Authors Note: I just wanted to say that this story is going to be done in the next 2-3 chapters, I feel any longer and it would be dragging on, and I will have something important to say on the final chapters authors notes, either way thank you all again for your support, and I hope you all have a merry christmas.
It had been nearly a week since Lynn had visited Luna, and safely set up insurance for Lincoln and the unborn twins, the sports loving girl was prepared to go to extreme measures to stop the split personalities, once her children were born.
The last three days were the same for the 5th oldest Loud sister, she spent any free time she had working with Lisa in an effort to remove the split personalities, the genius Loud thinking it would be best to focus on them one at a time, so they decided to deal with Dismal first.
Lynn was currently leaving the twins room, closing the door behind her with a confused looking Lola left on the bed. "Well, that didn't do anything..." She muttered, looking at the hallucinations that were still around, she returned to Lisa and Lily's room, finding the child genius waiting for her pregnant sister patiently.
"Well? Did it work?" Lisa asked while impatiently drumming her fingers along on her deck.
"Do you see anyone standing beside me?" Lynn answered her question with one of her own, Lynn-Sanity being leaned against the doorframe looking bored.
"No...?" Lisa hesitantly replied.
"Then no." Lynn sighed out, she did not mean to come off as rude or short tempered, the sports loving girl was exhausted though, she had not slept much these last few days, whenever the pregnant teenager would slumber, she was always awoken by a nightmare of some variety, even slightly drifting off would do it.
"That's another solution off the board then." Lisa turned in her chair to the laptop, typing away at it for a moment, the most recent idea they had was for Lynn to apologize to their family members for any possible past injuries or incidents, though the aspiring sports star's apologies were confusing to their family more than anything.
"What's next on the list?" Lynn questioned while flopping onto Lisa's bed half-heartedly, so far this was not what the sporty Loud had imagined doing this Saturday, she had plans to go on a date with Lincoln, sadly there was an emergency client at Leni's work that could not be ignored, Taylor and Leni weren't able to handle the client by themselves either, the 5th oldest Loud sister did not argue against Lincoln going to help, though the lonely feeling was hard to ignore.
"We should just give up; this is a lost cause... We deserve to suffer." Dismal Lynn's voice chimed in, Lynn herself didn't even need to look to know the hallucination was sitting behind her in the same bed, it was aggravating, she was always feeling like she was being watched because of those split personalities.
"Perhaps we've been thinking about this incorrectly, or maybe even overthinking it." Lisa began to think aloud, Lynn had been suffering from depression for a period of time before the split personalities emerged, and not a minor case of it either, the pregnant teen had been doing her best to force herself through it as well.
"Lis, do you have anything that can keep me awake?" Lynn asked while rubbing an eye, having to force herself into sitting up when that feeling of exhausted drowsiness took her over for a moment.
"You need to sleep eventually, Lynn." Lisa retorted, she doubted Lynn could last much longer on such a minimum amount of sleep, the child prodigy understood the fears of her older sibling, slumber meant losing control of her body most likely, but that honestly was something they could handle easily, if Dismal took control all they had to do was make sure that the sports loving girl was not alone, if it was Lynn-Sanity then they merely had to trick it into wasting time strengthening their body, on the assumption that no one made it or Lynn mad.
"Little shrimp really isn't enjoying us being her lab rat, guess she's disappointed." Lynn-Sanity commented, leaning over the actual Lynn's shoulder, as if the aggressive split personality could not resist speaking up, compared to Dismal, the younger usually angry hallucination of the sporty Loud was being rather tame as of late.
"I don't want to get stuck in my own head." Lynn replied to Lisa, not trying to hide her fear at being trapped in that empty room again, stuck surrounded by those shadowy figures that were nothing but representations of her own bad memories. Lisa didn't think much on her older sister's words, though after a moment she felt an idea spring to mind.
"Hm... You've given me an idea, though it will take some time to investigate the hypothesis with my notes, why don't you go get lunch?" Lisa suggested, Lynn wanted to ask what the idea the 2nd youngest Loud had, though knew she wasn't going to get an answer now that the bespectacled girl was getting enraptured in her research once again.
Lynn made her way straight downstairs; she saw most of her sibling's that were home today hanging around, Lucy was playing with Lily while Lana was half asleep on the other end of the couch, the brunette guessed that Lola was still in her room processing the incredibly confusing apology still.
"Hey, where's Mom and Dad?" Lynn leaned over the back over the couch curiously, she was not happy to see Lynn-Sanity sitting next to Lana, with their legs kicked up onto the coffee table, appearing to be watching television.
"They needed to go meet with Luna and Lori about something, they didn't seem too happy." Lucy explained, the goth loving girl was hoping that everything was alright, so far none of them had heard anything after their parents went out.
"Who cares? They treat us like we're crippled now anyway." Lynn-Sanity scoffed it off, treating it like it was a relief to be home without the parents of 11, Lynn wasn't able to entirely disagree, the farther along in her pregnancy the more her family wanted to help her not worry about anything seemingly, though getting the easier chores was always a nice benefit.
"Is Lynn okay?" Lily chirped up worriedly, noticing just how tired their 5th oldest sister was acting, the bags under Lynn's eyes were hidden through the use of borrowing makeup, the auburn-haired girl mostly doing it so Lincoln would not worry about her.
"I'm fine, I promise, I'm just sleepy is all." Lynn reassured with a half lie, reaching down and gently rubbing Lily's head, she was far from alright mentally, the sporty Loud wanted to collapse on the couch and join Lana for that nap, however her hunger was a little too strong to ignore at this point, the pregnant Loud heading for the kitchen to make herself lunch, hoping that whatever was going on with Lori and Luna was alright.
Lincoln was busy working in Leni's store, while his 2nd oldest sister had insisted there was an important client today, the low IQ Loud had forgot to mention that it was a massive group all in one go, twenty people along with regular customers that he and Taylor had to spend time helping, doing basic things like asking what they had in mind for their dresses or special clothes, then taking measurements and such.
By the time the three were done and the clients were all appeased, it was past lunchtime and Lincoln was purely exhausted, he wasn't even hungry, he just wanted to relax in one of the comfy seats behind the front counter, Taylor being right next to him with her upper half draped over said counter, looking like she was completely out of energy too.
"I hate big groups, there's always troublemakers that just bring more trouble." Taylor groaned out, having to keep a quarter of the group in line, problem was when one person in a bunch of friends start acting up, the others tend to defend their actions, it only took one threat from Taylor and one of Leni's reassuring oblivious smiles to calm the situation.
"I'm just glad you're here." Lincoln exhaled a breath, hating to imagine Leni dealing with all of that alone.
"I'm sorry about that you two, I was told they were bringing friends, but I didn't know they had that many." Leni apologized to her two hard working employees; her innocent nature having been taken advantage of by the client in this case.
"I'll give you two a bonus for being so helpful, I know that had to be hard." The 2nd oldest Loud sister added, Lincoln wasn't able to help but smile at that, Taylor giving a weak thumbs up, the two fashion store workers watched Leni go off to get to work right away on all the new orders, once she was gone the high school dropout leaned back and flopped into her seat next to the middle Loud sibling.
"How've things been at home?" Taylor tried to strike up conversation with her coworker, he had talked with his former bully on a few different occasions about Lynn as well, not able to hide his excitement at being a parent, though his anxiety at the split personality issues his girlfriend was suffering from made things perpetually harder.
"Things've been fine, Lola's been trying to get ready for the upcoming spring pageant season, Lucy's been getting better at her poetry, Luan's still kind of getting over Luna moving out, and Lynn's started having cravings for anything with cheese in it." Lincoln tried to summarize everything that he could recall of recent times, Taylor stifled a snicker when hearing that, how anyone could keep up with so many siblings at once was beyond her, but it was impressive nonetheless.
"I'll give you credit, you're handling parenthood better than I would've." Taylor confessed, then again from her perspective it seemed like he was already a dad to the younger half of the Loud family.
"When're you going to tell Leni?" The girl with the chestnut-colored hair requested, she may not be lying to Leni, however she still felt bad keeping it a secret from her when Lincoln talked about letting everyone in his family know gradually, apparently the fashion loving Loud was going to be third to last on that list.
Lincoln cast a gaze over to his 2nd oldest sister through the door that led to the storage room, Leni was busily gathering everything she needed in one box like she typically did to avoid needing to make multiple trips downstairs once back in her workroom.
"It's not like I don't want to tell Leni, she might just let it slip on accident, that's all." Lincoln explained in a slightly defensive manner, Leni wasn't the smartest, possibly even the worst secret keeper imaginable, he felt bad yet there was a reason why the middle Loud sibling and Lynn had decided to leave her as one of the last to inform. Taylor remained silent, not saying anything further since she knew the bucktoothed boy could be stubborn.
As the two sat there they heard the familiar jingle of the bell at the front door of the store. Lincoln was surprised to see Luna enter the clothing store. The rock-loving Loud normally was too afraid to come to Leni's, mostly paranoid she would wind up being a clothing model for dresses at a moment's notice.
"Luna! I didn't know you were coming!" Leni's excited voice caught their ears, though the blonde girl found herself pausing, Luna did not seem to be in the best mood, she was hiding it, but Lincoln could see through it easily.
"Hey Leni, sorry for dropping in unannounced, I came for Linc." Luna apologized, causing her older sister to tilt their head in confusion.
"Oh, well that's alright, I have to get to work on these orders anyway." Leni replied, insisting it was no trouble for her little brother to leave work early, though before the 2nd oldest Loud could go talk to him about it, she felt Luna put a hand on her shoulder.
"Look, a lot is about to happen, expect a family meeting tomorrow or tonight, alright?" Luna informed Leni under a hushed tone, the fashion designer gave a slow nod, unsure what that meant yet she remained quiet and allowed Luna to wave Lincoln over.
"What's going on, Luna?" Lincoln chirped in confusion, noticing the crestfallen demeanor of his older sister.
"Mom and Dad sent me to pick you up, let's go." Luna insisted they get going right away, not even letting her little brother get out of his work uniform, the white-haired teen gave a slow nod, giving a brief goodbye to Leni and Taylor before following the guitarist out of the store.
Lincoln was not against walking again today, though before the two could even get that far from the store he felt Luna stop him. "I'm sorry, Lincoln." She said, guilt lacing her tone and leaving her little brother confused.
"Luna, what's wrong?" Lincoln requested, the last time he heard Luna sound this upset was when she had accidentally knocked an amp over on top of him when getting into a jam session, the aspiring rock star rubbing her wrist nervously.
"Mom and Dad found out about you and Lynn dating, they met up with me and Lori to ask us to help talk to you both." Luna explained, she was the one that had pushed her siblings into getting together, the 3rd oldest Loud sister felt like she was betraying Lincoln, that expression on his face, his reaction, it didn't help that feeling of having her heart squeezed in guilt.
"There's no way- how?! We were careful!" Lincoln gawked in wide-eyed terror; his older sister hesitated.
"I... Lincoln, Clyde told Mom and he had a picture on his phone, it was of you and Lynn kissing at school." Luna answered, the rock loving girl did not want to tell him initially out of fear of how he might react, she expected anger, fury, anything, all she saw was Lincoln's shoulders slump, and that terrified expression was slowly replaced by one of misery and betrayal, both at being faced with reality and at the realization his best friend had done it, most likely out of spite or revenge.
"Lincoln look, you can't break down, you don't know what's gonna happen!" Luna insisted, knowing that Lincoln probably only had the absolute worst outcomes running through his head right now, she had no clue how right she was though. The white-haired boy was fearing that this meant the absolute worst for his pregnant girlfriend instead of himself, there was an uncomfortable silence that did little to help Luna's fear.
"The best thing I can do is act indifferent, but I promise to keep things calm and look, no one is angry, just don't give up, alright?" Luna swore while trying to keep her only brother's spirits up, remembering that promise that Lynn had their older sister make, Lincoln did not respond, he began to walk alongside his 3rd oldest sister, feeling her keep a hand on his back in an attempt to comfort him.
Lynn was in a position of absolute uncertain anxiety, while she had not been completely blindsided, that did not make the news that Luna had texted her any easier to accept, her and Lincoln's relationship had been exposed, and it was due to Clyde.
Now here Lynn was, in her parents' room once again, with Lincoln sat beside her, a sympathetic looking Luna standing nearby with Lori and their parents around them, though the sporty Loud hated the 2 extra guests that she was hallucinating that were there as well.
The silence was practically deafening, like everyone wanted to speak, yet at the same time was too afraid to, everybody except the split personalities at least, they were more than glad to fill Lynn's head with suggestions for how to handle the situation at hand.
Lynn and Lincoln did find it weird that no one appeared enraged, if anything Lori had more of an understanding expression and their parents had sympathetic ones, as if the parents of 11 were blaming themselves for the circumstances at hand.
"I'm sorry about what you both went through; I can't even begin to imagine it." Lori finally shattered the silence by speaking up first, her tone came off as maternal, it surprised Lynn due to being reminded of one of the two now gone split personalities.
"Mom and Dad told me about that 4th personality you had, and what it made you two do." Lori continued; the college girl felt terrible for not putting the pieces together when the news about Lynn being pregnant came to light months ago. In a way, it wasn't shocking to the oldest Loud sibling, Lincoln had always been closely involved with the sporty girl, both physically and emotionally.
"I forgave her for it." Lincoln flatly responded, he had spent a long time after the incident hating himself for not feeling worse about the incestuous act, he loved Lynn despite her myriad of issues, at first the white-haired teenager could only hope to make things right by taking responsibility, he had begun gradually discovering his feelings progressively as time went on between them.
Lori didn't even need Lynn to say anything to know that her younger sister did not forgive herself, the college student was trying her hardest to not make the two of them feel cornered, she was merely surprised at how calm everybody was in the room, the oldest Loud sister did not know what to expect, simply glad that Lynn wasn't suffering from mood swings due to her pregnancy yet.
"And we're happy you two made up, we were elated when you said you were taking responsibility even when you didn't have to, but this... You two are just mixing up your feelings, that's all." Lynn Senior tried to rationalize it, from the father of 11's perspective, it seemed like his children were getting their romantic and paternal instincts mixed up, they both were over hormonal teenagers, it was easy to believe in anything at their age.
"Mixing up our feelings?" Lynn Junior parroted with a quirked brow, trying to ignore her heart pounding incredibly hard against her ribcage, the girl with the ponytail had to keep one hand holding the other to stop it from trembling.
"They're trying to be nice about calling you a mistake..." Dismal spoke from behind the real Lynn Junior, the 5th oldest Loud kept quiet, ignoring the split personality even as her breathing began to become harder and rougher. The last thing that she wanted to do in this conversation was announce that her mental issues were back, believing her family did not need another lid on this metaphorical Pandora's box opened.
"You both've been through a lot, it's understandable, these feelings you have though, you have to know they can't last. I didn't even meet your father until I was in college!" Rita explained while doing similar to her husband when it came to rationalizing this, this seemed like nothing more than a crush, something the siblings just needed time to get over.
The thing Lynn had to keep reminding herself mentally of, was that there were no bad guys in this, no, the closest thing to a villain the aspiring sports star could equate in this situation was her split personalities, though she still could not believe Clyde would betray both his best friend and her like this, the sporty Loud never took the McBride boy to be jealous enough to do this.
"Nobody is angry, look Lynn, why don't you come stay with me a while? Until you're both past this." Lori offered to her sports loving sibling, that offer seemed to surprise Luna and both Loud parents. "It'll be nice to spend more time with you too." She added warmly while addressing Lynn.
Lynn Junior blinked in confusion at her oldest sister's suggestion, out of their large family Lori had been one of the few that the pregnant Loud had not been spending much time with, just due to the blonde woman being busy with both her boyfriend and college.
"Ah Lori, she always was desperate to stay in control no matter what, never liked it when the spotlight was off of herself either." Lynn-Sanity scoffed at this offer, Lynn herself could see Lincoln was not taking this well at all, he feared never seeing his 5th oldest sister again, or their children once they were born.
"You don't have to do that Lori; that's a lot more than we could ask you to do for us all." Rita insisted, aware that Lori shared a similar mindset to Lincoln as of late, both wanting to always help their family out if any trouble emerged.
"This isn't something Leni can handle, and I imagine Luna's a lot busier than me right now. This is something we can all work together to get through." Lori retorted, the oldest Loud sister was already settled into a home and had a decent day to day routine. It also was obvious with how cunning Lincoln could be, that they required someone that was at least smarter than Leni to watch over Lynn.
"The only reason she's pretending to be nice to us, is because she knows we're stronger than her." Lynn-Sanity chuckled, Lynn-Junior did not know what to do, feeling like she might be at risk of losing control, and she didn't know to which split personality either, she was starting to dig her nails into her skin unconsciously.
"I want to switch to homeschooling too." Lynn decided to say, knowing that things would be a lot harder for Lincoln if he had no after school freedom out of fear on their family's part since the two did go to the same school.
"People are starting to stare at me at school." The sports loving girl half lied, it wouldn't be long before that was the exact case however, so she may as well avoid school entirely until her children were born.
"Come on dude, it's not like you're being punished." Luna tried to assure, trying to subtlety imply that things weren't completely hopeless, however it was apparent that they mostly wanted Lincoln to remain home due to him being sent to live somewhere else last time.
"Why don't you go get what you need? I need to talk with Mom and Dad some more." Lori suggested, it didn't take much to tell their parents were not entirely on board with the idea of burdening their oldest daughter with this responsibility, even if they were grateful for her insistence on helping.
"I'll help you out." Luna volunteered, feeling bad for being worthless in this whole debacle thus far, there just was not anything she could do, like the rock loving Loud told Lincoln, the most she was able to do here was be indifferent.
"Thanks Luna..." Lynn sighed, she cast a glance to Lincoln, her eyes held nothing but apology for dragging him through this, all she saw in the white-haired boy's eyes were fear, she hopped off the bed and left the room on that note with Luna, closing the door behind themselves.
Upon stepping out of the room, Lynn and Luna could see a majority of their family members standing around there, not counting Lisa who was presumably still upstairs.
"What's going on?"
"Are you in trouble?"
"Lincoln didn't look alright... What happened?"
"Is there going to be family meeting?"
"I didn't know Lori and Luna were coming."
"Chill dudes! Give some breathing room." Luna insisted everyone calm down and back off, the aspiring rock star really didn't know what to say, it was clear their parents intended to tell all their sisters discounting Lily about the truth behind Lynn and Lincoln's relationship, most likely about everything in fact, which made Lynn even more anxious.
"Mom and Dad will tell you all soon, I don't have any right to." Lynn sighed out, seeing the hallucination of her split personalities seemed to be keeping up with her a lot more now that she was under immense stress, as if the depressed and aggressive split minds were just waiting for their chance now.
Lucy and Luan looked to Luna with worry, Luna could only give a small nod to them, answering the question that could not leave their lips.
"Leni will be over in a little while, there'll be a family meeting tonight." The 3rd oldest Loud sibling informed their family of what their parents said, the guitarist saw Lynn already making her way upstairs, leaving the rock loving Loud to handle calming down their siblings.
When Lynn got back to her and Lucy's room, she felt that all too familiar exhaustion taking over, that genuinely did not make her feel any more comfortable at the idea of staying at Lori's, the only thing that had been keeping her awake these last few hours were her own overwhelming anxiety.
"It's funny how nice someone will act to you when they know you're way stronger than them." Lynn-Sanity was sitting on the bed, kicking their legs idly while leaning back and resting on the palms of their hands.
"I don't want to hurt Lori..." Lynn flatly said while digging out a bag from her closet, the only person that she felt any desire to raise a hand against right now, was Clyde, because the only thing that the brunette could see this as, was revenge on his part.
"Yeah, it's weird, I kind of took McBride as too much of a wuss to do that sort of thing, guess ya never truly know someone until they leave a nice bruise on your face." Lynn-Sanity chuckled, a wry grin gracing the aggressive split personalities face. The biggest insult that stemmed from Clyde's actions was that it spat in Lynn's face, the sports loving girl had talked to him about it, she thought they had reached an understanding.
"Lynn?" Lisa's voice chirped up from behind the aspiring sports star, the pregnant Loud looking to see the child prodigy standing in the doorway.
"What is it, Lis? I'm trying to pack..." Lynn requested her 2nd youngest sister get to the point, the teenage girl not even hiding how crappy she felt right now. Lisa remained silent for a moment, Luna had informed her over text about what had transpired, the young genius knew her words of encouragement would most likely ring hollow at this point, she decided to focus on the reason she was here.
"I believe I have reached a conclusion on a new possible approach for how to deal with Dismal." Lisa started, watching as Lynn stuffed a few shirts into the bag, she didn't really receive a reply initially, until a moment later when the sports loving Loud slammed her hands on the bed.
"What's the point, Lisa? Just focus on helping Lincoln instead of me." Lynn implored Lisa to prioritize helping their only brother instead, it didn't take a genius to know that Lincoln was going to need help adjusting to this drastic change.
"The point is helping you heal, don't give up hope so easily." Lisa insisted that things were not completely lost, aware that Lynn wanted to stop fighting constantly, it was wearing the girl pregnant with twins down to the point that she could not justify doing it for much longer.
"Allow me to help." Lisa said while stepping over to help Lynn with packing, the sporty Loud did not know how long she was going to be at Lori's, she honestly expected it to be permanent but that was just what the depressed split personality in her head kept saying.
"Thanks Lisa." Lynn gave a warm smile, reaching over and running her hand through the bespectacled girl's hair, the two idly beginning to talk as they worked on gathering everything that the pregnant teenager was going to need to take with her.
Lynn began to make her way downstairs, bag dangling from over her shoulder, the suggestions Lisa had for possibly dealing with the split personalities at this point were limited, mostly because of the pregnancy. The aspiring sports star was advised to attempt to strengthen her bond with Lori, out of some vague hope that it could help, given the 5th oldest Loud had been getting closer with a lot of her sisters as of late, though bonding with their oldest sister sounded like an impossible task currently.
"Are you ready to go?" Lori asked Lynn when seeing her stepping downstairs, the brunette quirking a brow.
"Go? What about the family meeting?" Lynn questioned confusedly, thinking she would be subjected to having her and Lincoln's relationship exposed to their whole family through this meeting.
"You and Lincoln don't need to be in the meeting, it'll keep you safer that way." Lori claimed, she didn't know how their many sisters would react, the oldest Loud sibling being oblivious to the fact that basically half of them already knew about the incestuous relationship.
"Oh, NOW she cares about keeping us safe?" Lynn-sanity sarcastically commented, Lynn could tell their parents were still in the bedroom with Lincoln, at worst trying to interrogate him, and at best trying to assure him he wasn't in trouble at all.
"Let's just go." Lynn sighed, not wanting to even bother with goodbyes to her family beyond those that she had already said to her parents and Lisa, the pregnant girl couldn't handle all of her various sisters' questions right now, just thinking about it made her want to break down.
When they got to Lori's car, Lynn put her bag in the backseat, she noticed a few new books were on the floorboard, looking like they were one of the subjects Lori had been studying in college that had gotten substantially harder in the last year.
"She's going to treat us like a prisoner at her home, you must know that." Dismal Lynn pointed out, Lynn looking up and seeing the hallucination sitting in the backseat, she shut the car door aggressively before making her way into the passenger seat, getting in.
Lori was texting on her phone while waiting for her younger sister, that calm the oldest Loud had didn't seem to be hiding any rage or other emotions, the blonde woman was purely worried and sympathetic for her siblings.
"Why aren't you mad at me?" Lynn found herself asking without any thought, unable to help herself since every time she imagined how Lori would react to discovering the truth, all the pregnant girl could envision was the worst outcome possible, even potentially getting physical in said fight.
"I'm mad at the split personality, and you said it was gone... We all make mistakes, and after everything you've gone and are going through? A few are bound to happen." Lori explained her reasoning, being mad at a broken segment of someone's brain that was not as broken anymore was a fruitless effort, the oldest Loud sibling wanted to prioritize taking care of her brother and sister above all else.
Lynn cast a weary glance into the rearview mirror, seeing both her unfortunate mental burdens in the backseat, she felt the car begin to back out of the driveway, the brunette found Lori's reasoning rather hard to believe, mostly because she still had trouble forgiving herself.
"I understand if you're mad at me, but you'll thank me later for this." Lori continued, trying to treat this like making the best of the situation, the college student was still excited to be an aunt, she was just afraid that Lynn might do something resentful out of spite, or that the sporty Loud would not give up that easy thanks to her stubborn nature.
"What about Bobby?" Lynn tried to change the topic with a question, wondering how Lori's longtime boyfriend would feel about this sudden and probably unanticipated house guest would be, watching as the lines on the road vanished under the car as it drove along.
"Oh, well Ronnie Anne used to stay with us a lot, that stopped when things got better between her and their mom." Lori answered, recalling how her personal home doubled as a sort of retreat for Bobby's little sister during her rebellious phase, being reminded of Lincoln's ex-girlfriend was awkward to Lynn.
Lynn found herself remaining quiet, she had a myriad of mixed emotions that made it impossible to really think straight, the pregnant girl thinking that being quiet would probably be for the best, Lori was not completely wrong about that anger the sports loving girl held.
Things at the Loud house had not settled down that well, it had been one of those afternoons where it felt like fear from confusion was bubbling behind the scenes, yet their parents had insisted on waiting for the family meeting and everything would be explained then and there.
That time for the family meeting had come barely a few minutes after Leni had arrived, the fashion designer had a refreshing positive aura in what was an overwhelmingly tense atmosphere. Most of the Loud family were sitting around in the living room, discounting 4 that were absent, Lincoln Lily Lynn and Lori.
"Don't we need everyone here for a family meeting?" Leni couldn't help but ask, usually they only lacked certain family members when the topic was about them.
"Lily's with Lincoln and Lynn's with Lori." Rita explained, the youngest Loud was trying to cheer up her only brother when realizing how demoralized he was.
"This meeting is about Lincoln and Lynn, Lori thought it would be better if they weren't part of it, and Lily's too young for this topic." Lynn Senior continued for his wife, hearing that seemed to worry most of the Loud siblings, some of them looking at one another in concern. Luna remained rather straight faced, same for Lisa, as if they were more monitoring reactions from their sisters at the inevitable news than anything else.
"Are they in trouble?" Lana quirked worriedly, having the same thoughts as her twin in that regard.
"No, nobody is in trouble." Rita got that out in the open right away, though she felt herself clamming up slightly at the words she was going to have to say, she took a breath trying to compose herself.
"Lynn had four split personalities, we thought it might be better to hide the last one from all of you since it was gone." The mother of 11 began, that already was a confusing start to the many sisters given that to most of their knowledge, the split personalities were dealt with since Lynn's visit to the psyche ward. Only Lisa knew the truth about two of the split personalities reemerging currently beyond Lincoln.
"It was obsessed with Lincoln." Lynn Senior continued when his wife began to find herself locking up at recounting it all, obsessed was the polite way to call it, it was intentionally vague to the sisters, it was obvious their parents were picking their words carefully.
"Look girls, there's a reason we had Junior never share who the father of her babies is, it's because Lincoln is the dad." The Loud father announced.
"What?!"
"Oh, that's... Wow."
"I guess that explains why Lincoln's been spending so much time with Lynn now."
"If this is a joke, it isn't funny."
"No way."
"Is that why Lincoln and Lynn have been acting different lately?"
While the sisters reacted, Luna and Lisa remained silent and continued the observational roles they had, the guitarist having instructed Lucy and Luan to fake their reactions, since they doubted their parents would be far from happy if they found out the two knew the truth yet kept it secret.
"They had been dating for a little while now, but listen, no one's in trouble, it's just a misunderstanding of their feelings, until we're sure they're over it, Lynn will be staying with Lori." Rita declared; it sounded rather contradictory to some of the sisters. Being forced to move in with Lori, someone that had their own life to handle currently, came off like a big punishment for Lynn.
"We're telling you this so you can help Lincoln get past it, we don't think either of them will take it well, but we know he will probably take it worst." Rita seemed to end it there, this was a family meeting that was intended to make sure their only son had help in getting over an inevitably shattered heart, they doubted their many daughters would cause any trouble for an emotionally burdened Lincoln.
The room seemed to succumb to silence at that point, what could any of them say? When it became clear that no one had anything more they could say, the Loud parents thought it might be best to end the family meeting there, they needed to begin preparing dinner.
Once their parents were out of earshot, Luna stepped forward to the remaining siblings that were around. "We need to have an emergency sister meeting." The aspiring rock star declared, some of them were still processing the current information that had been thrown onto them.
It wasn't long before the remaining sisters were all crowded into Luan's room, it had far more room since Luna had moved out, sister meetings were far different than full blown family ones, at least in this household.
"It's been forever since I've been in a sister meeting." Leni commented, not able to hide her joy while reminiscing despite the circumstances, they saw Luna close the door while everyone made themselves comfortable.
"We haven't had one in a long time." Lucy informed her 2nd oldest sister.
"So what is this about? More bad news?" Lola did not want to beat around the bush on this, she was taking the news about Lynn and Lincoln being in a relationship the worst seemingly.
"No, we were hoping to ascertain everyone's honest opinions on this relationship." Lisa explained to the others, casting her gaze at Luan and Lucy. "Being honest, Luna, Luan, Lucy and myself were all aware of the relationship for varying amounts of time now." The child genius elaborated to her sisters, Lola Lana and Lenis reactions were rather all over the place in response to that.
"Seriously? Why not tell us?" Lana wondered why they kept it secret from them specifically, the red capped girl wondering if they had done something to offend Lynn and Lincoln.
"Is that important?" Leni quirked innocently, not knowing why certain siblings already knowing mattered when they all knew now.
"And you're okay with this?" Lola was the most upset out of the three seemingly, Leni didn't truly know what was wrong here, beyond their parents saying that it was.
"Well, Lincoln and Lynn have always been inseparable, so I kind of expected it." Luan tried to state her reasoning, even if it came off as flawed, their only brother and the sports loving Loud always had been a tight pair.
"I was just happy for her." Lucy said, finding the relationship and pregnancy had done a lot for Lynn's growth, as well as causing the sporty Loud to mellow out seemingly.
"After they had sex, I sort've pushed them to at least talk about their feelings, and I might have told them about where they could go to date legally." Luna nervously confessed her part in this, the rock loving Loud trying to ignore how she had given them a decent amount of money essentially as payment for all they had done for her.
"Lynn was going to tell all of us, however the information was intentionally staggered out gradually." Lisa said; she was worried about Lynn more due to the split personalities issue, she wished she could do something to help them more, however the most the bespectacled girl could do was keep in contact over phone.
"So, what do you guys think?" Luna made her query clear, she wanted to hear what the other three thought now that they were brought fully into the fold of truth.
"It sucks, it means Lincoln is going to spend every minute of his life ignoring us and putting Lynn first..." Lola sounded hurt more than anything, a lot of them relied on their only brother when it came to certain elements of their own life. The spoiled twin was hurt because she couldn't imagine not getting any more of Lincoln's attention, imagining the white-haired teenager would stop helping her at beauty pageants too.
"I don't think it'll be that bad, but mom and dad really are lying about not punishing them." Lana started, the mechanically gifted girl gaining some curious looks at that statement. "They're keeping him away from the one carrying his puppies, that sounds awful to me." The red capped twin continued with her own comparison, this felt cruel.
"Lincoln's been really helpful to me, he's working hard, and I guess now I know why... As long as they're taking responsibility, is it really that bad?" Leni spoke her honest thoughts, in spite of her low intelligence, from her point of view they were perfectly happy and motivated.
"It's good to hear your thoughts, we still have some problems ahead of us, though it is nice to know most of us are on the same page in that regard." Lisa elaborated further, it seemed like the best thing the sisters could do for now was try and support Lincoln until they could come up with a plan.
The sisters remained like this a while, continuing the discussion with each other while awaiting dinner to be finished, that was the most important thing they could do currently, talk, hoping that Lincoln could deal with the short-term emotional pain this might bring upon him.
The ride to Lori's was spent by Lynn being mostly quiet, lost in her own thoughts, the oldest Loud sister attempted to converse on several occasions, however the most that the blonde woman could get from her little sister were one to two-word responses.
"Here we are." Lori said while the car began to pull to a stop, Lynn turned her head and looked at the home that belonged to the eldest Loud.
"I've been here before." Lynn reminded Lori, the home seemed pretty average, one floor, decent space in both the front and back yards, for someone like the college girl and her longtime boyfriend it was perfect.
"Yeah, two years ago." Lori retorted while watching her pregnant sibling step out from the passenger side. "Do you need any help with your bag?" The blonde woman offered, her sibling not responding initially while getting said bag out from the backseat.
"She's really gonna try her damnedest to get on our good side now, isn't she?" Lynn-Sanity had a dirt eating grin as they spoke, Lynn slamming the car door shut in a vague attempt to silence it.
"I've got it." Lynn responded while making her way towards the front door, Lori getting her keys out and unlocking it.
"Bobby should be home in a few minutes, it'll give you time to get settled in." Lori explained, her boyfriend did run a lot of jobs after all, usually to help his own family.
Lynn looked around the home, it seemed to have not changed much in the last two years, beyond having more furniture, it was obvious that the blonde college goer had been the one to select most of it.
"I'm surprised it isn't filled with more of that cringey couples junk, honestly." Lynn-Sanity could be sitting on the long-curved couch, Lynn let out a weary sigh.
"Where's my room?" Lynn requested; Lori pointing toward the end of the nearby hallway.
"It's the door at the end, one of the bathrooms is right outside of it." Lori said, with a family as large as hers when selecting a home, she made sure to pick one with more than one bathroom.
"Thanks." The brunette was about to go explore her temporary room, though she was stopped when feeling Lori put a hand on her shoulder.
"Lynn, you can talk to me. I don't want you bottling your emotions." Lori pleaded with her little sister, the lack of any emotion whatsoever from Lynn had become unnerving, it wasn't in character to how the brunette normally was. Lori didn't want to fight with her, yet she did not want Lynn to retract from everyone due to this either.
"I understand if you're angry with me." Lori continued; the oldest Loud sister had to wonder if her pregnant sibling had truly changed so much in just a few months.
"I don't have any right to be mad." Lynn replied, she shrugged off Lori's hand and headed for her own new room, the college student did not argue, allowing her to go. The blonde woman never thought she would hear her sporty sibling admit to being in the wrong, the most stubborn one in their family sounded like she was lost mentally.
When Lynn got to her temporary bedroom, she could see it was eerily empty, there was not much there beyond the bed itself, a nightstand by said bed, and nearby was a desk with a lamp on it, the sports loving Loud stepped over and threw her bag onto the desk.
"What is the point anymore?" Dismal Lynn's voice chimed up; Lynn could see the hallucination sitting on the bed, that was when the brunette shut the door.
"I don't know, honestly, I really don't know." Lynn truthfully answered, her sleep deprivation feeling overwhelming to this point.
"What I'm more interested in is dealin' with our current problem." Lynn-Sanity stated, being seen leaning against the closed door having appeared from thin air, to Lynn it felt like the hallucinations were getting more persistent due to her exhaustion.
"What? You mean Clyde? The only problems I see here, are you two." Lynn retorted bitterly to them; it didn't take much to know the aggressive split personality was going off what she was thinking.
Lynn saw her younger imaginary doppelganger stepping over towards her, looking smugger than usual. "Yeah, how about we do each other favors? You let me work on Clyde, and I'll tell you how to handle our other annoying friend? I've had a good idea about how to do it." Lynn-Sanity made their offer clear, apparently wanting the depressed personality gone, most likely just so it could remain in control itself.
"I promise, we aren't gonna kill'em, but Clyde is getting out of control, and his jealousy isn't going to stop there unless we give an eye for an eye." Lynn-Sanity exclaimed, Lynn wanted to argue initially, however she bit her tongue, was Clyde jealous enough to escalate things further? He might, and that was plenty to intimidate her.
Lynn did not know how to deal with Lynn-Sanity, realistically there didn't seem to be any true means to dealing with it, keeping her anger in check did not eliminate it, all it did was make the situation and tension bubble away internally. The brunette thought about it and decided that if she had to pick between dealing with one split personality or two, she would gladly take the one option.
"It's just going to betray you, and once it does, we'll wind up hurting everyone more than we already do..." Dismal Lynn could only forewarn, preying on those fears that Lynn already held.
"How do you think I can get rid of Dismal?" Lynn looked at the hallucination of her younger self dead in the eyes, the bags under her own being prominent in the remnants of light that bled in through the nearby window, Lynn-Sanity only grew a bigger smile on its face at hearing that.
"You just gotta give up. That's all."