A/N Hey guys! Sorry for the wait! Omg thanks so much for the reviews! Did you know every time I get a review, it's like my dream is coming true? I love it! Sorry I am the sappiest person ever but it's true. I love all of my signed-and anon-reviews!

James' crying could be heard all the way out in the hallway. Carlos and Logan stared at each other, mouth agape, as they wondered what in the world was going on behind the door to their apartment. Only moments ago Kendall had taken a shell-shocked James upstairs. What could have happened in that short amount of time?

What disturbed them the most was when James let out a pained yell, and Logan burst through the door to see James laying on the couch and Mrs. Knight holding his hand in hers, doing something to his fingers.

"What is going on in here?" Logan asked, closing the door quickly so neighbors wouldn't here.

"Mom is removing the splinters in his fingers," Kendall explained softly. "He tore off what was left of his fingernails. Logan, who did this to James?"

"Justin and his friends," Logan said. "Why?"

Kendall seethed. He hated those guys. They were in some retarded show on television and picked on everybody. "I swear I am going to find those guys and beat the crap out of them." Kendall grabbed his jacket and made his way to the door.

"Wait, are you really going to beat them up?" Logan asked nervously, eyes never leaving the sight of his miserable, crying friend on the couch.

"If anyone asks where I am, tell them I went for a walk," Kendall said, avoiding Logan's question.

"But Ken-"

"Logan, I'm serious. Don't tell anyone. I just… I need to make someone pay for this, ok? James is suffering because of a bunch of dirtbags, and it's the only way I can help James."

Logan tore his eyes away from James for a moment to stare at Kendall. He had to hold back a gasp when he saw how… Angry he looked. His normally tan cheeks were beet red and his arms were literally shaking. "Dude, beating up a bunch of bullies isn't going to help James-"

"Logan, now is not the time for one of your pep talks, ok?" Kendall said, his voice getting more strained with every cry James emitted. He had to do something about this, anything. But he couldn't just sit back and watch James fall apart. He felt so helpless. Since he was at a loss of how to make him better, the least he could do was make the bullies that hurt him pay.

Kendall turned on his heel and quietly left the apartment. Nobody else but Logan even noticed. Carlos and Mrs. Knight were all focused intently on James. Logan sighed and left to get antiseptic and bandages form his first aid kit.

"No more," James whimpered, pulling his abused hand away from Mrs. Knight's tender hold. He cradled his shaking fingers to his chest and eyed the tweezers she held like they were an instrument of torture. His hands were burning with sharp pains. His fingers hadn't even healed fully from the last time he tore his nails off, which only added to the pain when the old wounds were reopened.

"Honey, we have to get all of the splinters out or else they might get infected," Mrs. Knight explained. James looked at the kind woman like she was the devil and curled in on his hand, covering it protectively.

"She's right James," Logan said, first aid kit in hand. He turned to Mrs. Knight and gestured to James. "May I take over?"

Mrs. Knight smiled fondly at the young doctor-to-be and handed him the tweezers. "Knock yourself out. I need coffee."

Logan thanked her and took over her seat in front of James. "Hey buddy. Can I see your hand?"

"No, just leave me alone," James said pitifully. It was obvious how much he was struggling to keep his tears in, but his emotions were becoming too much for him. He just wanted to break into sobs, but he didn't have the heart to do that in front of Logan and especially Carlos. Not to mention Mrs. Knight would probably send him to a nuthouse, and Kendall… Hey, where was Kendall, anyway?

"Where did Kendall go?" James asked.

"He just went for a walk," Logan said hesitantly. "Now let me see your hand." Once again, James resisted. "James, if you don't let me see your hand, I will take you to the doctor and you know I am a lot nicer than the doctor. Now give me your hand, you're bleeding all over the couch."

James cringed and let Logan examine his mangled fingertips. Logan hissed and clicked his tongue in sympathy, eyeing the wounds carefully. James all but tore his fingertips apart in that closet.

"This is going to hurt a bit, but once the bandages and medicine is on they won't hurt nearly as much," Logan told him. The junior doctor noticed a particularly large splinter in James' forefinger and decided to change the subject.

"Hey James, remember that one kid on our hockey team in Minnesota that always smelled like Cheetos?"

"Um yeah, why?" James asked, remembering a scrawny kid in the 5th grade that they had nicknamed "Cheeto" because he smelled like a stale version of the cheesy snack.

"I was just thinking of that time that you wanted so badly to impress the captain of our team that during a game, you tried to check that Deluthe kid and you end up accidently checking Cheeto."

James chuckled, it was probably one the funniest memories he had of his hockey games. "Oh yeah! I sent him flying across the ice and he knocked down like 3 people before flipping over the wall into the audience-ahhh!" James cried out, nearly jumping out of his seat at the sudden stinging pain in his finger. Logan held up a huge splinter of wood proudly.

"I got it!" Logan announced. James scowled.

"You tricked me!" James accused.

'No, I distracted you, there's a difference," Logan said.

"Whoa, that's gnarly!" Carlos said excitedly, looking at the piece of wood in awe. "Can I see it?"

"No!" Logan exclaimed, disgusted. 'It's covered in James-blood."

"Ew," Carlos said, wrinkling his small nose. Logan tossed the splinter into a petri dish.

"Oh, James by the way there's like, this huge sale on Cuda at the mall this weekend," Logan said.

James suddenly perked up. "Really? Which mall- Owwwww!! Stop doing that!"

Logan smirked, dropping yet another bloody piece of wood into the petri dish with a little "clink". "Relax dude, the worst ones are out. The next couple splinters aren't that big or deep."

James moaned and pouted, letting Logan torture his fingers for a few minutes longer. He was momentarily relieved when Logan wrapped a cold washcloth around his fingers and held it tightly, but it didn't last because after Logan unwrapped his hand, he poured stinging, burning, hellish antiseptic all over his wounds.

James thought he was dying.

"James, come on bro you are being dramatic," Logan teased when James let out a high-pitched shriek.

"It hurts, Logan!" James said. The tall boy had never been able to take pain well, but this was truly and excruciatingly painful.

Logan applied some medicine to the wounds, than wrapped them up with bandages with a gentle, agile touch.

"There, all better," Logan announced, admiring his work. James wiggled his fingers a bit. They did feel much better now that there weren't giant chunks of wood embedded in them.

"Thanks Logan," James said softly. "I um, I guess we can get to the studio now, Gustavo is probably going to chew our heads off."

"Uh-uh, I don't think so," Mrs. Knight called from the kitchen. James cringed. Jeez, she was like a bat. She could hear everything.

"Why not?" James asked, getting to his feet. He hoped Mrs. Knight and the guys weren't going to use what happened to him earlier as a chance to baby him to death, but apparently that was exactly what they were planning to do.

"James, you need rest," Mrs. Knight said, walking in front of him and folding her arms sternly. "You had an overwhelming day today and you look spent. I want you to lie down and get some rest."

"But it's only 1 in the afternoon!" James argued. Mrs. Knight's eyes hardened as she narrowed her gaze on the teenager.

"James, you know better than to argue with me. Go on to bed, I'll call you when it's dinnertime."

James sighed and ran a hand over his face. He didn't want to lie down, to be alone with his thoughts. He wanted-no, he needed a distraction. He wanted to sing, and dance, and listen to Gustavo gripe his face off about how floppy his hair or how high his voice sounded. Going to bed this early would drive him insane. "Mrs. Knight, I appreciate you looking out for me but I really need to get to the studio." James awkwardly pushed past the motherly figure and headed to the door, pausing only to look over his shoulder for a moment.

"You guys coming?" James asked, avoiding Mrs. Knight shocked glare. He was expecting her to yell at him or freak out, but she just stood there, looking quite unhappy. She wasn't exactly used to any of her boys directly disobeying her orders.

"Um yeah, sure," Logan said. He was desperate to get out of the uncomfortable situation. He glanced at Mrs. Knight, grabbed Carlos' arm, and pulled the shorter boy out the door with James.

"Text Kendall that we will be at the studio," James told Logan, and the smaller boy nodded.

"Dude, Mama K is going to be so pissed!" Carlos said. The last time James had disobeyed her was in the 7th grade. He had gotten in a ton of trouble, and he didn't even live with her back then.

"She'll get over it," James commented bitterly. Logan nearly choked on his own spit. James never, ever spoke like this. Especially about Mama K. He was too sensitive and too… Good to act like a normal teenager when it came to Mrs. Knight. He always respected her and her wishes.

"You're gonna get in trouble," Carlos said worriedly, ignoring the warning glance Logan gave him. "She's going to get mad at you."

"Then let her, I really don't care Carlos," James said, storming through the lobby.

"Why is James mad, Logan?" Carlos whispered.

"He's just tired," Logan said. He was a bit taken aback by James' attitude. Even though James was dramatic, he was pretty even tempered. This behavior wasn't normal for him, and it worried Logan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BTR~~~~~~~~~~~~~BTR~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BTR~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kendall made his way to the Palmwoods Park, where he knew Justin and his buddies played basketball every day after school. He found the basketball court and watched the bullies play for a few minutes. He hated getting in fights, he really did. He didn't exactly believe in violence. His dad had always taught him against it. But Kendall also had anger issues and he needed to get out his anger somehow right now, before he imploded on himself. His first choice would have been to get revenge on the idiots who did this to James in the first place, but being that they didn't live at the Palmwoods, Kendall had no idea where they were and how to find them.

"Justin!" Kendall called after a few minutes of contemplating. He was thinking of just leaving, going to the studio where Logan texted they were, but the idea of a fight sounded too tantalizing at the moment. He pushed his father's words out of his mind and approached the group of boys confidently. He was sure he could take all of them. But his brain wasn't quite working well at the moment. Justin turned around, slightly surprised to see Kendall.

"Ken-dork? What are you doing here?" Justin said, holding his arm out so his buddies knew to stop playing the game and join him.

"I heard you hurt my friend today," Kendall said angrily, immediately starting the fight. He gave Justin's shoulders a hard shove. Justin laughed.

"What, that pussy James?" Justin taunted.

"Don't call my friend that!" Kendall warned, getting dangerously close to Justin's face.

"Why not? He's obviously a pussy. He can't even fight his own fights. He has to send you to do it for him."

"You hurt him today. Nobody hurts James and gets away with it," Kendall said, feeling a tight protective ball for James form in his chest. That was his best friend that was scarred for life. His best friend clawed his own fingernails off during a panic attack today. His best friend was scared to death, and there was nothing Kendall could do about it. Except for beat the living crap out of Justin.

And that's what he did. He unexpectedly drew back his arm and sent punch after punch into Justin's face and gut in an unusual fit of rage. His buddies stared, stunned and a bit afraid to do anything to help their leader. But when Justin fell to the concrete with a cry of pain, Kendall seemed to realize what he was doing. It was as if he was snapped back to reality after losing all control.

"Justin, dude I'm sorry," Kendall muttered, staring at his bloody fist in disbelief. He held out a hand to help Justin to his feet, but his buddies rushed at him, finally deciding to help Justin. Kendall ducked as several fists were aimed for his face. He dodged as many as he could and put up a fight for quite a while, but he didn't last long. The first fist to collide with his nose sent him reeling to the ground. As soon as he was down, he felt bursts of pain shoot through his body as the bullies kicked at his ribs, stomach, back and legs mercilessly. Kendall struggled to pick himself back up, but with each kick he was sent back to cold, rough concrete. After a few minutes of this, Kendall decided to just stay down and protect himself best he could until the beating stopped.

Finally, heavy, brutal blows ceased and he was left alone, breathless and crying. Kendall groaned, humiliated. What was he thinking, trying to take 4 guys down at once?

With a great heave of strength, Kendall tried to roll over and get to his knees, but his ribs screamed in protest. It hurt to move, it hurt to breathe. He stayed on his knees for several moments, trying to calm down and regain his strength. But as soon as he tried to stand up, he fell right back down in a ball of pain. He had no choice but to lay there helplessly, clutching his throbbing middle and struggling to breath. After nearly an hour, he considered texting Logan or one of his friends to come help him, but his pride kept him from dialing their number. He was utterly humiliated, and he didn't want to undergo the lecture Logan was sure to give him. And Kendall never once lost a fight in his life. Even without the guys backing him up, Kendall always held his own in a fight and came out relatively unscathed. So he was rather ashamed to be the one bleeding on the ground instead of the strong leader he was supposed to be.

There was no way Kendall would call them for help.

The blonde dragged himself behind a tree, away from the public's eye just in case someone was to pass by, and curled in on himself. He wanted to fix things, but instead he was an idiot and only made things worse.

A/N Meep, stupid place to end but I have to go now I hope you liked it, and I guess this could be some sort of a cliffhanger haha! I just can't stay away from Kendall whump, but it will be James whump too because James isn't exactly going to feel good about what happened to Kendall. Please review? Thanks love ya byeeeee! Um, ignore the typos if you saw any I can't proof read tonight!