Progress was incredibly slow going on the laptop. Every command in the list was frustratingly obtuse. Dipper had just about managed to piece together that the "change directory" command was probably used for file navigation. There was also the possibility that it was an elaborate rename command, but he didn't think renaming folders and files would be different things. Besides, he couldn't find a "change file" command anywhere in the list, so it seemed unlikely.

Dipper yawned, glancing out the window. He did a double take at how dark it had gotten. Jeez, how long have I been trying to crack this thing? He glanced at his watch and winced. Too long. His brow furrowed as he noticed the time. Huh, the others should've been back by now. Stan never really announced himself when he came home, but Mabel was another matter. He would've expected her to either charge in yelling with excitement or slink in and go to Sweater Town after yet another rejection. Neither had happened yet, though.

Dipper crawled out of bed, stomach rumbling. Maybe they're not back yet? He walked downstairs toward the kitchen, glancing into the living room. Stan was sitting in his chair, watching Baby Fights. Huh. This was the first time he'd seen Stan since discovering the password, and Dipper was a little surprised by how suspicious he felt just looking at him. C'mon, Dipper, relax. You've got nothing concrete against him. Just be normal.

Stan finally noticed him standing in the doorway. "Hey, kid. Finally decided to show your face today?" He barked out a laugh.

"Hey," Dipper said, trying to shake off his paranoia. "Where's Mabel?"

Stan shrugged. "She took off with that puppet boy after the show was over," He leaned forward, fixing Dipper with a smirk, "Speakin' of which, where were you? Can't even be your sister's wingman?"

"Hey, I helped her put the show together!" Dipper said defensively.

Stan put his hands up. "Yeesh, kid, relax. I'm just pullin' your leg. Besides, not like you missed much. It was big, sure, very over-the-top, but just a regular ol' love story behind it all, y'know?"

"Yeah, I read a bit of the script. Didn't seem like much to write home about." Dipper started to back away. "Anyway, I'm gonna go get some dinner, so..." Stan grunted and waved him off, so Dipper ducked into the kitchen and leaned against the wall. Chill out, man. He took a few deep breaths. Why am I freaking out so much? It's just Stan.

Yeah, and he might be the Author and lied to us about it.

We don't know that!

Bill does, though. Why would he try to bargain for information if there was nothing there?

Why wouldn't he? He's a liar!

So is Stan!

His internal argument was cut short by his stomach once again rumbling, reminding him that he hadn't eaten anything all day. He pushed his warring thoughts aside and started the process of making dinner. Just something quick, make a sandwich, then get back to work. The sooner he found the Author, the sooner he could put his mind at ease.

But what if he is Author? What are you gonna do about it? He drove the thought away by shoving his hastily prepared dinner into his mouth. He grabbed a glass of water to wash down his sandwich, then headed for the attic again. As he passed the front door, though, it slammed open and Mabel burst into the house.

"MABEL HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING!" She shouted, pulling a party popper out of her pocket and popping it in Dipper's face.

"Gah! Mabel!" Dipper coughed up some confetti while Mabel ran past him into the living room.

Stan grinned at Mabel, who was bouncing in front of him. "Hey there, pumpkin! Have a good date?"

"It was amazing !" Mabel gushed, "We had fancy food, and talked about how great the show was! That reminds me, what did you think about the show?"

"What did I think?" Stan laughed, "I think it was great! Ya really knocked it outta the park, kiddo!"

Dipper, standing in the doorway again, couldn't help but notice the lie. Why are you latching onto that, it's a harmless lie, idiot.

Stan was talking again while Dipper had been thinking. "-treating you right, Mabel? Because I am not afraid of using my bat on a child."

"Don't worry, Grunkle Stan. Gabe was a perfect gentleman."

"Good, you just let me know if I ever need to intervene, y'hear me?"

Mabel rolled her eyes. "Loud and clear, Grunkle Stan." She stood there chatting with Stan for another few minutes. Like any other night. Like nothing was wrong.

Nothing is wrong yet, why shouldn't she act normal?

How can she just brush off the possibility, though?

That's rich coming from someone who's been desperately trying to brush it off since he came downstairs!

Stan was talking again. "Ah, good times." He looked at the recently repaired cuckoo clock. "Alright, ya little gremlins. Better scoot off to bed." He fixed Dipper with a glare. "No offense, kid, but you look like a zombie. Get some sleep. That means no staying up all night, capiche?"

See, he's just looking out for us.

Or he wants us in bed early so he can get up to secret things.

Quit being ridiculous!

With his internal turmoil, Dipper could only manage a nod. A convenient yawn managed to help sell the gesture though, so Stan just waved them off without suspecting anything. Maybe he does suspect and is just lying about that too. Dipper shook his head to remove the errant thought, eliciting a concerned look from Mabel. She didn't say anything on their way up to the bathroom, but she was side-eying him while they brushed their teeth.

Once they were safely ensconced in their room, Mabel went full concerned sister mode. "Dipper, you doing all right? You're doing that thing where your thoughts go all," She made a whooshing sound while flailing her arms around her head, "and you can barely function. What's wrong, Bro?"

Dipper sighed, wondering whether he should even tell Mabel about his fears. She seems so chill about Stan, she'd probably just laugh at me. One look at Mabel's face told him that she wouldn't let him get away with a deflection though, so instead he just said, "I just...I keep thinking about how Stan might be the Author. I keep picking out every little thing he's doing, all the tiny little lies. Like, he told me before you got home that he didn't think your show was that good, but then he told you it was amazing. And that's stupid, I know it's stupid, but…" He cut off his babbling with a groan and flopped onto his bed.

He was fully expecting a laugh, but instead his sister said in a considerate voice, "Dipper, it's not stupid to be worried about Stan lying to us." He looked at her from where he was laying down. "OK, maybe it's a little stupid to be so obsessive over it, but I'm worried about it too, y'know."

"Really?" He sat up again, wrapping his arms around his legs, "You haven't been acting like it."

"Well, no doi. My life didn't just stop because Stan might be the Author. I had a puppet show and a puppet boy to attend to. Doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about it, doofus."

"But...down there with Stan, that was after all that stuff…"

Mabel sighed. "Look, Dipper, my point is that I have a life to live. We'll deal with it when we have to."

Dipper said nothing. Yeah, deny the possibility and kick the can down the road. Just deal with it later. That's classic Mabel. He kinda wished he could be like that. Then again, if he was, nothing would probably ever get done. He flinched as a sock puppet bonked him in the head.

"Yo, earth to Dipper! Did you hear me?"

Dipper rubbed his head. "No?"

Mabel groaned. "I said, don't you think it would be faster to just ask Stan and get it over with?"

Dipper's eyes widened. "What! Nononono, that won't work at all!"

Mabel pouted. "Why not?"

"Look, if he was gonna fess up to being the Author, he would've done it back when we showed him the journal the first time. Then he promised us no more secrets, so he's not gonna want to admit to anything now, y'know?"

"Yeah? And?"

Dipper sighed. " And, that means he's just gonna deny it if we try to confront him."

"What about the password, though?"

"This whole issue is only an issue because the password isn't concrete evidence. Right now, it could go both ways, and he'll know that and try to deny it, and we won't have anything on him."

"Well, yeah, but…"

"Mabel, I've given this some thought over the day. The only thing a confrontation would do is probably lose us the journal and the laptop, and then we'll never know if he was lying!" Dipper looked away with a sigh. "I don't think I could handle that. I mean, look at me! I've suspected him for a day, and I'm already a mess! If I can't investigate and put a lid on this case, I might actually go crazy!"

Dipper glanced over at Mabel. She looked troubled, but she still nodded. "OK, Dipper. That makes sense. It still feels...wrong I guess to hide this from Stan."

"We've hidden stuff from Stan before."

Mabel waved noncommitedly. "Yeah, but that's just because he's a sap who doesn't want us in danger. Hiding that we're investigating him is different."

Dipper considered that for a moment. "Yeah, I guess so."

Mabel sighed again, before forcing a smile. "Guess that means we'll just have to work extra hard on that laptop, Bro-bro. How far'd you get today?"

Dipper shook his head. "Not very far. This thing is old. I mean like, 'only accessible through a terminal' old."

Mabel cocked her head. "Accessi-who through a what now?"

Dipper rolled his eyes. "There's no mouse or pictures. You have to type in commands to do anything."

Mabel made a face. "Ew, gross."

"Yup. And the list of commands it gives isn't helpful at all. I spent all day just trying to figure out one command, and I'm not even sure I got it right!"

Mabel pondered that for a moment. "Hmm...if that's just how it was back in ancient times, maybe there's a book or something we could get at the library? And it's a computer thingy, so I'm sure the Internet has something?"

Dipper considered that for a moment, before groaning and burying his face in his hands. "Why the heck didn't I think of that!"

Mabel grinned at him. "Ha! If there's one thing you're good at, it's making things harder for yourself!"

Dipper chuckled at that. "You got me there." He looked longingly at his bed. "I guess if that's the plan for tomorrow, then there's no need to stay up tonight, right?"

Mabel made a shooing motion at him. "Go to bed, Broseph. We'll both need our brains in tip top shape tomorrow to close this case!"

Dipper smiled at Mabel as he laid down once more. "Night Mabel."

"Night Dipper." There was a brief moment where Dipper was worried to sleep in case Bill decided to visit again, but the exhaustion of the day caught up with him and soon he was out like a light. He slept dreamlessly, and when he woke up he'd all but forgotten about Bill and his deal. The Mystery Twins were back in action, and he didn't need no dream demon to know that they'd find the truth.

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Previous Code: ANYONE ELSE NOTICE HOW YOUR ARMS ARE EXTRA NOODLEY RIGHT AFTER YOU WAKE UP?

Notes:

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it! And for the rest, happy holidays! Although, I guess that also applies to the Christmas folks. Hmm. Anyway, I didn't actually plan for this to be released on Christmas, it just kinda happened that way, so just pretend that Mabel's party popper was red and green.

So, on to the chapter itself. I'd say this is the last "setup" chapter, at least for a while. Showing Dipper's internal war over Stan is important, and so is establishing a baseline for the twins' relationship (and explaining why Mabel doesn't just ask Stan any big questions). It's honestly a bit weird to come back to this chapter, because as this is going up, I'm writing this AU's version of Society of the Blind Eye, which is full of Drama™. But we'll get to that when we get to it.

As always, ratings and reviews are much appreciated. Thank you for reading!