When Mabel got home she sat on the couch outside. The lawyer had made it all seem so simple, with her testimony and the hospital reports there was absolutely no way Shawn would avoid jail time. She didn't know if she could do it though, she had loved Shawn at one point, could she really send him to jail.
Dipper and Stan sat next to her, they sat in silence until she spoke up.
"I loved him once, he was my reason for getting up in the morning, the reason I smiled at texts on my phone. He made me feel special, like I was the only girl he had eyes for. I know he doesn't feel like now and neither do I but is it really right for me to send him to jail because he got mad?." Stan tensed. Dipper grabbed Mabel's hands and looked her in the eyes.
"I don't know if he loved you Mabel, I wish I did because then I can tell you that he had fallen for you but I don't know. What I do know is that Shawn belittled and humiliated you to the point where living no longer seemed like an option. You lived through it thank god but that still doesn't stop the fact that you tried. This idiot made you hate yourself, whether you love him or not. If you let him go you'll hate yourself. If you let him go who's to say he wouldn't do it again?"
Stan said nothing as a silent tension fell upon the three, finally he got up and cracked his back.
"Listen kid, I thought the worst day of my life was when my brother fell through that blasted portal. I thought that day would stick with me and I'd never get over it. I saved him and gradually learned to forgive myself but that day… that day was nothing compared to the call. It was a normal day, I was conning some tourists when the hospital rang. Dipper convinced them I was your guardian. They wouldn't tell me what had happened. I swear kid my heart stopped when I saw the tubes in and out of you, the way Dipper was sat on a bench crying his eyes out. I thought you were dead, I honest to god thought you were dead. They were screaming and yelling and ripping your clothes off before rushing you to the ER. I just… I thought you were dead Mabel and I couldn't function…. I couldn't breathe. I just clung onto Dipper, I just god Mabel. You may not want to put him away but you have to because I do not want to wake up and this time you're dead… I wouldn't get through that and neither would Dipper."
Mabel had tears in her eyes by the time he was done, she didn't realise how bad this was affecting her grunkle, and she just assumed he was angry but she had broken him. She had broken him. It was then that she made her decision
"I'll do it, I'll send that bastard down"