Hey everyone, another chapter! Anyway, something I forgotten to mention before.
When I was doing psychology for my A level I came across something interesting. I've come to the conclusion that the reason Vaughn is the way he is, is because he is further on the autism spectrum (We're all on the spectrum at some point too long to explain, pm me if you want to know more). Strange but true (This has nothing to do with the story, I just thought I should share it with you :D). Signs of autism include:

Lack of interest in sharing enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people.
Lack of empathy
Don't like change
Prefers to spend time with animals
Difficulties in communication and people skills

Mryhh - Yes Jack teases Chelsea which is typical but I also like how is very protective over her at the same time. He's done a lot for Chelsea :3

Onwards with the story

Happy Reading xxx

"Chelsea, is that all of them?" Vaughn asked Chelsea as he shut the barn door behind them. It was raining cats and dogs out there. Typical mid-August weather. Chelsea counted the animals in each pen, consulting the animal inventory as she went. It took about an hour to round up all of the animals after it started to lightly drizzle. Vaughn was still wearing his yellow mac, he had a feeling he had to go back out for another animal but Chelsea simply hung up hers. It was almost time for her to go home anyway.
She got to the cow's pen, counted them and looked at the inventory. She counted the cows again and once more.

"One's missing. One of the cows." She said to Vaughn as she placed the inventory book back on the shelf.

"Great, get your mac on again. We need to find her." Vaughn said as he opened the doors of the barn back up again revealing the rainy weather. He could only thank goddess that it wasn't stormy in anyway just simple down pour.

"Vaughn, I need to go back to Jack." Chelsea told him. It was seven in the evening, leaving then would mean she could get back for eight but Vaughn didn't look impressed.

"Your relationship with your brother is touching but I will not rest until I know all my animals are safe. The palace employs you to assist me. I suggest you do so." He grabbed her hanging yellow mac and thrusted it at her.

"Fine but if anything happens to Jack 'cause I'm not there, I'm holding you responsible." She growled storming past him whilst throwing on the hideous looking mac. It even had a horrid pointed hood.

"Happy to." Vaughn said as he locked the barn doors up again. "Come on. It is not getting any lighter out there." He walked past the sulking girl. She rolled her eyes, he wasn't going to change his mind so she may as well have to deal with it.

"Vaughn, wait." She caught back up with him, struggling to keep up with his pace. He had an unfair advantage with longer legs. "So where do you think she's going to be?" Vaughn stopped in his tracks.

"Do you know how big the palace farmland is?" He asked her. It was about three square miles. The animal land was one square mile. It wasn't going to take five minutes to find a cow like it would on Chelsea's farmland.

"No."

"She could be anywhere." Vaughn spread his arms out in exaggeration.

"B-But what about Jack?" She continued on to him. She knew Julia would be there but like always, Chelsea wouldn't want to leave Jack longer than necessary.

"I said I would take responsibility. You can go back for him but do not expect a job on Monday." He hissed at her. This was one example of how Vaughn would sometimes forget the truce he and Chelsea made a month or so back.

"I know you're worried about the cow but there's no need to be so nasty." She told him. She knew he didn't mean a word he said but felt that he needed to be reminded.

"I know and I am sorry. The quicker we go now, the quicker you can go home." Chelsea saw the friendliness come back in his eyes. "Let's go."

-/-

"She wasn't over there." Chelsea said as she met Vaughn back in the same place as they had started out from. The rain hadn't died down, it just got worse.

"No sign at all where I was." Chelsea could see the frantic look on Vaughn's face. It pained him to know that he could well have lost one of his cows for good. He loved his animals more than anything.

"If you were a cow, where would you go?" Chelsea asked him but his mind was elsewhere.

"Check the perimeter." He told Chelsea. It would take them ages considering how big the farm land was.

"Vaughn, wait." Chelsea grabbed hold of Vaughn's arm and gently pulled him back.

"What?" She pressed her finger up against his lips to keep him quiet and surprisingly he didn't protest when she lowered her hand.

"Listen." The two stood in silence as the listened through the rain. It was difficult to hear anything but the rain however, in the near distance it sounded like the moo of a cow.

"Sounds like-" Chelsea grabbed his arm again and lead him over to the far right hand side of the farmland. She then started to run with Vaughn close behind her. It was funny how she found it difficult to speed walk but she could run like the wind.

"She's in this direction, hurry up." Chelsea called back just as she slipped on an area of wet mud. Vaughn grabbed her hand just before she fell.

"Careful." He told her as the both continued to run, not really noticing that he hadn't let go of her hand.

"Ground's a bit slippy by the way." She laughed as they were coming closer to the cow.

"No…" He said sarcastically.

"You're getting good at this sarcasm thing."

-/-

"Thank Goddess." Vaughn said as they approached the cow. Chelsea skidded down to the fenced area and inspected the cow from there.

"Not yet, Vaughn. It looks like she's trapped her head in the fence." Chelsea tried to gently push the cow's head back out of the fence but there was no such luck. The cow mooed uncomfortably in response. "What do we do?" She asked Vaughn as he too tried to free the trapped cow.

"Break the fence." He said simply.

"In case you haven't noticed, it doesn't look like some flimsy fence, it's made of fricking oak for goddess sake." Chelsea shouted as she kicked the fence. It didn't so much as wobble slightly.

"We have to try, I am not going to leave her for any longer." At least two hours had passed since they started looking for her so the option of looking for tools is not one.

"So how do you propose we do it?" Chelsea asked as she folded her arms and glanced at the sturdy fence. In any other situation a sturdy fence is perfect for keeping animals in but not for freeing trapped animals. Vaughn paced up and down the fence whilst contemplating and looking at the cow.

"I think it will be a lot easier than we anticipated." He said, still looking at the fence.

"How so?" Chelsea said as she stood by him trying to look in his perspective.

"Each of the oak beams slots onto the supporting post, we just have to push the post back to get the beam out but there is one problem." He said to her as he pointed a nearby supporting post out to her.

"What's the issue?" She said, seeing what his plan was and thinking it was a perfectly good idea. Vaughn went over and inspected the post, and Chelsea followed leaving the cow.

"We do not know how deep the posts are. If they are deep, it will be very difficult to push it back enough to get the post out." Vaughn tried to wobble the post but it stood firm.

"Let's just try it." Chelsea said as she knelt down and put her hands half way down the post. Vaughn leant he hands on the very top.

"Ready?" Chelsea nodded up to him. "Push." He ordered as they both pushed hard against the post. It didn't even move a centimetre.

"It ain't moved." Chelsea said in almost defeat.

"Again." He instructed as they both pushed against the post and again it didn't move. "Again." It still didn't move.

"Vaughn, it's not working." Chelsea said as she inspected her hands where a few splinters edged itself into her fingers.

"No. We have to push harder. Come on, we can do this, Chels." Chelsea smiled, she liked it when Vaughn unknowingly nicknames her.

"Yeah. We can do it." Chelsea and Vaughn leant their whole weight against the fence and it finally toppled slightly, it was enough to take away an oak beam but where it happened pretty suddenly, Vaughn ended up on Chelsea. It was a little awkward as they just stared at each other for a moment. "Oh. Hello." Chelsea said finally as Vaughn quickly stood up. Although it was dark, Chelsea could sense that that he had gone a little pink.

"Yes. Um. Check the cow over." He pointed over to the now free cow as he scratched the back of his head. He let the awkwardness pass before joining Chelsea.

"Vaughn?" Chelsea said a little worryingly.

"Yes, Chelsea?" Vaughn felt his heartbeat start to pick up. After everything, he hoped the cow was in good health but the look of Chelsea's face said differently.

"We can't go anywhere now." She said, looking down at the cow which wasn't helping Vaughn in anyway.

"Why not?" He reluctantly asked.

"The cow, she was pregnant. I elaborate on the word 'was', she's already given birth to the calf's head." Chelsea said kneeling to have a proper looking at the birthing calf. Vaughn was relieved but at the same time a little confused.

"I never implanted any cow with miracle potion yet." He told Chelsea as he too knelt down to inspect the near new born.

"Aww, she must have found her true love with one of your bulls and I think it's a good thing because it's natural not artificial selection." Chelsea said with delight. She never like the idea of artificial implantation, she believed that animals can decide for themselves who they want to mate with and make a baby with, not with which has the best genes.

"We do not have any bulls." Vaughn told her. He thought for a little longer. "It must have been at the cow festival. Yes I remember now. She was implanted with miracle potion from the winning bull." Chelsea's face dropped.

"So much for natural selection then." She grumbled. She took off her mac and held it above her head spread out, keeping her dry and the cow's dry.

"What are you doing?"

"It's pouring down with rain. We can't let the mother or the calf get sick. We could be here for a while." Vaughn nodded and did the same.

"Now that we found her, do you want to go back home?" He asked her.

"I ain't missing out on the interesting stuff. I'm sure Julia's keeping Jack occupied." She said. The last animal birth she witnessed was Ginny's so she wasn't going to miss this opportunity.

"Who's Julia?" Vaughn asked. He would often ask questions about Chelsea's life to bring up a conversation but similar responses would occur. A one sentence answer with the same ending.

"One of our neighbours, she and Jack really hit it off but no official relationship." There was the one sentence answer. "Long story actually. A bit boring really." And there's the same ending. Chelsea thought Vaughn wasn't interested in her back story so she would keep it short and sweet. After all he never spoke about his life, only that he was an animal worker for the palace.

-/-

"Aww. She's gorgeous. Do you reckon it's safe to take them back to the barn?" Chelsea cooed over the new born who was now able to walk. It was amazing how fast animals can learn and yet it takes about a year for a human to just about learn to walk.

"They are both itching to go so I would say yes." Vaughn said as he gave both the cows another thorough inspection before giving the all clear. He tied his lasso around both of them and started to lead them towards the barn. Chelsea still sheltered them with her mac.

"I think we better keep an eye on Oaky and Maple since they've been in the rain for so long." Vaughn nodded but gave her a screwy look.

"Oaky and Maple?" He questioned.

"Yeah. I couldn't resist in naming them. Oaky is the mother for obvious reasons and Maple because it's another form of wood and she's a light brown colour. Hope you don't mind." She smiled as she could see the lights of the barn.

"No. It is…" Vaughn tried to gather the right word without sounding soft. "Cute." He mentally kicked himself and pulled his hat down.

"Bit of an entertaining evening, wasn't it." Chelsea laughed trying to change the subject, she knew Vaughn made a little mistake in his wording. It wouldn't help matters if she made fun of him for it.

"Yeah. I think I have got this sorted. You better go back to Jack. It is almost midnight." He said as they neared the barn.

"So, I'll see you on Monday. Hopefully the weather will be a bit nicer." She said. The rain had only just about died back into a drizzle. She crouched down to the two cows. "Bye Oaky and Maple." She petted both mother and calf.

"See ya, Chels." It was nice that Vaughn was becoming less formal with her and more friendly.

"Bye, Vaughn." She said as she waved and started to sprint home.

Little bit of a fluffy chapter here but not as bad as what next chapter will be :P

Until next time xxx