Everything had been going relatively good in the three weeks that had followed Gideon recovery of consciousness. Bill and Gideon were not always ready to jump to each others throat, although it was probably because Gideon had learned his lesson the last time. There was still some fighting, but it was mainly growling and such, Bill nearly stopping immediately if Dipper was asking him to.

With those two to look over, Dipper was even more often out of the Shack and at his small cabin. Well, saying at the cabin was probably not exactly that either, as he was trying to recreate what he managed to do with Gideon.

And it worked! He did it half a dozen time before taking a break from that, leaving them safely in an abandonment house. Obviously, they could go freely around, he wasn't locking them up, but he still asked if it would be possible to stay around the house area so he could work with them to turn them back.

He would use Bill and Gideon as his primary test subjects, yet a small fear of messing up was keeping him from doing it. Sure he wasn't really friend with Gideon, but he didn't want to harm him either. As for Bill, he wouldn't forgive himself if he were to hurt him by doing his tests. The blond still looked like he wanted for him to do work on him, although he did stop when Dipper told him about his worries.

But despite his hard work on that, changing the incantation, the circle and other things, nothing was really coming up from his tries. He was even surprised to learn all this was actually draining him a little, even if it was making sense that using this sorts of method would use up some of his energy, especially when he was trying multiple times in a day.

That's why for now he was just doing some fishing, Bill wouldn't let him do anything more than that after all the failed attempts of the day before. It was to a point where even Gideon seemed to worry about his well being.

Lazily fishing was the activity of the day, he couldn't just do nothing either and fishing wasn't demanding a lot of energy in his opinion. Plus, it was always nice to sit on the deck next to Bill, talking about the things he knew lived in the forest of Gravity Falls. Gideon had given up listening after a dozen of minutes, either because he already knew those things or because he couldn't stand watching them.

Dipper wasn't really minding, the shyness over why he was doing that had already passed. He had learned from Gideon that he and Bill weren't just looking friendly to one another. It was on a rainy evening when they were stuck in the cabin and the young man kept rolling his eyes at the sight of them, so Dipper finally asked what was wrong.

"U 2 lok lovey dovey"

This had taken Dipper by surprise, not expecting for him to write that. He had been a little flustered at the idea, trying to deny it, even though it was hard to deny when Bill was actually nearly all over him at the very moment. He guessed that in retrospective, they did look lovey-dovey. Yet, even if he felt flustered, something in him was kind of happy to be seen like this.

The days follow that news he did try to be careful, but it was no use, Bill was already close to him, grabbing either at his clothes or hands, or just straight up hugging him. It was feeling nice to be like this with someone he really appreciated and he wasn't going to stop that just because Gideon thought it was somewhat annoying to see them act like this all the time. It wasn't his fault that he was turned into a zombie and now stuck with them.

"Do you want some fish too Gideon? I can also keep you some fish guts if you like it" he asked, looking back to see a disgusted look on the zombie's face. "Well, I guess I can take that as a no" he thought to himself, turning towards Bill when he heard some whining, not happy to hear his snack would be taken away from him. He laughed a little, offering him a smile, "Don't worry, I'll leave them to you since you like them" he reassured him, before putting his attention on the line, a fish pulling at it.

He pulled out his fish, dumping it in his bucket with the other one, taking a quick look to see how many he had. It should be enough for them and the ones at the shack. He was still a little surprised by how much time it could take to fish just a little more fishes for two people. He sighed slightly, getting up and stretching. "Ready to go back at the cabin you two?" he then asked, receiving some nods as both of them were getting ready to go back.

As he was getting ready to go back he felt like he might have forgotten about something, but couldn't find what exactly. It was bothering him a little, but he ended up giving up since he couldn't find what it was all about, instead putting his attention on the two other somewhat bickering again. He chuckled slightly, at least they were not getting physical and he had gotten used to their growling and grunting.

But he froze when he suddenly heard his name being yelled from farther behind them, nearly dropping his bucket of fish. Panic started to slowly raise in him, turning around to see Mabel with an expression just as worried and panic as his, but for different reasons.

By habit, Bill went to shield him, even though it would only cause her to be more worried. Dipper gave a glance towards Gideon, seeing him somewhere between overjoy to see the young woman and anxious as to what might happen because of his present state. He only turned back when he heard quick footstep and Mabel yelling again to move away from them.

He noticed that she was coming in an attempt to attack just so he could get away, raising more panic in him. He then just drop the bucket, quickly pushing past Bill to go serve as a shield, making Mabel stop a couple metre away in disbelieve and confusion.

"Dipper... W-what are you doing!?".

"Y-you get it wrong! They are with me, they won't do anything bad!" he exclaimed, trying to reassure her while he was keeping Bill from going in front of him. At least Gideon was wise enough to stay close to him, just in case Mabel wouldn't mind giving him a swing to protect Dipper, he knew very well what those two could do to protect each other sometimes.

Mabel was looking even more confused, clearly not understanding what he was meaning with "they are with me". Her eyes then drifted off to Gideon, the zombie tensing a little, unsure what to do now that he had been noticed. "Is that... Gideon?" she then asked, a ghost of a smile on her lips, as she was still aware he was a zombie just from looking at him. She snapped out of her observation when she saw the blond coming closer to Dipper, tenser despite how calm her brother was looking near him. "What do you mean they are with you?"

Dipper looked slightly to the side, trying to find a way to put it simply. He himself wasn't really sure how it had worked or even which part had worked exactly. "Bill and Gideon have their consciousness back, they won't hurt me" he said, "I found Bill when he helped me in town to hide from another zombie and he never tried to attack me" he then explained quickly, "I managed to get Gideon back not so long ago, I went on the same track Ford had started before...". He took a small pause, not wanting to say it, but the look on Mabel's face was telling him she knew what he was talking about. "All this to say, they aren't dangerous, Bill has been protecting me since I met him, none of them will do anything".

"How can you be so sure!?" suddenly asked Mabel, angry that Dipper was taking such a big risk and without even telling her. There was a silence, she could tell even Dipper couldn't give her an answer, he couldn't give proof of his saying. "For how long?" she then asked, finally loosening her grip on her bat, her arms falling at her sides, "Since when have you been hiding him from me?" she asked, nodding towards Bill.

The brunette was quiet at first, "You remember when I came back with warmer clothes and dog leashes?" he then asked, knowing it was already a couple of weeks ago that he did so. He saw her frown slightly, nodding at his question. "That's... when I met Bill" he finally admitted.

"Dipper! That was like... a month ago!" she said, pausing in the middle to remember correctly. Dipper didn't like the angry and betrayed look she had. He should have told her, he shouldn't have hide it from his twin. Of course, she would find out at some point, but by accident wasn't the best way to do so either.

"I-I know" he responded, not sure what to do other than convince her he was doing fine. They went to argue on that some more, Mabel not believing he could be alright while having a zombie at his side all the time. Who knew, maybe he could snap and attack him? Or he could accidentally infect him. Of course, those were all things Dipper had already thought about, but it hadn't changed his mind in the sightliest.

As he was running out of new argument to give her and repeating himself, he was getting more agitated and tense. He was scared she might tell the others, clearly, Stan wouldn't like to hear about that. He was startled when he felt a hand grab his gently, a thumb stroking the back of his hand. He turned to Bill who was trying to calm him down, stopping in the middle of his sentence. Mabel noticed it, unsure what to think when she saw some tension lifting from Dipper's shoulders.

"Mabel, look... I know this is really risky, but up until now I have been fine, I know what I'm doing and even more, I'm finally advancing on finding a way to turn them back" he said, tired from arguing with her, "Bill has even been helping me, at least the best he can... I know I can turn him and Gideon back to normal, I just need more time to find out how to do it... so please don't tell Stan, I... I don't want to see him going away".

Mabel was quiet after his final plea, looking like he was dead set on what he wanted with those two, or more specifically Bill. She bit her lip, looking away, unsure what to think. She wanted to trust her brother's judgement, but she wasn't trusting of a zombie, consciousness back or not, things could go wrong. Yet, she felt like if she was trying to take away the blond, Dipper would just be in a bad state and wouldn't work correctly.

Worst, what if they chase the blond away but Dipper decided he would go find him alone? He was clearly attached to him, she wouldn't be surprised if he tried just that.

After some deliberating she sighed heavily, frowning in frustration that he wouldn't listen to her. "Two months" she then stated, surprising and confusing the trio in front of her. "I'm giving you two months to make progress and change them back, if you can't I'll have to tell grunkle Stan, I can't just lie to him about something like this forever" she said.

Dipper was unsure if he could go with such a deadline, but really he wasn't in a good place to negotiate. It was already good that Mabel accepted to play along with him for two months. A small relived smile drew itself on his lips, looking happy that he was at least getting that. "I'll try to find something".

"And I will be checking on you often" she added, which was pretty reasonable to him. Sure, she couldn't really stay with him all the time, she had things to do at the shack too now that he was living in his little cabin, but she could make sure he was fine. If it was what she needed to feel more at ease, Dipper wouldn't complain about having her check on him every day, or even multiple times a day.

He could finally let out a sigh of relief, Mabel finally approaching him with no intent to attack, although she was still on guard. "So... Gideon's back too?" she said, a little smile appearing on her lips. The young man turned to her, a smile (or to closest to that) forming on his own lips.

"Yeah, a circle I was trying finally worked, though I couldn't get him back fully" he admitted, crouching down to put the fishes back into his bucket. "I guess it was better for you, you two wouldn't have stopped arguing otherwise" pointed out Mabel, amused at the idea.

"I'm not sure if Bill wouldn't have terrorised him before that" thought Dipper, "That or he would have just gone to join you at the shack" he suggested, knowing this was a more plausible scenario. Also, Gideon would probably not have enjoyed going all around the place just to try and get people back to normal. He hadn't really touched to supernatural stuff in years after all, other than the occasional times where he would be dragged in by the twins.

With that, they took the way back to the cabin, Dipper trying to explain to Mabel what seemed to have worked when he turned back the young man consciousness and the newer ones. She even helped him trying to think some more on which part might be better to keep or what to add.

He could finally relax a little, seeing that Mabel wasn't going to go run back to their grunkle and tell him about what was going on with him. He knew she wouldn't go back on her words, although he had better find a way to change them back fully as quick as possible to keep his own part of it. Even if he was found out after all this he didn't mind, he just needed it to be kept a secret for now.

"Do you want to stay for diner here?" asked Dipper as they were approaching the small cabin. "No, the others are waiting for me back at the Shack, I think I'll just go and deliver your fishes" she smiled. She might not have said it, but Dipper guessed she might also not want to stay close to Bill for too long. He supposed it was fair that she wasn't really trusting him as much as Dipper was.

"True, we shouldn't leave them to starve, although I doubt you're going to miss out on food" he said with a smile, "But if you do, tell me, I'll go get some more can and see what else I can find in town" he then suggested. After all, he sort of had taken the official title of "food hunter".

Dipper then opened the door, the small group ready to enter the cabin when suddenly a voice called from inside:

"Dipper".

This story was last updated in mid-2020. It is not discontinued, I was very busy with college and got more into other fandoms that I was more motivated to write about. I have most of the plot point written down, I just need to actually write the chapters. Chances are I will update on ao3 first ( Truly_Morgan), tho I cannot promise when I'll be able to update.