Chapter 12 Rooms Divided…

The moment the moving van drives off, the new Big Time Rush home goes very quiet. Mrs. Knight walks into the kitchen as the three friends sit on the barstools in front of her. They watch as Katie drags Carlos inside happily.

"I'm going to go grab something from my room. I'll be right back." She tells him and she rushes off towards the stairs. Carlos hesitantly looks after her and then moves his gaze towards the others in the kitchen.

They give him big smiles and his eyes dart back and forth as he tries to avoid their stares.

"Come on boys, why don't you help me make dinner?" Mrs. Knight suggests, effectively making the boys turn towards her and away from Carlos. Carlos just stands in the same spot, looking afraid to move one muscle.

"Carlos, sweetie?" Mrs. Knight calls out. He looks up with scared eyes and sees her looking at him. "Do you want to help me stir the rice?" She asks with a warm smile.

The guys watch him as he looks hesitant. Mrs. Knight decides to walk closer to him.

"It's okay, honey. Remember how you used to help me cook before? You loved to make chicken curry with rice." She gives him a loving look as she slowly walks closer to him.

The guys watch intently. The hospital's counselor told them that they had to take things slow. They didn't know how he would react to anything, so they couldn't make sudden moves. They needed to be patient.

They thought Mrs. Knight walking up to him might be a bold move. But it was Mrs. Knight. She was a second mother to him. It wouldn't take long for him to run into her arms and let her comfort him.

They wait in the kitchen for this moment to come. But they exchange worried glances when they notice Carlos slowly moving away. He doesn't want to run into her arms. He looks scared, terrified even.

"It's okay. It's me, mama Knight. I'm here for you, sweetie." She warmly tells him. But the guys can see from a distance that his breathing is speeding up and he slowly moves backwards.

Mrs. Knight doesn't seem to notice as she keeps walking. She does notice when he suddenly backs up into a wall. His eyes are wide as saucers and even though she is still very far away, he slides to the floor and crawls into a fetal position, shielding himself with his arms. It takes everything for her not to burst into tears as she watches this. He's scared of her. The boy she had watched grow up and who became a son to her, was scared of her.

Her hand flies to her mouth as she tries to keep a sob from escaping. Two arms suddenly engulf her into a hug and she tries to hold in her tears as her son holds her.

"It's okay, mom." Kendall tells her as the three boys also watch their friend rocking back and forth in his fetal position on the floor. He leads his mother back to the kitchen.

"What happened?" Katie suddenly asks from the bottom of the stairs. She stares wide-eyed at Carlos on the floor and her mother in near tears in her brother's arms.

"Your mom tried to walk up to him. She just tried to coax him into helping her cook. He just… he had a bad reaction.." Logan explains, still keeping his eyes on the Latino boy on the ground.

Katie runs over to Carlos, kneeling down to his level.

"Katie, I don't think.." Kendall starts, but he watches in amazement when Katie whispers to his friend and he actually looks up at her. She keeps whispering to him and even takes his hand. Instead of crawling away, he lets her hold him and actually sits up. He tries to avoid looking at the others at all cost and lets Katie help him to his feet.

"What the.. How did she do that?" James asks in amazement and he turns a little angry. Kendall just stares dumbfounded.

"I don't know." Is all he can reply as he shakes his head.

"Come on, Carlos. I'll show you your room." Katie tells him and she carefully drags him along. As she does this, she shoots the others a hurt and apologetic look. They watch as the two disappear up the stairs.

"Come on, Kendall. Let's just finish making dinner." Logan suggests as he puts a hand on his friends shoulder. Kendall turns around and goes back to cutting up vegetables.

Mrs. Knight stirs the rice, no longer saying a word. Her smile is completely gone as she still recovers from shock. Why did he become scared of her? She never hurt him. She treated him like her own son. Why would he be afraid?

These thoughts keep going through her mind as they finish making dinner in silence.

"So, this is my room."Katie announces as she carefully beckons Carlos to come in. He hesitates on the doorstep. "Come on, it's okay." She gently pulls his hand and he reluctantly comes in.

He awkwardly stands near the door as she shows him everything in her room. "Right now, most of my stuff is still in boxes. But I'm going to set up my own agency in here. See, here's my desk and phone. I'll be having more phone lines installed soon, but I have to wait for mom to leave the house. She doesn't really like my money gaining plans." She tells him in all honestly like it's no big deal.

He just stares around, fidgeting with the strings on his hoodie again.

"I was thinking of coloring my walls purple, you know, your favorite. But then I though, why not green? Green is the color of money and I like to be reminded of how rich I'm going to be. So I'm having mom buy me that. Don't you think it'll look awesome?" She asks him. But she sighs when he doesn't respond. He just gazes at th floor suddenly.

"Hm, I guess I'm boring you with this, huh? Come on, let's go see your room." She runs out the room, leaving Carlos to stand there awkwardly. She sighs and comes back in, grabbing his hand. "It's okay." She softly tells him and pulls him along.

They walk down the hall and finally stop in front of a black door. Katie smiles and opens it fully.

"Well, here we are. So what do you think?" She asks with excited eyes and a smile to match. But her smile falters when she finds his face shows no excitement at all. In fact, he just looks plain scared. Again.

She sighs, but puts on another smile. "Come on, let's go inside. You should see what the guys did. They decorated it. Well, I helped a little." She smiles sheepishly and walks inside. He stills stands in front of the threshold. She looks at him and nods with a smile. "It's okay. This is your room. You can come in."

He gulps and still looks hesitant, but then slowly steps into the room. Katie beams at the sudden movement.

"Don't worry about the boxes, we can unpack them later. But here's your bed." She says excitedly, stepping up onto it and jumping up and down. "We made sure to get one with an extra bounce. It's so much fun, you should try it." She laughs, but it stops and she stops jumping when he just stares at the floor. She gets off the bed. "Well, anyway. You can jump on that if you want to. Anyway, here's your closet. It's not big, but you never had that many clothes to begin with. The biggest space will be needed for all your toys."

She grins suddenly as she moves towards a second door inside the room. Carlos frowns a little when she opens it. Behind the door is a walk in closet. Except it is not filled with clothes. It is actually an entertainment room, filled with pinball machines and toys. All the toys and comic books Carlos kept throughout his years of growing up. One corner is dedicated to his love for hockey.

Katie grins widely and picks up a hockey stick. "Look, this one is brand new. It's a gift from mom and me, since your broke your old one." She says and looks at him.

Her smile is wiped off completely when she suddenly sees him trembling. His eyes re filled with fear and he backs away from her.

"Carlos, what's wrong?" She takes a step closer and he nearly falls backwards as he tries to get away too quickly. "carlos, what is it? What did I do?" She suddenly notices his eyes are not focused on her, but rather on what she's holding. Once she realizes this she drops the hockey stick in a second, but it is already too late. Carlos has hurried off into a far away corner of the room, completely curling up into a ball.

"Carlos, I'm sorry. I don't know what happened, but I'm not going to hurt you with the hockey stick. It's a gift for you." She steps towards him, but he immediately pulls his knees in tighter, keeping his eyes on the stick on the floor.

"I don't.. I'll put it away, all right? I'm putting it away right now." She tells him and keeps her eyes on him as she grabs the hockey stick and throws it into the hallway. "See? It's gone. Carlos?" He doesn't look at her. He has buried his face into his arms, terrified and sobbing.

"Katie, Carlos, dinner's ready!" Kendall's voice comes from the stairs. Katie just watches with pain in her eyes as her once fun loving brother has now pulled away from her as well. "Katie?" Kendall calls out from the hallway now.

"Katie, what's.." He stops midsentence when he sees his younger sister standing in Carlos' room in near tears.

"I didn't mean to.. I just wanted to show him his new hockey stick and he ran into that corner.. I didn't know he would be scared of it…" She rambles and Kendall quickly pulls her into a hug.

"It's okay baby sister.." He soothes her as she sobs into his shirt.

"No, it's not! I was the only one he was responding to and I pushed him away…" She cries out as she pulls out of her brother's grasp.

"Katie, it's not your fault.."

"Yes it is.. I was helping him and now he doesn't have anyone…" She cries and he pulls her into his arms again.

"He does, Katie. He has all of us. It's just going to take time to have him trust us. We don't know what he's been through. We just need to be here for him." Katie sniffles and nods. "Come on, let's go eat. Dinner's ready."

Katie sighs. "I'll be down in a minute." She tells him and he nods. He takes one more look at Carlos, before sighing in pain and heading downstairs.

Katie wipes her eyes and walks back over to Carlos. She carefully sits on her knees in front of him and gently starts to guide her hand towards his arm.

"Carlos?" The moment she touches him, he flinches like he's been burned. She pulls her hand away. "No, it's me, Katie. Carlos, please… I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help you. Carlos?" But now he even flinches before she can touch him.

"Katie?" Logan's pained voice sounds from behind her. She turns around and eyes him from the floor. "You coming down for dinner?"

"I pushed him away, Logan.. I can't just go have dinner now."

"Katie, you can't help him right now. Just give him some space. He'll come around." He holds out his arm to her.

"But I can't just leave him up here…" She says and watches her brother as he trembles in front of her.

"I know this is hard, but he just needs to be alone for a minute. He's not going to be okay as long as you stay here. Just give him time." He smiles softly at her and she reluctantly nods and gets off the floor. She walks over to her and he puts his arm around her shoulders. She looks back over her shoulder once more at the lone and shaking figure on the floor. "It's okay, Katie. We have to do this, no matter how much it hurts." Logan tells her, but she can see as much pain in his eyes as she feels.

Together they walk down the stairs and towards the dinner table. Normally this would be a busy time. But now, everyone eats in silence if they even eat at all. They are all lost in thought, thinking of the now so vulnerable shell that is left of their once so energetic friend, brother and son…

A/N Sorry, not a lot happened in this chapter. But I hope you liked it. This is going to be a log process and Carlos might never recover. But keep reading to find out if he does.

Will he start talking again? Will he learn to trust everyone? Keep reading and reviewing to find out

Thanks for all your support already and until next time!

Love, Baxxie