The Loud House: Future Love Run Amok!

by TotCall720

Three years into the future and things are going to be shaken up, big time. New forbidden relationships emerge as Lincoln struggles to find out what's going on with the nature of the older Loud sisters still at home, and with himself. The ball gets rolling with Luna, and spirals from here. Potential Harem in the future. Reviews, PM feedback and critique strongly desired. Thank you!

11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Revelations

Monday, October 28th, 2019

6:45 AM

Nearly all the siblings were crashed in the living room. Lola and Lana were curled up with Lincoln on one side of the couch, Luna and Luan the other side. Lynn was loudly snoring away in the lounge chair, and Lucy was curled down on the floor in a black bundle blanket. Rita and Lynn Sr had Leni and Lori sleeping between them, with Lily sleeping away in the relaxed arms of Bobby on a fold-out chair. Bobby stayed the entire time and helped in any way possible. At this point, Rita and Lynn Sr considered him unofficially an integral part of the family, and quite nearly Lori's husband. All that was missing was the ring and ceremony.

Only Lisa was still in her room, up and awake from taking a cocktail of pills to keep up her energy to work and distract herself throughout the night, monitoring the situation remotely in the city and analyzing documents circulating through the White House covertly.

Something happened. Something was in the works. Her recon work indicated more was happening behind the executive veil than she originally anticipated, and the steam was rolling out in the last few hours alone.

"I…don't quite understand this. I only gave an ultimatum on three requests; he's doing an inordinate amount of other things, things that are actually…in the interest of the American people."

Lisa flipped open her laptop and plastered all the news outlet broadcasts covering the disaster and the executive branch's response. The president was in the region, having flown in hours earlier in the night hours to see what had transpired.

As she paced back and forth, making a menagerie of diagonal walking path marks in the olive green carpeting, she became rather frightened by how quick she was seeing things change, at least behind the scenes. Nothing was officially rolling per say, but it seemed based on an armada of intercepted and cracked correspondence memos, not only did her threat to the president go through, but a great number of activities were being prepped, things that would damage his reputation beyond salvation in the swamp of corruption he seemed to produce and inhabit extremely well in.

"Alright…another call, just to inquire what gives. He's pulling some kind of move…a political move I gather."

Lisa activated the force field again, but omitted the blue tooth, feeling content enough that the field would block out any audio dialogue should she get in contact.

"It's inconceivable that he would willingly become a humanitarian in less than seven hours…Computer!"

"Yes Professor Loud?"

"Patch me over to the President's motorcade please."

"Right away Professor Loud."

Lisa waited, hopeful that this conversation would not degenerate like the one last night.

"…..yes, good morning. This is Professor Loud….good morning to you too...uhmm, oh….may I speak with your father please?"

Lisa paused; it seemed his youngest son answered the phone.

"…he's a little…distressed right now. Can my dad call you…..you…you sure? Okay dad, sir," the other end said, a young teen voice said. Lisa heard a faint voice in the background say, "keep my boy up in the front for a moment guys. I need to make this private."

"Interesting….he usually always keeps his cabinet around…"

"Hello Professor Loud…or Lisa? Good morning."

"Lisa will do, and good morning Mr. President."

"Heh…I've had better," he replied with a tad sigh.

"In that case…let me attempt at some degree of reconciliation; I'd like to apologize for my exchange with you last night. It came out as utterly belligerent and condescending towards you. My family…has been through a lot, and the stress and agitation within me comes out in unnecessarily tactless, brutish and cold ways sometimes. For that, I apologize full heartedly and reverse my ultimatum. I now make a strong request for those things I…well, requested."

"…it's good Lisa. You had every right to be angered. I haven't been very fair or focused on what I should have been doing lately, believe me. I've been an incredible ass, a tremendous ass the last few years."

"I…forgive me for interrupting your tour of the area, but I wanted to inquire to our conversation and my…requests from last-"

"You don't need to worry; I set those in motion."

"I gathered that, but what struck me most was the enormous amount of other executive activities that seemed to have been started in the last…two hours roughly. Please excuse my colloquiums sir, but what gives?"

The line stayed silent for a good fifteen seconds. She could hear him taking long, deep breaths that seemed to represent a sort of healing and acceptance of something, or more likely, a form of breathing that was like "coming to grips."

"…Mr. President?"

"…I'll be honest Lisa. I was going to call your bluff on your ultimatum…threat…whatever. I don't even know what this C-137 thing you refer to is anyways; just smoke. What does that mean anyways?"

"It's…complicated. Suffice to say it doesn't really matter at this point Mr. President."

"I figured as much. You caught me right when I was about to leave last night. I don't take kindly to threats, so, being me, I brushed it off, and went down to do what they pay me to do…look at it. It's a stupid thing to do anyways, but, ya know, gotta please the cameras…"

"Huh….I see," Lisa said, slightly getting annoyed with this direction.

"That is…until…"

"Oh…until what Mr. President?"

"…I know you're only seven years old…the smartest human being probably on the planet, but you're young, and I'm not sure if you understand what regret is…what an epiphany is like, especially for someone my age, and I'm not referring to a science, invention epiphany."

"I…admit, I still lack some basic degrees of experience, but I think you'll admit I make up for it in processing and problem solving power," Lisa mused with a slight chuckle, hearing a slight chuckle on the other side of the call.

"Yeah, you got me there…anyways…you ever heard of the series Graves?"

"I can't say I have Mr. President. I don't watch TV shows very often."

"Well…I'm basically Graves, but in office still."

"I…I don't follow Mr. President."

"I've been…thinking about my legacy-"

"Good lord…"

"Let me finish Lisa…I don't mean legacy in the sense that I was a good President…legacy as in, what have I done to help my country…between you and me, I've only ever helped myself, my family and my associates. Made a hell of a lot of money out of it too."

"Well...please excuse me Mr. President, but I think well over half the country gets that feeling."

"I figured, and they're right to be pissed with me. They're right to despise me. I haven't been a very good President since I took office. But money was never just my motivator; it's all about the score…but now…"

"Now what sir?"

"…oh man….this ain't exactly easy for me to articulate without feeling it again…so several of my cabinet members and I were being given a tour at night of the damage around Detroit, escorted by a litany of body guards and security detail of course."

"Of course Mr. President. Disastrous regions release the worst in people."

"And we arrived in downtown…all I could think about was…how could this happen on my watch…I'm the President, the most powerful person on the planet. I have the biggest military at my disposal, the best, most incredible, tremendous advisors and policy makers, the best situation, the best way to cut the middle man out of the equation and get the policies I want passed with little to no interference."

"You're going down another tangent Mr. President. I'm still not-"

"Patience Lisa…so we get down to what was, and believe me, one of my favorite parts of Detroit…it's gone…it's all gone. For God's sake, I was just there all day Saturday doing a stump speech trying to please my supporters…there are still many, but it's more like a cult of me, kinda flattering, but really creepy. Now…but…the people…shop owners, the shops themselves I once knew, gone, wiped out, all them owners probably dead. I know it was a bad twister, but…you really don't get how bad and deadly it was till you go down there and go through the path, and believe me, I had the motorcade go through the entire path, I think when it started from that cemetery up north, then came down like God putting his thumb on the surface."

"God…yes indeed," Lisa said dryly, herself not exactly accepting of that proposition.

"I…I never even heard of a tornado tearing down skyscrapers before…never heard of it…it was mind-blowing, actually mind-blowing, incredibly mind-blowing and horrific what was down there…buildings I visited when I was a kid…virtually all damaged, some beyond salvation…and then I see…."

"Mr. President?"

The line paused again. Lisa could feel some kind of emotional turmoil emanating from the deathly silence. It was purely instinctual to feel such an exchange with such a man; so typically brash, loud and unfiltered, and yet he seemed…thoughtful…almost sounding regretful in a way.

"…well, actually part of the street I was on with my boys and security detail collapsed inwards. Man, were we freaked out. My security guys tried to pull me out…and I fell down…and then I see it…"

"See what Mr. President?"

"Oh lord.…" he sighed heavily, coughing, almost sounding like an extremely restricted, watery choke, "…I see them…in a caved-in basement in the far corner…two little girls, probably a little younger than you, holding onto each other…crushed under a gigantic section of a concrete wall."

"My lord Mr. President!"

"Yeah…I walk over…my dumb ass guys are trying to pull me back, so I bark at them to back off for a moment…and all of a sudden these journalists and photographers are swarming the scene around us. I…I didn't really pay attention to them…all I could think about were those two girls…one was a little Mexican girl, the other a Muslim girl…both holding onto each other…their upper bodies sticking out, holding each other…crushed under that concrete wall…it was…I guess you could say, surreal…symbolic…of me…"

Lisa stayed dead silent the entire time.

"I take credit way too much where I shouldn't, and assign blame way too much. It's time I take the blame I deserve…I'm the leader of the free world, and I need to follow through on the promises I made to the American people. And…and then….well, suffice it to say, for the next few months, and whatever time I have left in office, I'm gonna be making a lot of enemies out of my current allies, believe me…possibly allies out of old enemies, or at least we'll work together and get this done. Already secretly got that crazy socialist Sanders and Gabbard to pull some weight for me. And if anyone in my cabinet, administration or in my circles ain't gonna be playin ball, I'll be using my catchphrase, "You're fired," quite frequently, and they'll get it from me personally. I need folks who'll actually do their job. I'm gonna man-handle the parties to pass the legislation I need to help America…I'll be using the art of the deal on the side of Americans for once, as could be said. I'll bring my company's jobs back to American soil, that's a promise…be a bit softer on people….This is just the beginning, but…I owe it to the American people, all of them, whether they voted me in or not, loved or scorned me…for the families…for those little girls emblematic of my time in office…Detroit is gonna see a rebirth. I will make Detroit great again…I will make America Great Again…. I'm sorry….Lisa, I'm sorry but I have to go. I need to make my speech in a moment. Just Google what went down earlier. It's all over the news right now."

"Mr. President…I understand."

"Thanks Lisa…I'll speak with you soon…hopefully we can cut a new deal…soon…as my unofficial science advisor; I'm thinking of scrapping the deep space project for domestic investment."

"I…I might be open to that Mr. President. Just promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"Keep me out of politics; I really despise politics."

"Sure thing. Goodbye."

"Goodbye Mr. President."

As the President hung up, Lisa stood there, a bit dumbfounded, discombobulated and awestruck by what she just heard him say…more appropriately, seemed to have spilled in a bleeding heart fashion. For the first time, Lisa was at loss for intelligible words to process what kind of conversation she just had.

"Did…our President just admit lament and…almost cry over the line? Computer!"

"Yes Professor Loud?"

"Find me all articles in the last three hours regarding President Trump's tour of the ruins of Detroit, Michigan."

"Right away Professor Loud."

Her laptop suddenly phased out a giant flat screen with multiple articles, op-eds and video reports on Trump's visit to the site. It only took moments to find what he had just spoke on.

"Whoa….The Moment the Trump Presidency Changed," Lisa read, reading the title and seeing a dark basement, lit by flashlights and a huge, blown up image of Trump on his knees, awkwardly hunched over, caressing the hair of the deceased, crushed Muslim and Mexican girl under the giant chunk of concrete wall…he had a plain face, and tears were rolling down his cheeks. It was dark all around him, deep in the pitch black morning hours of the ruined landscape of downtown Detroit.

"No…way," Lisa mumbled. A video started playing, showing a collapsed street with journalists, reporters and photographers surrounding the interior caved-in basement. Several zoomed in shots showed him staring in a daze at the girls…and one piece of audio sounded like him saying after several minutes of dead silence, to himself, "…I'm sorry," before he was finally pulled up out and back into his motorcade.

"I…I suppose seeing that caused him to change so radically…to make those admissions…sparked not only by the death of those children…but in an allegorical sense, the effects of his Presidency. I can only surmise the degree of repentance he's going through emotionally."

Lisa recalled a quote from a series of lecture videos on Engineering Geology she viewed when she was five, getting a kick out of the commentary the Engineering Geology Professor put forth on the necessity of Engineers to make decisions on finance designing large scale projects with high factors of safety, as opposed to bean counters, or accountants and lawyers as he put it. In a very broad sense, it seemed to reflect a similar situation, not directly about Trump, but about the kind of situation that could change one's perspective. She played the quote in her head.

"That's why you need to have Engineers making those decisions, not accountants, and attorneys. That's what's happening to our country in the last fifty years. It's that the Engineers are not making the engineering decisions. The decisions having to do with finances are being made by bean counters…lawyers and accountants, who do not appreciate what "factor of safety" is. They couldn't even tell you a definition of factor of safety, but they're making the decision, and they're looking at the engineer saying "aaawwwhhh we don't need it that safe." Well that's how people talk who haven't seen dead children. If you haven't seen a few dead kids, that's how you look at things; cold hard cash…real easy to do….Ya need to get out and look at some disasters, and realize, a little more duct tape, a few more screws, those kids wouldn't be dead. Is it worth the extra twenty cents? Ya damn right it's worth it, especially if you're one of the kids."

"Indeed Mr. Rodgers….and I have a feeling Trump may have just seen the light...realized it's worth it."

Lisa scrolled down even more through the articles…new news reports on Trump's speech being hailed as one of the greatest, most unanticipated, shocking and redemptive pieces of rejuvenated rhetoric in modern Presidential history, across all partisan establishment news networks…and it was all off his cuff; no pre-planned speech, no bullet points, nothing typical of his usual transcript pieces. As shocked as the nation seemed to be with the calamity that befell Detroit, Trump's speech in response was being hailed as one of the most shocking responses yet in US political history, a top tier, particularly for how raw, emotional and fiery it seemed to have been when he talked about his experience, even compared to his other speeches.

He was going to rebuild the country with an unprecedented job-creating infrastructure bill he had long promised, and bring America's infrastructure score from its current D+ to an A. He dubbed the action "The Yolanda-Zaara Project," named after the two deceased little girls Trump stumbled upon. It would, as he put, put to work well over fifteen million Americans conservatively. And he promised much, much more in working to negate his most harmful repeals and enactments of legislation to average worker and those under the poverty line doing worse than before. He also violently asserted a re-structuring his entire cabinet to "better meet the needs of all the people of the United States of America." It had strong veins of Libertarianism and Progressivism hybridized in it. It was by all accounts, one of the most one-eighty switches ever made in a US Presidential term, and he was alluding to a lot.

Time would tell if this speech would actually be implementable, but Lisa's recon on the mountain of memos, documents and firings from the executive branch seemed to suggest this was the new direction. He was keeping his word, regardless of the potential billions of dollars he'd be losing and the multitude of ties he's made in the Washington elite bubble.

It baffled Lisa. It was still hard to grasp in her mind, and she could work the kinks out of making compatible Quantum Field Theory and General Relativity. This rich tycoon billionaire…he was becoming the unlikely Blue Collar-Jobs President of the people, or at least, provisionally speaking. Too little too late? Possibly…no one knew for sure, not even the President himself, arguably. But Lisa saw a fire lit in his eyes, a juggernaut-like determination in the stressed out, endlessly made fun-of face of the commander in chief, having only once since been seen when the prior corporatist president roasted him, indicated this resolve, and the last time he had this determination, after a long battle, he not only won the Republican primary…he became the President.

"This…isn't the same man…he's been humbled by disaster, allegory and personally seeing child death…and what the implicit ramifications his presidency has had on the nation and the world as a whole all wrapped up in one horrific fall and experience….my lord, he might actually go down as the most redeemed President in US history….I suppose that crazy drunk lunatic in the portal was right….infinite realities…infinite possibilities….heh…even a reality where Trump becomes a redemptive humanitarian…"

Lisa rubbed her eyes from thinking and coming to terms with all these possibilities.

"Thank the cosmos I stay out of politics. This is exactly why science is my better field to engage with. Thinking about the amount of dark matter in the universe and trying to determine how to locate it…it's just so much more beautiful, so much more purposeful…so much more room to talk reasonably…and far away from the horse race that is modern politics. In many ways, it's not entirely appropriate…as a matter of fact, it's just cringe-worthy for one's political opinions and persuasions to be shoe-horned down most forums where science, writing and literary exploration of themes reign supreme."

Lisa turned all her equipment off and looked back at her black chalkboard, a multitude of mathematical expressions awaiting her to be resolved, and many on combining new findings in Chaos Theory and efforts to improve short term seismic prediction of earthquakes. She let out a happy yawn. The cocktail's effects were wearing off, and she'd need at least two hours of proper deep sleep to make up for the early investment of her focus and energies.

"I really should tuck in for a while longer….but…"

She leaned over and grabbed a piece of chalk, and started thinking about the myriad of expressions and symbols.

"It's good to step back into doing what I love most," Lisa thought, away from trying to tackle human geo-political systems and social constructs…back doing mathematical computations, the inordinately complicated variety that MIT professors secretly released to her to see if she could resolve them.

"Maybe just ten minutes…I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank God…heh…colloquially speaking, that I can finally close this whole politics situation I let loose. Now…about this Lyapunov spectrum…I could integrate a four-wave derivation sequence with limited fractal powers, but what would be the geometric consequences on this new set of linearized variables be? They're not constants…well some are, and some are variables…constants and variables…"

---

7:39 AM

Back down below in the living room, Lola snored really loudly, waking up Lana momentarily in a groggy, mumbling and messy-haired gurgle. Hops popped out of the hole of her red backwards cap, hopping off into the kitchen. Lana looked annoyed over to Lola, nudging her over Lincoln's sleeping form. Then she remembered, everything that went down last night in one horrific flashback.

"…Dang it…..Leni…poor Leni. I wanna check up on…hey...spsshhhh...Lola?" Lana asked, reaching over Lincoln's body and poking her cheek with her fingers.

"Mhhhmmhmmheee..." Lola wined out in a mumble.

"Lola...hey...wake up."

"Nnnn...five more...min..." Lola mumbled before yawning loudly, inching her eyes open to see Lana looking at her.

"Wha...you better have a good reason waking me up from my beauty sleep. I actually had a good dream."

"Yeah yeah, I bet you love making kissy-kissy with the frog prince."

"That's you frog girl. What do you want?"

"I...I was woken up by your snoring..."

"I DON'T-"

"SSHH!"

"...I don't snore...I mean I do, but...alright, I'll go to our room, and-"

"Actually Lola, it's not totally the snoring. That's not why I woke you up."

"...then why the heck did you wake me? I need all the sleep I can get after everything horrible last night."

"Can...you check on Leni with me?"

"…Leni…oh...uhh...okay Lana."

With great delicate care, Lola and Lana wormed and crawled out from under the shared blanket with Lincoln, and one by one slunk backwards off the arm rest, Lola landing first in an elegant form like it was a pageant challenge.

"Two left feet, ha! More like light on my feet. Come on Lana."

Lana awkwardly landed on her head, making a muffled, loud clumsy thud. Lola shushed her as Lana rubbed her red-capped head in annoyance.

Both walked as quietly as their bodies could carry them…all the while the floor below them seemed to try and wail under each of their steps, as though intentionally trying to rat the twins out and work against them. Lola was the only one making any real effort trying to tip-toe the short but acoustically cursed distance, while Lana walked with only a marginal sense of alertness, still the ever-present tomboy stride in her step.

They got to their parents room's door, finding it locked.

"Crudstones….Lana?"

"Got it covered," Lana replied, pulling out a screwdriver out of nowhere.

"…you keep a screwdriver on you when you sleep?"

"…who doesn't?" Lana replied innocently, Lola faceplaming hard.

"Oh merciful tiaras, I shouldn't be surprised."

"Oh, whatever, queen of the prima-donnas."

"Wart face."

"Dainty-butt."

"Flea-hugger."

"Glitter hog."

"Devilled-egg hog."

"Prissy little sissy."

"You smell worse than Charles after he rolls around in mud and poop!"

"Well you smell like old musty perfume and feet!"

"GAH! W..WHA…how dare you! I have the most ridged cleaning regiment of anyone in this whole house!"

"Yeah, like Aunt Ruth."

"Take that back."

"Uh-uh."

"Why you!" Lola hissed quietly before dive-bombing on Lana, both rolling and fighting in the twin's most acoustically quiet fight in Loud house history.

Suddenly their parents door unlocked and swung open; it was Lori, looking entirely drained, stressed, dark eyed and, seemingly completely oblivious to a frozen-in-place squabble that was Lola and Lana, still wrapped together in their fight, fearing they may have woken her or anyone else.

Lori trudged over lazily with slacked, hanging arms, heavy footsteps and a denigrated aura to the kitchen. The twins heard her getting a glass of water to drink.

"You…think she heard us?" Lana whispered to Lola.

"Sshhh…don't move or talk. She can't see us if we don't move or talk."

"…I'm scared Lola…"

"…me too," Lola whispered, both breaking slowly from their shredding apart of each other and hugging now for dear life, petrified to move from their spot or risk Lori tearing them a new one.

Seconds of terrified waiting, Lori walked past them, the twins shaking in each other's arms.

Lori stopped at the door and closed it, then looked down right at the twins with nothing but a tired, annoyed and depleted look. Lola and Lana's hearts skipped their beating in terror.

"…we're screwed," Lana huffed out.

Lola and Lana squealed in terror, awaiting for Lori to let them have it.

"…not right now…not for a while, like literally for a while, okay you two?" Lori said with actual tender softness in her tone. No malicious threats, no bossy irate intensity Lori could be known for. This Lori seemed much more…toned down.

With shocked expressions, not knowing what to do or say, Lola and Lana simply nodded nervously.

"…and guessing by that screwdriver on the ground, you were gonna sneak in and check up on Leni?" Lori asked softly.

They both nodded again.

Then Lori bent down and pulled them into a gentle warm hug.

"We're sorry Lori. We didn't wanna disturb you or anyone, especially Leni," Lola began.

"This is on me. I dragged Lola out of sleep. I wanted her to help me check up on Leni."

"You don't need to apologize girls. I get it. You wanna see her with me?"

"Yes please," they both replied at the same time.

Lori picked them both up and hauled them quietly into the room. They saw a knocked out Bobby holding a sleeping, cuddled-up Lily in his arms.

"Someday boo-boo bear….someday…"

"What Lori?" Lana asked.

"Nothing girls…here," Lori said, as she put them down on the edge of the bed gently, between their parents, and in the middle, a peaceful Leni Loud sleeping away, comically taller than anyone in the bed yet still looking like a small child.

"She's so peaceful…like an angel," Lana opinioned.

"Besides Lily, she really is the angel of the family," Lori said, then added, "…no offense to you two."

"Nah, it's good. We know how we can be," Lola said, inching up along the bed delicately to look at Leni's face. She looked so tranquil and pretty, completely opposite to how the twins remembered seeing her last night.

"Lori…is Leni going to be okay? I never saw her like that before, not even with spiders," Lana asked. Lori huffed out a huge sigh, then sat on the bed with the girls.

"Leni's going to be fine. She just had a bad dream, that's all."

"But…but Leni said she saw Lincoln and Luna get taken by the big tornado…" Lola said.

"I…I know. Things are probably going to be a little…hard for a bit with Leni, maybe even with Lincoln and Luna. But we're a big family. We got each other's backs, no matter what, right?"

"Yeah Lori, you're right. It's…"Lana trailed off.

"What?"

"How do we fix Leni?" the twins asked in unison.

Lori closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"We let her know it's going to be alright. For a while, you younger girls are gonna have to be like her big sister. That means no more fighting, always listen to her…I mentioned no more fighting, right? I'm gonna let Lincoln know to keep an extra watch on you two too, since he's the only one ever able to break up a fight between you two. Okay?"

"Okay Lori…we love you big sis," the twins said, hugging Lori from both sides.

"I love you too squirts. You can cuddle with Leni for a while if you'd like. I need to get myself up. My jerk of a boss is making me come in and do some memos, subpoenas and declarations."

"Okay…I'd like that," Lana said, Lola nodding happily, before asking, "…what's a subpoena?"

"Don't worry about it. Enjoy being kids…and make sure you're quiet, alright?"

"Okeydokie," they said in unison again, before carefully crawling up the bed, snuggling with Leni and closing their eyes. Lori went to use the small bathroom, and came out only a minute later, seeing both Lola and Lana sleeping with Leni as Rita and Lynn Sr looked down with half-open eyes.

"Morning Lori…you know the twins just took your spot, right?" Lynn Sr asked.

"It's okay. I need to start getting myself ready."

"Okay sweetie…and thank you for staying with Leni last night," Rita said, waving her over so she could hug her oldest daughter.

"I'm glad you let us sleep together in your bed. Sorry it was so cramped."

"You kidding? This feels like when you two were scared of the dark and ran in to sleep with us…ahh those memories," Lynn Sr mused.

"Well, you guys get some rest, alright?"

"Okay sweetie. We love you."

"I love you two too," Lori said to both as Rita and Lynn Sr put an arm on Leni, Lola and Lana, themselves drifting back to sleep.

Lori looked over the bed, smiling as she saw a chunk of her family sleeping together in much needed rest. Then she looked over to Bobby and Lily.

"Yeah…I definitely owe you one for doing this for me boo-boo bear…he has no idea what I'm gonna do to him tonight," Lori said with a put-on lusty grin, before it disappeared from the realization that her work day was going to suck, big time; as short a work day as it was going to be because she texted that she was having family issues, it still didn't feel like a fair deal. She wanted so badly to remain with Leni the entire day and possibly the whole week. Adult life and working in the real world was not kind to a person like that, no matter it seemed the severity of family problems, emergencies or whatnot.

"That asshole boss of mine better make a spectacular letter of recommendation in the end," she said with a fuming temper under her breath, walking back into the kitchen, looking over her siblings crashed out in the living room, deciding to stay there out of concern for Leni. Lincoln was by himself on one side of the couch under a set of covers, with a big gap, presumably where the twins curled up with him. On the opposite side Luan and Luna curled under Luna's spare UK flag blanket. Lynn was still knocking down a Sequoia tree in her plain red wool blanket, while Lucy was curled on the floor in her black blanket, totally enclosed under her fabrics, breathing softly.

Lori smiled, feeling warmth in her belly that they would do something like this…only Lisa wasn't down, but at least she managed to bring Leni's panicked, traumatic breakdown to a halt. It was disturbing seeing Leni get shot like a wild animal, but deep down Lori knew how unique Lisa's sibling connection and kinship to Leni was, even to her diametric opposite on the sibling spectrum of intelligence. Lisa cared, just in her own way.

Lori's breathing got more regular, blood flowing through her body granting her more awareness to her surroundings in the kitchen. She headed for the refrigerator, pulling out some Eggo Waffles from the freezer. As she closed the door, a small hand drawn picture came to her view; it was a colorful drawing, made by Leni when she was not older than Lily right now. It was Leni with a smile hiding behind her tough, older sister Lori, a year older than her, fighting off dark shadows and spooky sound bubbles, throwing shoes and other items at them. For a four year old, this was a spectacularly drawn piece of refrigerator art. Lori remembered the day when they were very, very little, asking for help to put it high up, so that their newly walking baby sister at the time, Lynn, could see it and know how tough and brave Lori was.

Lori pulled the picture from the magnet, inspecting it for a while and letting associated memories flow back from her memory files, seeing where their mom put the date Leni drew it; 08/04, a little over fifteen years ago. She walked over to the small kitchen table, thinking about all the memories she had of her and Leni together as little girls.

She may not have been a biological twin like Lola and Lana were, but Leni was for all intents and purposes, spiritually, a twin sister…at the very least, her closest sister since she could remember. They were only a year apart, and effectively watched together the house get bigger and bigger one by one with each new sibling. Leni and she, together, saw their family get more and more whole and complete.

She remembered wanting to keep Leni safe from those scary shadow monsters that danced in the night on their walls. Lori at the time was scared to death herself of them, but tried to act as tough, crass and brutish as possible, to keep her little sister feeling safe and secure.

The little sister she had all her life, who she tried to keep safe and secure, just suffered an unspeakable ordeal, and broke down in front of her last night in heartbreaking trauma.

Lori suddenly found herself involuntarily tearing up, the drops hitting parts of Leni's drawing.

She instantly got up and moved the picture back towards the center of the table, then headed for the sink. She tried holding onto this knot in her throat, this aquatic welling in her eyes.

She couldn't.

Lori started crying softly into her hand, before choking in loud, angst-ridden gasps within her cuffed hands, trying to muffle the sounds from the others, yet unable to hold her own lamenting. Seeing Leni break down like that, imagining the feelings and emotions she must have gone through, even though she wasn't there for anything, and it wasn't her fault in the slightest… Lori felt that she failed Leni. She didn't keep her safe and secure…and now Leni was traumatized.

She leaned over the sink and cried into her arms, unable to try and stop the heartache for her closest sister and the onrush of hot tears pooling out.

"Lori?" a familiar voice asked.

Lori turned her head slightly…seeing a small puff of white hair in the corner of her eye.

"L…Lincoln," Lori tried saying in a controlled response. Her voice was all damp, wet, sad and a bit off.

"He...hey Lincoln….twerp…need a glass of water?" she asked, trying to inject some of her crass self as a shield. She pretended to sneeze and barely whipped her nose, trying to clear her face off.

"I'm good Lori….I…heard crying."

"Well you heard wrong," Lori sniffled, trying to be as blunt as possible. Lincoln saw right through this charade, but played along, not wanting to let her know he knew, only giving a minor hint.

"I…don't think any less of you if you were."

"Very thoughtful of you, although in case you literally didn't just hear me, I said I wasn't."

"Okay Lori…I think I will take that glass of water please."

Lincoln walked over to Lori, her back still turned to him. She was still breathing like she was crying, but doing everything in her power to force a veil of strength and fortitude. Lincoln just went along with it. She grabbed a glass and filled it up with ice cold water.

Lincoln took it back to the small table and drank the glass in one gulp, really needing the cooling sensation in his body.

Lori coughed slightly a couple of times, took several deep breaths and stared out the kitchen window directly above the sink. She looked at her watch. 8:00 AM.

Dawn was coming out from the horizon.

"Leni always loves seeing the Sun come up in the morning," Lori mused openly, Lincoln catching a tinge of warmth, nostalgia and melancholy in her voice. "It meant that the shadow monsters would have to go, and scary noises might not be as strong the next time night came around, and would have to think twice to try and hurt us in our sleep."

"Hmmm…..I remember something like that….when I was about five or six," Lincoln replied," Leni showed me this picture, the one right here on the table, when I got scared in the dark. She said you use to scare away the shadow monsters by roaring at them, and then throwing your shoes at them." Lincoln said, then smiled a little. "You know, even after you left, when I sometimes woke up early and headed for the bathroom and the days Leni leaves her door open, I see her stare outside the window, waiting for the sun to come up. She says hi to it, and then goes back to sleep a bit longer…it's really cute."

"She's…just so sweet twerp…if only you knew her when she was little…but in all honesty, she's still like that little girl I grew up with."

"She's grown up a bit though Lori. I mean, she's in college. Who saw that one coming?"

"She loves to fashion to death that's for sure. Hey….Lincoln?"

"Yeah Lori?"

"Is…is it really true…what Leni said last night? And be honest…is it really true? You…and Luna…got pulled into it…and Leni saw it…and ran into it too?" Lori asked with a very subtle, stifled watery choke.

Lincoln looked down towards his bare feet in renewed guilt and shame, shuffling them back and forth against each other, feeling the responsibility for the whole situation squarely on his shoulders.

"Linc?"

"…it is Lori…it's all true."

Lincoln could hear Lori's fingers tighten against the metal sides of the sink. Her fingers cracked.

Then, to Lincoln's unprepared mind, Lori started crying, facing the window, staring head on with the sunrise. Lincoln saw the sunshine's rays bouncing off jets of tears rolling down from her cheeks, pooling and dripping from her chin.

Lincoln got up and walked over to Lori.

"I…I'm sorry," Lincoln could only muster, wrapping himself around Lori as she seemed unable to keep back with any more internal regulation, her distress for Leni pouring out now.

"I…I told the twins…when they asked me if Leni would be okay…if we could fix her…that she would be, that we could make her okay and fix her. I…I don't know if that's true Lincoln," Lori wailed quietly as Lincoln tightened his grip around her waist.

"I…I know you and Luna are a hell of a lot emotionally tougher…you…you two will get through this…look at you both? But…but Leni…being Leni…she's not…she's too delicate, susceptible…she's so traumatized Lincoln…I…I don't know if we can help her," Lori cried out weakly, turning around and digging her head into Lincoln's shoulders, crying in hurt as Lincoln held her.

It hit Lincoln; the oldest, most brash, hardy and sturdy of the Loud siblings, was crying into his shoulders because of the condition Leni Loud was in. Both felt absolutely powerless in being able to help Leni at all. How could they? She may be the strongest, but that was only physically. This was Leni, the girl with the most poignant fears and phobias of the house, the most emotionally and spiritually angelic, and by extension, fragile of them all. The sister that would make an effort to say hi to the Sun in the morning was now in a very dark place.

"Lori…I promise…I'm gonna do everything in my power to bring Leni…our Leni back. I…I owe her after what I put her through," Lincoln said in a guilty but determined tone.

"Lincoln…don't…don't beat yourself up over this. No one wanted or intended this for her…it was just a lot of bad circumstances...a lot of bad shit happened at once. No…no one-"

"Leni wouldn't be so messed up like she is right now if it wasn't for me…my recklessness…my inability to deal with sister-fight-protocol. I…deserve nothing less than the ultimate ass-kicking…the ultimate grounding…the ultimate punishments…I need to get her back."

"Lincoln?"

"I promise, whatever it takes, I will get Leni back, come hell or high water. Whatever it takes!"

"You really are the best little bro around twerp. And you're gonna have me and the others helping you with Leni every step of the w-"

Lori was interrupted by her cellphone vibrating; it was her boss, based on the Imperial March theme.

"Fucking dick….I know what time it is Lewis," she mumbled, wiping the tears from her face.

"You didn't hear me say that, okay Linc?"

"Yeah…Lori?" Lincoln asked, before hugging her himself, his body shaking a little, "I mean it. I'm going to get our Leni back."

"And I'm gonna help. No other girl knows her better than me after all," Lori said with a bit of a cheeky tone under her smile, now drying out her tears and wiping her face off. Lori and Lincoln embraced to let one another know they would work together closely, the others included, especially their parents, who must have had to endure the worst reality possible; one of their little girls went through a horrible experience, and there was nothing they could do about it on the onset. It came down to being a family, sticking together, being with Leni in mind and spirit to help pull her out. Everyone knew this, Lori knew this…Lincoln knew this.

Suddenly both heard klutzy footsteps heading towards them from the kitchen entrance. A small, sweet voice said something from behind the dining room wall. Lori and Lincoln could barely hear it, but they knew by how elegant and soft the tone was when she uttered a simple, gentle phrase.

"Hi Sun…I'm glad you're back."

"Leni?" Lori and Lincoln asked at the same time.

---

Earlier, after Lori left, Rita and Lynn Sr were back in deep sleep, as were Bobby, Lola, Lana, and especially Leni. She seemed to be dreaming sporadic happy and surreal situations. One dream she found herself in her mind was tranquility and happiness incarnated for her.

Back in the cartoony landscape of Leni's mind, she was having a wonderful little dream. It wasn't overly animated; it was her and Lincoln sitting on the top of a huge grassy hill, both holding hands. She had her legs crossed in a pretzel, with Lincoln sitting in her lap, her holding him as he lightly breathed, sleeping in her arms. On one side of the hill they were surrounded by a modestly large sandy beach with palm trees, encompassed by an endless aqua-green ocean that looked entirely too comfortable and soothing to the eyes. The other side of the hill Leni looked down, deep into the far below valley, flower-laden and covered in delicate grass like a sea, a house stood, the Loud house, situated in the center of the valley. Leni could see their whole family all huddled around a big bonfire hanging out with each other.

Leni felt completely at peace with the world, feeling Lincoln sleep and breath lightly in her lap and arms, her snuggling with him, resting her chin on his head and breathing in his natural odor; it was soothing, letting her body conform and move with his, all while feeling like she was keeping him safe, and him keeping her safe. She felt safe and at extreme ease.

A weeping willow they were sitting next to twirled its dangling branches and fluttered its delicate leaves, brushing against Leni's face and wiggling on her nose, tickling her. She giggled a bit before letting out a little kitten-sized sneeze. Then several leaves on a branch suddenly grew to the size of blankets, gently wrapping themselves around Leni and Lincoln's lower waist and legs.

"Thank you Mr. Willow Tree," Leni said sweetly with a bubbly sound, before the mid trunk section near them ballooned out into a soft, large pillow. Leni sunk back with Lincoln in her arms still, cuddling him like a teddy bear while getting snug into this extremely puffy brown extension of the willow tree. They were almost lying down. Leni felt safe, secure and hoping she could be like this forever.

The colors on the willow leaves that gently wrapped them began to morph. The color of the leaves, initially all green, started percolating slowly but surely into a swirl of other colors; purple, red, a light color of aqua green, Leni's favorite color, lemon yellow and black. Towards the end several parts of the leaves adopted a faint grayish-white, withered but beautiful look, before the base colors of the original green completely filtered out and converted into orange.

"Wow…that's really pretty," Leni said, imagining how the patterns seemed to tell of a story…about love, chaos, inhibition, heartbreak, redemption, even a bit of insanity, but the colors, all of them, converged together to the orange base color…every single one.

"Hmmm….why would Mr. Willow Tree's leaves change its colors like that? Does it have fashion sense too? Maybe it's like a color collage story book with no words. Those are the best kind of books!"

Suddenly the motion of the body she was holding began to wiggle itself out; Lincoln crawled up and out of Leni's lax grasp and the leaves circling them.

"Lincy?"

"Hey Leni? I gotta go check up on the family…and I need you to do something for me."

"Aaoohhh…I was comfy Lincoln," Leni wined in disappointment, stretching her arms and legs, yawning loudly and pressing her fingers and toes hard into the delicate, non-itchy grass.

"I'm sorry Leni, but I gotta do this, just like you gotta do this."

"Oh…okay Lincy…do what exactly?"

"I need you to walk down this yellow brick road."

"What yellow brick road?"

"This one," Lincoln said, snapping his fingers and out out-popping into existence a small yellow brick road, starting roughly where the willow tree grew on the hilltop. It went down to the opposite side of the valley, down below into the lower valley before going over an even bigger hill, neither of which knew what lied over it

"Lincy…I don't know what's over there…can you come with me?"

"Sorry Leni, but this is something for you, and you only. I'm not going to be of much help."

"Oooo! Is it a surprise present?" Leni shrieked happily.

"No, sorry, not that."

"Oh phooey! Well, what am I looking for Lincy?'

"I don't know. I just have a feeling you need to see it. You won't get hurt. I promise. Trust me?"

"I…trust you Lincy. Okay…I'll go and check it out, then see you back up here. Promise?"

"Promise," Lincoln said, before helping pull Leni up, then standing on the tips of his toes and giving her a long kiss on her cheek, then another one on her forehead. Leni giggled before she pulled their foreheads together to look into each other's eyes…for what seemed like an indeterminate amount of time. The brilliant sunset landscape around them gave it a perpetual orange-red lit landscape.

Leni always heard that the one way to understand a person above all ways was to see their eyes, to look deep in and absorb their glow, their mind...just them. A person could be understood by their eyes alone in many respects. One of the reasons she remembered how all her twenty-eight boyfriends ended up being not good or nice at all; they all lacked any decency or legitimate love and affection in their stares with her. She could pierce their veil; they wanted her body, not her…but not Lincoln.

She continuously wanted to bask in the aura and comfort Lincoln's stare generated, from his exuberant, energetic and caring eyes. She felt so many things just from his eyes alone; security, respect, acknowledgment as a human being, things Leni desired in a man, someone to understand her as she is…Leni Loud. Lincoln was the only man in her life she knew that emulated any of these desires and feelings. He was the only one who could really understand her, mind, body, spirit, faults and all. He was the only one who cared for her so deeply.

Lincoln gave her on last hug before slowly walking away down towards their family at their bonfire down below. Leni got up and walked over to the yellow brick road. She stood next to it a moment, pressing her feet into the grass softly and just realizing she didn't have on any sandals or shoes.

A quick thought later and her sandals fazed on her feet.

She stepped onto the yellow brick road, looking down the long, completely straight path that dipped deep down into the grassy valley below before rising like a wave over the neighboring hill.

Then it began moving by itself, the entire path, like one giant conveyer belt. Leni didn't have to walk, and the extreme vibrations of the yellow brick road doubled as an extremely relaxing and pleasing foot massager.

"Oh yeah, Lincoln thinks of everything! A road that I can like, not have to walk, and all I have to do is stand and I get a foot massage. Super totes! And extra super for my toes!"

Leni let the mobile yellow brick road traverse over the hill down to the landscape below. Flowers all around her suddenly started to bloom from the ground in varying speeds to varying heights, some sprouting a few inches, others becoming the size of Redwood Giants. Littered in this understory of flowers were ferns and balls of moss growing in ornamental designs like Leni's wood carvings on her bed.

Out of nowhere a low voice echoed loudly just before Leni was taken to the top of the next hill, taking Leni back a bit.

"Close your eyes."

"What?" Leni asked.

"Close your eyes."

"Close my eyes? Huh…must be the yellow brick road…or something else…I dunno, but if Lincy said I'd be okay over here, then I believe him."

She closed them tight, feeling her body motion up in slight weightlessness, then back down. She kept her eyes tightly closed, waiting for a voice or some kind of sign to know when to open.

"This is taking long. I wonder why the yellow brick road doesn't want me to-"

"You may now open your eyes."

"Oh….okay….wait a minute! Is this a trick?"

"No trick…but you need to open before you miss this."

"Alright…but not because you say so. Lincy tells me this is something I need to see, so it's him I'm like, listening to, not you."

"Understood," the voice boomed, before acoustically disappearing completely.

Leni slowly opened her eyes. It was a complete one-eighty, not what she expected.

She found herself doing something inexplicitly not what she was originally doing, minutes ago standing on the conveyer belt yellow brick road.

Now she was back in the middle of treating the cuts, bruises and bumps on a sleeping Lincoln and Luna in Mr. Grouse's Packard, back by the market, the one she got the various items and put in her baggy.

She was putting on little Band Aids and ointments, giving them Advil pills and whatever bandages she could muster from a crappy little paper box. It took her a little while.

"And…I think that will be good. There. I didn't need that NPR class to help me learn this, that was easy," Leni thought happily in her mind, seeing Luna and Lincoln sleeping away soundly in the back. Leni seemed to somehow slip in the mindframe from the road when they came home from the tornado. It was a drastic shift. She closed the back doors of the Packard and headed towards the driver's door.

"This is…weird, but I guess I need to go along with it. I promised Lincy after al-"she paused, about to get in the driver's seat, before she took a quick look at the market she grabbed the items from earlier. Many, many seconds passed, when suddenly Leni felt her body faze, fizzle and gyrate, before splitting into two, popping out of her own body to the right.

There were now two Leni's.

At first surprised, the first thing she thought was how atrocious the tattered articles of clothing she had on were from earlier; never again would she go out without an extra set of clothing to switch in should the need come.

"Two of me should try and fix this fashion disaster. Hey…uh..me! Can we like, fix our clothing…mine…I dunno…how do we talk about this other me?"

She walked over and looked at this other Leni to her left; something was different; majorly different, as though it was an entirely new, cold, unique version of her. She saw other Leni's eyes loose life; they merely retained a degree of plain, calm and intense apocalyptic capacity that scared the Leni that fazed out of the body, the Leni that could think outside the experience and be who she was.

"Wow…that's me…but it's like, not me….ow, my head….so wait! I'm me, because, well, if this thing I am wasn't me, then I'd be you, right? Where would I be? When would I….owww….this is hurting my brain so mu…..wha…what am I doing?" Leni thought, seeing the other Leni take the gas container this Leni remembered using.

"Hello, like, other Leni? How come you're not talking to me? We can share fashion ideas and stuff….hello?" Leni asked the lifeless Leni, waiving at her.

No response.

Leni tried touching this Leni's shoulders; she fazed right through her.

"I…my hand goes right through you. Like, this is not totes…what's up? Am I a spooky ghost or something?"

Other Leni headed to the gas station with the flipped tanker and numerous car wrecks around it, abandoned and destroyed. There were huge pools of gasoline spread all over the street. Other Leni just scooped up the gases with the tank, and begin surgically pouring the gas on the ground in a straight line…from the mangled gas station, right to the market.

Then the lifeless Leni began throwing gas all over the exterior market building, its front, back and nearly all open spaces.

Leni maneuvered in a small path area of uncontaminated oil and gas surrounded by the mangled car pile by the market's entrance. She wiggled back in.

"Other Leni? Why are you doing this? Why are you putting gas all over the place? You could get oil stains on your clothing. Hello! Other Leni!" Leni yelled, running through the small patches of ground not covered in oil and gas.

Leni ran through the wreck, but not like other Leni. She seemed to be able to faze right through the wreck and go straight into the market. She saw other Leni, her demeanor cool, uncaring, focused, her eyes devoid of life, throwing gas all over the interior, especially on a spot with a car smashed inwards, covered in roof debris.

"I…I don't like the way you're looking around and doing this, other me…other Leni. Why are you putting gas in here? The market never did anything to you."

Other Leni paid her no mind. She bent down and placed her fingers in a pool of dark red substance filling a tiny depression in the floor, wiggling them ever so slightly, before bringing her middle and index fingers to her mouth and licking up the red substance.

"What…what is that stuff other me?" Leni asked.

No response.

"You know, you shouldn't drink or lick things off the ground. Lisa says it's yucky."

Other Leni seemed too excited in caressing her fingers in her mouth, letting her tongue slowly but surely take every drop of the dark red substance on the ground. The void in other Leni's eyes temporarily disappeared, changing into savage, erotic fixation, sensually rubbing the substances all over her tongue and inner part of her lips, before letting out a grizzly-like growl. With almost all the dark red fluid gone, she got up and poured even more gas into the depression, then more all around.

"That was kinda gross other me. What was that, like, about?"

Below the crushed rubble, other Leni lifted off a chunk of the roof covering the hood of the smashed car and overturned soda machine; Leni was horrified.

It was a man. Somehow or other, in her mind, she thought she met this man before, but was unable to peg where or when, but it felt recent though. And his face; Leni felt an enormous amount of dread seeing his face, like deep, blocked off memories of this man were hidden in her mind, the kind that should stay away from her aware mind forever and ever.

"Is...he...he is...he's dead," Leni weakly muttered, looking over the pain and horror permanently planted on the face of this grungy mean looking person. His head was twisted at a severe angle, dangling from his neck loosely, flopping back and forth slightly with the motions of other Leni moving around the scene.

"How...did you die mister," Leni softly asked openly to herself. Suddenly other Leni drenched the dead man in gallons of gas, then lifted the roofing materials back on the man, proceeding to drench the entire spot in gas. With one last look, other Leni surgically walked out of the market place, to which real Leni followed via phasing out.

She saw other Leni look back at the market place with that voided expression, lacking any semblance of sympathy, compassion, delicacy…of life and energy; it screamed a stoic, intense and juggernaut-like motion in her permeable movements.

The dead eyes….then they morphed into hateful eyes…eyes that seemed to produce an aura of intensity, pure loathing and abomination. Her eyes…these were Leni's eyes.

"My…your…our eyes…they don't…they should never look like that. What's wrong other you Leni? I mean…you, me Leni?"

Leni then saw her other self rustle back into the backseat where Lincoln and Luna were sleeping…she pulled out Lincoln's lighter; it still lit, not a very big flicker, but enough to get a flame going.

Other Leni tore off a chunk of her virtually destroyed and tattered-down brown sweater shirt, and dabbed a bit of oil and gas on it, before flickering on Lincoln's flame on his lighter. She lit the piece of clothing, then threw the flaming garment into the gas and oil field far in front of her and real Leni, well away from the Packard, but enough to where one could feel the heat.

The pool slowly flamed up, before the flames lit both sides within seconds, following the paths other Leni made with the gas container. One big flame ignited nearly the whole of the mangled gas station, and within seconds, caused the entire tanker and building to explode.

"OH MY GOD! OTHER ME! WHAT DID YOU-"

Leni stopped dead by seeing on other Leni's face…a tiny, wicked little grin, nefarious and odious in spirit, emanating a vibe for her self's actions, like it was a job well done.

Her bones chilled beyond comparison, she stayed frozen solid as she watched what happened next.

The flames slowly encircled the market store, burning and popping out in cinder and flame, causing the low-grade neon opening sign to shatter outwards. It wasn't long until the whole building was now a raging inferno. Everything inside would have to be on fire, and not much longer into the night, there's be no interior store…no man, no nothing of him left. He'd go to ashes, and as Leni could figure in a rare instance of insight, he would not be traceable, assuming the fire was intense enough, and based on how the flames violently danced from the interiors, she thought there would be nothing left of him.

Leni looked at it with mesmerized horror, and even got more horrified when she looked again at other Leni, who stared eerily at it, as though permanently digesting and memorizing the entire sequence.

"Who...who are you?" Leni asked weakly. The other Leni didn't respond.

"This is...not me. It can't be. I'd never do something so bad. You...me...this can't be something I did, you did, I would do...ow, my head. I don't even remember any of this, any of...wait a sec."

Leni closed her eyes and stood perfectly still, thinking and thinking as hard as she could. With more thoughts in her mind trying to grasp these strange sights of her unsettling, brooding and scary self, adding the fact that this was from around the time she couldn't really remember too much from driving Lincoln and Luna home, her mind did something it typically does not do well; it connected the dots.

"When...I turned off...when I went to the market...is this what I did? I really did this?"

Leni shuddered at these thoughts. Her brain felt like it was jumbling like the ingredients in her shake blender. She was remembering how Lori described her from last night, and yet trying to reconcile what she was seeing her other self doing.

"Can I really trust what I'm seeing? Whatever this bad stuff is? I...I need a way to check and see if this is true or not. I couldn't have done this."

She looked over at other Leni for a moment. Her eyes glossed and danced with the flames that raged before them, turning gigantic in its isolated locality.

Other Leni lifted her hand; she still had some of that blood on her fingers, only tiny residue. She proceeded to sensually lick it off with plain, emotionless eyes...those eyes Leni thought. She never could imagine seeing her eyes loose so much life, so much energy...so much kindness. This was nothing more than a husk of the person she thought she was.

"That's what you get for threatening my family...my Lincy...you motherfucker."

"AAAAAUUUUUUUHHHHHH!" Leni gasped loudly, dumbstruck and shocked this Leni cursed so horribly. It was the way she spoke; it was just like Leni's voice, but in a tenor and emotional plane that generated extreme fright, petrifying Leni to her core.

"I...I'm scared...of myself...and what did she..." Leni thought, before she instantly understood what was going on.

"That, that man...he makes me scared...for a reason...and I...I think I did that to him...I don't know how, but I did...I..ki...ki...killed him...and I did this fire-thingy...oh my god."

Leni felt her insides rip apart, feeling the other Leni look directly at her; the whole time she ignored her and now other Leni was squarely looking right into the real Leni's eyes.

"No...no, I'm not you," Leni pleaded lowly.

"You are...I'm here because you can't do certain things. I can do those things...keep them safe."

"Safe?"

"Luna...Lincy."

"Lincy?"

"Yes...everyone, our whole family. One day you might be strong enough to do what you need to do to keep them safe, but for now, I'm here. I come out when you're scared, when someone or something threatens our family"

"I...I don't have a choice, do I?" Leni asked as other Leni's eyes got closer. They were changing, from voidless...to just like her own lively eyes.

"Well, that depends."

"On what...m..m...me?"

"Both of us...time will, like, tell."

"Oh my god...like, you really are me...other Leni."

"We're one of the same...if you don't believe me, go visit the market. You'll know then, and you'll understand how much we need each other."

"I...I don't get it...me."

"I don't like being this way...Lincoln makes me...you...both of us feel good and safe. He's the one thing that we know will not do anything to us, no matter what. I include our sisters of course. We care and love them and would do anything...I would at least."

"You would me?"

"Yes...even I have to set the whole world on fire and burn it to the ground to keep them safe...especially Lincy...I will."

Leni shuddered at how dark and scary this Leni seemed to get, before she felt herself and the other Leni fazing into one another.

"Whoa...WHOA! OTHER ME, WHAT'S HAPPENING?"

"Calm down...we're becoming who we are again."

"I...I don't understand other me. What am I?"

Other Leni wrapped real Leni into a deep, tight hug as the other Leni tried struggling; it was weird and strange to not be able to break out of a hug, the kind Leni herself was well known.

"OTHER LENI! WHAT AM I!?"

"...a sweet, warmhearted, good-natured girl...and a horrifying, savage monster...figuring out who she is with a latent sexual urge more powerful than even both of us…all in one, ready to do what it takes no matter what to keep your loved ones safe...especially a white-haired one that we love so...so very much."

"Li...Lincy."

"And...we both know that it's not regular love Leni."

"Wha...what do you mean other me?"

"We know the truth. We know it's not appropriate; it's forbidden, but the day you're strong enough to tell him, we'll truly become one again, and in a way, this side of you won't be needed anymore. That will be the strongest thing you ever do, and you'll be able to overcome anything."

"I can't! I can't do that to Lincoln! I can't ever tell him! He might hate me! Think I'm gross, the whole family would, like hate me forever and ever. It's not good what…I feel for him. I'm…I'm sick, and not because of that, like, bad thing I did…I mean…me…with Lincy…"

"...then I guess I'll be within you...forever and ever."

And like that, both Leni's synthesized into one Leni. She was just like before, unsure what changed or was different. Suddenly from the corner of her eyes the landscape changed in a flash, into a deep blue landscape of water colors.

Leni began crying. She cried over the confusion, the realization, the possibility...that underneath the sweet, bubbly and goofish exterior...was a brooding entity of apocalyptic capacity ready to pop out should she involuntarily see fit. This other being was her, only a different her. It made her cry, so very hard, feeling so conflicted about who she was, what she was, how she could even imagine that this was part of her. If she could do that stuff back at the market, and with Leni's physicality, she was terrified of what other Leni could be capable of doing.

Suddenly huge rain drops started falling from the sky, hitting the blue waterscape colors and making, oddly enough, very tiny splashes.

"Am I a nice person? Or a monster? Who...WHO AM I?" Leni cried out in anguish.

"You're Leni Loud, my sister and one of the nicest people I know."

"W..what?"

"Did you see it?" An all too familiar voice asked in an echo from above.

Leni looked up, seeing Lincoln standing on a huge raindrop and landing right next to her. Leni backed up, scooting further and further away from him while sniveling out hoarse cries. Lincoln kept approaching her with a warmth in his smile and wanting arms held out.

"Lincy...stay...stay away from me! I'm not safe. Please…PLEASE! STAY BACK!"

"What do you mean Leni?"

"I'm…a monster…a bad monster person…on the inside."

"That's silly Leni," Lincoln said, dropping down and wrapping her up in a deep, soothing hug.

"I always feel safe with you Leni."

"Lincy?"

"And no matter what Leni...I will still always believe in you."

"...Lincy," Leni weakly uttered, smiling in mid-cry and holding onto Lincoln, feeling boundless warmth and happiness from knowing that no matter what she was underneath or on the surface, Lincoln would always believe in her…always love her.

---

Suddenly Leni eyes snapped open.

She found herself under her warm blankets, cuddled from either side Lola and Lana, both gently clutching onto her, while her mom and dad had their hands on her shoulders. They were all sleeping, looking totally exhausted and stressed, concern marred in their expressions, and yet happy in their own way to have their daughters sleeping in their bed.

"Wow...the twins are just so adorably cute when they're like this," Leni said very quietly.

Then it hit her like the realization of forgetting to study for an exam; she had a bad dream, but not a dream per say, but a dream reliving the worst moment in her life. She closed her eyes momentarily, seeing Lincoln and Luna both fly out of the tunnel into the tornado.

She whimpered, her gut doing a one-eighty on itself, before she remembered that they survived.

"Lincy, Luna...they're alive...but not because of me...I couldn't save them...but other me will. Other Leni...I might need you in the future," she said openly, looking at the wall in concern.

"I need you to keep my family safe...and Lincy. I...I can't ever, like, tell him, so I'll need you as a back-up in case I can't do what I need to do...weird, I'm talking to myself."

Leni closed her eyes and breathed peacefully, absorbing the peaceful, serene environment of her parents room and the warmth the family she had around her gave. She leaned her head up, noticing her hair was frizzy.

"I'll need about sixty or seventy brushes to get this down."

She looked around the room some more. In the corner she saw a sleeping Bobby holding Lily, both curled in together, eeping one another warm.

"Lori sure lucked out with Bobby. He's gonna be a great daddy one day, and he's so good with Lily...hi luv-bug," Leni said sweetly and softly to a still sleeping Lily.

Then it really hit her; though she suffered tremendously through the ordeal of witnessing and thinking her younger siblings were killed before her eyes, but she put her family through an unbelievably scary situation last night; her breakdown.

"I can't believe I freaked out like I did. I...where were you other Leni? How come you didn't calm me down?"

She lifted herself and gradually motioned out of the bed, slinking with ninja-like stealth non-typical for her klutzy large frame, out of the grasps of Lola and Lana, putting them together so they were cuddling with each other now. She put her parent's hands together on the twin's laps, and gave them all kisses on their cheeks.

"None of you should have to see me like that, ever again...never; I love you too much for that. I don't wanna make you worry about me. I'll make other Leni help me."

She walked over to the door, looking Bobby and Lily over. She leaned down and gave Lily a kiss on her cheek, and patted Bobby on his head.

"All of you. I'm gonna make this okay, and you'll never have to worry about me again...but I'm going to have to worry about you all...especially Luna...and Lincy."

She left the bedroom with a tip-toeing pace, trying to be quiet.

"I'm going to give them all a wonderful breakfast, the best, most totes one ever! I sure hope we have a lot of flour still."

Looking over the living room, she saw her other siblings sleeping. Luan and Luna were curled on one side of the long couch together, with a big blank space on the other side; it was probably the twins or Lincoln sleeping there. On the single sofa chair Lynn snored away, and Lucy was still curled in her black blanket, with only her nose poking out.

"They all came down here...all of them...well, almost all of them," Leni thought, before rubbing her neck, remembering how she was calmed down.

"Poor Lisa...I don't want her to have to do something like that to me. All of them. I'm going to make them all happy today," Leni said with renewed determination and hope, seeing how her family banded all around her. It was time in Leni's mind to return the favor for her family, especially for Luna, and above all, Lincoln.

She meandered around the living room, heading into the dining room, and saw her most favorite of sights through the dining room window.

"Hi Sun…I'm glad you're back."

"Leni?" two familiar voices called out lowly. Leni turned the corner and aw Lincoln and Lori; they looked distraught, Lori in particular, who looked like she was crying into Lincoln's shoulders, Lincoln trying to comfort her.

"Good morning…what's wrong?"

Lori and Lincoln pulled away from each other. Leni could tell something went down. She wasn't sure of what, but it seemed extremely emotional, the vibe in the kitchen.

"You…two aren't like this…cause of me, are you?"

"What? Don't…don't be silly Leni," Lori tried fibbing, "we…I was just cutting some onions and Lincoln was helping me with a-"

"There aren't any," Leni suddenly said.

"What?"

"On the counters, there's no knife or onion skin thingy stuff. And there are no onions around; we're out. I might be a dunderhead a lot of the times Lori…but even I can tell when you're crying," Leni articulated.

"Um…Leni?" Lincoln asked skittishly.

"Hi Lincy, good morning," Leni sweetly said to him. Lincoln walked over to Leni. She saw in his eyes…regret…sorrow…self hatred. It greatly disturbed her.

"Lincoln…why are your eyes like that? You're usually so tipper."

"…chipper," Lori weakly said in correction.

"That's what I said, right? Oh, never mind. Lincy…what's wrong? Is it because of last night? Because I promise that won't happen again. Big sisters like me shouldn't act so…so little and scared," Leni said reassuringly with a warm smile. Lincoln just kept silent, staring into Leni's face with those eyes. She could tell they were getting glossy.

"Lincoln. Lincy?"

"Lincoln?" Lori asked, concerned now from seeing Lincoln freeze up like this.

"And I'm sorry for nearly crushing you and Luna last night. Your sides must hurt. I'll take us to the spa by the mall so we can get your body bet-"

"It's my fault."

"Lincoln?"

"It's my fault…what happened to you last night…none of this would have happened if I didn't leave to the city…so aimlessly…"

Lincoln lowered his head. He tried being strong, being as grounded as he thought he could be, but with Leni actually here standing in front of him, all his nerve, his determination to help, gave way to regret for his major role in Leni's breakdown, and most probably her trauma.

"I'm sorry Leni…I never meant for any of this…for you to see me and Luna…you know."

"I know Lincy. It was that stupid dumb twister thing that, like, did this to us, not you."

"…but I put you and Luna in danger…I…failed you…"

"Don't say that Lincoln," Lori said sternly.

"I'm never gonna let anything like this happen again. I promise. And Leni, I'm going to help you in any way I can," Lincoln said weakly. Both Lori and Leni could see little droplets hitting the checkerboard kitchen floor. Lori and Leni both came over and held Lincoln together.

"So sensitive twerp," Lori said ironically, Lincoln giving a slight chuckle.

"Lincy, please don't cry. It makes me sad. You know Lincy, one of the best people I know said something to me recently that helped me…maybe it will help you."

"What's that Leni?"

"No matter what, I'll still always believe in you," Leni said with a concerned, gentle smile.

Lincoln chuckled a little louder. It was a wet chuckle with a slight croaky reverberation; he was holding back crying while laughing. Lori looked at her younger sister, minor tears pouring out again at her; Leni just looked at Lori with a smile.

"I'll be here for you Leni. Lincoln will…we all will."

"I know you guys will. Like, you all are literally the best family anyone could ask for."

"Hey! That's my word…and I'll get you all the help you need to overcome your trauma. Me, mom and dad, I, I got friends at my office that know a few doctors that might help with-"

"Lori, don't worry about it. You've got dark circly thingy's in your eyes already. I know what I have to do anyways."

"Leni?" Lincoln and Lori asked.

"It's…something I have to do personally. But…if you really want me to see a head doctor so they know I'll get better, then I will…for you…for my family."

Lori and Lincoln couldn't believe how much of a one-eighty this switch in Leni's mood was. She seemed utterly at peace and understanding of the situation, while also seeming to have recovered internally in her mind. They both knew not to hold their breath. Night would come, sleep would come, and in the back of their minds they were not too keen on seeing what would happen to Leni should she have another re-living nightmare of the tornado and seeing him and Luna get pulled right out. Even Leni had trepidations about this possibility. But as marred as she may have been, Leni felt determined to be the older sister the family needed, to be as strong as Lori was…and as she could feel in her heart most of all, take this regret Lincoln was feeling and, as other Leni would do…destroy it. Just as he so endlessly thought about her and brought her spirits up, she'd be the older one and do the same.

"So, you two sit down. I got like, the most totes breakfast planned for everyone!"

"Do you want some help?" Lincoln asked.

"If you'd like to Lincy. I wanted to treat you all and do the work, but…I could use a cute little helper," she said with a giggle, making Lincoln blush a tinge. Leni suddenly popped out a little chef's hat from the upper cabinet, the one Lincoln still had to climb up still, and placed it on his head.

"Perfect. Still looks good on you little brother," Lori said with a joking smirk. Lincoln gave a momentary pouty face, but decided to keep it on for Leni.

"Good lord, this is why I don't usually cook with Leni," Lincoln thought, remembering how he'd always have to dress up if they cooked together. It was funny how the both of them and Lynn of all siblings were the only ones that did any real cooking besides their mother and father. In fact, it seemed that him, Leni, Lynn and Luan with her cream, coconut and banana cream pies, were the only ones that could cook.

"Awe, just like when you were little," Leni cooed. "Come on, let's get a huge batch of cream-puff waffles and mixed-berry muffin cakes going. And you think the others would like sausage-bacon….uhhh…steak and pork gravy with biscuits Lincy?" Leni asked him while going through their fridge.

"That….sounds absolutely dynamite."

"Dynamite! Where?" Leni said urgently, turning around fearfully.

"…Leni, dynamite can mean cool…impressive," Lincoln explained to her.

"Oohhh…I thought you meant like, boom-boom or something. Well in that case, let's get this totally dynamite breakfast going. Lori, you wanna help or relax?"

"Actually Leni, my jerk of a boss texted for me to come into the office today…I don't have much of a choice," Lori said with a defeated tone. Leni looked plain momentarily, then bucked up and gave a cheerful smile.

"I get it. Bosses know bestest, and you're doing really important work. I'll save you some food if you come by sis."

"Me and Bobby are gonna stay a few extra nights actually…I will at least. Bobby might check up on Ronnie Anne and his family-"

"RONNIE ANNE! I FORGOT!" Lincoln yelled out in horror, almost tripping backwards.

"Whoa bro, what gives?" Lori inquired.

"Ronnie…she told you guys what was up…did you ever call her back when we came home?"

"I texted her that you guys were okay. Told her to try texting you again. She was wondering why she could get you to respond."

"Oh, that's easy. Me, Lincoln and Luna lost our cellphones," Leni said chipperly like it was just a passing fact.

"Well…I did anyways. Poor Luna and Lincoln were soaked like a wet frog."

"…dog…no cellphone then twerp?"

"Nor Luna. It's no big deal. I don't really need one anyway-"

"Uh uh uh! Don't ever say that again. I will literally die if anyone even thinks they don't need a cellphone in this day-in-age. Lincoln, I'll get you, Luna and Leni some temporary cellphones till the family plan can cover the new ones you should get in a little bit. I'll talk to mom and dad."

"That's why you're awesome Lori! Thank you!"

"Wow…thank's Lori!" Lincoln said happily, "…though I think Ronnie Anne is still gonna wring my neck."

"Well, she better get in line," Lori said before pulling Lincoln in a rough hug, giving him a noogie on his head, next locking his neck in a good-natured choke-hug, Lincoln squirming with a gurgled laughter to squeeze out.

"One step at a time," Leni thought happily.

Lori had to give her goodbyes to Leni and Lincoln, promising she'd be back to spend the night again. Leni said she'd understand if she couldn't, but said she would wait ecstatically.

Lori slipped her shoes back on and went into Rita and Lynn's room, peacefully nudging a sleeping Bobby awake. Lori took Lily out of his grasp and poked Rita awake, handing over Lily to her before planting a kiss on their cheeks, and then on the twins and her father.

She lead a groggy Bobby out to wait in the dining room. He slipped in the kitchen to see Lori give one last teary goodbye to Leni, then a hug to Lincoln. Bobby walked in and hung out by the entrance.

"He, hey Leni, hi bro."

"Hi Bobby," Leni replied.

"Hey Bobby, what's up?" Lincoln asked happily as he walked over and gave a fist bump to Bobby.

"Oh, Bobby?" Leni asked.

"Hey?"

"Thank you….and sorry about-"

"No worries Leni. We all got your back."

"In that case, thank you very very much for holding Lily like that."

"She was a sweet little angel the whole night. I still can't believe she actually fell asleep in my arms."

"You know what that means, right boo-boo bear?"

"What babe?"

"…that you're officially Daddy-material…and have I got plans for you tonight," Lori said in his ear, but it was loud enough for everyone else to hear.

"We're gonna have lots of fun; wanna make a little junior junior Robert Alejandro Martinez-Millan Luis Santiago with me?"

"AH! My ears!" Lincoln groaned out in agony. Bobby's cheeks lit up like a Christmas light.

"Heeehee….I don't get it," Leni said openly.

"Believe me Leni, you don't wanna know," Lincoln moaned out. Lori gave him a punch in the shoulder.

"Whatever twerp. Just remember, you better be an uncle that spoils the hell out of my kids one day?"

"Kids…" Bobby said quietly, blushing even more.

"Come on boo-boo bear. We gotta go. Leni, I love you sis."

"I love you too Lori. And don't worry, I got the rest of the family to keep watch of me," Leni said as she wiggled back and forth, mixing the batter and bits of meat together, "especially Lincoln."

"Yeah, literally encouraging to my soul," Lori said sarcastically.

"Hey!" Lincoln complained.

"Relax twerp. Now come here," Lori said, wrapping Lincoln in a big hug.

"Stay safe bro. Keep watch of things…oh, and keep an eye out on the twins. I told them that you'd be keeping an extra eye on them for me…they know what's up."

"Hey…put the fear of god in them, huh Lori?"

"Like always…and…keep watch of Luna…and Leni for me, okay?" Lori said in a very tiny whisper.

"Gotcha."

Leni suddenly walked over urgently to whisper something in Lori's ear.

"You…you can still get me an appointment with that guy in college, right Lori?"

"Guy in college…oh…gynecologi….yeah, don't worry Leni. I'll let her know about you. Okay?"

"Okeydokey. By Lori."

"Bye Leni."

Leni got back to work, humming a little song. Lincoln broke off from the kitchen momentarily to walk Lori and Bobby to the front door. They all saw the others sleeping still, till Luna seemed to begin yawning awake.

'Awweeehh….whoa…what's goin on here mate?" Luna asked in a groggy sleepy Brit accent. Lincoln for some reason got a hell of a kick out of that.

Lori walked over and caressed Luna's cheek.

"Gotta go Luna. Asshole bosses and all. Lincoln's up, and there's someone special in the kitchen making you all breakfast."

"Seriously? Who?"

"Go check. Love ya rock girl."

"Love you too Lori. Hi Bobby, thank's for crashin."

"No prob Luna."

"Hey…Lori?"

"Yeah Luna?"

"Come…come back tonight again, will ya? It's…nice to have you hanging with us again. I bloody miss it."

"I will."

"And I think Leni needs her closest sister right now."

"Don't worry. I'm gonna try and come back tonight. Tell the family I love them and to call me whenever. The jerk's out of town so he's not gonna be down my throat if I got a phone out."

"Roger. Bye bye."

As Lincoln walked them out, Luna called out Lincoln.

"Hey little Chef Boyardee."

"Good morning Luna," Lincoln said, breaking from Lori and Bobby momentarily and giving Luna a big, long hug, then giving her a kiss on her cheek. Luna lit up, then she gave him a kiss on his cheek, and he lit up too. Lori and Bobby saw this. It was sweet…really sweet Lori thought. She knew they were really close, and the ordeal as of recent may have made them closer…but something about that little exchange felt…off.

Lincoln broke for Luna and walked Bobby and Lori to their car out front. Bobby gave Lincoln another fist bump, before a quick brotherly hug. He backtracked to the passenger side and opened it up for Lori.

"Hey bro?"

"Yeah Lori?"

"Keep things safe…and don't go prodding around storms, or next time I'll turn you into a pretzel," she said with a wink.

"Duly noted…and I promise Lori…I will help Leni. We will get her back."

"I know you will. I know we will…that's what families do."

Seconds later, Bobby and Lori took off down the street.

"Hey babe?"

"Yeah Bobby?"

"Has Lincoln always been that affectionate?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's…nothing. I just thought Luna and Lincoln gave each other a really long kiss."

"Yeah…they did."

"I'm probably reading more into this than I ought to. I mean, all brothers care about sisters, and little bro is probably trying to patch things up between him and Luna. Like you said, they went through hell with each other."

"Right boo-boo bear…right," Lori trailed off. Bobby was right, but that didn't stop the nagging little observation. Both blushed when they gave each other kisses; they usually never did that. Lori buried this thinking down in the back of her mind. It was just her probably overanalyzing things.

Lincoln looked around the sights; the minor storm damaged still littered the streets. Helicopters and emergency vehicle sirens still echoed ghoulishly from the horizon, from southeast, the areas near downtown and the neighboring cities that got hit head on.

"Man…how lucky am I to have gone through this…me…Luna…Leni…and how we all really dodged a bullet."

As the morning gradually past, the other sisters besides Luna got up, and one by one, all were surprised and beyond joyful to see Leni cooking what looked like the biggest, most extravagant breakfast they ever saw. As much as Leni insisted on doing all the hard work, one by one Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lucy and the twins started to assist. The twins ran back for Rita and Lynn Sr. Both were ecstatic and taken back by the huge cooking operation Leni of all people was manning. Their little girl, biggest in dimension, smallest in mental ability, was radiating like a sun emanated from her soul. And they cried so happily to see her awake, followed by little Lily jumping up into Leni's arms and holding on to her tight for a long time, causing Lincoln to take over directing the breakfast operation. It was the best family breakfast they had in a long time, and it only took a little longer for the reclusive genius to come down and partake with the family bonding time.

It did make for some weird, occasional moments though, especially when Luna, still in her long single shirt night gear, would brush up real closely against Lincoln. Only for a moment, but it was enough to sound the sirens in Lincoln's head, to put Luan on high alert, and just to tease him in general. Lincoln gave a look, and Luna nodded. She forgot this might be even harder than she thought, but it was gonna be fun playing coy, especially messing with him. Luan got a serious kick out of it as well, as long as she could regulate and watch what was going down.

Leni was happy and jolly right now. That was number one. Other things would follow later.