AN: Thanks again for reading and commenting. Now it's time for Jimmy to meet with Rita and Lynn Sr. can he handle the pressure?
Jimmy woke up early he took a shower, ate some breakfast, and got dressed into a purple turtle neck and black jeans. He left at 8:15 AM to Royal Woods in his green SUV. The first impression was to not be late. Meanwhile, in Royal Woods, Lori and Lincoln were leaving to visit the Casagrandes, the rest of the family were getting ready to also leave the house. There was some doubt in Lori if she should go or not, she didn't want something wrong to happen.
The teenage boy drove to Flip's first, to get something to drink a bottle of his favorite soda, Pipp. He left slightly annoyed because of Flip and his tendency to overcharge for everything. He didn't know what to expect with Rita and Lynn. He did like them they were nice, and they were supportive of him and Lori when she had gotten pregnant, but they could have soured on him after his absence.
Jimmy rang the doorbell from the outside it was a relatively warm day, but it felt like it was a hot summer day in Death Valley for him. Quickly, he popped open the soda and drank some. Rita answered the door.
"Hello," he squeaked.
"Jimmy, come on in," she said with a soft tone.
Jimmy walked in the house, which was disturbingly quiet for a place that usually would have some noise going on. He looked around it wasn't messy, but it wasn't pristine either. Even though Rita didn't give off any sense of being heated toward the boy, Jimmy started sweating nervously anyway. The family dog, Charles, ran over to him and sniffed him then went about his day. Either Charles thought he was nice, or Charles was no guard dog.
"Jimmy, you can a have seat, on the couch, Lynn will be down in a second", Rita said.
"Why does she sound like I am waiting for the dentist?", he thought.
"So, Jimmy how have you been?", she asked.
"This is a trick, I know it is, I can't answer that", he thought, "If I say I am doing well, then she could use that against. I've been doing awful she'll see through that lie. Can't a person be both doing well and awful at the same time, I've not had a bad 4 years or a good 4 years?", he thought out.
While he fought his own mind, sweat was all over his face, he's never this sweaty. Also, he was slightly shivering. Rita looked at the boy and noticed he looked three steps from either screaming or dying.
"It's alright, I know you are nervous", she said in her motherly tone.
Lynn Sr. came down the stairs. Being formal, the 19-year-old, stood up to shake Mr. Loud's hand. The male parental unit accepted and shook his hand. He and Mrs. Loud sat on the couch while Jimmy and his soda moved to the chair.
"Are you a little hot there?" Lynn asked.
"No, I'm not hot", Jimmy replied.
"I think he's never us, honey", Rita said.
"Trust us, we aren't here to scold you, we just want to talk", she said to him.
"Why would I think that? I am just someone who in your eyes "abandoned" his daughter after he got her pregnant.", he thought.
"So, I understand you are in college, that's what Lori told me", Lynn Sr. replied.
"That's correct, in my third year."
"The third year, you went when you were 17?", Rita asked.
"Yes", he squeaked again.
"Alright, Jimmy we've got to compose ourselves we look insane, take a nice drink of the soda, to remove this so-called, cotton mouth.", he thought.
Rita and Lynn Sr. were kind of quiet they didn't want this talk to go bad like a tense diplomatic situation. For the first time, Jimmy noticed he was sweating that's when he wiped his face. It was time to compose himself a little this had to go well or if it was to go badly, he wanted to not show a sense of weakness about it.
"Alright, I know why I'm here, and you know why you wanted to talk with me where you requested my appearance like this is a court. Let's get right to the point and talk about Lisa, my daughter", he said with either confidence somehow getting into his body or sugar rush.
"Well, you could say we were surprised about what happened in the past month, we didn't know Lisa even knew until a couple of days ago", Lynn Sr. said.
"You guys didn't try to find me in the past few years?", he asked.
"To be honest, we didn't think you wanted to be found. Why didn't you come here anytime before, you do know where we live?", Rita asked.
That question was reasonable to Jimmy. She didn't understand his situation.
"But she thinks I abandoned them, on my own accord, her question confirms it, that has to be it", he said in his mind again.
"Why did Lori decide to tell you guys now, though? She seemed so cautious about it for the past month. Please tell me", Jimmy replied.
The Loud parents looked at each other for a second, they remembered a couple days ago what they were originally going to tell Lori.
"Well, we were considering adopting, Lisa, and had to ask Lori for consent", Rita explained.
"Adoption", Jimmy thought. He could have died right there if he wasn't more curious.
"That timing is way too well-crafted to be true, I mean, you are going to adopt her now you must have known that she found me before you lead on."
"We literally didn't know, Jimmy, Lori seemed to want to tell us about it while we wanted to tell her about the papers", Rita replied.
"This house gets busy and taking care of toddler twins at the time, taking care of Lisa, taking care of the family things get lost in the fold. We found the papers we had gotten years ago and thought we might as well do it know", Lynn Sr. answered.
"Did she?", he asked.
"Did she what, Jimmy?", Lynn Sr. asked.
"Sign, the paper giving up parental rights as a maternal parent?"
"When we told her about the papers, her first question was about you. Then she explained what happened this past month, and then ripped up the papers", Lynn Sr. replied.
"She ripped up the papers. This could have happened where they adopted her all because of my spinelessness", he thought.
"Do you two think I am some awful person?"
His question was blunt and unexpected to them. They did know him before he left. He seemed very enthusiastic about the baby even making plans, picked out names, and everything. One day he just disappeared and didn't return. No contact attempts worked. Lori didn't take those days well and they had to comfort their daughter who was already moody. At first, they all held hope that maybe he would return but, they eventually told Lori that maybe she should move on. They didn't know how to respond- the answer couldn't be a straight no or yes.
"This was all a mistake. I mean if this was a way to rub it in that I'm an awful person, I didn't need you to tell me that. You think it would have been easy just appear back here especially when you already had the lie and set up all nice and neat and put together? That's nice to think so, isn't it? Why did I come here?"
Rita and Lynn were still quiet. He picked up his soda and got out of the chair and walked out of the living room to the front door. One of the Loud parents wanted to say something anything to get him not leave.
"What are you doing? Why are you leaving? This only makes what we know is a lie is their confirmed truth, it gives evidence. You have a spine, I care about Lisa, let's not screw this up again", he thought.
Jimmy instead of opening the door took another drink of his soda. Then he walked back into the living room.
"What was the point of this arrangement? If you want me to feel like scum, I don't need your help", he yelled.
Tears started to run down his face. Any sense of composure was gone as his tears turned into full-blown crying. He was sitting in front of the chair on the ground. Rita's motherly instincts came into play as she put her hand on his shoulder and crouched down.
"It's alright, you can stop crying. We weren't trying to say that you're awful. Your question kind of took us back. I'd admit that we were bothered that you disappeared without a contacting us or Lori. We had to make her feel better however we could. A little bit of me made me think that you chose to leave because reality got to you. Being a 15-year-old an trying to be a parent would be tough, that maybe your father getting a new job was the out you needed.", Rita said.
"That's even worse, I loved Lori, I wouldn't have run off on her, and that'd you even think I would do such a thing strictly, the worst thing I've ever heard", Jimmy replied.
"I'm not trying to imply anything negative I am just saying what was running through our minds at the time", Rita tried to explain.
He moved her arm off his shoulder and stood up. His face looked red and he was hot again.
"I shouldn't care what you think about me, I really shouldn't. I came here not to impress you. You wanted to talk to me about my daughter. I care about her, I love her. I met her a month ago and was happy to know that she exists, and I've had fun with her. Now, I didn't fight hard for myself last time but, I will this time. One thing you two need to know, you do anything to make sure I can't see her then I will call my uncle, who is a lawyer and will make sure that the court will settle this."
Rita, who had moved back to the couch, and Lynn Sr. were taken aback by that comment. Jimmy was still mush and tears started running down his face again.
"I couldn't do it, I couldn't take her away from you, it would be wrong she loves you guys. What would it fix anyway?", Jimmy replied.
"We don't want to take Lisa away from you, and yes we don't think you're an awful person, we're sorry if we made you feel anyway such. You've got to understand that we didn't know what happened please tell us what happened", Lynn Sr. said.
"I didn't leave Lori because I was scared and run away. You remember when I told you that my father had gotten a new promotion that required him to move. I had talked with my parents about arranging to stay here in Royal Woods with a family member so, I could stay in school here, be with my friends, with Lori, and the baby. The day I left, I didn't know that we were leaving-leaving", he explained.
"So, you went to Indiana without knowing at first?", Rita asked.
"I knew we were going, I was going down with them to help settle in and everything then come back up before school started. That woman, that some would call my mother, she did all this. She really didn't like that idea of this teenage baby thing. I guess my father's new job offered her a way out. I tried to call Lori, but she had Lori's number blocked. I had Casey try and tell Lori, but I guess she couldn't get the message to Lori."
He went over to Rita and hugged her.
"I'm so sorry for everything, I felt guilty about everything, it wasn't like I was constantly miserable but, it was always in the back of my mind. I loved Lori very much so, she is a great girl. Bobby is lucky to have her. I wish I could go back in time and change something but, I can't I just want to try to make the present better."
"Lori never did lose faith in you, you know, she told us that you wouldn't leave on your own accord", Lynn Sr. said.
"We should talk about Lisa now", Rita said.
Jimmy nodded his head.
"Alright, tomorrow you are planning to see her, correct?", Rita asked.
"Yes", Jimmy replied.
"Well like you said we can't stop you from seeing her", Rita said.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to threaten you like that, like I said I don't want to anything to hurt you or her", Jimmy replied.
"What I mean is that you two have been spending time together and we see no reason to even think about stopping that", Rita explained.
"I would like to be able to see her more, she's an awesome kid, you did well with her", he said.
"Well, we can arrange that too. To be fair, she's not what we expected every milestone that children go through she went through quickly. We tried our best but maybe don't give her enough attention sometimes because of our large family. We do love her," Lynn Sr.
"I know you do, wanting to adopt her was a nice thought really, that you wanted her to be your actual daughter is really sweet. You wanted Lori to have a normal teenage life. Lisa says that you let her experiment and try things, within reason, and that you let her teach at schools. I do have a question, why does she go to kindergarten?"
"Well, we thought that it would be good to have some time with kids her own age sometimes", Lynn Sr. answered.
"Hmm, I know how that feels", Jimmy said.
They talked for about an hour about different things pertaining to Lisa like memories. They talked about things that have happened at the Loud House. How Rita was working on a novel which, Jimmy said he willing to proof-read. How Lynn Sr. was now working on his passion for cooking, no more IT jobs for him. Jimmy talked about what his history projects were and about his brother.
"In speaking of food, can we have some now, I've not eaten for a while and feel hungry", Jimmy said with a smile.
"I think it is time for lunch anyway, you don't mind leftovers, do you?", Lynn Sr. asked.
"No, as long as it's not goulash, eh never mind, I don't mind that either", Jimmy replied.
"You have got to try my newest creation, it's something to behold", Lynn Sr. replied.
AN: This was a slightly hard chapter for me to right wanted everything to work where it would make sense. So I hope it turned out well. I really wanted to make sure that they aren't enemies but just have different halves of the story and of course, Jimmy doesn't even have the full story himself. Thanks for reading!