All was dark. Everything around him was an empty void. There was nothing, and it seemed that he was in this void for an eternity.

Until, a small blossom of light appeared, seemingly distant and far-off. He squinted to see it better, but soon found he didn't have to, as it was growing in proximity and coming closer.

Sounds followed. Murmurs, whispers, faint voices, brushing against his ears but escaping being completely heard. And finally, the light and the sounds grew so large that the void was cancelled out, and he found himself back in the land of the living.

He saw the basic shapes of his surroundings through his blurry eyes. Five people, one holding his hand and a taller one standing at the foot of the bed. The others stood in a corner. The one at the foot of the bed moved about quickly, said something, then left.

All white walls and furniture, a stiff white bed on which he sat. All sorts of tubes and machinery were to his right.

His eyes started to focus. The person holding his hand tenderly came closer.

"Dipper?" She asked, anticipation in her tone.

And he realized, it was his sister. She was smiling wide as tears rolled down her rosy cheeks.

"...Mabel."

He blinked. Mabel started sobbing, bowing her head to rest on the hand she held. The others in the corner gasped and smiled, a few happy tears welling up in their eyes. Soos sniffled, and stepped forward with a small bag in his hand.

"Hey Dip. You ok?" He asked gently.

He nodded slightly, still half asleep but responsive.

Soos smiled. "I, uh... I brought you something to keep you busy while you're here. So you can stay happy when we're gone."

Soos pulled from the bag Dipper's childhood GameDude, with three games to go with it.

"Thanks Soos," he replied in a raspy voice, and took the items into his hands.

Soos smiled wider. "No problem dawg. Hope you get better soon."

With that Soos stepped back and Wendy came forward. Her eyes were puffy and red and her cheeks were wet. Her hair was a mess and she raked strands away from her face as she walked up to greet him.

"Hey there Dr. Funtimes. I missed you."

Her lip quivered and her eyes became glossy, but she quickly gathered herself and kept talking.

"I brought you a gift too. I found this cool book at the library," she said, holding up a heavy brown book. "You know, monsters and junk, stuff you like. Figured you'd like it."

Dipper smiled lopsidedly. He croaked out a thank you, and Wendy sniffled as she stood up. She kissed him lightly on his forehead, and had he been fully awake he would've turned beet red.

Now Stan came forth. He was the most composed of them all, but he seemed as though he might shatter any second. He mustered up a weak smile, ruffled Dipper's hair.

"Man kiddo, it's been weird without you around. Always being the smart one and stuff. It just ain't the same."

"I, well, I brought you a gift too, since apparently this is a recurring theme today."

He chuckled. Then he pulled from his pockets a sketchbook and a case of pens and handed them to Dipper.

"I thought you might want to make a nerd book of your own. Might as well get it started now."

Dipper studied them in his hands with content. The sketchbook was big and snow white, and on the front there was a blue pine tree taped in the middle. He smiled at Stan's acknowledgement of his signature.

As for the pens, they were top-of-the-line artist pens, with varying sizes and a fancy pencil, along with a sharpener and eraser.

"Thank you Stan..." he answered, still looking over them in his hands.

"You're welcome. But promise you won't go looking for trouble when you're making this thing. Be careful for your Old Man. Someone's gotta dust my bobbleheads."

Dipper nodded and Stan grinned slightly. Even though he cracked one of his usual jokes, he still looked pained and fragile.

Now Mabel returned. He hadn't realized she left. She lifted up his old backpack from under the bed, grunting as she did so. It was stuffed full, and it looked really heavy.

"I brought you lots of stuff. Some new things, but mostly things from around the Shack."

She sniffled, brushed away a tear.

"Don't open it yet though. Wait 'til we've all gone home. Ok?"

"Ok..." he replied, staring at the bag as she slid it back under the bed.

Just as she set it down the nurse walked in, clipboard at the ready.

"Um, hello, sorry to interrupt but visiting hours are over for today."

Their faces sank. They said their goodbyes as the nurse ushered them out, and soon he was alone. The nurse glanced at the things to his right then left as well.

He was utterly alone in the silence, only his gifts to keep him company. He felt a chill of abandon, but decided to look over his gifts again to occupy himself.

He looked them over once, twice, but he kept coming back to the sketchbook. He ran his fingers along the spine, fanned through the pages. He traced the outline of the pine tree.

Pine Tree. The two words raised goosebumps on his arms. There was familiarity to them, but not of a good sort. They rang a bell in his head, an ominous bell that made his stomach turn.

And then it hit him. He remembered the mouth that had always said them, and remembered how it tasted. And then he realized why he was in the hospital.

The sketchbook fell to the floor as Dipper's hand went limp.

A/N: Hey guys, long time no see... how's the wife and kids, yada yada.

It's basically the same as always. School has me busy af, no free time, all the good stuff. You have no idea how much sleep I threw away writing this.

But, you know, it really would help if my stories got more support which would probably motivate me to write more, instead of just people saying to update when they don't see it for a while. There's a really relatable explanation / metaphor to this problem of mine on my tumblr. I believe it's tagged as #fanfiction, but it involves cookies and an office. It helps explain the problems of writers so that readers can better understand.

Anyway, on my tumblr there are some new things I'm considering, a) my book of the month idea and b) my proposal to write non-fanfic short stories. On both I'd like you to message me on what you think. I would post links to my stories there but the damn thing won't let me type links for some reason. I'll just make it into a regular text post and y'all can copy and paste it from there.

And, if you follow me on tumblr you can see my work faster and be filled in on what's going on! Also, if you were to message your requests through tumblr, they would have a much greater chance of being done! This applies to Pinecest Collection as well!

Well, guys, I'm gonna wrap it up now... as usual, understand the delayed updates, follow me on tumblr and review dudes!

~Unique Pines