I'm glad so many people are liking this story. To "Your Saving Grace is Here" I got the idea from a Zits comic strip and decided to see how the characters in The Loud House would handle the assignment. This next chapter is a little more feeling-based, a softer moment if you will.
Luna then showed her family the photo of her and Sam bumping their faux bellies from earlier, and everyone thought it would be fun, once she got a maternity shirt on, to take a picture of all of them feeling her bump at the same time. Everyone had a good laugh about it.
That night, after dinner, everybody went upstairs, Luna found she actually had difficulty going up the stairs and had to grasp the railing for support. She couldn't rush up the stairs like the rest of her siblings, but that was probably for the best, she had volunteered to carry Lily upstairs.
"No baby?" asked Lily.
"No baby, except you little sister," answered Luna with a smile. That's right about when Lynn Jr. and Lori came back down the stairs to the two of them.
"Here Luna, Lynn and I will help you up these steps. I'll take Lily, you've got enough to carry as it is," offered Lori. She and Lynn then got on either side of the rocker, Lori gently taking Lily from Luna, Luna allowed them to drape her arms over their shoulders as they helped her up the steps.
"That takes me back," said Rita from downstairs. She later went upstairs herself, wanting to see how Luna would be able to cope with her current situation. She went into the room Luna and Luan shared, both of them were sitting together on the bottom bunk where Luan typically slept.
"So, you will be sleeping with that puppy on?" Rita asked Luna.
"That's the assignment, but I just realized, I have no hope of getting up to my bunk with it on. By the way, thanks for the nightshirt Mom," answered Luna.
"No trouble sweetie. Luan, you are just going to have to switch bunks with your sister for a few nights. We'll change the bedsheets tomorrow, but it's too late to do that now," Rita replied. Luan nodded in understanding; she knew it best not to argue.
"Oh, and Luna, as somebody who went through the real thing ten different times, I should warn you that you might be in for an uncomfortable night," said Rita before leaving.
"Aw great, another thing to look forward to!" moaned poor Luna. She flopped onto her bed but found that it actually caused her some discomfort.
"Ooh baby, this really smarts!" she thought.
Later that night, Rita suddenly found herself awaken while having a dream that she and her family were at the beach. It wasn't unusual for her to be woken up in the middle of the night. Children get nightmares and sometimes go to their parents asking to stay with them. Three of her older daughters got their first periods in the middle of the night and really needed help. It couldn't be the latter; Lincoln would never get a period and Lucy was still years from getting hers.
She turned on the light expecting to see one of the twins or Lisa teary eyed and saying they had a bad dream. Nope, it was Luna, still wearing her fake baby bump, and close to crying.
"Luna? What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Mom, my back aches, there's a significant amount of pressure on my stomach, I feel uncomfortably warm, I can't get into a comfortable position, and I almost feel like throwing up," said Luna. Rita looked at the alarm clock on her bed stand.
"Luna, did you just wake me up at one-thirty in the morning to complain?" asked Rita, feeling irritated as she sat up, ready to deal with whatever complaint Luna responded with. But something actually happened Rita didn't expect. Luna hugged her!
"No, I just wanted to say thank you, for doing the real thing for all of us," answered Luna. Rita was a tad shocked at first, but then she hugged Luna back, gently rubbing the rocker's back. Lynn Sr. woke up because the light from his wife's bedstand was now irritating his closed eyes.
"What is going on?" he asked blearily.
"Somebody's having trouble sleeping," answered Rita. Lynn Sr. blinked a couple of times before his eyes could make out which of his eleven children had disturbed their slumber.
"Oh, right," he said understandingly. Luna slowly eased her embrace on her mom.
"Also, I wanted to ask how you were ever able to get to sleep when you were pregnant? You had to have had at least some," Luna finally said. Then she realized something else.
"Mom, I'm sorry if I ever woke you in the middle of the night while you were pregnant with Luan or Lynn, that must have been near impossible to deal with at times," said Luna, tears coming down her cheeks. Rita gently wiped the tears from Luna's face.
"No, no, Luna, you were but a baby who needed her mommy. You have nothing to apologize for. Please, have a seat," said Rita with a sympathetic smile. Luna gratefully sat down on the bed while her two parents then sat down on either side of her.
"We knew by the time you came into the picture, that having more than one baby in the house wasn't always easy. Even when your mother was in a delicate state, we were glad to attend to you and your siblings. Because that's what it means to be a parent, and we wouldn't have traded it for the world," Lynn Sr. answered.
"Once you, Leni, Lori and even Luan started walking more, and talking, you all became so helpful giving us a hand with the younger siblings. Especially by the time Lincoln and Lucy came along. We are so grateful for all the support you four give us," said Rita.
"Lincoln does a lot of that too, don't forget that," pointed out Luna.
"Yes, he does, he learned from some of the best," agreed Lynn Sr.
"Now, do you still have any aches? Does your back still ache? Maybe your feet hurt?" asked Rita.
"Yeah, my feet hurt sometimes, and my back still aches," replied Luna.
"Alright, Luna, prop your feet up on the bed," Rita told her daughter, Luna did as she was bidden.
"Lynn, get her shoulders and back, I'll get her feet," Rita instructed. Lynn Sr. nodded and started to gently massage Luna's back while Rita massaged her feet.
"This is what Dad used to do for me all those times when I was actually pregnant and had trouble sleeping because of aches and pains," Rita told her daughter. Luna nodded, having her father massage her back did feel good. And letting her mom rub her feet was something she found nice, standing on them with an extra package ached sometimes during the day.
"Oh, yeah, that actually does feel good, thanks guys," said Luna. The parents then paused in their work.
"You feel any better Lunes? Think you can try to fall asleep now?" asked Lynn Sr.
"I think so," replied Luna.
"Oh wait, I don't think it's a good idea for you to go back up those stairs at this hour, with you wearing that thing. I guess you'll just have to bunk with us tonight," said Rita calmly. Her husband and daughter looked understandably surprised.
"But Mom, aren't I a little past the age where-"
"Luna sweetie, it's fine," said Rita holding up a hand. Lynn Sr. went to his closet to grab something while Rita got two of the pillows from her bed and had Luna lie on them.
"That should help, having an extra pillow for support makes you feel as though you're on an incline, makes it easier to sleep with a belly like that," she explained. Lynn Sr. came back with a thin blanket.
"I know you won't want anything real thick, but you should have something covering you at the very least," he said as he draped it over his daughter. Luna felt happy knowing her parents had her back (literally) for what was technically just a class assignment as she closed her eyes. Her parents got back into bed on either side of her, Lynn Sr. actually smiled.
"I just realized, the last time she bunked with us, I think you were still pregnant for real with Lincoln," he whispered.
"Well then, I guess everything has come full circle," Rita whispered back as she turned off the light. Then, just for fun, she took hold of her husband's hand, and laid both of their hands upon Luna's faux bump.