The Loud family was shocked to see their brother's hoodie held by Luna, but what really scared them was how damaged it was and that it was likely done at the hands of those who harmed Lincoln. The parents almost broke down crying while six of the Loud sisters looked down in shame. Lori thought to push aside whatever resentment she had against Luna for the time being.
"Where did you find it?" Lori demanded. Luna could hear the sour tone to Lori's voice and knew that she would likely not hear the end of it coming from her.
"I found it in a trash can at a clothes store," Luna replied. "And this store was next to the train station." That's when it dawned on her that Lincoln may have departed from Royal Woods entirely, and on his own. The other sisters recognized this possibility as well.
"You don't think that...?" Lynn started to suggest, but heard an audible sigh from the Loud father.
"Kids," said Lynn Sr. "We do need to consider the possibility. Right... Lori, Luna, Luan, and Junior, all of you with me. We'll search the train station and the store." He then turned to his wife. "Honey, you stay here with the others. We'll be back soon." He put on his jacket along with his daughters he selected to accompany him.
"That's not fair!" cried Lana. "We want Lincoln back as much as you do!" Tears formed in her eyes and she broke down in front of the entire family, much to their surprise. Rita bent down to comfort Lana.
"We all miss Lincoln, sweetie," Rita said, hugging her daughter. "But for now, it's best to leave this up to your dad, alright?" The other younger sisters joined in for a group hug, needing the support, while the older group wasted no time and drove off in Vanzilla. The ride was mostly quiet except for the radio playing music. Luna tried humming along to calm herself down from the whole situation, but was quite unable to do so. And the hard looks she kept getting from Lori certainly didn't help ease her mind. Once they arrived, Luna didn't even want to imagine the possibility that Lincoln took a train by himself. Where would he even go? Poor Lincoln would be all alone, scared, and cold because of what seven of the Loud sisters did... what she did. Her rage took control and it broke the bond with not only her baby brother, but also Lori, the eldest sister, and she felt absolutely horrid about it. But even with Lori breathing down her neck as a painful reminder, Luna couldn't let her sorrow drown her, so she had to help find her brother. Even though she hurt him bad, she swore she would make it up to him at any cost.
Luan sat in the back of the van looking out with a sour pain inside her. She recalled not only the recent brawl, but all the other times she inadvertently caused her brother so much pain. All of her pranks on April Fool's hurt her brother and all she did was laugh. What kind of sister laughs at her own brother's pain and suffering? The answer was her. She was the one to use one of his friends to bait him out and take the full blows instead. Even after that, he was always open to listening to her jokes and help her with birthday parties, but this one time, they all crossed the line and drove Lincoln to his breaking point.
Lynn also had her own sins tearing her down. She couldn't believe herself that she hurt her brother and helped cause all this. The tough girl was supposed to protect her little brother, but instead she did the complete opposite. In her sorry state, she knew that if anything were to happen to Lincoln, she would blame herself for the rest of her life. It hurt her on every level knowing that she had the power to stop the fight where it started, but she didn't. Did she even want it to happen? The thought came as fast as it disappeared, and Lynn mentally freaked out that she would even think of that. No, she didn't want anything bad to happen to brother. But then why did you do it? said a voice in her head. Because he's... bad luck?
"No," murmured Lynn to herself, grabbing the sides of her head. "No, no, no... He's not... Not that!" If Lynn wasn't currently determined to find her brother, she would have easily broken down crying right there and now.
Eventually, Luna and the others went into the clothes store and straight to the cashier to pump for answers. Lynn Sr. went first.
"Hello, sir! How can I help you?" asked the cashier.
"We were wondering if there was a boy that visited this store a couple of days ago," said a worried Lynn Sr. The cashier noticed the worried look and thought back, knowing it was important.
"Well, we did have a couple of customers who were kids. Could you describe him?" the cashier asked. The father pulled out a photo of Lincoln Loud that he kept in his wallet.
"Here. He has white hair and a chipped tooth," Lynn Sr. explained, while his daughters looked on hopefully. The cashier examined the photo and was about to mention that he saw no one fitting the description, until he remembered one kid in particular.
"Yeah, there was this boy who kept his hood up, so I couldn't see his hair or much of his face, but he definitely had a chipped tooth," said the cashier, lighting the fire of hope in the family's eyes.
"Wait, was he wearing an orange hoodie?" asked Luna, just to be sure. The cashier nodded and the family looked relieved. They had their first clue towards Lincoln's whereabouts, but the one clue led them to one probable conclusion. They thanked the cashier for his help and made their way to the train station nearby. While relieved to have picked up a clue, the family was also worried what it meant for them.
"So, you think he actually used the train?" asked Lori.
"We don't know for sure," Luna said. "But we still have to find our little bro." This earned her a sharp glare from Lori.
"You're one to talk!" shouted Lori. "Why do you even bother calling him your 'little bro' after what you did to him?!" She clearly wasn't done picking Luna apart and at this point, she'd probably never stop.
"Because he IS my brother and I care for him!" Luna shot back, getting mad. She realized that Lori wasn't about to stop pouring lemon juice on her open running paper cut.
"If you really did, then why the hell are we even in this situation?! Would he even literally be in a situation where he's far from home and scared of you?!" Lori spoke angry and menacingly, and although she was correct and Luna didn't need any more salt rubbed in the wound, she still didn't know how to respond to that.
"Please..." she murmured. "It wasn't just me."
"Besides," Lori went on, far from done. "Don't assume that even if we find our brother that everything's gonna be hunky-dory just like that! He's probably developed some trust issues with all of you by now... because of this!" Lori berating Luna was eventually stopped when Lynn Sr. had enough.
"That's enough, girls!" the father shouted. "Lori, you've made your point, but right now, it's completely irrelevant." Lori snorted and shot Luna another look that said 'This is not over.' Lynn Sr. knew that all that mattered at this point was finding his son, realizing that he couldn't stop his daughters from hurting him. What kind of parent allows their kid to get hurt? A terrible one. The family came to a ticket booth just as a train pulled out and left. The woman running the ticket booth smiled at them.
"Hello! Where would you like to travel?" she asked, but Lynn Sr. instead cut to the chase.
"I'm not here to travel," he said. "I'm just wondering if this boy had bought a ticket a couple of days ago." He showed the same photo of Lincoln from before, but after examining it, the woman shook her head.
"I don't think I can help much," she said. "I only just started working here yesterday." The family was distraught, having possibly lost their only clue to finding Lincoln. But Lynn Jr. wasn't having any of that.
"Listen here," said Lynn. "The boy... is my brother... and he's out there somewhere... alone and probably freezing... because... because of something I didn't stop!" The family could hear her voice break the more she talked. "My brother... could be dead somewhere in an alley... and it would be all my fault... because I couldn't help him!" Tears flooded her eyes as she finished pouring out her emotions to the ticket salesperson. Luan gently pulled Lynn aside to comfort her and help her take a few deep breaths.
"I see..." said the ticket salesperson, remaining calm. "Normally, I would need permission from a manager, but since this is a matter of importance, I think I can help you on my own. Let's see..." The woman began typing away on a computer while the family looked on in hope. "Ah... Do you have a possible estimated time?"
"It was late at night," answered Lynn Sr. The woman began checking the time and date of all purchased tickets.
"Okay, it says here that two trains departed at around the time you described. One left for Springfield, Illinois and another for New York." The family was utterly shocked at the distance between those two cities and Royal Woods. Lincoln could be whole states away from them!
"You're kidding," said Lori. "You're kidding, right?" But the woman confirmed that the two trains really did leave for the aforementioned cities.
"What did I miss?" asked Luan. Lynn looked a little better, but she was still feeling sad from the number of emotions she led out. After Luan and Lynn were made aware, the family returned home. The trip back was just as silent. Lori wasn't glowering at Luna, but Luna could sense that Lori still wanted to keep tearing her a new one. Luan was surprising silent, only really interacting with reality when she comforted Lynn, who had dried tear marks on her face and looked deep in thought, also not saying a word. Needless to say, the girls seemed to come back worse than when they went out. Upon returning home, Rita rushed them for information.
"Did you find him?" Rita asked with hope. They looked uneasy and didn't know how to tactfully break the news to her. "HE'S WHERE?!" She was shocked when her husband told her both locations that Lincoln could have fled to. Her raised voice alerted the other sisters who flooded downstairs when they overheard Lincoln's possible location.
"Look, honey, we don't know for sure," said Lynn Sr. "For all we know, maybe he just bought some new clothes at a store that just happened to be near the train station." While he was trying to downplay the idea of Lincoln running away that far, the odds were stacked against them as they did find out that Lincoln indeed bought new clothes and he was at the train station roughly at around the time the two trains departed. While several of the Loud sisters panicked at the thought of Lincoln leaving by taking a train by himself, Lori knew that everyone fretting was not going to help them. So she placed a hand in her mouth and blew out a shrill whistle, getting everyone's attention.
"Alright, listen up!" said Lori, taking on the role of a true leader. It was high time she gained control, even just this once. "I know you're all scared and have regrets over what happened, but sitting around here doing nothing is not going to help us bring Lincoln home!" The other sisters turned to her and waiting for the next part of her speech. "We need to concentrate and think straight! We can't let fear, panic, and regret take over our minds." Everyone was surprised at Lori's motivational speech, but they knew she made a point. Just as she finished, Leni came downstairs, having woken up from a long rest. She was still visibly tired and her hair was an uncombed mess, but she somehow heard everything so far. However, she would not even look the seven Loud sisters who were responsible in the eye and it broke their hearts that their sweetheart sister was still somewhat unforgiving.
"Okay, look, even if Lincoln did take a train, where would he have gone out of the two different places?" Luna asked, finally getting the gut to speak. A tense silence followed, as nobody knew what to answer.
"Perhaps I have an idea," said Lisa, sitting on the couch. Even the brains of the Loud house had to be comforted by her mom along with the younger sisters, as her eyes showed that she too had been crying her eyes out. One would think that Lucy and Lisa would be the last ones to cry, but they had indeed succumbed, Lincoln's departure having hit home for them at long last. Lucy's fresh tear mark wasn't visible because she was hidden in the shadows not wanting to be seen like this. Ever since she found out Lincoln ran away, she had tried to hide from everyone's view and from the hurt she caused. Just the mere thought of her brother made her feel more empty as memories of what she did flooded her mind more and more. Silently crying in the darkness, Lucy blamed herself for Lincoln's disappearance and thought that she didn't deserve to even be comforted because of her vile and sick deed, as she put it. She watched on and listened as Lisa continued her hypothesis.
"I believe that our brotherly unit..." Lisa sniffled. "Our brother... has gone to New York." She had to catch her breath in between her whimpers. "He would choose that location since he would... he would want to stay as... as far away from us... as possible..." That was Lisa's final sentence before she collapsed under her own words and began to cry into her mother's chest as she stroked her hair to calm her down. Another wave of sadness hit the family like a ton of bricks when Lisa said that Lincoln in all likelihood would try to get as far away from them as possible. Leni looked down at the floor and Lori could sense the emotions that she carried inside. Lori understood how hard it had to be for Leni in all of this, so she gave her a hug without a word. Leni gladly accepted it and no longer held back her tears, letting them flow down onto Lori's shoulder.
"It's okay, Leni," Lori said soothingly to her. "It's not your fault." Shuddered breaths were released and Lori could feel the entire weight of Leni on her shoulders, literally and figuratively. The family found it a heartwarming sight, but it couldn't deter them from what was currently more important. They had to find Lincoln and, if possible, bring him home.
"Lisa, are you sure that Lincoln could have gone to New York City?" asked Rita, wanting to confirm every bit of information they had. Lisa was still crying, but she managed to nod to her mother. This left the family with one option left and there may just be no turning back. Lynn Sr. knew what his wife was thinking, so they reached an unspoken agreement.
"Girls, we're going to New York," said Rita decisively. All the girls looked unsure and knew that it was a big risk to take. But for the sake of Lincoln, the family put their faith in Lisa and started to prepare for their journey to New York City.