Well thanks to everyone for your support for my stories. Before you begin reading, I'd like to ask you to leave a review when you're done. I want to know how to improve in the future. Also, just in case you didn't read the footnote for my other story, I'll go ahead and say it here too. I'm going to be putting my personal ending of requiem on hiatus for a while so that I can finish this story. I actually really like the way it's going so far and I hope you will all enjoy it as well. With all that being said, here is chapter five of "Kidnapped."

Chapter 5

"Leni!" the twins exclaimed, jumping on their older sister.

"Ouch!" Hearing that was their cue to get off. They both got overly excited to see their sister after she had disappeared last night and being the rambunctious six-year-olds they were, had way too much energy for Leni to handle right now.

"I'm sorry Leni!"

"Are you okay?"

Leni chuckled a bit. "I'm like, fine guys. The doctor told me that everything is going to hurt for a while because of um... uhhh..."

Leni glanced over at Lori with an expression of concern on her face and the oldest Loud sibling immediately knew what she was doing. Leni may not have been smart, but she knew exactly what happened to her. Leni knew that she had been raped, even if she would have preferred not to know that. Lori gave back the same expression and shook her head back and forth while mouthing, "Don't tell them!"

"Umm, because of what happened."

"What happened Leni?!"

"Umm..." Once again, Leni looked to her older sister who was shaking her head back and forth again. "The guys that kidnapped me... hit me really hard, like, A LOT!"

What Leni said was true. She was hit several times by them and the bruises on her face and arms proved that, but she was still hiding something. The only ones who didn't suspect that anything more was going on were Lucy, the twins, and Lily, who were all too young to even know about those things. Lisa was the exception of the younger ones for obvious reasons. Even though he knew about those things, Lincoln didn't think that Leni had been sexually assaulted, but for sure knew that she was hiding something more from them, only to spare the innocence of the littler kids though. Despite the fact that Lincoln felt to blame for this whole situation, he didn't want to believe that the worst could happen and even went so far as to actually trick his conscience into thinking that there was no way it could have happened. He didn't even think it was possible for someone to abuse Leni like that, despite the fact that he didn't even have the tiniest shred of evidence to prove otherwise.

"Why would someone do something like that?"

"Lana," Luna started. "There are people in the world who are just so evil, that they get a sick thrill out of hurting and abusing people like Leni."

"But what makes them like that?"

"I don't know... for some reason they just like seeing people in pain..."

"So guys! How have you been!" Leni interrupted suddenly, making everyone look in her direction.

"Interesting..." Lisa mumbled as her head shot back down at her notepad.

"Whoa, Leni, what's wrong?" Lynn remarked.

"I just... like... don't wanna talk about what they're talking about right now... Please, can you just tell me how you've been?" Lori caught on immediately and glared at Luna, Lynn, and the twins. Luna looked back at her in confusion, but did eventually see what Leni was trying to do and mentally slapped herself for not realizing sooner. As curious as they all were about the subject, it wasn't something that Leni was ready to talk about just yet. When the time came, Leni would reveal what happened to at least one of them.

"We missed you so much!"

"We looked for you all night after you went missing! Lincoln couldn't even fall asleep he was so worried about you!"

"I wasn't that worried!" Lincoln suddenly burst out.

"Is Linky okay?!" Leni suddenly yelled out. "Nothing happened to him right?!"

"Yeah, he's fine. As a matter of fact, he was the one who told us you were gone."

"I wanna see him!"

Everyone moved to the side to reveal Lincoln standing right in the middle of the crowd. Lincoln slowly walked over to the side of his sister's bed, dreading what could possibly happen. This was the moment of truth. Would she actually blame him for what happened? Or would she insist it wasn't his fault? As he approached the bed, he tensed up more and more, hoping that she wouldn't start going on about how it was his fault, despite all the evidence he was shown otherwise. It was destroying him from the inside. He couldn't stop thinking about what had happened that night. The closer he came to the side of the bed, the more prominent Leni's smile became, the worse he felt. All the way until he reached the edge, he shivered with fear, expecting the worst to come.

But he didn't wait for the worst to come, he couldn't. As soon as he reached the edge, immediately he broke into tears and started rambling on about how it was all his fault. About how he should have been paying attention instead of playing on that stupid game of his. Saying things like, "I shouldn't have disobeyed mom..." and "I could have stopped them..." Even though Leni was taken quite by surprise at this, she didn't say anything. She just let him ramble on whether she thought it was the truth or not. It was best to let him keep going until he ran out of juice anyway. Which, surprisingly, didn't take very long at all. Lincoln's energy was at an all time low. He just couldn't bring himself to do anything more than walk for a few minutes when he needed to.

Now, completely exhausted, he plopped his head on the side of the bed, right next to Leni. For a while she didn't say anything, letting him soak the bed with his tears. He was in pain and needed to let it all out, and it seemed that this was the only way to do it. The more Lincoln let himself fall into the bed, the wetter it became with his tears. Leni started stroking his silvery, white hair, running her fingers through it, then smoothing it back over again. Lincoln didn't pay much attention to it, but he had to admit to himself that it did make him feel a little better.

After a long period of silence, Leni finally spoke up. "Lincoln?" the boy looked up at her. The smile that he was so famous for, the one that he used to calm down Lola and Lana when they were worried about him, the one he used to get Lily to stop crying, the one he used to make sure everything ended up alright, was perfectly replicated by Leni. Lincoln had never seen that smile before now, he didn't know what he looked like when he made that smile. He even thought that he was the one who came up with it, but then how did Leni learn it? The answer? She didn't, not from Lincoln anyway. Because that smile that was supposedly Lincoln's, the smile that he was famous for in the Loud house, actually came from Leni first. She was the one who used that smile first, the one who tested it, improved it, and perfected it. She didn't care about all those things that Lincoln was saying. All she wanted at the moment was to make her little brother happy. If she could do that, then nothing else mattered.

"Yeah Leni?" he meekly responded, still sniffling a little bit. As he gazed more at that smile, the more his problems melted away.

"I don't blame you for what happened." She didn't say anything else after that, because there was nothing was left that Lincoln needed to hear. That was all it took. All he really needed was to hear those words, to hear his sister's voice. There wasn't another one in the world like it. Her voice was so soft and pure that every time he heard it, it brought him peace. Not the kind of peace that the neighbors wish they could have, but the kind of peace in knowing that there's nothing wrong. That was what Lincoln needed right now. He didn't really need her to say those words specifically. He just needed to hear her and know that she was safe and sound.

Lincoln stood up from where he was, revealing a moist spot on the bed and trudged over to the head of the bed. Then, kneeling down, he let himself fall into Leni's arms, embracing her at the same time. If hearing her voice wasn't enough to make him feel better, he definitely had no doubt in his mind anymore. Feeling her arms wrap around him, her heartbeat pulsing against his chest, made it completely clear. He wasn't feeling any pressure, any guilt, or any pain from what had happened.

"I'm sorry Leni... I didn't mean to suddenly go off like that."

"It's okay Linky. I'm sorry too. Even though it like, wasn't my fault, I still scared all of you half to death when I dissapeared, I especially scared you Lincoln. But, like, you scared me too."

"I did?" Leni responded by nodding her head. "How?"

"I don't really wanna talk about it right now. The doctor said it could like, be bad for me or something if I think about what happened too much... I'll tell you later."

"We're all just glad you're okay Leni. All of us were worried about you."

"Yeah dude, I couldn't go to sleep without the sound of your sewing machine running."

"And I had to prevent the spirits from telling me what happened. They got so annoying."

"Wow, you guys really missed me that much?" everyone nodded their heads. "You're the best! I couldn't have asked for better sisters, or a better brother!"

Leni sat up as all of them surrounded her in one big group hug which only lasted a few seconds. "Ow..." and immediately everyone backed off as Leni grasped her stomach. Naturally, Leni was expecting the pain, but wasn't expecting everyone to suddenly run away from her. It was confusing and almost left her wondering if she did something wrong. But then, as if she needed the perfect excuse to think of something else, the doctor walked in followed by her parents.

"Good Afternoon Leni."

"Hi Miss!"

"Alright, let's get your heart rate, blood pressure and a few other things real quick. Are you starting to feel better?"

"Lots! I'm still really sore, but it doesn't hurt as bad anymore."

"That's good," the Lady responded as she continued examining Leni. "Has anything else happened? Have you felt dizzy or lightheaded? Maybe like you were going to faint?"

"Well..." she glanced over at Luna for a brief moment, then returned her attention to the person who asked her the question. "I did for a few seconds, but it went away after a little bit."

"What made you feel like that?"

"It was, like, something that I was thinking about. I don't really want to say."

"Ah. I understand," the doctor didn't press the issue any further. Besides, she got all the information that she needed. "Were you excited to see your family?"

"Totally. It feels like it's been forever since I've seen them!"

"That's wonderful." The doctor was interrupted by Lana and Lola shouting a bunch of questions about hospitals to Leni, so she took that opportunity and turned to Lynn Sr and Rita, "When she found out that all of you were coming, she was so excited. She was especially excited to see her brother."

"Really?"

"Oh Absolutely!" the doctor then leaned in closer to them and said with a more hushed tone, "She's been worried about him actually. It gives me reason to believe that he may be more involved in this whole situation than we think. Is there anything you can shed some light on for me?"

"Well, Lincoln was the one who came home saying Leni was kidnapped, but why do you ask?" The three of them backed away from the group a little bit. "What would that have to do with anything?"

"I don't know yet. Leni hasn't told us anything about what happened. All we have are the accounts from the police officers that responded to her 911 call. I was actually hoping that she would be more willing to tell either of you two what happened when you got here."

"Okay. We'll see what we can do."

"What's the food like? I've heard that hospital food isn't good!"

"It's okay. It's not bad, but like, It's not that tasty either."

"What kind of TV shows do they have dude?"

"Oh, the only channels they have are the sports channels," Lynn did a fist pump, "some spanish channel, and then there's one channel that does a bunch of reruns of the dreamboat."

As everyone was asking Leni questions, Lincoln was standing to the side, pondering something himself. "Why was Leni so worried about me? It's not like I was in any danger. She was the one who was kidnapped, not me."

Lincoln did feel much better about himself after talking to Leni and seeing her well, but there was still that one question that bothered him to no end. Why did Leni ask about him and not anyone else? Was there something going on that he didn't know about? Maybe she had a dream that he was kidnapped instead. After the nightmare that Lincoln had, he considered that idea to be plausible. But why would she have a nightmare about him? There was no reason for it, at least, not that he knew of. Maybe she really did blame him subconsciously. Maybe because she blamed him subconsciously, she had dreams about Lincoln deserting her. Then another thought came to his mind. She had only been gone for one night. There couldn't have been any way that she got any real sleep that night, right?

"I'm overthinking this," he said to himself. "Leni's fine, that's all that matters."

"What did you say son?"

"Oh great..." he said in a hushed tone, "Don't worry about it dad, I'm just... thinking out loud..."

Lynn Sr wasn't too convinced by this, but assumed that it would be better to leave him alone about it, at least in front of his sisters. "Okay son, just let me know if you need anything, okay?"

"Will do dad."

Lincoln went back to thinking again, being careful now not to say anything out loud. The doctor, meanwhile, was giving Leni a basic checkup, gathering information about her blood pressure, heart rate, and other things for further evaluation. The loud kids were bombarding Leni with questions about the hospital, what kinds of things they did while she was gone, and did accidentally ask something about what happened once. But as they were asking these questions, Leni wasn't focused on them, she was worried about her only little brother. Of course she wasn't going to say anything about it, because not only would that be considered rude, but it would also make everyone suspicious, which was something that she didn't want. It wasn't that big of a secret, but it wasn't something that she was willing to reveal just yet. She wasn't just recovering physically, but mentally as well. The scar was never going to go away, what happened wasn't something that she could just move to the side and forget about. This was going to come up again, and she knew it, but until the wound was patched up at the very least, she couldn't say anything.

"Alright girls, it's time to say goodbye to Leni."

"Aww... I don't wanna go!"

"Me neither! I wanna stay like mom is..."

"Girls, I know you're going to miss her, but she needs her rest. Your mother is only staying here to keep an eye on Leni. Besides, now you know where she is and we can all sleep tonight knowing she's safe, right?"

"Yeah... but..."

"As much as I would also like to stay for further observation," Lisa interrupted. "I too must agree with our parental units. Leni will be significantly better off here without any of us bothering her."

"Alright everyone, lets get to the van!"

"Drive safe honey!"

"Will do sweetie!"

"Bye everyone, bye Linky!"

"Bye Leni!" they all said collectively.

"hmm, once again, interesting..." Lisa pulled her notebook back out and briefly jotted something down before cramming it back into her pocket. Lincoln also took notice of the fact that Leni had bid farewell to him specifically. Why did she do that? What made her do that? Lincoln didn't feel guilty anymore, but as usual, his curiosity got the better of him and he couldn't help but wonder why Leni said his name and not anyone else's. It stuck with him on the way home and all through that night. Why did she only call Lincoln by his name and just referenced the rest of them generally?

"What'cha thinkin' about lil' dude?"

Lincoln had almost forgotten that he was sitting in plain sight of everyone else, not doing anything, "nothing..."

"Dude... nobody just sits down and doesn't do anything unless they're thinking... tell me what's going on..."

"I actually don't know if I should tell you... I'm afraid you might get mad..."

"Dude, I promise I won't get mad..."

"Pinky swear?"

"With a cherry on top dude."

"Okay..." the two interlocked pinkies and then Lincoln mentally prepared himself to tell Luna what was going on. "When we left the hospital, Leni said goodbye, but when she did..." Lincoln sighed, and rubbed the back of his neck. "She said bye to me specifically..."

"Dude... that's what's bothering you? seriously?"

"No, it's not that, and it's not even bothering me per-say," Lincoln quipped back. "It's because she didn't say anyone else's name. Only mine... She didn't say 'Bye Luna,' or 'Bye Lucy,' she told me bye, me specifically.' I'm just really curious why she only did it to me."

"Dude... you are way overthinking this. I didn't even catch that she did that."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But it's been stuck in my head ever since we left the hospital."

"I don't know dude. Our brains are weird things. Lisa can definitely tell you more than I ever could. Maybe you should go talk to her."

"Yeah, maybe."

"I'll see ya later dude. I gotta go practice," and Luna left Lincoln alone to his thoughts.

It wasn't even nine o' clock yet, but everyone was already preparing to go to sleep. As tired as Lincoln was from the days events, he couldn't bring himself to go to sleep. Of course he did still feel guilty about what happened, but it wasn't something that bothered him as much anymore. He thought everything would be fine now, but it was as if there was something still wrong with the way everyone was acting. It wasn't just that the house was significantly quieter than usual, there was something else that Lincoln just couldn't think of. Something that was so close, right on the tip of his tongue, yet so far away, tucked away in the back of his mind. It was bothering him so much, not being able to figure out what it was, that he couldn't fall asleep. He knew that it was something so stupidly simple, yet for some reason, he just couldn't recall it. Leni and his mom were staying at the hospital so he was expecting it to be more quiet, but not this quiet, and not this early. What was it? What was going on?

He found himself getting up to go to the bathroom. He didn't need to, but he was fully committed by the time he completely realized what he was doing. The door was left wide open, as if it was waiting just for him. As he closed the door behind him, he realized how quiet it really was. He couldn't hear anyone talking through the vent, or the walls. Luna said she had to practice, which she did, but not for very long. Lynn wasn't even bouncing a ball against the wall. The audible thump that could be heard throughout the house was nowhere to be heard. Lisa didn't have any science experiments that went awry and exploded with a mighty thunder. There wasn't any noise that could be heard.

Lincoln, dismissing it as nothing serious, splashed his face a few times and got himself some water before leaving the bathroom. Turning the light off, he swung the door to a closed position, not closing it all the way though. He passed by each of his family members' rooms all of which were closed except for one. To Lincoln's surprise, the one door that was left open, was to the one room that held the missing person. The door to Lori's room was left wide open. Inside, Lincoln could make out the figure of what looked like his sister sitting with her legs crossed on her bed, looking down at nothing with her chin resting on her fists. Every fifteen seconds or so, her phone would light up from her bedside stand, but she wouldn't do anything. She was just sitting there, keeping her gaze fixed on a certain point on her bed. To Lincoln, it was strange. He had never seen his sister like this. It was understandable that she would be taking it pretty hard. After all, they had been sharing a room for as long as Lincoln could remember, but even he didn't think that Lori would take it this hard.

His curiosity got the better of him and he started pacing towards the entrance to Lori's room. Slowly getting closer to what was quite possibly impending doom. He stopped as he reached the doorway and waited to see if she did anything. Nothing. She still held that trance-like state. He had never seen his older sister like this. What was going on? He finally decided to step inside the room and make the perilous trek over to Lori's bed. The closer he got, the more nervous he became. He was afraid that Lori was going to, as she has said multiple times, turn him into a human pretzel. But at the same time it also scared him seeing her like this. His worry for his sister's well being was greater than anything that he could possibly endure.

He was now right next to her bed, on the other side of it a few feet away, was Leni's empty bed, and beyond that, the light from the hallway shining in. Looking down at the bed where Lori was looking, Lincoln saw a picture. A picture from when Lori and Leni were younger than even Lisa. Leni didn't remember that day at all, and while Lori didn't remember much about that day, combined with what their parents told her, she still remembered enough. There wasn't much to it, it was just the two of them playing in the backyard, having fun, Lori was standing up, and Leni was sitting in the sand. But unbeknownst to Lincoln, this picture, this moment that was frozen in time, held more significance to her than even the day she met Bobby. Lori was just staring at that picture, contemplating it. Lincoln wondered what it was that made that picture so special, so significant so as to not do anything but stare at it.

"Umm... Lori?" Her gaze slowly drifted towards her little brother and they made eye contact for a few seconds before turning back to the sheet of paper that was laying on the bed. In his mind, there were two possible options for him. One, he could slowly slither away back into his room while Lori wasn't too worried about him. Two, he could stay right there and continue trying to get Lori's attention. Neither of them were things that he really wanted to do. He couldn't just leave because then he would never know why Lori held that picture in such high regards, but if he stayed, he ran the risk of getting Lori angry, which was never something he wanted to happen. But before too long, he made his decision.

"Hey, Lori?" Lincoln started. His mind was racing furiously, trying to think of something to say next. He didn't want to press too much into the issue, but at the same time, he didn't want to just leave it at that and wait for her to respond somehow. He was the one who started it, so he had to continue with it. But it wasn't until Lori broke her gaze from the picture once again to look him in the eyes that Lincoln had to think quick and respond somehow. "Can I... um... sit with you for a little bit?"

Lori looked back down at the picture and moved a few inches over, then patted the bed next to her without looking back up at him. Lincoln let out a sigh of relief. Not only did she not get angry with him, she didn't even ask him to leave. He sat himself down on the bed next to her and looked more closely at the picture. What was it about that picture? Why was she so infatuated with it? What was it about this picture that made Lori love it so much? Lincoln was determined to find out. Whether it took him just a few minutes, or hours of trying to convince her to tell him, he would know before the end of the night.

Lori sighed, looking at the picture in front of her. Finally she lashed out, not violently, or even very loudly, but enough to give Lincoln a good startle. "Ugh... why did it have to be Leni!"

She swiped the paper, but then calmed down a little bit, and put it back on her bedside stand, trying to calm herself down some more, albeit unsuccessfully. Lincoln was even more curious now. Other than the obvious, what was so different about Leni than any of the rest of them? Lincoln, being the eleven year old he was, thought of all matters of different things, ranging from Leni secretly being an alien, to her being a superhero that only Lori knew about. Obviously none of these were true, but a guy could hope, couldn't he?

"You literally have no idea what that picture is all about, do you?"

Lincoln shook his head back and forth. Finally, she was going to say something. "Figures mom and dad haven't told you yet."

She sighed as she recalled the day that the picture was taken. Lori remembered what had happened, but she did still need a refresher every now and then, and as much as she hated to admit it, telling everyone, one person at a time was the best way for her. It was never easy saying it and she knew it wasn't going to be easy having to tell Lincoln what was going on, she didn't even want to tell him for fear that he would start treating Leni differently, but he had to know. All of his older siblings, including Leni herself, knew what had happened, and now it was his turn.

"Well, here goes..." Lori gulped as she began recalling the events of that day. "You've noticed the way Leni is right?"

Lincoln nodded his head again. Who wouldn't notice? "Well she's like that because when she was still really little, she got in a really bad car accident. A car accident that changed her life forever."

"What do you mean?"

"Leni got some severe head trauma from it, and it affected some areas of her brain. It permanently affected her vision, but not in the way you think. It's not that she can't see, it's... umm... you know what depth perception is?"

"Yeah, I actually learned about that the other day in school!"

"Okay, well, Leni's depth perception doesn't work like it's supposed to. Sometimes she sees things that look farther away to her when they're actually really close."

"That's why she runs into walls all the time..."

"Exactly. It also affected her motor skills to some degree. She wasn't able to walk until she was almost three, and even then it still took some time before she could do it like a normal person could."

"Wow... that explains a lot." Lincoln looked over to Lori's night stand and saw the picture resting on her lamp. "Is that picture from before the accident?"

Lori knew he would ask about the picture. Tears started forming in her eyes as she recalled what happened that day. Normally she wasn't this emotional about that, but combined with the fact that Leni could have just died made it too much to handle. Lincoln stopped pressing the matter and just let the tears fall from Lori's face. He was going to wait until she was ready before asking more questions. But he was curious as to why she was so sensitive right now.

"No..." Lori finally responded. "This was after the accident."

"That didn't take long..." Lincoln thought to himself, but then her answer hit him, "Wait, it was after?"

She turned herself and looked at him for a moment. Lincoln could start to make out mascara running down her face. He was surprised that she hadn't taken it off yet, considering she had been sitting there for a while. Was she really that bothered by this? What was it that made her act like this? "I wasn't finished telling you what happened to Leni."

Lincoln was now more intrigued. He thought that she had already explained everything, but obviously there was something more to this story than he thought, so he turned to face Lori himself and crossing his legs, put his fists under his chin, ready to listen to the rest of it.

"You see, the car crash that Leni was in, she was the only survivor."

"What?" Lincoln was completely dumbfounded now. "How was she the only survivor? How come mom and dad weren't there?"

"Mom and dad weren't there because, well..." Lori sighed once more. "It's because Leni's real parents died in that car crash."

It suddenly hit Lincoln like a ton of bricks. How did he not see it before "so... you're saying..."

"Yes Lincoln," Lori finished for him. "Leni is adopted."

First of all, I wanna say thanks to everyone for reading this and I ask that you would please leave a review, as I would like to know how to improve for future chapters and future stories. As I said before, I really liked how this story was turning out, especially this chapter. I bet no one saw that coming! Lincoln being adopted is too unoriginal, so I decided to go a different route with it. Anyway, I really hope you liked this chapter and I look forward to reading your reviews. I ask that you would please use constructive criticism only. Don't just bash me without telling me how I can improve (not that it's actually happened, just being cautious).