Title: And So It Goes
Author: SLynn
Rating: T
Pairings: Logan/Camille and Kendall/Jo
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Does anyone actually read this? If so, these characters and settings are not mine. I'm only borrowing.

Summary: Katie has a plan, but it's Kelly that ends up needing one.

Chapter 17

Logan hadn't had much time to explain to Mrs. Knight what was going on before Carlos had shown up. And, not wanting to continue on with an audience, he'd waited until she'd sent everyone to bed before he finished. It wasn't a complete narrative, his own feelings were so bruised at the moment that Logan could hardly get any words out coherently, but it was enough for Mrs. Knight to get the gist.

"Katie," Mrs. Knight tried again at the door. "I just want to talk to you. Please open the door. If you don't, I'll call Buddha Bob to come open it for me."

"No you won't," came Katie's muffled response.

"Yes, I will," Mrs. Knight answered.

"This late?" Katie asked, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

"Katie," Mrs. Knight repeated, knowing her bluff had been called. "Open the door."

"Just leave me alone."

Mrs. Knight threw her hands up in exasperation and began to pace the area in front of the kitchen counters.

"Can I try?" Logan asked, feeling more than a little to blame for this current situation. If he'd have acted in a more rational manner, Katie might not have been frightened off. He hadn't meant for that to happen.

"Okay," Mrs. Knight said after scrutinizing him for a moment and then taking a seat at the breakfast bar.

Logan let out a sigh as he approached the door, realizing at once that he didn't have any idea what he was going to say.

"Katie," he began after a lengthy pause, "I'd really like if we could talk about this."

"Then talk," she said, and even through the door he could hear her sniffle.

"Can you open the door?"

"No."

"All right then," Logan shrugged, sliding down to the floor and taking a seat with his back against the washing machine.

Logan hesitated, throwing a quick glance at Mrs. Knight, realizing how strange this whole situation had become.

"Well?" Katie called out from her side of the door.

"Okay," Logan began again, "I'm not going to talk about what you did. You said you were sorry and I know you meant it."

"So we're done here," Katie cut in. "Great talking with you. Goodnight."

"No," Logan returned.

"Oh, just go away."

"Hey," he fought back. "You locked yourself in there and now you're just going to have sit and listen to me."

When she didn't immediately answer, Logan thought he'd won a small victory. That is, until he heard the water turn on, effectively drowning out all other noises. Quick to his feet, Logan opened the utilities cabinet and found exactly what he was hoping to find.

"Hey!" she yelled when the lights went out.

"You turn off the water and I'll turn back on the lights," he replied, leaning in close to the door so she'd be certain to hear him.

"Fine," she huffed, doing as he'd asked.

"Let's try this again," Logan said as he turned her lights back on and sat back down on the floor.

"There's nothing to talk about," Katie said, sounding tired. "I acted like a brat and now you hate me."

"I don't hate you."

"But you're mad at me."

Logan considered it for a moment.

"Well?"

"I am mad," he admitted, "but I can be mad and still care about you. Right?"

Logan waited for her to answer for a full minute before deciding that one wasn't coming. He looked over to Mrs. Knight, silently beseeching her for help, but she only motioned for him to continue with an encouraging smile.

"Listen, all I wanted to say to you is that as far as I'm concerned, we don't have to talk about this again. You've already told me the truth and apologized, you don't have to do it again. You don't even have to tell me why you did it, unless you want to. I'm sorry if anything I said or did hurt your feelings. I'd never do that intentionally. If you want, we can go back to exactly the way it was before and I won't tell anyone about this. I promise."

"Except Kendall."

"I won't even tell Kendall," he assured her.

Katie paused, and Logan hoped she was at least considering what he had said.

"How are we supposed to just forget this if you're mad at me?" she finally asked.

"It's not going to be easy," he said, "but I'm going to do everything I can to not make it any harder. Your friendship is more important to me than my own hurt feelings."

When she didn't answer him again, Logan hoped he'd gotten his point across, but really knew there was nothing more to say about it.

"All right," he said as he got to his feet. "That's all I wanted to say so I'm going to go now. If you want to get out of the bathroom and maybe talk to your mom, I won't be here. And tomorrow morning we'll just start over like we'd agreed."

Logan waited another half a minute, hoping for a response.

"Goodnight, Katie," he said, when he realized he wouldn't be getting one.

Logan turned and walked out of the kitchen, where Mrs. Knight stopped him long enough to mouth 'thank you' before he continued off to bed.

"Get up!"

All four of them groaned, pulling sheets and blankets back over their heads in an effort to block out the light that had suddenly invaded their bedroom.

"I'm serious, guys, get up!"

"Kelly?" Kendall asked, sitting up groggily in bed and rubbing his eyes.

"What are you doing here?" James asked, not bothering to either sit up or open his eyes.

"The interview? Did you all forget? It's going to take at least two hours to get to Santa Barbra and none of you are even awake."

"I thought we weren't leaving until ten?" Logan asked.

"That's why I'm here now, to make sure you are all ready to go at ten."

"We're ready," Carlos said, still half asleep and yawning.

"No. You are really not. Now get moving."

Kelly left them to it, joining Mrs. Knight and Katie at the table with as much of a smile as she could manage. Half an hour later they were all there sitting down to breakfast as Kelly talked nervously about everything they were and were not supposed to do during their interview.

"Now, it's going to be over lunch, so there will be food," she said, flipping through her portfolio.

"Excellent," said Carlos, reaching for another piece of toast.

"You will all eat like normal human beings," Kelly emphasized. "No scarfing."

"Aw, but we love scarfing," James said with a pretend pout.

"The interviewer's name is Roberta Jenkins," Kelly continued as if James hadn't spoken. "She's supposed to be pretty tough, but I don't think she'll throw anything at you that you that hasn't been asked before. It should be a little less than an hour long. Questions?"

"I've got a question," Kendall said, looking around the table. "What happened last night?"

"Nothing," Mrs. Knight said, getting up from the table and beginning to clear dishes.

Katie paled a bit at the extra scrutiny, but didn't crack, and followed after her mother under the pretense of helping.

"What's going on?" Kelly asked, growing legitimately concerned at the tension she'd suddenly realized was in the room.

"Boys," Mrs. Knight said, coming out of the kitchen with Katie in tow. "Have fun at the interview. Katie and I are going to be out shopping today. We'll see you tonight for dinner."

"But..." Kendall started to call after them, but they were gone too quick. Unable to question them further, he turned to Logan.

"It's nothing," Logan said, getting to his own feet and taking his own plate to the sink.

"It didn't seem like nothing last night," Kendall said as he followed after him.

Kendall stood and glared at Logan from across the sink, but without having any effect. Three pairs of eyes were trained on them from the table, which only served to further Logan's silence. He'd taken it as a good sign Katie hadn't fled the room when he'd entered it this morning. He wasn't about to tell Kendall, or anyone else, anything that might get back to her or cause her any further pain and humiliation.

"Drop it," Logan said quietly, praying that Kendall would.

Kendall relented and took a few steps back. He was irritated that something had obviously happened to his sister and that no one would tell him what. He trusted Logan enough that, if Kendall really needed to know, he would tell him, but the thought that he hadn't still gnawed at him.

"So we're all good now?" Kelly asked tentatively, hoping that was the case.

"Yeah," Kendall said, trying to smile as he went back to the table, but it was mostly defeat talking.

"I'm good," Carlos put in.

Kelly was just starting to feel relieved, when she realized that neither James nor Logan had answered. And that they were also staring daggers at one another.

"We'll sort this out in the car," Kelly said, getting up and ushering the guys towards the front door. "It will be here soon and if we're going to get there in time, we need to go."

Kelly fell back a few steps behind the guys, and as luck would have it, so did Kendall.

"Do you know what's going on with them?" she whispered.

"They're fighting over a girl," he answered, and for a minute she thought he was pulling her leg, or making a joke at hers and Carlos' expense; Kelly remembered too vividly where that mistaken belief had led.

James must have heard his remark because he turned his head and gave Kendall a dirty look, which only further embarrassed Kelly for reasons she couldn't even explain to herself. She was now certain that all the guys knew what had happened and it had become some sort of inside joke. And Kelly hated inside jokes. Especially ones she wasn't on the inside of.

The wait in the lobby was painful, but getting into the car proved worse. They spent five minutes outside of the limo, trying to work out the best seating arrangements, everyone shuffling around and no one willing to compromise. Kelly finally climbed in first herself, and left it to them to sort out the rest. Logan gave in next, sliding into the seat beside her. Neither Kendall nor James wanted to sit next to Logan, so Carlos fell in behind him, leaving the other two to sit opposite in the seat facing the rest.

"All right," Kelly said, taking a deep breath and momentarily shutting her eyes when they finally got moving. "Logan, we've got to do something about your eye. I've got two pairs of glasses with tinted lenses. Try these," she said, handing over the first pair.

Kelly scrutinized him for a moment then shook her head and handing him the second pair.

"Better," she said, putting the first pair back into her bag. "Now, if your asked..."

"I'm not going to lie," Logan said quickly.

"Okay, then tell the truth the way you'd want your parents to hear it, or your grandparents," Kelly advised. "Give the G rated version."

The thought that Logan had anything other than a G rated version of events caused James to snort back a laugh. He wasn't alone, because even Kendall and Carlos had cracked a smile, but Logan turned to James, clearly not amused.

But if Logan had been about to say something, he held his tongue, and instead turned his eyes up and stared at the ceiling of the limo for a few minutes, before exhaling and appearing near normal.

"Guys," Kelly said, shifting in her seat and doing her best to see them all from her vantage, "you can not do this right now. This interview may not be huge, but it's going to be read. This reporter will take one look at you, smell blood and pounce. And honestly, you can't afford the negative publicity. Not right now."

Kendall nodded in agreement with Kelly, immediately willing to set aside whatever differences he might be having temporarily until they could get this thing done. Carlos was also nodding, but didn't know what else he could do to be in a better state of mind. Logan and James were still the obvious hold outs, but as James had always wanted this career more than the rest of them combined, he was the first to relent.

"Logan, I..."

"You were all over my girlfriend!"

"She's not your girlfriend," James fired back at him, picking the exact wrong thing to say.

"Oh, no," Kendall sighed, dropping his head back against the seat cushion.

"Dude," Carlos said in a low voice, looking at James with something like shock in his eyes.

Logan had gone almost white with fury, but said nothing. He couldn't contradict it, because it was true. And he couldn't tell them all exactly why his relationship with Camille and fallen apart, because that would bring Katie back into it. All he could do was shut his eyes and count to ten.

"That's not..." James stammered. "That's not what I meant to say. I meant..."

"Shut up," Kendall said quietly and sincerely.

It wasn't until he'd felt Kelly put her hand on his shoulder that Logan realized his eyes were still shut.

"I'm trying to explain," James said, looking to everyone for support.

Logan started to speak, but Kelly dug her nails in to cut him off.

"Logan," she said, her own voice as tense as he felt. "Give him a chance."

"Fine," he said, opening his eyes and leaning back against the seat with his arms folded.

"Okay," James said. "Well, it's like I told Kendall and Carlos..."

"And not me?" Logan interjected, loudly.

"I tried to tell you but you wouldn't listen."

"You can have your say next," Kelly said to Logan, before motioning for James to continue.

"I was heading upstairs and saw Camille. I wasn't going to stop and talk to her at all, but she kind of tried to pick a fight with me. And then we starting arguing about you and the next thing I know she's crying. I didn't want her to cry and I felt really sorry for her so... that was it. I was just trying to be nice. Nothing more."

Carlos, Kendall and Kelly, who had all been watching James intently while he spoke, turned at once to Logan.

"Okay," Logan said shortly.

He pressed his eyes shut briefly and nodded. Realizing, at last, that he was the one that had blown this thing out of proportion. James might give him a hard time, but he'd never been anything less than loyal. Logan had been so confused and upset at the time that he hadn't wanted to consider the truth.

"So, you believe me?" James asked, still not able to read Logan's face.

"Yeah," he answered, trying to smile, but almost too embarrassed to manage it. "I'm sorry for how I acted. It was really stupid of me and I wasn't thinking. I should have trusted when you said... but after everything that had happened, I -"

Logan stopped short, realizing he'd almost spilled the beans about Katie. It had been one of the reasons he'd reacted the way he did, but it wasn't an excuse. And it really didn't need to be mentioned.

James smiled back, a bit weakly, but relaxed in his seat and seemed willing to drop it. For a few minutes there was a comfortable silence in the car, until Kendall couldn't contain himself a moment longer.

"I have to know what happened last night."

And then, to Kelly's dismay, everyone seemed to be fighting. Again.

Not much later, Kelly sat three tables away while the interview took place, preparing for the worst.

Food fight? Probably.

Fist fight? Could happen.

One of the guys randomly getting up and quitting altogether? Why not.

She had a good view of the table but the restaurant, a trendy cafe that catered to office workers in their twenties, was full, so she couldn't hear anything that was actually being said. Kelly had only stayed with them long enough to introduce them to Roberta Jenkins and then she'd backed away.

It hadn't started well, Kelly could tell. Bobbie must have said something about the glasses to Logan, whose reply was shorter than she'd expected. It wasn't until a few minutes later, when Carlos's voice had carried just enough for Kelly to hear the end of one of his jokes, that the whole table laughed and she stopped worrying.

It was going to be fine.