A/N: Alright, chapter two time.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot and my hopes and dreams.
*****'*****
ONE WEEK LATER
"Pack your bags, Jess!" Janice said cheerily as she closed her cell phone, "We're going to Kansas!"
"Janice, what did you do?" Jessica asked, watching her sister suspiciously. "Why call the agency? Wouldn't plane tickets have made more sense?"
"Not at all," Janice grinned and sat them both down to explain, "If we'd only gotten plane tickets you wouldn't have had much time. We'd have been called back for a job in short order. That won't happen with what I've planned."
"And what, exactly, is it that you've planned?"
"Well, you know how we're two of the most popular models the agency has and how that gives us quite a bit of pull the agency," she waited for Jessica's nod, "All I had to do was call up the boss with my idea and they made it happen." She leaned back a self satisfied smirk on her face, as if that had explained anything to her sister.
Jessica huffed at Janice's avoidance, "Jan," she said in a tone implying her infinite patience was running low, "What was your idea?"
Janice's smirk turned into a full blown smile and she bounced a little in her seat, "A reality show!"
"What?"
"We," Janice waved a hand between the two of them, "and some other models from our agency, are going to do a reality show. On a farm. In Kansas."
"What? Have you gone mad? How does—what wi—why?" Jessica felt she was missing a key piece of the puzzle. She knew Janice hated even watching reality shows, so her setting one up and planning to be in it was a bit unsettling.
Janice rolled her eyes at her sister, "Because, Jess, we'll be in Kansas for an extended period of time. Several months, in fact. Bailey lives in Kansas. While we're there, in our down time, you can find her and woo her. It's brilliant!"
Jessica paused to think about that for a moment. Being in Kansas for that long would give her a much better chance of finding Bailey and mustering the courage it would take to confess her feelings. But she had no idea where the show was going to be set up, Bailey's home town of Kettlecorn wasn't on any map she had seen (not even Google maps had helped her), for all she knew they'd be on different sides of the state. Not very useful for her purposes. Still, it's an ocean closer to her goal and perhaps, with luck, she'll be able to find Bailey. "When do we leave?"
"Tonight."
Jessica looked aghast at her twin, "Tonight?" Janice nodded. "That's not a lot of time to prepare."
"Please," Janice said, rolling her eyes again, "just toss a few knickers into a suitcase and you'll be good to go. Any more time and you might back out."
"I wouldn't," she started to protest, but she couldn't deny that she probably would talk herself out of going if she had more time, "Fine. Where are we going?"
"I told you, Kansas."
"More specific, Jan."
"I don't know," Janice said standing and beginning to pack, "They didn't tell me."
Jessica sighed. If Jan didn't know there was no way Jess was going to find out before they got there. She resigned herself to that bit of mystery and began packing for herself.
In two hours they'd be on a plane to the states. A seven and a half hour flight to the O'Hare Airport in Chicago, and a shorter one and a half hour flight to the Kansas City International Airport in Missouri, would see them nearly to their final destination. They would get into shuttle buses in Kansas City, with network personnel and the other models, and take a long ride to their ultimate destination.
***'***
Bailey threw another bale of hay into the truck and wiped her brow. She'd been at this for hours now; loading the truck with feed, driving out to the fields and laying it out for the cattle, and driving back to start all over again. It was a tedious back-breaking task tossing around these massive hay bales, but it was one her father was currently not able to do and so she had taken it up to spare her mother and little sisters the intensive work. She was just glad this only needed to be done every other week or so. The hay was a treat, a supplement to the usual grazing, and so the cows didn't get or need it often which means she didn't have to do this particular job very much. Still it was hard labor, like most of her father's other responsibilities, and it was exhausting.
She'd come back to the farm a year ago after a tornado had ravaged Kettlecorn and the surrounding area. All over the county fences had been downed, barns crushed, houses damaged, crops destroyed and herd beasts killed. It had been devastating for every farmer out here, but it seemed the Picketts had been hardest hit.
Their house had been completely torn apart, an unfortunate consequence of being in the immediate path of the storm. Their barn roof had been ripped away. Half their herd had broken their corral and run right into their deaths. Their crops had been decimated. Much of their equipment had been broken by debris…It was a wonder the family had come up from the storm cellar alive, looked at the mess, and found the heart to start fixing things. They'd called Bailey as soon as they'd been able (telephone lines had also been downed) and she'd come rushing home, abandoning her semester at sea, the glorious opportunities it presented, and her now ex-boyfriend to get her family back on its feet again.
They thanked their lucky stars for the generous insurance policy they'd had on all their property, without which they'd have been completely helpless to do anything but starve. They used the insurance money to pay for all the building materials they'd needed to fix their buildings and erect new fences around their property, taking the opportunity to enlarge their home from the modest homestead it had once been, and to get new livestock to replace the ten dozen they'd lost to the storm. They'd spent weeks living in the storm cellar while Bailey and her father had repaired the barn roof, then they'd lived in the barn while their new house was built.
It had taken the better part of the year to get things back to normal and Bailey had just begun to hope that she might go back to the ship when her father had won a broken leg helping Mr. Weevil geld a stallion. The horse had taken exception to the process and kicked out at just the wrong time catching Bailey's father right in the thigh and snapping the leg like a twig. Her father had declined to sue, as Mr. Weevil might have done in his place, saying that it was his own fool fault for being back there in the first place (and proving to Bailey that her father really is the bigger man because, if he'd been so inclined, that would have been the perfect opportunity to get the Weevils back for suing them for slipping on their property). And so Bailey had taken up in her father's place and assumed his responsibilities on the farm while he took on smaller tasks and healed up.
She briefly wished that one of her older sisters' families, or at the very least one of her brothers-in-law, would come out to help so she didn't have to do all the hardest work alone but knew they were all taking care of their own farms and families and couldn't spare the time or man-power. With a heavy sigh Bailey went back to her task, happy to see the truck nearly full of the last load, just two more bales and she could finish this up. She loaded them quickly, grunting with the effort of lifting the final bale into place, and then she climbed into the cab of the truck and drove off to the field to unload.
Emptying the truck took much less time than loading it had. All she had to do was cut the ties on the bale and shove it off the back of the truck, letting the hay break apart as it landed so the cows could get at it more easily. She'd dump one bale, drive a little way off and dump the next, spreading out the load so there was no pushing or shoving to reach the hay and every cow got some. As she did this she let her eyes drift over the herd, doing a head count and making sure there were no limps or sores to be seen among the cattle. Once she emptied the truck and was satisfied with the continuing health of the herd she drove back to the house to clean out the bed of the truck.
She'd just climbed into the back with a broom when her youngest little sister, Chris, came looking for her.
"Bailey," the nine year old said, "Momma says you gotta check out the fence on the north field. She said Mr. Weevil called and told her one of our cows was on his property and if we don't fix that fence he'll sue us again."
"Curmudgeon." Bailey said to herself, then aloud to her sister, "Alright, I'll get the stuff to fix the fence." Bailey slid to the ground and looked at her sister, "Will you sweep this out while I do that?"
Instead of answering Chris awkwardly clambered into the truck bed, took the broom out of her sister's hands, and started sweeping with a vengeance while making those silly sounds always heard in martial arts movies and pretending the broom was a weapon. Bailey grinned, Chris was enjoying herself and the truck would be spotless by the time she got back.
Grabbing the barbed wire, winches, and tool box from the shed didn't take very long. An eight minute drive brought her to the fence in question, the one separating the Pickett property from the Weevil's, and she carefully began to examine each pole and wire, getting out to test portions for loose bits to make sure she wouldn't have to come out again in a week . She continued on down the line until she found the part that must have let the cow out. One of the poles was on the ground and had dragged the barbed wire down making a space for the cattle to pass through. She could see where it had broken off, and what she saw did not make her happy. It looked as if someone had been at it with a hatchet. She was going to have to sink a new pole before she could fix this mess.
Heaving another heavy sigh she swung herself into the cab of the truck and turned around to get more supplies. It was then that she noticed the cloud of dust headed towards the house, as if several vehicles were coming down the drive at once. "Now what on earth…" she muttered and drove a little faster.
***'***
When Bailey arrived at the house there was pandemonium, dozens of people she'd never seen before were running around with video cameras and clip boards and it was very worrying. Her mother was standing on the porch looking harassed as she spoke with a woman in an outfit closely resembling a peacock's plumage and a camera man caught it all on film. Her little sisters were on the porch swing watching the entire hubbub with interest and Porkers stretched across their laps. Her father stood by on his crutches, which he wasn't supposed to be using just yet Bailey noted with annoyance, nodding and signing papers as a man in a severe grey suit pointed to different parts of what appeared to be a contract.
"Pappy!" Bailey called, slamming the door to the truck closed and rushing over, "what is going on?"
"Bales," her father looked up and acknowledged her then went back to signing the papers as the man continued murmuring to him.
Bailey pursed her lips in annoyance and turned to her mother, "Momma?"
With a note of exasperation usually reserved for when the girls had done something they weren't supposed to her mother answered, "Your father has apparently signed us up to host some reality show-"
The woman dressed like a peacock interrupted, "Grits and Glamour! It's all about models working on a farm and looking fabulous!"
Bailey felt her eyebrows start to climb up her forehead and turned away from the woman before she said something she'd regret. But she had to ask, "Isn't that basically what that Paris Hilton reality show was a few years ago?"
The woman waved that away, "Of course not! That was just Paris and Nicole. This has several of our agency's top young female models, planned events, and a lot more merchandising opportunities! Plus it has the added value of big city girls in the small town and learning farm work. It'll appeal to a much wider demographic, trust me."
Bailey would rather slap her, but she smiled tightly and turned her gaze to her father. He must have felt her eyes on him because he looked up, grinned, shrugged, and said, "We're getting a pretty penny out of this too, Bales. Getting the Pickett name out there will be good for business and we're getting paid up front for signing the contract. Should be enough to pay for the last of our new equipment and maybe even get a girlfriend for that pig of yours."
Bailey gasped, "Porkers can find his own dates!" Porkers squealed loudly in agreement drawing everyone's attention. Bailey chuckled, the irritation she'd felt building subsided. Porkers always knew just what to do to make her feel better.
Sure she didn't like the farm being invaded by these show business folk, but she shouldn't discount it out of hand. Her father might be right about it being good for business, having a show filming here would definitely get the Pickett name out there, and taking a percentage of any merchandise sold would definitely get them some extra revenue. Heck, it might even finally put Kettlecorn on the map! Any map!
"Bailey?" a softly accented voice called from behind.
Bailey knew that voice, she heard it at least once a week over the phone. "Jess?" but she couldn't be here in person, could she? She was supposed to be in the states, but here? Now? There was no way…Bailey turned around.
She saw two identical girls, tall, blonde, and smiling at her. "Jess!" In an instant she had bound off the porch and grabbed one of the girls in a bear hug, lifting her feet off the ground and laughing, while the other stood by smiling.
"How can you always tell us apart?" Janice asked as Bailey finally put Jessica back on the ground.
Bailey shrugged and gave Janice a much less exuberant hug, "It's a gift." She turned her attention back to Jessica, "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"
"I didn't know," Jessica said. She mock glared at her twin, "Jan never said we'd be coming here."
Janice shrugged and mentally congratulated herself for a reunion well made. "I didn't want to ruin the surprise for either of you." She grinned at them both, "Besides, it was loads more fun for me this way. You should have seen the look on Jess' face when she saw the Kettlecorn sign, Bailey. You'd have been in stitches!"
Jessica playfully reached out and smacked Janice's shoulder, "Beast."
Janice shrugged again, "I'll not deny it," she said striking a pose with her hand over her heart, "I am proud of my beastliness."
Jessica rolled her eyes, Bailey laughed, and Janice lost her pose when she started giggling.
***'***
The producer, the woman in the peacock clothing, one Sylvia de Laude, looked between the three of them. She noticed some interesting things, and knew the cameraman to her right was getting this all on film so she'd be able to study this later. But her observations now had her seeing a certain dynamic happening between Jessica and the farm girl and an idea began to form.
She'd noted the differences in the hugs between the girls. How the farm girl, Bailey, had held onto Jessica and how brief the exchange with Janice had been. She saw how closely the model stood to the girl, and how her twin kept her distance. Very interesting, indeed.
She could already see how she'd edit this footage. If what she was seeing from Jessica's body language was actually what was going on then she'd be sitting on a gold mine. The show would appeal to a much wider audience than even she had thought. And even if that's not what was going on…well, that's what she was going to make it look like! Who'd have thought an international model would be attracted to some small town hick? Or that they'd both be women? All the potential! She could practically see the money pouring in when their ratings skyrocketed.
***'***
"You three know each other, Bailey?" Her mother asked stepping down off the porch.
"Momma, this is Jessica," Bailey said gesturing to the named twin, "And this is her sister Janice. We met while I was still on the S.S. Tipton."
"So you're the one we had to get long distance for," Mrs. Pickett said in a teasing voice while Bailey blushed, "Well, at least Bales has good taste in friends. You never said she was a model."
"Didn't I?" Bailey said, scratching the back of her head and muttering, "I could have sworn…"
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Pickett." Jessica broke in to rescue Bailey from the awkwardness and extended one hand to shake while the other settled on Bailey's shoulder to silence her.
"Yes, a pleasure." Janice echoed, smiling to see Jess so familiar with Bailey already. Perhaps it'll be easier to get these two together than I thought, she mused.
"Well," the peacock woman interrupted, "I'm Sylvia de Laude, on-site producer, and I hate to interrupt your…reunion, but we've got to finish setting up and find the girls a place to sleep."
"We could put them in the loft," Bailey suggested looking between her parents and Miss de Laude for approval, "for now. I mean, there's plenty of room up there. Just string up sheets for privacy and you're good to go. Saves everyone from setting up tents and the hay makes a pretty good mattress."
"Perfect!" Sylvia exclaimed, "Take me to it and we'll set things up."
Bailey took them into the barn, pointed them in the direction of the ladder into the loft, and then turned to go.
"Where are you going?" Sylvia's voice stopped her, "Won't you show us around?"
"Can't. I've got to fix the fence tonight before any of the cows get into Weevil's yard again. Robin'll show you around, I'm sure. She's my oldest little sister, the one with the braid down to her hips and the purple fingernails." She was just about out the door when another voice stopped her.
"Can I help?" Jessica asked, not wanting to let Bailey out of her sight so soon after reuniting and all too happy to abandon Janice and the other models to Sylvia's attentions.
Bailey grinned at her, "Can you use a shovel?"
"I expect I can learn," Jessica replied dryly.
Bailey laughed, "Fair enough. Come on, then."
Behind the girls' backs Sylvia made a gesture for one of the cameramen to follow the girls then turned back to her own task.
Bailey gathered the shovels, cement, and a spare fence post (this last Jessica helped her lift into the truck) then climbed into the cab. Jessica climbed in on the passenger side and was about to close the door when the cameraman appeared in it.
"Sorry, ladies. I've gotta job to do, too. Boy, it's gonna be a tight fit with all three of us in here," he grinned at them.
Jessica slid to the center of the truck's bench-like seat, getting as close to Bailey and as far from the cameraman as she could. "Sorry about this," she murmured into Bailey's ear.
Bailey suppressed a shiver, "No big deal. We get stinky him on the way out there and he gets stinky us on the way back. Besides, I don't mind your company."
The cameraman had caught Bailey's reply on film and knew Sylvia would be pleased. He'd worked with her for years and knew how her mind worked. He'd picked up on the same thing between these two as she had and knew Sylvia was going to spin the hell out of it in the editing room.
"So," Bailey said looking around Jessica and inadvertently into the lens of the camera, "what's your name, cameraman?"
"James, but we're not really supposed to interact with you girls. Just pretend like I'm not even here."
Yeah, right. Bailey started the truck and they were on their way.
***'***
Four hours of digging, two bags of quick dry cement, and a lot of elbow grease later saw the new post in the ground and festooned in barbed wire stretching the gap and completing the fence once more.
It had gone much better than Bailey had expected. Jessica had proven far more useful with a shovel than either of them could have guessed and Bailey was actually glad to have had the help managing the placement of the heavy fence post. She and Jessica wrestled the old post and its freshly dug-out base into the back of the truck and took a moment to sit on the tailgate sipping from the water bottle Bailey had thought to bring.
"Well," Jess said, panting a little and wiping at the sweat and dirt on her neck, "That was rather a lot of work."
Bailey grinned at her, "That? That was nothing. After the tornado last year we had to put in an entirely new fence all the way around the property. Took us nearly three weeks with the help of a backhoe. Still, you did a good job here, Jess. I had no idea you'd be so useful with a shovel. Remind me to send you Momma's way when she's ready to plant her herb garden."
Jessica laughed, "More shovel work? Hooray." She drew her legs up and settled her arms around her knees, "What else is it you do around here?"
"Other than dig big holes?" Bailey asked, her eyes sparkling at Jessica in a way that made the breath catch in her throat.
Jessica smiled and rolled her eyes a little, "Yes, other than digging bloody big holes."
"Well, there are the cattle to look after. We have to check the herd every day to make sure none of them have hurt themselves and that coyotes haven't gotten at them. I just put out the hay for them today so we won't need to do that for another two weeks. And we've got a small herd of dairy cows separate from the rest that have to be milked every morning," Bailey thought a little, "There's the chickens to feed and gather eggs from. The corn fields need to be watered and checked over for parasites and rot. Horses to be exercised, rubbed down, and I'm pretty sure one of them needs to be re-shod. And Porkers always needs looking after, he's always getting himself in trouble for one thing or another. Just the other day he was eating Momma's roses, he likes them because they're sweet. She always threatens to turn him into a football, but she loves him just as much as I do."
"Porkers is your pet pig, right?" Jessica asked, "The one you rescued from the food market on Parrot Island?"
"Yep. Best pig I've ever met. He's just like a dog sometimes." Bailey grinned mischievously, "Only a whole lot smarter."
"Yes, you told me about the time he learned how to open the refrigerator to get at your sister's birthday cake."
Bailey laughed remembering that story. "Momma was so upset, but Robin thought it was the funniest thing. She took a picture of him all covered in frosting and put it up in her room. She still giggles every time she looks at it. I'll show it to you sometime."
"I'd like that," Jess said, then added, "we should probably head back now." She may have said it but she was reluctant to return to the house, with all those people. It had been rather nice having this time alone with Bailey, even if they had spent the majority of it working instead of speaking. It was nice just being near her. Seeing Bailey working so hard, working up a sweat, discarding a jacket to expose a tight fitting tank-top, watching her muscles move under skin, knowing it was other hard work which had made those muscles…all of it had gotten Jessica a little hot under the collar in a way not entirely related to the labor she'd been doing at the time, she was just grateful the work provided an excuse for her flushed face and dry mouth.
"I guess you're right," Bailey replied sliding off the tailgate, "I'm sure your producer will want to have a talk with everyone, set up some ground rules or something." She sighed, "Come on then." Bailey reached a hand out and steadied Jessica as she hopped off the back and stumbled a bit, "You alright?"
Jess fanned herself, "I think it's the heat and maybe a little dehydration. I'm not used to all this manual labor stuff. Put me in a pose and tell me to hold it for four hours under burning lights, that I can do no problem, but tell me to sweat out eighty percent of my water content and I get a little faint." She rolled her eyes and chuckled a little self-deprecatingly hoping to dispel Bailey's furrowed brow with a little joke. She continued in a mock mournful tone, "Not to mention all this dirt clogging my pores. A mud facial this was not."
Bailey did crack a smile, but ushered Jessica into the cab of the truck all the same barely noticing James climbing in the other side and keeping the camera trained on them. "I should have been more careful of your delicate system," Bailey teased, "Here, have some more water. You can shower and rest when we get back."
"Good, I'll need both."
Though it was only a short drive back to the house Jess managed to fall asleep with the closed water bottle in her lap and her head on Bailey's shoulder.
James had got it all on film, right down to the soft look Bailey gave Jessica just before waking her and helping her out of the cab. Taping this show was going to be a lot more interesting than he'd thought and it was going to be huge. He could feel it.
*****'*****
A/N: For visual reference I have cast Meighan Desmond as 'Sylvia' (she's a Kiwi and keeps that lovely accent) and 'James' is Jason Mewes. Mrs. Pickett was played by Ginette Rhodes in episode one of SLOD and she'll remain (however, I've decided her first name is Mary and she's 46 years old). Adam Baldwin is Mr. Pickett (who I've named Wallace and aged to 49). I have also named, given ages, and cast Bailey's sisters. The ones that appear here are her three younger sisters Robin (14, Abigail Breslin), Taylor (10, Tatum McCann), and Chris (9, Thora Birch as she was in 'Hocus Pocus'). So, leave a review.
