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ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY :DDD

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CHAPTER STATS

Word Count (excluding A/N): 1269

Date Updated: 2-21-11

Current Review Count: 207

"We have now arrived on Sunny Island!"

Vaughn sighed at the voice booming over the speakers on the small boat. He was the only one on the passage besides the sailors. He could see that they had reached the island. It was really unnecessary for the captain to announce it like that.

Picking up his bag, Vaughn made his way down the ramp and onto the dock in the softly-falling snow. He glanced around the beach, surprised at how peaceful it was—it seemed to be a stark contrast to what the island had looked like last week during the storm. But now the waves were slowly pushing and pulling their way along the sand and the ground had a perfect blanket of white draped over it. He sighed again and ignored the white cloud of breath that swirled in front of him as he continued up towards the Animal Shop for another day's work.

His boots tore holes in that perfect blanket as he marched up the path. He shifted his gaze and managed to have it fall on the farm at the end of the road. How was Chelsea doing? Was her house as cold inside as it was outside? Maybe she'd—

He shook his head, dropping his eyes to study the snow on the ground. He really needed to stop worrying about the damn girl. He had so many other things that could be occupying his mind. So many more important things. He used to be so good about keeping his thoughts in-line.

Why did that have to change?

He pushed the door to the shop open and let the wall of heat hit him square in the face, making him realize how numb his nose and cheeks felt. Julia beamed up at him from behind the counter, catching him slightly off-guard—she'd never been so welcoming to him before…

"Vaughn, welcome back! Isn't it beautiful today?" She sighed happily, not even noticing the skeptical look Vaughn sent her. She was lucky he was in a decent mood. If he wasn't, she'd be receiving one intense glare. But he didn't really feel like glaring. In fact, he realized, he hadn't felt like glaring at all this whole past week. Weird.

"What's got int'you?" Vaughn asked, rolling his eyes as she giggled.

"Oh, nothing," she sighed again, smiling at nothing. Vaughn frowned slightly. She was acting like a total idiot.

"Well, where's Mirabelle?" He asked, hoping to just get to work at leave Julia alone to her insanity. Julia motioned to the kitchen jut as Mirabelle peeked her head out.

"I'm in here, Vaughn. Did your boat come in late today?" She asked as she disappeared behind the wall again. Vaughn walked over, glancing at the clock. It was already after noon—he grimaced to himself. He hated being late. Mirabelle didn't seem to mind, though. She was busy cutting up vegetable and tossing them into a large pot on the stove.

"I reckon it did," he said, pulling down at his hat, "Sorry, ma'am."

"Hm?" Mirabelle looked up at him. She laughed and waved it off. "Oh, don't you worry about it. I'm actually a bit surprised you came at all today, what with it being the day before Starry Night and all. Are you still going to be here tomorrow, too?"

Vaughn raised an eyebrow to himself. Was it already the twenty-fourth? Before he could come up with anything to say, Mirabelle continued.

"We'd love to have you, you know. Well, I would, at least. Julia won't be here—she's going over to eat with Elliot and his family this year."

That explains Julia's ditzy mood. Vaughn pursed his lips. He was usually working on Starry Night, and if he wasn't, he never made a big deal out of the holiday. In fact, he never really did anything to celebrate it. He wasn't so sure he was willing to change that…

"Ma," Julia said, walking into the kitchen, "You were invited to eat with us, too—did you forget?"

"Was I?" Mirabelle asked, frowning in thought. Julia nodded vigorously.

"Yes, you were! You said you would, too. Felicia was going to make stir-fried veggies and spa-boiled eggs, remember?"

"Oh—you're right," Mirabelle nodded, her face slowly relaxing with realization. She turned to Vaughn, looking slightly embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Vaughn. I can ask Felicia if you can join us, too—"

"No," Vaughn interrupted, "S'alright. I don't eat stir-fried veggies anyway."

Julia raised an eyebrow at him. He frowned. Was it obvious that he just didn't want to eat with all those people he didn't know?

"Are you sure, Vaughn?" Mirabelle pressed, looking guilty about leaving him with no plans. "I'd hate for you to be eating alone on Starry Night."

He scoffed in his mind. She didn't need to worry about that—he was used to it. But she wasn't going to be accepting that answer… He decided to lie. "I have plans, so it's fine."

"You do?" Julia asked, surprised. Mirabelle gave her a stern look and then smiled back at Vaughn.

"That's lovely, Vaughn! Then it's all settled. We're leaving here around four o'clock tomorrow evening and we won't be getting back until late. Where do you need to be for your plans?"

"Uh," he paused, trying to think of something. Lying was always such a hassle. "…I'm not sure yet, actually."

"Oh," Mirabelle said. "Well, maybe you should leave early, then, so you can figure out where you're going."

Vaughn sighed. It didn't matter to him when he left for his "plans". He would probably just be camping out in the Diner or, if that was closed, walking around the forest. He nodded in agreement and left the kitchen, heading outside to go check on the animals in the barn. He wasn't two yards from the door of the shop when he heard it open and quick footsteps following him.

"Hey, Vaughn," Julia's voice said from behind him. He turned around and looked at her expectantly from beneath the rim of his hat.

"Yeah?" He asked, eyeing the silver thermos in her hand. She held it out to him.

"Ma wanted you to take this over to Chelsea for her."

Vaughn plucked the hot thermos from the blonde's grip. "What's in it?"

"Just some soup," Julia said, shrugging. "Ma's been a bit worried about Chelsea getting enough food since she got sick."

"Sick?" Vaughn repeated, frowning. His stomach felt empty all of a sudden. "What kind of sick?"

"A cold, nothing serious. She's been back on her farm with it since Monday."

Vaughn nodded, absorbing the information. Inside, he was rolling his eyes at the farmer. She would get sick that easily.

"So will you give it to her?" Julia asked, breaking the silence that had formed. Vaughn nodded and started walking up the path.

"Sure."

"Hold on," Julia said, putting up a hand and stopping the cowboy in front of her. "One more thing."

Vaughn raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"

"I'm onto you," she said, her voice lower than it was before. Vaughn narrowed his eyes.

"What—?"

"I know how you feel about Chelsea, Vaughn," she said, her own eyes narrowed. "I just wanted to warn you. She's innocent. If you do anything to—"

"What the hell're you talkin' 'bout?" Vaughn growled, his face pink. Julia took a step away from him, her eyes still narrowed suspiciously.

"Don't play around with her, Vaughn. I don't want to see her come out of this hurt."

And then she walked back inside, leaving Vaughn utterly confused in the falling snow.

Okay, so, I know I said last weekend I'd do the double-update. But then my brain exploded form being sick. So I was like "Oh, hey, it's a long weekend this week, so I'll do it then."

LIES

Yeah. I tried to do two chapters today, but then life interfered and I could only get one written. I would have done two, but... Well, Castle came on. Does anyone watch that show? Go Youtube it. It's so awesome. Anywho, it came on, and now it's after eleven and I have school tomorrow. And a root canal. But I digress.

I will do the double-update before February ends, as I promised. I'll try to update again this week before the weekend. Thanks for reading this chapter, by the way. What did you think?