A/N Holy guacamole! I am simply blown away by the overwhelming response this has gotten! I've never debuted a story with this many reviews before ever. You guys are amazing! Thank you so much!
Aleja08, guest(s), Gam919, Extreme Light 9, XDragonWingsX: thank you so much for the reviews! Means a lot!
codelyoko300, Pine Nut: Sorry for the cliffhangers. I can be pretty evil that way! Thanks for the reviews guys!
shootingstar34: Oh my sweet faithful reviewer! Once again thank you for following all my stories so faithfully! It means so much! I hadn't heard that code that you mentioned before, where'd you see/hear it? It makes me intrigued and nervous at the same time! Dipper and Mabel's bond is one of my favourite things about the show. I've said it once, I'll say it again, MYSTERY TWINS for LIFE!
TMNTGFKittySidekick01: Yet another super cool awesome faithful reviewer! Love that you took the hint with such gusto! I'll return your PM tomorrow. I'm notoriously bad at timely responses so please forgive me. Thanks as always for all the wonderful comments to all my stories!
DipperPinesRules: There's nothing wrong with loving sad stories! I'm glad you like this particular one! (I think the question is what's wrong with me? I put Mabel through so much in my stories! WHY?!) Thanks for the review and I totally agree with your username!
animation-fangirl-nation: Thanks for all the favourites, follows and the review! I'm so glad you like my stuff! I'm so flattered that you like my writing so much. :-)
BlueSpiritFire1: Well I'm glad to have been able to provide what you were looking for! Those are legitimate questions indeed. I hope this chapter will shed some light on at least some of them and I hope it won't disappoint! Thanks so much for the review!
If I missed anyone, I am SO sorry! Every comment I receive means so much to me! And thank you to all those who have favourited and followed this! Once again, I'm overwhelmed by the wonderful response this has gotten!
WARNING: This chapter might be a little...intense? It's kind of based on a nightmare I had once. It wasn't pretty. There's a certain 'ick' factor to it.
Anyway, enjoy!
Tension
"Grunkle Ford, that was amazing!" Dipper exclaims as the machine they had been building all day worked exactly the way it's supposed to.
"Great job Dipper! I am so proud of you!" Ford replies, "It's great to know that this family managed to produce another genius, you're going places kiddo, really. I see a very bright future ahead of you."
Dipper blushes, "Thanks." He gives his great uncle and mentor a big hug, looking at the machine he helped build. The machine is a containment unit of sorts, designed to contain and neutralize dangerous objects like the inter-dimensional rift or anything else that might've come as a side effect to opening the portal. "High six?"
"High six!" Ford exclaims enthusiastically as they slapped their hands together jubilantly. When Dipper yawns Ford looks at the clock, "Holy Toledo, it's late! You should really get to bed."
Dipper looks and is shocked to see it's past three in the morning. "Wow! OK, yeah, good night Grunkle Ford!" he yawns again, exhaustion quickly catching up with him now that he's aware of the time. He heads to the elevator and goes up, and then up the stairway to the vending machine entrance. But when he tries to push it open he's met with an unexpected obstacle and can't get it to open far enough to get through.
"What the—?"
Through the small opening he's able to make he can see his sister is lying in front of the vending machine, fast asleep. He rolls his eyes, "Mabel! Move, I can't get out!" With a bit more force he's able to open it a little further, but still not quite enough to get through, "Wake up, sis! You're in the way! I think you were sleepwalking again!"
The fact that she's lying on the floor in front of the vending machine doesn't automatically set off too many red flags for Dipper. They each have their odd quirks when sleep deprived. He chews on his shirt, she sleepwalks. While Mabel rarely has trouble sleeping, the few times she does it's not unusual to find her fast asleep in odd places around the house the next morning, and a few times while growing up, mom and dad would have to guide her back to bed after they'd catch her wandering around the house.
"Mabel!" he hisses with annoyance.
She replies with a quivering moan, and that's when he realizes that something is wrong. She sounds like she's in pain and she's still not waking up.
He reaches through the crack and nudges her, "Hey, you OK?" his hand touches her face and he recoils in shock, "Mabel, you're burning up! Wake up!" She stirs slightly with a faint whimper of pain but still doesn't wake. "Grunkle Ford!" he calls, "Grunkle Ford help! Something's wrong with Mabel!" he glances behind him down the stairs, and realizes that Ford probably can't hear him. Putting his whole body into it, he forces the door open until he's able to squeeze through. When he gets through he kneels next to her, combing her damp hair out of her face.
She's lying partially on her side, but mostly on her stomach, and he realizes from her position she was trying to open the vending machine before she passed out. He doesn't understand what could've happened to her. Last time he saw her a few hours ago she was perfectly fine so how'd she get so incredibly sick so fast?
"Grunkle Ford! Grunkle Stan!" he calls out again, not wanting to leave her side but needing help. He turns his attention back to Mabel, not sure what to do exactly. Is she hurt? He wonders, but she doesn't look visibly injured. He rolls her onto her back and her eyes snap open and she screams out in pain, her right shoulder jerking suddenly as it makes contact with the floor. "Mabel!" he gasps in surprise, quickly catching onto where the source of her pain is as he helps her roll onto her side. She curls around him, clutching blindly at his shirt until he takes her hand and she grasps it tightly.
Dipper can hear footsteps above him, relieved to know that he was able to get Grunkle Stan's attention, "Mabel, hey… it's OK, you're going to be OK…"
Her response is a little unexpected. "I'm sorry," she sobs, "please don't hurt me! Please…don' leave me Dipper…"
"Mabel, you've done nothing wrong!" he exclaims, At least as far as I know…, "I'm not going anywhere, OK?"
"Whatever I did 'm sorry," she slurs faintly as she fades back into unconsciousness, tears falling down her cheeks.
"Dipper, what's going on, what happened?" Stan asks suddenly as he comes through the 'employee's only' door, rushing towards them.
"I…I don't know, she's sick or hurt…I found her unconscious by the vending machine. She's burning up, Grunkle Stan!" Dipper stammers. "I think her back is hurt, or her shoulder…"
Stan kneels beside them, his hand going to her forehead where his eyes widen in shock, "Dipper, get a clean cloth and get it damp, we need to get her temperature down," he orders and then he gives her a gentle nudge, "Mabel, sweetie wake up. Come on kid…" He glances at Dipper who remains frozen in place, "Well, get to it Dipper. Go!"
Dipper nods and does as he's told.
Stan gently prods her back, looking for sign of injury and when he gets to her right shoulder she flinches and he can feel signs of swelling from under her sweater. Carefully he removes her sweater so she's just in her light pink t-shirt which is damp with sweat. Where the swelling starts he can see a yellowish stain and he winces, gingerly tugging her shirt down at the collar to partially reveal an angry looking welt. From his vantage point all he can see is where the skin is starting to swell, the colour is red with dark purple lines branching out. His heart clenches because he knows it's a very, very bad sign. Hospital bad.
"Sorry kid, I'll get you a new shirt when you're feeling better," Stan says before he rips the fabric to get better access to the injury. He gags at the sight of a blistering puncture wound, yellow and green with infection but he's perplexed because when he saw her last, she was fine. A wound has to fester for days before it can get this bad.
That can only mean one thing. This wound wasn't caused by something natural.
Dipper returns and stops dead in his tracks at the sight.
"Oh man…what…?"
"Not sure yet," Stan says grimly, taking the cloth from him before he starts to wipe away some of the sweat from her face, "get Ford. I…I think whatever this is, it might be from something in one of his journals or…or something."
Mabel responds instantly to the cool dampness of the cloth and she stirs, whimpering helplessly, "I'm sorry…p-please forgive me…wh-whatever it was…I'm sorry!"
"Mabel? Honey wake up," Stan soothes softly, as it's clear that while her eyes are open, she's not really awake.
"Don' hate me Dipper…"
Dipper's heart sinks by her words, having no idea where such an absurd thought was coming from. He could never hate her, no matter what. And why would she think she wronged him in some way that not even she knows? Once again he's frozen in place, knowing what he's supposed to do but unable to bring himself to leave Mabel's side, especially with her like this, thinking…thinking he hated her for some reason.
Stan nudges Mabel, "Hey kid, can you tell me what happened to you?"
She blinks wearily at him and while she's not all there, she's reached a level of awareness that she can answer his questions, "Stung…bee stung me…think it was a bee…" she moans shakily, "big, purple 'n green colour…wasn't natural…"
It doesn't make sense that a bee or anything like a bee would be out at night, but if it wasn't natural, like he had already suspected anyway due to how quickly the infection progressed, it wouldn't necessarily behave like a normal bee would. But it gives Stan something to work with as he takes a closer look at the center of the wound and sure enough he sees something black barely poking out. "I think I see the stinger…" he frowns, "but it's in pretty deep. I'm going to need tweezers or something to get it out..." He glances up at Dipper, "What are you still doing here, kid? Get Ford, now."
Dipper's breath hitches and he nods. Whatever Mabel might've said in her delirium, it doesn't matter right now. What matters now is helping her get better so he quickly turns and rushes downstairs to get Grunkle Ford. He's a genius, he wrote the journals so if anyone would know what's wrong or what to do, it's him.
He nearly falls down the stairs and when he reaches the elevator he realizes just how friggin' slow it is, the whole ride he's bouncing on his heels, "Come on, come on…" he mutters, biting his fingernails. When the door opens he calls out, "Grunkle Ford! Grunkle Ford help! It's Mabel!"
Ford emerges from the room that he had turned into a bedroom for himself, "Dipper! What are you doing here?"
"It's Mabel!" he says again, breathlessly in a panic, "Something's wrong with her, she says she's been stung by something. She's really sick and it looks…it's bad!"
"Slow down," Ford holds up his hands, trying to calm him. Dipper inhales slowly and Ford nods to him, "OK, start again, tell me everything you know…"
And so Dipper does just that, answering any questions Ford may have to the best of his ability and adding whatever information he can, but Dipper doesn't know much. From the grim look on his face though, it seems Ford might have an idea.
"OK, here's what you need to do Dipper," Ford instructs, "take her to the kitchen and place her in a way I can access the wound, OK? Get the first aid kit and some clean towels. I have a feeling…I have a feeling that…Dipper, do you trust me?"
"O-of course!" he stammers, wondering why he would need to ask him that.
"I don't mean trust me with a secret, but trust that whatever I might need to do, I'm only going to do it because it can help Mabel in the long run?"
"W-what are you g-getting at Grunkle Ford?" Dipper swallows hard, worried about where this is going.
"Because if I'm right about what stung her, things are going to get a lot worse before they can even begin to get better," Ford explains, "I hope it won't come to it, but based on what you told me, I'm afraid I might need to take some drastic measures to help your sister. If it comes to that, I need to know beforehand that you trust me and won't get in my way."
"I…I trust you," Dipper nods, a little more hesitantly this time as his heart pounds with panic at the worst-case scenarios that begin to run though his mind.
"Now go. I'll be up soon, I just need to get some things together first. You and Stan do what I said, I'll be right up," Ford gives his shoulder a squeeze, "she's going to be fine, Dipper. I promise." He flashes a reassuring smile and nods to him. Dipper nods back, swallowing hard as he runs back to the elevator. Watching him go, Ford's smile fades into a grim but determined frown.
/o\
When Ford arrives in the kitchen, Mabel is straddling a chair backwards, there's a pillow stuffed between her stomach and the back of the chair as a cushion as she leans limply over the back. Dipper is sitting facing her, holding her hands in his as she blearily tilts her head towards Stan who sits beside her, one hand resting on her left shoulder and the other resting on Dipper's. The wound on the back of her right shoulder is exposed through the torn fabric of her shirt and Ford swallows at the sight, glancing away briefly with sadness as Dipper and Stan turn their attention to him as he enters.
"What do you need for us to do, Grunkle Ford?" Dipper asks, giving Mabel's hands a squeeze as he tries to make eye contact with her. She's conscious now, barely, but she's constantly avoiding his gaze as though guilty or ashamed, but she does squeeze back in return. It bothers him that while there's strength in her grip on her left hand, she can't seem to do more than twitch the fingers on her right.
"Stay right where you are Dipper," Ford instructs, approaching to get a better look at the wound. He's wearing awkwardly fitting latex gloves designed for normal hands with his two smallest fingers jammed into one of the fingers of the gloves and there's a knife in his hand which prompts Stan to immediately stand up, concerned and suspicious.
"What do you plan to do with that?"
"Mabel's going to need an anchor right now, and there's no better person than you to be that anchor," Ford continues, ignoring his brother. "Stan, I need you to turn on a burner to maximum," Ford says, handing him the knife, "put the knife on the burner."
Stan's eyes widen and he shakes his head, "Oh no you don't. Don't you dare!"
"I'm sorry but I have to," Ford replies, "if there was another way…I don't even have to take a closer look to know it's the only way."
"Gr'nkle F'rd?" Mabel murmurs, twisting her head towards him straining to see him, "Wha's goin' on? Gonna do?" She tenses with panic, wiggling weakly in her seat. With his hands full, Dipper presses his forehead against hers, trying to keep her still.
"It's OK, Mabel," he soothes, "It's going to be OK…"
She calms down slightly, dropping her head onto the pillow folded over the back of the chair. She closes her eyes, but Dipper can tell she's still conscious, and he's starting to get a bad feeling that it would be better off if she weren't conscious for this.
"Grunkle Ford? What stung Mabel? What are you planning to do?" he glances back and forth between the Stans, curious about Ford's instruction and why Stan's so adamantly against it, so much that his hands are clenched in fists and he's quickly moved himself between Ford and Mabel. Then it all clicks into place just as Stan shoves Ford back and Dipper squeezes Mabel's hands tighter as his stomach suddenly feels like it's in his throat.
"Don't you dare, Ford!" he hisses again.
"Fine," Ford replies, snatching the knife back from Stan, "I'll do it myself." He turns on the burner and places the knife's blade on top, "Mabel was stung by a Worry Wasp, the stingers still inside and I have no choice but to cut it out, drain the infection and cauterize the wound."
"You can't!" Dipper protests.
"I wish I didn't need to do this, but I have to. The stinger's clearly been in there a long time, and at this point, it's the only way to kill the infection," Ford replies grimly. "I'm sorry, I truly am. But I warned you Dipper that I might have to take drastic actions to help her."
"So what? You think branding her like you did me is the best option?" Stan growls, "Forget it!"
"That was an accident and you know it!" Ford hisses, "Damn it Stanley, don't you realize that if there was a better, less traumatic way I would do that instead?"
"At least give her something to lessen the pain," Dipper pleads, "let that kick in before you…you know."
Ford sighs, closing his eyes, "That would be a bad idea. The Worry Wasp is highly venomous, and from everything I've observed, it reacts negatively to medicine of any kind. At this point it would only make things worse."
"What's a Worry Wasp anyway?" Dipper asks, "I don't remember reading about it in your journals…"
"That's because you won't find it in my journals, Dipper," Ford replies. He tries to approach Mabel again but Stan won't let him, "Come on Stanley, now's not the time. The longer we wait the worse it will get, and it's been too long as it is."
"Grunkle Stan…" Dipper protests, but it's clear he's conflicted, wanting to do whatever it took to help Mabel, but hating that Ford wasn't lying when he said things had to get much worse before they could get better. What Ford was talking about might help her, but it was also going to be torturous.
"You're not going anywhere near my niece. I'm taking her to the hospital…"
"She's my niece too!" Ford snaps, "Just because I haven't had a chance to get to know her like you have doesn't mean I don't care! You think I want to cause her more pain? Is that it? What kind of monster do you think I am? And they can't help her with this at the hospital. Their good intentions might get her killed!"
"Guys…" Mabel weakly cuts in, her voice a barely audible whisper. She coughs painfully, and that's what gets everyone's attention, "Guys, 's OK…got the st'nger out already…don' have to…"
"No kiddo," Ford replies, "I'm sorry but they break very easily, they…they're kind of designed to break off when someone tries to pull them out. It's…it's a complicated creature. Now Stanley, please stand aside and let me cut the thing out before…"
"Before what?" Stan asks.
Ford runs his hand down his face, hesitant to answer, "Stanley, please I'm begging you here! Let me do what I need to do to save her! Trust me on this!"
"Grunkle Stan," Dipper swallows hard, "let him help. He's the only one here who knows what to do."
Stan hesitates, but suddenly Mabel tenses and lets out a scream of pain. "Make it stop!" she screams, as her body bucks and writhes on the chair, "It hurts! IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOP!"
"I don't have time for this," Ford mutters, grabbing a different knife and dousing it with alcohol from the first aid kit that sits on the table beside them along with everything else he needs as Stan goes to help Dipper soothe Mabel.
"Mabel!" Dipper cries out in alarm, letting go of her hands to grasp her upper arms, trying to keep her from falling from the chair.
"What's going on?" Stan exclaims, "What's happening to her? Oh man, what is that?"
They look at her wound with horror as something under the swollen skin starts moving, and it looks like the infected puncture wound of the stinger could burst at any moment. Mabel meanwhile keeps on screaming, blindly writhing in the chair, oblivious to everything around her except pain.
Ford pushes Stan aside, "Out of my way, and hold her down! Keep her still as possible!" He takes a clean cloth from the table set up with supplies and rolls it up, "Have her bite this, it should help," he tells Dipper. Ford then takes the knife and a towel, cutting into the wound. Immediately blood and yellowish green pus seeps from the wound and he gags, wiping it away with the towel, "Dipper, hand me the tweezers, make sure to sanitize them with alcohol first. Stan, keep holding her still."
Dipper's reluctant to let her go, but he doesn't hesitate. His eyes widen with horror when he gets a good look at the wound and through the blood he can see the stinger, and something else, something moving. Meanwhile Mabel continues to scream, though the sound is muffled from the cloth in her teeth. Dipper's stomach lurches at the sight and he swallows back the vomit that made it to his mouth.
Ford grasps the end of the stinger with the tweezers and give it a tug, struggling to pull it out. Finally he does and Dipper's shocked to see how long it is, at least an ¾ of an inch long and something is on the tip, like thin strings branching out, coated in blood. "Dipper, grab me a couple of glasses or something to put this in," he tells him and Dipper does what he's told. He drops the stinger into one glass, and then brings the tweezers back to the wound and pulls out a small wormy-like thing that wiggles and squirms as Ford drops it into the second glass.
"What the heck is that?" Stan gags, equally as shocked and horrified as Dipper. Even more alarming to them is that Ford looks just as surprised as they are, but Ford swallows back his surprise, and keeps going, pulling another one out, and then another one until Mabel finally stops writhing and screaming and falls limp as a ragdoll, breathless and sobbing, but still conscious. Stan takes the cloth from her mouth and she shudders, releasing a pained-filled cry that brings tears to Stan and Dipper's eyes.
"Dipper, get the knife from the stove," Ford instructs quietly, his voice forcibly even.
This time Dipper hesitates.
"Come on, you can see now why I need to do this," Ford replies. "It's the only way to kill the infection and…and that," he tilts his chin to the glass with the worm-like things. "I'm positive I got them all, but this is the only way to make sure it's the last of them."
"Can't believe I'm saying this but…he's right," Stan agrees.
"N-no," Mabel murmurs, "p-please…" She glances at Dipper, watching him as he reaches the stove and takes the knife in his hands. Her eyes widen in panic as he approaches her, the tip of the knife glowing reddish-orange. "Please don'!" she shrieks, "Why're you doing this to me?!" Stan puts the cloth back in her mouth and she tries weakly to fight them off, but she has no strength and her right arm dangles uselessly, her fingers brushing along the floor.
Dipper hands Ford the knife and immediately kneels in front of Mabel, grabbing her hands and pressing his forehead against hers, "Shh, it's OK Mabel," he soothes, "it's almost over, it'll all be over soon…"
Mabel shakes her head, tears trailing down her cheeks as she avoids his gaze with a look of pure betrayal in her eyes. Dipper chokes back a sob, releasing her right hand to hold onto the back of her neck. She thinks we're hurting her on purpose…she doesn't understand that we're helping her…
"Look at me, Mabel, just look at me," he whispers, his voice breaks a little, "I'm sorry that it's going to hurt, but it's the only way to help you, sis. I'm sorry. But it'll be over soon…it'll be over soon, I promise!"
"OK, I'm going to do this on three," Ford warns, "One, two…" he doesn't get to three, instead he presses the hot knife blade against her skin on two and immediately Mabel writhes with a muffled scream as Stan tries to hold her still and Dipper holds her head, repeating the mantra that it will be over soon, acting as her anchor, doing his best to keep her grounded and comforted during the torturous ordeal.
Fortunately Dipper's not lying when he says it will be over soon because the procedure only lasts a few seconds, but when it's over Mabel's eyes flutters closed and she goes completely limp in the chair having finally lost consciousness. Dipper pulls her into an awkward hug, resting his chin on her left shoulder as her arms dangle limply and Ford quickly dresses the wound.
"Now what?" Dipper asks shakily, "Is it over? Is she going to be OK now?"
"The worst is over," Ford says, "but the venom is still in her system. We're in for a long night."
"What do you mean it's still in her system?" Stan demands angrily, "Then what was that torture-fest for?"
"Dammit Stan!" Ford groans, tired and irritated because he thought they were over this, "I did what I had to do! I've stopped it from getting worse, but that won't do anything to stop the venom that stinger has pumped into her bloodstream for last however many hours!"
"You can cure it, right?" Dipper asks, releasing Mabel from his hug and combing her hair out of her face. He looks so small and vulnerable that it make Ford sigh with regret.
"At this point it has to run its course," Ford replies.
"And then she'll be OK?"
"Well…I um…" he scratches the back of his head, an apologetic look on his face, "I don't really know."
"You don't know?" Stan hisses accusingly, "What do you mean you don't know? You're the expert on all things weird!"
"I've only seen a few cases of a Worry Wasp sting, but never this advanced, I didn't even realize stinging people was how they reproduce!" Ford replies, and they all kind of shudder at the thought, "But from all accounts, she should be fine. We just have to wait it out."
"Should?" Stan scoffs, "Come on Poindexter, I need better than that!"
"Well it's all I've got, OK?" Ford snaps. "I'm sorry I can't give you a more definite answer!"
Mabel moans in her sleep and starts to slump to the side but Dipper holds her steady, keeping her from falling off the chair, "We should move her somewhere more comfortable…" he says quietly, still clearly shaken about the whole ordeal. "What's a Worry Wasp anyway? Why isn't it in your journals?"
"Because I never encountered one in this dimension," Ford replies, "I think this one that stung her somehow followed me through the Portal."
"So you brought it here?" Stan frowns.
"Hey," Ford growls in warning, "I'm not the one who opened the Portal! Don't pin this on me, Stanley!"
"So now it's my fault?"
They're interrupted when Mabel whimpers, breaking into violent shivers like she's cold, but one touch to her forehead and it's clear she's still burning with fever. "I didn't say that," Ford sighs, "Look we need to stop this right now, fighting isn't going to help Mabel. If anything I think it might make it worse."
"How?" Stan asks, still a little antagonistic but there's less bite to his voice now that the idea that his anger might be bringing his great-niece harm somehow has been planted in his mind.
"I've named these creature Worry Wasps because they're attracted to negative emotion. From everything I've observed, they only sting people with profound anxiety and the venom it attacks the victims not just physically, but it also attacks the mind. Even if their worries aren't real, the venom will make it real in their mind, making their fears and anxieties come to life in an overpowering and threatening way that can easily drive them mad," Ford explains. "She's overwhelmed with negative energy right now, so if we're to help her we can't add fuel to her fire by arguing like this."
"So you're saying that this is going to make her crazy?" Stan asks.
"Not necessarily," Ford replies, "in every case I've seen the victims all made a full recovery. Mabel's case is more advanced, but she's young and strong and resilient, so again, she should be fine."
"But I don't understand, Mabel's the most optimistic, carefree person I know, why her?" Stan's laments, distraught, "She's so happy all the time she should be the last person something like that would target. What does she have to be so worried about anyway?"
Dipper glances at Mabel and his eyes drift to the counter where he sees a big bowl of uneaten popcorn, covered in plastic wrap so anyone who wants to snack on it can help themselves. His heart sinks and he closes his eyes guiltily, remembering how genuinely upset she was that they forgot about movie night. And he knows that she hasn't been sleeping well, but he never really questioned why because whenever he asked she seemed to shrug it off with a smile.
"Dipper," she had said to him, the night Ford returned, "You don't think we'll end up like Stan and Ford do you?"
"What do you mean?" he had asked in return.
"I mean, they used to be best friends, but then they got all stupid."
He had dismissed it at the time, and thought he had easily reassured her that wouldn't happen to them. He had her giggling and smiling and then they went to sleep and it was all good. But now that he thinks about it, she had sounded a little off that night. Far more serious and contemplative than usual. It's also when she started to slow signs of sleep deprivation. But other than that she always seemed like her normal, happy self. Except, lately he's barely seen her...
Oh no…Mabel why didn't you just say something?
"I think I have an idea."
A/N I just have to say that I love it when Stan gets all protective of the kids. Anyway, thanks so much for reading! Please leave a review, it would make me and my muse so very happy you know! And a happy muse is a productive muse! Would love to know your thoughts and theories and whatnot. Also, who's excited for the next episode? I know I am!
