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!

19. Chapter 19

Ch 19: Funerals, God and Revelations, Period! Part 1/2

Monday, November 4th, 2019

11:45 AM

There was a very cool, grey mood about the house today.

Lynn and Lucy stood behind Lily, Lola and Lana by the couch as they waited for everyone else to get ready. A whole day's worth of coloring activities and the house tablet carrying Lily's favorite cartoons were prepped on the dining table. The TV was set with Netflix playing Lola and Lana's favorite show, and a few books were piled up on the couch, the Gothic kind for Lucy, mostly of a Dollanganger variety, with the false covers of Edger Allen Poe aligning them to keep that secret little obsession concealed from the family. Lynn had a messed up photo-copy version of her team's football plays in a raggedy binder, the copy she hastily made before handing the real one off to Jeff a little while ago for him and Francisco to study, even though she knew full well they'd rather study each other. Lynn planned on focusing a huge chunk of her time to steer the big championship game from a strategic point of view, besides her typical grid-iron butt-kicking style she usually employed. Her mind became more methodical and strategic, now more focused on a chance goal even more important to her than the big game. Winning would be nice, but if the universe was giving a sign, a callout to try and follow that formula, she was damn well determined in going to try and answer that call.

Yesterday Sunday though was hell.

She actively avoided Lincoln the entire day cause she would involuntarily blush from imagining...his package. His fluids, his length, his body, she wanted it so bad full blast again, and after a taste and the experience the prior night, she had to enforce a personally mandated quarantine in keeping all her bent of hormonal rage in check. She spent the day outside, far, far away from the house, at the track field at the Loud's high school, switching back and forth from training and exercising, masturbating, resting, and repeating over and over. A solid eight hours...and she still pulverized herself, even after all her personal time in the shower, over, and over...and over.

"At least I got a lot of that...fucky stuff I wanna do out of my system," Lynn thought with relief, glad the high school was both closed to the rest of the student body, but open enough for their star quarterback on their football team per the high school principle and help from her favorite teacher, a young awkward Australian history teacher who doubled as her coach in her debate class. She had a tinge of leeway to pull, and she cashed in on that hard work.

"Hehe...must have coated those shower stalls like...five times...good thing there weren't any other girls in there...but now I wanna bang a girl version of bro...god I'm fucked...oh...oh shit...maybe an actual girl would...no...no that's fucking crazy; that might be even worse than what I want now from Lincoln...I mean, I might like a girl doin it to me, but...man am I a fucked up horndog," Lynn thought with a surprise laugh. Lola, Lana, Lucy and Lily looked at her curiously.

"Oh!...uuuuhh...just a funny little joke Luan told me that I remembered," Lynn squeaked to them all.

Luckily Lynn's rather bizarre surprise chuckle wasn't the focus. Right now, they all seemed the most anxious out of this day to see exactly what everyone else was wearing, much like the bearers of the gloomy attire the other Louds themselves were dressing up in. What was weird in all this, was that Lynn, Lucy, Lola, Lana and Lily got up earlier than anyone else, hours ago, all on their own. They all promised today was going to be a day that their parents, elder sisters and Lincoln would not have to worry about them fighting or blowing up the house; Lisa, who hadn't come out yet, presumably would go along with these plans as well according to Lily. Today was Lincoln, Luna and Leni's day, so they'd behave and keep the Loud house quiet and reserved...still playful to keep up the spirits, but less chaotic.

Lisa seemed to be the only one not in the direct loop of things, but thankfully the lack of any big explosive experiments was welcome. In fact, her presence was virtually non-existent throughout the morning. Every time one of the five would check up on her, or the other Louds for that matter, Lisa seemed extremely lax, tranquil, almost serene in her interactions, well outside her normal dry witted sarcastic self, doing something with rather keen focus on her screen-less laptop.

They all thought she was being nicer today than normal for the sake of not being the cold emotional block like she usually was with them.

Besides noting Lisa's slight adjustment for the day, they all huddled close, partly dressed for the day yet still wearing some of their pajamas. All except Lynn were barefoot, Lucy wearing a quasi gothic night gown with white shorts, Lily in a long black and purple dress, Lola and Lana in their usual morning attire, pink and olive green clothing respectively... they had the house to themselves today, with Lucy and Lynn in charge, but mostly Lynn purely on seniority.

"I'm surprised you're not making a bigger fuss about going with them Lucy," Lynn thought out loud with a contemplative tone, all staring back and forth from the stairs to their parent's bedroom.

"I do love funerals, but I think on this one I should respect Lincoln and the others...sigh...it wouldn't be appropriate to enjoy myself while they're coping."

"That's sweet of you Lucy," Lily said with a tiny voice. Lucy just gave a conservative smile, holding on Lily's shoulder. Lynn held Lana and Lola closer to her as they all grouped up together.

They'd be the odd ones out of the loop today. They all wanted to be there for Lincoln, Luna and Leni in their time of need, but they collectively respected their wishes for them to not go through such a large scale, personal, and quite possibly, emotional event.

"Hey, since we're waiting guys, wanna play a game? Good way for us to get distracted from this mope fest!" Lynn said with a small smile. The others gave curious looks.

"Uhhh...I'll start. The game is "guess who comes down first and last." I'm putting my money on Luan first, Dad last. How about you?" Lynn asked, trying to break the eerie, moody tension in the air.

At first everyone was silent.

Then Lola coughed to puncture the thick quiet.

"I...I suppose I'll say Daddy will be first, and Lincoln last," Lola said with some pensive reserve.

"Same," Lana added. Both twins smiled at one another and grabbed each other's hand.

"What about you Lily?" Lynn asked, giving Lily a little poke. Lily just stood there, thinking...and it looked like this was making her upset. All this moody, melancholy tension seemed to affect her...and her eyes suddenly started tearing.

"Oh, oh no Lily. Please don't cry! We don't gotta-"

"I...I think...Daddy...and Mommy...will first...and big brutha...Lincy la...la...las..." Lily muttered, before she turned around and started crying into Lucy's clothing hard.

""Awww...sigh...she's getting snot on me," Lucy mumbled, before deciding to ignore that and pull Lily close, "sssshhhhhh...it's okay Lily. It's going to be alright."

Lola and Lana couldn't help at starting to tear up themselves, and hugged around Lily. Lynn picked up Lily and rocked her back and forth as she sniveled.

"You're worried about Lincoln, Luna and Leni, aren't you Lily," Lynn said with an unusually sweet, quiet tone. Lily nodded in Lynn's shoulder as the others looked on. It took back Lola, Lana and Lucy to see Lynn so abnormally nurturing.

"Don't worry Lilinator, they're tough, especially bro. Hey, wanna know a cool secret?"

"...big brutha has tickly feetsies?"

Lola and Lana chuckled slightly from the memory, Lucy giving a sighing smile, and Lynn...Lynn just huffed out a laugh.

"Heheheeheh, funny Lily...good to know actually," Lynn mumbled under her breath, "but not that...no matter what Lincoln, Luna or Leni went through, if we're strong for them, and give them lots and lots of hugs, loves and be there for them, they'll be okay, and we can make them happy, okay?"

Lily gave another snivel, and looked plainly at the others.

"Is...dat true? Lynny? Lola, Lana, Lucy? Dat really true?"

Everyone looked taken back, before they all smiled and nodded, going along with Lynn's pick-me-up.

"Then I'ma gonna give Lincy lots of widdle sis huggies!" Lily mumbled loudly, wiping her nose and tears off her cheeks. Lynn rubbed other tears on Lily's face, Lucy joining in to help. Lola and Lana just group-hugged all three of them, pushing Lucy and Lynn together, with Lily between them. They smiled as Lucy laid her head on Lynn's shoulder, happy that the two sisters could get along and bond from this heavy moment.

A few more minutes of coddling, Lily got herself under control, even though her face was red with tiny spots from her crying, Lola and Lana still wiping their tears. Lynn coyly wiped a tear, assuming no one was looking.

"...saw that," Lucy whispered to Lynn. Lynn punched Lucy in her shoulder playfully as Lucy gave a tiny smile.

"Oh, yeah...sigh...the bet...I'm going Dad first, Leni last," Lucy said.

They would find out any moment, one-by-one.

Lynn Sr opened the door to their room. The younger Louds saw his face, feeling his mind; he and they could tell it wandered elsewhere from his task at hand, concern and trepidation planted firmly on his spirit. He was the first the home-based Louds in the living room saw in their funeral attire, the one to pop out to view; he wore a simple black suit with a black tie. It pained him to not wear any of his other goofy ties, but, for the occasion, he sucked it up. Rita came out next. She wore a black skirt and black blouse. Both looked extremely uneasy today, not for themselves, but for their children, Leni, Luna...particularly Lincoln.

"Yeesh, this day," Lynn Sr huffed out coily in Rita's ear.

"Yup...this day...honey?"

"Yeah Rita?"

"I hope my babies are gonna be okay," Rita said with a minor treble in her tone. Lynn Sr just embraced her in a tight hug.

"We're gonna be there for them and him the whole time sweetheart. Remember, partners for life, right?"

"Right," Rita said with a tiny smile as she rested her head on Lynn Sr's shoulder. Lynn, Lucy and the other sisters just coughed.

"So...I royally lost that part of the bet. Looks like it's gonna come down to you four," Lynn mumbled with a put-on grin, the others smiling from the fact this little game garnered a little tiny win over Lynn; Lynn just took the bet loss with stride, to make them feel a little bit better.

"Hi kiddos," Lynn Sr said with a small smile, putting his arms out and swooping the bunch together in a tender hug; Rita followed close.

"You two ready for the funeral?" Lucy asked.

"As we'll ever be honey. Now, you're all prepped for the day?"

"Yeah mom," Lynn said with a nod.

"And have plenty of snacks and your lunches ready to go? I don't wanna find out about Lily having a Haloween candy-only diet like yesterday," Rita said, looking over at Lynn Sr with a furled brow. Lynn Sr just gave a sheepish smile, Lily and the twins giggling.

"Oh come on! That wasn't my fault!"

"Sure it wasn't Lynn; the only thing I thought the kids wouldn't inherit was your goofy love for goofy ties and splurging on candy for a day straight...Lily seems to have gotten that," Rita said rolling her eyes. Lily just secretly gave a sly punch to Lynn Sr.

"She ain't the only one mom," Lynn said, "Lisa's a choco-monster, remember?"

"Oh...good lordie, how could I forget," Rita said with an expression like she was seeing a bomb dropping from the sky, "...two of my children, and the youngest ones, are addicted to candy...glad I work as a dental assistant!"

Rita ran over giggling to the cupboard and brought down an armada of tooth brushes, tooth pastes, dental floss, mouth wash, the whole works. Everyone groaned out and shrugged together mopingly on the couch.

"HEY! I care about your dental health and hygiene you ungrateful little chickadees! Count your lucky stars and garders I made you develop good tooth care habits. That way you don't end up like Mr. Grouse," Rita said with a mother-knows-best smirk.

Lily suddenly wrapped her lips around her teeth and did a Mr. Grouse impression to an absolute tee, "MY YARD, MY PROPERTY! HEY LOUD? I WANT MORE LASGANA! AND NO WALNUTS!"

Everyone started laughing their butts off, Rita cracking up and nearly dropping all her dental care items on the ground.

"How did we ever end up with a little Mel Blanc like you," Lynn Sr said proudly as he noogied Lily's bright, wavy blonde hair. Lily and everyone else just had a dumbfounded expression.

"Daddy...who, who is Milky Blancie?"

"...I keep forgetting, you have no idea. So, you know all those voices you do impressions of from those Looney Tunes cartoons sweetie?"

"Yeah Daddy!" Lily said excitedly, getting ready to run wildly like a speed demon around the house from hearing Looney Tunes, acting much like Bugs or the cartoon characters would when taking off like a bat out of hell. Lola and Lana nose-dived and caught Lily's legs before she took off.

"WHOA LILY!" Lana yelled out like she was getting a wild horse corralled.

"Seriously Lily, my perm can't take another running episode like that today!" Lola complained, looking at her finger and toe nails, making sure nothing was broken from the dive; her eyes gleamed when nothing appeared damaged.

"Lily, remember?" Lucy said in her deadpan ton. Of course Lily got excited from the mention of Looney Tunes and the voices. Lily hung her head low.

"I...I wemember..."

"Don't worry Lilynator; we can race in the backyard, cool?" Lynn said, picking up Lily and putting her on her shoulders. Lily just smiled happily with big black pupils.

"PHEW! Dodged a bullet, eh Hops? Don't need to get Frankie to spin a web to stop Lily again," Lana whispered to Hops in her hat, "and thanks for showin her a place to lay her eggs safe out in the swamp buddy," Lana cooed, cuddling Hops tight.

"Who's Frankie Lana?" Lynn Sr asked; Lana froze, putting on a stinker smile.

"Nobody daddy! Just uhhh...uhuuhuh...my belly button and toe lint! See?" Lana hurriedly said, wiggling a finger in her belly button and between her pinkie toe, combining the lint particles into a ball.

"...okay, that was...seriously...GROSS LANA!" Lola screeched, covering her mouth and gagging, "SERIOUSLY? TOE LINT? YUCK!"

Everyone just had surprised expressions.

"...what? I do worse, it's no big deal," Lana said with her eyes closed, shrugging her shoulders, placing the lint ball in her pocket.

"Well...that went off the rails; just trying to teach my youngest daughter what famous voice actor she might be like, if not better. I don't get it honey! How can she do all those voices?" Lynn Sr asked, perplexed but still loving the fact she could do them.

"It's a mystery, that's for sure. Lincoln though can imitate our mannerisms pretty well, Luna's got her British accents...we know where she got those," Rita chucked, looking square at Lynn Sr, him just laughing, "and Luan can do some really good voices herself, like that Mr. Coconuts dummy thing, or when she played an old man and pranked us all. Lily though? She's...on a whole other level," Rita opinioned.

"Ahhh, Lily just has mad skills," Lynn said, wiggling Lily on her shoulders.

"Maybe the spirit of that dead voice actor possess her vocal cords," Lucy opinioned, slowly pulling out a spirit-summoning book.

"Well, it certainly is not a supernatural mystery, nor are the erroneously believed ideas of spirits inhabiting the internal tissues of our youngest sister," Lisa suddenly said, somehow popping out of nowhere, freaking out everyone, causing them to fall back into the couch, except Lucy, who was still standing in her spot.

"...sigh...that's usually my shtick...I use to be the spooky one who would pop out of nowhere and frighten everyone...sigh..."

"You still are dear sibling; however, after I complete a few major research projects and experiments, I intend to crack the aura around Lily's incalculably stupendous vocal capacities. It's perplexed me as well how someone so young can mimic the frequencies and mannerisms of so many different entertainment personalities of media."

Everyone except Lucy just looked at Lisa with a confused expression.

"...good lord there's no hope for humanity...eh ehmm...Lily's abilities are purely biological, and with time, I'd wager I can reason the factors contributing to her wide array of vocal impression capacities."

"So...ya gonna figure out how she can do all them spot-on voices on call?" Lynn asked, simplifying the word salad Lisa unloaded.

"Precisely."

"So...wanna just say it like I said it next time so we ain't scratchin our heads wondering what the heck you said?"

"And shrink the probability of you grappling with complex sentences, I think not," Lisa chuckled, before looking up at Lily on Lynn's shoulders.

"Lily? Your voice box is an anatomical mystery I intend to solve, just like cat purring...OH! I wonder if the two are related!" Lisa said ecstatically, running upstairs full speed with a small bottle of water.

"...she got that out of the kitchen with no one seeing her...sigh...sigh...that's my gimmick," Lucy huffed out, Lola patting her on her back.

"Don't worry spooky; you can sneak your way into a tea party with me today if you like."

"...will there be blood-colored tea?"

"Raspberry tea? Sure Lucy."

"Then I'm in," Lucy said with a tiny smile.

"So, it looks like you all got your days planned. Ours is about to start," Rita said smiling at the kids, enjoying this distraction...before they all heard footsteps coming down the steps.

It was Luan, dressed in a dark grey blouse and skirt with a white shirt under it, with the tiniest splotches of yellow on it.

"Hey everyone!" Luan said cheerfully, seeing and feeling the mood down here being more eupeptic, "so, what's the definition of a will?"

"Huh?" Lola and Lana asked, Rita pondering, Lynn Sr wiping a tiny grin in the corner of his mouth, probably from him figuring it out quickly, but letting Luan get to tell the pun. Lily and Lynn started smiling, even though they didn't know.

"I don't know Luan. What's a will?" Lynn asked, "besides like, a paper ya give to your family to give all your things after ya die?"

"...it's a dead giveaway! Ahahahahhhahhah, get it?" Luan asked.

Everyone got silent.

"Oh...phooey, too soon?" Luan asked with a minor frown. "Dang it...wanted to try and keep the mood up."

"Don't worry Luan. We know ya didn't mean anything by it," Lynn Sr said, putting a firm, nurturing shoulder grip on her. She smiled back.

"How about another one? Make-up pun for the one that dropped dead with ya? DANG IT!"

Everyone chuckled a bit at that slip up.

"Gotta stop thinking in puns!" Luan mumbled while fidgeting with her attire; everyone could notice it looked way, way too tight around her breast area.

"...dang," Lynn thought, noticing Luan's bust more in detail now, Lily, Lola and Lana just a bit terrified by Luan's enormity, making sure to stay well clear in the couch. Lucy...maintained her position. Rita walked over to Luan.

"Let's take care of that in the bedroom honey, okay?"

"Okay mom. I thought this would be the most spacious thing I got for the...rather gloomy formality today," Luan said as Rita walked her to hers and Lynn Sr's bedroom.

"Sweetie, we seriously need to take you shopping again. I know you may not wanna hear it, but...your boobs have gotten even bigger," Rita whispered in her ear.

"...yeah, I think they have," Luan mumbled in concurrence, secretly feeling she knew the causes, her rather consistent and intense production of breast milk, and...her lewd escapades that had some rather intense reactions on her chest.

"Daddy? Is Luan gonna be okay? Those must hurt her back a lot," Lana asked.

"Naaah, Luan's a trooper, a regular clown entertainer for the ages! Mom will get her situated with a better blouse."

"...I dunno Daddy," Lola thought out loud, "Luan...is like the only girl around with...those that naturally big. Baggy closes don't look exactly kempt and proper for a lady like her, and her clothes sorta...stretch there now...not that you can tell."

"Maybe surgery and reduction might be her best bet?" Lucy opinioned, something Lisa has suggested before, only now Lucy concurring since it looked like Luan's abnormally huge breasts ruled her life now.

"Kiddos? That's a decision for your sister. Any concerns or recommendations on Luan, you come to me or your mother...uhhh...mostly your mother on that one," Lynn Sr hiccupped, not wanting to actually take on that ordeal.

"Man...Luan is so...so frickin lucky to have those knockers on her," Lynn thought. Lily climbed down off Lynn and ran over to the table to start coloring in her book. Lynn just sat on the couch, fooling with the Netflix program playing Lola and Lana's kid show, looking at other titles, but secretly...feeling so woefully underdeveloped, especially in the chest department.

"How the hell is Luan only a year older than me, and yet gets those gigantic tits and that round butt? It's not fair man...shit! I'd be happy if I could have a half of one of her boobs...fuckin nature...fuckin genetics...god, whatever won't let me be like that, fuck you royally."

Luan and Rita came out of the room, Luan now sporting a slightly larger blouse with some stitched modifications a la Rita's handy sewing skills; she needed them to stitch all the clothing for eleven riley children. It was an improvement, but Luan's bust still ruled the curvature in the blouse, still rather protruding outwards.

Luan hugged Rita and joined the rest with a smile on her face. Lynn turned her head and could see it; another set of puns behind that toothy smile Luan was known for. Even without her braces, her overbite, much like Lincoln's, was still noticeable.

"Everything's bigger on her...lucky...at least my teeth are normal," Lynn huffed.

"OH! Guys, how about this one," Luan giggled, "we wouldn't take funnel cake to a funeral; we take fun-eraal cake, hahahaha, get it?"

"Luan? Dude, ya promised," a familiar voice called out from the stairs. It was Luna, walking down briskly with a rather determined look about her.

Luna was dressed in an eggplant-purple colored suit, more akin to Lynn Sr's attire, except hers conspired, like Luan's, to conform around her overly big ass. Luan looked down for a moment, motioning a silent "sorry" to Luna. Luna just put her hand on Luan's shoulder, then whispered in her ear.

"I know, it's all good comedy girl. Linc's gonna need ya today, kay? Just don't go overboard, promise? You can kinda...well, let's face it, you do go overboard. Promise?"

"Promise Luna."

"Rad dude, also...our funeral duds ain't exactly forgiving, are they," Luna chuckled, before trying to wiggle some room around her butt in her pants. Luan herself still had to fidget with her blouse still.

"Dear lord, I will convert to the most asinine religion on Earth if it means I don't end up like those two," Lisa mumbled shrewdly from up her stairs, passing by and seeing the sights below. She saw Leni's door knob fidgeting slightly.

"And that's my cue to book-"

"Hey Lisa."

"Oh...uhm, salutations Lincoln," Lisa said with a bit of nervousness, turning around her to see Lincoln coming out of the bathroom, dressed in a charcoal grey suit, his hair partly slicked back but cowlick still ever present on him. His long sleeve white collar shirt wasn't tucked in yet on him.

"Um, Lincoln? Not that I've been to any, but it is customary at funerals to have all your personal attire conform to all standard dress code practices."

"Oh, my shirt? Just gonna head back to my room for a moment. Need my shoes."

"Ah, I see...well...I wish you luck and personal fulfillment with your endeavor today."

"Thank you Lisa."

"And Lincoln?" Lisa said with an uncharacteristically nuturing tone, Lincoln caught off guard by the treble of her voice.

"Yeah Lisa?"

Lisa gave Lincoln a tepid, but surprisingly nice little hug. Lincoln smiled weakly as he embraced her as well.

"Take it one step at a time brother. Okay?"

"Okay Lisa, I'll try."

"And my sincere apologies for the...well, emotional duress I unintentionally staged upon you."

"But you've already apologized for that Lisa, and I forgive ya. Besides, it's not your fault."

"Indeed, it logically is not my direct fault, but implicitly I set some rather shaking foundations and a loose but discernibly atrocious chain-of-events that transpired negatively for your emotional ordeals."

Lincoln just hugged Lisa tighter.

"Also Lincoln, are you...feeling okay?"

"I mean...I've had better days, but I'm not too bad right now."

"Not emotionally; your physiology is what I'm referring to. I heard some rather alarming sounds from you the other night," she said, now trying to fish out a minute amount of info from him covertly.

Lincoln just went plain-faced.

"Uhmm...how much did you hear?"

"Not much, just enough to think you may have stubbed your toe or something along those lines. Are you...feeling okay?"

"Physically? Yeah. A tiny bit tired, but I'm doin good."

"Any at all...anomalies? Happenings not typical of you?"

"Hmmmm...well, not really...I just had some issues the prior night-"

"Oh?"

"Don't worry about it; took care of it. Funny thing is though..."

"Funny? A trifle curious I presume Lincoln?"

"Well...this morning, I woke up to my throat sort of...vibrating like a cat, like Cliff when he purrs. I was having a good dream...a really nice dream...it's kinda weird, sorta manifested into reality. Why, you pull an experiment on me in my sleep?"

Lisa just smiled, and lied her ass off.

"Heavens no Lincoln. You know my promised. And that is...certainly an interesting development. I will need to look at that."

"Okeydokey...it's just...weird. I wasn't snoring or anything like that, nowhere near what Lynn does-"

"Lynn mantains a perpetual Boeing 747 take-off decibel rate," Lisa interrupted with a chuckle.

"AHAHHA! Oh man, she snores like a volcano going off!"

"Indeed Lincoln! HA! Perhaps I should see to it; modify her oratory to not generate those blasts, heavens knows Lucy could benefit from that."

"Maybe we could, but ya know, Lucy actually likes that."

"Oh?"

"Yeah; they're roomies, ya know? Lucy and Lynn and their own habits grew on each other. Long time ago when Lynn crashed with me...literally crashing in with me, hehehehe, she was secretly reading Lucy's poems, and Lucy was knocking her ball around. Man, two opposites but they...it's weird, ya know?"

"Unfortunately I can only meagerly concur with your rough sentiments, as I have no emotional grounds to reflect upon the oddball natures and interrelationships of my elder sisters."

"I figured as much Lisa...at least I think I understand what you mean."

"You're among the few that can even grasp my thoughts besides Lucy and Luan...alas, I wish you and the others as best a pleasant time as I can. Farewell brother."

"Bye Lisa, love ya little sis," Lincoln said, pulling in Lisa for a quick embrace.

"I...love you too as well brother," Lisa mumbled rather defiantly, Lincoln thinking it was rather sweet, given how Lisa really didn't like showing her human side too often.

"Lisa? You...you really didn't do any experiments on me, right?"

"...of course not Lincoln; scientist's promise."

"Cool. Also, I was kidding about you doing something sciency about Lynn's snoring-"

"And her horrible foot odor?"

"...well, if ya got something for that, I don't think we'd mind. More air fresheners around the house might do. Just don't do anything crazy, and ask her, okay?"

"Okay dear brother. I'm glad you're in optimal spirits...as optimal as they may be for your excursion you're about to undertake."

Lisa walked diligently back to her room, ruminating on how she was glad the procedure didn't alter Lincoln's DNA too much; he was all the sister's biological brother in every sense, but no longer housing genes that if combined with his sisters would cause series birth defects or problems down the road for their children.

"To think...I was going to modify Lincoln to be a distant relative genetically. Well, not to toot my own horn, but, I'm a genius, I kept Lincoln to still be our brother in every genetic sense...ehheehhe...C-137 would be impressed; or not care, but either way, not bad for a seven year old. Alas...that phase of this anomalous journey is complete, though I wonder where this purring mechanism Lincoln mentioned arose from...it couldn't have been LLM, I used no exterior mammalian genes for that, and his body shouldn't have acclimated those nanobots. They would have shut down and deteriorated to a natural stew of biomolecular particles once all his prior variety of sperm was flushed out...hmmm...interesting."

"Lisa pondered this question while pacing slightly back and forth, glancing at her memory equipement and blackboard of neurochemistry equations.

"It...GOOD LORD! THAT'S IT! Inducing Lincoln and Luna via that pheromone mix...I did use a rather concentrated cocktail of biochemicals...some of which could have caused a rather unusual side effect maybe. Maybe there was something in LLM 7-5-7-5. His laryngeal cavity must have been altered by the addition of those feline pheromone chemicals since they contained trace amounts of those gene sequences...still don't know why I threw those in, silly me...and if, and this is a big if...those nanobots did not deteriorate fast enough, and by some oddity they ended up in Lincoln's larynx over night...they may have altered his trachea only slightly, but enough to adopt...heheheehe...the feline equivalent of purring."

Lisa giggled out of nowhere from the thought of Lincoln behaving somewhat like a cat.

"Well...it's a side effect of my interventions...but at least it's not a serious side effect. A minor analysis and X-Ray at night of his throat will yield more details, but for now, Lincoln seems totally unharmed. and perhaps this might result in a positive mutation; purring is suspected to assist in the health of domesticated felines...ehehhehe...yeah...this might work out," Lisa said with an uncharacteristically positive tone, a warm smile encircling her as she looked at the details of her next colossal project.

"Now...for Luan...and the others..."

Meanwhile Lincoln went to his room, shimmied his uncomfortable shoes on, then headed down the hallway for the stairs.

Behind him he could hear Leni's door about to open.

He got to the first step along the stairs, and the creaking from his feet could be heard and seen by everyone.

"...OH DANG IT! NONE OF US WON!" Lola cried out, pointing at Lincoln ferociously. Lincoln just stood at the top of the steps perplexed, wondering what was going on.

"It's cool man, don't worry about it," Lynn called out, fumbling around with the sports drama movies on Netflix. Lucy took a seat next to her and was reading her cloaked literature.

"We never made any prizes for winning, so no biggy. Come on Hops! Let's look for cockroaches and ants in the basement," Lana chirped happily, Hops on her hat. She quickly ran up the steps and gave a hug to Lincoln.

"You gonna be okay big bro?"

"I'll be fine Lana, don't worry."

"But I gotta worry. You're my brother."

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW," Leni cooed suddenly from the steps above behind Lincoln, towering intimidatingly above him. She was wearing an all black blouse and skirt, the perfect general purpose attire for funerals, and it conformed perfectly with her body...too perfectly from Lincoln and Luan's peripheral vision. Even Luna saw this and had to shift her sights.

"Dude...she wears it so effortlessly," Luna thought, looking at the exact curvature and angles Leni conformed in.

Luna, as well and Luan, shook their heads, and prepped themselves for both Lincoln and Leni now both coming down the steps. Lana ran down, holding off from her little project. Her, Lola, Lily, Lucy and Lynn assembled around the group about to head out.

"Well...we ready everyone?" Lynn Sr asked plainly, looking at Lincoln principally. Leni, Luna, Luan, Rita nodded. Lincoln just kicked the carpet.

"Kiddo?"

"Yeah...I'm ready...again, thanks for doing this for me guys. I really appreciate it."

"Always little dude," Luna warmly cooed, as she and everyone gave warm smiles and wrapped themselves around Lincoln for one final group hug.

"I dunno how I lucked out with such as awesome family. You really are the best."

"And we're so lucky to have you sweetie," Rita said, pinching Lincoln's cheek, the girls and Lynn Sr laughing a little at him to relieve the tension.

"Mom!"

"Sorry dear, but your cheeks are just so pinchable, even if my baby is becoming a man!" Rita giggled.

"I agree," Luna said with a lush whisper in Lincoln's ear, Lincoln getting a tinge red. He gave a minor scowl to her, Luna just giggling.

"Alright everyone, let's get going. Luna? Leni? Are you ready?"

"Like, I think I am."

"Yeah, got my duds on...hope this is gonna be appropriate; sorta made all my suits dark purple."

"Ah, don't worry Luna; at least you have dark suits. All my suits were scared to go," Luan said.

"Uhhhhh...why were your suits scared Luan?" Leni asked unwittingly.

"Because...they were yellow, get it? AHHAhahahah!"

Everyone sighed and huffed except Lincoln and Lynn, who both snickered at Luan's tiny pun.

"Seriously though, all my blouses were yellow; this isn't a comedy club, and-"

"WAIT!" Leni screeched out.

"What Leni?" Lucy asked.

"...oh wait, never mind! Like, almost totally forgot I packed it in my purse."

"Packed what?" Luna asked, before Leni brought out a huge pack of Kleenexes.

"Oh...yeah," Lincoln said morosely. He walked out quickly and got in Vanzilla. Everyone inside looked at Leni with an annoyed expression. She just looked confused.

"...was it something I said?"

"The Kleenexes dude...I guess that sorta rattled bro."

"Why?"

"Because...it's a funeral Leni...it's a good idea to bring them, but...I don't think Lincoln wants us or himself to cry in it...probably shouldn't have said anything," Luan mumbled.

"Oh...like...dang it. I didn't mean to upset Lincy...I didn't know someone could get upset by Kleenexes..."

"Don't worry Leni. Lincoln's not mad. He's just going through a lot of things. He's...a tiny bit overly-sensitive to some things, that's all," Lynn Sr said to Leni, putting his hand on her shoulder. He took a moment to appreciate the fact that, as tall as he and Rita were at five foot eleven inches each, Luna as tall as them now, Leni towered over all of them.

"Wow...did she ever get Albert's genes," he thought with a smile.

"What? Daddy? Do I, like, have something in my hair? I totes do, don't I," Leni sighed, fooling with her hair.

"Alright, enough fooling around. We have forty minutes to get there because of conditions, so that should be plenty of time," Rita announced. "Lynn, you're in charge, and Lucy, you're helping her, right?"

"Yup."

"...sigh...yes, I will be."

"And you three...wait...there should be four," Rita said, looking at Lily, Lola and Lana, "...where's Lisa?"

"Lisa is doing science," Lily mumbled, then coughed, put her hands behind her back, then impersonated Lisa with her lisp to a tee, "please bid my parental units, departing sisters and brother Lincoln on a fruitful journey of spiritual fulfillment for me."

Everyone chuckled at how dead-on perfect Lily's impression of Lisa was.

"You're the best Lily, ya know that?" Luna said, picking her up and hugging her.

"Alright, enough fooling around. Let's go," Lynn Sr announced, ushering everyone out.

Lynn, Lucy, Lola, Lana and Lily waved the group heading for vanzilla. They got in, Lynn Sr driving, Rita in the passenger seat, Lincoln already stationed in the middle back corner on the passenger side of the vehicle. Luan got in the front, Luna deciding to sit next to her to give Lincoln a little space to re-compose. Leni was the last, looking a little scared to sit next to Lincoln after the accidental Kleenex deal, so she began wiggling back.

"Leni?"

"Oh...uh...like, yeah Lincoln?"

"...wanna sit with me?"

"Ummm...that sounds totes," Leni squeaked, wiggling back and taking a seat next to Lincoln, a space still between them.

"Leni? Sorry about that. I'm not mad or anything. I...I guess-"

"It's okay Lincy, and sorry. We are going to a...well, you know...so I thought we could-"

"That's a very smart thing to have actually. Thank you Leni," Lincoln said with a smile, grabbing Leni's hand. Leni tried with all her might to not let herself blush...she barely made it, though just barely. Lincoln scooted Leni in and gave her a hug. Luna, Luan, Lynn Sr and Rita just awed from the sight.

"See? Bro ain't mad at her; just a bit touchy," Luna whispered to Luan.

"We gotta seriously be on our toes at this thing though Luna. We don't need him breaking down or anything like that."

"No prob. Bro told me he's all good. Just needs closure from all this bull. Come on, I know him well, don't I?" Luna said with a tiny smirk, implying a bit more from the statement, Luan knowing full well what she meant.

"...surprised you haven't taken each other's virginities yet rocker girl."

"Say what now?" Lynn Sr mumbled, him and Rita looking over to Luna and Luan, both looked like deer caught in headlights.

"OH! Nothing pops!" Luna nervously said.

"Yeah! Luna was just talking about her report from high school about the Virgin Mary! How her and a friend took each other's virgin Mary's...hehehhehhe."

Lynn Sr and Rita shrugged their shoulders. Luna and Luan huffed a deep sigh.

"Too close; way to dang close," Luna mumbled in Luan's ear.

"Sorry about that Luna."

"We'll really keep that shit private, know what I...what's that banging?"

Luna looked over her shoulder out of vanzilla.

It was Lily, smashing full blast on door, trying her hardest to rip the doors right open.

"WHOA! What the-" Lynn Sr roared out, looking to the front door. Lynn was running full speed, Lucy, Lola, Lana and eventually Lisa coming out. Lily looked like she was balling her eyes out.

Luna rolled the doors right open, and Lily flung herself into Luna's arms, sobbing.

"Oh no! Lil' Lily! What's the problem?"

"LILY? WHAT'S WRONG?" Rita asked urgently. Luan, Leni, Lincoln and Lynn Sr scooted in to try and ascertain the situation. Everyone else crowded around outside the van opening, Lynn looking scared beyond belief.

"Lynn! What happened?" Lynn Sr asked sternly.

"She just suddenly broke down dad! She bolted right out the door!"

"She wanted to tell something to you guys...I think to you, Leni and Lincoln the most," Lucy said to Luna, her, Lola, Lana and Lisa trying to catch their breaths.

"Lily?" Luna asked sweetly.

"...please...please...Luna? Leni?...Lincy? Don't...don't be sad and...c...cr...cry!" Lily choked out, sobbing even harder into Luna's frame. It was so sad yet so reassuringly sweet and ironically cute, how Lily didn't want them to cry even though she was blasting her own waterworks full blast.

Leni and Lincoln leaned over the seats and wrapped their arms around her, nuzzling her frame and reassuring her through back rubs and pats.

"Honey, maybe one of us should stay. Lily doesn't seem to be taking this-"

"NO! I'M A BIG GIRL! SEE?" Lily cried out, wiggling out of the van and jumping into Lynn's arms.

"Sowwy for going like dat Lynn."

"It's okay Lily, just don't do it again, kay? I'm fast, but somehow you're faster than even me," Lynn said with a tender tone, Lily resting her head on Lynn's shoulder, face red and covered with sad hot spots all over; her hair partly shifted to the side.

"We got it from her mom, dad. You're good," Lucy said, putting her hand out and grabbing Lily's dangling hand, Lily squeezing tight. Lola and Lana circled around Lily and hugged her.

"Don't worry! We got her a bunch of things to do for the next few hours, right Lily?" Lana asked.

"I know! We can make a princess castle out of your Jenga blocks, huh Lily? We could have a tea party in it!" Lola said excitedly, wiggling Lily's clothing happily.

"Get real twinkle toes! She wants to look for cockroaches in the basement with me and Hops, right Lily?" Lana growled.

"Nu uh sewer rat!"

"Powder puff!"

"Mud-flap!"

"Lola? Lana? Can we make the castle have a tea party and hold the roaches?" Lily said in an uncharacteristically mature tone akin to Lincolns. Both tepidly agreed, and they all said their final goodbyes before they headed back inside, all waving, especially Lily, who was just wiggling her one free hand with a tiny smile on her face towards the van the whole time it left.

Moments later they were down the street.

"Looks like Lily's learning conflict resolution from the best of the best," Luan giggled, her, Luna, Leni, Rita and Lynn Sr looking at Lincoln.

"Yeah...I guess..." Lincoln sighed with a happy grin. After all that, Lily pulled a Lincoln resolution out of nowhere.

"Kiddo?"

"Yeah dad?"

"That there is one of the many reasons why your mother and I are so very proud of you; that goes for all of you," Lynn Sr said, him and Rita beaming like sun rays from their sibling's kinship. Luna herself was beaming with color now.

"Thanks dad. I appreciate it," Lincoln said with a happy sigh, Leni now giving him a giant polar bear hug, squeezing the life out of him.

"Down Leni; he needs his back for those uncomfortable chairs at the church," Rita said with a tiny giggle; everyone giggled.

"So when are we gonna get there pops?"

"...I'd say about...forty minutes maybe?"

---

12:33 PM

Vanzilla began the route with Lynn Sr driving to the destination. Even with weeks passed, the neighborhoods were still a horrific, devastated sight still full of destruction.

Lynn Sr and Rita made sure to keep their errands and shopping exclusive to the main Royal Woods neighborhood, in their safe little pocket areas so none of their children could see the fallout and chaos south of them, mostly for the younglings, but in particular, for Lincoln, Luna and Leni. All their shopping, errands, chores, exclusively in their areas, and they were lucky; a smaller tornado only grazed the northern outskirts of Royal Woods, so they were spared the full brunt of the storm. And they realized how fortunate and lucky they were, in so many ways, so lucky.

Moving south along a series of back routes to their destination that would normally take twenty minutes, now blown to forty, they passed along a street that looked suspiciously familiar to Leni. She looked out and saw a big plot of property completely in ashy ruins, adjacent to a gas station and tanker completely melted and combusted.

It was at the intersection of West Nine Mile Road and Roanoke Avenue.

"...like, this place seems very familiar," Leni thought. Now stopped at the stop sign with a cop giving directions to the heavy flow of traffic all around to mitigate the possibility of reckless collisions, with Lincoln tucked into his seat looking at his IPod, Luan and Luna talking about something, Leni just kept looking at the ashy remains of this spot on her left.

Then...it hit her; from her memory and dreams, what her...what she went through in the market...what Other Leni did.

"This is it, isn't it, the market, with that bad man...who...tried to hurt me...and was like...gonna try to hurt Luna...and Lincy...," Leni mumbled quietly, before her body went rigid, eyes getting lifeless, before her entire demeanor shifted to her other self.

Other Leni manifested to look at the wreckage with a blank, remorseless look...and it morphed to stern indifference.

"...scumbag...that fucking piece of shit vile parasite...I should have made him suffer longer; his death was way too quick and not painful enough...motherfucker," Other Leni said a little too loudly, forming a tight, powerful rippling fist, causing Lincoln to look over in curious concern. He didn't hear the words, but her felt the seismicity and heat, the venomous, predatorily violent nature of the utterance.

"Huh Leni?" Lincoln asked, seeing Leni looking positively powerful and intimidating, her look suddenly so unlike Leni as her subtle physique quietly quaked, her eye twitching from what could be called protective rage.

"L...Leni?" Lincoln asked nervously, putting his hand gently on Leni's balled fist.

Other Leni looked down to a concerned looking Lincoln as he gave a nurturing chipped-tooth smile to her.

Other Leni suddenly lost her physical composure and blushed, unable to stop a deluge of feelings sweep her. All those negative, enraged feelings...fluttered away like fluffy parachute seeds on a dandelion. The negative, the intense...just vaporized from Other Leni's reaction to his touch.

"I...I'm okay...Lincy," Other Leni said, trying to replicate Leni's sweet tender tone while keeping her cool and maintaining an emotionless expression, not doing well at all.

She was never physically around Lincoln before like this, not since the Twister game where she popped up to help Leni win and give her extra moxy to win against the unfair tactics of Lynn. From his coxing, she relinquished control and brought Leni out, Leni totally unsure what happened.

But now it seemed with Lincoln, she turned into a blushing nervous wreck, even worse than Leni, trying in vain to not look at him...it didn't work. Lincoln's consoling touch on her violently strong balled fist suddenly caused her to lose her polar bear grip, submissively yielding to him, turning into a total push-over, unable to bear how much she was enjoying such a tiny, unimportant, but nevertheless, special moment...touching his hand, and he was being consoling.

"..L...Lincoln...Lincy," Other Leni quaked under her breath, feeling a giant tsunami of happiness from the proximity and connection with him, even if it was one-sided and intended for Leni...she would take this. She never had this before.

Lincoln wrapped his hand around her loosened, limp hand; it sent a violent pleasuring sensation of joy to Other Leni's psyche, and her body felt itself nervously sweating; Luan didn't even do this to her. She was usually the one so dominant and in charge of their interactions, but, with Lincoln? She felt herself melting from his warm, caring touch.

He cared. He really did...for Leni, but at least she could share in that feeling of being cared for. He didn't realize it, but he was comforting Leni's other side, and Other Leni was venturing in unfamiliar territories of actual, legitimate euphoria.

It was the set of warm, fuzzy feelings she never got to have for herself.

And it elevated her to levels her stoic, intense emotional mindset was not prepared for.

"I love you...so...so much Lincoln," Other Leni quaked in her mind, with a tiny smile on her face, now nervously scooting up to him.

"You feeling cold Leni? Here," Lincoln said, pulling her next to him.

Other Leni got rocked with goosebumps, trying with all her might to limit her involuntary shaking from this new proximity.

"HOLY...holy...he's holding me...he's got his arm around me...and he's cuddled with me...I'm about to pass out," Other Leni internally said with giddy and ecstasy she did not expect herself to be capable of.

And half-closing her eyes, looking down on him...she passed out, her head falling on Lincoln's with a goofy content smile. Lincoln felt the thud of her cheek on top of his hair. Her arm went limp and leaned right on his lap, her hand virtually on his crotch now, though Lincoln didn't seem to notice this.

"Awwwwwww, ain't that cute bro? Heeee heeeee...widdle Weni needed some sweepies?" Luna teased while smirking, Luan giggling at the sight; their hulking sister passed out hard, asleep on their younger tinier brother. Lincoln huffed out with a minor tinge of annoyance, but didn't move. He decided to let her power nap before the coming engagement.

"It is kinda cute, " Lincoln said, leaning his shoulder under his chin so he could support her head and her leaning weight, "but holy crud; it doesn't look it, but Leni weighs a ton."

"Dear? Ever wonder how and why Leni got so frighteningly tall and strong? She wasn't like this when she was sixteen," Lynn Sr asked Rita, showing his hand above his head, comically exaggerating his and Leni's height.

"That's a pretty tall assertion dad, ehehehe, get it?"

"You're weathering new heights with those puns Luan, aHahahahahhaha!"

Luan and Lynn Sr busted up laughing as Luna and Rita huffed.

The traffic began to move again from that intersection, and they slowly left that spot, now miles to go.

A big pothole in the road suddenly caused Vanzilla to jump up, especially the back corner, causing a sleeping Other Leni to smack her head on the interior van roof.

"Uuh!...I'M AWAKE!" Other Leni screeched out, just like Leni would if she forgot a fashionable article of clothing.

"Heeeheee, so cute?" Luna teased while Luan, Rita and Lynn Sr chuckled.

"...nope...nope...I gotta go! I nearly coddled his huge..." Other Leni urgently and sporadically thought, allowing herself to retreat back inside; her hand almost touched Lincoln's package...and even with the family all around, she couldn't trust herself.

And moments later, an equally dazed looking Leni phased back in.

Leni, rather shocked she seemed to phase into and out from Other Leni like that with everyone around, nervously scooted a bit from Lincoln, terrified by how close she got to him...more bashfully nervous and tippy-toeing around what Other Leni got lost in, and what she herself loved doing to him as well; cuddling. But it wasn't exactly the most appropriate time or place.

"Holy molly! Did I, like, do that without knowing it? Other Leni? Now's not a totes time for that!"

"I'm sorry! He...I got really trifled seeing the market and that jerk we...took care of... and then Lincoln, he...he sort of broke me down...in a really...really...really good way."

"...I knew you were tender on the inside," Leni said internally with a small smile and giggle.

"...don't remind me; the only person on the planet who can cripple me and my locked internal murderous savagery, and he's sitting right next to me...crud."

Leni's ear suddenly caught some of Luan and Luna's conversation. Luan had just asked Luna if she remembers this spot from coming home in Mr. Grouse's car.

"I dunno dude; my head was banged up worst than my electric guitar at a rock concert; bloody noggin took a wallop of a beatin...although this area sorta does seem familiar...sorta."

"Sorta Luna?"

"Well, me and bro were beyond tired and wiped out. Almost wrecked the car on

the way home from me passing out a little...okay, I passed out hard from behind the wheel. I do remember Leni taking over and a little while later stopping by a market to get some supplies for our cuts and bruises."

"Huh...the market still there?"

"I dunno dude; this whole area looks like it got burnt to the ground; judging by that annihilated tanker in the remains of that gas station, this whole place blew the F up. I do sorta remember seeing some really bright lights and big flashes outside the window, though I think those were just street lights on really really bright...sorta hot too...kinda screwy when ya think about it like that actually."

Luan and Luna pondered on how significant the market and her semi-conscious observations were, before moments later Luna began rambling on another topic.

Leni seemed more on edge now, ironically more so now than Lincoln, who was just fooling with his IPod still with a slight tense aura about him; something she couldn't detect the reason for, but his vibe still had something...very wrong, at least from a spiritual and emotional feel.

"Lincy...you...you don't feel right...what's wrong Lincy?" Leni thought silently as she garnered occasional glances at him.

---

12:57 PM

Still on the road, and all around them they saw the widespread devastation from the colossally devastating tornado.

Right where they were, the tornado had reached the point of being a mile wide, and they were passing the central part of the damage path. All around them, homes, business, everything, was still rubble, everywhere.

All the Loud's minds seemed to acclimate to the surroundings, use to seeing dozens, if not hundreds of people around them picking up whatever was left of their lives in the piles of debris. Trees no longer had leaves around them; they were skeletons. The fall leaves had been ripped off early this year by the storms, with the naked limbed trees shattered and strewn in the wreckage all around. Cars by the dozens piled, dented, smashed, pulverized, twisted in all angles littered the landscapes. The telephone and light poles were either snapped like tooth picks, or sticking out of damaged buildings at angles, like they were missiles shot full speed by the behemoth tornado.

In reality, the only things left of the homes along the scarred path the Louds could make out were obvious foundations of the homes, the occasional lucky evergreen tree still kicking on, and on occasion, a home that somehow was only partly damaged with its roof missing or some sides of the walls missing.

One home looked virtually untouched, save for a pick-up truck sticking out of the roof.

The radio station playing quietly was discussing the further news and developments of the disaster and federal government response, including the multitude of views regarding Trumps response, both the positive and the negative.

"Well, at least he ain't treating us like Puerto Rico...eehhheeh," Lynn Sr said with a chuckle.

"Don't count your meerkat wigs before they fall off our commander in chief's head dad; he's probably just playin politics yet again; blustering this orange cheeks to blow on this whole situation, just to gale the public to his side for the next windy dish of jerks going against his royal ultimate flatulent breeze," Luan complained in puns.

"Well, at the very least, he's doing some really good things now. That thing that happened to him in downtown after the disaster must have been a surreal shake-up for him," Rita opinioned.

"Yeah, I guess you're right honey. Guess we should cut him a little slack...OH! Hehehehe...and nice pun salad Luan! Hey, I got one, what did Trump say to John McCain?"

"What?"

"Hurricane! Don't blow me off like this! Otherwise, the Democrats are gonna catch me with my thunderwear down!" Lynn Sr punned, him and Lynn now chuckling, Rita and Luna groaning from the political nature of the puns.

"OH! Dad! Why were pennies raining from the sky? Cause there was change in the weather, get it? Hahahahhahah!"

"Okay! AHehheheh, I got one for ya...did ya hear about the story about the tornado? There was a twist in the end, ehehheeeh."

Luan and Lynn Sr high-fived with big goofy grins on their face...before both realized what pun they made.

They looked back; Luna had a minor furled brow, Lincoln and Leni looking up with plain faces.

"...shit...that one was a little too close for home," Luan thought, feeling a bit bad for going overboard with her dad on the puns. She promised to lay off a little on that. It was hard, since her and her dad naturally gravitated towards puns and comedy.

"Whoa...my bad guys. Our puntensity got the better of- OW...alright! No more puns! I get it," Lynn Sr groaned, feeling the rather strong punch Rita imparted on his shoulder. Luan just sunk back in her seat, twiddling her shoes and ignoring her still rather cramped chest quarters.

"...least I can pun in my head...ehehe...boob puns are the breast puns, get it? Hehhehee," Luan giggled to herself.

"Hey dad? How much longer till we get there?" Lincoln called out.

"Huh...judging by how close we are to the Providence-Providence Park Hospital, I'd say...fifteen, twenty minutes, assuming traffic keeps flowing."

"...cool...thank's dad."

"No problemo kiddo."

Lynn Sr then made a rather intriguing observation, and did another chuckle; it was the first time any of the Louds have gone to church in a long time. Rita recollected the last time they went...she recalled the chaos and noise from the family at Sunday church.

In that walk down memory lane, both had talked about something last night, wondering how the kids would feel about it.

"Rita?"

"Yeah honey?"

"Wanna pop the question to the kids, about...what we talked about last night?"

"Oh...uhm, about the...church thing?"

"Yeah, let's ask the question to them. Ask how these ones how they'd feel if we all started doing that again. As a family."

"Sure honey. Hey kids?" Rita called out to everyone, "your father and I have a question to ask you, and please be honest how you feel about it."

"Sure, what's up mom?" Lincoln responded for everyone.

"How would you each feel about us going back to Sunday church? It's been years, and me and your father think you'd like it if the family started going back to church every Sunday."

Everyone stayed silent.

"With your younger siblings older and a bit more mature, and all of you quite a bit older and mature, we won't get kicked out and we can enjoy the sermons. What do ya say kids?"

"Hmmm...I don't see why not," Leni said with a small smile, seemingly okay with it.

"Meh, doesn't bother me either way, so long as I don't have to sacrifice my puns, ehehehheh...but I don't have much concern about it mom, dad, sorta "meh," Luan said, ending on a rather lethargic, uninterested tone.

"Meh" seemed to encapsulate Luan's entire reaction and feelings.

"Luna? How about you rock-girl? Wanna jam out some church songs on the keyboard or a piano?" Lynn Sr said with a giddy tone.

Rita and Lynn Sr weren't prepared for the response.

"...sorry ma, sorry pop, but I just ain't...feelin it with church and all that jazz...sorta not at all."

"Oh," Rita said with a bit of concern and unease in her tone.

"Luna? You sure? Organ?" Lynn Sr semi-begged, heavily emphasizing the word Organ.

"Sorry dudes...hard pass. Spirit and soul's taken for rock music...and other things," Luna softly said, turning her head slightly and winking at Lincoln, Lincoln catching the wink and smiling a bit.

"Huh...well...didn't know we got ourselves such a soulful rockin secularist in the family...Lincoln? Son? How do you feel? I'd like another male opinion on this idea," Lynn Sr said, waiting on pins and needles with Rita from Lincoln's response.

Lincoln just kept unusually silent.

"Lincoln?" Rita called out gently.

His body curled in on itself; Luan, Leni and Luna instantly detected some reserved, almost violent electricity come from Lincoln's vibe. It was like he was holding something back emotionally...something big.

"Son?" Lynn Sr asked.

Finally, after what looked like an unsettling attack of malaise saturate Lincoln's soul, he gave a little cough, cleared his throat.

"I'll do whatever you guys want," Lincoln cooed with a put on voice.

"But what do you wanna do bro? That's what mom and pops wanna know," Luna said to Lincoln, looking at him, her own expression begging Lincoln to be honest about his feelings, as were Luan's, Leni's, Rita's and Lynn Sr's eyes he could see in Vanizilla's rear-view mirror; his eyes were pressing and hoping for something honest from his son, and he could tell, just by the eyes.

"...honestly guys?"

"Yeah Lincy," Leni said.

"...I don't know," Lincoln mumbled quietly.

"What's that kiddo?" Lynn Sr asked a bit loud, cuffing a hand by his ear.

"I said I don't know. I'm...I don't know if I'd enjoy it again."

Everyone in the car could detect something behind the rather somber tone of his words, something like a deep internal struggle going on in his mind.

"Dude, if ya don't wanna go, it ain't no biggy bro," Luna said comfortingly, leaning back and putting a hand on his shoulder, smiling at him, "I mean...I kinda want ya on my side; I don't wanna wake up early in the morning on Sundays, ahahaha."

"I mean," Lincoln continued morosely, "I don't know...it might be good for the family and our spirits...but...I don't know...I just don't know how I feel about it guys."

Rita gave a sweet smile to Lincoln. "Well we don't want to pressure you sweetie, nor any of you with it off the bat; something for you all to think about. I just consider how lucky we all are and how we made it through this. Thank god!"

"Ha! Yeah, right. Thank god," Luna harshly laughed with some defensiveness and a bit of scorn.

"Luna?" Rita said with an alert tone.

"Rock-daughter?" Lynn Sr quivered with an equally alert tone.

"...I dunno why I should be thanking that dude for anything. All this disaster stuff? He went on one heck of a bender, didn't he! If anything, I should thank Mr. Grouse for lending his car to find bro; Leni for spotting the twister that almost snuck up on us by the zoo, and...most of all, thank bro for saving my life not once, but TWICE, through all this bullshit-"

"Luna!?" Leni squealed out.

"Oh, right. Cursing, sorry Leni...but ya get my point. Also, I should thank Luan, Lucy and Lynn for-" Luna paused, seeing Luan shaking her head urgently.

"Uhhh...for reasons...I'd thank them for reasons...point being, I'm thankful for good kin and blokes helpin me...and that's about it. Only real miracle was finding bro before we got sacked by that thing."

"Luna? You...you don't believe in God anymore?" Lynn Sr asked as delicately as possible.

"...I dunno...maybe, maybe not. If he's a bloke, he ain't a nice bloke, and if he ain't real, then no skin off my nose. I got my own life to jam out...with the ones I care about."

Rita and Lynn Sr kept silent for a few moments; they were hiding how stunned they were. They just found out that their musical daughter may very well have lost faith in God and was now non-religious...possibly an atheist from Rita and Lynn Sr's nervous smiles to one another.

Lincoln was just curling a bit to try and isolate himself out of the conversation and tense air now, though still curiously listening to the conversation, wondering what Luna had further to say, if anything.

"Well...that's your call sweetie, and your father and I will still love you no matter what, whether you need to sort your ideas out on that. I can sympathize with you losing your beliefs...if you did lose them-"

"Sorta did mom...you'd lose them too after seeing the fu...I mean, messed up things me and Leni saw, not that I'm gonna convert Leni or anything; her call, right fashion-sis?"

"...we have to convert? Ah man...is this like that math thingy converting stuff Lisa's really good at? Cause the only thing I can, like, convert, is styles and stuff...I'm not mathy or converty," Leni said with a cute innocent, confused tone. It luckily broke the tension in the van for a moment, but things seemed more...gelled now on the talk of one's religious identity and on God.

"Hehhee...thank God for Leni's innocence...heehhe...as I was saying kids... given what you've been through Luna, I don't blame you at all," Rita said encouragingly with a more motherly tone. Luna leaned over and held her mom's hand, and wrapped her arm around her dads.

"Yo, I still believe in you guys, and the power or rock, ehehhehe. And I won't make a whole stink about that, cool?"

"Bloomin rock on mate," Lynn Sr said with a terrible British accent, giving Luna the sign of the horns.

"Lincy? You...do you believe in God still?" Leni asked with a tiny whisper to Lincoln, almost trembling from her asking the question out of the blue.

Lincoln just smiled and grabbed Leni's hand.

"It's...kinda...I...I-"

"Leni!?" Luan suddenly blurted out, trying to interject herself and detract the focus from Lincoln, "didn't you wear a really pretty aqua green lime dress to church when we were little a long time ago?"

"...you're totes right!" Leni shrieked out happily, thinking to her heart's content the dress she wore long ago. But it seemed to hold Leni off only for a moment.

"But I think that's sorta like, an important question Lincy. It won't hurt me; I tolerate all people, remember?"

Luan huffed as it seemed Leni seemed glued to this query; Luna, Rita and Lynn Sr seemed gelled as well.

"It's... tough Leni, but I'll try. I mean, it's not like I really lost-"

"Have you been thinking about this lately Lincy? Like...you seem really untotes about the idea like Luna."

"I like to sleep in on Sundays is all," Lincoln said with a dry little chuckle, employing some of Luan's style of misdirection, Leni giggling slightly. Luan smiled brightly as he winked at her, hinting at the trick she taught him.

"Okeydokey Lincy. We don't need to talk about that sort of stuff if you don't want."

"Sorta surprised you still do Leni," Luna said looking at her, "after all that's happened, what we went through, what we saw-"

"But the world is bigger than that, right? Like...I mean, something nice must have made us all, and there's so much hard stuff to learn out there, it had to be something bigger and much smarter than any of us...otherwise, we wouldn't be here, the world, the...it's like, called universe, right? All the hard and easy thingy's about everything we know in the Universe?"

"Yup, the universe," Luan said, "so God made everything Leni...mostly everything, but ya know who makes the things in the universe that God never got around to?"

"Uhmmm...the pope?" Leni responded innocently.

Luan just smiled, "...nope...China."

Lynn Sr snorted in laughter as Luan, Luna and Lincoln chuckled.

"...I don't get it," Leni weakly said.

"It's all good dude; just a wee lil joke. Comedy girl still can't help herself."

"What can I say," Luan giggled, trying to wind down another array of jokes and puns to wind down the rather intense touchy topic. She did promise though, so she forcefully settled down. No more puns. The last one...hopefully...

And like that, everyone seemed to shut down and remain silent for the rest of the ride, listening to the continued news broadcasts of the disaster recovery efforts and the slew of opinions on either side.

---

1:06 PM

"GOOD LORDIE! FINALLY!" Lynn Sr cried out, knocking his forehead into the steering wheel, alerting everyone to focus.

"Whoa, dad, you okay?" Lincoln asked, seeing his dad in a legitimate nervous wreck; the routes must have took a toll, the traffic, the destructive sights, he wasn't exactly the strongest stomached of the Loud parents. That distinction went to Rita, especially since he was such a lightweight on Halloween.

"Yeah...yeah...road conditions were Lynnsane, hehehe, get it?" Lynn Sr punned, Luan smiling a tinge; she always felt she got her method of using puns to cope from her dad.

"So, this is the place pop-star?" Luna asked.

"Yup, lets pop-star out guys."

"You ready everyone? Leni? Luna?...Lincoln?" Rita asked nervously, looking deep into their souls, using her motherly instincts to try and feel what they were feeling.

"I'm ready," Leni piped.

"Yeah, we got some...mingling and feels to settle," Luna said, looking at Lincoln with a warm supportive smile. He smiled back.

"Yeah mom...I'm ready."

They all hobbled out of Vanzilla, parked in a back corner of a parking lot adjacent to the street bordering a freeway a few feet below the elevation of the main street. They noticed that the parking lot was packed on this side of the church, and had an utterly classic conservative gothic style.

"Huh...Lucy would have enjoyed this place, even if she likes the really old stuff in Eastern Europe, she loves churches and funerals in general," Lincoln thought, seeing the rather plain gothic styling, and over the main structure the signature spiraled towers sticking up, square in dimension but spirals poking from the corner points, just like the type Lucy liked.

"So like, what church are we at guys?"

"We're at the Hartford Memorial Baptist Church honey," Rita said.

"Oh...uhm...cool, so totes...how do you know that mom?"

Everyone pointed to the sign across from them. There it said in gothic font; Hartford Memorial Baptist Church.

"Oh...well thank you sign," Leni chirped, everyone else thinking how like Leni it was for her to thank a sign.

Looking around the small chunk of parking lot around the irregularly spaced location, the lot was packed with cars and people, all flowing slowly to the front and corner parking, to which many mingled near the entrance to the church. The Louds noticed a rather peculiar sense of community among the pooling groups of people. They were all united, close-knit in keeping in line with their steps, all moving as a close kin set.

"Wow. These folks really ban together; it's just what these communities need," Lynn Sr observed, feeling some bleeding warmness in the engaging aura these folks were permeating in. It almost seemed like a celebration of life in a way, even at a funeral.

"Hey dude? Bro?"

"Hm? Yeah Luna?"

"You ready?"

"...yeah...I'm ready," Lincoln said, kicking the ground. And to that, the family departed from the minor isolation of Vanzilla's proximity, to the hustle and bustle of the crowds of dozens of people.

Still huddled together in a group, Lincoln walking behind everyone, shielded and surrounded by the soaring heights of her sisters and parents, they slowly merged into the gradually thickening crowd of loud, cheerful talking, with minor subtle bits of crying, hugging among the people, and talking, lots and lots of talking. And slowly the people around the Louds began to notice the tight knit family.

The simple fact was that it appeared like the Louds were the only all-white family, maneuvering through a large all-black crowd of funeral attendees, and most looking at the Louds had a look of surprise and intrigue as to why they were there.

"Who are they? Did they know Mary or Chivonn any?" One attendee said subtly from Luan and Rita's ear, slyly probing the Loud family's physical appearance, attire and decorum.

"I heard Barry said he invited some other folks; didn't know they were white; they look upper middle class," another attendee said, Lincoln and Luna hearing this.

"You sure this them? I don't recall Barry sayin they white. Call him up," another attendee said, pulling out his cell, a middle aged black man in a suit said with a clean buzz cut. He looked like a military man.

All these whispers and little private dialogues were not exactly hidden well; the Louds could hear everything, but ignored and pressed on.

When they finally got to the entrance, Leni seemed entranced by the look and architecture of the church.

"It's so beautiful you guys!"

"It's just a church Leni," Luan replied to her.

"But look! Those windows on the sides are stylized like a few Goth fashion trends popular in Italy and Romania from the 1940's. Lucy would like, so love this! And LOOK! EEEE! That's like, totally a Willet Hauser Architectural Glass Windows style too! They did some work with my work at the mall! They put some of our designs on some churches in New Jersey!"

Everyone just looked at Leni a little flabbergasted and surprised.

"Wow...honey, you know a lot about Church window stuff," Lynn Sr said awkwardly.

"Well, like, architecture is like the clothing and fashion on a building. It's just...just a totes pretty building, isn't it? I mean, I think it is."

"And I couldn't agree with ya more sweetheart!" A big booming, grand voiced echoed behind them in the church entrance. A large man with deep brilliant purple and black clergy attire greeted them.

"Oh! Hello there! You must be the Minister here at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church," Rita said, putting her hand out to shake his, "my name is Rita Loud. This is my husband Lynn Sr, and my children, Leni, Luna, Luan, and Lincoln."

Everyone looked at the Minister and gave him nervous but honest smiles.

"Hmmm...you must be the special guests...the Louds! YES! Lord almighty, Barry told me you'd be here. Thank god you showed up. We're about to start the services in a few minutes."

"Goodness! We got here just in time," Luan said, still looking over the crowds. She was use to being the minority, not in terms of skin color, but by being the only one on stage in front of dozens, and at some points in her tries and comedy clubs, hundreds of people. For everyone else in the Loud unit, it was a rather observable but plain observation. It was mostly just a culture shock, even though they knew south of them the Detroit neighborhoods were not exactly middle to upper class like Royal Woods or Huntington Oaks.

Leni was probably the only one who didn't even notice the high ratio of black to white attendees; there was only one other Caucasian attendee beyond already in her seat, an elderly woman Mary's age, Lincoln noticed.

"She was probably one of Mary's friends," he thought with some sadness.

"Yes, yes, it's going to be some kind of day here, but by the sanctity of the lord and all our hearts, we welcome your visit to this church. We welcome all here, and we welcome you with open arms and the almighty Holy Spirit flowing love of God. Now, if Barry told me correctly, and that horrid footage leads me to suspect...young man," the Minister called out, looking between Luna and Luan, seeing the combed mess of brilliant white hair with the classic minor tuft of cow lick on the side, "...you're Lincoln?"

Lincoln tentatively walked between Luan and Luna, then between Rita and Leni to her right and Lynn Sr to his left, over to the Minister.

"Yes sir...uhm, I mean, Reverend..."

"Pastor or Minister child, but I won't hold it against ya," the older man said with a chuckle, himself an older black man like Barry too but looking even more full of life, passion and love for the divine and his community, "Pastor Samuel Malcolm Adams, and it is a blessing to meet you personally son, and a blessing to meet your family, though I here word there's more of ya?"

"That's correct Pastor, but we have our other eldest daughters watching the younger ones; we don't think they're ready for these kind of events," Rita said gingerly.

"That is most certainly fair enough; far too many have been lost, and we need to protect and cultivate our youth the best we can in these trying times. Now, Ms. Loud? Mr. Loud? Lincoln, everyone? I have that section over there on the right set for you. Mosey on over there in about a few minutes. Services and personal declarations will be beginning shortly."

"Thank you Minister Adams," Leni said with a chirp.

"Thank nothing of it; now, do go make good on some of those refreshments and food over there, cause once we get this celebration of Mary and Chivonn. It's customary to not eat or drink anything while we do those services; we'll have an intermission for when we bring them ou...oh good lord! I gotta get ready! Again, Louds, thank you very much!"

"Can do," Lynn Sr said, shaking the Minister's hand, as Leni, Luan and Luna broke off to get a quick drink for their parched throats. Lincoln just meandered down the middle aisle, looking around and taking in the surroundings. Looking around, down have way to the front of the podium stage; he saw the row Barry was sitting in to the right, a spot in the uncomfortable wooden seating next to the aisle. Multiple family members were already sitting around him, and from Lincoln's quick glance, the place was getting even more packed.

Lincoln checked the time on his IPod, still enclosed in a plastic baggy.

"Just a few more minutes till things start...should probably tell him I made it," Lincoln thought, slowly walking up to him and patting his shoulder. Barry turned around. In his arms was a baby all rolled up.

"Lincoln! Son, how ya doin?"

"Hi Barry; my folks and some of my sisters made it, Luna, Leni and Luan."

Barry just smiled warmly at him and reached his hand out, patting Lincoln's shoulder.

"And I'm glad ya did Lincoln. Thank you...just, thank ya ever so much."

"Grandpa, who's this kid? He looks sorta familiar," a young woman sitting next to him said.

"LaShawna...this is him...the boy in the video, with Mary."

This new woman rose up slowly, looking straight into Lincoln's eyes; she was frighteningly tall, possibly even taller than Leni was, with dreads, a swan-like physique, with an intense stare to her.

"Uhm...hi, nice to meet you. I'm Linco-"

"I know of ya young man...and...and thank you, for being there for my grammy," LaShawna said with some minor trembling in her voice, before leaning over and giving Lincoln a tight hug.

"That meant so much too so many of us Lincoln, you have no idea."

"Well, uh, thank you LaShawna, but-"

"No buts kiddo, you...you made Grammy's last moments on Earth so...just...thank you," LaShawna said with a deep watery tone, obviously forcing herself to hold back tears. Lincoln could still see them, glossing her eyes, yet defiantly forced back. Lincoln noted that she was really...really attractive.

"Dang it...don't think about that Loud," he growled at himself, feeling like a real heel for that thought popping up. He did note that she had on a brilliant black blouse much like Leni's, only longer along the legs, and long willowy dreaded hair as black as Lucy's.

The baby suddenly began making fuss in Barry's arms. Lincoln saw her little fingers grip around Barry's strong but worn, wrinkly index finger. Barry just chuckled at the little baby girl's strength.

"Awww...lil thing got a viper grip, ehehehe, someone I think is getting hungry or sleepy again, you little button," Barry coed, "LaShawna?"

"Got it granddad," LaShawna chirped, pulling out a baby bottle full of formula and handing it to Barry. Lincoln smiled at the sight.

"I'm doin a little watching of this bundle of love to give LaShawna a break."

"Which I don't need granddad! I told you, I'm good."

"Ha! Five hours of sleep last night on that uncomfortable couch with this cute little blackhole eatin all night? And you really need to take my bed."

"Nu uh granddad; think about your back."

"My great granddaughter's more important than my lousy back LaShawna," Barry barked, before smirking at Lincoln, "...don't worry, we do this sort of thing all the time, don't we sweetheart?" Barry said with a silly voice as he held the bundle of relaxed joy. Lincoln saw her eyes getting heavier and heavier; somehow this temporarily made his mind feel at peace, looking at the infant mellowing and relaxing; it was unusually therapeutic to Lincoln.

"Hehehee...hey, don't be thinkin about makin one just yet kiddo," Barry joked, Lincoln and LaShawna laughing a smidge, "cause ya know, you're still a baby yourself...hell, LaShawna's still my baby granddaughter at heart too."

"Knock that off granddad; I'm over a foot taller than you."

"Heheh...still my baby granddaughter at heart," Barry smirked. LaShawna growled out, "you're gonna be put in a retirement community when I'm done with you."

Lincoln laughed a tinge; they were really nice people, a granddad with his granddaughter, taking care of their great granddaughter and niece, respectively. Lincoln was rather astounded by the gapping generational divide. Suddenly a large black woman walked over from behind Lincoln.

"Oh, pardon me young man, this be my row," she said with a warm, bubbly voice. Lincoln noted how definitely kind...and rather thick, she was. She methodically squeezed herself into the space past Barry and LaShawna, cooing at the little baby.

Lincoln tried for the life of him to remember the baby's name; it was lost, and he was kicking himself for it.

"Awwww, look at that sweet little angel all bundled up; high sweetie pie," the large woman called out, reaching over a hand and caressing the baby's forehead.

"Auntie Rachael, please! We just got her sleeping," LaShawna chirped.

"I'm sorry babydoll, but I just love seeing my widdle great niece. Ya know LaShawna, with that condition of yours, you can finally be a mama like ya always-"

"AUNTIE RACHAEL!"

"Dolores," Barry said with a stern brow over to the large woman. She just put on a sheepish smile.

"Whoops...sorry, my decorum did a drop on the block...but I mean it sweetheart, you c-"

"Auntie...this...this isn't how I wanted to be a mom, not...not like this...she's my niece, I'm her auntie, but...Chivonn's her real mama...this-"

"It's alright sweetheart, we know," Barry said, rubbing an arm and holding LaShawna in his right arm. LaShawna just lowered her head, and looked like she was praying, as was the large woman Lincoln inferred was named Dolores Rachael Jemison.

They seemed to forget he was there.

"Uhmm...Barry? I'm gonna check on my family and see-"

"See? Oh! That's a wonderful idea Lincoln. Bring em on over and sit with us, will ya? For some reason the church kept our row open with no one sitting in it; don't exactly know why. I'd be...honored to have the family and the boy who was there for my wife...and in fact, LaShawna? This boy's sisters are who saved little Emily here."

"EMILY! THAT'S IT! THAT'S HER NAME... STUPID BRAIN!" Lincoln thought loudly, yelling at himself.

"They...they're here?" LaShawna quivered.

"Lincoln, be a dear will ya, and bring your family over here. We got a lot of time till we start and open the caske...oh...I think that's them," Barry mumbled quietly, seeing Rita, Lynn Sr, Leni, Luna and Luan walking over, presumably to see to their seats in the near back row.

"Come on kiddo, we gotta get to our...oh! Barry, there ya are," Lynn Sr said with a bit of pep in his tone, reaching a hand out to shake Barry's free left arm.

"We were just about to take our seats in the-" Rita was saying till Barry interrupted her.

"Actually Mrs. Loud, and sorry for interruptin ya, but, won't you and your family sit with us here? I'd love to have you here with us, not so far in the back. Your family...has done so much for us. It's the least we can do, right?"

"Barry, who are these folks? And why that boy have such beautiful silky white hair? Goodness it's whiter than vanilla bean ice cream," Dolores said, focusing on Lincoln and squeezing his cheeks comically. Luna, Leni and Luan just chuckled, Lincoln giving a sigh and taking it.

"My bro does have pinchable baby cheeks, don't he," Luna said, adding fuel to the fire.

"...you're not helping ya know," Lincoln mumbled. Luna's smirk established she knew full fell.

"Well, in that case Mr. Jemison, we'd be more than happy to, right gang?" Lynn Sr asked, to which everyone shook their heads, Lincoln the most tepidly but still agreeing.

"Uhmmm...pardon me...grandad, you said the two girls who saved Emily are among them here?"

"Yeah LaShawna. Luna? Leni? Can ya swing on right here for a moment?"

"Like, sure," Leni said warmly, her and Luna walking over. LaShawna suddenly rose up, a look of intensity in her eyes, staring both at Leni and Luna. She walked with power in her step that only Leni could surpass.

"Uhmm...hey dude, sup," Luna said with a relaxed but alert tone.

"You...you both," LaShawna quivered in her tone, pointing down to Emily.

"HUUUHHH! Luna! The baby!" Leni cooed out loudly, almost waking the baby, getting looks from almost everyone.

"Like...sorry," Leni sheepishly said, before LaShawna really starred at them.

"My...you...you two saw my sister...Chivonn..."

"Uhh...oh...yeah...we did," Luna mumbled awkwardly, Leni now remembering a lot of the more negative aspects of the purpose of this visit here.

"...who...who's Leni, and who's Luna?"

"Like, I'm pretty sure I'm Leni," Leni said with a rather airy tone, almost thinking this was some sort of trick question.

"And I'm Luna. And you...you said you were the sis of...the woman we...saw on-"

"Yes...she...Chivonn...she was my only sis...I lost her as ya know from this horrible ordeal...but...even when you were looking for your brother...you...you saved her baby daughter...my niece...you saved Emily," LaShawna choked out, leaning over and crying hard into Luna and Leni's collective frame.

"Thank you! Thank you and god bless you two! I can never thank ya fully," LaShawna cried out, sobbing even harder than before into Leni and Luna's shoulders. Both just held her as she seemed to need seeing the two last people who saw her deceased sister and, most importantly, rescued her last closest family and reminder of her sister Chivonn.

"Wow...this...just got heavy," Lincoln thought, feeling deep, turbulent things from the situation, but forcing down those heavy reactions in his throat, way way down.

LaShawna then retreated to her seat, looking slightly embarrassed by her break down. Leni and Luna were about to comfort her, when the bells at the church rang.

It was time for the service.

As the Louds, Jemison's and everyone poured into their church seating to settle down as a collective group, the services for the congregation began. Seats, occupied with loud speaking before, were now dead silent as Pastor Adams from earlier took his locale on the podium to begin the double funeral sermon for the grandmother and grandchild, Mary and Chivonn.

It felt like an immediate electric current ripple among everyone attending, all giving full attention to the spiritual leader of the community to head the semi-mourning, but mostly, the celebration of these two.

Pastor Adams talked about Mary and Chivonn, both as individuals, how long her new Mary from her many, many decades with the church, and of Chivonn in the brief time she was on Earth. He talked about their personalities, how Mary was a sweet but brutally stubborn, determined yak of a woman. He noted Chivonn's hard life, and how her daughter saved her from a life of drugs and destitution, how Mary and Barry pulled her from a horrible living condition, how they'd forever be together in the "Great Kingdom" waiting for the rest of their family to join.

While the Pastor started to settle in his sermon, preaching about the respective biblical quotes applicable for the idea of the afterlife, and celebrating Mary and Chivonn's life and the idea they would be in eternal bliss and love in heaven, Lincoln and Luna felt...uneasy about this for some reason. Both saw Leni, Rita and Lynn Sr smiling from the sermon, Luan seemed to have a "meh" vibe for it, but was respectful and listening, but for some reason, they each had some...reservations about the Pastor's words.

"How can he know all this? Any of it? Is he so sure with all the horrible stuff from this disaster that God really loves us? This...it just doesn't make sense," Lincoln thought lamentfully.

"Nice try dude. It's a nice speech and I know ya mean well and believe it, but...with what me, bro, Leni and a shit tone of other blokes have seen...nah, I can't do it. There ain't anything special watchin over us...well...actually...there's one thing special watching me," Luna thought, looking over to Lincoln, seeing his contemplative, thoughtful face.

"Bro...I know ya may not be in good spirits. But I...I just wanna help ya," Luna said internally to Lincoln, looking at him with glossy eyes and a supportive smile.

She gently wrapped her hand around his. He felt it, looked over and smiled. Luna could tell this was an actual warm smile he was emitting.

He mouthed "thank you" to her, and Luna mouthed, "Herdi verdi verdi," causing Lincoln to nearly chuckle.

And yet, the words from the Pastor still tore at Lincoln's emotions and thoughts. He felt so many reservations in accepting these nice, warm ideas that he kept thinking were just that...ideas...and not real.

Luan caught wind of Lincoln's state as well, keeping a close eye on him and Luna since they were on her right, the whole family sitting on the right side of the long church pew, Leni, Rita, Lynn Sr and the small number of Jemison's on her left. This experience was becoming unusually excruciating for Luan's capacity to hold her puns at bay and not die from the rather non-typical environment. But she could hear the baby Emily babbling a bit from her sleep, which she did enjoy.

"That baby is really adorable. Hmm...lady liberty? More like baby liberty, ehhehe. Well, at least your sleeping. Just hope ya don't wake up. This sermon probably won't be over till the fat baby sings, ehehhhe, get it?" She punned in her head, no one else hearing a word.

"Heehhe...uuuuhhgggg...this is gonna be a long sermon...on the mount, ehehheh...well, one thing's for certain on this curtain of fluffy words, I'm not a morning Sermon, ahahahaahahha! And a lot of this sounds like sermon myth! Well, the guy's got a lot of moooooving to do, trying to take us out to pastor, ehehehhe...STOP IT LUAN! NOT NOW!...oh, I'm sitting on the most uncomfortable Pew-ny furniture of all time, aahhhh...GOD DAMN IT LUAN!"

While Luan was secretly and covertly trying to control her internal drive to pun, Luna tried wiggling her tush to be more adjusted to the seats.

"Another bloody thing wrong with church. These seats suck as bad as Lincoln licks as good...ehehehe. Hmm...should I think that in this place?...Nah, fuck it," Luna concluded, slightly smirking at her comment

"But it's a really sad thing about that Mary and Chivonn girl. That baby's so lucky her sister and family's gonna be there for her."

Still focusing on adjusting her rump slyly and looking over her shoulder to her right, Luna momentarily phased the Pastor's sermon still going on out of her mind. Then, out of the corner of her eye she saw someone on her right, walking briskly along the side corner of the pew chairs, only a couple of feet away. It was a blonde headed young woman walking down the other side of the pew aisle, and their eyes met for a moment.

It took a moment for it to click for her...but Luna almost freaked out, nearly crushing the pew wood in one hand, and Lincoln's in the other; he took his hand back for a moment in the nick of time.

"It's...it's...holy sweet fucking fuck...its Sam...," Luna quivered in mortified shock, her body now rattling, heart beat shooting off like a lightening bolt from the sky had rocked her very core.

Sam saw her as well, stopping dead in her tracks, nearly tripping over her heavily booted feet, still purple like Luna's footwear.

Sam gave Luna an ambivalent facial expression...there were some confusing mixtures of shock, fear, bashfulness, warmth, rejoice, untold unease... it was all over the place, especially with how Luna recalled the way her smile's little curves by the corners of her mouth sometimes hid a wealth of secret emotions and feelings, even when she was smiling.

Luna's return expression was nothing less than cold. And yet, her eyes, her stare, fluctuated from mortification, fiery fury, stoic indifference, forced uncaring...there was something lamentfully locked in her stare at Sam...definitely a sense of secretly bubbling anger, but much, much more.

"You..." Luna mouthed to Sam, the electric shock from the invisible, unheard words registering in Sam," ...you..."

Sam suddenly turned tail and skittishly broke off her mid-frozen stares, heading over to the Organ in the front, a few feet to the Pastor's podium at a ninety degree angle. Sitting down, by the look of it, rather uncomfortably, she locked her body to face away, her eyes and head permanently facing at an angle away from Luna.

The whole time Lincoln felt this shaking, this sense of violent quivering coming from Luna.

"Whoa...what's up with Luna? She wasn't like this till...huuuhhh...till that blonde headed girl showed up. Wonder who she is? Maybe one of her rock friends from college or something? But you'd think she'd be happy...huh...oh shit! Maybe...that's the girl who took Sam from Luna?" Lincoln thought, Luan seeing and thinking something similar as well, though noting more observations in Luna's mannerisms.

"Dang, it's like Luna's got stage fright or something," Luan thought, wondering what was amiss.

Luna was oscillating between so many emotions, wondering what the hell Sam was doing here.

"She still has that blue dyed spot in her blonde hair...THAT STUPID FUCKING...cute, sweet spot...FUCK! I HATE THIS! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU AND GO AWAY! WHY HERE AND NOW OF ALL TIMES? THIS IS UTTER BOLLOCKS! BULL! BLIMEY! BLOODY DAY!"

Luna looked up towards the church ceiling, almost trying to shoot an invisible death ray to the heavens above.

"YOU! You vindictive COCKSUCKING FUCK! I bet you made this happen you sick twisted ASSHOLE! JUST TO TOY WITH ME AND MY PAST AND SCREW WITH MY MIND YA...AAAARRRGGGGHHH! I'M TRYIN TO BE THERE FOR MY BRO, AND THIS IS WHAT I GET? COSMIC FUCKERY? NO! No...it's no use Luna...calm down girl...breathe...there's nothing even up there...breathe..."

Luna took several covert, but giant breaths to calm herself down.

"Oh great, I'm sweating now...that ain't rad. Bro's gonna wonder what's up if he sees me...hell, everyone's gonna wonder..."

Luna kept trying to force her glare away from Sam. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, Luna was sitting directly in line with part of Sam's face; the organ happened to be positioned right in front of Luna.

"Just...look, if you're up there, which I so doubt now cause of all this ungnarly crap you're pullin on me, can ya cut me some slack? Please? Somethin? Anythin?"

Luna dropped her head down, cracking her neck and toes. She kept cracking her toes over and over again nervously to try and distract herself.

"Dang Luna! Quit it with the toes," Luan thought, partly nudging her older sister, "you keep this up, I toe-tally won't be able to keep things under wraps and be on watch...still, how cool is it for her to be able to crack her toes like that on-call. Wish I could, all the times I had pain in my feet."

She next curled her arms and cracked the joints in her arms, followed by pressing her fist between her thighs and popping her legs.

"Dang...did I ever need that. But still, why the fuck is Sam here? I mean, I've heard of coincidences, but this is fuckin stupid!"

Luna suddenly overheared several folks behind her comment on Sam as well. Luna Popped her ears and quietly listened in over the heavy sounds of the Pastor's words.

"She doesn't go to this church though. Why she gonna be playin at Mary and Chivonn's funeral. She any good?"

"Well...she's pretty damn good on an organ, I'll give her that; she actually studied piano and all that jazz in high school," Luna mumbled, a fond memory of the past popping up, the onetime Sam took Luna to a random church and rocked out themes on guitar and organ together.

"That...was pretty cool of her...in fact, that...that was the last nice memory of her," Luna quivered in her mind, those old, old feelings she endured long ago now trickling in, like infrequent but powerful electric shocks.

Luna continued to listen in on the conversation behind her.

"Well that white girl was mostly a fill in. She volunteered Jessica."

"Huh...that's awful nice of her, but why would she-"

"The organist for this church died in the tornadoes outside downtown. She was apparently doing some volunteer work for another church and playin for them when it hit, and the whole thing caved in on everyone."

"Oh my lordie!"

"Yup, that's what I heard, but at least she died doin what she loved, especially on the day for the lord, Sunday."

"Wow...you are just some piece of work, ya know that bub?" Luna mouthed to the church roof, "way to take the wrong people...jerk-off asshole."

"So this child, she know Mary's song?"

"Sure hope so, though I heard from Rufus that this Sammy girl got called in at the last minute, so hopefully Pastor Adams told her and she knows it."

"I would hope so. It's the very least we can do to make sure they go to heaven with one last wonderful smile. Mary and Chivonn would so love us to rejoice in singing that one last time for them. And ya know when the caskets are comin out? I wanna say my last goodbye to her and her darling grandbaby."

"Ooooooooooooh shit...that's not good. Caskets? With the bodies?" Luna thought in a panic, turning slightly to see if Lincoln heard. It looked like he didn't, lost in his own little complicated world.

The Louds didn't think this was going to be an open casket funeral. If Lincoln saw Mary again, dead...Luna, maybe even Leni could suck it up for the woman they saw dead, but Lincoln? She didn't want to imagine his reaction. As much as this proximity to Sam floored her, Lincoln was her number one top priority. At least both Sam and Luna were trying everything in their power to pretend they did not see each other.

"I gotta try and find a way to make sure Lincoln doesn't flip his gourd on this one."

Luan to her credit was secretly observing everything around her, though couldn't make out the harsh whispers that were closest to Luna. She could only piece tiny remnants of clues and draw a half-baked conclusion, and wasn't about to act on them.

Then an idea popped in her head. She recalled the tumultuous time of her break up with Sam. Luan gave the idea some kicking around, and tentatively concluded that, based on Luna's reaction, this blonde headed girl with the blue dyed patch on her forehair was the girl who took Sam away from her.

"I mean, it's gotta be. How else would she look so freaked out? This has got to be the jerk who took Luna's boyfriend Sam...it's gotta be! And I mean...yeesh, not counting her confession about Lincoln, she's never been so warped and emotionally damaged than like that from someone before...yeah...yeah, that's gotta be it!"

Lincoln and Luan, and it seems, pretty much the entire Loud household, did not know of Sam or her actual gender. Something Luna was very coy and secret about. She never mentioned to the other family members who Sam was...just that she had a crush and was afraid to act on it.

The day she did, and sneak that letter in her locker...well, everything after that was a wonderful little history and chapter in Luna's life...for a while at least, till...certain things happened.

As Luna got herself reeled back from her semi-composed freakout, Sam began playing a serene somewhat contemplative, sad yet warm, happy tune on the organ quietly in background to the Pastor's words about Mary and Chivonn.

The crowd suddenly rose up, instructed to open their books to a page Luna nor Lincoln heard, and suddenly, everyone began singing.

Luna and Lincoln quickly fumbled through their small funeral packets; it was a strange, rather non-typical song they didn't think would be sung.

"Huh...Sarah Brightman's Time to Say Goodbye...wow, they're playing the song, Sam's doing Organ accompiament, and we're all singing to it...didn't expect this," Luna thought, getting into the rhythm and melody, now singing with everyone.

"I...well dang, sorta thought we'd be singing some usual church or gospel stuff...huh...well Luna? There's a stereotype ya gotta kick out."

Lincoln was looking at the little pamphlet of songs. It looked like this was the only one highlighted, the Sarah Brightman one...and he seemed rather glad.

"I dunno if I could bear to sing that song again...ever," Lincoln thought, not wanting to think about the song he bonded with Mary on, and, in her last moments, sang to her.

It caused Lincoln to shake momentarily, but, when he heard Luna singing along, her voice, then, registering Luan, Leni, his parents, Dolores, LaShawna, Barry, everyone in church...it did make him feel...not exactly at ease, but content.

He looked at the pamphlet again; it seemed to erroneously say that this was Mary's favorite song.

"Wait a sec...that...that's not right. I mean, this is a wonderful funeral song for her, but...no, I'll keep my mouth shut. They want this song for them," Lincoln concluded, looking over to Barry singing. With the Louds risen up as well, Lincoln felt the warmth, but...also had this feeling, an awkward, cumbersome gut punch in even singing such an upbeat tune here.

He concluded he was just not in spirits, so as everyone around him sang the song for Mary and Chivonn, Lincoln just lip-synched, standing and uttering silent mumbles.

The song lasted for about four minutes, and then it finally ended, and everyone took their seats again.

Pastor Adams began resuming speaking, this time making the sermon more broadly about the events, about Mary and Chivonn, about community, the trying times they all faced together, about God and what the bible says about loved ones departing.

Lincoln still was feeling some bubbling emotions in his stomach about the Pastor's words. He felt such shame, cause these feelings...they didn't jive well with what Lincoln knew were the Pastor's good intentions.

"Barry and the others must appreciate it I bet," Lincoln wondered, looking over again and noticing the small content smiles on the Jemisons, Barry, LaShawna, Dolores and surrounding crowd's faces.

Even Leni, Luan and his parents were jiving with the content and the warm, nurturing feeling his continued funeral sermon. Heck, Luan seemed to be warming up to it. Luna, even if Lincoln suspected she stopped believing in God, seemed pretty cool with the words.

And yet...he still had this hole full of something...chaotic, unsettled, like he wasn't too sure what was in him, but he knew it wasn't good, and it wasn't what he should get from listening to this.

Pastor Adams suddenly called upon the members present in the church if they would like to say a quick few words about Mary and Chivonn.

Nearly the entire congregation stood up.

"Ah shit...this is gonna take a while," Luan mumbled, Luna hearing and agreeing. Lincoln just huffed.

And one by one, for the next forty-five minutes, family member after family member in the crowd, row by row, to the background soft organ playing of Sam, came up and talked, joked, teared up, lamented, fondly recalled, and hinted at their time with Mary and Chivonn in each of their own unique, multifaceted way.

Normally Lincoln would have loved to hear more about Mary and her granddaughter...but...he wasn't getting anything emotionally comforting about this.

More than anything, it seemed to rattle this chaotic angry bubble in him even more, the hurt, the sorrow...the rage, at such injustice.

"This thing is suppose to be making me feel better, come to terms with all this...FUCK! WHY DON'T I FEEL GOOD ABOUT ANY OF THIS!?"

Suddenly, Lincoln's mind snapped to another mindset temporarily...anger...rage... like all this was just a charade to mask what the harsh reality of life was all about.

"I can't believe I thought this would make me feel better," Lincoln thought bitterly inside himself, now getting a better feel for all these bent up emotions in him.

He tried to escape this.

He tried to sink back into the pleasant memories of his mind, the times with Luna, Halloween a few days ago, playing Twister with the family, his siblings, Lily doing her voices, Lola and Lana fighting, Lucy's poems, Lisa's experiments, Lori's calls and texts, Luan's puns, Lynn's sporty nature, Leni's ditsy but ever so sweet personality...Mr. Grouse, Pop-pop, Ronnie Anne...he circled back to Luna, that weird image of Luna in those purplish clouds above him in his episode a few days ago, telling him she was there for him.

He found it. He found the memory he wanted, and tried ignoring and not thinking about the raging pain inside him, wanting to just feel the aura Luna radiated so brilliantly to him.

As he imagined embracing her, she suddenly clasped his chin and looked deep into his eyes.

"Bro...Lincoln...you need to get this off your chest. You need to be honest with them, with yourself."

"Wh...what? No...no, I can't Luna, they'd-"

"They'd understand dude. You've been through so much. You've supported so many for so long. It's time they support you."

"Luna! I can't! I'd destroy this whole funeral if...if I think I know what I wanna say...it would ruin Mary and her granddaughter Chivonn's funeral and everyone's coping here. That wouldn't be fair to her family at all."

"I ain't gonna lie dude. It's a rough call, but...you said to me once, be honest with yourself...I think you need that tune now more than ever."

Pastor Adams began asking if there are any other members in the crowd who'd want to speak up about their thoughts and experiences with Mary and Chivonn...nearly everyone already went, including LaShawna and Barry, and Barry was still at the podium, talking about his late wife and granddaughter. Lincoln just caught wind of his words, hearing all the wonderful things about Mary's life, and Chivonn's brief, hard life on Earth. Hearing all these wonderful things about them caused him to internally ball up his mixed emotions even more.

"This is bull! I don't feel anything! Not a fucking thing! Nothing...no solace or happiness from these testimonials and words about them...it's like they're fueling the embers worse or something...am I really that bad of a person?" Lincoln thought now inwardly, feeling this same bubbling toxicity towards himself and how he was dealing with it.

"I... think I know who should have the last word Samuel, before we conclude this part of Mary and Chivonn's funeral...Lincoln?" Barry called out softly, looking square at the emotionally troubled white haired teen.

The whole congregation suddenly froze, as did Lincoln and the entire Loud family. Lincoln looked like he had ten seconds to diffuse a nuclear bomb above him.

Few moments in his life could compare to how absolutely unsure what he thought he should say or do.

None of the other Louds knew what to say or what to do. They all collectively thought this might be too much for Lincoln to deal with.

The most unlikely of them though, thought something on the spot.

Leni suddenly raised her hand quickly, feeling Lincoln's terrified, emotionally perturbed vibe, even with Luan and Luna blocking her sight of Lincoln, she felt him.

Lincoln went into a sort of trance, but could roughly make out Leni asking if they could have an intermission, or in her words, a "break-thingy," causing the crowd to laugh a little at her. Pastor Adams looked to Barry and LaShawna...they nodded approvingly.

"Well then...we'll resume our last and final bidding words with Lincoln Loud...in a way, it's...sorta fitting and miraculous. Now, refreshments and snacks will be out in the lobby. We will commence back in fifteen minutes. Make it count, as we'll bring them and begin our final farewells to Mary and Chivonn Jemison."

---

As the hustle and bustle of the intermission began, Lincoln suddenly took off like a bullet to the back recesses of the church, disappearing out of sight.

Rita, Lynn Sr, Luan, Leni started heading for him out of kinship concern, but Luna halted them, saying she'd talk to him and make sure he's okay.

And begrudgingly they accepted, all knowing full well that Lincoln seemed to always cheer up when in a mood by Luna's interventions. Luan of course was the most understanding of why Luna wanted to find him first, Leni more mixed, but conceding the point in her mind that Luna was the best.

So Rita and Lynn Sr headed to the bathrooms, while Leni scooted up to Dolores and LaShawna. Barry and LaShawna let Leni hold baby Emily, still sleeping even during service. Luan just kept her mind on how happy Leni seemed to be holding the baby again...and yet both felt a longing to go after Lincoln, where ever he disappeared to in the church.

In the back hidden hallways of the church, Lincoln leaned against a stained glass window of Jesus, looking away, trying to breath slowly, in and out. Body rattling, anger and rage filling his soul, perplexed as to why this experience was hitting so badly, he secretly hoped his personal suspicions as to why these thoughts of lament and anger plagued him were totally wrong.

Down the hall, Lincoln could hear intense boot steps.

"...dang it...Luna's gonna wonder what the hell happened to m-"

"Uh...hi," a diminutive, perky voice said. Lincoln turned around and saw the blonde girl with the blue patch in the center of her hair.

"Oh, uuh, hi..." Lincoln said very gingerly, wondering what the heck she was doing back here. "You...you play the organ, right?"

"Ye...yeah, that's me," she chirped with a tiny smile, fiddling with her hair awkwardly.

"So...I think you're Lincoln Loud, right?"

"Huhhh...how'd ya know?"

"Well, Pastor Adams called ya out by name little dude...plus...you're Luna's little bro."

"I...yeah, I'm Luna's younger brother. I...take it you know my sister?" Lincoln asked, curious as to who this girl was. He got the vibe it was the girl who took Sam, and that they still had some serious bad blood between each other based on the intense electricity he felt her and Luna shot at each other.

"Fuckin tramp...breaking my sister's heart by stealing her boyfriend like that...I mean, that sorta worked out for us, but...but still, that was a fucked thing of her to do. Luna cried so hard, and I had to do just about everything in my arsenal to get her spirits back. Man is this girl a bitc..but damn is she cute though," Lincoln thought with extreme trepidation, noting the rather delicate framed, spindly nature of this young woman, about Luna's age. She wasn't nearly as big as Luna in the derriere and breast departments, but her ass was extremely round and tight, and her bust was conservative but there, almost classical with an air of anglophilia charm.

"So...are ya meeting your sister here dude?" The girl asked Lincoln.

"Well...not really, I just needed some time alone to...well...think."

"I...yeah, I guess you do need some time for yourself, after what you did and had to do for that poor old lady Mary, ya know, when the footage was all over before it got taken down everywhere. She was a pretty nice lady."

"Wait...you knew her?"

"Yeah, I mean, not really well, but she always said I was a nice organ player when I practiced over here occasionally for my other church things. She was pretty sweet."

"Yeah...she was," Lincoln said with a heavy tone, before he wiggled his legs and cracked his neck. He also noted that this girl was pretty tall, as tall as Luna.

"...was he worth breaking my sister's heart you dirtbag?" Lincoln coily said under his breath.

"Huh? What dude?"

"...nothin. Hey, I'm gonna bounce. I...just need to be alone right now, okay? No offense."

"Oh...uhm...okay...the services start in about eight minutes dude."

"Yeah, I know...thanks," Lincoln said with a rather cold indifference, walking away down the hallway, turning the corner and laying against it, shuffling his shoes against the red flat church carpeting and taking deep, long breaths.

He turned his head around the corner back to where he came from. That girl was still there, just hanging out by herself, looking extremely emotionally troubled.

"Huh...why the hell is she all flustered. Cause of Mary?" Lincoln thought, the tone in his mind almost sounding venomous.

He just kept his position, as did she, for a few minutes, before an even more intense, powerful set of boot steps crashed the hollow floors below.

"...Luna..." Lincoln mumbled, not sure if he was ready to talk about his feelings yet.

Luna meanwhile was going down the narrow hallway, surprisingly bare of any other church-goers from the service.

"Yo, bro. You in here?" Luna called out.

She looks down the hallway, swearing she saw his shadow outline for a moment. Not entirely sure, she tried for it anyways. Lincoln shuffles a bit, his shadow not moving at all.

Luna, while heading towards him...accidentally bumps into last person she wanted to see at this moment.

Luna's bust bounced the other girl right back into the wall when they collided. Now both were down a small, side perpendicular hallway, completely isolated from everyone, besides Lincoln just barely down the hall.

"What the hell! OW...dang, sorry abou...Sam?" Luna asked with a quiet, rippling tone.

"Lu...Luna," Sam replied back, now on her butt, shaking all too high heaven, not sure what to say or think.

"...jeez...sorry," Luna said without care, pulling Sam up with as little closeness and proximity as she could muster. She nearly ripped Sam off the floor, pulling her arm really hard.

"Uhhmmm...thanks Luna...it's...it's nice to see ya again."

Luna just gave a stoic, uncaring look at her, while Sam looked completely timid and nervous.

'So...uuuu...Luna...how've you been, si...since-"

"Doing a hell of a lot better actually. And I don't mean to be a blunt chap, but I gotta take care of-"

"Lu...Luna?"

Luna huffed impatiently, giving Sam an extremely stern, but understanding look.

"Look, Sam, let's not bring that shit up right now, okay? It ain't a good idea dude."

"I...I know, and I...Luna?"

Luna raised her eyebrow with a lackadaisical mood.

"What Sam?"

Lincoln, now attuned to the tail end of this exchange, only heard Luna say the name "Sam."

He popped his ears, scooted as close to the edge of the corner wall to ease-drop on Luna's talk with this young woman, hoping he wouldn't need to intervene and prevent her from clobbering this blonde headed woman. Ears tuned, now rather curious, on his toes, wondering what was going on.

Luna leaned against the wall with her hands in her dark purple pocket suit. Sam took a few steps closer.

"Make it quick Sam. I gotta find my brother and-"

Sam suddenly walked up to Luna, getting extremely close to her, breathing nervously right in Luna's face.

"S...Sam?"Luna quivered, until Sam locked her lips into Luna's, feeling Luna's breasts and wrapping her in a tight, luscious make-out hug.

Luna felt so...vulnerable, so used...so...taken advantage of, frozen from shock, rigid as a rock.

Lincoln couldn't believe his eyes. A wall of information and secrets just got dumped right onto him.

"Oh my...god...Sam...that's Sam...holy fuck! That blonde headed girl didn't steal Luna's boyfriend...Luna never had a boyfriend...Sam, that was her girlfriend...her secret girlfriend we all thought was her boyfriend, but...was really a girl...her secret girlfriend...holy...sweet..."

Lincoln felt a light-headed from seeing this encounter. He could feel though something about Luna's rigid reaction to this forced make-out.

And he prepared himself to intervene.

As Sam tried to grapple Luna's tongue with her own, Luna suddenly felt a sorrowful fire she thought was long ago was put out...Sam just reignited that planetary fire, that broken hearted teen suffering...the rage and hate, still deeply locked in her.

Luna pushed Sam right off of her, then slapped the ever-loving shit out of Sam, knocking her backwards into a pile of church gowns, causing Sam to squeak out in pain and terror.

"HOLY SHIT!" Lincoln nearly screamed, covering his mouth, thinking now was the best time to intervene.

"WHAT THE FUCK!? WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU DO THAT SAM?" Luna roared out in fury, not even her fight with the others weeks ago could compare. It...scared him.

Sam just shook, with a large face palm mark on her cheek, tearing and crying now.

"OH NO! No, you don't get to cry! NOT AFTER THE BULLSHIT YOU PUT MY THROUGH YOU BLOODY FUCKIN TWAT!"

"Uh oh...am...am I about to learn some serious stuff?" Lincoln dreaded.

"Luna...I'm...I'M SORRY! I COULDN'T HELP IT! I...I just feel so muc-"

"That's a fuckin hoot dude. You didn't feel anything when you broke my heart Sam. You...YOU FUCKIN CHEATER SAM! WHY? WHY LIKE THAT!?"

"I don't know...I DON'T KNOW...I FUCKED UP, SO BADLY LUNA, I-"

"Save it dude," Luna growled with a primal, threatening tone, looming now over Sam's shaking, crying form, "...do you even know what you did to me? How horrible I felt? I thought, OH MY GOD, SHE LIKES ME, SHE REALLY LIKES ME! And for months, we take it slow, and we bond...so, so much...AND THEN YOU FUCKIN CHEAT ON ME WITH THAT ASSHOLE IN OUR GROUP? THAT CUMSTAIN!?"

"...I...I can't ever say how sorry I am Luna. I didn't know what I wanted. I...I really thought what you and I were doing, it...it was just a-"

"Just a phase...I remember Sam...I remember you telling me that...right when I find out you're snoggin that fuckwad, right...in...front...of...me...YOU INSENSITIVE CUNT! YOU SAID EVERYTHING WE HAD WAS A FUCKING PHASE, ALL THE TIME, THE LOVE, THE KISSING? AND YOU SAID IT RIGHT IN FRONT OF THAT COCKSUCKER!"

"Holy mother of lord...is...is that why Luna keeps begging me that she hopes she's not a phase to me?" Lincoln asked himself, now fully understanding the context of why Luna asked that of him multiple times beforehand. Sam called Luna...a phase...and it must have really destroyed her. It was a wonder to Lincoln how Luna stayed single ever since then...now it wasn't.

"...L...Luna...I...I was wrong," Sam cried out silently, wiping tears off her face, "that...that was one of the biggest mistakes of my life. You weren't a phase...I...I realize that was not fair of me to do, at all."

"Sam...if you wanted to tell me that you really didn't feel that way about me, then I would have understood. HELL, if you wanted to have a three-way with that fuck, I probably would have gone for that, but now? No, you don't get to feel any remorse, cause you acted like the biggest piece of shit, ever."

Sam hung her head low, crying into a knee hard. Luna was tearing up, now forcing herself to breath in and out slowly.

"Sam...anything you were looking for in that make-out kiss ya snuck on me, if you were trying to sucker me into something...it's not there...I...I still love you, in my own, fucked up way, but...it's not enough to forget how much you fucked me over with that rocker guy in the group. After all that bull, I ostracized myself from the group, and very nearly lost my love of Rock N Roll cause of you."

Luna suddenly meandered in thought, remembering how back then, after her dramatic, unforeseen dumping, that there was one...awesome dude who did everything in his power to make her feel better in her funk, so much so that he dedicated nearly two weeks of his own life, just for her.

"...Lincoln."

Luna had a major personal revelation right there...this happened a few years ago, that little spark of a flame that now burned for Lincoln...and this...the way Lincoln was so supportive of her, being there for her after Sam dumped her on the spot, calling her "... phase," and shitting on the inklings she thought could grow, Lincoln was there to save her. He didn't even pressure her for the details on who or what Sam was. He was just there to do everything he could to help his big sister. And as much as her sisters tried, Luan in particular, Lincoln seemed to have this magical touch that just slowly but surely made some of that pain go away. The rest, Luna admittedly numbed herself on, but most of that intense pain Lincoln crushed into a bad dream.

"Lincoln...he's...my bro's always been there to save me. He was the only one to really push himself and try and help. He's...my white haired angel."

This was the time when those little seeds in Luna's mind...beginning to feel a tinge more for Lincoln than just a brother began, she thought. She wondered when these feelings concretely manifested. She didn't know when, but...those tingles she could remember, really came to a head when he helped her recover.

Of course they were buried in the back of her subconscious, but...in Luna's heart, when Sam broke her down to what she thought was beyond repair...Lincoln came in and consoled her, and in such a way that...deep down in her soul, Luna must have felt, "...this is the kind of guy I want...someone like bro...my bro...my..."

And then the rest was history.

I'm sorry Sam-"

"Luna! Please! I-"

"It's over Sam. It's over...you didn't even call me back, or text me for several months, or ever since then...you just cut me out of your life altogether...and now? Ya snog me at a funeral? For the family who lost two family members in these storms, my brother having to be there for one at her death, you pop this on me suddenly? Dude, come on, that's fucked."

"I...yeah...it is fucked of me Luna. It really is. Truth...truth be told, I wasn't expecting to see you today...honestly. I...just sorta snapped when I saw you."

"You...still care about me still dude?" Luna asked, her tone a little more gentle.

"...a lot...I...I fucked up when I didn't realize that when I told you you're a phase...that was a lie. I was lying to myself, scared that...I dunno...I was scared...about my orientation...about sex stuff...I loved spending time with you Luna, and...I got too scared with how people would see us."

"Peer pressure huh? That's why I admittedly never told who "Sam" was when I was crushin on ya bad in the past. Was it your folks?"

"...my dad said he would disown me and kick me out if he ever found out I liked women. I mean...I don't really like girls Luna...but...I love you...still, even when I told you I don't, it was...FUCK! I FUCKED US UP SO BAD LUNA! AND MOST OF ALL? I FUCKED YOU UP! I BROKE YOUR HEART!" Sam cried out, slamming her head into the back wall, nearly shaking the whole wall behind her. She balled up and cried hard into her knees...and Luna did something she thought she'd never do ever, even after her tumultuous ordeal with this blonde headed young woman who seemed to still have powerful feelings and lament over what she did to Luna...Luna pulled her into a loose hug.

Lincoln...was just bewildered.

He didn't know how to respond to this. He just...felt so...astounded by this bombshell of a revelation. He felt so sorry for Luna, slightly sorry for Sam, even though he felt extreme heat and rage for this person who hurt his sister so badly, and yet? Luna seemed to give Sam a minute amount of slack...and let her get out her lament.

"Wow...wh...whoa...no wonder I'm in love with her. Even after all this...and...and yet she still consoles her, even after what she did to her, pulling that horrible move on Luna. God...I think I'm in love with Luna even more now," Lincoln thought, seeing his sister pat Sam on the back...and he felt some tears trickle down his face. All that they went through, Luna still...was so caring and motherly, even to the person who hurt her the most in her entire life.

"Sam...count your blessings Luna is one of the greatest women ever...man...I was not prepared for this...almost makes me forget my own deal and demons...almost."

Suddenly the church bells rang, a grand gesture for the end of the intermission.

"Hey...hey Sam. Come on, get yourself together lass. We gotta get going."

"Luna...I...you'll never be able to forgive me for what I did...but...can...we still be friends? I mean...I'd understand if you don't want to even look at me anymore or ever again. I...frankly, don't deserve any mercy or ni-"

"I...I'll admit...I still feel some serious rage and hatred over...well...I'm still...ya told me I was a phase Sam. You know how much that fucked me up, right?"

"Well...I mean, we both agreed to not tell either family that we had girlfriends, remember?" Sam asked.

"That didn't mean you fuck me over like that Sam. Look...I...maybe we can start over...as...maybe just rock mates...some day. For now though? I'm...sorta on my own path."

"I...I understand Luna. I...don't deserve y-"

"But one day, maybe we could be friends, when...I don't have so much hurt and ill towards ya mate, okay? Maybe we can start over...but...you know, it's over, right? I still love ya, but not like I use to...cause...well...my heart's somewhere else now."

"...oh...well...I mean, I get it...plus...look at you Luna. You're fucking hotter than I ever knew...whoever the lucky gal is that's got your heart is really-"

"Uhmm...guy actually Sam. And...it's...well, that's all I'll say, okay?"

"A guy Luna?"

"Yeah...I...I think...I'm use to the idea that I'm Bi...I'm more okay with it now."

"Huh...funny...I guess I sorta came to be okay with that too Luna. Plus...I told my dad to fuck off. I'm on my own with roommates."

"That a girl, rock on love...I mean...friend, ya know."

"Th...thanks Luna. I can't...shit...bollocks..I dunno if I-"

"There's one thing you can do to help make amends between us dude. It's not enough, well...no were near enough, but it's a start, a foot in the right direction since you sorta went AWOL on me. Ya know this song?" Luna asked, pulling her cell phone out, showing Sam a song and the musical notes for it.

"Yeah...this...this version's actually kinda nice."

"Good. Cause I want you to ask the Pastor and see if I can get this song played, and we can all sing this one...it's...for my bro."

"I'll do that, no problem...also Luna...that guy? Monty?"

"Yeah...that twat...what of him?"

"He's...in jail...for life. He did some pretty fucked up things after I broke up with him...after you."

"Damn...well...wait...so you didn't stay with him after you dumped me Sam?"

"...he was a twat...I sorta stayed single for the last few years."

"Well...I guess I don't blame ya."

"And I still have that copy of the Beatles ya lent me...if you want it back. It has that one version of "Across the Universe" you love so much. I know where ya live, so I can drop it off when you're not home and-"

"Well...maybe in a few weeks you could swing by, we could listen to a song...just that, as...maybe new acquaintances."

"I'd like that Luna...a lot," Sam said, putting a hand out for Luna. Luna grabbed it, and shook it gently.

"My bro and family's probably gonna be there. I'd like him to hear it. And...we still gotta be hush hush about this crap, our past, okay?"

"Okay Luna...whatever ya want. And...do you wanna sing this? Really?"

"Yeah...I understand it was her fav-"

Lincoln coughed, unable to hear, but just felt tears of happiness for all this apparently latent drama to come to a close in this minor but very traumatic chapter.

"So let's get back out there Sam, clean your tears and...AH SHIT! BRO!"

"Huh? What's up Luna?"

"Sam...I was headin to check on my bro. He looked so...Jesus, I'm glad we could deal with our shit, but...Lincoln," Luna thought in shear disappointment.

"Yo, I'm here," Lincoln suddenly said, with a small smile on his face, tears wiped off, but visibly looking a little shaky.

"Dude...you okay?"

"I'm fine Luna. Just...needed some air is all. Also, very nice to meet you...uhm...Sam I believe?" Lincoln asked, giving a wink to both her and Luna...a knowing wink-look. Luna and Sam just blushed.

"Hey...what my sis does with her friends, or...people closer to her heart, is completely up to her and them. I'm sorta of the mindset of leaving folks to their own lives...love who they want when it doesn't hurt anyone else, right Luna?" Lincoln slyly said, cocking a smirky expression to her.

"Heehheeh, yup bro, that's rockin luv," Luna said with a wink.

"Lincoln...you're one cool little dude," Sam said with a giggle, her spirits lifting up a bit.

Luna suddenly leaned over to Lincoln and whispered, "I know personally you're not little, eheeh."

Lincoln swallowed the blush coming out, and started off, waiving for Luna and Sam to come. They shuffled after him, to which, Luna again whispered in his ear, "hey...bro? You mind if I...do something for ya?"

"What's that Luna?"

"Mind...if I ask the Pastor to let me do somethin for ya? Sam's gonna help me do it since she's a guru on organ."

"Well...sure, I don't see why not. What are you planning on doing?"

"...you'll see," Luna said rubbing his shoulder with her free hand, feeling like she was about to give Lincoln and the congregation a wonderful little spiritual nod, even if she herself was not a believer in the strict sense anymore...but she did believe in the power of music, and that can unite so many.

Lincoln pondered what that meant since he missed some of the tail end of the conversation, deciding to jump in and bring the two back.

Strangely enough...he felt no jealousy if Luna and Sam were going to try and be friends again. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he felt more than able to trust Luna with Sam, even if she concealed a history between them, even from Lincoln. Normally he'd be miffed from Luna not telling him this, rather big period of her life, but...in the end, he cared about her happiness, and her feelings. When she was ready, she'd tell him about Sam, at least that's what Lincoln jived towards.

He did however feel a bit guilty in listening in on them, but...at least he got personal context of what happened to Luna all those years ago, and through confirmation...her sexuality.

"Luna swings both ways...ehehehhehe...I knew it," Lincoln smirked, letting a lewd thought cross his mind momentarily, a threesome with another girl, him and Luna.

"Hey bro?" Luna asked.

"Yeah?" Lincoln replied, now breaking off from Sam as she headed towards the front, walking up to Pastor Adams and whispering in his ear. He seemed to have a shocked, but delighted expression.

"Hey...later, I need to tell ya a few things after this, that cool? Late tonight?"

"Sure rock-gal! But...I'm sorta curious as to what ya got cooking righ-"

"Luna Loud?" Pastor Adams called out. Lincoln, Barry, LaShawna, the rest of the Louds and the entire congregation stared at Luna quickly hopping back up, walking around, tapping Sam's shoulder and mouthing a "thanks," to which, she took a spot by the Pastor.

"Our lovely organist has told us one of the sisters who rescued little baby Emily here would like to sing for us. As a matter of fact brothers and sisters, it's a song...for some reason, was not put in the service, and given how much both Mary and Chivonn loved this song, it would be an utter travesty to not rejoice in it. Luna? Is your brother okay with this?"

"He is dude...I mean...Pastor," Luna squeaked. Pastor Adams took a back corner standing position, a look of hope and love on his, rather tired and worn expression. Lincoln, and it seemed, many others, wondered how many funeral services he was presiding over the last few weeks, not to mention of multitude of others still needing to be done.

"This song...I think...if I heard right...and I think we all know, is Mary's and Chivonn's favorite song, isn't that right bro? This is for them, and this is for you, for being the bravest, most considerate little dude ever," Luna said, looking over to him.

"...what the hell is she about to sing?" Lincoln said internally in a deep knot in his belly, hoping all to hell she was not about to sing the song. He slapped on a neutral face, but was panicing so badly inside himself now. This bubbling inside him...it felt more rocked and shaken now.

Then, with a few presses of some keys on the organ at a rather consistent tempo ala Sam...Lincoln's dread manifested.

His body stood frozen as he heard Luna sing the first lyrics.

"...Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home...Swing low, sweet chariot,coming for to carry me home."

Several choked-up gasps of joy rocked the house of worship.

"She knows?" One voiced called out.

"Thank God she went up there, otherwise the Pastor would have forgotten the most important part of Mary and Chivonn's soul...they wouldn't have gotten their song," Lincoln heard from several rows behind him, this man now crying tears of happiness.

"I knew if we talked to him, he'd be welcoming for their song," another voiced called out. It was LaShawna, her and Barry looking so happy as they felt the lyrics, causing them to tear up, along with Dolores who just broke down happily next to an awkward looking Lynn Sr.

Lincoln though? His body and mind went shell-shocked, petrified as petrified wood millions and millions of years old.

"I looked over Jordan, and what did I see, coming for to carry me home...a band of angels, coming after me, coming for to carry me home," Luna sang brilliantly and brightly, now with Pastor Adams by her side, motioning his head and arms for everyone to rise up and join Luna in singing one last, powerful gospel-styled tune for the celebrated deceased. Sam to her credit was jamming on the organ, doing the best she could to try and make the song full of as much powerful emotion as she could, a rather average but upbeat tempo, still full of an inherent melancholy, but swirling underneath its surface was love, admiration, respect, and warmth.

And Lincoln felt the opposite of all this. Instead, this swirling torrent of musical vibes grid-locked his mind to the chaos of those memories from the People Mover again, and again, and again...and again.

He could see Mary dying over and over, all on repeat with the song's melody, even if Luna was the one singing it.

That made it so, so much worst. She was hurting him so badly without even knowing it, and he couldn't fault her, in fact, it made him appreciate her more, just from the thought alone...but his innards were caving in.

And the little folded slip of paper he wanted to discreetly talk about, the news article he found that challenged everything he believed before that he privately snuck with him, just to see if he could get advice from the Pastor about, something he didn't tell anyone, not even Luna...was burning a gaping hole in his heart.

Everything was burning a hole, and it hurt. It hurt badly for him.

"Dang it...DANG IT! THAT CURSED GOD DAMN SONG!" Lincoln cried out in his mind, hating how he was the only one getting such a negative reaction from the melody and lyrics.

That song has so much baggage with it, for Lincoln...and right now Luna just got the entire congregation up on their feet, joining in and singing with an upbeat, joyous style.

He really wanted to love this, appreciate what Luna was doing as a grand musical gesture for the Jemisons, for everyone here, and for him.

But...he felt so beyond maligned by what the song represented for him, from his ordeal.

From seeing the life leave Mary's eyes.

He put on a small smile, one of his fakest ever, rocking somewhat back and forth on his feet, fake-singing with Luan next to him. He played at joining in, but it was just...utterly fake. There was nothing legitimate in his faux show of gratitude and jollity.

Yet it was the least he could do. He felt he owed the Jemisons and Luna that much at least.

While Luna was locked in her musical mindframe, lost in the moment of jamming and bringing everyone together for her biggest sing-along yet with Sam smashing the organ keys, Luan and Leni still, putting on good faces and flexing with the environment...something was off about Lincoln's apparent enjoyment...something was really off, like he was just putting on a show, just for Luna's, theirs, the Jemison's, and everyone else's sake.

A large number of the attendees around them to glanced more often at Lincoln. In many ways, they felt that this was his way to finally say goodbye, and among many of them, came shifting eyes back and forth to the white-haired young teen who was there for one of the deceased when she passed. As bad as his experience was based on the footage they all saw, now mysteriously no longer to be found online, they hoped this young man would try and heal from the experience through community and the word of God...to which it they may have thought was the case based on his actions...but they were dead wrong.

"Lincoln, this is not you...this is fake...you're really hurting right now. I dunno how I can tell, but I can...where are you?" Luan asked Lincoln silently in her head, wishing Lincoln would let himself open up about what was eating at him. She kept her space, but deep down, wanted so badly to intervene and look into Lincoln's troubled soul more.

"If only you weren't in this moment Luna...it's pretty, but...I think the song's affecting him...big sis."

As Luan snuck her own troubled glances while rocking and singing with the gospel-styled song, Leni did the same, wondering why Lincoln had a smile on when she could feel he didn't mean it at all.

"Lincy...what's wrong," Leni cooed in her mind, Other Leni wondering the same thing in the backdrop of her subconscious. She in particular could feel Lincoln's mounting tensions, his internal turmoil...and rage...a bubbling confusion of hurt, almost ready to go off any second.

Other Leni prepped herself to take over any second should Lincoln...change.

As the song came to a close, everyone singing lowly for one final, angelic choral feel with the final lyrics, Luna gave it her all in being so angelic as she could. It really did touch Lincoln how much she bled her soul in singing this, going way out of her usual style...but it still...it felt...traumatic was not the word he wanted to use, but other words were far worse.

On the final lyrics and the ending organ notes, Lincoln heard some wooden creaking from his right ear. As Luna and Sam did their final duet together, Lincoln turned around and saw them...and nearly fainted.

A funeral casket with Chivonn being wheeled first past him on his right, just a few feet away, followed by the next casket, open as well, and Lincoln saw her, in a bright, brilliant, elegant white dress.

"...Mary..."

Everything went quiet. Lincoln's acoustic environment went dead quiet. He could only see people clapping, tearing up, Dolores, LaShawna holding Emily and Barry smiling to Luna, the Pastor hugging Luna, Sam with a big smile on her face, most, if not all the congregation crying from joy and happiness...he could digest the sights, but not the sounds.

And as he saw Luna quickly come down, Lynn Sr and Rita cheering on their daughter, the Pastor waived over Lincoln to take the podium.

With his thousand-mile stare plastered right on him, Lincoln took the long, long way around, not bothering to look at anyone, now...not caring how he looked, his outlook more dead, lethargic and...numb...at least he tried to make himself numb and feel nothing.

The more numb he tried to make himself feel, the worse...so much worse, it got.

And without even realizing it, he was at the podium, standing on a small stool since he was still not tall enough to totally reach over.

He could feel his lips moving, yet with no words coming out.

His mind locked in serene, protective quiet, he glanced around. Everyone, everyone looked at him with confusion, concern, wondering what was about to happen, what Lincoln was about to say.

In the corner of his eyes he saw Luan whisper in Luna's ear, pointing to the caskets...Lincoln guessed she missed them somehow, cause now Luna had the most alert, concerned face he saw today. His parents, Leni, LaShawna and Barry had perturbed faces, not totally sure what was about to transpire.

And then he looked down, right in the center of the pews.

Chivonn's and Mary's caskets. As strong as LaShawna and Barry were holding, besides Dolores quietly crying, he...felt so utterly weak.

And then he focused all his energies on Mary's open casket.

It was a dress, much like the one she was wearing at the time. Her face, looking at peace, just like when we was there at the very end...and those lyrics in his mind started dropping out of his mouth without him even knowing.

""S...swi...ng low, swe...et chariot, c..coming for to carry me ho...home..."

"Lincy!" Leni choked out, hearing Lincoln mumbled those lyrics with such a watery, tortured tone. He was looking directly at Mary's casket. The Pastor moved a few inches closer to Lincoln as Barry, Rita and Lynn Sr suddenly cocked their necks, utterly horrified by Lincoln's sudden show of lament.

""Swi...ng low, sweet chariot, c..c..coming for to c...arry m...me ho...home..."

This quivering, sad version of the song they all just sang just sent the entire congregation into such a cold shiver...this was just like seeing the video, but with one of the actual persons in it. Sam was so, so uncomfortable sitting at the organ as Lincoln was stuck in this violent funk.

Then something happened. Lincoln looked down, inspecting Mary's face...he saw her eyes open, half the lower casket open...and see her lower body missing, her organs flowing out like a bucket of water being thrown out onto a sidewalk.

"Child...you didn't save me...why? Why didn't you save me?" Mary's corpse suddenly said, with blood gasping out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry I couldn't save you Mary," Lincoln suddenly said pathetically, backing from the podium, her body going back to normal. He said it right into the microphone, and now, everyone felt what was happening to him.

Lincoln suddenly shook violently, getting red in the face. The Loud family shot up, ready to run up and intervene, before Pastor Adams took Lincoln by the shoulder.

"Young man, it's okay. We're all here. We're all around to help with the pain and mourning," he said warmly, gripping Lincoln's shoulders as Lincoln's numbness started to shatter, and the pain...the pain composed of so many gut emotions bubbled like a volcanic chamber.

Lincoln suddenly wrenched his shoulders away and jumped off the stage, walking right down the center aisle.

"DUDE?" Luna called out.

"BROTHA LINCOLN! WAIT! YOU CAN RELEASE YOUR LAMENT IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD!" Pastor Adams called out encouragingly.

Lincoln stopped in his tracks. Something felt like it was about to snap any moment in him.

"Lincoln, I know it's hard, but if you express yourself and let God shine his light and love on your-"

"That's a lie..."

"...Lincoln?" Pastor Adams asked, somewhat taken aback by Lincoln's quiet, unsettling tone.

Then...it happened.

"THAT'S A LIE PASTOR, AND YOU KNOW IT!"

"Lincoln, calm yourself, and-"

Lincoln rotated in one, jagged motion, and glared fiery hurt straight at the representative for the almighty.

"EVERYTHING YOU SAID, ALL THIS, IT'S ALL A FAKE SHOW! IT'S ALL A SHAM! NOTHING! UTTERLY NOTHING ABOUT THIS IS REAL OR TRUE!"

The entire congregation went dead silent from Lincoln's violent outburst. His parents, Barry, everyone was just in shock from hearing him blow up like that. Luna, Leni, and Luan just started quivering in small gasps. They all felt such sorrow and hurt from his words.

"Lincoln...son...it may not be apparent, but God loves us all in his own, infinite, mysterious, omnipotent way. It may not be-"

"REALLY? YOU THINK HE LOVES US? SO DAMN MUCH TO LET THIS HAPPEN? AND NOT ONLY MARY! THIS?" Lincoln roared out, tears now streaming down his face as he pulled out the folder paper that burned his soul so.

It was a news clipping, detailing one of the most horrific tragedies of the tornado disaster.

"YOU'VE ALL SEEN THIS! YOU'VE SEEN IS PASTOR ADAMS! LOOK! IT SAYS RIGHT HERE "CARAVAN HOSPITAL TRUCK FOUND WITH FIFTEEN BABIES ON BOARD AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DETROIT RIVER. THE CARAVAN WAS SWEPT AWAY BY THE GIANT TORNADO AND THROWN INTO THE DETROIT RIVER WHERE THE DRIVER, MEDICAL STAFF AND ALL FIFTEEN BABIES DROWNED TO DEATH."

"Lincoln...this was a horrible tragedy that befell our city, but we cannot try and understand the mind of-"

"GOD DIDN'T DO A FUCKING THING PASTOR, AND YOU KNOW IT! DON'T TELL ME HE LOVES AND CARES ABOUT US! I...I almost lost my sisters...AND I ALMOST HAD ONE DIE, RIGHT IN MY ARMS! AND YOU'RE TELLING ME GOD CARES ABOUT US ALL?"

"Lincoln, son, please...calm down," Barry begged, feeling like Lincoln was about to cross a line.

"I'M SORRY PASTOR, BUT IF THIS IS WHAT YOUR GOD IS LIKE?...THEN YOUR GOD IS AN ASSHOLE! FUCK YOUR GOD! HE'S A MONSTER!"

"I WILL NOT LET YOU DEFILE OUR LORD AND SAVIOR IN HIS HOUSE!" A large, round black military looking man suddenly yelled out, jostling from his seats and heading straight to Lincoln at full speed.

"ABOUT TIME YOU GET A SMACKING YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE MAGGOT! YOU NEVER TAKE THE LORD IN VAIN IN HIS HOUSE BOY, DO YOU HEAR ME!" He roared, suddenly slapping the hell out of Lincoln, knocking him backwards several feet.

"LINCOLN!" Rita screeched out horribly.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH! DON'T YOU TOUCH MY SON!" Lynn Sr roared out.

"BRO!"

"LINCOLN!"

"LINCY!"

And the whole house of worship turned into pandemonium.

Lincoln just rose up, and bitterly said, "...I hate God..." then ran full speed out.

While everyone was now shouting and screaming, Lynn Sr, Rita, Luna and Luan were trying to get over to Lincoln, LaShawna and Barry trying to shout out to everyone, the Pastor doing his best to calm the big round guy still heading towards Lincoln...and suddenly...

A black flash shot over the Louds and Jemison's, including several now wildly active pews of attendees.

The flash came down right in front of the huge, round buzz-cut black man, landing with a thud that shook the church, scaring everyone half to death.

In all the chaos, they finally saw...everyone saw...Leni was looming over the large man, and she held him by the neck, both arms, her hands wrapped around his neck, lifted straight off the ground.

"HOLY SHIT! LENI!" Luan cried out, now aware of who it was.

Other Leni saw the exchange, and now...she was after blood for anyone who would dare hurt Lincoln.

"Nobody...hurts...my...Lincy," Leni said in a tone so chilling, so scary that it caused everyone to go silent for a moment. The large, gasping black man, trying to reach for her, now loosing conscious, tears of asphyxiation leaving his reddening eyes...was utterly powerless.

"LENI! STOP, YOU'RE GONNA KILL HIM!" Luan cried out, running over with the rest of the family at full speed.

The church was wiped in an unbelievable frenzy of screams, shouts, cries, and many, many dozens of attendees tried to pry Leni's grip off the man. And poor baby Emily was crying now from the chaos that just got wiped up.

It wouldn't budge. She wouldn't budge.

"JESUS LORD ALMIGHTY SHE'S STRONG! I CAN'T GET HIM LOOSE!" One attendee said, all the biggest men in attendance trying to wrestle Leni's body off.

Somehow or another, she was not budging.

"LENI! SWEETIE! STOP IT OR YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HIM!" Rita cried out. Lynn Sr so wanted to let this man suffer for hurting Lincoln like that...but in his gut knew he had to pry his daughter off, whom it appeared was vastly stronger than they knew...and much darker and protective than he ever gave credit for.

The Louds now tried wrestling Leni's grip and Leni herself off, still not budging an inch.

Luan suddenly scooted as close to her ear as she could.

"Leni! We need to go find Lincoln! Please! Let him go! I promise he won't hurt Lincoln again," Luan said into Leni's ear. Other Leni just seemed to give a nod that she heard...then pushed the large man back into the crowd trying to pry him free.

Ha gagged and gasped for breath, unable to get his bearings straight.

"CALL THE POLICE AND HAVE THESE CRACKA'S FUCKIN THROWN IN JAIL!" A woman cried out, grabbing the large man, presumably the man's wife.

"GO AHEAD! I'LL TELL THEM WITH EYE WITNESSES THAT YOUR HUSBAND ASSAULTED MY CHILD!" Lynn Sr fired back as he pulled Leni back.

"PEOPLE PLEASE! GET A HOLD OF YOURSELVES! Good lordie almighty! Robert? Take Maurice and Tana over to the podium, fetch him some water and give him some air. He'll be okay, he's a tough guy" Pastor Adams said.

"BUT PASTOR! YOU SAW WHAT THAT-"

"Your husband assaulted a child Tana! Now...if we can all find it in our hearts to forgive and move on, we can try and salvage this colossal mishap...goodness," the Pastor mumbled, catching his breath and presumably fetching additional supplies for the man who hit Lincoln and was just man-handled by Leni.

Leni, as Other Leni, just stood her ground while Lynn Sr and Rita tried in vein pulling Leni back, as she was staring at her feet, unsure what to do.

Luna took off like a bat outta hell for Lincoln, followed by Barry, who tried consoling Rita and Lynn Sr, before they too took off to find Lincoln. Luan yelled that she'd watch Leni, and pulled a bewildered, shaking Other Leni towards the very front of the church in the back corner.

"Other Leni...please, we need to find him! Snap out of it!"

"Luan...Lincy's hurt...he's hurt badly, and...there's nothing I can do to help him," Other Leni cried out silently as they got to the front doors, closing on them as they took a moment to breath, presumably their parents who just ran out.

Luan halted the chaos of the scenes in her head, trying to grapple exactly what just went down, and she took a breath, before feeling...anger...

"Huuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh...Other Leni...WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?"

"...I wasn't thinking Luan...I was feeling...I was gonna kill him for hurting Lincy like that..."

---

Author's Note:

Salutations everyone,

So, first and foremost...MY SINCEREST APOLOGIZES FOR SUCH A LATE ENTRY! My life has been hectic lately with drama and actual natural disasters, family, car accidents, so my time and writer's block has been a real bother. I hope you all like the fact I made this chapter a particularly long one, and as a surprise, it's a two-parter. I hope you like this everyone, as I put blood, sweat and tears wherever I could, since this topic is such a personal, touchy one.

Again, please leave reviews of what you thought. I know it's not a traditional lewd chapter, but I hope it'll still satisfy that FLRA itch some of you have gotten lately. I'll try and post the next chapter sooner, but life...yeesh.

Cheers everyone! Live long and prosper!