As usual, I thank you for all the support this story is getting. I told you it wouldn't take as long as the previous chapter took to get out. Over 9000 views on it now! That's awesome! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter of "Kidnapped!"

Chapter 8

The room was silent as she finished her daily studies. It didn't take long to do this, as usual, but to Lisa, it seemed to take much longer than normal this time. Maybe the lighting in the room wasn't optimal for studying, it did seem dimmer than usual. No, that was just another excuse that was fabricated by the imperfections of the human mindset. The lighting had nothing to do with the quality of study that had happened in that allotted amount of time. Lisa knew exactly what it was that made her study time take longer than average. It was only natural to be slightly distracted after something like that happened, but nevertheless, Lisa was determined to make sure nothing distracted her next time.

She closed the textbook she was reading, making a dull thudding sound as the pages clapped together. Taking the book underneath her right arm, she jumped down from the chair she was in and started making her way to where she had found the book. Thousands of aisles of books with millions of books present made the Library one of Lisa's favorite places. With so much knowledge at her disposal, she could stay in her all day if she wanted to. Billions of words to read in such a confined space excited the four year old to almost no extent. There was so much to read, and to think that she had just barely scratched the surface of the vast amount of learning opportunities in this one building.

Lisa returned to the aisle where she found the book, walking down the quiet hall of paper. Her knowledge regarding science and mathematics were overwhelming, but she did realize that her knowledge of literary subjects was not up to the expectations of someone with an IQ of over two-hundred fifty. Even her history, which she was much more affluent in than Literacy, was not even close to her knowledge regarding maths and sciences, hence the reason for her wanting to take up reading fictional stories. However, as she was returning the book to its place, something else caught her eye. Something that she didn't expect to see in this area of the Library. This was a section for fictional reading, what was a book on the history of criminal activity doing here? Maybe someone misplaced it after they had finished reading. Despite Lisa having sworn to never be distracted by anything while studying again, she couldn't help but be intrigued by the appearance of this book. Besides, she was technically done studying now. Anything that she does from this point forward is not official study material.

Now with a new conviction, Lisa briskly walked down the aisle to return the book she had under her arm to its proper position on the shelf. Then coming back to the book that had piqued her interest, picked it up and scanned its contents. Why this book was so interesting to her all of a sudden was even surprising to her, but there was something that she had questions about. Besides, how could reading even more possibly have a negative effect on her.

She was briefly scanning the contents of the book before she came back to the place where she was previously studying. Taking her seat in the nearly empty library, she opened the book to a chapter regarding something that someone in her immediate family had recently gone through. It was a bit of a shock, finding out what kind of evils different kidnappers subjected their abductees to. The sheer amount of evil almost made Lisa close the book right then and there, but she was too intrigued in it to bring herself to stop reading. What made matters worse was that they also told what happened to the people that survived their kidnappers. Obviously, the worst case scenario was death, but there were some cases that seemed to be worse than death. People telling stories about how they can't go to sleep at night without remembering what happened that fateful day. But the mental consequences were not all. Most everyone that was able to escape had various scars all over their body. The victims of sexual assault and rape sometimes died of terrible diseases, sometimes even years after the fact. But the most intriguing to Lisa, was the story of one woman whose reproductive system suffered so much damage that she was unable to have children anymore. Why that was more intriguing to Lisa than any of the other things in that book, she had no idea why.

Lisa finally summoned up the willpower to close the book before she went any further. Hastily, she grabbed the small backpack that was with her and, leaving the book on the table, rushed out of the library, getting strange looks from the Librarian that was on duty that day. The young woman stepped into the nearly blinding sunlight and began making her way to the place where she was picked up every day. Even Lisa, whose emotional barrier was that of a brick wall, had weaknesses sometimes. It wasn't very often that something happened to make her have to leave in such a hurry, but she could feel herself welling up, thinking about Leni. All of the things that she read in that book, all of them were things that possibly happened to her older sister, and it started to take its toll.

She looked straight down at the sidewalk in the hopes that no one would see her bothered. The last thing she wanted was people asking her if she was feeling okay. Obviously not, but she wasn't ready to have to answer that question. Even if she didn't have to, it would prove a point. Despite covering up her emotions to the best of her ability, she did still care about her family. Science may have been important to her in life, but deep down, her family always came first. Maybe she would calm down before reaching her destination. It didn't seem likely, but it was worth a shot.

"I really hope Leni is okay..."

Approaching the vast parking lot, she recognized Vanzilla standing out among the rest of the various different cars. Why was someone already here to pick her up? It wasn't even three-thirty yet. As she got closer, she noticed her elder brother sitting in the front seat of the car. Now this was not something that Lisa was expecting. Especially this early.

"Lisa, over here!"

"ugh... I'm not an ignoramous. I can clearly see the van among the vast pool of automobiles. It stands out!"

"Whatever, I need your help with something!"

"She's not going to be able to have kids?"

"Unfortunately, that's right. I hated having to tell you, but that's the truth of the matter."

Lori wasn't sure what to think about this news. On one hand, she was happy that there wasn't anything life-threatening about her current condition, but at the same time, it was going to be utterly heartbreaking for her little sister. Having a child was one of the greatest things that could happen to anyone, even in extenuating circumstances; loving them, holding them, nurturing them, enjoying their presence. Knowing the majority of your life that you're never going to be able to have that, knowing that you will never have a child that is of your own blood, is completely crushing. To make matters even worse, Leni was the most adamant of the Loud children about having kids. When she's in one of her moods, she can't stop talking about what her kids names will be.

"Okay. Thank you..."

"Well, lets not leave off on terrible news like that. I do have some very good news regarding Leni returning home."

Lori didn't care at the moment what the doctor had to say about that. Leni wasn't going to be able to have her own children. And it all happened because those stupid men decided to take Leni away from them. All it took was a single night for this to happen. Could it have been longer? Yes. Could it have been much worse? Absolutely! But now Leni's own words were suddenly backfiring. At the moment, the present seemed much worse than the past. And all that was just the pre-show. How would Leni react to this news? What would she do? How would everything change for her? Would not being able to have kids affect her psyche? Will she still be the same innocent, fun-loving, yet clumsy girl? Or will her demeanor change completely to one that's always sour and cynical.

"Ms Loud?"

"I'm sorry, I drifted off. I don't think I caught any of that."

"It's fine," she said that, but Lori could tell that the look on her face said otherwise. "I was telling you about Leni being able to come home."

"Of course, I'm sorry. I remember hearing you say you had some good news for me right?"

"So you really didn't get any of it..." the look of feigned happiness was all too apparent now. The woman actually seemed to be quite annoyed. She wasn't going to let it show though, this family had been through a whole lot with this kid. And then to dump on top of it the fact that the girl was adopted after her birth parents died in a car accident. The doctor did not have a hard time forgiving Lori for drifting off.

"I guess not, again, I'm really sorry."

"Well, to start off, Leni is going to be able to come home today. As soon as your parents get off of work, all they have to do is sign the release papers and she's good to go."

"So, basically, the only reason she can't leave right now is because our parents aren't here?"

"They also need to choose which pharmacy they want to pick up Leni's blood pressure medicine at before they can leave, but other than that, yes."

"Oh, well that's good to know. Thanks." Lori was about to get up and return to the room, but was distracted by the doctor's sudden speaking up. What else did she have to say about Leni?

"Be careful around Leni. Her blood pressure medicine is strong but you still need to be careful not to get her too excited, otherwise she'll have to come right back here."

If the doctor knew what Lori was like then that question would have been directed specifically at her. If Lori was being honest with herself, she would have expected it by now. She was actually surprised that she didn't gain a reputation of having such a hot temper. "Okay, I will."

"Okay, you may return to the room now if you wish."

Lori watched as the doctor stood up and walked away, then, returning to her thoughts, stood up and began making her way back to Leni's room. There was so much to tell. What was she going to start with? Would it be best to just get the worst of the news off of her back and then say everything else? Or maybe it would be best to tell her as much as she could before saying that she couldn't have kids? Either way, it was going to be a nightmarish situation for both of them.

"OH! Miss!"

Lori whizzed around and looked in the direction of the call, seeing the doctor speed-walking back to where Lori was. "If it's at all possible, try not to tell her the news until she gets home. If you tell her right now, it's possible her blood pressure could spike again and then she'll have to stay for another night."

"Okay..." Well, at least she had plenty of time to think about how to break the news now.

The whole classroom stared in silence as the poet finished reading her latest work. This wasn't the usual reaction that she got from reading her poems to the class. This one didn't seem any darker than any other poems she usually wrote, but nevertheless, Lucy was still surprised, although she didn't dare show it. The more she scanned the classroom, the more beady eyes she was able to count staring at her until finally, she sighed and went to sit down at her desk.

"Wow Lucy, that was very... umm..." Her teacher was even having a hard time believing what she just heard. "Interesting. Wow... uhh... Ev... Everyone give Lucy a round of applause for yet another genius poem."

Slowly, the teacher started clapping, then, like hand sanitizer running down the edge of the bottle, the rest of the class joined in. The class joining in slow like that was something that Lucy was used to, sometimes even she didn't get any applause from anyone but the teacher. But what really bothered her this time, was the fact that not only was the teacher quite distracted, but she even stuttered when trying to collect her thoughts. This never happened, but only Lucy noticed it. She was the only one who would notice it. Not another soul in the room even bothered with it, despite how obviously different the young goth thought it was.

"Lucy?" her head perked up as the sound of her name being said hit her eardrum. "If you don't mind, I'd like to speak with you for just a moment about your poem after class."

About her poem? What was so different about her poem this time? Was there really something so different about it that it elicited such a response from her teacher? Lucy normally would go to her after class and ask about things that she could improve on, so it wasn't abnormal for Lucy to talk to the teacher after class, but for the teacher to ask to talk to her before starting the lesson took Lucy by surprise. It was possible that the teacher, knowing what she does, decided today to take the initiative. Maybe it wasn't even the content of the poem, but the various grammatical issues that were present. That had to be it. After all, the whole situation with Leni was quite distracting from everything else that was going on; there had to have been some kind of effect of that, and this just happened to be it. As she was thinking, she looked over her poem and started noticing all of the different spelling errors that she wouldn't usually make. Not only that, but there were certain lines where instead of making a new line, she continued with the previous one. Such seemingly small things like that could have a bigger impact on reading a poem than you would think, and Lucy was well aware of this.

Naturally, she put it off as nothing and slipped the paper into her backpack, directing her attention back to the final lesson of the day. Which, coincidentally, was focused on creative writing of any sort. The moment the teacher knew that Lucy wrote poems, she decided that if Lucy had a poem to read, the teacher would always let Lucy present it before getting into English/Language-Arts for the day, as a way to not only get everyone in the right mindset, but also to make sure that Lucy didn't think that her poems didn't mean anything to the teacher, as creative as she was. It would have been a shame if Lucy was never able to get off the ground with her poem writing because her third grade teacher wouldn't let her present her poems. As ironic as it sounds, she really did want Lucy to shine.

The lesson was presented and came to a close rather quickly that day and before everyone knew it, school was over. Lucy stayed behind as was asked of her. What was it that the teacher had to tell her? Was her poem today really lacking that bad grammatically? Maybe it wasn't even that. Maybe it was just the teacher taking initiative of the fact that Lucy sought improvement at the end of every day. That had to be it. As the teacher came to Lucy's desk, she convinced herself that it was just that.

"I'm sure you noticed that your poem today was not up to par with what is usually expected of you."

Thank goodness, "I noticed. Home's been distracting lately."

"That's not everything though," her teacher continued. "Sometimes, writers with great ability will write something that seems simple at the time, but upon later inspection, they find that the meaning has much more to it than they originally intended."

Okay, what was she trying to get at here? "Was my poem like that today?"

"It was, and for some reason you didn't notice it. I didn't either at first, but I started thinking more about it and realized that maybe you put more thought into this than you realized."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when you were writing this, were you thinking about your family?"

Lucy recalled the moment she began writing her poem. At the time, they had just gotten home from visiting Leni in the hospital, so to say no would be an outright lie, and responded by simply saying, "I was."

"I could tell. Even though your poem today wasn't about your family, I noticed that you used a lot of words that someone would use if they were talking about their family, yet, without mentioning them at all."

Lucy nodded her head in understanding. "But that's not what bothered me."

Here it came. The moment of truth. Lucy was finally going to get an earful about how terrible her grammar and spelling was this time, but that didn't happen. Instead, she put her hand on Lucy's shoulder and began speaking in a lower, more worried tone. "What bothered me the most, was that while you were speaking, you didn't once put any amount of effort into emphasizing certain words. You are so good at making sure you do that; so that the poem doesn't come off in a way that you may not have wanted it to. But there wasn't even the slightest hint of that in your voice, and then taking into account that you unintentionally were writing about your family, it gave me reason to worry that something might have happened."

The young girl stared at her teacher with an expressionless look on her face, but she was deep in thought at the moment. The teacher sighed. She wanted to know what was going on, but had no right trying to pry into her student's personal life. "I'm not going to make you tell me what happened, but whatever it is, I hope it gets resolved soon."

"Thank you."

"I'll see you tomorrow Lucy. Enjoy the rest of your day."

Lucy was finally able to walk out of the room that she had sat in all day long, doing nothing but take notes, write, get up to present a less than acceptable poem, then sit back down and take some more notes. As she walked to the place where all of the car-riders were picked up, she thought about what the teacher had said, and looking back on it, realized that she was right. There was no voice inflection, no pauses, nothing to indicate that she was really trying to get the right message across. Maybe Leni's absence was taking more of a toll on her than she thought. After all, these were rookie mistakes. Accidents that shouldn't have ever happened: that wouldn't have ever happened under normal circumstances. But they did, and there was no changing that now.

"I hope this gets resolved soon too..."

"Lucy!" Lincoln yelled from the front seat of vanzilla. "Hop in, Leni's coming home today! And I've got a great Idea!"

Maybe this was going to be resolved quicker than she thought.

Lori casually strolled back into the hospital room, trying to force a smile as Leni came into view. What was she going to tell her? The doctor said not to break the news to her until she got home, but what if she suspected something? What if Leni tried to pry it out of her? How could she possibly hide the truth from her sister? What happened to her was already bad enough, but now she had to do her best to keep silent. What was she going to do?

"Hi Lori! What did the doctor say?"

"Umm..." Lori tried to think of a lie to tell, but was unable to think of anything good on the spot. So she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. "Nothing! She said you're fine! Nothing's wrong!"

"Dang it, dang it, dang it! Why did I do that? What's wrong with me?" she thought as Leni's eyebrows perked in confusion. "No," Lori started. "I'm sorry Leni. That's not what the doctor said."

Leni was now even more confused. "Umm, okay? What did the doctor say then?"

"She said that I can't tell you until we get home."

"What? Why not?"

"Because of your blood pressure Leni. Remember how high it is? Remember what happens when it gets too high?"

"Yeah, I remember, but, how does she know what my blood press is gonna do?"

Lori slapped her own face, "First of all, Leni, It's blood pressure, and second of all, she knows what your blood pressure is going to do because, well, she's a doctor."

"Oh, okay. That makes sense."

Despite the things that Leni had gone through, Lori still couldn't help but get slightly annoyed at her, even now. She knew it wasn't right of her to act like that, but she couldn't help it. Lori was just too hot tempered; something she had to work on. Now that Leni's blood pressure was so high, she had to be careful not to get too angry around her. What if she did get too angry and made Leni's blood pressure get too high. What if Leni got a stroke because of her? The mere thought of something like that happening made Lori shudder with anxiety. Even if Leni did live through it without any major complications, she would never be able to live with herself, knowing she was the cause of something like that happening to her sister. Something had to change if she didn't want it to happen. Lori had to control herself better, if not permanently, then at least when Leni was around.

Lori suddenly felt her phone buzz in her pocket. It must have been Bobby since school was out now. With the intention of just glancing at it, then putting it back in her pocket, she looked to see who texted her. To her surprise, it was Lincoln. What could he possibly want right now?

"Hey, Ive got an idea to throw leni a coming home party!"

"Not bad twerp," Lori thought to herself. There were a lot of times where Lincoln was pretty selfish, but there were times, even his selfish ones, where she had to give him at least a little bit of credit. Sure, the whole "sweet spot" fiasco was his doing, but she was impressed that someone of his age, with the obvious exception of Lisa, was able to take the time and effort to figure out where the best spot in the car was, even if he did just do it out of his own selfish desires. She later found out that he was able to do the same with the living room, finding the best spot there as well. That wasn't all. He was even thought of the idea of separating the siblings and making new pairs based on personality tests. In the end, it was Lisa who had the most success doing this, but if it weren't for Lincoln coming up with the idea in the first place, it would have never happened.

"Thats a great idea, but how can i help?"

"I'm glad you asked. I just need you to distract leni long enough when she gets out of the hospital so that the rest of us can get everything ready"

"Thats literally not gonna be hard. She can't leave until mom or dad pick her up anyway."

"dangit... mom should have waited then..."

"is she on her way over here?"

"she's probably already there..."

Sure enough, as soon as Lori finished reading the message, Rita barged into the room, ecstatic about Leni's welcome home party. A haunted look passed over Lori's face, struggling to think of something to slow her down. "Hi Leni!"

"Hi mom! What are you doing here?"

"We're going home Leni! There's something waiting for you there!"

"Ooo, really!?"

Another buzz from her pocket grabbed Lori's attention. It was Lincoln again.

"ill tell you when everythings ready!"

"how much time do you need? I cant stall forever..."

"It should only be an hour or 2, ill let you know when everythings ready!"

"ok"

"I think you're going to love what we have planned for you Leni!"

Lori shoved her phone into her pocket and butted into the conversation, desperate to try to get her mother to slow down. "Mom! We can't take Leni home yet, we still have to check her out! You gotta go... go... sign the discharge papers."

"Ah, that's right! I'll be back in just a minute!"

Rita rushed out of the room, once again Lori and Leni by themselves. That bought Lori a minute to think. Everything had become rushed all of a sudden with their mother's sudden appearance, excitedly talking to Leni about what was in store for her. What was next though? As soon as their mom came back, she was going to want to hurry up and get out of the hospital. Lori looked over at Leni's even more confused face now. Maybe there was something that Leni needed to do before she left. Scanning the rest of the bed, Lori immediately recognized what that thing was.

"Okay, I'm back, I have the discharge papers and we are all set to go!"

"Wait Mom! Don't you think Leni, literally needs to change into some proper clothing first? I mean, she's still wearing that ugly hospital gown!"

"Yeah, mom. Lori's right. I don't want to go out in public wearing this!"

"You know what! You're right, which is exactly why I brought your favorite dress Leni!"

"Oh my gosh! Thanks mom! I'll go put it on!"

Everything was moving too fast still. Lori still had to stall for a couple more hours. "Umm... mom!"

"Yes sweetie?"

"umm..." Lori furiously tried to think of something that she could blurt out real quick. "Don't you think it would be a good idea, if we took Leni to the mall? That way, she could get a brand new dress!" she then leaned in and whispered, "for the surprise!"

"Oh! Good idea Lori! Let's take Leni to the mall!"

"Oh, goody! I'll hurry up and get changed!"

"That'll take at least five minutes," Lori thought to herself. Now she could really think about how to burn some time.

"Alright guys, move the banister to the left just a little bit more!"

"Lincoln, we already have moved it over!"

"Just move it a little more!"

"Ugh!" Lynn and Luna, each standing on a stepladder, grabbed the massive banner that was spanning three fourths of the living room, and moved it a couple inches to the left. Then, looking back at Lincoln, gave him a cold glare. The boy stared at the banner with his fingers in the shape of a rectangle, making sure that it was in the picture perfect position. "Do we need to move it some more, your majesty?"

"No, that's perfect!" He gave a huge smile, and hugged both of them as they went to go help their father with dinner. Just then, the front door of the house flung open and Luan stormed in, carrying a box of party supplies!

"Sorry, it took so long. The line blew up when I got there! haha! Get it?"

"Yeah, I get it. Do you have everything?"

"Oh yeah! This party's gonna be poppin'! haha!"

Looking through the box, Lincoln noticed something missing! "Luan, where are the streamers!"

"I stream to remember getting them. Look closer!"

Lincoln cringed at that pun, but he did as asked and leaned into the box more, and as he did, Luan pressed a button and all of the streamers came flying out. Taking Lincoln by surprise, he jumped up and turned around just in time to receive a pie to the face! With a glare on his face, he shoved the box back into his sister's arms and told her to get all of that set up. "Aw man, you're such a party pooper!"

She placed the box on the couch and began setting up streamers and balloons. With the banner set up, and Luan putting the decorations in place, all Lincoln had to do was make sure nothing went wrong, which, as usual, was harder than it looked.

"Dark Chocolate!"

"Milk Chocolate!"

"Dark Chocolate!"

"Milk Chocolate!"

Lincoln would have been able to hear the twins going back and forth from the other side of the street. So, hurriedly, he wiped the pie off of his face and rushed over to the kitchen where the source of the problem could be found. Naturally, they were fighting over which flavor of chocolate to make the cake. He separated them, and then asked what was going on.

"I think Leni likes dark chocolate better!"

"I think Leni likes milk chocolate better!"

"Okay? Why don't you just make a cake with both of them? Dark chocolate on one side, and milk chocolate on the other?"

"Oh yeah!" they said in unison. "Thanks Linky!"

He wiped his brow and took out his phone to find a new text from Lori.

"I cant stall any longer, mom insists we come home now! We'll be there in literally 5 minutes..."

"Dang it," Lincoln thought to himself. Rarely were there cases where Lincoln had to kick it into overdrive, but now was one of those moments. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly, gaining the attention of everyone in the house. "Alright everyone, listen up! Mom, Lori, and Leni are about to get home, so we need to get this place spotless before they get here! Everyone understand!?"

Everyone nodded their heads and Lincoln looked back down at his phone, "ok, ring the doorbell when you get here, then ill send you another text saying its ok to come in."

Lincoln sent the text to Lori and before he had even finished, the Loud house was in an uproar. Lynn was racing through the halls, dusting every corner that looked old, even in the slightest. Luan rushed to finish blowing up the balloons while Luna and Lola put them all in their places. Lisa was upstairs monitoring every little thing that went on in the house, making sure nothing went against the plan. Lincoln barged upstairs to see what else needed to be done, he passed by Lucy who was vacuuming the carpet and various rooms upstairs, Lana was adjusting the toilets and sinks, making sure they were working properly. Everyone was helping out in some form or fashion, now it was Lincoln's turn to prepare the ultimate surprise. Ducking into Lori and Leni's room, he started working furiously, trying to finish the thing that he had started. He was nearly finished with it, all he had to do was put the finishing touches on his masterpiece.

The doorbell rang. Everyone rushed to their spots that Lincoln had assigned them, and finally, Lincoln himself slid down the railing, landing perfectly in front of the group. Everyone was now in position for the moment of truth. Everything had gone off without a hitch so far and everything seemed to be in its proper place. Everyone was nervous with excitement; they couldn't wait to see how their sister would react. Leni normally loved things like this, but this was, without a doubt, going to be the best surprise she ever got, especially from her siblings. Lincoln sent the innocent text to Lori and then, seconds later, the door opened.

I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I know it's not the most exciting, but it was really enjoyable for me. I only hope that feeling is reciprocated when you read it. I honestly wasn't expecting this chapter to be this long. I was thinking maybe 4k or so words at the most, but sure enough, 5.5k words later, here it is.

I thank everyone for reading and I encourage you to leave a review, even if you don't have anything to critique me on. I only ask that if you do have something to critique me on, that you tell me how I can improve on it to make my story even better, don't just tell me how terrible of a writer I am. Thanks again for reading!