Chapter 1: Reintroduction

The rain stopped early in the dawn, leaving behind a thin mist over the sunrise. It was a beautiful sight, and even more so when deep in the woods.

Pacifica was lying on the couch, where she had slept the previous night. Despite her objections, there wasn't much else to sleep on with such short notice. It did feel a bit awkward waking up in such a new environment.

She heard commotion in the kitchen, so she hopped off her makeshift bed onto the creaky, poorly-matted floors of the Mystery Shack's living room and made her way to the noise.

A bright light blinded her when she entered the kitchen, but when her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw Mabel and Dipper eating their breakfast, which consisted of poorly-made Pancakes and Eggs.

She pulled up a chair, rubbing her eyes after the not-so-restful sleep she had.

"Hey, Pacifica." Dipper said to her first, "You get any sleep last night?"

"Humh? Oh, yeah... " Pacifica replied groggily, "It just wasn't easy sleeping on that hard-as-rocks chair."

"Why'd you come here, anyway?" Mabel asked.

"I, um…. I just had to get away for a while." Pacifica responded hastily.

"But why here? I'd think this'd be the last place…"

Mabel was cut off nearly instantly, "Look, I'm way too tired to deal with all this right now. Can I just have something drink?" Pacifica shouts.

After that outburst, Grunkle Stan walks in with his head shoved inside a newspaper. He takes a seat, and it seems that the Northwest family found out about Pacifica's disappearance quickly, as proof by one of the newspaper articles.

Pacifica can't say she didn't expect this, but she just didn't expect to happen so quickly.

"Huh, would you look at that…" Stan states, oblivious to Pacifica's presence, "Looks like that annoying brat Pacifica ran away, heh, bet they'd pay quite a lot for her safety."

"Uh, Stan?" Dipper tries to grab his Grunkle's attention, but he ignores, off on his own train of thought.

"If we could just find her, we could hold her hostage until they pay up! How much do you think she's worth, $200,000? A million? What do you think, Mabel?" Stan asked.

"Stan, I think you…" Mabel told Stan, but was cut off again.

"You're right, she's not worth NEARLY that much, but they probably don't know that. So here's the plan, Dipper, you stick with me and we'll come up with the solid Hostage strategy, Pacifica and Mabel, you two go out and search for… Wait, what?" Stan the looks in front of him, and finally notices Pacifica who is looking at him in a stunned silence.

"Ooohohoho, I'm sorry, kid. I didn't mean it, you know I was just joking around!" Stan laughed, ruffling Pacifica's hair playfully, but her reaction was less than pleasant.

She grabbed Stan's hand angrily, and growled, "Don't. Touch. My. Hair."

"Okay, sheesh. Bit moody in the morning, huh?" Stan scoffed, and goes to make himself some coffee.

After Breakfast, Mabel went off to hang out with her friends, while Dipper gave Pacifica the tour of the house.

"If you're going to be staying here for a while, I may as well show you around." Dipper stated, as they entered the Gift Shop.

"This is Soos, he's your go-to guy if you need anything. He can do a lot of stuff, despite what his outward appearance may tell you." Dipper said as he gestured towards a tall, fat man in a green shirt.

"Oh, so he's your servant! I thought you guys were too poor to have those… where's his suit, though?" Pacifica wondered.

"I think the goat ate it, and I wouldn't call him a servant. He's more a… Handyman." Dipper explained.

"Whatever. Is there anyone less ugly around here?" Pacifica asked.

Dipper nodded, and turned her towards the cashier desk where a long-haired Redhead was working the register. She was reading a magazine and looked generally disinterested in whatever it was about.

"That's Wendy. She doesn't do much, but our Grunkle Stan doesn't have the energy to fire her, and…" Dipper cut his own sentence off, blushing.

"...And what?" Pacifica asked.

"I.. used to have a crush on her…" Dipper admitted.

Pacifica laughed, "Oh, my gosh, really?"

"I know, it was stupid, what with her being way older than me…" Dipper continued.

"No, I mean you could do WAY better. Even without the age difference, she's at best a 5." Pacifica mentioned.

"Out of 5, right?" Dipper tried to finish.

"...Out of 100." Pacifica replied, "You're better than that, Dip."

"...Did you just call me 'Dip'?" Dipper asked after a brief silence.

Pacifica's eyes opened wide, realizing what she said, and quickly corrected herself by stating, "Uh, no, I said… Nothing, nevermind."

Dipper shrugged and continued with the tour.

"Now, you know my Grunkle Stan," Dipper started, gesturing towards Grunkle Stan in his normal 'Mister Mystery' outfit.

"Of course I do." Pacifica stated matter-of-factly.

"Well, take a look at this!" Dipper then stood back, and from behind Grunkle Stan, a near identitcal copy came from right behind him.

"What the…" Pacifica was impressed, but then crossed her arms, "Wait, is this some kind of trick?"

"No tricks, Pacifica. I guess that's why they call me Mr. Mystery!" The two Stans said at the same time.

"Well… Alright, that's a pretty good one." Pacifica admitted, "Are we done with the illusions now?"

"Haha… yeah, alright. Let's keep going." Dipper said, finishing his laughter.

When the two left, one of the Stan's took off their hat to reveal they were actually Ford Pines.

"I've been waiting so long to do that!" Grunkle Stan exclaimed, celebrating internally.

"That's the last time I'm ever doing that…" Ford Pines stated.

"You live with some crazy people, Dipper." Pacifica said, as she sat on Mabel's bed in the attic.

"Yeah, but what can I say? They're my kind of crazy." Dipper replied.

"...Hey, Dipper?"

"Yeah, Pacifica?"

"I gotta say… a few weeks ago, back at the party we held at the Mansion… you really helped open my eyes."

"Oh? Well, you know, I was just… You know." Dipper said, smiling awkwardly, rubbing the back of his hat. He sat down on the bed Pacifica was on, on the Opposite side of where she was sitting.

"You're different than anybody else I've seen in this town." Pacifica said.

"Really? How?"

"You're not afraid to question things, you stand up for yourself… You're not like how I acted." Pacifica said, shuffling a bit closer to Dipper.

"I mean, yeah, but…" Dipper said, but he didn't know how to finish that sentence.

Through the silence, the two move closer to each other, and the both turn to face each other.

"I just wish I knew earlier…" Pacifica said.

"...You and me aren't too different, are we?"

"Oh, no, we're like night and day… Right?"

"We both want to be our own person, not pushed down…"

"Maybe we… should…" Pacifica said.

But just then, their little moment is interrupted by Grunkle Stan calling down Dipper.

"I-I should go." Dipper said, as he scooted off the bed and headed out the door. Pacifica tried to reach out and stop him, but she was unable.

Pacifica just looked at the half-open door, and laid back down on Mabel's bed. Staring at the wooden ceiling, thinking about her choices.

"What happened there…? It's like everything just went blank, and all that mattered was me and him… Ugh, that's stupid. He's not that great, but then again…"

Pacifica argued with herself over and over in her mind for about half an hour, until she herself was called down by Dipper.

Pacifica was still unsure of her feelings for Dipper, but she did know that there was special about something for her. Something that she hasn't seen in all her time in Gravity Falls.