Lincoln had insisted they take Ronnie Anne home first. It was agreed with easily, and after a goodbye kiss, the white haired boy let his girlfriend go back to her home. The four loud siblings were on their way back home themselves. As the van drove on, the radio read 1:08pm.
"Least we can relax and we won't have to worry about being attacked," Lynn said. Lincoln kept his attention on the view outside the window. His body could not even believe the rest it was going to receive since he had been stressing it beyond belief lately.
"Yeah… Never knew there would be rules to street violence, but I guess no one could really live with themselves if they killed innocent bystanders," Lincoln responded. Thanks to one of the turf war rules where the mafias could not attack their enemies at their homes, they all could take things quite easy since they did not have to be paranoid about random strangers breaking in and trying to murder them all. The Loud siblings felt great knowing guns were not allowed either. None of them could shoot anything to save their own lives, and Lynn only had skill in archery.
"Just because there are rules doesn't mean people will follow them. Kind of like incest," Lincada chimed up. Lincoln's head snapped around to see his female imaginary clone sitting between him and Lynn. Lynn was confused why her brother suddenly was giving her a stern look out of nowhere, like she had made a terrible remark.
"We'll be home soon… and first thing I want you all to do when we get home is get some better clothes. We all look like we borrowed from the lost and found," Lori exclaimed. Lucy could only agree as she missed her usual black attire. The only clothes they could change into so they could get out of the grease covered ones were spare outfits that co-workers had been more than willing to donate to them, but none of it really matched.
"Sorry that we broke your phone, Lincoln," Lucy apologized, aware that he had no longer any means to contact his girlfriend since his phone busted due to the three siblings accidentally breaking it. The raven haired girl looked to the back seat to see Lincoln, whose focus stayed on Lynn at the moment.
"Hey, I know it's fun to look in a mirror, but hey, moron? People are talking to you," Lincada grabbed his head and forcibly turned it to face his gothic sister. Lincoln realized what just happened, trying not to show the sudden terror.
"Huh? Oh ri-right my phone… Well, I needed to upgrade anyway," Lincoln brushed it off, apologizing for the momentary daze there. Their oldest blonde sister was concerned just like the other two, but stress was quite damaging to everyone. But as they arrived back to their home in Vanzilla, they saw the all too familiar vehicle parked along the sidewalk.
"Isn't that Bobby's car?" Lincoln quirked. Lori felt her heart skip several beats. The four of them had no idea what to do. They expected to walk into their home to an upset family with questions, but the older blonde girl was more terrified for her relationship than anything else. No one was able to speak, the four Loud children all unsure what to do. Bobby was here, so their fabricated story for camping was gone.
"How is it we always manage to dig ourselves deeper into a hole each day?" Lincada wondered aloud, still no one able to hear this glorified phantom but Lincoln.
"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know…" Lincoln was desperately trying to think of something. He had no cover ups. They had no injuries on them at least, the three sisters unharmed beyond a few scrapes on their hands from the Chop Shop work, and their lone brother lacking any new injuries. But Lincoln still could not think of a method to get out of this. They remained in the van, all of them in the same mental position.
"Y'know, I remember what we wanted to do once, when we were seven years old. Remember Lincoln? It was after you broke Leni's favorite sunglasses," Lincada tried to refresh his memory. Lincoln stared at the floorboard, his eyes widening at the idea his female doppelganger was saying.
"No way, I'm not running away!" Lincoln shot that idea down. He remembered having accidentally broken Leni's favorite sunglasses once when he had fallen while pretending to be a famous actor from the time. Yet she did not care about the item being destroyed. Leni taught Lincoln if she let every little thing get her down, then she would not be who she was. Lincoln had felt horrible nonetheless and considered running away from home, but he had chickened out due to his past fear of the dark.
"Running away? No one mentioned running away…" Lucy informed her older brother, Lincoln realizing he had spoken that out loud instead of thought it out quietly between him and his imaginary doppelganger. He still could not tell if she was evil or not.
"None of us are going to run away from this. The mafia might hunt us down and make beef out of us," Lynn reminded her brother, aware that no one simply fled from the mafia or their problems for that matter. Sadly both would catch up to them eventually unless they were buried underground or sent to the bottom of the ocean in concrete shoes, or given a very long bath in acid.
"Well, at least we're all on the same page," Lori nervously laughed, trying to find some bright side to this, but she was about to have a heart attack. She was trying her best to gather herself with everyone else. Lincoln exhaled once they had calmed down. He rubbed his head, opening the van door and hopping out. He closed the door, but saw Lincada go right through it with that same devious smirk, satisfied with her male half's mental snap.
"C'mon guys. Lets handle this the same way I've handled a lot of things lately… blindly and hoping for the best and going with the first thing our guts can come up with," Lincoln insisted. His three sisters looked to one another, wishing they could have the time to fabricate a better lie to bring out of their mouths, but they were in such a tense position that they had really no options. Their lone brother was ready to swallow his pride and fear, and if this was what it came down to, Lincoln would tell his family about the new life style they had gotten involved in because of him.
"I got a feeling this is going to make a lot of hearts cry," Lucy expected their family to be upset, angry or worse, but they knew it was going to not go well. Lori suddenly felt a light bulb in her head brightly illuminate with an idea from hearing all this.
"That gives me an idea, and I hate to do it, but I don't want the rest of our family involved with the mafia. Lincoln, it's up to me and you to save ourselves," Lori exclaimed. Her siblings seem greatly relieved, but Lincoln did notice Lincada peeking in through the window to the living room.
"Hey, there's an intervention-thingamajigger set up here. It's weird, really… mommy and daddy not saying anything, everyone else rambling about how to handle things…" Lincada said what was going on inside. Lincoln may not be at the window himself, but he could see it too. His female counterpart did have some nice perks. It was almost like psychic vision in a sense on top of the being able to access his memories like they happened yesterday. The four staying outside to discuss their plan.
The Loud house was packed with worry and confusion inside. When Bobby appeared and accidentally destroyed the camping and sick lie that Lori told them separately, it had blown up in the family's faces quite heavily. The older blonde never anticipated anything like this. All the talk in the living room ended fast when the door opened. Then walked in Lincoln, Lori, Lynn and Lucy, all eyes on the four of them.
"H-hi there Bobby booboo bear," Lori nervously greeted her boyfriend by his nickname. Bobby really did not know what to say in reply, his mind shaken up.
"Soo… family meeting?" Lynn chirped, Lucy remaining quiet. Lincoln was trying to ignore his imaginary female clone poking him to remind him that he could feel her, which she knew always freaked him out.
"You four, sit down," their mother ordered. Their children obeyed as they took their seats.
"Wish I had just spent more time with Ronnie Anne now," Lincoln thought, trying to ignore his body's agonizing throbs of pain.
"Where have you all been?" Mr. Loud demanded the truth.
"Not… camping?" Lucy responded. Going into this half blind felt very stupid now, despite the plan they had in mind. Lucy and Lynn were the people to help set it up in the conversation. It fell down to Lincoln and Lori to pull it off in the end.
"We've been downtown," Lynn claimed, not entirely lying. They had been downtown for a while when driving to and from their mafia's main headquarters. They all hoped no one took notice of all their rings on their hands. They were noticeable, even if they did not have many all together.
"Ohh! You should've invited me! I've wanted to see the new mall!" Leni excitedly stated having forgotten the serious atmosphere. Lori was in the same boat as her younger sister. That new mall that had opened only a week ago had slipped her mind fast, mainly due to the outrageous prices they had.
"What were you guys doing 'down' there?" Luan wondered, with a minor groan from them all for her pun. Lori looked to her boyfriend for any sign of confidence or trust in his skepticism. She could not believe she was in this position
"Don't blame anything on them. I begged them to take me and cover for me," Lincoln insisted he receive the blame, Lucy and Lynn hoping this would work. They couldn't take their rings off now. They were merged with their flesh, so temporarily hiding them in their pockets was impossible. Lana and Lola wondered if this had to do with whatever they saw at the park.
"You were just taking your brother somewhere for the night? Why didn't you tell me?" Bobby requested. It was odd for him to be left out of the loop. He was able to keep a secret, normally Lori and him talked about everything.
"And what was so important you had to go downtown for the span of a whole day? It feels illogical to me," Lisa replied. It was not making sense in her intelligent mind, but she was not going to go into theories of noticeable details until needed.
"What did you need to do down there that you couldn't simply ask us for time out? I and your father would have been glad to drive you somewhere," Mrs. Loud requested, she still worried about her son after being told he was nearly arrested.
"You wouldn't have," Lincoln claimed, acting like he knew his parents would disagree to take him anywhere near there.
"Why not?" Mr. Loud was unsure whether to be angry or not. It depended on if his son told him the truth or not. Otherwise it would be a harsh grounding because this was quite an inexcusable action. Their son looked at all his sisters beyond Lori, Lynn and Lucy.
"Come on, play it cool… make it sound like you're one big awesome boss getting some," Lincada spoke from behind him, peeking her head from behind the couch.
"…Because, I was spending the night with my girlfriend on a romantic date. I didn't think you'd let me," Lincoln exclaimed. He heard a few ear piercing squees, and he got swamped in questions.
"Think me and you are in the clear at least," Lynn said as she and Lucy had gotten out of the way in time and were watching from nearby.
"Who is she?"
"Do we know her?"
"Ohhh! Where did you meet?!"
"Will you bring her to meet us? Will you? Will you?"
"Way to go bro!"
"Girls, breathing space! You can mob them in a minute," Mr. Loud ordered them to calm down for the moment. Bobby was relieved, believing Lori had only done this to act as her brother's driver, everyone else believing Lynn and Lucy having tagged along for the sake of getting out of the house. Unfortunately that alone was not enough to get the questions off them. It was now Lori's turn to make her lie.
"Thanks… I just wanted to go enjoy the carnival with her without anyone meddling," Lincoln apologized, Lincada seeming disappointed while lying flat on the coffee table in the center of the room like it was a bed.
"I gladly took him because… I needed some time to think too Bobby, about us, and really needed help clearing my head," Lori hugged Bobby, claiming she had Lynn and Lucy come along to help her supposedly think on a hard problem. Her boyfriend looked worriedly to her.
"About us?" Bobby hesitantly spoke. Half his friends told him a while back that if his girlfriend was thinking about them in general without talking to him directly, it usually meant the end of a relationship. He had no idea whether to believe it or not. The oldest loud sibling swallowed, mentally chanting to herself; it was for her family's protection, and for their safety and well being. One thing she had not informed her siblings, it was actually something she thought would be great with the new income.
"Yes, Bobby, I've been freaking out the last week about this but thanks to them I'm able to tell you that… well, our relationship skipped a lot of steps, a whole lot of them," Lori stated with a hand on her stomach.
"…huh?" Bobby was confused. Lincoln was still unable to believe the lie, but it was her choice to do it in the end, if it protected their family from knowing the dark truth.
"Honey, don't tell me…" Mrs. Loud looked ready to faint.
"You're only eighteen. You can't be yet… are you?" Mr. Loud looked to be more in disbelief than anything, having already guessed things with his wife.
"Can you please tell me what I'm missing?" Bobby requested.
"Bobby Santiago, really? …fine, I'll say it. I'm pregnant… and you're the father."
The Santiago boy stared, and all eyes averted to Lori. Lincoln, Lucy and Lynn were the only ones acting calm about everything.
"She really is a good actor. Think the mafia has any drama movie star roles? Or maybe for another cheesy soap opera? I could watch one of those!" Lincada chattered, until Lincoln shoved his imaginary clone off the back of the couch and hearing her thud to the floor. The white haired boy plugged his ears for the inevitable noise. Lucy vanished and Lynn plugged her ears with her fingers in an attempt to save her poor eardrums. Lincoln knew he was in debt to his sister for life for willingly going this far to help protect their family from the truth.
"WHAT?!"