Here's the next chapter! More Logan whump :D
Enjoy!
A few hours later, Kendall, James, and Carlos followed in Logan's footsteps and fell asleep. James and Carlos were sprawled out on a couch that was conveniently put in the room thanks to hospital staff, while Kendall took a seat next to Logan's bed, and rested his head on the bed.
Kendall was dreaming about the day they met Logan in the third grade.
James was dreaming about the first high school hockey game their team won.
And Carlos was dreaming about the time he fell out of a tree in the sixth grade, and Logan was quick in coming to help, making sure the small Latino was okay.
And all four boys slept in peace.
But that peace ended when Kendall woke up to an absolutely horrid sound. Considering the fact that he, James, and Carlos were finally allowed to spend the night with Logan in the hospital, Kendall figured that any unnatural sound is allowed to cause panic.
Kendall was holding the Logan's warm hand...
...Logan's really warm hand.
There was the noise again. As Kendall began to finally get a grip of his surroundings, his sleepy mind finally let him know what that noise was.
It was a cough. A very painful sounding cough.
Kendall studied Logan's face intently. Logan's usually pale face was a deep shade of red. His eyes were closed, but a trail of fresh tears would fall when a painful cough hit. His forehead was shiny because of sweat.
Logan's body was very heated, yet the hurt boy was shivering like he was in the Arctic.
"Oh my God, Logan!" Kendall shouted, awakening James and Carlos. Kendall ignored the two for now as he reached over and pressed the call button.
"What's wrong with Logie?" Carlos asked, his voice laced with fear as he watched and heard Logan painfully wheeze.
Another painful cough, and Carlos winced at the sound.
James got closer and began running his fingers though Logan's hair. "Logan?" James asked, hoping Logan would open his eyes. "Logan can you hear me? W-wake up, okay? Wake up, please." he begged.
But instead of Logan opening his eyes, Logan whimpered, pain etched on his face.
James was tempted to grab Logan by the shoulders and violently shake him. Anything to wake up Logan. But James figured it wasn't worth the risk to hurt Logan even more.
Thankfully someone finally came into Logan's room, seeing that the patient had a horrid cough and a flushed, sweaty face, the nurse went into overdrive. She ran out of the room, leaving the three awake boys worried and confused.
Once the nurse returned, this time with another doctor, Kendall, James, and Carlos were shoved away from Logan's bedside.
"Logan," James breathed out as he watched the hospital staff help his hurt friend.
The three boys were in shock as they heard snippets of the conversation between the doctor and nurse.
"Let's get this boy under an X-Ray," the doctor said to the nurse. "We need to see if this is pneumonia or not."
"He has a fever of 104.6," the nurse informed him.
Carlos almost choked. How did Logan get a fever that bad in such a short amount of time?
They watched numbly as Logan was wheeled out of the room, getting prepped for a chest X-Ray.
Kendall was shaking. Wasn't pneumonia really bad, especially for someone as weak and hurt as Logan? And why was all of this happening to them? Why did they have to be in that accident? Why is it that every time Logan's health had improved, there had to be a setback?
What did they do that was so bad that they deserved something like this?
James saw Kendall's trembling figure. "It's Logan," James whispered to the blonde. "He'll be okay. He promised he would never leave us, remember?"
The boys of Big Time Rush were spread out on the bright orange couch in the living room of apartment 2J. It was a bad day for James, and Kendall, Logan, and Carlos knew they needed to be there for him.
They were sitting in silence, but after a while, Kendall felt that it was time to break the silence. "James-"
"Don't," James commanded. He wasn't sure what Kendall wanted to say, and that's what scared him. "I don't want to hear whatever you have to say. I don't want to talk about my feelings. I don't want to even think about it."
"You can't keep things like this bottled up, James," Logan said. "We're here for you and we can tell how hard you're taking this."
James clenched his fists, taking deep breaths to control his anger. "I looked up to him," James finally said. "Yeah, I was mad when my mom and dad divorced. But Dad promised to still always be there for me. Then he married Tiffany, and our relationship never changed. I don't get it! What did I do that was so bad that he no longer wants me to be a part of his life?" James asked, his voice increasing as his eyes began watering up.
"You didn't do anything wrong, James," Carlos says soothingly.
"My dad doesn't want me anymore," James reminded his friends. "He said he doesn't want anything to do with me. Why?"
Kendall sighed. He didn't have an answer. Why would James' own father not want him anymore? Kendall couldn't think of anything to say. But thankfully, Logan did.
Logan put his arm around James' shoulders and held him tight. "It's not you, James," Logan began. "You're an amazing guy. You never did anything wrong, and I'm sorry for saying this, but your dad is just being stupid. He's stupid for not wanting someone like you in his life. You shouldn't be the one sad about this. He should, because he ended a relationship with a great person, and he'll be the one to suffer."
James sobbed a bit, taking in Logan's words. "It just feels like...like if my own father doesn't want me, why would any of you guys?"
"No," Logan quickly replied. "Your dad made a huge mistake. And we," he said, gesturing to himself, Carlos, and Kendall. "Will never leave you. You know why? Because we're your best friends and best friends don't just leave each other." Logan held James tighter. "I will never leave you, or Kendall, or Carlos. And that's how they all feel too. We're not gonna leave each other behind, got that?
So Logan did have pneumonia. Chest X-Rays confirmed it.
Thankfully, doctors were able to get Logan's fever down to 100.7, which was still high, but an improvement from the 104.6 regardless. But Logan's cough and difficulty breathing required the sick boy to be strapped to an oxygen mask.
Kendall ran his knuckles down Logan's face. "I'm sorry you have to go through this, buddy," Kendall said under his breath.
James was busy gently running his fingers through Logan's sweaty hair when Mrs. Knight and Katie walked in.
"M-Mom," Kendall addressed his mother as she pulled her son into a warm hug. "He's okay now," Kendall whispered. "He's getting better."
"How did he even get the pneumonia?" Katie asked, her eyes glued to Logan's sleeping form.
James sighed. "The doctors said it's normal after getting a collapsed lung," he explained. "It doesn't happen all the time...but it's not uncommon either."
Katie nodded in understanding.
James was looking at Carlos in worry, seeing as how he hadn't spoken since Logan had been returned from his X-Rays. James couldn't tell which of his two friends were taking Logan's condition the hardest.
There was Kendall, who James still believes he blames himself for the accident.
Then there was Carlos, who stopped being...Carlos. Carlos stopped cracking jokes. He stopped being energetic. He just stopped being himself.
And James couldn't stand that the both of them were like that.
But now James figured that if Kendall and Carlos had become like that, how bad had he become?
"Boys," Mama Knight said, breaking the silence. Her eyes darting between Logan, Kendall, Carlos, and James. She didn't know where she was going to go with this, but she knew that she needed to comfort her boys as much as possible. "I know this time is and will be hard for you."
The three boys looked down.
"But I don't want you boys to suffer," she continued. "You boys haven't been taking very good care of yourselves since the accident. And I want you boys to know that Katie and I are very worried."
James sighed. "W-we don't mean to," he began. "It just...escapes us, you know?"
Jennifer nodded. She got closer to James and handed her car keys to him. "I want you boys to go home, get something to eat, okay?"
"No!" Carlos replied. "We can't leave Logie! He needs us." His pleading eyes began to water up. "We can't leave him," he repeated.
"Do you think Logan wants you to be ignoring your health?" Mama Knight asked as her eyes scanned the three boys. She was quick in noticing that Kendall had shed a few pounds these past couple of days.
"What if we leave and then Logan wakes up?" Kendall asked.
"We'll be here, big brother," Katie spoke up. "We'll be here for him and he won't be alone." She looked straight into Kendall's sad, green eyes. "Just please eat something and get some real rest, okay?"
Kendall looked at his sister before glancing at his mother. He saw the worry in both of their eyes. Kendall looked to James and Carlos. "Let's go, guys," Kendall finally said. "We'll be back for him soon, okay?"
James and Carlos looked at Logan before nodding at Kendall's command.
James looked at the keys in his hand, and the three boys left the hospital room, promising to come back as soon as possible.
After the boys had showered, they chowed down on pizza they had ordered. Mama Knight told them they couldn't come back to the hospital without her say-so.
Thankfully, Logan hadn't woken up, so the boys couldn't feel guilty for Logan waking up without them being there.
Carlos fiddled in his pocket, searching for the twenty dollars he had placed in there.
"What's the twenty for?" James asked after seeing Carlos sigh in relief knowing that he had not lost the money.
Carlos smiled. "I'm gonna get a gift for Logie," he answered with enthusiasm in his voice.
"How come you never call Logan by his real name anymore?" Kendall asked. Ever since the accident, Kendall noticed that Carlos had changed their friend's name from Logan to "Logie".
Carlos shrugged. "I-I didn't even notice," he answered truthfully. He knew what Kendall was asking. Calling Logan "Logie" wasn't weird to any of them. It was probably weird for the people outside their circle, but to the four boys, having a nickname like "Logie" was completely acceptable.
"You called me Jamie for a week in the ninth grade after I was sent to the hospital after having an asthma attack," James reminded him.
Carlos felt his eyes watering up after hearing that statement. "I was scared!" Carlos replied. "James! You and I were playing football then suddenly you couldn't breathe. You turned blue and...and you stopped breathing." Carlos stopped when his falling tears turned into full fledged sobbing. "I didn't know what to do and I thought you were dead. I just..." he trailed off when he felt Kendall and James wrap their long arms around him.
"It's okay, Carlitos," James said softly. "It's okay."
"Every time I called you 'Jamie', I felt like I was getting closer to you," Carlos confessed. "I guess...when one of you gets hurt really bad, I wish we were back in elementary school, you know? When we made up those nicknames. And I guess I wish I was back there. We never had to worry about anything in elementary school. Our lives were perfect!"
Kendall sighed as his grip on Carlos tightened. "You're right, Carlos," he said. "Our life was better when we were younger, and sometimes I wish we could go back in time. But we're here now, and we should be happy that the four of us made it this far...Together! And we're gonna keep on going. Because that's who we are. Remember when we sang Halfway There? We take what comes and we keep on going."
Though Kendall's father died of cancer when Kendall had turned seven, he was prepared for it. Losing his father was hard, but the fact that Kendall and his mother were ready for William Knight's death, it made it a tad less painful.
Carlos wiped the tears from his eyes. "Logie's given up before. His heart stopped remember?"
"No," James responded. "Logan was still fighting, it was just...a harder fight for him. He came back us, and that shows that he wasn't ready to give up. Logan's a fighter."
Carlos gave let a sad smile graze his face. "Thank you so much, you guys."
Was this chapter angsty enough? Well if it wasn't, trust me, I have A WHOLE LOT planned to compensate LOL
So I made an outline for this story! Yay! And I've realized that this story is gonna be one long mama-jamma. I've outlined up to a 32nd chapter and I'm not even done. So I'm guessing 35-40 chapters. How does that sound?
I'm soooooo ready for the Olympics!
Anyway, what do ya think about this chapter? :D
