Undo Undo [Loan/Lincoln] [/tlvg/]

Ctrl-Z. Line. Ctrl-Z. Line? Ctrl-Z. Line? Fuck. Ctrl-Z.

Lincoln sighed. His face bathed in the soft glow of the tablet screen, dark bags hung under his eyes after years of all-nighters. He needed to get this linework done or it was gonna be another earful from the editor. A sliver of light came through a crack in the blackout blinds of a nearby window, was it a full moon tonight? He didn’t have time to answer that. His phone was flashing at him, speak of the devil. He picked up the phone and swiped instantly.

“Hello? Tom? Yeah, I’m-“ Lincoln says into the phone while taking a couple more errant strokes on his tablet.

“Is this Lori Loud?” A decidedly tired woman said from the other end.

“Uh, no, this is her brother.” Lincoln said, placing the pen down. What kind of trouble has Lori gotten into?, he thought.

“Sir, we have been trying to reach your sister for the past day and we have been unable to reach her. This-“ The woman says before Lincoln interrupts.

“Oh, God, did something happen to Lori!?” Lincoln shouts over the phone.

“Not to my knowledge, sir. But I called this number as it was listed as an alternate, her daughter is in our hospital. We need someone here, as soon as possible.” The voice was getting a bit agitated, but maintaining a professional calm.

“What? Why? What happened?” Lincoln said, Loan was her name, right?

“Miss Loan, am I saying that right? Like a house loan?” The voice says a bit more unsure than it was.

“It’s pronounced Lo-Anne.” Lincoln corrects like he had been about 18 years ago. He had no idea where Lori had picked up that name.

“Alright, I’ll make a note here. Sir, the reason I called was that your niece had a panic attack during one of her final exams and during the attack, fell and hurt herself.” Lincoln could hear a pen running across paper.

“Why do you need me?” Lincoln said, it seemed like she could be released just fine.

“Someone needs to sign the forms and protocol is to release her into parental care.”

“B-but, I’m not-“ Lincoln begins before he is cut off.

“Sir, we’re gonna keep trying to contact Ms. Lori Loud, but, in the mean time, we need someone here to sign forms and make sure that girl doesn’t wake up alone.” The woman says a bit softer.

“Yeah. I get it. Where are you anyways? My sister and I haven’t been in much contact, recently.” Lincoln says as he opens up a travel site.

“The Miriam Hospital, in Providence, Rhode Island, sir.” The nurse says.

“Alright, I’ll book a flight for tomorrow. Thank you, good night.” Lincoln says, his exhaustion soaking into his voice.

“Uh, good morning, sir.” The nurse says before hanging up.

“What?” Lincoln says, he turns to the pulled blackout curtain on the window next to his desk. He throws it open to reveal a bright winter’s day, powdered snow cloaking his backyard. “Oh, for Pete’s sake!”

--------------------------------------------------------
Lincoln set another box down in the living room, marked ‘OFFICE’ in thick black marker. He flexed his arms a bit, his shoulders were already aching and he still needed to empty out Vanzilla. He shook his head, the work had to get done one way or another. Just then he heard a scuffling sound, he turned slowly to see a tall, thin blonde in a set of grey sweats and a pair of Skechers moving a small box across the ground. The girl then stood and looked at the box, concerned, before picking the box back up and then placing it down to her right and reassessing the box.

“Loan. Could y- Loan?” He had to repeat her name to get her attention. “Don't worry about the box, we’ll unpack soon. Focus on getting stuff off the truck, please.”

“Okay, Mr. Loud.” Loan said as she nudged the box a bit with her shoes before heading back out to the truck.

“Loan, call me Uncle or Lincoln, even Linc. We’re family.” Lincoln said.

As Loan exited the house, Lincoln sighed and let his shoulders fall, his hand digging into his hair. What was he doing? He thought. He tore up his whole life and now he was in his sister Lori’s house and Lori was nowhere to be found.

Loan came back into the threshold, Lincoln reflexively stood straighter and smoothed his hair.

“Uncle Loud, thanks a lot. I’m sorry that you had to move out here... and that my keys didn’t work.” Loan said as she placed another box down, then wordlessly repositioning it.

“It’s fine. Lori probably…” Lincoln looked to Loan, her eyes were tired, but she was smiling naively. “Probably forgot to tell you that she changed the locks. Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah. I think. The university said that they would give me passing grades for the semester, so that’s good. Mommy is fine, wherever she is.” Loan shifted her weight from one foot to another. “A-and you’re here, Uncle Loud.”

“That’s good, you can focus on your health.” Lincoln said. “There’s only a few more, I’ll get them. Would you mind unpacking some?”

“Sure. Where should I start?” Loan looked around the living room.

“Clothes should be easy. The boxes should be in the bedroom.” Lincoln said as he walked to the open door.

“O-okay. I’ll get right to it, Linc.” Loan said as Lincoln left.

Lincoln had surmised, more from what Loan hadn’t said, that Lori had a habit of going on ‘vacations’. The only irregularity to Loan seemed to be that it was usually only a few days. Lincoln went back to Vanzilla and pushed the boxes to the mouth of the tailgate. He sighed, wiped his sweat away.

“Fuck, Lori. What did you do?” He said.

Lincoln leaned against the van, pulled out a cigarette. He lit it up and took a drag. He had been off them for a month before all of this. It was bad enough for himself, but the example it presented was worse. Lucy’s daughter, Lupa got caught smoking in the school bathroom and he had found some butts in her bedroom. That’s why he wanted to quit, for them. He couldn’t be a dad, at least not by name, but he wanted to be good to them. All of them.

“Screw it.” He threw the fresh cigarette down and ground it with his heel.

He picked up a couple more boxes, gritting his teeth as his elbows whined, and headed in. He put the box down and saw it was actually another box of his clothes. Lincoln cursed under his breath, must have missed it, he picked them back up and started up the stairs to the guest room.