Mabel's POV

I sighed heavily.

"Leftovers are in the fridge..." I mumbled to my kids.

My eyes were baggy, my energy was low, my sleep was...what sleep? Heh. I didn't even know what the word meant anymore.

I hung my coat on the coat rack and made my way into my bedroom, dragging my feet as I walked not to try to show I was tired, but because I was so exhausted I didn't care what I must look like. The kids weren't in the vicinity to see me so I didn't have to act like I was more energetic than I was, or would ever be. I could just flop on my bed and sleep the moment my head hit the pillow—or even before then, at this point.

Dipper's POV

I woke up early to start my day at work but...I suddenly remembered Tammie and Tyrone. It was summer and they were like twelve years old, so I figured they would enjoy sleeping in. Still, that left the question of what I was going to do with them while I worked. I couldn't leave them at my house—with Tammie around, I wouldn't leave them at my house—and everyone I knew well enough to entrust two children to had to work as well. I couldn't send them back to their mother. Didn't even know their mother. I couldn't take them with me to work. My work involved a lot of paperwork and numbers, things they couldn't help me with and would get too bored to watch. They would want to actually do something and would probably roam around the Mystery Shack looking for something to do. That could lead to disaster.

Although...my sister and I used to do the same thing...

Maybe they could have the same jobs Mabel and I had when we were their age. Then again...these weren't my kids. In fact I wasn't related to them in any way. With that in mind, their mom could be ticked off at me for putting them to work...even if it was just to keep them occupied.

I heard their voices coming from my room. At first I thought it was weird that they would be up so early. Then I almost scowled at myself. These children were young and had just lost their mother—the only relative they had. Now they had nothing. They had no family, no friends, not even acquaintances. Nobody here had really been around them long enough to be considered an acquaintance. I was the most likely to be close to one. It made sense that they would wake up early in an unfamiliar environment. I just...wished they didn't have to.

I had to settle myself by remembering that at least they had someplace to stay while the hunt was on for their mother—who, admittedly, I didn't know how to look for. My only speck of information was that I needed to keep an eye out for a female, adult, that might look worried, might ask around about two kids, and probably lived around the outskirts of Gravity Falls. Other than that I had nothing to go on... And what I did have was barely enough to cover the basics of what I needed to be looking for.

I sighed and figured that since I had some time before having to leave for work—which wasn't that far anyway—I would try to make the kids comfortable staying here. I knew when I first came to Gravity Falls, I had a hard time adjusting. But at least I had a trusted, but not exactly trustworthy, relative to stay with. These kids had no one. I couldn't imagine how hard that must be...

I paused my thoughts when I heard my vacuum turn on, and made my way to my room to see what had happened.

There was Tammie, pushing and pulling the vacuum—cleaning for me. And Tyrone was making my bed, fluffing the pillows and getting all the wrinkles out of the bedspread.

"What are you kids doing?" I asked.

Tyrone looked over his shoulder and Tammie up from the floor. She turned off the vacuum.

"We're just cleaning up," she answered.

Tyrone nodded. "Yeah, we do this stuff for our mom all the time."

In that case, wow. Most twelve-year-olds I knew, or had even seen, didn't put this much initiative into chores. I'd admit my carpet was a little dirty from the move, but why would Tammie even care? Furthermore why did she look in my closet for the vacuum? And why was Tyrone bothering with the little details on the bed? I never did that and it was my bed! What exactly was their mom teaching them to do, cleaning this early in the morning?

"Does you mom ever get mad at you if you don't clean?" Because if she was one of those mothers that was quick to anger and punish, especially a violent punishment, then this would explain their near-perfect behavior—aside from Tammie's natural childish curiosity but all kids had that.

The twins looked at each other for a moment and Tammie shrugged as she turned back to me.

"She gets mad if we don't do our chores but that's just because she's a mom," she said.

"Does she punish you for it?"

She nodded and red flags shot up in my mind.

"How?"

Tyrone spoke up this time. "She grounds us to our room, usually."

"Yeah but she also gets stressed out a lot sooooo we kind of do this stuff even if she doesn't tell us to," Tammie added.

Never mind then. At least now I knew I could send them back to their mother once I found her, without worrying about their safety. But now I was a little concerned about their mother being stressed so much.

"How often does your mom get stressed out?" I asked.

They both looked thoughtful for a moment but ended up shaking their heads.

"Always, I guess," Tyrone said.

Then maybe raising two kids—even though it really wasn't my place to say this—wasn't a good idea. For her best interest and for their best interest, maybe it was best if they stayed here. At least for the time being... I'd had them all of one night and I already knew what a handful they were!

"Is it her job...?" I asked, a little warily, knowing I was dancing a little closer to personal boundaries.

"Whi-" Tammie didn't have the chance to finish when Tyrone shushed her and slapped a hand over her mouth, ignoring the annoyed look she gave him.

"Look, um, I don-"

"Yeah, yeah, it's okay, I get it," I interrupted. "I just wanted to make sure everything was okay with your mom." Except now it made pretty much everything awkward... "You guys just go eat or something... There's cereal in kitchen if you want that."

I pivoted on my heel and let them be...

...But didn't take five steps before pressing myself against the wall perpendicular to the doorway to listen in. Their mother's mental state was just as important to me as her temper, because if she wasn't able to handle her own children, something bad was bound to happen. What it was, I didn't know, and I didn't want to know—I wanted to prevent it, though, while being able to keep them with their mother.

It was a good minute or so before they felt comfortable enough to talk.

I identified the first voice as Tammie's.

"Why did you stop me?"

"You don't go around telling strangers about your mom's job, that's why. We just met him."

"But he could've helped us."

"Well he doesn't need to know anything."

"Tyrone, listen, we...we can't...stay with Mom..." she said. "Not for a while at least..."

"We can't ditch her, she's our mother!" he hissed back.

"She has no money," Tammie retaliated.

And at that point my concern grew.

She continued. "One of these days the government will win."

"Mom does just fine and you know it."

"Mom can't afford to lose another job and you know it. Maybe Mr. Dipper will help us if we just tell him what's going on."

"What if he doesn't want to though? And even if he did, what if he can't? How do we know he isn't in the same situation Mom's in?"

No, no, I was well off. Not rich, but not anywhere close to their mother, from how this sounded so far...

"We have to do something. I want to go back as much as you do but if we go back now, she'll just have two more people to take care of again. And she can't do that forever..."

"She's been doing fine—"

"Fine when? Ever since we were born it's been double the money."

"She works and we'll both get jobs soon, then we can help her out."

"Is this before or after Child Services comes?"

Silence. Immediate silence. Intense, heavy silence.

...They really couldn't go back to their mother right now, even though it was obvious that they wanted to. In time she wouldn't be able to afford to keep them. That would devastate their whole family—their little family of three, which was all they had. Without that...who knew what would happen...

I would help them. I would keep them for as long as possible and yes, if their mother showed up I would do what she wanted, but not before offering her a space in the attic of the Mystery Shack, free of rent. After I moved all those boxes out of course... And if Grunkle Stan wanted money I would rent it out for them—I could afford that. In fact, I could afford to keep them together. And for a couple of kids in a tough situation with a struggling single mother, it was really the least I could do.

A/N

Well it is very hard to keep up with these things... I haven't updated this in some time. Sorry for the short chapter but it's really all I could fit in right now. And my computer, as it turns out, cannot be fixed. It's not letting me download a new security program or renew my current one. It also nullifies any of the past ones so now they won't even scan it.