It all started the first day they were there.
The bus disappeared down the road in a cloud of exhaust, leaving a bad odor with the two twins it had dropped off. Mabel waved excitedly, while Dipper coughed and squinted after it with an annoyed expression. The sound faded into the distance, leaving the two fifteen year-olds alone on the street.
After a moment of silence, Dipper turned towards his sister. "Guess we should head towards the Shack," he mused, pulling his suitcase closer to him. "Grunkle Stan probably wants us to start sweeping the floor immediately."
"Aw, don't be so pessimistic, bro," Mabel replied with her ever-present smile. "Maybe he wants us to go down and get some candy from the corner store!"
"For some reason, I highly doubt that."
The twins hiked up the long dirt road that lead to the Mystery Shack. Nothing had changed since they visited last summer, or the summer before that, even. The woods stayed unchanged, the driveway stayed unpaved and the sun stayed relentless. Beads of sweat were running down the necks of both teens when they finally reached the top and the grand old house came into view.
Stan was standing outside, finishing up a tour. The tourists watched wide-eyed as he pulled out his incredible Sack Of Mystery, waving it about and explaining how money mysteriously vanished as soon as it entered it. Of course, the people seemed almost desperate to throw their cash inside to see if it worked.
"Come back soon, folks!" Stan called as the group walked away to the gift shop. He turned around and started to walk back inside when he spotted his grand niece and nephew huddling on the porch, sweaty and tired. "Well, look who it is! Where were you? You were supposed to be here three hours ago."
"There was a lot of traffic," Mabel explained, plopping her suitcase down on the porch. Her brother followed suit, knowing that their great uncle would make them bring their luggage inside later.
"Well, how do you guys feel about cleaning up the gift shop? I hope you want to, because you don't have much of a choice," Stan laughed, leaning on his cane. "I have to do another tour, and then I'm done. Maybe we can go out to the diner tomorrow if you guys are good." He watched as the last of the tourists entered the gift shop. "We're eating here tonight."
"Wait, are you serious about the diner?" Dipper asked, squinting. He wasn't sure whether or not his great uncle was joking with them. He didn't like going out to the place much ever since that episode involving Lazy Susan receiving his phone number, but maybe something had changed in the year they had been gone.
"Yeah, if you guys clean up that broken eyeball jar that fell off the counter yesterday," their great uncle answered. "I've put some toilet paper around it to keep the tourists away, but it's really starting to smell and Wendy's been conveniently asleep all day, so I can't make her do it."
"Why didn't you wake her up?" Mabel asked, cocking her head.
"She's been complaining about some crazy sickness or something going on, and that's she's catching it," Stan responded. "I'm already kind of stretching it by making her work."
With their answer, the twins made their way into the gift shop and past the large mob of tourists. Wendy, in fact, wasn't actually asleep, but looked as though she might be that way in a matter of seconds. Her eyes were dull and she seemed lifeless as she took the customer's money.
However, the teenager's eyes lit up slightly as she spotted the twins. "Dipper! Mabel! Get over here!" Hearing her loud call, the pair rushed up to the counter where they were met with tight hugs. Dipper blushed a bit and Mabel giggled as the older teen ruffled her hair. "Oh man, I've been so lonely here. I can't believe you dudes finally showed up!"
"Well, we're here now, so I guess we can, like, hang out or something?" Dipper smiled awkwardly, backing up a step or two when his friend finally released him. Wendy's giant grin faded slightly.
"Dude, I'd love to, but I gotta finish my shift first," she groaned. "Don't worry though, as soon as I'm done, we can hang out as much as we want."
"Oh, ok," Dipper answered, sounding a bit downcast. However, her latest statement had caused him to visibly brighten at the thought of spending time with his crush. Wendy flashed him a grin before turning her attention back to the tourists at the counter. Sighing slightly, the young detective turned around and went to find the jar of eyeballs that had been dropped.
As he was cleaning up the remains of the jar, he heard the pattering of footsteps on the wood floor behind him. Somebody tapped his shoulder, and he jumped a bit before realizing it was only Mabel. His twin wore a worried look, and she gazed anxiously around the shop. "Hey, Dipper, have you seen Soos?" she asked.
The young detective opened his mouth to reply, thinking intently. Well, of course he'd seen Soos; the guy practically lived at the Shack. But as he racked his brain he realized no, he really hadn't. He hadn't seen Soos around at all.
"Uh, no actually," he replied confusedly. "I have no idea where he went."
"Well, maybe Wendy has," Mabel mused hopefully. She hopped away from him towards the counter. Dipper finished cleaning up the eyeballs and followed his twin, finding himself equally curious. Soos was a good friend of his, and it was highly unusual that he wasn't here during the daylight hours. When they reached the counter, Mabel stretched herself up (despite the twin's massive growth spurts they still weren't nearly as tall as Wendy,) and asked, "Wendy, have you seen Soos?"
The lumberjack's eyes shifted a bit before a thought seemed to come to mind. "Oh, he went home sick," she responded. "There's a virus going around, and he got hit with it around lunch."
"Wait, it's so bad that Soos actually left?" Dipper questioned disbelievingly. "He never leaves work!"
"Oh no dude, it's really bad," Wendy mumbled. "Basically you get a headache that buzzes in your ears for hours on end, then you start to puke a bunch. When you're done puking, you kinda get laryngitis as well as a stuffed-up nose, and you stay that way for the rest of the time you have it." She shuddered. "Not to mention a fever, chills and weird dreams."
Dipper winced a bit, while Mabel's eyes widened with despair. "That's awful!" she cried. "Aw, poor Soos! We should go take care of him." As she ran for the door, however, a loud call from the cashier stopped her in her tracks.
"I won't do that if I were you, buddy!" the redhead warned. "He's probably puking up everything he's eaten for the past three days! Besides, the virus is super contagious." She sighed and slumped down on the counter. "Come to think of it, I probably have it too. You might not want to get too close to me."
"Well, I bet he isn't too sick to check his mailbox!" Mabel grinned, running over to one of the bins behind the counter and pulling out a tube of glitter and some construction paper. She set to work on making a Get Well card, completely shutting out any outside distractions in her frenzy to cheer up her sick friend. Dipper and Wendy looked over at her before turning back to face each other.
"Do you have a headache?" the young detective suddenly inquired. That would explain the redhead's dull eyes and obvious exhaustion. She seemed distinctly more… disconnected than usual, as well.
"Kind of," she mumbled back, rubbing her nose. She looked around the shop, seemingly pleased that the last of the tourists had left and let her eyes flutter shut. "Everything feels fuzzy."
"Maybe you should take the day off tomorrow," Dipper slowly suggested, setting into a sitting position on the counter. As he did this, he felt rather irked that Wendy remained taller than him, and she always seemed to find a way to show the fact off to him without actually saying anything. She stared up at his face with slightly bleary eyes and yawned.
"You know, maybe I should," she sighed. "My dad and brothers are camping, though, so I'll be all alone with a headache."
"I guess it's better than helping Grunkle Stan rip off people," the young detective remarked, though the sympathy for his friend was painfully evident in his voice. He didn't want Wendy to deal with an irritating virus on her own. He certainly wouldn't want to himself.
Wendy chuckled. "You're right," she smirked weakly. "Ok, I have ten minutes and then I can go." She slumped back onto the counter, her arm bumping against his leg as she sprawled the top half of her body out. The last of the tourists were leaving, and they watched the people exit lazily.
Five PM came all too soon for Dipper's taste. Honestly, he was excited about hanging out with Wendy until he found out that one, she was SUPER tired, and two, Mabel would most definitely be tagging along for every leg of whatever adventure they got into. With a sigh, he told his redheaded friend that she should probably be going home to get some rest and hopefully feel better the day after. She left without any objection.
Mabel soon came bouncing into the living room. "Dip, Stan's going to heat up some hamburgers!" she called, yelling directly into his face. With some distain, he wiped off the flecks of spit as his sister ran around the room in her huge floppy sweater. "He says you have to get in the kitchen or go hungry!"
Not wanting to miss out on dinner, the young detective followed his exuberant sister into the kitchen where Stan was busy watching three patties of meat in the microwave. "Took you long enough," he remarked as Dipper entered the room. The boy simply snorted and sat down at the table, watching out of the corner of his eye as the sun set behind the trees. He had forgotten how the sunsets in Gravity Falls looked. They were honestly beautiful.
The young detective ate his completely plain hamburger in silence, while Mabel coated hers in mustard, relish, ketchup, potato chips and who knows what else. Stan chewed his meat uncharacteristically quietly, staring at the two twins with intent. For a moment, as Dipper watched his great uncle, he thought he saw a flash of love in the old man's eyes, though he knew he must have imagined it.
"'S good to have you guys back, you know," Stan broke the silence before taking a huge bite of his burger. "Pretty quiet without a giant lizard trampling my parlor or whatever."
"Grunkle Stan, did you actually miss us?" Mabel asked with a slightly-mocking voice, her eyes widening. Dipper noticed a rather large smear of glitter on her nose, and wondered if it had come from her food. It didn't seem like it had, but one could never know around his sister.
"Wha? No, no, I didn't," the old man quickly dismissed, waving his hands. "Just, uh, kinda weird without you two cracking open conspiracies."
The young artist chose not to respond to this, instead taking a monstrous bite of her dinner and allowing her cheeks to puff out like a chipmunk's. She giggled as Dipper snorted at the sight. The overall anxiety of the day had been getting to him, and there was nothing like the power of Mabel to make him feel better.
Later that night, after the twins had brushed their teeth and showered, Dipper lay awake in his bed. He could already hear his sister's soft snores from across the room and watched as one of her feet twitched. Her hair was spread out like a massive furry halo.
What would I do without Mabel, he found himself wondering, staring off into space. When I'm not in Gravity Falls, she's the only thing keeping me on the brink of sanity. And that's saying something, considering the fact I'm not so sure she's 100% sane herself!
He sighed and rolled over, pulling the covers around him. Absentmindedly he debated with himself whether or not Wendy would come to work the next day. She hadn't seemed exactly healthy when she left, and if Soos had actually been ill enough to leave, then there was a good chance she was coming down with something as well. He hoped she was doing ok.
With a loud yawn and another turn, Dipper allowed himself to close his eyes and drift off into the peaceful realm of sleep.
When the young detective opened his eyes, everything seemed a little bit blurrier than usual. He rubbed his face, grumbling at the pale light shining in the window. It seemed to have gotten cloudy overnight, and he hoped it wouldn't rain. The woods got crazily muddy whenever that happened.
Suddenly he heard a yell. His eyes widened when he realized it was Mabel's. "Dipper! Dipper! HELP!"
Without a second thought, the boy leaped out of his bed in only a pair of sweatpants and an embarrassingly smelly shirt, racing downstairs. The shouts seemed to be coming from outside somewhere in the forest. Briefly amazed he had heard them, he found himself yelling, "Mabel? Mabel, I'm coming!"
Much to his discontent, it was raining outside. As he burst out the front door, the light drizzle made him narrow his eyes and shiver. It was strangely cold for rain at the beginning of summer, though he supposed it was normal further north. However, he didn't allow his thoughts to linger on rain. Mabel could be caught in a beartrap or hanging helpless from a tree that very moment!
He stumbled and crashed through the woods. Everything was slippery. Mabel's shouts were growing weaker and weaker, and he realized he was desperately hoping that she wasn't being dragged away by some great predator. The boy slipped and banged his chin on a fallen log, cursing loudly and biting back a sob of pain as tears came to his eyes. The mud was slicking his shirt to his body by now, and his hair clung to his scalp as though doused in glue.
Finally, Dipper burst out of the trees and found himself on one of the far edges of Gravity Falls lake. He blinked in horror as he spotted his sister frantically trying to keep afloat around a hundred or so feet out, spraying water everywhere in her efforts. "Dipper!" she cried. "There's something-" She didn't have the chance to finish her sentence before someone - or something - pulled her under the surface.
"Mabel!" Dipper screamed, trying to wade out despite knowing it was of no use. She was so far out that he would never get to her in time. He felt a flash of hope go through him as one hand appeared, splashing and groping around with fear before disappearing below the water again. Was she fighting back? Oh please oh please let her be fighting back.
Suddenly, a large red bubble floated to the surface. Dipper let out a panicked shriek as he realized the crimson beginning to stain the water was blood. No. No. She hadn't been fighting back at all. Whatever had gotten her was just toying, just trying to give her false-
"MABEL!" Dipper screamed as loud as he could, tears finally breaking free. His voice echoed, filling his mind with the terrified cry and causing everything to start pounding. The horror-filled plea to just see his sister one more time was consuming him, taking away what he knew and overwhelming him with hopelessness and dread.
With a gasp of air, Dipper's head shot up. It was still dark. His blankets lay in a tangled mess on the floor. The entire room was quiet, but for some reason he got the feeling he had just shouted his sister's name in real life. A dream. It was only a dream.
"D… Dipper?" The young detective jumped slightly as he saw movement from the other bed. Mabel raised her head, yawning so wide that Dipper could see the back of her throat. "Wha… What is it?"
"Nightmare," the boy managed, though his voice betrayed the fact it was far, far worse than that. Mabel seemed to sense that, and he could see the concern in her eyes even from across the room.
"You want a hug, bro?" she offered sleepily, raising an arm. His entire body shaking, Dipper nodded in reply and stumbled across the room. He didn't just want a hug, he needed one.
Mabel wrapped her arms around her quivering brother, resting a finger on his lips. "Shh, shh, it's ok," she whispered. "Whatever you saw… didn't happen. You're right here in Gravity Falls with me, and Grunkle Stan, and Wendy and Soos. We're here for ya."
"I know," Dipper croaked. He felt wretched. He hadn't been this scared in a long, long time.
"Why not you get some pleasant sleep now?" Mabel offered, stroking back his curly hair. "I'm sure things will seem much better in the morning."
Dipper nodded sleepily and stumbled back into his own bed, tugging his covers off the floor and around his body. His twin was probably right. Everything would be far better when he woke up, right? That's how sleep worked. It was logical.
Unfortunately, the next morning logic slapped Dipper in the face.
A/N: Monty is BACK! Haha, sorry I wasn't able to post this earlier, guys. Just to confirm, this is a definite WenDip story, but it won't be completely centered around their romantic mushity-mush. It'll be more focused on the actual sickness, due to the fact I REALLY like writing "harmless" sick scenes. Dudes, you are in for the most pointless and awesome ride ever.
I can't give any definite dates or whatever for the next update, but I promise it won't be a super long time like with the second chapter of Dragon Pines. If there's actually a chance you like this story, then you can be expecting the second update soon enough. Thanks for reading, and please leave a review!