lb_heartland | Fic: Big Time Cowboys 16/16

Big Time Cowboys
Chapter Sixteen
Word Count: 2,502
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Kendall/Jo, Logan/Camille, Ty/Amy, Lou/Scott, and possibly a bit of Jack/Lisa. As scary as that list might seem, this story is mostly about humorous antics and none of the pairings are a big focus of it, I promise. I just like to cover all the bases.
Disclaimer: I'm never going to grow up. That means... I'm not legally responsible for anything, right?
Summary: Four teenage boys. Two weeks. One ranch. Who will survive?
Spoilers: Nothing past Eye of the Wolf for Heartland, season 2 of Big Time Rush, with a very minor one from Big Time Moms. I couldn't resist.
Author's Note: I apologize for taking so long to complete this. It should not have been so hard for me to do this. But as I said before, I never abandon a story, so here is the final chapter. Enjoy. :)

Big Time Movie

"So... how does it feel being a liaison?"

Katie watched her brother as Kendall collapsed on the couch, exhausted. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a few deep breaths—she knew that look, that was the one he always got after dealing with the big time director—and he would need a few minutes before he was really willing to talk. Eventually, his eyes opened again and he looked over at his sister. "Honestly, I don't get paid enough for this."

Katie laughed. She would never have done it for free, which was probably why she hadn't been asked. Not that Kendall was bad at it, but she would have been better. And more expensive. "Does that mean you regret coming back?"

He shook his head. "No, I don't. I don't know how everyone else feels, but I think I'd like to vacation here every year. A couple weeks, a break from touring or recording, just the freedom to enjoy nature and friends and that kind of thing."

She glanced outside, looking around for their hostess. "So you think Lou would actually accept a reservation from you guys again?"

Kendall shrugged. "I don't know. And I don't have to do everything with the guys all the time. We need breaks from each other, too. As close as we are, if we do everything together we get a bit... nuts. Sick of each other. Time apart is good for everyone. You know that. You and me... We're close, but we're not constantly together, either."

She nodded. She loved him, really, but she couldn't take that much uninterrupted time with him. Family only went so far. "I'd kill you if we were."

"Exactly. And the same thing goes for me," he agreed, stretching a little. He did look very tired, but everything was almost done, and that was good. "So this isn't bad. I could use a place like this to come and clear my head. Logan wouldn't want to come because of his thing with horses, James doesn't think there are enough pretty girls around, and I'd have a hard time talking Carlos out of it, since he likes riding so much, but I could find a way. I'm sure of it."

Katie figured that he was right. He could. He probably wouldn't. His friends would find reasons to come with him, even Logan. It was who they were. They would always find their way to the same place, like moons orbiting around a sun or something, never completely apart.

She smiled at the thought and sat down next to him. He wrapped an arm around her, kissing her forehead. She was used to that by now. Sometimes it was cute. Sometimes it was condescending. Sometimes it was perfect. Today, she knew, he was just tired. "So, how much longer are you going to do this?"

"Oh, I had a call from Gustavo this morning. He says Freight Train is coming to drag us all back to the studio tomorrow. He thinks that—despite their whole insistence on making us do this movie in the first place—that we wasted too much time on the cowboy camp and on this movie, time that we should have been spending recording, learning choreography, or touring," Kendall said, shrugging. He took out a paper and unfolded it. "Not really looking forward to making up for being gone for so long."

"You can't make everyone happy, you know."

"I'm not trying to make Gustavo happy. I don't do that. Well, there was that thing at Christmas, but that wasn't really about Gustavo as much as it was about getting home. That's not important. What is important is that it's almost all over."

"Don't say that like you're happy about it," she warned him. "I know you better than that. You like it up here. I'm not saying that in the you've gone native sense that James keeps using. I mean it in the sense that you like being away from the crazy Hollywood life. You like singing, I'm not denying that, and you like the... perks of your job, but you also miss being the you that played hockey for a ragtag little team in Minnesota."

"Hey. No calling my team ragtag. Those are my friends you're talking about," he told her, and then he looked up as the door opened and his friends walked in, most of them in torn clothes, covered with dirt. She gave him a look. He shrugged a little. "What happened?"

Logan winced, shaking some of the dirt out of his hair. "It's... a long story. But we're not in trouble, so don't get upset."

"Okay," Kendall agreed slowly, looking rather dubious at the moment. Katie didn't blame him. "I guess I don't want to know."

"Probably better that you don't," Carlos told them, dusting off his helmet. "Really."

"Hey, is that your version of the song?" James asked, trying to take the paper from Kendall's hands. Kendall wouldn't let him have it. "Come on, how long are you going to keep it from us? It can't be that big of a secret. You embarrassed by it?"

"No, but Jack said he'd give us his decision soon, and I'd rather wait until then. Besides, I'm kind of enjoying all of the ways you're trying to get them from me. Bribes, pleading... You can try and get this paper from me again, but that hasn't worked so far," Kendall said, and Katie laughed when she saw how her big brother was milking this for all it was worth.

She was proud of him.

"This is actually really cool," Amy admitted, getting out of the truck and walking to the back to look up at the screen. Looking over at him from the old truck, the one Lyndy had bought, Jack could tell how much it cost Amy to admit that. He smiled at his granddaughter and put an arm around her shoulder. He knew none of them had been very happy—not with the cowboy camp and not with this film nonsense—but it was finally over. Tomorrow that film crew would be completely gone, and the boys with them. Life would be completely back to what passed for normal these days.

"Cool, huh?"

She shrugged. "I mean... I guess I really wasn't all that good about things while they were here—especially since they kept disrupting the horses even though Kendall did his best to keep them away from where I was working—but they put up a screen. In our back yard. We get our own private drive in, right here. We get to watch a movie before anyone else does. That is pretty cool."

"Well, we'll see about that when we see this movie of theirs."

"You don't have to be so grumpy, Grandpa," Lou said. She was still pretty pleased with herself and the way that this had all turned out, not that Jack could blame her. She'd gotten quite a bit out of this whole mess. Her equestrian retreat was booked, constantly, even as far as winter. Amy's waiting list was even longer than it had been before. Heartland was doing well financially. And then there was the matter of Scott. That looked to be very serious.

"I'm not grumpy," Jack insisted. He caught sight of Ty crossing the yard and decided it was time to let his granddaughters alone to be with the other men in their lives. Scott would be here any minute to watch the screening, and Amy and Ty seemed to have things fairly well settled between them. "I'm gonna round up the rest of this audience so that we can get this started."

"Caleb is bringing Mallory, Ashley, and Soraya," Amy reminded him. "You can't gather everyone up yet."

"No, but I know a few boys that should be here. One in particular had better be here, since he did so much to make this whole thing happen," Jack told her, heading off in the direction of where he'd last seen the boys.

"Mr. Bartlett!"

He turned, expecting to see one of the remaining executive assistants that had stayed behind with the director, but it was the smart one, Logan, and his friends were all with him, except the liaison. "There you are. You know they're waiting on you for this... screening of theirs."

"Yes, well, we just wanted to ask you about the lyrics before that got started."

"Lyrics?"

"They want to know who won the lyric contest, even though I tried to explain that it wasn't a contest," Kendall added, coming up on the other side. He held out a paper to Jack.

Jack took it and read it over. Kid wasn't half bad. Same with his friends. He lowered the paper and looked at them. "So I suppose you expect me to pick a winner here. Tell you which one of you wrote the best song."

"Pretty much, yeah," the one with the longer hair agreed. "So... who was it? Was it Kendall?"

Jack shook his head. "If I was going to use lyrics to finish my wife's song, I think I'd take a bit of each of yours to do it. Each of you understood a different part of her message, and I think she'd appreciate it all getting out there."

"Really? So... does this mean..."

"I'll put together a final version, and you can discuss recording it with me, but I'll have terms," Jack told them, getting a groan out of them. "Let's go see this movie, get this pain in the butt director off my land already."

"Are... Amy's friends here yet?" Carlos began, looking somewhat nervous under his helmet. "'Cause I think I have a date. Maybe. I'm not sure. Mallory said she was looking forward to watching the movie with me."

"And I am going to get Soraya to sit next to me," James insisted. They all looked at him, but he didn't let the look deter him. He was convinced that Soraya was going to do it. Jack didn't care to know how he thought he'd manage that one.

"I miss Camille."

"We did promise her a bootleg copy," Kendall began, and Jack looked over at him. He coughed. "Uh, that is, we promised her a full run down of everything that happened in the movie since she and Jo went back to LA with the rest of the actors last week."

"Although, that looks suspiciously like a certain blond actress and a certain method actress getting out of the truck with Carlos' date," the little girl said, and her brother and the dark-haired boy called out their girlfriends' names and rushed over to meet them. Jack shook his head as the other two joined their friends and the other girls.

"Looks like everyone's pairing off, huh?"

He found himself smiling. "Well, now, Lisa Stillman, what are you doing here?"

She shrugged. "I heard there was a movie screening here, and despite the fact that I just got back into town, Mallory insisted that I didn't want to miss this. I already missed someone enough, so here I am."

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and guided her over to the back of his truck. Some of the kids had lawn chairs or blankets, and he frowned when he saw that Amy and Ty had spread a blanket in the back of Ty's truck. "I don't know—"

"We have a cozy spot just like that for the two of us," Lisa interrupted, and Jack grunted, but he hopped up to the bed of his truck and helped her up after him. He settled back on the cushions that someone had thoughtfully put there for his old bones, and he figured that had to have been Lou. She waved over at him from the back of Scott's truck—they were sitting on the tailgate, not lying down, which was something, at least.

"Welcome, everyone, to the very first, very rough, and very raw cut of my latest film," the director called out. "My assistant will be passing out questionnaires afterward, and I want honest opinions from everyone."

"Just get to the movie already," Jack muttered, and even though he didn't think that pompous bag of hot air had heard him, the screen went from white to color, showing the same dusk on the screen as had been there in the distance. He never got tired of that view.

He settled back, wrapping his arm around Lisa as he watched. He didn't really care all that much about any of the characters—especially not the one that was supposedly based on him—but every time he caught sight of the land, his land, on screen, he had to smile.

"That," Lisa said as the screen darkened, and the images faded away. "Was beautiful."

Jack, to be completely honest, couldn't remember a darn thing that had happened in the hours that had passed by on screen, but he didn't care. He hadn't found anything objectionable, and that had been his main concern when he asked to see the movie before it went out. He wasn't sure how Kendall had convinced the director—who had originally been unwilling to let anyone see his precious "vision" before it was ready—to show not only Jack but everyone from Heartland and that band of theirs as well. It was impressive, though, that this had turned out like it had.

"I liked the scenery."

Lisa laughed. "Of course you did. You love this place."

"That I do."

Kendall came over to the truck bed and passed them each a sheet of paper. Jack glanced at the questionnaire and back at the boy. "Thought that the executive assistant was doing this."

"And tonight that's me," he agreed, shrugging. "Not that I get paid for it, but that's how it goes."

"Hey! What did you think? Did you like it? I can't believe they actually let us have real lines!" Carlos shouted, coming up and bumping his friend in the back. Kendall smiled a little. "That was so cool. We're movie stars now!"

"I am surprised that you managed to say your lines correctly," James said, and his friend glared at him before they both started laughing. Jack shook his head. Boys.

"Was it okay? Did you like it?" the last boy asked, looking a bit nervous.

"It was fine. It was good. A fine tribute to my land."

"Yes!" they all cried, grabbing a hold of Kendall and shaking him as they cheered. "You know what this means? We're big time cowboys now!"