Chapter Five- The Gift

Vaughn could hardly sleep that night. In fact, he didn't sleep at all.

He was up all night pacing around his room in a vicious rage. The nerve of him! He still couldn't believe that Skye really was here after all of that time. And he was a THIEF, no less.

He had had a feeling about this ever since he was nearly attacked on his first visit to this place. He dared to hope it was someone, ANYONE else, but then that girl went and called him by his name.

He punched the wall. He knew he should have left right then, and never came back to this place. He would have told Dale that he would never, ever ship animals here again.

But he had stayed. For some reason, he decided to stay put and spend the night in the valley.

Vaughn thought that maybe, deep down, he had stayed just on the small hope of finally seeing Skye again. That thought sickened him.

"Hey!" Someone began pounding on the door.

He opened it to see the annoyed face Of the innkeeper's blonde son, Rock.

"Do you mind not banging on the walls? I heard you all the way from my room three doors down! Some of us need our beauty sleep, especially me. Its not easy being this hot all the time!" He said, pointing to himself.

Vaughn looked at him for a long while. Was this guy for real?

"Sorry," he grunted, slamming the door in Rock's face.

He went back over to his bed, Rock's annoyed words muffled behind. He lay down, his mind trailing back to thoughts of his brother.

The next morning, Vaughn packed his stuff and headed for the entrance to the valley. It was early, so everyone was still just waking up.

He just hoped he didn't run onto Skye again...

"Vaughn!"

He whipped around at the sound of his name, and was quickly annoyed to see the brunette rancher running towards him.

She stopped in front of him, breathing heavily.
"I'm so glad I caught up to you," She panted. "I thought I'd miss you."

"What do you want?" He asked, before remembering who she was. "Wait a minute, aren't you Jill?"

"Yes, yes that's me," She said nodding her head vigoriously.

He quickly turned his back to her and stared walking away again. "Get lost. I don't need one of my brother's fangirls harassing me."

Jill stood shocked and confused for a moment, but quickly snapped back when she saw Vaughn was walking away from her.

"Wait! Skye wanted me to give you something!" She yelled after him.

He stopped and gave her a cold stare.

"So, he thinks he can send his girlfriend over to apologize and I'm supposed to forgive him!? Nothing he can say or do will ever make me forgive him. He's dead to me. Always has been, always will be. Just take back whatever he gave you and go home."

He started to leave again, but Jill grabbed his arm before he could take another step. He snapped back around intending to push her off of him, but he stopped when he saw the angry tears fighting at her eyes.

"Never say that again. You have no idea what happened to Skye back there. He'd tell you if you gave him half the chance!" She breathed, giving him the most unforgiving stare in his life.

Vaughn could only stand there under that cold gaze, felling more increasingly more ashamed as the seconds passed.

"All he wants is for you to give him a second chance," she said, shoving something into his hands. "He's your brother, your only brother. Just give him one last chance."

She stormed off after that leaving Vaughn still frozen in place. He was surprised at how deeply her words had cut into him.

He looked down at the thing she had placed in his hand. It was a small silver pendant.

His mother's pendant.

He nearly broke right then and there. He never knew Skye had held onto it for so long. Waves of guilt washed over him as he stared down at it.

He breathed deeply, delicately putting it on and tucking it under his scarf. After a moment, he picked his bags back up, and once again headed for the entrance to the valley.

Maybe, just maybe he thought, he would come back again. He just might give Skye one last chance...

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Okay, this may be a little shorter than my other chapters. I've noticed that I have a tendency to put like two scences in my previous chapters, so I've decided to slow down and break up my ideas better. Trust me, I was going to put in this whole nother part in for my new purple heart event back on the island. But I'll pace myself and work out each part to make it better.