Okay, so, I realize that I have some explaining to do.

I've been in and out (mostly in) of hospital for the last 2 months. I had pneumonia, something very nasty for people born prematurely like me (I have weak lungs, so when I get sick, I really get sick). I nearly died. Twice. I got out for about a week and a half when they thought I was getting better, but of course it came back, so it was another three weeks of hospital for me. Catching up at school has chewed up my time too, but I'm alright now (I hope), and I can get back to writing.

Anyway, enough about me, here's the long awaited update. I've made it especially long to make up for lost time

-=- DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE Q&A THAT I'M ORGANIZING, ANYTHING ABOUT THE STORY, MY LIFE, THEORIES ABOUT THE SHOW, WHATEVER! LEAVE QUESTIONS IN THE REVIEWS! MORE INFO IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER -=-

Stan Pines was a night bug. There was not much point in going to sleep until after midnight, things could be done. Most of those things happened to be illegal, but still. Some nights he would go out and blatantly break the law while the kids were asleep, and others he would simply sit on the couch in his underwear listening to the tink and clammer of tools as Ford worked in the basement. He didn't know what he was doing down there, probably just some nerd thing that he was building.

He had been staying home more often recently, for several reasons. He was, unbelievably, getting bored of crime. Admittedly his misconduct was due to the lack of others who he could interact, but now that he was on friendly terms with his brother and both the kids were over, it was a different story. He'd also developed an uncanny friendship with one of the kids from town. She got along well with Dipper and Mabel too, which was always good.

Pacifica Northwest used to be a stuck-up, chemical coated ditz who only cared about herself. Stan had considered punching her several times before her reformation, as well as phoning the police (that's right, Stan Pines, phoning the police) to warrant an arrest on her for wearing too much make-up. Now she had changed. Something had clicked inside her around about the Northwest Fest last year. Stan didn't know what it was or what had happened, but according to Mabel she had "met Dipper", followed by a string of giggles. Either way, she had changed for the better and Stan found he could cancel at least one of his orders for punching bags shaped as faces.

There was a knock at the door. Stan took a few moments to register it. 'Really? At this hour?' he asked himself. Then he remembered that there was only ever one person who came to the Mystery Shack at 10pm. He ran into his room to get his dressing gown.

Pacifica's parents were abusive. It was infrequent, but he had heard whispers of the butlers who worked in the mansion being hit, kicked and shoved for messing up the tiniest things. Their daughter was no exception. Starting around December the previous year, Pacifica had showed up at the Mystery Shack late at night every so often wanting to stay the night. Her parent's might have kicked her out, she might have run away or something of that nature. After showing up in February one night with a black eye and a cut lip, Stan had made it one of his biggest priorities to look after her. It didn't matter how hard he tried to bottle up his feelings, he couldn't bear to see any friends of his niece and nephew like that.

Stan grabbed his dressing gown, robed and ran to the door. He pulled it open.

'Pacifica! What's happened?'

She was standing out in the cold. Stan stood aside to let her in and instinctively scanned for bruises. Her face was fine, her neck didn't look too bad. She was wearing a winter jacket and gloves, obviously in an attempt to ward off the cold. Her hair was untidy and she wasn't wearing any jewelry. Her socks were pulled up high and her legs were covered in goosebumps and…

'I need some ice, Stan. My legs are aching like hell.'

The red zebra pattern on her calves was familiar to Stan, from the Columbian prison days. They had caned her. The monsters. He growled to himself and ran upstairs to get Dipper and Mabel up. He would need back-up on this one.

o00o

Dipper was enjoying his book. It was called Three Bags Full, a crime fiction novel, by far his favorite genre. This particular book was about a flock of sheep who solve the murder of their shepherd. It was pretty good, actually, a break from the other mysteries he usually read. He was only half focusing though, making sure not to keep Mabel up with pen-clicks and other side effects of late-night summer reading. The problem with this though was that he noticed everything that was happening downstairs. Every time Grunkle Stan got up to go into the kitchen he heard the creaking of the floorboards, the rustle of the ChipackerzTM packets and the obscenely loud crunching noise he made as he ate. Dipper found himself getting annoyed after a few hours of this.

'So this is how Mabel feels when I read,' he thought as there was a knock at the door.

'Wait, what? Who's coming to visit this late?'

There was silence from downstairs. Dipper waited and listened. Running. Stan must've been confused as well.

He could tell when the door had been opened. The attic was unfortunately not very well built and the wind from outside found it's way into the room through the floorboards. There was talking from downstairs. Dipper closed his book and slipped out of bed. He was about to go downstairs but had second thoughts once he heard Stan bounding up to the attic. He burst into the room.

'Dipper! You're awake, good. Pacifica is downstairs, I need you to go to the kitchen and get her some ice, something bad has happened. I'll wake up Mabel.'

It took Dipper a few moments to process what Stan had said. Then he remembered.

'They… they beat me, Dipper! They started attacking me!'

'The butlers got them off of me in time to let me escape…'

'I didn't know where to go or what to do, but I eventually stumbled across the Mystery Shack'

He ran out of the room and bolted down the stairs.

o00o

Pacifica was not in a good way. She was sitting in the couch and Dipper and Mabel had moved the dinosaur skull so that she could use it as a footrest. She had taken off her jacket and had a collection of tea towels tied around her legs, her calves being cooled by zip-lock bags filled with ice. She was holding a cup of hot chocolate but wasn't drinking it. The four Pines were spread throughout the room. Dipper sat on the ground and lent up against the side of the sofa. Mabel lent against the doorway looking worried. Stan was pacing up and down the room, looking at his feet. Ford was sitting at the table, refusing to stop working, but still worried enough to look up and see how Pacifica was going every few minutes.

Dipper had gotten downstairs first. After finding her slumped against the door frame, he went into anxiety mode. Within seconds he had gotten into the kitchen, found some ice and come back. He helped her into the couch and saw the marks on the backs of her legs. Everything after that was a blur. Mabel and Stan had come downstairs, Stan running past into the gift shop to get Ford. They had set up her temporary hospital bed and now they waited. Pacifica had insisted that they not fawn over her. She just needed to wait and let the ice do its job. Stan was mumbling to himself, running his hands through his thinning hair. Ford looked up from his book.

'Stan, do you want me to go upstairs and set up a bed?' he said. Mabel raised her hand.

'I'll do it. Where's the spare mattress?'

'It's in the closet,' said Stan, scratching his head, 'I moved it there once Pacifica started sleeping here, because I can't be bothered changing you guys' sheets.'

Mabel nodded and smiled weakly at Pacifica. She had her eyes closed, concentrating on suppressing the pain. Mabel turned around and skipped up the stairs.

'I'm sorry,' said Pacifica, grimacing in pain as a tear rolled down her cheek. Dipper got himself up off the floor and sat on the arm of the chair.

'No. Nobody should be sorry. We're here to help, Paz.'

Pacifica smiled through her discomfort. Silence. They were letting her recover, so she thought. She thought about several things. Her parents, and how much she hated them. Lots of kids dream about being rich or popular, and Pacifica was both, but she'd give anything to have a mediocre home and a mediocre life if it meant getting away from her parents. She thought about the Mystery Shack, about how she had been accepted here on a whim by somebody who she'd thought was a crusty old man who was only interested in money until she met him, about how all the people under this roof somehow had better lives than her. The irony. She let out a small half-laugh as Mabel came back into the room.

'Huh?' she asked. Stan stopped pacing and looked at the kids.

'Nothing,' said Pacifica, shaking her head and opening her eyes, 'Just thinking.'

'You sound like you're feeling better,' said Stan. Pacifica noticed that most of the pain was leaving her legs and the resealable bags were now filled with cold water.

'How long did it take Mabel to make my bed?' she asked, starting to move her feet off of the dinosaur skull. Ford checked his watch.

'It's quarter past one. About thirty minutes.'

'It took me a while to get it perfect,' Mabel explained happily. Pacifica rolled her eyes and stood up. Dipper got off the arm of the chair.

'You alright?' he said. Pacifica wobbled a little as the tea towels slid down to her ankles, but the swelling on the backs of her legs had gone down. She knew that she'd have some nice big bruises the next day, but hopefully she'd be able to get some sleep.

'Yeah,' she replied. Dipper bent down and untied the tea towels.

'Kids, can you help Pacifica into bed?' asked Stan, 'I'm going to stay up a little longer.'

'No worries, Grunkle Stan,' said Mabel.

It took them a while to get up the stairs. They just had to take it slow. Once they reached the landing Dipper opened the door to the attic.

Mabel had unsurprisingly placed Pacifica's mattress closer to Dipper's bed than her own. He growled to himself and went inside. There was an assortment of soft toys that Mabel had donated to Pacifica for the night, and she had double pillows.

'I tried to replicate what I imagine your bed is like at home,' said Mabel, helping Pacifica through the door. Pacifica looked at the sleeping arrangements.

'Thanks,' she said, trying to hold the sincerity. She too noticed the proximity of Dipper's bed to her own. Not that she minded, but she wished Mabel could stay out of her personal life, she was a bit too over the top sometimes, and it didn't help when it involved her brother.

'Sleep?' asked Dipper. Pacifica and Mabel nodded.

'Sleep,' they agreed. No further questions were asked. Pacifica knew that they were trying to look after her, let her recover. She'd been to sleepover's before, with her other "friends", where she would muck around and have goofy pillow fights and play games and tell stories and laugh. She smiled at the irony of the name as the twins lowered her onto the mattress. This was a real sleepover, with real sleep. Exactly what she needed.

'Sorted,' said Mabel as they pulled the duvet over Pacifica. Dipper yawned.

'I'm done for today. Your legs aren't hurting are they Pacifica?'

She shook her head. The twins shared a glance before clambering into their own beds.

'Night,' said Mabel, using her old grappling hook to destroy another one of the lanterns.

'Night,' said Pacifica. Dipper grumbled and said something along the lines of 'Sleep now, talk later'.

o00o

Mabel could never remember exactly when she fell asleep. There's a sort of semi-consciousness stage between being awake and being asleep, as you let your eyes un-glue and let the morning flood in. Sometimes, however, there is a trigger, something that has you up in a snap.

As she woke up, Mabel saw something through the haze of her eyelashes that caught her attention. Yes! Her plan had worked! Sort of…

Dipper and Pacifica were both still asleep, but that didn't make this any less of a scrapbook opportunity. They were holding hands. Or they had been. Dipper's arm was hanging off his bed, Pacifica's hand spread out underneath it. Mabel loved the simplicity of their relationship. They weren't extreme enough to be dating or anything, but they clearly weren't "just friends". Mabel took a happy snap with the camera she kept in the drawer and made a mental note to add a page to her Summer Memories book later.

"You're getting closer, bro," she whispered, tiptoeing out of the room to take a shower.

Yes, you've read sleepover Dipifica chapters before. No, I don't think you've seen anything like this before. I know you guys love the fluff, but I had to look at a couple of different things in this chapter (still included a bit of aww at the end though). Hope you like it! I'm on holidays, so I'll try to put out at least two chapters in the next two weeks. After that (with catching up at school and everything), we'll see what happens.

Review time!

TheDarkMysteriousAuthor – Thanks so much, sorry you've had to wait for so long.

T.N.Q – You can't wait to see them get together (*hint* the wait will be over soon my friend *hint*)

TheSakuraHunter – Hey. I'm pretty hyped for how far I've gotten through too (even after the stall of the last while). I'll make sure to include your questions in the Q&A, and thanks :D

LaughingxCries – I'm sorry you've had to hang onto the edge of your seat for so long, but I'm super happy your enjoying it.

Dipper The SkyChaser – OK OK OK (sorry for being sick) OK OK J

AEceros (three reviews in one!) – I feel like this is such a proper and well thought out review (because it is hehe). I'm so honored that your calling this your favorite Dipifica fluff story. The tone should stay failry light-hearted (I've got darker themes coming later, but that'll be only a couple chapters here and there). The ending will be sweet, don't worry!

joseftanti - *love (IT'S NOT OVER YET, SUNSHINE! – of course I'll continue it).