The golf cart rumbled down the gravel road towards the shack as Pacifica's mind wandered back to the notepad and newspaper - both of which felt like they were both burning a hole in her satchel. She was desperately excited to dive into it with Dipper and start investigating the real ins and outs of the Determineds' research.

She was convinced it could go two ways - either a startling look into the hidden life of her family's past…or a horrific delusion from an insane Edwardian era newspaper journalist. Either way, it'd probably be a pretty gripping read.

She was also pretty pleased with her progress learning how to drive one of these blasted things. She'd only hit one gnome and dented Stan's car twice since Soos handed her the keys, and the latter were practically invisible if you squinted.

Never mind that she wasn't entirely convinced that someone her age could legally drive a golf cart on the open road. But then, who was going to stop her? Blubs and Durland? Yeah, sure.

She reversed into the private part of the Shack's car park confidently, only narrowly scraping Soos's airstream. The man in the fez stepped out of the shack's gift shop just in time to see sparks fly from between the two vehicles.

"Wow, dude! If you came any closer we'd be like, glitching together. Like a video game."

Pacifica cringed and tried to hide her embarrassment with her fringe. "S-sorry, Soos! I'm still getting the hang of this stuff! I-I-I can pay for that!"

Soos replied with his usual jovial enthusiasm. "Na dude, the distressed look is on point. I want to do one of those horror mazes this year. My entire home could be a prop!"

"...Does anything actually annoy you?" She asked, climbing out of the far side of the buggy.

"Fast food places that only deliver to a radius like, 0.1 miles away from my location." Soos replied without a moment's hesitation, his face dropping from its usual carefree stance into a stoney, deadpan expression.

Pacifica blinked, but found herself nodding understandingly.

"I mean that's, what, ten cents in gas? If there's one thing you guys have taught me, these big corporations don't care about the little dude, girl-dude." Soos shrugged. "So how was your day?"

"Oh uh… y'know. Bit here and there."

"I feel that. I had a tourist today who asked if the Awesome Express was carbon neutral. I didn't even know it had any carbon in the thing." He shrugged."What's happened?"

"Toby Determined happened." She sighed. "Soos, you've lived here all of your life, right?"

"Yeah, dude."

"Ever heard of Tobias Determined?"

"Naw. Only Toby."

"Great. Thanks." Pacifica huffed. "I brought you a bag of leftover chilli fries, by the way, it's in the back."

"Oh man, you're my saviour, Paz. I'd like, trust you with my life." Soos beamed, practically pouncing into the golf cart. Any apparent interest in further questioning had been quashed by the promise of Greasy's mystery meat and mystery chilli sauce on their famous mystery fries.

"Hey, no problem. Is Dipper home?"

"Yeah, but he's feeling pretty down in the dumps, dude. I think he might need some lovin', if you know what I mean. Haw!"

Pacifica blushed furiously. " What?! "

"I said what I said!" Soos replied, his mouth now half full of chilli fries and overly-copious amounts of melted cheese.

Pacifica went inside, leaving the ever-pleasant man to his stale, slightly cold fries with a bright red hue on her face and a very discreet smile curling on her lips. She giggled to herself and went to try and find Dipper the moment she stepped over the threshold.

She didn't need to look far.

Dipper was still sat at the little breakfast table in the living room, peering over paperwork with a face like thunder.

"Dipper!" She smiled, enthusiastically and bounded towards him - only to stop and cock her head as she realised his rather embittered expression - and almost complete lack of reaction from her arrival home. "...Hi?"

"Hi, Pacifica."

"What's up?"

"Just things. Don't worry about it."

Pacifica was no slouch. Quite literally. She arched her back and peered over her boyfriend's shoulder, immediately recognising the Northwest documents Grunkle Ford kept so fastidiously filed downstairs.

She twisted her lip. "Seems like a lot of things you've got there… anything you wanna tell me?"

"No."

"...Dipper?"

"Pacifica, I-"

The paranoid teenager turned to face her, having to work up the courage to cast his gaze upon her. There was an awkward pause as their eyes met, Pacifica becoming increasingly uncomfortable as her boyfriend barely even managed to smile.

The tension felt so heavy you'd need an axe to slice through it. Pacifica wordlessly put down her satchel and stepped closer, placing a hand on his chin and looking into his eyes.

Dipper looked up at her - and melted. Even the most stubborn mind had little retort or authority against the face of the person he was in love with, no matter how many internal trust issues were ruling over his thought process.

"Pacifica, you wouldn't lie to me, right?"

"What? ...Dipper, you're worrying me. What is it?"

"I just need an honest answer. Is there anything we're going to find in your mansion that you haven't told me?"

Pacifica raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"Like… secrets. Family secrets you wouldn't want us to find."

She giggled. "Hon, seriously. I'm all for finding out family secrets. In fact, that's what I wanted to show you-"

"I just want to make sure you aren't conning us or something."

She was just pulling the notepad out of her satchel when he spoke - and promptly froze. " What."

That… that was not something she expected. And try as hard as she might to keep her reaction under, it made her angry. Conning them? Conning the Pines? Why would she? What was she meant to get out of it?

Her brow furrowed as she let the notepad fall back into her satchel. "What the hell?"

"I just want to make sure you're-"

"No. Nonono, you don't get away with that, mister. I get being paranoid, I get that I've made mistakes, I get that you might not be entirely trusting. Alright? I get it. But paranoid over me conning you and your family? For what? What would I be conning you guys for? You think I just dropped my old life for what, a prank? Do you think I'm in leagues with my Dad?!"

Dipper's face dropped. "Hey, look, you are still a Northwest , Pacifica! You'll forgive me for thinking there might still be a bad side to you! The apple never falls-"

She jabbed him firmly in the chest and glared. "Don't. Don't you dare. I'm not conning you, Dipper. I love you. I love your family. I love everything about this place, but don't you dare think I'd leave my stuff behind just to prank you."

Dipper was a stubborn kid with a pretty fierce set of standards, morals and thought processes. But there were few things scarier - or more convincing - than a Northwest getting into your face with genuine anger and genuine hurt in her eyes.

He almost instantly backed down into his seat. "O-okay. Okay, I'm sorry, I-"

"It's been weeks, Dipper. I've changed. Maybe it's time you did." She replied, leaning over him, her hands clenched into fists - and a slight swelling of tears in her eyes.

"Okay. I'll uh… I'll try to- " Dipper stammered - before noticing Pacifica's hand still floating by her bag. "So what were you gonna show me?"

Tactless.

Tactless and stupid.

Pacifica simply told him to 'get bent', span on her heel and stormed up to the bedroom, her satchel firmly in her hands and her waitress shoes stomping up every single step, leaving the suitably - and, some might say deservedly - distraught Dipper sat in the living room.

Stan, quite without warning, popped his head out of the kitchen, and glared at his Great Nephew, his eyes piercing the kid as if he could see right to the bottom of him. "Nice going, kid. That was a trainwreck. And I've caused a trainwreck."

Dipper just took a deep breath, buried his head in his hands and groaned. It would be fair to say he could have handled that better.