(The Loud House! and/or other related titles are rightfully owned by Nickelodeon)
(The following is a work of fanfiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the writer's imagination or are used fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information, and material of any kind contained herein are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on for accuracy. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.)
Sorry it took a while to get this chapter up and running. I had a lot of things to do that required my time. But anyway, now that I'm back, please enjoy this wonderful gift and have an awesome day. ;)
Chapter Seven:
To Love Thy Neighbor
Carol, Cassy, and Walter wordlessly sat in the small number of seats on the right side wall across from Conner, watching as he peacefully laid there fast asleep on the hospital bed. His breathing was at a gradual and normal pace thanks to the nasal cannula in his nostrils. His right foot was lightly suspended in the air by about less than twenty inches from the bed, an air splint worn over the freshly bandaged foot. The only sound that could be heard within the entirety of the room was the rhythmic beeping that came from the heart monitor that stood closely next to the bed.
Carol shook her blond head at the entire image displayed right in front of her and their family.
"How could this have happened?" she whispered, holding her father's arm tightly, still gazing over at her little brother's slumbering form.
"I wish I knew, sweetheart," Walter Pingrey whispered back as he squeezed his hand comfortingly around Cassy's.
"What do you think he's dreaming about right now?" Cassy muttered. Walter looked down at his little girl and then back up at Conner.
"Something pleasant, I hope," he said, after sighing through his nose.
But then the three of them suddenly perked up when they saw that the heart monitor had detected Conner's heartrate, the beeping sound going a bit faster. They took a glance at the pulse waves and observed that they were spiking as well. Conner let out a small groan, his breathing was becoming almost rapid until it turned into a pant, and his head gently tossing and turning from left to right. Carol stood up from her chair and eyed her brother with great concern, then she and her father and little sister noticed that he had a fearful expression on his face.
"N-no... S-Stop...please, d-don't..." Conner whimpered. Carol, Cassy, and Walter looked at each other, realizing straight away that he was having a terrible nightmare. And they all had a pretty good idea on what it was about. The three Pingreys quickly got up from their seats to each side of the hospital bed, Carol and Cassy on Conner's left and Walter on his right. Carol gently shook her little brother.
"Conner, wake up! Wake up!" she said. Within seconds, Conner's eyes shot wide open, a frightened gasp escaping from his throat. His eyes frantically darted everywhere around the room, and a couple beads of sweat began to form on the sides of his temples.
"Conner, it's alright! It's us!" Walter said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, trying to relax the boy. Conner's panting had slowed down as did his pulse and heartrate, which had been suggested as such by the returning gradual pace of the beeping from the heart monitor as well as the pulse waves. Conner looked up at Walter and he blinked a few times until he got a clearer look at the grown man.
"Dad...?" he groaned. He turned his gaze over to his sisters. "Carol...? C-Cassy...?"
"Shhh... It's okay, little bro," Carol whispered, tenderly stroking his blond hair. "You were just having a bad dream." Conner looked down at himself and saw that he had a fresh batch of bandages wrapped around his chest and he noticed the heart monitor close to his left. He then looked down at his bandaged hand that had a black splint worn around it.
"W-Where am I...?" Conner asked mutteringly.
"You're in the hospital, buddy," Walter explained. "They took you to the E.R. the other day to get your hand and ankle fixed." The Pingrey boy blinked a couple times again, and he groaned tiredly, relaxing his head against the soft pillow. He closed his eyes for a second before opening them again.
"H-How long was I asleep?" he asked with a relaxed sigh.
"The doctor gave you some anesthesia early this morning, to help you sleep better," Carol explained. "So, I would have to guess maybe six or seven hours." Cassy walked up closely to her brother's side.
"How do you feel right now, big brother?" she asked, her hands resting on the edge of the hospital bed, a genuine and concerned smile plastered on her young face.
Cassy Pingrey was a lot of things; a quiet kid, a gloomy goth, and of course the classic title of emo tween. She was one of the many goths out there in the world who very rarely showed any form of emotion other than the usual dreariness that most groups of her type were known for, considering what her choice of lifestyle was. But a deeply concerned sister was something that not a whole lot of people knew about or saw with their own eyes. But then again, Conner was not around to see her reaction when she and their family saw his picture the other day.
Conner gazed over to the side to look at his eleven-year-old sister and mildly smiled.
"W-Well, my hand and ankle don't hurt so much anymore," he detailed. "They still ache a little bit, but not too terribly. So, I guess that's kind of a plus." Carol reached her hand out and and rubbed her hand on his shoulder, squeezing it tightly as a way to try and comfort the poor kid.
"We're so glad you're okay, Conner," she muttered to him, before gently planting a soft kiss on the side of his head. Conner smiled at her in appreciation.
"Thanks, sis," he murmured with a soft sigh. "And I'm glad you guys are here." But then, he frowned a bit as he looked at his family and he could not help but notice that something was not quite right with this picture.
"W-Where's Mom?" he wondered.
"She will be in here soon, bud," Walter said. "She just needs a couple of minutes."
"She didn't exactly take the news about what had happened to you very well," Cassy explained, rubbing the back of her head. "But then again, none of the three of us had taken it well either."
"Oh," Conner said, frowning further. "I-I'm sorry if I scared you guys."
"No need to apologize, son," Walter smiled, patting his boy on the head. "We're all just glad that you're going to be alright." Within the next couple of seconds after that, they all turned to face the hospital room door when upon hearing the audible sound of the silver handle being twisted. Dr. Mike Wagner slowly opened the door as wide as he could make it, allowing the Loud family, and of course Leslie Pingrey, to walk inside of the room in a straight line, Lincoln being the very last one to enter inside.
Each one of them carefully arranged themselves in other parts of the room, putting them all at a small distance away from the hospital bed, so as to not crowed around Conner and his family and allow them some space. Conner silently watched as his mother slowly approached his bedside, now standing alongside her husband. Leslie looked down at her little boy with a loving smile. Conner smiled back at her.
"Hi, Mom," he muttered after breathing in the air from the nasal cannula.
"Hey, sweetheart," she said. "How are you feeling?"
"A-Aside from my hand and my ankle," he explained as he gestured to his two injuries, "I'm feeling a whole lot better, that's for sure."
"Well, that's good news." Lori whispered to Leni and Luna. The two sisters nodded in agreement. Conner then noticed that his mother's eyes were quite bloodshot, which had made him concerned a little bit.
"W-What about you, Mom?" Conner asked. "Are you okay too?" Leslie frowned before looking down for a moment and then gazed back up at her son. She sighed deeply as she moved a few strands of her hair behind her left ear.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat it, sweetie," she said softly. "When the Louds had told us about what happened, the four of us were pretty worried sick. I think I was pretty much the worst out of all of us. I actually felt like I was moments away from having a heart attack. Just try to imagine our reactions when they sent us the photo of you." Conner looked at his mother confusingly with a raised eyebrow, and he turned his head over to face Carol in the hopes that maybe his older sister could give him an answer.
"P-Photo?" he asked confusingly.
"She means this..." Carol explained after pulling out her phone. She went to her messages and found what she was looking for, and she finally showed her little brother the picture of him just the other day. Conner looked at the photo and could not help but cringe when he saw the not-so-pleasant imagery of himself, wrapped up in bandages and still covered in bruises, laying down on the Loud family's living room coach with the oxygen mask on his face.
"Yikes," Conner muttered. Walter nodded in agreement.
"Yikes is a bit of an understatement, but yeah," the father said. Conner turned back to face his mother, and he carefully placed his bandaged hand on Leslie's, whose hands rested on the edge of his hospital bed. He smiled comfortingly at her.
"I think I've got a very good idea what you mean now," the boy said. He turned his gaze over to the Louds and then he noticed that standing amongst them was a certain white-haired, twelve-year-old boy wearing an orange polo shirt. Lincoln took notice of his gaze and he smiled at Conner along with a nod.
"Hey, dude," Lincoln said as he approached the side of the bed next to Leslie. "It's good to see you." Conner smiled softly and nodded back at him.
"Yeah," the Pingrey boy muttered. "It's good to see you too... Look, I... I just want to say... thank you. Thank you so much for what you did. If you hadn't have shown up when you were able to, I... I..." Lincoln rose his hand up to prevent him from finishing the rest of that sentence.
"Don't think anything of it, dude," Lincoln assured. "It was nothing." Upon hearing that, Lori scoffed bewilderingly at what she had just heard her little brother say.
"You call that nothing?" the eldest Loud sister said, catching the attention of the Pingreys as well as Lincoln. Lori approached her little brother, got down on one knee and then placed both her hands on his little shoulders.
"Lincoln, what you did was beyond amazing," she explained. "You saved his life. And because of that, he gets to have another chance to live and see his family again, and they to him. What had been almost robbed away, you gave it back to Conner. You gave him back his future. Don't you see, Lincoln? You're a hero." Lincoln smiled up at his older sister and shook his head almost bashfully.
"Nah," he said, kindly brushing her off, "I'm no hero. I just did what anyone else would do."
"Oh, you most certainly are a hero, bro," Lynn added, walking up next to her brother and nudging him on the shoulder. "It's not every day that a cool dude like you gets the chance of a lifetime to save a person's life and get a lot of praise for it." The rest of the Louds, including the Pingrey's, nodded their own heads at what the young sports fanatic had just said and they all expressed their agreement with her and Lori.
"All of us are just so proud of you, sweetheart," Rita said with a smile.
"Yeah, sport," Lynn Sr. concurred. "And besides, there are only a handful of people out there in the world that are as kind-hearted as you are. Lori is right; what you did was just beyond amazing. You really are a hero, son."
"Hewo!" Lily cried out joyfully in Luan's arms, clapping her little hands together. Leslie giggled a bit from the sheer cuteness from the one-year-old toddler.
"I couldn't agree any more with that statement," she added as did the rest of the Pingrey family. Lincoln rubbed his arm almost timidly.
"Yeah, I suppose so," he finally relented for a moment. "Thanks, guys. I really do appreciate you all." He then turned back to face Conner again, and his smile turned into a frown.
"Although, I will admit that it was kind of strange," Conner picked up on what Lincoln said, and he eyed the twelve-year-old Loud boy confusingly as did the other Pingreys.
"W-What is...?" the boy asked curiously. Lincoln thought for a moment, trying to carefully think of what word to use next without sounding like a jerk.
"Well, it's just that..." he began. "This is not exactly the first time you and I have crossed paths before, you know." Conner furrowed his brows and he blinked a few times as he stared at him weirdly.
"I-I'm sorry, have I actually met you from somewhere?" he asked. Lincoln looked up him with a near surprised look.
"You seriously don't remember me?" he asked. "I mean, I'm not exactly that indistinguishable from anybody else... But then again, it was only a year ago when it happened. And I kind of would be lying if I also said that I didn't recognize you at first myself, that is until one of my sisters pointed it out." Conner blinked again as he closely examined Lincoln and the rest of his clothes all the while he rubbed his chin in thought, trying to search every single crevice of his brain for the answer.
That's it, Lincoln. Just reel him in a little further. And then, let him have it.
"You know, now that you mention it," Conner said, "you do look awfully familiar. A-Are you sure that we've seen each other somewhere before?" Lincoln merely smirked as he folded his arms across his small chest. And now, time for the main crescendo.
"Does the name 'Zombie Bran' ring any bells to ya?" he asked. Conner raised an eyebrow.
"Z-Zombie Bran?" he muttered. And then, in that instant, his eyes widened and he let out a small gasp as flashbacks from one year ago suddenly came flooding through his head. The grocery store, the tough-as-nails store manager, and of course, the very memory of him swiping the last box of Zombie Bran cereal away from the hands of a certain white-haired child around his age, who was just as much on the hunt for it as he was.
Conner even started to remember the latter half of that entire fiasco, when he was being chased by the same kid, making a huge mess to try and keep him at bay, and yet somehow managing to get caught by the store manager in the end. He and his mother got kicked out of the store, leaving him without his precious Zombie Bran, and a serious talking to on the drive back home. Conner had not seen the kid again since then. Until now that is... He stared up at Lincoln, his eyes still wide from the recognition that took over his little brain.
"Pineapple Boy..." he muttered surprisingly.
"Nice to see you again too, cereal-stealer," Lincoln said, his smuggish-looking smile never faltering. Conner nervously chuckled as he started to rub the back of his head.
"Hehehe... Y-Yeah, sorry about that," he said smiling bashfully. "Y-You're not still upset about what happened, are you?" Lincoln's smile turned into a kindly one and he shook his head.
"Conner, that was a year ago," the middle Loud boy stated. "I haven't even given it another thought since then. Well, up until all of this occurred." Dr. Wagner stared at Lincoln for a moment. He then turned his direction over to Conner's.
"Pineapple Boy?" the good doctor questioned. Conner only smiled bashfully again from the question.
"All of us were out shopping at the supermarket during that time," Lynn explained. "Lincoln had fallen into a huge batch of pineapples over at the produce aisle." The doctor mouthed a simple "Ohhh..." in full understanding of what the young sports fanatic had just told him.
"Well, I'm just glad that whole thing is now long passed behind us," Lincoln said. Conner nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I'll say," he added, but then frowned guiltily. "But still... I-I'm very sorry for trying to steal your cereal, dude. You clearly had it first before I did, and I tried to swipe it away from you. It wasn't fair to you at all, and I had no right in taking it." Lincoln waved his hand in a gesture that said for him not to worry about it.
"Eh, it's no big deal now," Lincoln brushed off kindly. "What happened, happened. And the best thing that we can do now is to try and move on from there."
"Yeah... But you know," Conner went on, a smile of his own forming on his face, "it is kind of crazy if you think about it; you saving the life of the same bratty kid who had tried to steal your cereal a year ago. Oh man, pretty ironic, huh?" Lincoln chuckled a bit in response.
"I know, right?" the Loud boy agreed. And with that, the two of them laughed a bit at the thought almost as if they were already friends. This made the Louds, the Pingreys, even Dr. Wagner smile a bit as well. Once after the two boys had calmed down, Conner rested the back of his head against the nicely cushioned pillow and stared up at the white ceiling. Leslie smiled down at him, but then she frowned when she saw a sad-looking expression beginning to crop up on her son's face.
Walter, Carol, Cassy, and even Lincoln had noticed it too, and it wasn't until everybody within the hospital room now looked at him with feelings of concern.
"What's the matter, little bro?" Carol asked. "Is something wrong?" Conner did not turn to face his older sister and he just continued to gaze up at the ceiling, the sad look on his face still lingering.
"Nothing..." he muttered. He shut his eyes tightly. No. That was a big fat lie. They all deserved to know about this. "Well, it's just that... Guys... I... I just want to tell you all that... I-I'm..." He paused for just a moment to close his eyes, and he took in a deep breath before exhaling it all out of his system. He looked over at his mother once again.
"... I'm sorry," he finished. Leslie furrowed her brows in confusion.
"Sorry for what, sweetie?" the Pingrey mother asked.
"Everything...," Conner murmured slowly as memories from the two previous days had snuck their way back into his brain. "The prank... the food fight... getting us kicked out... mouthing off at all of you... just everything." His face began to turn red as he felt himself becoming further overwhelmed with emotion. His lower lip started to tremble.
"You were right, Mom," he said, as hot tears finally started to build up in his eyes. "You were right about everything. I should have listened to you from the very beginning, when I still had the chance. If only I had done what you told me, if only I had just behaved myself for that one day, all of this mess would never have happened." Upon seeing her little brother's growing distress, Carol tried to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Shhh... It's alright, little brother," she muttered as tenderly as she could. But hearing this only made Conner feel even worse, his tears finally bursting forth from his eyes, and he let out a choking sob.
"No, Carol! It's not alright!" Conner cried mournfully, brushing her hand away. "Don't you all get it? It's all my own fault that this happened to me! All of this came about because I was acting like a stupid little idiot! Because I was acting like a bratty kid! All I have is myself to blame for all of this!"
"Conner, it's not your fault this happened!" Leslie reasoned gently. "It's mine! It's all mine! It's my fault that you're like this! I should never have forced you to walk home from school to begin with!"
"But how do you think I ended up in that position in the first place, Mom?" Conner retorted, after wiping away a few tears from his face. "I should never have done that prank! I should never have done what I did. Like I said, if I had only just listened, if only I had been the son you guys truly deserved, things would have been different! Very different!"
"Conner, sweetheart," the Pingrey mother said, stroking the boy's blond hair. "Just because you've made a mistake doesn't mean that you should hate and blame yourself for it. Everybody makes mistakes, honey. We all do. Believe me, I know exactly what that feels like." Leslie turned her gaze over to the Louds with a sad look. Rita and Lynn Sr. nodded their heads at her upon remembering their little pep talk from earlier.
"But it was my mistake that nearly got me killed," Conner said tearfully with a hard sniffle, not relenting. "I tried using the same tricks to escape when I was attacked. And look at where that all got me." He paused for almost a minute until...
"... You know, when I was walking home from school that day, and when I was laying there seemingly dying in that alley..., I... I-I had thoughts that told me... told me that... maybe... maybe all I ever did was mess things up for everybody, and that I give you guys nothing but grief even though you all do your best to raise me right. But every chance I have had, I always manage to screw them up every single time."
Carol rubbed her arm, utterly ashamed of herself for having said that to her little brother in the car ride home from Giovanni Chang's. The next thought that Conner had made him cry even harder, his throat tightening from all of this emotion. And now, for the finishing touch.
"I even thought that maybe," he whimpered, "maybe all of you guys would have been better off without me in your lives! I'm not good enough to be part of this family anymore! I don't deserve any of it! I... I didn't even feel like I deserved to live, because I'm nothing but a mistake! I'm nothing but a screw up and I should have died right there all alone in that alley!" The Pingreys and the Louds stared wide eyed at Conner, utterly shocked at everything he had just said.
A few of them gasped upon hearing it as well. Even Dr. Wagner was completely gob-smacked from Conner's words. Cassy turned to Carol and hugged her sister tightly around her waist, silently weeping. A crying Lola and Lana ran up close to Lincoln and they both hugged their big brother tightly in their little arms as the two of them remembered, as did the rest of their family, that there were a few times when Lincoln himself had doubted his own self-worth. Lincoln, sensing what the two of them were thinking, returned their affection and hugged the twins lovingly close to him.
Leni, unable to take in any more of this drama, turned around and embraced Luna and Lori tightly into a hug of her own, silent tears pouring down her face. The two sisters did what they could to comfort the distraught fashionista. As much as Lucy was one for all things that were doom and gloom, even she recognized when something like this had proven to be just too much for the nine-year-old goth, and she turned around and tearfully hugged Lynn, who held her sister tightly in her arms.
Lisa sat in her mother's lap cleaning her glasses, fresh tears of her own staining her face. As much as the little genius was not one for expressing emotions, it was only appropriate for her to express it now for this given situation. She may be a scientific genius with a high IQ, but she was still only five years old. Lily held her little arms around a crying Luan's neck, and she planted a small kiss on the comedian's left cheek to try and comfort the poor gal.
Leslie stared down at her son, completely shocked to hear some version of her own words from earlier come pouring out from Conner's mouth. This just couldn't be so. As she looked at the emotionally distraught Conner, her expression morphed into a stern-looking one. Enough was enough. It was time to be the mother her baby boy truly needed. Now more than ever.
"That's enough!" she snapped, emotions welling up inside, tears of her own about to burst from her eyes. Her snap had grabbed everybody's attention in the room. Conner gazed up at him mother silently.
"You stop that kind of talk right now and listen to me very carefully, Conner Pingrey!" she said almost sternly, keeping watery eyes trained on her son. "You are not a mistake! You understand me? You are not a screw up! Just because you've made a mistake, it does not mean that you are no longer of any value to your family, alright?! Yes, we all know that you've made plenty of missteps before in the past! But that's no excuse to hold that against yourself and give up on living!"
"B-But-" Conner stammered, before Leslie rose her hand up to silence him.
"I'm not through yet!" she continued, trying her utmost best to keep herself in check, despite the tears flowing down her face. "I don't care if you are good enough or not! I don't care if you are perfect or not! You are my son, Conner! You always will be, and that is never going to change! We all love you so very dearly, no matter who or what you are, despite your misgivings!"
"And no matter what happens," Leslie went on, "no matter what you may think otherwise, you will always have a very special place in our family! And God Himself as my witness, I would never trade any of that for the entire world! Now, do I make myself clear, young man?!" Conner silently looked up at his mother, almost wide eyed, not even once did he blink. She stared back at him as she patiently waited for an answer. And that answer finally came when his eyes began to water with more tears and his bottom lip trembled again.
At first, Leslie's stern face softened a bit, as she started to falsely believe that she may have gone a bit too far with how harsh she sounded. Before she could even get the first letter of a word out, Conner suddenly lunged himself forward, wrapping his arms around his mother, embracing her into a hug. Leslie was caught off guard from the unexpected action. He sobbed greatly as he buried his face into her chest.
He pulled back a little bit and looked up at her, a relieved and hopeful smile on his face, tears of joy spilling out from his eyes.
"Crystal," Conner whimpered with a sniffle. Leslie smiled back and did some crying of her own as she embraced her son into a warm hug. All of the Louds watched on as Walter, Carol, and Cassy gathered around mother and son and they all embraced each other into a family group hug. Leni cried happily as Lori and Luna patted her gently on the back with happy smiles on their own faces.
"I just totes love happy endings," the ditzy fashionista said before wiping away some tears from her eyes. Rita and Lynn Sr. smiled peacefully as they watched the scene play out before them. The Loud patriarch wrapped his arm lovingly around his wife's shoulder and she wrapped hers around his waist. She planted a soft kiss on his cheek.
"I think we all should give them some time alone," he whispered to his family. They all nodded in agreement, and they started to stand up and head for the door. Dr. Wagner kindly opened the door as wide as he could make it be. Before leaving along with them, Lori placed a hand on Carol's shoulder, grabbing her friend's attention.
"If you guys need us," said the eldest Loud sibling, "We'll be waiting outside in the lobby." Carol smiled and nodded her head. With that, Lori followed after her family, with Lincoln being the last one to head for the door. But before he could get the chance to walk outside along with the other Louds, Dr. Wagner stopped him for a moment, which made Lincoln look up at him with a confused eyebrow. The doctor knelt down to meet the boy's gaze, and then he smiled appreciatively at him.
"I just want to say thank you so much," he said, "for everything you have done; saving Conner, patching him up, and even going so far as to wanting to pay for his family's medical bill. You truly are quite a treasure, kid." Lincoln could not help but smile and blush from such a compliment.
"It was nothing, doc," said the Loud boy.
"You have no idea just how lucky your family is to have someone like you," the doctor continued. "I hope that my son grows up to be as kind as you are." Lincoln simply shrugged his shoulders, brushing it off.
"Hey, like I said; I just did what anyone would do," he stated. "And also, thank you too, doc. For taking good care of him so far. But, if you don't mind me asking, how long is Conner going to stay here?" Dr. Wagner pondered for a moment until he found his answer.
"Well, at least until most of his bruises are all healed up," the medical expert explained. "So, I would have to guess maybe close to the end of this coming week. Perhaps even until Saturday, to say the least." Lincoln nodded in understanding.
"Thanks again, doctor," he said. "But please, try to make sure he doesn't say confined to that bed during the week. I don't want him to lose his ability to walk." Dr. Wagner chuckled a pit and assuringly patted the boy on the shoulder.
"Oh, don't worry, kiddo. I plan on giving him the best care possible." Once after that was done, Lincoln turned back around to the Pingrey's who remained huddled up together into a family group hug, tears pouring from their eyes and happy smiles on their faces. Conner glanced over slightly to see Lincoln and he beamed appreciatively at him. Lincoln smiled back and he nodded his head as a way of saying "You're welcome."
Get better soon, cereal-stealer, Lincoln thought. I'll see you again in a week or so.
"Hey, bro!" Lynn called out from the hallway. "Are you coming or what?!"
"Oh, uh, coming, guys!" Lincoln called back, before heading outside the room and following after his family.
Don't you all just love family bonding? I sure do. I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter, and I look forward to hearing what you all have to say about it in your reviews. See you all in the next chapter. Have a blessed weekend.
