The loud slam of a door was heard around the house.

In response to the noise, the vacuum shut off, plates stopped clinking and each of the loud family members grew silent.

Rita, who was present in the living room, looked up to the top of the stairs with a worried look on her face. From where she was, she had seen her son run out of the basement at breakneck speed.

That had been her first sign. The second was when she saw him holding his hat down with his hands, the edges had practically covered his eyes with how far he had pulled them down. The final sign had been hearing the door slam shut, only then did she know exactly what she was in for.

Personally? She had hoped that something like this would not have happened so soon. She had hoped to get Lincoln through the first half of his first week at school before any complications turned up. Evidently, that was too much to ask.

Signing she placed down the duster she had been using to clean all the shelves... And to think, she had been planning on putting up a few of her own decor items to make it feel more like home.

Her parental duties came first however, she wasn't going to start forsaking them now... Especially not now.

Leaving the room, she slowly ascended the stairs, hearing quite muttering from the close by rooms. She paid them no mind as she turned towards her son's room, he was her biggest concern at the moment.

Apparently, she wasn't the only person to have such a mindset, as both the second and fourth eldest girls were outside Lincoln's room. Luan had her ear to the door, her face scrunched up in worry as she tried to garner what was going on in her son's room. Leni on the other hand, was doing something a little more... Bothersome for her tastes. Leni was knelt down, trying to pick her way into Lincoln's room with a hairpin.

Knowing that Lincoln hated his privacy being invaded, Rita marched forwards before stopped just behind the two girls. Placing a gentle hand on the blonde girls shoulder she got the two girl's attention. Smiling nicely, yet making a mental note to talk with Leni later, she patted the shoulder she had her hand on.

"Why don't I handle it from here? You two go and... Finish whatever it was you were doing. Ok?"

"Oh...uh, sure. Sorry." Luan ducked her head as she scooted her way past Rita, a little nervous that she could have overstepped some boundary. Once past she slowly walked her way down the hall and into her own room, closing it behind her.

Leni was different however, instead, she stood up to her height and bowed her head down regretfully. Much like a child who had been found with their hand in the cookie jar. "I'm really sorry Rita I just-"

"Leni." The mother of one interrupted, causing the younger blonde to look up to her and into her calm eyes. "We'll talk later ok? I need to see to Lincoln."

"Yeah... Yeah." Leni twiddled her hairpin around in her hand as she meekly went around her. "Sorry." Leni slowly walked her way back to the bathroom, where she needed to finish her cleaning, just as she got to the end of the hall she looked back with an apologetic look. She said nothing as she watched Rita being let into the room and despite being so far away, she could make out the Orange shirt of Lincoln peek between the gaps of Rita's movements.

She sighed as the door closed, leaving the mother-son duo to themselves.

Inside the room, just as Rita had shut the door behind herself, Lincoln slowly crawled his way onto his bed. Where he proceeded to plant his face right onto the pillows. His arms snaked their way under the pillows to provide a little more leverage for him to lean on.

It wasn't long until a familiar weight settled next to him. Unlike what most would presume, Rita did not sit next to her son, she laid down next to him, resting on her left side so her torso was facing him. Gently she rubbed her hand over the back of his shoulders, feeling the taunt muscle from where he was tensing so heavily. The way how his back jumped slightly every now and then was a large indication that he had been - or was still - crying.

This was no new situation that the two of them were dealing with. It had been a somewhat common occurrence back in Hazeltucky whenever Lincoln had gotten emotionally or mentally overwhelmed, Rita knew from experience that there was little she could do until her son had managed to calm himself down.

The new situation would be when she would have to deal with Lori later... And to some extent Leni.

Rita stayed there while Lincoln let his emotions out onto the pillow. Slowly but surely the boy moved his way closer to his mother, eventually he found himself enveloped in a gentle hug as he rested his head against his mother's chest. Her steady breathing, combined with her beating heart, helped him to calm down significantly. It wasn't long before he managed to wrap his arms around her and the two of them stayed there, hugging one another.

Neither bothered to pay attention to the time of how long had passed. For Rita, such things didn't matter during moments like these. People didn't recover during a few short moments, especially sensitive people like Lincoln after their greatest insecurities had been hit. Whether intentionally or not. After Lincoln had been calm for - what she presumed was - twenty minutes, she placed her hand on his cheek and slowly guided him to look at her eyes.

"You feeling better buddy?"

" A little. " His voice came out meek and quiet, barely a whisper over the silence that permeated the room around them.

"As long as you're not getting worse." Resting her cheek against his forehead she turned her eyes towards the door the best she could, a slight hint of suspicion rising in her that their conversation was not as private as she thought. "Think you can go back out there?"

She felt his arms grip tighten on her before his head shook the slightest amount, which was the best he could do with her leaning on him like she was.

"That's alright, you've been doing so good these past few days, you deserve a break."

Having a child like Lincoln - in the sense of how he was and acted - had taught Rita many things about how people differed in everyday situations. Where she could probably talk to a group of people for a few weeks straight before things got boring, for Lincoln he could talk with people for a few days at most before he needed to be by himself and 'recharge his social batteries'.

It was a perfectly normal behaviour that everybody had, yet very few took notice of. From what she understood, some people were extremely draining to be around while others were much less so. Typically people who matched well never felt drained by each other but opposites often caused socially anxious people to drain significantly faster.

Coming from personal experience, Rita had noticed that very few parents ever took notice of this or even bothered to pay attention to it and often brushed it off as a 'teenager thing '. She knew better then that. If she hadn't paid attention to it she could have caused her son to be pushed far out of his comfort zone. She didn't want to know what would happen if she did that.

There were very few who really understood where Lincoln's limits ended. It was mostly her and Pop-Pop...

...

That reminded her, she hasn't called him yet. Admittedly, she had been a bit busy unpacking and settling in, she also wanted to give her father time to settle into his home too but that was besides the point.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket she dialed the number to the nursing home that Pop-Pop was staying at up in Hazeltucky. Adjusting the way she say so the two of them were more comfortable she brought Lincoln's eyes up her phone, seeing the number and her thumb hovering over the call button.

"Wanna talk to Pop-Pop? I'm sure he'd like to hear from us."

Nodding slightly Lincoln sat up a little straighter, pulling himself up to be able to see the phone. As Rita's thumb pressed the button the bland sound of ringing dominated the quiet room, it rang once, twice and then was picked up by what sounded to be a bored receptionist.

"Hello, this is Elder petals retirement home how may I help you? "

"Morning, can I be put through to Albert?"

" Hold on, I may need to know his last name... "

"Oh right, sorry, it's Albert-"

"Got him," The bored receptionist interrupted Rita, seemingly uncaring about being rude. "There's only one Albert registered in our building, I'll put you through. "

Rita rolled her eyes at the display of unprofressionalism, not that she could quite blame the worker though, some jobs where just boring by nature.

After a short moment her cell phone gave off a click and much deeper, recognizable voice came through.

"Hello." Naturally, Lincoln smiled at the voice of his grandfather. Rita herself wrapped her spare arm around his shoulders in an attempt to make him comfortable.

"Hey dad, it's us, just wanted to check in on you. How you doing over on your end."

" Ah, Rita. Glad you called, I was getting a little worried you forgot all about your old man. "

The mother-son duo gave a bit of a chuckle at - what they could tell was - his exaggerated voice, making him sound like he was hurt at the notion that they may have forgotten him.

"We would never forget about you, sorry about not calling sooner, we've been a bit busy on our end."

What sounded like a raspberry being blown came out of the speaker of her phone and the two of them had to stiffle a giggle at the noise. "It's no problem, at least you called, so I'm guessing Lincoln's there too since you keep saying 'we'."

" Hey Pop-Pop. "

"There's my little man, how's life been with the new family? Got any cool stories to tell your old man?"

At first Lincoln was going to say that things were nice, as he couldn't forget how nice both Luna and Luan had been to him. Not to mention that he found Lily to be utterly adorable whenever she tried to walk around anywhere, but he couldn't shake off the things that had happened between him and Lori, he couldn't deny that things weren't going as nicely as he had hoped... And he had some low expectations as well.

"It's... Alright, I suppose."

Whether it was through the tone in his voice or just through the wisdom gained in his age, Pop-Pop seemed to pick up on his less then stellar mood.

"Everything alright over there? Need me to come wrangle a few people?"

" Dad! " Realising that she could attract attention from shouting she brought her voice down before bringing the phone closer to her face. "You can't just say stuff like that." She took in a quick breath before realising it and calming down. "We ran into a little... Complication earlier. I'm just dealing with it now, I'll call you later and let you known the details, I don't need you running down here to do my job for me."

The older gentleman chuckled, knowing full well that he wouldn't let up on something, or someone, who had wronged Lincoln in some way or another.

"You got me there sweet pea, you know how I am... Say, why don't I come down this Friday? Meet the family, maybe take Lincoln out somewhere nice for a little one on one bonding."

Blinking at the sudden proposal Rita found herself a little lost for words, she had no problem with her father coming down to see herself or Lincoln, or meet everyone else for that matter. She just thought that he wouldn't offer to do so, so soon at least anyway.

"I mean sure, I wouldn't mind. What about you Lincoln? Do you mind? Going out I mean, not Pop-Pop coming here. "

The most important detail when it came to making plans around a specific person, was to have that person be involved in the plans themselves, so that way nothing conflicted with it when it came time to act on said plans. Lincoln himself shrugged slightly, before realising that his grandfather couldn't actually see him.

"I guess... I dunno."

They could hear Pop-Pop chuckle through the phone. "Well, we'll see how you're doing come Friday alright? I'll still pop down there and see you, even if you aren't in the mood to be going anywhere."

" Ok. "

"Anyway dad, I'll talk to you later when I get some free time, take care of yourself alright? I don't want to hear about you getting a slipped disc or a broken hip or something."

" Sure thing sweet pea, I'll talk to you later, take care of yourself now too you hear, I don't want to have to drive down there to force you to look after yourself. "

"Will do, bye dad."

" Bye Pop-Pop. "

"Bye Lincoln, I'll be down this Friday, see you then buddy."

Pressing the end call button, Rita placed her phone against her leg before bringing her hand back to her son's cheek. Gently running her thumb in a slow circular motion over his cheek she pressed her cheek onto his hat covered head in an odd form of a hug.

She could feel her son relax into her but she also knew she needed to break away from this soon. Lincoln needed his space and she had to deal with Lori, she didn't need to ask Lincoln what had happened, she already knew the moment she laid her eyes upon him.

"Alright, I gotta go little man, you can stay up here as long as you want. " Slowly Rita sat up, letting Lincoln move off of her at his own rate. "Do you want me to bring your dinner up later or do you think you'll be able to join us? "

Lincoln shrugged before he turned over and laid himself back down on his bed, getting himself comfortable.

"Alright. I'll come check up on you later."

Receiving a nod from him, Rita turned and left the room, shutting the door behind her as she went. Slowly the mother of one rubbed her forehead, feeling a tad bit overwhelmed by all that was happening. It wasn't easy, never had been, but it was always worth it. Now to deal with Lori.

Taking steps away from her son's room Rita began to make her way to the basement, where Lori no doubt still was, doing her chores. She had hardly gotten to the top of the stairs before she was stopped by someone else. Lana had stepped out of her room slightly, wringing her hands together nervously as she seemed to mentally debate with herself whether she should do something.

Taking note of her behaviour, it actually reminded her of Lincoln whenever he was too nervous to ask her something, she stopped just before her and knelt down into one knee.

"Something wrong Lana? You look a little upset."

The small mechanic rubbed her hands together as she looked down to her feet, she mumbled something that Rita couldn't quite make out.

"What was that Lana? I couldn't hear you." Placing one hand on her shoulder, Rita noticed that Lana didn't flinch in the same way her son would. It was yet another reminder that Lincoln had been through a few things.

"Is... Is Lincoln going to be alright?"

Smiling at the concern for Lincoln, Rita patted her shoulder slightly. "Yeah, he'll be fine Lana, he's just..." Honestly, Rita wasn't quite too sure how she should describe Lincoln's state to the younger girls. It was a hard thing to understand after all. "Tired, in a different way to normal, maybe I'll tell you at a different time but know that he needs to be left alone for the time being Ok? "

Despite looking more confused then anything, Lana nodded before backing off into her room, leaving her door open. Just for the brief moment she was there Rita saw the older twin begin to reach into the glass cage of one of her pets, deciding not to intervene she stepped away and made her way downstairs.

Even from the bottom of the stairs she could tell that something was going on, if the slightly muffled voices was any indication of that.

Walking with purpose she made her way over to the stairs that lead the way down to the basement, with each step the voices grew louder and less muffled until she could actually make out what was being said.

"-an't believe you'd do this dude, even after all I said last night."

That was most definitely the voice of Luna, she herself sounded rather miffed about something. Probably what had happened earlier, given that Luna had taken a shine to Lincoln.

"I didn't do anything, he's the one who made a fuss over nothing. " In contrast to how Luna sounded, Lori herself seemed to radiate out a more... Neutral tone. Giving the impression that she was both unbothered and uncaring towards anything that Luna was saying.

As Rita stepped down far enough to see both of the girls she could see that Lori had her back to Luna as she was busy folding up the last of Lisa and Lily's things, yet she could tell there was some high level of tension between the two girls. With the way Luna's arms were pinned by her side's and how Lori's shoulders were tensed. If either of the two girls knew this too, they showed no signs of admitting it.

"Luna." The rocker had been ready to open her mouth to say something else before Rita spoke first. The blonde woman descended the stairs with a disarming aura, yet a hint of a fire in her eyes.

She turned to her, doing her best to forcefully relax herself as Rita stepped onto the floor and over to her.

"I understand you're angry but please don't try to fight my fights, that's my job." Placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder she gave it a squeeze. "Why don't you go cool off? Let me handle this ok?"

" I-" She hesitated for a moment as she looked back to Lori then to Rita. On one hand she wanted to have Lori be chewed out by Rita, she also had wanted to get through to Lori first so that when Rita did it would have an even larger Impact.

Ultimately she relented.

Like how Lynn had no say over her instruments, She had no say over anything regarding Lincoln that did not directly involved her too.

"Alright."

Luna wasted no time in turning to leave the room, giving the two for them just a single glance before she went up the stairs two steps at a time.

Ignoring the noise of the Tumble Dryer and the washing machine, all was silent between the two of them. Lori continued to fold the clothes before her and Rita stood several steps back, silently watching as she folded her arms over her chest.

"So." Lori started, not taking her eyes off of what she was doing. " I guess this is the part where you yell at me, right? "

Rita pursed her lips as she cocked her hip to one side, leaning on the corresponding leg as she thought about it. "No, Not really."

Lori paused what she was doing for a moment out of surprise, not quite expecting to here that, she quickly regained her composure and played off her little pause like it was nothing. Yet she wasn't able to get a word in before Rita continued to speak.

"Am I upset? Yes. Am I Disappointed? Yeah. But I'm not even surprised, I knew this would happen eventually, one way or another." She shook her head at the imaginary notion that she could have ignored the fact that this would happen, at least she didn't believe it wouldn't happen.

"But what you did today, whether your intentions were plain and simple or - and I hope I'm wrong - harsh and condescending, was not the right thing to do. " She paid attention as Lori finished folding the last of the clothes, leaving the two separate piles close by on the floor before she finally turned around to face her.

Rita could see the hint of a fire in her eyes, the urge to challenge her on how she handled things.

"Perhaps, you've had to have been..." Rita spun her hand in a guessing manner , trying to come up with the correct thing to say. "Stricter, with your sisters, I guess it come with the territory of being the oldest out of ten kids. Wouldn't know myself of course."

"But You need to realise that Lincoln isn't another of your sisters, he doesn't act like them, he doesn't respond like them. He's my son and has been raised completely different than everyone else in this house, he has insecurities, he has problems... And you hit him in one of them."

Lori opened her mouth to say something but the ding of the Tumble Dryer caught her off guard , turning around she opened it and began to pull out Lincoln's - now dry - clothes. "What did he say? About what I did."

" Nothing, not a single word, he didn't need to cause I understand him enough to know what is wrong with him. And just for the record Lori, never try to take his hat from him again, I'd tell you why but... Well it's not my place, it's Lincoln's. "

Continuing to fold Lincoln's clothes Lori couldn't suppress the shudder that went down her spin, she just had to hope that Rita didn't notice it. Yet She couldn't stop herself from being curious, even if only slightly. Given what little she knew, she couldn't think of a single thing that she could be referring to. That she was aware of anyway.

"You're right on one thing, I DO need to be strict with my sister's... A lot, but only because if I didn't, they'd be out of control. It hasn't been easy these past... Two years... Yeah, didn't realise how much time had passed. I'll... Try to ease up on him but, old habits die hard you know? "

Finishing up Lincoln's much smaller pile she picked it up to place it with the rest, as she did so she felt two other hands grasp onto them and gently remove them from her hold. Turning she saw that it was actually Rita who was taking them from her, with nothing more then a disarming look on her face.

"Lori, please try to remember that Lincoln is different, in more ways than you realise, but most importantly remember that he is my baby boy and that a mother's wrath is an unstoppable force. "

Instinctively Lori stepped back, however she quickly played it off as moving towards the ironing board, where she began to unfold it up while pretending that she wasn't actually a little bit frightened. Pulling Lola's Saffron dresses over to her she turned on the iron to let it hear up before she got to work steam cleaning them.

"I know, it's literally the same as sisterly love just...stronger. "

"Oh you have no idea, so take into consideration everything I've said the next time you do speak to him and I do expect you to apologise to him... Eventually, not now of course. As he's... Overwhelmed at the moment." Rita turned away, pushing herself towards the stairs giving Lori on last glance when she reached the bottom step, she gave her last thought on the matter.

"I do hope you'll make an effort to apologise Lori, he's trying so very hard to get to know everyone. Even if you can't see it, you keep knocking him down the very steps he fights to go up, don't disappoint me anymore then I am. "

Climbing the stairs, she left Lori on her own so she could get on and the two of them could both return to what they had been doing.

Admittedly, Lori felt a little bit miffed at having been scolded in such a... Nice fashion, it wasn't something she was used to. She could handle a firm punishment, a strict one too but not this. It rattled her deeply and actually, for the first time in a while, made her feel quite terrible about herself.

It was not something she liked.

At dinner, each of the girls were able to see the end result of Lori's actions. As much to their surprise, but not Rita's, Lincoln - in fact - did not join them at the table and did not except any food he was offered.

Not out of a lack of liking towards the food itself but from a lack of appetite.

Silently and sneakily Luna fumed at Lori, not knowing enough to speak her mind but knowing too much that she couldn't just ignore what was going on. Some of the other girls were concerned over his absence while others didn't seem too bothered by it. Or in Lucy's case, you couldn't tell what the person was expressing.

When asked Rita gave a small simple explanation that Lincoln was tired in both body and mind and that he needed to rest and was to be left undisturbed.

Lisa had actually surprised her by saying that he was 'No doubt going through mental exhaustion and probably had several issues with social activities.' Rita made No comment that she was right but certainly didn't dispute that she was wrong, leaving her explanation out there for those who did understand what she was saying.

It certainly was odd to have a four year old match her intelligence but given what she had learned of Lisa, well, she shouldn't have been that surprised.

At the end of the night each of the girls went off to bed, the youngest getting ready for another week of school while the oldest, save Lori and Lynn Jr, knew they could afford a little extra time to sleep in. Given that their school would be closed for a while more.

A/N: Apologies about the time it took to do this but with Christmas around the corner and lot of things taking up my mind. I haven't found the time of motivation to get this done, on top of which a few... Slightly negative reviews and messages have left me second guessing my work.

If it wasn't for 'Rising Gold Sun' I probably wouldn't have been able to find the motivation to continue for a while longer, probably after Christmas was over. I wouldn't have abandoned this, don't worry about that, it would have just been delayed a little bit more.

I'm going to try to switch back between No Such Luck, No Such Love and Moving In on a more frequent basis, No Promises of course but I'll try as I'm getting multiple request to continue with both.

I'll probably get around to double checking the chapter in the morning for mistakes and what not so please let me know if you see any.

Just in case I don't get another chapter out before then, Merry Christmas and happy New year to all of you.