.:Chapter Four:.

"So what are you guys' plans for today?" Mrs. Knight asked, bringing her mug of coffee up to her mouth to take a sip.

"We're going hiking," Logan replied with a bright smile as he closed the map that he was holding on to. "When we were coming back from cliff diving, the people at the front desk said that there was a waterfall up in the forest…or mountains or whatever and we're going to find it."

"Don't you think that's a bit dangerous?" Mrs. Knight asked, worry and concern flashing over her face as she lowered her mug to the table. She watched, slightly disinterested as the boys and Katie all sat on the floor of the living room of their suite, packing up their bags so they could go hiking.

"Technically cliff diving was dangerous and we came home from that perfectly fine," Carlos reminded her as he tried to shove one of his helmets into his bag. The bag puffed up like a balloon when he continued to try and push it further to the bottom.

"And yet, you guys only just got over your sunburns." Mrs. Knight rolled her eyes and shook her head.

Part of her wondered why she was constantly telling them to put on sunscreen and to cover up in the sun when she knew that they wouldn't listen. Hell, she had to chase Kendall around a beach just to spray him with sunscreen from two water guns. She thought that they had learned their lesson that time, but when she came back from a trip into the city she couldn't help but burst out into hysterical laughter and give a big, fat 'I-told-you-so' when she saw how red the boys were and how much pain they were in. Of course she couldn't just leave them there, so she did what any mother would do; she rubbed Aloe Vera on their skin and helped them get through their sunburn as quickly as possible, while trying to keep Katie from giving them constant five-stars.

"Well, we learned our lesson that time," James said. With a flourish and a bright smile, he pulled a massive bottle of sunscreen out of his bag. "Yep, I'm not letting my face burn again."

"Why don't you come with us, Mom?" Katie suggested as she stood up from her spot on the floor and skipped over to her mother. She wasn't sure if it was the vacation or the fact that Katie was being included on something that was making her that happy. "Hiking is cool."

"If I don't like to go camping, what makes you think that I'll go hiking?" Mrs. Knight questioned, turning away from her daughter to read the newspaper.

"Because you want to be sure that you little boy and girl are safe up in the big, bag mountains," Katie replied and stuck out her lower lip, widening her eyes. That was the look that she gave to make sure that she got her way on something. She and her family referred to it as 'The Eyes' since no one could resist them. Katie knew that she didn't have a lot of time left to being able to get what she wanted while using them, so she did it as often as possible.

"Forget it," Mrs. Knight stood up as there was a knock at the front door of the suite. She crossed the room and opened the door, stepping back as Ronan, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney walked inside. "I'm surprised you knocked, usually you just barge in."

"You say that like it's a bad thing, Mama Knight," Sydney remarked as he turned to her with a smile.

"At least I'd know it's you and not some people from the hotel coming to complain about something," Mrs. Knight said with a laugh, mussing Sydney's hair. She gave Ronan a funny look when the Jacksons all started to whistle. "Should I ask?"

"Not unless you want your hair to turn grey," Ronan replied. He gave a half smile. "Not that it matters, red isn't your real hair color anyway." He laughed and leaned out of the way as Mrs. Knight moved to hit him on the arm. "Anyway, are you coming hiking with us?"

"Katie tried to get her to go with 'the eyes' but it didn't work," Kendall spoke up as he finished packing his backpack.

"Wow, I think that's the first time in its existence I failed," Patrick commented, his eyebrows rising in amusement. His eyes were sparkling with laughter behind his blue tinted sunglasses. He turned to Mrs. Knight and tilted his head to the side. "Do you not like hiking?"

"It's just not my favorite thing in the world," Mrs. Knight replied with a shrug. "I mean, this is supposed to be a vacation we're supposed to be relaxing."

"The waterfall will be relaxing," Carlos pointed out.

"He's right," Sydney nodded earnestly. "Sounds of water are relaxing sounds because people tend to relax or be comforted when they are at the water. This gets ingrained in the human mind, until the sound itself feels comforting."

"You heard the genius!" Kendall declared. He turned and pointed to his mother. "You have to go!"

"Technically I don't have to do anything other than sit here in this chair, drinking my coffee, and enjoying the peace and quiet that I'm going to have once you all are gone." Mrs. Knight crossed her arms over her chest. "And you can't change my mind."

"Mom, would you hurry up?" Katie hollered. "Geez, everyone has to be at least a quarter mile ahead of us! What is taking you so long?"

Mrs. Knight rolled her eyes.

Who was she kidding?

What's taking so long?

Everywhere were trees, leaves, plants, rocks, and roots threatening to trip her and send her spiraling down the side of the mountain to be splattered at the very end by those sharp, pointy rocks some hundred feet straight down. How on earth was any one supposed to be going any faster? Every step she took was a hazard of breaking my neck, not to mention her ankle. It didn't help that Mrs. Knight was completely forced into going and was against it in the first place. Yes, she wanted to spend some time with her son, her daughter, and everyone else. But they could have done it in the hotel's pool or down on the beach at a luau or just sitting in their hotel room getting room service. Gustavo was paying for everything, they could have done it.

But no! Now here I am getting killed by branches and rocks! Mrs. Knight reached her daughter and kept walking. But she did admit that the view was spectacular, the warm climate was invigorating, and there were rainbows all over the place."

"I'm trying to go fast! It's just not working, I'm not exactly a hiker, you know!" Mrs. Knight replied, and then quickly brought her eyes back down to her uncertain feet.

"And you think we are?" Rhuben asked with a light laugh. "I find hiking just as boring as golf, if not more." She gave an exaggerated sigh. "I mean, you have to be quiet and you have to golf clap, the ony good thing is that you can drive a golf kart."

"You're only saying that because you crashed the last one," Ronan said, turning to look at his daughter.

"Yeah, but it was fun," Rhuben insisted.

"You didn't have to pay for it."

"That wasn't fun for you?"

Mrs. Knight laughed along with Kendall, Logan, Carlos, James, Katie, Riley, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney as Ronan shook his head. It was very common to see Ronan having to pay for something that one of his kids broke. It was sort of like BTR and Gustavo, the only difference being Ronan never yelled, he could see most of it coming before it happened, and more likely than not his kids did it on purpose while they were bored and trying to have fun.

"Mom are you sure you're ok?" Kendall asked, turning around to face his mother as he carefully walked backwards. "We could go back down if you wanted. We're not that high up yet."

"No, sweetie, I'm fine," Mrs. Knight called back with a wave and a smile. "I don't want to have to ruin your guys' trip."

"At least you're fine," Noah grumbled, his hands on his butt. Ever few steps he would wince and lightly rub it. "I think I scraped off half of my ass cheek when we were trying to climb over that crack in the ground."

Patrick grinned and turned to Katie. "Are you checking out his butt?" He asked loudly, causing Katie to blush.

"No!" She snapped and reached out, shoving him. "Shut up!"

"Hey don't shove, all right?" Ronan said in a warning tone. "I don't want any of you guys suddenly falling off the side of the mountain. It'd suck having to tell your parents that you turned into a pancake we had to scrape off of the ground."

"That's amazing imagery," Riley said, her upper lip curling. "I really needed to think about that when we're up this high."

"We're not going to let anyone fall," James said reassuringly. "Besides, if we did, then Gustavo would probably kill us and that would just cause a nasty chain of events." He suddenly looked thoughtful. "I wonder what picture they would use of me on the news. It would have to be a really flattering one or else it would make the other angels laugh at me."

"Unbelievable," Kendall muttered, shaking his head.

The group continued to hike up the mountain, stopping to take pictures along the way. They had gone on for about twenty minutes before Carlos started to sing loudly, the '99 bottles of beer on the wall' song. Patrick joined in quickly. It didn't get annoying until they had managed to get to twenty bottles left before Katie finally yelled at them to stop singing or else she was going to 'accidentally' send them off the side of the mountain.

Finally they managed to get to an area where the path had been taken over by water. They were near the waterfall, as Logan pointed out, because you could hear the rush of water from it not too far away. "We should probably make sure that no one falls," Logan added as he stepped out into the water in front of him, moving his body sideways. "We don't know how deep this could get and we don't know if there's a strong current." He stood up and looked behind him. "Everyone hold hands."

"Got it!" James declared, immediately grabbing onto Riley's and Rhuben's, causing the twin girls to laugh.

"Actually, it's a good thing you're holding onto us, since you're the strongest," Riley remarked. She turned to Sydney. "One move and he'd be ripped away like a feather."

"Not funny," Sydney stuck his tongue out at his eldest sister.

"I'll go last then," Ronan commented as he took off his shoes and put them into the drawstring bag that was on his back. He then bent over and rolled up the waist band of his swim trunks to be sure that they were secure. "Just in case," he added, holding out his hand for Mrs. Knight to take.

"Do you think with my complaining about having to come out here karma is going to get me?" Mrs. Knight asked, half joking as the group started to side-step their way through the water.

"I doubt it," Ronan replied with a snort, tightening his hand on hers. "Not that it would matter, I was part of the swim team in high school, so I could save you in a second."

"That sounds like a line that James would use," Kendall remarked. Ronan laughed to himself, noticing the slightly concerned edge in the teenager's tone. He was always protective of his family, even if it was directed towards a friend of his.

"Only less pathetic," Logan remarked.

James's right eye narrowed and he reached out and shoved Logan on the back. Logan let out a cry as he toppled forward and fell into the water. James's mouth dropped open as Logan fell into a part of the river that had been swollen from, what they could guess a recent rainstorm and was swept down a tiny hill, screaming the whole way.

"What?" he asked when all eyes turned to him.

"Logan, are you ok?" Rhuben shouted after him. She waited a second for a response. "Oh Logie-Bear," she sang-called.

"I'm fine!" Logan called back. "But you guys need to get down here, I found the waterfall!"

"What are we waiting for then?" Noah did a stride jump into the water in front of him and swam down the small hill that Logan had just gone down. The others quickly followed him. When they reached the bottom, they were surprised to find that they had found the waterfall that they were looking for.

"This is awesome," Rhuben said as she swam over and pulled herself up onto Kendall's back. "Who wants to play chicken? It'll be even harder with the waterfall here.

"TEAM!" Carlos and Riley shouted in unison after catching each other's eye.

"I want to play, too." Katie said. She turned to Sydney. "Me and Syd are small, but we can still beat you guys no problem." She stood moved over to the shallow part of the pool that the water fall created and put her stuff on the ground.

"You guys have to play too," Rhuben said, turning to Ronan and Mrs. Knight. "It's only fair, besides then we'd have six teams to play instead of there being an odd team out."

"No," Mrs. Knight shook her head. "No, I already decided to take time out of my relaxing day to come hiking with you," she said. "Which you all knew that I hated, but I'm not going to play." She pointed over to the mossy area where everyone had set their bags. "I'm going to be over there, reading a book."

"But if you don't play than I can't win," Ronan said, purposefully using a little kid's voice in a whining tone.

"I never noticed before, is it some sort of a male thing to want to win all the time?" Mrs. Knight asked dryly.

"Maybe, but it makes us more loveable don't you think?" Ronan laughed and gave Patrick and Noah a high-five, easily knocking the two of them over into the water. His twin sons scowled at him as they resurfaced and Noah climbed back onto Patrick's shoulders. "Now, let's play."

"You don't get anything out of the two little letters 'N' and 'O' do you?" Mrs. Knight asked, trying to give him her best 'mother's stare'. It was a look that all mothers had that showed that they meant business. She did it each and every time the guys said something that was insulting (like when Logan insinuated that she was old back when Kendall was trying to convince her that they could mansion sit for Gustavo) or when they were plain rude (like when they were trying to prove that they could be bad boys).

"No," Ronan shrugged as he tossed his shirt aside. "Because I'm not letting you out of this." He moved forward and grabbed onto Mrs. Knight's arm, easily pulling her up onto his shoulders. He turned to the teenagers as they got ready to play as well. "Now come on, we're going to show them that older people can still keep up!"

"Who are you calling old?"

A/N: I had fun writing this chapter, especially writing Mrs. Knight in a more humorous way as well as a loving mother as usual. I had to throw some Racy romance in there. ;) I hope that you guys liked it. Only one chapter to go.

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles