time, Fernando!"
She sticks her tongue out at Fernando, making Chloe laugh. The two of them in close proximity always seems to turn into teens again, no matter how old or how responsible they are otherwise. Chloe's laughter turns into a squawk when Kristen grips her arm in both hands and drags her off to meet the rest of her adoring public.
The first half-hour is downright fucking weird. Chloe is dragged around and made to say hello to a succession of people, some she knows better than others. She doesn't get much more than a few minutes with anyone before Kristen's yanking on her arm and she's off to the next group. Chloe finds herself making small talk and surrendering her empty bottle at not infrequent intervals, only to have a fresh one pressed into her hand.
Max is on her own orbit of the room, and even if it isn't a big bar they somehow keep missing each other. The best Chloe gets after thirty minutes is the moment when Max gives her a tight smile in passing before she vanishes again.
Kristen drags Chloe in the opposite direction of Max, which puts them on a collision course with fucking Peroxide. Chloe manages to grit out a 'hello' before Peristalsis launches into a breathless account of what a cute disaster Max was first time the two of them went wall-climbing. Kristen makes a sympathetic face at Chloe as the story drags on. Maybe she’s as aware as Chloe that this is a case of 'Max's Friend Has A Thing For Her That Max Is Too Oblivious To Notice.' Maybe she’s wondering, like Chloe, why the fuck Paralysis got invited. Chloe lets Kristen handle anything more conversationally challenging than a grunt and watches Max confer with her dad from the corner of her eye.
Slowly but surely, Chloe's temper starts to fray.
Max is too far away. Max has been too far away for too long now. It's dumb, of course. It's not like they haven't spent whole days apart for one reason or another. But being close to Max and not being able to reach her? That's uncomfortably close to certain nightmares Chloe's had.
Chloe takes another gulp of beer. She tries to keep her breathing steady. There are more people than she expected, and everyone's being nice, but Chloe desperately needs some time to herself to process all of this. She needs some time in a dark corner where she can watch shit unfold, where she can not be the centre of attention for a little while.
Well, really she needs a chance to grab Max and hold her and kiss her and thank her. Preferably in the aforementioned dark corner.
Chloe studies Max, frowning. Max looks as keyed up as Chloe's beginning to feel: her shoulders are hunched and her nose is scrunched in the way that says she's deeply stressed about something. Chloe is on the verge of clubbing fucking Polio out of her way with her beer bottle and running to Max's side when a hand touches her elbow.
"Chloe, can I borrow you for a minute?"
The former Kate Marsh smiles shyly up at Chloe, gesturing towards the bar. She's wearing mom jeans and a floral blouse, but she's allowed, because she's a mom. The once perilous masses of her blonde hair have long since been cut back, but in deference to the party spirit, she's at least wearing it down tonight. Chloe's more used to seeing her hair in a bun or a ponytail. It's nice to see it loose and tickling her shoulders.
"Kate! Sure thing!"
Chloe shows Pneumonia her teeth and lets Kate guide her away. She's relieved to see that Kristen hangs back. Chloe's fond of Kristen--they bonded early over punk bands and bottles of Punk IPA back in the day--but it was starting to feel like she had a fucking chaperone to her own party.
At the bar, Chloe is further relieved to find a quiet place to stand and take in Kate Marsh in the flesh. Or rather, Kate Peele: she's been hitched for almost six years. The Kate Chloe used to know was a pale, dainty girl of almost impossible sweetness. Years and motherhood have made her less dainty in every sense, but she still fucking glows with inner warmth. She's one of the most beautiful women Chloe's ever encountered.
"What's up, Kate?" Chloe asks softly, feeling less pressure on her lungs when she breathes.
"Oh, nothing really!" Kate smiles. "You just looked like you needed some space."
In the bad years after Arcadia Bay, Max would oscillate between her desire to keep Kate in her life and her shame that she could never tell Kate everything about what went down in the timeline that Max erased. Chloe ended up being a go-between of sorts, when Max couldn't face Kate. After a while, when the pressure of trying to keep all of her pain and guilt over Rachel and Joyce from exploding in Max's face got to be too much, it was Kate who saw how badly Chloe needed to talk.
It was Kate who listened, in the early days, before Max could.
So Chloe puts her beer down, then picks Kate up, folding her into an embrace. Kate squeaks when her feet leave the floor, but she quickly wraps her arms around Chloe. It was easier doing shit like this when they were both younger, but Chloe's kind of a gym rat these days. Theoretically she does it to stay healthy, but all the hours spent in the vicinity of sweaty dudes with wandering eyes is made worthwhile because Chloe is able to pick up her favourite girls whenever she feels like it.
"Thanks, Kate."
"You're welcome." Kate waits a moment. "Um, you can put me down?"
"Right, yeah!" Chloe lowers Kate to the ground and grins at her. "It's good to see you, lady. How's the family? How's the latest bestseller coming?"
"Oh! I'm just making a mess with my paints, as usual." Kate waves a hand, dismissing the shelf-load of kids' books she's drawn and illustrated. Books which have filled more than one shelf in the house the books have paid for with the awards that they've won. "But everyone's well, thank you! Michael's decided to spend the weekend working on his motorbike restoration project, though I think he's being optimistic. It's all going to depend on what the children decide to do."
"Yeah, that Triumph isn’t happening any time soon! And how are the babies?"
"Sam is almost two, can you believe it? He's not really a baby anymore. And I know Evey is looking forward to her Auntie Chloe's next visit. She's still talking about the pirate tattoo you drew on her arm last time you visited."
Chloe grins. She's no artist, but she is quite an accomplished doodler. "Have I ever mentioned I have high hopes for your daughter?"
Kate smiles, all the way to her eyes. "You and Max should come visit soon. Come whenever. You have an open invitation."
Chloe has to fight the urge to pick Kate up again. "You're just trying to lure me in and trick me into babysitting, aren't you?"
"Oh, no!" Kate smiles guilelessly up at Chloe. "I'm trying to trick Max into babysitting while we run wild and paint the town red!"
Chloe laughs. "Isn't your town kinda...tiny?"
"I'd say it's snug, thank you. And since I'm usually in my bed by 8 these days, a small town is all I could really manage to paint red."
"Well, I appreciate you staying up late tonight on my account tonight," Chloe says, grinning.
"It's okay. I took a nap in the hotel." Kate smiles, her eyes twinkling. "I may even make it to ten tonight!"
"Seattle is not prepared for your rampage, Kate." Chloe finishes her beer. She takes satisfaction in spending her own money for the first time this evening, buying herself another beer and a cranberry juice for Kate. She clinks Kate's glass with her bottle. "It's seriously good to see you. Thanks for taking the time to visit."
"It was overdue! Besides..." Kate touches the crucifix she wears at her neck. "I couldn't miss tonight."
"Yeah, it's not every year I turn thirty! Well, come to think of it, I could make it a rule that every year from here on out is my thirtieth. Fuck the aging system and its numerical oppression, right?"
"I...suppose that's one way of looking at it! I do think it's scary, how quickly time passes these days. Weeks used to last longer, didn't they?"
"Some longer than others," Chloe mutters, looking for Max. She spots her near the exit, partially obscured by and in conversation with some older guy Chloe doesn't recognise.
"Chloe?"
"Mm?"
"Ah, I actually do have something I wanted to...well, I mean, I want to give you your present." Kate rummages in her bag, her cheeks puffed out as she hunts. "I want you to have this now, in case I forget."
"Dude, come on. You don't have to--"
"I do," Kate says firmly. She looks up, smiling in triumph, and presents Chloe with an envelope. It's made of thick, creamy paper and from the look of it, it contains more high end stationery inside it. "Here!"
Chloe bemusedly accepts it. "You...got me a letter?"
"Um, something like that." Kate chuckles. "It...um, it's for later, though. Don't open it now."
"Okaaay." Chloe hesitates, then tucks the envelope into her jacket pocket. "Thank you, Kate Peele, Woman Of Mystery. I'll take it to bed with a torch and open it under my comforter, while Max is brushing her teeth."
"Oh, ah! You don't have to...I mean, I really hope you'll share it with Max!" Kate giggles, but the sound is a little too strained. She begins to fiddle with her hair, changes her mind and takes a swift drink of cranberry juice. She avoids Chloe's eye as her cheeks redden.
"Kate. Katy. Katerina. Is there somethin' on your mind?"
"Um, n-no! I, ah, it isn't really..." Kate groans. "Max is going to give a speech about you! With photos! It was supposed to be a surprise..."
"This is not a complete shock to me, Kate. Max has been working on a secret project on her laptop for a while. And there is that big projector screen, so..."
It isn't a shock, even if it is surprising as a concept: Max doesn't like public speaking. But it explains why Max has been so fidgety, and maybe even why Kristen and Kate have been keeping Chloe occupied. Max wanted to get set up while preserving the surprise for Chloe. Chloe finds herself relaxing completely for the first time since she came into the bar.
"Max should really know by now that she can't hide secrets from me!"
"Especially not if she tells them to me," Kate mutters ruefully.
"Relax, Kate! I'll act surprised when the moment comes."
It comes only a few minutes later, when Kristen seizes Chloe's arm and hauls her towards a cluster of tables facing the projector screen.
"Okay, Chloe, that's enough standing around!" Kristen says, smirking. "Let's get you seated for the main event."
"I thought I was the main event?"
"Right! Which means you're way too important to still be standing!"
Chloe grins and lets herself be dragged to a chair close to the projector. Kate takes a seat on one side of her, while Kristen and Fernando sit on the other side of their table. The other guests take the remaining seats or find places to stand where they can see the screen.
"Well, this is all very surprising," Chloe says loudly, throwing in a quick wink at Kate.
Kate gives her a sufficiently impressive Disapproving Mom Glare to wipe the grin off of Chloe's face for a few seconds.
A large hand claps her shoulder. Chloe looks up and up some more until she makes eye contact with Ryan Caulfield's beard.
"Hey, Mr C!"
"Chloe!" The beard parts, revealing Ryan's teeth in a smile. "Before things get crazy, I wanted to say happy birthday. So...happy birthday!"
"Thanks! And thanks for coming out tonight. Is Mrs C around?"
"Ah, yes! Somewhere." The smile becomes toothier. "She's been helping Max organise things tonight. She's keeping close to Max. And I...am going to be on standby in case anything goes wrong. If you need me, I'll be nearby!"
"Huh? Cool, but why would I...?"
Before Chloe can question what that's supposed to mean, Kristen lets off a whoop. Chloe looks round and sees Max standing to the side of the projector screen. Her laptop is set up on a stool at her elbow.
Max is nervous.
It isn't as obvious as it used to be when they were kids, or even when they were fumbling through the first years of supposed adulthood together. But it's there in the set of her shoulders, the compression of her lips, the way the tip of her shoe makes tiny, almost indiscernible movements back and forth.
Chloe wishes she could go to her, but that would probably make things worse. She wishes she'd had a chance to spend more time with Max tonight and decides that she's going to do her best to get some private time with her as soon as she can.
Chloe wishes she'd made more of a big deal of how beautiful Max is tonight, too, because shit she's beautiful. She looks amazing in a pale green dress with floral embroidery and a fancy, floaty skirt. Her hair is up in a braid, and her makeup brings out the deep and perfect blue of her eyes.
Max turns those eyes on Chloe and when their gazes meet, some of the rigidity leaves Max's posture. She smiles, just a little quirk of the lips, but that's enough to let Chloe know that everything is okay. Max is okay.
"H-hey..." Max clears her throat. "Hey, everyone! So...we all know why we're here, right?"
Max taps at her laptop's keyboard and Chloe's face appears on the projector. It's not just any picture, either: it's the fucking awful shot of her on her driver's license. Chloe puts on a scowl at the ripple of laughter that shot provokes. Max grins at her.
"That's right! We're here because of Chloe Elizabeth Price, who is going to be thirty years old on Monday!"
Chloe's surprised by the volume of the applause and cheering that follows. She raises her bottle in salute, hoping her blush isn't too obvious.
When the noise dies down, Max continues. "I wanted to celebrate some of the highs..."
A new picture appears on the screen: Chloe from a few years ago, grinning in obvious delight around the side of a stacked plate as she was about to embark on Maureen the Doughnut Queen's Every Variety Challenge.
"And the lows of life with Chloe Price."
The next image is of Chloe thirty minutes and several doughnuts later, her face smeared with jam and powdered sugar, her eyes glazed with horror as she contemplates the mound of baked goods still on her plate.
Everybody laughs again, louder this time. Chloe shoots Max another glare and decides she needs to go through Max's photo archives and make some edits.
"There are a lot of stories I could tell you about Chloe," Max says, looking like she's enjoying herself now. "About the time she 'fixed' the washing machine and flooded my parents' house, or the time she decided to celebrate my birthday with a romantic breakfast in bed..."
Cue a picture Chloe took of the tray laden with a belgian waffle, a side dish of fresh berries, a glass of champagne, and a juniper-scented candle.
Chloe sinks even lower in her seat. "Fuck, Max!"
"...and woke me up when she set the sheets on fire."
Cue a picture Max took of their scorched and sodden comforter. It's not Max's best shot, probably because she was laughing her ass off so much she couldn’t keep her hands steady.
Several people in the crowd laugh theirs off in the here and now. When Fernando gapes at her, Chloe mutters, "I dropped the candle and the bed sheet went up, okay? But I put it out with the champagne!"
Max clears her throat. "I could tell you a lot more stories like that. Like, a lot. And I probably will when I've had another glass of wine, but--"
"Cut Max off," Chloe yells to the bar staff.
That gets a laugh, and a little glare from Max.
"But," she says, "there are all the other things I could tell you about. I could tell you about Chloe going out for ice cream and bringing back our cat, Willow, instead. Chloe found her injured and mewling in the street and saved her, when everyone else walked by."
Cue an image Chloe didn't even know existed: Chloe napping on the couch, a sleek and content-looking Willow curled up on Chloe's chest. She remembers that evening, though. It was about a month ago. Max had come home from a shoot and draped a blanket over Chloe without waking either her or the cat. Max had waited until Chloe woke up before having her dinner. They'd snuggled up on the couch, bitched about their days, then binged She-Ra on Netflix in anticipation of the new season dropping.
It had been a good night. There have been a lot of good nights, more and more of them lately.
"I could tell you about the time I fell off a wall I climbed trying to frame the perfect shot..."
Cue an impressionistic smear of lights and shapes. Some people laugh, and even Max smiles, but Chloe doesn't. She remembers the pain Max was in, how long she was hobbling around on a swollen ankle, how stressed she was that she'd fucked up a freelance assignment, that she was losing work when they needed money.
"I, uh, tore the ligaments in my ankle. Chloe left the garage early and drove me to the hospital. When we got home, she carried me up the stairs to our apartment." Max pauses, and the laugh lines around her mouth crease. "We do have an elevator, but she insisted on the carrying thing."
People laugh, and even Chloe smiles, but Max doesn't. She stares Chloe in the eye, her expression tender, but...but there's something else, something even Chloe has only glimpsed relatively rarely. Purpose. Resolve.
Chloe shivers.
Even friends who know them fairly well think that Chloe is the tough one and Max is the soft one. That's complete fucking bullshit, of course. It’s true that Chloe can be loud and impulsive, and people often mistake that for being decisive. And it’s true that Max usually isn’t loud or demanding. That’s because Max prefers quiet, though. She likes to take her time thinking things through.
When she was younger, Max could get lost in her own thoughts. She could become paralysed in the face of making a decision. Now, though, when Max is done thinking and she decides to do something, there's no fuss, no fucking around, she just quietly makes it happen. And when she has the kind of look in her eye that she has right now...
It’s this simple: Max isn't the tough one in their relationship. Max is the toughest person Chloe has ever met.
Chloe is more than okay with other people not seeing that side of Max. Chloe considers it one of her duties in life to try to ensure that Max is never tested as sorely again as she was that week. Chloe is happy that most people think that Max is soft. As far as Chloe is concerned, they should treasure Max's considerable capacity to be gentle, to be warm, to be kind.
Most of all, Chloe wants Max to be able to treasure those qualities in herself. More days than not now, it seems like she does.
Max's eyes flicker over Chloe's face. She releases a breath and smiles. "I could tell you a lot of stories about Chloe Elizabeth Price, because I've been lucky enough to share most of her life with her. But I need to try to tell you about all the things I can't tell you."
Blank white space fills the projector screen.
"Because how do you explain all the tiny things? All the things that make you love someone, all the things that help you get through..." Max swallows, her smile becoming fragile. "Ah, that help you get through the rough days. Chloe has been there for me through the very roughest moments of my life, and how can I explain all the ways she helped me get through them?
“How can I put into words how much she means to me, how much she's meant to me through my whole life? Through dumb jokes no one else would laugh at, and meaningless games that meant everything to us, to the way she always steals the last of my dessert, to how she always knows when I need a cookie or a hug, or...or how she holds my hand during a thunderstorm, to...everything. How do I sum up everything about Chloe?"
Max spreads her hands, directing her gaze around the room.
"Maybe you don't need to be convinced that Chloe is special. Maybe you don't need to know exactly how or why she's so special to me. But the thing is...Chloe deserves to know. So...Mom?"
Vanessa Caulfield walks up to Max, passing her something small. Small, and suspiciously box-like.
Chloe's mouth is dry, her heart is thundering, and none of her limbs seem to be functioning properly. Her head is several sizes too small for the thoughts her brain is trying to construct.
"So, uh, this is the best way I could think of to say how much I love you, Chloe." Max squares her shoulders. Her foot scrapes and scrapes at the floor. Her nose scrunches up. "Next slide, Mom."
A new image appears on the projector, but this time it's just a bunch of words with a question mark at the end. The words read: Will you (still) marry me?
Max lowers herself to one knee. She opens the box Vanessa gave her, and presents Chloe with an engagement ring. "Surprise."
"Oh, holy fuck," Chloe gasps. She tries to make sense of where her legs are and how they're supposed to work. She tries to stand up. "You little shit, how could you do this to me?"
Max's nose scrunches in amusement. "Is that a yes, or...?"
"Fuck you, Max! Yeah, it's yes!"
More laughter. And, Chloe notices, an exchange of smug looks between Kristen, Fernando and even Kate.
"Okay. Good!" Max takes a few deep breaths while the room is filled with cheering and applause. Chloe has just about managed to stand up when Max says, "Mom. Next slide."
Chloe freezes. "There's more?"
The new slide reads: Oh, thank dog. Okay. But will you marry me RIGHT NOW?
The old guy Max was talking to earlier walks up to Vanessa’s side. He has a book tucked under one arm. He’s carrying a cushion with a pair of wedding bands on it and a decided twinkle in his eye.
A lot of people gasp and a buzz of conversation fills the room in response to that. Chloe’s response is to suavely trip up over her chair.
Ryan Caulfield appears by her side, clasping her elbow and helping Chloe get untangled from the suddenly complex furniture. He lets her go once she's clear of the table, but he offers her his arm. Softly, he asks, "Chloe. Would you like me to walk you over there?"
It's less than ten feet and Chloe thinks she can make it even on her feet. But that isn't what he's asking. That isn't what he's offering.
Chloe hesitates. It's only for a moment, but it's long enough for Ryan. He thrusts his hands into his pockets and nods at her. "Okay. Go on, then. Go marry my daughter."
"Thanks, but..." Chloe trails off, because she can tell from the smile he gives her that he understands. "Thanks," she concludes lamely.
She starts off in the direction of Max, only for Kate to lean out of her seat and touch her wrist. "Chloe! Quick, open your present!"
Chloe blinks at her. She fumbles the envelope out of her pocket. She can feel something small and solid sliding around inside it. It's unsealed, so she only has to push one trembling finger under the flap and tug to open it. She takes the folded letter out, and unfolds it. There are three short lines of text: This isn’t your present. This was the disguise. Look in the envelope.
Chloe fishes around until she finds the real present. Chloe gasps. "Kate, there's no fucking way I can accept--"
Kate plucks the envelope and letter out of her hands and smiles at her. "Yes. You can. No arguments, Max is waiting."
She has a point. Chloe turns and there Max is, smiling at her. And at that point, it's Max and only Max. Chloe doesn't feel like she's in charge of her own body until she's standing in front of her.
"Hi," Max says softly, a tiny smile on her lips, a depth of love in her eyes. "You're really pretty. Can I be yours?"
"Hey, beautiful." Chloe coughs out a laugh. "Is...is this really happening?"
"It is." Max's face grows solemn. "I...I still don’t know if I deserve this. If I deserve you, but...but I’ll always have doubts. And I have no doubt about you. I finally realised I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, so…”
“So...you planned a fucking ambush wedding?”
“I prefer to think of it as a pirate wedding,” Max says, her eyes gleaming. “I figured we may as well get on with it. We both know what we want. All the guests we want are here. And...I didn't want you to have to wait any longer. I've kept you waiting for seventeen years already."
"You remember that?" Chloe's pretty sure even the tips of her ears are as pink as her hair at this point. "I was kinda hoping you'd forgotten about that."
"I haven't forgotten anything, Chloe Price." It's almost ominous, until Max grins, and everything about her is made luminous. "Now gimme your hand! I've got to put this ring on you!"
Chloe offers her hand. It takes Max a few seconds to get the ring on her finger; it's a perfect fit, but both of their hands are shaking. Chloe is dimly aware of the sounds of celebration around them, hut all it is is noise. Max is holding Chloe's hand in both of hers, her eyes brighter than the diamond on Chloe's finger, a soft smile on her lips that Chloe aches to kiss.
But the kissing part comes later. Now, Chloe has a surprise for Max.
"Okay. Your turn."
"Huh?" Max blinks. "What do you...?"
"I guess Kate can keep a secret when she wants to." Chloe shows her Kate's gift: a gold ring with a sapphire set in it.
"What?" Max's hands fly to her mouth. "Kate?"
“Surprise!” Chloe uses the edge of her thumb to catch a tear threatening to spill from the corner of Max’s eye. “Hey. Let me see that hand. We’re going to need to do this all over again pretty soon!”
“Good point.” Max surrenders her hand. She watches with the same intensity and focus she has when she’s framing a shot as Chloe slides the ring onto her finger.
“You know what this means?”
Max’s nose scrunches with amusement. “That we’re engaged?”
“Well, yeah! Holy shit...yeah! We’re engaged! For real! Holy shit!”
“Did you...really not get that part of this process?”
“Shut the fuck up, I’m trying to be sweet here!”
“Oh, sorry! You’re making a great job of it so far. Do go on.”
Chloe sticks her tongue out at Max, making her giggle. “What I was going to say was...your eyes are officially prettier than sapphires.”
“Oh.” Max’s eyes widen, making testing the comparison even easier. And even more to the sapphire’s detriment. Max’s cheeks redden. “Okay, but...don’t say things like that while we’re in a strict no-kissing window. Because I really want to kiss you now.”
“Wait, we’re not allowed to kiss for the whole of our engagement?”
“Uh-huh. But that’s going to be about thirty more seconds, so...I think we’ll manage.”
“Don’t be too sure,” Chloe says softly, brushing the backs of her fingers across Max’s cheek. She leans in a little closer. “You’re looking seriously fucking kissable right now.”
Which is, of course, the point where the old dude who’s marrying them announces his presence by clearing his throat.
Chloe jumps back, flushing. She becomes painfully aware of the thirty-odd people watching her again. “Ah...yeah. Right. Good. Totally ready for this!”
And the thing is...Chloe is.
It’d be a lie to say that she’s wanted this her whole life, or that she’s wanted this since she was thirteen, or that Max was the only love of her life. Life and love are too messy, too complex, to happily endure absolutes.
Hearts have more than one chamber; there’s room for more than one great love.
But if it’s a lie to say that the road to this moment was smooth or direct, it’d be a bigger lie to say that Chloe could imagine being in this moment with anyone other than Max. It’d be the biggest lie of all to say that who Chloe Price is now could love anyone as much as she loves Max Caulfield.
Things take on a dream-like quality over the following minutes. Vanessa moves to Max’s side, taking charge of the cushion with the rings. Kristen joins Vanessa, and Kate joins Chloe, putting herself in serious danger of being lifted off the floor again.
The old guy turns out to be a humanist celebrant, and once the wedding party is gathered and the noise in the bar has settled into expectant silence, he says, “Normally, I’d begin by saying something about why we’re gathered here today, but that would be somewhat redundant, I think!”
And maybe Chloe isn’t just ready, but impatient, even, because when he catches her eye, his widen slightly. “Well,” he says briskly, “since this doesn’t seem like the occasion to prolong the moment, shall we move things along? Would you like to share your vows?”
At which point, Chloe realises that she is not, in fact, fucking ready at all. “Uh…suuuure, but, uh, I might need--”
“Chloe.“ Max takes her hand in both of hers. “Whatever else might not last…”
“We will,” Chloe whispers, locking eyes with Max. She clears her throat and more confidently states, “We will. Forever.”
“That’s the only vow I need,” Max says, squeezing her hand.
The celebrant coughs politely. “The law requires just a few more...shall we?”
One of the advantages of ritual is that it renders the arcane into a series of easy steps to follow. So even though Chloe is pretty much entirely consumed by Max’s eyes, Max’s smile, Max’s sheer intoxicating presence, she has enough brain left over to say all the right things at the right moments.
It seems like no time passes at all before Chloe is saying ‘I do’ and sliding a silver band inscribed with a pattern of roses onto Max’s finger. And then Max is saying ‘I do’ and sliding an identical ring onto Chloe’s finger.
And then it’s the moment that some part of her has been waiting for for nearly seventeen years: the kiss. Chloe has kissed Max before, of course, many times. But she’s never kissed her wife before, and the realisation that she’s about to for the first time is more than a little breathtaking.
Chloe leans down and runs her fingers across Max’s upturned cheeks. She leans in and her mouth meets Max’s parted, expectant lips. Presumably there’s cheering, and applause, and laughter, and the flash of phones and cameras capturing their version of the moment.
Chloe has no awareness of any of that. She’s only aware of Max’s skin under her fingers, of Max’s body moving up against hers, of Max’s lips, her mouth, her tongue as the kiss between them deepens. Chloe is aware of the blood rushing through her body singing a fierce chorus in time to the percussion of her heart. She’s aware of the duet her body is making with Max’s.
She’s aware that she’s in love and that she is loved in equal and endless measure. She is aware that this moment will not last, but the memory of it, and the bond that it symbolises, will last for as long as she and Max have left.
And in the end, when they finally part, Chloe is aware that she is married to Maxine Caulfield and every shadow that her past has ever cast on her is dispelled in the light of that understanding, if only for a little while.
Max, face flushed and happy, the fingers of her right hand tangled in Chloe’s hair, touches the tip of her nose to Chloe’s and whispers, ‘“Wowser.”
“Yeah. Wowser.” Chloe laughs. “So...how long do we have to stick around here before we can go home and consummate the fuck out of this union?”
Reality doesn’t put in much of an appearance for the rest of the night.
There are papers to be signed, and pictures to be taken, and people to be spoken to. There are gifts to be received, thanks to be given, conspirators to Max’s evil scheme to be grilled, champagne and cake to be consumed, music to be danced to, Kate to be hugged, Kristen and Fernando and Vanessa and Ryan to be hugged by…
It’s a lot, but it doesn’t feel overwhelming because Max is by Chloe’s side through all of it. It’s a lot, but Chloe’s patience can’t wear thin when everything seems new and exciting and good. Everything about being Max Caulfield’s bride feels good.
Especially the parts where they find an excuse to hide in a corner and make out like horny teens for a few minutes at a time.
It’s Max who eventually signals an end to the evening by tugging Chloe into kissing range and planting one on her cheek. Then she whispers, “Mom booked us a cab for midnight. It’s midnight. Wanna go home?”
“Oh, fuck yeah, Mrs, uh...wife.”
Max giggles. “We’ll figure out surnames tomorrow. That can wait. Right?”
And with one of Max’s hands cupping the back of her neck and the other stealthily kneading her ass, Chloe is inclined to agree to anything she has in mind at the moment.
“You wanna start making our goodbyes?” Chloe asks, her voice only slightly unsteady.
“Fuck that shit.” Max grins. “Let’s elope.”
“I think technically we missed our chance for that, but I’m all for running now and working the rest out tomorrow!”
They don’t exactly get away unnoticed, but they do get away quickly, followed by a chorus of goodbyes, best wishes and Kristen’s wolf whistling.
They have their first argument as a married couple in the cab and come to their first compromise: Max forbids Drunk Chloe from carrying her up the stairs to their apartment and insists on taking the elevator. Chloe agrees, but only on the condition that they make out aggressively while they’re in there.
Max approves that motion.
One cab ride, one elevator ride and dozens of increasingly hungry kisses later, they’re standing at the door of their apartment. Chloe unlocks it and pushes it ajar, wary of feline escape attempts, but she doesn’t go in. She blocks the doorway with her body and turns to Max.
“I’m carrying you in there. You know that, right?”
“I know.” Max laughs and holds out her arms. “I didn’t want us falling down a whole bunch of stairs, but I’m not missing a chance to swoon in your arms.”
Chloe gathers Max up into her arms. Max happily wraps her arms around Chloe’s neck and kisses her. Chloe turns to face their apartment. She pauses and gazes into Max’s eyes. “You make me so fucking happy. I love you so fucking much, Mrs Price.”
“I love you, Mrs Caulfield. Take me to bed now.”
Chloe kisses her again, then she pushes the door open with her elbow.
They cross the threshold together, in each other’s arms, in each other’s hearts, in inseperable union.