Ladies and Gentlemen, please give it up...Chapter 6! WHOOOO! Check it out! I finally got it up! I'm so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, sooooooo sorry for the wait, I've just been so busy lately. Plus...any Tayor Swift fans out there? My friends and I were invited by some other friends to her concert in Tacoma, WA on Tuesday! It was absolutely amazing! She's a fantastic entertainer, and she's got a beautiful voice live.

Okay, moving on...Disclaimer: No. I do not own Big Time Rush. Why would I be writing Jatie stories if I owned BTR?

Anonymous: Thank you so much for reviewing! Well, The Replacement's identity will be revealed eventually...probably ;)

PopcornLover: Thank you so much for your review! I'm so sorry for the wait, both for Chapter 5, and now for this chapter! Forgive me? Well, I've revealed one of Logan's secrets, but he may have more...;)

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS REVIEWED, ALERTED, OR FAVORITED THIS STORY! I love you guys!

Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 6 – Secrets, Clues, and Ice Bags

(May 2nd, Friday)

Katie's POV

The entire room went spinning into chaos.

"OHMYGODWE'REGOINGTODIE!" Carlos screamed at the top of his lungs, just as the ship lurched forward, setting sail officially.

"This is why we were all blackmailed into this cruise?" Jo snarled angrily. "So that we could all be killed? I knew The Replacement was sick, but I didn't realize they were this sick!"

"Why?" Camille muttered, looking as if she was about to cry. "What did we do that was so horrible that we'd have to be killed for it?"

I didn't say anything. I just leaned against the wall, arms crossed, processing the confirmation of my worst suspicions. So. It was true. We were all going to be dead by this time next week. And how? When? Would we be picked off one by one, or would we be killed together? And more importantly…Could we get out of this mess?

"Whose secret brought us here?" Kendall spoke up, looking from Logan, to me, to Mom. "Whose secret is so fucking dangerous that we're going to get killed for it?"

No one spoke up or stepped forward.

"Here's my question," James said, leaning back against the wall, arms crossed, his usually shimmering hazel eyes now steely and determined. "Are we going to be killed one by one, or all at once?"

There was silence as everyone waited for the usual buzz and beeping of our cell phones that signaled The Replacement answering James's question, but it never came. Great. Another mystery. Another way for The Replacement to torture us.

"I guess we'll find out soon enough," Logan said somberly, the first words he had spoken that hadn't been out of spite.

"So…uh…what do we do now?" Carlos asked with a slight whimper.

Stephanie walked over to him to put an arm around his back comfortingly, even though her face was pale and she looked every bit as scared and horrified as the rest of us.

Gustavo cleared his throat. "We try to figure out a defense strategy. There has to be something we can do to protect ourselves against this psycho."

"Yeah, but what can we do?" Kelly wanted to know. "This person is seriously powerful, or smart, or, I don't know, a terrorist. How are we supposed to stand up against them?"

"We'll figure something out," Gustavo said calmly.

"But we have no idea what The Replacement's got planned for us," Mom argued.

Griffin looked up from where he was now texting or playing games or doing something on his iPhone. "We'll just have to figure that out as well."

Yeah, he's a real help.

In the end, we agreed to head back to our rooms and meet for dinner at eight-o-clock.

The second we were back in our room, James locked the door and pushed the only chair and the single dresser up against the door. "Just to make sure that no one can get in here," he explained when he caught sight of my questioning look.

"That probably isn't going to stop The Replacement," I reminded him.

"Katie, The Replacement is still a human – a twisted, sick human – but still a human nonetheless. And do you really just want to lie down and let them kill us? We have to put up a fight. You know that better than anyone else. And I will be damned if I got blackmailed into this cruise just so that I could be killed by someone who wants to play God. My fucking car got blown up, The Replacement broke into my house to leave pictures of you with a threatening message, and then you and your mom almost get killed yourself! Oh, and someone shot at Jo while we were inside Gustavo's mansion. And someone's bugged his mansion and this room! I am going to make sure that we all walk off the DLS-S in two weeks, safe and alive, with The Replacement in handcuffs."

I paused, shocked by the revelation that I had been the one The Replacement had used to make sure that James got onto the ship – at least, that's what it sounded like had happened. But that couldn't be right. Sure, he cared about me, but that was it. There was no way he was still in love with me, not after three years and countless bed-buddies.

"The Replacement left pictures of me for you?" I confirmed. "But…why?"

James gave a harsh laugh and threw himself on his side of the bed. "Why do you think, Katie? Why were you and your mom almost blown up in your motel room? Why was Jo almost shot in the head? Why did my car explode? Kendall was being uncooperative so The Replacement decided to leave a warning for him – which is why you and Jo were almost killed. Gustavo refused to go on the DLS-S cruise, so The Replacement left a bomb in my car. I wasn't going to go on the DLS-S cruise either, so The Replacement though I could use some persuading. They left pictures of you on my bed, with a message, reminding me that they could very easily hurt you. You were used against both Kendall and me, and probably your mother too. The Replacement knows about our relationship, and they know that I'm still in love with you. They knew threatening you would convince me to board the ship."

My ears felt like they were ringing, and my vision seemed to be blurring. He was still in love with me? That made no sense. That just didn't mesh with the three year silence between us. But why would he lie to me? Think Katie…why do guys generally lie to girls?

I looked up into his hazel eyes, not sure what I would see, but all I saw was steely determination and anger. Hmmm…maybe he wasn't just trying to get into my pants…

Suddenly, the ship rocked from side to side even more violently then it had been quaking, and I knew we had hit open water. I stumbled and crashed into James. He grabbed me, trying to steady me, but the ship gave a huge lurch, sending us tumbling down onto the floor, with me on top of him.

"If you wanted to top me, all you had to do was ask," he quipped, his lips turning up in amusement.

"No, I just needed you as a mattress," I retorted, pushing myself up so I was sitting on his stomach, straddling him. His hands rested loosely on my waist, and he was smirking as if I had just agreed to go down on him. Ohhhh. He was enjoying this a little too much. Guys. Never thinking with their brain.

"You can let go of me now," I informed him. When he just tightened his grip on me, I did the only thing could think of, something that used to work beautifully. I reached over the length of his body and ruffled up his hair. He yelped and immediately let me go. I crawled out of the way, a split second before he leapt up and rushed into the bathroom to make sure his hair hadn't been completely ruined.

I managed to get to my feet, but collapsed on the bed as I began to roar with laughter. I really wish I had gotten that on video, because it was such a normal, yet epic, James Diamond reaction.

James came out of the bathroom with a very haughty expression on his face. "That wasn't nice," he pouted at me.

"Oh, poor baby," I teased him. "I see your hair survived my attack."

"Yes, but barely."

"Drama queen."

"I'm ignoring you now."

"All right, you do that."

There was a knock on the door. James and I glanced at each other warily. It was probably just Carlos and Stephanie, but after the announcement that we would all be killed on the DLS-S cruise, we couldn't help but be a little terrified at what might be behind that door.

"Just a second!" James called, and we gingerly walked over to the door, moving the dresser and the chair away so that we could unlock the door. James grasped the door handle, raised his eyebrows at me, and yanked the door open.

Kendall's POV

I sat on the bed, arms crossed, refusing to say anything when Mom would ask me a question or make a comment. Mom…That word didn't even feel like it fit her anymore. She had lied to Katie and me our entire lives about our father…What kind of mother even did that? So she hadn't liked the truth about him. Okay, fine. But she wouldn't even tell me what the truth was! All she had told Katie and me about our father our entire lives was that he had been killed in a car accident before either of us could remember him. And to top it all off, the name she had given us? Kellan Knight? The name of our father? Yeah. No such guy. At least, no one who had ever been married to our mother and had had two kids. I ought to know. I had checked on every guy in the United States with that name. Wasn't it bad enough to lie about your husband's existence, much less give your kids a false name so that if they ever found out that you're a lying bitch, they wouldn't be able to find the man they had once called "Daddy"? Now that was drastic.

"Kendall, sweetie," that woman pleaded with me as she slid onto the mattress next to me, trying to slip her hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off, staring fixatedly at the wall.

"Kendall, I know you're angry with me about your father – "

I snapped around, snarling like a rabid bear. "How the fuck can I be angry with you about my father when you made sure I can't even find the guy? What happened, Mom? You decide he wasn't perfect enough for you, so you up and left him?"

I jumped off of the bed and did a one-eighty turn to face her as she cried, "That would never happen! He wasn't a good man! You don't know what I saved you and Katie from!"

Her eyes looked watery and her voice was thick and hitched, as if she was about to start crying, but I didn't give a damn. This was her own problem. She was the one who had gotten herself into this mess, and there was no way I was going to throw her a rope to pull her out.

"You're right! I don't know! And you want to know why? It's because YOU WON'T TELL ME!"

Tears were now streaming down her face as she got to her feet. "Honey, I'll tell you, but I want Katie to be there. And I don't want to do it when we're all so worried about being killed by The Replacement. I wanted to do it back at home."

"Well, you may not get the chance," I informed her snippily. "Because as you said, we'll all going to get killed by The Replacement."

"I'm on a ship with some of the best schemers and planners in the United States," Mom replied, smiling slightly. "I have faith in you, your sister, and your friends – "

"Ex-friends. We're not friends anymore, we haven't been friends for three years."

Mom face-palmed. "And you're not willing to put aside your differences in order to, oh I don't know, survive?"

I threw her a nasty look. "Don't lecture me. I'm still not talking to you, I won't talk to you until you tell Katie and me the truth about our father."

I headed for the bathroom door, seriously needing some peace and quiet with me and my thoughts, when Mom called after me, "She missed you, you know. Katie, I mean. She needed you. She's not going to let you back in very easily."

I spun around. "Who said I wanted to repair my relationship with her?"

"She's your sister, and she's not the one who lied to you most of your life. Believe me, you want her back in your life."

"I don't know if I do or not," I retorted snippily. "Not when she's so willing to go running into James Diamond's arms."

Mom sighed. "They were close when we were living in LA. He was like her surrogate big brother when you were busy with other things."

"He doesn't look at her like a big brother," I snarled. "He looks at her in a way no one should ever look at my little sister! He looks at her like…like…like he's attracted to her or something."

"Is that a bad thing?" Mom asked softly. "He's such a nice boy – "

"You are not that delusional! You and I both know that when it comes to James and attraction, it always means buh-bye clothes, hello bed. I'm using bed in a general sense here, by the way. James has banged girls in every position, in every place imaginable. He even went so far as to fuck a girl on Gustavo's desk…" I paused. "I mean, you've gotta give him points for daring, but is that really the kind of guy you want to be attracted to Katie?"

"She's nineteen, Kendall, incase you've forgotten. She's had boyfriends. For all I know, she's already lost her virginity. I'd prefer to think that she hasn't…But she's a pretty girl. And she's not that thirteen year girl who came out with us to LA. She can take care of herself. But one thing I can tell you, Kendall Donald Knight, is that Katie will never be interested in someone who sleeps around like James used to. She will never be interested in James."

"Whatever," I snapped. "I'm just saying maybe you should keep an eye on those two, make sure they're not doing what James does best behind everyone's backs."

Mom smirked. "You're worried that James will be singing behind everyone's backs? Isn't that a bit paranoid of you?"

Oh yeah. What James does best is singing. But his second best skill is screwing girls.

In answer, I slammed into the bathroom and locked the door behind me. I did not need my mom suddenly making comments that sound like they're coming straight from Katie's mouth. I did not need to worry about Katie and James sleeping together. And to top it all off, I did not need to worry about the fact that in two weeks we would all dead.

And yet, I was still agonizing over all three topics. Unbelievable.

James's POV

I was braced, ready for someone to point a machine gun at us. But nothing happened. No one was at the door. But…it appeared that a bag of half-melted ice had sprouted legs and walked from the galley all the way up to Katie's and my room, and then had collapsed in sheer exhaustion. I could see why. Bags of ice generally don't just get up and walk away, so the trip from the galley to the second floor of the ship must have been exhausting for it.

"Check it out, it must be our complimentary bag of ice – everyone's doing it nowadays, it's the new champagne," Katie proclaimed sarcastically.

"Who – the hell – why – "

"Only one way to find out," Katie said. "Let's see if there's a card or something attached to it."

I leaned forward and picked up the twenty-pound bag of ice and water. I lugged it to the bathroom and dropped it into the bathtub where it could melt in peace.

"Maybe if we throw the ice on The Replacement they'll melt," Katie suggested once she had joined me after closing and locking the door back up.

I snickered. "First we have to find out who The Replacement is. But after that, I'm totally game."

Katie stepped into the bathroom, rolling the ice bag over until… "AH HAH! There's a note here."

"Shouldn't the ink be running? I mean, the bag's soaking wet."

Katie ripped the note off of the bag and handed it to me. "It's encased in plastic."

Sure enough, there was plastic wrap coiled around the note. I quickly peeled it off so that I could get a good look at the note.

"Katie," I got her attention. "Listen to this: 'Well Katie, James, things seemed to be heating up so much between you two that I thought you might appreciate some ice – to help cool down a little. ;) –The Replacement.'"

I finished reading and Katie immediately ripped the paper from my hands. She scanned over it before glaring around the room wildly. "ALL RIGHT YOU FUCKING VOYEUR! I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR GAMES! WHY DON'T YOU COME OUT AND FACE US INSTEAD OF HIDING BEHIND YOUR TWISTED NOTES AND TEXTS!"

"Ummm…Katie…" I coughed out uncomfortably. "That might – um – not be the best idea…Do you really want to invite The Replacement to come and kill us?"

She paused. "Oh…I didn't really think about that."

I face-palmed. Of course she didn't. She had one hell of a temper, and when we were together, she often said and did things that she didn't mean. Granted, it usually led to really hot sex, but that wasn't the point. Especially since there was no way she was going to sleep with me in the biblical sense now.

"You know, this just keeps getting creepier and creepier," Katie commented as she stared at the bag of ice. "I mean, now The Replacement's sending us 'gifts' – " she held her fingers up in quotation marks – "to remind us that they can see everything we're doing."

I had to agree – that was extremely creepy. Well, that's what we get for having a stalker who's planning on killing us at some point during the next two weeks. Stalker…it felt almost foreign in my mind. I had been stalked by teen girls before, but this was completely different. This was…this person…wanted to kill my friends (ahem – ex-friends) and me, for some inexplicable reason. They had blackmailed us onto this cruise, trapped us on the ship, and then announced cheerfully that they were going to kill us all. This was just…I couldn't even describe it. It just didn't compute. It didn't make any sense. Nothing did. Nothing.

The rest of the afternoon and the evening dragged by slowly, slowly. It wasn't until nearly seven that Katie's and my phones both vibrated to let us know that we had a new message from The Replacement. As per usual, my stomach clenched, but I opened the message anyway. It was brief, and the tone was general, meaning that it had probably been sent out to the other imprisoned-passengers: Hello to all! Just a quick note – dinner will be formal. I.E. formal wear, manners, etc. Plus – there will be an after-dinner surprise. At 9:30 PM, please proceed to the Captain's cabin. Enjoy your meal! –The Replacement.

Well, that was a little less creepy than the other messages.

I dug out my nicest pair of jeans, a white button up shirt, and a red and black skinny tie from somewhere deep in my luggage and changed in the bathroom while Katie dressed in the bedroom. I rolled the sleeves of the shirt up to my forearms, and combed my hair, re-gelling it to make sure it stayed perfect and glossy.

When Katie called to me to let me know she was ready, I stepped out of the bathroom and nearly fainted. She looked beautiful. She was in a black, shimmering strapless dress with a bubble hem and gold stiletto sandals. Her long brown hair was pulled back in an artfully messy ponytail, and her makeup was noticeable, but subtle.

She held out a simple silver chain with a small heart dangling from it. "Can you help me with this?"

I took the necklace from her and she moved her ponytail out of the way. I slid the chain around her neck, carefully, my heart beating erratically as my eyes focused on the back of her neck. My God…memories…

I managed to hook the necklace on, and stepped back. "There you go."

She let her ponytail drop and straightened the necklace out instinctively. "Thanks," she said with a small smile.

"You look…really gorgeous, Katie," I told her sincerely.

"Thanks," she said again. "So do you. Nice tie by the way."

I fiddled with it. "You gave it to me for my nineteenth birthday," I mumbled. "It's my favorite one. I always wear it for luck."

"Well, we're all going to need some luck during the next two weeks," she agreed. "Come on, let's go down to dinner."

The dining hall, or room, or whatever you want to call it, was huge; long with a single ten foot table draped in white set up in the very center of the room. The room was decorated like the ballroom, in gold and white, and a crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling.

Kendall, Mrs. Knight, Gustavo, Kelly, Griffin, and Logan were already there, seated stiffly around the table. No one was saying much. Well, let's face it, what was there to say when someone was trying to kill you and said person was probably currently listening in on you? It made for awkward conversation.

I'm not sure how long we had been sitting there when Jo and Camille arrived. Camille slipped down into the chair next to Logan automatically, and Jo took the empty seat between Kendall and Logan. Neither boy looked at their ex. Man. Talk about douches. Was it really so hard to utter a simple "hey, how's it going?"

Carlos and Stephanie arrived finally. Carlos sat down next to me, although Stephanie sat down next to Katie, probably to whisper and giggle about Carlos or something. I mean, just because we were going to die unless we managed to come up with a brilliant solution, we weren't going to just sit around like stones, waiting for The Replacement to take us out. If that were the case, Katie and I wouldn't keep on accidentally giving The Replacement opportunities to tease us and humiliate us. The stalker left a twenty-pound bag of ice at our door because they thought we needed to "cool off". That's a little embarrassing.

At 8:15, the first course – a small salad, consisting of iceberg lettuce, a couple of carrots, and cherry tomatoes with a small serving of Ranch dressing – arrived, courtesy of waiters in black tuxedo pants and white tuxedo coats. Where was The Replacement getting the money to pay for all of these people? I mean, the ship, renting a place at the dock, hiring people, getting the food, the birth control, the other necessities that I couldn't think of at that moment, and the means to kill us, had to be wicked expensive. They would be in debt by the time the two weeks were up.

Oh well. Sucks for them.

"Awesome," Carlos mumbled sarcastically through a mouthful of lettuce and salad dressing. "Rabbit food. My favorite."

The next course was a small bowl of beef bouillon.

It wasn't until the main course that we got actual food.

The waiters brought out platters of thinly sliced, perfectly cooked, roast beef, with a tureen of mashed potatoes, and a gravy boat filled with – can you guess? – beef gravy. There was also roasted carrots, decorated with slim slices of roasted onions.

I had to give The Replacement credit – they knew how to have a dinner party.

We ladled our plates up with food and dug in.

The food was absolutely amazing, perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, nothing too much or too little. I wondered who the cook was. If we ever managed to get off this ship in one piece and alive, I was going to hire them on to cater for me full time.

It was nine-o-clock when the plates were cleared, and the waiters brought out a chocolate cheesecake. I won't lie. The chocolate cheesecake was amazing, the best I had ever had, and I'd had some damn good chocolate cheesecakes. Despite our impending doom, I still managed to enjoy it to the fullest extent possible.

Camille stretched lazily once she had finished her slice. "Damn, I'm going to have to work out extra hard tomorrow if I want to be able to fit into my new pair of jeans – they're size two, people."

I nodded and grinned appreciatively at her problem, while the others just rolled their eyes.

"What?" Camille asked defensively. "If I'm going to die, then I'm going to look fabulous doing it."

I held out my hand so that we could fist bump. "There's the spirit."

Katie rolled her eyes. "You two are so vane."

"Yeah, but we're gorgeous, so it's perfectly acceptable."

"That's a matter of opinion."

"What the hell is that?" It was the first words Kendall had said the entire evening, and it caught everyone' s attention. A piece of plastic-covered paper was embedded into his slice of cake. He pulled it out and ripped the plastic off.

"What does it say?" Logan asked tightly.

Kendall cleared his throat and read aloud: "'So here you all are, together again, after so long apart. Here's the first clue as to who brought you here: He's the one who broke the little girl's heart, left her bruised and bloodied in a torn dress, fractured with a missing part, life crumbling as she put her innocence to rest. Her dream was yanked brutally away, by a single man's mistake, and now that price is about to paid.

Hope this helps…or doesn't. –The Replacement.'"

"So…ummm…does this help?" Jo spoke up, frowning. "I mean, it sounds like this guy raped some poor girl. Who in here has raped a girl?"

Everyone turned to stare suspiciously at each other, eying each other skeptically, but no one stepped forward to say, "Yeah, I'm the one The Replacement's talking about, it's my fault you guys are here and are going to get killed. Sorry about that."

I knew it wasn't me, I knew that much. The girls were probably out, especially since they all seemed so horrified at the idea of another girl getting raped, not that I blamed them. I was pretty horrified myself What if it had been Katie instead of that poor girl...? But then that left Carlos, Logan, Kendall, Gustavo, and Griffin in the running for Rapist Aboard the Ship.

My stomach churned at the idea of one of them overpowering and forcing themselves on a girl. That just…that wasn't a pleasant thought.

Logan seemed to be glaring furiously at Griffin, but neither one of them said anything.

At last, Mrs. Knight cleared her throat. "We should probably go to the cabin now, see what that surprise is."

Without a word, we all stood up as the waiters came back to clear the table. Mrs. Knight grabbed one of them and asked for directions to the Captain's cabin, before nodding in satisfaction and leading us out of the room, and down the hall. It was a long walk, all the way to the other end of the ship, just under the control room.

Just as we reached the corridor that trailed to the cabin door, a loud BANG echoed through the walls.

"Oh my God," Katie breathed out. "That sounded like – "

"A gunshot," Jo nodded, eyes bugging out in horror. "Oh my Lord."

We broke out into a run, nearly slamming into the door. I fumbled with the doorknob, finally managing to turn it, and shoved the door open.

"Oh fuck…"

Captain Montgomery, the jolly, cheerful man who had greeted us just a few hours previously, was sprawled in a swivel desk chair at a large, mahogany desk, neck limp, face pale, eyes wide open and glassy in terror. A bloodstain spread through his coat, and at the floor, next to his feet, was a small, black, shiny gun.

Blood slowly dripped down onto the floor, but the captain never moved.

Logan's doctor instincts took over and he crossed the room and knelt beside the man. He held his fingers to Captain Montgomery's wrist, and then to his neck, checking for a pulse. After several seconds, he shook his head.

"He's dead."

Wow...anyone see that one coming? Or was everyone expecting it? Either way, how'd you guys like the chapter? How'd you like Kendall's POV? Did I do okay on it?

Sorry if the ending seemed a little rushed, I was trying to get it done with and posted before I go to bed. It's 12:44 AM right now, so I think I'm going to post this now. :)

But...incase I don't get the next chapter up by next Sunday, classes start for me next Monday, so I might not be updating as frequently (if you can call once a week, frequent). But I don't know what the homework's going to be like, so we'll see. Anyway...the review button's lonely and bored and could really use some company. Click on it, and it'll be very, very happy, and I will be very, very happy for it :)