It had been a week since Lisa's invention restored Lincoln's memories, since then Lincoln returned to doing his usual hobbies, he would read play videogames on the living room console, he would often be caught reading comics in nothing but his underwear and he also continued with his coin collection.
Currently Lincoln was playing video games with Bobby, who decided to drop by and check on him, Lori was in her room, trying to keep her distance from Bobby, because even though they started talking again, Lori still felt like she didn't deserve to talk to Bobby after what happened in the last three months.
While she was laying in her bed, doing nothing but look stare at the celling she was reminded of how that was most of what she did while Lincoln was missing during the time after he ran away, she suddenly started thinking back to those 3 months of hell...
Lori was often very bossy, and would butted heads with her siblings, especially with Lincoln, but despite that, she did care very deeply for him, they both seemed to related to eachother in a small way, they seemed to share stress over having so many siblings and the many troubles that came with it, she always had a recurring fear in the back of her mind that her sisters's antics would one day get Lincoln seriously hurt, but she never spoke about this worry, not to her sisters, not to her parents and not to Lincoln...
After her brother went missing she spent those 3 long months thinking back to those worries, and it made her realize that if she had talked to someone about these worries thing might have been different...
She would often blame herself for Lincoln's decision to abandon his family, she would also have constant nightmares about the horrible things that could be happening with her brother after he left, horrible things that would make her start having strong panic attacks and there was almost never a day that she would get a decent night of sleep...
Her attention was taken out of those dark thoughts when she heard Bobby talk with Lincoln.
"Hey Lincoln, I'm going to get something from the fridge, be right back!" Bobby told him before standing up.
"Alright I'll play by myself for a bit." Lincoln answered.
On his way to the kithchen Bobby spotted Lori around the corner, Lori tensed up when Bobby locked eyes with her, she turned around and was about to go back up the stairs to her room, but Lori then felt a strong grip on her wrist, Lori turned and locked eyes with Bobby again.
"Follow me to the kitchen..." Was all he told her.
She followed him to the kitchen, when they went into it they just stood there or a few seconds in silence, Lori thought Bobby was going to lecture her once again about how disappointed on her for how she treated Lincoln and a lot of other things.
"How have you been feeling now that Lincoln is back?" Bobby asked surprising.
"W-Well...I'm happy Lincoln is back and has most of his memory back, but the guilt isn't doing anything good to me, I can't focus on anything without having the bad treatment Lincoln in the back of mind, and I have yet to get a good night sleep, I think the guilt I have won't let me go until a confess to Lincoln, but if I do that Lincoln will problably run away again, If this doesn't change I won't be able to preform well when college..." Lori explained.
"That does sound pretty bad, maybe you could spend some alone time with Lincoln, you could go out and visit some places that you two could have fun together, I can't promise you the guilt will go away, but hopefully it will make you feel better and you'll be able to rest a little better." Bobby suggested."If all else fails you might have to visit a therapist."
"Yeah...that does sound like a good idea, thank you Bobby" Lori said with a sad smile.
"Also...Lori...I would like to talk to you...about us..." Bobby said.
"What is it?"Lori asked with curiosity.
"I know I said I wouldn't be your boyfriend until Lincoln forgave you for what you did to him, but after so much time has passed the I don't think I can continue being mad at you, and seeing you mad like this really breaks my heart..." Bobby said."Looking at you I can see you are really sorry for what you did, you made a mistake, you reconized it and your trying to make up for it, I guess where I going with this is..."
"Do you think we can start dating again?" Bobby asked her."I will help you and Lincoln in any way I can..."
Lori was shocked, but that shock suddenly turned into pure joy and happiness, she jumped into Bobby's arms and hugged him with all her might.
"Thank you so much Bobby! YES! I would like to be with you again!" Lori said in joy with tears in her eyes and Bobby hugged back.
"Does this mean I can start calling you "Boo-Boo Bear" again?" Lori asked after breaking her hug with Bobby.
"Of course you can Babe." He answered with a kind smile and a soft chuckle.
After the had that talk Bobby went back to play with Lincoln and Lori returned to her room to plan on something to do with Lincoln, after Bobby left Lori decided to go see how Lincoln was doing.
"Hey Lincoln." She complimented her brother.
"Ho, hi there Lori, what do you want?" Lincoln asked.
"Nothing, just wanted to say hi." She told him.
"Really?" Lincoln asked suprised, Lori often had a reason to come and talk to him.
"Yeah, I spent most of the time in my room, I need to do something so that I don't die from boredom, do you want to come with me to the golf course and play a few courses?" She asked him.
"Ok, do you want me to go warn the others to get ready?" Lincoln asked.
"I thought it could be just you and me, the two of us." Lori added.
"Wha? Won't the others get mad if they find out we've been having fun alone?" Lincoln asked suprise.
"I talked with them and they said they didn't want to go." Lori told Lincoln, it wasn't a complete lie, Lori told the rest of her sisters that she would be spending some alone time with Lincoln for the day, and they all decided spending some time with Lincoln individualy could be a good way to mend they relationship with him.
Lincoln decided to comply with her offer and went with her to Vanzilla and they drove to the golf course to play some rounds of golf, there wasn't much happening in the game, to be fair it WAS golf, the reason Lori liked golf was because there wasn't a lot of running or heavy lifting, it was a pretty relaxing game, Lincoln and Lori spend most of the time just talking to each other and weren't really praying attention to the game, after playing for a bit the sun started setting and they realized they had to return back home.
Not much happened in the ride back home, after they reached home they went back to they're usual activities and had dinner, the siblings then decided to watch some TV, most of the sisters were watching Dream Boat, after that Lucy started watching he Vampires of Melancholia and Lincoln was waiting for his turn to watch ARGGH!
After the Dream Boat and Vampires of Melancholia were over, most of the sisters left the living room and went to they're respective rooms, except for Lori who was still sitting in the couch texting Bobby in her phone, the worst part about watching shows were ALWAYS the commercial breaks before and after every show, sometimes in the middle of the episode, there were always some many commercials and it always took very long for the commercial breaks to end, Lincoln was sitting in the couch really bored, waiting for the commercial break to end, he suddenly started feeling his eyes getting heavy and started losing consciousness, he suddenly dropped to the side and laid his head against Lori's arm.
"S-Sorry Lori!" Lincoln said quickly regainning his focus."The commercial breaks are boring me to death!"
"It's fine Lincoln don't worry, in fact..." Lori didn't finish her sentence, Lincoln looked her way and saw her moving her arm and giving her lap a few pats.
"Y-You want me to l-lay my head on your lap?" Lincoln asked once again suprised, seems Lori is in the mood to constantly suprise him today.
Lincoln wasn't sure about laying his head on her lap, but he eventually did, Lincoln really enjoyed the sensation of laying his head on Lori's lap, it was like laying his head on a warm pillow.
Suddenly Lincoln felt one of Lori's heads come close to his head, Lori than began to play with his white hair, running her fingers through his hair like the teeth of a hair comb, this startled Lincoln a bit, but then he relaxed and started enjoying sensation.
Lincoln can't really remember the last time he had such a close exchage with Lori, heck he could ONE TIME he was this close to Lori, the closest thing he could think was the time she fed him his first ice cream and every time him and her would join in on a hug, but even than it didn't compare to this.
Lori had to keep herself from awwing when she heard Lincoln hum in delight from the way she was rubbing his head and hair, she was texting Bobby with her other hand telling him that his plan worked and that she was indeed feeling a lot better, when they ended the conversation Lori couldn't help but think back to a few of the times she treated Lincoln badly.
"Lincoln?" Lori asked, trying to get Lincoln attention.
"Hmm?" He hummed.
"Do you remember the time Bobby broke up with me, due to you making Ronnie Anne cry, and I forced you to go on a date with her and make her feel like the most special girl in the world, so Bobby could get back with me." Lori asked.
Lincoln suddenly tensed up when Lori reminded him of that, he thought she was going to berate him for that.
"I'm sorry about that Lincoln, I was being pretty selfish, I was forcing you to date your bully for my sake and didn't think about how you might feel, I really wanted Bobby to get back with me, just know that I Bobby told me about her on a lot of his text, he told me she was nice behind her tough exterior, I felt she was a good girl who just needed a good friend, I just want you to know that so that you know I had a few good intentions even if I mostly just wanted to get back with Bobby...I'm sorry Lincoln..." Lori explained.
This once again suprised Lincoln, at this point Lincoln considered asking her if she was feeling alright, but he decided against it to not ruin the moment.
"Lori, it's fine." He told her."At the end it turned out for the best, you got back together with Bobby and you are stronger than ever, and Ronnie Anne and I are now good friends."
"I still feel like I could have thought of a better way to solve this problem before immediately blaming you for everything and forcing you to go on a date with a girl you don't like." Lori continued to explain."But I am glad to know you don't feel bad about it, thank you Lincoln."
"Y-You're welcome Lori." He answered her with a smile.
They stayed there for a while longer and ARGGH! started playing, but Lincoln was only praying half of his attention to the show, the other half was focusing on enjoying Lori playing with his hair, Lori wasn't praying any attention to the show and was focusing half on her phone and the other half on playing with Lincoln's hair.
When Lori heard the show ending she looked down to see Lincoln was sound asleep on her lap, she smile and picked Lincoln up bridal style and carried him up to his room.
When she reached Lincoln's room and was about to place him in his bed she felt Lincoln's arms suddenly wrap around her neck.
"Lori...can you...sleep with me tonight?" Lincoln asked, the tone on his voice having "longing" all over it, he didn't want this moment to end just yet.
This time Lori was the one being suprised by Lincoln's request, but she decided to comply, Lori got under the bed sheets and cuddled close to Lincoln, wraping her arms around his body and enjoying the warmth they're bodies were giving eachother.
They stood there for a while, just basking in eachother's warmth, but Lori then heard Lincoln call her name.
"Lori?" Lincoln said.
"Hmm?" She answered.
"Do you have to go to college when the next year roles around?" Lincoln asked, the question catching Lori of guard for a moment.
"Yes I do, I need to so that I can have better chance to work at a large company, and Bobby is going too." Lori explained.
"I'm really gonna miss you." She heard Lincoln say, his voice breaking slightly and she then could hear him cry into her chest.
Lori started sheading a few tears herself, she started shooshing her little brother and started rocking his little body in her arms, like a mother trying to calm her baby by rocking the baby in her arms.
Lori herself despite wanting to go to college a part of her didn't want to leave, she spent a lot of her time thanking care of her younger sisters and Lincoln, going to college alone would problably feel like an empty nest.
"Don't worry Lincoln, I will always be one phone call away, I will be sure to text you everyday, and I will always drop by in the holidays." She assured her little brother, she could hear Lincoln calming down.
"Do you promise?" He asked her.
"Only if you promise to take care of your sisters when I'm gone." She told him."They're going to need someone to look after them."
"I promise..." He told her, looking up to meet her gaze and show a tear stayed face with a smile.
"Then I promise too." She told him, hugging him closer to her body and resting her chin on the top of his head.
"I love you..." He told her.
"I love you too..." She told him.
Soon enough, both of them drifted off into sleep...