.:Chapter Twenty-Six – Blow Your Speakers:..

"Hey Ronan, how are you doing?" James asked as he, Logan, Carlos, Katie, and Kendall walked into Ronan's hospital room. The older man was sitting in his bed (which was surrounded by his kids) his left leg elevated up so it would reduce the swelling. But instead of looking tired or even a bit irritated like normal people would, he had a pleasant smile on his face.

"Mom wanted me to bring these by." Katie said as she held up a small vase of flowers. "I thought it was kind of girly, but she insisted."

"Its fine," Ronan replied with a warm smile. "You can just put them there," he pointed to the small table that was by his bedside. "Thanks for coming by, but I'm not going to be here long, I'm going to be out of here soon."

"So the surgery went well?" Logan asked, looking over the stitches.

"Yep," Riley said with a slight sigh as she pulled her hair from her face. "The doctors said that it was one of the easier operations they had to do." She gave a slight smile as she turned to Ronan. "It helped that you were knocked out the whole time."

Ronan gave a half-amused smile back.

"Are you sure that you're ok?" Sydney asked anxiously from where he was sitting on the bed, next to his adoptive father. He leaned forward and looked at the stitches that ran across Ronan's left knee. "Are you sure they didn't hit a vein or something?"

"Yeah, you never know," Patrick spoke up, frowning. "You could be internally bleeding or something." Noah's face quickly shifted from calm to concern as he leaned forward to look as well.

Ronan rolled his eyes as he leaned his head back before looking over at the boys and Katie. "Now you see why I didn't want them around here." He commented.

Kendall smiled to himself as he watched the exchange between all of them. In a way, it was nice to see that the tables had turned, letting the Jacksons see how very worried they were for Ronan, when it was usually him that was worried about them. But on the other hand, it just caused worry for himself, if they got this strung out over their Dad, how bad would they be if one of their friends got hurt or really sick? Kendall looked up and caught Ronan's eye, noticing that he was quickly shifting it from the door back to him.

Kendall got it quickly; Ronan didn't want them to stay any longer than they needed to. It would probably cause them more anxiety than they were used to.

"So, what are your plans going to be if you're going to be on crutches for a while?" James asked, shoving his hands into his pockets. "It can't be easy to produce music if you can't get around as fast."

"Well, Gustavo and Kelly said that they were going to help me," Ronan said with a short wave of his hand. "And that's also why I called Julius and Brittany last night; they're already on their way over here to help me out."

Kendall was surprised to see that the Jacksons didn't even perk up at the idea of their oldest brother coming to stay with them for a while. He hardly had time to go visit them, so they were usually greatly anticipated, but now they looked like they wouldn't even be roused by the idea of getting to go into their favorite store and get everything 90% off.

Kendall cleared his throat and spoke up. "Well, that means that you'd be pretty busy with your work," he turned to the Jacksons. "How about we go and hang out at the crib? That way he can get some peace and quiet and rest his knee so it'll heal faster."

"That's a good idea," Carlos jumped in at the suggestion with a bright smile. Even he could pick up on his friend's anxiety. "We could have another party, maybe writer another song or something? I'm sure Mama Knight wouldn't mind if you guys came by!"

"I don't know," Rhuben shrugged, looking towards Ronan again. "Wouldn't it be better if we were around to help you? You know, before the others got there?" She placed a hand on his foot. "I mean, god knows that Gustavo would accidentally murder him and say that he was trying to help."

"I wouldn't put it past him," Ronan agreed. He then laughed and shook his head. "No, go ahead; I want you guys to have fun. You've been working so hard finishing up your CDs as quickly as possible and now you're freaking out over a minor surgery. I'm fine, go ahead."

Riley twisted her mouth to the side. "You're not taking 'no' for an answer are you?" She asked.

"Not on your life." Ronan swung his legs to the side, being careful to move his left leg slowly. "Hand me those crutches over there," he pointed to the corner of the room. Logan moved to get it, but Sydney quickly jumped off of the bed and hurried over to get them. He walked back over and handed them to Ronan, sticking close to his side as he stood up. "See," he leaned forward a bit. "I'm fine, go out and have some fun with your friends." He paused when they didn't move. "Now."

"Fine," Patrick moved away from the bed and put his arm around Riley's shoulders.

"Trust me, guys;" Katie smiled. "This is going to be fun."

"Whoever's idea it was to make me teach you guys how to bake a cake is insane." Riley commented from where she was sitting on a stool, watching as Carlos placed a beater in a bowl of cake batter and turned it on.

"Oh, come on, you know that this is fun." Kendall said as he turned a page in the cookbook he was looking at. He lifted his head and looked around. "Well, it's not going to be great for whomever has to clean this mess, but it's still fun."

"Fun up until you have to watch to make sure these two don't put anything wrong in it." Riley murmured as she leaned over Carlos' bowl of batter, checking to see how lumpy it is. She pulled her hair behind her ears before moving a pan aside and grabbing an empty bowl that had some batter on the sides and turned to Sydney. "Do you want to lick the bowl?"

"No thanks," Sydney replied, his lower lip sticking out. He had his chin in his hands and he was staring at Riley's phone as it was resting on his legs. "When's Ronan going to call?"

"When he gets home, Little Man," James said and mused his hair. "Until then, just have some fun. It's not going to kill him if you don't think about him at one second of the day.'

"I guess." James and Kendall exchanged glances and shrugged. Once Sydney had his mind set to something, you weren't going to be able to take it away. Sydney lifted his head, his eyes squinted a little. "Have you guys started work on that new song yet?"

"We have a title and the chorus," James said as he took the bowl that was in Riley's hands and dragged his finger in it. "It's called Blow Your Speakers." He stuck his finger in his mouth and smiled when the sweet batter hit his tongue.

Riley gave him an odd look. "You're not trying to seduce me are you? 'Cause I have to say that it's not working."

Carlos laughed loudly, pointing a finger at James, who looked disgruntled. In turn, James took his bowl and turned it upside down, placing it on Carlos' head. When Carlos gave him a disgruntled look, James opened his mouth wide and started to laugh at him as well.

Sydney gave a hint of a smile as he turned to Kendall. "How do you put up with them?" He asked.

"Not well, I can tell you that." Kendall replied, his eyes narrowing a little bit.

Sydney smiled and laughed a little. "Can we hear the song?"

"Nope," Kendall shook his head. "Gustavo wants this one to be a secret, it's very hush-hush." He turned to Riley as she snorted.

"Carlos can't keep a secret," she pointed out. "Do you really think that he won't spill it before the day is over?"

"Good point."

Logan turned away from the sink and grabbed two plates of food, walking it over to the kitchen table, where Rhuben was sitting, looking at her phone. "Here," Logan pushed a plate of sandwich and chips over to Rhuben. She gave him a curious look as he sat down across from her, his own plate in his hand. "You look hungry."

"I'm not," she replied, pushing the plate away from her. "Not yet anyway," she gave a soft smile. "I'm waiting for the cake."

"If Carlos doesn't poison you with it at least," Logan replied as he twisted in his seat to watch as Carlos and James started to fight over whose turn it was to continue beating the batter. Patrick, Noah, and Katie were playing video games. Kendall was looking at a recipe book to see what the next instructions were, and Sydney was sitting on the counter, half-watching and half staring at Riley's phone that was in his hands, as if waiting for a phone call. "What's Syd doing?"

"He wants Ronan to call as soon as he gets back to the apartment," Rhuben explained. Her eyes narrowed as Logan nodded, turning back around. He looked at her and she studied him for a moment before leaning back. "Either Ronan told you or you've figured it out for yourself." She said.

Logan thought about lying, but when he noticed how serious Rhuben was, he decided just to tell the truth. "I had my suspicions, but I didn't want to actually ask." He pushed her plate back towards her. "How long have you been anorexic?"

"Ah, not long," Rhuben shook her head. "Well," she let out a humorless laugh as she raised and lowered a shoulder in a Jackson-esque shrug. "It doesn't seem like it's been that long. Ronan and my siblings caught it really fast so I got treatment for it without any of the press finding out."

"When'd it start?" Logan asked, lowering his voice so the others guys wouldn't hear their conversation.

"Probably when I was 11 or 12," Rhuben thought for a moment. "About the time that we started in the industry, it was the stress and a couple of comments that people gave me, I fell into it pretty quickly." She looked sad. "I remember watching the gymnasts and dancers on TV when I was little, wishing that I could be like them. So when I was sure that it was what I really wanted, I begged, and begged for Mom and Dad to let my try dancing. I became really good at it really fast. But with that comes jealousy from other people and then there was Robert shoving everything on us." She inspected her sandwich before picking it up. "Everyone says that it's something that you have to get over, but you're never going to get over it. It's a disease and I'm going to have it for the rest of my life. Even now it's a struggle. The recovery process is not an easy one, and every now and then I feel the almost-uncontrollable urge to go back to it."

"So what do you do?" Logan asked his eyes wide.

"Immerse myself in other things," Rhuben said. "Working with you guys has really helped for the most part. But there are times where it comes back and there's nothing I can do but force myself to get through it. There are times where I don't want to eat and I'll sit at the dinner table for hours, just picking at my plate. Ronan's a good sport about it though, so are the others, they'll sit with me to make sure that I finish."

"Is there anything that we can do to help you when you need it?" Logan ran a hand through his hair. "Do you want me to tell the others? I won't if you don't."

"Nah," Rhuben shook her head. "I'll just tell them when I think they're ready." She smirked, moving her sandwich to her mouth. "It'll be our secret."

Logan smiled. "We haven't had one in a while."

"I know." The two were quiet for a bit as they both continued to eat their lunch. "But I was thinking about what you guys said earlier," Rhuben said as she pulled her feet up onto her chair. "About it being a good thing to need someone." She picked up a chip and took a large bite out of it.

"Oh really?" Logan messed with his napkin. "What about it?"

"I didn't think that it applied to me," Rhuben gave a short shrug. "Because, even though we were fighting, I always had you around to talk to. I didn't have to worry about needing you because in some ways, I already had you." She turned away, an embarrassed pink hue staining her cheeks.

"And you always will," Logan reached out and grabbed onto her hand, smiling a little before she pulled it away from him, resting it in her lap. "We made that promise when we were kids, and it's not going to be broken anytime soon."

"Cheese ball," Rhuben balled up her napkin and tossed it into his face.

"But you love me anyway." Logan tossed it back at her.

The two smiled at each other.

A/N: I wanted to do another friendship-ish chapter since things are winding down with the end of the story. Of course I had to throw some Lella in there. I'm sorry not much happened, it ended up coming out like a filler, which isn't what I intended. But such is life. I know there wasn't music in this at all, but I think that the song really fits the chapter as well, since it's so upbeat and the Jacksons are turning back to their crazy selves. I hope you guys liked it.

Cheers,

-Riles