Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Loud House or other franchises you might recognize.

That evening, Linka's father and 2 oldest sisters came to see her. 'Twas a generally happy time. They chatted and enjoyed each other's presence. That the little girl was in high spirits was lifting the spirits of all present. And indeed, when she was released from the hospital, the nurses, surgeon, and doctor who had worked with her all commended her level-headedness and positive upbeat nature. If they had one complaint (or several, as it would so happen), it would be that a certain white-haired little boy was worrying the nurses too much, a certain short bespectacled brunette was trying to correct the nurses' decisions, a certain teenaged brunette was far to loud and another distracting the nurses by punning about hospitals, and two certain blonde twins kept on almost fighting each other.

Linka was released that Sunday evening. To celebrate her coming home, Mr. Loud catered from her new favorite pizzeria that evening. The morning of the following day, she went to school in her new, rather cumbersome wheelchair.

"Wow. Did you get in a fight, or something?"

"What happened to your leg?"

"What happened to your face?"

Linka just rolled past such comments, both figuratively and literally. She rolled past them into her classroom, in which Mr. Jones greeted her and moved the chair out of her desk so that she could sit there in her wheelchair. At this point, Paige asked her what had happened, and she knew then that she couldn't ignore the question as she had been doing so far, as this time it was asked not through the lips of any other kid, but from those lips belonging to her very best friend. Well, perhaps not very best, as that was probably reserved for Lincoln. But her second best. Her best friend outside of school, at least.

"I… um… ask Cristina?"

"Why don't you want to tell me?"

"I... It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that I don't really want people to think that I'm tough or that I'm weak or something."

"You think that I'd think that about you?"

"I would… It's just I don't really know how to tell you without your getting mad."

"I won't get mad at you, I promise."

"Well, um…"

"You can't have expected to come to school in a wheelchair with one leg missing and the other in a cast and scars everywhere without getting questions about it."

"I did think about that! I just didn't think I'd actually have to answer any of them. And I've been one-legged for almost 4 years now."

"I don't think half of the school noticed before. Are you gonna answer?"

"Yeah. Well, you know how I'm an orphan, right? So… I got adopted from an orphanage…"

"Wow. Really insightful." Paige interjected

"And at the orphanage there were some girls who liked to bully me, and they came here and they decided to pummel me, and they got me pretty good. Luckily, they got arrested and their on trial in – Are you alright, Paige?"

A kindergartener was getting dropped off late, and was walking with the secretary to his classroom. The secretary asked him to point to something red, to humor him and test his color-naming skills. The kindergartener, pointed to Paige's face, which had become redder than the blood boiling in her veins, and so passed his test with flying colors.

"Where are they?"

"Who?"

"Those kids"

"I don't know... why?"

"I want to give them a good beating! I take karate, and I'll - "

"I think I'm fine with seeing them go to court..."

Paige yelled in frustration.

Some kids look absolutely adorable, even when they are very angry. Linka was one such example. But Paige was not. Even Linka, who was Paige's height, though a bit leaner and skinnier, was scared. It was so bad that Paige had to be sent to the school counselor to calm down. Upon her return to class, the class had already started, and she didn't get another opportunity to talk until lunch.

"What do you mean, they pummeled you?" she asked incredulously as they sat down once again with Lincoln, Clyde, Ronnie-Anne, and the rest of Lincoln's friends.

"They just sort of started beating me up. It wasn't that bad, though. I was unconscious for most of it…" She trailed off at the sight of Ronnie Anne, who had been brought up to speed by Lincoln. She was furious. Fuming. Ferocious. Frightening. The Latino girl stood up and walked out.

"Nice going, Linka! We just got her to calm down!" Lincoln looked a bit annoyed. Linka was scared for a moment, before she saw his features rearrange themselves in a smile, and the air escaping her mouth had a feeling of relief to it.

"Where is she going?" Linka asked worriedly.

"Probably to the gym. I think she's probably gonna burn off some of her anger beating up bean bags." Said Clyde in a resigned manner. "Speaking of, how did your meeting with Dr. Lopez go?"

"It was nice. She talked to me about what my feelings, and about some trauma or something I have from the orphanage. Then she talked to me about being an orphan, and she said that if I really wanted to, I should try to find out who our birth parents are, or were."

It was then that Chandler came. He looked round, and deciding that nobody he cared about was watching him, walked to where Linka and Lincoln were sitting. He was immediately hissed at by Lincoln, but Linka put a hand up to stop her brother.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for bullying you pathetic losers. I never wanted to physically hurt you. I only wanted to hurt you psychologically." Before anything else could be said, Chandler left them. It was the last time that Linka ever really talked to Chandler, as he requested to be put in a class separate from both Linka and Lincoln.

After school, Linka was picked up by Vanzilla. Lori drove her three teenage younger sisters home from school, and they stopped by the elementary school as Linka couldn't quite walk home herself. Luna, the strongest of the four, picked up Linka, while Leni of delicate fingers held the girls casted leg in such a way that it caused no pain nor discomfort for the physically disabled girl. Luan folded the wheelchair and put it in the van's trunk. Lola, Lana, Lucy, Lisa and Lincoln all climbed into the van as well. As Linka was reflecting, she realized something. She turned to Lincoln with a sheepish smile on her face.

"You know, Lincoln. You did promise to be my slave until I was on crutches…"

"Yes…?"

"I'm just saying, I don't think I'm gonna have as miserable a time stuck in a wheelchair as I thought."

"Oh?"

"No, not when I have a slave to take care of everything for me."

"That's what she said!" said Luan, and despite of themselves Luna and Lori started to laugh. Leni was just as lost as the rest of the siblings were. Lana was meanwhile counting on her fingers, then reached a quick realization.

"Wait, Linka! You're gonna be able to walk before Halloween! But you're gonna have to go costume shopping or designing or whatever on crutches, though. But still, you get to go trick-or-treating!"

And indeed, Linka was pleased.

"You know, I haven't gone trick-or-treating since I was 6."

"And then after that's your birthday!" said Lana, not paying any attention to her at all.

"I wonder if our birth parents had stuck around if you would have gone trick-or-treating every year." Said Lincoln, paying the young blonde no mind at all.

"We're gonna have to throw you a big birthday party!" Lana said emphatically. Luan and Luna were having a tough time holding in their laughter.

"If they were nice people, though. We know nothing about them." Linka had clearly not heard what Lana was saying.

"What do you think, Linka? Should we?" Lana asked this time to Linka direct.

"What?" Linka was rather confused.

"Linka! Weren't you paying attention?"

"I didn't even realize you were talking to us!"

"Well, you – "

She was cut off, however, by their arrival at the house.

And indeed Lincoln did become Linka's slave. For the most of the week, Lincoln helped her with everything from getting adjusted to her new home in the guest bedroom on the ground level (she couldn't get up the stairs in a wheelchair after all) to helping her get food and stuff. Truly was it a good bonding experience between the twins. They spent quite a bit of their free time trying to figure out stuff about their biological heritage.

Unbeknownst to them, however, there were others doing the same.

I am sorry for the long delay (2 and a half months). Hopefully next chapter should be out soon, I'm starting to write it now.

I think that after this story is done, I'll create a one-shot series set in this universe, and I'll work on some other one shots related to the Loud house universe.