Lynn had tried to get through the night as normally as possible, after checking up on her brother, and having a breakdown in his arms, she returned to her own hospital room, reluctantly via wheelchair. The sporty Loud was able to get the voices to stop when she had calmed down, that did not make the incident any less scary. Now she was in her own room alone, again, trying to decide what to do.
"Will it get better when my head heals...?" Lynn had to ask herself, the doctor did say she had suffered a skull fracture after all. The auburn-haired girl was not sure what she could do though, so far whenever a voice in her head chimed up, it was never the same one though, each different one scared her to no end. Lynn considered telling doctor Brike at one point when he was doing the usual checkup, but the fear of being locked away in a padded room was enough to make Lynn clam up from the option.
That was her night as a whole, Lynn had spent the entire night trying to suppress the voices, if she concentrated, she was able to get them to be quiet down pretty well, yet the stress, anxiety, and fear from it all was nearly too much for the sports loving Loud. It kept her wide awake, time was flying by without her even knowing it. The sunlight was bleeding through the half-closed blinds in her hospital room, she did not even care really, she kept having flashes of yesterday coursing through her mind.
"Miss Loud?" She heard, at first wanting to ignore it and brush it off as another voice sparking up, when Lynn sat up in bed, she could see a nurse standing in the doorway. That was when the teenage girl took notice of the time, a clock on the wall reading that it was roughly 7am. "You have visitors. I just thought I'd let you know." The nurse stated, having come to make sure the patient was well enough to deal with a bunch of visitors at once, the girl with the bandaged head rubbed her eyes tiredly but nodded.
"Ugh, just tell them to get lost..." A voice in Lynn's head chimed up, the sports loving girl felt in agreement with said voice, actually she felt what little energy she had draining fast the second she had that thought even appear in her head. Lynn shook it off, holding her head as it throbbed once again.
"Thanks for letting me know." Lynn forced out the words as she thanked the nurse, who motioned that it was no trouble before leaving the room, going to tell the visitors that they could visit the girl with the fractured skull.
It didn't even take a minute before several all too familiar people entered the room, Lynn's family, or rather half of them. She guessed they did the usual split up to check in on both of the hospitalized Louds and were planning on doing their rotations again like yesterday.
"Lynn honey, oh it's so great to see you awake!" Lynn was immediately hugged by their mother, Rita, and father, Lynn Loud Senior. It made her sore body hurt, yet the sports loving girl did not mind the comforting embrace.
"Don't let them go, they're the only ones that care about you after all. And that's only because they had you." Another voice in Lynn's head spoke up, it sounded like her younger sister Lucy, not in voice but in tone, that sheer despair of hopelessness that could suck the energy out of everyone around them it felt like. The sporty Loud just tried to drown the voice out for now like she had done all night. Frankly it was starting to exhaust her patience, it was as if her mind would say something terrible or random if her thoughts dared to wander, it was like having others thinking in her own head.
"H-Hey Mom, hi Dad." Lynn junior weakly smiled, when their embrace ended, she could see her four siblings that had come to check up on her first. The embrace lasting a good minute before they let the auburn-haired girl go after realizing they were unintentionally smothering her.
"Hey sis, you gave us a pretty bad scare." A more laid-back voice was heard, Lynn seeing an older woman with a pixie style haircut wearing a purple shirt with skull and crossbones on it, as well as dark purple-colored jeans that looked like they had seen their fair share of use. She was Luna Loud, an aspiring rock star and one that tended to dote over the younger family members a fair bit, she basically was the second mother of the Loud house.
"How's your head? The doctor told us you had a fracture." Lynn saw their oldest sister, Lori, standing there, a woman with short blonde hair wearing a baby blue sweater and with earrings. The sports loving girl was actually surprised to see her oldest sister there, Lori was halfway through college and had been living with her boyfriend in another part of town basically just so she could attend said college. Lynn didn't think she would come all the way over to see her, hospitalized or not.
"I wonder why she cares even? Remember how many times you two fought? Always ending it with her screaming how much she hates you?" Another voice Lynn found harder to suppress chimed up, the one that sounded rougher yet full of happy malice. The sports loving teenager swore it just wanted to stir up trouble and nothing more, it made it harder to tolerate the hourly checkups from the medical staff though.
"I-I'm... I'm fine Lori, really. I'm glad to see you again. I figured you were too swamped to visit." Lynn forced a smile on her face, using her right hand to stop her left hands trembling again, as far as Lynn knew the fracture was not bad, though having one at all might be enough trouble to begin with.
"I can miss a few days of college; I've been doing well enough." Lori assured her younger sister it was no trouble being here.
"We heard you put those guys in the hospital, that's awesome how strong you are! You're like a hero." An eager voice chirped out their praises, Lynn seeing it was Lana, a girl in a pair of overalls with messy blonde hair and a red cap on her head. One of a pair of twins she was more mechanically gifted, though didn't shy away from getting dirty at all, if anything that was Lana's favorite part.
"Some of your teammates came by yesterday too, but you were still out cold." The other twin Lola informed Lynn, a girl in a fancy pink sweater with a white small coat and white pants, she had a tiara on her head, being polar opposite of Lana where she preferred to act like a princess more than anything.
"A hero? A real hero would've murdered those punks instead of letting them get off easy." That voice of happy malice quickly became one of anger as it chimed up within Lynn's head again, her skull ached as she reached up and held her sore dome with her hands.
"We were too weak to stop them from hurting our brother... The only reason we aren't dead is luck." The depressed voice also commented in addition. Lynn felt her heart starting to race once again as she bit her lip.
"Can one of you get me something to eat...? I haven't eaten since yesterday." Lynn tried to ignore the abhorrent thoughts in her head, trying to regain her composure. While Rita and Lynn senior wanted to inquire if she was alright, they knew the answer already, it would probably take some time before their daughter was mentally past this incident, oblivious to the true cause of Lynn junior's sorrow.
"Sure, we'll go get breakfast for all of us." Rita agreed, with that said her and Lynn senior left to head down to the cafeteria, planning on getting food for their whole family, the Loud family having all skipped breakfast to just come straight to the hospital right away, especially at the news of the sports loving girl being conscious again.
"Hey hey, no need to get all worked up now, it's all over." Luna tried to comfort Lynn, taking a seat on her hospital bed and putting a hand on her shoulder. The auburn-haired girl tried to calm down with her breathing, she nodded in agreement to the statement, the worst was over, at least physically. Lynn was assuming this whole time that she was going to be stuck with these voices until her skull fracture was healed, yet she had no clue how long that would take.
"It feels like it was my fault Lincoln got hurt. It was my idea to take that stupid shortcut." Lynn sighed, even if the two had gone through that route all the time, that did not make it any better in her eyes. As far as she cared, it was all her fault, Lynn just kept thinking it would have been over if she had just not been stubborn and handed over her wallet instead of picking a fight.
"You can't go blaming yourself for it, there was no way you could've known. You were able to make sure you both got out of the situation, that's all that matters." Lori reassured their fifth youngest sibling that there was no blame being held towards her, sure the oldest Loud and the sports lover had their fair share of fights, like everyone in their family had, but that did not mean they hated one another. Lori was worried however that she probably had left such an impression over the last few years, she was known in the family for her scary anger and short fuse after all.
"Don't worry, you'll be out of here before you know it." Lana tried to add on to their cheering up attempts, knowing just how depressing and energy draining hospitals were. Most of them assumed Lynn was looking forward to going back to normal routine. The sports loving Loud was just thankful that Lincoln was getting out from the hospital today, he had gotten off relatively unscathed compared to her injuries.
"Me and Lana brought you a present to make you feel better too." Lola claimed, looking pretty proud when mentioning the gift. "Give it to her Lana." Lola said, though her twin sister looked at her with a raised brow.
"Uhh... I thought you grabbed it?" Lana responded in confusion, being pretty positive that the spoiled Loud was the one that was going to get the gift before they left the home.
"No, I told YOU to get it before we left." Lola adamantly claimed with her hands on her hips, looking irritated now, Luna and Lori both looked to one another in worry, knowing where this was going.
"I had to walk Charles before we left."
"I had to shower first."
"I had to fix a hole in Vanzilla's tire!"
"I had to load the laundry!"
"You said you would get it!"
"No, you did!"
"You did!"
"You did!"
This back and forth was typical for the twin's fights, the screaming back and forth, Lynn wanted to try and speak up to get them to calm down, but suddenly felt a stabbing pain shoot through her skull, Luna and Lori not noticing their fifth youngest sister's trembling body due to the twin's fight before them.
"Don't you just hate seeing them fight? We can help with that you know." An entirely new voice to Lynn caught her attention as it echoed in her mind, it sounded more concerned and heartfelt when speaking, that didn't make it any less unnerving. As Lola and Lana fought, Lynn felt her vision beginning to blur, much to her dismay.
"N-No, no no no... Is it happening again...?" Lynn began to panic while tearing up, everything was beginning to fade to black, the same way it did when she first snapped during that mugging yesterday. Lynn felt tears welling in the corners of her eyes, fear, that was the only thing she felt right now, an overwhelming sense of tiredness followed, like she was about to fall asleep on the spot.
"You just leave them to me. Sometimes, you just need a more... 'maternal' touch." The voice warmly hummed, despite how much Lynn didn't want to, the soothing voice was too much to resist. Whether it be because of the stress of the situation, or the shouting increasing her head pain and making her weaker to resist. "Please don't hurt them..." Were the last thoughts that she clearly could think of. Lynn suddenly went limp as her vision went completely black.
"Come on you two, you need to chill out!" Luna tried to get the twins to stop fighting, to no avail however. Unfortunately, the only way to get Lola and Lana to stop fighting usually was either thinking out of the box, or by letting them simply fight it out to the point they both lost track of what they were even fighting over. Lori was mentally scrambling for an idea, at the moment wishing Lincoln was in the room since he always was able to defuse the fight with minimal effort.
"Lola and Lana Loud!" Lori and Luna were startled by the sound of a harsh firm yet gentle sounding voice behind them, it was enough to make Lola and Lana freeze as well, almost like it was a programmed response that the Loud parents had unintentionally programmed into the twins.
"Lynn...?" Lori blinked, there was a strange shift in demeanor that made her uneasy, even Luna could tell something was different. Lynn was sat there in her hospital bed, a beaming smile on her face and hands resting in her lap, she looked positively a glow.
"There are other people trying to rest here, you have to be considerate of others you know?" Lynn said to them, Lola and Lana felt their gazes falter to the floor from the guilt, feeling bad for forgetting the fact their siblings weren't the only ones in the intensive care unit.
"Did she get brain damage or something?" Luna quietly asked their oldest sister, the two having stepped away from Lynn's bedside.
"Well... everyone deals with trauma differently." Lori responded in a lowered tone, the oldest loud rubbing the back of her head uncomfortably. "If I didn't know any better though, I'd think it was one of Lisa's experiments." The oldest Loud had to confess, albeit to her personally this was a terrible case of irony. One thing some of the older sister's always agreed on is how much better they personally thought Lynn could be if she would just be a bit more maternal, this was certainly a huge step in that direction that now neither seemed too happy with.
"Nah, Lisa doesn't like doing those kinds of experiments." Luna shook her head; the rock loving Loud knew that much about their second youngest sibling. The two older Louds could see Lynn motioning the twins over to herself, once Lola and Lana were close enough, they both got pulled into one armed hugs by the sporty Loud.
"I know you two put a lot of thought into your present, and I know you're both excited to give it to me, I'll be fine without it until I get home." Lynn stated to the twins, that odd aura the sports star radiated currently was enough to make them stay quiet and listen to the mini lecture. "You shouldn't fight so much though, because one day you'll go too far and say, or do something you will not be able to fix it with an apology." The auburn-haired girl continued, there was a moment of silence as the twins absorbed what she said.
"I'm sorry Lana, I could've just checked before we left." Lola apologized first, not sure why she was enjoying Lynn's embrace so much, it was weird behavior for their older sister, yet it was something neither of them really paid much attention to.
"Nah it was my fault; I could've just thrown it in the trunk anytime." Lana replied with her own apology, instead of blaming each other the two now were blaming themselves. Though during their makeup, Lynn felt like everything shifted at once, her head hurt and she blinked her vision clear.
"Wh... Wha-?" Lynn blinked in confusion, she didn't mind being hugged by family, yet that didn't make it any less horrifying what just happened. It was like she was locked away in her own mind, being forced to watch someone else operate her body against her will.
"Wow, you really do have a mother's touch. Doesn't it feel nice to help someone instead of just hurting them?" That same nurturing motherly voice rang from Lynn's head as she held Lola and Lana close. The sports loving girl swallowed nervously, unsure if that was a threat or genuinely if that was the only friendly voice in her head anymore. Lynn felt herself getting more and more scared with each revelation she made about the voices in her head.
By now the Loud parents were coming back with several trays of food, Lynn swallowed hard just trying to focus on getting better for the time being, all the while mentally panicking trying to think of ways to make sure that doesn't happen again. She dreaded to imagine what could have happened to her sibling's if a different personality got control entirely.
Lynn tried to spend the early day as normal as possible with her family that rotated out between the rooms, around lunchtime Lincoln had been discharged from the hospital as well. The white-haired boy helped Lynn keep calm, yet at the same time it seemed to do nothing but increase one of the voices in her head far above the rest.
Right now, Lynn found herself with only two of her siblings, her brother Lincoln, and their painfully unfunny comedian sister Luan, who was wearing a yellow plaid jacket and a white shirt underneath. Right now, the three were outside the hospital, Lynn had wanted to get some fresh air, so the two siblings volunteered to accompany her, the sports loving Loud really hated her wheelchair, it felt embarrassing to be seen in it, even if it was just so her legs could take it easy until they heal.
"Doctor Brike was saying you might be able to get out tomorrow morning, I bet you're real 'eager' to get out of the 'E.R.'" Luan jokingly commented while pushing her little sister's wheelchair along, Lincoln groaned at the pun, though Lynn just ignored it. Being outside again felt nice, the crisp autumn air was refreshing compared to the stuffy atmosphere of the hospital. She may have only been there for a day and a half so far, though it felt so much longer.
"Yeah, they can't really do anything else for me, at this point I just have to heal on my own." Lynn replied with what the doctor had told her, not being able to play sports for two weeks just so she did not risk worsening the skull fracture was the worst news imaginable to the sporty Loud. Or at least Lynn was wishing it was the worst news she had received that day, the voices in her head won the bad news award.
"You okay Lynn? You seem a little more on edge." Lincoln couldn't help but comment, he could tell when his family was hiding something having picked up on a lot of tells or the sorts that the many girls tended to do when trying to lie, playing glorified peacekeeper in the family helped a lot in that regard too. Lynn had been trying to stay calm, to a point where it came off as forced. Her logic was that the calmer she could remain, the less likely another personality could take over, whether or not it worked was the problem since Lynn really had no way to tell nor test it.
"You're just asking cause Lori and Luna told you about what happened with Lola and Lana." Lynn responded while crossing her arms, their only brother gave a small smile in response to hearing that, stifling a laugh.
"Yeah, I won't lie, I don't think anyone has ever gotten those two to apologize to each other that fast. You hate getting involved in their fights too, we all know that." Lincoln elaborated, when he was about to pay his sports loving sibling a visit after he got discharged from the hospital, Lori and Luna had been standing outside the room talking amongst one another in worry. Needless to say, Lincoln and Luan both were equally surprised to hear what Lynn had done with Lola and Lana. Lynn was one of the Loud siblings that insisted on not intervening in any fights between the twins after all, the complete 180 in behavior shocked them all.
"I don't think I've ever heard you call someone out in their full name either, I really wish I'd gotten to see it." Luan exclaimed with a laugh, it sounded funny to her, it was almost like the twins got in trouble with their mom.
"I'd have paid to see it." Lincoln couldn't help but to laugh along with the comedian in agreement, the more the two imagined it the funnier it got to them. Seeing her siblings happy was enough to make Lynn roll her eyes as a small grin crept on her own face, in hindsight it was hilarious to her as well, being maternal like that was basically the sporty girl's polar opposite behavior, even if she hated the circumstances behind it.
"Look at those two, they seem to get along, don't they?" An all too familiar voice sprung forth in Lynn's head, it made her blood run cold instantly, it was that same giddy overzealous tone that scared her.
"She's gonna take him from you one day if you keep doing nothing, for someone that's proud of their speed you sure are slow with your heart." The giddy toned voice continued, Lynn blinked in confusion while looking to Luan and Lincoln. What did that even mean? All it did was confuse the aspiring sports star.
"Lynn? Are you okay?" Luan quirked in worry, noticing the sudden perplexed yet distant expression on her little sister's face.
"H-Huh? Oh, sorry I was just thinking about..." Lynn tried to say, yet apparently her comedic sibling being closer was not something the giddy personality in the sporty girl's head liked at all.
"It'd be so easy to get rid of her, she's the weakest emotionally in the family, you're so much stronger though, she doesn't deserve him." That voice implored Lynn to attack Luan, Lynn was feeling her heart racing again, she broke eye contact with Luan and looked away in a desperate attempt for Lynn to hide the panic in her own eyes.
"I have a test coming up Thursday... I-I need to talk to Lisa for advice about it." Lynn forced the lie past her throat, Luan looked to their brother with a raised brow, wondering if she had done something wrong or had unintentionally upset Lynn. The white-haired boy put a hand on Luan's back, insisting for her not to worry about it for the time being.
"Wait, you're planning on going back to school the day after you get out of the hospital?" Lincoln had to ask upon registering what his 5th eldest sibling said, it sounded rather hard to believe, sure he planned on going back to school soon as well, mostly because he saw no reason to rest when he had superficial injuries at best. Though the middle Loud sibling had planned on staying to take care of Lynn until she got better herself.
"You know how bad I am at sitting around and doing nothing. I need to keep busy or I'll go crazy." The aspiring sports star replied, trying to ignore the irony in the statement about going crazy. Lynn was mostly praying that keeping busy would be enough to get through these new mental issues, she was expecting it to all go away the second her broken skull healed enough.
"You can't be any more of a burden... Your entire existence already is just that." The depressed voice rang out in her mind, Lynn's grip instinctively tightened on her leg where she had her hand resting, she accidentally dug into one of the cuts on her leg, causing her to wince in pain.
"Hey, be careful with your legs, they're still pretty banged up." Lincoln told Lynn, the auburn-haired girl nodded, though she did take notice of something, the action had been enough to silence the depressed voice in her head. Lynn immediately took note of that, starting to calm down as she leaned back in her wheelchair.
"How about we head back inside? You can worry about this test once you're out of the hospital." Lincoln felt an odd tension in the air, Luan was slightly demoralized from Lynn treating her rather coldly, and it was clear there was something bugging the sports loving girl that their only brother could not figure out. He wanted to brush it off as simply Lynn still dealing with her personal trauma, though the inconsistent behavior made him feel uncertain about it.
"That probably is for the best..." Lynn sighed, it was apparent that the wheelchair was doing little for her depressed nature, the school sports star that isn't able to use their legs until they stop hurting, no one would adjust well to that no matter how temporary it is.
"You two go on, Lori asked me to get something from her car for her." Lincoln said, his idea being that maybe leaving the two alone would allow his sister's to sort out the tension between them.
"Lincoln, wait... Dang, he's fast." Luan commented, feeling like she was set up now. The bucktooth girl cast a look to Lynn, the sporty Loud wasn't really paying attention, seeming to be distracted with whatever was going on inside her head. The comedian grabbed the handles of the wheelchair, starting to head back into the hospital. "Come on Lynn, let's 'roll' out." Luan's pun was enough this time to illicit a groan from her little sister.
There was an awkward silence between the two from there on, as Luan stepped onto the elevator with Lynn in the wheelchair, the two were left alone within it as Luan hit the button for their floor. For some reason the silence seemed to only increase perpetually, the comedic Loud decided that maybe right now was the best time to talk while they were alone.
"Lynn, I know you probably already know this, but, if you need someone to talk to, you can always talk to any of us." Luan spoke, guessing that her younger sister already was more than well aware of this and had probably been told by literally every last person in their immediate family now. Hearing Luan be serious at all was a pretty rare occurrence.
"It's funny how much pity people take on us the second we're scratched..." The depressed tone panged within Lynn's mind once more, much to her irritation, her left hand's grip tightening on her leg in an attempt to silence it with pain again.
"Even with a cracked skull and busted legs, you can still beat her with no problem, isn't that what you want? For her to shut up for once in her life?" The all too familiar aggressive personality chimed up immediately after, almost like silencing one just awoke another of the minds. It took everything for the sports lover to keep it together and not show any sign of her woes.
"If I did something to make you mad, well... I'm sorry. I know that's probably a long list, we never exactly have been the best of sisters to one another, if I can do anything to make it up to you though just tell me." Luan finished her apology there, her pranks were indiscriminate to say the least, so were the scale of them. The last prank Lynn fell for involved having weights put in her workout equipment to make her think she was getting weaker, it left her rather shaken up for a week until she discovered Luan's prank. That was one of their bigger fights as well, Lynn having nearly quit her baseball team when thinking she had gotten too weak to be a valued player anymore.
By now the elevator came to a stop on their floor, what felt like forever had been maybe a few minutes at best, Luan just helping push the wheelchair along again once the doors opened.
"I'm not mad at you, you don't owe me anything. I just have a lot on my mind is all." Lynn replied, it seemed like Luan's apology had been enough to quiet down the rather violence hungry voice that was within the sports lovers head. The bucktooth girl found it rather hard to believe that her younger sister was not mad at her, yet decided to drop the topic for now.
"Just focus on getting better, we're all here for you, and once you're home you can finally take it easy for a change." Luan said, resisting the desire to make another pun. Lynn though was just enjoying the fact for once her mind felt clearer than it probably had in the last day. Though she did feel bad for making Luan think she had gotten on bad terms with her, Lynn had to be selfish for her own wellbeing now. The sports lover had no clue if she could trust her family with the truth, they all were pretty hit and miss with how good they were at being secretive, that fear of being locked away in a padded room for her life was enough to clam up any thoughts about speaking the truth as is.