A/N Thanks for clicking on my story! Hope you like it! Not much else to say but enjoy!

Chapter One

Mabel leaned back in her seat and watched the scenery go by and heaved a contemplative sigh, smiling when she saw the sign. Another hour and she would be back in Gravity Falls, her home away from home. To say she was excited would be an understatement. She missed everyone so much! Candy and Grenda, Soos and Wendy, Waddles, Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford and especially Dipper.

Without him, the past year had been well…rough. She thought she would be OK because, like he said, they could make it work and in true Mabel fashion she did her best to well, make it work. Making the most out of a bad situation was kind of the Mabel way of approaching life after all. But it wasn't the same without her twin brother and while she thought she would have her friends at home to fill the hole Dipper left behind, things didn't turn out that way. In fact, for some reason Mabel still couldn't figure out, the girls she thought were her friends turned against her and social Mabel had become an outcast. It was a long, lonely year.

She regretted letting Dipper stay. Sure, she didn't have that much of a say in it, but staying in Gravity Falls to become Ford's apprentice was a great opportunity for him and ultimately she wanted him to be happy. If she learned anything last summer, it was that she tended to be selfish when her wants conflicted with his and Dipper was always the one who caved, putting her happiness above his own. It had been high time she returned the favour, though a part of her still selfishly wished Dipper changed his mind.

Mabel thought back to that horrible day. Their fight was still so fresh in her memory. She had been having the worst day ever, she had to plan their thirteenth birthday solo while Dipper helped Ford with some sort of saving the world mission. That had been fine, but then nothing had been working right and reality came crashing down on her that day about what being a teenager would be like and just when she thought it couldn't get worse, she had overheard Dipper accept Ford's offer to stay and be his apprentice.

She had been devastated. Dipper was the one person she could always count on to be there and in that moment she needed him more than ever. Maybe if she didn't accidentally over hear him and he had the chance to talk to her himself, maybe if she didn't have such a horrible day, maybe if things were different their fight never would've escalated as far as it did and she wouldn't have run off.

"Thing change, summer ends," Dipper had said, trying to comfort her when he realized just how hurt she had been.

It had been the wrong thing to say to her at the time and too hurt to say anything else, Mabel ran. She grabbed her backpack and ran into the woods and after gorging on some chocolate she retreated into Sweatertown for a long, long time. Eventually she had fallen asleep and had a crazy dream that she had everything she ever wanted, summer could last forever, she was the Mayor of her own crazy world full of colour, fun and no rules and she didn't ever have to face reality again. But her dream world felt empty and lonely without Dipper.

Then the dream shifted and reminded her of all the things he had done for her, of all the times he sacrificed for the sake of her happiness. One of the most recent examples was when she put on that stupid sock puppet play to please a boy when Dipper needed her help with that laptop. He helped her with that, but did she help him? No. She intended to but she got so swept up in her stupid project that she didn't notice him spiralling out of control with his obsession and he got himself in serious trouble which lead to him getting hurt. She apologized and he was quick to forgive her, but that day stuck with her. The memory of it playing out so vividly as she slept startled her awake that night.

She had woken up sobbing, surrounded by darkness, cold and alone out there in the forest. She heard Dipper, Ford and Stan calling her name and so she had picked herself up, departed from Sweatertown with a heavy heart and called out after them, knowing what she had to do.

"Mabel!" Dipper had exclaimed, rushing up to her to give her a huge hug, "Oh man, I was so worried about you! I let you go thinking you needed to be alone for a little while but when you didn't come back I…"

"Dipper," she cried, sniffing and trying to regain her composure but he had held her and she cried into his shoulder too sad to speak.

"I'm so sorry, if I knew it would upset you this much I…I won't stay here, I'll go home with you so we can grow up together, I don't need some dumb apprenticeship."

"N-no," she cried, "I'm s-sorry. D-don't let me hold you back, OK? If it means that much to you to stay, I'm not going to get in your way. W-we can make it work."

"Really?" he exclaimed, pulling back to look her in the eyes, "Do you mean it?"

A part of her wanted to take it back, but she had nodded her head, wanting him to be happy. For once she was going to sacrifice her happiness for his like he always did for her, and she regretted it ever since.

"Oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Dipper had exclaimed, holding her in a bone crushing hug.

Things had been a little awkward after that. Mabel tried to remain her cheerful self, and reminded herself of everything she had waiting for her in Piedmont to look forward to. Dipper had suggested that maybe she stayed too, which made everything all right again but their parents put their foot down on that one. They were reluctant to give Dipper permission to stay, but only if Mabel came home so they could still have one kid to raise. Dipper gave her an out, offering to turn down the apprenticeship, but Mabel had been haunted by the idea that she was holding him back. He had so much potential, she didn't want to ruin it.

Saying goodbye to her twin brother had been hard for both of them. Harder still was that long bus ride alone only to get home and find out her friends didn't like her anymore. Not just that but flat out tuned against her, making her life miserable at school and she had no one to count on to make things better.

Meanwhile she and Dipper made it work. They video chatted a lot, he kept her updated on everything he learned and Mabel told him about the great time she was having at school. It had been a lie, but he was so happy she struggled to keep her mouth shut so she didn't ruin it for him.

Mabel smiled, reminding herself that soon she would be back to the place that felt more like home than Piedmont did, and she would have her brother back. Part of the deal was that he stayed only one year, so she also had the knowledge that they'd be finally going home together to look forward to.

She was excited beyond words. She hadn't talked to him in a few weeks because of crappy internet connection apparently, but he texted that he was looking forward to seeing her again too.

As the bus pulled into the Gravity Falls bus terminal Mabel held her breath in anticipation, promising herself that she wasn't going to knock him off his feet with excitement.

She got off the bus and retrieved her trunk from the driver and looked around for Stan's car but there was no sign of them.

"Odd," she frowned, wondering if they got the time wrong. Maybe the bus was early? Since the station was closed she sat on her trunk and waited. And waited. And waited.

Her excitement had quickly deflated the longer she waited and when grey clouds started to roll in. Her phone had run out of battery power so she finally picked herself up and dragged her trunk down the road until she found a lone payphone. She fished in her backpack for change and called Dipper but there was no answer. She then tried the Mystery Shack, but again there was no answer.

"Maybe they're on their way?" she wondered, sitting back down on her trunk and waiting, watching the road for Stan's car.

After a while, around the time it started to lightly rain, she called Soos.

"Hello?" he asked tentatively.

"Soos! It's me, Mabel!"

"Hey there Hambone!" he exclaimed, "Are you in town yet?"

"Yeah, I'm at the bus station still. I've been waiting for Grunkle Stan and Dipper to pick me up like we planned, but they haven't arrived and I can't get a hold of them. I'm getting a little worried about them and the station's closed, I'm stuck outside and it's starting to rain…could you uhh…?"

"Say no more, I'll be there as soon as possible, dude," he promised before hanging up.

Mabel chewed at her hair as she waited for Soos. She was relieved he was coming, but what about Stan and Dipper? She had a horrible image of them getting into an accident on their way to the station forming in her mind and she tried not to think about it. "Maybe they forgot?" she wondered out loud, the thought making her sad, but it was better than something bad happening to them.

When the rain picked up she used her jacket as an umbrella which did little to shelter her from the rain and by the time Soos arrived she was, cold, wet and emotional. Soos pulled up beside her and ran out to get her trunk as she quickly climbed into the passenger seat, a shivering mess.

"It's good to see you again, Mabel!" Soos exclaimed as he turned up the heat and started to drive towards the Mystery Shack. "I really missed you!"

"I'm glad someone does," she whined before she turned to her friend. "I missed you too, Soos," she grinned, even though she wanted to cry.

"You OK, dude?" Soos asked.

"Yeah, but…why didn't Dipper and Stan come to pick me up?"

"Maybe they forgot? Maybe they had the wrong time and date? Mistakes happen."

"Yeah," she sighed, "I hope they're OK."

"Maybe they have a surprise welcome back party waiting for you and got so caught up in it they forgot to arrange for someone to get you!" Soos offered.

Mabel smiled, perking up, "Yeah! That's got to be it!"

But when they pulled up to the Mystery Shack the place was dark and seemingly empty. Still holding onto the hope for a surprise party, Mabel tentatively went to the Shack and knocked on the door. There was no answer and the door was locked.

"Soos, you have a key, right?"

Soos chuckled nervously, "Yeah about that…the thing is, Hambone…I don't work here anymore."

"WHAT?!" Mabel exclaimed, genuinely surprised.

"Stan fired me about a week ago."

"Why?"

"He didn't say," Soos replied sadly, "all he said was that he didn't need me anymore and that was kind of it. Haven't spoken to any of the Pines since."

"Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Don't know," Soos shrugged, clearly unhappy with the situation. "I guess they're not home but I'll wait with you until they come back, OK Hambone?"

"Yeah, thanks," Mabel nodded sadly, still shivering from being cold and wet.

They waited for a while when they saw a light turn on inside, but there had been no sign of anyone just arriving which meant someone had to have been home the whole time. Mabel jumped out of Soos's truck and rang the doorbell. Soon the door opened and Mabel was face to face with Dipper for the first time in almost a year. "Dipper!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him, "I missed you! What happened did you forget? Did you have the wrong date of when I was supposed to get here?"

"Oh hey Mabel," Dipper shrugged casually, opening the door wider to let her in. "Sorry, Ford and I were working on some stuff, lost track of time."

"Oh," she frowned, stepping in past him, slightly surprised to see how much it changed on the inside. She looked around as Soos helped her bring her trunk in. He looked surprised by how different it looked inside as well, the living room full of science-y looking stuff, all the quirky things that gave the place character were shoved aside for what looked like experimental machinery. "Where's everyone?"

"Ford's down in the basement," he shrugged, walking away to head upstairs.

"What about Stan?" Mabel called after him, following him upstairs to their room only to see with dismay that the room wasn't ready for her.

"Don't know," he replied indifferently, "he left about a week ago. Didn't say where he was going but he and Ford had a falling out." He rolled his eyes, "Again."

"And no one thought to tell me this?"

"Forgot."

"Dipper, are you even happy to see me?"

"I guess," he shrugged.

"I waited for you guys in the rain for hours for you to pick me up, I called Soos and he told me he was fired! What happened?"

"Don't know," he said with a frown, "I guess you need a place to sleep, huh?"

Mabel looked around at the room they used to share. Her bed was still there but it was covered with papers, lots and lots of papers with codes written on them. The room looked like the room of a crazy and totally insane, paranoid conspiracy theorist. It made her almost want to cry, not just because he seemed to not care about her returning one bit, which hurt a lot, but also because he clearly had gone off the deep end.

"Let me clear you some space, I guess," he sighed as though inconvenienced, "Don't touch anything, I have everything in order."

"I'll uh…I'll go help Soos with my stuff," she said, trying so hard not to cry. She ran downstairs to see Soos looking around dumbfounded. She broke into sobs when she saw him and he opened his arms to give her a hug as she asked, "Soos, what happened?"

"I have no idea, Hambone," he replied quietly as she cried into his shoulder. "Aw, Mabel…" he sighed, "don't cry. There was probably a misunderstanding, dude."

"Does this look like a misunderstanding to you?" she cried. "I was so excited to get here and Dipper doesn't even care! He seems annoyed that I'm here! And our room—his room… there's so much weird stuff all over the place it looks like McGuckett decorated. And Stan left? Without saying anything?"

"Mabel" Dipper interrupted, "The bed is clear."

"Uh, yeah," she wiped the tears from her eyes, exchanged glances with Soos and together they hauled her trunk upstairs without any help from Dipper who didn't seem to care that she was crying.

She frowned when she looked in their room and saw that Dipper cleared her bed, but also set up a curtain dividing their room.

"You OK, Mabel?" Dipper asked finally, "You seem upset."

"Gee, I wonder why?" she snapped, placing her trunk at the foot of her bed and unpacking her blanket and a few sweaters.

"Hey dude," Soos greeted Dipper finally, "How you been? Haven't seen you for a while," he chuckled nervously at the awkwardness of the situation, "everything OK?"

"Fine," he shrugged.

"We should hang out and stuff…I mean I know I don't work here anymore but that doesn't mean we can't…"

"Yeah, sure whatever," Dipper smiled, but it was fake. "Sorry, I've been really busy. Ford and I have been building something cool and I've been kinda distracted."

"Too distracted to remember I was coming, or even caring?" Mabel demanded sadly.

"Sorry about that Mabel," Dipper sighed, "look I've been working hard all day. I'm beat and you must be too, things will be different tomorrow."

"Promise?" she asked, angry and hurt but hoping that he meant it.

"Yeah," he nodded. "I promise we'll have a great day. Today…it wasn't a good day. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, OK," Mabel sighed, offering him a small smile.

He smiled back and then waved to Soos, "Good to see you Soos. Talk to you later?"

"Sure thing, dude," Soos nodded with a smile but his eyes met Mabel's and she knew that something was wrong. Something else was behind Dipper's behaviour and they silently agreed they'd get to the bottom of it.

What happened to you bro-bro?

A/N Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think!