.:Chapter Twenty-One:.

"Okay, so if you had to choose between sneezing every time you blink and yawning every time you breathe, which would you rather?" Jacqui asked, crossing her legs at the knee. She slid down in her seat and crossed her arms behind her head as she waited for her response.

Rhuben gave her an odd look before exchanging a glance with Riley and Gen, who appeared to be as confused. Not only because of the question, but because it was a good question and they didn't know how to answer.

"I don't know," Gen said slowly. "If you were yawning every time you breathe it meant that you would be tired all the time, right?"

"Not really," Rhuben piped up. "Most of the time you yawn it's because you're cooling down your brain, taking carbon monoxide out of your blood, etcetera, etcetera," she waved her hand before turning to her sister with an amused smile. "Oh the things you learn when you have a little brother that's part of Mensa."

"And doesn't know when to shut up," Riley added, causing the two girls to laugh.

"Hello?" Jacqui waved a hand in the air. "My question! None of you are answering my question. You know, it's nice to be acknowledged ever now and the—ack!" Jacqui grabbed onto the side of the couch as the bus took a sudden sharp turn, threatening to pitch her off the piece of furniture and onto the ground. Rhuben stretched out her legs and pressed them firmly into the arm of the couch she was sitting on, holding herself in place.

Riley stretched her arms behind her head and pressed her palms into the side of her chair and Gen sat calmly in her seat, twisting to the side to glance out the window. "Looks like we're going to stop for food soon." Replacing the blinds she rubbed her stomach. "I'm starting to get hungry. How long has it been since we left this morning, anyway?"

Stretching her arm over her head Riley looking at her watch to check the time. "About ten hours, who knew it would take this long. Traffic must be rubbish. In that case I'm glad I'm not on the same bus as the boys or else I would be bald from ripping my hair out." She turned to Jacqui when he cleared her throat loudly, hoping to finally have her question answered. "Yawn when breathing. I run on few hours of sleep as it is, yawning isn't any different, yeah?"

"I don't know, I think I'd rather sneeze every time I blink," Gen said, resting her hands in her lap. "I think the relief coming from it would be better than yawning all the time. If I were yawning I'd be tired and that's no fun."

"Clearly you haven't been on tour for a while," Rhuben pointed out. "Because some of the best times are when you're deliriously tired but you don't want to go to sleep yet." She sat up straight and lowered her voice. "Last time we were in Aus we talked the guys into dressing in drag and doing a fashion show we were so bored. And watching Tom go flying off the front of the stage is something I'm probably never going to forget."

Jacqui leaned forward and slapped Gen on the leg. "I told you we should have stayed for an extra week. Do you know how long I would've been able to hold that over Tom's head?" She sat back, a pout coming to her face. "You know nothing's more fun to me than making fun of Tom."

"That's beaus he makes it so easy," Gen pointed out, laughing. She tilted her head, hair brushing over her shoulder as she did so, an unsettling look coming to her eyes. "Sometimes I think that I should've stayed with him, he's so sweet. But with distance and everything it made it hard and then there was Jeremy…" she immediately trailed off but Rhuben and the others could hear the sudden change in her tone. There was something she wasn't saying and as far as Rhuben remembered, she hadn't heard anything about a Jeremy before.

"Who's Jeremy?" She asked slowly, not wanting to pry but her curiosity got the better of her.

"Oh, he's just my ex-boyfriend," Gen said with a wave of her hand. "I met him while in school. He was nice but things didn't really work out. School work and everything got in the way and we didn't spend as much time together as we did before." She shrugged again. "It's no big deal." She turned her attention to the other girls. "What about you? Boyfriends? No."

"Have you ever had a boyfriend while you were on tour?" Riley asked with a raised eyebrow. "If that's not the definition of a long distance relationship then I don't know what is. Like you said, things didn't work out because of time and distance. We knew it was only a matter of time until it was something we couldn't get through."

"Same here," Rhuben agreed, raising her hand. Though her last boyfriend wasn't in a band and wasn't on tour with them and seemed to grow a bit resentful of the lifestyle she had compared to the one he did. As far as she was concerned, much like other exes she had, he was only using her to try and horn in the fame and fortune she had.

"I haven't dated much," Jacqui said. "Just having some fun, focusing on myself and what school had to offer." She then grinned, rubbing her hands together. "But hey, being on tour with a bunch of good looking guys is bound to hold my attention for a while."

"I reckon you're shameless, Jac-Jac," Riley teased, reaching over and slapping her on the leg. The girls laughed as the bus slowed to a stop. Rhuben sat up and looked out through the window before swinging her legs to the ground and grabbed her shoes.

"Food's up! Let's go!" She reached over and jumped onto Jacqui's back, slapping her on the butt. "Let's go, horsey!"

"Don't forget that because I'm so much taller than you that if I drop you it'd be like falling off a building," Jacqui said, hooking her arms around Rhuben's legs and held her up. "And I won't be held accountable for you cracking your head open on the ground. But your fans would sure be mad."

Rhuben thought for a moment as Jacqui slowly walked down the steps of the bus then tapped her on the shoulder. "You're right. Let me down, I can't take the risk of becoming as dumb as Patrick." She slid to the ground and straightened the bottom of her shirt.

"I heard that," Patrick called as he and the other boys got off the bus. He gave her the finger and she gave it back to him, causing him to smile a little before it dropped as much as his eyelids.

Rhuben looked over at the boys as they filed off the bus, shuffling towards the restaurant, and started to laugh. Not only did all of the boys but Dougie look annoyed, but they were also worse for the wear. Jake, Ronan, and Fletch disappeared inside to be sure there was enough space for the large group to get some food. They typically had a longer wait considering how much wait staff was needed when they were around. Just like every other time they went somewhere they were told to 'wait' and 'don't move'. It was true when Ronan had said McFly and the DarkElements put together was usually nothing but trouble.

Noah shuffled over to Rhuben as if he didn't have the energy to pick his feet up off the ground. With bags under his eyes and eyes and his hair which was typically smoothed down over his eyes, was sticking up all over the place.

"What happened to you?" She asked.

Noah gave her a look, crossing his arms over his chest. "Dougie happened to me," he explained, his voice in a low mumble, causing Rhuben to strain to hear. He already spoke quietly, but when it was groggy like that Noah's voice was almost completely discernible. "He seemed to have the idea that if he couldn't get to sleep none of the rest of us could." He turned as Dougie came leaping off of the boys' tour bus, calling Riley's name as he went before skipping across the parking lot towards her.

Riley sighed, shaking her head as Dougie reached her side and lowered down so that his shoulder was at her stomach level. He wrapped his arms around her legs and lifted her up over his shoulder before walking away. "I'll deal with it," She said as she was carried away. If there was anyone that understood Dougie more than he did, it was Harry and Riley. Considering the latter had dated Dougie for almost a year and was now best friends with him it seemed that she was the one that handled him and his crazy antics on more than one occasion.

"What about you guys?" Noah then asked, taking his sister's attention again. "How'd you guys sleep?"

"Have you ever been around a bunch of girls at night?" Rhuben asked with a laugh. "No one ever sleeps. We sit up eating and talking all night. And then when we do finally fall asleep it's only for a few hours or so before getting up to talk again."

"You talk about us?"

"You mean about your crush on my friends, no not really," Rhuben teased. She reached out and poked Noah on the cheek and he pushed her hand away. "Besides, I think you'd do much better with Jazzie, Carrie, or Katy."

"And have Tom, Dougie, or Jake all try to kill me?" Noah flicked his hair out of his face in one move. "I don't think so."

"Like you haven't tried that with any of the boyfriends I've had?" As she said this, she turned her gaze towards a loud whooping sound coming from the guys, seeing Tom viciously lean over and try to slap Harry as he ducked out of the way and ran, then her gaze landed on Charlie. He stood with Matt and Sydney, twisting and turning as they continued to watch Tom chase Harry around, yelling as he did so. Charlie turned around to watch and his eyes met hers.

Rhuben felt herself hold her breath. A mix of emotions flew through her stomach, spreading as if she had just stepped inside a form fitting body-suit. She hadn't put much thought into Charlie being on the road with them for the tour because she had been so focused on the tour in general. Being able to celebrate McFly's ten year anniversary was a blast so far but she couldn't wait for the days at RAH. Not only would there be fans of the band there to help the boys celebrate, but there would also be the time to show McFly how much they meant to her and her siblings, what they meant to music…there was so much to prepare. There was the surprise video they were putting together from the five of them, and then what she was doing individually for them.

She had never thought Busted would be part of that equation when the topic was first brought up. If anything she never thought Busted the way it used to be would be part of the equation; James and Matt were a no-brainer. They loved the band just as much as they loved life itself and it was Charlie that had issues within it. Of course it wasn't until later anyone got an idea of what those issues were, but the band had imploded quicker than any other band they had seen before. And being in the music industry as long as she had, she'd seen projects get stuck in development hell, she'd seen a band release a song that into obscurity, she'd even seen bands not get any further than the initial stages before falling apart.

Hopefully with them back together they'd finally find some time to air out all of their grievances and talk about what really went wrong with the three of them. Other than the snide comments they sent back and forth while Matt tried to ignore them all.

Charlie's appearance was an inhibitor to other people, not just his band. She could see that Danny felt a bit awkward around him, seeming to shrink whenever the taller man came nearby. Though that didn't stop his friendly demeanor when including Charlie in activities and conversation. That's Danny for you, she thought. You could be his worst enemy and he'd still have a nice thing to say to you. She could see her brothers and sister were happy to see Charlie but weren't sure how to react when he was around because of their solidarity to her, Dougie was sort of blind to the whole thing—as he normally seemed to be—Tom and Harry were cordial but knew the problems the other Busted boys had, and Jacqui and Gen were a mixture of everyone else. Though Jacqui did do her best to flirt with him when she got the chance, as well as the other boys.

Rhuben herself was the only one who didn't know how to feel about him being around. On one hand she was happy to see him. Just as she was with anyone she hadn't seen for some time. And it wasn't like she wasn't allowed to think about the memories they had together. But there was that other part of her. The part that got angry every time she looked at him or had to be reminded he was around. They hadn't spoken in probably the same amount of time that Charlie, James, and Matt, hadn't spoken. To say things were awkward with him around was the understatement of the year. Especially as everyone else seemed to purposefully not address the elephant in the room.

Or as Dougie said the fat lady singing, Rhuben thought with a half smile, knowing how Dougie would typically refer to Tom in that sense. It's not like you've been going out of my way to talk to him either, boofhead, she reminded herself. She didn't truly trust what she would say if she did. She wasn't identical to her sister to the point of flaring temper and yelling when she was annoyed, but God only knew what would happen.

"He said something about wanting to talk to you," Noah said. Rhuben immediately snapped to attention. "Well, he wants to talk to us five, but he wants to talk to you, too."

"So why didn't he tell me that?" Rhuben asked, eyebrow rising. She knew why.

Noah shrugged. "To gauge your reaction, I guess," he replied. "Sort of like when a girl wants to know if a guy likes her, yeah? So it's like when you lot get your friends to subtly drop hints or ask him themselves."

"I get it." Rhuben nodded as Ronan leaned out the door and called the bands inside so they could eat. Rhuben laughed as Dougie let out a loud whoop and raced inside, continuing to carry Riley over his shoulder as he went. "Let's go, bro." She looped her arm through his and the group headed inside to the back of a restaurant where four tables were pushed together to accommodate everyone.

Rhuben slid down into her seat, feeling her stomach clench when she realized her position put her right in front of Charlie. A frown crossed her face as she took in his appearance; he looked as good as he always did—which said a lot for his short lived modeling career—and not any worse for the wear. That sort of annoyed her. She knew she hadn't had the best upbringing and that had scarred her a bit, changed her appearance from the sweet smiling girl of when she was young to a hardened young woman. But he was in the rock music industry now and there were a lot of things that went down in here, he didn't look like any of that had affected him.

Compared to Matt who was in the pop music industry and fell down into a hard life of drugs and alcohol it was sort of ironic. The groups ordered their food and settled down into groups of conversation. Rhuben laced her fingers together and rested her chin on her hands as Riley, who was sitting to her right, immediately got to the point.

"So what'd you want to talk to us about?" She asked, bluntly. "Has to be important if you didn't want the others to hear."

"Sort of," Charlie said, clearing his throat. "More like I'm trying to get my thoughts together and it's good that I can sort it out through a neutral party." At that, Sydney snorted lightly and Charlie smiled. "I mean, I'm sure you and everyone else are getting tired of me and James fighting all the time."

"I hadn't really noticed," Patrick said sarcastically. "I mean, over the angry tension that's consistently fluttering over our heads."

"I know, mate. I'm sorry."

"Don't you think you should be saying that to someone else?" Rhuben found herself asking. When Charlie looked at her, a surprised flicker in his eyes, she kept her face neutral. A talent she had learned to do long before.

"I should," he agreed. "But, as I've said, there are some things I wanted to figure out first. And I'm afraid if I tried to talk to him now it would just end with the band breaking up again." He picked up the paper wrapped that had encased his straw and started to rip it into tiny pieces. "For a while I was actually jealous of you guys."

"I mean, there are loads of reasons why, mate," Noah teased. Then his expression grew serious. "But what reason is it this time?"

"Because I feel like you guys are the only ones that get it," Charlie admitted. Rhuben felt her face screw up and she turned to her siblings, seeing identical looks of befuddlement on their faces. "I mean, you're the ones that are doing the kind of music I wish I was doing right from the beginning. And you never really listened when people told you what to do with your music."

Riley let out a bark of laughter. "You're kidding right? Do you know how many times our songs or our performances had to be censored? We had one song written that we were going to perform and then because of the subject matter was told we weren't allowed to, yeah? So we then had to write a completely new song to be allowed to do it. I'd say we were stuck just as much as you were at times."

"Right, but you had a team that was backing you up or telling you why it wasn't a good idea to do it. With Busted it was James that was doing that. He was so incredibly…bullheaded about the songs we were doing and wanted to stick with that formula instead of branching out."

Sydney tilted his head. "You do realize that we've been changing our sound for years, though, right? Depending on what we've felt like doing at the time."

"That's exactly my point," Charlie agreed, pointing to him. "Your sound changes over and over because it's what you want to do at the time. But when I was in Busted I felt like I was in a rut and wasn't moving forward."

Rhuben winced. He just had to use the familiar words. The exact same words he had thrown into her face when they were arguing years before, when they had broken up. He thought he wasn't moving forward with Busted and wanted to drop it, Rhuben had then asked if that meant he thought she wasn't moving forward with her and wanted to drop her too. Before she knew it the two of them were yelling at each other, she was called an 'emotionless robot' for not seeing his side of things and she called him a 'coward' for wanting to give up too easily and not putting his foot down in airing his grievances.

And people said memories couldn't be painful. That hurt more than Robert punching her directly in the face after something she did or said that angered him.

"But James wouldn't listen so I went to some other people and started to play the songs I liked and always wanted to do. Matt sort of agreed with me but he also agrees with James saying he didn't want to rock the boat with the producers who wanted the kind of music they were putting out."

And after that James had failed project after failed project, Charlie went into a successful band but couldn't shake his Busted past, and Mattie fell into drinking and drugs, Rhuben thought. She wanted to remind him of that but she could see from the look in his eye that he knew.

"So what do you want us to do?" Riley asked. She leaned back as her burger was placed in front of her, thanking the waiter as he did so. "Do you want us to talk to James? Or have a house meeting or something?"

"I think at the moment your hands are a little tied keeping Dougie out of trouble," Noah teased.

"He's like a freaking puppy, I swear," Riley replied.

"Hey!" Pouting, Patrick turned to his eldest sister. "I thought you said I was like a little puppy."

"No, I said you were a loveable asshole, but I reckon it's not really that far off."

Rhuben rolled her eyes as Patrick beamed and tucked into his own food. The guy was so easy to please she wouldn't be surprised if he managed to live out the rest of his life with minimal possessions. Stretching out her legs, she started into her food, and then jerked them backwards when she realized she kicked Charlie in the shin. He glanced under the table then back up at her.

"I swear that was an accident," she said, nonchalantly popping a fry into her mouth. But a stronger kick well-placed a little bit higher probably wouldn't be.

"Right, because your little legs can reach all the way over here," he replied.

"It's not my fault that you take up the most space out of everyone just by sitting down," Rhuben shot back. She tilted her head, resting her cheek on her chin. "But if you want us to talk to the others then we can do that. No worries. But you're the one that has to talk to James." Charlie's upper lip curled in distaste. Rhuben ignored him and turned to Riley. "I'm sure we can finally get Mattie off the hook with this, but it may take him a bit to get that he can finally relax."

Riley nodded in agreement. "I think McFly and James would be harder to convince. Especially because McFly tried the same thing and it didn't work out for them."

"I thought that was because of the bum producers they were working with," Patrick pointed out.

"It was. But no one's going to remember that. They just remember the one album that they put out that wasn't as good as the others and drastically shied away from what they had been doing before."

"Ohh."

Charlie made a humming sound and dropped his hands to his lap. Then he picked up his fork and started to stir around the spaghetti on his plate. "I'll talk to James at some point. I just want to be sure he'll listen." He continued to absentmindedly stir before sitting up straight, staring down at his plate. He started to reach out for the salt and pepper, but Rhuben beat him to it, passing the two over. Charlie stared at her for a minute then nodded his thanks and went back to fixing his plate.

Rhuben sucked in a deep breath through her nose, drumming her left hand against her thigh. It was annoying; she thought after all that time they wouldn't ever be able to pick up where they left off.

And still she knew him perfectly.

A/N: Thanks for being so patient while waiting for this chapter to come out.

Cheers,

-Riles