People and Seasons Change
Chapter Summary
And we arrive right back where we started. ;D
Chapter Notes
Random note: in chapter one, I mistakenly said Alex's favorite kitten was a calico.
Wrong! She is a tortoiseshell.
See the end of the chapter for more notes
Catnip, OR, The Needy Fuzzbutts. Alex's words, not mine! AKA: The Adorable,
It Burns. June 8th.
18934 views
Rainbow Haven Acres
Published on June 16, 2017
A week after the brutal kick, Kara drove Alex halfway down the mountain to see the
doctor who had treated her. Well on the way to healing, she was cleared for minimal
walking.
"And I mean minimal," he scolded over her celebrating. "You've healed well, but you
of all people know that there's a great deal more work to go."
Alex was resigned to her fate, but that didn't mean she didn't pout like a toddler the
whole drive home.
Upon getting back to Rainbow Haven Acres, Alex stirred from her sulk to admire the
sign as Kara slowed a bit for just that purpose. The broad rainbow stripes like the
classic pride flag stood out against the evergreens, bold black letters announcing the
name of the farm and a trio of cheery sunflower just for fun.
"Oh, hey, that's really nice. You and Monica do good work."
"We do! I'm going to see about making a few others while I have her most excellent
lettering skills. Now, you can't fool me, grumpy cat, you want to see your little fuzzy
fam."
The sulk vanished into sheepish hope. "Can we?"
"Of course! Since the doc was nice enough to provide you with that leg shield thingie,
teeny paws won't stomp your little boo-boo."
"Little boo-boo," Alex scoffed, but her smile was back.
Of course, the return of the Subaru had the original gang converging from all corners,
the Rambeaus off for a family day. The enthusiasm of the welcome warmed Alex and
lightened her spirits. The weird little family they had built here just felt good. There
were hugs all around, even Brainy, who was rarely easy with demonstrativeness.
Kara shoved the utilitarian cane under her hand to get some weight off her leg while
they all socialized. After a bit, Alex realized she was sweating not just from the
summer sun, but the effort of being on her aching leg. Kara gave her a squinty-eyed
look before turning to where Lucy and Nia stood side by side. "You are in charge of
making sure she doesn't overdo it. We'll go set up a shot to see if Alex can coax out the
cats. Come on, Brainy!"
"Guess we have our orders, huh?" Nia cracked wryly and herded a slow-moving Alex
towards her destination.
Ignoring Kara and Brainy muttering over their shot, Alex concentrated on her
destination. Dammit, walking hurt! In the stifling warmth of the barn, she pulled off
her shirt, not caring in the slightest that she was only in her bra, already damp with
sweat.
She barely managed to get the wire-screened door closed before an inky black face
and pricked ears was at the entrance to the hay cave. A little cat-trill of sound from
Alex and her barn cat pal bounded out and was immediately winding around her ankles
and purring like a tiny chainsaw.
Happy to see her, but really needing to sit down, Alex was relieved when B slipped
back into her cave and she could make it a few steps closer to where some straw bales
acted as a bench.
The reprieve was short-lived as a flood of shaky kittens pooled around her feet,
mewling and crying for attention from the human their mother loved and trusted.
"Aww, the poor babies can't climb your mean ol' pants," Lucy taunted where the gang
had clustered at the fence. Alex just glared and flipped her off.
Carefully watching where she put the cane down and shuffling her feet along got her
and the kitten entourage over to the bales where she could sit with a groan. Stretching
her feet out was invitation to the tiny furry leaches, who clawed their way up her thick
pants to walk all over her half-bared torso. Having never made any secret that she had
a special affection for the lone tortie in the litter, Alex scooped her up to nuzzle and
relish the clumsy feet and kitten kisses.
"Dear god," Lucy mocked with clear affection. "No ovary is safe with you half naked
smiling like that and playing kissy-face with a kitten. You're a monster, Danvers. I'm
gonna get the hose."
Kara just sighed wearily. "The hits are so going to skyrocket when I post this, but jeez,
the comments are going to sound like soft-core porn."
"Pussy loves your sister!" Lucy cackled, laughing all the harder at Kara's disgusted
look.
"Hey, just because some of us need the help of the Gayest Vehicle On Earth isn't my
fault."
While Lucy sputtered and laughed over Alex's zinger, Alex sat up a bit so that she
could reach her first cat friend, who had remained patiently waiting and watching. She
was vibrating with her purr and rubbed up against the offered hand, happy with pets
and gentle scratches.
"Yes, I missed you too, B. And look at how big your babies have gotten. They're all so
beautiful."
Alex was utterly grateful for the sturdy plastic insert to the brace strapped around her
thigh that distributed B's jumping up to little more than a tickle of movement. It would
have been embarrassing to be dropped by an eight pound cat and her petite little paws.
For all that human and cat had started out in opposition, B knew and trusted this one
above all the rest of the lumbering monkeys. For the first time she was openly
affectionate, even going so far as to headbutt Alex's chin while being petted.
After some loving moments, Mama B trilled at her mismatched family and hopped
down to corral her kittens around Alex's feet. It was a marvel that she was so relaxed
that she just flopped down and let the kittens nurse, all of them flexing their paws and
purring.
Ignoring the pain of the movement, Alex carefully shifted her feet and leaned over to
pet and rub at Mama B, her smile soft.
"So this seems like as good a time as any for names." The soft smile went wicked. "I'll
spare you folks any incidental footage Brainy might have caught of us coming up with
names because, well," she paused to rub at her nose, sheepish and faintly pink around
the cheekbones. "We might have gotten a little wild."
Where the rest of the team still hovered at the barrier, a rumble of amusement could
be heard.
Adjusting how she was sitting, Alex moved her petting hand to rub her noisy little
favorite. "So the tortie here is my fave. I decided she's going to be Biscotti, because it's
cute. Shut up, Lucy."
Lucy, in the process of rolling her eyes, immediately looked innocent. "What?"
"You know what you did. Moving on! The two black kittens are a male and a female,
so they get to be Batman and Liho. Before you ask, Liho was Black Widow's cat friend
in one of the better runs of the comics. The brown tabby with the white trim looks
dapper like a three piece suit, but I refuse to have a Tony Stark in my house!"
The yell made Kara giggle where she was ready to make a sassy comment.
"So she's going to be Pepper instead. Go on you two, introduce your favorites."
Sharing a look, Lucy deferred to a very excited Kara with a hand wave.
"The cute little white boy with the grey tabby splotches? That's my Stormy and he's a
love bug! I already have cute baskets for him to sleep in at the cabin and in my studio
and all he'll need is litter boxes and it's gonna be so great!"
She was dancing with excitement where pressed to the wall of the huge cage, nose on
the wire to watch the nursing kittens.
"And you, hellion?" Alex encouraged wryly and Lucy's smirk was a beautiful thing.
"The solid tabby goes with the three piece suit theme you started. He's Senator so that
I can ignore him or tell him off when he whines, the way I never could in DC!"
"Ignore her," Alex cheerfully said in the direction of the camera. "She loves the whiny
twerp. He already adores her back and says so often."
"And loudly!" Nia giggled and set the others off to laughing again.
I hadn't even realized that back when I started this journey, I had never gone back and finished this
video. I remember Lucy's comment about 'playing kissy-face with kittens' and getting the hose, but
nothing after that.
Then I remember the sickening drop the plane took after I had been text-bantering with Sam over
the hot redhead. Yep, that would explain it.
Lily is getting twitchy again, but as the next video starts up, I'm ever so glad we made it this far.
The odd title of, 'The Biggest, Grumpiest Dog on the Farm Gets A Haircut. June 10,' makes
immediate sense as the scene opens to Lucy standing over Alex seated at the picnic table near the
fire pit.
It's a wobbly phone vid of Lucy poking at Alex's head and firing up a pair of clippers. It's clear that
someone has already made a hack-handed attempt at shortening up what has long grown out from
the stylish city girl bob.
"Don't squirm or I'll shave you naked."
"You wouldn't dare."
"If you sit the -beep- still, we won't have to find out how far I'll go, now will we?"
For all her snarking, Lucy's hands are steady and careful as the left moves aside the long strands to
start a proper undercut.
"Oooo, your fans are gonna love this," Kara taunts and laughs when, despite the blurring out, it's
quite clear that Alex has flipped her off.
"Honey, honey," Maria's voice suddenly breaks in and Lucy instantly gives the woman her full
attention, clippers shutting off. Right, she's ex-military too. Tall and imposing, Maria steps in
close, but her body language is open and friendly, relaxing Lucy. "If I might interject? Since Alex
has decided to give herself the haircut of an experimenting four year old-" Lucy's guffaw is
priceless "-I feel I should point out that the look she appears to have been going for was inspired
by Carol?"
Sulky and called out, Alex nods.
"Well your cousin's cut is trim and crisp due to my experienced skills."
Before she can say anything further, Lucy just grins and hands over the clippers. Humming
thoughtfully, Maria ruffles the reddish brown hair grown brassier in the sun, running her fingers
through the ragged lengths.
I want to do that.
"Look what a mess you've made," Maria scolds, but she's clearly amused. "You have the same
texture as Carol, but more of a wave to it. You're lucky that Lucy stopped your little temper
tantrum when she did."
When Alex grumbles, Maria responds the way any mother would and gives a lock of hair a sharp
tweak, smirking smugly at the yelp.
Lucy and Kara die laughing.
"I'll just finish up this close buzz, give you a nice fade, and by the looks of your hack-handed
attempts, you're looking to shorten up the whole shaggy mop?"
Alex nods, still a little sullen, but hopeful, and Maria pats her head and fires up the clippers.
"You just give me a little time and you are saved, middle Danvers."
It's clear Brainy arrives with a proper camera and we go into fast-forwards again, which I have to
admit is disconcerting, because there is a lot coming off…
Hanks of reddish brown hair fall all around Alex's strong body and several times Kara makes a
horrified face and reaches out like she wants to do something to stop the carnage.
In short order, a neat look appears from the chaos. It's not a sharp undercut like so many famous
actresses have been sporting in recent times, but something softer and more enticing. Buzzed
nearly to the skin both sides and back, the dark hair lengthens out at Alex's crown, left gradually
longer to a cute forelock swept forward to fall not quite into her eyes.
"It feels weird," Alex whines like a cranky child and reaches up like she wants to touch. "And
there's still all this long -beep- in my eyes."
Finally Maria shuts off the clippers and the teeth-chattering buzz is gone.
"Does anyone have a mirror?" she asks dryly and Alex starts to painfully wiggle out from the table
as though to stand.
"I'll just go look in the bathroom."
"You sit your -beep- back down," Maria orders and her voice is a whip-crack of authority. "Don't
you sulk at me. You, Doctor Danvers, know perfectly well how much damage a contusion like that
does. So shush. We'll find something for you to preen at."
Alex just glares more and earns Maria's driest sarcasm.
"As Mushu would say, 'I think my bunny slippers just ran for cover.'"
The others crack up and Alex tries not to smile, relenting when Carol arrives to admire the haircut,
ruffling the shorn strands and sending a cloud of reddish fuzz everywhere to sparkle in the sun.
"Lookin' good, cuz! This works for you and your mutant redhead good looks."
The playful bickering fades away as my brain wanders to delicious fantasies of running my fingers
through that adorable forelock and smoothing over that freshly shorn buzz, so I'm not really paying
attention when the girls start echoing the talking/bickering onscreen.
"Wait, sorry, what was that?"
They both look a little obstinate and sheepish, which is always a fun combo. Not.
After a moment, Lily sighs dramatically and at least makes an attempt to not whine. Much. "Mama,
this is getting boring, and there's new videos we haven't seen. Can we skip ahead?"
While I have no desire to skip nearly the entire summer, particularly after the show of the haircut,
the sharing of this experience with my family is far more important.
"Sure thing, sweetie."
Well THAT was quite the party! August 30- September 12.
18934 views
Rainbow Haven Acres
Published on September 16, 2017
Excited, Kara took her favorite spot to do static film sequences, on the edge of the
road with the village sprawled out behind her, the trees a dramatic, jagged line against
the sky.
"Hey guys!" she greeted the camera cheerfully, imagining all the people who would be
watching this, invisible on the other side of the lens. "We've been so crazy busy that
we completely missed last week's vid, sorry about that! So this will be an extra long
special one, though totally watchable even though it's two weeks because we didn't get
as much footage as usual, because we were getting ready and cleaning up and still had
to get all the regular stuff done! And Alex and Carol were making stuff to sit on and
some tables and Monica was helping Nia cook for an army and me and Lucy and
Maria cleaned up and built fences and made sure everything was safe!"
Brainy's smirk was telling that she was rambling and Kara realized that she'd failed to
make the most important point.
"Oh, right. Se we're forgoing the usual format this video to show you guys some of the
highlights of- drumroll please."
Brainy shrugged and did his best to thrum out the request, even adding in an
impression of a tinny high-hat. Kara giggled appreciatively and bowed at her pal.
"Thank you, Big B! Our first annual open house!"
The burst of enthusiasm pretty much wiped out her depleted reserves and she felt like
she could just lie down here on the packed gravel and fall asleep until next spring.
Luckily, she'd already done most of the voiceover work for the segments filmed of the
exhilarating and exhausting Labor Day weekend and the weekdays bracketing it on
either side. Thankfully, the others had picked up the slack while she spent hours
online with Winn to polish up the jumble of footage.
Yes, it had been insanity to throw themselves into such a big, draining project with
only weeks to prepare, but once the idea had been tossed out back in early August, the
excitement was contagious. So the whole mess of them had gone into overdrive to get
done what they could to make the place look its best.
And they had pulled it off! Labor Day weekend had been a blast. Exhausting, but a
blast. They'd gotten to meet some fans face to face, sell a few items made by their own
hands, get some good suggestions and meet more locals.
It was a great event.
Identical noises of disappointment make Ruby and Lily sound even more like sisters.
"We missed it," Ruby says quietly. "That sucks."
"Yeah," Lily agrees just as softly. "That would have been really fun."
It's never easy to hear real disappointment in your kids, particularly such subdued, raw emotion.
Leaning harder into Sam, I can sense the similar feelings in her, easily translated in her touch on
my belly, then on Lily's dark head, the nuzzle to my scalp.
We four watch our familiar YouTubers setting things up for visitors, jittery with nerves, handfuls
of people trickling through over the course of the four-day holiday weekend, caught up despite our
disappointment.
After mostly chronologically binge watching more Rainbow Haven Acres than I would admit to
anyone other than maybe Sam, I have been able to witness a most tasty transformation. The city
girls started out nicely built, but clearly city girls with their urbanite haircuts and inadequate or
squeaky clean new clothes.
Certainly they were all in good shape, Lucy small and sturdy to the broad-shouldered lankiness of
the sisters Danvers, but they were the builds of busy lives and high energy, with maybe some
jogging or visiting the gym when there was time.
Then slowly, over months and months, we the viewers got to watch/ogle, as they grew stronger and
broader and their wardrobes went rural. Now, here they all are, looking hale and healthy and baked
by the summer sun. Lucy looks downright swarthy, her hair grown out even shaggier than Alex's
had been before her cut. The butch 'do remains crisp and neatly maintained and I still itch to touch
the fine buzz-fade-forelock. The sisters and cousin are dusted in freckles and pale brown amidst
the various shades of sunburn, their hair bleached out paler than it had been back in early June.
Seeing them all looking so magnificently fit is heartening. Though there's a part of me that wants to
lunge over to Ruby's laptop and slam it shut, because, dear goddess…
Alex had looked magnificently, deliciously lickable early in the summer, hard work and long hours
sculpting her into quite the fantasy. But now? She is a sinful feast for the eyes. There is a new
depth to the sculpting of her, laid half-bare to the summer heat, her bio-fam adding to the gun
show.
There are new animals we see as the camera wanders about. There's an old mule, gray around the
muzzle, who whinny-brays the most ridiculous noise back at his humans when they start the sound
and is clearly as tame as a dog. His companions in the beautifully greened-up fields are a pair of
enormous equines with the most ridiculously enormous ears… that I realize with a shock are
donkeys! Massive donkeys that stand taller and leggier than their mule cousin. One is a jet black
trimmed in a soft grey while the other is a bit smaller and wildly patterned splotchy black and
white and brown.
"I didn't even know they grew them that big," Sam marvels and we all nod in agreement.
Way off in the distance, at the far end of the pastures that were once scrubby, weedy and not so
appealing, the familiar alpacas peacefully graze in beautifully green grass, Jerkbutt presiding over
them. Among them are three brown ostriches, their ridiculous necks and heads bobbing as they eat
grass and hunt bugs. There is notably no black and white male with them.
A few handfuls of sheep are scattered amidst the familiar, two of which turn out to be large white
dogs. And mixed into the pleasant sight, a pair of the tiniest, hairiest little donkeys any of us have
ever seen. They make hilariously squat, poofy contrast amidst ostrich, alpaca and the indifferent
Jerkbutt.
"Those are so cute!" Lily squeals in delight and Ruby laughs and nods.
"I didn't even know donkeys came that small. I bet you that Kara squealed over them too."
"Probably scared them!"
The girls cackle together and my heart melts over their reawakened joy. They're so resilient and
adaptable that nothing seems to hold them down for long.
Watching the rest of the open house footage becomes more wistful than sad, all of us marveling
over the new infrastructure.
The most impressive structure sprawls out behind the big red barn, nearly twice its length, but only
half its height in contrast. Even from a distance, it's clear that the lower barn isn't new, the metal
and wood weathered, no paint to hide the sins. It must be one of the old buildings from the
abandoned farm all those months ago. In fact, I'd bet that's the disgusting chicken barn! I had
wondered what happened to that huge thing.
The new-old barn is crowded close to the neatly-trimmed forest edge that lets the pond sparkle
through the foliage. The pair of barns are now the hub of an intricate web of fences that seem
overly elaborate to me. I wonder what the purpose could be?
The drone footage also reveals a pen near the low barn where small brown figures mill about.
"Oh my gosh," Lily squeals. "Look! They've got ostrich babies!"
Ruby pauses the video and we all squint at the terrible angle of the animals, deciding that Lily
must be right.
"Weird," is Ruby's opinion. "Why'd they get more?"
Remembering seeing ostrich meat highlighting dishes in some restaurants, I wisely keep my mouth
shut.
A long, slow pan across the village gets an impressed sound from Ruby and another pause in the
action. "Check it out, Lils. They've done a lot!"
Sure enough, where the tent once stood, there's a proper clubhouse, tall and elegant. It's impressive
to be honest, half again the size of the bathhouse it compliments as though they have always been a
single structure. Both are skinned in shingles painted a warm green to compliment the blue roof.
Filling out the 'L' shape the pair of them make is a massive trough big enough to fill a semi-truck.
It's been worked right into the narrow strip of deck running between it and the clubhouse and is
half full of sparkling water.
"That's an impressive pool," Ruby admires. "Bet they were glad to have it, huh?"
The forest seems to be trimmed back here too, not crowding their village so much. Grass has grown
in corners and walkways around beds of flowers and pathways of gravel.
The fire pit has expanded, big enough for a decent bonfire now and penned in by a thick ring of
stacked landscape blocks. Steel posts poke up here and there, a variety of cross arms and grates and
hooks attached to them. Perhaps for cooking?
The stock tank pool has a proper deck ringing it, clearly constructed of yet more of the seemingly
endless supply of plastic/wood boards that made the enormous village deck. It also composes the
top of a couple new picnic tables, held up by thick, raw chunks of branches assumedly from the
trimmed forest.
Speaking of trimmed trees, several massive firs sprawl around the fire pit, roughly chopped into
benches and lined in yet more deck board.
There are fences and a sea of concrete and grass around the saloon-barn and the green house. The
woodshed on the yurt has been upgraded with a fence and roof, and where there had once been
only trees, a crisply new cabin has joined the village. It takes up the large new clearing on the
other side of the back road close to the yurt and green house.
The cabin is made of stacked logs so perfect I suspect they're specifically cut that way. It has a nice
porch and sits atop a low stone foundation and has a lawn so new it has to have been sod. A new
length of gravel road vanished over a low rise, heading back to the county road that is the front of
the property.
The drone rising up reveals a wing as large as the main structure just off the back of the cabin, as
well as something more shed-sized and close by is a structure with a double garage door front.
As Maria, Carol and Monica are still notably with the farm crew, I bet they decided to stay for
good and that cabin and its attending buildings are now home.
The video shifts to a different aerial shot of a spectacular sunset blazing over the distant Cascade
Mountains with the Willamette Valley a vast pool of shadow between.
"Spectacular," Sam murmurs against my scalp and I murmur warmly in agreement.
"It hardly looks real."
The drone drops slowly to the ground, the trees swallowing up the sunset and firelight replacing
the glow. All the gang is there, sprawled around a blazing fire. It's so strange to see so many
bodies, the Rambeau family and Maggie nearly doubling their numbers. The couples cuddle,
Monica mostly asleep in Carol's lap just as Kara does with Alex. The latter has to share the real
estate with a splotchy brown and white hound snuggled up to Alex, head resting adoringly on her
belly where she is slouched sloppily into one of the log benches, petting dog and sister alike. There
is also a smaller dog, a brown mutt with a goofy grin that sticks to Lucy like a burr.
Their conversation is a low buzz and raucous laughter bursts from them in that infectious energy
that is irresistible. As has become familiar, I wish I could be there with them.