Chapter 7

Carlos was getting an earful when he got home alright. The first thing that happened when he pulled up the driveway was Logan glaring him down on the porch. After being yanked by him from the ear, scolding him about he should have left a note that he was leaving with the car and practically gave them all a heart attack to see him not there, then led inside where the remaining teens narrowed their eyes at him from the living room where he sat at the couch.

No one spoke for a while, which built the tension even more. The helmet-wearing Latino kept looking at their expressions, examining them to get an idea of how they really feel. First up, Kendall's eyes look beyond pissed - absolutely striking fear to the one in inspection. Logan - irritated, who wouldn't be. James - he kept a blank face but his eyes were swimming in conflict. And Katie - that expression absolutely broke his heart in a million pieces. They look so betrayed that Carlos was nearly convincing himself that he actually did the drinking but he had to remember - that didn't happen.

"Okay, I know what you guys think might have happened but it didn't," Carlos spoke up in defense.

"Carlos, we found at least four bottles of wine and a blood cover cloth. I have a pretty good idea of what happened," Kendall retorted, arms crossed.

"That's not what happened! I was-" he cut himself off when he took a glance at Katie. Knowing that her mother might have had a drinking problem might destroy her, along with her brother, so he decided to keep the truth to himself. "I was making myself a cup of coffee in the morning but then I heard a knock on the door. It was one of the neighbors that wanted to give us a 'welcome-to-the-neighborhood' gift thinking that we moved in here. I told them that we used to live here but they insisted on me taking the gifted wine. Once they were gone, I just dumped all the alcohol into the sink. I broke one of the bottles on accident which explains the blood. I didn't want to tell you guys since I knew this is how you would all react so I just threw the bottles in the trash," he expertly lied, surprising himself but he didn't let it show.

His friends seem to calm a whole lot when they heard the 'truth'.

"Why didn't you tell us then? We could have gifted the booze to someone else instead of dumping it," James still asked.

"I don't like alcohol," Carlos answered, both his tone and eyes darkening. 'Why does he go crazy when alcohol is around?' Logan thought suspiciously.

"Why did you wake up early anyway? You had a long day yesterday," the genius remarked, taking a seat near him while the others did the same. The Latino tensed at the reminder of this morning.

"No reason, just remembered something," he nervously smiled the looked down at his bandage, playing with the loose strings of the gauze. The three other guys sent a pleading look to the preteen, who just shook her head in response. No way was she leaving when her friend was in clear stress and was suffering from sleep deprivation. In the end, she sighed in defeat and walked to the dining room but she could still hear them.

"Carlos? Um… is there something wrong? I mean, because you haven't been getting enough sleep," James started off.

"Um, no, nothing's wrong. Just… haven't been sleepy," the questioned teen shrugged his shoulders, still looking down but he was nonchalant.

"Carlos, if you've been having anything that's been troubling you, you could talk to us. If this continues, you could have a severe case of sleep deprivation," Logan sighed. The teen mumbled something under his breath, so they couldn't hear him.

"Can you repeat that?" Kendall requested, slightly leaning forward.

"I said not like you care!" Carlos' head snapped up, eyes swimming in irritation and the bags under his eyes shined under the light from the window. Before the others could say anything else, the angered teen shot out of his seat and walked in front of them. "I bet that you guys wouldn't even care that I have nightmares every single night or that I have to deal with murderous people after me and my family! All of you didn't want to come to this vacation with me anyway, so why are you here? I can fully guarantee that the only reason why you left LA was because you didn't trust me over here, especially with Katie! You guys think I screw up on everything that I can't even take care of her and myself for three weeks without being babied," he ranted then started pacing. The guys could only watch as their friend drives himself insane. "You guys just wanted to get rid of me. That's why you didn't want to come. You got Griffen to make him say that we are having a vacation, didn't you? That's why you're here, to pick up Katie and leave me here. Why would you do that? Why would you leave me alone? I can't be alone. Alone is not good. I can't be by myself. I don't want to be by myself. I don't want to quit my job. I don't want to move. I don't want to leave LA. Why can't I be there? Why did I want to stay in Minnesota? It's a bad place. I don't want to be here. I don't want to stay here by myself while you guys take off. I can't stay here. I can't be alone. I can't be alone. I can't be alone! I can't be ALONE!" He threw the closest thing he had near them, which was a vase, that smashed into the wall.

Silence.

Heavy panting and tense air. It stayed like that for a while, the silence wasn't breakable. The guys opened their mouths multiple times but it closed afterward. They had no idea what to say, to help their broken friend. Their head snapped up when they all heard small sniffling.

Carlos was silently crying to himself, as he tried to pick up the broken pieces of the vase.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he kept repeating in a very quiet voice, as for even a mouse would consider it as whispering. The rest of the band knew what to do right away. They made their way to the teen and slowly embraced him. The taller ones felt the shortest try to keep it in.

"We would never leave you alone Carlos. We are here together. We were worried about you, not because we didn't trust you but that we just missed our little Carlitos with us," Kendall whispered, they could all hear it though. The teens felt a slight sense of relaxation from the Latino but it didn't go enough.

"And you're not a screw-up Carlos, remember that. Sure, you can't work things out like one would normally do it but you have the creative sense to be yourself in any way possible. Definitely not a screw-up," Logan followed. The tension lessened.

"We are sorry that we didn't notice that you were in trouble. If you really are struggling to fall asleep, we are always here to listen and help you out until it goes away. That's why we are best friends, we help each other and never leave each other's sides," James ended. That did the trick. Carlos' body rocked like an earthquake and his terrifying loud sobs filled the entire room. The three other friends released some tears as well, as if feeling the pain that the Latino's been through radiate off his body and project it onto them. Eventually, they all calmed down a few minutes later.

"Sorry for breaking your vase Kendall," Carlos croaked. It made the others crack a small smile. Of course, the youngest usually didn't care for himself but more for others.

"It's fine, I didn't like that vase anyway. Horrible decor," he waved off.

"And I'm sorry that I didn't tell you guys that I was having some trouble with everything. I guess I just lost myself without you guys," he shook his head in disappointment.

"What, no! You shouldn't be sorry. We should be apologizing. We should have come with you to Minnesota but we were just being pretty selfish," Logan saved.

"Forgive us?" James attempted, squeaking his voice a little. Carlos smiled a watery smile.

"Yeah," he chuckled. They stood up and looked at each other. The boys of BTR were all tired and had bloodshot eyes. For some reason, they started laughing. Not because of how horrible they look but because they were all together.

Big Time Rush was whole again.

"What should we do for the rest of our vacation?" James asked once they calmed down.

"I know what Carlitos is going to do," Kendall spoke up, getting a confused look from the teen. The other two seemed to catch on.

"Sleep," they all filled in. Carlos sighed in both amusement and slight stress.

"I can't. I still have to find out where Rich and Louis are. I think that Louis is making his brother do crimes against his will. So, I need to find him before… you know," he explained in a quiet voice knowing that the preteen was in the other room.

"You mean we." Before the teen could correct him, Kendall continued. "You're not in this alone. If someone tries to mess with you then they mess with all of us. If you think that one of them is in trouble then we'll save them too. But you have to trust us to help you."

Carlos nodded, smile plastered on his face.

"Good. Carlos, you will take a nap. Logan, you head back to the police station and see if they were spotted anywhere. James and I will go back to the woods and see if we can track anyone there," the dirty blonde immediately planned. The teens nodded, splitting up.

"What about me?" Katie spoke up before they could even move. The boys turned to see her by the doorway, arms crossed.

"Sorry baby sister, you have to stay here," Kendall shot down.

"You could stay here with me. I'll give you a chance so you could beat me at poker," Carlos offered with a toothy smile. The preteen took a moment to decide but ultimately ended up staying at home. With that, the three taller ones headed out. They all decided if they didn't call every hour then the remaining would have to go look for them.

Kendall, James, and Logan pulled up to the police station, still using Mr. Garcia's car. The genius hopped out and waited by the driver's seat where the leader was. "Call us if you find anything, Loganator."

"You too," he nodded. With a last wave, the teens with the car pulled off to the forest. Logan took a deep breath and let out slowly while turning to the station. Before he left, he grabbed a temporary badge from the earlier visit. So, when he entered, he just showed it off to the receptionist but she already knew he was so it wasn't necessary. Sure, he impersonating as someone else and carried fake ID, which worried him greatly, but the police didn't seem to mind. 'I guess being best friends with a cop as their father has it's perks' he thought with a snort. The brunette entered Officer Garica's office, thankful that he was still at the hospital then he would really be in trouble and sat at his desk then entered into his computer.

"Alright, all I have to do is make a background check on both Rich and Louis so if they are using any credit cards or were spotted anywhere then it should show up," he said to himself. "Okay, just have to enter into the police database... search up Louis and Rich Devon… look at recent charges and reports, yadda yadda yadda… and... bingo!" He smiled when two separate profiles came up for the fugitive teens. They both held private information and other nonsense but what the future doctor was after were the most recent charges (like if they booked a hotel or something) that they made or suspected crimes were may be linked to them.

"Uh oh, it doesn't look like anything is here… they know how to be sneaky," he mumbled, leaning closer to the screen. The bottom of the screen blinked. Logan looked and saw that there seemed to be a filed report about the Devons. He backed up from the screen and clicked on the tab, leaning on his hand that was propped by his arm on the table. Logan suddenly gasped as he quickly removed his hand and reread the profile.

'FILE REPORT:

Sarah Devon; 4755 Oral Lake Road

Status: Deceased

Cause of Death: Presumed Suicide by a shot to the head; fingerprints found on gun and match victim; presumed dead by 12:56 a.m.

Found dead in the kitchen with a bottle of alcohol by neighbor coming over to check on her when Mrs. devon didn't return any of her calls.

Suspected to be playing Russian Roulette

Weapon found was a 67 revolver

-Investigation in progress'

"No way," he breathed, finishing the report. He sat there for a few seconds, processing what he just read, then shot out of the chair and exited the room. He went up to the receptionist, who smiled at him. "Can I borrow one of your cruisers? It's an emergency. I need to check out the investigation going on in 4755 Oral Lake Road and I don't have a ride. Please? I'm helping with the investigation of the suspected Devon criminals."

"Do you have a license?" She asked wearily. He hesitated but showed her his learner's permit. She nodded and sighed, then handed him some keys. "Be careful, please? Mr. Garcia would have my head if he knew I let you do this."

"I will, thanks," he rushed, grabbing the keys and raced out of the front doors. Logan pressed the button on the keys, to locate the car. In a distance, he heard a beep so he ran over to it. The genius saw that it was just a regular sedan with the black and white pattern with the siren on top. The teen got in the car and started the engine quickly. Not even ten seconds later, he pulled out of the parking lot and rushed over to the investigation before any of the police takes any evidence away. The main reason he wants to be there is because he needs to see if there are any other clues that might be there. Maybe Mrs. Devon was hiding something from him and Carlos when they interviewed her. Not only that but if news spread quickly, maybe Louis and Rich be there to see what's happening. Now that he thought about it, the police could take a while before they removed everything. It's just the body that they were going to move after an hour or so. Logan slowed down his driving but he still kept the siren lights on (without the siren) so people would move out of the way more.

After a free minute, he arrived at the destination. Once Logan got out of the car he could clearly see that the ambulance was there, to most likely take the body away, and few police cars parked along the driveway. As he walked up to the yellow police tape and went under it, he was stopped by a policeman. "Hey, you can't be here! Can't you see the tape?!"

"Sorry but I need to see what's in that house," Logan apologized but he could tell that the teen didn't mean it. Logan all the while showed him his badge. The officer looked at it but ultimately nodded for him to pass.

"Does the yellow police tape mean nothing to anyone anymore?" He heard the officer mutter behind him. Logan rolled his eyes and continued to the house. What was inside he wished he could unsee. Just as the police report stated, he found Mrs. Devon shot dead in the kitchen, blood plastered the walls but mostly behind her and spilled alcohol near her. He was thankful that the police covered her body with a sheet. Speaking of police, they were scattered all around the house searching for anything that might make this a homicide investigation rather than suicide. Some were just taking pictures of the evidence that was displayed while he saw some outside talk to any witnesses. Logan knew, in both brain and heart, that did this to herself based on the earlier encounter he had with her.

Seeing that he needed to play catch up, Logan walked up to one of the investigators. "What happened here?"

"Who are you?" He asked, looking at the boy with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Detective Ross," Logan answered, based on the badge that had the name on it, and held out a hand.

"Kim," he shortly answered, shaking the hand. "I don't know why you would be here detective, there's nothing here except for suicide investigation."

"I'm here on a case for her sons, Rich and Louis Devon. They are both wanted for multiple crimes. I came here when I heard what happened," Logan sighed.

"The confusing thing is that, according to her neighbors, she seemed to be happy all the time. Had no bad thoughts and was loved by many but that's until one of her sons passed. She fell into a deep depression after that," Kim motioned his head to the corpse, it being carried off by paramedics. "I wonder if their sons are going to turn themselves in or even show up for her funeral."

"Yeah. Is there anything here that might lead me to a new direction to find them?" The teen questioned, scanning the room. The detective hummed in thought.

"Sorry, there's nothing we found," the man shook his head. Logan sighed once more. He nodded and left the scene, heading to the car and brought out his phone. As he dialed a number and let it ring, he leaned against the car door, watching the officers start packing away their things. "Hello?"

"Hey Kendall," he greeted over the phone. "How's it going?"

"Well… James and I haven't found any tracks yet but we'll keep looking," the dirty blonde sighed. "How's it on your end?"

"The brother's mom? She committed suicide while playing Russian Roulette apparently. It sucks, seeing her resort to that decision. I came over to the crime scene but there were no clues about finding out where the fugitives are. I did a background check on them but they haven't done anything that the police know about. Wherever they are and whatever they are doing, they seem to do it in plain sight," he informed, getting inside the car. "I don't know where to go next."

"We could use another set of eyes," Kendall proposed. Logan pretended to think it over. "Oh come on! Better for you to help us than sitting around doing nothing."

"Okay okay, jeez. I'll be over there in a couple of minutes," he chuckled.

"Wait, how? You don't have a car," the dirty blonde questioned.

"Don't worry, you'll see," he smirked. "See you later." he then hung up. The future doctor put his phone away and started the car, driving off to meet his friends in the forest.

To be continued...