1Chapter Three- Vaughn in the Valley

It had been a few days since Vaughn's outburst towards Chelsea.

~
Julia had dragged her to him and demaned that he apologize that second. He was already going to since he felt guilty about having made her cry, but being demanded to do so only resulted in the following response:

"Geez', Julia alright! I'm sorry that she was pestering me with annoying little questions while I working, trying to help you get your crummy little shop together!"

Which of course didn't go over well with Julia at all and led to them having a ten minute arguement.

Normally not one to let her anger get a hold of her, Chelsea finally blurted out, "Enough!! You want to be all touchy about giving a little 'I'm sorry', then fine! I"M sorry, you doucebag!! Alright! Now it's settled! Just go back on living your sulky little life. Sorry I ever met you."

She thought she saw something sad flicker in his eyes for a moment, but whatever it might have been was instantly washed away by the most vicious hatred she had ever seen. She was taken aback for a moment, expecting to recieve a response to match that look, but Vaughn just pulled his hat lower over his eyes and stalked off, cursing under his breath.

Yet as he turned he thought he saw something in her eyes as well...

He didn't see her again the rest of the time he was there on the island. When he had got back to the shop, he got a stern talking to from Mirabelle when she caught wind of what happened. He took it all a little distractedly and apologized, never one the show disrespect to his aunt.

Julia was still pouting around and giving him the cold shoulder all the next day, so he went to blow off some steam in the deserted part of town. He stayed there for a few hours, just wandering about there abandoned buildings, only ever running into this redhead named Natalie.

She stopped to talk to him briefly, as she was blowing off some steam of her own.

"Hey, looks like your having problems of your own, huh," she said dismissively, staring off into the distance.

"Yeah, you?"

"Me?" she sighed, " I'm just here because my brother's being a dweeb again. Sometimes when I get so worked up that I want to hit him, I just gotta get away for a minute, ya know? Little good it does ya to waste time on some annoying brat."

Vaughn just let out a slight "Hmmph"

"Well, see ya. Looks like I'd better get home since its getting dark..."
He watched her go, looked up at the sky, and decided he'd better get back too.

After packing his bags he made his way to the beach to catch his ship back home. Only Mirabelle helped him carry his stuff there, even though it wasn't much.

When they heard the ship in the distance he felt he should say something.

"Aunt, I'm sorry about.." he began.

"Don't worry about it" she said, cutting him off. "There's always next week."

She smiled after him as he got on the boat. As he began to look through his stuff, he found a chocolate bar. He figured it was from his aunt, to help settle his stomach for the boat ride home...

~
Now he was back it Bess's stall, putting in some fresh fodder for her.

Dale came around the corner suddenly, startling him. He seemed to have a smile on his face that told Vaughn he was going on a delivery soon.

"Where to this time," he sighed.

"Back to the Forget-Me-Not Valley."

"Oh. Joy."

~

At least this time around, Vaughn didn't have any trouble in leading the brown calf through the valley.

As he walked past Vesta's house, she looked up from her fields and waved at him, but he continued on like he hadn't seen her.

He finally arrived at the Kute ranch once again and was surprised to see a brunette waiting there for him. He figured she must be the rancher since he hadn't seen who it was the last time he was there.

Jill, who had wanted to meet the dealer since she had missed him the last time, started to came towards him just as he took his hat off to wipe away the sweat on his brow.

"Oh, thank you so mu- Skye!?"

"Excuse me?" Vaughn said, putting his hat back on and giving her a cold look.

"Oh, umm, its just..." she sputtered, turning red and looking away from his cold stare. "I'm sorry, I just mistook you for someone else."

"Yeah, like who?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"No-no one! Just a friend of mine! Nice guy. Sure you've never met!"

She continued to turn red with embarassment at the accusing look Vaughn was giving her until he just thrust the lead to the calf at her.

"Yeah, never met," he huffed, turning away and heading back down the path. Jill just stood there dumbstruck, holding the calf as she watched him go.

I gotta learn to start leaving my hat on around this place, he thought to himself as he got farther from the ranch.

Vaughn would have loved to start heading home right then, but unfortunately, Dale had sent him on a late boat there and he would have to wait until morning for the next one. He said it wouldn't matter, since they didn't have anything to do the next day, so Vaughn could enjoy some time away and stay at the inn.

Dale was just so clueless sometimes.

After getting his room key from Ruby, the innkeeper, he decided to head out to the bar he saw next door.

Vaughn was glad to see that hardly anyone was there when he walked in. There was just the bartender, the barmaid, and a young boy in a blue hat that was talking to her.

He took a seat at the counter, just a few seats down from the boy.

"Welcome to the Blue Bar. What can get ya?" asked the bartender.

"Just a Summer Heat, please" he sighed, almost taking his hat off again.

As he started on his drink, the conversation at the other end of the counter picked up.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Muffy. I just can't seem to find where I fit in around here." said the boy with the blue hat.

"Well, you said that maybe you wanted to work on a ranch, just like grandpa did. Isn't that why you went to try to work for Vesta?"

"Yeah, but she says I'm just so useless at everything. No matter what I do, I can't seem to do anything right. I'm starting to wonder if moving here was such a good idea."

"Well, you could always move back home if you wanted to. You've been at this for over a month with no success."

"Yeah, go back home to mom and dad like some loser," he sneered. "I'm trying to prove I'm old enough to make my own living, remember sis? That's the last thing I need."
"Well, Mark, if you want I could always ask Griffin to give you a job here. How about that?"

He looked away sheepishly and said, "Well, I don't think so. It may be okay for you, but..."

"Look little bro," she huffed. "There is nothing wrong with being a Barmaid. At least I make money."

"So. You still don't have your own place. All you have is a room upstairs."

"Well, at least its better than that old cottage Romania let you use on her property. That place is so creepy it makes my skin crawl. You know, they say that crazy old lady that used to live there was a witch?"

"Well then, maybe I just might find one of her spellbooks and conjure you up a boyfriend. No way you'll get one otherwise!"

As they started to argue, the door opened and Vesta's crew came in followed by several other people. Vaughn, who was just about finished with his drink, decided it was getting to busy for his liking. He paid for his drink and headed out the door before anyone noticed him.

It was getting late, but Vaughn wasn't ready to check in for the night. He decided to go for a walk and headed down a path along the river. There didn't seem to be anyone who lived down this way so he was glad he didn't run into anyone.

The path led down to a wooded area that almost seemed cut off from the world. At last, it stopped at a beautiful pond, almost made magical by the moonlight.

Vaughn sat down at the edge and looked over it in silence. It was strangely calming, looking at the mirror like surface. He felt like he could stay there forever, and just forget about all of his worries.

Within a few minutes, he had nearly forgotten about all of the troubles he had had over the last few days. About his first visit to the valley, about the the arguement on the island, about being confused twice with this certain person who always seemed to get him in trouble....

He was totally at peace. Nothing in the world could trouble him now. He could finally rest for a bit without any worries....

"Well hello, Cowboy. Walking alone at night?"