Disclaimer: I am not a real world Arthur Griffin. Therefore you can be reasonably certain the only thing I own relating to Big Time Rush is my ideas about this story and a copy of their cd.

I know it's been about a month since I posted a chapter and I am really upset about that. My computer has been causing me a lot of trouble, and I really need to replace it, but you know, I don't have a lot of extra money lying around to do that.

Also I'm trying to figure out how to introduce some more of the secondary characters to the story. You know, Guitar Dude, Camille, Mrs. Knight (even though I already sent her back to Minnesota and she'll obviously be showing up for Katie's graduation and the new baby), Kelly, Gustavo, and even Logan, who really hasn't been in this story.

Anyway, this chapter is back in James' perspective. And you get to see Kendall's reaction. So read on!

Chapter 3: Kendall Knows

There is no way in hell I'm gonna just bum around my place while Katie went to meet Jett. I wanted to know what was going on. So I followed her. I threw on some sunglasses, a fedora, and a trench coat. While she slid into the booth where Jett was sitting, I sat a few tables away, blocking their view of me but straining to hear what they were saying. I sat with my back to them and used my mirror to watch, so they wouldn't realize it was me. Besides, this is Hollywood. People go around in disguise all the time.

I couldn't hear a word they were saying, and I couldn't read their lips, either.

"Are you ready to order, sir?" the waitress asked me.

"Look, I'm kind of busy, so if you could just be quiet so I can hear?"

"Sir, this restaurant is for paying customers, if you wont order you will have to leave."

"Fine. Coke. Shh!" I wouldn't usually talk to someone like that but she was getting on my nerves. Crap. My phone is ringing.

"Hello? Kendall?" What great timing.

"James, my babysitter just called and said she's stuck behind a wreck on the freeway and can't pick the kids up. I can't really have the kids around with what the contractors are doing. They've proven themselves to be trustworthy and I don't think I have to be around to supervise, but I need somewhere I can take the kids. Can I bring them to your place?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. They can have Carlos's food. Make yourselves at home." I brushed him off.

"Well, how are we going to get in? And I need some help entertaining them in your boring for kids place." Crap. I had to unlock the door and find something kids like to do for the guy.

"Isn't there somewhere else you can go? I'm kind of busy."

"Busy doing what? Just yesterday you told me you were getting home and doing nothing for the weekend because you hadn't had a day off in nine weeks."

"Spying on Jett and Katie. Listen, take them to a playdate at Carlos's."

Carlos's niece is sick, James. Wait, you're spying on who?"

"Jett and Katie?" I said quietly. This is no good.

"What, like while they're on a date? Weird pairing, but why are you spying on them? That's not really nice, James." He paused as if he was working it out in his head. "What's going on with you and her? You're jealous, aren't you?" Well he really had me pegged. Wasn't going to tell him that. Oh yeah, and Kendall doesn't know about Jett. I really talked myself into a corner here, didn't I?

"It's not a date!" I said. Even if they are fucking holding hands. "Nevermind why I'm here. Jett makes me nervous, that's all." I knew that even with all the crap Jett put Kendall through when we were teenagers, there was nothing so reprehensible as making that a problem twelve years later. So that sounded like the bull it was, but I was not good at thinking on my feet.

"James, just come home and help me." Ugh.

"Fine, Kendall. I'll be there in ten minutes." I threw a five onto the table for the coke the lady went to the trouble of serving me. The last thing I wanted to walk out on was Katie holding Jett's hand, but the only thing scarier than me scaring off Katie's boyfriends was Kendall scaring me off Katie, thus making him more suspicious was something I definitely did not want, so I left.

I got home and let them in, and five minutes later Kendall's kids were thankfully, zoned out watching a movie on my couch. I hoped that meant they might drop into a nice long nap. I loved the little guys but I had too much on my mind right now to pay attention to them. Besides, Kendall was about to start into me, and my two options (mind calisthenics to lie my way out of the situation, or the truth) were both terrifying.

"How was your trip to New York, James?" It seemed like an innocent question but he made it in a very accusatory fashion.

"Great. You remember that hotel we all stayed at, the tiny modern one where they had the library?"

"I remember. We took Mom and Katie on that trip and oh my god she loved that place. She still talks about it! James, what the hell! You did not hook up with my sister there!"

"No! I just stayed there again! I mean, I can't even get Katie to look at me, Kendall! She's too busy having some weird more on-again, off-again thing with Jett than Logan's bipolar entanglement with Camille ever was! And who are you to be implying I'd just use Katie for a night of fun and leave? I'm not that guy, and even if I was that guy, don't you think I'd pick someone a little less important to me than Katie?" Oh shit, I was not supposed be talking about Katie's whatever it was with Jett, which I clearly didn't know as much about as I thought, and I definitely wasn't supposed to be telling Kendall I had feelings for his baby sister. You know, he still calls her that too. But he pushed my buttons! Implying I was some sort of man whore like when I was sixteen, which, hello, anyone who was paying attention back then noticed I was a lot more talk than action. Plus, he was implying I'd just hook up with Katie!

But once I said that, Kendall's demeanor changed. "You love her, don't you?" I think that might be a little extreme. I mean I wasn't anything to her. But I knew her better than anyone else in the world. I hadn't dated anyone in at least three years. I'd show up to all the premieres with a date and TMZ would have a field day, each time. But nothing ever came of it. And if anyone with the last name Knight, or Logan or Carlos had ever taken the time to really seriously question why I never got serious with any of those girls, I would have to say because none of them are Katie. But still. Until even the tiniest little thing happened between us, it couldn't really be called anything but a crush, right?

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing but a vague "uhhh" sound came out, so I opened and closed it a few more times, as if restarting the process might make actual words come out. This made Kendall grin like the smug little shit he is. "You do! I knew it!" And then, eagerly, he says, starting almost giddy, then tacking a stern warning on to the end, "Okay, if you get the chance, you better take it, but you also hurt her and I'll have Jo's dad take you out." Kendall's father-in-law was in the CIA. And even though he'd just threatened to have the government kill me, he also kind of gave me permission. Seriously? Jett and Katie have some sort of thing going on, Kendall is giving me his blessing to go after Katie, was I in some sort of parallel universe? 'Cause things just aren't working the way they are supposed to here.

And okay, I'm 27, I didn't need Kendall's permission, and for that matter, neither does Katie, or (ugh) Jett. But I also didn't need a pissed off Kendall wailing on me when he found out after the fact, and given his reaction when he thought I hooked up with Katie, that's probably what would have happened if we hadn't talked about it. Plus it's nice to know someone's on my side here. Which I guess it doesn't really matter if I have someone on my side since Katie is off doing who knows what with Jett fucking Stetson.

Kendall managed to calm me down about it. I wasn't venting or anything, but he could tell I was stewing, as I boiled some water for tea. I still need to go to the grocery store. "Dude, James. Jett is going to Sao Paolo next month. Katie's going to be in New York for like, half that time. It's not like there's tons of time for them to get serious. It'll fizzle out by the time he's in the international terminal at the airport." Well although he doesn't know there's history between them, he's got a point. And aside from that stupid hand holding, it hadn't sounded like it was supposed to even be a date. So by the time the animated flick the kids were watching rolled the credits, I had decided to be the fun uncle figure again.

"Hey kids, who wants to go to Fun Burger?" Jordyn, the five year old, and exactly the kind of kid Kendall's mother used to wish ten of on him when he was driving her insane (i.e. a copy of Kendall himself) cheered enthusiastically at my suggestion. Annie, her two year old sister, cheered "fun buhguh, fun buhguh!" and giggled.

Well that, hopefully, settled that. I slid my eyes over to Kendall's face. He grimaced. "You should have asked me first, dude. Jo is gonna kill me!"

"Why? Oh. Is she one of those mom's who never lets her kids eat junk food or something?" I asked, sympathetically.

"No, she's gonna kill me because she's working late and her pregnancy cravings are off the charts, and Annie and Jordyn can't keep their mouths shut. When she finds out we had Fun Burger she's gonna be mad I didn't bring her some. But her manager is a bitch and a half and I'm not allowed to satisfy food cravings in front of her because apparently even when pregnant, actresses aren't allowed to ever, ever eat junk food, not even a single fry."

"Ouch. Well we don't have to go to Fun Burger."

"The only thing worse than breaking a pregnant Jo's heart, is breaking Jordyn and Annie's. We're going."

So we piled into Kendall's car, and headed to Fun Burger. Two hours and forty bucks in tokens later, we headed back to Kendall's place. I helped him get the kids ready for bed and we watched ESPN for a while until Jo got home.

She greeted us, then "Kendall, the girls aren't usually asleep when I get home."

I answered for him. "We tired them out. Fun Burger, my treat."

"Ohhh, Fun Burger sounds heavenly right now. I'm so sick and tired of the lame food I eat on set courtesy of the latest fad pregnancy diet and my manager."

"So says Kendall. You should fire her! We brought you a doggie bag. One burger all the way, double the cheese, and a side of onion rings." She looked at me like I'd just told her she'd won the lottery, then headed for the kitchen.

"So, James. Do you think you could give me a hand with something?" Kendall asked. I made the terrible mistake of responding "of course", terrible, because Kendall needed help hanging a freaking ceiling fan. Not like he had contractors over doing all this work already. But apparently hanging a fifty dollar ceiling fan would have cost him two hundred and fifty dollars in labor, so I guess I can understand him wanting to cut costs. By the time we finished, it was close to ten, so I told him he had to pay me back by helping me grab some groceries because I was so seriously low I couldn't even feed Katie breakfast in the morning. But when we got back, it was half past ten and Katie still wasn't back yet.

"Oh shit, Kendall, where is she?" I said, alarmed.

"How the hell should I know? You're the one who has seen her today! If she was with Jett before, why wouldn't she be now?"

"That's like almost eight hours, Kendall! It wasn't supposed to be a very serious thing! I thought she'd be back in like an hour!"

"But I thought it was a date? Dates usually last more than an hour."

"I never said it was a date. Actually I'm pretty sure I said it wasn't one. Oh what the hell. I don't know if it was one or not. But I still think Katie should have been home long before now."

Kendall rolls his eyes at me, then pulls out his phone and calls Katie. When he hangs up he says "look, first I think you should really calm down. As much as I think you are a way better guy for her, you don't have any sort of claim on her. So please don't get angry when I tell you she's completely safe, but still with Jett. She said she'll be home in under an hour. I think they're watching a movie, I could hear soundtracks playing in the background. I'm going home, because I really don't think I should be around for the conversation you two will have, and also because I originally had plans to spend tonight with my wife."

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. "Fuck." I smashed a fist against the wall. I had not planned on having competition.

"James. Seriously. Calm down." Easy for him to say. I sat down defeatedly on my couch, a decidedly miserable look on my face.

"How long?" Kendall sighs in apparent amusement, and plops down across from me.

"How long what?"

"How long have you been in love with her?"

"That's a really fucking complicated answer that wouldn't even make sense to you."

"Try me."

"Forever? I mean, not in a romantic sense, obviously. But when she was in preschool and she came home from school bawling because some kid bullied her, I wanted to hurt that kid. When she was eight and she came down with the measles before the talent show and didn't get to sing I told my mom to get the talent show rescheduled. When"

"That was you?"

"Yeah. That was me. And when she was thirteen I was the one who organized the 'grown up' party for her in the Palmwoods ballroom. Which was spawned by some loser who told her she was a baby for hanging out with Tyler."

"I'm a terrible brother."

"What are you talking about?"

"I should have been doing those things!"

"Anyway. I knew when she was eleven and Kyle tried to take her on a date that I didn't want her getting hurt, and that meant I didn't want her dating anyone I couldn't trust, which was basically anyone."

"Eleven?"

"Well you don't know what eleven year old boys are like!"

"Sure, because I never was one or anything."

"Oh whatever. Anyway. It wasn't until the summer before she left for New York that I spent every possible minute with her because I couldn't picture her out of my life. That's when I realized I was in love with her."

"So why didn't you say or do anything about it?"

"She didn't seem interested. Although I guess she could have been as good at hiding it as I was. But she was leaving. And besides which, I figured you'd kill me if I did."

"I probably would have. Back then, anyway. Is that why you took her to Camille's movie premiere?"

"Yeah. It was technically no more of a date than any other person you go to a movie premiere with, since having a date to a premiere is just 'what's done' out here, even if you never really see that person before or after in a date capacity. But I wanted it to be special for her. That's also why I lobbied so hard to your mom to have them both come on our tour."

"You're not going to turn this Jett thing into a fight are you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, don't tell her you love her and that she needs to choose or anything crazy like that. He's leaving soon. Just let it fizzle out on its own. She'll be out here full time and he'll be gone, you'll have plenty of time."

"It's just of all people, Jett. And after their history it just doesn't really make sense."

"Their history? What history?"

"I can't really tell you about it because I was asked very clearly and directly to not tell anyone. Plus I'm now under the impression it's partially because I don't know the whole story. But there's history and I don't like this."

"Did he hurt her?"

"No. In fact I think she was the one who probably hurt him. He was a little crazy, but don't worry, you don't need to hunt him down, and hey, if you did, I'd have done it already."

"Well Iguess I can see where some of this is coming from. And I really need to get home. So I'm sure I'll see both of you sometime tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Twenty minutes after he leaves, Katie comes sauntering into the apartment. As if being a young girl out in a dangerous city not letting anyone know where she was, or when she would be back, is a fair thing to do to anyone. So even though Kendall told me not to freak out, I couldn't help myself.

"KATHERINE RENEE KNIGHT, WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU? I WAS WORRIED SICK!"

"I was with Jett. Just like I said I'd be!"

"For almost eight hours? I thought you weren't into him."

"It wasn't ever that I wasn't into him. It was his methods. And the fact that I lived across the country from him."

"But after all this time? It's kind of weird, right?"

She sighs. "I didn't want to tell you about it, but there was another time, too. Right before I went to Europe."

"What?"

"Yeah, and I was kind of a bitch to him, because at least in New York he could call me whenever he wanted. I hardly talked to him, and half the time I didn't return his emails for a week. Because I didn't want either of us getting hurt, and Milan and Paris are a whole lot farther from LA than New York is."

"You didn't want either of you getting hurt so you just didn't answer him when he emailed?" This seemed really mean, for Katie. And also kind of silly. I mean, I guess we've all employed the "avoid method" from time to time, but when email is your only real source of contact, well I don't know, it's just sort of mean.

"I know. Hindsight, and all that. I did apologize to him today. I mean, I could have at least explained it then. Instead of being a bitch about it. And now he's going to Sao Paolo, but there's something going on with us again. I can't do the same thing this time. I'm just, ugh. Really, really fucking bad at this."

I knew that whatever I said to her I had to be careful. Not that I had any chances at the moment, but there was no reason to ruin it for later, and hopefully Kendall was right. They'd hardly see each other before Jett left and it'd fizzle out. "Well maybe that's why this happened again. To give you a chance to be more mature about it this time." That was about as much as I could manage. "Why don't you get some sleep?" I'd thought she probably wanted to go to the wedding with Jett now, and I figured it wasn't kosher to fight with her about that. But it would be nice to see Tyler get married and obviously I didn't want her to go to the wedding with him.

"What time should we leave in the morning?" I tried.

"James, do you think it'd be possible to find something else to do tomorrow?" Ouch. She at least had the decency to look sheepish as she asked it.

"Sure. I think Kendall wants to have dinner tomorrow night though. I thought we'd leave here at 5:30 to meet him, hows that?"

"That's fine." She hugged me then, which was nice, although it was so very sisterly I thought I'd barf, and then said "good night, James."

"Good night, Katie."