Hey guys! Multiple things! 1) Sorry this took so long. Some things have been happening. Being sick, being worried about my friend, school, getting my inner clock back on track, other stories, just things. I'm so sorry. I hope the long wait didn't make me lose any viewers. I'm very sorry. 1 1/2) Again, sorry. This chapter is kinda filler-y ("I think this line is mostly filler." Sorry.) because I wanted to make sure I posted today and I didn't have enough time to write more. Don't worry, I'm already brainstorming the next chapter. I have a few good ideas. 2) I want you guys to go check out "News Center", can be found on my profile. I highly suggest you follow since I'll be posting notes to you guys there that I need to tell you between posts. I also highly highly suggest you check it out today since my latest note has a time limit on it that ends tonight, at midnight. You have all of today. It's all explained in there. 3) Don't know if it's important, but I decided where this story is in the show. I haven't figured out where in Austin & Ally, but in Big Time Rush, it takes place between "Big Time Breakout" and "Big Time Dreams". Don't know if that means anything but it gives you a frame of reference.

A knock sounds through 2J.

"James, get the door," Carlos demands, distracted, as he, Kendall, Logan, and James sit on the couches in their living room, playing video games.

"Why?" James asks, not breaking his unwavering stare or halting his movements on the controller.

"Because you're closer."

"I am not, you are."

"Yes, you are. Being closer is a state of mind, my friend."

"It is not!"

"Says the liar {1}."

"Carlos, stop trying to bring that back! There's a reason it died out!"

"OK, I will…Not {1}."

"Carlos!"

"Oh, for crying out loud! I'll get it!" Kendall exclaims, about to set down his controller.

Logan quickly stops him, "No! You can't! That's what the rebels want!" he whispers the last part fiercely. "Carlos, you do it."

"What, why?"

"Because you're not on my team."

"Neither is James!"

"Fine, James, you go."

"No!" James shouts.

"They're gonna go away soon, so we need to decide," Kendall points out.

"OK, I vote we pause it. They invented that feature for a reason, you know," Logan points out.

"Overruled," the others chorus.

"On what grounds?!"

"On the grounds that if you pause it, you mess up all of our zones," James voice for them.

"Fine, then I'll get it so you guys can stay in. I'm not contributing anything, anyway," Logan mutters.

Kendall speaks next, "No! If I can't leave, you can't leave either!"

"Wait, why can't Kendall get the door, again?" Carlos asks, confused.

"Because then you and James will be ahead," Logan explains.

There's a pause, "Kendall, you should go get the door."

"Yeah," James agrees.

There's another round of knocks.

"Well, since none of us are gonna get it, there's only one thing we can do…" Kendall trails off, them all know what he has in mind.

There's a beat of silence before they all shout, "KATIE!"

She comes out from the hall, "What?!"

"Door," they say simultaneously, as usual.

She rolls her eyes before turning around, facing the door. She turns the knob, greeted with 2 people turning to walk away. They stop as they hear the door open.

"Oh, hey guys!" Katie greets, "Ally and Trish, right?" she guesses, pointing to each girl.

'Ally?' James picks up on.

"Yep!" Ally confirms. She pauses skeptically, "Katie, right?"

"Right!"

"Yes!" Ally cheers, pulling her arms back in celebratory victory.

Austin, leaning against the wall by the door, chuckles quietly at her cute dorkiness.

Ally gets a load of the girls' odd looks, and instantly becomes sheepish and blushes, "Sorry…I'm terrible at names so I get excited when I get one right…"

Once again, Austin smiles at her. It may be true that she's bad with names, he honestly doesn't know, but she definitely makes up for it.

"So, anything I can help you with?" Katie asks, politely.

"Yes, you can. Trish and I were going to go shopping today and we wanted to know if you had any recommendations."

"Yeah, sure. Here, come in," she steps away for them to come in just as James pops up, now blocking the door.

"Hey Ally!"

"Hey James," Ally smiles back while Trish rolls her eyes at her friend's actions and oblivion

"So, I hear you two lovely ladies are going shopping, huh?"

"Yep! That is what I said…"

"Just…you two? No one else?"

"Well, no, not quite —"

"—Who all is going, then?"

"Well, Trish and I, obviously," Ally restates. Austin smirks and takes this as a good moment to make himself known, "but also—"

"—Austin…" James interrupts, glaring slightly.

Austin's smirk deepens, "Yep!" the end of the word popping, "That's me."

"What are you doing here?"

Austin pushes past him, walking into the apartment, "Well, as Ally was about to say before you rudely interrupted her," he enunciates, making his voice sharp. He crosses his arms as he turns to face James a few feet away, "We're going shopping."

"You? You're going shopping?" James asks incredulously, becoming irritated, facing him as well. Ally and Trish follow in, awkwardly.

His smirk widens even more, "Mm-hm. I mean, I couldn't let these two beautiful girls," he flourishes his arm towards them then turns his attention back to James, "go out into a big, unfamiliar city alone, could I? What kind of man would I be if I allowed that?"

James glares and Austin relishes it.

"So," Katie interrupts, and they all look at her, Austin politely facing her while James glares a few seconds longer before turning his attention to her, "You guys wanted places to shop?"

"Mm-hm," Trish responds, "we're gonna get our shopping on!"

"Yeah!" Ally exclaims, then does a little, awkward dance.

She gets weird looks from just about everyone in the room. Trish looks weirded-out but is somewhat used to her best friend by now, Katie looks concerned for her sanity, Kendall, Logan and Carlos haven't looked up from their game, James looks scared and confused and admiring all at once, and Austin just smiles through his eyes and lightly on his lips with one thought running through his head, 'That's my girl.'

Ally immediately stops, her arms falling to her sides, blushing, and ducking her head.

'Again… Adorable.'

"OK," Trish breaks the ice, "Katie, you were saying."

"Oh, right. Well, I—"

"—Hey kids!" Katie's interrupted by Aunt Jen walking into the room.

"Hey Aunt Jen!" Austin greets, happily. As much as he was enjoying irking James and making him irate, he can't help but be happy to see his favorite aunt-that-isn't-really-his-aunt. She's awesome.

"Hey," Trish puts in and Ally just goes with a respectful, "Hello, Mrs. Knight."

"Oh, Ally, you don't have to call me 'Mrs. Knight'. You can call me Aunt Jen. You too, Trish."

"Really?" Ally asks, skeptically and cautiously, "That seemed like a family thing."

"You practically are family already. If not now, you will be one day," Aunt Jen sends a sly, connotative wink to Austin.

No one catches it but him, and he immediately blushes and dips his head a little. How did she know…?

Meanwhile, Ally matches him but for a different reason, "Oh, well, thanks…" She didn't know she meant so much to these people. And so quickly.

"Can I finish my thought now?" Katie asks, actually noticing both blushing but doesn't comment on them.

"Sure. Nothing's stopping you, Katie," Aunt Jen replies, walking past the group to the sink.

Katie rolls her eyes then focuses her attention again, "OK, good places to shop are—"

"—You guys are going shopping?"

Katie throws her hands up in the air, "I give up!"

Ally glances from Katie to Aunt Jen, "Yeah. Trish figured it was better to do it earlier on in the trip."

"Yeah, then we can wear our stuff around here!" Trish tacks on.

"Oh, this is so cool! We could make it a Girl's Day! Katie and I can go with you and we can grab Jo, Camille, and Cece."

"That would be a lot of fun and I would love to do that but one problem," Ally points out.

"What?"

"Well, that we're not all girls."

"What?"

"Austin's going with us," Ally explains, just as Austin walks right up to her side, raising his arm halfway.

"You're going shopping?"

"Yeah…"

"Oh, sweetie, you don't have to. I know your protective, but I'll make sure they're safe. You can just hang out with the boys."

"That's nice of you but I want to go."

"You do?"

"Mm-hm," he nods, "Besides, I already promised Ally that I'd go."

"Oh."

Inside, Austin panics, 'Wait, 'Oh'? Did she emphasize it? Is she on to me?! Of course she is! She's Aunt Jen! Oh my gosh, is she gonna tell Ally? I wanna be the one who tells her. She deserves it.' He goes on for a while, zoning out while Aunt Jen, Ally, and Trish start talking.

"OK, well, I doubt he wants to be the only boy there among 7 girls," Aunt Jen starts, "Well, I guess maybe—"

"—No," Trish argues, "He's different, he's not interested in things like that," she can't help but wonder why Ally hasn't taken, or even noticed, this hint.

"OK, well, maybe the boys would like to come."

James takes his chance, "Yeah, we would." He's not letting this pop star take his girl. What a ridiculous poser.

"Great!" Aunt Jen happily exclaims, "Sounds great! Now it won't be awkward for Austin. Boys!" she calls to Carlos, Kendall, and Logan, "Save because we're going shopping!"

"WHAT?!" said guys chorus, very loudly, their attention snapping to her.

"We're going shopping," Aunt Jen repeats, simply.

"WHY?!" they ask but soon they hear a crashing noise of defeat, turning their attention back to the TV, throwing their controllers down once they realize what that sound meant, "AH MAN!"

"Because we need more guys going so Austin doesn't feel awkward," Aunt Jen explains, continuing.

"Why is Austin willingly going shopping with a bunch of girls?" Kendall asks, beginning to get up from the couch, Logan and Carlos doing the same.

"Yeah, doesn't he know that's one of the worst kinds of torture?" Logan inquires, backing Kendall up.

"I agree with them and I like shopping!" Carlos adds, gaining 7 weird looks, "What? Shoe shopping is fun {2}!"

Aunt Jen ignores that, starting to make her way to Austin, "Because he wanted to go shopping, right, Austin?" She taps him and he snaps out of his own thoughts.

"Pancakes!" he blurts. That's his go to lost-in-thought response. It probably won't make things worse. It'll at least make things less bad than if he said what was actually on his mind. He glances at everyone's surprised faces, "I'm sorry, what were we talking about?"

"We were talking about how you have consciously given yourself up to the worst kind of torture known to man," Logan explains.

Austin quickly becomes confused, speaking slowly, "You mean someone offering you the most delicious pancakes but then putting them on a table and tying you up so they're constantly out of arms length but you can still smell them and then —?"

"—Really, Austin?" Ally interrupts, knowing he'l go on, giving him a look, "That's the worst kind of torture you can think of?"

'Minus, the ones involving you, yes.' "Yeah, pretty much," he nods, "If you have anything worse, I'd love to hear them."

"OK, how about your nails being ripped out one by one."

"Nails grow back, Ally."

"What about cutting your skin?"

"Skin heals and the heart's always making more blood."

"Breaking your bones?"

"Bones heal too, Alls!"

"What about pulling your teeth out?"

Yes, everyone is surprised by her thoughts. They honestly can't believe these words are coming out of her mouth.

He opens his mouth but she's already speaking again, "Without the medication," she adds, knowing he's thinking about when he had to get his wisdom teeth out a few months back.

He considers this, looking thoughtful to the side, whispering, "That would make it hard to eat pancakes," he meets her eyes again, "Touché."

She rolls her eyes at the fact that of course it comes back to pancakes. If he's not careful, soon he'll be borderline obsessed.

"It's worse than that," Logan cuts in.

Austin looks at him, horrified, "Worse than not being able to eat pancakes?"

"Much worse," Carlos tacks on.

"What?" Austin's becoming really scared now. He can feel a little bit of adrenaline pumping through his blood stream.

"Shopping with girls," Aunt Jen supplies.

"What?" he asks, shocked and confused, "That's not bad. Definitely not as bad as no pancakes."

"What are you talking about? Sitting there for hours, doing nothing, not able to leave," Kendall starts.

"It's positively mind-numbing!" Logan finishes.

"Right!" Carlos jumps in, enthusiastically, "If I knew what he meant…"

"It's boring," Logan clarifies.

"Oh. Then, yeah!"

"I don't think it's too bad," Austin mutters, almost shrugging.

The trio gapes at him, not believing what they're hearing, while Aunt Jen speaks up, "Well, I think it's nice that Austin doesn't mind shopping with girls. It'll come in handy later on."

He notices she sends him another secret, pointed look.

'STOP LOOKING AT ME!'

"And besides, you don't have a choice."

They groan and start complaining, their grievances overlapping as they tumble out.

"You're going!" Aunt Jen shouts, silencing them and giving this statement the feeling of finality.

They all exhibit a look of reluctant acceptance.

"Good, now call your girlfriends."

Their protests start up again but she silences them once more, "Call them!"

They spring into action.

Logan whips out his cell phone, "Calling Camille."

Kendall whips out his cell phone next, "Calling Jo."

Finally, Carlos whips out his cell phone, "Calling—" he breaks off, realizing he's got no one to call, "Man, I need to get myself a girlfriend."

"Don't look at me!" Trish states, lifting her arms in surrender and defense.

"I won't!" Carlos agrees, too scared of her to say he wasn't in the first place.

He looks up and finds his eyes on Ally. 'Huh…'

Logan puts his cell phone back in his pocket, "Camille's on her way down."

"And Jo is working on a scene right now but she said she'll meet up with us as soon as she could," Kendall explains, also putting his phone away.

It's weird that both phone calls ended at the same time.

"And I don't have a girlfriend to call," Carlos states.

"You could've called CeCe," Katie points out.

He opens his mouth and lifts a finger in the air. A second later, his finger drops into his fist, joining the others, "Excuse me a moment," he spins around, quickly dialing.

While he does that, Ally brings up another subject, "What's Jo filming?" she asks Kendall.

"She's filming the Halloween episode for New Town High."

"Oh, really? We were just watching that!" Ally exclaims as Austin drapes an arm over her shoulders in agreeance.

Yeah, that sounds believable. That's totally a thing, right?

"It was awesome, right, Austin?"

"Right!" he quickly agrees, "I definitely enjoyed it!" 'Until I injured you. That wasn't as fun.'

"Oh, cool."

"OW!" Carlos shouts, bringing their attention to him, " Ce—Cece! Ce—" he tries to get through to her, "OK! We'll see you in the crib!" he hangs up the phone, puts it away, and shakes out his ear with his hand.

"You OK?" Ally asks.

"Yeah, probably. I asked Cece if she wanted to go shopping with us, and she screamed in my ear! I'm pretty sure it's ringing…" he fiddles with his ear again, "With that, I'm pretty sure she said yes."

"CeCe said 'yes'?" Kendall asks.

Logan continues, "We're doomed."

Things To Know:
{1} Reference to Psych, "Shawn 2.0". Season 5, episode 8.
{2} This is canon for Big Time Rush. In "Big Time Girlfriends" (season 2, episode 3), the Dogs are singing a song about heartbreak but Carlos has never had his heartbroken so Gustavo and Kelly get an actress to pretend to be Carlos's prefect girl but he's so sweet to her, she doesn't want to break his heart but also can't pretend to be his prefect girl forever, so they try to get Carlos to break up with her by being demanding and clingy and hating his friends and dragging him to going shopping with her. They get back to Rocque Records and he's all smiles, saying that shoe shopping is fun and that he loves it, then drags her out, saying to get more shoes.

Disclaimer:
I do not own Big Time Rush, Austin & Ally, Shake It Up, or anything belonging or related to them.

Reviews:
Reviewers who are members and should be expecting or have already gotten PMs -:- NerdyChick4Ever -:- AusllyBeliever -:- K-Cat14 -:- Beanka Juarez -:- Emrys Is Merlin -:- jamesmaslow4evz -:- Kr1109 -:- IronManChic19 -:- EnvyNV -:- dark lil'angel2be -:- pixie bule -:- vampluva87 -:-

-:- Guest -:- Thankyou. I'm sorry I took so long. That's my fault. I hope you keep reading and thankyou for reading and also reviewing. :)8

-:- me -:- OK, I will try to work something like that in. Thankyou for the idea! And I'm glad you like it. Thankyou for reading and reviewing! :)8

-:- Guest -:- Yeah, I agree. James does seem to get the girl a lot. Well, I more feel like Carlos doesn't get the girl. I'll add a bit of them in here, as you can see in this chapter. It will build up, but to warn you, that the main "Ally" ships will be Austin/Ally and James/Ally but I do have a few other guys with her in this, too. Thankyou for you idea! And also thankyou for reading and reviewing! :)8

-:- Guest -:- OK. Well, I'll be adding a little bit of them in this, as I did in this chapter. It'll build up, don't worry, But I have to warn you, the main shipping pairs with Ally are gonna be Austin/Ally and James/Ally but Carlos/Ally will be in there a bit. I also a few other guys with her too (OK, one more for sure. I'm working on the other.) I guess she's popular in L.A., huh? Thankyou for the suggestion! And thankyou for reading and the review! :)8

JoeyJar99's Message:
Hey peoples! Thankyou for reading! And thankyou for the reviews! I know this story is running slow, I am aware, but maybe because of that, I can fit it into a week. I hope, it makes more sense for it to be over a week than 2 weeks. Please check out News Center and please leave your comments. Have a good Halloween! What are you guys going as?

Later. Over-and-Out. Live long and prosper.