After doing some thinking, I realized I'd written myself into something of a corner. I figured out where I wanted to take this, but where I started from made it make no sense. Therefore, I was forced to edit and do a little rewriting on the previous chapters to age the characters up a bit, and make a few other changes so I could go where I wanted to make it go. Plus a few scenes I simply forgot to add. So it may be a good idea to reread the chapters before this one.

Normally I don't do such extensive rewrites of previous chapters like that, but I don't do multi-chapter works often, plus I like this one.

Enjoy.

"Dude, I'm starting to think this thing is, like, cursed or somethin'."

"I know, Soos, why won't it just stay on?" Dipper hesitantly released his hold. He breathed a sigh of relief when the object stayed put. "I mean, come on! It's just a wooden S!"

"Well, I think we finally got it this time, dawg." Soos held a hand up.

"Finally!" Dipper slapped his palm against the former handyman's. Wiping sweat from his brow with his opposite arm, he spoke again. "How many nails did you put in that, anyway?"

"I dunno." Soos scratched his head. "Wasn't counting. Seven or so, maybe?"

Just then, a mild gust of wind blew over the pair. Dipper was glad for the cooler air but he didn't miss how the S started rattling, even with all the nails in it. He and Soos both slapped a hand over the thing before it could even try to fall again.

"Aw, come on!" Dipper groaned.

"Maybe we need some, like, magical superglue. Nails aren't cuttin' it, anymore." Soos gave the S a small shake and, sure enough, it was still loose. "Think Ford might know where to get some?"

"Actually…" Dipper recalled the misadventure with the crashed alien spaceship. "It's not magic, but he does have something. Bit overkill, but it would work. I don't want to go rooting around in his lab until he and Grunkle Stan get back, though."

"Good idea, dude." Soos nodded in agreement. "Our luck, we might, like, destroy half of Gravity Falls or the shack with something we find in there."

"How much we got left of the roof?" Dipper held up his hand in a vain attempt to block some of the sun's rays. Good thing he hadn't worn Wendy's lumberjack hat today, not only would he have cooked alive, but he'd have gotten it all sweaty and filthy.

"Bit of tar to put in some spots and we're all done, dude." Soos said, searching around for the tar gun they'd brought up with them.

Dipper wouldn't have thought it possible, but things had settled after a few days. He and Mabel took up their new room at the Mystery Shack and it almost seemed like summer never ended. Other than Wendy and her friends had to go to school during the day, only a tiny handful of tourists, and the fact that Dipper and Mabel had to basically hide out at the Mystery Shack.

At least Mabel managed to reconnect with Candy and Grenda, even if the girls were having difficulty working out the mechanics for their slumber parties. They couldn't do them at the shack since Mabel was 'out of town' and Mabel couldn't join them at their houses for obvious reasons.

Much to Ford's chagrin, they couldn't come up with a plan better than what Mabel called "Operation- Hide and Seek". So far it was working quite well, nobody had seen hide nor hair of anyone searching for them here in Gravity Falls.

The elder Pines twins, in an attempt to sell the deception, were on a small road trip around Oregon. As part of their cover, Stan had concocted a story about several places in Oregon that they'd visited on their other road trip that first summer. The one where Stan tried to sabotage the other state tourist traps. They were searching out places that Dipper or Mabel had liked and could have taken shelter in. Seeing as how Ford and Stan were already in Oregon, they were happy to investigate these locations for signs of the missing twins. In addition to that, they had friends watching Gravity Falls in case they showed up there.

The plan was far from airtight, but it was a functional one.

Mabel was fine with things being what they were, but Dipper knew they couldn't go like this forever. What about school? The twins still had a couple years of high school left before they could graduate. While Dipper could take that apprentice with Ford, would he really be willing, or able, to homeschool Mabel, too? What about when they eventually grew up? What were they supposed to do, use fake IDs and false names to the end of their days? Well, it worked for Stan… sort of.

What if they did get caught? It wouldn't be Dipper and Mabel who took the punishment. Oh, sure, there might be hell to pay once they were 'safely returned home', but the law wouldn't look kindly on their Grunkles and Soos. Kidnapping charges would be the best-case scenario on that front.

Then there was Charlette and Daniel. As much as he was upset with his mother and father, they were still his and Mabel's parents. He hated to imagine what they were going through with their only children missing, but they'd brought this upon themselves by trying to split them up.

Ugh… no matter how many times he thought that, it still sounded so childish in Dipper's head.

Maybe once his grunkles returned, Dipper would bring up the idea of leaving a message for their parents to find. One telling them that they were safe and happy and to stop looking for them. They would probably ignore it, but it was a thought.

"Have no fear!" A voice suddenly yelled from the trapdoor, nearly scaring Dipper right out of his skin. "Mabel has brought gifts of lemonade!"

"Dang it, Mabel!" Dipper groused. "I told you not to do that! We'll fall off."

"Pee-shaw!" Mabel shook her head. "Dip, I know you, you're, like, cray-cray for safety. It's gonna take more than me to get you two to fall."

"It's the principle of the thing!" Dipper made sure not to call attention to the rope wrapped around his waist and connected to Soos' car on the far side of the shack. The roof of the Mystery Shack was far too steep to be doing roofing work without some kind of anchor. Mabel was right, of course, but her ego didn't need to know that.

"Sheesh… it's hot out here." Mabel ignored her brother. "What is it, seventy degrees?"

"Seventy-one, last I checked, hambone." Soos's tar gun clicked a few more times before he made his way across the roof, adding the tar to the shingles and wherever needed it as he went.

"Has Gravity Falls weather always been this wonky?" Dipper followed, making sure to watch his step. Their safety ropes would catch them if either fell, but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt like heck. "I know it's Gravity Falls, but... its mid-March. It shouldn't be this hot."

Soos laughed. "You're working up a sweat, dawg. You're feeling hotter than you are."

Dipper's thought process ground to an abrupt halt when he glanced over at Mabel. She was still standing on the ladder, but she seemed… out of it. She was looking in his direction, but he couldn't tell if she was looking at him in particular or not. Mabel could have easily been looking near or past him, but either way, her eyes were glazed over and unfocused.

Previous safety concerns forgotten, Dipper scampered over to his sister.

"Mabel?" Dipper waved a hand in front of her face. "Anybody home?"

"Huh?" Mabel snapped out of whatever trance that seemed to have taken her with a shake of the head. "Oh, lemonade!"

Mabel's classic smile returned but it was offset by how she all but shoved the two sealed mugs into Dipper's hands. Too bad she'd gotten them the beverages when they were all but finished working. Eh, her heart was in the right place, and that's what mattered.

"You okay?" Now that he was closer, Dipper was able to give Mabel a better look over. She seemed more flushed than usual. While Dipper was helping Soos with the roof, Mabel was spending the day with Waddles and Melody doing yardwork out back. She probably forgot the sunscreen and got sunburnt again. Eventually the girl was going to figure out to be more careful. "You're redder than Wendy's hair."

"Who, me?" Mabel laughed but it didn't sound right. Anybody else and Dipper would have been fooled, but he knew Mabel's laughter enough to know when it was forced. "Nah!"

"You're looking a bit overheated. Think you got a fev…" Dipper brought the back of his hand up to Mabel's forehead to try and feel her temperature, but he barely got a feeling before Mabel recoiled away as if burned.

"I'm fine, Dip. Really." Mabel never jerked away like that. Not for as long as Dipper could remember. "It's just… umm…"

"What?"

"You know…" Mabel look everywhere except at Dipper before her voice dropped into a whisper. "Girl time."

Oh. Oh!

"I'm sure Melody won't mind you taking a break. You might see if you can borrow that heating pad I saw her with the other day." It was not Dipper's area of expertise, but he'd learned a few helpful things. "Ya know, lay down for a bit."

Contrary to what some might believe, Dipper wasn't clueless about things like this. When Mabel first started a while back, he'd been completely blindsided and, for one of the few times in their lives, utterly unaware of how to help his sister. He'd tried asking his mom for information but she brushed him off with comments about 'Mabel's privacy'. While Dipper could understand that, he just wanted to know what was going on and if his sister was alright.

Luckily, their father was a bit more willing to show mercy. Although Daniel could only tell him the basics, and that yes, what Mabel was going through was perfectly normal and she was okay, it was enough for Dipper.

From there, Dipper exercised one of the greatest of his abilities.

Research.

Granted, the subject matter was not what he was accustomed to, and more than a little gross and disturbing, even more so back then, but it had to do with his beloved twin's health. After everything else he'd faced for her in the past, this was tame by comparison.

He'd since armed himself with the power of knowledge and a readiness to help whenever Mabel needed it. The downside, however, was that there really wasn't anything he could do. Mabel just had to deal with it when it came along and get used to it.

That was what really bothered Dipper. He almost, a very tiny almost, wished Mabel was instead possessed by a ghost or had an alien parasite. At least those he could deal with rather than sit on his hands being a human sized encyclopedia. He loved his sister but dang it, he was helpless!

"Thinkin' I'll do that, Dippidydoo." Mabel countenance brightened a little. "Gonna go see if Melody needs help with anything else first. Byzies."

Dipper never got a chance to say anything else before Mabel slid down the ladder.

"Done!" Soos said from right behind Dipper, once again scaring the daylights out of him.

"Soos!"

"Sorry, dude!"

Only once they were safely on the ladder did Dipper and Soos remove their safety ropes. The actual shingling work was finished a while ago so there weren't very many tools to haul down. They'd been doing mainly touch up work since.

"Ugh…" Dipper stretched his back and nearly gasped when he felt it pop. "At least that's done for a while. Oh shoot, what time is it?"

Soos plopped his toolbelt onto the counter. "Almost three, dude."

"Great." What few tools Dipper had, he took over to the nearby closet along with any stragglers from Soos belt that belonged there. "I think I need a shower after that."

"What time you got Wendy comin' over?"

"About six, still plenty of time." Dipper answered, heading for the stairs.

Since Dipper was still under self-imposed house arrest, it made it a little hard for he and Wendy to have movie nights at her place. A challenge that the redhead destroyed by swapping their location to the Mystery Shack. 'If you can't come to me, I'll come to you, man', as Wendy had put it.

"Sure you don't mind us commandeering the living room, Soos?" Dipper had asked it already, but he wanted to make sure. This was his and Melody's house, after all.

"Naw." Soos flashed a thumbs up over his shoulder. "Wendy's, like, one of the family. She's always welcome here."

Dipper returned the gesture and made his way to the back room. He had several hours still, so there was time to burn. Maybe he should work some more on reconstituting the journals. They'd been destroyed by Bill, but between Dipper and Ford's memories, they'd managed to piece some of them back together. Neither had eidetic memory, so a lot was lost, but they managed some recovery at the very least.

First stop, get a spare change of clothes and his borrowed lumberjack hat from his and Mabel's room. Then he could shower up and figure out how best to kill a few hours.

As he approached the door to their bedroom, the first thing Dipper caught was the off-key singing coming from the room. If Dipper strained his ears, he could faintly hear through the wooden barrier the notes of some song being played on the radio.

"Yeah, don't quit your day job, Mabel." Dipper chuckled as he opened the door without thinking, just like he'd always done.

In retrospect, Dipper really should have knocked.

Mabel was indeed singing along to whatever song that was, it very could have been Baba, but right now, Dipper was completely unable to focus enough for his brain to tell him what he was hearing. He was far too focused on what he was seeing.

Mabel stood beside her bed, her back mercifully facing Dipper, but he was more concerned with what she was wearing, or rather, not wearing.

Like all opposite sex siblings, Dipper and Mabel used to do things like take baths together when they were little, of course not for many years, but the point was they'd seen each other without clothes before.

Only now, he was seeing her after the onset of puberty, and holy hell he was staring because the entire expanse of her bare back was on display. He should be moving, yes, Dipper should be leaving the room, like, right now. Yes, any time now.

Dipper's legs refused to budge.

No, her long locks of brunette hair covered much of her skin. Dipper was mentally overreacting. She probably had a top on, or even a bra, and he couldn't see the straps through the hair. Yeah, that made much more sense. Now he just needed to slowly back out of the room, and nobody had to know he walked in on her changing.

It was like the universe decided in that moment it really hated Dipper Pines.

The next thing the unaware Mabel did was reach behind her head and gather her hair up in a ponytail, tying it off with a scrunchie.

Good lord, now her entire back really was on display, and nope, there wasn't a stitch of clothing on her upper body. If she were to turn around now, he'd not only see her, but she'd see that he was seeing…

Need to leave, now!

As if it could get any worse, it was right then that Mabel bent over to retrieve something from the floor. Seeing as how Mabel was wearing formfitting jeans instead of her usual longer skirts, Dipper got a perfect eyeful of Mabel's a…

NOPE!

With the force of a hundred falling comets, Dipper slammed his eyes shut and threw himself out into the hallway, throwing the door closed behind him as he went.

Had he the presence of mind to, Dipper would have quietly tiptoed out and gently sealed the door so as to not attract his sister's attention, but he'd acted too rashly, too noisily.

"Hello?" Mabel had heard the door.

Doesn't this kind of crap only happen in clichéd movies and those stupid romance books Mabel and Melody read in their free time? Surely that stuff doesn't happen in real life?

Well, apparently, it does!

Dipper put a hand over his mouth, not trusting his voice to betray him. Step by step, he walked away from the bedroom, side stepping known creaky boards, before Mabel could investigate the curious case of the self-opening door.

If his luck held out, Mabel would just later think what she'd heard was the radio. Either that, or she'd been imagining it.

Yeah, right, like she was going to believe that!

Another chapter finished, plans set in motion, and a story back on track how I want it to go. I'll call this a win. Leave a review/comment, please, dear readers!