Monday morning was another story and another set for Ross again. Back in Venice for NCIS: LA, he dressed in Tom's official leather uniform for one last race scene to wrap up his guest spot that would air in the upcoming season. Not running from the fake terrorists anymore, but from G and Sam, in this scene his character would truly be getting the hell out of dodge.

"Ready to run again?" Chris joked with him.

"I'll have you know I'm an excellent runner. I really am," Ross pointed out.

"I shall believe that when I see it."

Ten minutes later, Ross was making Chris eat his words and leaving him way behind on the boardwalk and in the dust the sand left behind. Catching up with a few crew guys at the end of the line, Ross took the towel to rid of the sweat on his brow and tossed them the leather vest to trade for a plain old t-shirt. Much better. He could see Chris and LL Cool J wrapping up their scene and started to walk back with the guys.

"Hey Chris," Ross called, picking up a handful of sand playfully. "How's the sand taste?"

As he said his goodbyes, he chatted with the director and show runner that he'd definitely be open for any more opportunities on the show. He'd done his share of guest spots on other shows after the end of Austin & Ally and in between the concerts and he had to admit that this was one of his favorites, if not his absolute favorite. He had meshed well with the cast and couldn't actually wait to see the episode when it aired.

Checking his phone before hopping into his car on the lot, Ross scrolled through the text messages with at least fifteen of them from his mom and pictures from Riker's official Putzie look. There were no words to describe it...except maybe perfect. Quickly texting his mom back, he had to come and see this for himself and immediately thought of someone else who had to experience this with him.

They're performing We Go Together later today.

Perfect. So so so perfect. Pressing his number three favorite on his phone, Ross muttered for her to pick up the phone over and over again.

"What's up buttercup?"

"Buttercup? Is that what you're going to call me now?"

"Possibly. I'm in between that and cupcake, and that's all because I'm in line for one at the moment."

"Well, get the cupcake fast because I'm stealing you away."

"For what?" she asked and he could imagine her left eyebrow going up just slightly.

"For a bit of Chang chang, changitty chang shoobop."

"Seriously? Some Rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong?"

"Mmhmm. You in?"

"Corner of Melrose and Fairfax. I'll even get you one."

"Be there in 10."

A half hour later, Ross pulled into the sound stage lot with sticky honey fingers and trying to wipe them all clean so he wouldn't torment his brother any more. But who was he kidding? He was going to taunt him and not just with a cupcake. He followed Laura to the stage and laughed at the spring in her step.

"Now, remember Laura, we can't actually sing the song when they're filming it," he reminded her.

"I know that," she nodded. "But we can still mouth the words right? Because it's impossible not too. The damn song is just so catchy."

"Oh hell yea, we're mouthing the words."

Turning one last corner, Laura sprinted in front of him as soon as she saw Stormie hanging out in video village and gave her possibly a bigger hug than she had given him last week at the conference. And yes, he was jealous of it. Walking up to the two, he gave his mom a kiss while trying to spot Riker in his Putzie-ness on the set. He wasn't the only blond guy in the film this time around, with the guy playing Kenickie being even blonder than him and some extras who were had hair as white as snow. Modern day Grease, Ross had to remind himself.

"Stormie, you have so many visitors today. We're going to have to just put them all in the movie," an older woman, who sat with a script in her lap, mentioned as she saw Ross and Laura hanging around.

"A lot of visitors?"

"Rydel and Rocky came earlier," Stormie mentioned and introduced the woman to both of them.

"Oh my God, is that Sofia?!" Laura spotted their old friend on the set next to Riker.

"I forgot to tell you that," Ross smiled over at her. "Sorry."

"How could you forget that? It's Sofia!"

"She's playing Jan," Hilary, the script supervisor who they were just introduced to, told her. "She's pretty wonderful actually."

"Isn't she? She was a guest star on Austin & Ally way back in the day."

"We almost gave her Marty, but she had such a great repertoire with Riker, we knew she had to be Jan."

Laura looked back to Ross who was trying to silence a laugh about the whole thing. "Quit laughing at your brother," she warned him.

"You've got to admit it's a funny thing, right?"

Laura didn't respond to him but did stick close as a megaphone was pulled out and startled her. The number was coming up and her excitement was going to burst at any moment. Grabbing his hand, she pulled him with her to get a better view and pointed to where Riker was with Sofia.

"You think we should've done this?"

"Ha! Not me," she admitted. "Maybe you. But then you wouldn't be in Ten and I don't want to think about that."

"Me either. Although the appeal of dancing with Aimee Teegarden is a definite pull," Ross confessed, watching as the main cast was all lined up for the start of the number and Aimee was decked out in Sandy Dombrowski's leather jumpsuit and tightly curled hair. She wasn't a retro Sandy, but she was giving a nod to the image portrayed by Olivia Newton-John in the original film.

"She looks hot," Laura stated.

"I will agree."

QUIET ON SET, the director called out with the megaphone and the music started to play in the background.

Stormie soon came to stand beside them and watched as the cast came together for the finale number. Laura couldn't help it, two words into the song and she was already bobbing her head, dancing around and mouthing all the words to the song. Turning to face Ross, her mouth moved around, singing silent words to him.

"When we go out at night and stars are shinin' bright," Ross moved his own mouth around.

"Up in the skies above," she continued the lyric, her arms up in the air for the dance part which he knew she had memorized.

Stormie smiled over at the two, silently laughing at them and watching her oldest slide all over the grass the studio had laid in the lot for the scene. They had been unable to get into the football field they wanted to and since this was a modern take, put a modern spin on it. The graduation carnival on the football field from the film had turned another graduation carnival in a mostly concrete lot. While they couldn't see the full vision right now, they would when the movie actually came out. The lyrics boomed around the lot, with not just Ross and Laura singing the song in the background, but most of the studio's employees as well. The cast got in line for the yearbook signing scene, voices taking over repeating the song title again and again.

Ross looked over at Laura again as the last line came out. He was glad he brought her along for this and even more glad that his mom texted him just in time.

"Laura, are you coming to dinner?" Stormie asked a bit later on, after the number had been performed and performed again.

Laura did a double take towards Ross and then back at his mom. "Um, actually, I have to start packing."

"Please come, Laura. I need a girl in my mess of boys since Rydel has been on campus. Just one night," Stormie started to beg.

"Mom, we can all do dinner together before we leave."

"Oh, that's a better idea," Stormie realized, telling her she'd call her parents to make plans before running back off to video village for Riker.

"I hope I'm packed by then," Laura told him as they headed back to his car.

"I'm sure you will be and if not, I'll come and help you."

"Can I get that in writing?" she laughed at him, not believing any part of that statement. It was four months in South Africa and she needed to make sure she had everything. Going back and forth from LA to Savannah was easy - it was on the same continent and only a few timezones away. South Africa was another story altogether. It was an entirely different continent and a ten hour difference. There was no way she'd be going back and forth for something and sending a package there? Not really on her agenda to put her parents or sister through. There were five suitcases in her room waiting to be filled up with items and she dreaded just starting on one.

"I promise you, if I get done by tomorrow, I will come and help you pack."

"Writing please," she smiled over at him. "Have you gotten your shots and all that yet?"

"I go in tomorrow. I'm not really looking forward to those malaria pills."

"I'll trade you those for the shots."

"Still not a fan, huh?"

"Will never be a fan of shots. Ever."

"When's your appointment?"

"Wednesday," she told him, sliding into the passenger side seat of his car. "And then I have a quick meeting at HBO for First Aid."

"Is Jennifer Sutton getting her own spinoff?"

"I don't think so," Laura laughed at the notion. Not that she thought he even watched the show at all, but where Jennifer and Marco ended up there was no way there was a spinoff coming. "Wait, do you watch the show?"

"My mom tapes it. Seriously, DVR completely full and first two seasons on actual Bluray," Ross said, before admitting, "I might have watched them both during my three week recuperation period."

"You did?" Laura started to tease him as he nodded. "Are you a Kit now?"

"A what?"

"A Kit. It's what the fans of the show call themselves. They're Kits. You know, First Aid Kits..."

Ross shook his head. Gotta love fans of television and couples and the celebrity game. Sometimes they could be really creative. "Not a Kit like Calum is, but it's a good show."

"I'm glad you like it."

"The sex scenes were my favorite," he mentioned and watched her face go bright red in 0 to 60 seconds flat. Smirking, he added, "You think Austin would've gotten Ally off like that?"

The family dinner they made plans for came sooner than they both expected. Sinking back into Ross' gaming chair in the Lynch's media room, Laura was still going through her great American novel sized script and studying it like it was a bible - which in this case, it was. Reading up on the big climax of the movie, she gasped when she got to the lien that really changed the entire thing.

"Let me guess, you got to Milo's big scene," Ross asked, bringing her a glass of wine from the kitchen he knew she would've been asking for in two seconds.

Laura nodded, "Holy crap. I did not see that coming."

Pulling the script away from her, he flipped back many, many, many pages to one of his favorite, if not his favorite scenes between their two characters and recited it line for line.

"I was at the Gate of the Gods, in Peru," Ross glanced up at her. "It was my last stop before going home to see my mom for the first time in years and I was really looking forward to it...to her hugs, her food, just her. All I did was put my hand over the golden key stone."

"Then you were here," Laura continued the scene with Magellan's lines.

He nodded. "Then I was here. I woke up the same as you did with tubes and medicines pumping into my skin that I'd rather not have in my body.

"Did you react as badly as I did?"

He laughed, a smirk spreading across his lips. "No one reacting as badly as you did. But you had every right to. We all did. They took us away from everything we knew, everyone we loved for...something."

Laura locked eyes with Ross, knowing the scene he just read was more silence and emotion than dialogue and in that scene, he was really becoming Rory...at least the Rory she had in her mind. The compassionate doctor who wanted more peace than riot, unlike her character who wanted to raise hell to get back to where she came from. There was a balance between the characters, one she couldn't wait to explore.

"I like that scene the best," he told her. "It's where we, Rory and Magellan, start."

"Aww, how sweet."

It took only two seconds for Rocky to ruin their moment and a frustrated groan to escape his mouth. "Really Rocky? Really?"

"How are you not used to this by now? I mean, 24 years bro," Rocky swung his arm arounds Ross' shoulders and joined the two. "Now, Laura, is that your favorite too?"

"Um," Laura blinked her way between the both of the Lynch's gazes. "It's one of them. I actually really like the scene where they save Amunet together. It's the scene, I think, where their relationship takes a turning point."

"Towards love," Rocky sang.

"Yes, towards love."

"Aww," he strung the word out. "Anyhow, dinner is almost ready lovebirds," Rocky pushed himself off of Ross and left the room.

Extending his hand to her, Ross pulled Laura up from the chair. "I love my brothers, but I can not wait for our flight tomorrow despite it being a full day. No Rocky or Ryland to embarrass the hell out of me."

"You'll miss them, Ross."

"Give me at least two weeks," he told her as they walked back to the dining room together where he was surprised to see both of their families almost ready to give up on their return and eat all the food without them. "Almost ready?" he turned to Rocky.

All Rocky could do was give them a toothy smile with a slice of bread mashed in his mouth.

"This smells so good Stormie.'

"Thank your wonderful father for that," Stormie told Laura, who planted a kiss on her dad's head on her way to one of the empty chairs. "I'm so glad we got to this before you two left."

"I can't believe you're going to South Africa, like a month after we just got back and all," Ryland mentioned, taking one to many scoops of pasta for himself.

"Wasn't in the plan, but I'm looking forward to it."

"Plus, you'll get to see Africa. I've always wanted to go there," Stormie told son, taking a bite of the Chicken Tetrazzini on her own plate.

"Dad, I think that was a hint," Ross chuckled, giving his own mouth a taste of the meal and having a slight orgasm over it. He really needed to know how to make food like this.

"I have no doubt it was," Mark nodded.

The families talked about the new movie more and the vaccinations Ross and Laura had endured before turning the conversation over to Rocky's news - he was going to be writing with Beck, a musician who was on each of the R5 members bucket list, and there was another he was keeping under wraps. Ross jumped right into that conversation, telling Rocky all about this song he had going through his mind while Stormie kept questioning Laura about the itinerary and the adventures she had to take while she was there. Riker and Rydel joined them later in the evening after dinner, after his day was done on set and after she got out of her English class. Food was still spread around the table but most of them were done eating, sipping on wine instead and the parents, mostly, trying not to think of their children traveling 10,000 miles to the Rainbow Nation.

"Wait, you're not packed yet?" Laura shot straight up, back in Ross' gaming chair where she and most of his family had migrated to into the media room.

"Um... halfway?"

"Halfway? Ross, we have a day until we leave. You are leaving the same time I am, aren't you?"

He nodded, still a little embarrassed (again) that Ryland outed him on his packing progress. "One o'clock. LAX," he confirmed before she pulled him up from his spot and dragged him again. "Wait, what are you doing?"

"I never thought I'd have to help you pack. I was really banking on you helping me instead," she told him, already up the stairwell towards his room.

"You're helping me pack?"

"I kind of think I have to. Lord knows you will not get even past your pants before you give up and toss anything and everything in your suitcases and I'm not going to let your mom do it for you."

"I wasn't going to let her, and suitcases?"

"Four months, Ross! Four months!"

He let her go, watching as she pulled out almost all of his clothes from his dressers, starting with pants and shirts. She went through them one by one, tossing any she knew he wouldn't wear and putting the others inside or on top of the suitcase he did have out on his bed. It was kind of funny to him, how after five years, she could still know all that - what he liked, what he didn't, what he would actually wear. He also kind of liked that she knew all that, too.

"You can start helping me anytime now," she called over her shoulder and he didn't hesitate at all, pulling out socks and tossing them beyond her onto his bed and just over an hour later, two suitcases full of clothes were packed to the edge and just waiting to be taken downstairs. Of course, he still had one more case to pack, but he could handle that one on his own. Laying back on the bed beside her, Ross glanced over at her as she just stared up at the blank, white ceiling.

"Penny for your thoughts."

"Are you nervous? For this movie, I mean."

"Not really. I think I'm was more nervous on how to say hello to Gale the first time. You're nervous?"

She snickered at his confession, rolling onto her side and looking back at him, nodding her head slightly.

"You have no need to be. You're going to be great."

"I hope so. I know the movie is about all ten of us, it just seems I have a hell of a lot more lines than anyone. I don't want to disappoint anyone, considering how much the studio has put into it."

"I hardly think that if they thought you would fail, they would've given you the part," Ross squeezed her knee. "They have probably been following you since Joan of Arcadia and knew exactly who they wanted Magellan to be and it was you."

"Woah, way to kick it really old school there."

Ross kissed her forehead. "Watch, you'll get an Oscar for this."

She slapped his chest. "You're such a dreamer."

"You love it."

And he was right, she did.