Disclaimer: Don't own Big Time Rush

AN: I know it's almost been a month, but there's a reason for that. Not only have I been playing around with a few ideas for this, some of which will blow your mind to the moon and back; but I have actually been writing the backstory/prequel to this that shows Frankie's first journey through the challenges. I don't have a clue as to when I'm actually gonna put it online, but it will be on Fictionpress if I do decided to post it. I'll let you know if you're curious.

James and Carlos centered chapter along with the revelation of how exactly Lucy and Camille got Kendall away from the cops.

Logan's coming back next time and we get our first glimpse of the Painter Killer ever since he actually kidnapped Logan and Kendall's family. None of you will be happy to see him after he tried to kill Frankie.

Enjoy

Chapter 21- Shock and Awe

James hovered in the doorway that separated Frankie's backyard with the hallway that led to the kitchen and living room, his hand on the knob; having second thoughts about doing what it was he was about to do. Carlos was standing on the other side of the door, standing firmly with his arms folded over his chest as he waited for James to start walking again; not intending to allow the bald boy to back out of what it was that he had to do. James' hold on the doorknob tightened, turning his knuckles white as he let the nerves start to overtake him as he stared forward to the person he needed to talk to, who was sitting at the coffee table in the living room with coloring books and crayons scattered around her.

Katelyn Wilson.

Carlos told him that if he wanted to start being good again and get pass all the horrid deeds he's done, he needed to apologize to the little girl for making her feel bad about her dad earlier in the day. James was nervous to talk to her because he just knew her dad was around and would kill him the moment he showed his face. It wasn't that hard to see that James wasn't Frankie's favorite person in the world at the moment, what with all the arguments they have had at this point and with James bluntly telling his daughter that the reason he was gone was because of her. James was half-expecting Frankie to be waiting for him with a shotgun ready to blow his head off. With the kind of dad he was who killed Richard, which James agreed completely with, just to avoid the possibility of his daughter getting hurt, it wouldn't surprise James if the one-eyed dad was waiting to shoot him. Even if it wouldn't surprise him, James was still worried about getting shot.

He turned to glance at Carlos through the glass of the door, begging him with his eyes to let him off free of this responsibility. James did want to apologize to the girl. He did want to let her know he didn't mean what he said about her dad leaving because of her, but he would like to be alive when he was saying it and not bleeding out on the carpet floor which Katelyn was kneeling on coloring with a large smile on her face. Carlos jabbed a finger towards her from behind the glass, causing James to sigh to himself before he let go of the doorknob and started walking to the little girl, albeit very, very slowly. He was gonna haunt Carlos the moment he became a ghost.

Walking slower than a turtle, James stumbled into the living room; his hands raised over his face to shield himself from the bullets Frankie might shoot at him. Much to his surprise, only Katelyn was in the room. No one else was here. James couldn't see Frankie anywhere. The only sight to him was the movement of Katelyn's hand as she colored a tree and the smile she had while doing it. James couldn't hear any sounds either. It was quiet besides the sound of his breathing and Katelyn's crayon moving across the paper. Maybe Frankie wasn't here. Maybe he was somewhere else in the house. If he was, then James needed to make this quick. After apologizing to Katelyn, he wanted to talk to Frankie about a few things.

His presence must've caught her attention, as she stopped coloring and turned to look at him. Expecting her to be mad or scared of him after what he did, James was shocked when she smiled and waved at him. How can she be so happy after what he's done? James hasn't been close to a good person this week. He was probably worse than most men out there, killing two people and almost murdering his best friend. Plus, he looked like a monster too with his shaved head and defeated aura that surrounded him from the moment he tried to kill Kendall. How can Katelyn not steer away from him? James would hate himself if he was her age and he was told his dad wasn't coming back because of him.

"Hi," she greeted optimistically to the band member, going back to her coloring like if she never stopped. James couldn't find the words to say to her now that he knew she wasn't mad at him. He was prepared to chew himself out to her when he started to see her get scared. He couldn't do that if she wasn't mad at him. James was starting to think that maybe Katelyn was just hiding her fear inside, but quickly dismissed the idea after remembering how young she was. Kids her age didn't know how to hold in their emotions and always let them out. James started racking his brain to try and find some words that can work to apologize to Katelyn. Simply saying 'I'm sorry.' wasn't good enough for him and she deserved a lot more than that.

"Hey," James weakly greeted back to her, his eyes drawn to the girl as he tried to think about what to say. His brain was failing him for the moment, James not able to think of any thoughts at all. His mind was as blank and dark as his soul had become. "What're you doing?" James laughed bitterly on the inside for that one. He could see clear as day what she was doing. He didn't have to ask her. He really was an idiot.

"Coloring!" she answered, setting down her green crayon to pick up a blue one. "I'm drawing a picture for Mommy!" James swore he felt something in his heart die. This girl knew her mom was dead, but yet she was still drawing pictures for her. It was so sad yet it was so sweet at the same time. And he made this girl cry? He really was an asshole. Katelyn held up a picture of two people, a tree, and a smiling sun. Both people had blonde hair with smiles on their faces. "Do you think Mommy will like it?"

James smiled, "I know she will..." he took a deep breath, now knowing he can say this; he had to say this. "Kate..." the little girl looked up to him. "I'm sorry,"

Katelyn blinked her brown eyes up to James' hazel ones in confusion. "Why?" Her picture sat on the table, forgotten for the moment as she stared at her favorite member of Big Time Rush.

James sat down on the floor next to her, folding his legs under him as he sighed. "For being mean to you... For telling you your daddy left because of you." He explained, hoping she understood what he was saying now. Maybe she'll get upset now like he felt she should. James hated everything he's done the past few days, but being mean to this little girl was the worst. Killing Otis and Brad sucked and it scarred him for life, sure, but this girl had already been through more hell than him and he made her cry. He deserved the smack Jo gave him. He deserved an ass-kicking for everything he's done.

Katelyn understood what he meant now. "It's okay," she smiled cutely. "Jo said you were wrong,"

James laughed, "She did, huh?" he found himself smiling for real for the first time since he, Carlos, and James found that box in the apartment. "She's right. I was wrong about you and your daddy and I wanted to say I'm really sorry for what I did. I understand if you don't like me..." he lowered his head in shame. Shame that matched what he felt about Otis. Just because Katelyn said it was fine didn't mean James wouldn't be upset about this for a long time. He made a traumatized girl think her dad wasn't coming back because of her when she just lost her mother. He would probably never forgive himself for that.

James sighed to himself. As much as he hated to admit this... things were a lot easier that day he was an asshole to everyone. It was simple for those few hours. Just kill and get the next pieces to the puzzle. That all changed of course when he tried to kill Kendall. Now he was back to some of his senses, but now he pushed his best friend away from him. Kendall wanted nothing to do with him. Kendall hated him, Logan was gone, and even Carlos was a little afraid of him now after hearing what he did. He had nothing. He really fucked everything up.

Katelyn shook her head, "No. You're still my favorite member," James turned in shock. He was her favorite Big Time Rush member? Why? He yelled at her and made her feel horrible. "When I couldn't sleep, Mommy played my CD. When it was your turn, I always fell asleep." She giggled, throwing her arms around his torso. "You're the best!"

James slowly wrapped his arms around her too. This little girl really was just a giant ball of sunshine and happiness despite everything that's happened. Now he understood why Jo was so attached to her. She was so cute and could make even the gloomiest and most depressed people out there laugh and smile. After all, he was smiling right now. That had to be something.

"Thank you," he thanked quietly to the little blonde girl. "Thank you."

"Baby?"

Katelyn jumped from her spot on the ground, grabbing the picture before she ran to meet with Jo at the bottom step of the stairs. James witnessed with a raised brow as Katelyn handed Jo the picture with a small blush on her face. "This is for you," she said quietly, looking away to the ground as Jo examined the picture. James thought she said the picture was for her mother. Why was she giving it to Jo?

Jo let out an 'aw' sound as she held the picture to her chest. "Thank you so much, sweetie." She bent down to give her a long, loving kiss on her forehead. "I love you so much," she hugged her with her arm, holding onto the picture like if was a lifeline. James found the entire gesture to be adorable. These two really were best friends, the age gap not even in question when it came to these two. What was said next made James surprised.

"I love you too, Mommy." James must've figured his face looked ridiculous since Katelyn giggled over in his direction. "James looks funny!"

Jo stared over in his direction, getting a very protective gleam in her eyes as she stared at him. James guessed since their last encounter didn't go so well, that Jo was being cautious around someone she thought she knew. Never mind. James was still in shock over hearing Katelyn call Jo 'Mommy'. He definitely did not see that one coming.

"James..." her voice was monotone, showing that she would not deal with anything else that may have upset Katelyn. She looked down to her 'daughter', "Did James do anything, Baby?" her tone changed right to loving and soothing when she talked to her. "Should I go get your Daddy?" James was really grateful that he apologized and was nice to Katelyn, or else he would not only have Frankie to be pissed at him, but Jo as well. Did something happen between these guys that he missed? Quite possibly. He's been stuck in his own self-guilt the entire time they've been here. He didn't think Frankie was a relationship guy with what he's seen of him. Or, at the very least, he didn't seem like he was ready to move on with his life just yet.

Katelyn grinned over in James' direction, running over to him and bear-hugging him. "James is my friend!" James was surprised at the grip she had for her age. She could break one of his bones if she kept hugging him this tight.

James smiled nervously over to Jo, who was still looking at him with a stern glare. James didn't blame her. With the love Jo displayed for the little girl that was hugging him, it only made sense she be angry at him and mistrusting after the way he acted to her before. James just wondered how she would be if she knew about him trying to kill Kendall. Jo was out of the room when Kendall spat it out, so she was the only one besides Frankie that didn't know about what he did. She would probably snatch Katelyn off of him and threaten him if he came near her again. Her and Frankie would never allow him near Katelyn if they knew what he had almost done. Speaking of Frankie...

"Jo," the older blonde girl kept her glare, but raised an eyebrow to let him know she was listening. "Is Frankie around?"

"He's putting his brother to bed," she answered, James noticing the faintest hints of a blush and smile on her face when she spoke of him. James wasn't sure if he should play around and mess with her over it, not with everything that's happening. There would be time for teasing later when they were all around and safe from this. Still, his curiosity was peaked with interest.

"Are you two... you know..." he saw her eyes widen and a larger blush creep across her face at his question. "Are you two together or something since Kate called you mommy?" Jo was starting to look like someone smashed a tomato all over her face. Katelyn stopped hugging him and was watching confusingly as red started to completely envelop her 'mother's' face.

"Why is Mommy's face red?" She just said it again. James was really wishing he had listened in on what happened the last few days instead of letting his own anger and guilt take him over. He really wanted to know how this transpired.

Jo got her blush under wraps before she took a deep breath. "No. No James, me and Frankie are not together," was there a hint of sadness and want in her voice as she talked? James shook his head. He must've just imagined it. "After Katelyn ran away earlier to the backyard, I followed her and convinced her that the reason why her daddy 'hurt' Richard was to protect her because he loved her." James nodded, understanding what she was saying. "Afterwards... she asked me if I can be her new mommy." She had her eyes fixed on the little girl who was smiling at her, causing the older woman to smile back. "How can I say no to her?" Katelyn walked over to Jo, the older blonde girl bending down to pick her up and kiss her cheek. "I love her, James. I really do." Katelyn wrapped her arms around Jo's neck.

"I love you too, Mama."

James smiled. "That's really nice of you, Jo. That's really honorable of you to love her like this." He stood up from the ground to get a better look at the newly brought together mother and daughter duo.

Jo smiled back. "She deserves a mom," she kissed her newly acquired little girl on her forehead.

"Yeah." James agreed. "What was Frankie's reaction?" He was confused when he saw Jo look away just a little bit. "He does know, right?" James didn't think it was safe to take this big of a role in Frankie's kids lives and not let him know about it. He would get really pissed and lash out at you, regardless of who you are. He took the safety of his children more serious than James saw anyone take anything. Jo was in deep shit if she didn't tell him soon what she chose to do and he found out himself. It would be Hell on Earth.

"No. He doesn't know," she eyed the stairs that led to the upper level of the house where he was. "I don't want him to know yet until we become better friends. Maybe if I can get on his radar and earn his trust and affection, then there's no way he can get mad at me for becoming his daughter's mother."

"Daddy is really nice." Katelyn stated. "He never gets mad." Jo and James realized that Katelyn has never really seen her dad angry and vicious before. He was always so nice around and to her that she didn't know what her father was capable of. Sure there was those few hours of her thinking her dad was bad, but Jo quickly dismissed that thought from her head the next morning. Katelyn couldn't see her dad as the murderer that he was; only as the nice daddy that he was around her.

Jo turned back to James, "I'm working on it. In the meantime, please don't tell anyone about this..." She turned back to Katelyn and playfully scowled at her. "We were supposed to keep this a surprise..."

Katelyn saddened. "I'm sorry,"

"It's alright, Cutie." Jo nibbled on her cheek, causing her sadness to turn into laughter. "Just keep it a secret from everyone else. We're gonna tell everyone together, okay?"

"Yes, Mommy," she agreed, pressing a finger to her lips to show that she wouldn't tell the surprise to anyone until Jo said it was okay.

"Jo?" said girl turned to James when he addressed her. "Can you tell Frankie I wanna talk to him later?" Jo narrowed her eyes almost protectively at him. James quickly laughed. "It's not about this. I just wanna talk to him about some stuff that's happened lately."

"Like you trying to kill Kendall?" James' eyes widened in surprise. He swore she wasn't in the room when it was revealed what happened between him and Kendall on their road trip. "I heard Kendall say it before he left earlier..." Jo saddened. "How can you do that to him, James? He's your best friend and you almost killed him."

James knew what he did was stupid and he knew he could never truly make up for it to Kendall. He felt like a piece of garbage and would always feel like this for the rest of his life. He felt as bad as the killer they were going up against for his actions. He couldn't answer Jo's question since he didn't even know the answer himself. They were just arguing and he snapped. That was it but that wasn't a good enough answer to use. It would make him look like the psycho he really was when James was trying to move on past his actions. He wanted to move past his killing of Otis, Brad, and attempted killing of Kendall and he couldn't do that if he embraced himself again as a psycho. The last time he did that, he lashed out to everyone for his own faults. He would never do that again.

"How do I know you won't kill Frankie?" James' eyes bugged out of his head at hearing Jo's accusation. The protective aura around her was admirable. Screw imagining it, James knew Jo had something for Frankie. The only other times she was like this was when she was with Kendall.

Katelyn came to his defense, "Don't be silly, Mama." She cutely scolded. "James is too nice. He won't hurt Daddy."

James nodded, "Your baby is right, Jo. Frankie can kill me before I even try anything, not that I'm going to anyway." He quickly added. "I just wanna talk to him about some stuff; that's all. I swear..." He promised. He really needed to speak with Frankie. There were some things he wanted to talk about and apologize for. Plus... he wanted to know what Kendall meant when he said Frankie was right about something.

Jo sighed, "This is gonna cost me a favor..." she mumbled before she nodded at him. "Fine. I'll ask him to talk to you." She promised.

James nodded appreciatively at her. "Thanks a bunch, Jo. I really appreciate this."

"Just don't hurt him, James." She warned. Okay, James couldn't hold it in anymore. This was a moment where things weren't too dark, so he felt it was okay to ask this now.

"Does someone have a crush?" he smirked at her, her blush coming back tenfold.

"I'm gonna walk away now," she said as she took Katelyn up the stairs back to where she had walked down in the first place, the picture her chosen daughter drew her still held tight in her left hand. James let a chuckle escape his lips as she climbed.

"Good for you," he congratulated. He was genuinely happy for her. Ever since Kendall made the bold move to not choose either Jo or Lucy, Lucy had accepted it and focused more on her music while Jo had been in a sort of state of lost. James had asked her out, but she kindly turned him down and said that she wasn't looking so soon after Kendall. James understood and wished for her to find happiness and that he was always around if she needed someone to talk to. He was happy she was finally finding that happiness he wished for her. He silently wished her luck on breaking the hardened Frankie Wilson. She would need it.

He heard the backyard door open, not bothering to turn his head as he knew who it was. "You did it?"

James nodded, turning over to smile at Carlos. "Yeah. Yeah man, I did. You were right. I do feel a lot better now that I apologized to her. I even got myself a talk with Frankie later."

Carlos smiled back. "That's awesome, man. Soon enough, you'll be ready to talk to Kendall about what happened between you two." Carlos was shocked when James and him talked about what happened just a little bit ago after he asked him to help him be good again. James didn't hold anything back and let him in on everything that happened between the two of them out there. Carlos was ashamed of James, but when he broke down and cried over what he did and wished he can take it all back and be friends again with Kendall, Carlos knew he was genuine about fixing things with everyone. Carlos told him that he needed to work up to apologizing to Kendall and that he couldn't just rush into it or Kendall wouldn't listen. James needed to work things out with everyone else first and asked who else he felt he needed to apologize to. James said Katelyn's name right away and the new journey started for James' redemption.

James nodded sadly, "Yeah... Maybe..." Both heads turned when the front door was practically kicked open, both sets of eyes widening when they saw who came in.

Kendall was missing a finger as his arm was draped over Lucy's shoulder, Camille carrying a machete in her hands with dried blood all over it.

"Jesus fuckin' Christ, what happened!?" James shouted, him and Carlos moving quickly to survey the damage. Kendall's shirt was stained with his blood, soaking the bright green color into a sickening dark color. The spot on Kendall's hand where his pinkie finger used to be was opened, blood still slipping out of the hole that was there. His eyes were drooped shut, looking like he had been through the wringer and back.

Camille threw the machete to the ground, staring at James appalled like if he was an idiot. "Are you serious!? Kendall's finger is gone! What the hell do you think happened!?"

James held his hands up, "Excuse me! I'm just shocked to see my friend maimed!"

"How can you still call him your friend after you tried to kill him!?"

James flinched at the hurt comment from Camille, knowing that he will probably be hearing that for a really long time now. Of course he still saw Kendall as his friend, his best friend, even though they were on a rocky road right now and will be for a really long time until they can finally hold hands and walk down the road of friendship once again.

"Enough!" It was Carlos who broke in. "What exactly happened to him?" he asked, eyeing Lucy; who was helping Kendall onto the couch. Once his butt hit the couch, he slumped over and was now laying on the couch. His arm was dangled over the couch now, blood still slipping out his wound and onto Frankie's carpeted floor. His eyes were halfway shut as he slipped in and out of consciousness, moans and groans of pain escaping his lips every so often.

Lucy took a deep breath to calm her nerves, not having a minute to sit and breath since her and Camille had to help Kendall out of the building they found him in and escape from the cops. "We'll explain in a minute, but first things first; Kendall needs some bandages or something to help with his wound. It hasn't stopped bleeding since we found him and we don't know how long it's been since his finger was cut off." She spoke rationally, despite how bewildered and confused she was on the inside over everything. This week just kept getting worse and worse.

Carlos nodded, knowing he can wait a few minutes until Kendall's wound was covered. He might've not been the smartest when it came to medical stuff, but he was sure that if Kendall's wound was left unattended, it can get an infection and he'll probably lose his hand as well. That wouldn't happen if Carlos can help it. "Okay... I'll go ask Frankie if he has anything worthwhile that we can use for Kendall's wound."

"I think I do..." Speak of the devil, he was standing just behind James as he stopped to try and understand what exactly was happening right now. "With all the shit I've been through, I now always have some bandages, painkillers, and whatever on hand for use." Before he could turn, his eye honed in and stared at the machete that Camille left on the floor. Carlos was bewildered and surprised to actually see fear on Frankie's face. "Where did you get that?" he asked, but not in the harsh tone that he always spoke in around them. Now he sounded scared and regretful, which was a first Carlos saw him as. "Tell me!" Okay, scratch that, there it was; but it wasn't as harsh as he could make it. This more of a gruff and not a shout.

"Kendall had it," Camille answered. "Why? You seen this before?" she asked. The fear temporarily left Frankie's face and in its place came laughter. Carlos felt horrible for thinking this, but he didn't think Frankie knew how to laugh after what he's been through. This was a new side to him that they were all seeing that wasn't influenced by his kids, who weren't even down here now that Carlos took a good look around. Jo was just finishing climbing down the stairs as his laughing stopped and a sad and disgusted look crossed his face.

"I killed someone with that machete..." he answered. He walked over to it and pointed to a dried blood stain that was just in the middle of the blade. "I slashed his head open with that part right there. It was the first person I killed..." Not one trace of guilt or regret was in his voice as he coldly said what he said.

"First?" Camille asked. It was then Carlos remembered that only he, James, and Kendall knew that Frankie had killed four, well... six, people and not just one. They knew Frankie had killed one of the people that the killer sent after them and Richard, but they weren't present when he said that he killed a handful of people beforehand. Carlos knew it was shocking to hear the first time, so he could guess just how much the others were taking in at this point.

"I murdered six people. The guy I killed with the machete was the first," he gave a half-assed explanation before he turned and brushed past Jo to get back up the stairs to presumably get the medical equipment that they needed to help with Kendall's wound. It was quiet the entire time until he came strolling back down with a first aid box, no one knowing what to say after hearing him say he killed so many people without a trace of guilt in his voice. He tossed the box to James. "There..." he glanced to the machete one more time before he swallowed, probably something that was in his throat. "Get that away from me. I don't want to see it." He walked away after that, not sparing anyone a second glance as he walked up the stairs. However, since it was quiet, they heard a sniff and a small choked gasp coming from him.

"He tries to not show it," James started as he and Lucy started wrapping the bandages that were in the box around Kendall's hand. "But he feels really bad about everything he's done. I know because he reminds me of me. I acted like that the other day when I was thinking about... what I did..." Kendall was the only one James really talked to about his guilt with Otis, so he couldn't say out-loud anything involving his act of guilt unless Kendall would give him support. Saying exactly how he killed Otis to everyone on top of them already fearing him after he almost killed Kendall, he wouldn't be able to handle the pressure.

Jo nodded in agreement, "He's trying to act like a bad person when he's not. Just because he had to do horrible things, doesn't make him a horrible person." Jo owed Frankie one hug or kiss since he was sad right now. She would run up real quick and give it to him, but she needed to know what exactly happened with Kendall. "Anyway, what's wrong with you guys?" she was looking at Camille and Lucy, the former looking scared and the latter frustrated.

Lucy sighed before she pointed to Kendall, James, and Carlos one-by-one. "The three of you are wanted by the LAPD for the murder of three men that were discovered in your apartment yesterday."

James and Carlos' eyes widened, remembering that they had left the dead corpses of David, Randall, and Jason in the apartment for practically anyone to find. "Seriously!?" James shouted aggravated. "They tried to kill us first! Do they happen to know that!?" Eyes widened again when the fourth member of the group of men that they killed was remembered. "Is Frankie wanted for killing Richard...?" Not surprisingly to James, Jo was the one who quickly pulled out her phone to look and see if her crush was wanted for murder.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she checked the latest news on 'The L.A. Times' website. "His murder is the second most popular news right now, but it says here that no one knows what happened. There were no witnesses and that his body was discovered this morning in the street with his neck snapped." James winced slightly. Frankie really must've hit Richard with his car hard enough to do something like that. "You guys and the other murders are the most talked about news right now."

"Of course," Carlos sighed. "We just can't catch a break here. Now we have the cops after us for defending ourselves. But they're not supposed to just assume we did it. Sure it was our apartment, but that doesn't mean we did it."

"We did though," James reminded. "Kendall killed Randall and Jason and Frankie killed David..."

"Still... that's not how it's supposed to be. We could be wanted for questioning, but they just can't say we did it without evidence-"

"Guys," Camille interrupted the two's bickering before it got out of hand. James and Carlos can go back and forth with one another in an argument for a really long time and time wasn't something they can afford to lose at this point.

"How do you guys know this?" Carlos asked, seeing the two of them exchange a bunch of looks before they nodded to the other.

Camille took a deep breath. "Because the cops tried to arrest Kendall before when we found him." She sat on the carpeted floor, folding her legs beneath her as she got comfy. "We went to check on Kendall..."

...

"Come on Kendall, talk to me." Lucy pleaded, to the hunched form of Kendall. Kendall's moans and groans were all she was getting from him, Lucy noting that it probably has to do with the loss of blood and the intense pain he was feeling right now from missing his finger. Her and Camille were standing in the broken down and messed up building that was the site of Kendall's challenge. By the missing finger on his hand, they came to the obvious conclusion that the boy had to cut off his finger.

"He's in a lot of pain," Camille observed by the way Kendall was acting with barely moving and keeping his hand clutched to his chest at all times. She saw a machete held loosely in his right hand, drops of blood dripping down from the blade to the floor. Taking it from him and holding it in one of her hands, Camille turned back to Lucy. "We need to help him out of here. Lucy nodded, but just as they were about to help their friend get out; they heard a loud voice booming from outside.

"Kendall Knight! You and your friends are under arrest for three counts of murder!"

Camille and Lucy glanced to each other when the cop's words came echoing in their ears. Camille grabbed Kendall's right side, her stomach not being able to take going on his left where his finger was missing, while Lucy took the left side; feeling slightly sick at seeing the hole that Kendall had given himself after cutting his finger off.

"Where do we go?" the rocker girl asked.

Camille glanced upstairs then back to her. "Let's go up and then we can figure it out from there." She said. The two led Kendall back up the stairs, making it back to the room where Kendall had exited from his challenge. Camille screamed, causing Lucy to wince as her brain started beating against her skull now for how loud Camille yelled. The actress nodded forward. "I found Kendall's finger," she choked out as she controlled her vomit from escaping her lips.

Lucy looked to see the departed finger of her friend lying on a table with a small pool of blood beneath it and dripping down the table and onto the floor. She hissed. "That is disgusting. Even if he had to do it, its still gross that his finger is off of his body." She felt a little mean for saying that, but seeing a dislodged finger from your friend would do that to someone. She almost jumped when she saw something else. "Is that a hand!?"

Camille glanced over and, true to Lucy's word, there was a hand on the counter to the burned kitchen. Camille almost dropped Kendall to clutch her stomach. "Oh my God. Why is there a hand in here?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

The sound of a door being kicked in alerted them that they weren't alone. Lucy opened the window, a fire escape lying outside just waiting for them to use it. Kendall moaned as they helped him through the window, Camille having to put the machete in her pants in order to close the window; much to her absolute disgust. They were on the opposite side of the building so no cops were in sight at the moment, but that can change very soon if they didn't move.

"How do we get down?" Lucy asked looking around.

Camille noticed a ladder and made her way over to it, making sure Kendall was secured in Lucy's hands before she did. She looked back to Lucy. "I'll hold onto Kendall and you send the ladder down. After we land, start climbing down and we'll continue on from there." She ordered, feeling weird with the weapon that was in her pants.

Lucy nodded while Camille got a firm grip on Kendall and on the ladder. Lucy unhooked the chain that was keeping the ladder up and sent them down, following after as soon as the ladder connected with the street. They heard the sound of people running as they entered the train station, hoping to get away from the cops before they all were brought to jail.

"Police! Stop or I'll shoot!" Camille heard one of the officers yell as they descended down the stairs. Lucy was starting to get tired as was Camille, but they knew that if they stopped Kendall would be caught and sent to prison and there was no way they were allowing that.

They hopped down the last step and made it to the tracks, having just missed the train.

"Damn it!" Lucy cursed.

Camille's daring and crazy side kicked in when the train on the other side of the platform started to pull in. Lucy saw her daring face and shook her head. "No way Camille," she argued. "Just no fuckin' way!"

"Either that or Kendall is going to jail for something he didn't have a choice but to do," Camille shot back. Lucy mumbled a few curses but followed on after her anyway. Camille had to carefully go down on the tracks due to the machete that was in her pants; helping Kendall to jump down after she landed. Camille knew that the dirty blonde was just about out of it, only still standing because of her and Lucy holding on to him. Lucy hopped down next and led him across the tracks.

A loud horn caught the rocker's attention. "The train's gonna hit us!" she yelled.

Camille pulled Kendall up after scurrying on up herself, the nine fingered boy rolling over barely hanging onto consciousness. Camille grabbed Lucy's hand and hoisted her up before the train could hit her. They picked Kendall back up and jumped on to the departing train, having escaped the cops within the nick of time as they came into the station.

Panting loudly and tiredly, they took seats towards the back where there was no one sitting; grateful that there was hardly anyone on the train as of right now. They sat Kendall up, while they took in everything that just happened. Not only now was Kendall missing a finger, but he and James and Carlos were all being charged with murder.

"How can the guys be charged with murder?" Camille asked out-loud, finding it odd that they were being charged with something that they had no choice but to do. Kendall explained what happened in the apartment to them that day, saying that The Painter Killer had sent spies after them and that they had no choice but to kill them. It wasn't fair that they were in trouble for that.

Lucy shrugged, "I don't know. They didn't have a choice but to kill those guys..." She sighed. "As if things weren't hard enough already," she leaned back in her seat.

Camille followed suit, taking the machete out and keeping it in her lap for now until they were gonna exit the train. "Yeah..."

...

As they finished the story, the rest of the gang was sitting in shock and admiration at Camille and Lucy for their actions today. They went against the cops to get Kendall out of there in one piece. That took a lot of finesse and courage to do. Their respect for them just went up to new levels. But, even so, they were all annoyed that now they were gonna have the cops on them from here on out. Now they needed to be even more careful with what they did to make sure they wouldn't lure any of them back here to their hiding spot. Why couldn't things just be easy for them? As if things weren't already straining enough with their family missing and the torment they had over all their actions, now being arrested was on the list.

James was the one who sighed and broke the silence that fell between them. "You guys did great..." he turned to Carlos, "But it's time for us to go back out and do our next challenges. The sooner we're done, the sooner we can now clear our name; despite that we actually did kill those guys..."

Carlos nodded slowly, "Yeah... I understand... I'll go next." Carlos turned towards the direction of the kitchen where the box was still sitting carefully, now almost half of the challenges completed and discarded from the cardboard box. James was about to open his mouth and argue with Carlos until he realized what he was giving him. James can stay here with Kendall and help him with his recovery until he had to go. If he helped Kendall with his healing, maybe he can earn some of his trust back. As much as James hated to let Carlos go alone after the last two times the traumatized boy had to do a challenge, he knew that it needed to be done. Like Frankie said back in 2J a few days ago, Carlos was a grown man and can make his own choices. If he wanted someone to come, he would ask.

"Carlos?" as the boy was about to reach in and pull out his next challenge, the voice of Lucy stopped him. Carlos turned his head back to look at her worried face. "After the last two times..." She took a shaky breath. "Do you really want to get hurt again?" She felt horrible seeing Carlos dying on that hospital bed and she felt just as bad seeing him defeated and depressed after coming back from killing someone, she didn't want to see him all sad and hurt again. She didn't want Carlos to lose the spunk and happiness that he was known for and become a shell of his former self. Sad and scary to say... he may already be a shell of his former self with how he looked right now.

"No, I don't; but I have to do this..." Carlos appreciated and was flattered that she was worried for him, but he couldn't stop now when they were getting closer. This sick bastard has been free long enough and it was time that someone completed his messed up games and bring him down, regardless of how much damage it did to him in the process. Too many people have died already. Carlos didn't want him killing Bruce to be for nothing. "Not just for me, but for everyone that's suffered because of this guy." Carlos took a glance upstairs before he looked back to the worried form of Lucy.

"That family up there has been through so much. Nate won't ever know his parents or his aunt because of this guy; Katelyn lost her mother to this sick bastard; and Frankie's been through more shit than anyone I've ever met. They've lost so much because of this guy and if I can stop it by doing these challenges, then by God hand me the next paper because I'm gonna do some good for them!"

All eyes were wide as he finished up his little speech. Carlos was looking determined as he fished out the next piece of paper from the box that had his name on it. Carefully opening it, Carlos read to himself:

Carlos Garcia,

Remember the place where Kendall did his first challenge with the glass? Well, go back there and you'll find a door near where Kendall crawled out from the tunnel. In there will be a surprise. It's sure to 'shock' you once you see it.

You're sure to get a spark out of it

Carlos was confused when he finished reading it, but knew that his answer will be answered once he gets back to where the very first challenge that they ever did had taken place. He eyed the rest of his friends that were staring at him for his little speech that he did before he took out the paper. He cleared his throat. "I gotta go back where Kendall did his first challenge. Apparently there was another door where he came out from." He said, James nodding as he remembered where everything had started in that little broken down power-plant. Now that James knew where he was gonna be if something happened like with Kendall, Carlos would have back-up ready for him if he needed it. "I'm gonna go now. I'll be back as fast as I can."

"You better come back in one piece." James warned worriedly, the conditions that Carlos came back in for his other challenges ringing clear as day in his head. Carlos nodded over to James before he glanced apologetically to Lucy before he walked out the door slowly. Since Kendall left the BTR Mobile at the site where he cut off his finger, they had to rely on walking now to get where they had to go, which would only waste more time for them.

James turned back to the rest of the group, "We should probably start keeping track of the news since we're now probably FBI's Most Wanted or something." They all nodded slowly Camille and Lucy slowly dispersed through the house, Jo staring sadly at Kendall for the pain he was in for a few seconds. "Can you ask Frankie if...?"

"Yeah." She responded before she walked up the steps, glancing back real quickly to see James grab Kendall's uninjured hand and saying that he was sorry for everything he's done. Reaching the top of the steps, she almost jumped when she saw Frankie leaning against the wall with his legs outstretched and his arms folded. "You scared me," she said as she tried to get her heartbeat under control.

"What does James want?" he asked, having heard everything from the story of how Camille and Lucy helped Kendall escape up to what James just said a few seconds ago. He stood up from his spot on the floor. "What does that asshole want from me?" he was clearly still mad at James for talking to his baby the way he did.

Jo had to smile, "He apologized to Katelyn," she almost laughed at the way his eye widened in shock. "They're friends now." She was getting off-topic now. "James just wants to talk to you later, that's all." Frankie frowned. "Before you say no, I'm using one of my favors to get you to talk to him." The frown turned into a look of annoyance. Jo smirked. "So now you have to talk to him, right?"

"I guess I do," he sighed.

"Speaking of favors, I owe you this..." she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "That was for you being sad before about the machete. If you don't mind me saying," she heard him groan. "You can always talk to me if you want to talk about how you feel."

"Yeah you already told me this before the other day before I killed Richard..." he reminded, his cheeks just a little red from the kiss. "I don't want to talk about anything I've done to you or anyone." He was coming off as a little rough, but Jo understood that it was a sore subject for him. "The last person who I thought I could trust tried to..." he quickly stopped himself when he saw what he was about to do. "Forget what I said." Jo wouldn't. She wanted to help him get better.

"Well... if you change your mind, I'm always here." She said. Smiling again, she wrapped her arms around him for a second before she pulled away.

"I wasn't sad or whatever." He said confused.

She winked, causing them both to blush. "Yep. I know." She walked away, leaving him to process what just happened. Frankie didn't know what just happened. He got the reason why she kissed him, but why did she hug him if it didn't have to do with the favor that he owed her. He did have to admit that she did feel nice, even if he didn't lift a finger to return the hug to her. He, however, was slowly considering confessing how he felt about his pain to her. She was really nice and was good to his kids. Who else would be better to talk to then her? His kids were too young to understand everything and his daughter would be scared of him again and hate him for sure if she found out he killed Isaiah.

He wanted to talk to someone about killing his best friend, desperately wanting comfort and assurance that he had to do it. He kept telling himself that, but he needed to hear it from someone else. Kendall was the only other person that knew, but he didn't have the time to tell him anything about it since he had his issues with James to worry about. Watching the beautiful blonde walk down the steps, he was starting to think that he found the perfect person to talk to about everything, but his heart wasn't all in it; scared to get hurt after everything.

He sighed. "Why is everything so confusing...?"

...

Carlos just passed the spot where Kendall had fallen from the tunnel, not sparing a glance to the bullet casing of the bullet James fired to get the lock off of the door. Carlos was reliving the fear that he felt here when he and James thought that Kendall might not make it and die in here. He felt the cold night air against his skin, but did his best to not let it affect him and kept going. He did, however, keep his arms wrapped around his chest to try and dull out the cold air, not having a jacket or sweater on right now.

Rounding the corner, he did indeed see a door there like the note said. Gripping the knob in a shaky grip, he opened the door and was quickly met with the sight of a bunch of active electrical condensers. Remembering the note saying that he was in for a shock and would get a spark out of this, Carlos rolled his eyes at the killer's cruel sense of humor. Closing the door behind him, his determination skyrocketed after seeing a glimpse of the paper on the other side of the room. No doubts of giving up crossed his mind as he stood in front of the electrical field and made the bold move to go on through after piecing together what he had to do.

Carlos had started to go through the field of electric condensers, being careful to not to touch the wires as these things will fry or shock him if he comes in any kind of direct contact with it. He liked having his skin on his body and not as barbecue roasted.

He made it pass one by army crawling under it and soon afterward started to feel hot; the constant electricity going by blazing with heat. He tried to go through the second one, but the blood loss weakened him and he slipped a little…the middle of his chest getting burned…bad.

"AHHHHHH!" Carlos screamed as he made it through, but most of the skin on his chest didn't. Carlos hissed and clutched his chest as he crawled under the third one and accidentally stood up early in a moment of hysteria, burning his foot and ankle.

Carlos stopped from screaming and carefully made it through the fourth one with what little strength that he had left after the burning and electrocuting that he's dealt with, this time not getting burned... lucky him, he thought of himself after standing back up; feeling woozy and disoriented and about to fall down in pain.

Only one more, but the blood loss, the heat and the burnt marks were getting to him and he needed to move fast before he collapsed.

Carlos jumped through the middle of the condenser as there was space there and fell on his face because of his ankle and all the other injuries he had received. Weakly looking up, he started crawling over to the table where the piece was and used it as support to stand up. But as his hands closed around the paper, the pain became too much for him and he collapsed; the piece of paper falling from his fingers as his hand opened after he fell unconscious.

End of Chapter 21 of Heavy Blood

Carlos is out; Kendall s injured; and James is making a resolve to fix all his mistakes. Yeah, I say this chapter was well spent.

Would you believe me if I say that that James/Katelyn scene wasn't intended to be there? It just came to me and I had to write it.

Also, I wanna hear you're opinions on this, do you think Frankie is too far gone? Do you think he's too dark and too guilt-ridden to give people a chance? I'm just curious as to how you all view his mindset at his point. It's funny because he and James were so alike in the beginning and now James is trying to better himself while Frankie's still in the same place as he was before he met the guys.

Logan's coming back next time :) Be prepared.

Next Time: Meet and Greet