Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Alex Hirsch owns Gravity Falls, not me. And I also have a bit of a warning for this chapter. It's an insult to the mentally handicapped and is only used to convey preconceptions of a time period.

Mabel was seated at the oak kitchen table, hands gripping the edges of her chair so tightly, that her fingers turned white. Her posture was rigid, in suspension for what may occur. She gulped nervously as she stared into the face-of-evil. The face-of-evil was, in actuality, her great-uncle glowering at her from the seat across the table, silent as stone. There was a twitching smile present on Mabel's face, that was gradually fading the longer Stan stared her down. She knew exactly what he was doing; putting fear into her before berating her for whatever she had done wrong. Mabel just wasn't sure what she had done wrong this time. It must of been exceedingly unsatisfactory though, due to the amount of venom in his gaze. Yes, Mabel didn't know what she had done, but she was beginning to experience a feeling of disappointment aimed towards herself.

"Uh, Grun-"

"Mabel, why the hell didn't you or your folks find it convenient to tell me that Dipper has panic attacks?"

She cringed at this and her smile completely dropped from her face. So, that was why Grunkle Stan was so pissed off; he had discovered the secret. The one her mom clearly expressed that she should never tell Stanford Pines. There was a fear from her mom that he would send the children back when he discovered that Dipper had some "issues" as her mom had labeled them. Gravity Falls had been so beneficial for Dipper though, that his near everyday anxiety attacks had been eased into a near nonexistent state. There had only been three cases of an attack this summer thus far. One was when Robbie had threatened to beat him up that time when Wendy had gone camping with her family. There was also the night after they had made their escape from the bunker, and finally after Mabel's sock puppet opera that he had his worse one. Those last two were understandable though, since Mabel was shaken up herself afterwards. She knew how she felt about the opera though, was nothing to compared to how Dipper must of felt about a demon possessing his body. And his sister never noticing this fact. Those were thoughts to linger on later though, due to her guilt gradually filling her up. Mabel pitifully hung her head. "...Did Dipper or my parents tell you?"

"Neither, actually. He had a panic attack in front of me."

Her head snapped up at this, chocolate eyes wide. "WHAT?! Is he ok?! What did you say?! Ho-"

"Clam down, will you? He's ok now. Just sleeping. I don't know what happened, but he came to me all upset, asking for you."

Mabel appeared stricken. Stan had never encountered such an expression on the exuberant preteen before. If she was that concerned by her brother, where was she? "So...Where were you?"

Her face abruptly switched to a secretive appearance. "Uh, I was just, uh helping Soos all day today."

Stan detected a lie mingled into that statement. The man was a conman for a reason. He decided not to push it at the moment though, since he had bigger fish to fry. His irritation had evolved to anticipation by this point. "Ok...uh can you...y-you explain this thing about Dipper?"

A look dismay had taken over her appearance, another surprising thing to witness. Mabel's emotions seemed to be bouncing all around. The older man accounted it to her concern about her twin brother though. "Dipper...Dipper has always been a worry-wart about...about everything. He was b-born like that. It got...it got pretty bad though," Her voice was beginning to shake a bit. "He kept having...t-those attacks and, uh well Mom and Dad had t-take him to a doctor after, uh this really bad one...H-he said Dipper had..." Mabel actually had to pause to swallow down the growing urge to cry and take control of her emotions."G-Gener...generalized anxiety disorder."

Stan licked his lips nervously. He had no idea what that was and was confident he would not like the answer to that question he was about to ask. "And, uh, w-what is that?"

"Um, when...when somebody has, uh is super worried a lot...and, um panics about it...T-They...they made him stay at a hos...hospital for a while and, uh tried giving him...medi-medicine, but it stopped w-working..."

Stan could tell his grand-niece was having a difficult time elucidating the situation and he himself was having a difficult time understanding it. He knew this was a fragile topic though that needed to be thought on. Back in his day, the people that went to mental hospitals or were medicated for their behavior were inhumanely classified by society as "retarded" or even "freaks". It was the norm and no one thought it any bad to label someone as such. Stan remembered the stories of what went on in these "asylums" and the fear of simply having an odd characteristic would place him in one of those and be rejected by all that knew. No one thought it bad if these people were being punished for how they were though, as long as it didn't affect themselves. That was just how it was back then. He still felt lingering unease about those stories, even though he knew that they were treated much more humanly now. In the end, it was common knowledge that all these prejudices were nonsense and these individuals were just like anyone else. Growing up in the 50's and 60's though, had made certain preconceptions be embedded into his mind until the day he would die.

"Is...he like, uh you know?" Stan nervously began, feeling concern flare in his heart about the idea.

Mabel frowned, trying to make sense of what was being asking. "No?"

"Like, uh...retar-"

Mabel immediately identified the beginning of the word, having this not be the first time someone had attempted to use it. The twins had had their fair share of school tormentors in their 13 years of life and knew what usually went on in their minds. She was completely caught by surprise though, that her great-uncle would even attempt to say such an appalling thing. "NO."

Stan jolted at the abnormal amount of venom in her tone. "Then...why is he like uh, like all screwed up in the head?"

Mabel stared at him blankly for a minute or so as Stan waited for her answer. "...Great-Uncle Stanford, I think I'm gonna go to bed."

Then, without even answering his question, she left the kitchen. Stan sat there, trying to make sense of what happened. There was a feeling of astonishment of how Mabel addressed him before going upstairs, but even worse was the dawning realization of what had been running through his head and what had came out of his mouth. Stan ran a hand down his face, releasing a sigh. Even though he had been influenced by society back in his day, Stan was able to learn over time that what everyone said wasn't necessarily true. The man had changed his discrimination against those individuals by simply learning to tolerant them. There had now been additional change in his view though, now that someone related to him had an issue. Why the hell did Stan even think that Dipper was screwed up though? There was absolutely nothing wrong with his great-nephew, he simply needed help. There must have been something wrong with Stan though. The worse things always came out of his mouth. "Augh, I'm so stupid."

~!14-15-20/2-18-15-11-5-14!~

Breakfast was a tense affair the next morning, with the whole family displaying varying expressions on their faces. Stan peered guiltily at his great-niece, while she in turn scowled murderously at her scrambled eggs, stabbing them viciously with her fork. He gulped. Stan knew he screwed up big time last night, as per usual it seemed. Mabel could strike fear into him when she had the desire to, and that desire was quite present at the moment. There had to be a way to fix this situation. Dipper on the other hand, was alternating between blushing in embarrassment at his great-uncle, due to the events of yesterday, and shooting confused glances at his sister about her uncommon behavior. Yes, overall, it was an awkward meal for the Pines.

"Well, uh I-I think we should open shop now!" Stan broke the silence and avoided eye contact with Mabel, who had turned her murderous gaze to him.

Dipper's eyes flickered in between the both of them, realizing some incident had occurred between the two of them, possibly when he was sleeping. He felt worry that he might be the cause, but immediately squashed that thought, berating himself for thinking everything revolved around himself. Dipper decided to avoid asking what was going on and instead made his way to the store, following Stan, while peering over his shoulder at his still sitting sister. It was just as Soos came in for work, helping prepare for opening, that Mabel decided to join the others. Stan pointedly ignored the burning sensation of being watched from behind and flipped over the "OPEN" sign. He frowned as he examined the store. "Corduroy is late, again."

Dipper discreetly smiled at this, as he unlocked the cash register. Wendy had not been on time once since she was originally hired. Stan only kept her since no one in town trusted the egotistical Mr. Mystery enough to work for him. That, and the pay was the worse in the state, coming in at only $5.08 an hour. Wendy only worked there though, due to her father insistence that she work like her brothers, instead of sitting around all summer. It was at this moment, that Wendy strolled in and causally waving to everyone. "Hey, guys."

Stan glowered at her. "You're late, again!"

Wendy smiled. "Good morning to you, too, Stan."

His eyes narrowed. "What did I tell you about calling me that? I'm your boss, Corduroy!"

"Look, 'boss'," She used her fingers to make quote marks as she said this. "Are you going to stand here all day, yelling at me about how late I am, or you going to take care of the customers?" She asked, causally pointing a thumb over her shoulder.

Through the window of the gift shop, an elderly couple, that clearly were not from around the area, were milling about. They didn't seem to even notice the Shack as they took photographs of the trees in the area. Stan's mood lifted considerably, forgetting about his employee, and smacked his hands together with a conspiring look. Without a moment ado, he went outside beginning his rehearsed speech. "Welcome, to the great and mysterious Mystery Shack!"

Wendy went behind the cash register and smirked at Dipper. Dipper smirked back at her. A crisp smack came from the HI-5 given to each other, as Dipper complimented her distraction. "You really know how to get rid of Grunkle Stan."

"Yeah, he's pretty easy to trick. You just have to mention cash and-oh my god, did I tell you that time I was closing up the shop and I heard some like noises in the back, so I went to investigate and found Stan like making out with a dollar?"

Dipper started laughing as he imagined this."No way!"

"Yes way! He was all like slobbering all over it!" Wendy told him. There was a pause as they visualized this disturbing idea, before both stared at each other, and shuddered. "Let'ssss talk about something else."

"How about how much of a douche Great-Uncle Stanford is?" Mabel coldly interrupted from a display rack of tacky postcards next to the cashier register.

Wendy and Dipper both gawked at Mabel in shock. Neither were even aware that Mabel used that type of language, much less about Stan. The twins were adamantly against cussing or using vulgar language in general. In fact, they even had a cuss jar, that occasionally Wendy had to put change in, and Stan regularly dropped pennies with mutterings of complaints. But, Mabel calling Stan a 'douche' surprised Dipper to no end though. Using his full name as well further astonished him. He thought over the words and suddenly felt anger swell up in himself. Grunkle Stan may of been a lot of things, but he didn't think the man that. "Ok, Mabel, ever since you woke up this morning, you've been all grumpy, and I don't know why! What's going on?!"

Mabel gulped, immediately feeling guilty now that she caused her brother to get upset. She stood by her statement though and wasn't going to suddenly change her mind. Stan had no right to call her own brother that vile word. And Mabel didn't want to cause Dipper to become aware that Stan had nearly condemned that name to him. "Nothing! Nothing at all!"

Dipper marched up to her, having none of the usual anxiety coursing through his veins at the moment. "No, you're going to tell me why you're acting like this right now!"

Wendy knew this fight was beginning to escalate and needed to calm them down quick. She stepped near them, hands set in a placating gesture. "Now, wait a second, guys, we sh-"

Mabel yelled right over her though. "There's nothing to tell! Leave me alone!"

Mabel had began to turn away, but Dipper wasn't having any of it. He grabbed her shoulder, swinging her back around, and getting right into her face. "Mabel, stop being ridiculous and tell me what is going on! You're acting like a stupid immature kid an-"

"You wanna know what's going on?! Fine! What's going is that I told him about your anxiety and he called YOU A RETARD!" Mabel screamed back.

There was an stunned moment of silence as Dipper took in what she had released into the air. Then, suddenly remembering that Wendy was there, he turned to look at her. A dumbfounded face was on the ginger and he blushed in humiliation. The brunet's eyes welled with tears, before he suddenly sprinted out the front door. Stan turned from the potential customers, as he heard the screen door slam shut behind him. Dipper was barreling towards Stan and he attempted to intercept the upset preteen. Dipper clawed at the thick arms wrapped around him though, causing the man to release his grip. He shoved Stan away and sprinted into the forest of Gravity falls, leaving all to stand in stunned silence.

~!-?-!~

"What the hell is going on?!"

Wendy gaped at Stan and Mabel. "Um, I think I should, uh go."

She began to inch towards the front door, but was halted in her efforts as Stan grasped the back of her button down shirt collar. "Oh, no, you're staying here Wendy Linda Corduroy!"

She gulped, knowing that this was really serious. Wendy wasn't even aware that Stan knew her middle name. "L-Look, Mr. Pines, this sounds like a family thing, and, I don't think he even wanted me to hear about that and, uh I probably shouldn't be anymore involved and like I doubt that Dipper wants me to hear anything more, an-"

"What did you hear?"

"Urhhhh, that he has...anxiety." She finished in a whisper.

Stan let go of her and swiped a hand across his, what appeared to be weary, face. "Yeah, the kid does," His tone resumed its bitterness in the next part of his statement. "And if you tell anyone that, I wi-"

Wendy appeared hurt. She would never judge Dipper for an issue that wasn't even his fault. And he was her friend! Wendy would never reveal that unless he gave his consent to do so. "What? No, of course not! I would never do that!"

"Ok, ok, I believe you, now get out; you're done for today."

Wendy peered at Mabel. A curtain of hair hid her face, as her head hung. Stan stepped in front of Wendy, blocking her view of the brunette. "I said go home, Corduroy."

Wendy hurriedly removed herself from the property, as Stan turned to observe the unmoving preteen. "Ok, look, I understand what I said was completely uncalled for. I know. I just wanna tell you though that...uh, I'm not sure how to handle all...this," He informed her, gesturing to the air. "And, Kid, I...c-care about you two and I'm going to make up saying that to the both of you. Now, I don't know what happened, but I think I should go look for your brother. You can either sit here and sulk, or you can come help me," Stan concluded, feeling confident once more. Mabel gave no indication that she heard though. "...Ok, well, I'm gonna go now and when I come back, you and me are gonna have a talk about what happened."

He slammed the screen door shut as he sprinted into the forest, fearing that Dipper would have a panic attack in the forest, all alone.

~!-?-!~

Dipper had flopped down onto a fallen log, breathing heavily from, not only his journey from the Shack, but also nerves. He was delicately cradling his elbow, wincing at the pain in it, and watched red drip from in between his fingers. In his hurry to escape the Shack, Dipper had tripped over an exposed root, landing harshly on his side. His forearm had received the brunt of the fall on the harsh terrain, but only his elbow appeared to be steadily bleeding. The blood though seemed to produce a soothing effect, easing his hyperventilating and made him avoid the thoughts of Wendy's face, along with what his Grunkle Stan supposedly said. He was so consumed in attempting to ease his anxiety, that he didn't hear the crying until that moment though.

Dipper frowned, and studied the clearing. The pine trees surrounding said clearing, blocked most of the sunlight. Patches of it filtered through though, giving the impression that the grass was gleaming. Gnats lethargically floated about. There wasn't anyone in the area though. The brunet heard the sobs come from his left, in a thick gathering of pine trees. He wasn't all that sure if he should investigate the noise or not. It might of been some monster, tempting him with fake distressed sobs of a human, hoping to consume his scrawny body. Dipper shuddered at the thought, panic rising in him. He took a deep breath though and listened intently. Dipper was beginning to believe that it wasn't fake. The crying sounded genuine and it concerned him to hear anyone sound as distressed as this person seemed to be. He finally gathered his courage and cautiously made his way over there, swatting at the obnoxious insects.

Even though branches snapped noisily underneath Dipper's feet, the unknown person didn't cease their weeping. They might of been too consumed with grief to notice. He knew exactly how that felt, since most of the time his anxiety got the best of him, blocking all else from his overwhelmed senses. Dipper stopped before a bush, discovering that the crying was behind it. Dipper was beginning to, once more, think this was a bad idea. For whatever reason though, he forced aside part of the bush to expose who was there, attempting to believe that everything would be alright. Everything was not alright though, since he was not prepared for who it was.

It was Gideon Gleeful.

Chapter 3 End

Originally, I wasn't going to add Gideon in this story, but I changed my mind. I haven't decided on how big of a role he'll have right now though. By the way, I took Wendy's middle name from her voice actress, Linda Cardellini. Anyways, thanks for reading.