Based on Vaughn's purple heart event. This took place sometime still in Year 1, I believe. At least I'm pretty sure. Anyway, enjoy!

Looking over the surrounding area, Vaughn shook his head when nothing familiar turned up. Pacing a little bit, he walked to the other side and looked around there. When he found nothing, he growled softly to himself.

How could he have been so careless? He usually checked all his equipment over at the end of the day to make sure he had everything, and performed a double-check before loading everything onto the boat to make his trades. So how could he not notice all the gear he was missing until after he left Sunny Island yesterday?

The revelation certainly set him back; once he discovered the missing items, he had to take the next ferry back to the island in order to find it, despite the fact that he wasn't supposed to be on the island on Fridays. The stuff he misplaced was too important to leave behind, and was required in order to do his job: animal medicines, tools, trading lists…if he didn't find that stuff soon, he would end up in a lot of trouble.

But trying to find it was wasting too much time. And retracing his steps as Julia had suggested earlier wasn't helping at all, because he still hadn't found what he was looking for!

"Vaughn!"

The cowboy jumped slightly, but regained his composure quickly before turning to look at the brunette rancher who looked at him with surprised sapphire eyes.

Noticing she now had his attention, Chelsea said, "What are you doing?"

Frustration still clouding over him, Vaughn seemed to process things a bit slower than usual. "Chelsea," he grunted. "What am I doing?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I mean, today's Friday, right? What are you doing on the island?"

His hands clenched tightly; he didn't have time for this. "None of your business," he snapped.

He meant to turn away at this point, but the girl's eyes remained fixed with his own. She stared at him, a mixture of curious irritation in her frown; he stared right back, as though daring her to say anything else.

So deep in their silent exchange, neither of them noticed Denny walking down the path. Nor did they see him stop and glance in their direction until his voice broke between them.

"…Huh?" he said. "What's wrong?"

As Chelsea turned to the tan fisherman, Vaughn felt his stress beginning to mount. He knew that the stubborn brunette wouldn't leave him alone until he said something, and he wanted nothing more than for her to go away and leave him in peace. So he said, "Okay. I lost something. But I'll take care of it."

He only intended for the girl in front of him to hear his words, but unfortunately he spoke loud enough for even the other man to notice he said something, however unclear it was.

"What did you say?" Denny asked, looking towards the animal trader.

His patience already thinned, Vaughn growled again as he turned toward the fisherman. Provoked by this new interruption, he spat out, "…Whatever. Just leave me alone." And he turned his back on them both, wishing they would go away.

There was a heavy pause that seemed to last a little too long, then Denny cleared his throat. "…I see," he said hesitantly. "Let's file that under 'my bad'."

Vaughn listened carefully as footsteps echoed around them, quickly fading until he no longer heard them. He felt a little relieved then, satisfied that someone had the sense to leave. Still, he had only heard one pair of footsteps, and he felt eyes boring into his back.

Annoyed, he turned back to glare at the blue-eyed rancher. "Why are you still here?" he demanded.

Chelsea hesitated for a moment. Then she said slowly, "I'll look for it with you."

Vaughn blinked, a little surprised. He rather thought the girl hadn't heard his confession about losing something when Denny arrived, sure that the other man's presence had distracted her. But even more surprising was that she would still help him, even after everything that's taken place in the past few minutes.

Expression softening a little, the cowboy exhaled some of his lingering exasperation and finally admitted to himself that he could possibly use the help. "…Fine," he said. "It's a box of my work gear. Why don't you look over there?"

She nodded, for once not saying anything as she headed in the direction he assigned her. As the dirt crunched beneath her feet, Vaughn once again began to look in the area around him. When his search continued to prove unsuccessful, the need to punch something grew stronger.

The girl's light footsteps approaching alerted him to her coming, and he turned around to face her. As he did, his eyes were drawn to her hands that held out a black box, the cover just slightly ajar as a glass bottle kept it propped open.

"Well, I'll be," he muttered. "That's it." Taking the box from her, his body seemed to relax as the stress drained out from him. "Phew. Glad you found it."

Chelsea grinned. "Not a problem," she said, giving him a wink.

Vaughn frowned, holding the box underneath his arm. "I could've found it by myself," he insisted, somewhat stubbornly, "but…thanks."

The girl shrugged, her cheeks flushing ever so slightly. "You're welcome," she replied. "I'm glad I could help."

He nodded, tipping his hat to her. "I appreciate it."

For some strange reason, he suddenly felt a little embarrassed. Maybe because he actually needed her help to find his missing things, maybe because she had been willing to help him despite the way he acted…or maybe because she just kept smiling at him…He wasn't really sure, but he suddenly felt the need to leave. Besides, he needed to get back to the docks and catch the next ferry off the island.

With one last nod, Vaughn stepped around her. "Bye," he said curtly, heading down the path back to West Town. He was glad when she didn't say anything, and even more so when she didn't follow him. But he could feel her eyes focused on him once again as he left.

And, as his grip on his work gear box tightened, his heart pounded rapidly in his chest…and he couldn't figure out why.