Despite her determination to keep her siblings from feeling overly remorseful in the face of Lana's catastrophe, Lori found it harder and harder to keep a firm resolve and what shamed her was that it had only taken a few minutes for her to start to crack under the pressure. After she saw her parents off, she went upstairs and announced loudly for everyone to come downstairs and meet her in the living room, keeping up a visage of credence and conviction but trembling on the inside.

As she waited patiently for her siblings, she couldn't decide how she was going to go about telling them all the news. They had seen enough to know that Lana was badly hurt so telling them that she was fine was glib and disingenuous, especially when she herself had no real idea on how Lana was doing. Leaving them in the dark would only make them worry more, which is why Lori decided that calling them all here and now was the best thing to do. Would the honest-to-God truth truly be best; that she had no idea if Lana would ever be the same again and the best thing to do was…hope?

Had she not been so anxious, she'd have sneered at such a thought. There was no way she could do that to them. No way. She knew that Lana was alive, something that the EMT's made obvious with the oxygen mask that they had hooked up to Lana, yet she still had no idea what would become of her after she recovered and that was IF recovery, as in going back to the way she was before, was even a possibility. Even if she was whole physically, it wouldn't feel the same if this traumatic incident made Lana less like Lana.

But all the same, they deserved to know the truth, the truth about the situation concerning a member of their family. Maybe the truth, the truth of being uncertain yet needing to be hopeful despite everything, was really the right approach after all. The time to decide was up as Lori's stomach churned at the sound of eight footsteps slowly walking down the stairs. She looked up and had to fight back tears as she saw the looks on the faces; forlorn, fearful, and panic were etched prominently on their facial features. She noticed that the now awake Luna had a similar expression.

'Someone must've told her what happened. Ugh, great. How am I gonna go about this without literally making everyone drown in their sorrows?'

There was nothing that Lori could do now. The time to step up was upon her as the miserable eight finally all made it downstairs and into the living room. Lori motioned for them to all take a seat on the couch as she stood before them, arms folded behind her back and nerves on absolute scorching fire. It reminded her of all the times she had to present an oral report in front of her classroom yet the anxiety here was much more crippling as Lori knew that the stakes couldn't be any higher.

'Welp, here goes nothing.'

"Alright, look, it's not easy for me to say this to all of you but…"

Already, Lori found herself to be at a loss for words but if anything gave her slight comfort, it was the fact that none of the pair of eyes watching her had a trace of apathy in them. It relieved her to know that consoling them would be difficult. All the same, that fact was something that Lori refused to be used as an excuse for her. They needed a pillar of support now more than ever. Lori spoke up again but without trying too hard to lace her words with pleasantries that she knew that no one would take seriously.

"…Lana's hurt. Like, really bad. One thing's for certain though, she's alive and that's what matters the most. I know that no one asked for this to happen to us…to happen to her. It sucks that someone we care about so much got banged up the way she did. It's not fair that Lana's going through something so terrible and I'm not going to lie to you all, Lana may never be the same again. But if there's anything that us Louds know how to do better than anyone, it's accept the cards we've been dealt and make the best of it. So, no matter what news Mom and Dad give us, no matter what happens to Lana, we need to get through this as a family. I'm not asking you not to be sad and I'm not asking you not to grieve. All I want…"

Lori walked over to the couch and made some room between everyone.

"…all I want is for none of you to lose hope. Please. Lana deserves our best. Mom and Dad promised that when they hear any updates from the doctor, they'll call me and let me know what's happening. In the meantime, go back to whatever it was you were doing. And remember…"

She initiated a group hug that everyone found themselves securely wrapped into eventually.

"…don't lose hope."

Lori found the atmosphere of the house a lot less awkward and dreary about four hours later. Just as the rain had finally ended, so did most of the looming storm clouds hanging over everyone's heads. She couldn't put it all on her little speech, though. Besides her parents, she knew how easy it was for the Louds to get back into their daily routine. It wasn't perfect but it was nonetheless a step in the right direction. Most of them had gone to their respective rooms except for Leni, who went right back to watching "Lawfully Flaxen" after Lori insisted that there was no spider army coming after them. But Lori knew that her work wasn't done yet. There was still one last thing she needed to take care of.

Arriving at Lana and Lola's room, she found herself thankful that the door was slightly ajar, meaning that entering would be easy enough. What wouldn't be easy would be confronting what was on the other side. With as much care as possible, Lori tried her best to push the door open as quietly as she could, cringing at all the creaks it made. This did NOT go unnoticed by the current occupant of the room, who was huddled up on the bed and had her back to the door.

"Go away."

"Lola, I…"

"Just leave me alone, Lori. I don't wanna talk."

"Well, I do. Just stay there for a minute, okay? I promise it won't take long."

Lori rarely found herself bargaining with her siblings but this was an exception. When Lori found that she didn't respond back with another plea to leave her be, she took that as a key to step inside her room. As she closed the distance on her, she realized that her pillow was smeared with makeup and wet spots, an obvious sign that she has been crying her eyes out.

Lori sighed. This was going to be a lot tougher than she thought. Taking a seat next to her, she touched Lola on the shoulder but Lola shook her off. Lori supposed that she should count her blessings that she was allowed to get this far.

"Lola, I…I get that you're taking this the worst out of everyone but I just want you to know tha…"

"It's my fault."

Now that was something she didn't expect to hear coming out of her mouth. How could she think that what happened to Lana was her fault? What part did she have to play in Lana's downfall that would make her think that? Was it guilt inspired by an actual role she played or rather disappointment in preventing something that she couldn't have possibly predicted? There was only one way to find out.

"What? What do you mean by that?"

"You heard me. What happened to Lana was my fault. I should've known she'd want to go outside but I was too busy trying to look pretty in front of a mirror to notice her acting strange. I was too busy looking at my stupid reflection to make sure she didn't do anything wrong. I've always been there for her when I wasn't focused on dolling myself up. I chose myself over her safety, Lori. How am I supposed to live with that for the rest of my life, that Lana's hurt and it's all because of me?"

What disturbed Lori more than her words was how determined her voice was. There was no uncertainty, no trembling. She really seemed to believe that this was all her doing and what made things worse was that it seemed like nothing in the world could change her mind. Lori wanted to bang her head against the wall in frustration. She was this close in making sure that everything was fine, that no one would feel as if Lana would be down for the count for good and she felt that she succeeded. But now, there was a new challenge ahead of her that she felt was beyond her and failure meant that someone close to her would be broken beyond repair.

Just as Lori felt her world collapsing at the seams, a vibrating noise broke her out of her musing. She hurriedly reached down into her pocket and pulled out her vibrating phone, her heart beating at high speed velocities as the word "Mom" presented itself on her touchscreen, with the option to either decline the call or accept it. She pressed the "Accept" option in a heartbeat and started to listen in on her mother from the other side.

"H-hello? Mom?"

Hearing Lori refer to her mother made Lola perk up. She followed Lori closely as they both left the room to stand in the hallway. Lori didn't say anything else, simply listening to whatever it is her mother had to say. To her, this was even more nerve racking than waiting for the judges to give her the official results of her performance of her many pageant appearances. Lana's condition was at play here. She jumped a little at a sudden thudding sound. She looked down and noticed that it was Lori's phone. Even without the speaker on, she could hear her mother asking if Lori was okay, apparently worried at the noise the phone drop made. Lola looked up just in time to see tears freely flowing from Lori's eyes and a hand cupped over her mouth.

A/N: Sheesh. What a drama queen, amirite? What? Why're you all looking at me like that? Was it something I said?