AN: For such short chapters, this one sure took a heck of a long time to get done. And with the way things are going lately (in terms of work), I don't see it getting too much better. However, I do have more of an idea of what I'm going to do with the next few chapters, so that might help reduce the delay somewhat. And yes, I know Lucy confessing about the toilet incident is done to death, but it is her biggest sin at the time NSL came in the episode timeline.
Confessions and Considerations
"Can it wait, Luce…?" Lana asked as all eyes turned toward the goth girl.
"No. It has to be said. Right here, right now," The occult enthusiast stated simply. "This is important."
"...Alright, Lucy. We're listening," Lori told her, giving the eight year old her undivided attention.
"You're all familiar with the toilet clog incident, correct?" This comment brought Lynn from behind the couch, poking her head up from over the back.
"Well, yeah…" Luna responded with a raised eyebrow. "We were all basically there when it happened, and when Linc said he took the fall for someone."
"What I wouldn't give to find who did that to him…" Lola growled, grinding one of her fists into her other hand. The rest of the sisters angrily muttered their agreement to that sentiment. Lucy started to sweat. If she weren't pale already, she would have gone white as a sheet. However, she knew she needed to do this. No turning back now. "I'd make them sorry they-"
"It was me," Lucy suddenly confessed, wanting to get it out before she lost her nerve. You could have heard a pin drop following the confession.
"...come again?" Leni asked with a tilted head.
"It was me," The young goth repeated herself, her voice lower than usual. "I was the one who clogged the toilet. It was my princess pony book…" She braced herself, expecting to be relentlessly teased and especially scolded for what she did. What actually happened, however…
"YOU clogged the toilet and made Lincoln take the blame!?" Lynn snapped, glowering at her with her fists clenched.
"Dude! Not cool!" Luna said angrily, sitting up straight in her seat.
"What? No...I didn't make-" Lucy started to say, sounding very nervous.
"That wasn't very nice, Lucy," Leni said, looking disappointed in her.
"You made Linc into a laughing stock!" Lana said indignantly, hopping off the couch and storming over to the raven haired child. "Not to mention nearly wrecked our only toilet!"
"Now, girls, hold on a second…" The oldest sister tried to interject, but it fell on deaf ears as Lynn and Lola each converged on the lover of the occult.
"Because of you, Lincoln got grounded for nothing!" Lola screamed, grabbing her gothic older sister by the front of her dress and shaking her violently.
"Bet you had a good laugh, watching him get roasted for your crime…" Lucy's roommate growled.
"I...I didn't ask him to do it...He made that decision on his own…" Lucy replied meekly. Normally, she liked to be scared. However, this was an entirely new level of fear...and she didn't like it at all.
"Lincoln did attest to that in his conversation, yes," Lisa confirmed, a look of calm anger on her face as she slid off the couch. "However, the fact of the matter remains that, when given the opportunity to confess, you still allowed our elder brother to be punished when he didn't deserve it," She added, walking up to join the twins and Lynn in half surrounding her. Lucy backed away from them, but they simply got right up in her face again, until she ended up with her back against the stairs.
"I think it's about time she gets punished…" Lola said in a very threatening manner.
"I agree…" The sporty sister said, cracking her knuckles.
"Girls…" Leni said, starting to sound nervous. "I think she's got the idea…"
"I think I should tell Mom about everything she ever did…" The pageant princess threatened. "...like with her wedding dress."
"Maybe dunk all of her poems into the toilet," Her twin suggested.
"Whoa, pump the brakes, girls…" Luna said, standing up and starting to step over to them. "I agree she should be punished, but that-" She was interrupted when Lynn shoved her back, nearly sending her tripping over the coffee table.
"Back off, Luna…" She growled before turning back to Lucy, grabbing her by the collar of her dress and lifting her off the ground. Lucy had tears spilling from under her hair and down her face. "...but first, I'm going to-"
"-Put her down if you know what's good for you!" Lori suddenly exclaimed, rising from her chair and rushing over like she was sitting on a rocket.
"Stay out of it, Lori!" Lynn snapped. Instead, her older sister grabbed the twins and Lynn in her arms to hold them back. The sudden grab made Lynn drop her roommate.
"Lucy, go to your room and stay there until Mom and Dad get home!" She instructed as she tried to hold three violently struggling kids and one toddler genius. The scared spitless young girl nodded and ran as fast as she could upstairs to her room.
"Lori! Let me go!" Lynn yelled as she fought the hardest to get out of her grasp. After a bit of wrestling, the authoritative blonde did let them go...once she had put herself between them and the stairs up.
"There. Happy?" Lori asked her sourly, arms crossed.
"Get out of the way," Lynn said in a low, dangerous tone.
"No."
"Lori! Let us by!" Lola screamed. "Lucy needs to be punished!"
"I agree," The oldest of the sisters said firmly. "But it's not your place to punish her. That's Mom and Dad's job."
"You really think they'll give her a fair punishment!?" Lynn inquired furiously.
"Do YOU think Lincoln would want you to enact vigilante justice?" This was enough to make Lola and Lana back down, but not Lynn or Lisa.
"Number one: considering all his nerd comics have superheroes doing vigilante stuff, I doubt he would be too upset by it. Especially since it's for him…" Lynn started with a growl.
'Yes...because you're such a great judge of Lincoln…' Lori thought derisively. However, seeing the situation was volatile enough, she kept it to herself.
"And second, how can you stop us from trying to do something for Lincoln!?"
"If this were something he was coerced into, tricked into, or whatnot, I'd get it," The oldest sister said calmly. "However, that's not the case here. Lincoln made that call on his own. Lucy even tried to fess up…"
"Not hard enough…" Lola interrupted with her arms crossed.
"...and yet he still took the fall for her. He clearly had a really good reason for it. If he really wanted her to pay for what she did, he wouldn't have stepped in, would he?" This bit of reasoning was logic Lisa couldn't deny, causing her to back down too. "You want her punished? Fine. When Mom and Dad get home, they'll deal with that. But you are NOT going frontier justice on her while I'm around…"
"Lori, I'm going to count to three…" The sports loving sister started, her eyes narrowed. "One…" The oldest sister unfolded her arms, bracing herself for a fight. "Two…" She stood her ground as Lynn approached her. "Th-"
"What's going on here?" Lincoln suddenly asked, looking confused as he saw Lori and Lynn squaring off at the bottom of the stairs, Lola, Lana, and Lisa looked quite angry, and Leni, Luna and Lily looking somewhat frightened. By his side was Luan, who looked equally befuddled. All action froze as everyone looked at him, Lynn going white as a sheet at the sight of him.
"Lincoln!" Lola was the first to exclaim, running over to him and hugging his legs. With their only brother distracted, Lynn took the opportunity to dive back behind the couch, not wishing to be seen by him. "We found out who framed you for clogging the toilet!"
"What!?" Lincoln gasped in a tone of alarm. The older sisters (apart from Lynn), noticed this and became very worried. They tried to signal to Lola to stop, but to no avail.
"It was Lucy! She just admitted it to us!"
"Where is she? Is she alright?" He suddenly asked, sounding beside himself and surprising his volatile little sister.
"She's upstairs, Lincoln. And she's fine," Lori explained calmly, pointing up the stairs. "She's just going to wait in her room until Mom and Dad get back...then she can tell them." Lincoln breathed a sigh, starting to relax a little.
"...No one hurt her, did they?"
"No. She got scared, but she's not hurt."
"Not from lack of trying…" Lola muttered under her breath. Unfortunately for her, the white haired lad had heard her. The look he gave her could have rivaled Lori's evil eye, making her shrink down and scamper back to her twin and her toddler sister.
"...what did you mean by that…?" He asked warningly. No one spoke for a moment, which did little to calm his anger. After nearly a minute of silence, Lisa decided the jig was up.
"After Lucy had confessed to her crime, we were, understandably, upset…" The little brainiac said quietly. Her brother just nodded, still frowning at her. "And with emotions at an all time high after...recent events...it is possible some of us decided it was our place to dispense justice…"
"...Even though you knew that I chose to take the blame for the incident?" He inquired angrily. His sisters looked shocked at him. How could he have known that? "Luan told me while we were out. Said you guys were trying to find me in Gregory's world...that you heard me talking to Cactus Girl on the roof." The family joker just shrugged sheepishly to her siblings.
"...that is, sadly, a fact, Lincoln."
"So let me make sure I have this straight...you knew this was my choice to make. I took the punishment of my own free will. And yet, when Lucy confessed, you were still ready to lynch her?"
"Whoa! We weren't going to lynch her!" Lana said, shaking her head frantically. Then, she asked, "...what does lynch mean?"
"In olden times, it meant that someone was hung for a crime without a trial," The smartest of the sisters explained. "In this particular context, however, I believe our elder brother is referring to the delivery of violent justice."
"Oh...yeah, it might have gotten violent before Lori stepped in…" Lana admitted. From behind the couch, Lynn flinched, even more scared than before. Lincoln's face started to go a little red. Though no one could see it, a tiny Gregory appeared on his left shoulder.
"You see, my friend?" He asked smugly. "They're ganging up on someone else now; your poor little sister Lucy. For doing the right thing too. They don't really learn. They just say they're sorry, then go right back to their old ways."
"Not all of them…" The one son muttered to the mini mouse man.
"True, true, and good for them. Give them a medal," Little Gregory said dismissively. "But the point remains."
"He's right, you know," Another, angry voice said from his other shoulder. He turned his head to see a smaller version of himself there. The only main differences being his face was all red and the black leather jacket he was wearing.
"Who are you?"
"I'm you. Or rather, the anger you've been repressing since this whole ordeal started. I've been just waiting for my chance to come out to play."
"I would have thought he repressed more anger than that," The pint sized rodent commented.
"Don't underestimate the small package, rat face," Lincoln's anger said snidely. "But like I said, the cheese eater is right. You've seen this cycle with them before. They foul up, say sorry, but do it again later."
"I guess so…" Lincoln replied quietly. His sister's just looked strangely at their brother, as it looked like he was talking to himself.
"What's...going on?" Lana asked in a whisper.
"Well, if this were some cliche saturday morning cartoon, I would theorize that he is having a sidebar with his consciences," Lisa answered under her breath. "As this is reality, however, I imagine he's having a mental altercation and doesn't realize he is speaking out loud…"
"...so what I suggest is; you put your foot down with them, and don't care about how many of their toes you step on in the process!" The little angry Lincoln said, slamming his fist onto his other palm. "You tried being nice before, and where'd it get you? Stuck outside in your pjs, with the ground as your bed and leaves as your blanket." The one son's frown started to become even more furious as he slowly looked toward the trio in front of him, before he suddenly turned to Luna, Leni and Lily.
"Luna...you and Leni take Lily upstairs…" He requested calmly.
"Uh...sure bro…" The rocker teen replied as the second oldest of the sister picked up the little infant, the three of them retreating up the stairs.
"Hey! What are you-!?" His angry half demanded to know.
"They weren't involved, so there's no need to scold them…" Lincoln whispered in reply. "And even if they had been, I don't want Lily to see this."
"...ok, I'll give you that…"
"But I think there is someone missing…" He then spoke in a louder tone. "Where's Lynn!?"
"...we don't know," Lana replied shakily, which was true enough. Everyone was more focused on Lincoln's return than where Lynn had hidden.
"...no matter. I know she can hear me!" He exclaimed irately, which made the once sports star cringe once more. "Now then...do you know WHY I chose to take the blame for Lucy?"
"...No?" Lana responded meekly.
"It was for this exact reason!" He snapped, making the twins and Lynn cringe again. After a second or two, his frown faded as he amended, "Well, ok, not this EXACT reason. It was more I knew you would have teased her relentlessly…" His scowl returned full force as he also added, "...just like you all did to me! But whether it was teasing or violent justice, you still ganged up on her, which was what I wanted to avoid!"
"...well, you have to admit...her liking Princess Pony...it is kind of embarrassing…" Lola mumbled weakly.
"...so that justifies your actions!?" Lincoln asked with a raised, furious voice. "Just because you don't think she should like Princess Pony!? Well, I'm not supposed to like Dream Boat, but I do and you don't give me flak for that!"
"That's...that's different…"
"Like hell it is! The only difference is you like Dream Boat too! Is it only ok to like something you're 'not supposed to' if you like it too!?" The one son had to pause and take a deep breath before he continued, "...I'm getting sidetracked...there are more important issues here…"
"Dare we ask what those more important issues are?" Lisa asked with a trembling tone, surprising Lori. The toddler genius showing fear was as rare, if not rarer, than Lucy showing fear, but here she was, shaking like a leaf as Lincoln yelled at them.
"The fact you were ganging up on her, and planning on hurting her as justice!" The white haired boy snapped.
"Wait a minute. Only Lynn actually threatened to hurt her," Lana pointed out in a panic.
'And I thought Lola was the snitch…' The sporty teen thought derisively as she hid behind the couch, fighting back tears.
"Were you going to stop her?"
"...No…" The tomboy twin admitted, looking down at her feet.
"Then I don't want to hear it," Lincoln growled. "This isn't the first time you've all put a target on someone...you've done it to me a lot...especially during the recent event that won't be named…" He took a few steps toward the trembling trio, who all stepped away from him in response. "...yes, you did apologize THAT time...but here you are, doing it again, only to Lucy this time!" Lori was starting to feel anxious at this point. She didn't think Lincoln would go so far as to assault his little sisters, but this level of anger was uncharted territory for him. She braced herself to intervene, just in case things turned uglier.
"But she-" Lisa started to say.
"We've gone over that already!" The middle Loud yelled, almost in their faces. "I made the choice to take the blame! Just like how she made the choice to come clean! And who the hell made any of YOU judge, jury and executioner!?"
"N...No one…" Lola admitted, her knees knocking as her furious older brother stood over them, their backs to the couch. "But...we were doing it for you…"
"...and that's supposed to make me feel better about it?" He asked them, positively incensed at this point. "If I wanted that to happen, do you think I would have taken the blame in the first place!?" The one son leered down at the three of them. The twins held one another in terror, trembling, while Lisa was covering her head, crying and muttering something Lincoln could only barely hear.
"Please, do not end me, elder brother…" The young genius prayed quietly. Hearing this greatly alarmed Lincoln. He was seriously angry, yes, but he wouldn't hurt his sisters on purpose, least of all his little sisters. What made Lisa think he would do something that terrible? Was he that frightening at the moment? Though he was still really irate, he backed away from his younger siblings.
"..I am seriously disappointed in all of you," He said in a flat, angry tone, turning his back on them. "Especially Lynn, wherever she is…"
"That's it!? Just 'I'm disappointed in all of you'!?" The mini Linc asked indignantly. "They deserve a hell of a lot more than-"
"Shut up!" Lincoln yelled in reply, making everyone in the room jump.
"N...no one said anything," Lori informed him nervously. The white haired boy didn't respond to that as he strode his way to the bottom of the steps. When he got there, he paused a moment to look at his oldest sister.
"...thanks for stepping in, Lori…" He said in a deadpan manner.
"Er...no problem…" She replied before he started to scale the stairs.
'Yeah. Really good going, standing up for your little sister like that,' the antagonizing voice in Lori's head said. 'Pity you wouldn't do the same for your little brother when he needed you…'
'Oh, shut up…' The oldest sister groaned mentally. She looked over to the three younger siblings, who were trying to recover from Lincoln yelling at them like that. Despite what Lincoln's anger may have said, his parting words stung them like a nest of bees. Lynn especially was crying softly from her place behind the couch, hugging her knees, and Lisa was having a hard time composing herself after her moment of terror.
Meanwhile, the middle Loud had reached the top of the stairs and started speed walking toward his room. Not the room he was currently residing in, but the empty closet that was once his room. He slammed the door closed behind him and sat in the corner of the room, where his bed used to be. He needed time to cool down and think. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little notebook. Right on the first page was a list of names; the names of each member of his family. One name had been crossed off the list: Lily. There was a plus mark beside Lucy, Leni and Lola's name, and two pluses by Lynn's name. Lincoln just stared at the list for a moment before he crossed Lucy's name off.
'By the sound of it, Lucy's done the most to try and find me…' He thought. '...though she was probably the one most qualified to, of all of us. Along with how she's helped me heal my soul, and her confession...I think she deserves to be forgiven.' His eyes then turned to Lynn's name, turning his pencil around to erase one of the pluses. However, his hand paused just over the mark.
"Go ahead," The figment of his anger said, pushing his shoulder. "You know she deserves it. All four of them do."
"What she almost did was bad…" Lincoln said quietly to himself. "But I don't think it overshadows the fact she basically saved my soul." The one son moved the eraser away from the plus marks by Lynn's name. However, she did put a minus on the other side.
"...what about Lana, Lola and Lisa!? And the others!? Other than Lori, they didn't do jack!"
"You don't know that," Lincoln snapped back. However, he did put a negative mark on Lola and Lana's names. Then, he looked at Lisa's name. Lisa. She looked scared out of her wits when he was screaming at them. Far more fearful than the situation warranted. What could have inspired this level of fear?
Sometime later, the Loud parents had returned home from another unsuccessful search for Lincoln's stuff. The moment they came into the door, Lori told them Lucy had something to tell them. Once they heard the little goth's confession, they expressed their displeasure and disappointment in her. As punishment, she was grounded for twice as long as Lincoln had been. Lincoln tried to fight for her, of course, but Lucy wouldn't hear of it. She knew what she was getting into, and she was willing to go through with it. With that business out of the way, the Loud parents adjourned to their room for equally unpleasant business. They were unable to get any more of Lincoln's things, try though they might. The two of them were pacing about in front of their bed, deep in thought. "I don't know what else to do, Lynn…" Rita said with a sad sigh as she suddenly stopped and sat upon the mattress. "I mean...I know we tried our best...but it doesn't feel like it's enough…"
"I know what you mean…" The Loud father agreed in a melancholy manner. "We have a lot to make up for…but how can we do it at this point?"
"I wish I had an answer…" Rita said as she flopped onto her back on the bed. "We can still replace some of the clothes we couldn't get back, but that's nowhere near enough to make up for it…"
"Tell me about it...and the kids are replacing most of his other belongings themselves…" Lynn Sr added as paced about. "...though even if that were an option, that wouldn't be enough." The room went silent for a moment as they mused on this predicament. After a few minutes, the Loud Father stopped in his tracks and exclaimed, "Wait! I got it!"
"Got what?" Rita inquired, sitting up.
"Lincoln is a growing boy, right?" The Loud Mother nodded in reply. "And as a result, he's going to need a lot more space than his current room."
"I think I get it now," His wife said, a smile starting to spread on her face. "We could expand his room."
"Exactly. We can have an extension built to give him an actual room, not just a closet." Lynn Sr explained excitedly.
"That's a good idea," Rita commented, but then her smile faded. "But...can we afford it?"
"...that would be the biggest problem…" The Loud Patriarch admitted, his good mood fading. "...but I'm sure we can work something out. We can get an estimate tomorrow, and we'll see what happens from there."
"Alright...that sounds like a plan," The dental hygienist's assistant said with a nod. She was apprehensive about the cost, but her husband was right. They'll find a way to work it out, right?
The next morning, while the kids were all at school, the two parents were standing out in the driveway with a short, round man wearing a hard hat that covered his eyes. He had a big, round nose with a bushy mustache. He was wearing overalls and a bright yellow shirt. He was looking up at the little window marking where Lincoln's room was, stroking his mustache as he thought. "So...can you do it, sir?" Lynn Sr asked nervously.
"Well, let me tell you, sir," The contractor said with a jovial voice. "I won't say it's impossible, but it's gonna be mighty tricky."
"Why is that?" The Loud Mother asked, getting worried.
"Support," He answered. "You see, to build a second floor extension, we need to support the heck out of it to keep it up. And given how close the house is to the garage, it doesn't give us a lot of wiggle room. Go out too far, and you'll be putting beams right in front of the garage door and right in the driveway. Don't go far enough, and you might as well not even do the job. But it is doable." This made the married couple feel a little better, but that was only part of the battle. He pulled a notepad from seemingly nowhere and started to take a few notes.
"And...how much do you estimate the job will take?" The aspiring chef asked, bracing himself.
"...Not gonna lie, bud...it's not gonna be cheap. I can try and cut you a break on materials, but it's still gonna cost a pretty penny." He informed them as he finished his note taking and handed it to them. One look at the final sum made Lynn's jaw drop and Rita gulp in concern. The final price was several thousand dollars...money they didn't have.
"...can we have some time to talk this over?" Rita inquired.
"Sure thing, ma'am. Take all the time you need," The contractor answered, tearing off the page with the estimate on it and handed it to them. "Just give us a call when you're ready and we'll see what we can do." He tipped his hard hat to them before he wandered off back to his truck, leaving the Loud parents to stare at the sheet in their hand.
"...maybe we can get a loan?" Lynn Sr suggested quietly as they headed back into the empty house.
"Our credit isn't exactly great, Lynn…" She informed him. "And even if we can, paying it off is going to be a nightmare..." The Loud father slumped a little when he heard that and sighed, before he straightened up again.
"Well, I'm not giving up," He said with a firm look. "We'll just have to earn more money…" He added. "Perhaps I could ask my boss for a raise."
"That would help," Rita said with a light smile. "Maybe I can get some night work too...every little bit, after all."
"Good idea. A little extra income would help us get the loan and pay it off," He responded as he put his coat on. He kissed his wife goodbye before he ran to Vanzilla, while Rita hurried to their room to her laptop. With a plan now laid out in front of them, the Loud parents were in better spirits. It wasn't a sure thing, true, but it was still better than the nothing they had before.
