As the teens arrived for breakfast the next morning, Grunkle Stan could have sworn they had spent all night talking and not sleeping. They must have gotten around 3 hours of sleep each, waking each other up about every hour or so. They wondered how Grunkle Stan didn't hear their screams but apparently he had slept like a log and wasn't aware of anything that was going on. Melanie was used to having those nightmares, and so was Dipper to a lesser degree; but Mabel hadn't been ready for them and she still shook from the last one as they descended to get breakfast. Seeing how tired they were, Grunkle Stan decided to let them off work for the morning so they could catch up on sleep. As soon as Melanie and Dipper had taken their coffee and Mabel had eaten; they went to the attic.
There, Mabel slept on the floor with a pillow, asking Melanie and Dipper to wake her up when she started to get agitated, fearing what would happen, but needing sleep to function normally. In the meantime, the other two would practice as much magic as they could. They couldn't go in the forest because that could rise Stan's suspicions and Mabel couldn't sleep there, so they had to keep to calm spells. Melanie wasn't happy with this, she needed more time to teach Dipper her full knowledge. She had started with the basics and had begun to teach him anything he wanted; unfortunately not always focusing on what was important in a battle or an emergency. She had then thought they would have the time needed to learn everything possible; but now their days were numbered and they needed to be quick.
By the time Dipper finally managed to close his mind to Melanie, in the goal of preventing Bill from messing with his mind if he tried; Mabel was tossing and turning. Melanie woke her up and comforted her; knowing they would have three more days of this, and not knowing how much they could take without emotionally and psychologically breaking down. Mabel then sat and watched them work, insisting that Melanie teach her a few things as well. She decided to teach Mabel how to create a weapon out of thin air. It was hard but not as hard as levitating a car or teleporting, all which Dipper had done.
"Okay Mabel, so what weapon do you want? Maybe something that doesn't hurt you if you grab it the wrong way like a knife; because the spell can go wrong before it goes right." Melanie started.
"I think she'll want a grappling hook." Added Dipper. " Always had a thing for them, I don't know why."
The memory of the grappling hook made Mabel smile, and she nodded.
"It could hurt you if it lands the wrong way, but if that's what you want then we can start." Melanie said. "So first, you need to close your eyes. This is the first time you're doing this so you want to take it slow. You close your eyes and listen to my voice." Guided Melanie. "You breath out and as you do so you get rid of anything in your head that isn't my voice and the grappling hook. You can do that as many times as you deem necessary. When you're done, nod your head." Melanie paused and looked at Mabel, waiting for her signal.
Dipper didn't say a word throughout the whole exchange. The way Melanie was treating Mabel as she taught her how to create a grappling hook was different from the way she taught him anything. Maybe it was because Mabel had just woken up from a nightmare, but she was being especially nice and confident, making sure Mabel knew she was capable of doing it. No such thing could be said of when she was with Dipper. With him, she explained the process and with every fail asked him to try again and again until he got it right. She was relentless, but in a way, that's what made him progress so much. She pushed his limits so far he was amazed at his own powers. Still, trust and friendliness could have helped, there was no denying that. Was he jealous of the way she treated Mabel? He wanted her to be like that with him ,sweet and forgiving, nice and caring; but all he got was a friendship earned by failures and victories.
She was proud of him nevertheless. Whenever he succeeded, she would drop the act and applaud, pat him on the back or even hug him. Any of those gestures made Dipper's heart race until he could not bear to see her without looking like an idiot. He preferred to look at her when she wasn't looking, like now. She was focused on helping Mabel, and she was so nice towards her, her know-it-all remarks gone. He loved the way she braided her hair when the day got warm, the way she talked with her hands more than with her vocabulary, the way she smiled at him when he told a joke, the way she put her hands on her hips when she was mad or angry, the way she trusted him enough to let him comfort her when she had had her recurrent nightmare again, the way she was too proud to see anyone but him see her cry. He was lost in thought when a grappling hook appeared out of nowhere above his head and knocked him down.
"Oww, where did that come from?" He complained.
"From Mabel's mindscape." Said Melanie, as if it were obvious. "She succeeded on her first try, well done!" Melanie high fived Mabel as the girl jumped in the hair, grappling hook in hand and yelled "Grappling hook!" Dipper was glad the smile on Mabel's face was back for the time being, and he realized he must have been smiling like an idiot as he was contemplating how amazing Melanie was. Damn it!
The rest of the morning went more or less the same way. Dipper learned more and more nasty spells to mess up with Bill and his monsters while Mabel tried to get as much sleep as she could.
"What do you think Bill is bringing to our world from his Mindscape?" asked Dipper, realizing they didn't really know what they were up against.
"I don't know, really. Like I told you, I just know he wants to destroy you and your family. How he gets there is his deal. I know not knowing is the worst, but I can't access the mindscape at all. I tried, trust me, but he's blocking us. Whatever he has in store for us he wants it to be a surprise." Melanie shared then added "I know you're as scared as me, maybe more, but there's nothing we can do now except practice and try to sleep."
Dipper's worry was far more visible on his face when Mabel wasn't around, or when she was sleeping. He kept a calm face when she was with him, keeping his cool to let her think that he had the situation in his control, which he really didn't. He knew a faked confidence couldn't fool Mabel, but a depressed mood and tears wouldn't help her in any way. Melanie was keeping a cover as well, knowing fully well that Mabel was the most fragile of the three and that she needed with Dipper to be strong for all of them.
After their morning practice session, the kids took back their unpaid part time jobs at the Mystery Shack. Mabel worked at the shop and Dipper guided the tour, while Melanie jumped from one to the other, helping out and keeping them awake by distributing unhealthy amounts of coffee and Mabel juice. The afternoon dragged on for what felt like days, which for once was good considering the schedule they had for the next three days, which were down to almost two now. When Grunkle Stan let them go at around 5 pm, Dipper and Melanie ran for the forest while Mabel stayed behind to have some time with Candy and Grenda who had come over to have some fun with Mabel after her work.
Dipper was eager to get to practice the really hard spells he had worked for for a week now; but Melanie didn't seem to want to do that today. Instead of settling down in one place of the forest, she made them run farther and farther into the woods. As it got darker and darker, Dipper asked how far she planned on going. Melanie didn't answer but kept walking on, the bushes becoming too thick to run. Dipper followed, worried she might have been too lost in her thoughts to remember he was here and what they were doing. Not once did she look back at him, not once did she say anything. He was getting worried about the precious time ticking away, and looked at his watch. They had been in the forest for nearly an hour. He stopped, and called to Melanie:
"Hey, we should stop; going farther into the forest would be a bad idea. It's even more dangerous out there and it would take a really long time to get back home after."
Melanie kept going, slowing down for the time he had talked. He didn't follow her and instead, tried to convince her to stay, or go back unless she told him where she was going.
"I'm not your puppet anymore, you can't go somewhere without telling me why and expect me to follow you like a dog. I'm putting my foot down and I'm not moving until you tell me why you keep walking farther into the forest." Dipper sat on a rock nearby and looked as Melanie stopped and turned to face him. A smile spread on her face from ear to ear and looked like she was holding in a giggle. She walked back to him and sat down at his feet, still not saying anything.
She started to play with the grass, and he waited for her to tell him what to do; but she didn't seem to want to speak anytime soon. Time was ticking away.
"Melanie, are you going to help me practice my spells or not? If you're not, might as well go back."
She still didn't answer. Dipper sat down on the grass, cross-legged, and closed his eyes. If she would not help him, he would help himself.
He focused and when he opened his eyes, a ball of fire had formed in the palm of his hand. Melanie was looking at him as he aimed to project the ball of fire against a nearby tree. The next second the trunk was ablaze, and Dipper had already created a ball of water in his other hand which he now threw at the fire to extinguish it. When he was done, Melanie looked at him with approval and nodded.
"Well done" she said.
"Why weren't you talking before? It's not nice to ignore me that way? What is the point of going with me if you're not going to help me?" asked Dipper, angry at her innocent smile.
"The point is that you learn to listen to yourself rather than listen to others. For a whole week I have taught you the basics and things you wanted to know. I have guided you every step of the way, always helping you when you failed. You always listened to me, waited for me to say what we were going to do, waited for me to ask you to do something. You need to have a will of your own if you want to be our leader, Dipper. I won't be teaching you as much as you will be teaching yourself. We are our best teacher, we learn best from ourselves and our mistakes. Trust me; I know a lot about that." She sighted, looking awkwardly at her chest as if checking if her tattoo was still there. "I'm doing this to help you" she continued "to become our leader. That's who you are Dipper. I'm your mentor, but I'm no leader. You are." She sat down as if she was about to cry, and Dipper crouched next to her. She looked up to him, tears in her eyes. "For a long time, I thought I would be the leader because I knew more and because I was older. I was wrong, I realized it as I saw you pretend to your sister that you were not scared, pretend to me that you knew how scared I could be until you actually knew; you are the strongest of us and you protect us no matter the cost on your life. You are the leader, and I was wrong. I need to let you go and make your own choices. " Melanie paused, drying her eyes from the tears. " Will you lead us in battle against Bill, Dipper? "
"Of course, Melanie. Nothing else would never cross my mind. You're putting a huge weight on my shoulders though, I don't know if I can hold it." Dipper humbly said
"Oh you can, trust me. You're stronger than you think, Dipper, never forget that." Tears were back in her eyes. Dipper didn't know what made her so sad: the fact that she was not the strongest and he was, or the fact that they might die in two days. Whatever it was he replied:
"So are you, Melanie." He wrapped his arms around her and brought her to his chest. He came down to his knees to make the position more comfortable and stayed there until he knew she was feeling better, not until either of them found it uncomfortable. He had no idea how much love and compassion can go through a hug before he had actually tried, but it was remarkable. He liked the weight of Melanie on his chest and shoulders, the smell of her hair and neck, her small hands on his back. God, he loved her more than she could ever know, and in two days something bad may happen to her. He couldn't let her carry the burden of his love with her as they fought against the dark forces of Bill.