Gravity Falls

Everything Will Be Ok

Denial

Chapter 3

Dipper Falls in Love with a Nerd Girl

Dipper was woken up as he usually was on the first day of school.

"Dipperdipperdipperdipper!" Mabel said as she bounced on his bed, directly on top of his face. "Get up Get up get up! It's the first day of school!"

"Five more minutes…" Dipper grumbled into his pillow.

"Come on! Or else I'm using my secret weapon!"

"…grrrhmmm…" Dipper mumbled into his pillow.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

Mabel dug her hands into Dipper's underarms and began tickling him viciously.

"No Mabel! Hahahahah… Stop it hahahaha…" Dipper tried to tell her as he attempted to squirm out of his sisters tickling hands.

"Not until you're up!" Mabel said, laughing just as much as Dipper.

Dipper put up a good fight. He held out through his sister's torture practices as long as he could but eventually his squirming led to the two of them falling off of the bed with a thud. The twins laughed at their situation even though they both knew that they had bruised something on the way down.

"Ok Mabel, I'm up now." Dipper said, picking himself up and then offering his hand to Mabel to help her off the floor.

"Good. Now let's go start the day!"

The pines twins then chanted 'First day of school! First day of school!' on their way downstairs. The twins, still in their PJ's, sat down at the dining room table, right beside Stan.

"Mornin'."

"Good morning Stan!" Mabel said. "Morning Ford."

"Good morning kids," Ford called from the kitchen, preparing breakfast.

"I had a dream last night where cats could talk." Mabel said, matter-a-factly.

"Weird." Dipper said, messing around with the bandages on his hands.

"I had a dream last night that the US was secretly monitoring the people who buy donuts every Saturday believing that there was a secret donut cult or something." Stan said, not looking up from his newspaper.

Ford came out with the plates of food he had prepared. Pancakes (not Stan-cakes thankfully), turkey bacon (Mabel refused to eat anything made with pork for obvious reasons) and over-easy eggs with parsley on top. Mabel and Stan dug in, piling mounds of pancakes onto their plates. Ford had one of everything, still big on the 'health' thing. However, Dipper didn't feel up to eating so much so he just ate one egg before declaring that he was going to go upstairs to take a shower and get ready for school.

Dipper took a longer shower than usual. The water felt amazing against his hands, which looked horrid. The skin on his hands was starting to peel and flake off revealing his raw flesh underneath the distorted skin. Just looking at it made Dipper want to throw up what little breakfast he had just eaten. He quickly got dressed into his new blue and white striped polo shirt, the sweater Mabel had given him and jeans and then rewrapped the gauze around his hands. It was a close call. Dipper had barely finished wrapping his hands when Mabel walked into the bathroom, pink and clothes skirt in hand, in order to take a shower.

They had an hour to kill before school started. Dipper spent it repacking his backpack so that everything was color-coordinated and making sure his heavy books were right against his back in order to not have back problems in the future. Mabel was taking her sweet time in the bathroom, singing in the shower no less, so Dipper decided to pack her things into her multicolored messenger bag in the same fashion of his own.

While he was packing Mabel's bag, Ford came upstairs.

"Dipper," Ford called for his attention from his project, "Um...since school starts today well...I wanted to start a new tradition."

Ford held up two wrapped packages: one was blue and the other was pink.

"Presents?" Mabel said, elated as she come out of the bathroom across from the room.

Mabel looked stunning. Her long brunette hair was pulled into a side braid with pink head band with a pink bow off to the side. She wore a long sleeved purple shirt under a pink floral pattern sundress with thin straps. She wore a pair of dark blue leggings and purple high tops. To describe her in one word: she was colorful.

"You look wonderful, Mabel." Ford said, proudly as if he was her father.

"Thank you." Mabel twirled, her floral dress fanning out.

"As I was saying, I've decided I wanted to start a new tradition with our...family." Ford tried to find the correct word on what to call themselves. "So I got you these."

Ford handed the twins there correctly colored packages. Mabel tore away at the paper while Dipper carefully unwrapped his.

"A journal," Dipper said admiring the light blue book with silver caps on its edges and a pine tree symbol on it.

"A dairy!" Mabel yelled instantly loving her bright pink book with golden caps on the edges and a shooting star symbol.

"You can write anything you wish in these." Ford stated, "Writing in a journal helps you always remember things you don't want to forget. Mostly just to keep track of your adventures and anything you want to get with you."

"Thank you Grunkle Ford!" Mabel said, hugging him around the middle.

"Thank you." Dipper said.

"You're welcome. You two better finish getting ready. We're leaving in just a few minutes."

Within a few minutes, Dipper and Mabel got into the back seat of Stan's car and the four of them headed off to the middle school. The drive was a bit longer than the drive the twins were used to taking. Where they grew up it was only a few minutes to get to their school because they lived in a very developed area. In Gravity Falls, everything was a bit more spread out so the ride took about 20 minutes. They pulled up to the school and the four of them got out.

The middle school was an outdoor school. The buildings were surrounded by plant life and Dipper could see a large field that connected to a forest that surrounded the area like an evergreen blanket. The school had this sense of natural beauty about it. The school colors were blue and green, the buildings were light brown with dark green roofs with ivy covering it, and the grass was covered with a few of the already brown and orange leaves of the autumn trees. Autumn. It just clicked in Dipper's mind that it was now Fall. Summer was over, school was beginning, the future was coming: it all seemed so unreal. As if it wasn't happening at all. Dipper felt like he would wake up at any moment and be back in Bill's Fear-amid, pleading for his life and trying to make it to the days end. But he was safe, heading off to start the first day of school with a new life and a new purpose. Nothing normal ever happened in his life. This almost seemed strange, things being normal in Gravity Falls. Normal seemed strange.

This silent conversation within his mind continued as they went into the office. Dipper and Mabel were introduced to the principal as new students. New students were a rarity in this town. No one ever lived here unless they were born here, or in the Pines' case, moved here by an unfortunate set of circumstances.

The Principal, Ms. Poppyfield, greeted the two younger twins with a sense of hippie love. Well, she was a hippie. Her room was decorated with dream catches, her window was wide open which allowed birds ( and the occasional eye-ball bat) to come in and out as they pleased and there was no technology what so ever in the room. Her outfit was a large green shawl over a brown t-shirt and a pair of light brown bell-bottoms. She had a youthful face and appeared to be in her 20's. Her long brown hair had a headband made out of pink flowers and various other plants stuck in her hair as well.

"Hello children." She said, smiling as if she was on something, "I'm Ms. Poppyfield but just call me Poppy. And you must be their...Grandpa's?"

"Great Uncles." Ford said, formally, feeling a bit uncomfortable with her lack of formality, "My name is Stanford Pines and this is my brother Stanley Pines. I was told by the assistant to come in with the two kids on the first day do to 'special circumstances'."

"Oh yes, the famous Pines family." Poppy went over to her wooden desk in her office and pulled out a pile of papers. "Oh yes, here are the children's transcripts. It appears that Mason is the reason for this meeting this morning. Have a seat."

The four of them sat on the bean bag chairs in front of the low desk. Dipper could tell that Ford was not enjoying this, but Mabel seemed to be enjoying herself.

"It appears that Mason…"

"Dipper." Dipper interrupted.

"Dipper," Poppy corrected herself with a smile, "is ahead in a lot of his classes. While most won't be a problem because we offer higher level English and history classes here, we do not however have the staff to teach such advanced science and math classes."

"So what does that mean?" Stan asked as he picked at a scab on his hand.

"Well dipper has two options." Poppy said, smiling kindly. "He could either take the classes from the previous year again this year or take a few classes at the high school."

High school level classes in the 8th grade. Dipper thought it was a dream.

"The classes would be Algebra 2 and Chemistry. If you were anybody else I would recommend retaking the previous classes but your grades are outstanding. All A's. And you took marching band playing the tuba it says here" Poppy said pointing at the paper, "You seem well-rounded. Not excluding you Mabel. You seem to be ahead of your grade in your math and English classes as well. You two appear to have done a lot of summer school to get ahead so much."

"Yeah."

Dipper recalled all of the summer schools and summer camps the two had taken together throughout the years. Gravity Falls was the first summer where they didn't have summer school, hence why it was the greatest summer of their lives: it was filled with adventure, danger, and child like fun. It was like a full childhood crammed into one summer. Of course they had to 'work' at the mystery shack but it was more fun than it was work.

"Dipper, what would you like to do?" Ford asked his nephew.

"I would like to take classes at the high school."

"Excellent!" Poppy said, "How this will work is you will have Algebra 2 in the morning before school starts at the high school, Woodcreek, at 7:00am and then you will have Chemistry at 4:00. You've already missed the algebra class this morning, but you can still make it to the Chemistry class later this afternoon. The high schools hours are from 7:00 to 5:00 and the middle school is from 8:00 to 3:30. Long school days but you have a pretty long summer: 3 months instead of 10 weeks as you were doing before. There will also be more breaks within the school year than most schools. You'll be fine. I have to warn you though, these courses will be hard but don't worry, another girl the same grade as you, Penny, I think her name is, is taking these classes as well so you won't be alone."

The principal then handed the twins their schedules right as the bell rang.

"You two better be off." Poppy said, as she pushed the four of them gently out of her office, "Don't want to be late from your first day of school."

Once outside the office, the grunkles said their 'good lucks' to their niece and nephew.

"You two will do wonderful at school." Ford started, "Just remember to stay out of the woods unless you have a sharp object in hand. And don't show that sharp weapon off in front of anyone who will rat on you. Just be yourselves, find your friends, make new ones. Oh and don't start any fights."

"Unless the kid wants to fight. In that case you have to kick the other kid's butt." Stan added.

"Stan...well yeah. Kick 'em in the soft spot if necessary. But only as self defense understand?" Ford added.

"Don't worry, Grunkle Ford, we'll only use are mad monster fighting skills on monsters." Mabel assured him.

"Good. Have a good day, you two."

"Good luck."

And with that Mabel and Dipper ventured into the unknown.

…

The first day had gone by quickly. Dipper felt like he had blinked and missed all of it. Every teacher passed out a 'code of ethics' which was basically just a paper you and your parent/guardian had to sign in order to take the class and it gave you all the required materials you would need for the course. It was like this in California as well. Dipper never thought much about how these papers always said 'parent/guardian' on it. He had always thought that he would never need to use the 'guardian' option in his lifetime.

Fate had a funny way of making the most impossible things happen.

Dipper couldn't help but notice how boring school was without Mabel in all of his classes. At their old school, they were always together because everything was decided by last name. But here it was based off of intelligence and while Mabel was really smart, she didn't compare to Dipper. Of course, not being distracted by her will help him in the long run, but part of him didn't want to leave her behind.

By the end of the school day, Dipper felt like the day hadn't happened at all. It all went by so quickly. Soon enough, he and Mabel we getting into Grunkle Ford's red pickup truck (he mostly used it on monster hunts and to give him authority on the road). Both grunkles were in the car, just Ford was the one driving.

"How was school?" Stan asked.

"Well I met a boy," Mabel said, dreamily.

"Of course that's the first thing that comes up." Dipper said, rolling his eyes.

"He was super sweet. His name is Euro."

"Like the currency of Mexico?"

"I guess so. He's super sweet. But sadly, he has a girlfriend." Mabel looked disappointed.

Dipper couldn't help but notice that Ford tensed up a bit at the mentioning of Mabel liking a boy. He then remembered that Ford wasn't around for Mabel's more boy crazy part of the summer. By the time Ford got there Mabel had finally given up on a summer romance and didn't obsess over every guy she met. Ford didn't miss out on much but Dipper had a feeling that Ford wouldn't be as ok with Mabel dating as Stan was. Probably a good thing.

Soon they arrived home, Mabel and Stan got out of the car but Dipper just moved to the passenger's seat.

"I'll be back in about 20 minutes," Ford called to his brother. "I have to take Dipper to the high school. His class starts in 10 minutes. Please don't burn the house down while I'm gone. That goes for both of you."

"Don't worry poindexter."

"Don't worry Ford! Have a good time at your nerd class Dipper!"

Dipper waved Mabel goodbye and him and Ford were on the road again. The ride to the high school was shorter than the ride to the middle school. The high school was in the town while the middle school was more in the undeveloped parts of the area. Dipper got out of the car, said goodbye to Ford and entered the building alone.

Dipper double checked his schedule to make sure he was in the right classroom before entering the room. He found the class entirely empty at the moment, except for one girl who was sitting in the front of the classroom beside the window.

Dipper couldn't help but notice that she was rather adorable. But not in a creepy Gideon way but rather a '7 year old girl playing Risk and winning' kinda cute. She had long brunette hair pulled back by a bedazzled blue headband. She wore a long sleeved blue shirt under a black t-shirt with the 'Moon Battle's' opening title on it and a pair leggings that had a pattern of outer space. Her blue eyes were hidden behind large blue and silver glasses. She was a bit on the heavier side, but in a cute way. The only negative back was that her round face was in a scowl, as if she didn't want to be there.

Dipper couldn't help but stare. He assumed that she was Penny, the girl his age who is taking advanced classes as well. She had the true spirit of a nerd girl: arriving early, wearing a Moon Battle's outfit on the first day of school and taking advanced classes. He wondered if she liked playing DD and more D.

The class soon started and it was proven to be very easy. Dipper knew most of the answers already and raised his hand as often as he could. Penny didn't share this enthusiasm. She didn't talk at all: Dipper couldn't tell if it was because of irritation or because she was just shy. Dipper tried to talk to her but all he got was a head nod when he asked if her name was Penny.

The class ended after an hour. At the end of that hour, there was a large textbook, a bunch of notes and a packet full of the work that was due in class the next day in Dipper's backpack. When the bell rang, Dipper and Penny were the last ones out of the class. Dipper didn't pack up till the bell rang, unlike the other students who packed up 15 minutes before the bell rang. Penny just seemed to forget where she was shown by the fact that she was scrambling to get her stuff together. Most of the contents of her backpack were on her desk and took some time to get back in. this time was lengthened when her binder accidently fell off her desk and spewed all over the floor. She scrambled to pick up the papers and soon was joined by Dipper. He picked up the papers which turned out to not be school work but rather drawings. Very good drawings in fact. He noticed that they were all of 'Pocket demons' creatures and things relating to it.

"Here you go." Dipper said, picking up the binder which now had all of the papers inside of it.

"Thanks." Penny mumbled, her voice soft.

Penny left the room quickly, embarrassed. Dipper was happy, mainly because he finally got a word out from her. He had a feeling he had just found another mystery that he wanted to crack.

Dipper headed outside the school and quickly found Ford's car. He slung his back-breaking backpack into the backseat and climbed in.

"How was it?" Ford asked, as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"It was great. I have a bunch of homework and a textbook larger than all 3 journals combined but overall. It was great."

Dipper left out Penny. He was never one to admit his crushes and at this point he wasn't even sure if it was a crush at all. He had barely gotten over Wendy and it was too soon to start obsessing over another girl. He also left out the discomfort in his hands. He would handle that problem as soon as he could. Dipper wasn't one to complain in public.

When they made it home Dipper rushed to the bathroom to check on his gauze that he had not changed or removed all day. The day of writing notes had taken a toll on the burns and it hurt even worse than before.

The doctors had told Dipper that it would get worse before it would get better. He hadn't felt pain in his hands but that's what concerned him: he couldn't detect the pain. His hands had gotten worse: they had been rubbed raw after just one day of school. He stifled back a scream as he removed the gauze. Pieces of chipped flesh and dried blood covered the gauze he had removed and it horrified him. He wondered if he would ever recover from the burns: the flesh peeling off every time he tried to move his hand couldn't be healthy. Plus, it still felt like the fire was still burning him. His flesh burned.

In an attempt to make the aching go away, he turned on the faucet and rinsed cold water on his hands. It felt wonderful. The doctors had told him that this would help but Dipper had not yet tried it until this moment.

Dipper pulled the stopper on the sink and allowed the basin to fill up with the cold water. He pulled up the stool in the bathroom and just sat there with his hands in the cold water. It felt cool and comforting. His hands weren't giving him any pain, but having them in the water just seemed to relax them.

He lost track of time, his mind was deep in thought about school the next day and how much homework needed to be done. But he just couldn't convince himself to get up and start working on it. He just wanted to stay there.

Then there was a knock on the door.

"Dipper?" Ford said from the other side. "It's dinner time."

"I'm not hungry!" Dipper called.

"Hm...ok...we'll leave some extra for you if you get hungry later."

Ford left wondering what the matter was.

A few minutes later, Dipper tried to remove his hands from the water but the moment he did he was met with the uncomfortable feeling in his hands. He instantly put his hands back in.

Ford made his way to the dinner table where he had made chicken Alfredo. Ford had decided that he was the only one who he trusted in the kitchen: Stan deep fried and burned everything and considered "scrambled meat" a meal, Mabel had the nasty habit of putting glitter and plastic dinosaurs in everything and Dipper...has Dipper ever tried to cook? Anyways, the responsibility of meals rested on Fords shoulders and every chance he could, he would make dinner. Once the semester starts at the college things would be different but for now.

"How long has Dipper been in the bathroom?" Ford asked, joining Mabel and Stan who were already on their 3rd helping.

"I don't know." Mabel said, with food in her mouth.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Mabel. But has he been there long?"

Mabel swallowed.

"I haven't seen him since the car ride."

Ford was officially concerned.

"Excuse me for a moment."

Ford stood up and walked up stairs determined to make Dipper come out.

"Dipper." Ford called, knocking on the bathroom door, "Mabel says that you have been in there all day. Open up now."

"In a minute!"

"Now."

"I said in a minute!"

"What's taking you so long?"

"Uh...nothing."

"That doesn't do anything but concern me. If you don't tell me what's wrong I am going to have to assume the worst. Open the door now Dipper or else."

"I said in a minute!"

Ford had lost patience at this point. He pulled out his blaster gun and fired three shots: 2 at the hinges and 1 at the door knob. The door fell with a cash.

He found dipper sitting on a stool with his hands wrapped in a towel.

"What was that for? Why did you shoot the door down? I was using the bathroom!"

"No you weren't. You've been in here all day and I'm going to find out why. Tell me now."

"I was...I was just..."

Ford then saw the high water level of the sink's basin.

"You were trying to heal your hands, weren't you..." Ford said, hitting himself in the forehead. "Stupid, stupid, stupid. I'm sorry...Dipper for acting so rudely. But why didn't you just tell me that your hands were bothering you?"

"Cause...I don't want to concern Mabel."

"Do you know what will concern her more? The fact that she just heard 3 gun shots."

"True."

"Just reapply you gauze and come down stairs."

"Ok."

Dipper turned his back and his his hands away from Ford so he couldn't see. But this didn't stop Ford from seeing a bit of his damaged hands.

"Dipper...what degree of burn did the doctors say you had?"

"2nd. Why?"

Ford quickly, without warning, grabbed Dipper's hands. To Ford's surprise, dipper didn't scream or express any pain whatsoever.

"Does this hurt?" Ford gripped his hand tightly.

"No, not at all."

Realization hit Ford like a blow to the face. Still gripping his hand, Ford yanked Dipper out of the bathroom and down stairs.

"Stan! Mabel! I'm taking Dipper to the hospital! Clean up the dinner table and meet us there!"

"What's wrong?" Dipper asked as Ford pushed him into the passenger side of Ford's red 4 wheeler. "It's not hurting, isn't that a good thing?"

"No. You should be in incredible pain and anguish." Ford said buckling up and hitting the gas pedal. "Dipper...those aren't 2nd degree burns...those are 3rd degree burns.

The doctors must have messed up in the diagnostic. And at your expense."

"How bad is a 3rd degree?"

"Bad...especially when you rinse it under water without getting proper medical care."

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Dipper hit himself in the head with each word.

"Stop hitting yourself, Dipper. We can't risk damaging your hands more."

The two arrived at the hospital and got into a room almost instantly.

"Did you really have to flash your gun at them?" Dipper said, sitting on the hospital bed.

"It saved us a 4 hour wait."

The doctors soon arrived and forced Ford out of the room.

Ford sat alone in the waiting room until Stan and Mabel arrived. Ford explained to them the situation.

"Poor Dipper..." Mabel said, hurt.

"Why didn't the kid tell us something was wrong." Stan said."That kid's smart enough to know what 3rd degree burns look like."

"But not smart enough to realize how dangerous they can be..."

...

After several hours at the hospital, Dipper was finally allowed to head home: Stan and Mabel in one car and Ford and Dipper in the other.

Ford tried to keep his eyes on the road but found himself watching Dipper. Dipper looked as if he had just went through weirdmaggedon again and probably felt worse.

"You going to be ok?"

"The doctors said my hands would heal...eventually..."

"That's not what I asked. Are you going to be ok?"

Dipper remained silent for the longest time. He didn't speak until they had pulled up next to the mystery shack.

"It's...it's just..." Dipper rubbed his eyes with his wrist. "...everything seems to be going wrong...I thought things would get better after Stan defeated Bill...but..."

"Dipper, I'm not going to lie to you and say I know how you feel." Ford said, honestly, "because I have no idea what it feels like to have your parents taken from you but..."

"They weren't even good parents! Why do I care so much!"

"Huh? Dipper you couldn't possibly mean that. True, I've never met your parents but..."

"They never truly cared about us. Or at least didn't show it..."

"Dipper..."

"Gravity Fall wasn't the first time we were sent away from home for a summer...we would spend every summer starting age 4 at day and night cares, summer school programs and summer camps..."

"Dipper that doesn't mean they..."

"And it was no better during the school year. Sometimes weeks would go by when we hadn't seen our parents at all..."

"I'm sure you exaggerating...no one would leave you two alone that long."

Dipper was sobbing now, not being able to hold back the years of neglect and hurt.

"Why do you think me and Mabel grew so close? For most of the time, we were all that we had."

"Dipper..."

"Don't you find it strange that two parents would send there only kids to another state for the summer? They knew what it was like here: how dangerous it is even without the monsters, grunkle Stan's driving abilities, and all of that. But they still sent us here. Don't you find that a tad strange?"

Ford didn't know how to respond.

"We sent letters and pictures home but we never got a response...ever. Not once throughout the entire summer! I even sent pictures of the monsters we found to show them how dangerous it was here...no response..."

"I'm sure they loved you two..."

"They had a funny way of showing it..."

Ford didn't know how to handle this. He had never had kids to parent or comfort before. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. Maybe get Dipper a therapist? Yeah...that would be good.

"Dipper, I know you've haven't felt love from your parents but now you have Stan and me. We love and care about you very much." Ford said, putting his hand on Dipper's back, trying to comfort the crying child,"I think...I think we should get you a therapist. I was planning on getting you and your sister one anyway due to the previous...event."

"I don't need a therapist."

"Dipper, there's nothing wrong with getting a therapist."

"Yes there this..."

All was silent except for Dipper's sobs. Ford watched as he saw Stan's car pull into the driveway and Stan and Mabel get out of the car. Stan and Ford had a silent conversation through the glass: Ford telling Stan to just take Mabel inside and let him handle it and Stan telling him 'don't screw this up poindexter'.

Dipper saw Mabel give him a sorrowful and worried look as she entered the mystery shack. Dipper just turned his face away from her in shame of her having seen him cry.

Ford placed his hand on Dippers back trying to comfort him and noticed for the first time that day that dipper was wearing a knit sweater: the one Mabel had no doubt given him.

In that moment, it all made sense to Ford: Dipper's injury, his neglect of emotions, hiding his pain. It was crystal clear.

"Dipper." Ford said putting his arm on Dipper's shoulder and forcing him to look at himself. "Are...are you doing all of this...for Mabel."

Dipper just looked down at the floor of the car.

"When you burned your hands..." Ford thought out loud, "You said you hurt then trying to open several burning hot door handles and other objects...because you didn't want Mabel to get hurt touching them."

More sobs.

"You...you've been wearing that sweater to make her happy and appreciated to distract her from the pain."

Dipper was shaking horrible now, not being able to control himself.

"You didn't tell us about how your hands had gotten worse because you didn't want her to worry. You knew the whole time that it was a lot worse than the doctors thought but you kept it hidden so not to worry her."

Dipper sobbed and heaved and choked uncontrollably.

"And you've been like this your whole life. Mabel would always acknowledge your parents absence and you were her shoulder to cry on. You've always been her shoulder to cry on."

Dipper couldn't stand it anymore. Something broke inside of him. Something that he knew would snap eventually. Something he knew would dismantle inside of him soon. He threw himself onto Ford and began sobbing openly into his uncle's shirt.

"I'm...supposed...huh...to...be...gasp...the...strong...heave...one!" Dipper heaved into his uncles shirt. "I'm...ghah...not...sniff...supposed... sob...to...cry..."

"It's ok to cry, Dipper." Ford embraced his nephew, holding him tightly in his arms, comforting him the best he could. "It's not weak. Do you remember those terrible days when we were trying to get Stan's memories back? I cried more times than I can count...a few times openly in front of you kids. I have a confession. I still have nightmares about Stan losing his memory again. When that happens, I cry myself to sleep, not being able to control it. It's not weak to cry: if not by that standard I would be the wimpiest man alive. Don't be afraid to cry, Dipper."

Dipper responded by latching himself on tighter to Ford, which he didn't mind. Dipper needed this: he had been deprived of this sort of compassion his entire life. He needed this. They both did.

It took a long time before Ford realized that Dipper had fallen asleep. The thought of Dipper, his beloved nephew, ever having to fall asleep crying haunted him. It was something that should never happen and never should have happened.

Ford managed, somehow, to get out of the car, lock the car, unlock the front door, carry Dipper up to his room, not wake Mabel and tuck him into bed without removing Dipper from his arms. Ford felt that this was an accomplishment in and of itself.

Ford quietly closed the door of the sleeping twin's room to find his brother standing outside the room.

"I saw most of that." Stan said, rubbing his forehead as he did when he was feeling worried. "Dipper...his hands aren't the only things in deep pain are they?"

"I think the kids shouldn't go to school tomorrow. They need one more day of healing. And tonight, we have a lot of talking to do."