"Mabel, I just want you to know that I am so sorry."
Dipper and Mabel were currently in the caravan that they slept in. There was a bed on each side, each disorganized in a different way. Mabel's bed was covered in stuffed animals, glitter, and soot. Dipper's had multiple rolled up pieces of paper on it. Mabel was currently laying down on her bed, hugging a big plush firefly to her chest. Her human cannonball outfit was sitting in a chest between the twin's beds, and she was wearing a simple, if rather sparkly purple dress and purple headband. As a result of an accident during last night's performance, she currently had a broken leg wrapped in bandages, a scraped elbow, a chipped tooth, and a black eye. Still, she smiled up at her brother, who was standing by her bedside.
"Pfft." she said. "You've got nothing to be sorry for."
"Yes I do." said Dipper, applying a bandage to Mabel's knee, making sure it was sterilized before doing so. "I'm the cannon operator, and if something bad happens to you during the act, then it's my responsibility."
"Seriously, Dipper." said Mabel, hugging her stuffed animal a bit tighter. "You didn't do anything wrong. Sometimes accidents just happen." She giggled and added "To me, a lot of the time."
"I don't know." said Dipper. "It just seems like I could've prevented it somehow."
He sighed as he reached into his pocket, pulling out an ice-cold popsicle still in its wrapper. Handing it to Mabel, he said "Hold this up to your eye, I think it'll stop the swelling."
Mabel nodded and did so, continuing to smile at her brother. Dipper, meanwhile, sat down on his own bed and looked down, recalling the events from last night that had led them to this. Mabel's act was the grand finale, as befitting of a human cannonball. After hyping up the crowd a bit, she loaded herself into the belly of her cannon and called for Dipper to fire her off. Striking a match, Dipper took a few deep breaths before bringing it to the fuse. He stepped back as a drumroll started and the crowd watched in anticipation as the fuse burned down. Dipper's heart pounded as the fuse got closer to the cannon. He plugged his ears as he watched, silently wishing his sister a safe flight.
The cannon fired, as usual, in an bombastic explosion of light, blasting Mabel out like a comet. the crowd oohed and ahhed in delight as Mabel rocketed across the sky like a shooting star. Mabel's eyes were closed and her mouth was displaying a beaming grin as she held her arms out during her flight. It was quite an impressive act altogether, except for the landing.
Mabel had landed, with a crash, right into a (thankfully) empty section of the bleachers. The crowd was in shocked silence for a few seconds before Mabel shot up and cheerfully declared that she was okay, though she certainly didn't look okay. She took a bow and limped, the crowd cautiously applauding. When she got backstage, she happily did a pirouette and and excitedly chirped about how well she did before collapsing from pain.
Soos and Wendy quickly carried her back to her bed in her caravan. Though Dipper had offered to take her to the hospital, she had insisted that she was fine and didn't need it.
Dipper finished the memory as he looked back up and saw that Mabel had unwrapped the popsicle and was now licking it.
"Mabel, that's supposed to be for your eye." said Dipper, rolling his own eyes.
"Oh, right, sorry!" said Mabel, proceeding to hold the popsicle back up to her black eye.
Dipper said "I just get the feeling that maybe I added too much gunpowder, or aimed it wrong, or lit the fuse the wrong way or-"
"Dipper, bro-bro, take it easy." said Mabel. "It probably had nothing to do with anything you did, and even if it did, I wouldn't really mind that much."
"But Mabel, I just... I really don't like seeing you get hurt like this." said Dipper.
"I get it." said Mabel, pausing to take another lick from the popsicle. "But danger and excitement is just sort of what being a human cannonball is all about. I may only be twelve, but I've got quite a history of bumps and bruises."
Mabel giggled and said "Remember the time I got blasted clear out of the circus and landed in a swimming pool?"
"Yeah, that was pretty crazy." said Dipper, chuckling a bit.
"My only regret was not yelling 'cannonball!' right before I landed." said Mabel. "How about the time I got shot off into the night sky like a shooting star?"
"Too many times to count." said Dipper, a smile starting to form.
"How about the time I got swallowed whole by a giant plant? Or a giant fish? Or a giant spider?" said Mabel cheerfully, hugging her plush firefly with one arm.
"Yeah, you do seem to get eaten a lot." said Dipper, wincing slightly.
"Or how about the time during practice where I got fired over the net and flew right where Wendy was practicing, but she just caught me and started juggling me?" said Mabel, licking her popsicle.
Dipper laughed.
"Ooh! Or how about the time I got turned to stone? Or the time I got that really bad cold that almost melted my brain into snot? Or the time we found that gold crown that made me go all crazy and greedy? Or the time a firework flew right into me? Or the time I got a cavity that turned out to be a plaque monster trying to infect my whole body? Or the time I..."
Mabel trailed off as she noticed that her brother was cringing at the memory of the various incidents she listed off. "The point is, being a human cannonball is all about excitement, and adventure, and defying death on a daily basis. If you ask me, you haven't lived until you've almost died."
"But here's the thing" said Mabel, smiling warmly. "I'm still alive, even if I'm a little banged up right now. Sure, one day sooner or later a pair of angelic clowns will load me into a pearly cannon and fire me off to the great carnival in the sky, but for now I'm still here, and despite all the bruises and scrapes I think I've still got a lot of performances left in me."
"I guess so." said Dipper, smiling a bit. "But I still think you should try to be more careful." He looked at Mabel's smile, which showed off her somewhat crooked teeth, and laughed, saying "I mean, if you keep landing on your face you'll be wearing those braces for the rest of your life."
Mabel giggled and said "Well, that wouldn't be too bad. They do make me cuter."
"So." said Mabel, looking around. "Anything to do?"
"Well, Grunkle Stan said that you should probably take at least the next few days off, and I guess that means I've got those days off too." said Dipper.
"Eh, fair enough." said Mabel. She finished her popsicle and tossed the stick into a nearby wastebasket before saying "I can take some time off, but sooner or later I'll be back and better than ever!"
Mabel attempted to demonstrate her tenacity by getting off of her bed and standing tall. Unfortunately, she had put her broken leg on the floor first, and ended up putting all of her weight on it when she tried to stand. All she could say was a small, drawn-out "Ooooowwwwwww." before she fell to the floor.
Dipper quickly helped his sister back into bed.
"Okay, that was definitely mistake." said Mabel, both smiling and wincing. "And it was probably also a mistake to try to do a pirouette on my broken leg last night."
"You know, maybe we could read a book for today." said Dipper, handing Mabel her stuffed firefly.
"Yeah, maybe that could be neat." said Mabel, hugging the plush animal with all her might.
Dipper nodded with a smile. Before he found a book to read, he decided to make his sister as comfortable as she could be, even if she was still in pain. He gave her a hug, tucked her into bed, fluffed up her pillow, and got her a bag of popcorn and a cotton candy from the concession stand. Mabel happily thanked him and declared him to be a great brother as he looked through the small collection of books he kept on his side of the caravan, eventually finding a book that Mabel might find interesting.
Taking a seat on his own bedside, Dipper began reading to his sister, and he did so for the majority of the relatively quiet day on the circus grounds.