"How many times have we told you to not do anything that will potentially kill or seriously hurt you?" Jake asked, eyebrows rising when he saw the assortment of bandages, cuts, and scrapes along his clients and their friends.

Dougie lifted a hand, wincing as he did so. A smirk played on Fletch's lips as he pointed to the bassist. "Yes, Dougie?" He asked, a teacher calling on a student.

"Uh, yeah, never," Dougie said, making his friends laugh.

Jake rolled his eyes and Fletch and Ronan laughed. He brought the folder he was holding onto and slapped it up to cover his face. Then he shook his head, lowering the folder once more. "I never thought I had to. Rollerbalding isn't something that I'd ever consider to be that dangerous. I should've guessed something going to happen. But not that fast."

"In our defense," Harry said. "No one expected that car to come flying up the street like that. We really had no choice but to pitch ourselves into the gravel and the grass. I reckon it's their fault, more than mine." He tried not to grimace as he rubbed the knot that had formed in his leg muscles from earlier that day but failed.

Instead of reaming them out even more about it, Jake turned and motioned towards Ronan, who sat quietly with his hands laced together and resting on his stomach. "So why don't we start with the news that Ronan wants to share and then we can figure out everything else. Because Fletch and I've got some surprising things to talk about as well." Ronan glanced at Jake and Fletch, reached up to scratch at the stubble that coated his shin, then pushed back his chair to stand up.

It took him a second longer than usual to unfold himself but when he was fully up, he tugged down the bottom of his t-shirt and smiled. "Well, I've been hinting to this for a little while, especially as I've already given Syd his surprise with having his girlfriend come out. But the rest I needed to hold back on because there was a lot of meetings that I'd needed to go through before things could be official."

"You're kicking us out of the house?" Patrick suggested.

Noah made a face and asked his twin, "How's that a surprise?"

"It'd be a surprise to me, I'm suddenly homeless, yeah?"

Everyone laughed and James leaned forward, slapping his palms against the table. "Okay, so what's the surprise? You're holding us in too much suspense, mate. It's literally killing me."

Ronan smiled. "Just for that, I'm thinking of making you wait a little bit longer." He heard the cries of despair and held up his hands. "Just kidding. I'm kidding. You've waited long enough. So, the first thing is that Julius is going to be coming out soon to help you guys throughout your shows and he should be here in the next week or so. Other than that, your schedules are about to become even more hectic than you originally thought." Ronan first pointed at Rhuben. "Remember when we were talking about Dancing with the Stars? Well, I finally got confirmation that they'd like to have you on the show."

Rhuben's eyes widened in surprise, a big grin slowly coming to her face as her friends and family cheered. Danny, who sat directly to her right, leaned over and squeezed her in a tight hug before Tom, Harry, and Dougie piled on top of her in a group hug.

"Guys, can't breathe," Rhuben said from beneath the pile. But she continued to laugh as the boys all started to rock back and forth, threatening to knock them out of their seats.

"As a professional or the star?" Sydney asked, though he was just as excited as the others.

"That's what they still need to figure out," Ronan explained. "Because of the fame that you guys have, you're qualified to be the star, but the fact that you've won awards for your choreography as well as have been dancing for forever, you also qualify as being one of the pros. So there's still some negotiation that needs to be done. But they've got a spot for you." He moved onto Patrick and Noah. "And remember when we were talking about The Voice? They want you two to be judges on it along with Benji and Joel Madden." Cheering started through the room once more as Patrick and Noah high-fived and Sydney leaned over and ruffled their hair. "It's something they want for Voice Australia, so you can get a lot of that done when we're back there on our touring schedule." Then he turned to Riley. "And last but not least, you remember the auditions that you taped?"

Riley closed an eye, thinking for a moment. "Uh, for those two shows?"

"Yes, and I'm very pleased to say that, schedule permitting, they want you for both projects," Ronan explained. "For Nowhere Boys and Tomorrow When The War Began, you'd have a smaller recurring role, but they also want you for a couple of episodes of Home and Away if you've got the time."

"I'll make the time," Riley promised. "I don't sleep anyway, you know that."

"Yes, but the last thing I want you to do is keel over," Ronan said. To illustrate his point, he held up a finger and let out a low whistle as he leaned his finger over, much like a felled tree. "No matter, we'll figure it out. I'm proud of you guys."

"So…does that mean we've got a free vacation to Australia?" Matt asked, rubbing his hands together. "I mean, some time to see the sights and everything is always a good thing."

"Yeah, we've never been," James agreed, smacking Matt on the shoulder. "A travesty if you ask me, mate. It's like we were never important enough to be invited to go."

"Well, since McFly managed to eclipse you right from the beginning…" Sydney trailed off and looked away as Matt and James laughed and McFly let out low 'ooh' sounds. Dimples appeared in Sydney's cheeks as he grinned, suddenly appearing happier than he'd had within the last few weeks.

"Okay, enough about them," Harry made a show of putting his hand on Patrick's face and pushed him away, using the wheels on his office chair to propel him backwards. "What about us? I mean, at this point I reckon we're a little more important?"

"Cheers, mate," Riley said, giving him the finger. She quickly put it away when Ronan gave her a waning glance and she smiled sweetly, bringing her ands back to her lap.

"Okay, so this is the part I'm sure you guys were all waiting for," Fletch said. He rolled his eyes when McFly and Busted both groaned, anticipating a long-winded speech from their manager. Fletch sniffed, crossing his arms. "Well, now I really don't feel like telling you."

"Oh, come on, Fletch, you know we have ways to make you talk," Tom pointed out, laughing when Danny went so far as to audibly crack his knuckles and Harry to sit up and mimic Fletch's arms crossed stance, making his biceps bulge. "So I don't think you want to mess with us as this point."

"Yeah, mate, you've got to consider our feelings and all that junk," Dougie agreed.

Fletch smiled. He reached out his hand and Jake slapped his folder into it. Fletch flipped through the pages that sat inside then passed them out to the band members. Fletch waited as their eyebrows crunched together, trying to figure out what the sheet of paper in front of them was saying. Finally, he clasped his hands behind his back and said, "Congratulations, the feedback for McBusted has been so great that the record company wants to send you on a mini-tour along with your radio shows. So, Matt, James, you're most definitely going to get your chance to go to Australia for this one."

"Wait, wait, wait." Tom held up his hands. "The last time we heard about it, it was only a possibility—"

"—And now it's reality," Fletch said. "The interested in this tour has skyrocketed. It's projected that as soon as the tickets go on sale they'll sell out. We're already thinking of what can be done to get some of the biggest shows you could do. There's a lot of logistical work that's going to go into this and it'll only work if we have everyone on board."

Now Tom frowned. "What about all of the music we were going to do with McFly? We've been really close to getting our sixth album going together and you know the fans have been waiting a long time for it."

Jake and Fletch exchanged glances before Jake uncomfortably asked, "Well, you can't expect to be able to put out two albums at one time. There's only so much you can do before you completely wreck yourselves. In this line of business, exhaustion is a real thing, you know as well as we do how difficult it is to continue doing this year after year."

Harry pressed his lips together. He looked away from his managers, knowing he was part of the problem. Had he not become to get stuck in the routine and dependency of alcohol then they wouldn't have to worry about this. He tried to catch the eye of his friends but they continued to look away from him, whether they blamed him Harry certainly blamed himself. There was nothing else that would've been the catalyst for the decision.

"But Fletch, we've been doing it for over ten years at this point," Dougie insisted. "And we're just fine."

"Does 'fine' constitute having to cancel a lot of shows last year?" Fletch shot back.

Harry twisted his mouth to the side. It does have to do with me, he thought. He clenched his hands into fists, doing his best to keep his frustration from being visible. He looked over and found his friends were Just as annoyed as he was.

"We've never had to push an album back like that before," Tom said slowly. Harry could tell he was doing his best not to completely lose his temper. As a matter of fact, Harry had never seen Tom so angry in his life. Not even when he and Dougie had accidentally knocked over and broke Tom's almost finished LEGO creation of the Death Star. Tom hadn't spoken to them for days and by the end of it Dougie had wrapped himself around Tom's knees and begged him to talk to him again. "If we start now, then we'll lose all credibility."

"It might be a good idea, though," James said. He tapped a finger against the table top, also not meeting Tom's gaze. "It'd make it difficult to get McBusted off the ground if McFly needs to be promoted as well." Tom pressed his lips together. If there was anyone he was going to listen to, it was James. They'd worked together long enough to understand each other even if they were coming from two completely different points of view. They respected each other enough in that aspect. "I know pushing back an album is a hard thought—"

"—Only because we'd pushed back Above the Noise and then we rushed to get that out and it ended up failing miserably," Danny aid.

"It wasn't that bad," Patrick tried to reassure him.

"Okay, okay." Jake held up his hands. "We're just giving you the information that we know. We're aware there are a lot of other things that needed to be figured out before we knew, for sure, what to agree with and what not to. Let's just put a pin in it and talk about everything else, okay?"

With that, the next two hours were spent on the logistics for McBusted and the radio show. They figured out what they'd be doing for a social media blitz, what they'd be doing for appearances on TV shows, talked about the questions that would and wouldn't be asked within interviews and what they could and couldn't say. They spoke about the different opportunities they'd have as that band and how many they would prefer to do—shows like Chatty Man—and which of those they'd prefer to stay away from—anything that had an overtly kid sheen on it. Then they spoke about the new image the DarkElements would be projecting that year, going along with their age-old tactic of switching things up with each new album they put out.

Finally, they mapped out everything that had to do with the shows they were going to do; specifying which radio stations they'd be going to, whether they would be doing meet and greets with fans, and who was the going to benefit the most, in terms of publicity through each station. Holidays were mapped out, flights were preemptively scheduled, and it looked to be the start of their new venture.

Next stop, their writing trip.

Charlie Simpson picked his bags up off the conveyor belt, glancing towards the others that stood around baggage claim. After a few glances his way, he tugged the brim of his hat down over his forehead. The second he pulled his hand away he felt foolish; New York City was a different beast, much different from London and not many people knew him there. He was very thankful for that. Having a lot of people run and scream and try to get his attention when he wanted nothing more than to lie low was one of the biggest pitfalls of being out in the public eye. But then again, nothing could match his love of music and sharing it with those who would appreciate it.

And that was his own personal pitfall, he could admit that now. He cared much more about what people that of him than he ever should've. But how could you continue to be in a band that questioned your legitimacy in everything you did; writing music, singing, playing the guitar—and take it all with a smile simply because you were in a band? Things changed. People moved on. Opinions changed. And maybe that meant there were times that you had to swallow your pride and admit you were wrong, even if you weren't the only one at fault.

That certainly was a hard thing to admit, and he still hadn't said it out loud. Sure, he'd gotten along better with Matt and James over the last couple of months than ever before but that didn't mean that things completely changed. There were too many things that had been said that couldn't be taken back. Too many things that had been done that couldn't be forgotten.

There had to be some truth when people said 'time healed all wounds' right?

"That yours?"

Charlie looked over at the man who identified himself as his driver when he landed in JFK International. "Yeah, mate, that one's mine. That's the last bag."

"Alright, then we can get going." The driver picked up the bag that came around on the conveyor belt and pulled up the handle bar. He nodded towards the exit of the airport and Charlie followed him. He pulled out his cell phone and composed a text message.

Just landed.

He held his thumb over the SEND button then looked away. How stupid. How pathetic. He'd been with them not too long ago and then fell off the grid again. But it wasn't just falling off the grid, it was that he was finishing up his solo work. The same sort of thing that had caused the demise of Busted in the first place, though that was his own band. How many more times would he be blamed for the way their careers ended up when he wasn't the only one at fault?

They know I'm coming…Charlie thought, tearing his gaze away from his phone. He continued to his thumb over the button as the driver took Charlie's bags and shoved them in the back of his car. "Mate, do you mind stopping at a corner store or something before we get there?"

"Sure thing, you need to pick something up?"

"Yeah, a box of cigarettes."

"Things getting a little stressful for you?"

"Just a little."

"But Dancing with the Stars? That has to be really exciting for you," Tom said. His dimple appeared in his cheek as he smiled. "Everyone knows about Dancing With the Stars, it's got to be one of the most popular shows out there."

"If it's anything like Strictly Come Dancing, then yeah," Rhuben agreed. She held her hand out to Tom, who handed her a folded sweatshirt then turned to pick up another one. Rhuben put the sweatshirt away then turned and sat on her bed, across from where Tom sat on Riley's. "You have no idea how much I've wanted this. We watch the show all the time, even been to a few tapings when we had the time."

"Okay, so what's the problem?" Tom lifted his legs from the floor and crossed then, leaning back no his hands. "You sound like you're hesitating about it."

Rhuben chewed her lower lips for a second. "It's not that," she confessed. She let out a breath and ran a hand through her hair. "Syd's been saying that he wants to leave the band and I think doing all of this would actually have it happen." Tom lifted an eyebrow, listening quietly. "Just the thought of our band ending is…weird."

"Who says it has to actually end?" Tom pointed out. "Why not take a break?"

"We said the same thing to Syd when he brought it up to us. He wants to have more time to be a teenager, I reckon I can't blame him." She reached down and started to flick her fingers over her toes. "All of that free time is probably going to kill him and he'd be begging to go back."

"I don't know, Rhu, it looked like he was really excited with your guys' new projects coming in," Tom pointed out.

She smiled a little. "I noticed that, too. I just didn't want to say anything. Syd's allowed to feel the way he feels, the bloke's been working basically since he was born."

"So what's the real problem?"

Rhuben blew her purple strand of hair back from her face. That was a hard one to answer, especially as she'd never really talked to the boys about it before. Apart from Danny, Tom was probably the one she was the closest to of the McFly boys. Their creative sides aside, they were the ones who were more likely to sit back and watch things happen, be the peacemaker of those around them and figure out the best solution before speaking. Not to mention he was as great of a listener to any of her problems—even the most of her problems before had been trying to figure out Danny as a whole.

Still, she'd never spoken to him much about her eating disorder. It wasn't something that constantly plagued her, there were many times in her life that she didn't think about it, didn't have the stress and pressure that'd push her back into throwing up and obsessively dancing to work off everything else, that would make her write down everything she ate. Her recovery was a lifelong commitment and for a long time it seemed like it was the easiest thing in the world. Then she had a therapy appointment before going off on the last tour, speaking to Dr. Angelo—or 'Angel' as her siblings called him—about her worries of what being around a highly intensive tour with some of the most influential people in her life would bring.

Now, adding Dancing With the Stars on top and it was nothing but an open opportunity for anyone to comment on her appearance and to trying to do hours of dance rehearsal on top of hours of being a band? It was enough to make anyone relapse in their eating disorder. The risk was too big. Dancing and the band took her mind off it, but if she had too much time to herself the thoughts came back. If she didn't have enough time to herself, she fell into the cycle of eating very little.

It was a hard habit to break and now it'd be even harder.

But being able to continue dancing for as much as she wanted? How could that be passed up?

"I reckon I'm the real problem," Rhuben finally admitted. She wrapped her arms around her upraised knees and looked Tom in the eye. "I'm starting to do my head in with all of this stuff, yeah? Like, if you ever had the chance to write books, something you've always wants to do, you'd find a way to do it, right?"

Tom nodded. "Absolutely. Music is my life, but I have other hobbies I love just as much. Why not give them the chance when the time comes along? It'd be good to give inspiration back to music, when taking some time away from it."

"Yeah…"

Rhuben tilted her head and rested her cheek on her knees. As fun as it was, all of it was still work and requited contracts and pressure of some sort. What she needed was to take some pressure off herself and actually have fun. Rhuben gazed out the window, watching as Patrick, Noah, and Sydney all tried to tag-team against Danny and Harry as they played soccer. Riley, James, and Matt sat to the side, their feet in the pool as they watched with Gen and Jacqui who'd stuck around the house as they'd been at their meetings.

The girls were just as excited for their friends of the new ventures they were going to start, having the same questions they asked as well. It seemed like everyone was more inclined to juggle everything. The problem was, that'd been the start of her battle with anorexia. "Put my attention into something else, right?" She asked

"Exactly." Tom smiled.

Rhuben smiled back. She got up from her bed and bounced over to Riley's, giving him a tight squeeze. "Thank you, Tom."

"You're welcome," Tom replied, hugging her back. "But don't forget you said that when I have to wake you up early tomorrow to go on our writing trip."

"I'm just telling you now, mate, if you wake my up by vacuuming like you did with the other guys, I'll strangle you with the cord." Rhuben smiled to let Tom know she was joking and he smiled back. She couldn't help but notice that it didn't reach his eyes.

A/N: I haven't forgotten about the Jacksons's back-up band, they were introduced to get the characters there (and they'll be mentioned every now and then) but won't really be needed until they get back into working on their music. How's the pacing for this story so far? Too fast, too slow, just right? Let me know.

~Riley