The storm picked up as Lori kept the van stable. "Lis, how much farther is Northfield?" Lori asked, carefully maneuvering around fallen branches.
"I'd say about six miles, I think," Lisa answered.
"You think? Aren't you the smart one?" Lynn snarked.
Lisa rolled her eyes, "Obviously, but my knowledge can only go so far. I'm not...keen on anything geographical."
Lynn threw her hands up in frustration, "That makes sooo much better, poindexter!"
As the two bicker, Lincoln was observing a empty lot. He saw a lump laying on a bench, so nothing wasn't usually until he saw what was next to said lump. It was a backpack with a picture of Troy Eagle, the skateboarding icon that T.K. idolizes so much. It didn't take long for Lincoln to put two and two together. "Lori, pull over here!" Lincoln yelled over the argument.
"Uhh, why?" Lori pried, stopping the van as she and the others look towards him.
Lincoln pointed towards the lump, "Because that's T.K.! There's his backpack right beside him!"
Lori turned her head towards the lump. The lump shivered, revealing a few familiar dreadlocks to her. "Oh my god! Quick, get him inside before he gets sick!" Lori ordered, climbing out of van and pulling her hoodie over her head. Lincoln and Lynn follow suit as they trek towards T.K. and helped him up.
T.K. cringed as the trio walked him towards the back of Vanzilla. "Oh *cough* hey, Troy Eagle. You come to whisk me away to Skate Heaven? *cough*" T.K. croaked as he climbed into the back.
Lynn was confused, "Troy Eagle?"
"His idol. Just roll with it," Lincoln instructed. "Sorry, bud. You need to stay down here," Lincoln responded in deep voice, posing as Troy Eagle.
T.K. weakly nodded, "*cough* Oh, ...OK, then. *cough*"
The runaway went into a deep sleep as the three got back into the van and drove back to Royal Woods. The rest of siblings decided to look after T.K., offering words of encouragement and relief as he slept the whole trip back.
Early the next morning, T.K. woke up in a cold sweat with a thrashing headache, an aching throat, and oddly enough, not freezing nor wet. He pulled up the comforter to see that he was wearing orange pajamas. "Wait, this is what Lincoln usually wears when he sleeps. Does that mean I'm back in Royal Woods?" T.K. thought as he shifted his legs from the couch and looked around.
He was in the Loud living room. It was obviously quiet due to the others sleeping. Even in the darkness, he was able to recognize every detail. A spasm from his headache causes him hiss in pain. "I need some medicine," T.K. thought as he crept to the stairs. It was hard due to the creaky boards and headaches spasms, but he made to the top. He crept again through the cluttered hallway to the bathroom. Along the way, he stubbed his toe on Luna's speakers, and stepped on the twins' jacks.
For his sake, he opted to just crawl on the floor for the rest of the trip. He made it to the bathroom door. He did his business and took two headache pills, which numbed the pain greatly "Oh yeeeessss. I can finally see straight. But now I can't go back to sleep. Oh well, let's watch some tv!" T.K. thought as he walked out of the bathroom.
Before the boy could proceed downstairs, the right door opened at the end of the hallway, revealing Lily as she crawled out. "Huh, how did she get out of her crib?" T.K. thought as he crawled towards her. Lily saw T.K. and began to clap her hands together happily, "Kahlee, Kahlee!"
T.K. reached her and gently slid his hands underneath her armpits. He then lift her up into a comfortable position on his arms. He put his finger to his lips, pointed to the other rooms, and closed his eyes as if he was saying, "Lily, please be quiet. The others are sleeping."
Lily nodded to what he was saying, as if she completely understood him. "Hm, smart baby," T.K. thought as he and Lily crept downstairs to the living room. The two watch preschool shows and cartoons without any violence. The two laughed at the animated antics; however, Lily was doing the laughing overall. Sadly, it had to come to an end as Lily's stomach growled. She began to whine and fuss, before she tugged on T.K.'s arm.
"Hungee," Lily whined.
T.K. nodded as he grabbed a hold of Lily and advanced to the kitchen. He pulled her highchair out and sat her down. He walked to the cupboards and took out a bottle. Setting those down, he grabbed a can of formula powder and opened it. "Now, how many scoops needed for this? Oh yeah, three!" T.K. thought, filling up the bottle with water. He then added three scoops of powder to the bottle. Afterwards, he shook the bottle rapidly for a few minutes.
The bottle was soon ready as he gave the bottle to Lily. She cooed happily as she guzzled the bottle. Footsteps thud the ceiling as T.K. took note. He realized that he couldn't talk because of his throat. He jogged back into the living room to find something to aid him. He turned towards the fireplace and founded a small notepad. He took that along with a pen and jogged back to the kitchen.
"Hey, shouldn't you be at the couch? You're literally going to make your head cold worse when your up and about," Lori warned as she and Leni walked in the kitchen. T.K. was about to tell her why until he was snatched up by Leni in a bear hug.
"Tee Kee! We are totes happy to see you! Like, we thought that you weren't never gonna wake up. You had us, like, worried sick about you, no pun intended," Leni exclaimed, nuzzling T.K.
"Ack! *nasty cough* Leni, it hurts! Please let go!" T.K. croaked.
Leni let go of him, dropping him on the floor, "Sorry, T! I'm just really happy to see you."
T.K. rubbed his head, "Jeez, what does this girl put in her smoothies, spinach?" He thought.
"Hey, Tee Kee, if you're done with your reunion. You might want to hear this," Lori informed, helping the boy to the table.
T.K. began writing down his response. Finished, he showed Leni about what he'd said.
"Ok, but I have something to show you and the others as well. Anyway, fire away." Leni read.
"So Lincoln proposed...that our parents adopt you," Lori recalled.
T.K.'s jaw dropped at what has been unfolded onto him. "Adoption? I'm surprised that hadn't crossed my mind," T.K. thought as he wrote something down. He gave the notepad to Leni to read.
"Won't your parents mind about this? Is there even room for me?" Leni read out loud.
Lori looked to her side nervously, "Yeaaahhh, that's what I'm afraid about the former. They're normally cool about anything until one of us screws up, but adoption may be a whole new level for them. As for the latter, you could just make the basement your room."
T.K. understood as he wrote again and passed the note to Leni. "I get it. Now, I'm going to get something...sinister from my bag. Know where is it at?" Leni read.
"Of course, it's in Lincoln's room," Lori answered.
A minute and a half later, T.K. returned with the green notebook and a tape recorder. Lori and Leni was curious as they looked through the notebook. "Sooooo, what's this? Is it about the foster home?" Lori pried.
T.K. passed the notepad to Leni after writing his answer.
"The notebook is all of the foster kids' records. It what she uses to know who can work the heavy duty things in her illegal child labor ring while the weak are left...TO STARVE!?" Leni exclaimed, clearly shocked over what the boy recalled, even though she already knew about it.
Lori couldn't believe it. T.K. actually been apart of the ring. She was at first skeptical of the entire thing, but as time goes on and driving by the foster home, she began to realize that it was no joke. Why else would T.K. run away? "S-so, what's with the tape recorder?" Lori asked.
T.K. passed the notepad back to Leni after writing.
"One of my foster homies gave me this before he ran away. It has all of the things that Leemick has said and done before and after my time there. I've been meaning to listen to this after I got it," Leni read.
The three listened to the recordings while the others piled in the kitchen one after another. "Woah, that's crazy!" Lynn remarked.
Luna nodded, "Yeah, dude, no doubt. I'm surprised that she made this far without gettin' nabbed!"
"What about the headbutt part?" Lana reminded everyone.
"Yeah, that's the worst part!" Lola agreed.
Lincoln looked over on his right to see T.K. leaning against the counter. He had his eyes closed as he smirked, stroking his chin. "Uh, T.K.? Why are you smirking like that?" Lincoln inquried.
T.K. opened his eyes as he wrote something down and showed Lincoln.
"So you have an idea on how to end this?" Lincoln proded.
T.K. nodded as wrote his plan down and showed Lincoln.
"Ok, so your going to give yourself up to Leemick as a decoy. Then you'll show the police the evidence, and get Leemick put in jail. Nice, the old bait and trick," Lincoln praised.
T.K. shrugged his shoulders as he wrote his response to Lincoln.
"I learn from the best. Ah, ha, ha, ha, yeah. Thanks," Lincoln nervously said, thinking back all of the times he tricked his sisters with the same thing.
That afternoon, the plan was set into motion. The second that Leemick heard about T.K.'s return, she dropped everything and practically ran to the Loud House with a police officer. Lincoln opened the door ten minutes later, revealing the horrid foster mother to T.K., who was sitting at the bottom of the stairs and he had a very calm look on his face. The girls looked on with glares as Leemick hugged him.
"Oh, T.J., my little ball of sunshine. I'm sooo glad you came back home safely. I was sooo worried about you!" Leemick lamented, squeezing the boy in false sadness.
The kids had to withdraw from puking from the sad display. Leemick let go of T.K., "Alright, I would like to thank each and everyone of you for finding my sweet T.J. I don't know what I would do without him." Leemick expressed.
"You wouldn't done a thing at all," Lynn snarked to herself, causing Luna to elbow her.
T.K. snapped his fingers to get the adults' attention. He pointed to the police officer and then points to the door.
"What's that kid? Speak up, please," The officer asked.
"He can't, sir. He has strep throat. But he does want to show you something outside," Lincoln spoke.
"Oh, alright. This better be good," The officer declared, following T.K. outside.
Leemick tried follow, but she was stopped by T.K. by his hand. She rolled her eyes as he closed the door. She looked back towards the Loud siblings, who was still glaring her down. She felt nervous as she felt that they have a personal vendetta with her. Seconds felt like days as the family continued to stare her down. She was internally happy at the door opening, revealing a smug T.K. and an...enraged...police officer. Uh oh.
"Um, what seems to be the problem, officer?" Leemick nervously asked, unsure of what was really going on.
The officer's glare intensifies, "Yes, you! Sandra Leemick, you are under arrest for the endangerment of minors, and violation of child labor laws!"
Leemick was dumbfounded. How did he find out about the entire ring? There was only one answer: T.K. She looked behind the officer to find T.K. sporting a puke eating smirk and he was waving a familiar green notebook. "YOOOOOOOUUUUU LITTLE PIECE OF..." Leemick roared, reaching for T.K.
The officer slammed her against the wall and placed on the handcuffs to her wrists. "Tell it to the judge, sweat shop master! You did a good thing, kid," The officer praised, hauling Leemick out of the house.
T.K. closed the door and pressed his ear to it. He could still hear Leemick shout out curses as she was being driven to the police station. "Sweet music to my ears," T.K. thought smugly as he looked back to the others.
The girls was surprised from the display of cleverness "That...was...AWESOME. That was straight from a crime detective movie, dude!" Luna compared, jumping from the couch to give T.K. a high five.
"I guess you can say that T.K. had her seeing GREEN with rage," Luan joked.
"So does that mean that lady is going to jail?" Lola asked.
"And you don't have to go back to the foster home?" Lana added.
T.K. nodded happily.
"Yay, a new brother!" The twins exclaimed, rushing T.K. for a group hug.
"Hold it you two. We still need to ask Mom and Dad when they get back tonight. By the way, T.K., nice work," Lori complimented, patting T.K. on the back.
He set the twins down and beckon Lincoln to him. He wrote something down in the notepad and passed it towards him.
"Bro, I wanted to say thanks for sticking with me through the tough bits. I always look up to you because of your knack to think out plans for any given situation. It's weird because I'm a year older; however, I still look up to you, and that's the case. Even if this adoption thing doesn't work out, I'll always think of you and your sisters as a second family to me," Lincoln read as the others listen.
He and the girls gave him a group hug. "Awwwwwww!" They gushed.
Author's Note: Welp, one more chapter to go. I hope all of you enjoyed this story. I would like to announce a series for T.K.'s and the others' everyday bouts as a Loud called: Loud And Proud. But it will be alittle bit before I can get it going, so sit tight! Review, favorite and follow. One more thing, if you have any ideas for episodes, please let me know!
Cutthroat Jenkins, out!
