Chapter 11

Ronan yawned as he walked out of his room, but he couldn't help but smile at the noise and chaos that was already running rampant through the house, even though it was seven in the morning. First, he walked over to the bathroom where he could hear Patrick and Sydney fighting and peered into the doorway. Sydney was standing on the closed toilet lid and saying something to Patrick, waving a hand above both of their heads as Patrick stood in front of him, arms crossed over his chest and smiling at Sydney.

"I'm just saying that by the time that I stop growing, I'm going to be taller than you," Sydney said, sticking his toothbrush back into his mouth and starting to brush vigorously. "Its genetics, it's real, and it's going to happen."

"And I keep saying that you're always going to be a little shrimp…" Patrick walked forward and wrapped and arm around Sydney's waist, lifting him off of the toilet and stetting him on the ground. "To me anyway." He turned back to the sink and turned on the water before spitting into it.

"Hey, guys, breakfast is ready," Ronan said as he knocked on the doorframe. "You might want to get your butt downstairs before it's all gone."

"Sweet." Sydney ran his toothbrush under the water, pushing Patrick out of the way, and threw his toothbrush into the glass that was sitting in the corner before the two rushed out of the room.

Ronan chuckled before walking over to a closed bedroom door where music was pouring out. He knocked on it loudly. "Too loud!" He called.

"Sorry," Riley called back as the music was lowered.

"Breakfast is ready," Ronan added.

"Coming!" The door flung open and Riley came flying out of her room, pulling on a pair of socks as she went. He laughed as her socked caused her to slide across the hardwood floor and crashed into the banister before she disappeared downstairs as well.

Ronan didn't even have to turn around before Rhuben's door was opened and she walked out, her phone up to her ear. "Say 'bye' to Dak, breakfast's ready," Ronan said as he turned on his heel to go back to his room as he heard the telephone start to ring.

"Got it," Rhuben replied, giving a thumbs up. "I'll get Noah as well."

Ronan walked over and sat down on his bed as he grabbed the phone. He checked caller ID before picking it up and putting it to his ear. "You know, you picked a really bad time to call, we're about to have breakfast and if I don't get down there, there's not going to be anything left."

Mrs. Knight laughed on the other end of the phone. "I think you're exaggerating."

"No, I'm not," Ronan said honestly. "Trust me, when you have them around food, they're like locusts. Locusts at a feeding frenzy, it's nothing to joke about." He gave a soft smile as he picked up his cell phone to check the messages there before turning to his Blackberry, that was sitting on the bedside table. "I know that you called to ask me if I told them about the surgery and I was going to tell them over breakfast." He let out a weary sigh as he looked through the ever growing pile of e-mails that he was getting from his different teams at Blazing Phoenix in California and Blazing Phoenix in Australia. Everyone knew that he was going to be taking some time off, but that still didn't stop him from having to field messages and try to solve problems even when he was still there.

"Your surgery is this weekend," Mrs. Knight pointed out. "I'd hope that you tell them today. I haven't told the boys yet, either, if you don't want me to."

"They're going to find out at some point," Ronan said. He ran a hand through his hair before falling onto his back on the bed. "You can go ahead and tell them. If you tell them or if you don't, either way, they're going to be walking on egg shells around my kids when they do find out, and we all know that that's just going to make it worse."

"You're right," Mrs. Knight agreed. "I'll just let them find out when your kids want to tell them about it." There was a lengthy pause on both sides of the phone. It wasn't that it was a touchy subject or anything really worth getting upset over. His skin wasn't even going to be cut open, it was all going to be done by laser and there would be no scar or bruising at all. But there was still the downtime that he was going to have to deal with as well as the writing and recording that they were already working on (which made him glad that they had a studio in their basement) and trying to figure out how to help Gustavo from his bed was going to be a problem as well.

But he could do it.

"You didn't sound very sure of yourself," Ronan pointed out, putting an arm over his face.

"Neither did you," Mrs. Knight replied. "Just get some rest before your surgery, as much as you can, despite how loud your house can get. And I'll go with you the day of the surgery since, God knows, your kids won't set foot in the hospital."

"But can you blame them?" Ronan's eyebrows twitched as he waited for an answer.

No one really could. They hated hospitals, plain and simple. Sydney practically threw a temper tantrum each time it was suggested that they had to go there, Patrick hated needles in general, and the others just made sure that they didn't have to go. They practically had to be forced the last time they went, when Ronan needed to get knee surgery, and basically didn't leave his side for the couple of weeks that he had been recovering. He didn't want to know what would happen this time. Not that they didn't have good reason to, they watched their parents die in the hospital after a house fire filled their lungs with smoke, then they had the constant trips there themselves when they were being abused by their then father, Robert. They had been to the hospital so much that the doctors knew them by name, figured out their personalities, and knew what food in the cafeteria they did and did not like.

So knowing that at some point they had to go back, not that he was going to force them to go, was enough to make him more nervous about them than his own surgery. "It's not something that they'll particularly like," Mrs. Knight admitted. "But you all can help each other through it." There was a loud thudding sound and hysterical laughter and cheers in the background. "I have to go, Carlos got whacked his head on the bottom of the swirly slide again." Ronan smiled, being able to clearly picture the exasperated look on Mrs. Knight's face. "I'll see you later."

"See ya," Ronan replied and hung up.

He rested an arm over his face before he picked up his Blackberry, which buzzed with five new e-mails and turned it off, setting it aside. He then turned off his cell phone and placed both of them on the bed before getting up and leaving his room. He walked down to the kitchen and slid into his chair, glancing at the plate that was sitting in front of him. He looked around the table, seeing Julius and Brittany at their places, and briefly wondered when they got there, then shrugged it off, figuring that it had to have been when he was on the phone.

"Finally!" Patrick cried, throwing his hands into the air. "I was thinking that I was never going to be able to eat."

"And, yet, we all know that's a lie, or else there'd actually be some food in this house," Julius teased his brother, flicking him on the side of the head. "And if I'm not mistaken, I think you were the one that came up with the rule that we can't start eating until everyone is at the table."

"Well, I was stupid when I made that rule," Patrick muttered, drumming his fingers on the table.

"And you're not stupid now?" Noah raised an eyebrow.

Ronan smiled and laughed with everyone before they said grace and started into breakfast. Ronan ate slowly, wanting to put off telling them about the surgery as long as he could. It was bad enough that Sydney barely seemed to really talk to anyone until things suddenly popped up. Julius and Brittany even felt the slight bit of tension when they had told Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, and Noah that they had planned to be in California for a bit while they waited to see if Sydney would decide to figure out whether or not he's going to stay in LA or go back to Australia and finish school. It didn't help that the others were trying to be supportive with everything instead of directly talking to Sydney about how they were feeling about everything, when he knew that they were all devastated in their own right. And, of course, there was the fact that they all needed to start figuring out whether or not they were going to finish with their schooling in college or bypass it all and do whatever it is that they wanted to do.

And he thought keeping them from spending too much was hard. Robert barely let them spend their hard earned money on anything. He was the one that used whatever amount of their money and what he got of being their manager, as much as he wanted. So, to keep themselves grounded, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, and Noah had gotten jobs at a restaurant in the mall so they could have some money that they could spend as well. But he continued to monitor the usage of that money as well. Then he said that they weren't allowed to touch any of their band money, which ranged from everything from record sales, to concert sales, to appearances, until they were eighteen. That was the one rule that Ronan thought was actually a good idea. They could use as much of their money that they got form allowance and their job at the mal as much as they wanted, but not the money from their band.

So as soon as Riley and Rhuben turned eighteen and were able to use their money, there was a slight change in the rule. They could use their money as much as they wanted, but if it was anything that was a purchase of over a thousand dollars they needed to check it out with him first, to be sure that they weren't going on spending sprees. Of course that didn't stop them whenever he let them use his credit card for something, he still remembered the time that Patrick and Noah had managed to rack up a almost ten thousand dollar bill on some new sporting equipment. Then there was the company credit card, which Riley usually used, to get clothes for her and her siblings for music videos, appearances, and just for the costume closet in general.

"Ronan?" Ronan looked up and turned to Brittany, who had spoken to him. She pointed to his plate and he looked down, seeing that it was still fully, as the others were more than halfway finished with theirs or were already starting on their seconds. Ronan shrugged and cut a piece of his cinnamon roll before taking a bite. "Are you ok? You've barely touched your plate."

"And if you're not going to finish it, I could-"Sydney shrank back in his chair as Ronan pointed his fork at him, narrowing his eyes. Sydney held up his hands defensively before smiling a little. Ronan smiled back before falling back into pushing his foot around his plate with his fork.

"Ok, out with it," Julius declared, pushing his own plate away from him. He barely batted an eye when Riley reached out and grabbed his plate, starting to scoop what was left on his onto her own plate. Patrick elbowed her in the side and held up his own so she could finish putting the rest on his. "What's going on? We all know there's something or else you'd be chatting up a storm with these billy lids." Riley made a face at her older brother, Rhuben stuck out her tongue, Patrick smirked, Noah rolled his eyes, and Sydney shook his head, causing Julius and Brittany to smile and laugh. Julius's smile faded as he turned back to his father. "Seriously, what is it?"

Trapped. Ronan let out a sigh, picking up his plate and walking it over to the sink. He scraped everything down into the drain before turning on the water and running the garbage disposal. He could feel seven pairs of eyes boring into his back, watching his every move before he returned to the table and slowly sat down again. "Ok," he said finally. "In a couple of days, I'm going to the hospital so I can get surgery on my Achilles tendon. It's not anything serious, but it's been bothering me for a while and this is what the doctor suggested." He looked around the table at each face before he continued. He had their undivided attention, he knew that for sure. "It isn't going to scar, it probably isn't going to hurt, but I'm going to be on crutches for four weeks, then I'm going to get a cast and a boot for, probably three weeks, then after that, I'm going to be in the boot for two weeks, and then I can start exercising again a couple of weeks after that."

There was a moment of silence until Rhuben slowly raised her hand.

"You're not homeschooled anymore, Rocky, you don't have to raise your hand," Ronan said with a warm smile.

"Right," Rhuben gave a half smile before it faded. Her eyebrows lowered in confusion for a moment. "How long have you known that you were going to go in and get the surgery?" She crossed her arms,, resting them on the table as well. "Because you needed to have some time to prepare for it or else you wouldn't know how long recovery was going to be."

"I hate it when you all do that." Ronan shook his head, letting out a slight laugh. "I've known for a while now and I'm sorry that I didn't tell you guys before. But I knew that you would worry and that's why I didn't say anything right away." He turned to Riley, who looked like they wanted to say something. "Yes?"

"Did Julius and Brittany know about this too?" She turned a slightly accusing glance over to her older brother and his wife. "Is that why you guys are really over here? Because you knew about it before the rest of us did?"

"No, we came here because of Sydney," Julius replied calmly. "Just as I said to you before, especially because, like I have already stated, he had said that he potentially wanted to go back to Australia to finish his school work there." He pointed at her. "We didn't know about Ronan having to go into surgery, Monster." Riley pushed his hand away and he smiled at her.

"So what does this mean about having to work?" Noah brushed his long hair out of his face as he looked at his father curiously. "Recording and writing and everything? What does it mean if we're gone and you need help around the house or something?"

"That's the beauty of having them come back at this time," Ronan said, pointing over to Brittany and Julius, who gave soft smiles. "I'll need as much help I can get around the house when I'm going to be on crutches and when I have a cast. And since Julius, for the most part, is my assistant anyway, I was thinking that things can actually go smoothly for us for once. I'll be sitting down for the most part anyway when I'm doing homeschooling work with Patrick, Noah, and Sydney. Riles and Rhubes will probably be at the studio or hanging out with the guys anyway, so I don't have to worry about work getting done."

Rhuben snorted. "You're kidding right? With those blokes, you know it's a miracle anytime we get even a line done."

"Yeah, well, if you can't do anything at Blazing Phoenix, Gustavo said that he wouldn't mind you guys going over to Rocque Records to work there," Ronan replied. He paused. "Which was surprising in itself, but whatever." He scratched his jaw. "But the way that I see it, things can be done if we do it in shifts for the most part, or…" he trailed off. "If you don't mind limiting yourself to being able to hang out with your friends or going out for a while."

"No worries," Riley said quickly. "Just as long as we can help you whenever you need it."

"But that doesn't mean that you have to devote all of your time to me," Ronan said quickly. I don't think I'd be able to handle it. He gave a wry smile to himself. It was ironic, really. They hated having a lot of attention put on them and on the flipside; it was now his turn to not want a lot of attention put on him when he needed a lot of attention to be able to recover well. "I meant it, I don't want you to drop everything you're doing if you're ever out."

"It's no problem," Patrick said slowly. "We don't mind helping you when you need it." Ronan looked at him curiously. He was surprised that they weren't freaking out or was incredibly mad at him for keeping it a secret for so long. When he needed to have knee surgery the last time, he didn't say anything up until the day before and they were mad. But their mad quickly turned to anxiety and fear when he was having the surgery. He didn't know until later that when they had been at the crib, waiting to see how the surgery went, Sydney wouldn't let the phone out of his site for even a second, waiting for him to call and say that he was fine.

But now…

Oh. Ronan nodded. He got it. With all of the therapy session that they had gone to and the work that they tried to be happier for the past couple of years, they were doing what their therapist, Dr. Angelo, suggested. They were trying their hardest to be supportive and not upset or scared when it came to him having to go in for his surgery. "Are you sure?"

"It's no worries, Ronan, we already said that," Riley said, standing up. She picked up her plate and grabbed Brittany's as well. "But speaking of, we need to get started on our workout or else we're not going to get anything done today. And if you're going to be going into surgery soon, it's probably a good idea if we get as much done around here as we can."

"Let me," Brittany said. She stood up and took the plates from Riley before walking around the table and getting the other's as well. "I should start getting used to it if I'm going to be a good housewife."

"Speaking of…" Sydney turned to his eldest brother with wide, innocent eyes. "Any plans for a baby soon?" He asked before whipping his phone out his pocket. "Because I have a list of baby names that you could potentially use. Now, keep in mind that some of them may not be as normal as most people think they are, but I think that it'll be catch with our last name."

Ronan laughed before looking around the table.

At least they got one problem out of the way.

One of many.

"I still can't believe that you talked me into working out with you guys," Katie grumbled as Patrick finished taping up her hands and handed her her boxing gloves. She held them under her arm before flexing her hands and rolling her wrists, to be sure that they were taped well. Patrick gave a half smile but didn't say anything. "You know how much I hate to sweat."

"You really can't do anything physical without sweating so you have to get over it," Patrick said. He crossed his arms over his chest before moving over to the punching bag that had been set up in the gym. He turned and pointed over to Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James, who were staring up on the treadmills. "Hey guys, start up at the pace that you normally set for a jog and then I'll let you know when to speed up." Riley, Rhuben, Noah, and Sydney were already lifting weights on the other side of the room.

"Just the same, I'd still rather sit in the apartment and wait there, doing absolutely nothing, while I wait to go to school," Katie continued to gripe. It wasn't even the fact that she didn't want to work out that was the problem. She didn't mind working out if she had to, even though she didn't like sweating.

Her eyes moved over to the far side of the gym where Brodie, Rooster, Jewel, Stephanie, and Ava were all working with jump ropes. Her eyes landed on Jewel and she couldn't help but have her upper lip curl when she saw how fast Jewel was spinning the jump rope over her head, her feet blurring as they picked up from the ground with each pass of the rope. She could even hear it whistling from all the way over there. She didn't want to admit it, but she was a little bit jealous. But it wasn't that she was justified with it. Jewel was pretty and she did have a lot of confidence in what she did, and she was good friends with her boyfriend that was enough to make anyone jealous. She tried talking to Lizzie about it when they were at the Red Heat, but they were all having too much fun then, even the guys were having fun and they weren't the type of guys that really liked to dance if they didn't have to.

It was a stereotype, but none of them were that great (excluding, James, Patrick, and Noah who could really feel the music that they were dancing to). Katie did have a good time there, but she found herself standing off to the side a bit more than any of the other girls, watching and trying not to feel as if everyone was looking at her. Like she didn't belong. She wasn't the only one that felt that way, even Lizzie was saying that she felt a little bit worried with how much time that Stephanie was spending with the Jacksons. But she was semi-signed to Blazing Phoenix and they really needed to get started working on the videos and stuff that she was going to do to jump start her career, so that was understandable.

But she and Carlos had broken up a while ago, not that they wanted to. Katie couldn't help but feel bad for Carlos too. He had moped around for a while after Mr. King had made them break up. She had never seen him so devastated. But now he seemed to be up to something, giggling almost in a crazy way at any moment as he grabbed a notebook or a scrap piece of paper and started to write madly on it. He also seemed to be calling the Jacksons more often than he usually did. Katie was trying to figure it out, but she wasn't getting anything out of them at all, which was just as frustrating, because she used to be so good to get anything out of anybody.

"Yeah, well, you can't always get what you want," Patrick said as he finished taping his won hands. He used his teeth to ripe the tape before tossing it into his bag. He then placed his hands on his hips, turning to he backup dancers. "Hey, Jewel!" He called over to her. She stopped jumping and looked at him curiously. "When you all are done over there, you can start working out with the weights; this time I want you all to focus more on your legs." He then turned to Big Time Rush. "And I'll get to you guys in a few minutes."

"Oh no," Logan joked. "We must have done something wrong; he's got that evil glint in his eye."

"Ugh and my arms just stopped hurting form the last time that we did something to piss him off," Kendall added, going at a light jog. "So, what do you think it was this time that made him want to make us be reduced into a puddle of jelly."

"You running your mouths," Patrick replied, pointing over to them. "Now get going!" He turned back to Katie rolling his eyes as he grabbed onto the punching bag and instructed for her to start punching it in the middle of the bag.

"Is something wrong?" She asked, stepping up to the punching bag, throwing off the towel that was on her shoulders. She slid her gloves onto her hands and fell into the familiar boxing stance before starting to hit the punching bag with alternate hits of her fists. "You seem to be…I don't know, kinda moody."

"No, I'm fine," Patrick replied shortly. "We just have a lot of work to do. Having to work on two albums is a lot harder than most people realize. Especially when you have to get ready for two tours as well."

"So you're taking it out on the guys?" Katie laughed lightly as she continued to hit the punching bag. "I knew that there was a reason I like you so much, apart from your sense of humor, of course." She waited to see if he would laugh or smile and when he did neither, she frowned, lowering her arms. "Oh come on, I'm giving you golden compliments here and you won't even take it?"

"Just concentrate on your hitting, please?" Patrick tilted his head to the side. "I mean, I knew that you could be a bit of a weakling, but this is just pathetic." He gave her a sweet smile.

Katie suddenly understood the meaning of the term 'seeing red' at that comment. Her upper lip curled as she turned back to her boyfriend. She pulled back a hand and punched him in the stomach as hard as she could. She blinked and stood up straight when Patrick didn't make a grunt or a move at all. He merely looked at her before scratching his stomach, waiting for her to say something. What the? This was definitely something different to Katie. She had punched James in the stomach twice and sent him on the verge of passing out both times. She had punched Kendall once and had been so afraid that she hurt him that she made a promise not to do it again. She punched Carlos and Logan and had quickly knocked them out with one hit, and she didn't even hit them that hard.

But this time…nothing.

Patrick looked at her and caught the stunned expression on her face. "Oh, was that supposed to hurt?" Katie nodded, her lips pressed into a thin line. "Sorry, ok, try again. I'll make it look like it hurt this time." He stepped out from behind the punching bag and gave her space to do as she pleased.

Katie let out a heavy sigh. "Ok, but then that's not fun," she whined. She pouted when Patrick stepped forward and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Then that's good for me," He replied.

"Don't sweat it," Jewel said as she walked over, wiping sweat off of her neck with a towel. "When it comes to Patrick, getting him off of your back is as easy as-"

"I can do it myself, thanks!" Katie snapped.

"Sorry, girl." Jewel held her hands up defensively. "Just trying to help out." She motioned over to Patrick before shoving him on the arm. "The best way to deal with his big ego is to inflate it with one quick jab of something sharp." She stepped around Katie and walked towards the other side of the room. Katie watched her go, frowning when she saw her say something to Ava and roll her eyes, shaking her head.

Katie turned back to Patrick, her frown deepening when she saw that he was looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "What?" she snapped.

"Nothing." Patrick pointed behind her. "But you mom's here and she looks like she needs to tell you something." Katie turned around to see Mrs. Knight walking over to them, a folded up piece of paper in her hand, looking that she was mad but anxious at the same time. "So what'd you do? Fail a test? Don't worry about that, I've failed plenty of them, it's no big deal."

"Shut up!" Katie hissed and turned back to her mother, as she stopped in front of her. "Hey mom, what are you doing here? Is something wrong?" She placed her hands on her hips and waited for her mother's answer. Mrs. Knight looked like she was about to say something, but wasn't sure how to say it. Katie raised an eyebrow, encouraging her mother to say something. "Did someone die or something?" A million thoughts ran through her head. Did someone get into a car accident? Did one of their friends get hurt? Was there someone else from their past that left them that they didn't know about? Was their father coming back? Katie glanced over her shoulder at Kendall and saw that he was slowing down on the treadmill, noticing their mother as well.

"No, but…" Mrs. Knight handed Katie the folded up sheet of paper. "You might want to see this." Her eyes moved over Big Time Rush before turning back to Katie again. "You all might want to see it."

Katie took it and looked it over, her eyes growing wide as she read the article...

A/N: Sorry these past couple of chapters have been so short and kinda lackluster. I haven't had a lot of time to get them up since I've been preparing to run a race and have been really tired, as well as looking for a job and getting prepared for my senior year of college.

The next ones will be longer as I'm getting back into the swing of things. Of course there'll be more drama coming up as well, especially since things that happen to one person have a way of leaking onto other people as they all talk to each other. I can say that starting with the next chapter, things are going to become really, really dramatic.

Oh and you'll see more of the backup dancers starting with the next chapter as well. Um, oh yeah, some things that are mentioned in some chapters but aren't really shown is because the characters don't appear in that chapter/they don't have a big part in the chapter and because I have so many different storylines to go through, and I'm doing my best with it.

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles