Thanks to everyone for supporting my story so far, I love all of you. I was kind of blocked a little bit trying to write the beginning of this chapter, but as I came to the end, I really ended up liking the way it turned out and I hope you do too. Anyway, enjoy this chapter of "Kidnapped."

Chapter 11

Lincoln woke up in his room that morning, forgetting that Leni had come home the previous afternoon. So needless to say, he was not expecting to see her when he walked downstairs into the kitchen. Not only was she eating her own breakfast, she had made breakfast for everyone else. "Hurry up Linky! Your food's getting cold!"

Lincoln quickly sat down, enamored at the sight of Leni actually cooking for them. He loved it, but for some reason, wasn't sure what to think of it. It was always either him or dad cooking breakfast, never anyone else. Lynn cooked breakfast once or twice, but Leni had never done something like this. It took him by surprise that she would do something like this. It took him even more by surprise to find out that she was actually a very good cook. The bacon was perfectly crisp and crunchy and the eggs were not overcooked, neither undercooked, not to mention they were perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper. Every time he took a bite it was like he was biting into a piece of breakfast heaven. It was, to him at least, the most amazing home cooked breakfast he ever tasted.

"What made you want to do this dudette?"

"Well, the doctor told me that I can't go to school for another week, and I didn't have anything else to do, so I just did this!"

"It's really good Leni, eggcelent work! Hahahaha!"

"Thanks. What do you think Lincy?"

Lincoln was not with them at that moment. He was afar off, more than taken aback by how good the food was. It didn't even register to him that Leni asked a question. Everyone else was looking at him, not in confusion, but in understanding. They all felt the same way when they first tried Leni's breakfast. They did need to snap him out of it though.

"Hey, Linc!" Lana exclaimed, snapping her fingers in front of his face.

"What? I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

"We could tell. Leni asked how you liked it."

"Oh. I love it Leni! It's so good!"

Leni clasped her hands together and grinned widely. Seeing Lincoln happy like this made her ecstatic. But why only Lincoln? Why wasn't she excited knowing that the rest of them liked it as well? Lincoln thought about asking why, but soon decided against it. He didn't want to make Leni say something that she didn't want to say in front of everyone else. He would ask her when it was just the two of them. It was clear to everyone by now that Lincoln wanted to say something to Leni about it. All of them, except for Leni could tell by the look on his face. Even Lily was intrigued by Lincoln's apparent curiosity.

All day, that one question bothered Lincoln. All through class, through lunch, through recess, through any tests he had, there was constantly the question on his mind that was bugging him to no end. He was barely able to concentrate at all, which he already had a hard time doing under normal circumstances. Every five minutes was a constant reminder from his teacher or his friends that he wasn't able to focus or pay attention at all. He would turn to their attention for a minute, but not very long after, he would drift off again. It eventually got to the point where everyone, his classmates, his friends, even his teacher had to move on from it. It was all because of that one question on his mind. Why was Leni so interested in him only?

"Make those transitions smoother Luna, you're still hesitating between the chords and the riffs."

To anyone with normal ears, Luna's guitar playing would sound flawless, especially considering she had played the guitar for years. But not to Luna's personal teacher. Other than Mick Swagger, Luna considered this man to be the best guitar player in the world. Before she met him, she was an amateur at best, but after just a few lessons with him, her skill increased exponentially. If it weren't for Luna begging this guy to be her mentor, she would never be at the level she was at. There were moments where she did get annoyed with him, sometimes nearly to the point of walking out, but every time, it ended up working out in the end.

Luna played a section of music again on her acoustic guitar, playing it through twice. Once to listen to what she was doing, then again to see if she could correct it. After the seventh or eighth time playing the same section over again, she got frustrated and nearly threw the guitar down. Boy would that have been a mistake. This guitar cost her over twelve-hundred dollars and she wasn't about to smash it to pieces anytime soon. "Ugh... I can't get it down the right way..."

"You gotta relax girl... Chill out, it's okay to make mistakes. That's the whole reason we're here."

Luna took a deep breath in. He was right, getting mad or upset wasn't going to get her anywhere. That was something that she was trying to learn to control. She knew that someday, if she didn't at least try to stop, then it would get the best of her. "You're right. I'll try it again."

Luna thought for a moment, then started playing the section again. Sure enough, after letting herself calm down, she got it right. She played it again, just to make sure that the first time wasn't a fluke, then played it one more time just to get it down. Her teacher leaned back in his chair and nodded approvingly. "Well done. Try using more dynamic variation. Make sure there is an obvious difference between the loud and soft parts, not just kind of a difference."

Luna nodded and played it one more time, taking into consideration what he told her. Once she finished playing the passage, he nodded again. "Good job. Alright, for next week, have etudes twenty-three, twenty-four, and twenty-five ready for me."

"Got it dude. Thanks."

"See you next week Luna," he said as she packed her guitar into its case.

"See ya later dude!" Luna walked out of the practice room into the enormous band hall, lined with sound-proof insulation. Holding her case in her right hand, and her backpack slung over her left shoulder, she strolled towards the exit, absorbing all of the new information she learned. No one had ever challenged her guitar playing skills except that teacher. His ears were quick to notice any sort of variation. Before he started mentoring her, Luna's family was on the verge of shutting her out when playing her guitar. They didn't want to totally stop her from playing at all, because she picked it up pretty quickly, they were even impressed for a while when she played a few songs they knew, but when she started playing more difficult material, she plateaued and it made everyone want to make her practice anywhere but the house. But all it took was one lesson from this guy to change their minds. At the time, she improved more in one lesson than she had in over a month without lessons prior. Now, after taking lessons for over two years, she was so good that they almost didn't want her to leave the house to practice.

Despite the improvement she made in that lesson, she still felt like there was something hindering her. There was some kind of psychological effect that made her hesitate to push further and harder. She was able to figure out why in less than a few seconds. She opened the door of the band hall out into the hallway that connected all of the music rooms, expecting to see Leni waiting there, like she always was. But she wasn't there. Leni would always wait for Luna outside of the band hall while she finished up the lesson. This week wasn't the case.

Luna's heart sank when she saw the empty hallway, with no one waiting for her. Ever since Luna had started doing these weekly lessons, Leni would be waiting for her to finish so that she wouldn't be walking to the car by herself. Luna didn't realize how much that actually meant to her until now. Leni would always be able to strike up a conversation and would listen to Luna ramble on about music and about how the lesson went until they both got into Vanzilla. Now that Leni wasn't there, Luna realized just how quiet the trip was without her. It was a completely different atmosphere. Even the two of them just walking together in silence would have been better than Luna walking by herself, but here she was. Leni was waiting for her at home, safe and sound, but Luna didn't want that. She wanted Leni to be with her now.

Despite the previous weekend being nice and warm, that day ended up being rather chilly. As Luna briskly paced through the cold air, all she could her was her own footsteps. The sound of a few cars passing by broke the silence a couple times, but that was only momentary. Any other day, the chatter between her and Leni would make it almost as if nothing else was making noise. But now, she was eerily aware of the fact that there was just silence where there was once conversation.

As she approached the van, the clunking and clattering started to make itself known. Lori was waiting for her with all of the other loud siblings situated in the back, with the exception of Leni, who was still at home. Luna silently got into the empty passenger seat and made herself comfortable. This spot was normally reserved for Leni coming home from school, but Luna, taking advantage of the fact that Leni was at home, took it. The van roared as Lori shifted it into drive and started making way back home. Luna's thoughts once again drifted back to Leni. Her talking about anything and everything would always be the life of the van as they made their way home, but once again, there was just silence. It was disturbing, but Luna didn't want to think about that. Instead, she thought about how happy Leni would be once they got home. Yeah. Just the thought of that alone made her cheer up. Leni wanted to see Luna, and Luna wanted to see Leni too.

Lincoln struggled to keep his mind from wandering all day. Seeing his friends, teachers, and others were no help to him at all. But now, at the end of the day, he could start to forget all that. He could keep his mind wandering and not only would he not get called out for it, but nobody would even notice. He was now free to think whatever he wanted with no struggling to pay attention to anything. Except for the fact that his sisters were always trying to get his attention.

Of course. How could he be so stupid. Never could he have a moment that he could call his own. Everyone else always needed him for something. Whether it was breaking up a fight of some kind, being a test subject, or listening to a new poem. He didn't have any time for himself. Time so that he could think about what he wanted to think about, what he thought he needed to think about.

It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the time he spent with his sisters. If anything, he realized that he preferred to be around his siblings as much as possible. There were times when he daydreamed about being an only child, but those times were long gone due to the fact that there was one night where all of the girls left for the evening, leaving just him and his parents at the house. At first he thought it was a dream come true. His conceited wish was finally being granted, even if it was for a limited time only. There was no one to stop him from watching television, no one intruding in his room, and most of all, there was hardly any noise. At the moment, it seemed like complete and utter bliss. However, after just a few minutes of doing things by himself, he realized how lonely he really was like this, and he abhorred that feeling, the feeling of boredom. When his sisters were around there was always something to do. There was always a mock beauty pageant, some kind of joke to be told, or some kind of new dress to try on. But none of that was there when he was by himself. He realized that he had never truly been bored his entire life until that day, the one day that he actually had time to himself.

He was so distracted with his thoughts that he just dismissed the attention that was directed towards him as nothing but usual, rambunctious, chatter, not particularly directed at anyone. He wasn't even aware at the fact that his name had been called several times. The reality of the situation was different though. Ever since he stepped into the car, everyone noticed something different about him, and every following person who also stepped into the car noticed the same thing. It was obvious that he was distracted, because he wasn't even turning in their direction when they called his name, but it was bothering them that they didn't know what was bothering him.

"Why won't he answer?" Lola asked.

"I don't know," Lynn responded. "It's almost like he's ignoring us on purpose."

"He's being totally hear-responsible, hahaha! Get it?"

"Dudes, he's probably wondering why Leni is paying closer attention to him recently than the rest of us. I tried telling him it's no biggie, but he won't listen. I say just let him work it out, and every little thing will be alright."

"But what if he's always gonna be like this?"

"I would actually prefer it that way. Then I could finally do that dark ritual I've always wanted to do that requires two people."

"As unlikely as it may seem, the odds of our male sibling remaining like this for the remainder of the week, are actually quite slim."

"Exactly. Lisa knows where it's at. I say we just leave him be dudettes."

"Ugh, fine." After Lola's final comment, the van went utterly silent. Not a single voice could be heard. Not even the sound of feet rustling against the floorboards could be heard. The sudden silence was actually unnerving to everyone, including Lincoln. He looked around at everyone, wondering why they were all quiet. No one was looking at him in a weird way and no one seemed to want his attention, but the silence was driving him crazy, eventually making him speak up.

"Why is everyone so quiet all of a sudden?"

"Oh, now he decides to speak up," quipped the queen of sass.

"Chill out Lola!" Luna hissed. "We were trying to get your attention dude and you weren't responding to anything we tried."

All of the chatter that was going on in the van before the silence was directed at him? There was no way. He would have been able to tell if they were trying to get his attention, right? So why didn't he respond to them? Was he really so distracted that he just wasn't paying attention to the rest of them? It was possible. He was having trouble paying attention in class all day, not to mention that he didn't really listen to any stories his friends may have told during lunch. Maybe, even if not intentionally, he did ignore his sisters.

"I wasn't?"

"Naw, you were completely spaced out dude. What was it you were thinking about anyway?"

"I was... just..." Lincoln was struggling to find the right words, but nothing came to mind and he eventually just gave up. "Never mind, don't worry about it."

"It's about Leni isn't it?"

Lori hit the nail on the head with that one. He didn't want to openly admit it at the moment, but that's exactly what he was thinking about. He slowly nodded his head and drooped down, whatever confidence he had left sapped from him. "I thought so..."

"Dude, you need to stop worrying about that. I'm sure its just Leni being Leni. If it really was something serious, then she would tell you."

Luna had a good point. It wasn't Like Leni to just leave someone in the dark like that, not on purpose anyway. If it was something worth worrying about, then he would have known what it was by now; Leni would have told him. But despite that assurance, it still bothered him. If it really was nothing, then why would she be so concerned about what Lincoln did and thought? There was the possibility that she wasn't telling him because it was something that he wasn't going to like. That never stopped her before, so why now? Maybe she was planning on telling him eventually? Or, maybe she just forgot. It was a possibility for sure, but for some reason it didn't seem likely.

He was finally done with this constant debate going on in his head. He was going to find out what was going on as soon as he got home. "Yup. I'm going to ask her why she's acting like this towards me when we get home."

"Wow, straight to the... point... huh?" Luan piped as she pulled out a pencil, eliciting a groan from everyone. At least Lincoln was responding now.

Lincoln set his stuff down in his room and immediately started mentally prepping himself. This was not something to be taken lightly, after all, if he says the wrong thing, then he could end up making things worse than they were before. He learned that lesson the hard way. Since that time though, he consciously made an effort to think through what he was going to say, and so far, it worked every time, as long as he didn't get cocky.

"Okay Lincoln, here's what you gotta do. You just gotta walk down the hallway, go into Lori and Leni's room, and ask Leni what's going on. That's it..."

He breathed in and out deeply several times. Why was this such a difficult task for him? Why couldn't he just get up and do it? Why was it so hard to just get up and go do what he needed to do? It was like his feet were made of lead. No matter how much he hyped himself up, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He took a few more deep breaths and started talking to himself again.

"Alright, you're going to go right now... okay, right now... AUGHHHH! Why can't I do this."

Lincoln took one last deep breath and finally committed himself to it. "okay. This is it. I'm going to do it right now." Right as he reached for the door to exit his room, the doorknob started jiggling.

Quick as a bolt of lightning, he jumped into his bed and started acting like he was reading a comic. Sure enough, who else could it be coming into his room than the one person he was trying to bring himself to talk to.

"Linky, are you busy right now?" Leni asked with her head poking through the door.

"Not really," he said, trying to act all innocent. "Why, what do you need?"

"There's a couple things that I need to tell you. I've had it on my mind for a little bit now and I just haven't been able to get a good time to tell you. Do you mind if I come in?"

"Not at all."

Leni smiled and plopped herself down left of him on his bed. Lincoln couldn't believe he was getting this lucky. Not only did he not have to even leave his room to tell Leni what he wanted to ask, but she was about to tell him what it was. He didn't even need to ask! All of the pressure that was on his shoulders to go to Leni was gone, she came to him. But there was still the question of what. What was it that she was going to tell him? Was she going to say what had happened to her? Was she even going to tell him what he wanted to hear? What if she was just going to tell him that she thought that someone had a secret crush on him. What if it was even less than that? What if she just wanted to hang out with him?

"So... how's it going?" she asked.

"Good, I guess. I am kind of curious to know why you wanted to talk to me."

"What? Can't I just, like, hang out with my cute little brother for a few minutes before that?"

"I guess that's fine," Lincoln replied. "What do you wanna do?"

"What kind of stuff do you like to do?"

"Umm, mostly I read comic books." Lincoln was not prepared for this. He wasn't against just hanging out with his sister, but he was getting more and more curious what she wanted to tell him the longer they hung out in his room. "I play a lot of video games too. I think you'll like this one." He reached in the direction that his hand-held game would normally be, but then remembered that he smashed it into pieces. The memories of that day came flooding back to him in a tsunami of emotions and his mood immediately went sour. He didn't want to play that game anymore. He thought he had gotten over that, but recalling what happened had proven him wrong. Now that Leni was sitting right there next to him, he was feeling especially terrible. Leni took notice of the way Lincoln's mood suddenly changed.

"Are you okay Linky?"

His response was almost unnoticeable, but Leni was able to tell that he was shaking his head from side to side. She knew what that meant, but before she knew it, Lincoln's face was buried in his sister's shoulder. Slowly but surely, Leni could was starting to feel streaks of water running down his cheeks onto her nice aquamarine colored dress. Leni's own facial expression turned gloomy and she slowly draped her right arm around Lincoln's shoulder and with her left, grabbed onto his free hand. She always hated it when someone, especially one of her siblings started crying. Every time it happened, all she ever wanted to do was make them feel better, no matter what. Running to the store to buy chocolate? Not a problem. Going to the attic? Even if it was infested with spiders? Scary beyond all reason for sure, but she was more than happy to do it. Getting one of her favorite dresses stained? That was going to be the least of her worries. All she wanted right now was to make Lincoln feel better, however she could. If that meant that she wasn't going to be able to wear this dress, quite possibly for another week or two, then so be it. Lincoln was her top priority at the moment and nothing was going to change that.

Lincoln was a mess. His eyes were swollen and red, his own shirt was wet with tears, and his nose was starting to drip as well. It would have been a lot worse if he didn't have a shoulder to cry on. Sure, he was embarrassed a little bit for crying in front of one of his older sisters, but to him, even with that being the case, it was always better to have someone next to you, someone who will be there for you. Leni was that someone right now. She was always that someone for him. Nearly every single time that Lincoln found himself in enough pain to start crying, Leni was always there, no matter what. Sure, any of the other older siblings had their moments with him, but Leni, for sure, was the one comforting him the vast majority of the time, and this wasn't any different.

And then she wrapped her arms around him. Immediately he could feel her warmth and any kind of feeling that was uncomfortable, even in the slightest, completely melted away. Whatever kind of tension he was feeling was gone in less than a minute. He wrapped his arms around her in return and it just got even better. He was starting to feel better now, much better. Being a guy, he was naturally hesitant to say that he loved anyone, especially someone of his age. There were times when, for some reason, it just didn't feel right. But any time that Leni had a reason to hug him, embrace him, all of those feelings vanished. He felt like he could say anything as long as Leni was right there next to him. "I love you Leni... so much..."

Smiling, and shedding a tear herself, she started stroking his white silky hair with her left hand. "I love you too Linky."

Both of them were perfectly content just staying like that for a few moments. Lincoln had now calmed down significantly and turned his head facing forward, still leaning on Leni's shoulder. "Okay, tell me what it was," she asked him. "What made you start crying?" Short, sweet, and to the point.

He wasn't about to lie to his sister. He had to tell her what it was that made him feel like that. So he opened up to her completely. He told her about how he was so into his video game that he didn't even know that she got kidnapped, revealing everything up until the point he saw drops of her blood staining the sidewalk. He talked about how he blamed himself for it and smashed his video game to pieces, also telling her that in it, was the game he thought that she would like. All while he was telling her this, Leni was sitting next to him, listening intently with an arm still wrapped around his shoulder. If it weren't for that one thing, he wouldn't have said anything, but he felt so comfortable and so safe, that nothing was going to stop him from saying whatever he wanted to say.

After he finished, she responded, "You know it was never your fault to begin with, right?"

Lincoln sighed, "yeah, everyone keeps telling me that, and I even know that it wasn't my fault, but I just have such a hard time believing it. I want to put the blame on myself because... I feel like I could have done something."

"You didn't let me finish," Leni choked. "It's true, if you were paying attention, you might have done something, but that's not all there is to it."

Lincoln was a little bewildered now. "What? What do you mean?"

"Well..." Leni started. "Those guys that were kidnapping me, they were actually trying to kidnap you."

Lincoln wasn't entirely sure how to react to this. How did Leni get kidnapped if they were trying to get him? Unless... No... Why would she do that?

"Linc..." Leni started. "Do you remember when I told you that until you're bigger and stronger than me, that it was my job to protect you?"

He nodded his head. He remembered that moment vividly, and it also answered his question of why.

"Well, that's what I was doing. When they started running after you, I knew that they were trying to hurt you and all I wanted to do was make sure you were safe, even if it meant getting myself hurt, or kidnapped, or abused." Leni paused for a moment, several more tears now rolling down her cheeks. "I know that you probably felt terrible for what happened, and I honestly don't blame you, but... if you were the one that had been kidnapped instead..." Leni finally broke down and tears started rolling down her face, "I never would have been able to forgive myself for that." Leni now wrapped herself around her brother more tightly, holding on as if she was going to lose him. "The entire time that I was kidnapped, all I could think of was you Linc... All I could think of was if you were there instead of me. Everything they did to me, I couldn't help but think that if I didn't do anything, this would have been you instead."

Leni didn't notice, but while she was saying all this, Lincoln's eyes slowly started forming tears as well. Everything else in the world didn't seem to exist at the moment. Not any other noise that the house or anyone in it was making, not any passing by cars, no phones ringing, none of that mattered. It was just those two, laying on Lincoln's bed, crying their eyes out. This new perspective that Leni revealed to him completely broke his heart. He didn't know what else to do at this point but cry. What else was there to do? The two of them just laid there, crying and holding tightly to each other as long as they could. Lincoln finally understood why Leni was so curious about everything that he was doing now, without even having to ask her no less.

Ever since their first meeting in the hospital when he noticed it, he had been tormented over it. It was something so simple that he was so bothered by, and there really wasn't any good reason behind his curiosity either. But the real kicker came when she actually wanted to tell him about it. Until that point, he really didn't have a good reason to wonder about Leni's behavior. But now that Leni told him, he didn't even have to wonder anymore. And it was something that really changed everything, everything about this whole situation. Leni was protecting him, that was all there was to it. She was doing what she thought she had to do. She must have known about the terrible, awful, unspeakable things that kidnappers do, and yet, she still risked her own safety, her own life even, so that he could be safe. It had nothing to do with anything he did. It was Leni's decision to do this. She was the one who felt like she had to do it, who felt like she needed to do it. But ultimately, that wasn't why she did it. People put off things that they need to do all the time, because no one will ever do something that they don't want to do. If someone does something, then it means that they at least kind of wanted to do it.

Leni wouldn't have let herself be kidnapped if she didn't want to. She could have just watched as Lincoln was kidnapped. But that wasn't what she wanted. She didn't want to see her little brother suffer, especially not like she did. So she took his place, not because she felt like she had to, but because she wanted to.

Oh, man. I really enjoyed writing that chapter, especially the last part of it, and I hope you enjoyed it. I'm going to go ahead and tell y'all what the next chapter is going to be about, don't worry, there's not going to be any spoilers, just the basic plot. It's going to be the kidnapping from Leni's perspective as opposed to the first chapter which was Lincoln's perspective of it. I had always wanted to write the kidnapping from her perspective, but I couldn't figure out the right place to put it. After the bombshell that was dropped in this chapter, I feel like the next chapter is the perfect place to do that.

As always, thanks for reading and I ask that you leave a comment, tell me how I did. Even if you don't have any criticism, please still review it anyway. I always ask that if you do criticize my story, please use constructive criticism only, don't just bash me without telling me how I can do better.