JE look at me...look at me...I am the captain now! Even though I don't own the rights to Carlos and Diesel, I am still the captain now!

Warnings: None

Shun the nobelievers! I rage!

Bella

Chapter 2

There be Cows

"Here we ar-Julie put that cereal back-we're here," Carlos said, pulling down a long, winding driveway of gravel, "You've had enough sugar to fuel ten kindergartners, you'll have two servings of vegetables tonight, kiddo."

"Fine, Papi," Julie sighed, closing the box of chocolate cereal and placing it back in the bag, "So we're going to be here for four months?"

"We are," Carlos said as he stopped the SUV before a house, "What do you think?"

"It looks so quaint," Julie said, leaning forward between the front seats, "I like it, I won't tag it."

"You tag it, you'll be spending the summer painting the whole damn thing." Carlos said taking the keys out, "We're home."

Home happened to be a New England style home, surrounded by a garden that was blooming with color. It was a two story, white house, with a picket fence that was covered in summer roses of white and shutters of black. There was a large tree close to the house, that was green and vibrant, with a tire swing tied to it. He had told the company that kept the house upkeep for him that he and Julie would be there in the afternoon and so the windows were opened to let in the warm breeze.

The front porch of the house had a swinging bench, a sitting area with black summer furniture and wind chimes hanging on it. It was a nice house, good a growing or starting family.

He had bought it because it reminded him of Stephanie, the hopes and dreams that he had for the both of them. He thought that maybe, when everything was right, he and Stephanie would settle down here, start a home for the both of them.

Those thoughts were long gone, Carlos thought, bitterly as he and Julie took in the groceries into the nicely decorated house, she chose Morelli.

"Your room is upstairs, on the left, you have your own bathroom too," Carlos told Julie, watching her eyes light up with joy, "Go settle in and I'll deal with the groceries"

"Yeah, I hope I got a corner room!" Julie shouted and ran out the kitchen, "I gotta go hide my good stuff!"

"Good stuff?" Carlos echoed, his eyebrow twitching, "Julie…"

What was he going to do with that child? He didn't know but he did know that he never wanted her spark to go out, that was for sure. He loved that wild streak, the way she stood out, though, in all the wrong ways. He didn't want her to feel trapped or smothered. He wanted Julie to be...well, Julie.

"There's a tree house in the back, a pool, and a fire pit! Papi this house has everything," Julie came running down the stairs, her shoes long gone, her tablet swinging in her hand, "We should live here forever, right?"

"Let's think on that," Carlos said as Julie sat on a bar stool, "I can't wait to explore the area, Papi! I saw a lake, not too far from here, and it had a floating boat like thing in the middle of with a curly slide."

"I don't think the lake is part of our land," Carlos said, taking the binder out, turning to the page that had an overview of the area, "See this green dotted line? That shows me where the property line for our house is," Carlos grabbed Julie's hand and traced the dotted line with her finger, "The lake is in another dotted line area. The blue one."

"The blue area is huge, almost four times bigger than ours, It must be a farm," Julie said, looking down, "I wonder what's on the farm? I bet it's camels."

"Not the camels," Carlos deadpanned as Julie slid off the barstool, "Anything but the camels. Don't go sneaking around there, Julie, that's trespassing!"

"You do it, all the time," Julie's voice drifted into the kitchen, "Why can't I?"

"Because it's different," Carlos argued back as he put the binder away, "I'm an adult, I can afford a lawyer!"

"Bah!" Carlos chuckled at Julie's yowl and finished putting away the groceries. This was a good idea, he would be too busy keeping Julie in check that he wouldn't think about Trenton.

"So, what do you want to do now, Julie?" Carlos asked his daughter, who was sitting on the couch, upside down, with her tablet, "We can go swimming, enjoy the garden, anything, it's up to you."

"Can you teach me how to be a Ranger, like you, Papi?" Julie, lifted the tablet up to look at her father, "I wanna learn how to scout and set up traps and be good at it."

"I suppose I could teach you the basics," Julie squealed at the answer, hugging her father, "But no weapons, and that includes," Carlos quickly took out the pocket knife that was in his daughter's shorts, "This…"

"Darn it, I forgot to take it and hide it!" Julie whined and tried to grab at the pocket knife, "Fine, you win, again…"

"We need to have a serious talk about you and the contraband," Carlos ruffled Julie's hair and then pushed her out into the hallway of the house, "Go outside and play for a bit, we're to relax and enjoy the outdoors, we aren't going to be doing much with the tablet and computers."

"Okay, Papi," Julie's voice carried back to his ears, as she raced through the screen door to play outside, "I'm going to look in the garden."

"Don't pull any of them up," Carlos walked over to the desk in the living room and sat at it, taking his phone out.

He pressed Lester's number and waited a few seconds, before Lester answered with a bright, "Cuzzo, how you and Julie doing?"

Carlos leaned back in the office chair and said, running a hand through his hair, "We're doing alright, Santos, she's my daughter, for sure. I found so much contraband on her," he ignored Lester's bark of laughter, "She asked me about Stephanie, the little wretch was listening in, She's got the answer right, but I'm not about to tell her that. She doesn't need to be in my mess."

"Damn right," Lester chuckled, "Yeah, they went on that honeymoon you paid for, sure as shit got under Morelli's skin but, two weeks in Bali, can't beat that…but let's not think about that, you shouldn't, not good for your health."

The image of Stephanie, smiling in Morellis'arms, during their first dance. He should get his head right, why did he even go to that wedding. He must be a pure masochist.

Lester and Carlos spoke for awhile, until the sun was hanging low in the sky. When he got off, and went outside, he found Julie splashing in a stream by the line of his property, scaring off several small fishes.

"Look at this stream, Papi! I bet you we can find where it leads to in the woods too!" Julie said, jumping out the stream and running over to Carlo, "The woods are huge, I'm glad we're here, also it's not that hot either."

"So that means you'll be out all day and come in, too tired to learn about being a Ranger?" Carlos asked, earning a scoff from Julie, "What?"

"No, I won't, Papi, you're not getting off that easily," Julie folded her arms and then went over to put her sneakers on, "I want to the best Ranger ever, by the end of the Summer and September."

"I know you-"

'Moo..' Carlos nearly jumped as he felt something, warm, wet and heavy rubbing against his back, before something was tugging at his shirt.

Carlos turned his head, while Julie peered her head over and let out a happy shriek, "COW! IT'S A COW! I knew it, it's a cow farm!"

Said cow had given up on eating Carlo's very expensive shirt and was looking at the two, with black eyes that looked highly intelligent...to intelligent for Carlos's tastes. Another thing he notices was how big the cow was, standing there, before him. It reached his shoulders easily and would have looked intimidating, if it wasn't for the make up on it's face, including the lipstick.

The cow leaned forward, with a soft, "Moo," before gently licking Carlos's face, resting its head on his shoulder, looking down at Julie.

"Aww, cows are gentle giants, you know, Papi," Julie pet the cow's snout gently before pointing to something, "Look, I think they have a tag!"

Carlos turned to look at the cow and then found that a pearl necklace was fitted around the cow's neck, along with a golden name tag that read, 'Sakura, Female, Age 2.'

"Hello Sakura," Carlos said, and the cow perked up, looking at Carlos, interested, "Her name's Sakura, Julie."

"What a nice name," Julie continued to pet the cow, "Hi Sakura! You're such a pretty cow."

Sakura seemed to preen at that. She was a pretty cow, Carlos thought, looking at the cow. She had sleek hair of pitch black, that shined in the sunlight and had a healthy glow around her. She looked happy and healthy.

"Sakura!" A girl's voice came from the top of the driveway, "Sakura! Come back for your makeover!"

Sakura turned to the voice and quickly turned, running excitedly to the girl that was hopping down the driveway. She couldn't have been more than seven or eight years old, wearing overall shorts, a hot pink shirt underneath it and pink mud boots that went up to her knobbly knees. She had skin that was a light latte color, her eyes were a bright green and her hair were wild, black curls.

When the girl saw Carlos and Julie, she paused, just as Sakura came up to her, licking her face, happily. The cow mooed gently and the child said, "Hello," she shyly hid behind one of Sakura's leg.

"Another child!" Julie squeal, running over to the smaller child, "Hello! Hi! Hey!"

"Hi," The child said, perking up as Julie ran over to her, "I didn't know anyone lived here! It was always empty!"

"It's not anymore," Julie said, proudly, hands on her hips, "I live there, with my papi! I'm Julie!" She stuck her hand out, "Nice to meet you!"

"….I'm Fleur!" The child said, with a smile, grabbing Julie's hand and shaking it, "How old are you?"

"I'm 11, what about you?" Julie asked, just as Carlos came up to the two children.

"I'm 7, I'm a big girl, Papa says so," Fleur said as she looked over to Carlos, "Is this Papi?"

Carlos look down at the little girl and nodded his head, "It's nice to meet you, Fleur, is this your cow?"

"No, it's my Auntie's cow, she has a big farm here, she wanted to buy your house and land, Papi, but she couldn't so she bought the big woods," Fleur said, petting Sakura's leg, "Oh...yeah, I'm suppose to stay on Auntie's farm, not off it, that's what Papa and Maman told me, while they were working!"

"Well, you better listen to them," Carlos said, as Sakura got down, looking to Fluer, who nodded her head and then scrambled up on top of the cow, "Do you need us to walk you to your Auntie's house?"

"No, Sakura can walk me home," Said cow standing up, with a soft moo, "It was nice meeting you, Papi, Julie!"

"Can we play together?" Julie asked, as Fleur and Sakura began to walk off, "I want to see the cows!"

"Sure, I'll ask Auntie if I can play and maybe even let you see the cows! Come on Sakura! Let's go, dinner awaits us and chocolate ice cream! Bye Papi! Bye Julie."

"Wow, so we live next to a cow farm," Carlos said, looking down to Julie, who nodded her head, with a smile on her face, "Well, now we have to see the cows, soon."

TBC….