Chapter Text
“In entertainment news, former teen stars Kendall Knight and Jo Taylor became Hollywood's hottest couple again when the footage of their backyard wedding leaked earlier today. Knight, the former lead singer of Big Time Rush, became a cop after the crash that totaled the band's signature GTO and Jo Taylor, formerly of New Town High, was also in a life changing car accident that led to her role as a motivational speaker and a rehabilitation coach. The power couple has been out of the limelight for years, but when Kate Knight is your sister and Big Time Rush sings the wedding song—more on that in a moment—no backyard wedding is going to stay small or private.
“The couple took points for most adorable when the groom joined his former bandmates to serenade his wife. The newlyweds shared a romantic first dance and—”
“If you watch that video, I swear we’re no longer partners for life,” Kendall said as he stood over Bennett’s desk. “I mean it. I am not amused by this publicity stunt. Katie already knows I have no intention of returning to Big Time Rush or starting a reality series.”
“Do that and die, Knight.”
“You were there,” Kendall reminded her. He didn’t think he could have not invited her to the wedding, and she would have shown up even if he hadn’t. That was who Bennett was. “Why do you need to watch that?”
Bennett leaned back with a slight smirk. “Was making sure my daughter wasn’t commenting on any of the viral videos. She’s banned from the internet right now.”
“Would she really risk that?”
“Yes. Because she got to go to a Big Time Rush wedding, and her schoolmates don’t believe her.”
It wasn’t a Big Time Rush wedding, but Kendall was tired of arguing that. Even if Carlos was out of the coma, Big Time Rush was still dead. There was no reunion tour in the works no matter what anyone said.
“Are you still mad we made her the flower girl after Katie refused?”
Bennett snorted. “I don’t know why your sister puts up with you, Knight.”
“Because James’ sales are at an all time high despite the best man competition and horrible speeches from all of them. Big Time Rush is trending again. She’s making a lot of money off me. And…” Kendall gave a mock helpless shrug. “I’m family.”
“You told me you didn’t have a family.”
“You know that’s not true. And even if it was before, you were just watching my wedding.” Kendall officially had family again, not that he hadn’t reconciled with Katie and his mother before he got married.
“Speaking of, how’s the wife?”
“Working with one of Katie’s assistants to deal with the press and job offers and threatening to divorce me because we didn’t elope.”
“I thought you wanted to and she refused.”
“I did, and she did.” Kendall had not wanted a huge fuss, and he had thought Jo would be on board with that, but she hadn’t been. She’d insisted on the whole works. “She wanted to share it with my friends and family as a way of healing. She thought we were past the mayhem days of fame and didn't expect us to go viral.”
“Leaving aside your extremely famous idiot friend, you two were far too cute not to go viral. All the singing, you carrying her around when everyone could, your not-as-secret-as-you-thought conversation about her scars and what the wedding dress showed—”
Kendall winced. “Someone got that on film?”
Bennett nodded. “They did indeed. Most likely it was your sister, since references to mini-Knight were cut out off the video.”
“You are not calling my child mini-Knight.”
“Why wouldn’t I? It’s your child, therefore it is a mini-Knight.”
“The baby is half-Taylor, and even if It wasn’t, you called my stuffed cat that first. You can’t call my kid that. That’s just wrong.”
“Seriously, you made her a Knight, didn’t you?” Bennett asked, ignoring the second part of his complaint. “Not like she's got a great reason to hold onto the Taylor name, right?”
Kendall didn’t really think so, even if it was Jo’s stage name. “She said she would probably keep it for work, since that’s how people know her and since she does the motivational stuff, she thinks it’s important to use it even if she’s Mrs. Knight everywhere else.”
“That’s so cute.”
“Bennett—”
“And we have either a double or a murder suicide to deal with, so let’s get to work.”
“Katie, I know business comes first with you, but did you really have to release those videos?” Jo asked, not for the first time getting frustrated with the amount of calls and emails she’d been trying to sort through. The assistant Katie sent over wasn’t very helpful, since that girl seemed to think they should take all the jobs they were being offered, which was just not happening.
Jo wasn’t even sure she should take one job right now, not with her health concerns, and Kendall refused to be anything but a cop.
“The exposure for James was unbeatable, and it’s not like it doesn’t help you.”
Jo put a hand to her head. Of course Katie would try and argue that. “In what possible way? I’m not planning on going back to acting even if I get scars fixed. I’m not necessarily planning on being a stay-at-home mom, but—”
“You can’t be a stay at-home mom without an actual home,” Katie said, her tone more biting and dismissive than when she’d been ten. “You can’t have a home without money, and since neither of you will accept mine or James’ or even Logan’s, you still had none. So, I did what I could to help by making people interested in Big Time Rush again. Kendall gets part of the profits and your baby gets a home. And a college fund, since New Town High is also trending and you get a portion of all income from the season you were on per that clause in your contract.”
Jo grimaced. She couldn’t argue that one, could she? Katie had helped them, and it was their money, so there was no real reason to complain. Not about that. The other stuff, though… “Everyone is trying to book us for talk shows and even a concert tour.”
“I know you won’t do that.”
Jo wasn’t fooled for a second. “But?”
“But if you talked Kendall into a studio album, you would be set for life.”
“I’m not going to ask him to do that,” Jo said. She couldn’t. Kendall did not react well to the idea that he sing again. “He still won’t sing unless he’s forced to. That was one of the rules, remember? A rule that was beat into him while his hockey dream was completely destroyed. No. No forcing him to sing.”
“He was not forced to sing at your wedding. He wanted that.”
“I know he did.” Jo had been surprised and deeply touched when Kendall started singing to her. He’d pulled off quite the surprise since he’d been insisting on eloping and refusing a wedding reception as well as boycotting all songs as “their” song and yet somehow had the perfect one that the other guys all helped him sing to her for their first dance.
“He’s got a messed up idea about singing, but we all know he still loves it.”
He did. Kendall was lucky Jo was the only one who knew about the dopey grin he got on his face when he sang lullabies to the baby.
“Still, that doesn’t mean that he will do a studio album. He’s pretty firm about only being a cop right now.” Jo was still trying to sort out her mixed feelings about that—Kendall’s job had come too close to getting him killed more than once, and she already disliked his hours since there was nothing predictable about them other than that they were always long. She was trying to adjust, but there was a level of fear that she just couldn’t shake.
What if something happened to Kendall?
“Stop panicking,” Katie said like the almost mind-reader she was. “Kendall is very hard to kill, and he told me he’s being extra careful because he made a promise to you and the baby.”
“You do know making Kendall popular puts him at risk, right?”
“He’s a homicide detective. He’s already at risk. That doesn’t change with what I did,” Katie said. “And this popularity provides for you and the baby.”
Jo had the unpleasant feeling Katie included the figures for what they’d get if Kendall did end up dying in the line of duty, how much his popularity would rise then, and she felt sick. She put a hand on her stomach and tried to calm herself and the baby.
“By the way, have you discussed names yet?”
They hadn’t. Kendall was being quiet about that part, though Jo knew him well enough to know what he was thinking. “I think Kendall both wants and doesn’t want to name her Leah if we have a girl. He won’t say anything, though.”
“Just don’t let him talk you into Apple.”
“Relax. He’s assured me that’s your name.”
“Not funny.”
Jo turned her hand around in a circle, hoping it was soothing to the baby. “Katie, if your plan is to frustrate me and Kendall until he gives in and records an album, please stop now. Whatever plan Kendall creates to counter yours will be ten times worse, you know.”
“And if I said I missed that?”
“I would say you’re crazy except I know what you mean.”
“People suck.”
“Are we talking about Bennett or do you mean murderers?”
Kendall grimaced. He was still a bit annoyed with Bennett right now, but he hadn’t been talking about her. He was talking about their murder-suicide case. That was both tragic and infuriating. He sat down on the edge of the bed, tempted to flop back and sleep now, but he also didn’t want that at all, not after what he’d seen and heard today.
“Honestly, I felt a bit sorry for this one. After all his wife did to him, it’s no surprise he snapped. But he still loved her and couldn’t live with what he’d done.”
“Right.”
“People suck,” Kendall repeated with a shrug, pulling off his shirt and tossing it into the laundry bin. He supposed that story didn’t make sense without the all the details, but he didn’t want to go over them, and he doubted Jo wanted to hear them. “I’m going to shower and then maybe we can celebrate with dinner?”
“Celebrate?”
“I’m home at a reasonable hour, right? We said we were going to do that from now on, remember?”
She shook her head. “That was just a side thought we joked about when we said we weren’t taking a honeymoon right now.”
“Your doctor said no traveling,” he said, turning back to take hold of her. “And I agree it’s better to stick close to the medical facilities here just in case, and Logan, too.”
She nodded. “He said it’s likely I’ll be on bed rest for the whole pregnancy if I make it to term. He actually thinks I won’t last past this trimester, but even so… Bed rest. That... scares me a little.”
“I’ll keep you from going stir crazy.”
“You can’t if you’re never home.”
He frowned. He knew she hated his work hours, and he wasn’t thrilled with them, either. They were a lot easier to take when he had nothing else in his life, when he was trapped under the rules and working all the time was the only way to stay half-sane, but now the hours kept him away from everyone, not just her, but he worried just as much about her as she worried about him—maybe more.
“We agreed to work this out. Are you saying that you don’t want to now?”
“You know that’s not it.” She put her hands on his face. “I want you. I want this—all of this. I want our baby. I do. I can’t help but worry, though. With all of my health issues... It’s going to be difficult no matter what, and then there’s all this other stuff, too. The press. Your job… Everything.”
He nodded. “But we’re working it out. We’ll find a balance. Bennett has a family. She and Benny make it work, and they’re both cops with lousy hours. You and I made things work when we could only have one minute dates. We’ll make this work, too. We already said we would. Took vows, even.”
“We did.”
“I love you.”
“And I love you, but you were going to shower.”
“You complaining now? Do I smell?”
She shook her head. “No. I just find this a little too tempting, you know that. For you, it’s skirts, but for me…”
“Shirts off is a dangerous thing,” he said, making her laugh. “Swear it wasn’t on purpose. It’s not that I’m complaining about seducing you, but not now. Even when I’m exhausted, I want a shower after working a murder.”
“Yuck.”
“It’s important. My job matters just as much as yours does.”
“More, maybe,” she agreed. “I know. And I’m actually getting closer to accepting it, but it’s still hard when I think about losing you to the job or what might happen with the baby.”
He nodded, combing back part of her hair, grazing a scar as he did. She shivered, but he moved his hand back, trying to make her more comfortable with having them touched. He wanted to help her, wanted to make that right somehow. “I worry about you when I’m gone.”
“Katie thinks if you did a studio album, you’d take care of the baby for life.”
“Not true. And not happening. I am not recording an album. Not solo and not with the guys.”
“I know.”
“Don’t look so sad. I’m still tucking both of you in with a lullaby.”
She smiled. “You’re sweet.”
“And we need to think of a nickname of our own before Bennett gets everyone calling this one mini-Knight.”
“Agreed. Go shower already.”