.:Chapter Two:.

"Kendall, I think you're overreacting." Katie barely managed to get the words out before a loud squeal erupted from her mouth, accompanying the swift movement of her arms darting out to grab onto the armrests with white knuckled fingers. Kendall had made a turn around a corner so quickly she was sure the wheels had come off the ground. "Watch it, you maniac! There are other people on the road, you know!"

Kendall made a humming sound in reply, eyes trained on the road, narrowed into a glare rivaling that of liquid acid. His hands continued to tighten on the steering wheel with each passing second, so much so that they started to throb and itch with pain. It wasn't until after coming up to a red light that he relaxed a little bit; his shoulders slumped, dropping his hands from the steering wheel.

"This is so fucked up," he murmured.

Katie glanced at him, eyes widening with surprise. Her brother never particularly liked to curse, being a role model for her he practiced substituting words—"hockey pucks" being one of his favorites—unless the situation called for it. She knew this was bothering him more than he allowed to outwardly show; if not for his clenched jaw and the expression on his face as if he had just smelled something foul.

"Big Brother," she said gently, hoping to get his attention. "We don't know if this is really going to happen." This was strange; normally he was the one reassuring her.

"We don't know that it won't," he shot back.

"But if Mom gave him the chance to leave, and he did, what makes you think she would want to take him back?"

"You never know, Baby Sister." Kendall sat up straight and gripped the steering wheel once more as the light turned green. Katie's cry of fear must have sobered him into driving safely this time. "Mom and Dad have been getting a long lately, he said that himself. And he's right when he says they're only separated."

"What's the difference?" Katie questioned.

Kendall glanced at her. "You practically know how to rob a bank but you don't know the difference between a separation and a divorce?"

Katie stuck her tongue out indignantly before crossing her arms and turning back to face the front of the car. "There are more important things in the world, Kendall. Money being one of them." She rolled her eyes. "And who cares what the difference between a separation and a divorce is? They're not getting back together!"

Kendall was silent for a moment. Did she really believe that? "A divorce is when both of the parents decide to break their marriage. A separation is when the parents decide that they don't want to be together anymore, but that doesn't mean that they don't love each other. In other words, he's still married to Mom."

"Oh." Katie's nose wrinkled. "So then why does he want to re-marry her?"

"I don't know. To be romantic I guess."

"And you're proud to have taken that from him?"

"Shut up, Katie."

Kendall and Katie continue to drive in silence, each consumed with their own thoughts, before arriving at the Palm Woods. Kendall spotted their mother's car in its normal parking lot. She must be moving more stuff into the house, he thought as the two climbed out of the car. He relaxed a little bit. That would hold things off for a bit. She would be too stressed to even think about getting back with his father. Besides, she was dating someone right now, so that put a huge monkey wrench into his plan. The Knight siblings went up to 2J and stopped short when they opened the door, finding Logan Mitchell on the floor with his hands around Carlos Garcia's neck while the latter teen had a pillow and was whacking Logan over the head with it.

James Diamond, rather than trying to stop the two from fighting, was sitting on the orange couch, holding onto a video game controller, burning holes into the TV screen as he continued to play Battle Blaster.

"What are you doing?" Katie asked as Kendall closed the door behind them.

"Logan is trying to kill me!" Carlos managed to choke out. He put an arm up and shoved Logan's face away from him, knocking him off his back. Then, with a loud scream, he leapt to his feet and raced over to Kendall, grabbing onto his shoulders and diving behind him. Logan, who had fallen to the floor, got to his feet as well. Reaching over, he plucked a waterlogged novel off of the table and shook it around, droplets of water falling to the floor. "Don't let him get me!"

"What happened?" Kendall shouted over the noise of aliens being blown apart on TV.

James barely glanced at him. "Hey Dude, back so soon?"

"What happened?" Kendall repeated the question for Logan.

"I was minding my own business, reading my book because I'm trying to get it done before the month ends and Carlos wouldn't stop bothering me!" Logan thumped the front of the book, causing more water droplets to fall to the floor. "I told him I was reading, but he grabbed my book and threw it into the toilet!"

"I didn't throw it," Carlos defended himself, hands digging into Kendall's shoulders hard enough that he started to squirm. "I frisbeed it! I wanted to see how well it was going to do as a Frisbee. It's not my fault that he was sitting at the counter and the direction I just so happened to throw it in was in the bathroom where the toilet seat was still up."

"I thought Mom told you to stop doing that!" Katie snapped.

Carlos's expression was that of confusion. Dropping his hands from Kendall's shoulders, he turned to face Katie. "She never told me to stop throwing books into toilets."

"Who would need to?!" Logan screeched.

"No!" Kate placed her hands on her hips. "Leaving the toilet seat up! After that one time you did that and Mom fell in…when it hadn't been flushed yet." Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James all winced at the memory as Katie nodded. She then turned to Logan. "And if that fell into the toilet, why are you still holding it?"

Logan looked down at the book in his hand and quickly threw it to the floor, his face twisting up in disgust. He frantically wiped his hands on the leg of his jeans as Carlos came out from behind the leader of the boy band. Crisis averted, James paused his video game and turned to face the Knight siblings. "So how did shopping with your Dad go? Did you remember to ask him if he would get me some barracuda products?"

"No," Kendall said quickly. "Something else happened. Something important." At the boys' curious looks, Kendall glanced at Katie then back at his best friends. "My Dad wants to get back together with My Mom." James, Logan, and Carlos all made different sounds of shock and surprise. James's mini-scream, bringing his hands to his hair, and widening his eyes, caused Kendall to laugh a little. "I'm glad you guys care that much."

"But…why would he want to do that?" Carlos asked. "I mean, not only was he mean to her at times but he…" He trailed off as Kendall nodded. The blonde teenager could still feel the way Kevin's fists and feet and inflicted the most pain he had ever felt on his body. He still remembered the ranting and raving, the emasculating words and the way he was punished on the ice, getting run ragged before he was able to stop and rest even for a little bit.

"Get up! Do it again!"

"You call that skating; you can do better than that, Kendall."

"Don't you dare come whining to me when you were the one that screwed up that play. You and I both know you can do better."

"You're so pathetic."

Kendall shook his head, pushing away the words as they continued to float around him at dizzying speeds. They continued to echo around him, haunting him in his dreams whenever he allowed himself to think about it. When Kevin had first come back into his life, three years before, it was as if his nightmares were coming true in real time, in the reality he had just started to get used to. Though in the past year Kendall had started to allow Kevin back into his life and recapture his position of being his father, there was always the small part of him that wondered what it would take for Kevin to revert back to the way he used to be.

"Why would she want to go back to that?" Carlos asked innocently.

"We don't know what she wants to do," Katie reminded him. "That's what Dad wants."

"Wait." Logan held up his hands. "Aren't you guys forgetting that Mama Knight is dating Ronan now, and has been for months? I think you're jumping to conclusions a little."

James pointed over at Logan, nodding. "He's right. My Dad has been saying that he'd want to get back together with my Mom a long time." He then gave an inappropriate smile, laughing to himself. "Then he remembers that she always busts his balls and decides it's not a good idea. But he's always talking about it." He scratched the back of his neck. "Personally, I think they're better apart, but it's not something that really any of my business."

"Yeah…" Kendall walked over to the orange couch and sat down, slouching so far that his butt nearly fell off the edge of the seat.

He crossed his legs at the knee, resting his hands on his chest. James did have a point. In a way, what his father wanted to do with his mother wasn't any of his business. What was important was making their relationship work out while he got ready to go play hockey in Minnesota. Or else things would be awkward, if not go back to the way things had been before. No, he thought. What if they did get back together and something snapped inside Kevin and he started to hurt his mother? He couldn't let that happen.

But would she? He didn't know. His mother was very good at being a Mama Bear for her ids as well as others that she was looking after for the time being. She wasn't a small and meek woman that did nothing but bake, cook, and do laundry. She did everything a mother and a father was supposed to do, being able to raise Kendall and Katie the best way she knew how as long as Kevin was gone. But what did that mean if Kevin had started to hurt her? Would she fight back and push him away again? Or would she do what Kendall had done and think everything was his fault and allow himself to take each and every blow.

He had never been like that before, often protecting Logan from bullies—if he wasn't teasing him himself—it wasn't like his mother was immune to it. It happened more often than anyone would think.

I won't let that happen to her.

The door to the apartment opened once more and all eyes turned to Mrs. Knight, as she walked into the apartment, carrying a basket under her arm. Closing the door behind her, she turned and stopped short, noticing all eyes on her. "What?" She asked, walking over to the counter and dropping the basket on top. "I didn't mix up your underwear this time," she said, holding some of them up for emphasis. "After the incident where James had on Logan's—"

"—we're not talking about that anymore!" James declared loudly. "That's why we have the code!"

Mrs. Knight rolled her eyes.

"Mom." Katie turned to face her mother after holding a hand out to Kendall, silently reassuring him that she had the situation handled. "You're going out with Ronan tonight, right? Or, this weekend or something? Isn't it your anniversary soon?" She flashed her mother a sweet smile, to which Mr. Knight gave her a suspicious glance to. Then the suspicions faded to an air of sadness.

"Actually." She reached up and used her fingertip to flick some of her hair out of her face. She kept her gaze away from the teenagers in front of her. "Actually, I was…going to tell you…um…" she licked her lips then cleared her throat then looked at the boys and Katie once more. "Ronan and I decided to take a break from each other for a while. Things have become really hectic, they're starting their music again, and you guys are taking a break or broke up or whatever and we decided that it's not the best time for us to continue dating."

Kendall's and Katie's mouths dropped open. There was no way it was possible. She and Ronan McGuire had nothing short of an instant attraction to each other when she, the boys, and Katie had first arrived in Los Angeles. Being the music producer of the band that the boys were contracted to work with, who had quickly become their best friends, the two have quickly formed a friendship and understanding with each other. Even when he had found himself unsure and anxiety ridden over adopting his clients after finding their foster father and manager was abusing them, Mrs. Knight was there to help him sort out his feelings about it, ultimately deciding to adopt them. Even when his adoptive daughter, Riley, and had started to date Kendall, they acknowledged the problems that could arise but decided to take the risk and started going out themselves.

Their relationship had been strong since then, no one would have seen the breakup coming. Not even having to deal with Gustavo's constant opinions of how it will keep them distracted from their work—which proved not to be true—had faze them. There had to be more to the story than that.

"I know it comes as a shock," she continued.

"Uh, yeah!" James agreed.

"You're not getting any younger, Mama Knight, you might not be able to find someone else to—"Logan immediately cut himself off at the expression that was equal measures of shock and offense that registered over Mrs. Knight's face. The same look she had given him when he had thought she was older than 64 years old when trying to convince her to let them house sit Gustavo's mansion. "Th-that's not what I meant. I swear."

"It's OK, sweetie, I know what you meant," Mrs. Knight reassured him. She then addressed everyone. "Like I said, it was a mutual decision and we thought it was best for us at the moment. We might get back together we might not."

Kendall's eyes narrowed. "Have you told Dad this?" At his mother's confused blink, Kendall waited quietly for an answer. It would make sense…why he's suddenly talking about wanting to marry her again…He continued to sit on the couch, hiding his hands n his lap as he clenched them into fists.

"It may have come up in conversation, I don't know." Mrs. Knight turned and grabbed the laundry basket off of the counter once more and turned her back, walking to the room that she and Katie shared. "I don't really want to talk about it right now." Once she was out of the room, everyone turned to Kendall, whose eyes were narrowed.

Katie went over to her brother and sat down at his side. "What are we going to do?" She asked. "You must have a plan or something."

"Maybe," Kendall said dismissively. He seemed stunned by the news, not exactly focusing on anything other than the words that had come out of his mother's mouth. If she and Ronan had broken up and she didn't plan on dating anytime soon, it was only a matter of time until their father managed to weaken her defenses. They were married some time before and she had never said she didn't love him anymore…was it still worth it to risk the pain she could feel? "I don't know yet." He looked at his watch. "Actually, I have to get back to my apartment; I'll see you guys later." He got up from the couch and started towards the door.

James stopped him, placing his hand on his best friend's shoulder. "Are you going to be ok, dude?"

Kendall nodded. "I'll be fine." He smiled at his friends before leaving the apartment and the Palm Woods. He climbed into his car and turned it on, pulling out of the parking lot and headed out onto the road, going back to his own apartment, before pulling his phone out and calling his girlfriend.

"Hey Hockey-Head," Riley Jackson-McGuire answered. "What's up?"

Normally Kendall would have shown a tiny bit of irritation at the nickname she constantly called him—however he was too preoccupied with the news he had just received to put too much thought to it. Besides, it was better than her calling him by his actual name, meaning she was mad at him or someone about something. "Hey," Kendall replied. "Are you back at the apartment right now?"

There was the sound of something crashing in the background and he could hear hysterical laughter before Riley came back on the line. "No, I'm at my house. We decided to do some recording here today and, apparently, Ronan can't leave his office for one reason or another." There was another clanging sound and this time Kendall could hear Riley's twin, Rhuben snap, "Patrick!"

"Sorry," Patrick Jackson-McGuire replied, his voice becoming high-pitched. "Who leaves a pan sitting that close to the edge of the counter?"

Kendall smiled a little.

"Why?" Riley asked. "You sound funny, what's wrong?"

Kendall's smile widened slightly. "Has Ronan said anything to you guys about him and my mom?"

"What about, Hockey-Head, you're going to have to be a bit more specific than that."

"Did he tell you that they broke up?"

There was a long moment of silence on her end of the phone and he could hear the Jacksons siblings asking her what was wrong. When she explained what Kendall had just told her, he could hear their cries of shock and surprise as well. Then Sydney, the youngest, came on the line. "When did they break up?"

"I'm not sure," Kendall replied. "Mom only just told us."

"And he didn't tell us?" Now Patrick was on the phone. "That's messed up!" Then there was the sound of thudding footsteps. "Don't worry; we'll get to the bottom of it." Kendall waited as there was a scratching sound and Riley came back on the line. "We'll go talk to him about it now, it would explain why he's been so…off lately."

"At least he's reacted to it, Mom just keeps going on as if nothing happened," Kendall said.

"Huh. She must be spending too much time with me," Riley said. Kendall could imagine the smirk that was on her face.

"Yeah, telling you too many embarrassing stories about me," Kendall agreed. "I'll see you when you get back here, I guess."

"How else are you going to eat? God knows I'm not going to let you cook for me again. Not after you fucking gave me food poisoning from that breakfast in bed last week," Riley said, laughing.

"I was trying to be romantic," Kendall defended himself.

"Oh yeah, chundering my guts out was so romantic, I fell for you all over again," Riley said sarcastically. He knew she was rolling her eyes. ""I'll see you back there."

"Alright. Later."

"Hoo roo."

Kendall hung up the phone and slowed down at a red light and leaned forward, resting his head on the steering wheel. He wondered what would hurt more; getting into a car accident at that moment or sitting back and watch his mother get hurt by his father again.

"Ronan!"

"Dad!"

"Ronan!"

"Dad!"

Ronan McGuire sighed heavily as he turned away from his computer. Reaching up, he pulled earplugs out of his ears at the exact moment there was a loud bang on the door to his office accompanying loud laughter. He watched as the door opened and Riley and Noah fell to the floor, curling up and holding onto their noses as Rhuben, Patrick, and Sydney all laughed. Ronan chuckled as he looked down at them.

"How did you do that?" Sydney asked, standing over them.

"I tripped over her big feet," Noah mumbled, still holding onto his nose. Riley reached out and punched her brother on the arm.

"Your feet are bigger than mine!"

Ronan cleared his throat to get their attention. "Did you want something?" He asked, turning back to his computer and pulling up an e-mail. His green eyes skimmed over it for a moment, though he was reading it over and over again, not taking in the words that were in front of him. "I have a lot of work I need to get done and I banished you to the kitchen for a reason."

"When did you and Mrs. Knight break up?" Rhuben got straight to the point, walking over to the desk and resting her hands on it, leaning towards her adoptive father. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"And more importantly,"—Patrick shoved his purple and black clad sister out of the way to address his father himself—"what's for dinner?"

Rhuben shoved him back out of the way, blowing her purple strand of hair out of her face. She crossed her arms over his chest. "What happened?"

Ronan leaned back into his seat and looked up at the ceiling as his kids gathered around the desk, squeezing into three chairs for the five of them. He looked at them out of the corner of his eye before glancing away again. All give black haired blue eyed siblings were staring intently at him and he knew he wasn't going to get them to leave him alone unless he answered their questions. Placing his foot on the floor he spun so that he faced all of them.

"You can tell us," Noah added. He flicked his head to the side, moving his long fringe out of his face.

"Yeah," Patrick chimed in. "We won't judge you."

"Patrick!" Riley and Rhuben snapped.

"What? We won't."

Ronan laughed.

Sydney twisted his mouth to the side. "You do know that keeping things inside and shutting us out isn't going to do anything to alleviate the problem, yeah?" He raised his eyebrow. "And the fact that you're already so stressed as it is, which we problem don't help much, there's a good chance you're a step away from a mental breakdown." Like a therapist, he placed his hands in his lap. "So what happened?"

Ronan smiled. He crossed his arms and leaned towards them, holding onto his elbows. "As much as I'd like to tell you guys not to worry about me, I know that's like telling you not to breathe." He shook his head and sighed again. "Nothing really happened; we just agreed that now isn't a good time for us to date." He motioned to himself. "I'm busy working on your guys' music and getting more people to my label as well as the press that's coming around with you guys coming off your yearlong break."

Riley looked skeptical. She tilted her head to the side, eyebrows coming together. "And she agreed to that?" She paused. "Really?"

"That doesn't sound like her," Rhuben added.

The Jacksons had practically tried to shove the idea of Ronan and Mrs. Knight getting together at him since the first few days they had met. Though when he had met her he didn't know she was Kendall's mother, he had said he had coffee with someone at a restaurant. And while they weren't his children at the time, they immediately bombarded him with questions asking whether or not they were going to date or trying to force them into it. They had even cheered the first time Ronan said they were going out on a real date. Ronan had taken it all in stride, knowing how nosy and prying they could be.

"What with Kendall having moved out of the crib and then she and Katie moving into that new house we got them and the guys going their separate ways after this upcoming summer tour and figuring out what she's going to do next, it's too stressful," Ronan defended her. He shrugged. "So we decided to take a break." He held his hands up. "But we're still friends."

"Does that ever really work?" Patrick asked skeptically. Instead of being yelled at by his siblings again, he continued to speak, concerned. "I mean, doesn't it hurt too much to break up and constantly see them around?"

"Why don't you ask Logan and Rhu that?" Sydney said with a cheeky smile, causing Rhuben to reach out and push his face away.

"Are you OK?" Noah asked.

Ronan smiled and nodded. "I'm fine," he replied. "Don't worry about me." He turned back to his computer, picking up earplugs. "Now, I need to get back to work so if you could please be quiet for once, I can get this done and my company won't go bankrupt and go down the tubes." He leaned forward and pretended to read the e-mail that continued to sit on his computer screen as his kids left the office, closing the door behind them.

He slouched in his seat, bringing his hands up over his face, running them down until he rubbed at the stubble that rested above his lip and around his chin. He wondered how they would have reacted if they knew she was the one that had broken up with him.

And that he knew the real reason why.

A/N: Because of something I have planned for the story, I had to change the time frame of this story. So it's now before BTR took their break/go on their summer tour, rather than after. Though it doesn't affect much of the story, thankfully. So BTR is over, but they haven't announced it or gone on their tour yet. Hmm, I think I may have put a bit too much dialogue in this chapter, but I always go back and forth with that.

Next chapter brings in other BTR characters as well as really starts out the plot of the story.

Thanks to Kessa, Guardian'sDragonOfDeath, Kaleigh, Chey21, Ethan, and Rage-Against-Time for reviewing as well as 1234irrek and k3luver for adding the story to favorites and CUTE CARGAN LOVE, Chey21, and winterschild11 for adding it to alerts.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles