What cuts the deepest
"What on earth have you done to get yourself suspended?" Stan asked Mabel as she confessed to him what had happened at school.
"I was only trying to get Pacifica off our backs. She's being a total bitch so I shoved her.. I'm sorry Grunkle Stan" Mabel explained
"huh, what for? I'm not mad at you. You stood up for you and your brother, I'm proud of you. Although I am disappointed that you only shoved her, I'd have wanted at least a proper hit for you to get suspended"
Upstairs, Dipper was spread out on his bed staring up at the ceiling, he ran his hand gently over the large bruise that was now forming thanks to the punch he received earlier. He sat up slightly and lifted his shirt up, he winced as he gently poked the darkened fist size patch of his stomach
"Yeah, that hurts" he sighed.
"Is this all worth it?" A small voice in Dipper's mind asked him suddenly
"Is all what worth it?" Dipper answered the voice with his own question
"All this bullying? It's only been two days and already you're struggling to cope"
"You think a few idiots will stop me from loving her?"
"I'm just worried about you, I'm concerned that without Mabel around you won't be able to cope with it all, I mean she's already fought two of your battles for you and she wound up suspended and it's all your fault"
"I can cope" Dipper announced, biting his lip gently. Trying not to show that he was listening to what this voice was saying
"Why does this voice sound so familiar to me?" Dipper thought to himself
"Listen Dip Dop, I'm trying to look out for you here. Tell you what... You listen to me and together we can stop this bullying problem before it begins... What do you say? Do we have a deal? The voice asked. Dipper suddenly realised where he knew the voice from
"GO AWAY BILL, I'LL NEVER MAKE A DEAL WITH YOU"
"Suit yourself Dipstick, only trying to help you out here" Bill told him before going silent.
"I can cope with all of this... I hope" Dipper muttered to himself, looking down at his bruised stomach. He was snapped back to his senses by Mabel calling out from the opposite end of the hallway to their bedroom
"I'LL BRING HIM DOWN" she replied to a request from Stan, upon hearing Mabel nearing the bedroom door from the hallway he quickly pulled his shirt back down and lay back down begining to stare at the ceiling once more.
"Hey handsome, dinner's ready" Mabel greeted as she opened the bedroom door
"I'm coming" Dipper groaned as he sat up, agrivating his sore midsection
"You okay?"
"Yeah fine" Dipper grimmaced, he looked over to Mabel who looked back at him, hands on her hips and her lips pursed. He looked away from her momentarily before locking eyes again
"Mabel... Are you happy? With me? With us?" Dipper asked. Mabel was a little taken aback at the question but composed herself instantly and answered the question
"Of course I'm happy you turkey, you're my soul mate and I'm so lucky to have and to have had you all my life. I love you, being with you makes me the happiest girl on the planet and soon it'll be three of us" she patted her stomach gently.
"I love you too" Dipper replied quietly, walking over to her and kissing her gently, placing his hand over hers on her stomach.
THE NEXT MORNING
Dipper and Mabel set off on the usual walk to school, hand in hand down the secluded woodland area of their journey. They let go of each others hand and came to a stop
"This is as far as I'll go, I promised Grunkle Stan I'd help Wendy out in the Mystery Shack
"Alright, I'll see you later. Thanks for my lunch" Dipper smiled gratefully, holding up the brown paper bag he had been carrying in his spare hand.
"Have a good day"
"I'll try" Dipper replied with a half smile, he kissed her goodbye and then continued on to school on his own while Mabel turned around and began to walk back towards home.
Mabel arrived back at the Mystery Shack and found it completely empty, shrugging her shoulders she walked over to the cash register and turned the radio on and put the volume up a little bit. She grabbed a broom and started to sweep up around the gift shop.
Dipper made his way quickly down the school hallway, keeping his eyes fixed on the floor as he headed towards his locker, trying to ignore all the pointing and whispering about him as he walked past his fellow students. He came to a stand still by his locker where he found the mutilated doll that Pacifica had wound them up with previously. He saw a note taped to it's torso
'Baby missed it's freak Daddy'
Dipper ripped the note up and threw it in the nearest rubbish bin.
"I can do this" Dipper muttered to himself. He walked back over and grabbed his books from his locker and headed off to his first lesson of the day... Sex Ed. with Pacifica and a few of her friends
'Great' he thought. He didn't bother going over to his normal seat, knowing the one next to him would be empty for the next month instead finding a seat right in the back corner where hopefully he'd be allowed to go unnoticed, sadly this wasn't to be the case as the day's lesson was on pregnancy and childbirth. Dipper tried as best as he could to ignore the little glances that Pacifica was shooting at him throughout the lesson and just focus on taking notes down for the class... That was until Pacifica had raised her hand
"Yes Pacifica?" Ms Ridgewell asked
"Ms... You're currently talking about problems with childbirth and I just had a question"
"Go on then and ask it"
"What sort of problems would a baby face if it was born from an inbreeding relationship?"
"Incest? Hmm... Quite a few problems could and most probably would arise... Increased chances of the baby being infertile later in life, facial deformities, heart defects and a high neonatel mortality rates amongst other things such as low birth weights, and slow growth rates" Ms Ridgewell explained
"Why? Do you know of a inbreeding couple?" She added, peering over her glasses towards Pacifica.
Dipper's heart was caught in his throat, he knew that Pacifica was about to out his and Mabel's relationship, he was mentally saying goodbye to Mabel forever.
"Oh no, nothing like that, I just saw something about it on T.V last night and was curious" Pacifica lied. Dipper let out a small breath he didn't realise he was holding in. He had no idea why Pacifica didn't rat him and Mabel out but he knew that it surely meant trouble and he didn't have to wait long to find out what her game was.
Back at the Mystery Shack Mabel had just finished rearranging some of the smaller items displayed on the counter, lost in her own world she didn't hear Wendy come down from her hide out on the roof until she tapped her on the shoulder
"Shouldn't you be at school?" Wendy enquired
"I've been suspended for a month" Mabel replied
"Oh sucks kiddo, what for?"
"I got caught starting a fight twice with the same girl"
"Really? Who and why?"
"Pacifica and because she's been giving me and Dipper shit over..." Mabel began to explain before stopping, remembering Wendy's bad reaction to catching them in the act a few days ago
"You mean the whole school knows?"
"We couldn't help it. We don't know how we got caught, we've always been so careful" Mabel replied, tearing up slightly.
"So how long has this been going on?"
"Just under 2 years"
"Wow, really?" Wendy was surprised that it had been going on for that amount of time, feeling guilty over her reaction from the other day. She knew that it wasn't exactly normal but her friends were happy so who was she to try and ruin that? Now hearing that they were having problems with school she knew that they'd need all the support they could get.
"Yeah" Mabel sniffled, wiping her eyes dry.
"Have you guys thought about what would happen if you were to break up?" Wendy asked seriously. Mabel had to think for a moment, the idea had certainly crossed her mind before and she was sure Dipper had similar thoughts but they'd never really talked about it.
"That's not gonna happen" Mabel answered defiantly. Wendy had never seen Mabel so certain and serious about something, she really meant it and believed it, Wendy just needed to know one more thing...
"Are you happy? With everything the way it is?"
"You mean with all the shit we're taking? Of course I'd prefer it if we weren't being bullied for it but I am happy, happier than I've ever been." Mabel stated.
"Then I'm not gonna be a bitch about it, you and Dipper are my friends and I've got your backs" Wendy smiled at her younger friend.
Dipper sat down for lunch on his own at a small table towards the rear of the canteen but was quickly joined by Pacifica and a small group of her friends.
"Hi Dipper" She greeted him in a mock cheerful voice, Dipper rolled his eyes and braced himself for the barage of insults he knew would be coming his way
"What do you want this time? Come to call me a pervert or a peado or some other name?"
"No... I just wanna ask you a few questions"
"Oh?" Dipper questioned, still wary about what she's up to.
"Yeah, just a few questions, no insults. Promise"
"Hmm fine"
"You do realise that your relationship is... Unnatural right?"
"... Yes... Now what's your game Pacifica?" Dipper answered through gritted teeth
"No games... I just wanna know... How fucked up is your entire family if you need to turn to shagging your own sister?" Pacifica asked, bursting into laughter. Dipper threw his food down, stood up and stormed away from the table.
"YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE SISTER FUCKER" Pacifica shouted out after him.