Preface: I am not proposing any theory about these characters or believe what I am writing in here is canon. This was just a fun writing idea.

Chapter 1: A Life in Retrospect

Lucy sat on her coffin, her finger making circles in the fake blood she was making. This simple act was enough to make her forget the world around her. The noise from her siblings just outside the door was of no concern of hers. All she was focused on in this moment was the red liquid swishing around in the tupperware container in her lap. She lifted up her finger, watching the fake blood drip from it intently. She sighed and cleaned her finger off before hopping to the floor.

"Not viscous enough, needs more molasses." She said to no one in particular. She carried the tupperware container gingerly out of her room. Before making it more than two steps out of her room she is bumped into hard by Lori who was distracted by her phone. Lucy watched in horror as a good portion of the blood spilled out on the floor and onto Lori.

"You didn't literally just do that!" Yelled Lori as she looked at her legs and shoes now covered in blood.

"You were the one who bumped into me," Said Lucy in a angry monotone. Her mind was trying to think of a way to save as much of the blood as possible but coming up empty handed.

"You should have been watching where you were going! I have a date with Bobbie in 5 minutes and I can't show up looking like this!"

"You bumped into me." Lucy's voice becoming almost a growl. Her mom only allowed her to make one container of blood a week and now half of it was on the floor and soaking into the carpet, all of it going to waste.

"What kind of literal weirdo carries around fake blood anyway? We get it, your a goth! Stop being such a try hard!"

"YOU BUMPED INTO ME!" Lucy voice rang out so loud that it shook the house. Lori backed away for a moment, unsettled by this change in Lucy. Lucy's breathing had all of a sudden became fast and rugged like she had been running though she was too angry to notice.

"Kids? What is going on up there?" Lucy heard the voice of their mother from downstairs and the footsteps of her approach. It is in that moment that Lucy felt as if the world just gave out from under her. Her vision went black and she felt her legs give out from under her. She could feel as she hit the ground but instead of the pain she expected it was just a sort of dull pressure impacting her face.

"Lucy?… Lucy!?" Lori's voice sounded washed out and echoed softly as Lucy dipped deeper into the darkness that she felt seeping into her. "Mom! Something is wrong with Lucy!"

The sound of footsteps transitioning into a run and the feeling of being cradled in someone's arms was the last things she experienced before the last bits of her consciousness were snuffed out.

She awoke in a room that wasn't her own. Her eyes had a hard time adjusting to the bright whiteness of it that amplified the moon light coming in from the window. Her nose itched weirdly, she went to scratch it but before she reached her nose she noticed the tubes attached to her arm. She looked around, her eyes now adjusted to the light and finally realizing that she was in a hospital room. She reached up and touched her nose to find tubes in her nostrils. She looked down to see electrodes on her chest that fed into monitors. She watched as the numbers on the monitors got higher and higher as her panic sets in.

Immediately the door to her room opened up and her parents hurried inside. Her mom with tears in her eyes wrapped her arms around Lucy, holding her tight. "It is okay, you are okay." Her mom said this over and over again, almost like she was trying to convince herself of this as much as she was trying to convince Lucy. Her father stood there trying to hide the worry on his face with a smile while occasionally glancing at the monitors.

Once Lucy had calmed down a little her mom finally let go and took a seat next to her bed. Her father stood on the opposite side. No one said anything, all of them just looking at each other. All three had so much to say but didn't know where to start.

"You gave us quite the fright there, Lucy." Said her father, finally breaking the silence.

"That is not your fault. We are not blaming you," Interjected her mom.

"Yes, of course. We just thought we lost you. Your mom found you unconscious in a pool of blood and feared the worse. I know a chill went up my spine when your mom called me at work to tell me what happened."

"What happened to me? Why am I here?" Lucy said. She was still confused about what happened. She looked at the window and the dark night outside. The last she could remember it was midday, how long has she been out?

"You had… well you have a heart condition and your fight with Lori was enough to trigger an episode. You are just here for observation. The doctors say that if everything checks out fine than we can take you home tomorrow." Her father looked away as he said this.

"I have a heart condition? Why haven't you told me about it?" Lucy's mind was spinning now. Instead of getting more answers she was only getting more questions. She started feeling like today was spiraling out of control.

"Well, sweetie, the reason why we haven't told you is because you got it from your mother," Said her mom, her voice starting to break at the end as if her whole body was against her saying it.

"Aren't you my mom?" Tears started to fall down Lucy's cheeks. She was smart enough to already knew the answer but she prayed she was wrong about it. She must be wrong, it can't be true. She felt as her world began to unravel around her.

"Yes, of course I am but… I'm not the one who gave birth to you." With that, the last strands of reality that Lucy had known came undone. The fundamental nature of her being was a lie. Who was she? Was she just some random kid picked up off the street? Why wasn't she told any of this before?

"Your birth mother was my sister, Evelyn. She found out that she had the same heart condition you have, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, after getting pregnant with you. It was too dangerous to get the surgery she while she was pregnant and she did not want to end the pregnancy early. It is because of that she died giving birth to you."

"So you are not my real parents?" Cried Lucy. These people in the room with her were not her parents, they never were her parents. They were just lying to her for the last 8 years. They were just her Aunt Rita and Uncle Lynn Sr. and nothing more than that.

"Honey, please don't say that," Said Rita. Her face filled with deep despair as Lucy looked away from her. She reached out to Lucy, trying to take Lucy's hand into hers but Lucy batted it away.

"Lucy, I want you to know that we love you just as much as the rest of your siblings. It doesn't matter that you are adopted to us, you are our daughter. You are a Loud no matter what anyone says," Said Lynn Sr. as he kneeled down to get on her eye level but Lucy looked away. Rita and Lynn Sr. looked at each other, finding a sense of hopelessness in each other's faces.

"We… we were planning on tell you eventually. With everything going on and how difficult this kind of conversation is, we just kept finding reasons to put it off. We didn't do this to hurt you, we love you." Rita was trying and failing to force back tears as she spoke.

"Who else knew about this?" Lucy was trying her best to focus on the ceiling, she couldn't handle looking at their faces.

"Your aunts and uncles, Pop-Pop, Lori, and Leni, though Leni forgot it shortly after we told her. Luna, Luan, Lynn, and Lincoln all didn't have a clue. When it was apparent that Evelyn wasn't going to make it past the pregnancy, we panicked. Your mom put on a fake pregnancy belly and acted the part. It only lasted a month before you were born but, other than Lori and Leni, the kids were too young to realize that was odd," Said Lynn Sr. sounding defeated but also like a great weight had been lifted from him.

Lori knew. Everything makes sense now. Her teasing, her bullying, her attempts to change her all makes sense. Lori was trying to tell her the whole time. She didn't belong there, she was an aberration, she was a weirdo. This realization burned inside Lucy. She finally understood but that gave her no peace, only more pain.

"Is my name even Lucy?" To her, anything was now up for questioning. So much of her life up to this point had been a lie, why not this too?

"Yes, yes of course. Evelyn named you after her favorite Saint. I know that might be hard to believe given that your name fits in with your sisters but I swear to you it is true." Rita was fully sobbing at this point. "Please sweetie, please just look at me."

"Leave me. You can come a pick me up tomorrow," Said Lucy as coldly as she could.

Rita's sobs only got louder and Lynn Sr. started to tear up as well. While fighting against sobbing breaths he walked over to Rita, putting his arm around her and directing her out of the room. As they were about to cross the threshold of the room he turned back for a moment. "I know that we have never been perfect parents to you but everything we have done is because we love you Lucy. Even if you hate us for this, which I can understand it if you do, just know that we love you." With that he closed the door behind them leaving Lucy alone with her thoughts.

The emotions that she was barely keeping in check just moments ago exploded out of her. She punched and kicked the bed as hard as she could. She pressed her face hard against her pillow to cover her wails. She would of wished for death but she didn't even know if she had ever been alive in the first place. She cried till it hurt, her body drained from her outbursts finally giving her escape to her dreams though this time they were anything but an escape.