"-acie?" I twist around in my blankets, thinking to myself half-consciously, 'Am I dreaming or is someone actually calling my name...?' "-acie!?" the voice cries louder, causing me to startle and sit up in bed hastily.

"Huh- wha-?" I rub my eyes, my vision clearing to see Dipper crisscrossed on my bed, wringing his hands together. "Hey," I yawn and cover my mouth, "what's wrong?" 'I don't think I've ever seen him crawl onto my bed while I'm asleep. I think I'd be weird-ed out if a boy my age did this if I wasn't so worried right now.'

"What? Oh, uh...nothin' just uh..." he stutters anxiously.

I tilt my head and stare at him, not believing a word he's saying, "Yes, so it's totally normal for you to climb into my bed with me at," I check my phone, "four sixteen in the morning." Placing it back down, I look back to him, trying to read his eyes, but I've never been good at reading people so I stop, seeing as it's making him even more nervous. "Were you reading the journal all night again and got anxious about something again?" You wouldn't believe how many times this has happened. I feel bad for Mabel if she had to go through this in what we didn't see in the show if he's doing this to me now.

"Oh! No, no I wasn't reading the journal again...uh, I just, maybe sorta kinda had a nghtmr...?" he mumbles the last part incoherently and narrows his eyes with every word, not wanting to look me in the eye.

"Okaaaay, are you telling me something or are you asking me something?"

"T-telling!" he cries, offended.

I put my hands up in defense, "Hey it was the way you said it, not my fault." I give him a small smile and lightly push him. He only elicits a tiny one in return. 'Not good... Let's see...' "Anyway, what's wrong? You wouldn't come up here looking all scared and sweaty for no reason. And speak clearly, please."

"Yeah, you're right... Okay, don't laugh." I raise my eyebrows to tell him to keep going. Taking a deep breath, 'Why is this so hard for him?' he continues, "I had a really bad nightmare..."

'That's it? Okay, I got this.' I mentally crack my knuckles. "That's it? Oh man, I thought you were dying or something!" I chuckle in good nature.

He pushes me, "Hey! I said don't laugh!" Dipper frowns harder.

I wave my hands in front of him, "No no no! I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at how ridiculous you are for thinking this is something to be nervous about. It's a nightmare so it wasn't real..." I turn my head and think to myself a little. He snaps his fingers to bring me back from my trance. Shaking my head, I continue, "Anyway, if it was this bad, why don't you tell me about it. Maybe I can ease your worries?" I pat the spot next to me.

The boy, wrapped in a his own blanket, crawls over, disturbing my poor cat, and gets comfy. "Okay, so remember what the shape-shifter said?" I nod. "Well, I had a nightmare on what he said and did, they've been recurring, too! I can't stop seeing myself frozen and screaming in agony like he showed us..."

'Okay, he's reasonably frightened...I would be terrified, too!'

"Uh, hoo-boy, okay, well... The shape-shifter is not a time-traveler, nor can he see into the future, so there's no way he could know if that's the last form you'll ever take." 'It's usually one of the twins...or my mom... easing my worries, so I'm not use to doing this...'

"But how do you know that? Maybe he is, there's no way we could know..." the boy retorts.

"He's only a shape-shifter, nothing about the research I saw says anything about him telling the future or seeing it. Maybe he was just trying to scare you into giving up trying to find the author?"

"Maybe..." Dipper mumbles and looks down, probably lost in thought now.

"Good! So are you alright now?" I pat his back and he looks up, a stern and serious look on his face, making me nervous.

"Macie...are you going to tell us what you're going through?" His voice was just loud enough for me to hear, but not even Chat's ears twitched and he's like a foot away, that's how quiet Dipper is.

Yawning, my eyebrows furrow, "Aw, man, I'm too tired for this. Plus, I told you, I will tell you guys someday, I'm waiting for the right time. I could mess everything up if I told you too early." 'Don't blame my tiredness if I give out too much info!'

"I- I know, but it really hurts me and Mabel that you can't trust us with this information...we're suppose to be triplets and aren't we suppose to share everything with each other?"

I look down sadly, his words burning into my thoughts. 'He's wrong. We're not triplets. We're not even related...' I wish I could say what I want, but I can't. "You're wrong." He looks up, confused, "I trust you and Mabel with my life," I say, utterly and completely serious with every word. His eyes widen. "I know this is hard for you, trust me, I want to tell you guys so bad! But it would hurt you all the same...maybe after we leave Gravity Falls I can tell you..." I look away and rub my right arm, staring down onto his bed.

"Macie, I-" I cut Dipper off.

"Listen, I'm not even completely sure what's going on, and...maybe...maybe I don't want to understand anymore...but I still have a lot to figure out for myself. I'll come to you when I'm ready but don't forget that I love you and Mabel so much! I trust you both with my life. I just hope you two trust me as well, I wouldn't be surprised if your trust in me has dwindled as much as it seems to be doing."

I look to him in the face and his features show uncertainty and guilt. 'Guess his trust has been depleting...' "I won't lie...me and Mabel talk a lot about you behind your back because we're so worried...and I know her trust hasn't gone down, at least not that I know of, but I won't lie...my trust for you has gone down a little...I'm sorry, I can't help it."

I decide not to look at him, even though I can see that he's looking at me, "Don't be, I completely understand, I'm not surprised."

"But that's just it, Macie!" His outburst startles me. "My trust shouldn't be going down like it has been! You're my triplet, me and Mabel's equal, and I need to believe and trust that you will come to me when ready. It's just- you've been so secretive that I've just felt left out and I shouldn't be. Yeah we're triplets but that doesn't mean we don't trust each other and it's so stupid that mine for you has been depleting because I DO trust in you and I DO believe that you're going through something hard and you want to do it alone! I guess...my mind just won't have it..."

"Oh, I'm sorry." I admit. His confession was heartfelt and I've never heard anything like it... with my siblings...I had siblings, right? Everything is so foggy. I clutch my head, my brain starting to ache. "You guys have been so nice to me, worried but leaving me alone when I'm always so angry when you bring it up. I threw a rock at you for Pete's sake because I was upset you looked through my bag! What kind of sister does that!" Tears flow freely as I try to stop them to no avail.

"No! That was my fault! I shouldn't have gone through your bag and then yell at you for answers. That was totally wrong of me and you had every right to be mad."

"Stop."

He looks taken aback, "Wha-?"

"Stop blaming yourself every time something goes wrong between us three. Mabel and I got kidnapped by the Gideon bot. You blamed yourself for that. Got in trouble for keeping an eye out for you during the Scary-oke party. Blamed yourself for that. Blamed yourself for not seeing and preventing me from jumping into the lake when we went fishing." I hold up a hand, seeing that he wants to retort, "Don't. I heard you talking to Stan about it." His hand drops and he looks down guiltily. "Blamed yourself for not saving Mabel from Norman in time. That's all I can think of right now..."

Dipper is at a loss of words, his mouth opening and closing, thinking of words to say. "I-I, it's my job. I'm the boy, I protect my sisters and when I fail to do so I blame myself. Plus, some of those things were really my fault!" he whisper-shouts back.

"But they weren't! I knew to sidestep Gideon's giant hand but I didn't because I was too worried about my breathing at the moment and failed to save myself and Mabel. I should have helped you during the party. You wanted to talk to the agents and I thought it'd be a bad idea and it caused you to do rash things. I, on my own, decided to jump into the lake, it wasn't your fault because you had no clue I was gonna do that! I wanted to get that picture, I didn't mean any harm... I fell asleep when you needed me to save Mabel from Norman, so that was my fault because I knew about him, being suspicious and all, yet I didn't make it my top priority."

He wipes his eyes dry of tears and lightly chuckles, "Man, I just wanted some closure from my nightmare..." He smiles.

Pushing him, I couldn't help but laugh as well, smiling and wiping my own tears off, "Hey, it was you who brought it up!"

"Okay, okay. I'm gonna go back to sleep. Thanks for everything." Smiling as he descends the ladder, Dipper vanishes from my sight as I lay back down and fall asleep instantly with a light smile on my face.

We didn't know Mabel was awake the whole time.

A little one-shot intermission before Sock Opera. It's been a thought nagging at me for some time now...like why wasn't Dipper scared or traumatized by what the shape-shifter did/said? We didn't get anything to show that he was upset by it so I made this. It's been in my thoughts for a while and thought now would be a good time to put it into my story. I hope you enjoyed!