A/N: This is the Christmas Chapter. Happy Holidays everyone.
Chapter Thirteen: Christmas Eve Night, Lincoln's Planning and Lily's Knowledge
"Okay, Lincoln… Remember the rules when you're here." Rita said calmly. She'd decided not to make a big deal of it. But she wanted to make sure that Lincoln and Lucy both remembered that they weren't allowed to show public signs of romantic affection at the party. In a way, that would look stranger, since most of the siblings, debatably other than Lily knew that Lincoln and Lucy were romantically involved. As the older siblings got to the house, they all hugged and greeted their parents and Lincoln and Lucy. They knew the deal as well. They were expected to not mention Lincoln and Lucy's relationship.
Rita hadn't asked Lily if she knew about Lincoln's and Lucy's relationship. But she was also hesitant to do so. If Lily knew, then Rita would learn that Lincoln and Lucy had been less discreet than they thought. If she didn't know before, then she would know now. Of course, she knew that for a time, Lincoln and Lucy had been not allowed at the house. So maybe she connected the dots.
"Lincoln, Lucy, Lily… I want to talk to the three of you. In our room." Rita said, trying to keep her tone of voice calm. They weren't in trouble.
But she was deciding whether she would have Lincoln and Lucy explain their 'situation' or whether she, the mother would.
"Lincoln… I need your professional advice." Lisa said calmly. There was a tremor to her voice though, suggesting she was nervous.
"Of course." Lincoln said, being pulled up into Lisa's room with her.
"I wish to get Darcy a Christmas gift. I plan to ask her out when we get back to school." Lisa said, rubbing her arm anxiously. She had a crush on Darcy, but she wasn't sure how to tell her. And she wasn't sure she was ready to tell her family. Her family, she was sure saw her as a completely unemotional person.
"Lincoln… If you could describe my romantic and sexual interest in a short sentence, what would you say?" Lisa asked. Lisa had Autism. So she sometimes said things that seemed strange.
She had become better at judging what was right to say and what wasn't. She'd been in Behavioral Therapy since she was about five. At first, Lisa thought it was an incredible waste of her time when she could be putting that time to use in her laboratory, making greater inventions. However, she began to bond with her therapist and started to put effort into the therapy. She also had speech therapy for about two years. Lincoln raised an eyebrow.
"Umm… I-uhhh… Are you asking me to guess what your sexuality is?" Lincoln asked.
Lisa nodded.
"Well… I honestly never thought about it. And it doesn't really matter. Whatever you are, I won't think any less of you. You know, Lynn is bisexual. But she doesn't really care about dating or stuff like that. Her Olympic career is more important to her than dating. Why do you ask?" Lincoln asked.
"Well… I-I think I'm in love with Darcy." Lisa said anxiously.
"But I always assumed that my family assumed I was asexual and aromantic." Lisa said.
Lincoln shrugged.
"You could still be both and have feelings for Darcy. Sexuality is complex, dude." Luna said, knocking on the door. Lisa blushed heavily.
"How long have you been there!" Lisa demanded.
"Long enough. You know, asexuality exists on a spectrum." Luna said.
"If you are asexual, you could still fall in love. You might still like sex." Luna said.
"Sexuality is complex." Luna said.
"If you have feelings for Darcy, that's great. We're happy for you." Lincoln said. Lisa smiled. She was considering what to get for Darcy. She could give her bionic organs. But she and Darcy were both a bit young to be making that kind of major decision about replacing their organs. She had gotten Darcy a LoudTech Smart Phone last year for Christmas. She could give Darcy a Loudtech Laptop. That was a good gift. And it cost her little to make. Well, it cost a fair amount to make.
But she got most of her money from grants and crowd funding. Lincoln himself invested 10% of his total annual income to Lisa's research. And given that Lincoln made money from the Full House Gang comics and merchandise, his own comics and graphic novels, he had a fairly large annual income, and thus, so did she. She went to the closet, getting out a LoudTech Laptop, typing in it and preparing it for use. She would transfer all of Darcy's things over from her old computer when they met up.
"Thank you both for your assistance. Lincoln, I have something for you." Lisa said.
She pulled out a few bottles.
"This is suntan lotion pills. You swallow one and it releases the equivalent of SPF 100. It will cause the lotion to be excreted from your skin and will last for approximately 18 hours." Lisa said
"Wow! This is great! Thank you so much!" Lincoln said excitedly. This would make living a normal life much easier. Lisa pulled out the second bottle.
"This is… Much less certain. I can't guarantee how well this will work. I attempted to condense the benefits of blood into a single pill. But I doubt that so far I have succeeded. I would however like your feedback on it." Lisa said.
"I recommend you swallow 3 on each feeding period." Lisa said.
If it doesn't sustain you for a full feeding period, which I'm not sure what that would be, come back to me and I'll continue to improve the formula." Lisa said. Lincoln nodded.
He would try it, putting both of them in his jacket pocket before going downstairs and hanging his jacket up.
"You know, Lise…" Lincoln said before he went downstairs.
"You don't need to get Darcy something really expensive if you can't think of anything. Just get her something from your heart." Lincoln said. Lisa nodded. She still intended to give Darcy some of her technology. That was the closest thing to her heart… Other than Darcy.
-0-
"Lily, sweetie? What do you know about Lincoln's relationship?" Rita asked, trying to say it subtly so that she could gauge Lily's responses.
"I know that Lucy lives with him and that they're really close." Lily said. She knew fully well what was going on with Lincoln and Lucy. But she also knew that her mom and dad were hoping that she didn't know. The thing about being part of a big family in a small house was that you often heard more than people meant to tell you. Rita nodded, a little suspicious, but having nothing to base that on.
"Okay. Well, that's it. Come on down to the party soon, sweetie. Your paintings will still be here when you get back." Rita said. Lily nodded, going and cleaning her paintbrushes, putting the lid on her palette that would prevent her paints from getting dry. She then went downstairs. Lincoln, once again wasn't eating anything. Lily thought that was strange. He didn't seem to be sick or losing weight. But there were tons of food in the kitchen and the living room. But he didn't seem interested in any of it. She wanted to ask him about that, especially since his favorite cookies and dip were going quickly.
She went over to Lincoln.
"Linky? Can I ask you something?" Lily asked sweetly, using her biggest puppy dog eyes. She knew that whatever was wrong, he wasn't likely to want to share it. He wouldn't want to burden his family on Christmas Eve. But she needed to know if he was sick or something. If he was sick, she wanted to help him.
"Of course. Ask away." Lincoln said.
"Is there a boy you have a crush on? A girl? Lincoln asked cheerfully.
"Nooo… I notice you haven't been eating at all. We've been here at the party for a little while now, and usually, you would have been eating the cookies and dip by now, and often our sisters would be telling you not to hog it all." Lily chuckled. She liked that side of Lincoln. He was a kind, generous person. But when there was something he really liked, he would go all in.
"Well… It's… Complicated… Lily… I can't tell you the exact reason. But I can't really eat dip and cookies anymore." Lincoln said.
"New diet? Do you have Diabetes? Something like that?" Lily asked. Lincoln chuckled.
"No, no. Nothing like that. Look, I can't tell you exactly why. But you don't need to worry about me. I promise." Lincoln said. Lily sighed. She was definitely hoping Lincoln would really tell her what was going on. But she could tell that this was all she was going to get out of him.
"Okay. I love my Christmas gift by the way." Lily said. Lincoln chuckled. Lily was a lot like Lori. She couldn't wait until Christmas to open her gifts.
"Okay, everyone. Since I'm sure a bunch of you are going to be away on Christmas on vacation or whatever, we're opening gifts tonight." Lynn said. The family cheered, going over to the tree and getting their gifts out, opening them. Everyone got a present from everyone who could afford that many presents. Lucy, Lana, Lola and Lily definitely couldn't. So they were exempt, just doing what they could. It was a great night and they all loved their gifts. Lincoln and Lucy took their gifts out to the car and put them in the back seat before heading back into the house.
While they were outside on the curb, they snuck a quick kiss and then headed back inside, enjoying the festivities with the rest of the family. Lisa had already given Lincoln her gifts for him. They were hardly perfect. But they were far more than anyone else could have done for Lincoln. And she was still working on utilizing his blood and studying Vampiric anatomy so that she could enhance them. She wanted to make Lincoln the first biologically enhanced Vampire in the world, which she had already done in a way by giving him bionic organs.
"Let's get out the games!" Lynn said excitedly. He pulled out Cards Against Humanity, Apples to Apples, some decks of playing cards, checkers, chess, backgammon. Game Time was just basically that they could play what they wanted to play.
"Lori's and Leni's kids were there that Christmas. Luna's and Sam's kids and Sam were coming in a bit. Sam had to do something with Simon and brought the kids to see their grandma Amanda. They would be having dinner with Amanda on Christmas Night.
-0-
Soon, there was a knock on the door. Luna hurried to the door, hugging Sam tightly, kissing her lovingly, hugging Aurah and Luke, their twins. Sam was currently expecting. So Sam's lifestyle was a lot less active at the moment. She had taken Lisa's pregnancy accelerant, so that decreased the time of her pregnancy from 9 months to 9 weeks. Sam was about four weeks along. So she was definitely showing at this point. She had her heavy jacket on, so it wasn't as visible. But as she took it off, her swollen stomach showed. Lola squealed excitedly. Luna and Sam hadn't told Luna's family yet. It was a bit late.
But now that everyone saw Sam, they knew they were expecting and the questions came.
"How far along are you?"
"Is it a boy or a girl?"
"How far alo… Oh wait… They asked that already…"
"What are you going to name them?"
"four months, boy, and we're not sure." Sam said.
"Did you take Lisa's accelerant?" Lori asked.
"Yeah. I'm actually about four weeks along. But that's the equivalent of four months. Excuse me. Could I have some milk? Whole if you have it." Sam said. Rita took Sam into the kitchen and got her some milk. Sam grimaced as she poured the nutrient serum into the milk and downed it. It tasted terrible. But it gave her body the nutrition that it needed to carry the baby at such an accelerated pace.
Sam went out to see that her kids, who were only 4 had already gotten involved in the games. One was playing Checkers with Lily. The other was involved in a rousing game of Apples to Apples with Luis, Lapis, Lincoln, Leni and Lynn. The rest of the family was all invested in various other games. It was turning into a fun evening. When the game of Apples to Apples ended, Lincoln went to play Blackjack with Lynn, Lola and Lori. The games continued like this throughout the evening.
-0-
Finally, the evening wound down and everyone started to disperse. The groups headed back to their own homes. Sam needed to get plenty of rest because of her accelerated pregnancy. Lori and Bobby were taking Luis, Lapis and Lara on a small vacation. Lori didn't start golf again until the spring. Bobby was starting a new job in a month as the head of security in a ritzy country club near the city. Bobby had had a pretty traumatic experience in his job less than a year ago and he still woke up with nightmares about it. He had shot a suspect. It wasn't Bobby's fault and IAB cleared him.
The young man had turned on Bobby with his gun. Bobby, in a moment of panic fired, intending to hit the young man in the shoulder. But he shot him twice in the chest and killed him. The boy had been robbing a store and Bobby had responded to the incident. The young man was only 19. Bobby was seeing a therapist about the incident. He knew logically that it wasn't his fault. But he was having trouble getting over the guilt and he was still drinking more than he really should be. He went through a period where he was getting drunk more nights than he didn't.
He'd sworn to Lori to stop drinking though and he was seeing his therapist three times a week. And now he was going to get a much safer job as head of security. And the club that he was head of security in didn't really have that many security risks. Some hoodlums sneaking in occasionally to get a taste of the fancy club that would need to be escorted out, sometimes someone got a bit drunk and rowdy. But even that was rare. These were classy people apparently. Lori didn't know for sure. But she talked to the owner of the club and asked them to give Bobby an interview.
Bobby had done a great job on the interview and now he would be working at Renkin's Country Club within the month. Finally, Lincoln and Lucy started getting ready to go. Lincoln would have been happy to stay for a while longer. He still felt uncertain about how their parents felt about them. He knew they weren't happy that he and Lucy were dating. But they'd for the most part put that aside. Lincoln could tell it still weighed on their opinion of him. But they'd decided Lincoln and Lucy were both adults and even if he and Rita felt it was a bad choice, it was their choice.
"I love you Mom. Dad. We'll hopefully see you for New Year's." Lincoln said. Rita nodded, hugging Lincoln and Lucy.
"You're surprisingly warm." Rita said to Lincoln. She didn't think that Vampires had any warmth in their bodies. They were undead, so they must be cold.
"Ahaha! No, Vampires are living. We're… Cursed, I guess? But not undead. I'm actually not sure what we are. Lisa didn't find any virus or pathogen in my Blood." Lincoln said.
"So it could be a curse or something similar. But whatever it is, I'm not dead." Lincoln said, putting Rita's hand on his chest and showing her that his heart beat, albeit a bit slower than a human heart. Vampires' bodies were much more powerful. Their hearts needed to beat less often. They needed to breathe less often.
"I know this is all strange to you. It's strange to me too." Lincoln said. This wasn't anything like what he thought being a Vampire would be like.
"But I promise, I'm learning all that I can about being a Vampire. So you don't have to worry about me being a threat to someone we love." Lincoln said. Rita nodded, hugging Lincoln tighter. She couldn't believe what had happened to him. As far as she knew, he'd been turned against his will. He'd turned up at her house that day beaten to hell, scarred and looking rather haggard. But he seemed to be doing much better now. She kissed him on the forehead, letting him go.
He went to his car with Lucy and Jordan. They went back to their home, settling in for the night.