As promised, the next chapter! FWI, Stark is my FAV. name from House of Night, so no flames! (read and you'll understand). And I would like to thank everyone for reviewing, I really appreciate it a lot. Keep it Up! And I'll have the next chapter up before you know it!

Rescue

I'm walking back to Chelsea's the next day. She would still need help because of her injury, so I would help her while I was here. After…well, she would have to manage on her own.

I'm shaking as I walk though. I'd had the same nightmare that I'd had the night before. Where Chelsea and I were playing on the beach, when suddenly she fell in and started to drown. Only this time, I didn't save her.

It was really freaking me out. The only difference between the two times was that Chelsea had been there when the good ending for the dream had occurred. What was she doing to me?

I draw in a shaky breath as I pop my regular pills and another Advil. I'd taken to just carrying them around. I'd also learned to swallow pills without water.

It's early when I reach her farm. Quickly I go through all her chores. I feed her chickens, cows and sheep, and brush all of them so they shine. I cuddle a few that seem a bit lonely, and then I head to her house.

It's almost nine o'clock. Gently I knock on her door. There's a grunt from the other side. My eyebrows crease. What was going on? Cautiously I enter the house.

No one's in the main room. Curious, I check the kitchen. Again, no one. Then I check the bathroom, and find no one. I take a deep breath as I go to the one room of the house I hadn't been in. Her bedroom.

Very cautiously, I knock on the door. There's a groan from the other side of the door.

"Chelsea?" I call.

"Vaughn?" A hoarse voice calls out. "What are you doing here?"

"I took care of your animals. I didn't know if you'd be well enough to."

"Thanks."

I wait for another noise or sound, but she doesn't make any again. Worried, I knock on the door again. "Can I come in?"

"Knock yourself out."

I inch the door open, my eyes almost half-shut; just in case. But to my relief, Chelsea is snuggled deep under her blankets. Although I become worried a second later. What was she doing still sleeping? Didn't farmers get up earlier than this?

"You okay?" I ask as I stand next to her.

She turns her head, lets out a deep sigh and opens her eyes to look at me. "Better now."

My heart just skipped a beat. I swallow. "Are you still wearing that makeup?"

"Yeah. Does it still look okay?" She asks worriedly.

I nod. "You look great." I give her a slight smile. "Come on. Get out of bed and I'll make you breakfast."

She yawns and stretches. "But it's so warm in bed."

I push away the sick thoughts my fantasies came up with from that statement. "I'll make pancakes."

She makes a moaning sound and she buries her head beneath the blanket. "Can you bring it in here?" She mumbles.

"Nope. You gotta get up." I tell her, a smile tugging on my lips.

"Fine." She sighs out. Then she throws her blanket off and runs to the bathroom.

I stand there for a minute, the image of her lacey pajamas adorning her stuck in my head. Then I smile and head back to the kitchen to make pancakes.

A good ten minutes later, Chelsea walks into the kitchen just as I finish making the pancakes. She smiles at me as I hand her a plate of two pancakes, strawberries, blueberries, whip cream and syrup.

She laughs. "Is this breakfast or desert?"

I chuckle as I sit down next to her at the table with my own equally looking plate. "A little of both."

She laughs again and takes a bite of the pancakes. Her eyes close as she savors the flavor, bliss forming on her face.

"You are an amazing cook." Is what she says when her eyes open.

"I'm no Pierre." I point out, referring to the chef on the island. "But I'm not bad."

"Are you kidding me? This is great!" She stuffs another forkful into her mouth.

"I'm sure you're better." I say with a shrug as I begin to eat.

Chelsea laughs. "Are you kidding me? I burn toast! With actual flames! Why do think I'm always eating at other people's houses?"

I shrug and continue eating, watching her the entire time. She genuinely seemed to love the pancakes as she ate them quickly. I push mine over to her. I'd already eaten breakfast anyway.

When she's done we both sit back. She smiles. "You know, Will never cooks. He just has his butlers do it all."

I sneer and growl as I pick up the dishes. I walk over to the sink and drop them in. After I take off my fingerless gloves, I wash them both and then put them away. My gloves are back on when I go back to where Chelsea was.

She smiles at me as I sit down. "So what now?"

I shrug. Chelsea bites her bottom lip, and I have to silently scold myself for staring. "You want to go for a walk?"

I scoff. "Don't you have to prepare for your date?"

Surprisingly, Chelsea laughs. "It's not going to be much of a date."

What did that mean? "We can go for a walk, I guess."

"Great!" She jumps up faster than I could follow. "Let's go!"

She grabs my arm and drags me out of the house. "Where do you want to go?" Chelsea asks me as we trudge through the snow. It was a little less than normal, which was good I guess.

"Forest?" I offer.

"Okay." She smiles and we begin to walk that way. No one sees us as we cross over the bridge to the forest.

Chelsea lets go of my arm when we enter the forest. I desperately wish I could take her hand, but I don't want to come on too strong.

We walk side by side. First we come to a little tiny pond. Chelsea walks up to it and gets down on her knees. She beckons to me and I sit down next to her.

"They say that this is where the Harvest Goddess resides." Chelsea whispers to me. "She might appear if you throw in an offering."

"They?" I ask as I cock an eyebrow. Chelsea points and for the first time I notice that there's a church there.

"Oh. Them." I say simply. Nathan and Alisa were the two people who run the church. That must have been who Chelsea was talking about.

I turn back to gaze at the pond. The Harvest Goddess, eh? Silently, I send her a small prayer of thanks. I could have patience, if Chelsea was here beside me.

Then she stands. I stand with her and we begin to walk aimlessly around the forest. We don't speak at all; there's no need to.

Suddenly, I hear a howl. My eyes widen and for a minute I'm reminded of the dream where I was eaten by wolves. Chelsea jump and grabs onto my arm. I pull down my hat as I put on my game face.

There's a rustling of leaves just a little distance from where we were standing. "Vaughn…" Chelsea whispers.

I put my hand over her mouth to silence her. Her lips are warm and moist against my hand and I completely faze out for a second. Only when the leaves rustle again, do I remember.

Abruptly some dogs come out of the woods. There are five altogether and they're all Siberian Huskies. And they're all adults except for one pup.

The one who appears to be the pack leader approaches me. Carefully, I bend down. He sniffs at me, and I suddenly remember that I had put leftover food in my jacket.

Slowly, I reach into my pocket and pull out some of the food. I open my palm so it's flat and then the leader dog leans over and eats the food.

His tongue tickles my palm, and I smile a bit as I take out the rest of the food. Then I throw it to the rest of the dogs and they eat hungrily.

After they're fed, they all run up to me and begin licking my face. I let out a laugh as they knock me over. They're all on top of my licking my face, and I pet each one of them in turn.

Then I catch sight of Chelsea. Her eyes were wide and she looked like she was really scared. I'm worried about her, so I push the dogs off gently and walk over to her. The dogs follow loyally at my heels.

Though as I approach her, she back away. I'm really confused. "Chelsea, what's wrong?"

Her face is pure white. "I'm, I'm, I'm, sc-sc-scared of d-d-d-dogs."

I give her a small smile. "The dogs aren't going to hurt you. They're not dangerous and they won't attack. They just wanted food."

Chelsea still appears nervous still. "I d-d-don't kn-kn-know."

Even though I thought her stuttering was cute, she was beginning to bug me. Animals were something I loved no matter what. It kind of annoyed me that she could be scared by something so innocent and sweet.

"Come on." I tell her. "Just pet one."

Her eyes widen in fear as she slowly kneels down. Then the smallest dog, the one that's still a puppy, run over to her and licks her face. She freezes for a second and then she smiles as the dog's tongue licks her nose.

She ruffles his fur, and laughs when he lets out a small bark. I smile slightly. She looked really cute holding the small dog in her arms.

All the other dogs begin barking at me, so I get down on my knees and begin to play with them. While Chelsea still seems a bit nervous around the bigger dogs, she comes over beside me and we play with the dogs together.

I don't know how much time passes. I'm caught up in the soft fur of the dogs, their constant barking, and their need for attention and of course, Chelsea.

Time goes by quickly and before I know it, we've spent almost half the day with the dogs. The leader dog finally decides that it's time to leave and gathers his pack. They begin to walk away and Chelsea and I watch them.

Abruptly, the puppy whines at the leader. He turns and barks at the smaller puppy who barks back. For the rest of my life I would swear I saw the Alpha dog sigh and nod its head in our direction after licking the puppy behind the ears.

Chelsea and I watch in amazement as the puppy bounds happily over to us and jumps into Chelsea's arms. The rest of the pack vanishes into the bushes.

The puppy is licking her face happily, and Chelsea is giggling as she shoots me looks of disbelief. I have to laugh at the funny picture they make together.

"I guess you have a dog now." I'm smiling as I tell her. I liked the puppy a lot. His face was snow white, as was his stomach and the tip of his tail, but everything else was night black. He was a very cute puppy.

"What do you think I should name him?" Chelsea asks me as she snuggles the puppy in her arms. She'd become quite the dog lover over the past couple hours.

I shrug. She looks at the dog. "Maybe James." Then she glances at me. "It's my favourite name."

I frown. "Don't use your favourite."

She frowns back. "Why not?"

I pull my hat closer over my eyes. "You might want to use it for something better." Like if she ever got a child, for example…

Chelsea looks confused for a second, but then she catches on and her eyes widen as her face becomes even redder than mine.

"Stark then." She smiles at the little puppy. "Your name is Stark."

It was a good name. "We should get back now." I tell her gruffly.

She nods and we walk back to her house in silence; her holding the puppy in her arms the entire way.

Only a few hours later I was sitting on the dock. My boat wouldn't come for at least another three hours, but…I was drawn here.

Okay, I'm…spying. On Chelsea's date with Will. Yeah, I know. Stalker status, but I had a bad feeling deep in my gut. Maybe it was the dream I had.

A pair of footsteps echoes on the dock. I don't turn to look. I'm too busy watching in hatred as Will is having dinner on the deck of his ship with Chelsea.

The person sits down beside me. It's Natalie. She sighs. "Don't you ever get tired of watching them from a distance?"

I shrug. "Sometimes."

"But you can't stop, can you?" She gives me a light smile. "I thought you might like some company out here. It is a little chilly."

I shrug. "Whatever." I wasn't trying to be rude; I was bust watching for signs of something to go wrong.

"I talked to Pierre today." She admits. "He invited me to have supper with him tomorrow."

I nod. "Good for you Natalie."

She smiles and blushes. "I know I've only known him for a while, but I really like him."

I raise my eyes brows at her. "Bad ass routine not doing it for you anymore?"

She gently shoves me. "Shut up."

The comment reminds me of when Chelsea said that to me only yesterday. Was it only yesterday? It seemed so much longer.

"So what really happened with Chelsea?" Natalie asks suddenly. "I don't buy that she had the flu. It's not even flu season. That was last month."

I shrug. "You want to know; ask her. But I wouldn't if I was you."

"Why not?" She seems curious.

"It's private and she doesn't want anyone's pity." I shrug again.

"Vaughn." Natalie pulls my arm and I turn to look at her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm. Sitting. On. The. Dock?" Each word is its own sentence as I wonder if she was trying to play a mind game with me.

She shakes her head. "No, why are you here? Why aren't you over there-" Her hand points to Will's ship. "Telling Chelsea that you love her?"

"It's more complicated than that." I say gruffly.

"It's not hard to say 'I love you'. Besides, I know for a fact that she'd dump Will in a heartbeat if you told her that."

"You don't understand." I say gruffly.

"No Vaughn. You don't understand." Now Natalie's voice is harsh. "There's a girl over there who loves you and you're not admitting it because what? Because you're afraid you might actually feel something?"

That strikes me deep. My eyes flash angrily at her, and I see that she cowers slightly. "Yes Natalie. I'm afraid to get my heart broken. Do you know what it feels like to get your heart broken?" My voice is steadily rising as I yell at her. "Have you ever experienced nights where all you dream about is the one person who broke your heart? Have you ever cried yourself to sleep for years because the pain is still burning? Have you ever wanted to kill yourself because there's a possibility you won't have to feel anymore?"

I know my eyes are burning and I feel a lone tear make its way down my face. Quickly I turn back around and pull my hat so far over my eyes all I can see are my pants.

"No. I haven't." Natalie answers in a shaken voice.

I grunt. "Well when someone who you think you're going to spend your entire life with breaks your heart and you go through all that; then you come and tell me that it's easy to say those words to another person."

Natalie doesn't say anything to that. Then she gasps. My head snaps up and I look up at Will's boat. What I see makes me want to jump in a hole and die.

Chelsea and Will were by the edge of the ship. I couldn't see Chelsea's face but I could see Will's. It had begging and fake love written all over it. Her was done on one knee and was holding a blue feather out to Chelsea.

"He's proposing to her." Natalie whispers. Like I didn't already know.

I want to look away, but I just can't. Chelsea was saying something to him; she still hadn't taken the feather from his hands. He begins to look angry and I really wish I could hear what was being said.

Then, she does take the feather. My heart constricts for a minute but then she drops it on the deck and destroys it with her foot.

Will looked pissed. Royally pissed. He reaches for Chelsea and she backs against the railing. Then she does something that I will never forget for the rest of my life, as long as I live.

Chelsea kicks him in the crotch. And from the look of pain on his face, she hit him hard. However, the force of the kick causes her to fall backwards; into the water.

There's a huge splash and then a bunch of flailing coming from the spot she fell. That's when it hits me.

"She can't swim." I whisper to myself. Before I know it, my boots and hat are tossed and I'm in the water.

I swim as fast as I can possibly go. I make myself go on even when my lungs feel like their bursting for air. But when I reach the site she fell in, there's no sign of her.

My eyes widen in horror and I take another deep breath before plunging back into the water. The water is icy cold and I'm already starting to lose the feeling in my limbs. It's also pitch black and I can't see a thing. Terror grips me as I realize that this was exactly like my dream.

I push myself harder than I did in the dream. My lungs scream for air as a little thought goes though the back of my mind, that I can die here. But I have to find Chelsea.

Suddenly, I see her. I thank the Harvest Goddess with every fiber of my being as I grab an unconscious Chelsea and kick my way to the surface.

The second we break the water, her eyes flutter open and she clings to me tightly. I begin to slowly swim back to the dock as I yell at her.

"Don't you ever do that again Chelsea! I thought you were going to die!"

She's laughing. The kind of laugh you get after a near-death experience. "I did it. I did it."

"Did what? What is so important that you would risk your life?"

Chelsea looks up into my face. "You."

I'm so startled I almost stop swimming. "Huh?" I manage to keep swimming; we were almost at the dock.

"I broke up with Will." She says and my stupid heart begins to sing. "Right after eating, I told him it wasn't going to work out. He got down on a knee and proposed to me, saying that it could work. I told him it was over and destroyed his feather. And then I kicked him in the nuts for trying to force another one of his disgusting kisses on me."

That was probably the best speech I have ever heard in my life. Natalie helps Chelsea on to the dock. I wasn't mad at her or Chelsea anymore. Though I wanted to understand something.

"What does that have to do with me?" I ask her when I pull myself up out of the water to sit next to her.

"Because I love you, you stupid cowboy." Chelsea laughs the sentence as her lips descend on mine.

AWWWW! Let me hear you say "AWWWWW!" I hope you all enjoyed that VERY much. By the way, Vaughn's huge long speach to Natalie: personal experiance wrote that. It is SO true and it SUCKS!

And so you know, this is NOT the end. There will be MANY more chapters to put up. Getting them together isn't even HALF the battle. ;)

Oh, and I know that Will is OOC in this chapter. Deal. He'll be OOC for the rest of the story and Sabrina a bit too. But that's because it fits with the story, and it's how I see them when I play the actual game.

VAUGHNXCHELSEA FOREVER! REVIEWS FOREVER! 3