Perfect Partner

By: Riley

Summary - -Deleted Scene from It's The Rush That You Get-. Mrs. Knight and Riley bake a cake for Katie's birthday. (This is from chapter 38 of ITRTYG).

Mrs. Knight was in a happy mood. The window across the crib was open, letting in a sweet summer breeze. The oven was pre-heating. The radio was playing in the background, volume turned down to a minimum. The eggs and butter were sitting out on the counter, waiting to be beat and folded into other ingredients.

It was a nice setting.

Almost peaceful.

The most amount of peace and quiet that she had gotten since Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James had become inseparable. Most of the time she couldn't stand silence, since she was so used to the guys and Katie running all around the place or getting some sort of a call because someone broke something and had to be sent to the hospital. But when she was in the kitchen, peace and quiet was all that she needed.

She was flipping through her recipe book, debating whether to make a red velvet cake or a bundt cake or a chocolate one for Katie's birthday party that afternoon. Katie had nothing short of a mega sweet tooth and loved every flavor of cake imaginable.

There was a double knock at the front door and Riley hesitantly stepped inside. Mrs. Knight looked up from her cookbook and gave Riley a warm smile as she closed the apartment door behind her. The teenage girl walked over to her and rested her hands on the counter. "You wanted to see me?" She asked slowly, her eyes calculating. "Ronan said…"

"Yes." Mrs. Knight wiped her hands on her apron and rested her hands on her hips. "I was going to bake a cake for Katie's birthday party and Ronan told me that you liked to bake and-"

"He told you that?" Riley interrupted.

"It came up in a conversation randomly," Mrs. Knight said, giving her a funny half smile. "He talks about you guys a lot, you know." Riley nodded once. "So, I thought that you would want to help me out. I didn't want Katie to know what kind I was making so I sent her out with the boys and I could use some help to get this done before they get back."

"Knowing them, they'll probably get her in trouble with mall security over something stupid," Riley deadpanned. She gave a half smile, which Mama Knight could swear was a fond one. "Around them, it's like we're back in elementary school." She looked a little sad. "Back when we could be immature and nobody cared whatsoever."

"It's a shame they have to grow up, huh?" Mrs. Knight asked as she went over to the counter and picked up a large mixing bowl and a electric mixer. She then grabbed a apron and held it out to Riley. She hesitated for a minute before picking it up and slipping it over her head, then tying it behind her back.

Riley scoffed. "Boys don't mature since middle school. They've just grown taller and more perverted."

Mrs. Knight laughed and turned the cook book over to the teenage girl. "So I'm just trying to decide what kind of cake to make for Katie. I know that not everyone likes chocolate, so I was thinking of going with something different." At Riley's skeptical look, Mrs. Knight continued. "Katie likes all kinds of dessert so it doesn't matter which you choose."

Riley looked surprised and Mrs. Knight couldn't help but feel a little worried. Had she over stepped her boundaries? She knew that it was hard for her and her brothers and sisters with everything that was going on. Their parents died at a young age, they were put into the foster home of a cruel man, and now they were being adopted by their music producer. On top of that, they had the stress of working with Big Time Rush as well as on their own flourishing music career where everything moved at top speed and you had to be on your toes to keep up as new things were thrown in your face every day. She didn't want to appear that she was moving into the 'mother role' of them; she knew that Riley and Rhuben had taken on that role for their brothers very quickly and effectively and guessed that they didn't want a mother themselves, so she tried not to act that way.

But she was a mother of two and a surrogate mother to any of their friends, so it was a hard habit to break. I just hope that this transition doesn't make things harder for them. Mrs. Knight waited for Riley to say something.

"You want me to choose?" She asked quietly.

I forgot that Robert didn't really give them much of a say in whatever they did in life and in their music career. Mrs. Knight mentally slapped herself before she gave a disarming smile. "Yeah, I want you to choose."

"Umm." Riley rested her chin in her hands and leaned against the counter as she flipped through the cook book. She then sat up straight and pointed at a brown picture. "How about the sour cream pound cake?"

"Excellent choice." Mrs. Knight picked up the cook book and moved it away. "Let's get started."

Just then, the door was flung open and James entered the apartment. He looked over at Riley and grinned, noticing that she barely gave him any acknowledgement in reply. Mrs. Knight laughed lightly to herself, noticing that it bruised his ego a little bit. She looked back over to Riley, who was smirking at James, realizing that she was doing it on purpose. She and her siblings definitely aren't the kind of people that they've hung out with before.

James pouted. "Aren't you glad to see me?" He asked, walking over to Mrs. Knight and Riley.

"Not particularly," Riley replied. "I mean, I see you and the other blokes, like 24/7 it's hard to actually get excited about it, mate,"

"Ah, just what I like to see." James turned his attention away from Riley and to the ingredients that were spread out onto the counter. "Women in the kitchen, cooking desserts!" Mrs. Knight raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest in a 'oh-no-you-didn't' sort of way. The same look she gave when he, Logan, and Carlos, who were pretending to be bad boys, demanded that she give them pizza at that exact moment. They apologized immediately afterwards.

James noticed the look and gave a charming smile, causing Mrs. Knight to roll her eyes and grab a container of eggs.

"Really?" Riley widened her eyes innocently. "And I thought that you liked it when girls flocked all over you?"

"That too." James beamed.

"I was being sarcastic," Riley said shortly.

"Oh, I couldn't tell."

Mrs. Knight laughed at the exasperated look on Riley's face and turned to James herself. "James, weren't you guys supposed to be with Katie at the mall?" She placed her hands on her hips and regarded hi m carefully. "You didn't get kicked out did you?" It certainly wouldn't be the first time I would have to go down to the mall and explain why the guys were just kidding around. She gave him a skeptical look as he shook his head.

"No, Katie got tired of the mall," James explained. "And now we're trying to figure out what else we can do to keep her from coming up here and ruining the surprise."

"Just…" Mrs. Knight thought for a long moment. "Give her a computer and one of my credit cards so she can play online poker or something, that'll keep her busy for a while."

"Whatever you say, Mama Knight," James said. He then turned on his heel and left the apartment, not before flashing Riley a charming smile, which she gave the peace sign to in reply.

"Honestly, I don't know how you can stand them sometimes," Riley said honestly.

Mrs. Knight was a little stung. Yes, she knew that her son, daughter, and their friends could be a bit rambunctious, but they were still nice people and just got carried away sometimes. But she knew not to take it seriously, she understood now that the Jacksons were super honest and there were times that they didn't realize that they hurt someone's feelings because of what they said or did. It was also a bit of a 'monkey-see, monkey-do' sort of thing, as Robert was very harsh with them when he was still around. But it was nice to remember that she and her siblings were generally nice people that just had a lot of bad things happen to them.

"You'll get used to it," Mrs. Knight said kindly. "Now, what does the first step say?"

Mrs. Knight was a bit surprised how Riley helped make the cake baking process go by a lot quicker. Following Mrs. Knight's instructions, she measured out all the ingredients she needed ahead of time so she was able to put it all together. In only took a half hour to put everything together before an hour and a half bake time. It usually took somewhere between three and four hours to get everything done when Mrs. Knight was by herself, especially since she would be interrupted by every little thing.

"So where'd you learn to bake?" Mrs. Knight asked as the two waited for the pound cake to cool. Riley had opened up a little, even talking and laughing a little bit about the trouble that the guys had gotten into when they were younger as they waited for the cake to bake. "Did your Mom or Dad teach you?"

Riley was completely apathetic at the question. "I guess," she replied with a hesitant shrug.

Mrs. Knight frowned. Ok, talking about their family is still a bit of a sore spot. She reminded herself not to bring it up to her or her siblings unless she felt that the time was right. "You know you all are really helping the boys in the industry," She said. Riley looked at her curiously. "And they really do value you as friends. Even if they can get on your nerves sometimes, you should really give them a chance to be those friends to you."

Riley looked at her curiously.

"Because if you don't have friends, then you can really only rely on your family and that can get pretty lonely pretty fast," Mrs. Knight continued. "And I can tell…you guys don't want to be lonely anymore."

There was a long stretch of silence after she said that. But Mrs. Knight wasn't worried. She had a feeling it was exactly what Riley needed to hear.

Riley cleared her throat, breaking the awkward silence. "I have to get to Rocque Records," she said, pulling off her apron and gently setting it on the counter. "Gustavo scheduled the guys for some rehearsal before the party."

"Go ahead," Mrs. Knight said with a warm smile. "I can finish up here."

"Ok." Riley nodded and half-turned towards the door. "Oh." She turned back to Mrs. Knight and gave her a soft smile. "Thanks for letting me help you, Mama Knight."

"You're very welcome, Riley," Mrs. Knight replied with a smile of her own. "I was glad to be able to spend some time together."

"And you got my name right," Riley added, her eyes sparkled a little bit. She gave a short wave. "I'll see you later."

"Bye." Mrs. Knight waved back before picking up a pipe bag and finished frosting Katie's birthday cake.

THE END

A/N: I hope you guys liked it. I have some other deleted scenes from this story with Mama Knight and the rest of DE (minus Syd, because I've already done one with him), though I might just make them regular one-shots.

Cheers,

-Riles