.:Chapter Twenty-Eight:.
Epilogue
"Mom, we're ready to go!" Kendall said as he knocked on the door of his mother's and Katie's room, before leaning against the door frame. He smiled as he watched her put on the finishing touches of her make-up. "You look nice." He commented as he walked into the room and leaned over, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
"Thanks sweetie," Kacy replied as she reached up and placed her hands on Kendall's as his was resting on her shoulder. She turned to face him. "Are you sure that you don't mind me and Ronan dating?" She asked for, probably the 50th time. Just to make sure. "I want you to know that I'm not trying to get him to replace your father or anything."
Kendall shrugged as he looked away for a moment. So things weren't great with his father. He's been having a great life ever since he left. Why would he want to change it now? Kendall turned back to his mother with a smile.
"Its fine, mom." He said warmly. "I don't think I've seen you as happy. Now," he crossed his arms over his chest. "Trying to get the Jacksons to listen to you when they're play-fighting, that's another thing you have to worry about." He said with a teasing smile. "You haven't seen them do it much, since they're usually on their best behavior around here."
"I'm sure I can handle it," Kacy replied as she got to her feet. She followed Kendall out of her room, flipping off the lights as she grabbed her purse. She waved her arm out towards the floor where James, Carlos, and Logan were rolling around, screaming and shouting at each other about something. "Considering I look after your friends while we're out here." Kendall laughed in agreement as Kacy whistled loudly, getting their attention. "LISTEN UP; WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE IF WE DON'T GO NOW! MOVE IT!"
James, Logan, and Carlos immediately leapt to their feet at Kacy's shout and immediately started to apologize, their voices over-lapping each other as they did so. Kacy smiled as she turned to her son, who looked back at her with an amused smile on his face.
"I think I'll be fine." She said.
"Wow, nice place," Katie said in awe as she stepped out of her mother's rental car, staring up at the Jacksons' new house, her mouth dropping open. She closed the door behind her, hitching a purse up her shoulder as she did so and turned to Kendall. "How come we don't have a place like this?" she asked him.
"Would you really want to give up the sweet crib in the PalmWoods for this?" Kendall asked her.
"Yes!" She replied at the same time that Logan, James, and Carlos snapped the answer at him. Kendall jumped, his eyes widening as he looked back at them. "Hey, I think they have a pool back there!" She said and scurried around the side of the house. "Guys, you need to check out the pool!" her voice wafted back from the back of the house.
"I hope you're not with me only for my pool!" Patrick called as he and his siblings headed out of the house, obviously in the middle of moving boxes everywhere. He grinned at his friends. "I figured that my sense of humor had something to do with it, too." He added with a short shrug. He laughed as Sydney practically flew across the lawn to give his friends big hugs.
"Nice place, huh?" Noah added as he raised and lowered one shoulder.
"It's a little too big for our liking," Rhuben added as she tossed her braided pig-tails over her shoulders. "But it's cool, hopefully there's enough space for all of us." She added with a nod and a smile.
"I don't think space will be a problem, Beautiful." James replied as he continued to look over the house. His eyebrows rose. "But we're glad for you guys; hopefully things will really get better for you now. Of course we're always going to be around to help."
"More like always be around to swim in our pool, Handsome." Riley replied as she picked up a box labeled 'Sports Stuff'. She shifted it back and forth before opening one of the flaps. "Hey Syd, I found your rollerblades." She handed him the box and he quickly scurried over to the garage to put it up. She gave Kacy a finger-wave as she finally got out of the car and walked over to them. "Hey Mama Knight, how are you?"
"I'm good, thanks," Kacy replied with a warm smile. She held up her phone. "Kelly and Gustavo are on their way over; they had to stop at the grocery store before coming over." She shrugged. "I couldn't really hear Kelly over Gustavo's whining in the background." She looked over the house herself. "It's really beautiful." She noted. "Do you mind if I take a look around?"
"Not at all, go ahead." Patrick tossed his head back towards the house as Katie came back over to them. "Ronan's in there anyway, I think he's setting things up in the kitchen." He said as he scratched his chest. Kacy nodded and disappeared inside.
"I'm serious guys," Katie said, her eyes wide with excitement. "You have to see the pool."
"Wait until you see the hot-tub." Patrick said with a smile and a wink.
"Ok," Kendall held up his hands. "I get that you're dating my sister and everything, but can you please not flirt in front of me?" He moved his hands to his stomach. "It's making me sick."
"You know he could easily shoot that back into your face, right?" Noah reminded him, causing Kendall to roll his eyes. "Speaking of which, when are Jo and them getting here?"
"You wanted us to invite them?" Carlos asked, his eyes growing wide as he exchanged glances with his friends.
"Yeah," Riley nodded. "We figured that you would have gone ahead and invited them anyway, when we asked you guys over." She gave a half-smile when she noticed their apprehension. "Ah, don't worry about it, I'll just send Jo a text and she'll let the others know." She pulled her phone from her pocket and started to pace around as she made a text.
"You guys seem happier," Logan said to Rhuben as he gave her a hug.
"We are," Rhuben replied with a smile and a nod. "But you guys should be happy too," she reminded him. "Your CD is basically flying off the shelves, and your performance at the Dallas-Miami game was amazing." She turned to face the four boys and Katie. "Really, you all should be proud; you're doing so much better than this time last year."
"Thanks for that vote of confidence." James reached out and purposefully messed up her hair.
"They'll be over in, like, twenty minutes." Riley said as she put her phone back in her pocket. She picked up another box and walked it over to the porch before going back to pick up another one. Carlos grabbed another one and started to help her. "Oh, it's alright CareBear, we don't need help."
"It's alright, I like helping." Carlos replied with a grin.
"ARGH!" Sydney shouted as he popped out of the box that Carlos was holding onto. Carlos screamed at the top of his lungs, dropping the box and scrambling backwards as the others stopped and laughed at him. Sydney was laughing the hardest as he crawled out of the box, getting to his feet. "Sorry Dude," he apologized, shaking his head. "I was supposed to scare Patrick, but you got to the box first."
"Oh, don't worry about it." Carlos waved a hand as he held the other one over his chest. "I needed to have my heart rate checked."
"Nice one Syd," Katie said and gave him a high-ten. "Now," she put her arm around his shoulders. "Let me show you how you can scare them when they least expect it."
"Don't go giving him any ideas," Rhuben remarked as she sat down on a step on the front porch. "We already had to get him out of his phase where he would continuously put frozen marbles in our beds."
"I can't help it," Sydney replied with an impish smile. "I'm 10 and I'm just trying to re-live the childhood I never got to live."
"You sound more like you're 25." Julius commented as he and Brittany walked out of the house, arm in arm. Julius reached down and lightly patted his baby brother on the back. "Mind getting the lemonade pitcher?"
"Sure." Sydney replied before scampering into the house.
"Hey," James leaned forward and shook Julius' hand in greeting, giving Brittany a nod as well. "Have you guys found an apartment yet? 'Cause there's a listing in the newspaper for some pretty sweet ones just this morning." He said helpfully.
"Yeah, we put a deposit down on one that's about a half hour drive away," Brittany replied as she wrapped her arms around Julius' waist and leaned into his side as he hugged her. "It's not too far but it's not too close either." She added with a mischievous smile.
Riley rolled her eyes as she shook her head before turning to Kendall. "She's just getting tired of being scared so easily." She said in a stage-whisper.
"Knowing you guys, that's not surprising." Kendall replied with a teasing smile as he leaned forward and pressed his forehead against hers. "By the way, what are you doing tonight?" He asked, putting an arm around her shoulders.
"Uh, probably sleeping after all of this moving." Riley replied, lightly pushing him away. "At least," she tossed her hair over her shoulder. "That's what I had planned before I realized that you guys were coming over to help us unpack." She twisted her mouth to the side as she looked at the boxes that were strewn around the front yard. "Should have guessed that things wouldn't move faster with you lot distracting us."
"But that's why we're your friends," Carlos said as he opened his arms and gave her a big bear hug. "Because we distract you guys from boring tasks."
Ronan smiled as he and Kacy walked out of the house and over to the moving truck to get some more things. Kacy walked up the ramp into the truck and grabbed a box, turning and handing it to him. Ronan took the box from Kacy and set it on the ground. Being able to move into a house with his kids just let him know that things were definitely going to be better. He always wanted to get a house for himself, but he now realized that the whole time he had been house hunting, he had been thinking of a house that his kids would like to hang out in. Even before he had adopted them, they were usually his every other thought. It was sort of strange to him, going from a bachelor that was fine living on his own, to a man that matured quickly to become a father-figure when he met the Jacksons for the first time. Now all of the drama was over and things were progressing really quickly.
Ronan reached out a hand and helped Kacy down from the moving truck before reaching over to grab the box again. She hurried over to the other side and helped him pick it up. Ronan gave her a look. "I had surgery on my knee, I'm not dying." He reminded her gently, tilting his back so he was carrying the box himself. Kacy gave him a look and he continued to walk up the driveway with her following him.
"You only had surgery a few weeks ago," Kacy reminded him. "And you're still limping a little bit." She rested her hand on his arm as they continued walking.
"Limping doesn't mean that someone's that hurt," Ronan said as he set the box in the grass with the others. He looked them over before looking back at the moving truck. "We have more stuff than I thought." He muttered to himself as he looked at the cluttered from yard before turning to her. "I haven't used my muscles extensively and the doctor said that I have another week left until I can go running, but if I move slowly, things will be fine." He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. "Trust me; I know what I'm doing."
"Hm," Kacy crossed her arms over her chest. "Famous last words." She commented.
"Knowing my luck, probably." Ronan replied and turned when he heard a car approaching. He raised a hand over his face and waved as a limo pulled up, knowing that it was Gustavo and Kelly even before they had gotten out of the car. "Why am I not surprised that he took a limo?"
"Be nice." Kacy reminded him.
"They two of my best friends, when am I not nice?" Ronan asked. He turned and noticed Patrick and Noah wrestling on the ground and snapped his fingers loudly. "Hey, be careful! I'm not taking you to the hospital if you break your arm or something!"
"Isn't that part of the point of being a father, though?" Kelly asked as she walked up the driveway towards Ronan and Kacy. She grinned before giving the two of them hugs. "Sorry we're late," she held up a shopping bag. "We had to stop at the grocery store because Gustavo ate all of the dessert before we even left his mansion."
"A guy's got to be able to indulge himself sometime." Gustavo replied with a modest shrug as he approached them as well. "So when do we eat?"
"Good to see that your diet is keeping your hunger pangs down." Ronan teased, taking a step back as Gustavo reached out to hit him in the stomach. "Watch the knee." He warned him, laughing like a little boy as he blocked Gustavo's hits towards his chest. "Oh, do you want to go?"
"Bring it, McGuire!" Gustavo replied, thumping himself on the chest.
"Boys." Kelly and Kacy both shook their heads, as they rolled their eyes.
"Sweet, Gustavo vs. Ronan," Logan declared as everyone walked over to the edge of the driveway to watch. He rubbed his hands together. "This should be interesting, by my calculations Ronan has the better chance of winning almost 4:1" he declared.
"Mmm," Sydney tapped his chin. "More like 3:1," he corrected his smarter friend.
Logan adopted a look of annoyance as he rolled his eyes, looking towards the sky. Rhuben chuckled as she rested her chin on his shoulder. "You should get used to it," she reminded him as she lightly poked him in the chest. "If you're going to be around a lot, all of Sydney's corrections are going to get on your every last nerve."
Logan turned his head and lightly rested his cheek on her forehead. "I think I can handle it."
Patrick darted forward as Gustavo took a shot towards the basket and the basketball bounced out. He grabbed it and passed the ball over to Julius and he took a quick shot, easily sinking it in. Julius grabbed the ball as he it came back down and passed it to Patrick as Gustavo moved to cover him. "DarkElements versus Big Time Rush, Katie, Gustavo, Kelly, and Mama Knight." Patrick said as he bounce-passed the basketball over to Ronan. "Game on!"
A/N: Thanks for everyone that supported me with this story. It came to me after listening to Elevate for the first time and talking with Rhu about which of the songs were our favorites. Now, I might do a sequel to this, depending on how it takes for them to put out their 3rd CD. Would you want me to do a prequel to it for the first one as well? Let me know!
Thanks so much for all of the reviews, favorites, and alerts that were added to the story. All of your support helped me continue to write. It was all for you. Thanks so much and see you at my next story.
Everything that I didn't really show here but I wanted to (Kendall's, Katie's, and the Jacksons' reaction to Ronan and Kacy dating, some ex-husband drama, and other points that suddenly went away) will be shown in my story 'Someone Like You'.
Cheers,
-Riley
