Vaughn

I watched as Chelsea dived after the chicken that fell into the water without a second to spare. For a small period I wondered if she would resurface as bubbles started popping up where she dived in. 'Should I dive in after her?'

Max whined slightly, then, thankfully she surfaced. She looked wildly around her and saw the chicken. She dove after it and raised it just above the dock. Mark took her, flailing claws, wings,beak and all, into his arms and held her. Then Chelsea swam towards the shore, reaching it, she collapsed.

"Chelsea!" Mark screamed in surprise. He ran to her and numbly I followed.

"What happened?" Chen asked worriedly rushing towards us.

"She jumped in after a chicken" I said. Chen ruffled his brows in confusion.

" Is she okay?" Charlie asked more worried than I've ever seen him.

"She should be. But she needs to get the wet clothes off her and warm up. The water should still have been too cold to be in from the winter and the cool spring air won't help. Charlie you go get Julia and Mirabelle. Tell them to go to Chelsea's"

"Right." He said, then took off.

I picked up Chelsea with shaking hands and Max gave a warning growl at me in response. "Down boy" Mark says listlessly.

I nodded my thanks to him and carried Chelsea to her ranch, Mark buzzing like a bee next to me, worrying about her.

Mark opened her house door and I walked in setting her down on her bed.

Immediately, I start running the water in her bathroom. When the tub was full of warm water I picked Chelsea up again and dropped her carefully in the tub. I watched as the bubbles swarmed up around her. I made sure she wouldn't go under the water and left the bathroom.

Mark was sitting on the couch, clutching onto the chicken which seemed more or less fine.

'it probably would've taken a lot less time to just crawl up back on the dock.' I watched the chicken try to squirm out of Mark's grasp. Max was sitting solemnly next to him, laying across his feet.

I looked out the window towards the animal shop for a bouncy blonde, and her sweet mother next to her. I spotted them soon after.

I hurriedly opened the door at the sound of their knocks. "Did you call the doctor?"

Julia brushed right past me and looked around, "Where is she?" She asks while lifting up a cushion on the couch.'I'm not even going to ask about that.'

Ignoring her, I turned to Mirabelle. She smiled soothingly, "Don't worry, the doctor should be coming as fast as he can."

Julia barged into the bathroom and saw Chelsea. After that she just stared at her with a peculiar expression on her face. She turned around on her heels and pointed at me. "You! This is your fault!" I stumbled back in surprise. "What?" was my unintelligible reply.

She went out into a rampage building herself up. "Yeah! If you were taking your job seriously, Chelsea wouldn't have had to dive into the water to get the chicken out. You're an animal transporter aren't you? Doesn't that mean the animals safety is your job until they reach their stop?!" I felt a swift rage boil in my stomach.

Julia was accusing me of being bad at my job. I don't take pride in many things, but I take pride in my job. I clenched my fists resisting the temptation to knock her out cold. "Excuse you?" I said,cool as humanly possible. Julia froze.

"Since when is it your job to insult me on mine? And the chicken wouldn't have gone in the water if Chelsea hadn't tried to grab it." I finished off with a yell.

"Enough!" Mark intervenes.

We turned to him in surprise.

He was shaking in a rage and glaring at me. To my surprise his glare seemed to freeze the room. Max was hiding behind his leg. His tail firmly tucked between his hind legs and trying to look as small as possible. "Where do you get off blaming Chelsea?" He said visibly building himself up. "What happened, happened. Do you have any idea how much blaming Chelsea could hurt her?" We stare at Mark, shocked.

He chuckled low under his breath. "No, of course you wouldn't. You're just an inconsiderate antisocial bastard of a cowboy." Mark turned.

Max raced out the door as if to run away from Mark and Mark followed him in a sheer rage, still holding the chicken-which was now cowering- and slamming the door as he left.

"What was that about? And who was he in the first place?" Julia asks.

I shrug my shoulders.

She huffs. "Fine. Don't tell me."

I rolled my eyes and went into the bathroom. The water was cooling to a lukewarm temperature. I put my hand on Chelsea's forehead to check her temperature. Her forehead felt hot.

I picked her up ,effectively soaking my clothes, and walked out of the bathroom with her dripping water. "What are you doing?" Julia asks.

I ignored her and laid Chelsea down on her bed. "Can you get her out of her clothes?" I ask Mirabelle, pulling down on my hat.

She gave a small smile to that, "of course if you're willing to leave." I blushed and scuttled out of the house.

Once outside and with a brief hesitation I decided it would be best to check on the water-logged chicken that Mark took off with. I found them both behind a barn.

Mark was doing his best to warm up the chicken which was almost impossible with his blue work gloves that went up just below his elbows on. As I approached him he was peeling his gloves off and I caught a sight of scars running down where the gloves had covered.

A branch snapped apart as I stopped. Mark whipped around and pulled his gloves around in a swift,practiced motion.

"What's with you!?" He yelled with panic slivering behind his eyes.

I pulled down my hat to hide my expression, "The chicken shouldn't be in danger if you just dry it off."

"Yeah, I know."

"Then you might need something to actually, you know dry him." I said irritated. He passed the chicken to me with a quick don't drop her and walked away. I let him and worked on drying off the chicken.

Uggggggghhhhhh I don't like Mark. He gets better eventually but right now he is my most hated character type(Character type, not character, that would be Chelsea's dad which you haven't meet yet so you wouldn't know.) I think it's how he talks because he actions don't really bother me anymore than Elliot who just mildly irritates me by the way,(which is probably why you haven't seen hide, hair, nor tail from him even though I've mentioned a lot of other people) Vaughn is kinda nerdy and heroic in all of this, which even I found a little weird. Well I updated about as fast as I promised.