Carry On

By: Riley

Summary - -Deleted Scene from It's The Rush That You Get.- Logan and Rhuben get together and eat ice cream while talking about their past, present, and future. (This is between chapters 47 and 48 of ITRTYG).

Logan pulled the Big Time Rush Mobile into the parking lot of the ice cream parlor and cut off the engine, hurrying to get out of the car. If he didn't have to worry about driving Kendall, James, and Carlos to the video store, he wouldn't have to worry. Part of him wondered why they hadn't gotten their licenses yet, but he was positive that there was a 90% chance that they just liked having him drive them around whenever they wanted. But he had news for them, they were going to get their licenses by the time they were 18 just so he could get the chance to be driven around.

He looked at his watch, he was already late and he knew how much Rhuben hated it whenever someone was late. He looked up and spotted Rhuben sitting on a bench in front of the ice cream parlor; her face tilted up towards the sun, a pair of blue tinted shades over her face, and a pair of rollerblades sitting on the ground by her feet. Her legs were crossed at the knee and the way that she was bouncing her foot up and down, as well as how hard her jaw was clenched, she was annoyed.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he apologized, hurrying over to her. "The guys wanted me to drop them off at the video store and they had no idea where they were going." He rolled his eyes. "You figured that they would listen to me about how you need to be prepared before going somewhere."

"A likely story," Rhuben commented as she lowered her head and looked at him. "But considering how much you hate to drive them around, I don't doubt you."

"Good," Logan smiled and stepped towards her, holding out his arms for a hug. But he moved too quickly, and Rhuben flinched, turning away. "Sorry." He apologized.

"No." Rhuben let out a loud sigh, turning back to him. She reached up and pushed her hair out of her face with both hands. "It's not your fault." She gave a half smile. "I guess some things are just too hard to get over, you know."

Logan moved slower to give her a hug and Rhuben returned it. He hugged her tightly, gently rubbing her back, the same way that they used to hug each other when they were kids. He remembered that his mother always used to tell him that the two of them would probably end up together in the future, that they were soul mates. He didn't believe that for a while until he looked up what a soul mate was. (Of course being the genius that he was, he needed o find everything on the subject).

Soul mate. Noun. A friend or a romantic partner with the implication of an exclusive lifelong bond.

He definitely believed it now. He would probably never tell her that, in fear that she would laugh at him, give him a weird look, or push him even further away than he was before. But it was nice for him to think about the two of them like that, thinking that they were going to be friends forever. It made him smile and forget about the past things that had plagued her and her family for a long time. It made him forget that the two hadn't seen each other in a long time.

"What are you doing?" Logan laughed, holding his arms up as Rhuben started to pat his pockets. She patted his back and front pockets repeatedly before making a 'aha' sound and shoving her hand into his right front pocket. "Hey!" He cried, seeing that she pulled out two Ring Pops. "I was saving that."

"Too bad," Rhuben remarked as she unwrapped one and stuck it into her mouth. "Eat your candy," she shoved the other one, wrapper and all, into his mouth. Logan choked slightly and pulled the wrapper out of his mouth before sliding the candy back into his pocket.

"Maybe later," he replied. "It'll spoil my ice cream."

"You're no fun," Rhuben said, dead-pan, moving the lollipop to the right side of her mouth before pulling open the door to the ice cream parlor and heading inside. "Seriously, you're a fucking buzzkill." Logan noted the teasing lift to her tone so he didn't comment.

She went up to the counter and ordered a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup bowl which Logan quickly paid for, before she could pull her wallet out. When she tried to refuse, saying that she would pay for it, Logan refused and continued to refuse it until she gave up; finally saying that she would pay him back. The two of them then went outside to a table and sat down so Rhuben could start to eat her ice cream.

"Aren't you going to get anything?" She asked, starting to stab at her bowl. "I thought that was the whole point of coming out here."

"The whole point was just to hang out and talk," Logan corrected her. "Besides," he patted his front pocket. "I have that ring pop to eat, remember?" He smiled a little before slouching down in his chair, stretching out his legs. "I remember we used to get ice cream every time we got good grades on a test or something." He suddenly frowned. "How come Riles never came?"

"She opted to look after the boys," Rhuben said flatly. "Just in case. Whenever one of us would leave, the other would stay home." She shrugged. "Besides, she knew that you and I were closer anyway."

"I don't know," Logan gave a sly smile. "Both of us wanting to become doctors and have our own office…"

"Yeah, but the difference being that you wanted to help people who's bones were broken…and she was the one that usually got the sprains and broken bones," Rhuben continued in her flat voice. She looked up and studied Logan, noticing that a trouble look came onto his face, the same one that came up whenever she or her siblings talked about their abuse. "But, yeah, ice cream was our thing."

"So was telling stories," Logan added. He raised the pitch in his voice, trying to mimic her at a young age. "Tell me a story." He then lowered his voice. "Ok, what kind?" He raised his voice again. "One with a happy ending."

"So I like happy endings, so sue me," Rhuben rolled her eyes, slightly embarrassed. "Back then I was under the impression that everything ended happily." She hunched her shoulders. "Now I know that not everything does."

"Our wakeboarding trips were the best though!" Logan said. He grinned when he spotted Rhuben's eyes lighting up.

The two of them (and Noah by Rhuben's extension) had nothing short of love for wakeboarding. Now that wasn't' surprising as the Jacksons practically lived in the water when they were back in Australia, but Logan never had anyone to go with him when he was young, before they came around. So he was glad when the Jacksons would readily (and always) go with him when he wanted to go wakeboarding. They would all take hours in the water, but it was always Rhuben and Logan that would beg and beg and plead to constantly have one more go around on the lake.

"Nothing short of sweet," Rhuben said through a mouthful of ice cream. "The trips were always so much fun."

Whenever they were going to go on a wakeboarding trip, it was Rhuben and Logan that got most of the work done, as they moved along in excitement, while the others were still usually so sleepy. You had to wake up early to get the good wake, just like you would do for surfing, though you needed to prepare the boat. They would all work quickly to get the boat ready so they could be on the water before anyone else could make a ripple in its glassy surface. By the time the sun was completely up, they had already done two amazing runs. Those days were how they got hooked on wakeboarding. Rhuben already loved it, because she and her family would do it back in Australia, but now there was someone else that shared the passion with her. Logan didn't know that until the first day they got out there and he was just as excited as she was.

There's nothing in the world that can make him feel as ecstatic as he did when he finally land a new trick. After having broken down the trick into the smallest steps, and accomplishing each one of them, it's a great feeling to know you did everything right. What made it even better was all of the times that they would take on the trampoline in Logan's back yard to get ready for it. Even the times where Logan would take Sydney (who was a baby at his time) and jump with him in his arms, just so he wouldn't feel left out, Logan had the time of his life.

Wakeboarding was just a fun sport that he started when he was five but it had since captivated him, and driven him with all of the exciting aspects of it. It was always so much fun to be able to do it with his friends as well.

"Especially when we would go tubing afterwards," Rhuben continued, breaking Logan out of his thoughts. "And then we would freak your mom our by purposefully tipping over the tube and holding our breath under water for a while. She was always this close," she held her thumb and index finger an inch apart. "To calling an ambulance when we would pop back out."

"Yeah, I think that's why my mom is such a worry wart now," Logan rubbed the back of his neck. "Which is your fault."

"Who? Me?" Rhuben gave an innocent look, holding her hands up defensively.

Logan rolled his eyes at her act. He had to admit, she was pretty convincing when it came to keeping her emotions out of her face or looking innocent. He now understood what Ronan meant when he said that they were fantastic liars, and wondered if they would have that talent if Robert hadn't been around. Logan sighed, trying to push the negative thoughts away again. "Can I have some?" Logan reached his spoon out towards Rhuben's bowl.

She placed a hand protectively on her bowl and pulled her ice cream towards him. "Not unless you want to lose that hand. Nothing comes between me and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, mate." She sat up straight, pushing her hair behind her shoulder. "So why don't you go ahead and ask me what you really want to ask," she said after taking another bite of her dessert.

Logan's eyebrows knitted together. "What are you talking about?"

"Please," Rhuben raised her right eyebrow. "Logie-Bear, I've known your face since it was the size of a melon, I think I could tell by now when there's something on your mind. Besides," she stirred her ice cream. "You're a terrible liar. All of you guys are, actually."

Logan merely shrugged. He looked out around the little ice cream parlor that they were sitting in. There were a couple of other teenagers that were eating ice cream, and then there were a couple of families that were out there as well. He was glad that they were able to get some time to themselves. Since they came back from Minnesota, the Jacksons had done nothing but bury themselves in theirs and Big Time Rush's work. When they were done, they would usually leave to go back home. The only time that they seemed to let loose was when it was Friday night and they were celebrating 'tradition'. But he didn't blame them, the trial that would determine whether or not their whole world would crash down.

Again.

"Remember when-"

"Probably not," Rhuben interrupted Logan. She rested her chin in her hand and studied Logan with a hard stare. "I really don't want to bum you out with this, but most of the things that happened back in Texas, I really don't remember." She rested her hands in her lap; her eyes squinted from the sun that was reflecting off of the window behind Logan. "I probably blocked it out."

"That's understandable," Logan agreed with a nod, taking a bite of his ice cream. "It wasn't all fun and games with you guys."

"Then how come you're always trying to ask us if we remember something?" Rhuben asked, pushing her ice cream away from her. Even though it was her favorite flavor, she didn't feel like eating anymore. "You never really try to make memories now." She bobbed her head back and forth. "Unless it's something that has to do with the other guys."

"Is there a problem with wanting to try and keep a friendship going with a person I hadn't seen in, like, eight years?" Logan asked, not taking any offense to the question. "I don't know, I guess it's kind of hard to figure out how to act now, Bella."

"Why?" Rhuben asked.

"I don't know, because I'm afraid of saying something wrong and offending you?" Logan replied. "Don't forget, the first time that we had met you all again, you guys were really mean." He held up his hand as Rhuben opened her mouth to defend herself. "And I know why, but back then I wasn't sure if you even wanted to still be friends."

Rhuben stayed silent, twisting her mouth to the side.

She could see that. But it was hard for her to figure out whether or not she wanted to put him in that sort of danger. So after they had met BTR on the set of their music video, she and Riley had a long conversation about what they were going to do about the guys, especially since they couldn't ignore the fact that Logan had been their friend for so long. In the end, they made the hard decision of keeping the guys as far away from them as much as possible just so their father wouldn't turn his 'ambitions' onto them. They had seen it happen before with bands they had befriended over the years, and they didn't want it to happen again. They then had told Patrick, Noah and Sydney about their decision and while the three boys were against it, feeling that BTR were different (which they ended up being right about), they agreed that they should be kept away.

It sucked, having to see Logan work so hard to try and be their friend again, and do nothing but continuously push him away.

"Seriously, dude, you had nothing to worry about," Rhuben frowned. "It was all us. It's always us."

"What do you mean?" Logan asked, in almost a whisper.

"We have this thing," Rhuben said slowly. "Kind of like a joke, but it happens more often than not. We have this thing were we say if your last name is Jackson, you're related to a Jackson, or you're friends with a Jackson, then you're bound to be in trouble." She gave a sarcastic laugh. "And all we've ever done since we were kids was get you in trouble." She suddenly had a distant look in her eyes. "It didn't help that we never thought that we would live to see 18, so it was kind of justified for us."

"You didn't?" Logan asked quietly. He didn't know that. He had seen her as a person that was so strong and that had almost no worry in the world. But he now saw that he was way off. She was a strong person, but not for the reasons that he originally thought, she did have her own problems with her fans and fame, her private life was almost always out in the open. Now he saw how his caring for her just made her exasperated with everything that was going on before.

"No," Rhuben crossed her arms over her chest. "We were always sure that one day we were going to screw up and he'd lost his temper for the last time." She snorted. "In his eyes, we screwed up a lot as it was, so we were just waiting."

"You're not a screw up," Logan said gently. "He just wanted your money and used every little mistake that you could make to push your guys harder and harder so he could get that money. Everyone screws up sometimes. If memory serves correctly, I was the one that got us lost at the creek," Logan said, trying to make her feel better.

"Which was pathetic, by the way," Rhuben said with a condescending look. "Considering it was right behind your house."

"Shut up," Logan tossed a balled up napkin at her.

"Do you want this spoon up your nose?" Rhuben said in a warning tone, throwing it back to him.

"No," Logan laughed.

"Then don't throw things at me."

Logan smiled and laughed, causing Rhuben to smile as well. But she couldn't laugh. Not as freely as she used to be able to. In that moment, Logan made a mental note, a goal, or a promise to himself, that he could get Rhuben to be able to open up to him like she used to be able to, to get her to act like herself again. He knew that it would take a while, but he wasn't going to stop until he was able to do it.

"To be honest," Logan rested his arms on the table in front of him. "I invited you out today, yes to hang out, but to try and take your mind off of everything that had been going on recently." He studied Rhuben, surprised to find that she looked a little sad.

"Ice cream can't heal everything, Logie," Rhuben gave a soft smile. "When things break, it's not the actual breaking that prevents them from getting back together again. It's because a little piece gets lost - the two remaining ends couldn't fit together even if they wanted to. The whole shape has changed."

Logan slowly nodded. He understood what she was saying completely. Most of the time he hated how mysterious she could be; he would be so confused about what she was really trying to say. He didn't notice that she had done it until he met up with her again and then realized that it was because she didn't want to completely show him who she was as a person. She didn't want him to see how things were really going with them. She had been that way since she was eight and he noticed that her whole family did it, and wondered if it was because of their parents' death that caused them to be that way or because of the abuse that they endured. But that's what made her so interesting to him, because while he was the kind of person that could easily be open with his emotions (or paranoia and anxiety as she would say) she was more careful about what she let others see of her.

The times that he completely understood what she was saying were the only times that he didn't mind how mysterious she was. Sometimes, he was sure that they were soul mates, yes he had a crush on her when he was young, but he wasn't sure if that was the kind of soul mates that he thought about when he thought of the two of them together in the future. He thought of her as the kind of friend that he was going to have for the rest of his life. He knew that for a fact. They were essentially the same person, though their life experiences and the way they were brought up made them complete opposites.

That was all that he wanted.

"So you're saying that we can't get back to the way our friendship was before?" Logan asked slowly. He was nervous of her answer. They had that big fight not too long ago, because he was so worried about how the decisions she made was going to affect her future. He had been that way since they were kids, following behind her and telling her how doing something was a bad idea, but she'd talk him into it anyway. He wanted to be sure that she was taken care of. "Not even in the future?"

Rhuben thought for a long time before she spoke again. "I think…both roads lead back to the same place, right here." She pointed to herself before pointing at Logan, the soft smile still on her face. "You and me, Logan. That's the one thing that won't change."

"Promise?" Logan held out his pinkie finger.

Rhuben rolled her eyes. "You're such a dork, Logie."

"But you love me anyway," Logan said.

Rhuben then looped her pinkie finger through his. "Promise."

THE END

A/N: Ok, I don't know if I showed it well, but I wanted to show that ice cream, telling stories, talking about the future, and wakeboarding are some of the main things that keep Rhuben's and Logan's friendship. That and the fact that they think of each other as their soul mate (though not in a romantic way), well at least Logan. Who knows how Rhuben feels about that. Ha ha. Anyway, I hope you guys liked it.

Cheers,

-Riles