It's Times Like These

By: Riley

Summary - -Sequel to It's The Rush That You Get-. So you saw the reality of life and made it better. Things were supposed to get easier. That was the deal. Things change though. People change. Its times like these you figure out who your real friends are. (Re-Write of With Friends Like These Series.)

Pairs: Many Pairings

.:Chapter 01:.

"The thing I love most about going on vacation is that I get to leave behind any kind of schedule. My entire life is scheduled from morning to night, and when I'm on vacation, there is no schedule." ~Kelly Clarkson

"Do you really think that Gustavo is going to let us shoot the Windows Down video ourselves?"

Logan Mitchell waited as Mrs. Knight poured milk over his cereal, looking over at Kendall Knight to see his reaction. His upper lip curled slightly when he saw that Kendall had his famous 'trust me' smile on his face. That wasn't going to end well in the slightest. None of Kendall's ideas ever ended well, they always got into some sort of trouble and made things worse, but he had to admit the fact that he was always on his toes to help his friends was something that he really liked.

"No, I don't actually," Kendall admitted. Beside him, his little sister, Katie, rolled her eyes, muttering something under her breath about them being idiots, much like she usually did. "But, I mean, we're getting older now and Gustavo should see that we can be responsible."

Katie tilted her head back and howled with laughter. Kendall and Logan looked at each other with disdain before looking at Katie, who seemed like she wasn't going to stop anytime soon. Katie could be their biggest fan and she could be their worst enemy at the same time. Especially when she was being realistic, she was one of the people that could bring the guys crashing back down to earth with a few quick words and condescending laughter.

"Ha, you guys, responsible? That's funny!" Katie wiped at her eyes before standing up, taking her own cereal bowl with her. "Thanks for the laugh that really made my day." She went over to the sink and put her bowl inside. "I'm going to the pool!" She looked over at the boys again, laughing loudly, before walking out of the apartment.

"Good to know that Katie agrees with me," Logan said, turning back to Kendall.

"Oh come on, have some faith, I'm sure that we can do this, we deserve the vacation." Kendall turned in his seat to address his mother, who was now sitting at the head of the table, reading the newspaper. "What do you think, Mom? Do you think Gustavo will let us shoot our own music video?"

Mrs. Knight lowered her newspaper. Well, they have worked awfully hard. But…I don't know if being responsible is something that they've quite grasped yet. Mrs. Knight immediately thought about all of the times that she had listened to their stories about what happened around the studio and the PalmWoods. There were many times that she wanted to rip her hair out and scream curses at the top of her lungs because of their antics, but she knew that the boys wouldn't be the boys if they didn't find a way to make things more interesting.

"Mom?" Kendall pressed.

"I think that you boys have proven time and time again that you're going to do anything to make this band work," Mrs. Knight said slowly. "But…well, you have to admit that you guys may make it a bit hard for anyone to believe that you can be responsible." Logan loudly cleared his throat. "Besides Logan of course," she added, causing Logan to smile.

"That's exactly what I mean," Logan said. Kendall pouted. Logan always had to be the voice of reason for things like this didn't he? "Our track record hasn't been that great around Rocque Records and the PalmWoods in general. So why should Gustavo agree to let us go wherever we want to film a music video?"

"Because he gets a break from us," Kendall said. "C'mon, Logie, you're just being a pessimist again." He stood up, leaving his cereal at the table. "Let's go find James and Carlos and see what they have to say?" Kendall walked out of the apartment.

Logan groaned loudly. "What's the point when I know they're just going to side with you?"

Kendall stuck his head back into the doorway and winked at Logan as he made the shape of a gun with his fingers. "That's the point." He disappeared from view again.

Logan looked over at Mrs. Knight, who looked like she was trying not to burst out laughing, and reluctantly got up from his seat. He walked out of the apartment and let out a cry of surprise when Kendall grabbed onto his arm and forcefully pulled him down the hallway. "What are you-"

"Just making sure that you don't become a chicken and back out of this," Kendall explained. He pushed open the door to the stairwell and started to drag him down it. "If this is going to work we're all going to have to band together."

And in Kendall speak that means that he'd kill one of us if we didn't go along with it. But Logan couldn't help but smile a little bit. The idea of going wherever they wanted to film a music video was tempting, especially if it could double as a vacation. They hadn't had a vacation since they got out to LA (not including how they were able to go back to Minnesota for Christmas). Gustavo worked them hard and they did their best o keep up. With two albums under their belt and at that point no plans for a third one, they really did deserve to do something fun. Maybe this won't be a bad thing.

Kendall dragged Logan into the PalmWoods lobby just as James Diamond and Carlos Garcia were coming out of the PalmWoods pool. "All I'm saying is that because I'm with Stephanie, I don't understand why the Jennifers are flirting with me now," Carlos was saying as Kendall and Logan approached him.

"I told you before dude…" James grinned and slapped Carlos on the shoulder. "They want you! And they want you because you're with Stephanie. Girls want what they can't have." He then gave a charming smile, lightly pulling at the front of his own shirt. "Why do you think girls like me so much?"

"Guys!" Kendall said loudly, getting their attention. "We need your help." He waited until he was sure that he had James's and Carlos's undivided attention. "We-"he gave a sharp look to Logan, who rolled his eyes. He was doing a lot of that today. "Are going to convince Gustavo that we can shoot our Windows Down music video ourselves. We get to pick out everything, the location, the clothes, the budget…" he faltered a bit, suddenly realizing how much work it might take. "But we can do it, right? We deserve to be able to take a vacation and make a video; we were planning on taking a vacation anyway so why not kill two birds with one stone?"

"Damn straight," James agreed. "More of the world needs to be able to see my face up close and personal." He grinned and clasped his hand into Kendall's in a low-five. "I'm in!"

"Me too!" Carlos agreed. He had the biggest smile of all of them on his face. "I know where we can go too! Let's go to Hawaii!"

Hawaii? Logan thought about it for a long moment. He had to admit, it was a good idea. Who didn't want to go to an island for a vacation? The surf, the sand, the girls…even he couldn't stop himself from thinking of the girls in bikinis that would lounge around on the beach. He wasn't with Camille right now; she could enjoy himself while he was on vacation. Plus there was a lot of interesting history of the islands, starting from the formation of the islands, to Pearl Harbor, to the scientific studies that could be done there. Something that he probably wouldn't get another chance to do.

"Ok, I'm in," he finally said. Kendall gave him a knowing smile.

"Alright!" Carlos cheered. He punched the air with his fist. "We're going to Hawaii."

"Not quite," Logan spoke up. "We still have to figure out how to convince Gustavo to let us go." He gave a half smile when Carlos visibly deflated. Should have known not to let him get his hopes up so early. "But it has to be something really persuasive; otherwise we definitely won't have a chance of hell freezing over to go."

"Don't worry…" Kendall slowly started to smile, an evil glint coming to his eye. "I think I know a way that Gustavo can't say no…"

"So just to make sure that we have this clear…" Rhuben Jackson-McGuire held up a finger as she looked at the four teenage boys that were sitting in front of her, all smiling expectantly. "You want us-" she motioned to herself and her twin sister, Riley, who was standing next to her. "-to go to Rocque Records to help you guys convince Gustavo that he should let you go to Hawaii to shoot a music video?" She waved a hand in a circle before placing it on her hip. "Is that about right?"

"Yep," Carlos Garcia replied with a warm smile and a nod.

"And what makes you think that we're going to go do that?" Riley snorted. She moved her large black tray from her right hand to her front, holding it with both hands. She gave the boys an incredulous look. These boofheads have finally lost it. "Let me rephrase that; what makes you think that our help will actually convince Gustavo to let you do it?"

The four boys were at the Cascade Café, a popular restaurant in The Grove. They liked to go shopping there because the atmosphere made things laid back, which was a good change of pace when it came to the fast lanes that was the music industry. The restaurant as very popular among teenagers, young adults, and adults and the food and service was fantastic. But what sealed the deal for it being one of their favorite places to eat, besides Fun Burger, was that their best friends worked there part time when they weren't working on their own band, the DarkElements.

"Ok, so this is what we were thinking…" Kendall stalled, resting his hands on the table in front of him. "We're all turning eighteen soon and we're starting to get more of a sense of responsibility."

"Ha!" Riley laughed loudly. "You guys and responsibility is a fucking oxymoron." She smiled, obviously enjoying her own joke.

"Hold on, let me finish!" Kendall held up a hand defensively, although he was smiling. "You're going to like this idea, I promise." He cleared his throat. "With the new set of responsibility that we have, it shows that we're growing up. And because we're growing up, we wanted our fans to see that with our music, which they did with Elevate."

"Yeah…" Riley and Rhuben prompted him to continue, nodding slowly.

"And because we finished Elevate on time and worked really hard on it, we want to show Gustavo that we can handle the responsibility of making the music video," Kendall continued. "But to do it ourselves. Kind of like you guys do."

"The difference, Hockey-Head, being that we make up the story of the video, what we want to wear, what we want our make-up to look like, and the kind of locations that we want." Rhuben reminded him. She shook her head. "That's completely different than…taking a trip to Hawaii just because we have the chance."

"That's the thing though," Logan spoke up quickly. He hoped that they wouldn't disagree with the idea yet. They hadn't heard everything and when they did, he was sure that they would jump at the chance to help them out. "We haven't really had a vacation in a long time." He shrugged. "So why not kill two birds with one stone? We go on vacation to Hawaii, that way Mama Knight and Katie can get a vacation as well, and then we'll take video cameras with us to film the whole thing. When we get back, we can edit the videos that we take and turn it into the actual music video."

"The song is a summer song as it is," James reminded them. "And why not make it more summer like than to have a vacation video?" He winked at the two girls. "Besides, I'm sure that you're just dying to get the chance to see me in my new trunks."

"And because our fans are getting older and want to see new things, we think that it would really resonate with them as well," Carlos jumped in, pushing James out of the way.

"Yeah, right," Riley gave a knowing smile as she crossed her arms over her chest. "In smart-speak, that just means that there are a bunch of girls out there that want to perv over your bodies, so you're planning a video where you're half naked the whole time just to draw them in." She reached out and lightly hit Carlos on the arm with her tray. "I know your how guys' minds work."

"Obviously you don't or else you would know what I'm thinking about right now," James said with a large smile on his face, looking her and her sister up and down.

Rhuben rolled her eyes, although there was a light flush on her cheeks. "Well, we get off of work in, like, ten minutes," Rhuben said. She tilted her head down to look at her watch.

Logan's eyes moved to a circular spot on her neck. A cigarette burn. He looked down at his hands as they rested on the table, his eyes immediately going to the star tattoo. It was hard to believe that in the past year they learned about the abuse of Riley, Rhuben, and their brothers Patrick, Noah, and Sydney from the hands of their then foster father, Robert Jackson. They had gotten to LA a little bit before Big Time Rush had, to work on remastering their Australian CDs for the American market and had been contractionally assigned to help Big Time Rush work on their first two albums. While they were working together, Big Time Rush found out that they were being abused. Logan found out first and kept it a secret as a promise to Riley and Rhuben, whom he had known since he was nine. The stress of having to keep the secret from his best friends nearly killed him. Then Kendall listened to their albums and looked at their lyrics, noticing that over the years, all of their albums were ways of telling the world what was going on, secretly reaching out for help. After he found out and told everyone, Robert was sent to jail and things were slowly starting to get better for the Jacksons.

But seeing the cigarette burns and some scars…it was just a painful reminder for everyone what had happened not too long ago.

"Do you guys have time to wait?" Rhuben's question broken Logan out of his thoughts. He looked up at her and caught her eye, looking away again after they exchanged a smile. He had been her best friend for years and he had always had feelings for her, since he was a kid. So when he and Camille had broken up after she kissed James, and Rhuben was there to help him through it, he was happy when they started to go out. But Rhuben noticed how upset Camille was and they broke up. But he still had feelings for her…he didn't know how Rhuben felt, but sometimes it was hard to be around her, knowing what happened.

"Yeah, go ahead." James nodded. He picked up his drink and swished it around in the glass. "We'll just finish our milkshakes while we wait for you guys."

The twin girls walked off to finish up the rest of their shift. While they were gone, the guys continued to try and come up with points that they could bring up to Gustavo and Kelly to convince them to go. It was a long shot, a very long shot. How many record companies allowed you to take video cameras, go off to a tropical vacation, and tape the whole thing just so you could make a music video? Not many, especially not with a band that was still seen as just starting out in the music industry. Typically you only got that sort of freedom after a while of working with that company as well as a measurable amount of success. And they were still on the low end of the totem pole in pop music. They wouldn't know how much more popular they got until the new album officially came out and started to hid the charts. So they were partially crazy for wanting to try something like this, but as Kendall always said, a life without risk is a life unlived.

"Move over," Riley instructed when she and Rhuben came back, dressed in their street clothes as opposed to their work uniforms. They slid into the booth by the boys. Riley leaned back, crossing her legs at the ankles, getting right to business. "Ok, boys, how do you expect us to get Gustavo to let you guys go?"

"Well, you used to be under a contract with him," Logan reminded them. "So we figured that because he knows that you guys helped us a lot, that he could take your word for it." He gave what looked like a mixture between a wince and a smile.

"That would be nice, Logie-Bear, if it weren't for the fact that our reputation precedes us," Riley said with an amused half smile. Her dark eyes flashed as she looked over at Rhuben, who smirked back in reply. "Gustavo trusts us when it comes to working with you guys, but when it comes to you getting your way on this, it might be a bit more difficult."

"That's why we need your brothers' help too," Kendall insisted. He looked back and forth between Riley and Rhuben. "All together, you guys can get what you want."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?" Rhuben asked sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and grabbed Carlos's milkshake, taking a sip of it before handing it back to him. She did it a little forcefully, causing the milkshake to slosh over the sides and onto the table. Rhuben didn't bat an eye as Carlos let out a light screen and used his straw to try and suck up the spilled contents. "Ok, so let's say that we do get this done." She slowly smiled. "What's in it for us?"

"We want you guys to come with us," Logan replied.

Riley and Rhuben shared an identical look of shock. "We just thought that you were going to pay us or something, not that you actually wanted us to go." They said in unison.

"Why wouldn't we bring you guys?" James replied, flipping his hair from his face. He looked over at his friends. "We all agreed that we want to bring you guys along to thank you for everything that you've done for us these past two years."

"Ok…" Rhuben moved her strand of purple hair out of her blue eyes. "But we thought that helping us get rid of Robert-"

"-Taking us to Minnesota for Christmas-"Riley continued.

"-And putting us in both of your album thank yous, individually and all together-"Rhuben added.

"-Was thanks enough." They concluded.

Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James all laughed at the spectacle. While the two of them are identical twins they hadn't really done anything at the same time up until this past year. It always made the guys laugh whenever they, or their younger twin brothers Patrick and Noah, spoke in unison.

"But we still want you guys to come along with us," Kendall insisted. "We already decided."

"But first, you have to convince Gustavo to let us do it," James said. He then placed his hands together and stuck out his lower lip, the other guys doing the same thing. "Please? Please? Please?" He fluttered his eyelashes.

Kendall, Logan, and Carlos all did the same thing, eventually causing all four of the boys to start shouting over each other as they begged the girls for their help, bringing in stares of the other patrons. Rhuben shook her head as Riley rolled her eyes, both of them used to their antics at this point.

"Well..." Rhuben raised her hands into the air before slapping them onto the table. "Looks like we're all going to go to Hawaii."

A/N: Yep, it's the sequel to It's The Rush That You Get. I know the break between the two of them was really long, but that's because I didn't think I'd do one at first, and since the last one was so long I should take a break between the two. I think this one will be just as long if not longer, but it depends on what I do with it. Also, this one is mostly set during season three, but the first chunk of chapters is set between seasons 2 and 3, before the guys go on their All Over the World tour. This is a direct continuation of chapter 50 of It's The Rush That You Get.

A heads up…things in this story will contradict the last one, sorry about that, we hadn't had the timeline fleshed out then and I'm too lazy to edit the first one to make up for it/that'd be incredibly tedious. But who knows what'll happen in the future? ;)

I hope you guys enjoy the start of the new story. I'm changing my writing style slightly so that I'm keeping the characters in character, but make them realistic at the same time. I mean, they're teenagers, so they can't be nice, sweet, and do the right thing all the time. That being said, the rating may go up to 'M' at one point for language, sexuality, and violence.

Cheers,

-Riles