"Lynn is literally gonna have a piece of my mind when we arrive." Lori said.
Rita and the Loud sisters, sans Luan and Lynn, were on their way to the hospital. While most of them were anxious about seeing their brother, even though they were told that everything was okay. Lori was slightly pissed at the fact Lynn had gone there. It's not due to the fact nobody knew where she was, as there was a note letting the family know, but rather that she decided to go on her own, without calling them to go with her.
"Uhh, Lori, I don't think you should do that, that'd really hurt you and I don't think she wants to see that." Leni said.
"No, Leni, I- nevermind."
"She's got a point," Lana said. "You know Lynn when she's angry, and one of us in the hospital is already enough."
"Still, she had no reason to not call us. It's not like she was the only one who wants to see him."
"And you've got a point there, too." Lana said, and turned towards her twin. "If those two end up staying mad and fighting with each other… we should run." she whispered.
"Make sure Leni and Luna grab Lincoln." Lola replied.
"Come on, dudes. Nobody will fight. We're going to visit Linc today to make sure he's alright, so let's just play nice, alright?" Luna said as they parked the van, got down, and made their way into the building.
Inside, there was a small line of people waiting to receive their health care. Rita grabbed a ticket with a code on it, as the rest of the girls headed towards the chairs, before she headed towards them, to wait for her number to be called. As much as they wanted to see Lincoln, Rita knew it wasn't a situation that required extreme urgency, so they could wait a few minutes. Plus, there weren't many people to begin with.
"How long do we have to wait?" Lola asked, already a bit impatient.
"Just a little longer, sweetie." Rita replied. She was an anxious as most of her daughters, yet certain things and processes were independent on how much they wanted to see Lincoln.
True to her word, it didn't take too long for them to finally be called by the receptionist, for only Rita to stand up and make her way to the counter. A blond woman, probably in her early 30s, was on the other side,
"Hello, Madam," she said. "How may I help you today?"
"Me and my daughters are here to visit Lincoln Loud. We're their mother and sisters."
"Okay, just a moment…" she began typing. "Could you please inform me your names?"
"Mine is Rita Loud," she pointed at where her daughters were, and they approached her. "These are, from oldest to youngest, Lori, Leni, Luan, Lucy, Lana, Lola, Lisa, and Lily Loud."
The receptionist's eyes widened more and more with each listed name, until they were as big as saucers. "Err, hi there." she greeted the kids. "This is the biggest family I've seen in my whole life." she thought. She focused on her job, typing their names into the computer.
"Is our brother okay?" Both Lana and Lola asked.
The receptionist knew her job wasn't to know what each patient had, so she wasn't sure of the answer to that question. "He's better." she said. Rare were the occasions
where that wasn't true. "Alright, Mrs. Loud, your son is on the second floor, of the north section. I'll have someone to guide you there in a few moments."
Not a minute after she said that statement, a man in blue outfit appeared. He asked them to follow him, and they quickly made their way to the room where they were keeping Lincoln. Luna thought about bursting in and shouting "Surprise!" but decided not to at the last minute. The twins, however, decided that was a great idea, even if they didn't know each other's plans.
"SURPRISE!" They screamed, as they opened the door. Lincoln, Luan and Lynn almost jumped at the glance of the family, but soon enough they turned to see a smile coming from the trio. Lynn Sr was also waken up due to the noise, even if nobody had noticed him yet. Their priority was someone else.
"Hey, guys!" Lincoln said, as everyone made their way inside and he managed to catch his breath from the surprise. Lola and Lana made the first move to hug their older brother. Lucky enough, they didn't jumped on him, otherwise they would have all fallen. Soon, the rest of the family joined them.
"Are you okay?" All of them asked at the same time.
"Yeah, I am," Lincoln said, even if a bit unconfident about it. "I mean, not 100%, but I'm feeling better than before."
They let out a sigh of relief and walked away a bit, just so he could have some space to breath. "Glad you're feeling better, twerp." Lori said.
"Yeah, we were, like, totes worried."
"Even if I explained to them that the conditions were going trough presented no reason to alarm." Lisa said. "But even I admit I was concerned as to how you're doing."
"Heh, thanks guys." He said.
"Hey, everyone," Lynn Sr approached the group.
"Hey dad," all of them said, without even taking their eyes out of the boy, as he approached his wife. He signed her to leave the room, so they'd have a bit more privacy. They left and closed the door
"So, how is he doing?" Rita asked.
"He's doing alright, dear. I spoke with the doctor, and they said that it was a good thing we brought him in as early as we did. We'll just have to make a few dietary changes, have him exercise more, you know. That sorta stuff." Lynn Sr. explained.
"You mean he got sick for being lazy?" Rita asked. "How many times have I told him to go out and play, instead of reading comics?"
"It's not his fault. Well, not totally. I don't want to worry anyone, but things might get worse if we don't change our habits quick enough. And I'll need your help.
"Oh course I'm going to help, Lynn. We're going to be in this together."
"Sorry to interrupt your conversation," the couple looked to the hallway, to see doctor Connor approaching. "Ah, you must be Miss Loud. I'm doctor Connor, responsible for your son, Lincoln Loud. NIce to meet you."
"Hello." Rita said, shaking his hand. "Is Lincoln doing okay?" She asked. Even if her husband had already confirmed that, professional analysis would give her more details.
"It will take some time until he is fully healed, but he's doing quite well. Not the worst case I've ever seen, but we're taking our time to make sure he's stable, we can't simply pretend he doesn't have diabetes."
"What can we do to help?" Rita asked.
"That's exactly the point I've wanted to reach."
"Wait, that means you had the chance to travel in a stretcher, and you fell asleep during the ride?" Lynn asked.
"Hey, it was hard to stay awake, you know?" Lincoln said. "And no, I fell asleep after that, when they took me here."
"Oh, okay. But still, c'mon, man. You coulda tried to stay awake a bit longer, just to see what was going on."
"All I know is that, after I woke up, I had this in my arm," Lincoln showed the tube on his elbow. "And that I wasn't feeling that tired anymore."
"Wait, is that going inside your arm?" Lana asked.
Lincoln looked at it. "Don't worry, it only stings a bit. It just makes me fold my arm almost impossibly."
Lana shrugged as the others just felt a bit bad. Even if it wasn't something terrible, everyone could understand it wasn't something comfortable. Well, Lily probably couldn't, but she had a similar expression to the rest of her siblings.
"After that, a doctor came in, and he talked to me."
"What has he told you?" Lisa asked.
"He explained to me a bit how this disease works, before Luan showed up. And she showed me the video."
"Did you liked it?" They all asked.
"Of course I did!" He exclaimed. "You guys are great
"Ah, come on," Lori said. "Is not that big of a deal."
"But it was," Luan said. "Lincoln even cried."
All of them faced Lincoln. "Hey, I didn't cried," he said, annoyed. "One tear isn't crying." He defended himself, speaking a bit more quietly.
"Awww," Most of the siblings said, while Luan laughed a bit, and Lincoln gave her an angry glare.
"But seriously, guys, I really liked it."
"No worries, lil' bro." Lynn said. "It was the least we could do."
"I've asked the spirits to take care of your soul." Lucy said.
"In the meantime, I've started my research over your condition. Though, I still require the doctor's diagnosis to proceed with more precision in search of methods of lowering the effects of the disease."
"And Lynn literally came here without calling us." Lori said.
"Hey, it's not my fault I wanted to come as quick as possible." She defended herself.
"But you could have called us to go with you. You're not the only one missing him."
"Yeah, like Lola would like to interrupt her beauty sleep."
"Excuse me? My beauty sleeps are important, but it doesn't mean there are things that matter more."
"But you didn't want to wake up to help me with my mud pies." Lana said.
"Dude, come on, that is not nearly as important." Luna said.
"Hey, both are important for me!"
"Excuse me, am I interrupting something?" A man appeared on the door, and Lincoln realised it was his doctor, saving them from entering a fight in the middle of the hospital. Everyone faced him, as he had a neutral expression on his face.
"You must be Lincoln's sisters. I've gotta say, this is one of the biggest families I've seen." He said. "I'm doctor Connor, responsible for your brother."
"A pleasure to meet you, doctor." Lisa said. "Allow me to introduce ourselves. We are Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lucy, Lana, Lola, Lisa, and Lily, from oldest to youngest, respectively." She said, as she pointed at each sister, as each one greeted the doctor once their names were called.
The doctor faced both parents, who were standing behind them. "You sure are creative with names," he said, before facing them back. "It's nice to meet you all."
"When can Linc come home?" Leni asked.
"Well… I can't say precisely which day. However, I can assure you that, if everything follows how it's expected, it won't take longer than a week."
Leni seemed a bit confused.
"At Saturday, at most," he clarified.
"That's great." Leni said, and everyone agreed. Even if they'd rather take him today, there's so many people who have to stay longer they couldn't exactly complain.
"Now, if you wouldn't mind, shall I ask you to follow me?"
All of them seem confused. "But why, exactly?" Lori asked.
"While we managed to detect Lincoln's case early, since you're all in the same family, it would be wise to check if nobody is presenting any tendencies to contract the same disease, and if that's the case, prevent it."
"And how will you do that?" Luan asked.
"It won't take long, I promise. It's only a matter of blood collecting for analysis. We already did that with your brother. We can call small groups at a time, as we might not have enough people to provide the collecting for nine girls at the same time."
"Ten girls, doctor." Rita corrected him from behind. "Eleven with Lincoln."
"Really?" Connor examiated the room. "Sorry, but I'm only counting nine."
"Wait a second…" Lori said, as everyone began looking around. "Literally, where's Lana?"
That's when everyone remembered Lana had a certain phobia of needles. As she couldn't have fled from the main door, since the doctor and both parents were blocking the way, she couldn't be too far. That's when they heard a clicking noise. Everyone faced the bathroom door.
"Lana!" everyone called.
"Uh, you can go without me." Lana said. "Didn't wanted to miss the fun, but I really need to stay in here for a while."
"Sweety, this is for your own good. It won't sting a bit." Lynn Sr said.
"You said that the last time, and it did!"
Lynn sr sighed. "Sorry for that doctor, she is a bit afraid of needles."
"Huh, if you knew how many of those we get in here." Connor said to himself, without anyone else listening.
"I'm sorry to interrupt." Lisa said, calling the doctor. "But after receiving the information regarding that Lincoln possesses Diabetes Mellitus, I took the opportunity to realise a blood collecting and examination hours ago, while my family units were asleep."
Suddenly, the bathroom door opened, and everyone faced Lisa.
"You took our blood for analysis again?" Luna asked.
"It was all due to the sickness. After all, even if our paternal units forbid me of more deep research with the use of family material, I was confident doing such would not only lead to faster conclusions, but also avoid any possible problems with outside factors."
Lisa then took a pile of folded papers out of her pocket. "While I'm not a doctor myself, I believe doctor Connor will agree with me that, while Lincoln's case is, at first glance, the worst of all of us, even if I did not had the chance to study his case, there are very few exceptions inside the family that lack any chance of contracting the disease." Lisa handed the papers to the doctor. "There are others that the case can be quite alarming. Also, forgive me for the lack of certain results. Those are being analysed the moment we speak."
Connor took at the papers, giving a quick glance on each one of them. "First of all, I gotta ask, how is a child her age capable of such things?"
"Let's say she's the genius of the family, doctor." Rita said. "She surprises us everyday."
"It's definitely impressive. Now, I can't precise exactly with the lack of the results you mentioned, but this surely gives me an idea with what are we working with. And the girl might be right." He said, rubbing his chin.
Everyone seemed to freeze for a second, and the doctor noticed it.
"Don't worry, you're not with the disease." He said. "While I do agree these are not very good results for most of you, you're all still inside the tolerable limit."
Everyone sighed in relief, and seemed to be a little more calm.
"That doesn't mean we should ignore these." Connor said. "While there's no need for medicine, I'm sure everyone wants it to stay that way, so there's some things that must be changed in the family habits." The doctor faced Lynn sr. "I'm aware you've already spoken with Sofia, am I correct?"
"Oh yes. She's talked to me a bit of what we should do, however, due to the time, she said we'd talk more about it today."
"And here I am," both parents turned to see the doctor. "Good morning, Mr. Loud. And you must be his wife, I suppose. Nice to meet you, Doctor Sofia Müller, nutritionist."
"Nice to meet you." Ritsa greeted, as she walked inside, taking notice of all of the kids. "Hello, you must be Lincoln," she said to the only boy, shaking his hand lightly.
"Hey," he said, a bit nervously. The number of employees that already did something to help him made him a bit embarrassed, and asking if people weren't worrying a bit too much.
"And you girls must be his sisters." she assumed, and all of them nodded. "it's a pleasure to meet all of you. I'll be working to help Lincoln, when it comes to nutrition and diet, or to put it simply, his eating habits. And, due to what has been showed to me, there's quite some things that might have to be done, and not only for him."
"What kind of changes?" Lola asked.
"I can't say precisely, older sibling, but according to my research, you might not like it," Lisa said.
Hey guys, Taka's back, and I'm not dea. I've gotta say sorry for everyone for holding this (and other) fics for so long without updating. I can't say how long it will take for other chapters to be released, but I'll try to be more consistent.
As for this fic, the Louds now will begin to understand what will have to change for them to help Lincoln and themselves, and they probably won't like what's going to come. As always, let me know if you're liking this story, and see you next chapter.