Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Restored Image: A tale retold

Chapter fourteen: Tired Athlete, part two

"You want me to do what now?"

Aside from Rita, there were a few other adults who were acting as chaperones for the dance taking place over at Royal Woods Middle School. One such adult was Chandler's mom, and due to reasons similar to why Rita had to bring her (estranged) son Lincoln along, Chandler's mom had to bring Chandler along. The red-headed boy himself was currently talking to his older cousin Kara, a student at the Middle School, same as Lincoln's (ex)sister Lynn.

"It's very simple, Kara," Chandler said to the green-clad girl, "I need you to find either that Jack guy, that Margo girl or that Kendra girl, get the person that you managed to get ahold of to follow you to where I got something set up, and get them to wait there until my friends and I carry out our plan."

Kara, with her left hand on her hip and her right hand to gesture at Chandler, remarked in a mildly confused tone, "And you're sure that this will do something to screw over Francisco's dad, making him look like a bad person compared to your dad thus upping your dad's chances of getting that promotion at the sewage treatment plant?"

"I already got some stuff that we can plant as evidence to make it look like Francisco is behind what I have planned, yes," Chandler replied in a casual laid-back tone that sounded like it was being reassuring, "Don't worry, Kara. This'll be guaranteed to help our family out."

"…Alright, Chandler," replied Kara, as she turned around to go look for any of the three students who Chandler just asked her to go look for. A few minutes later, Kara came back to Chandler, who was hanging near where he was at when he sent Kara off to find either Margo, Kendra or Jack. Giving her younger cousin a thumbs up, Kara said, "Good news, cous. I found Margo."

"Well alright, Kara," Chandler replied, sounding happy that things were working out in his favor so far.

With a gentle nod of her head, Kara continued, "Yeah. After I had looked around for a bit, I spotted Margo talking to one of her friends who's trying to help her out in the elections."

Clapping his hands together, the red-headed boy remarked, "Excellent. Now all you have to do is get that Margo girl to follow you out to where I got Frank and Richie waiting to help carry out the plan to screw over Francisco." The thirteen-year-old girl nodded gently in agreement before taking her leave to carry out her part in her younger cousin's plan, a plan that would ultimately advance their family as a whole. After his cousin was out of sight, Chandler casually chuckled a bit to himself.

"This ought to be fun."

Meanwhile, off in the area to the right-hand side of the stage in the RWMS gymnasium, Chandler's friends (more like goons) Richie and Frank were hiding in waiting. "Dude, what that seriously Lincoln that we just saw walk on by?" Richie harshly whispered to Frank, his tone clearly conveying surprise mixed with more than a hint of worry, "Dude, what if finds us?!"

"He didn't see us when he walked by," Frank replied in a reassuring manner, "So as long as we keep quiet and keep behind some cover and in the shadows, there's no way that he should see us. Besides, we got more important things to worry about, remember? When one of the students that is running against that Francisco guy comes by, we have to spring the trap." To emphasize his point, the well-fed blonde boy pointed over to something that was off to the side somewhat, getting Richie to look up; there was some sort of trap, looking like it would be an avalanche of various objects found in the side areas of a middle school stage, set up. Frank then held up a rope for Richie to see.

"A good thing that we found enough stuff back here to make sure that the plan won't cause anything really bad but still be rather serious," Frank remarked, "And we can't forget the part where we make sure to plant the evidence to make it look like Francisco's behind it."

"…I'm still a little rattled that Lincoln's here for some odd reason," Richie said in a mildly nervous tone, "I mean, you were there with Chandler when Lincoln went all Hero-Killer Stain and exerted murderous intent, weren't you? Not to mention what we heard that Ross jerk say about receiving similar treatment from Lincoln a couple of days before Ross was throttled by that gang of kids from the disqualified baseball team." With a shudder, Richie added, I think that Lincoln has accomplished the impossible and became more terrifying than Ronnie Anne."

Sighing in a mildly troubled tone, Frank reached towards Richie and placed his hand on Richie's shoulder in a reassuring gesture. "…I know full well how you feel, dude," the well-fed blonde boy remarked, "And yes, I was there with Chandler when Lincoln intimidated him. The dude did scare me, and he wasn't even looking at me." Taking a breath, Frank continued, "But you have to try and calm down. Like I said, Lincoln doesn't know that we're here, and so long as you follow my lead, he won't be finding out."

Slowly breathing in and out, Richie said, "Alright, man."

"Good," Frank replied, "Now all we have to do is-" The well-fed blonde boy was cut off when he felt his pocket vibrate. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone and saw that he had gotten a text, which he proceeded to read; I found that Margo girl that Francisco is running against, and I'm bringing her over now, so get ready.

"Well alright," Frank remarked as he returned his phone to his pocket, "It looks like Chandler's older cousin Kara found one of the opponents that Francisco jerk's running against in the student body elections." Turing to face Richie, Frank said, "Alright, dude, get ready." Richie, although he was still a little spooked due to having seen Lincoln Loud walk past earlier, was nonetheless ready to do his part. He even carefully and discreetly slipped some printed out campaign posters that had been made for Francisco's bid to win student body elections.

"So," Margo began as she and her friend Lynn, who tagged along upon hearing what was being talked about, walked and talked with some random girl from her history class that she hardly even knew existed, "…Kara, was it? What was it that you wanted to show me again?"

"I spotted what looked like one of those old timey leather football helmets that were used before the modern hard plastic ones laying on the floor in the off-stage area off to the right-hand side of the stage," Kara explained, "You and your friend here are both good with sports, so I figured that the two of you might get a kick out of seeing it. You girls may also be able to tell me if I was right about what I saw." As she walked with Margo and Lynn, Kara silently cursed to herself in her mind; she was only aiming to lure in Margo, but Lynn insisted on tagging along because of what she (Kara) said about finding something significant to football history. Kara was worried about how this would interfere with the plan.

"I've seen old photos of football players wearing those leather helmet things," Lynn remarked, "But why didn't you simply grab it and bring it to us?"

"I found it laying under a folding chair rack that's behind some large stage props," Kara explained, "There's no way that I'd be able to move all of that stuff on my own. Likewise, it's out of my reach, and I couldn't find anything to use to fish it out."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Margo replied as she and Lynn continued to follow Kara. With the two athletic girls following her, Kara smiled a bit to herself on the inside; there really wasn't one of those old leather football helmet things, but the two girls didn't need to know that. All that Margo (and now Lynn at this point, because she just insisted on having to come along) had to do was fall for the plan, then those boys Frank and Richie who were friends of Chandler's would carry out their part of the plan. Before anyone would know it, the opinion that everyone in RWMS would have of Francisco would drop to an all-time low.

There was also a fairly good chance that Francisco himself might be blamed for the upcoming accident, rather than a group of students that were Francisco supporters, which Kara thought would be the most likely outcome of this plan, given what was about to happen. Either way, Francisco's reputation would be taking a serious hit, which is what Chandler was hoping for.

"So, Kara," Margo began, snapping Kara's attention back to reality, "Where is it?"

"Oh," the cousin of Chandler replied as she began to slowly turn around while looking like she was looking for something, "It should be somewhere-"

"Lynn?" Lincoln's voice called out, getting Lynn, Margo and Kara to look over and see the white-haired boy himself standing there, having returned from using the bathroom. Over from where they hid, Frank and Richie saw that Lincoln was standing there near the three girls.

"Dude," Richie hissed to Frank quietly in a clearly worried tone, "Lincoln's here!"

"Man, you've got to relax," Frank whispered back to his friend, "There's no way that we're going to be found out as long as you-"

"I'm doing it now!" Richie said in a hushed whisper, cutting the fell-wed blonde boy off midsentence as he took the rope end that Frank had shown him earlier and giving it a good hard tug, prompting Frank to go wide-eyed with surprise and a bit of shock.

Over where Lincoln was talking to Lynn, Margo and Kara, the white-haired boy said to his sporty ex-sister in a mildly suspicious tone, "What are you doing with your friends here, Lynn?"

"She was just going to show me and Margo something, Lincoln," the athletic Loud girl replied, her tone sounding like she was regretting something. Kara and Margo both noticed the odd tone, but neither girl had any idea why Lynn would be speaking to this boy in such a regretful tone. Kara and Margo both decided (on their own respectively, not with each other) that it was a non-factor, with Margo trying to take Lynn's side if need be and Kara proceeding to try and go through with her part in Chandler's plan.

"It's one of those old timey leather football helmet things," Kara explained to this mystery boy that seemed to have Lynn cowed, "I figured that these girls would both get a kick out of it since they are both into sports."

After considering for a bit what Kara had said, the white haired boy nodded a bit in agreement. "…Yeah, that does sound like Ly-" Lincoln began, but he was cut off when he and the three middle school girls heard some creaking from off to the side. Looking over, the four kids saw a large pile of stuff that was piled in a way so that just a little bit of outside effort would be enough to make all of it fall over. Seeing some of the objects in the pile shift around a bit, Lincoln could tell that unless he got out of the way quickly, he'd be buried in an avalanche of-

"LINCOLN, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Before anyone knew what was happening, the white-haired boy felt himself getting shoved out of the way. Lincoln ended up falling over and rolling a bit before he knocked into the door with the green exit sign overhead, which he had closed after he had returned from the restroom. Right as Lincoln slammed into the closed door, he heard a large commotion of noises clamoring out in a booming symphony, and immediately afterwards, he began to hear the panicked shouts of people out in the gymnasium. A bit shaken by the little trip and roll he had taken, Lincoln nonetheless began to get back up to his feet.

"Ow…" Lincoln groaned just as he had finished standing back up, "…What the hell was all of-" The white-haired boy stopped short when, upon looking over to where he had been previously standing, there was now a large pile of various odds and ends, all of which had fallen over due to being overbalanced. Lincoln also saw that Margo and the green-clad girl were picking stuff off of the pile and tossing all of it to the side, in a frantic attempt to unbury an unconscious Lynn, who was sticking half-way out from underneath the pile while lying face down on the floor. There was also a somewhat large wooden crate pinning down on Lynn's left shoulder blade.

"Holy crap," Lincoln said in a quiet tone of shock as he was quickly hit by the situation. Running over to the scene so that he could try to help the two girls with their digging, the white-haired boy shouted, "LYNN!"

Back at the Loud family residence, Lynn was sitting up on the sofa, looking like she had fallen asleep while watching TV. "Mmm," the athletic Loud girl moaned quietly to herself as she began to stir awake. When her eyes were open enough, Lynn saw, to her mild confusion, that she had somehow gotten back home, even though it wasn't the last place she remembered being. "…How in the heck did I get back home?" Lynn said aloud to herself as she hopped off of the sofa.

Lynn looked around the living room, and aside from the surprising lack of volume in the house (the Louds do have something of a reputation for living up to their family name, after all), nothing seemed to be off to her. "…Hello?" Lynn called out a bit tentatively, "Is anybody-"

"Lynn's awake!" a younger male voice called out, cutting Lynn off midsentence and making her look over to the source of the noise. To Lynn's complete bafflement, she saw Lincoln come running over to her. The reason why the sporty Loud girl was confused by all of this was because Lincoln was somewhere between the twins' height and Lisa's height, and rather than his usual outfit of an orange polo and blue pants, the white-haired boy was wearing an orange shirt and a pair of overalls.

"That's the outfit that Lincoln wore back when he was little," Lynn thought to herself as the mini-Lincoln finished running up to her. Shaking her head gently, Lynn said to the mini Lincoln that was standing in front of her, "Lincoln, why are you shorter, and why are you wearing a pair of Lana's overalls?" The athletic Loud sister's questions elicited confused looks out of the now shorter Lincoln.

"I'm short because I'm five," the mini-Lincoln replied as he held up a hand with all fingers and his thumb outstretched. Lowering his arm, the mini-Lincoln continued, "Also, who's this Lana person that you're talking about?" Gesturing to his overalls that he wore, the young white-haired boy said, "These are my overalls."

Lynn was even more confused now; her little brother was suddenly five-years-old again, and apparently Lana didn't exist. The athletic Loud girl had no idea what the hell was going on, but something else was on her mind. If Lincoln really was five-years-old again, does that mean he doesn't remember what she had done to him? How she had decried him as bad luck, which ultimately prompted him to run away, staying missing until he had randomly popped up by chance over in Great Lakes City? Did this now younger Lincoln remember any of the bad things that she had ever done to him? Could…could this be her chance to try to set things right with her little brother?

"…Umm, hey Lincoln," Lynn began in a mildly serious tone, getting the now younger white-haired boy to look up at her, "Do…do you remember if I ever did anything bad to you?"

"Anything bad?" the mini-Lincoln said, repeating part of what Lynn had said in a confused tone, before he proceeded to give consideration to his older sister's question. After a couple of seconds, the mini-Lincoln, while pointing to Lynn in an accusatory manner, replied with a mildly grumpy look on his face, "Yeah, you took the last brownie snack cake, even though mommy said that it was for me!"

…That's it? That's all that mini-Lincoln remembers? Lynn, needing to be sure, couldn't help but press just a little bit more. "Is there anything else that you can remember?" Lynn asked, a hint of concern in her tone "Anything at all?"

"Mmm…" mini-Lincoln said as he gave Lynn's question some thought. After a few seconds, mini-Lincoln merely shook his head and said, "Nope, you just took my snack cake. You owe me a new one, by the way."

The athletic Loud girl was immediately hit by a wave of emotions; regret, guilt, sadness. But over all of that combined, Lynn felt relieved. Her little brother, though oddly changed as he may have been, was not upset with her beyond something simple that can be very easily remedied. Lynn could not help but start crying. Softly, mind you, but crying all the same. Crying because of the immense relief that she was feeling. Crying that the mini-Lincoln noticed right away.

"Umm, Lynn?" mini-Lincoln said in a concerned tone as he looked up at his older sister, "Are you okay? If it helps, you don't really have to get me a snack cake."

"No, no," Lynn replied with a gentle shake of her head, "It's not that, little bro. It's…something else that I had to deal with." Walking up to the mini-Lincoln, Lynn reached down and gently ruffled the top of his head. "Come on, Lincoln," Lynn said, "Let's find some snack cakes."

"Okay!" mini-Lincoln said cheerfully as he proceeded to follow his older sister into the kitchen.

Lynn had to wipe another tear away from her eye as her little brother followed her. Lincoln didn't have the cool, indifferent tone he had taken to using since returning home after having run away, he wasn't showing any scorn towards her, and he was overall just happy. Happy to be around his older sister.

An older sister that was happy that her little brother wanted to be around her.

…

"Mmm…" Lynn moaned quietly as she started coming to. After a few seconds, the sporty Loud girl was fully awake. The last thing that Lynn remembered was that she was leading her little brother (who was de-aged for some odd reason) into the kitchen to try and find some snack cakes, and now she is laying in a hospital bed. Well, she was laying in the bed; after waking up, Lynn sat upright in the hospital bed as she began to look around at her surroundings.

It was a standard hospital room from what Lynn could tell; it had a hospital bed (which she was laying/sitting in), a bedside table on her right, a table off to the one side of the room, a chair in the far-right corner of the room, and a TV suspended from the wall so that Lynn could watch TV while laying in the bed. To Lynn's surprise, Lori was sitting in the aforementioned chair. The oldest Loud sister must be here to try and keep an eye on her, and was currently asleep.

Lynn suddenly felt a bit of pain in the back of her head, prompting her to hold her hand to the back of her head. When she did this, Lynn noticed that her hair was down as opposed to being up in a sporty ponytail, allowing her hair to flow over her back. Looking over to the bedside table, Lynn saw that the ponytail she used to bind her hair up was laying next to a small vase.

"So that…all of that…it was just a dream…" Lynn thought as she recalled her experiences before coming to in the hospital room. Looking over to where her older sister was asleep in a chair, Lynn shouted, "Hey, Lori!" Lynn's shout was enough to stir Lori from her sleep, and after yawning and stretching a bit, the oldest Loud sister looked over and saw that Lynn was up.

"Lynn!" Lori nearly exclaimed upon seeing her athletic younger sister awake, clearly sounding relieved. Getting up from the chair and dashing over to Lynn, Lori asked, "Are you okay?"

"Well other than having a feeling like I just got blindsided by a taco truck, I'm pretty-" Lynn began, but she was cut off when she felt a sharp pain in her left shoulder blade. Quick reaching her hand over to her left shoulder, the sporty Loud girl said through a hiss of pain, "Yeah, that's going to be a pain."

"Well at least you're going to be okay," Lori remarked, "Mom said that your friend Margo and some random girl were trying to help Lincoln unbury you from that mess. Mom also said that the random girl claimed to have seen two kids rush out before anyone else could see them. The girl said that she didn't get a very good look at either of the two kids, but she did hear one of them say something about screwing up trying to make the elections easier for Francisco."

Pulling something out of the right rear pocket on her shorts, Lori removed a folded-up sheet of paper, unfolded it, and handed it over to Lynn. It was one of the printed campaign posters for Francisco's bid to win student body elections over at RWMS. "…Your friend Margo said that she literally found one of these on the floor where that stuff fell down on you while you were loaded onto a stretcher and brought here," the oldest Loud girl explained after having handed over the printed poster. As she looked at the sheet of paper, the athletic Loud girl began to feel mild regret.

"…I can't believe it…" Lynn said, her tone a mix of regret and simmering anger, "…And to think that I actually used to like that bastard…" Lynn's hand that held the printed poster tightened, causing the paper to scrunch up and crinkle slightly. Lori could hear the crinkling of the paper as Lynn's hand that held it tightened into a fist. Suddenly looking up to Lori, Lynn asked in a worried tone, "Wait a minute! Is Lincoln okay? I saw that the stuff that fell on me was about to fall on him, so I pushed him out of the-"

"He's fine," Lori replied in a gentle and understanding tone, interrupting Lynn in the process, "He was a bit upset when we found him, Margo and that random girl trying to unbury you, but he calmed down significantly when the medics said that you were just knocked out and would be fine after some treatment here at the hospital." With a bit of an amused smile, Lori added, "By the way, Lincoln asked mom if you could be un-grounded."

"I was…" Lynn began, but stopped short upon remembering what Lori was talking about; the morning after Lincoln came back from Great Lakes City, her parents decided to let Lincoln decide how she was to be punished. Lincoln eventually let them go for grounding Lynn for two months, which was the original plan, with the suggested punishments offered by some of the other Loud girls all being declined. Not Lisa's suggestion, for some odd reason, although Lisa has yet to take advantage of using Lynn in her experiments.

"…Oh yeah," the athletic Loud girl said quietly, "I'm still grounded."

"Were grounded, Lynn," Lori corrected, "You were grounded. Mom agreed to ungrounding you. She's going to tell dad about it later."

"…But why-"

"Did you not hear me?" the oldest Loud sister interrupted, "Lincoln asked her to. You…" Taking a breath to steady herself, Lori continued, "If it wasn't for you, then Lincoln literally would have wounded up here in the hospital instead of you. You…" Having to take another steadying breath, Lori went on, "…You saved Lincoln from a accident that would have literally been terrible." Walking over to the doorway that led into Lynn's room at the hospital, Lori said, "Anyway, Lincoln's waiting outside. I'm going to head out to give him the go ahead to come on in."

Lynn watched as her older sister walked out of the hospital room, leaving her alone. But the sporty Loud sibling was alone for only a second or so, because Lincoln then peeked into the room, and upon seeing Lynn awake and sitting up in the hospital bed, he was at the door just long enough to close it behind himself.

Making his way over to where Lynn was sitting up in her hospital bed, Lincoln simply looked at her for a few brief seconds before he gently threw his arms around her, unknowingly making the pain in Lynn's left shoulder blade flare up a bit again. Regardless of that, Lynn was so shocked by what was happening that she didn't even notice the pain. When Lynn finally processed what was happening, her expression changed from one of stunned shock to one of sad, yet ultimately happy, realization.

Slowly, the sporty Loud girl wrapped her own arms around the white-haired boy to begin returning the hug. Lynn could tell that this was NOT a dream; the back of her head still hurt and she was starting to finally notice the sharp pain that was in her left shoulder blade. The physical pain was going to be a bother to Lynn, and she expected that the part concerning her shoulder might end up hindering her when it came to sports. But all of that was far from Lynn's mind at that moment.

She was Lincoln's sister again.

Lynn began to cry.

END, RESTORED IMAGE: A TALE RETOLD CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Author's note:

Given the overall impact I felt Lincoln reconciling with Lynn had, I left the core of how Lynn made up with Lincoln unchanged, only changing a few minor details (such as Margo being the one Lynn supported in the student body elections), as well as the fact that I decided to break this one up into two parts (both this and the previous chapter used to be a single chapter). Anyway, next time will see things continuing in this revamped story, even though I have no idea at the moment what I'm going to do for it; I'll either have the main story continue, or do a filler chapter that delves into more background for Chandler or development for some of the Loud sisters (I have special chapters in mind for both Lily and Lana).