A/N: I hope this makes you whump fans happy. :P

Kendall's first thought when he heard his name was that they were completely, totally, royally screwed. As soon as their pictures flashed up on the screen, Rick's head snapped back to him, then to James, and then Carlos and Logan. Logan dropped his face into his hands as if that would keep Rick from comparing the two faces.

"Oh, no," Carlos muttered under his breath.

Rick crossed to Kendall. The reporter's voice was still talking in the background as he came to stand in front of the boy, blue eyes glittering.

"Big Time Rush is an up-and-coming pop/dance group with thousands of fans worldwide. It is unclear what the boys—all age sixteen—are doing in the bank or whether the robbers know of their identity—"

"We know now," Rick said softly, straight to Kendall.

Kendall didn't say anything, but he was sure his heart was pounding loud enough for Rick to hear and laugh at him. But Rick merely stared at him.

"George," he called over his shoulders, "you got those ties?"

The man to the right of Kendall hefted his bag and took out a handful of white plastic zip-ties. "Never leave home without 'em."

Kendall suddenly felt ill. He took a step back, but Rick caught his arm, fingers tightening and engraving their mark into his skin. With a shocked gasp of pain, Kendall was jerked from the line and thrown to the floor.

"Stay in line!" Rick ordered when Carlos, James, and Logan started to come forward. He pointed at Kendall. "And you—stay down."

Yeah, right. Kendall stumbled to his feet and ran at Rick, ramming his shoulder into the robber's midsection. They both went crashing to the ground, Kendall on top.

Shouts from the others were blocked out as Kendall struggled with Rick, swinging his fists, rolling over and over, slamming into things and scrabbling to get the upper hand. The heel of Rick's palm slammed into Kendall's jaw, stunning him for a second as bright lights flashed in front of his eyes in negative colors. Kendall stumbled backwards onto his rear end, shaking his head to gain focus again. When his vision cleared, Rick was on his feet, reaching for the gun and aiming it at Kendall's face.

"Stay down!" he roared. Kendall realized with shock that sometime during the fight he'd ripped off Rick's mask. The man had curly red hair cut short, freckles, and icy blue eyes that seemed even colder now that they weren't obscured by the mask.

Kendall froze on the ground, watching with horror as Rick raised his gun at someone behind him, eyes wild, furious, out of control. His finger pulled the trigger, and Kendall had just enough time to hear Logan and Carlos yell, "James!" before Rick stepped forward and slammed his boot into Kendall's ribs.

Fire exploded from his midsection, the breath rushing out of him as the pain flared. Kendall gasped sharply and tried to curl in on himself—anything to relieve the pain—but Rick raised his boot and stomped on him again. And then again—the third time, Kendall could feel something snap, the crack echoing in his ears as if there was no one else yelling, the phone wasn't ringing, Carlos wasn't shushing Becky shakily in her ear, James wasn't groaning in pain, Logan wasn't begging Rick to stop, Rick wasn't shouting obscenities at Kendall's face—no other noise surrounded him. As if he were the only one in the empty, silent bank.

Kendall screamed. He couldn't help it—his thought process went completely blank and the instinct to let someone know that whatever they were doing hurt took over. He barely even recognized his own voice. It was guttural and rough and broke about half-way through. He squeezed his eyes shut, not even noticing the edges of his vision fading fast.

He was numb for a second, feeling the giant area of hurt expanding from his ribs and hating it. Kendall couldn't even think, could barely register when Rick flipped him on his stomach and yanked his arms behind his back, except when his shoulder was pulled back so far it tugged on his ribs and made him scream again.

Kendall was vaguely aware of Logan's voice drifting in and out of his ears. It suddenly occurred to him that his friend must've been a whole lot closer to him than he was. He opened his eyes tiredly, wanting to know why that was. Wasn't he back in the line?

Logan's face swam in front of him and Kendall had to blink a few times for it to focus. Logan's eyebrows pushed together and he looked like he wanted to burst into tears—that or scream in terror.

"You're going to be okay," Logan mouthed—or maybe he said it out loud but Kendall still couldn't hear anything save for snippets of conversation.

Kendall frowned as he took in Logan's state. The brunette's face was white as a sheet and he had blood dripping from his temple on down.

"What happened?" he slurred, trying to touch the wound but jerking in surprise as he noticed that his hands wouldn't move. Something dug into his wrists, binding him together. Zip-ties.

Everything snapped back to crystal clear clarity. He lifted his head and saw that he and Logan had been yanked from the line and thrown on the floor. Logan had his hands bound behind his back like him, but he was propped up on his elbow leaning over Kendall and keeping his gaze fixed on Kendall's chest. James was writhing on the ground a couple feet behind him as Rick yanked his hands behind his back as well. Blood poured from somewhere on his arm, staining his blue t-shirt.

When he turned, he could see Carlos shoving Becky behind him as one of the other men came up to him and dragged him by the arm over to where Kendall and Logan lay. He had both a furious look on his face and tears shining his eyes as his attention alternated between James and Kendall.

"Are they okay?" he demanded as the man fastened the tie around his wrists.

Logan shook his head. "I think Kendall has some broken ribs."

Oh. That would explain the snap. Stupid—Kendall had broken ribs before. He should've remembered how that felt.

James was shoved down next to them, fixing his worried, pained eyes towards Kendall. "Is he…?" he tried to say through gritted teeth.

"Fine," Kendall coughed, struggling to sit up. Pain exploded from his ribs and he thumped back again. "Sort of. You?"

"It's a graze," James grunted.

Logan leaned towards him, obviously wanting confirmation that James wasn't lying, but Rick stomped over to them and grabbed Carlos.

"C'mon, shortie," he sneered, using one hand to grab Carlos' short hair and steer him towards the large windows and the other hand to clasp the phone in his hand as he quickly hit the redial button.

"Leave him alone!" Kendall and James yelled.

Rick ignored them, shoving the struggling Carlos through the line—Kendall couldn't believe no one had stepped forward to help them, even under the threat of guns—and up to the window. He put the phone on speaker so everyone could hear it, and behind the glass Kendall could see the cops scrambling to point their guns at Rick.

"What happened?" the man on the other line demanded. "We heard gunshots, screaming… is that Carlos Garcia?"

"Tell them," Rick mocked in Carlos' ear. "Tell them if it's you, Carlos Garcia."

Kendall's rage boiled to a breaking point when he heard Carlos' shaky voice. "It's me," he said, barely over a whisper, barely loud enough for Kendall to hear.

"Leave him alone!"

"Shut up!" Rick shouted harshly over his shoulder. He turned back to the phone and growled, "By the way, you can thank the reporters for alerting us to the fact that we had celebrities in our midst. Now if you want these stupid teenagers to live, I'd hurry up with getting us fifty-thousand dollars in cash, unmarked, and a bus out of here."

"If we give you something, you have to give us something back," the cop warned.

Rick sneered. "Now, what kind of bank robber would I be if I did that?"

"He shot two people," Carlos blurted.

Kendall closed his eyes so he didn't have to see Rick smashing Carlos' forehead into the glass.

"Rick, violence isn't the answer."

"Seems to work for a lot of people here, Henry," Rick said pleasantly.

Henry sighed. "Listen. We scratch your back, you scratch ours. We can't do anything for you until you do something for us."

Rick let go of Carlos long enough to scratch the red stubble on his chin. "I suppose I could let the other hostages go," he mused. "And keep these four lovely boys. Maybe they can sing for me."

Kendall cringed at his laugh. He would rather go forever without singing than stay here with Rick.

"What about the injured?" Henry pressed. "Who else is hurt?"

"None of your business," Rick snapped. "Your precious hostages will be coming out shortly. I hope for these kids' sakes that you've gotten my money, or they will get more than a couple of broken ribs."

"Wait, what—"

Whatever Henry was about to say was cut off as Rick slid the phone closed and started to drag Carlos back. When they were clear of the line, Rick turned him around and shoved him towards the ground, and Carlos fell face-forward onto Logan's lap.

"Thanks," he muttered when Logan used his shoulder to help him sit up. "Did you hear that? They're letting the others go."

"That's great," Kendall said tiredly.

The Latino boy's faint smile faded. "Are you okay, Kendall?" he said in a small voice. "For real."

For real? Kendall shook his head. "I have no idea."

"He should be fine," Logan said quietly to Carlos. "As long as we get him medical attention. We don't know if the broken ribs punctured a lung." He looked Kendall over quickly, listening to his breathing. "I'd say not yet," he decided. "But if Rick keeps roughing him up…"

"I'm fine, guys," Kendall said, annoyed with the way they were talking about him like he wasn't there.

"Alright, ladies and gentlemen," Rick said, standing between the line of hostages and the boys. "As I'm sure you're aware, you all get to go home. We appreciate your patience with us, and—"

"What about Big Time Rush?"

Kendall lifted his head to stare at Becky. The fearless young girl had her fists clenched, glaring straight up at Rick like she wanted nothing more than to kick him in the shins as hard as she could. "You can't keep them," she continued. "They're people too."

"Becky, no," Carlos said quietly, shaking his head.

"No, Carlos," Becky said sharply. "This man is mean and he should know it so he can fix it."

Rick walked over to her. Kendall already knew by the way his feet hit the floor that he was going to do something painful, something unforgiveable to her.

"No!"

Carlos' voice was powerful and demanding, not at all like the Latino. Rick turned around and glared at Carlos and he matched it with gritted teeth.

Kendall's heart swelled with pride at the look of determination on his face. That was Carlos—protecting even when it would get him in trouble.

"She's almost out of here," Carlos said in a low voice when Rick went to speak. "Just let her go."

Rick studied him.

Becky suddenly seemed to realize that talking back to Rick could get her hit, and she backed up a step, back into the line, ducking her head.

Rick nodded. "Alright, shortie," he said slowly. He turned and pointed his gun at Becky. "Listen, sweetie, if you open your mouth again I'll shoot your hero," he said sweetly.

Becky's face paled so fast her freckles stood out. She looked like she wanted to cry, but she caught Carlos' gaze, and then swept it to Kendall's. Kendall gave her a nod.

"You," Rick said, pointing at the woman who'd locked the doors before. "'Go unlock the doors. When I say three, I want all of you out of here. Got me?"

No one said anything, but it was obvious they understood. The woman unlocked the door and stumbled outside, crying. The others stayed behind for a second, watching Kendall, Logan, James, and Carlos.

"One," Rick said threateningly.

The first people rushed out of the door. Becky's mother grabbed her hand and tried to tug her outside with the rest of them, but her daughter resisted, throwing pained looks at Carlos.

"Two."

"Go," Carlos mouthed.

Becky's eyes shone with tears as she let her mother lead her outside.

"Three!" Rick said cheerfully. Two of his men grabbed the glass doors and shoved them closed. Rick turned around to face the boys, and they each glared up at him.

"So, boys." His voice was obnoxiously bright. "How about we have some fun?"

A/N: PLEASE READ THIS:

So I'm sure you guys have heard about FootballandBTR being in the hospital with cancer. If you haven't, BigTimeRush-BTR has an idea: tomorrow we'll put up fics about cancer victims who survive to give him some support and show him we love him. Please do this! I'd love you forever! Thanks guys!