Chapter 11

Once Maria cleaned up their newborn daughter and put a diaper on her, Lincoln didn't leave Jenny's side for even a second. Rosa folded out her living room couch into its bed form for Jenny to relax on while she washed Maria's bedsheets. Now Jenny was breastfeeding the baby under her nightshirt while Lincoln lovingly held her hand.

"You know, we've had eight whole months to prepare for this day, and I just realized that the one thing we never did was decide on a name," Lincoln said, breaking the tender silence.

"You are absolutely right," Jenny admitted before letting out a sizeable yawn. "Sorry, the last few hours really took it out of me. Can we sleep on it and decide in the morning?"

"I don't have any problems with that. You go ahead and go to sleep, I'll go talk to the others and tell them to give you some space," Lincoln told her. He kissed her goodnight and gently kissed the top of his daughter's head before leaving the room. He walked up to Lori and Bobby's apartment, where everyone else was gathered.

"Well? How is she?" His older sister asked after he closed the door behind him.

"She's fine, Lori. She and the baby are actually just about to go to sleep. We'll figure out a name for her in the morning. You can come back downstairs if you have to, just be very, very quiet."

"That's all well and good. But I insist that you take them to the hospital as soon as possible. Your daughter is cute, but she's two weeks premature. She and Jenny both need to see a specialist," Maria told him sternly, causing Lincoln to sigh in defeat and nod.

"Alright, fine. First thing tomorrow," he said.

...

After a quick breakfast for himself and his wife, Lincoln drove Jenny and his daughter to the local hospital and filled out paperwork while they sat in the waiting room. Lincoln actually had to text Lisa about the medical information he didn't know, all while keeping every sense on high alert for potential threats.

"Lincoln, would it kill you to loosen up a little?" Jenny asked, noticing how high-strung her husband looked. "You look like you could go on a rampage if someone so much as sneezes at us."

"I guess you're right," Lincoln relented with a sigh, returning the completed paperwork to the desk clerk. "What are the odds of those neo-Nazi freaks finding us here?" A small part of him hoped to high heaven that he didn't jinx them by saying that.

"Mr. and Mrs. Loud? The doctor will see you now," a nurse called, and they followed her to the examination room. The male doctor soon arrived, and the three of them exchanged introductions before the doctor requested that the baby be placed on a miniature padded table specifically for infants. The child started to fuss upon being separated from the warm, cozy embrace of her mother, and Jenny stroked the top of her head to soothe her while the doctor went about the examination procedure. He was able to conclude that the baby was perfectly healthy, but slightly jaundiced. To cure the jaundice, all Lincoln and Jenny needed to do was lay her in a sunny window for a part of each day.

It was then Jenny's turn to be examined by a different specialist, this time a woman. This other specialist demanded, rather rudely, that Lincoln leave the room, to which he begrudgingly agreed with the promise that Jenny would scream if something went wrong.

Something did go wrong, but not exactly on Jenny's end and not right away. Lincoln eventually got bored sitting in the waiting room with only his phone for company, so he tried to go to the nursery to check on his daughter, who he and Jenny had finally found a good name for. However, two nurses, one male and one female, barred his path just beyond the lobby and claimed he was being denied access. Lincoln tried to pry them for information as to why he couldn't enter the nursery, even warning the nurses that deliberately separating him from a loved one was essentially a declaration of war, but they were adamant.

He tried to check on Jenny, only to get the same result. He was so pushy that the desk clerk called security, and they locked him in an empty storage room with no windows and only one door. He could've resolved the issue with brute force, but he didn't want to go ape on them until he had a valid reason. It could've simply been a case of mistaken identity, and they meant to block some other shmuck's access. Lincoln didn't think that was the case, though; his was a pretty hard identity to confuse for someone else's, what with the white hair and all. Placing his ear against the door, he was able to listen to the two guards' conversation.

"Why do we have to keep this guy locked up, again? We don't usually do things like this, and he was only trying to check on his wife," one of them asked the other.

"Okay, this is only secondhand information, so don't quote me, but I heard this guy's about as bad as they come. Word on the street is that he forced that poor girl to marry him and bear him a kid with drugs or hypnosis or something. The worst thing is, he managed to get his whole family and half of the women in his hometown in on this little cult of his! His 'wife' is gonna go to some kind of rehab facility, the State is seizing custody of the baby and the rest of his family, and that freak of nature has a date with an actual freaking firing squad!" the other guard explained as best as he could.

Those morons and their guns. They'll never learn, Lincoln thought with a facepalm. Oh well, I guess this means war! Though I'm not gonna rough these guys up too bad; after all, they're only doing their jobs.

Lincoln backed away several steps, then charged forward and rammed the door with his shoulder, simultaneously knocking it from its hinges and slamming the guards against the wall, knocking them unconscious.

"No hard feelings, fellas, but everything you were told was a filthy lie!" Lincoln apologized before running off.

He ran through the halls, following the map he'd made in his mind after leaving Jenny's exam room. He found the room with little difficulty and kicked the door open. Inside, Jenny was tied down to the examination table, gagged, and unconscious. The "doctor" was standing to one side with a handkerchief and an open bottle of chloroform. Lincoln dashed forward and pinned her against the wall, knocking the two items out of her hands.

"I knew there was something off about you. You're one of Linnaeus' lackeys, aren't you?" he demanded, but she didn't answer. "ANSWER ME!" he roared, and she burst into tears. She explained that she was a very real doctor who had been blackmailed into helping the mad scientist, just like she coerced Chandler. It seemed that Dr. Linnaeus was unaware that Jenny had already given birth and had planned to snatch their baby straight from the womb.

With assurance from Lincoln that nothing would happen to her if she behaved, the doctor pulled a scalpel from her pocket and cut Jenny loose. She was in the process of trying to revive Jenny when she and Lincoln both heard the sound of orders being barked and numerous feet rushing toward the room they were in.

"Keep trying to wake her up. I'll take care of them," Lincoln ordered and ran off. Jenny finally woke up after a few moments, right as Lincoln came back from delaying the soldiers. She smiled at first, then she glanced down and her face turned white, and the doctor blanched. "What? What's wrong?" Lincoln asked in confusion. He looked down at himself and noticed a five-inch knife handle protruding from his chest, just to the right of his heart. "Oh. That's what's wrong." Without even a flinch, he wrapped his fingers around the handle and yanked the knife loose. Nothing clung to the partially serrated eight-inch blade. The wound didn't even bleed.

"H-h-how...?" Jenny asked as the doctor helped her stand up.

"Run now, questions later," Lincoln answered. Picking up the bed his wife had previously been laying on with his super-strength, he threw it as hard as he could, smashing a hole in the wall big enough to drive a car through. "I'll get our kid back. Go!" he ordered. They were still on the ground floor, so Jenny and the doctor turned and fled without another word. Lincoln closed his eyes to concentrate, and his body dissolved into a huge swarm of shiny black locusts that flew all over the building in search of the nursery. He found it before long, and the locusts reassembled into his body, wearing his Boogeyman outfit. He walked between the rows of bassinets of slumbering infants until he found the one bearing a plaque with the name he and Jenny chose for their daughter:

Alexandra "Lexie" Loud
Father: Lincoln Loud
Mother: Jennifer "Jenny" Loud

The mask of his outfit dissolved into black mist as he gingerly picked up his daughter and cradled her in his arms. He felt tears prick the backs of his eyes as he lowered his hood; Lexie was just as beautiful as her mother. Lexie's face scrunched up, and she squirmed with a small mewling sound.

"Shh, shh. It's okay. I'm here. Daddy's here," Lincoln whispered, gently rocking her. "But now, I have to get you somewhere safe." Walking to the corner of the dimly lit room, where the shadows were deepest, Lincoln shadow-slipped, appearing around the corner of the building from where his wife and the doctor had fled to. He walked over to Jenny, still in full costume except for the mask and hood. Jenny scowled at him. "I know what you must think. I would have told you sooner, but I couldn't risk our enemies getting even more relentless," Lincoln explained, handing Lexie to Jenny. Jenny only sighed.

"I had my suspicions. I just didn't have enough proof to back them up," she said with a small smile. Lincoln briefly smiled back, but then roared in pain as a gigantic spearhead sprouted from his torso in a spray of black blood. Looking behind her husband, Jenny could see multiple armored vehicles and heavily armed men in FBI body armor rounding the corner. One of the vehicles had the ballista that had just shot the harpoon lodged in Lincoln's chest.

Lincoln formed a blade on the end of his right arm, chopped the spearhead off, and shoved the shaft back through the hole. The wound closed, and his costume repaired itself.

"Time to put a stop to this once and for all," he growled and turned around. His eyes turned coal-black, bulging black veins spiderwebbed across his face, and four spider-like legs sprouted from his back, lifting him into the air. When he opened his mouth to address the newly arrived FBI, the booming voice that came forth was much too loud and deep to be natural. It also echoed, like several voices were speaking instead of just one. "I am Lincoln Loud, the Boogeyman. Try to fight me, and you will die, like many dozens before you. With each life that I take, many are free to flourish once more. Interfere with the divine work assigned to me by almighty Khonsu, and I will destroy you. Leave now, and NEVER RETURN!" Each and every member of the FBI present trembled where they stood, and several had damp spots forming on their pants. The person in charge quickly ordered a full retreat, making a mental note to look into the background of their informant. When nobody but the scattered news reporters remained, Lincoln lowered himself back to the ground and rejoined his wife. "Come on. Let's go back to the apartment," he said, taking their sleeping daughter back from her.

To be continued...