So a few days ago marked the 1 year anniversary of the worst episode of the Loud House, No Such Luck, the episode that has since given birth to numerous fanfics based on it, which is pretty ironic, even though it was such a horrible episode it made for good material to write some good stories. Heck, I got all these ideas I'll probably do in the future because of that episode so stay tuned for that, alright now let's get down to business.
Now to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of this story, I give you this chapter. Last we left off, the Louds were reeling from Lincoln's declaration of his hatred towards them which was understandable all things considered, but that doesn't stop the sisters from trying to and make things right and reclaim the love and trust of their one and only brother, however one can imagine what fate will befall their parents. But then, the two Detectives that were on the case since the beginning were told by Simon Lynch, the scum that shot Lincoln in the first place had told them it wasn't a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he was hired to shoot him.
Now, we find ourselves in a mystery.
Who hired Lynch?
Why would they want Lincoln shot?
Why am I asking these questions when I can just write and let you guys figure it out for yourselves?
Don't forget to Fave, Follow, and leave your Reviews.
Enjoy!
Abraham Stone and Matthew Brookes have been on the force for a while, the former longer than the latter but both have seen their fair share of messed up stuff in the mean streets of this world, the kinds of things that would mentally break most men and would make one question the darker aspects of the human race. They've nabbed drug dealers, gang members, petty burglars and the like so it came as a surprise when they learned about a white haired kid being shot in public, even more so when they learned about what the kid's family put him through, then they found and arrested the shooter with ease and with that, they assumed it was all over. However, they learned that this goes far deeper than any of them could ever have imagined, the gunman had asked for an audience with the detectives and revealed something mind boggling, he told them that the shooting was no accident, someone had hired him to tail Lincoln and shoot him down with no hesitation.
So yeah, this was all sorts of crazy.
Since it was getting late, they decided to hold off on their questions until tomorrow morning where they resumed their interrogation session with the walking pile of criminal filth.
"Okay, so let me see if I got this right." Brookes said as he rubbed his temples to make sense out of everything. "You're telling us that someone hired you to follow Lincoln and shoot him and robbed a store to make it look like a robbery gone wrong?" he surmised, not believing that he just said that sentence out loud.
"What, did I stutter? That's exactly what happened!" Lynch told them, seemingly adamant of his bold claim. "I was called by some guy who had his voice disguised with I think it was an untraceable phone, he texted me a picture of the kid and said he'd transferred 50,000 dollars to my account if I...you know take the squirt out so do what you want with me, but if I were you, I'd go after the big fish."
Stone folded his arms as he took all this in with a skeptical frown. "Right, and you think we're just gonna take your word for it, you know for a dumbass you sure come up with the wildest stories to try and save your sorry ass." he took a sip of his coffee. "So if you think we're just gonna listen to the lies of a bastard who has no problem shooting kids, then you must really take us for idiots, don't you pal? Go ahead and give any excuse you have, no one here will believe you."
"I ain't making any of this up!" Lynch insisted. "Go to my apartment and look for my phone, it's red with skull stickers and you can find it on the counter, I never erased the call that was made, you have to believe me!"
His partner might not believe this sorry excuse for a human being, but Brookes couldn't help but consider this, part of being a detective is to take any clue or information presented to him and see if it's valid enough, Lynch seems sincere but guys like him are professional liars but should he take that risk? "I'll be out for a moment, you need anything?" he asked the criminal.
"Some water would be nice."
"Got it. Abe, try not to break his spine while I'm gone." Brookes warned his partner as he stepped out of the interrogation room where Captain Jenkins was looking through the one-way mirror. "I take it you heard all that, Captain?"
His superior nodded. "It's hard not to. So, you think he's being legit or is he trying to pin this on someone who probably doesn't even exist?"
"The million dollar question." Brooked stroked his chin in thought. "Abe's definitely not believing, that's probably his anger and stubbornness getting in the way of common sense for the umpteenth time, but if there is a chance that this guy's actually being honest, shouldn't we at least try to see for ourselves?"
Abe had to admit that was a good question, but didn't want to pick sides with his two best detectives. "Hard to say. There's no evidence of it, save for the supposed phone in his apartment, might need to ask him some more questions before doing anything about it."
Nodding in response, Brookes went to fetch the scum some of his precious water. "Anybody have some water? We got a whiner who's getting thirsty."
Close to him, was a regular officer who had his back turned, he had an uncapped water bottle and discreetly took out a turkey baster to drop something a little extra. "Got ya covered, fresh from the fridge." the officer said.
"Thanks."
As the detective left, the officer then started to walk away and took out a phone. "Sir." he spoke in a hushed tone. "It's done." he walked out of the police station. "Shift's over." he explained so that no one would question him leaving.
Back with Brookes, he went back to interrogation and surprisingly, Lynch was still breathing and Stone looked like he hasn't moved since his partner left to get the water of which he placed on the table. "Okay Mr. Lynch, just so we're clear we don't have any reason to believe, in fact we're very impatient people and want nothing to stop us from seeing you behind bars."
Taking a deep breath, Lynch drank his water and started to speak.
But then...
He started coughing, furiously coughing, he held his throat as he felt it go crazy ad his heart was beating like a drum and he just couldn't take it anymore, he fell to the floor causing the detectives to go to him. "What the hell?!" Stone exclaimed as he did not see this coming.
"Someone get help!" Brookes yelled to outside once he saw that Lynch was starting to foam in the mouth, the door bursts open and Captain Jenkins along with a few officers went in to see what they could do. "Hey! Lynch, stay with us, who hired you?! Answer us!" he told the dying man but the crook couldn't get any words out as he felt his heart beat begin to slow down, his rolled back and his head dropped to the floor, Brookes put fingers to his neck, he got nothing. "He's...dead." he breathed, completely shocked along with his fellow officers of the law.
How could this have happened? All he did was drink some water.
Water.
Brookes and Stone looked to the cup of water and the latter took it out where he proceeded to pump into a potted plant, where it proceeded to whither out and die. "Poison." the veteran officer observed then turned to his partner. "Who gave you that water?"
"An officer!" both ran out and looked around. "Hey, did anyone leave just now?!" he asked, frantically.
One officer was going to the interrogation room but stopped to answer Brookes. "Once just left!"
Brookes and Stone promptly ran out and looked around but there was no one in uniform for miles, the most likely fake cop had to have tainted with a poison sample and now there was no longer a shadow of doubt left in the air, someone really did hire Lynch shoot Lincoln Loud and whoever it was, they didn't want their hired gun to squeal so they silenced him for god.
It seems this mystery isn't over after all.
School was a challenge. That was something kids of all ages would agree with, especially for teenager sin high school, it was an atmosphere of impressionable teenagers who are unpredictable in their actions along with sticking with kindred spirits who share in their interests, such a word for this is called a clique. Lori and her younger sister, Leni, found themselves forming personal friendships with girls their age who also enjoy spending much of their time with their cellular devices along with being up to date with all the latest fashion sense, after the stressful days they've been having, they need some levity.
"Leni?" Lori said, snapping the fashionista out of her daze.
"Huh? What?"
"You alright?" her fellow blonde sister asked. "You almost ran into the front doors just." Lori told her as both sisters entered into the cafeteria. "I mean, you do that a lot in the past, but you're more...distracted than usual.
Sighing in defeat, Leni knew she couldn't keep any secrets from her. "I don't know Lori, it's just I'm stall sad about Lincoln." she told the eldest who could only look down and understand why Leni's mind was somewhere else, it was hard for all of the Loud sisters given their current family situation but as the oldest child, Lori knew she had to keep their spirits up, otherwise they'll never get their brother back. "Last night, I usually call my friends to talk about fashion stuff but I wasn't really in the mood to be honest."
Lori could relate, she can't remember the last time she went so long without one single phone conversation with Bobby. "I know it's hard to literally deal with right now, but I told you, if we can work together then we will find a way to make it up to Lincoln and be a family again."
"But Lori, what if Linky hates us for like ever?" the second born Loud child questioned. "You saw his face, it wasn't just anger, but pure hatred and even if we do get him to forgive us, what about mom and dad?"
These were all good points that Leni was making, surprising considering she rarely ever understands the importance of most things and Lori couldn't help but agree with her, she too noted the hate in Lincoln that was directed in all of them, save for Pop-Pop, Lily, and-*shudder*-Aunt Ruth, so it will definitely take time to fix their now broken bond with him. And of course, there was the matter of their parents, she read up and saw that one punishment for Child Abandonment was up to 10 years in state prison if their charged as felons so that was a scary thought, of course given their motivation for kicking him out, it might be treated as a misdemeanor and only get 1 year or more, either way it was looking bad for them.
However, she didn't want to focus on that, at least not for right now, she can only hope that their parents could get good lawyers and despite Pop-Pop being a good caretaker, his age was a serious matter and it couldn't be said if he could take care of the kids for an extended period of time. "I don't know, Leni. Let's just get through the day, besides I'm sure hanging with our friends will bring a smile to your face."
Both Loud sisters got their trays of food and saw a table where their school friends were sitting which included Becky, Dana, Terri, , and some of Leni's fashion friends that she invites over to her one sleepover that caused a blackout in the house which motivated Lynn Sr. to say that Leni would never have another slumber party again. "Hey girls." Lori greeted as she and Leni took their seats and were about to eat, but not before noticing something. Everyone was quiet, too quiet in fact, they all seemed livelier at first glance but when Lori and Leni sat down it was like the fun in the air immediately died down. "Uh, girls?"
Carol looked to the others. "Let's go." at her call, they abruptly got up from their seats and immediately went off, much to both sisters' surprise and shock.
"Wait, guys!" Lori called after them. "Where are you going?!"
"Away from you two." Becky coldly answered.
Leni's lips quivered. "G-Girls...?" she looked to her friends but they all averted her sad gaze.
"I don't get it, what's this all about?" Lori was desperate to get to the bottom of what was going on with her friends.
Dana answered for her. "We know what happened Lori. To your brother, Lincoln and what you and the rest of your family did to him, it's been all over the net and the news." to show proof, she held up her phone to present a post that read: 11 YEAR OLD SHOT BY CROOK! WITNESSES SAY THAT FAMILY CONFESSED TO HAVING EVICTING HIM FROM HOME.
Both of their eyes widened in horror as they saw that it had everything, the details surrounding Lincoln being shot, along with witnesses in the hospital who saw them confess to making him sleep outside under from what they could understand was because he was apparently, "bad luck" and thus the parents were arrested, there was even a video of it for all to see. Now, Lori was berating herself for not using her phone as of late, otherwise she would have seen this coming and prepared the other sisters for the inevitable backlash. "Guys, please, just let us explain-"
"Explain what, Lori?" Becky cut her off, not wanting to take her excuses. "That you kicked your own little brother out, that you forced him to sleep outside because of something incredibly dumb like bad luck?! We never expected something like this to happen, we especially never took you two for being cruel to your brother! He could have died!"
Lori flinched under their harsh tone, but in her heart she knew Becky was only telling what was the truth. "B-But we never meant for him to get hurt!" Leni insisted.
"But that's what happened, Leni!" a dark haired girl retorted. "That little cutie did get hurt and it was all your fault! I'm sorry, but this is goodbye, consider this friendship over." they all began walking away from their now former besties.
All the two could do was reel over how their friends, the ones they've known for a long time just straight up ended the beautiful kindred friendship that they all shared, and now they began to notice other students had heard the commotion but not out of curiosity but so that they could give the two their own judgmental looks that showed their disgust and utter disappointment, Leni couldn't take it anymore and she ran away in tears followed by Lori who took out her phone.
She needed to let the others now, starting with the next Loud in the birth list...
Luna Loud had separated from Lori and Leni to clear her head for a while, with all that's been happening in her family as of late she needed to familiarize herself with people who understood her, that being fellow rocker fans who love to rock out loud music as mush as she does, it was lucky that it was a free period that meant she could meet up with them at the back of the school. There were about three of them, one male and one female, but her focus wasn't really on them, it was mostly on the other female among the trio, a certain blonde girl with a teal streak across her hair, Sam Sharp, a close friend and her secret crush. Talking to her always made her feel good, she couldn't help but talk about her inner feelings with her, if only she could muster up the courage to ask her out.
"Yo dudes!" she called to them as she moved to them, but then the other two rockers left in quite a haste leaving behind Sam who for some reason seemed a little troubled. "Hey Sam, everything cool?"
"Hm? Uh yeah, sure..." her fellow rocker replied with an uncertain tone in her voice.
This made Luna frown in confusion. "You don't sound so cool, what's up?" she then glared a little. "Did those 2 dudes diss you just now?"
"It's not what they did, Lunes." Sam contradicted as she decided to confront her friend about the issue. "It's what you did." she told, looking straight at her in the eyes.
"Me?" Luna questioned, taken back. "W-What did I do?"
"Scroll through your phone." Sam instructed. "You'll see what I mean."
Curiosity filled her but she had a tiny suspicion of what her crush was, so she complied and looked to see a news alert, and what she saw made her widen her eyes in panic then flinched as she guiltily looked to Sam who gave her a stern glare. "Sam, I know it looks bad, but-"
"But nothing, Luna!" Sam snapped. "Bad enough your little bro gets freaking shot but as it turns out, his own family kicked him out of the house like he some hater at a concert or something! And I just wanted to make sure, did you do anything to stop it?!" she demanded but only got silence but that was good enough for her. "That's what I thought. Why? Why do that to your own family? I never pegged you to believing something bogus like bad luck. The poor kid didn't deserve what happened to him!"
"We never meant to!" Luna urged. "We were stupid, I admit that, but please understand that the last thing we ever wanted was to see little bro get hurt like this!"
Sam turned away, disappointed all over her face. "I used to think you were an awesome chick, Luna, all those jam sessions we had, those concerts we went to, the girl I saw back then, that's who I'm seeing right now." Luna could only lower her head in shame as the girl she had feelings for said these things, and she didn't disagree. "I don't want to do this, but I'm not sure if we should hang out anymore."
The moment that the blonde girl finished her sentence, it was as if her record of Mick Swagger broke into a million pieces, like her heart was. "Sam..." she sniffled. "Please..."
No, not like this.
It can't end before it even began.
With nothing left to say, Sam turned her back and started walking. "Goodbye Luna."
Now in this free period, instead of chilling with her peeps, Luna Loud stood with tear drops raining on the ground as she stood there as if she couldn't hear the sound of her phone ringing. The normally chill girl broke down on her knees and silently sobbed as she was left all alone, no Lincoln, no Sam, there was nothing.
Usually, Lynn was all for baseball practice, it's where she could show off her mad skills out on the field but her head just wasn't in the game that day, her thoughts were preoccupied by thoughts of Lincoln, every time she stood ready to hit the ball, an image of Lincoln appeared with that big smile of his waving at her, it distracted her as she continuously struck out. Eventually, she decided to maybe take a little break and get her priorities straight before going back on the field. As she sat alone on the bench, she couldn't help but keep thinking about her only brother, the brother she swore to protect as her duty of being his elder sister of which she failed and tremendously so, not just that, but thinking back she realized that her efforts to "toughen him up" were a bit overboard, she convinced herself that she was trying to help him but now that she thought about, maybe she was just being a no-good bully to him.
"Hey Loud." she looked to see one of her teammates. "Coach wants to see you."
Lynn arched an eyebrow. "Um, okay." she got up to go to the main office of the Squirrel's coach and she was curious, not just by what her coach wants with her but quickly noted that her teammate had a rather cold look when she said it, almost as if she had something against the athletic Loud, but for what reason, she couldn't figure out. She went inside where the team's manager stood in his chair with a stoic look, which made her nervous as everyone knew what that look meant; he was displeased. "You wanted to see me coach?"
He sat there in silence before gesturing to the chair in front of him. "Sit down, Loud." he ordered of which she complied, then he began to speak. "Kid, I'll be honest with you, when you tried for the team for the first time I didn't know what to expect, at first, you seemed more like a hotshot newcomer who was all talk. I thought you'd be satisfactory at best but boy, did you prove me wrong." he lightly chuckled. "I can still picture the look I had when you scored 10 points without striking out. Since then, you've been our little ace in the hole, and I was proud to have someone like you on the team, not just me, all the captains on the other sports teams you're in feel the same way. You were something special, Lynn." he then adopted a frown. "But you did one thing, I never expected you to do, you let me down, you let us all down." he threw a newspaper to the desk and when she saw the headline she panicked.
The coach knew.
Everyone in school knew.
Her hands trembling, she tried to defend herself. "I was-I was angry about losing about that big game from before!" she told him. "It was one of the important games we had and I tanked it but I'm Lynn Loud! I don't lose games, I win them so I thought maybe it wasn't my fault, I thought it was because-because-"
"Let me guess, your brother was at fault just by being there?" the gruff coach surmised. "There were those who saw your little outburst Lynn, they told me how you told him to his face that it was his fault we lost the game, that he was bad luck." he shook his head. "Lynn, I can't tell you how much of a poor sport you were. Even the best players in the major leagues have their off days and they don't blame others for their losses, they take it as motivation to be better and not by relying on something so stupid like luck, but by pure skill alone, that's the makings of a great athlete, something you didn't show. As if that weren't enough, that kid brother of yours got gunned down and then I'm hearing that you and your family actually kicked him to the curb as if he didn't matter. After hearing what happened, the girls kept giving me these complaints about you apparently forcing your silly good luck exercises such as early morning push ups, only allowing them to go take a dump after they win, what the heck, kid?"
Lynn stayed silent as he continued, he was right, everything he said rang true and if she had any common sense, she would have realized her folly sooner which could've prevented so much heartache.
Sighing, the coach got to the point. "Look kid, I've spoken with the team, the other sports coaches and the school board, we all agreed, such behavior especially from you can't be tolerated. I'm sorry, but I'm cutting you from the team, you should go ahead and clear your locker. You're done."
"What...?" Lynn whispered as his words sank in. She, Lynn Loud Jr., was cut from a sports team, but that's impossible, she's never been cut from anything in her life. "Coach, please don't do this...!" she practically sobbed.
It hurt to see her like this, she was always known for being strong but the choice has been made. "It's not just me." he gestured her to turn around and saw the managers from all the teams she was a part of enter through, all stoically looking at the former star athlete. "The board also thought it'd be best if it wasn't just softball, but everything else as well. Sorry kiddo, but I think this is the end of your sports career."
The end.
So that's it, she wasn't gonna shoot hoops or skate with her roller derby team, or spike a football with those she calls friends ever again, that was the only path left for her. Lynn covered her eyes with her hair and then stood from her seat. "I got ya, guess I'll be leaving." she sounded unaffected but that was to hide the pain of what she just heard, the 13 year old left the office and passed by the other girls, she shared one look with Margo, her best friend and she could only look away. Going to the locker room, Lynn got all of her things and began leaving, as she did so she couldn't help but see her sister, Luan who seemed to be begging to some guy with brown hair, Benny, that was his name from what Luan told her. Benny shook his head and left Luan who teared up and ran crying.
Guess everyone's having an off day.
As she left the school, took a second to observe the field for what seemed like the final time and restarted her walk as she made it back home, she didn't stop to say hello, only to go up to her room where she dropped her stuff, she picked up her bat, the one she threatened Lincoln with and with a yell broke it apart and threw the pieces to the ground, she laid on the bed and cried into the sheets.
"Alright, let's review the entire shit storm that just happened." Jenkins said as Brookes and Stone stood in his office.
Clearing his throat, Brookes did a recap of the events that transpired. "Well sir, after getting Simon Lynch into custody yesterday, he had requested to see me and Detective Stone personally, as you already know." after all, he was the one who told them. "After that, we went to see what he wanted us for and he told us something that makes it seem like this case is more deeper than we thought, he had claimed that he was hired by an unknown person to shoot Lincoln Loud."
The police captain turned to Stone. "Is this true?"
Stone nodded in response. "I know it's hard to believe sir, but that's what he told us. Today, we decided to see if his claims had were true but at that time, I had my doubts. But then, the bastard wanted a drink of water."
"I complied." Brookes continued. "An officer seemingly on duty gave me one but when Lynch drank, he quickly began to suffocate and died right on the scene." he was a child shooting son of a bitch but it would have been more satisfying to see him rot in jail where he belonged, death was the easy way out which made his death all the more disappointing. "Unfortunately, he couldn't give us any info and we tracked down the officer who gave me the water but he had disappeared into the crowd."
Rubbing his temples, Jenkins took a sip of his drink. "So we may have another bastard out there who ordered a hit on a little kid and the only guy who could tell us who it was is now lying in the morgue. Damn it." he cursed. "Where are we on the poison?"
"CSI is still processing it, other than that, we got nothing." Brookes sighed.
Stone crossed his arms. "No, there is something. Remember when Lynch told us about his phone at his apartment?" he recalled the last things Lynch told them before his death. "If we could get our hands on it, we can track down the one responsible and we can at least nab him, we owe it to that kid." he said, with both of his associates agreeing with him.
"Right." Jenkins pointed to both of them. "Matt, Abe, you two have been on in the case since the beginning and I expect you to see through it to the end, any resource you need, any extra hours you're thinkin of requesting, well you'll find it here. Dismissed."
They left and discussed the recent matter they have on their hands. "I don't get it, the Louds were a normal family, well as normal as a family with 11 can be so who could have hired to shoot him and why?"
"Maybe when find the one responsible, you can ask them yourself." Stone replied. "For now, let's focus on hunting. There's someone who pulled all the stops to make sure this kid would get shot and maybe even die, thank god he didn't and now it falls to us to track him down and if whoever it is thinks they can outrun us." his glare hardened. "Their dead wrong."
When school ended, Ronnie Anne had plans to visit Lincoln again at the hospital but this time she was brining another friend, Clyde, when he heard that his best friend had woken up he continuously asked the Santiago girl if he could come with her, this time of which she accepted and as a bonus, Bobby decided to come along as well. "You wouldn't believe how crazy things have gotten in school, all the teachers and students want to know how you're doing, especially, Tabby, Haiku, Polly Pain, and Giggles." the nerdy kid told Lincoln. "Not just them, but our other friends too, but Rusty fainted since hospitals give him a nervous vibe."
Lincoln chuckled good-naturedly. "Sounds like him. Clyde, thanks again for coming to check up on me, you too Bobby, though I am a little sorry if you had other plans for today."
"Are you kidding, buddy?" the McBride boy responded. "I hear my best friend survived and you expect me not to see him? Pal, I'd have canceled a session with Dr. Lopez."
The elder Santiago sibling nodded. "Seriously bro, everyone's seriously worried about you, heck a few fellas from Lori's party wanted me to send you their best wishes. So, how you holding up, Linc?"
Rubbing his arm, the white haired boy answered. "Other than the fact that my arm is in constant pain, I'm getting there. Not gonna lie, it feels kind of good here, it almost feels like having a room that isn't a converted linen closet." he remarked. "Say guys, do any of you have any idea of how my sis...the girls are doing."
His rough friend who was a girl scoffed. "Who cares? I honestly ignore them being even this close to me, though I will tell you some people are really giving them a hard time, not that they don't deserve it."
Lincoln looked to Bobby and noticed his downcast expression, when he mentioned the Loud girls, it seemed to have made him think of Lori and he wondered where they stood in light of what he learned. "Bobby, are you and Lori still...you know..."
Bobby had to think about that for a moment, a part of him never thought he had to face this kind of situation ever again, the last break up they had was a long time ago and the reason for it was admittedly stupid now that he thought about it. But this time, things are different, her actions have greatly made him see her in a different light, he used to think of her as an angel but after finding out what she and the other Louds did, it was hard to forgive and forget this time. "All I can tell you is that I don't think I'll be going through the tunnel of love with a special someone anytime soon."
This made his little brother figure feel a little guilty, as annoying as it was to see him and Lori gush over each other most of time, he still felt happy for both of them and he was afraid that he might have ruined Bobby's chances at romance, to him there was no one else but Lori. "I'm...sorry."
The seventeen year old shook his head. "Don't worry about it, Little Loud. What's done is done."
"Roberto, Ronalda." everyone turned and saw Maria standing in the doorway.
"What's up mom?"
"Sorry, but I have to ask you two and your friend to stand out for a moment, there's someone who wants to visit Lincoln alone." the nurse/mother explained and though they were confused, they nonetheless complied.
Lincoln himself was curious on who wanted to see him, his first thought was one of the sisters or the parents but they wouldn't dare to come back after what happened last time, he then considered it being the friends from school but Ronnie Anne and Clyde would have told him about it, other than that, he couldn't really think of anyone else coming to visit him in his current state. Not that it wasn't welcomed, with the days he's been having he could find some form of comfort with someone who was willing to actually care about his dilemma, that's more than he could ask from the Louds. He heard the door open and once he saw his recent visitor, his eyes went wide in shock.
"It's...you?"
Ha! Cliffhanger!