Homecoming

By: Riley

Summary – Big Time Rush has a surprise for the DarkElements. Something that they would have never expected in a million years. Short one-shot.

"So the way I see it, if we work hard for the next couple of weeks, Gustavo will see how well we've been doing and will let us go to SXSW and Coachella!" Kendall was leaning over a flyer that was set in the middle of the table. He rested a hand over his mouth, his eyes shifting as he thought about it. "You know, if Gustavo actually had a heart."

"Kendall, you're overreacting," Logan said. He lowered his cup of coffee. "We're going to find a way to get to the music festivals; even Kelly should know that it's too important to us.

"Yeah, right," James and Carlos chorused, rolling their eyes. Logan and Kendall laughed.

They all knew that Gustavo was anything but reasonable. The only times that they ever had the day off was when he needed to monitor his blood pressure, he was being hassled by Griffin, or there was some sort of a major meltdown at Rocque Records. This time they only managed to get the day off because Gustavo had gone out of town to visit his family. And they felt bad for his family, since Gustavo seemed to be in a bad mood before they left. But like Carlos said, 'better them than me'. So depending on his mood when he came back from visiting his family, they were either going to be able to get to both of the music festivals or they were going to be grounded to Rocque Records for the rest of their lives. Not that they weren't used to it at that point, the only places that they ever saw were the crib, Rocque Records, and the PalmWoods school.

And even Logan was getting sick of the PalmWoods School.

"Well, I'm not missing these shows," Kendall said firmly. "Not again. I mean, living in LA has to have its perks at some point."

"Ok, well, even if he's in a bad mood, I think that we can-"Logan broke off as Carlos sharply elbowed him in the side. Logan coughed, bringing a hand to where he had been hit, glaring over at his shorter friend. "What'd you do that for?"

"Those people over there, they've been staring at us ever since we got here," Carlos said, lowering his voice as he pointed behind him. The four boys turned to see a young looking couple sitting a few tables away. The woman was drinking from a Styrofoam up, looking at a newspaper in front of her, but the man that she was with was open looking over at the four boys.

"Maybe they recognize us." James started to pat his hair. "Maybe they're talent scouts and are watching us to see which one would be better fit as a model." He started to do some odd poses in his chair, causing Kendall, Logan, and Carlos look at him funny. "What?" he ran a hand through his hair. "You never know."

"Trust me, we know." Carlos placed a hand on James's shoulder. "It's not going to happen." He shook his head as Logan and Kendall laughed lightly and James pouted. "But seriously, their stares are really starting to creep me out."

"So why don't you just go over there and ask what the problem is?" Logan suggested. "Better to be polite than to openly stare back." Carlos perked up and a smile slid onto his face. "Carlos, I don't mean for you to literally sit there and stare at them to creep them out." Carlos frowned, resting his chin in his hand.

"Kendall, why don't you go over and talk to them?" James suggested, knocking Kendall on the arm.

"Why?" Kendall asked, lifting his gaze from the flyer. "Just because I'm usually the one that has no problem talking to people, I won't let Gustavo walk all over me, and because you all are usually to afraid to speak up when something's bothering you?" James, Logan, and Carlos all nodded in reply. Kendall rolled his eyes as he pushed his chair back. "You guys are a bunch of wusses," he said.

Kendall got to his feet and slowly walked over to the couple's table. As he moved closer, the man smiled at him, his blue eyes shining. The woman across from him pushed her long hair over her shoulders and sat up, smiling at Kendall as well.

"Hi." Kendall waved a hand as he stopped by their table. "Uh, sorry. I don't mean to be rude, but you're really starting to freak my friend out by staring at us." He clasped his hands together. "So, if you have something to say-"

"You're from Big Time Rush, right?" The woman asked. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's sort of important." She flashed her teeth in a bright smile.

Kendall's eyes narrowed as he studied her. "Yeah, I'm Kendall Knight." He held out his hand towards the woman and shook her hand before holding it out to the man and shaking his as well. He turned back to the woman. "I'm sorry, but have we met before? You look…really familiar to me."

"No, we haven't met before," The woman said with a light laugh. Once again, Kendall was struck with the familiarity of the woman. "This is my husband's and my first time in Los Angeles, we only got in a couple of days ago." The woman motioned over to the man across from her and he leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Are those your mates back there?" The man asked, nodding behind Kendall with his chin.

"Yeah those are my best buds," Kendall said. He turned and waved them over. "This is James, Logan, and Carlos," he said, turning back to the woman and the man.

"Hi!" Carlos said kindly.

"Nice to meet you," Logan said and James smiled and nodded.

"So all of you are Big Time Rush?" The woman's brown eyes lit up. "This is great! We were hoping that you could help us with something…" she looked over at her husband, who smiled and nodded.

"Ok." James shrugged. "Help with what?"

"That's a surprise," the man replied with a smile.

"Are they here yet?" Carlos asked, sitting up on the bench that he had been lying down on.

He looked around PalmWoods Park at all of the residents of the PalmWoods that were running around. There were a couple of little kids playing baseball, there were a group of teenagers lying around on the grass, talking, and the Jennifers were sitting by GuitarDude, listening to whatever melody he had just come up with.

"Does it look like they're here yet?" James asked. He reached over and shook Carlos's shoulder. "Relax, they'll be here soon."

"How can I relax?" Carlos threw his hands into the air. "This is, like, the best surprise that we can ever give anyone!" He rolled his eyes. "So excuse me if I'm a little bit excited. How long does it take for them to get here from Blazing Phoenix anyway? We just called them two hours ago!"

"They said that they were going to be here as soon as they could," Logan said, looking through his phone, from where he was sitting on the grass.

Though he was berating Carlos, he was as anxious as him, his knees were bobbing up and down rapidly and he continued to look at his watch. The only ones that didn't seem as anxious as they were was James and Kendall. James was lying on his side on the grass, smiling at any girl that passed him by, trying to count to see how many reacted favorably to him. Kendall was sitting on a bench that was next to the one Carlos was lying on, looking at his watch every now and then, but otherwise, seeming calm. But that was just what he was showing on the outside. On the inside, he was freaking out; he wasn't sure how this was going to play out and how things were going to change from there. A lot of people's lives were going to be affected by this, and depending on which way things went, he wanted to see how things would turn out.

"Hey!" The four boys got up and smiled when they spotted their best friends walking over to them. "So what'd you guys need to meet up for?" Sydney asked, flicking his hair from his face. "You seemed really anxious on the phone."

"Yeah, well, we got a surprise for you!" Carlos said, poking the air with his fingers as he motioned towards him and his siblings.

"What sort of a surprise?" Rhuben asked warily. "You know I hate surprises!" She looked at the four boys that stood in front of her, pushing her purple strand of hair out of her face. "C'mon, boys, out with it."

"It's not here yet." James rubbed his hands together. "But we're sure that you'll like it." He looked at his watch. "Anyway, what did you guys do today? You were working at the studio and last we checked, you were taking a break from making new music for a year."

"Subject change, much?" Patrick asked with a laugh. "Seriously, what are you lot up to?"

"We all ready said, we can't tell you," Kendall said. He licked his lips. "Not yet, anyway. So right no we're just trying to stall." He said honestly. "And since you don't want to talk about that, how about you help us try to convince Gustavo to let us go to SXSW and Coachella."

"You're still going on about that?" Riley asked with a loud laugh. "I'm sorry, but do you really think that Gustavo will let you skip practice time for you to go to some music festivals?"

"You're forgetting Riles, once Kendall puts his mind to something, it'll take a bomb to get it out." Noah smiled. "Remember when we tried to convince him that nothing was going on with Jo and Jett? Or when we tried to tell him that breaking into Hawk Records to get their music back was a bad idea? Or when-"

"But you went along with that!" Logan pointed out.

"Did you think we wouldn't?" Rhuben snorted. "Do you not know us?"

Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James couldn't help but laugh. No matter what sort of crazy plan that they had come up with to fix whatever mistake they made or whatever jam they were in, they always knew that the Jacksons would jump to help them, no questions asked. Half the time the guys knew it wasn't because they wanted to help their friends, it was because they were bored and wanted something fun to do. More often than not, they made the problem worse, but they were always the first to try and help them out.

"Oh, we just wish that you were better at helping us than making things worse," James shot back with a grin. His gaze shifted over their shoulders and he lifted his head in a light nod before nudging Kendall in the side. Kendall followed James's look and then a bright, albeit nervous, smile slid across his face.

"Ok, your guys's surprise is here," he said. Sydney's eyes lit up and he started to bounce up and down on his toes. "Turn around."

Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James watched as the Jacksons turned around, watching as the couple walked over to the five siblings. Patrick's eyes immediately bugged out of his head and Riley moved her hands to cover her mouth. Rhuben looked back at Big Time Rush before looking at the couple again.

"Mum?" Noah asked. "Dad?"

As if he was shot out of a cannon, Sydney was the first one to start running over to Reed and Ruriko Jackson. A few moments later, his brothers and sisters were running behind him. Big Time Rush slowly trailed behind them, wanting to give them some time.

Sydney grabbed onto his mother around the waist before reached up for her arms. Ruriko, tears all ready falling down her face, she grabbed onto him and lifted him into her arms. "Mummy!" Sydney wrapped his arms around his mother's neck and pressed his face into her shoulder. "Mum! Oh, mum!"

"Oh, Sydney, my baby boy!" Ruriko smiled as she pushed Sydney's hair out of his face. "You've grown up so much!"

"Daddy!" Rhuben launched herself at her father and he easily picked her up before Riley collided into his side, wrapping her arms around his waist. Reed used his free hand to rub Riley's back as he gave Rhuben a kiss on the cheek.

Riley mumbled something against Reed's chest. "What?" Reed laughed.

"I'm getting your shirt wet," Riley said, pulling her face away. Her eyes were bloodshot and tears continued to fall down her face.

"It's all right." Reed bent down at the knees and picked her up as well, balancing both of his daughters on his hip.

"So do you at least like this surprise?" Logan asked sheepishly. Rhuben reached out and smacked him on the back of his head before clinging onto her father again. "I thought so." He looked over at Patrick, Noah, and Sydney, who were all clinging onto her mother as well. He couldn't help the smile that was on his face, he didn't think that he could be any happier than at that moment. He looked over at Carlos, not surprised to see that he was crying too, but decided not to call him out on it.

"How'd you find them?" Patrick asked, taking his glasses off and wiping at his eyes. He smiled and moved closer to his mother's side as she ran a hand through his hair.

"They found us, actually," Kendall said. "We were hanging out at the coffee shop and they were there. Apparently they had been following our career for a while to be able to figure out where we would be." He had his arms crossed over his chest. "I wasn't sure if they were telling the truth about who they were at first, but then I realized that your mom looked exactly like Riles and Benny, and your dad looked like Patrick, Noah, and Sydney."

"And it helped that your dad's Australian since not many people out here are," James added.

"But..." Noah wiped at his eyes. "We thought that you-"

"It's all right, honey." Ruriko gave him a kiss on the side of the head. "We don't have to talk about that now." She turned back to Big Time Rush. "Thank you so much for being able to do this for us." She said with a warm smile.

"Thanks so much, guys," Rhuben said quietly.

"Best friends ever," Sydney agreed with a smile.

THE END

A/N: I got this idea after watching some soldier surprise homecoming videos today during work. Just a tip, don't watch those if you don't expect to cry. Now, don't ask me how it would be possible for Reed and Ruriko to still be alive, I hadn't thought far enough ahead to figure out how that would be possible. And that would bring up the question of what would happen to Ronan, but ignore all that!

I just wanted to go for the feel good, WAFF moment. I hope you guys liked it.

Cheers,

-Riles