Lori was in front of her PC filling some forms for the case that she was working on; work load had been quite heavy lately and the time at the office wasn't enough to finish, that's why she had to bring some home. Being a lawyer wasn't easy, some clients were so deep in shit that she had to make a miracle to get them out of it. If she had to choose the cases she liked to work on the most, those would be domestic violence cases, those were actually easy; the vast majority of time were ladies who married drunken tards that beat them and call them names. Not that she enjoyed seeing ladies covered in bruises and scarred children, but the 98% of the times the cases were easy to win.

She let out a sigh and closed her laptop. Work has been one of her few escapes to reality, but right now she had to return to it so she could do another of her works, the most important one: support her sisters. Ever since Lincoln announced the pregnancy, she decided to honor her role as the eldest sister; she was gonna be their rock of strength, the shoulder where they could cry on, their emotional support. She felt that, now more than ever, she needed to be there for them, even if she was just as hurt she was the elder sister, and it was her job to guide the others and help them whenever they needed.

Lori got up form the chair and walked towards her bed, where she let her body fall over the soft mattress. She felt really tired, form the problems at work, from the situation at home...she needed like she couldn't deal with everything at once, but she had to, she had to find a way to find the balance between work and home.

Letting out a sigh, she sat on the bed and stretched her back; working for more than two hours had her back hurting. Out of all the sisters, Lana and Lily were the ones who took the news in the worst way. She had already gotten over her breakup with Bobby, which helped her to get over this situation, her other sisters could find a way to deal with it, but Lana and Lily couldn't.

She got up from the bed and walked outside her room, right in front of her door was Lisa and Lily's. It had become a habit the last few days to go and check the girls; though they seemed to be doing quite alright she wasn't entirely convinced. After inhaling air and letting it out, she opened the door.

Entering the room she spotted her blonde sister on her bed, she was staring at her cellphone, apparently watching something without much interest. Lori couldn't help but notice the pale state of her sister; her skin had lost some colour, there were bags under her eyes and her hair was a mess. This was such a heartbreaking sight to see the little ball of energy that her sister once were in this deplorable state.

"Lily," Lori called, peeking her head from the door frame. Lily left her phone on the bed and turned to see her sister. "How are you feeling?"

"Not too good, Lori..." she replied, her words almost emotionless just as Lucy's. "I...don't know what's happening..."

Lori sat on her bed just next to her. The elder began to stroke her hair, playing with her locks to comfort her. "Don't worry Lily, your sister's here."

Lily knew that she could always trust her sister, after all, she have always been there for her in the good and bad times. Lily knew that she could always rely on her or any other sister, but...

"Lori," the little blonde called.

"Yes?"

"Doesn't it hurt you?" she asked. "Don't you feel like you're falling apart every time that you remember what you lost?"

Lori knew what she was talking about. Even at such young age, and ever since she began to develop her personality, Lily had always showed signs of being able to deduce things with ease, it didn't matter how much you tried to hide something from her, she'd eventually find out. In her infant years you could tell her that Santa Claus was real and she would totally believe it, but right now you could hardly hide that you ate the last piece of pie from her. She had like a special ability to see past the words, to know that there was more that meets the eye. After thinking in her answer, she replied.

"Of course it does, Lily," she replied. "But you can always make something good from it, don't you think?"

Lily shifted position on the bed so she could face her sister. "What do you mean?"

"Bad times create strong people," Lori replied. "This is a real bad time, and we have two options: do nothing, let this pain within your heart get the best of ourselves and sink in that dark pit of sorrow."

Lily hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face on her legs. She wanted to cry, she wanted to finish with that pain inside of her, she wanted...

Lori wrapped her arm around her, drawing her closer to her. "Or we have another option," the elder said.

"W-What is that?"

"Learn form it, become stronger and walk forward. This situation has all of us broken, but we are strong and persevering, even if you don't believe it." Lori replied.

"How can we do that?" Lily asked.

"You asked me if this didn't hurt me, didn't you?" Lily nodded. "Well, it does, but instead of crying and do nothing, I chose to use it to help you all to deal with it, and it helps me to deal with my own pain to know that you all are feeling better. You can do the same."

Lily wiped her tears. Lori was right, she had been too busy thinking about her own pain to realise that everyone in the house were in the same boat. "I...guess you're right..."

"You see?" Lori replied. "You just gotta try, I assure you it'll help you."

"Yeah, I will..." the little sister replied. Lori was happy to see her sister was better, her condition wasn't the best, but it could be fixed easily with... "But still, don't you feel affected by all of this? I know helping us makes you feel better, but you still must need some release, something to let your feelings out."

"I believe I understand where you're coming from." Lori replied. "Leni have helped me to get through it, if that's what you want to know."

Lily looked at her sister with a look of doubt on her face. "Leni?"

At this, Lori let out a chuckle. "I understand if you don't believe me. I know Leni can sometimes be naive, but if there's something I can give her credit for, is that she's the strongest sister. Leni is the one who taught me to take this the best way by trying and cheer y'all up; I knew she's been just as sad as all of us, but she choses to do things with us, to try and make you all feel better...I figured out that I could do the same. And if I ever feel like I can't go on, I know she will be there for me."

To be honest, in all this time, Lily never thought about how Leni felt. She had seen her hanging out with Lynn and Lucy at the mall, she had seen her making a new dress for Lola and helping Luan to bake some pastries. For her, it seemed just the usual happy Leni.

"Listen, I'm not denying that seeing Lincoln with another woman hurts, not to mention that he's having a child with her and forming a family. But even if we no longer have him, we still have our family."

Lori hugged her again, letting her sister know that she meant her words. "We're here for you, and as long as we have each other we can get over anything."

Lily returned the hug. She never saw things that way. Lori knew she had hit the nail. "Come on, Lily-bug, white's not your colour."

Lori got up from the bed and walked towards the door. "I'm gonna be downstairs, Luna and Lisa must be done making dinner. Don't be late." and with that she left the room.

Lily got up from the bed as well and walked towards the full body mirror on her side of the room. She took her time to look with disbelief how much her skin had paled since she stopped eating well. To be honest, after that talk with Lori, she was starting to feel really hungry.

She walked out of her room and headed for the kitchen. As she passed through the hallway, she couldn't help but notice a few things, things that she didn't believe would ever happen again: Luan was listening to one of Luna's recordings; since that day when she played the song that helped them cope with their emotions, Luna had occasionally grabbed her acoustic guitar and recorded some of the songs that had come to her mind. Though those were raw recordings and needed some work, it made her happy to see that Luna was doing well.

On another room she spotted Lisa sitting on a chair, in front of her was Lola; at first Lily couldn't see what were they doing, until she heard Lola say "This color definitely goes with your skin tone!" Apparently Lola was teaching Lisa how to properly apply makeup; though Lisa made hue advances towards becoming a more open person, she still had some troubles with a few things; choosing her own clothes was one, she liked to be comfortable, but she also wanted to be seen as the pretty woman she was. Leni did help her as well, she gave her a completely new wardrobe and gave her tips. When it came to makeup, Lola was the one who would offer her help; she was a professional, and would gladly teach Lisa from how to choose the right color, to several combinations and styles.

Lily started to feel that, maybe after all this time, maybe after all this pain, they could live a normal life again. She walked into the kitchen, where a full plate of hot food was waiting for her.

The day was coming to an end, the sun was about to set on the horizon and the moon was starting to show up in the sky. Outside the Loud house, a very desperate Charles Jr. was barking at its dog house. Under normal circumstances it would be inside, the problem was that there was someone inside, someone who thought needed the house more than the poor dog.

"Go away, Charles!" the person said "I want to be alone right now!"

The poor dogo looked down with defeat, knowing that there was nothing else to do, it returned back to the house where he accommodated itself on the rug.

Inside the dog house, Lana was hugging her knees while trying to keep her tears from coming. Why? Why did she still felt like this? The day she cried with Luna's song she thought she had let out everything, she thought that things would be okay from there, but if that's the case...why did it still hurt the same?

"Didn't it mean anything for you, Lincoln?" she lamented. "I know a kiss it's never enough, but...I though it would at leas mean something for you...I thought you'd want me in some way...none of that meant anything for you?"

Over the last few days she have distanced herself from the rest of the family; she rarely had eaten with them, she hide from everyone so she could cry in peace with no one interrupting her. To be honest, she believed the others had noticed this behaviour; Lola hadn't stopped trying to get closer to her, so she could help her whenever she needed, same as Lori. Lana didn't need any of that, she didn't wanted their help, she only wanted one thing, and now it was impossible.

Heavy rain began to fall as she continued crying. She knew it would rain, the sky was dark and the thunders roared in the sky. She didn't care, she didn't care about the cold and the smell of wet dog, she wanted to be alone.

The blonde couldn't help but blame herself, had she only been more girly, had she only tried harder to get his attention, had she only tried to have se-

"Lana?"

The blonde opened wide her eyes. Minutes ago she was crying herself to sleep, she just wanted to forget about everything, but that voice...that voice woke her up better than a cup of coffee in the morning.

"Go away!" she yelled. "I want to be alone!"

"Lana, it's me, Lincoln."

This did very little to make her feel better. Lana just buried her face on her legs and began to cry again. "How did you know I was here?"

"Because you always come here when you're sad. Besides, Charles Jr. is sleeping on the rug, it only means there something, or someone, is using its house."

Fore some seconds Lana didn't say anything. She didn't want to talk to anyone right now, specially him. It was already bad enough that she was caught on her secret place, now it was her brother who caught her.

"Lana, what's wrong?" Lincoln asked.

Lana came out of her hideout, she smelled like wet dog and had dirt all over her clothes. "You know what's wrong, Lincoln," she replied. "I don't have to say it, you have probably realized it by now."

Lincoln couldn't help but feel that damn pinch of guilt striking him again; he thought he had gotten rid of it a long time ago. "Lana..."

"Please brother," she interrupted. "Please don't say anything else, please stop hurting me, just...leave me alone..." Lana turned around, she didn't want to face her brother, not while she was about to turn into a crying wreck. It was already bad enough to have to hide so she could cry without being noticed, and now her brother was there to watch her...

But Lincoln wasn't having any of it. He didn't care about the smell, he didn't care that it was raining, he stayed there and, much to Lana's surprise, hugged her from the back. "Lana...forgive me." She didn't say a thing, her throat suddenly felt dry and her heart sank to her stomach. "I'm really sorry that you have to go through all of this pain...I never wanted to hurt you or any of our sisters."

Lana broke the hug just to face him, it was easier now that her tears were mixing with the rain drops. "Then why can't you accept our feelings?" she asked. Unfortunately, the broken tone of her voice wasn't easy to hide.

"I can't see you as women, you are my sisters." he replied. "We've been together for all of our life, we have grown together, had good and bad moments...so please don't think that I don't love you just because I can't have romantic feelings for any of you."

Lana could feel his words as a sharp knife going through her heart. It hurt like hell, but...very deep down inside her she knew that he was right. Even if he was no longer with them, even if he didn't see them as something more than sisters, it didn't meant that he didn't loved them, right?

And, to be honest, Lincoln wasn't so sure about what he said. Did he really have nothing but brotherly feelings towards them? And if that was the case, then why did it felt like a lie?

"Lincoln..." Lana began. "I can't stop feeling this way for you..."

"I know that can't be helped, and I know that I'm not in a position to ask you for any favour, but, can we still be siblings? Can things be as they used to before all this happened? Like, when we did things together; you remember that time I trained you to replace Lola at that pageant to win those tickets to dairyland?" he asked. "I want things to be like they were back then...I miss you, girls..."

The memories flowed in her head like a river, they all brought a smile at Lana's face. She's been focusing in the bad memories when she needed to remember how things used to be, that was all she needed to be happy. The thought of them hanging out together again, having fun like the good old times...honestly it didn't sound bad. "You really think we can go back to be siblings?"

"I don't see why not." Lincoln replied.

"I...guess you're right," she replied. For once, Lincoln felt a spark of hope, for once after all this time he really felt that things could be as they used to be before all this mess happened, for once...

"But..."

And that doubt was all that was needed to shatter those hopes like a glass against the wall. He wanted things to be like they used to when he was twelve, he wanted to have ten sisters who wanted to do things with him again, just that, was it so much to ask?

"I'm sorry, Lincoln," she said. "But I just can't change these feelings that I have for you." Lana leaned in slowly, closing her eyes and planting a kiss on his cheek. "I love you, Lincoln."

With that, she returned back to the house, leaving Lincoln alone under the rain. The albino let out a sigh, knowing that there was nothing left to do; the relationship he had with his sisters was in the past, things could never be the same again, and it was useless to keep trying.

The rain had damped his clothes and the wind was blowing strong, this combination sent shivers down his spine, but he didn't care. For once since it all started, he allowed himself to shed some tears; at least they'd go unnoticed with the rain.

After he was done crying he returned to the house, took a hot bath and changed into dry clothes. He tried to fix things with the other sisters, he wanted to know if they were willing to go back to where they were still siblings; fortunately for him, some of them accepted, saying that it was better than not having him at all. At leas that way he'd be with them in a way, and that was enough for them. Others said that they'd try but didn't promised anything. What they all had in common was the answer Lana gave him outside.

"I just can't change these feelings that I have for you."

It hurt, but there was nothing else he could do.

But, as stated before, you know that when you think things can't get any worse, they do. The pain they all were feeling was nothing compared with the things that they had coming. Starting with tomorrow.