Thanks to everyone who saw the story. There are over 1,000 views on it now! I know I'm not the best writer, but I really appreciate everyone who has followed. Again, I am completely open to constructive criticism and would actually appreciate it if you could give me some advice. I really tried to make this chapter interesting, but after reading it, I have a feeling I probably overdid it. I also should have told everyone this when I started, but I've actually already finished this story and I'm just uploading the chapters at different times so that I can see how people react to each of them. Again, thanks to everyone who reads this and reviews it.
Chapter 3 - The Inevitable
Lynn trudged up to her room to sit on her bed. She would never be able to forgive herself if Lincoln had gotten hurt and she didn't do anything, whether it was physically, or emotionally. But the thing is, Lincoln was okay. He had no idea that he had been made fun of, at least, not yet. But for some reason, there was still that nagging need to defend him, even when it wasn't necessary. Thinking about it some more, she started realizing that maybe he did need to learn how to hold his own. After all, there wasn't always going to be someone there for him. Of course there was, what was she thinking. She would always be there for her little brother, the person who was closest to him, in age anyway. She may not always be with him physically, but she would always make time for him. One of the things that Tommy said had been nagging her for a while now.
"He can't fight his own fights. You have to fight all of them for him."
Maybe there was some truth to his statement. He could be right, but even if that were the case, it wasn't Lincoln's fault. Lynn had always been protective of her little brother, maybe sometimes even going a little too far, and it made him soft. Never has he had to rely on his own strength to get him out of a bad situation. Lynn would always muscle her way through it for him without even having to ask. She did it willingly. Sometimes even when he didn't want her or anyone to. Thinking about that, she reminisced over what happened when he got a paper-cut. Maybe they were over-protective of their brother, but it was only cause they loved him. After all, he was their only brother, for all of them.
Lynn was laying back on her bed, throwing her favorite tennis ball against the wall, again and again, making a distinctive thud every time it hit. No one else was doing something out of the ordinary. Lucy was still in the vent writing poems and Luna was rocking out to some Aero-is-Myth. Lincoln was in his room reading comics and Lori was talking to Bobby on the phone. Lily was crawling around, practically naked, and Lisa was blowing stuff up in her laboratory. Leni was working on some kind of scarf and Luan was watching some comedy routines, learning as much as she could while still enjoying it. Lana was in the bathroom playing with the sink pipes and Lola was parading around in her car, practicing her pageant wave. No one was fighting, which was a rare occurrence in the Loud house, and since it was a Friday, they all had pizza to look forward to that night.
The pizza arrived at about eight-thirty and everyone, including Lynn, ran downstairs and got a single slice of a plain old cheese pizza. Once they finished, they fought over who got the last slice, then all went back to whatever they were doing. Even Lynn just went back to her room and started bouncing that tennis ball against the wall again. No one even noticed that something was odd about the way she was acting. Even Lisa, who would normally jump on the opportunity to study something irregular about her sister's behavior, never thought anything was different.
"He can't fight his own fights. You have to fight all of them for him."
"That's not true," she desperately tried to convince herself. The words echoed through her mind like a Drum Corps in a Stadium. She knew he was right. He wouldn't need his sisters' help if he could learn how to stand up for himself. However, Most of the time, he didn't care to do that. Every time someone made fun of him, with the exception of those few times with Ronnie-Anne, he just shrugged it off and went on his way, just wanting to avoid a conflict. It also explained why he feels like he needs to be the peace-keeper in the house. He never wants to be involved in conflict and doesn't enjoy seeing it.
Lynn stopped bouncing the ball upon realizing that. She picked on him so much and he just took it, not once trying to fight back or anything. It wasn't just with Lynn though. Every time any of his sisters made fun of him, he just ignored it. But every time that someone else tried picking on him, they defended him to the last word, all of them. Even Lily, when seeing Lincoln physically or verbally abused, would point at that person with her rattle and angrily say "Poo-Poo!" The more that Lynn thought about it, the more depressed she became, and the more she wanted to stop thinking about it. But it just wasn't happening. It occupied her mind the entire night, even after everyone went to bed.
Having been deep in thought for a while, it was close to midnight when Lynn finally realized what time it was. She was about to jump out of her bed, but immediately stopped. Lucy was asleep, as well as most everyone else in the house with the exception of Lincoln, who had also lost track of time reading comics. Lynn slowly eased out of bed, tip-toeing across the rugged floor of their room, trying not to make any noise. Leaving the room, she silently proceeded, at first in the direction of Lincoln's room whose light was still on, but then stopped after just one step, frozen in fear, more nervous than she had ever been in her whole life. Finally breaking away from it, she flew to the bathroom instead.
She had never had to do anything like this before and just couldn't do it. Nothing ever scared her, except this. She knew what was going to happen, and she didn't want anyone to see it, not even Lincoln. With the exception of Lucy and probably Lisa, she was the most emotionally resilient of her sisters. It was okay for her to express happiness and joy and even anger in front of her other siblings, but never sadness, and never to this degree.
She tried to psyche herself up. Maybe this feeling would go away after a few minutes. But, unsurprisingly, it didn't work. Finally giving up, she left the bathroom. There was no way that she was ready to talk to Lincoln yet. He wasn't exactly going to be happy with this. The long slow walk back to her room took forever, trudging along the carpet of the upstairs hallway. Lynn didn't even want to think about how her little brother would react. She was going to beat herself up over this for a long time, because she knew that he actually would forgive her for not showing up. The shuffle back didn't keep her from that feeling of shame, but she did finally get back and got in bed. She started drifting off, but something, or rather, someone startled her.
"Finally ready to talk?"
Lynn jumped under the covers and instantly sat up, hitting Lincoln on the shoulder. "What are you doing in my room!?"
"What do you mean your room? This has always been my room." Lincoln replied in an annoyed whisper, also sitting up. It was clear that she didn't come into his room on purpose, but at the same time, he realized that maybe it wasn't completely an accident.
Lynn looked around for a brief second and found that she was indeed in Lincoln's room. She had no idea how she had stumbled in there. She would have loved to believe that it was because the light in Lincoln's room had just turned off for the night when she finally left the bathroom, and wanted to think that it was because she couldn't see that what had happened, happened. But she knew better.
There were a few minutes of awkward silence where they just sat there next to each other in Lincoln's bed in the darkness, and Lynn appreciated the fact that he wasn't speaking at first, but one of them had to speak up eventually.
"So what happened?" Lincoln finally asked, breaking the silence.
Lynn slouched back down and rolled over, turning her back to Lincoln. He got the message that she was unintentionally sending, but also wasn't going to just let her sulk like that.
"You know, you have to tell me what happened eventually."
"No I don't..."
"Yes you do," he firmly replied, crossing his arms. "You can't just keep running away like you did this morning. You have to let it go or it's gonna ruin your life."
Lynn was visibly disturbed by what he said. She knew he was right, but didn't want to admit it.
"You might as well go ahead and tell me now anyway, because we'll all eventually find out what happened."
Her younger, but wiser brother was right. How he was so mature for his age was beyond her comprehension.
"Fine," she finally complied. "I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell anyone else."
Lincoln made a locking motion with his hand in front of his mouth. Lynn continued, "and you also have to promise me that what happens in here, stays in here." Again, Lincoln made the same locking motion with his hand, this time throwing an invisible key behind him.
"Well... here goes nothing," she finally started.
Hesitantly, she told him what happened, telling him everything about how they were trying to get under her skin and make her mad. She wasn't showing any signs of discomfort at first and Lincoln started wondering what it was all about and why she didn't want to tell him. "It didn't really bother me at first, but then he said something about..."
"About what?" Lincoln asked.
Again, there was a long pause before Lynn finally said, looking right at him, "About you, Lincoln."
"Whoa..." Lincoln had never expected this.
"He said some things about me that were pretty mean," Lynn started again. "But the things he said about you were just... just... downright evil."
"Tell me what he said," Lincoln asked.
"He said you were weak and pathetic," she told him, almost immediately breaking down into tears. "He.. He..."
Not quite understanding what was going on, Lincoln put his arm around his sister's shoulder. Her head immediately fell on his chest and she wrapped her arms around him. This wasn't something that was easy for her to say.
Lincoln had guessed that something really bad happened when he found Lynn hiding under her bed, but he never thought that Lynn was this upset, especially over her little brother. He wasn't even there to hear what Tommy had said. For a moment, just to make her feel better, Lincoln thought about telling her that Tommy just did it because he was jealous, but she already knew that. It probably wouldn't have endd well anyway. Instead, he just let her cry until she was done.
"Do you know what happened to him? Mom told me what happened." Lincoln finally asked.
"No! And I don't care!" Lynn cried, now losing herself even more. "Don't you get it Lincoln? I did that for you! I did it so that he wouldn't make fun of you!"
She was pretty much bawling uncontrollably in front of her little brother, over him of all things, and he had the nerve to ask her if she knew what happened to him. She didn't think that she would care if Lincoln said that Tommy died in the hospital. She was so mad at him now that she almost wanted him to die. Almost.
Lincoln was honestly a little flattered that she willfully admitted she did all those things for him. This was the last thing he expected from his tough older sister. He knew that she had a soft side. Everyone does. But Lincoln realized that he had never actually seen hers before. And now that he was seeing it right in front of his face, he realized how soft Lynn actually was when she opened up her hard, nigh unbreakable emotional barrier.
"He may not be making fun of anyone anymore," Lincoln finally told her sister, coming up with an idea.
"What do you mean?" Lynn sobbed, despite what she had been thinking, this was the last thing she expected. "I didn't kill him did I?"
"No but..."
"But what?" Lynn almost yelled. Her mind had suddenly changed about wanting him to die. She felt so guilty for thinking that.
Sighing, Lincoln said "He wasn't breathing when the ambulance arrived."
"Wh... What?"
"He's fine now because when mom went to visit him in the hospital a few hours ago they told her that he was okay and she asked what the damages were,"
Lynn's face turned to sheer horror as she sat up in Lincoln's bed. She didn't want to believe it. She had never gone this far before in defending her little brother. She thought she saw him breathing when she ran away, but she was too bothered by what he said. She only punched him like five or six times. Was she really that mad?
"If he's fine then why did you say that he may not make fun of anyone again?"
"Brain Damage," Lincoln replied. "You know that you could have killed him Lynn. He was lucky that the ambulance arrived when it did."
She sulked for a minute but then began trying to defend her actions. "He started it though. He knew... He knew that if... if..." She couldn't finish the sentence without feeling guilty for what she had done.
"Lynn," Lincoln calmed her down. "What if that had been me?"
Lynn looked at him, almost thinking it was some sort of joke. But then she started getting choked up again.
"But it wasn't you, and besides, I would never do something like that to you on purpose."
"That's not what I'm talking about. I mean..." Lincoln paused, trying to think it through before proceeding. "What if I was making fun of someone, like he was making fun of me to you, and that person beat me up, like you did to him?"
Lincoln wasn't exactly the smoothest talker, but the point got across. Lynn thought about saying that he would have deserved it, but there was no way that she would be able to get away with a lie like that. She wouldn't be convincing enough, and even if she was, there was no way he'd ever believe that. So with a sigh, she finally admitted that she would find the guy and beat him to a pulp.
"Exactly." There was no point in Lincoln telling her that that was how Tommy's family probably felt, because she got the point. She wasn't exactly a genius like Lisa, but he knew that she wasn't an idiot either.
It wasn't Lincoln's job to tell her stuff like this, but for some reason, it was easier to hear from Lincoln. If Rita or Lynn Sr. would have tried to tell her that, she would have just shrugged and walked off. Not only was she willing, but she even wanted to hear it from Lincoln.
"I lied to you by the way," Lincoln said.
"What? What do you mean?"
"Don't get me wrong, he was plenty knocked up. Three broken ribs, a broken nose and jaw, and two sprained ankles. Not to mention both of his black eyes and three or four bruises on his face as well as a few more on the rest of his body..." Lincoln paused for a moment, "Where was I going with this again?"
"I think it was something about lying to me? Doesn't seem like it though." She crossed her arms and glared at him as she sat back against the headboard.
Oh yeah!" Lincoln remembered. "He wasn't conscious, but he was breathing. He was never even close to dying."
"You little..."
"And he doesn't have any brain damage either," Lincoln told her trying not to laugh.
Lynn was furious now and raised her fist to hit him on the shoulder.
"Wait! Before you hit me for that, I wanna ask you something."
"You got about five seconds, before I sock your arm," she said, her speech still wavering from all the crying she had done.
"Ugh... You know what, just go ahead and get it over with and after I can see the bruise, then I'll ask you."
With a slight glimmer of hope that she might not punch him, Lincoln slowly started cowering, tensed up, and closed his eyes. Lynn sat up and punched him in his left shoulder. "Ah..." Lincoln said, nearly falling out of the bed, covering his mouth before anyone had a chance to hear him. Once he had silenced himself, he grasped his left arm in pain.
"ahhh..." he groaned. "That better have made you feel better..."
"Oh don't worry about that!" Lynn chuckled, leaning back with her hands behind her head. Still moaning from the pain, Lincoln sat himself up straight. He looked back at Lynn with a semi-angry expression on his face, then looked back forward, leaned back and closed his eyes, biting his lips. After a few minutes of recovering, Lynn finally spoke up. "So, what was it you wanted to tell me?"
Instantly, Lincoln, as if trying to pretend Lynn never punched him, sat up and said, "You could have killed him."
"No I wouldn't have!" Lynn snapped, trying to defend herself. "They pulled me off of him before I did anything else."
"But what if they didn't?"
Silence filled the room. Lynn had already thought about this. She knew what she would have done. She didn't feel like she needed to answer that question, at least, not the way Lincoln wanted her to.
"Why do you think I ran?" she finally said.
Lincoln was a little taken aback at this. "What do you mean?"
"Stop playing dumb Lincoln. You know damn well what I mean!" she snapped, barely keeping her voice down.
That was startling. He knew her sister got pretty angry sometimes, but she never cursed. Even when she beat Tommy to a pulp, she didn't let a bad word even slip her tongue.
"Sorry for cursing like that," she started back up again. "But I'm not an idiot, and I know that you're not one either."
"Right..." he awkwardly replied. "Sorry."
She sighed. "Don't be. I probably would have told you even if you were serious. Besides, you weren't the one who had to run as an act of self-control, if you can even call it that..."
They both sat in Lincoln's bed for a minute or two before speaking up again.
"So what now?" Lynn asked, once again breaking the silence.
"Probably Beg," Lincoln answered a bit too confidently for Lynn.
"Beg? What for?"
"What do you think Lynn?" Lincoln started. Now it was his turn to be annoyed. "You sent a kid to the hospital for breaking his jaw, his ribs, and his nose. Do you really think that they'll even let you back into school?"
The thought never crossed her mind. She wasn't even worried about it until now. They were probably going to expel her from school. Then where would she go? She had already built up a reputation in Royal Woods as one of the best soccer players they've ever had.
"Maybe, just maybe if you go and apologize for what you did to him, they'll let you back in."
"Heck No!" she retorted. "He's got to apologize first!" She crossed her arms and violently laid back again.
"Lynn, what you did to him is WAAAYYYYYYY worse than anything he could have possibly said to you." Lynn started opening her mouth to try to say something, but Lincoln didn't stop. "If you're telling me that you got mad and sent him to the hospital because he was making fun of me, then you don't deserve an apology!"
Way harsh dude.
Lincoln's words hit her like a brick to the face and she instantly became slack-jawed. She had no Idea that he could be so brutal. What happened to the loving caring brother that was just there a few seconds ago? He was still there, that was him talking. She looked over at him and saw that he wasn't angry at all. The pained, downcast look on his face made it obvious that he did not want to have to tell her that, but she needed to hear it. Once again, her younger, yet wiser brother was right.
"You have to apologize before you can even think about accepting an apology from him," Lincoln finally told her with that same downcast look on his face.
She pulled her legs up to her chest and, reaching around them, buried her head in her knees. Lincoln put his hand around her shoulder again which helped in comforting her, but it was also an attempt to keep himself cool. He actually almost apologized himself for saying it, but this was something that she needed to hear.
Lynn had started crying again, so Lincoln thought that it would be a good time to cut the serious stuff for the night. Lynn lifted her head and put it on her brother's shoulder again. Despite the fact that he was younger, he always, always acted like an older brother. It bothered her for so long because she was the older one. It should be her trying to comfort him like this. But if it weren't for that, she would be
After a few minutes of a less awkward silence, she reluctantly told him that she would apologize to Tommy and to the principal. Maybe showing maturity for once in talking to their principal would help her case, and her punishment would be reduced significantly. She never thought that begging would be an option, but if it was the only way to fix things, then so be it. As long as Lincoln was there, she was prepared to do anything.
Lynn got under the covers of Lincoln's bed and once again rested her head on his shoulder. Still sobbing just a little, she made herself comfortable. Lincoln started stroking her hair. They didn't worry about what was going to happen at that moment, they just laid there in silence, appreciating the other's company. If they never had this talk, Lynn would have been up all night, never moving on from being mad at Tommy. She was too stubborn to do it on her own. It was because of Lincoln that she was able to move on to the point where she could willingly admit that she was wrong. He didn't want to admit it, but Lincoln probably wouldn't have been able to go to sleep either. The plan had been laid out. He thought of every possible situation, but when he found out that it was because of him that she did this, he had to scrap everything. What he saw from his toughest older sister tonight was troubling, but he promised not to tell anyone about it.