10. Getting Down To Business

A/N: Sorry for the delay with chapter 10. Got a bit sick over my break and had been trying to come down from it for a while. But hopefully it would've been worth the wait. Finally, the Louds get to meet Dr. Lopez in person. Hopefully she can help the family mend the struggles their facing right now.

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING from the Loud House.

All of the Louds gave a sigh of relief as they piled into Vanzilla this Saturday afternoon, except Lori, who was vomiting into the bushes. Keeping true to his punishment, Lynn Sr. took the girls to see their Great Aunt Ruth. Rita came along as her husband had some good news for everyone, but he kept quiet for the time being as the patriarch wanted to get this dreadful visit over with. As expected, their surprise visit was rather...boring to put it lightly. Same old videos, same old cats, same old cruddy molded pudding...Perhaps the worst part came when Ruth asked about Lincoln's absence. Hesitantly, the parents stated he was sick and couldn't attend, but that didn't stop the 'Great' Aunt from having someone massage her feet (as she typically had Lincoln do it). Naturally, no one wanted to even be near those disgusting things she walked on, but the old hag wouldn't take no for an answer. It was Lori who decided to take one for the family. Before the visit could get any more gross, the Louds had enough and called it a day. Before exiting the house, Rita took the chance to tell her aunt that she needed better food, as the matriarch didn't want more of her kids falling ill.

"You think she'll be ok?" Leni asked.

"Trust me Leni. I like gross stuff, but even I wouldn't touch Aunt Ruth's feet..." Lana shivered.

"Hearing her puke is makin' me want to puke..." Luan added.

"Lori's not the Queen of Puke for nothin' sis..." Luna replied.

The oldest Loud girl staggered to the van, a mix of stomach acid and broken down food covering the sides of her mouth. Rita took out a medium sized bottle of hand sanitizer and dumped it all on the poor girl's palms. She even gave her some tissues.

"Lisa...when we get home...I want you to make some acid so I can dip my hands in them..." Lori ordered as she cleaned her face.

"We're grounded, remember? Plus, I wouldn't recommend acid unless you want to be in excruciating pain for the rest of your life." The little genius replied.

"Whatever! I literally, can't ever use these hands after touching...those..." Lori shook violently as she winced in disgust. She felt her stomach flipping again, but resisted the urge to vomit. She just wanted to get the hell out of there.

The rest of the girls shared her sentiments. While they were discussing the unfortunate incident, Rita knew there were better matters to attend to. "So what did you want to tell us honey?"

"Well, good news is I found a therapist." Lynn Sr. announced, causing the girls to fall silent.

"Is she good?" Luna asked first.

"Does she have the mental capacity to handle our situation?" Lisa's question.

"Can she help Linky?" Leni's question.

"The answer to all of that is: I have no idea. Her name is Dr. Lopez, and she said we could come as soon as we can. I just hope she's available on the weekends..."

"You didn't ask for her business hours?" The irritation in Lori's voice was clear.

"I...forgot to do that before I hung up."

"So what's the bad news?" Lola piped up.

"Well...I thought it'd be a good idea for all of us to have a couple sessions with her." The 9 daughters were surprised. "Look, I know how down you girls have been since last Sunday, and I think it'll help if she evaluates our entire family. Myself and Rita already know this family could seriously use some therapy, not just Lincoln...so is everyone ok with that?"

The girls silently nodded. The constant self-hate and guilt-tripping needed to come to an end. Each of the 9 siblings had personal feelings they never shared with each other, and despite it only being a week, it was getting to a point that someone might snap and hurt themselves. Didn't help that just yesterday they realized their brother feared them. While it gave them comfort that Lincoln would get the help he desperately needed, the sisters would need help not only moving past this problem, but also realizing that things may never be the same ever again.

It was a 45 minute drive from Aunt Ruth's to the address Miranda gave to Lynn Sr. The little ones were asleep, and the older sisters were close to nodding off too. "Well gang, we're here."

Lola rubbed her eyes before gawking at the complex before them. "Does she own the whole building?!"

"Preposterous. This is clearly a shared architecture with other physicists and oral surgeons." Lisa pointed out.

Luna let out a small groan. "I hope she's not on the top floor."

"Then we're in luck, cause her room is actually on the ground floor." Lynn Sr. pointed out. Luan had to resist the urge to make a pun.

Walking through the double doors, the family made their way towards a room with the sign Psychology Department embroiled on the wall. This lead them into a small waiting room, which had another door leading into a hallway. Various doors were on both sides, likely for those that needed to speak with certain therapists. An African-American woman was busy on the computer before noticing the family walk in.

"Can I help you?"

"Hi, we're the Louds. We need to speak with Dr. Lopez...is she in today?" Rita asked.

"Do you have an appointment?"

"N...Not necessarily." Lynn Sr. replied.

"May be a wait then." The woman picked up her phone and dialed a few numbers. "Miranda, it's Gigi. Did you want to speak with someone by the last name of Loud?"

"Yes. I spoke with Mr. Loud yesterday. Is he here?"

"Yeah."

"I'll be out in a moment." Gigi put the phone back on the receiver. "She'll be with you soon."

Before the family could get comfortable in their seats, the Hispanic psychologist strolled through the open door. "Mr. Loud?"

"Yes, that's me."

"Ah, ok. This must be your wife and..." Even though he said it over the phone, having 10 kids of varying ages in the room still took her by surprise. "Children?" "Geez, these two sure have been busy..." She thought to herself.

Rita caught the woman's gaze and blushed. "Y-Yeah. Only one not here is Lincoln..."

"Right...ok, to start, I'll speak with the both of you first, then we'll proceed from there."

The parents nodded. Rita handed her infant daughter to Leni before the two down the hall, disappearing behind a door.

"Like, what do you think's gonna happen in there?" Leni asked.

"From what I've seen on a few movies, probably just talking about what they're feeling right now before she moves on to us." Lola explained, looking at her nails in boredom. "Might talk with us individually too."

Lynn kept silent for a moment, but she had one question gnawing on her psyche. "What if this doesn't work?..."

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked.

"What if therapy doesn't help Lincoln at all? What if he'll stay afraid of us forever?..."

She was right to worry. After their little incursion at the hospital, this solution may blow up in their faces again. There was some hope Dr. Lopez could fix this, but when you thought about it, how can one psychologist fix a family as broken as them? The 9 sisters felt the cold hand of depression gripping their shoulders again. The odds were stacked against them, and if therapy failed, they knew they deserved to endure life without having someone to call a brother.

Miranda sat in the recliner, notepad in hand, while the parents sat on the loveseat. The doctor took a deep breath before starting her process. "So, you told me before what happened was too difficult to discuss on the phone. What is the reason for your son's fear, and is it linked to his need for medical attention?"

The two glanced at each other sadly before spilling the truth. "The reason Lincoln is in the hospital is because of what his siblings (minus Lily), did to him. They...they physically assaulted him until he was almost unconscious. It was only then that they realized they went too far...no one's been the same since..." Rita explained.

The doctor's eyes were wide open at this revelation. "Dios mio...is he alright?"

"He suffered fractured ribs, a damaged pelvis and a bruised face ma'am. And that's only half the injuries on the list..." Lynn Sr. added in a stern tone.

"I see...do you know what caused this incident to occur?"

"The kids were having a disagreement over their Sister Fight Protocol..." Rita stated, the disgust in her voice very clear from saying the last 3 words.

"And what exactly did this system entail?"

"I don't remember all of it, but the jist was that our daughters would be able to settle their conflicts on their own without us having to get involved...this was the only time it's ever been used in our house, and it fell to pieces!..." The patriarch stated in anger.

Miranda had written down a few notes before continuing. "Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's labeled Sister Fight Protocol right?" The parents nodded. "You said you have a son in the family, so did this system not include him?"

This definitely rang a bell in the Louds' heads before they started explaining what the protocol entailed. It states that if two sisters got into a conflict, both warring parties would be divided and isolated until they simmered down enough to talk it out. It also contained a chart to showcase the seriousness of the situation. Thunderstorm means two of the sisters are at odds with each other, and the threat level would continue to climb as two or more sisters come into conflict in addition to the ones already in a heated argument. However, it also stated that no one should intervene and allow the conflict to run its course. Not only that, it failed to state what Lincoln had to do with any part of this, at least not as clear. Rita and Lynn Sr. felt so stupid for not picking this up, that they literally slapped their foreheads at the same time.

"Lincoln doesn't get into a lot of fights like our daughters...he only gets involved if he feels the need to. We just assumed it didn't involve him at all...not sure how our daughters handled it though..." The mother of 11 replied.

The psychologist took note of this. "Hmm...from the sound of it, this system was flawed from the beginning. While it's good to let a conflict simmer, it can at times make everything worse, as it lets the anger fester without an outlet. Poor communication kills is a well-known phrase I hold close to my heart. Not only that, but if no one is supposed to get involved, it seems your daughters were doing what they weren't supposed to you 2 have any roles in this?"

"We first found it was in effect on Friday after we came home from work. At the time, only Lori and Leni were still at odds, so we made separate meal times for them. And before you ask, it was so they wouldn't think we were picking sides. Everyone in the family was attending. Rita made two sets of pasta, and I ended up telling the same joke twice..." Lynn Sr. added.

"Anything else happen? Sorry if these questions seem repetitive, I'm just gathering a clear picture to understand the situation." Miranda explained.

"It's alright. We're just...having a difficult time is all..." Rita stated.

The doctor leaned back in her seat. "You aren't the first clients I've had with similar issues. Just take your time and let it come."

After a few moments, Lynn Sr. continued on. "The next day, their protocol was still in effect, and it seemed things were getting worse...Luna and Luan were arguing now, so the threat because Hissing Cat. A few hours later, it became a stampeding T-rex...and we...and we...we hid in our room like cowards!" Lynn Sr. sobbed into his hands, his wife comforting him.

Miranda wrote down more notes. "Clearly there's a worry of being bad parents between these two..." She thought. "I probably shouldn't ask this, but did anything happen the next day?"

"We know that our daughters kept fighting for the rest of the day, but come Sunday it seemed to have settled. We...we were too afraid to come out and check, so we stayed put..." Rita paused, knowing very well what came next. "That was our b-biggest mistake...the children were fighting again, and soon we heard someone crying..." Rita couldn't continue. The memory of Lincoln getting brutalized haunted her deeply.

Miranda put the pieces together as to not make the couple even more upset. "Well, that explains how the phobia first developed. Likely it was over a period of days before they realized what it was...this, is going to be a long and tedious process..." She said in her head. "Ok, now that I've got a clear picture, I know how we can go about this. First off, I'm going to have to speak with both of you individually. I'll do the same for each of your children. I want to understand how everyone feels about the whole situation, and maybe then I should be able to give some helpful advice. If your son is as afraid of his siblings as I think he is, he's going to be rather difficult..."

Both parents were elated that she was going to help them, though unsure if she'd be up to the task. It's not everyday you meet a family of 13, and most of the time half of that number consists of distant relatives. "This..." Rita sniffled. "This isn't too much for you is it?"

"Oh heavens no! I'm visited by this kid named Clyde on a frequent basis, and no offense to him, but that boy has a lot of issues...so, who wants to go first?"

After some debate, Lynn Sr. opted to go first. Rita took this as her cue to leave the room. She needed to ask her kids how exactly did they handle their protocol, at least to better understand where it went wrong.

"Now, Mr. Loud, what we discuss here does not have to leave this room. You are free to make use of this information as you will, and if you wish to keep it private you can just tell me. I won't utter a word to anyone else. Understand?"

The father nodded.

"Now, I'll ask you a series of questions, and you can respond to them in any way you wish. I won't force it out of you, you need to come to the podium on your own."

"O-Ok..."

"Now, what kind of relationship do you have with your children?"

A/N: Short, but we finally get down this head fixing started. For a spoiler, the parent sessions will be in the same chapter, but each sister (minus Lily) will get one dedicated to them. Lincoln's will be further down the road, and his will definitely be rather interesting.

To clarify on the levels of the Sister Fight Protocol incase they weren't clear.

Field of Daises: No conflict

Thunderstorm: 2 sisters are at odds

Hissing Cat: 4

Stampeding T-rex: 6

Erupting Volcano: 8

(my level) Hell on Earth: 10

And if you haven't noticed yet, I've finally written a story in response to No Such Luck. I just didn't like all the stories with Lincoln dying or getting close to it RIGHT at the beginning.