A/N- Hey guys, welcome to chapter of Words Mean Nothing!

I know; the last time I checked it wasn't Wednesday, but I have a lot going on. I'm going to be spending the day in the hospital on Wednesday and tomorrow will be just as busy. I don't know if I'll be free for the rest of the week so it's going to have to happen today. I'm sorry; I was really looking forward to posting this on Wednesday, being as Wednesday is my absolute favorite day of the week, but it just didn't work out that way this week. And I'd rather have it up early than late.

Disclaimer- I DO NOT OWN BIG TIME RUSH!

Okay, on with the show!

Chapter Ten

Together Again…

Carlos had only looked like a zombie once before in his life.

Kendall knew this memory quite vividly because it was the one and only time he'd ever seen Carlos look so pale and close to death in his life. They were eleven years old and they were going to the finals. He remembered that year because there was a nasty virus going around and just days before they were supposed to go, Carlos had caught it. Coach had already benched a few kids who had gotten it because they had fevers; that was their coach's one and only rule in Pee-Wee hockey: if you have a fever you're off the ice. The man had stuck by that rule no matter what; it was for their own safety, after all. Carlos knew that Coach Ackerman couldn't afford to lose any more players, so he decided that he didn't have any other choice but to hide his illness.

It had seemed like a perfectly good idea at the time, he was the endless ball of energy after all. He had the stamina and the will power to make it through an entire game even when he was sick. And as far as he knew, no one knew that he was sick. And his plan had worked up until Kendall had caught the boy trying to ice his forehead to cover up his fever. Carlos had begged him not to tell anyone he was sick and because Kendall hated to see his friend miss the finals, he reluctantly agreed. And Kendall stayed true to his word for the entire game. Carlos was normally the goal tender, but since they were short a few players, Coach had decided at the last minute to throw Carlos in. All was well until Carlos had scored the winning goal at the end of the game. It had taken Carlos blowing chunks all over and then passing out on the ice for Kendall to break his promise and tell an adult. He remembered that when they had gotten Carlos home and after everything was squared away, he had gone to visit Carlos and help take care of him, even at the risk of him getting sick.

Carlos had been sick for a few days and was finally starting to get better, and Kendall had asked him how he was feeling. Without skipping a beat, Carlos had uttered "I feel like death." Back then, he thought the boy was just being overly dramatic; Carlos had used that phrase whenever he got sick. But on that day, if Carlos would have said that exact thing, Kendall would have believed him.

The top of Carlos' head was wrapped in a bandage. The doctor had told them that there were six stitches under the bind and knew that Carlos would wind up looking like Frankenstein. Guilt erupted in his chest because he knew that if Carlos would have been wearing his helmet, he probably wouldn't have sustained any injuries to his head.

Carlos' right leg and left arm were completely encased in two purple casts. Kendall was grateful for that because, even though Carlos wasn't exempt from doing his homework now, if it had been switched, Carlos wouldn't have been able to draw.

His free appendages were layered with sickly looking scrapes and bruises that were slowly healing, and Kendall knew that under the sky blue hospital gown they were making him wear, Carlos had a big bandages wrapped around his chest from the surgery.

Kendall watched the poor boy sleep in the small, hospital room. He remembered that Carlos hated visiting hospital rooms because they were all the same. They were dreary and boring and doctors were always rushing in to chide him about his noise. Carlos could never understand how Logan would ever want to work around such "mean people" and when he would gripe about it, Logan would only playful roll his eyes. It had been three days since they had moved him from the ICU to this room and Kendall could imagine that Carlos would have some type of complaint about being bedridden.

Kendall sat beside Carlos in the small room and listened to the machine projecting Carlos' heartbeat. It was stable and if anything it reminded him more of a metronome; slow and constant. Carlos had been in a coma since the surgery. Yesterday Carlos had opened his eyes for a brief moment and, even though he shut them again immediately after that and hadn't opened them again since, his doctor had said that it was a good thing. But none of that mattered, because there was still a chance that he wouldn't.

"Come on, bowling ball! Wake up!" Kendall hissed, but Carlos remained unchanged, completely unconscious and sleeping soundly.

Since Kendall had been talking to him when he'd had opened his eyes, he stayed by Carlos' side, hoping to coax him out of his comatose state with funny stories of their past. Even when James and Logan had gone to the cafeteria to get themselves something to eat, Kendall stayed behind; he didn't want to miss Carlos waking up. Besides, he knew how scared Carlos would be waking up in a hospital completely alone.

Kendall tried to laugh as he continued with the story. "It was actually really funny when I think about it. So then I stated to sing the Giant Turd Song on Gustavo's desk. And then you jumped on that one security and-?" Kendall's laughter died out, he couldn't bring himself to finish the story. Just the sight of his youngest friend's pale, unmoving complexion was enough to make him lose his train of thought. "I'm so sorry, Carlos." He sniffed. "I wish you'd wake up so you can hear me say."

Carlos remained unresponsive; Kendall could only imagine what Carlos' response would be. You shouldn't blame yourself for this, Kendall. This isn't your fault. I'm the one who pushed you guys out of the way.

Kendall shook his head. "But if Logan and I had been paying attention, you wouldn't have needed to push us out of the way." Kendall sniffled again. "Besides, I wasn't talking about that."

It's not like you knew I was going to get kidnapped.

"That's not it, either."

Then what are you talking about, Kendall?

Kendall could only imagine how crazy he looked talking to himself and he was certain that if a doctor were to walk in on him, he would surely be transferred to psych. But he went along to explain himself to Carlos' unresponsive, limp body, anyway.

"I shouldn't have taken his helmet..." Kendall paused to look at Carlos. He perceived his silence as a sign of shock and disappointed and continued on. "I know you thought that it was Logan, but it was really me. This morning, I tried to change you. I tried to change you into a young man who I thought women would fall you. I thought the helmet was a setback so I took it. But I think we're the setbacks! You are such a beautiful, loving, caring person!" Kendall was finding it hard to keep the tears away as he proceeded. "You pushed us out of the way of a moving car, Carlos! You cared more about us and our safety than you did about yours! Hawk took you and instead of worrying about yourself, you wanted to make sure we were okay. So you sacrificed yourself to make sure we were okay! You took on the entire eighth grade in middle school, for Pete's sake! And you did it with a helmet on your head! But I didn't care about any of that; all I could worry about was how I looked standing next to my weird friend wearing a helmet for no reason! I deluded myself into thinking that it would be better if you didn't wear the helmet all the time, and now you're hurt! And I would give everything to take it back; I'm sorry Carlos! I'm so, so sorry!" Kendall whispered, sobbing on the mattress beside Carlos.

Kendall didn't know it yet, but a mere seconds before He broke down in tears, Carlos' eyes were gently fluttering open. Carlos' dazed, chocolate orbs looked around the room until he found Kendall weeping next to him. Very slowly, he raised his hand; his arm was as heavy as lead as he maneuvered it towards Kendall's head. Gingerly, he dropped his hand on the older boy's head, running a finger through his hair to gain his attention. "It's okay, Kendall!" Carlos whispered, though his voice came out raspy and weak.

"CARLITOS!" Kendall cried with elation. Just as Carlos was pushing himself up, Kendall all but tackled him in a hug. "I thought you'd never wake up!" Kendall's tears of sorrow quickly became tears of joy. As he pulled away, he fished his phone from his pocket. He pressed to send button at the bottom, transmitting the pre-sent message to James' phone.

"What are you doing?" Carlos asked cautiously, trying once again to sit up in his bed.

"Texting the guys; they should be up here any minute," Kendall explained. Abruptly, Carlos' teeth barred in his mouth as his face contorted with pain and Kendall immediately knew what was wrong. Careful not to jolt any of Carlos's injuries, he gently touched a hand to Carlos' shoulder and lowered him back to his pillows. "Stay down until the doctors come; you don't want to over exert yourself!" Kendall said. He nearly melted under the defeated look on Carlos' face. "I've got something for you." Kendall moved to the chair next to the wall; Carlos watched him, clearly intrigued as he raised his head to see Kendall more clearly.

Kendall chuckled at how cute Carlos was, but pulled the surprise behind his back. Kendall could tell Carlos was exhausted because he extended his lower lip in a pout and looked away. Kendall used this as an opportunity to drop the surprise onto the unsuspecting child's head. Carlos' face changed pretty darn quickly. "My helmet!" He cheered; he pulled it off to kiss it only to plop it back on his head. He tapped it twice for good look.

Kendall smiled. "Yeah, I thought you might miss it!" Kendall joked, but then his face became solemn again. "I just wanted to let you know that I took it, not Logan."

Carlos arched an eyebrow. "But, Logan told me he took it!"

"Yeah, well he was covering for me!" Kendall admitted, sitting down on Kendall's bed. "He saw me trying to hide the helmet under my desk and he offered to hide it under his. He said that he would have rather had you be mad at him than at me. We were going to work together and he came up with a plan; he was going to snap at you for searching for the helmet and I was going to take your mind off of it... Then when I saw that our plan didn't work and how upset you were, I decided that hurting you wasn't worth it. I never should have taken it in the first place, this is all my fault!"

"Kendall, you're my best friend! Clearly, you were trying to help me, so, I forgive you!"

"Thanks, Carlitos."

As soon as the boys had finished their hug, Logan and James burst through the door. "CARLITOS!" James and Logan exclaimed.

Carlos smiled tiredly at them. "Hey guys," he said quietly, inviting them with his eyes to come sit beside him.

Logan sighed, placing a hand on the injured boy's shoulder. "Carlos, I'm so sorry this happened to you; this never would have happened if I hadn't taken your helmet!"

Carlos sighed. "Logan, Kendall told me what really happened."

Logan arched an eyebrow. "He did?"

Kendall nodded as James through his hands up in the air to halt any further explanation. "Wait! You took his helmet?" James asked. When Kendall nodded, he continued. "But you guys were fighting at the park! And he admitted that he took it in the apartment! None of that was real? It was all a part of a scheme?" Again, Kendall nodded. "But we all live together, in the same apartment. When did you have time to come up with such an elaborate plan?"

Logan laughed. "Hello? We share a room!" He exclaimed as if it were the most obvious plan in the world. "Once you guys were asleep, we could have been talking through megaphones and you wouldn't have heard it."

James playfully punched Logan. "Shut up!" As James and Carlos continued to chat; well it was more like James was talking and Carlos was listening, Logan came to sit beside Kendall in the chair beside Carlos' bed.

"Why'd you tell him?" Logan asked.

"Are you kidding? Dude, our baby brother died on us twice! I think he deserves the truth!"

"Wait a minute! I died?! Twice?!" Carlos asked.

"Uhh... Yeah..." Kendall and Logan nodded cautiously, watching him carefully; the last thing they wanted was the scare the boy; Carlos' reaction shocked them to say the least.

"Cool; I'm kind of like a zombie! What happened?"

"Well, you technically died twice; once in the ambulance and again on the operating table. You don't remember?"

Carlos shook his head. "No; all I remember is finding my helmet in your room, uh, going to the park and then waking up here. Why? Did something bad happen?"

Everyone's—with an exception of Carlos'—eyes widened. Just as the doctor-to-be was about to question the boy, the real doctor stepped in. He seemed pleased to find that Carlos was awake. "Mr. Garcia," the doctor smiled. "Welcome back! I'm Dr. Hayden Brown. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." Carlos said, but Kendall gently nudged him in the chest. "Okay! Um, I guess my chest kind of hurts. And my head."

"And he can't remember passed yesterday morning!" Logan added, sounding worried.

"Memory loss is common in head injuries. It should come back in time." The doctor smiled politely. He then directed his attention towards Carlos. "Now, Mr. Garcia, we'll be contacting your parents in a little while as well as the police. They'd like you to talk to you about what happened."

"Okay, but can you hold off on calling my mom and dad; I don't want them to worry."

Dr. Brown pursed his lips in thought. "All right. I'll give you until tomorrow, how does that sound?"

Carlos smiled. "Sound's good."

"Well, should we tell him?" Logan asked Kendall in a hushed whisper.

Kendall bit his lip. "Nah, Hawk's in jail, he just woke up from and he's probably exhausted. We'll tell him later..."

"Well, whatever!" Logan exclaimed, hugging Carlos tightly. "I'm just glad we're all together, again!"

"Me too!" Kendall giggled, joining in.

"What, no love for James?" James asked indignantly. Kendall and Logan opened their arms, and James fell into the embrace without hesitation.

As they embraced, Carlos couldn't help but sigh in content. And when he fell into another peaceful sleep, he knew he wouldn't have to worry because when he woke up, he knew his friends would be there waiting for him.

Things were finally turning around…

I hope you guys enjoyed that! What did you guys think? Did you hate it? Like it? Love it? Well, whatever you were thinking, drop by the review box and leave a review! Or PM me, that's cool too! And make sure you stay tuned for Chapter Eleven, (the final chapter) next week!

Well, that's all for now; remember:

Peace, Love and Happiness!

-BrittSmiles4BTR