3. House of sadness

Ok, chapter 3 is finally finished. It took me like a day to translate it, and right now I'm too tired to fully check it. I gave it a quick look and it seemed readable enough, but tomorrow I'll really check it. It took me a week, but it's finally here. I could've updated four days ago, but then you would have only half of this chapter. For this chapter is *insert John Cena's theme song and announcer voice* THE ULTIMATE CHAPTER. THE MOST EMOTIONALLY BRUTAL APPROACH ON THE LOUD HOUSE CHARACTERS EVER MADE. A SPECIAL DOUBLE-SIZED ISSUE THAT'S 15% LONGER THAN BOTH PREVIOUS CHAPTERS COMBINED. A GRANTED TEAR MAKING WRITTEN MACHINE THAT WORKS OVERCLOCKING TO ASSURE YOU YOU'LL HAVE THE EMOTIONAL BREAKDOWN THIS STORY'S SUMMARY PROMISED YOU YOU WOULD. THIS CHAPTER HAS A 100% PROBABILITY OF MAKING YOU CRY WITH A 66% CRITICAL HIT RATE. UNLESS YOU HAVE A COLD, FROZEN STONE INSTEAD OF YOUR HEART, THIS CHAPTER RIGHT HERE WILL MAKE YOU SOB LIKE YOU HAVEN'T SINCE CHILDHOOD. STARRING A CAMEO FROM ONE OF THE MOST WELL KNOWN CHARACTERS FROM MODERN TV HISTORY, AND A DETAILED MEDICAL INVESTIGATION RUNNED BY THE AUTHOR TO MAKE THIS AS REAL AS POSSIBLE. ARE - YOU - READY?!

Ok, jokes aside, it's actually the longest chapter, it make me cry, it has a cameo from a special character and I did my homework on the medical issue. I hope you like it. Thank you all for giving me your reviews. It's thanks to the amount of good vibes that you give me in your reviews that I try my best to update as soon as I can. Thank you.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Loud House. If I ever take this thing to Nickelodeon and offer it as the final movie for when they decide to finish the series, then I might. Until then, no. Savino, if you're reading this, e-mail me.

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Chapter 3:House of sadness

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The neighbors usually looked with despise at 1216 Franklin Avenue, the Loud house. There wasn't a time on the day when they couldn't hear the turmoil gestated in that madhouse. The real-estates had been sued for not warning the neighbors they were buying a house next to eleven hyperactive, noisy kids, with little to no respect for other family's privacy. Without any other option, the neighbors just learned to live with the noise. It was like walking under the rain without an umbrella. At first it's really annoying, but there comes a time when your brain decides it's not worth wasting energy trying to acknowledge every single rain drop's impact on your body, so it reaches a state where you know it's raining —and maybe a rain drop on your eye reminds you of it—, but you actually just don't care anymore. That's exactly how the neighbors were used to the Louds.

It was because they were so used to it that, on that Sunday night, they were able to notice that every other night's torrential storm was now just a drizzle. Someone from another neighborhood would've been surprised about the sound of electric guitars, television and what seemed to be karting cars. But the everyday neighbors noticed subtle differences. Obiously, no one put much thought on it. First, because it was none of their business. Second, because a little less noise would always be welcomed. And finally, because they weren't so sure about their perception being right. After all, they could hear quite a mess. Maybe their intuition was wrong.

Little they knew, their intruition couldn't be more right. The key, as always, was in the details.

For example, Luan was watching, as always, her favorite comedy channel, Fail Armada. TV was at max volume, as it was always necessary to hear something above all the noise. But that night her laugh was missing everytime someone did something stupid, or fell from somewhere. The neighbors didn't hear the sound of an american football bouncing on every wall, knocking down the furniture right and left. There was just the sound of a pounding on the door's lintel, caused by Lynn's baseball, which she was throwing as she was waiting sitting on the stairs. The lightshow and explosions from Lisa's room was also absent that night, for she didn't need her machines to read her medical books. Lola and Lana seemed to be doing the same as always, driving the karting inside the house and playing with lizards, respectively. However, both tried to be as close as the entry door as possible, waiting for it to open any second now. Luna seemed to be doing her routine, too, playing the guitar with the amps at full power. But she was't playing nothing from Smooch, Wink-182, Bomb Yovi or Aero is Myth, like she used to do to release her accumulated tension and energy. She was playing a song from We Totally Have a Name, the band the whole Loud family knew she only listened to or played when she was particularly vulnerable. The neighbors wouldn't find much difference, as they would hear the strong guitar riffs and they would think it was just another punk rock song as usual. They, of course, couldn't measure the amount of feeling she was putting into the lyrics of 'Dumb Reminders'.

"Honestly, I'd give anything, to be with you, right now..."

Lucy was the only one who seemed to be doing what she usually did. No one had seen her since they arrived to the house, so they all assumed she was hiding on the vents, writing a poem.

Meanwhile, Lori and Leni were on their room, playing with Lily. Leni was resting on her bed, lifting Lily up. The baby was really enjoying herself, laughing out loud and moving her little arms with excitement. Lori tried to smile seeing that. She really wanted to. Smile, have some fun and distract herself. But the only think she could do was look at her phone. She had sent four messages to their parents, asking where they were, how was Lincoln and if they would be back home for dinner. The four messages had been sent, received and read, but she didn't have any sort of answer from them.

She wanted to keep calm. Really. She only wanted to convince herself that everything was okay. But being the oldest in a family as big as hers, she tended to worry an awful lot about every single one of ther siblings. And, even though she wouldn't ever say it out loud, not even to Bobby, she may worry a little more about Lincoln. The fact that he was in the hospital was really unnerving. Not having any kind of news was just making it worse.

None of them would openly admit it, but they all knew Lincoln was every one's favorite sibling. They didn't spent a lot of time with him; no more than with the rest of their sisters, at least. It wasn't that they didn't fight with him neither. Not even close. They often rationalized it arguing it was because he was the only boy among ten girls. How couldn't they not be so over protective with their only brother?

Maybe it was because they all loved him so much, or because he was actually the only member in the family that managed to always have time for all his sisters. Whatever the reason was, Lori had reached to the conclusion that he was the only one they could always count for. No matter how sad, alone or desperate they were, they knew Lincoln would always be there for them, no matter what. They loved him. And right then, they were really worried.

"I don't get it, Lori", said Leni, as she kept playing with Lily. "In the hospital they give you medicines, right?"

"Yes."

"Then why don't they give Lincoln, like, the medicine he needs so he can get better? Why's he still there?"

"I don't know."

"But he's okay, right? Mom and dad would tell us if he wasn't, right?"

Lori didn't answer her. She was checking her phone, trying to find an answer to that very same question. She closed her eyes and rised a hand to her forehead. She was having a headache because of the nerves. It wasn't helping how loud the house was. Until now, she was being merciful —she didn't wanted to upset her sisters, knowing they were as nervous as she was. But her parents had put her in charge, and she needed to make sure that everything was under…

Ding!

A few seconds of silence after the doorbell rang, and then any trace of control remaining in the house was completely lost. Lori and Leni ran downstairs, almost crashing with Luna. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they found the rest of their sisters fighting to open the door.

"Alright, stop it!", screamed Lori. "Lynn, open the door."

Since she was right next to the door, she hurriedly opened it, with the twins poking out from her sides.

"Lincoln?" the three of them said, before actually seeing who it was.

"Um, no, I'm Jeff" said a confused teenage boy with some acne troubles, who was carrying two unmistakable square boxes, "Pizza Planet?"

Never, in his five weeks on that half-time job, Jeff had seen ten persons so disappointed for receiving their pizzas on time. The three little girls that had opened the door looked at him with despise.

"Stupid pizza", muttered Lynn, walking away from the door, looking for her baseball.

Lori paid the pizzas and she was able to carry them to the table without any of her sisters trying to grab them. That only accentuated their emotional state. Anyway, as soon as she opened the first special twelve-sliced pizza, they all immediately took theirs. They ate, enjoying the delicious flavour of melted cheese. They hadn't really thought about it, but they hadn't eat since lunch in the hospital, and they were hungry. With their stomachs being filled again, the Loud sister's humour started to get better immediately.

"This is great for my diet, since I need to cheddar a few pounds. Ha ha! Get it?"

"The new episode of Princess and Dragons it's about to start, and someone has to watch it with me!" yelled Lola, looking angrily at everyone.

"Puaj, not today. I need to take care of Izzy. He's about to shed his skin!"

"Eew, that's like, totes disgusting" said Leni.

"This pizza is the only thing that can partially fill the empty void of my dark soul."

"The cheese seems to be only half a celsium degree from its melting point, leaving it in the perfect spot to enjoy it's flavour properties."

"It's rich" said Lynn.

"Eat the rich, take one bite now, come back for more" hummed Luna.

"Speaking of more", said Lana, finishing her slice and standing on top of the table. "I'm ready to fight for the last slice of…!"

Her smile and determination faded as she saw the box. There was no last slice. There were two.

"We don't need to fight", said Lori, noticing how all her sisters were looking at the slice that shouldn't be there. "I bought two pizzas."

She opened the other one, and they all had seconds. The second half of the dinner was much more silent than the first one.

As soon as they finished their meal, every sister went back to whatever they were doing before the delivery came. Lori was going up the stairs when her phone started vibrating. She checked it. She stood still in the middle of the stairs, completely frozen, reading the message over and over.

She then ran to her room. She took her whistle and went back to the living room. She blowed as hard as she could so they would all hear her. They might be distracted, but the girls knew that not responding to Lori's whistle could only bring them bad news. A few seconds later, all the girls and pets were waiting in line. Lynn and Lucy looked at each other after noticing an empty space between them.

"Alright, listen up" said Lori, walking in front of her sisters. She wasn't wearing her glasses or her military jacket, but she inspired fear nonetheless. "It's almost nine o' clock, and tomorrow's monday. That means we all have school, and we're already past our bedtime to have a good rest."

"Actually, sleep cycles take in average one and a half hours, and a good night rest consists of..."

"Lisa" interrupted her Lori, standing next to the little one. "You shall not speak unless you're asked to. Undestood?"

"Yes, ma'am" answered Lisa.

"Excelent. As I was saying, it's time to go to sleep. You have ten minutes to arrange yourselves, and then you will ALL head to your rooms, where you'll be resting until falling asleep."

"But Lincoln isn't..."

"Those are my orders!" yelled Lori, shutting down any protest. "Now, to your rooms. If I find one of you getting out to somewhere that's not the bathroom, you'll wish you never were that brave."

Quickly, they all went upstairs, to their rooms. Lori turned away, sighing, and took her phone out to read once again the message.

"Lori?"

The blonde turned around. Luan was at the bottom of the stairs, some steps under Luna.

"Luan" said Lori, getting back on his dictatorial facade. "I think I was clear when I said..."

"Did something happened to Lincoln?" the younger one asked, with her hands crossed over her chest.

Lori didn't answered. She kept looking at the phone.

"Did they tell you something?" asked again.

"I… I don't know".

"Lincoln's our brother too" said Luna, angrily walking towards Lori. "If something… If they told you something, you better tell us."

"I don't know anything more than you do!" Lori said, showing them her phone. Both sisters quickly read the message.

Lori, take your sisters to bed early and make sure they get to school in time tomorrow morning. Your mother and I will stay here tonight.

"That's it?" said Luan, getting nervous. "Why are they staying in the hospital? Is he okay? What if something happened? Why wouldn't they tell us?"

"Shh, shh, calm down" said Lori, hugging her. "Calm down. They probably… They probably don't have the results yet. The hospital can't let him go if they don't know what he has. Maybe he needs to stay in for a night, for observation, y'know? Maybe mom and dad don't want him to be alone in the hospital, okay? Don't worry."

Even though she was actually trying to convince herself, her words seemed to calm Luan down. Lori looked at Luna.

"Everything's gonna be alright. Now, go to sleep. We all need to rest."

"Okay. Lucy, Lana, Lola, here's your stop" said Lori, leaving the younger ones at their elementary school.

The three girls went out of the van right away, going to their classrooms. Having dropped Lisa at the local college where she would discourse about atom colliders and their use on the jelly industry, only the five older sisters were on the van. Middle and high school was just a few blocks away, so they quickly got there. School, homework and being with their friends was just what they all needed right now.

"Our PE teacher said she would let us play with real tennis racquet, and not just those wood palets. I'm sure I can serve a ball from the gym to the house across the street."

"You better enjoy it, since it will be the last time they let you use them."

"Pff, PL-EASE, the moment they see my serve, they'll be begging me to play on the regionals."

"I'm sure they will."

Lori parked the van on the school's parking lot. She was about to get out along with her sisters when her phone started vibrating again. Thinking it was Bobby, impatient to see her, she checked it. Her whole body tensed when she saw it was a message from her parents, and as she was reading it, her blood started to get colder and colder.

Lori, as soon as you take your sisters to school, come to the hospital with Leni. Just the two of you. Don't let the others find out.

She started breathing hard, and her heart was working double time. They hadn't told her anything odd. It was nothing to worry about, just to go to the hospital with Leni. Nothing in that message seemed to imply anything bad had happened. Why, then, her heart seemed to be preparing to receive terrible news?

"Lori! You'll be late" yelled Lynn, seeing her sister still inside the van.

Lori tried to settle. She had to go to the hospital with Leni, without the rest of her sisters findind out. She needed an excuse.

"You guys go ahead. Leni, come with me."

"But school's over there" said Leni, pointing to the italian restaurant on the corner, before adjusting her aim.

"Just get over here, we need to go home" she answered, sounding irritated.

"Why do you need to go back gome?" Asked Luan. "And why are you taking Leni?"

"Because..." her brain was looking for an excuse that allowed no questioning. What could she…? Of course. "I had one of those incidents. You know… That kind of incident."

"Oooooh" said the four sisters, suddenly sympathetic.

"And why do I have to go with you?" Asked Leni.

"Because I ran out of equipment and I need to borrow some from you, ok? And I literally don't know where the heck you have your things, so get in the van and let's get out of here."

She sounded so irritated that her aliby looked much more real. Leni said goodbye to her sisters, and she entered the van once again. Lori quickly drove away from the parking lot, driving down the street.

"That's odd", said Lynn, suspiciously. "Our house is in the other direction."

"And Lori already had that this month. I think she's ovary acting. Ha ha! Get it?"

"She looked kinda nervous. Why sould she…?"

Luna didn't finished her sentence. The three of them suddenly realized something.

"Lincoln!" They said.

"The hospital's that way!" said Luan, pointing out the direction Lori went.

"Do you think something happened to him?" Asked Lynn, worried.

"She was reading a text. Do you think they called her?"

"Maybe… Should we stay or should we go?" Asked Luna.

"What do you mean? Of course we need to go!"

"But, Lynn, what about school? What about your tennis class?"

"Luan, we're talking about Lincoln. Fuck that tennis class."

Normally, they would've told her not to swear, but right then, neither Luna or Luan were worried about it.

After twenty minutes of the worst traffic ever, Lori finally parked in the hospital's parking lot. She got out of the car, followed by Leni, and started hurriedly walking towards the entry.

"Wow, it must be really painful for you to come to the hospital" said Leni, commiserating her and trying to keep up with her pace.

"We're not here for me."

"What? But I'm okay! Why did you bring me if I'm…?"

Lori suddenly stopped and turned around to see her sister, who almost bumped against her.

"We're here to see Lincoln, Leni! For God's sake, don't you understand anything?!"

Leni was taken aback, surprised by her sister's reaction. She was about to say something, when someone interrupted her.

"I knew it!"

The older sisters looked back to se Lynn, running right at them followed by Luna and Luan.

"What?" Said Lori, dumbfounded. "How did you get here?"

"Chunk gave us a ride" answered Luna, clearly pissed off. "What are you doing here? Why did you come here without us?"

"Listen, mom and dad told me to come. I don't know..."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Demanded Luan.

"They told me to only tell Leni!"

"How could you? He's our brother!"

Lori's instinctive reaction would've been to yeel Lynn that she already knew that. Maybe her most primitive instinct would've made her wanted to smack her out of rage. But Lori was trained to keep it cool. So she closed her eyes and breathed out three, four times.

"Look… You're right. I shouldn't have kept this from you. They didn't want you to know, but you're all here now, so it doesn't matter. I don't know why they called me, so don't ask me. Just… Keep it down, alright? Now, let's go see our brother."

"There!" said Lynn, completely forgeting the rule about keeping it quiet inside the hospital.

They had somehow managed to enter the room area without any doctor stopping them. However, Lynn probably just alerted all the doctors in the floor about their presence there. They went straight to the room Lincoln was staying the day before. The door was closed, but it had a big glass panel that allowed them to look inside. The five sisters tried to look through it.

They immediately recognized Lincoln standing next to the windows, looking outside. His doctor was standing besides him, speaking.

"Lincoln!" Called him Lynn, as she tried to open the door. But it was locked.

"Don't scream" tried to tell her Lori.

"Lincoln! It's us!"

The doctor looked at them, but Lincoln kept looking at the window. The two of them exchanged some words. The doctor seemed to be insisting on something, but Lincoln kept shaking his head. Finally, the doctor sighed and went to the door.

"Lincoln! Lincoln!" Was calling him Lynn, confused at seeing him turning around and heading to his bed, without even looking at them.

As soon as the doctor opened the door and stepped out of the room, the girls started to assault him with questions. There were too many girls speaking too loud at the same time, so the doctor naturally couldn't understand them.

"Okay, okay, calm down. Let's talk one at a time."

"How is he?" Asked Luan.

"Listen, your parents went to the cafeteria, they'll be back soon..."

"Can we see him? Please?" Said Lynn, consciously ignoring the fact that the doctor had avoided the question.

"He… Lincoln wants to be alone, for now."

"What?" They all said with one voice.

They started to speak in a helter-skelter manner once again.

"Girls!"

Fortunately for the doctor, the Loud parents were just arriving from the cafeteria, with a bag of sandwiches and two Starbucks.

"Lori! We told you to only bring Leni!" Reproach her Mr Loud.

"What's going on? Why did you spend the night here?" Asked Luan.

"Why aren't you telling us what's going on? Why only speak to Lori? We deserve to know just as much as she does!" Yelled Luna, clearly angry.

The parents looked at each other. The finally sighed, and their change of attitude confused the girls.

"You're right. You deserve to know. Listen, Lincoln wants to be alone right now, so let's not bother him. Let's go to the waiting room and we'll talk there, okay?"

With one last look at their brother's room, the five girls finally nodded and followed their parents to the empty waiting room. Once they were all sitting, the parents drank a sip of coffee, and it was then that the girls noticed their looks. They were totally disheveled and unkempt. Her mother was wearing no make up, meaning she had been washing her face. Both of them had big eye bags, and their eyes looked swollen. It didn't look like they had a good night's sleep.

"Look, girls..." started the mother, but she stopped when she couldn't find the right words.

"We're sorry we only spoke with Lori. We thought that, since she is the eldest, it was better to try to speak with her first."

"About what?" Asked Lynn, who was squeezing tightly her chair, like her sisters.

For some long, endless seconds, the only thing that could be heard was Luna's feet drumming the floor, trying without success to calm her.

"Lincoln..."

"What about him?" Impatiently asked Luan.

The tension in the air could've been cut with a single finger.

"He's… sick", said Mr Loud.

"Sick? How come? It was just a… I hit him with the ball and he fainted", said Lynn.

"No. It wasn't that. Lincoln was sick before that, it's just we… We didn't know. We… We didn't realize…" Said Ms Loud, her voice trailing off and her gaze lost somewhere, like she was thinking out loud.

"What do you mean 'before that'? Since when?" Asked Lori, trying to think about the best outcome for this conversation. Wishing with all her heart that this was going to have a happy ending.

"A long time. He's..."

Mr Loud raised his hands to his face, rubbing it a couple of times, cleaning out his forehead's sweat and massaging his temples.

"Now, listen, take it easy. Don't go… Don't panic, and—"

"Panic?! Why should we panic?!" Asked Leni, panicking.

Mr Loud finally sighed. He took his cup of coffee and took a deep sip. He looked at the dark liquid, and then he spoke.

"Lincoln has tumors in his head."

A plane could've crashed in the parking lot. A man could've entered that same hall with a gun and started shooting everywhere. A tornado could've ripped off the hospital's roof and dragged them out to the sky. Anything could've happened, and the girls wouldn't even noticed it. They all felt an invisible force grabbing their hearts on its cold grip, squeezing it, impending its normal functioning. Their lungs forgot their function, and after the air escaped them, it took them a couple of seconds to breath in again. They stood still, looking at their parents. They all knew Luan had inherited her dad's awful humor. They were hoping that any time now, he would tell them it was a joke. Then they could scream at him, hit him, hate him for the rest of their lives for such a bad taste joke. They were willing to give up their allowance and never speak to him again as long as it was all a joke. It had to be a joke.

But, never in their lives, had they seen him so serious.

"What?" Was everything Luna could whisper.

"He's got tumors." Repeated Mr Loud.

"What's wrong with having humours?" Asked Leni. She was absolutely sure she hadn't heard "humours", but she also knew she was a little dumb, and sometimes misheard things. She was hoping to be even dumber than she thought she was, and that she actually had heard wrong.

"Tumors, Leni. Tumors. They're growth of tissues that forms… I mean, they're like tiny little flesh balloons that shouldn't be there." Explained her mother.

"B-But… He.. How?" Luan couldn't even finish a sentence.

"It's a real long name condition" said Mr Loud, grabbing his wife's hand. "A genetic disorder. One of those disorders that only happens every once in a couple of hundreds of thousands."

"But how did this happened?" Asked Lori, trying to keep her brain from thinking in what this meant. "How come no one ever noticed it? He never fainted like this."

"It's a sickness that takes its time to appear. He had the symptoms, but… It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter now."

"So, now what?" Asked Lynn, finally managing to speak. "How will they cure him?"

The parents were looking at the ground.

"Is he going to surgery?" Asked Lynn again, her fingers getting white for the strenght with which she was squeezing her seat.

Silence.

"Then what?" She screamed, smacking down the cup of coffee her father was holding. "How do you treat this? Rays? Radiation? Pills? Injections? How? Do we need to get a donor? What do we do? How can we cure him?"

Her mother looked up, and Lynn had to walk back to her seat, for her athletic and well trained legs suddenly forgot how to stand when she saw her mother crying.

"We can't."

Two weeks. Maybe three.

Lincoln thought about the Olympic Games. Everybody was waiting them for years. People started to get really hyped some weeks before they started. Countries spend fortunes, the athletes dedicated every single minute of their lives preparing for them. They arranged their schedules, their training, their diet, everything just to enter the Olympics at their best. One day the Games starts, and every single TV channel only talks about them every hour, every day. Suddenly, everybody was an expert about sports they hadn't even heard of before.

Two weeks later, the Games ends. Athletes go home and people forget about them. Nobody cares about archery anymore. Who the hell is Michael Phelps? It was amazing to think so much joy and so many things could be contained in only two weeks. So many years of waiting, fulled of dreams, goals, challenges and preparation, all of them finally happening in two weeks. If you think about it like that, two weeks seemed like a lot of time.

But athletes came back home to train. People got back to their jobs and hobbies. Countries kept being countries.

Lincoln was just going to die.

The doctor explained it to him the night before. He was sick. He had tumors inside his head, and they had expanded. There was no way they could tell when, but it would soon reach his heart, which would stop working, and he would die. The doctor took his time explaining the whole process of the disease. He detailed the causes, the reasons, the organism responses. It was like he was reading a book. A really intersting chapter of the "Things that will kill you and we don't know how to fix, volume five". He seemed to be studying for a lessons, for an exam.

So Lincoln didn't pay attention. He wasn't a doctor. He didn't care the fascinating history of his tumors. He only cared that he was going to die. At eleven years old. In two weeks. Maybe three.

Lincoln never really thought about death. Who thinks about death, besides Lucy? No one. People live thinking about life, because they're alive. Everybody has some idea about death. They know it's something unavoidable, that everyone will have their time. But no one actually tries to understand it, since they believe their "time" is still far away. Maybe old people think about death. Perhaps a soldier finds himself thinking about death. A kid definitely shouldn't be thinking about death, let alone being forced to see it as something close. No kid should be thinking that he's going to die in two weeks. Maybe three.

He didn't cry, though. He didn't when the doctor told him the news. He didn't neither when he saw his parents crying, teared apart by the news. His mother's screams almost did it, but it was more because he was seeing his mother cry rather than because he was going to die. He didn't cry in the whole night, even though he was awake the entire night with his parents, not even closing his eyes for a second.

He wasn't sad. He was, mostly, angry. Because it was unfair.

The whole situation was an injustice. And that made him angry. That's why he throwed his food tray agains the wall. That's why his parents went to the cafeteria to buy a new breakfast and the doctor tried to talk with him, even though he didn't listened. Because he wasn't sad, he was angry.

And then he heard Lynn's voice. He heard his sisters trying to open the door, calling his name. And then yes, he was about to cry. He would have, but he didn't want to. He asked the doctor to leave him alone and keep his sisters out. He rested on his bed, trying to think about something else, because he didn't wanted to cry.

The door opened. He sighed, without looking away from the food stain on the wall. He heard someone coming in and locking the door again. It wasn't his sistes or his parents. It was probably the doctor. But there was something odd. His steps were accompanied by a thud, like there was something hitting the floor.

"Oh, it's okay, just ignore me. You can keep staring at the wall. I'm pretty sure it's intersting, with that new food stain you put. Fan of Pollock, aren't ya?"

Lincoln turned around to see the man who had spoken. He didn't recognized him. He was a tall man, wearing some old jeans and a blue shirt under a black suit. His hair was short, hoary and unkempt, with a two days beard that he didn't seem to mind. His stern face made him look like a serious guy, but nothing else from him seemed to support that idea. The most notorious thing was his cane, all black with some red flames at the bottom.

"Who are you?" Asked Lincoln, trying to sound nice.

"I'm your doctor" the man answered, sitting on the empty bed in the room.

"No, you're not. Mi doctor's shorter and—"

"Less handsome? Yeah, that's right", he interrupted him, while he took a a small bottle, took out a pill and swallowed it without water or any other liquid. "But that's just one of the doctors working for me. My name is Dr. Gregory House, and I'm in charge of your case."

"My case?"

"Don't feel special. It's just that some cases are harder to diagnose than others. The human body has a lot of parts, as you may know, and a lot of things can happen to each part. Sometimes it's hard to figure what's the actual problem. And it turns out I'm really good at guessing. I love medical puzzles."

"And I am a medical puzzle?" Asked Lincoln, confused.

"Not exactly. A pretty particular case, indeed, but not as challenging as I first thought you were going to be. Anyway, you're lucky I took your case. Otherwise, you would've stayed here for a couple of days without anyone figuring out what you have. God only knows this place's food sucks."

"Why do you sound so happy? They told me I'm going to die, but you speak like this is a game."

"And you're speaking like your girlfriend decided to play boo-boo-bear with the dumb bully that steals your lunch money", answered the doctor, inclining his head with interest. "My colleague, the less handsome doctor, said you haven't cried a single tear. He doesn't believe it's a defense mechanism, since you were ready to cry a little while ago. But you refused to do it, and managed to held back. That means you either don't understand what's going on, or you do and you've accepted it within a day. Either way, it's a really strange reaction for an eleven years old boy. So I came here to see it for myself and figure out if you're just an idiot or you're actually the most mature boy I've ever seen in my life."

Lincoln didn't answered. He kept looking at the wall. He remembered how just the day before he had an argument with her sisters about him being very mature. It all seemed so far away…

"Invisible note" said the doctor out loud, holding an imaginary recorder near his mouth. "It all seems to indicate that he's an idiot."

"I know what they told me", answered Lincoln, frowning. "I'm going to die in two weeks. I'm not an idiot."

"They why aren't you cryin' like any normal person in this world would?"

"Sometimes people react different to the same thing. When you're in a family as big as mine, you learn that."

"Oh, yes, I've heard about your mormon parents."

"They're not—"

"Still, I'm the doctor here. I had to tell a lot of people that they were going to die. Believe me, everyone has some kind of reaction."

"I throw a food tray agains the wall. Isn't that a reaction?"

"Yes, it is a logical reaction… when you're basketball team loses. Or when you get an F on school. Damn, it's a logical reaction for figuring out the perfect comeback for a discussion that already ended. Now, is it a logical reaction to be reminded of your own mortality by being told that you only got two more weeks? That asks for a bigger reaction. How do you feel knowing that?"

Lincoln definitely didn't like this doctor. He was talking fast, and he wasn't behaving like a real doctor. He was taking this whole thing like like a normal chat, without giving it the importance the situation deserved. As he was thinking about it, though, Lincoln remembered the other doctor, the one that recited by memory his disease, like reading notes. This doctor House seemed to be interested about him, Lincoln, as a person. Even if it was in some twisted medical puzzle way, he wanted to know about him. And, strangely enough, that made Lincoln decide to keep talking with him.

"I don't know. I'm sad, but not as much as I think I should be. I'm not sure I fully digested what this means."

"That makes sense. But if you're aware that you haven't fully digested the news it's because you know there's something more than what you've been thinking through, which means you have a slight idea of the implications this has, so you actually know how bad this is. Therefore, it doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe. But I'm angry."

"With whom?"

"Nobody. Everybody. It's unfair."

"Life's not fair, kid."

"Well, it should be. Why do I have to die this young? Why are bad people living long healthy lives and good people dying when they shouldn't? Why didn't the doctors diagnosed me when there was time to save me?"

"Oh, come on", said House, standing up and walking across the room. "There are over seven billion people in this world, and we're just a small grain of sand in this galaxy, which is not even the only one in the cosmos. Do you really think the Universe cares wether it's being fair with an eleven year old boy in this town that doesn't even have an updated Google Street View? Unless you believe in the existence of a long bearded man sitting in space counting every time a mockingbird dies in the universe, you shouldn't be surprised finding out sometimes bad stuff happens. There's no justice, there's no fair or unfair. There're just stuff that happens, sometimes we like them, sometimes we don't."

Lincoln looked at him. He was definitely the worst doctor in the world. A forty-something man yelling at an eleven years old boy that was diagnosed with a terminal disease. Normally, he would be really scared about an adult talking to him like that, but in that moment he actually wanted to hit him. He thought about what his sisters would do if they knew how that guy was treating him.

His sisters…

Doctor House saw Lincoln's face sadden, suddenly looking like he was about to cry. He looked down and close his eyes. With a sigh, he sat on the boy's bed, carefully enough to not be sitting over one of his legs. The both of them were silent, not even looking at each other.

"It's not the doctor's fault", House finally said.

Lincoln looked up.

"Perhaps, if some of them would've ordered some unnecessary exam out of a hunch, then they could've found it. But as I said, yours it's a really particular case. A lot of variables and coincidences. Did the doctor explained you what you have?"

"Yes. It's fibro… Fibrotomo..."

"Neurofibromatosis type one" completed House. "This particular type is when you have tumors on your brain nerves. It's usually hereditary, but there's a little less than a one percent chance for it to happen without any family antecedent."

"Lucky me", said Lincoln with a little resignated smile. House smiled aswell.

"It's a very complex disease that can manifestate in different forms. It can present its symptoms right away, or it can remain hidden and one day it suddenly appears. There are some signs, some symptoms. One of the most common is the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD."

"Do I have that?" Said Lincoln, surprised. "How come no one ever realized it?"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure everyone noticed it. Let me guess, you have some concentration problems, you live turning everyday situations into intricate James Bond-like missions and you're really good doing a lot of small tasks one after another one, probably playing with each one of your sisters doing their sister's stuff."

Lincolns stared open mouthed, confirming the doctor's theory.

"Alright, but guess what? You were born in the communication era, when the average attention span of the human being has been reduced to twenty minutes. And you live with ten sisters, for godsake. If you had an average concentration level, you'd either be deaf or autistic. Only by reading your family records and seeing so many names, any doctor would assume you have some kind of manufactured ADHD."

Lincoln was dumbfounded.

"Anyway, that's one of the symptoms. But if being born in the biggest family on this State looks like a disastrous coincidence, you're gonna love this one: your grandfather is albino."

"Pop-Pop?"

"Exactly. I mean, I guess. But the thing is, your grandfather was born with a genetic condition, usually hereditary that can skip generations that makes him have, among other things, completely white hair. Cool, huh? When you were two years old and your hair started turning white, any doctor would think it was due to a slow activation of your grandfather's gene. Of course, they didn't had anywhere else to look. In a year or two, you would've started growing dark hairs everywhere, and maybe they would've considered the posibility of your white hair being the result of a discoloration produced by little tumors afecting the proper distribution of melanin in your scalp. If THAT doesn't seem like a a series of unfortunate events, then listen up: usually, a tumor may only produce discoloration on a single lock of hair, but yours were perfectly spread to make your head look like a beautiful snowflake."

Lincoln rested agains his pillow and took a hand to his hair.

"I… I shouldn't have my hair white?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say you should be either blond or brown."

"All this time..."

"Yep. The signs were there, but circumstances made everyone dismissed them."

It all looked like a dream. Like an intrincate TV movie plot. It was the perfect series of events for a comedy. It seemed so unreal for it to be true. And yet, he knew it was. He was dying because of it.

"You know? I usually don't go back on what I've already said. But now that I told you all this things out loud… Well, maybe the universe was unfair with you. I mean, all this shit and you couln't even enjoy only son's priviliges like your parents buying you new clothes instead of having girly hand-me-downs? You must've really messed up in another life to have such an awful luck. I had three cousins growing up, and it was usually unbearable. I pity you, kid."

Lincoln raised his head. House was looking at him with a little smile, like he was waiting for a reaction. Then it hit Lincoln. He wasn't telling him all of this to make him feel better. He just wanted to see him cry, telling him the details of his unfortunate fate. It was just a morbid talk to see his reaction.

He wouldn't allow this to continue.

"Did you really came here just to see if I cry or not? Would you like to see me cry? Would your curiosity be satisfied if you see me crying? Tough luck. Do you really want to know why I'm not crying? Because I'm thinking about me. I'm thinking about the time I have left, all the things I didn't do and all the things that I will never get to do. Because I'm thinking if it will hurt or not when I die, or if it's going to feel like falling asleep or fainting. I think about me, and I get angry, and I get sad, but it's not so bad. You know why? Because two or three weeks from now I'll be dead, and it won't matter anymore if I'm happy or not. 'Cause I'll be dead! And by thinking about me, I avoid thinking about the other ones. I avoid thinking about my parents. About how much are they going to cry when I'm gone, and how will that affect them. And most importantly, I avoid thinking about my sisters."

He paused a second to wipe his eyes, that had started to sweat.

"I don't think that I won't be playing with them anymore. That I won't be fighting or chatting with them. I stop thinking that Lori won't take me to the mall to buy comics anymore, and buy me an icecream if I behave! I stop thinking that Leni won't be using me as a male model for her hand-made clothes! I distract myself from thinking Luna won't sing me a song when I'm feeling blue anymore, or that Luan won't cheer me up with her videos of people falling from bicycles! I'm not thinking I won't be playing sports with Lynn, or that I won't hear Lucy's new poems! I don't wonder wether Lola's going to win the national Miss Princess pageant or if Lana's going to become the best plumber! I avoid thinking if Lisa will find something that will change the history of humanity forever! And I definitely avoid thinking that I won't be there to see what kind of girl will Lily grow up to be! That's why I don't cry, because I don't think about all those things! Is your puzzle solved now?!"

House stayed there, looking at the wall. He pretended to ignore Lincoln's sobs and his hard breathing. He pretended he didn't noticed the boy's hospital gown was now soaked, and that it kept getting wetter as the tears flowed from his eyes. He stayed silent for ten long minutes, until Lincoln finally managed to calm himself. He covertly passed him a box of tissues, which Lincoln used to wipe his tears and clean his nose.

Lincoln didn't even looked at him anymore. He had his arms crosed, looking nowhere in particular. He didn't wanted to speak with that man.

"You should've died."

Dang it.

"Thank you, doctor House."

"No, seriously. You were just a few minutes from dying. The headache you were having the last few days were due to one of the tumors growing against a brain artery. Yesterday, it finally detached, and ended up inside one of the main veins, blocking it. The intracranial pressure started going high, off the roof. Three more minutes and your vein would've exploted and you would've had a cerebral hemorrhage. Had that happened, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Lincoln didn't looked at him. But he was interested.

"And why didn't it happen?"

"Because your sister hit you in the head with a soccer ball. The impact, thanks to one of those unlikely to happen coincidences of life that only seems to happen to you, split the tumor into smaller ones and started circulating in your blood. The sudden loss of pressure was what made you faint, and one tiny vein on your nose exploted. That explains the nose bleed."

"The other doctor said the smaller tumors went right to my heart. That's what's going to kill me."

"Are you listening to what I'm saying? The tumors in your head are the ones killing you. The ones that were supposed to kill you yesterday. It could've been sooner, it could've been later. Your time was supposed to be yesterday, but your sister gave you three more weeks. She have you a chance to say goodbye, an opportunity most people don't have. Think about it."

Lincoln felt his eyes watering again. He didn't answer. He didn't wanted to think about it. He wanted to stop thinking for some hours. He just wanted this day to be over.

"You are not an idiot." Said House, without looking at him, but with a tone that had a lot of respect in it.

"I wish I could say the same thing about you."

"Pople are idiots. We live surrounded by idiots. And once in a while we found someone who's not. I've treated hundreds, maybe thousands of patients in my career. But I'm pretty sure you're the most mature boy I've ever met."

Lincoln ignored him. House stood up, helping himself with the cane. He stepped away before stopping. He turned around.

"Your sisters were in the hall when I came in. They probably still are there. They wanted to see you. Your decision of not thinking about them so you don't feel sad it's completely logical. The most rational decision would be to stay away from them. It would make everything easier, it would make it hurt less. But, and this comes from someone who loves rational decisions, sometimes they're not the right ones. You're not dead yet, Lincoln. You still have time here. And if there's a single reason why this life's worth living, is to be with the people who makes us feel alive. I don't have that many people in my life. I don't even have a family I can count on. You have a beautiful family. In the end, it will be painful. It will be upsetting. But if you really want to enjoy your last days, don't avoid your sisters."

He was standing there, waiting for the kid to say something, but Lincoln wasn't looking at him. After waiting for a couple of seconds, House nodded, and turned around. His hand was on the door knob when he heard something.

"Tell them they can come in. Please."

House didn't turned around this time. He barely turned his head. Then he nodded once again.

"Farewell, Lincoln."

And then, Dr. House left the room.

The door was open for a minute. He heard some voices coming down the hall, but no one was getting inside the room. Lincoln didn't knew if he was really prepared for this. He had cried fifteen minutes ago, and he was pretty sure he only needed a push to do it again. A part of him was starting to regret this when he heard footsteps. Too afraid to look, he once again rested his gaze upon the food stain on the wall. He didn't even dared to breath. His whole attention was in that stain, until he could no longer contain it. Slowly, he looked up.

Standing near the farthest wall were his five older sisters. They were dressed up to go to school. Lori and Leni had their pants matching their tops, and they looked really pretty while not too sexy to cause them troubles in school. Luna wasn't looking as punk as she usually did, but she still had a black Rhymes 'n' Roses t-shirt. Luan was wearing a common t-shirt, this one with sleeves that went up to her wrists, and Lynn's hair was slightly less messy than usual. What they all had in common was their red swollen eyes. The three oldest had their eye's makeup running down her cheeks.

The five of them were standing right there. They were looking at Lincoln as if he wasn't really there. Like they were afraid that he was an hologram, and that it would fade away if they came too close. Lincoln also stayed in his bed. He wondered if they could see he had been crying too. He didn't wanted to worry them.

Finally, since no one seemed to be ready to make a move, Lincoln decided to stand up. He slowly approached his sisters. Lori was the nearest. He usually looked up to her and saw her really tall, really big. A figure that imposed fear and respect over her younger siblings. Right then, however, she looked like a little girl. Delicate. Fragile. They remained in front of each other for some seconds. Lincoln immediately noticed her trembling lips and her watery eyes that seemed about to melt. It hurted him to see his sister like that. He wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay. He wanted to tell them that they shouldn't worry, that it wasn't as bad as it seemed. But he knew those were lies, and he couldn't convince them otherwise. Maybe doctor House was right after all. You can't avoid situations like that one, no matter how painful they are. Maybe some things were just meant to be painful.

He looked Lori in her eyes once again. Surprising even himself, he managed to smile with ease. It was a resignated smile, yes, but a smile nonetheless. Lori bit her bottom lip as soon as she saw that smile. And when Lincoln extended his arms, inviting her to a hug, she let herself fall right on her knees, until she was eye-level with her brother. And she hugged him like she hadn't hugged anyone before. And soon the rest of the sisters gather around and hugged their younger brother. Six souls bonding, sharing a most intimate moment words could not describe.

And the six of them cried.