October 6th 2010
Leni kicked her legs lackadaisically as she read through her daily reading; a school-mandated task that, while she wasn't always keen on following through with, was definitely the least painful of her school assignments.
It also didn't hurt that she actually enjoyed what she was reading by quite a bit; the sci-fi fantasy series by the name of Akiko really proved itself quite exemplary at holding the usually spacy Loud girl's admittedly tiny attention span.
It was a rather peaceful after school afternoon, quiet, relaxed, and a great rarity within the Loud house.
That's what made what happened next so jarring.
BAM!
Leni's hands fumbled with her book, nearly dropping it over the edge of the couch in the slamming boom of the front door bursting open.
"Lincoln!"
Leni caught her book just in time to see the stampeding blur of orange, blue, and white come to a stop at the base of the stairs, revealing a bug-eyed Lincoln.
Linky? Leni felt a flush of fear run through her when she registered Lincoln's appearance. He looked frightened, panicked, like he was trying to run away from something.
"Lincoln, please stop!" Leni's answer came in the form of her mother running through the door, looking equally as distressed.
Lincoln blanched, and unable to run up the vastness of the living room stairs, darted away from them and into the living room.
"Linky?!" Leni turned and leaned over the couch just as Lincoln ran behind her. "Linky, what's wrong?"
Lincoln didn't answer her. His eyes just scanned the space he was in, looking for somewhere to hide from the approaching Rita. His jerky head-movements came to a stop when his sights fell on an end table next to his parents' bedroom door, and like a rabbit running from a coyote, he threw himself beneath it.
"Oh, Lincoln, it's okay!" Rita went to the end table, getting down on one knee to try and look in on him. "I know today was a shock, but I promise—"
"No!" Leni jumped when she heard Lincoln's sad little protest, choked and bogged down by a watery gasp. "You let them hurt me!"
Leni's eyes widened. Lincoln had gotten hurt? How could that have happened? They all tried so hard to protect him!
"Lincoln, I know it hurt, but the doctor had to do it to make sure—"
"No!" Lincoln cut through Rita's explanation again. "You made it so they gave it to me when I wasn't looking! That was—That was—" He gasped and Leni heard Lincoln shutter beneath the end table. "That was mean!" He said, his voice now breaking into shaky sobs.
"Lincoln…" Rita sounded sad in light of her son's sorrow.
What happened? Leni thought, What could have happened at the doctor?
That was when the bedroom door opened, revealing Lynn Sr. in the frame.
"What's going on?" He asked concernedly.
Rita frowned and stood up, going closer to her husband to try and discreetly explain the situation to him.
"Lincoln got the flu shot today…"
Leni still caught it, and her heart dropped into her stomach. A shot. Why hadn't she thought of a possibility of a shot? She told Lincoln no pain would come to him.
Lynn Sr. appeared slightly shocked as well, "A shot? I thought we said we'd wait a few weeks before starting those!"
"I know," Rita sighed, "but Lynn, the doctor was talking about it being cold-and-flu season, and I just couldn't help but shake the worry of Lincoln catching something while he's at work with one of us. We have a lot of foot traffic in my office, and you have a lot of people in general in yours. I just wanted to make sure he would be safe."
Lynn Sr. bit his cheek, "I suppose I can understand that…" He looked down at the end table, "How on Earth did you get him back in the car?"
"It took a while," Rita admitted. "He was pretty deadset on staying away from me. So much so that he was actually brave enough to get up the steps of the patio by himself."
"I don't want you to be my mommy anymore!" Lincoln suddenly announced a thorny declaration, and Leni would have been shocked and appalled at him had his voice not been filled with such despair, laced with obvious gasps from the tears that were undoubtedly rolling down his cheeks.
Rita's expression fell and she looked over the top of the end table. "Oh, Lincoln," She cooed, unhurt and lacking any malice towards the boy. She knew his words were only coming from a place of fear. "I know you're feeling bad, but I promise I only did this so you would be okay in the future."
Lincoln didn't reply, and an atmosphere of sadness filled the room. One that Leni would give anything to dispel.
"Why don't we all take a moment to gather our thoughts?" Lynn Sr. suggested when the silence carried on for a little too long. "That way we can all calmly discuss today's events a little later." He turned to Leni, "Leni, would you mind keeping an eye on your brother while your mother and I speak with one another?"
Leni nodded, "Yes, Daddy."
"Thanks, sweetie." Lynn Sr. wrapped an arm around Rita, "We'll be back in a little bit, just tell us if Lincoln needs us for anything, okay?"
"I will," Leni replied, looking over at the end table. She intended to do more than that. Her little brother needed her.
"And we'll be seeing you soon, alright, son?" Lynn Sr. made sure to lean down to get a look at Lincoln as well, giving him a bright smile to help alleviate the pain, physical and emotional ailing him.
Lincoln just sniffled and coughed a watery cough. The poor thing couldn't even reply to his still beloved Mister Daddy.
Lynn Sr. showed no offense either. "Just relax, Lincoln. You're home now, nice and safe at home," He said.
With that, he rose back up with Rita, and together, the two of them went into their room, leaving the door ajar should their son decide to come out and seek their attention once more.
Leni didn't wait long to get off the couch to go to him. A half-minute after her mother and father stepped into their room, she eked her way around the couch, tiptoeing towards the end table before she spoke.
"Linky?" She sat down on her knees, scooting closer until she could clearly see the boy hiding beneath the table.
Lincoln was curled up in a little ball against the wall, slightly obscured by the shadow of the table above him. His legs were drawn up against his chest, with his arms folded upon them and his teary face pressed into them.
"Oh, Linky," Leni whispered, moving closer, partially getting under the table with him. "It's okay…"
Lincoln shook his head and squirmed closer to the wall, trying in vain to put more space between him and Leni. "Go away, Leni!" He wheezed. "You tricked me too! I don't want you to be my big sister anymore either!"
Leni seized up at that, and her eyes immediately watered with the sting of the crack that went down her heart. "Linky…"
Leni had to summon a monumental amount of willpower in order to not bring her hands over her eyes and start crying along with Lincoln. What could she say? Though she was older than Lincoln, she still retained the sensitivities of being the child she was, and Lincoln's words cut horribly deep.
She wanted to be his big sister so badly. She wanted to be there for him, to make things better for him.
Don't feel bad, Leni, She told herself with a shaky gulp. It's just like Mama said, he's just feeling bad right now. He totes doesn't mean it.
She repeated the thought to herself a few times, applying an emotional salve on the cracks of her hurt feelings.
When she was back to normal once more, she took a quick breath to steady her thoughts and looked back to Lincoln.
"Linky, I know you're feeling sad, and hurt, and probably a little scared too, but…" She tried to reach out to ruffle his hair, but stopped when Lincoln curled up tighter in retaliation. She frowned and continued, "But I promise, Mama didn't mean to hurt you."
"I don't believe you!" Lincoln sniveled. He turned his head a smidge and looked at Leni with a single, sorrow-filled eye.
He didn't even look angry, just betrayed, like Leni and Rita had put the needle to his arm themselves. The bright baby blue color of his eye seemed dulled in the darkness beneath the end table, reducing it to a perceived ashy-gray.
"Y-You told me I had nothing to be scared of," He whimpered. "You said everything was going to be okay…You told me that to trick me, didn't you?"
Leni shook her head, "Linky, no—"
"And Missus Mo—Missus—" His lip quivered and he turned back into his arm. "Your Mommy distracted me with Bun-Bun so they could get me with the needle! I thought we were playing and suddenly my arm was hurting!"
Leni bit her lip and forcefully willed the lump that was developing in her throat away with a harsh gulp. She understood what her mother had been attempting to do. It was a well expressed belief in the Loud house that the anticipation of a shot was what made it so unbearable. In light of that belief, it was typical for the parents to aid their girls through the process whenever it occurred by distracting them, keeping their eyes off the approaching needle.
For Lori, it was the promise of ice cream, for Leni, candy, for Luna, their father typically sang a song with her, for Luan, it was knock-knock jokes, and for Lynnie, it was a game of one-handed-catch.
Lincoln though, was still so new to the family. They were all still learning with him, and given how skittish he was, Leni imagined her mother had little idea of what to do when the time for the shot arrived. Telling him it was coming probably wouldn't have helped, as just the thought of the doctor filled Lincoln with paralyzing fear; so, with everything stacked against her, the Loud matriarch really was left with no choice but to wing it.
And unfortunately, this was the result. Lincoln had received the flu shot and was now a mite more protected from the germs and viruses of the world, but he was also now convinced his new mother had deliberately hurt him, along with one of his big sisters.
A most undoubtedly horrible thought for the boy to have, considering what had befallen him at the hands of his previous mother.
Leni couldn't stand it. The immense sadness of the whole thing weighed heavily on her heart, freezing her from the inside.
"Linky…" She tried to crawl closer to Lincoln once more, her voice cracking along with his, "Please let me talk to you. I promise I can explain everything."
Lincoln shook his head, "Please go away, Leni…" He sniffled and two more large tears emerged from his tightly clenched eyes, "I don't wanna talk to anyone, I had a really bad day…"
"But Linky, I can make you feel better—"
"I didn't even get a lollipop…"
Leni was brought to a harsh stop by Lincoln's melancholy interjection, like someone had come up and slapped her upside the head.
She didn't know why such a tiny thing bothered her, compared to everything else that had just happened, the absence of a piece of candy seemed ludicrous to focus on.
But Leni had personally told Lincoln that the lollipop was the reward he would receive for facing his fears and going to the doctor, and the thought that he didn't get that not only made her horribly sad, but strangely, bizarrely, angry.
She was not letting another injustice befall the boy, no way, no how.
"Lincoln, can you give me a minute?" She asked, already scooching out from beneath the table. "I need to go get something; I'll be right back."
Lincoln sniffled again, "O-Okay…"
Happy that he straight up didn't tell her to not come back, Leni sprinted out of the living room and up the stairs, sending loud, thudding reverberations through the house with her surprising strength. Then, with speed rivaling that of a certain blue hedgehog, she ran into her room, opened her desk drawer, lifted the little bin of school supplies, and plunged her hand into her secret treasures beneath it.
A cavalcade of candies, all wrapped up and waiting for Leni should she need a reward following a particularly hard math problem. They were a well-kept secret for her, kept under tight lock and key considering how voracious her sisters could be; especially when it came to chocolate.
A little on the selfish side, she had to admit, but she had a right to look out for herself every now and again, right?
That was a thought for later. Right now, she had a little brother who she refused to have go without a treat following the painful proceedings of the day.
He deserves this, She thought, plucking out a strawberry lollipop with a chocolate center. Her eyes watered when she thought of a folder that resided in her parents' room.
A folder that she wished she could get the contents of out of her mind…
…
October 2nd, 2010
Golden rays of iridescent sunlight filled the Loud House, casting a gentle warmth alongside Leni as she strolled down the stairs and into the living room.
Leni was in a fantastic mood. Not only was it a beautiful day, but she had also gotten her homework done early, an occasion that warranted showing off her work to her mother. Once she got her mother's approval (and her praise of course), she was free to enjoy the rest of her weekend at her leisure.
Just in time for Baking Battalions! The premiere baking show where contestants didn't just bake cakes, but military battalions that would fight one another until the last gumball cannon was shattered and only one brownie tank stood victorious.
And Leni had to see that; especially since the cliff hanger of the last episode previewed a rail cannon that literally shot frosting across an entire room!
"Mamaaaa!" Leni raised her hand, tapping on the door in earnest. "I finished my homework! Can you check it for me please!?"
"I'm a little busy, sweetie, feel free to come in though!" Rita called out to her second eldest in reply, prompting Leni to open the door and step in.
Rita walked by Leni, making her way to her and her husband's shared walk-in closet, her hands nimbly putting some earrings on.
"Hi, mama," Leni chirped, turning her stack of papers outward for presenting, "I'm all finished! Can you check it for mistakes?"
"I'd be happy to, sweetie," Rita said, turning to Leni with a smile just as she reached her closet. "I just need a moment to finish getting ready."
Leni tilted her head curiously. "Oh, right, you said you had errands to do today. Where are you going, anyway?"
Rita finished attaching one earring and set to the other, "I'm meeting with an old friend of mine who works with the school district. Back from when I worked as a crossing guard. She's gonna help me get some materials to help with Lincoln's schooling so we can help get him ready to start going."
Leni blinked, "So Lincoln's gonna start going to school with us?"
Rita shook her head just after finishing with the other earring, "Not for a while, I'm afraid. Your father and I have decided to just let Lincoln get used to everything around here first."
Leni nodded, "That makes sense, I guess." She smiled and stood on her toes. "Did you see Daddy leave with him and Lynnie a little bit ago? They looked so cute!"
Rita smiled in return, "I did. Did you see your father carrying the two of them? He's certainly gonna have sore arms tomorrow."
Leni giggled, "He's probably trying to look big and strong for Lynnie. You know how much she loves him!"
"She certainly does," Rita said, shaking her head amusedly, "But your father's gonna throw his back out if he keeps trying to be Mr. Big-and-strong." She turned a little towards her closet, "Anyway, we've decided to just homeschool your brother for the time being, help him learn some of the things he's missing out on so we don't just drop him in during the middle of the school year behind everyone else."
Leni nodded and she found her fingers clenching around the papers in her hands, "Then I'll help wherever I can, too! Anything Linky asks me, I'll do my best to answer."
Rita lit up a little at her daughter's enthusiastic promise, "That's great, sweetie, I'm sure Lincoln will appreciate that."
Leni looked down at her homework, "I just hope I can…I know I'm not the smartest girl in the house, but I'll still try."
Rita smirked and went over to Leni, getting down on one knee so she could be at her level, "Well, I for one am just glad I have someone sweet enough to take Lincoln's education to mind like you." She reached out and laid her hand on top of Leni's head, "And you are a very smart girl, Leni, you know why?"
Leni shook her head.
"Because intelligence comes from perseverance, and you got that in spades!" Rita declared.
Leni found her confidence take a single tick up, and her smile broadened. "Thanks, Mama," She said, looking down at her shuffling feet.
"I only speak the truth, sweetheart," Rita said. She then stood back up, "Now you just wait here for a moment, okay? I just wanna finish getting ready and I'll be right back out."
Leni nodded, "Yes, mama."
Rita went into her closet not long after, shutting the door behind her and leaving Leni to give her work a cursory look over before showing it to her mother.
Aw dang it, Leni thought with a frown. She reached behind her ear to retrieve her pencil, I forgot to put down my name, c'mon, Leni!
She looked around for a place to set her work down, unwilling to try and write her name in midair and accidentally poking a hole through the paper (That always happened, no matter how hard she tried!).
That's when she saw it, a little manilla folder on her parent's bed. That'll do it! She gleefully thought, going over and laying her work over the top of it. She quickly scrawled her name at the top of the page, and lifted it back up.
Unfortunately for her, she also brought the folder up as well and accidentally let the contents of it fall to the floor at her feet.
"Oops!" She said with a start. She kneeled down, reaching out to grab the overturned papers now littered on the floor. "Clumsy me, I'll just put these ba—"
Her throat closed up when she overturned the first paper.
Attached to the front of it was a picture; a picture of her baby brother in a hospital bed, hooked up to a bunch of tubes and looking smaller and frailer than even the very first time she saw him. His complexion was practically as white as the paper the photo was attached to, contrasting harshly with the single stitched cut upon his forehead at the center of a large bruise.
Even worse, in the photo, the blanket was lowered, exposing his chest and letting Leni see the full extent of the abuse Lincoln had suffered at the hands of his mother.
The still fresh wounds glared at the camera, angry red lines interspersed across bruises as black as coal, marring the frighteningly pale skin like fate itself had angrily brandished a paintbrush of suffering across the boy.
L-Linky? Even her thoughts were scattered in the shock of it, and her eyes immediately begun to sting with water. What—What happened to you?
She looked back to his face. He was obviously sleeping, but even in that state, he appeared to be in such sorrow, like even in slumber, he couldn't escape the suffering life had so unfairly decided to inflict on him.
Leni brought her fist to her lips, trembling as she took it all in.
Oh, Linky… Her eyes drifted to Lincoln's ribs, where the faint imprint of a foot was left behind, Your mommy really did hurt you…She hurt you really bad.
"Leni, I'm just about done, I'll be out in two seconds!"
Leni jumped when she heard her mother call out from the closet.
She couldn't let her see her like this. She couldn't let her know she had seen what she'd seen!
"O-Oh, never mind!" Leni called, fighting to keep her voice steady. She fervently shoveled the pages of the folder back into it, (unfortunately catching a glimpse of a few more pictures in the process) lining up the pages into a semi-neat arrangement before placing it back on her parent's bed. "Turns out I forgot about a back page! I'll be back later!" She said with a squeak.
Before her mother could respond, Leni sprinted out the door.
From there, she darted back upstairs. When she got back to her room, she made sure her door was firmly shut behind her, threw her homework on her desk, leapt onto her bed…
And cried.
She sobbed into her pillow, thankfully muffling her cries enough not to draw any of her sisters' attention. Her shoulders heaved with each outburst of tears and her lungs burned with every wail that emptied the air of them.
It wasn't fair. No child that young deserved the pain or trauma that Lincoln had experienced, and now that Leni knew just how sweet the boy was, her heart hurt even more wrenchingly.
One thing was for sure, after seeing that, Leni knew she had to step up and give Lincoln every ounce of love her heart could muster.
Because if he had received such a monumental amount of pain in such a short life thus far, she had to make it her mission to make sure that he received an even greater amount of love.
…
October 6th, 2010
Leni sniffled and brought a fist to wipe the single tear that had descended her cheek after she had picked up the lollipop.
Thinking back to that day, she recalled how the rest of it went. When Lincoln had returned with Lynn Sr. and Jr., Leni had spent the rest of the day fighting the urge to cry again, only superseded by the urge to hug the boy she now knew to harbor well over a dozen scars.
She spent dinner that night being unusually quiet, only responding to her mother's concerned questioning of her well being with a half-hearted smile and a quarter-hearted, "I'm fine."
The day after that, she put her heart back together, and set out on her mission of being another advocate for her little brother's happiness; watching cartoons before school with him, acting excited when her mother brought his first homeschool packet home that Monday, and just generally trying to keep his spirits lifted.
Today was a day he needed his spirits lifted. Today, Lincoln had gotten his first shot, leaving him with the perception that both his mother and Leni herself had maliciously tricked him into a false sense of security.
She had to show him that wasn't true; that both she and her mother were truly only looking out for his wellbeing.
So, with the lollipop held in her hand like a vial of life-saving medicine, she left her room and made her way down the stairs.
The sound of Lincoln's little sniffles caught her senses when she stepped up to the end table again. It made her heart ache, but Leni fought against the surfacing of any more tears. She had another set of tears to wipe away.
"Linky?" She got down to the floor again, carefully moving beneath the table with the lollipop held aloft. "Look, I've got something here for you."
Lincoln shook again, but Leni was thankful to see him sniffle and turn a single eye onto her once more.
When he saw the little candy treat in his sister's hand, he actually perked up, lifting his gaze to her fully with his ashy gray eyes lighting up back to a fraction of their baby blue brilliance.
"Is—Is that for me?" He asked in a hush.
Leni nodded, moving fully under the table so she could sit by him. "I told you you'd be getting one, didn't I?" She said, offering him her kindest smile in conjunction with the extending of the lollipop. "And I for one don't want to be made a liar today, Linky. Besides…" She gently reached out and took his good hand, bringing it to the lollipop stick and placing it in his palm. "You totes deserve it," She said, closing his fingers around it.
Lincoln's eyes widened and he pulled the lollipop to himself. "T-Thank you…" He murmured.
A long moment of silence followed, tense as a stone bearing down on Leni's shoulders, but endured for the sake of getting through it.
"Linky, can we please talk about what happened today?" Leni turned to Lincoln, affixing a pleading expression on him. "I promise I can explain why Mama did what she did."
Lincoln seemed conflicted to answer. His fingers fumbled with the lollipop wrapper, awkwardly unwrapping it with a few pulls at its various creases.
"O-Okay," He mumbled once the wrapper was off. He took the candy into his mouth, "I-I'm listening…"
Leni smiled and scooted a little closer to Lincoln, "Linky, there's a reason doctors give us shots. And there's a reason why mommies and daddies have doctors give them to us. It's to help us."
"But it hurts…" Lincoln mumbled, bringing his casted arm to touch the bandage on his good arm. "How can anything that hurts be good?"
"Well, what about the mouthwash you use, doesn't that sting?" Leni proposed.
"Yeah, but it doesn't hurt as much as the shot did," Lincoln mumbled, rubbing his arm morosely. "Besides, Miss—I mean, your mommy said that helps with my teeth. What could that scary needle do to help me?"
"Well, those are called vac—vac—" Leni found herself tripping over the medical term, unable to recall the exact naming of it. "Well, never mind what they're called, all I know is that they help keep us from getting sick!"
Lincoln tilted his head, his eyes taking on a curious glimmer, "Keep us from getting sick? How?"
Leni smirked, happy she was getting somewhere. "Well, I can't say I know all the details of it, but from what Mama and Daddy have told me, the shot works by preparing our bodies for a fight with all the bad stuff that makes us sick." She demonstrated her knowledge by patting herself on the arm. "In the shot, the doctor gives us a special kind of medicine that makes it so we don't get sick in the future."
She turned fully to Lincoln, standing up a little higher on her knees, "That's why we get it. Because without it, we could get really, really sick."
Lincoln blinked, a mote of realization coming to life in his expression, "So…Your mommy, she made me get it because—because she wanted to—"
Leni sat down again, "Because she wanted to protect you, Linky. She doesn't want you getting sick. She cares about you, just like the rest of us."
Lincoln absorbed Leni's words, processing them for another long moment. Then, his eyes took on a regretful glimmer and he shook his head, "Then—Then why didn't she just tell me? Why did she pretend to play with me?"
Leni frowned, "Linky, I hate to say this, but can you honestly say you wouldn't get scared if Mama told you they were going to stick a needle in your arm?"
Lincoln frowned in return and his gaze fell to the lollipop. "I don't think so," He mumbled.
"That's why she tried to distract you," Leni informed. "It's no different than what they do with us. I know it scared you in the end, but I promise you, Linky…" She reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Mama was only trying to do the best thing for you."
Lincoln's eyes widened, and immediately, the shimmery mistiness in his eyes progressed into full-blown tears.
"Oh no…" He said, his voice going into a shaky vibrato once more. He brought his good arm up and brought the sleeve over his eyes. "Oh no…And I got so mad at her…" His face twisted into a visage of despair and he hunched beneath Leni's palm, "I told her I didn't want her to be my Mommy anymore!"
Leni was quick to hunch down with Lincoln, bringing both her hands to rub his head and ruffle his hair, "Hey, it's okay," She said, shushing him as she ran her fingers through his hair. "Mama knows you didn't mean it!"
"But I did!" Lincoln wept, rubbing the sleeve into his eyes, dampening the soft warm cloth of his sweater, the sweater his mother had both bought and dressed him in. "I did mean it! I was just so mad! And so sad! I thought she was trying to hurt me!" He coughed and peered up at Leni with big, glistening tear tracks on his cheeks. "And I did the same thing to you! I'm sorry, Leni! Please keep being my big sister!"
Leni kept shushing him and ruffling his hair, "Linky, it's okay, I never stopped being your big sister, and I bet you anything Mama never stopped being your mommy. Even if you did mean it, I see how sorry you are and I forgive you, okay? Just like I'm sure she will."
Lincoln sniffled and hid his face again in his sleeve. "Why?" He asked with another cough.
Leni smiled and brought her hand to rub Lincoln's back, "That's a silly question, Linky. It's because we care about you."
"B-But I was so m-m-mean!" Lincoln hiccupped.
"You were scared," Leni soothed. "And we get that. Nobody's gonna hold it against you."
Lincoln just hiccupped and shook some more after that, gulping and heaving while Leni continued to whisper soothing reassurances to him, rubbing his back and ruffling his hair all the while.
"Linky…" Leni eventually brought her hands to cup his cheeks, lifting his face so they could look at one another. "Do you wanna go talk to Mama? I'd be happy to go with you if you're scared."
Lincoln gulped and his knuckles whitened around his lollipop, "Are you sure it'll be okay?"
"Without a doubt!" Leni replied bombastically. She moved back, going out from under the table. "And I'll be right there with you!" She held her hand out towards him, "So, wanna go?"
Lincoln bit his lip, and, slowly, painfully slowly, began to eke out from beneath the end table.
"Atta boy," Leni giggled, taking the edge of his cast when he placed it in her palm. Once Lincoln was on his feet, Leni smiled at him, bolstering his courage, "Ready?
"Mmhmm…" Lincoln nervously mumbled.
"Then let's go," Leni said, turning them both towards their parents' door, "and remember, I'm right here with you, okay?"
Lincoln nodded and moved a little closer to his big sister, "Thank you, Leni…"
And together, the two of them went in.
…
"Aww, there, there, sweetpea," Rita cooed to Lincoln as she rubbed his back, much the same as Leni did for him, but with the additional comfort of maternal experience to fill the cracks in his heart brought on by his lapse of anger.
Lincoln hiccupped and pressed his face into Rita's arm, hugging it like a raft in a tumultuous ocean, "I'm so sorry…" He quailed. "Please say it's okay for me to keep calling you Missus Mommy…"
"Of course you can still keep calling me that," Rita whispered lovingly. "I never stopped being your mommy, Lincoln."
Lincoln seized up at that and he hugged Rita's arm tighter, "T-T-Thank you!"
"See? I told you everything would be okay, Linky!" Leni leaned forward on her palms, grinning from ear to ear alongside her father. "Mama cares about you so much! She wants to be the best mommy she can be for you."
Rita smiled and rubbed the top of Lincoln's head, "She's very right, sweetpea. I'm here to take care of you, because I'm your mommy, understand?"
Lincoln sniffled and dug his fingers into the cloth of her sleeve, "Yes, M-M-Mo—" He clenched up, "Yes, Missus Mommy…"
Leni couldn't help but frown a little. It sounded like Lincoln was so close to shaking that guarded moniker, so close to acknowledging who his actual mother was now.
She supposed it really was too soon to expect that, unfortunately.
Rita seemed unbothered though, she just continued to comfort Lincoln, whispering soothing hushes to him and rubbing his back as he nuzzled her arm.
"Now," Rita said, sitting back and tilting Lincoln's head up to look at her. "That's enough feeling bad for one day, don't you think?" She chuckled and looked to Leni, followed shortly by Lincoln, "Why don't you go play with your sister? Judging by what we've seen today, she seems pretty good at brightening your day, isn't she?"
Lincoln sniffled and brought his sleeve up to wipe his nose. "Yeah, she is," He declared, looking at Leni bashfully.
Leni's heart warmed a few motes, Oh, Linky… She moved forward, "Linky, I was doing some reading before you and mama got home. Do you maybe want me to read to you? I can find a book that I know you'll love!"
Lincoln took a last little sniffle, lowering his sleeve, "I'd like that…"
Leni closed the distance between her and Lincoln, extending her hand for him to take with a smile filled to the brim with caring warmth. "Then c'mon, I'll find you the best book we've got!"
…
"And with the rain clouds gone, the little caterpillar sprung from his cocoon, following the rainbow to be with the rest of his friends forevermore." Leni flipped the page to the final illustration of a beautiful butterfly with stained-glass wings fluttering towards a watercolor rainbow. "The end."
She turned to face the boy she had been reading to for the past hour, smiling softly when she saw him. "Did you like that story, Linky?" She asked with a knowledgeable giggle.
Lincoln yawned a great squeak of a yawn in response, pulling the little purple blanket that was wrapped around him tighter. "Mmhmm," He mumbled, his head lolling against the couch cushion. His eyes fluttered shut and he turned on his side, "You're the best reader, Leni…"
Leni chuckled and put the book down with the others she had read, "Aww, thanks, Linky."
"You have a really pretty voice," Lincoln went on.
Leni's cheeks tinged pink, "And you are the sweetest little thing on the planet!" She hopped off the couch, "Do you want me to go get Mama or Daddy to take you upstairs to bed?"
Lincoln shook his head, "No thank you, can I stay here with you?"
Leni's face brightened, "Sure thing, Linky." She reached out and fluffed the couch cushion his head was on, centering it so his neck was better supported. "I like being with you, y'know?"
Lincoln repositioned himself with the pillow, falling closer to slumber as Leni pulled the blanket over him again before it fell. "I like being with you, too," He said in a hush. His head drooped and sank into the soft material of the pillow fabric. "You're so nice…and so smart, you're the smartest girl in the world, Leni."
Leni really wanted to hug her brother in that moment, but in light of him falling asleep seconds later, she opted for another form of affection.
"And you're the best little brother a girl could ask for," She declared, leaning forward and placing a kiss on his forehead, just to the left of the center. "And I'll always love you, my little Linky…"
And within Lincoln's dreams, a ball of teal green light burst to life amongst the darkness, sending the sound of ringing bells through his mind and bringing a warmth mimicking that of the kiss that had been laid on his forehead.
Another light to ward off the boy's fears.