Ch. 17 No More Secrets

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING from the Loud House.
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Luna power-walked away from Miranda's office, heading back towards the reception area. She didn't think Dr. Lopez's words would strike such a chord in her usual rhythm, yet she found herself cutting her session short and marching down the hall with a concerned look on her face, her mind plagued with the antics of her siblings. It was no question in the Loud House that the siblings tended to get into fights over the smallest and most trivial things, such as the whole incident that got them in this situation in the first place. And if it wasn't over something petty, it was all about competition. Being in a family as big as the Louds, sibling rivalry was toned up to 11, literally. Lori and Leni sometimes argued over who was prettier, Lynn and Lucy had their clashing personalities and tastes, so it usually boiled down to which subject was better. The twins spoke for themselves, and Luna knew she and Luan didn't get along too well with her sister's corny puns and the musician knew the comedian wasn't too fond of her loud music. The main outliers would be Lisa, Lincoln, and Lily for varied, yet obvious reasons.

When Luna finally came within visual range of her family, she was surprised to see Luan looking like she cried her eyes out with everyone else trying to console her. Lynn still looked a bit heated though.

"Ok...mind tellin' me what went down when I was with the doc?" The 15 year old asked.

"Luan has bigger issues than we originally thought." Lucy stated.

"Like what?"

"I'm sure you're quite aware of the situation regarding April Fools correct?" Lisa asked, to which her sister nodded. "There's a peculiar reasoning for Luan's...unhinged attitude towards the holiday. She's been the subject of harsh oppression during her rudimentary grade years, or in layman's terms, bullying..."

"WHAT?!" Luna shouted in surprise. "Dude! Why didn't you say you were being picked on?! All of us could've helped you!"

"...Like I already told everyone else...I was too afraid to come out and say it Luna...I've been wanting to get back at my bullies since, but I ended up targeting my own family instead...that night you guys locked me in the cage, it felt like the time I was stuck in a locker again..." Luan gazed at Luna, her red eyes clearly expressing the pain she had finally allowed to be set free. "No matter how many times I asked, even begging a couple times, no one came to h-help...I even asked you a couple times sweetly, but I doubt you heard me through your headphones..."

Luna shifted uncomfortably on the spot. "N-No...I hadn't..." Granted, like the rest of her siblings, Luna had her reasons. They were tired of living in fear of Luan's pranks and wanted to take matters into her own hands. But hearing that the sister she was closest to was bullied and they put her in a situation that reminded her of it...it tugged at her heartstrings hard. Whenever Luna goes to bed, she always has her favorite soundtracks blasting through her headphones, even after the sandman claims her. She could've did something to help her sister, yet she ignored her, forcing Luan to break herself out and cause mayhem the very next day.

"But I don't blame you Luna...I made you all feel that way, so I deserved it..."

"Actually Luan, I think locking you in a cage was pretty harsh, even for us...all of us could've just talked to you if we asked..." The musician suggested.

"But I doubt I would've listened, knowing my pranking nature..." The comedian pointed out.

"It wouldn't have hurt to try..." Leni added.

Rita suddenly felt her phone vibrate in her back pocket. Taking it out, she saw it was her husband calling. "I'll be back in a minute kids." The matriarch then got up from her seat as she answered the phone. If it was more bad news, she didn't want her girls to feel any worse than they already did. These sessions with Dr. Lopez were becoming some very apparent eye openers. However, even though she exited the room, the girls could still pick up bits of her conversation as she walked out of hearing range.

"Hey dear, how is he?...He had another nightmare?...Oh God...well, did you tell him about where he's going to stay when he leaves the hospital?..." Rita said as she walked further from the suite.

"I don't think I want to know what kind of darkness our brother is dreaming of when he falls asleep. Without a doubt, it has to be about us..." Lucy said solemnly.

"That would be obvious since he smacked me with a food tray..." Lynn stated, unconsciously rubbing her cheek.

"And why he freaked out when we visited him..." Lola added.

Lori looked back at Luna, who was trying to console her roommate. It seemed a bit odd that her 8th youngest sister's session didn't last as long as the previous ones. In fact, she did happen to catch the look the musician had before she announced her presence.

"Luna." The brunette looked at the eldest blonde. "How did your session go?"

"Well...she asked me what I was like, what my vibes were with our bro and..." Luna paused, remembering what she wanted to discuss with her sisters. "She brought up something that's a serious problem with all of us..."

"What do you mean?" The 17 year old asked.

Looking around the room, Luna saw that her family was still the only ones there. Being that this would be a private matter, she would've felt more comfortable discussing this in the van. However, her father took it to go visit Lincoln. So, the spacious room would be suitable it seemed.

"...Does it feel like...we act as a single minded person at times?" The rocker questioned all of them.

Lisa couldn't help but chuckle a little at that notion. "With our evident differences in Intelligent Quotient and varied personas, I find that notion to be highly unlikely. But, I would like for you to clarify on your statement to dispel any confusion."

"When I was talkin' with Ms. Lopez, I talked about some of the times we got into our fights...she said she noticed this odd pattern that seemed to occur, sometimes centered around Lincoln."

Lori raised a hand in a motion to make Luna pause. "If this is about how we ended up mentally scarring him, I literally, don't want to hear a repeat...we already feel crappy enough for what happened..."

"It's not about that dude, it's just that...do you think that sometimes we meddle too much in Lincoln's life?..." Luna finally asked.

The girls looked on each other, unsure on how to answer this. "Well...we're just looking out for his best interests, right?..." Leni stated.

"And ours..." Luna muttered.

"We do try to help him out when he goes to hang out with Ronnie Anne." Lucy added.

"And we do take care of him when he's hurt." Lana piped up.

"And yet, the first time we did help him with Ronnie Anne, he got punched in the face..." Lori grimaced.

"Now that I think about it, the application of a defibrillator unit was completely unnecessary when the only injury he suffered was a spasm in his left pollical." Lisa stated. The other girls were confused as they didn't know what type of body part she was referring to. "His thumb?"

A collective chorus of "Oh's" sounded.

"Not to mention the time we had to get him Zombie Bran since it was our fault we got banned from the store." Lynn said.

"We made it up to him for that though." Leni spoke.

Luna cleared her throat, getting their attention. "That's what I think the doc was gettin' at dudes...you know Lincoln sometimes makes up these crazy schemes right?" Everyone nodded. "So from what I realized...he does this because Lincoln knows what will happen if we find out, that's why he tries to be secretive...but in the end, we keep prying into his life and end up making the whole thing go bust." Luna started counting on her fingers. "The Sweet Spot deal? Van was trashed because of us fighting over it. The whole supermarket incident? We all wanted treats when Lincoln actually made a deal with mom and we just goofed off the moment we got to the store. Plus the whole pool issue, the time we kept distracting his tutor, and don't get me started on the time we all fought over money, or the time our house looked worse than the town dump because we stopped doing our chores-"

"Luna..." Luan started.

"Not done yet sis...but there was also the time me, Luan, Lynn, and Lucy made him go to the Sadie Hawkins Dance with four, dates!"

"You guys actually did that?!" Leni asked, quite shocked.

"Well he did lie to us about not being asked by Ronnie Anne." Lynn pointed out.

"But, that doesn't excuse the fact that night could've ended horribly for him..." Luna retorted.

Lori was growing impatient from all of this. "Luna, what exactly are you getting at from all of this?..."

"I'm saying, that I think we try to ride the gravy train from our bro's ideas too much for our own good! Any time he has an idea, all of us seem to come together like one person, much like the doc said, and use that idea to our advantage. But in the end, we just end up competing for it and make the whole thing take a massive stage dive..."

Each sibling took a few moments to think about the examples Luna gave. The only sibling who didn't think much of it was Lily, who just looked at everyone with a confused stare. Despite the baby despising her older sisters to a degree, she couldn't help but feel a bit put off by the vibe they were giving. The 9 girls studied each instance in their head before each sister began to show signs of guilt and uneasiness. Some shifted in their seats uncomfortably while others rubbed their arms or heads. The harsh realization hit them like a ton of bricks. They weren't aware of it before, but they sure as hell were now: even if their intentions seemed noble, at times, they did make things worse due to their selfishness. Some of these situations could've been solved or handled better had the girls not been involved or enforced their opinion on their brother. While the sisters did have their moments of every sibling turning on them at one point or another, it seemed their brother had to deal with more than his fair share of this judgement.

There was also larger level of irony to this as well. After the whole issue with Ronnie Anne, the girls agreed with Lincoln that they'd butt out of his affairs. They eventually did find out they were right about the tomboy liking him despite the boy's best efforts to keep it secret, so this demand went largely ignored. Since then, the girls continued to pry into their brother's life at will while asking him for help, expecting him to oblige (or in a few cases, strong arm him) while the times he asked for aid in return, only a few would do so without question while the others wanted to get something out of it. And that wasn't even counting the latest escapade about forcing Lincoln to not get involved with their sibling fights. However, like all families, the kids seem to forget one crucial aspect as to why they keep loving each other...

"You know...we may have treated Lincoln like his opinion doesn't matter at times, but to be honest, all of us aren't so different, you know?" Lynn stated. "Just how many times have all of us gotten into trouble from our over-competitiveness?"

"You mean like the time we sold everything in the house at the garage sale?..." Lana answered.

"I can't believe I sold my own bed..." Lola said in mild irritation.

"And the fact that goat Flip swindled us..." Lucy added.

"There was also that time he forced us out of the pool he bought." Leni stated.

"That's only because he never had a chance to actually use it before we stepped in, so the least we could've did was let him join us after he kicked us out." Lori told her roommate. "It should be no surprise that Lincoln is secretive about the stuff he does when we aren't watching. I'm pretty sure all of us have done the same thing a few times too, if that one video contest is anything to prove..."

"Trust me Lori, I know all about being secretive." Lola replied.

"And speaking about that video contest, I had a big slap to the face in why Lincoln did what he did."

"You mean besides wanting to win so bad?" Luan asked dryly.

Luna rubbed her head. "Well...you remember when I was all dark and moody when I felt like I didn't feel special when we were younger right?..."

Lucy's eyes went wide in response. "You?...You used to be depressed like I was?"
"Well...not to your level sis, but it was there...like Lincoln, I didn't feel like I had a calling in life, until I went to that Mick Swagger concert that one night. All of you know this. But for Lincoln, he was clearly desperate to win somethin'...I know we gave him a trophy and all, but it feels...kinda small don't it?"

Lucy brought her knees inward. "I think I see your point...he took the brunt of embarrassment in order to save our status, but in my case, that would be the second time he's done it for me..."

"Second time?" Lori asked.

"...You know that time the toilet was clogged with the princess pony book?..." Everyone nodded. "It wasn't Lincoln's..." Lucy stared at the floor. "It was mine..."

The silence in the room was so thick you could hear the ventilation in the room, which was on its lowest setting. "So you're the one that reads that garbage?!" Lola asked.

"...I need a break from the darkness sometimes. Even at some point we need to break from our interests or usual activities...I knew you all would tease me endlessly over it, but Lincoln took the blame and missed his convention because he knew he could handle it and I couldn't...I made a little comic for him as thanks, but it felt so insignificant to missing something he was looking forward to for months, and I always felt I would never be able to pay him back for saving me from that torture...however, if anything, I want to save his tortured soul from the demons he sees us as..."

Luan felt her bout of depression kicking in again. "...Great...now I feel like even more of a monster..."

The family's athlete grew irate at this remark. "Luan, for the last. Freaking. Time. You are NOT a monster! You're our SISTER, and we'll always love you! And the rest of us aren't angels either..."

Lola shifted uncomfortably in her seat, a particular incident coming to mind. "You know, maybe it wasn't a good idea to prank Lincoln just because he ignored us with noise-cancelling ear plugs..."

"You think?..." Came Lana's sarcastic comment.

"Look, I already apologized for that incident, and got grounded from it since the roof was turned upside down, but like I said before...if you informed me of what was going on, none of you would've suffered a severe case of tinnitus..." Lisa folded her arms in annoyance.

Luna shrugged. "To be honest, it wasn't that bad. I get ringing in my ears all the time from jammin'."

"That would explain your quick recovery...remind me to check your auditory nerves and eardrums when we get the chance." The child prodigy ordered.

The 15 year old gave a small growl. "My hearing is fine Lisa..."

"Getting back on topic," Lori interrupted, "It was nice of Lincoln to play butler for us when we went to Scratchy Bottom last summer..."

"And that's because we once again competed against each other to try and convince him which place would be better..." Lynn stated with clarity.

"Quite. We probably should've let our male sibling decide for himself instead of trying to enforce him to sway to one side..."

"But, because we were thinking for ourselves, we didn't..." The comedian replied in a bummed tone.

"And aside from that, we've competed for the best present to give to our parents whenever their anniversary comes up. Is trying to one-up each other the only thing we ever do?...And since I love competing, that's a lot coming from me..." The jock explained.

The girls couldn't argue with that. It could be said that part of the reason they have certain quirks was to stand out from each other. Luna's case was very evident, being in a family that has many talented children. However, it wasn't uncommon that all of the kids, Lincoln included, ended up being competitive over some of the simplest things. Anything to earn that victory dance in a few incidents. But, once the competitive streak was worn out, the kids could come together and finally manage to work things out.

"...Remember the time we were looking for money? I'm surprised mom and dad didn't make us clean the entire house after we practically wrecked it looking for clues." Luan stated.

"That's because the whole idea was your father's." A motherly voice spoke out. The kids turned to Rita, who was apparently finished with her phone call. "He set up clues for you all to work together for a change, which worked, despite you kids needing to figure it out three times. But, I had him clean the house since it was his idea. And that money you found, was his work bonus."

"Wow...didn't see that coming." Lori commented.

"So uh...how long were you standing there mom?" Lynn asked.

"Enough to understand what the main subject is. Now, I would agree that all of you would need to learn a lesson multiple times before it finally becomes engrained in your heads, but that's normal for many kids. What's important is, that you take that lesson and it sticks, and trust me, most kids don't remember valuable life lessons..." Rita chuckled a little. "That reminds me of my high school days. There were so many preppy girls that never made it after high school because the lessons their parents gave them didn't stick, or just bad parenting..."

"What happened to them after high school?" Leni asked.

"Trust me sweetie, you don't wanna know..."

"Ok...Oh! I remember the time Lincoln got all of us chocolate he put into the cabinet. That was so sweet of him!" The 16 year old piped out.

Lori nodded. "Yeah, that was nice of him."

Lily babbled something only 2 of the sisters could understand. "Yeah, it was the best chocolate Lily." Luan told her.

"Chocolate?...wait, did you girls happen to get Hershey's Chocolate from the kitchen cabinets?" Rita asked.

"That's where I found it." Leni replied.

The matriarch pinched the bridge of her nose. "Girls...that chocolate was for Lincoln's school project...no wonder he smelt like salt and vinegar when he came home that one time..." All the girls in the room sat in uncomfortable silence, having received yet another piece of evidence on how they indirectly screwed things up for their brother. "But, that's in the past now and nothing can be done about that. But I want you girls to promise me two things:

1. Since this was caused by everyone bad mouthing each other behind their backs, no more secrets. Please...

And 2. Try to get along with each other more. I know our current situation is bad, but I don't want our precious family to be completely broken from all of this...last thing we need is to be distant from each other, as it's already bad enough with Lincoln's...condition..."

"We promise..." The girls said sincerely.

A small, yet noticeable sound was heard, almost as if it was a raspberry. The sudden change of smell indicated otherwise.

"Ugh!" Luan waved a hand in front of her face. "Was that your shoes Lori?!"

"No Luan, that...was my rear." Lori gave a small smile.

"Nice, but it's still gross." The comedian stated.

"Whatever..."

"If I may be so inclined mother, I managed to hear part of your phone chat with father before you walked away. Is everything ok with Lincoln?..." Lisa asked.

"Sadly, no...he suffered another nightmare, and your father said Lincoln told him he feels his night terrors are getting worse...I guess those sleeping pills they gave him aren't working too well, but Lincoln is aware of the fact he won't be coming back home as soon as the hospital releases him."

"How did he react to that?" Lola asked.

"Lynn said he was, ok I guess?" Rita replied, not sure what her husband meant by that.

"Even when we aren't around him, we're still making things worse..." Lucy said in a sadder than usual tone.

"This may seem unethical, but I do wish I had my chemistry set...maybe then I could make a pill that would induce zero brain function while he's asleep...however, there's a 77% chance it may cause worse side effects, and the last thing I want is to-" Lisa stopped when she felt a small pair of hands slap her mouth shut. The 4 year old looked to Lily, who shook her head as she gave an upset look. "S-Sorry...I don't want to finish that thought either..."

"Can't there be a quicker way to get him to see Dr. Lopez? Anything to make his nightmares stop?" Luna asked. "If he waits until he's out of the joint, there's no telling how he'll be!"

"I'm not sure if Miranda does phone sessions..."

"Sometimes, I do." Rita and the girls looked toward the hall as the aforementioned psychologist walked out with her mobile phone in hand. "Normally, I take phone sessions with Clyde when I do not feel like seeing him in person. On that note, I really find it to be a mistake that I gave him my house number...it's complicated, and sometimes it rides on the phone usage in this building (and the phone bill in my house...), but if it is getting as bad as you say, then I can make some arrangements."

The Hispanic woman stopped when the twins attached themselves to her legs. "Please! Please! Please help our brother!" They spoke in unison, putting up the biggest puppy dog eyes they had.

"They aren't that different from each other huh?" Miranda smirked inwardly. "Don't worry girls, I said before I was going to help him. But, could you please let go? My legs are starting to lose their blood circulation..." She asked in a kind tone.

Rita came and had to pry the two girls off due to the intense grip they had. "Sorry about that."

"Don't worry Rita, it's ok. But, before I can make arrangements for a phone conversation I have a few pressing matters with my own family to deal with first..." The doctor said before leaving the room.

"Well...if you ask, you shall receive I suppose." Lisa quipped.

"So...whose going to go in the room next?"

Rita tapped her chin. "If I'm right, the only ones left are Lucy, Lynn, and the twins. I don't think I can decide for you girls as this is a private matter, but I'm trusting you to try and work it out. Sound good?"

The aforementioned females nodded.