Dale and Gadget both worked together with Zipper's help to bandage up their friend. Monterey kept himself occupied by looking for a spare outfit for Chip in the twins' room. What he found instead shocked him.

"Blimey!" He whispered in shock. He had found a journal that Chip had been writing. Chip had been writing in journals since he was a very small chipmunk. He would often bring out his recent journals during the holidays and remind everyone about old adventures they had together. The particular journal in Monterey's hand was from before Chip and Dale had met them all and started the Rescue Rangers. He was surprised to find that he had accidently stumbled on such an old book. He sat himself down at the kitchen table and started reading it, hoping to find out why Dale was acting the way he was, but what he found was more than he bargained for.

Gadget looked at Dale's determined expression as he dabbed his brother's head with a damp washcloth. "You're gonna be okay, Chip… you're gonna be okay… Chip…" Dale's eyes were filled with tears as he thought about all the times they had been in danger, and yet, it never really felt all that dangerous, not like this at least. There had always been a bit of danger with their lives, but they hadn't had anything this bad since they were children.

Gadget decided to leave them alone and took Zipper downstairs to talk to Monterey. "How is he?" Monterey asked as he looked up from the book. He had just finished reading about an incident that had happened just before Dale had started being, well, Dale the dummy.

"Chip should be fine, he's still unconscious though. He looked pretty bad, but Dale and I patched him up as much as we could. Hopefully, he'll be awake enough in the morning to eat something. He doesn't look like he's eaten anything in days." Gadget sat down next to Monterey while Zipper sat on the table.

"I hope so too, but what about Dale? How's he doing?"

Gadget looked up with a bit of confusion. "Dale? He's just sitting there next to Chip, watching over him. He keeps trying to reassure himself that he's going to be okay and dabbing Chip's forehead with that cloth. Why? Do you think something's wrong with Dale too?" Gadget had lived in isolation after her dad had died and was still trying to get used to understanding other creatures reactions.

"I think I just found out why Dale usually acts like a complete goofball…" He showed the journal with some newspaper clippings from a small chipmunk village in the redwood forests of California. One of them said, "Twin Detectives solve missing Acorn thefts and save robin from bobcat." Another was about the two figuring out how to stop a bunch of humans from cutting down their forest. The last clipping was connected to a written entry from Chip himself. The clipping had the two wearing a set of bandages on their heads in a hospital room, one with a goofy smile on his face and the other with concerned look.

Chip's log: Dale and I were working on a simple task to collect acorns for the orphanage we live in. It was supposed to be simple at least. We didn't count on the local trouble coming through and trying to rough us up. I blacked out pretty quickly after knocking Jimmy No-Feet down off of my branch. The last thing I saw was Dale being surrounded by a group of mockingbird thugs. When I woke up, me and Dale were in the infirmary and it was spring. We had been unconscious for the entire winter. Dale was no longer able to think seriously without strain and I hated myself for that. I blame myself for Dale not being able to think anymore. I'm going to take him away from here and go live in another city, somewhere safer. There's an old acorn tree in this city I know of, so that shouldn't be too hard. I'll wait till we can move again. I won't drag him into this sort of thing again, after all, it's my fault he's like this… it's all my fault…

The rest of the page was covered in tear drops and smeared. Gadget and the others looked at each other with tears in their eyes. They hadn't realized that their friends held this bad of a secret. This explained while Chip was always so concerned about Dale, and why Dale was always goofing around. They couldn't help it!

"I knew they were always over protective of each other, but I didn't think it was because of something like this…" Monterey's eyes were filled to the brim with tears as he thought about all the times he had had with his parents while the boys only had each other at an orphanage in the California Redwoods. He then thought about how they always worried about everyone in the group, especially Chip. The day that he had introduced them to Cassandra, the gypsy moth, had terrified everyone. The had thought that they were all going to lose Chip, who's only concern was to help others. Dale had actually stepped up his game a bit that day, as he had started to seem smarter. They had thought that Chip was going to be crushed by an elephant's trunk when he was really nearly crushed by a treasure trunk with his friends trapped in it. Dale had nearly lost it until they heard Chip's voice from a small hole under the chest. He had apparently found a small hole in the floorboards and ducked into there as the trunk fell, nearly killing him.

Gadget thought about how protective she and her dad had been of each other before his death. Looking back, having only one person to turn to for help, she started to understand part of what Chip and Dale had gone through. Zipper had a whole family of flies as well as Monterey to watch out for him before they became Rescue Rangers. They had all had families, but Chip and Dale had only had each other.

While the other two sat down and absorbed all this information, Monterey decided to check up on the boys. He grabbed a large cracker for the boys and walked upstairs. He was surprised to find that Chip was awake and Dale was now asleep. It seems that Dale had cried himself to sleep while clutching Chip's paw. Chip was now stroking his brother's fur while crying silently to himself. He heard the door open and noticed Monterey come in with a cracker. Monterey grimaced and left the large cracker next to the bed for the two chipmunks if they were hungry. He then walked downstairs with a lighter feeling in his heart. Chip was alright, so that meant that Dale would be alright too. They would be alright.