25. Ch 25- Hospital Visit

(A/N: Hey, guys! Thanks for being patient and supportive as always. The break from the story has helped me to get an idea of what's next for this story. Now, I'll be honest- I know what I'm writing about for the next six chapters, and I know the next step after that, but I'm still trying to think of how to get from… well, I'd say A to B, but at this point it's more like from D to E.

In all seriousness, thank you guys for reading once again, and enjoy!)

"You okay back there, sweetie?" Rita asked, turning around after she put on her seatbelt.

"Yeah, mom, now can we go already?" Lynn Jr replied impatiently.

"Okay, relax, just checking. Alright, let's go." Turning back around, she turned on the engine, and pulled out of the driveway before beginning to drive away. "So, I bet you're excited." Lynn nodded- it was Tuesday, and while that alone was nothing special, it was the day of Lynn's checkup with the physio therapist, which meant that Lynn might finally get her protective boot off and go back to practice. "Well, I know you've been anxious to get back to practice, but I'm glad you've been patient."

"Yeah, I know, wouldn't want to injure myself again." Rita rolled her eyes, knowing that her tone was because she had heard it all before. "Still, it'll be good to get back in the gym and get in a workout. I was going mad watching everyone in PE!"

The mother of eleven chuckled as she turned around the corner. "I know, sweetie, but remember, if the doctor says that you can't go back to practice right away-"

"Yeah…" The athlete of the family sighed. "I know I'll have to listen to him… though, I really don't want to! I've been sat still for too long!"

Again, Rita chuckled. "Honestly, Lynn, it's not as if it's killed you to take a break." When her daughter rolled her eyes, she did the same. "Well, we'll be there soon, Lynn, so hopefully everything will go alright."

"Yeah, you're right." So, for the remainder of the ride, Lynn mostly was quiet unless her mother asked her about something, like if she knew who had broken one of the dinner plates the previous Sunday, or if she asked her mother something, like how Lincoln was doing at dodgeball practice. Fortunately, due to Royal Woods being a small town, the ride only lasted about ten minutes due to traffic, and once the athlete saw that Vanzilla was pulling into the the public parking lot to Royal Woods General Hospital, a grin appeared on her face. "Finally!"

"Alright, Lynn, we're here," Rita spoke up as she turned off the engine.

"Sweet! Let's do this."

So, they got out of the car and locked the door, before entering through the main entrance to the hospital, walking down the white walled corridor to the main reception area. The hospital was usually quite busy, but it was a little bit quieter today, with not as many patients or family members walking about or waiting to be seen. As they approached the desk, a young blonde woman in her mid twenties with glasses looked up from her computer and smiled. "Hello," she greeted.

"Hi, we're here for Lynn Loud Jr," Rita replied with a matching smile. "She has an appointment with Dr Johnson."

"One second, please." She began typing into her computer and waited a few seconds before the results came up. "Alright, Dr Johnson currently has one more patient that he is seeing at the moment, but he should be right with you. Just head down the hall to the left and follow the signs."

"That's great, thank you." The Loud matriarch then led her daughter down the aforementioned hallway and made their way to the correct waiting area, which was fortunately empty, much to Lynn's relief- while she never 'minded' going to the hospital, as such, she was never a fan of being in crowded waiting areas.

'Reminds me too much of being at home,' was her reason. 'Bad enough I have to be here, don't need to be reminded how everyone else is back at home doing what they want.'

"Okay, I'm gonna get some water real quick," Rita told her. "Do you want any?"

"Nah, I'm cool," Lynn replied as she plonked herself down on a chair.

"Alright. I'll be right back."

While her mother began to walk away, Lynn sat there, swinging her previously injured leg back and forth under the chair. If there was one thing Lynn hated more about hospital visits than crowded waiting areas, it was long waits. There was nothing to do for her unless she had her phone on her (which, on this occasion, she did not)- the play toys were too childish and simple for her, the leaflets were either too dull or too drastic, and the fish tank always bored her. One time that she had to go to the dentist, her mom had chastised her for trying to make the fish swim faster, though she had been too young for her to remember exactly what happened, or what happened to the fish after.

As she remembered this fact, the door opened up and Dr Johnson appeared, the tan, dark haired man escorting out a similar looking man in a white t-shirt and grey trousers, rotating his left wrist. "You should be okay, just don't try to lift anything too heavy." As the man walked away after thanking the physio therapist, Dr Johnson saw the thirteen year old and smirked. "Hey, Lynn! Glad to see you're back."

"What up, DJ?" She greeted, making him chuckle at the nickname he gave her. "Yeah, just here to give back the boot I borrowed and trade it for my sneakers."

"I'll bet. Well, provided everything goes well, I can see no reason why you shouldn't rejoin your teammates at practice."

"Ah, Dr Johnson," they heard Rita say as she returned with a plastic cup full of water.

"Hello, Rita! Lovely to see you. Right, so, let's go inside and take a look." He led the two Louds into the room and he sat behind the desk, while Lynn sat on the other side of it and Rita sat next to her daughter. "So, Lynn, have you felt any pain?"

"Nah," she nonchalantly replied. "All good here."

"Any difficulties moving?" She shook her head quickly, her ponytail flicking her in the face. "And have you been doing the exercises I prescribed?"

"Totally! They've been the only thing keeping me sane!"

He chuckled again. "I bet. Well, let's get the boot off and take a look." So, for the next ten to fifteen minutes, he had a look at the girl's leg to check how it had healed. After checking for swelling or bruising, and making sure nothing hurt, he started with the reflex test, making sure to sit side on from her after the time when she nearly kicked him in her nether region. He then had her go through a couple of basic exercises to check her recovery, such as star jumps, step ups and lunges, before having her use the treadmill for a few minutes. Once she was done, she sat back down while the doctor typed into his computer. "Well, Lynn, I'll admit that you're probably the most athletic girl I've treated. Your leg has healed up wonderfully, and you can go back to your teams straight away."

"YES!" she practically roared, leaping up with a fist pump. "Get in!"

He gave a hearty laugh at her energy, then looked at Rita. "If she does complain about any pain, it's probably nothing, so just give her some ibuprofen or some paracetamol, and maybe an ice pack. Other than that, I can't think of any issues she might have."

"That's wonderful," she replied as she stood up. "Thank you, Doctor."

"No problem."

The second that Vanzilla's engine turned off in the driveway, Lynn leapt out of the car- literally, as Lori would say. "Oh, yeah!" The middle schooler cheered. "Lynnsanity is back, baby!"

"Lynn!" Rita called, rolling down the window. "Remember not to break anything while I'm at work!"

"Okay! I'll wait till you get back!"

The dental assistant did not look amused. "Lynn…"

Lynn chuckled. "I'm kidding! Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Rolling her eyes, Rita smiled. "Alright. Lori and most of the girls should be in, but if you decide to go out for a jog or something, make sure someone knows."

"Got it!"

"Alright, I love you sweetie."

"You too, mom!" She watched as her mother drove off, before heading into the house through the front door. Looking to the left, she was surprised to see that no one was on the couch or using the TV. 'No twins fighting over the remote, no Stinkoln playing video games, no Lori hogging it because she's the oldest even though she's too busy texting her boyfriend… any other time, this would be the perfect opportunity to nab the remote!' She thought to herself, then considered it before waving it off. 'Eh, there's not really anything on right now. Besides,' a smirk came over her face, 'I've been taking it easy for too long, and there's some weights with my name on them.' Her mind set, she headed into the kitchen, opened the door to the basement, and-

"ACK!"

This caught Lynn off guard, so she rushed down the stairs to see what it was, and her eyes went wide when she saw her only brother laid on her weight bench, struggling to pry a barbell off his chest. "Lincoln!" She rushed towards him and lifted it off of him, allowing him to gasp for air after it had been knocked out of him by the weight of the bar dropping on him. "Here, I've got it." She placed the bar back on its holder, then helped her brother to sit up as he caught her breath. "You okay?" Still regaining his breathing, he gave a nod. "What were you even trying to do?"

"I was…" He tried to speak, but found himself wheezing instead. When he tried to speak again, he had to cough into his hand.

"Hang on, bro." She ran back upstairs into the kitchen and grabbed a glass from the cupboard, then turned on the tap and filled it with water. Once it was full, she turned the tap off, and headed back downstairs, sitting next to her brother. "Here."

He gave a small smile as she handed him the water, taking a slow drink of it. "Ah…" he sighed, feeling better. "Thanks, Lynn."

"No problem. Now, come on, what are you doing down here, trying to bench…" She looked at the weights, and her eyes bugged open. "Linc, you seriously thought you could press forty five kilos?! I'm only just able to do that!"

He gave a small blush. "Admittedly, I… I didn't check the weight on it."

She sighed, shaking her head. "Okay, that aside… what were you doing down here? I thought you had dodgeball today."

"Well, first of all, practice is off until Sunday."

"So, what, is this you trying to make up for it?"

"… kinda…"

As he took another drink from his glass, she tilted her head at her brother. "Kinda? What does that mean?"

He took the glass away from his lips, gulping down his mouthful of water and allowing her to see the slight frown on his face. "Well… at practice on Sunday, I kinda… messed up a bit." He looked away from his fifth oldest sister. "Be honest, Lynn, I'd rather not talk about it."

"Aww, come on, Link!" She smirked as she rested her elbow on his shoulder. "It can't be any worse than anything I've been through."

"Even after what happened when I tried racquetball?"

She rolled her eyes. "You really need to get over that, it was, what, three weeks ago?" She then turned him so he was facing her. "When I was at roller derby practice one time, we were having a practice game, and I had the lead. I was about to lap Kendra when I was tackled, which caused a collision."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"Oh yeah? When we were trying to get up, one of the girls accidentally put her foot down on one of the legs of my shorts, and when I stood up, they ripped in half." Lincoln couldn't even try and hold back his laughter, throwing his head back in hysteria. Although it wasn't her reaction when the event actually happened, Lynn couldn't help but laugh as well. "See? If I can come clean about that, you can tell me. So, come on, what happened?"

After taking a moment to calm down, he replied, "well… I don't want to go into detail, but… let's just say I ended up… landing flat on my face." Lynn winced as she imagined what he was referring to, causing him to nod. "Yeah. So, after practice was over, I asked Chris if there was anything I was doing wrong, and he said I was doing alright, but he told me that if I wanted to improve, I need to decide how much I'm prepared to do."

Lynn was finally starting to understand. "So… you thought that, if you worked out alongside your practice sessions, you might get better?" He nodded. "Bro… why didn't you tell me?"

"I… I guess I just… wanted to see if I could do it by myself." He looked down and sighed. "Guess I can't."

A pang of guilt hit the brunette, so she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Linc, don't say that. Honestly, I know I give you-" She paused, looked back at the top of the stairs, then looked back at her brother. "I know I give you crap from time to time, but that doesn't mean I think less of you for anything. So don't think less of yourself, okay?"

He looked back up, his eyes meeting her sincere gaze, and he gave a small smile. "Thanks, Lynn." His gaze returned to the floor. "Still, this was kind of a waste, huh?"

A few seconds passed in silence, Lincoln feeling slightly embarrassed while Lynn was quietly in thought. "No." Lincoln looked up again when she said this, seeing a determined look on her face. "This wasn't a waste, Lincoln. You can make this work."

"Really? How?"

She gave him a confident smile, and told her brother, "because now you have me to help you."