A/N: Double update, my dears, as promised :) xoxo

Chapter 18: According to plan

Kendall awoke at dawn the next morning, flinging open his wardrobe to choose the perfect outfit; a pale green shirt, grey jacket and his lucky grey vans; Kendall had had those shoes since he was in middle school and, miraculously, they had grown with his feet. He wore the for almost everything, and every time he did, things always went his way. Kendall wasn't suspicious or anything, they were just his favourite shoes.

He made his way silently out of his room, so as not to wake Lacey, and into the kitchen where he made a bowl of cereal and ate it quietly, heading into the bathroom to brush his teeth and his fix his hair. After ten minutes of brushing and re-brushing his hair, Kendall finally lay down on the couch to find that it was only 6.30am. He sighed as he reached for the remote; this was going to be a long morning.

After a few minutes of mindlessly flipping through channels on the TV, Kendall decided to try and beat the high score on the arcade games, then take a turn on the swirly slide, but again, that was short lived, and Kendall sound himself collapsing in the couch, chuckling; he never thought anyone would get bored in apartment 2J! Lacey began to cry at that moment,

"Dadda! Dadda!" and Kendall, glad for something to do, went to pick up his daughter, rubbing her hack to calm her down.

"You hungry?"

"Yah!" she said, making Kendall smile; she almost had the hang of 'yeah'.

"Hmm," Kendall said as he sat her in her high chair and made his way to the fridge "you want some peas?"

"No!" that one she had the hang of.

"Carrots?" Kendall suggested.

"No!" she shook her head stubbornly.

"Apple?"

"No!" she began to giggle now, and Kendall could feel himself beginning to smile, too.

"Then what do you want?" he asked.

"Ceweal!" she called.

"Shh!" Kendall put his finger to his lips to hush her, and smiled proudly as she did she same,

"Shh!"

"Would your mommy let you have cereal?" Kendall asked her.

"Yah!" she said, even though she was shaking her head, her blonde hair flopping around as she did so.

"Alright, if you say so," Kendall smiled, pulling out the cereal and milk, and putting them both into her little pink bowl, mixing and prodding them to make a soft, gooey mixture before handing it to her, and watching her take tiny mouthfuls, transferring the food neatly to her mouth without spilling a drop.

"Aren't you a clean girl?" Mrs Knight smiled as she appeared in the kitchen, patting Lacey's head gently and hugging Kendall "you know, when your daddy was little, he used to be so messy! He threw his food everywhere, and guess who had to clean it up," she asked.

"You!" Lacey said, giggling.

"Yep! Your daddy was a messy boy!"

"Mom!" Kendall groaned as Lacey giggled, and he collected her empty bowl, putting it into the sink,

"What time are you going to Jo's?" Mrs Knight asked.

"Around ten," Kebfall replied, taking Lacey from her chair and putting her on the floor, where she toddled off to her toys and proceeded to throw them around the apartment.

"Then why are you up so early?" she asked.

"Uh," Kendall said, checking his watch; 7.30 "'cause I had to get ready," he lied, faltering under his mother's stare "OK! You got me, I couldn't sleep! I just want everything to be right, you know?" he said, sighing.

"And it will be," she assured "don't worry, honey, everything will go according to plan.

9.30 rolled around, and before Kendall could blink, he was double checking his hair and putting the ring box in his pocket,

"Good luck, buddy!" James smiled as he patted Kendall on the back.

"Yeah," Carlos added "what could possibly go wrong?" Kendall stiffened nervously, and there was a sharp "Carlos!" from everyone in the apartment.

"You got this, buddy," Logan said encouragingly.

"Thanks," Kendall smiled, hitting Logan's shoulder gently before turning to Katie.

"Good luck, big brother," she said in a small voice.

"Thanks, baby sister," he replied, hugging her before turning to leave the apartment.

Kendall had never been so nervous in his life! Well, except for maybe for time he had gotten the news that Lacey was on the way, he thought as he stepped out of the elevator and approached Camille's apartment. He took a deep breath to calm himself as he knocked on the door, blowing it out in one and loosening himself up before Camille opened the door.

"Kendall!" she smiled, but it then became a suspicious look as she took in his appearance and the way his chest moved rapidly with his hasty, nervous breathing "What do you want?"

"To talk to Jo," Kendall said confidently "I-if I could, please?" he stuttered.

"Sure," Camille chuckled at his nervous state "come in,"

"Uh, could I talk to her privately?" he asked,

"Yeah," Camille said slowly "but just remember, we can everything through these doors," she warned at the turned back to get Jo.

"Hey," Jo said in a small voice "what's up? Is something wrong? Is it Lacey? What happened to her?" her voice was getting louder and higher as she panicked.

"Hey," Kendall said gently, rubbing her shoulder to calm her down. "nothing's wrong with Lacey,"

"Then, why would you-?"

"It's you I'm worried about," Kendall told her softly "Listen, I-I know a lot's been going on lately, with your dad and everything-no wait," Kendall shook his head slightly "before that! It started happening when you first found out you were pregnant,"

"What started happening?" Jo asked worriedly.

"You started losing things, Jo," he said "you've lost so much, sacrificed so many things for this, what we have now; our family, but I want you to know that we'll always be here. I'll never leave you Jo, and I promise I'm gonna do all that I can to make sure they don't take anything else away from you, or from us."

"What- I don't get it," Jo stuttered numbly, feeling like a total idiot:

"What I'm trying to say is," Kendall smiled at her confused response "Jo Taylor?" he got down on his knee, and Jo's stomach lurched as he pulled the box from his pocket and opened it. "Will you marry me?"

"Kendall, its beautiful!" Jo gasped, gazing down at the ring, and Kendall's heart rose. "But why are you asking me now?" she asked hesitantly, sure she didn't want to know the answer "We're only 19."

"Well," Kendall said, standing "I just thought that, since we have Lacey, we probably should-"

"Since we have Lacey?" Jo repeated "What, you think that now we have a baby, you're obliged to marry me, is that it?" Jo's temper was rising, but she couldn't help it.

"No! Don't be stupid-"

"Oh, so i'm stupid now?" Jo fired.

"You're being-"

"What, Kendall? Being what? Because apparently I'm so stupid that I can't make my own decisions! Well, watch this, wise one, I'm not going to fulfill your obligations as a teen dad, OK? I'm not going to marry you, Kendall Knight, not now, not ever!"

"We're not kids anymore!" Kendall yelled as Jo stormed away from him "It makes logical sense-"

"Maybe it does," Jo shot back at him "but not to me, ok? Logan's the logical one, why don't you marry him?" she screeched before slamming the door behind her, tears burning her eyes. She could hear Kendall storming away, back to his apartment, back to Lacey, and she struggled to fight the urge to go back there, to take her baby in her arms and to have Kendall hold her and tell her he was wrong, that he was sorry, that he loved her and he would wait until she was ready.

The truth was, Kendall was probably right; it did seem like the right thing to do, save Lacey growing up in a broken family. Jo wanted to marry him, had it played out differently, she would have, but it was the way he'd said it, like Jo was being unreasonable. Jo sighed; at this rate, there was no way she was going to get back in Kendall's arms any time soon.

A/N: Whoa! Well that was sooo fun to type up (!) but I did it :) and since you guys love sneak peeks, I have another :P

It had taken its toll on Logan, sure enough, but there was something about it that took Camille over the edge, that hurt her too much. That kind of hurt was irreversible, unforgettable, it was the kind of hurt you avoided thinking about until you had nothing else to think about, the kind that engulfed you and choked you until you we're sobbing so hard you couldn't breathe, and you were begging for mercy. It was times like these that you needed someone to hold you and tell you everything was alright, but she had no one; Logan had closed in on himself after hearing the news. He had tried to be strong, for Camille, but he couldn't do it any more...

A/N: There you go my dears :) hopefully this chapter doesn't suck to much, and Jo's not too out of character :/ are you all pumped for the Lomille chapter? I know I am :)