Picking up the Pieces - Chapter 2

alarming events and concerned sisters

plane-theory

3

Lucy woke to a loud, blaring noise.

Groaning, she rolled away from the alarm clock, covering her face-up ear with her pillow and pressing her other ear to her bed. She ignored the muffled sounds coming from the clock, trusting that her roommate would wake up and take care of the alarm.

She only had to wait a few minutes, but those minutes felt like an eternity. The first sounds she heard from her aggressive roommate were a guttural groan, and a plea for her to deal with the alarm. "LUCY! Could you turn that damn thing off? PLEASE?"

Lucy further curled up into herself. She initially debated staying silent, pretending she was still asleep, but she decided against it, knowing that Lynn wouldn't be happy with a non-response. Lucy let out a sigh, then buried her face into her pillow and shifted over to the alarm clock on the desk. She carelessly swung her hand out to slam the top of the clock, thankfully connecting with it, and the infernal blaring stopped. Sighing, she rolled back onto her back and laid there.

After a few more minutes, she heard shuffling from the other side of the room. Lynn seemed to be getting ready for the day. Lucy re-adopted her ball state, curling into her blankets and pillow like a cat. Lucy heard the door open, and she expected to hear Lynn stomp her way out of the room, on her way to either the bathroom or the first of her activities for the day. Instead, Lucy suddenly felt the covers pulled off of her, an involuntary whine escaping her lips.

"Oi! Spooky! Wake up!" Lynn shouted - well not really shouted, per-se, but used her booming normal voice that rang in Lucy's ears.

"Lynn… please, i'm so tired," Lucy said in a small voice that surprised even herself, "What time is it even?"

"It's 7 o'clock sis," Lynn said softly. Lucy was surprised by her quiet tone and relatively soft demeanor. Groaning a second time, Lucy tried to reach downwards for the sheets that Lynn had pulled away from her, but grasped nothing but air.

"My sheets…" Lucy whimpered.

She heard a sigh from Lynn, "Sorry Spooky, I get that you're tired, but if I gotta be up for Linc's stupid planned party for Lori, then you gotta be as well."

Lucy mentally facepalmed as that sentence sunk in. How could she have forgotten? Today was the day that the Loud family was facing the music, so to speak. Lori would be leaving this evening, and Lincoln had put this plan together to celebrate, but then their parents had put together a party of their own and-

Lucy's thinking was cut off as Lynn snatched her pillow as well. Now simply lying on her back on her bed, Lucy decided that she had to get up. Brushing her bangs aside momentarily, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, then sat up and faced Lynn. "What…?" Lucy asked as she got a view of Lynn's shocked face.

Lynn took a deep breath, before speaking very fast. "Luce, I'm going to ask for forgiveness here, and not for permission." Lucy was about to ask her what that meant, when Lynn suddenly lurched forwards and moved her bangs. Lucy was about to exclaim something in protest, but Lynn retracted her hand almost as quickly as she had initially moved it.

"Spooky those are some gnarly eyebags…" Lynn trailed off. After a brief pause, Lynn continued. "Are you alright? What time did you go to bed? I thought you were in bed before I even came in?" The rapidfire questions slightly irritated Lucy and she scowled.

"Firstly Lynn, what do I always say about my hair." Lucy said, while glowering.

"Well sis, that's why I'm asking for forgiveness, not permission." Lynn said with a smile.

Lucy glared back at her before relenting. "I was asleep by 11:00 yesterday, but somebody was about as subtle as an elephant coming back into the room yesterday and woke me up at 1:00 AM." Lucy said with a sigh. Lynn opened her mouth, no doubt to defend herself, but Lucy continued. "And I am pretty much alright Lynn, thanks for asking." With that, Lucy hopped off her bed and started to get ready for the day.

As Lucy changed into some everyday clothing, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Spinning around, Lynn was looking at her with an apologetic expression. Lucy opened her mouth to ask what else she needed, but Lynn cut her off. "Firstly, sorry for waking you up yesterday, I had a couple of… drinks, courtesy of Dad last night. Secondly, sorry for not coming after you after you left the party yesterday." Lynn rubbed the back of her head. "I kind of figured that you didn't really want to stick around and socialize but-"

Lucy cut her off with a rare hug. It was rare to see Lynn apologize, so Lucy figured she could also do something that was somewhat rare for her as well. The hug was short, not even a fraction as long as the hug Lincoln had given her yesterday, but it was a hug nonetheless, and as she pulled away, she smirked as she saw a stunned Lynn, still with her arms out. "Well dear sister, since I'm in a good mood today," Lucy said with a smile, "I forgive you for waking me up at 1 in the morning, and I forgive you for touching my hair, and I even forgive you for not coming after me yesterday. I wanted solitude anyways."

Lynn was still standing there, slightly gobsmacked, so Lucy turned back around to continue getting ready. As she straightened up, she was suddenly grabbed from behind by Lynn, who spun her around and pulled her into another hug. "Lynn…" Lucy hissed, but without her usual annoyed tone. Lucy reluctantly put her hands around Lynn as well, relaxing in her arms.

'I am very quickly reaching my sappiness tolerance for 24 hours' Lucy thought to herself, sighing. 'I'm probably going to have to keep hugging some of my other family members at this party as well, huh.'

Lucy was cut off from her musings as she felt some liquid on her shoulder. "Lynn!?" Lucy exclaimed in shock, "Are you crying?"

"No way Spooky." was the muffled reply as Lynn buried her head in Lucy's shoulder. Lucy awkwardly rubbed her sisters back as she waited for her to elaborate. After a long pause, Lynn continued, "I mean, are you like, even phased by Lori leaving? I've been somewhat ignoring it, but this party is just making it super real. Like, she's going to be gone after today, and by this time next year Leni will be gone as well, and the year after that Luna, and then the year after that…" Lynn cut herself off, pushing Lucy back to look at her face.

Lucy looked up at her, and saw her normally strong sister's face brimming with tears. "Well sis," Lucy started quietly, "I actually cried about that last night, and, well, I figured that," Lucy paused, trying to formulate what she wanted to say. "I think that we need to embrace the change. Life is going to go on regardless, and it's not like we won't ever see Lori again, and-"

Lucy was cut off by Lynn crushing her into another hug. "How profound, Spooky," Lynn said tearfully. Lynn let out a watery chuckle. "I guess that I was worrying like a baby over nothing…"

"No Lynn," Lucy said, tone sharpening. "It's normal to cry and be sad over things like this. I already admitted that I cried about it yesterday, you know."

Lynn shook her head and disengaged the hug. "You know Luce, sometimes I wonder who the older one is out of the two of us." Lucy opened her mouth to respond, but Lynn shushed her. "I'm going to go to the bathroom and get rid of the evidence that I cried, and you are going to help the rest of the family set some stuff up, alright?" And before Lucy could retort, Lynn was already gone.

Lucy sighed and left the room. Looking to the left, she noticed the twin's door being open and the room being empty. Lisa's door was closed, as usual, but without the normal sounds coming from the room, so Lucy assumed she was downstairs as well. Gazing at Lincoln's door, Lucy couldn't shake the feeling that something was at least somewhat wrong. Lucy walked over and knocked at his door.

No response.

Lucy frowned and tried the doorknob, but the door was locked. The boy had taken to locking his door at night, at least on the weekends and non-school days. Giving up, Lucy walked to the other side of the hallway. The door to Luna and Luan's room was open, and peeking in, the room was empty. Lucy didn't bother with Leni's room, and the girl walked downstairs.

Lucy had found Luan, who had taken charge of the decorations around the house. Leni, as well as the twins, were helping her. Luan was directing the trio on how to set up the living room, and then started walking towards Luna, who was fiddling with some of her instrument equipment. Lucy thought that this was as good a time as ever to announce her arrival, so she walked over to the duo and spoke. "Hey there." Lucy gave her customary greeting, and even tried to smile a bit for the occasion.

Unfortunately, the two did not hear the goth coming, and promptly shrieked bloody murder, prompting the decorating trio, as well as their parents and Lisa, who stuck their heads out of the kitchen, to stare at them. Now the center of attention, Lucy rubbed the back of her neck and apologized. Everyone went back to what they were doing, and as Luan and Luna calmed down, Lucy asked what she could do to help.

Luan, to her credit, recovered quite fast, not that Lucy thought what she did was particularly scary, but Luan had sent her to supervise the twins and Leni with decorations. When Lucy had protested, Luan had then asked her to drag Lincoln down from wherever he was so that he could actually work on the plan that he himself had proposed and created.

Remembering what had happened yesterday, Lucy nixed that option right away, thankfully avoiding a blush blooming across her face this time. Luna squinted at her, but Luan had just shrugged and explained what kind of decorations that the trio was putting up.

Lucy wanted to bang her head against the wall. Leni, bless her heart, had to be one of the most frustrating people to work with in any capacity - and Lucy had to work with Lynn on the regular, for Christ's sake! Dealing with the airheaded Leni was fairly easy, but it required a modicum of patience and time for frequent supervision.

Time and patience that Lucy no longer had due to the other two "helpers." Lucy understood that both Lola and Lana were six years old, but understanding really only went so far, as the two bickered over every single thing about the decor.

"Luan said that we had to put these up evenly!" Lola had shouted in objection as Lana began hanging the streamers with the aid of a stepladder.

"This IS EVEN!" Lana had shouted right back.

"NO IT ISN'T!"

"IT'S GOOD ENOUGH PRINCESS! MAYBE NOT FOR SPOILED BRATS LIKE YOU THOUGH!"

"GET DOWN FROM THAT LADDER SO I CAN PUT YOU IN YOUR PLACE!"

And at that point, Lana simply jumped off the ladder, landing on top of Lola, and the two immediately started trading blows. Lucy moved to attempt to stop them, but Leni grasped her shoulder and looked confused.

"Lucy, like, what am I supposed to do with this?" Leni asked, holding up a banner.

"You just need to put it up over there, using the ladder." Lucy said, distracted by the fight cloud materializing in front of her. Lucy gestured to the middle of the ceiling.

"Alright thanks Lucy!" Leni said, and Lucy watched as the fight knocked over the ladder, bringing a momentary lapse to the squabble.

"Girls be careful with the ladder and the supplies-" Lucy had started, but the twins paid her no mind and jumped back into fighting.

"Lucy! Lucy!" Leni shouted, "I can't put the thing up there!"

Lucy turned around and saw Leni simply raising her arms in the air, trying to attach the banner to the ceiling, not even close to reaching it. Lucy let out a large groan, and felt her knees fall to the ground in despair. The twins' squabbling, as well as Leni's panicked questions faded into the background as Lucy's head connected to the floor, braced by her arms. Lucy turned onto her back and just laid there for a second, and then she let out the largest sigh of her life. The twins and Leni momentarily stopped their chattering, but just as quickly as they had stopped, they began again. Lucy simply covered her head with her hands, praying for some assistance.

Mercifully, Luan returned to relieve Lucy of her burden, and instead gave her the task of aiding Luna in the backyard. Lucy, still on her back, had begun to articulate an apology, but Luan had shushed her, smiling.

Luan reached out a hand to pull her off the floor. "Looks like this trio was too tough for you to handle!" Luan quipped, "Ha-ha, get it?"

Lucy purposely put on the most exaggerated fake smile she could, which, admittedly, was not a large smile. Still, she did find herself slightly amused at the joke, rather than feeling her usual irritation. "Sorry Luan," Lucy said, "Do you perhaps have any other tasks that you need help with?"

"Well I won't lie, Luna is cleaning the backyard at the moment, and I'm sure she'd be floored if you went to assist her!"

Before Luan could ask her if she understood that one, Lucy quickly latched onto Luan's hand and pulled herself off the ground. "I guess I'll rise to the occasion." Lucy replied, expecting to see Luan's smile grow even larger. Luan's face however, morphed into one of confusion.

"Did you just… make a joke?" Luan said, sounding shocked.

"Yeah?" Lucy replied confusedly, another prepped joke dying on her lips as she took in Luan's reaction.

Luan stepped forwards and held her hand to Lucy's forehead, thankfully not displacing her bangs this time. "Lucy making a stupid pun. I never thought I'd see the day." Luan said, her voice sounding distant. "You okay little sis?"

Lucy stepped back with a bit of a frown on her face. She fixed her bangs and nodded, then began walking outside. As she walked outside, she couldn't help but think to herself -

-'Why was everyone asking if she was alright?'

Working with Luna was mostly uneventful, seeing as she had done a significant portion of the work already. Lucy had mostly followed Luna around with the garbage bag as she cleaned up the backyard, dragging the large sack around. After a couple minutes of work, Luna had proclaimed that the backyard was clean enough, and beckoned Lucy to the garage. Lucy stopped to dump the almost full bag into the garbage can, and followed her in.

"Hey little dudette! Catch!" Luna said with her raspy, accented voice.

Lucy's eyes darted to the object being tossed towards her, instinctively catching it, in part due to Lynn's sport addiction. Examining the object, it turned out to be a plastic water bottle. Nodding 'thanks' to Luna, Lucy uncapped the bottle and began to drink. Beginning to zone out. Lucy thought about the events that had happened this morning. Lori's strange mannerisms in the wee hours of the morning, Lynn's sudden vulnerability, Lincoln being… odd -

"-cy, Lucy, Oi Luce!" Lucy's thoughts were interrupted by Luna calling her name and waving her hand in front of her face. Lucy flinched involuntarily and dropped the bottle, causing the remaining water to pool around the garage. She mentally realized that this was a somewhat serious talk, Luna had even dropped her accent.

"Sor-Sorry I was lost in thought," Lucy mumbled, picking up the bottle and moving towards the storage of paper towels located in the garage. Luna was one step ahead of her, already putting towels down to soak up the liquid.

"It's alright luv," Luna responded. The two sisters quickly cleaned up the spill in relative silence. Once the spill was cleaned, Luna clapped her hands together and continued speaking. "You alright little goth?"

Lucy's brows furrowed slightly, not that Luna could see that, "A lot of you guys have been asking me that recently actually." Lucy said with a frown. Luna started to reply, when Lucy continued. "I'm fine, by the way."

"It's just, I realized that I never really talked to you at the party, or at any point leading up to the party to ask how you were feeling, with the whole, Lori leaving thing." Luna said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. "Like I had a conversation with the twins, and the older sisters minus Lori had a talk as well."

"Let me guess," Lucy said, a hint of irritation showing in her voice. "You guys had a talk with Lincoln at the party, and simply forgot about me, as usual." she folded her arms.

"Sorry dude," Luna said, regaining some loudness in her voice, "We just couldn't find ya at the party last night."

"Well I'll tell you the same thing I told Lynn earlier," Lucy said with an edge creeping into her voice. "I cried about it, by myself, in my room yesterday, but I'm fine now, capiche?" And with that, Lucy turned and ran back into the house. She heard Luna call her name once, but she raced up the stairs, upset at the emotions threatening to spill out of her chest. Pushing past a leisurely walking Lynn, Lucy briefly registered another concerned look on her face as she retreated into their shared room, closing the door.

Lucy's first instinct was to grab her notebook and attempt to express her emotions through poetry. She ran to the desk, noting the time of 9:30 AM, and nabbed the notebook lying in the middle of the wood surface. Taking a seat on the bed, she began to write.

Why are they suddenly being concerned for me?

As our world was about to change more than we could foresee?

Hypocrites they are, it's far too late,

For me to change this dismal fate.

What had happened this week, this night?

That turned out - to not be right.

I can't shake this feeling inside me

That we will soon face tragedy.

Lucy lifted the pencil, calmer than before, before studying the poem. She regretted blowing up at Luna, especially when she was only showing concern for her, so she pulled out her phone, and brought up the messaging function. Lucy winced when she saw the last message not in the sibling group chat was sent over a month ago. She pulled up Luna's message log, which consisted of mostly one word responses between the two. Summoning her courage, she began to type.

Sorry for blowing up at you, I was just upset for some reason.

Lucy hit send and almost immediately got a reply back.

No worries dudette! As long as you're okay!

No, this was really unfair to you. I just can't shake the feeling that something is going to go very wrong soon.

Well if you wanna talk about it, I'm always here!

Lucy smiled and closed her phone. Looking back at the clock, she frowned again. Her little breakdown had taken around an hour, and the clock read 10:30 in an angry red hue. Lucy opened her door and began walking back down the stairs.

…

Only to then descend into chaos.

All of her sisters, sans Lori, along with their parents were furiously discussing something. Lucy silently walked up to hear the conversation. She noticed that Leni was crying, that Luna was sad and silent off to the side, Luan was ripe with anger, and that Lynn of all people was trying to mediate, and failing miserably.

"Are you sure she's gone guys?" Lynn. Sr had asked desperately, "It's kind of strange that she would just up and leave early? What if she's in trouble, or in danger, or…"

Luan cut him off by holding up a note. "We found this in her room Dad. I think she took off hours ago, either Bobby or one of her friends gave her a ride to the airport."

"Leni, honey," Rita asked as she tried to soothe the crying blonde, "Was Lori here when you got up this morning?"

"Yes! No! I-I-I don't remember!" Leni stammered out between sobs." Why didn't she tell me she was leaving early? Does she hate me now or something?"

"Of course not dude!" Lynn exclaimed, hopping up to pat Leni on the back.

The family stayed quiet for a few seconds.

The silence was broken by an angry Luan. "Well, seeing as she isn't here, I'm going to start putting away all of this party stuff." The family all watched as Luan tore down all of the effort and time that she had put herself into leading.

"Stupid Lori, stupid Lincoln," Luan was muttering. "One took off without even saying goodbye, and the other isn't even around for something that HE PLANNED!" Luan shouted the last part, and delivered a kick to the cardboard box that she was putting all the stuff into. Everyone's eyes shot towards Luan, concerned with the outburst, but Luan just slid to the floor and started bawling. Luna was the first to move, striding across the room and wrapping her arms around the inconsolable comedian. The two sisters started whispering to each other, in a tone that Lucy couldn't quite pick up. Frankly, she wasn't even sure she wanted to hear, she felt like it would be invading their privacy.

Looking around, Lucy observed the twins whispering to each other, with Lisa being the de-facto babysitter, holding Lily. Lucy noticed that Lisa had a concerned expression on her face, as she rocked Lily back and forth. Lynn Sr. and Rita were consoling Leni on the couch, and Lynn had taken to staring at the ground in front of her, furiously thinking.

Lucy turned and started walking back up the stairs. She wanted answers, and she felt that a certain, absent, white-haired boy was the key to unraveling whatever this was.

As luck would have it, as Lucy paced the upstairs hallway, debating whether or not to sneak into Lincoln's room via the vents, the man in question appeared, leaving his room for the first time today. Lucy walked up behind him and grabbed him before he could descend the stairs into madness. Lucy couldn't even remember what she said to him at this point - she was too busy contemplating the circumstances of his late arrival, thinking about last night, and knowing that their family would rip him to shreds if he showed his face at this time.

Once the duo made it to Lucy's room, her mind was going at a million miles a minute. Lincoln looked terrible, confused, and subconsciously hurt. Lucy began by asking if there was anything wrong with him, and he denied it. He had tried to leave, but she stopped him. She was surprised and equal parts relieved and disappointed when he said he hadn't remembered his drunk confession to her, but she was soon snapped out of her thoughts when Lincoln started visibly panicking, sliding to the ground and hyperventilating.

Lucy succeeded in calming him down, and she was about to leave and get another of her sisters to help when he pleaded and begged her to stay. Lucy sat down next to him, equal parts scared, and confused as she tried to calm Lincoln down. She almost felt like crying as well, but she refrained, for his sake.

Over an hour had passed. Lincoln had cried himself into exhaustion, clinging onto the goth. Lucy pulled out her phone, noting the shift into the PM hours. She tried to extract herself from Lincoln's grasp, but failed. Sighing, she opened the notes function on her phone, as her notebook was sadly out of reach. She started typing another poem into the phone.

Sadness, anger grief and sorrow,

All these emotions will persist tomorrow.

Lincoln, my dear brother, what ails you so?

I would do anything to help and know.

Satisfied with the single stanza, Lucy started to untangle herself from the boy's grasp, hissing slightly every time he tightened his grip. Eventually, she was able to get up and separate from the boy. Lucy attempted to lift him onto her bed, but Lincoln's dead weight proved to be too heavy, and she quickly gave up.

Lucy weighed her options. She could either call Lynn, who could probably move the boy to a bed, or she could simply give the boy a pillow and a blanket, and let him sleep on the floor.

To the emotionally drained Lucy, the choice was somewhat simple. Placing her phone on the table, she grabbed the pillow off her bed, and grabbed Lynn's pillow as well, giving a silent apology in her head. Placing both pillows on the ground next to Lincoln, she grabbed her blanket as well and wrapped it around him. Lucy guided Lincoln down, to lay on the pillows, and as she did, Lincoln's arms stretched out and captured her, holding her close to his chest.

Lucy struggled slightly. She wanted to get out of his embrace, but part of her just wanted to stay there. She also didn't want to wake him up after what had just occurred. Thinking that it wasn't too late for plan A, she reached into her pocket to draw out her phone, only to grasp nothing, seeing her phone on the desk. Lucy resisted the urge to groan, and ultimately surrendered to her fate. She figured she needed some more sleep anyway.

Turning to Lincoln, she brushed the hair out of his eyes, and placed a kiss on his forehead.

Sweet dreams, brother.

Ironically, they were anything but…

A/N:

I wrote this chapter in a fever dream. At one point it was late afternoon, with 100 words, then suddenly it was 12am with 4000 words. The exposition continues, I promise more interesting plot points and mystery aspects will be present after the first Act? I guess. I don't think I will separate these things into acts…

Let me know if the interactions and dialogue are too wordy, I have a bad habit of unnecessary wordage.

Future updates will not be this fast, I was just on a creative kick for this.

As a small spoiler, there will be more Luan and puns, I much prefer coming up with puns than the poetry.

The original plan for this chapter was for Lucy to interact with each of her siblings, but I felt the chapter was getting a little long, a conversation with Lisa is bound to happen at some point.

Next chronological chapter will be for Repressed Memories.

As always: Reviews Welcome