Mabel let the arm holding the beaker drop as her body sagged with relief. She walked toward the sink, answering Stan's question with, "Your eyes turned all yellow and you started trying to kill us." She said it in a deliberately matter-of-fact tone to mask the fact that her heart was still pounding. She leaned down to look under the sink. Dipper was curled up there, hands covering his mouth, breathing heavily, and his eyes wide. The image of it twisted something inside her, but the little cubby wasn't big enough for both of them, so instead she reached her hand inside and waited. After a few moments, he uncurled from his position and took it, allowing himself to be pulled out from the nook. As soon as he was on his feet, her calm facade disappeared and she pulled him into a tight hug.

"Ack! Mabel-can't-breathe!" Dipper gasped.

"Yes you can," Mabel said, not easing up.

Dipper sighed, but didn't protest as she held on to him. After a while, though, he extracted an arm and wrapped it around her, rubbing her back. "Hey, now, we're both OK." he said gently.

"Barely," Mabel muttered.

"Still are," Dipper countered. "Nothing stops the Mystery Twins, you know that."

Mabel sniffed, imagining the world where she'd left Dipper behind, like he'd wanted. Her brother being cornered like a rat, but without her there to save him…she shuddered. Best not to think about it. I made sure that's not the world we're in. She resented Dipper a little bit for even thinking that's what she would want, but she more than understood the desire to keep a twin safe, so she found it hard to hold against him. She clung to him for another minute before she pulled away.

"Um…" Stan said from off to the side. His expression was a mixture of a lot of things; guilt, relief, tiredness, and something almost wistful. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "My apologies, for whatever may have happened. I'm-er- glad it didn't end in tragedy."

Mabel looked over at him and said, "Oh, yeah, that reminds me. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT ABOUT!" Stan jumped as she screamed at him.

"I-I-" Stan stammered, "That's really not any of your-"

"None of our business!" Mabel finished, "None of our business! You nearly killed us! Or the other you, or whatever it was!"

"Yeah, man," Dipper said, more calmly. "The whole 'yellow eyes' thing makes me think something weird is happening, but if you don't explain, well. I'm sure the cops'll love to hear about you going crazy and almost murdering two kids." Dipper tried to follow up with a casual lean against the counter, but some of the liquid Mabel had thrown at Bill had splashed onto it, so he slipped and had to catch himself. "Whoa! Ugh, what is this stuff…"

Mabel held up the bottle she was holding, showing the label that said Waking Potion-Use in emergencies! "I figured that if that thing showed up when he fell asleep, this should make him go away." Mabel explained.

"Clever," Stan said, "I was trying to create a potion that would eliminate my need for sleep entirely, but that was the best I could manage." He hesitated for another moment, before saying. "As for the yellow eyes, that was Bill. He's a demon from another realm, and I foolishly made a deal with him." Stan made like he was about to start pacing, but he winced and grabbed his head. He began to sway, and nearly fell over, but Dipper and Mabel rushed to catch him. They lowered him gently to the floor as he groaned, "Ugghh, why does my head hurt so much?"

Mabel gave him a sheepish grin, "I maaayyy have hit you with a chair."

Stan was silent for a second, then, "Yes, that would do it."

"In her defense, Bill was choking me at the time," Dipper added, rubbing his throat.

Stan winced again, unrelated to his head this time. "Completely understandable. Unfortunately," he gently prodded his skull, "I think I may have a concussion."

Dipper and Mabel shared a look. "That's not good," Dipper said.

Mabel rolled her eyes. "Understatement of the year, Dipper." She stood up. "I'm going to look for anything that might help." Dipper made to stand with her, but she waved him down. "Nah, I got this. Look after our friend here." Dipper looked like he was about to protest, but she glanced at Stan and looked pointedly at Dipper. Her message was clear, He's concussed, now's the time to grill him for information. Dipper's eyes lit up with understanding, and he nodded.

"So, uh, wanna tell me more about this deal with Bill?" Dipper asked Stan as Mabel went to the freezer, listening closely.

"You seem somewhat eager to know." Stan said suspiciously.

"It's kinda fresh in my mind," Dipper said dryly, "but actually I'm more worried about the concussion. I'm supposed to keep you talking, to make sure you don't fall asleep. Actually, there's two reasons why I don't want you to fall asleep, so tell me about the second one."

Mabel closed the freezer upon seeing that Stan had no ice, not even any frozen food he could hold against his head like ice. She went back into the living room as Stan said, "Well, it was supposed to be for the benefit of mankind…" She left earshot as she made for the shelf where she'd found the waking potion, full of beakers and flasks. She began to sift through them, looking for anything that seemed heal-y. She didn't like that she couldn't hear what Stan was saying, but she knew Dipper would get her caught up. Instead, she allowed her mind to wander to how badly they'd messed up this time travel adventure.

First they lost the journal, a thing from the future. Sure, they'd got it back, but if Stan had had the chance to examine it and realize it was from the future, that was another reason for the Time Cops to be mad at them. Then, Bill had almost killed them, and yeah it wasn't their fault that they'd had to defend themselves, but now Stan had a concussion that he wouldn't have had without their interference. This was clearly a very bad time for him, and what if giving him a concussion now will alter the timeline? What if it somehow made Bill win?

Mabel put down the last potion with a sigh. Nothing we can do now except try and fix it. Mabel thought. She doubted Stan in his paranoid state would go to a hospital, nor could she say it was a safe thing to do with Bill having access to his body. Luckily, there were two mad scientists in Gravity Falls at this time, and while McGucket was more of a mechanical guy than a living-people guy, he'd maybe be more useful than Stan. He wasn't as likely to have a concussion, at least.

Besides, going to see him is why we came here in the first place. Mabel thought as she went back to the kitchen. It's just a lucky accident that we found out Stan was the Author. She leaned against the door and watched Dipper and Stan talking. They weren't talking about anything to do with Bill, though, instead Stan was very enthusiastically talking about orcs and natural 38's. "Ugh," Mabel said, rolling her eyes, "Dipper, you finally found someone to care about your stupid nerd game."

"Hey!" Dipper said indignantly.

"I'll have you know that Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons is a deeply immersive and satisfy-urk." Stan piped in, before cutting off as he dry heaved. While he composed himself, Mabel met Dipper's eyes behind his back and raised an eyebrow. What happened to grilling him for info?

Dipper mimed locking his mouth and throwing away the key, before shrugging. He clammed up, I didn't know what to do.

Mabel rolled her eyes. Yeah, more like you stopped caring once he brought up dice.

Dipper's sheepish grin was answer enough as Stan straightened up. "So, did you find anything to help?" he asked.

"Nope," Mabel said, coming to join them on the floor. "No healy-do's in there."

"I feared as much," Stan sighed. "Admittedly, I'd hoped the concussion was making me misremember."

"So now what do we do?" Dipper asked, "We can't leave that untreated. I thought about the hospital, but with Bill…" he trailed off.

"No, a hospital is out of the question," Stan said. He put his hands on the floor, "Thank you for caring, children, but I've already-" He tried to stand up, but collapsed with a gasp.

"Take it easy, dude!" Dipper said, steadying him.

"Yeah, concussions are no joke," Mabel added, also helping him settle down. "I know because I once got hit in the face by a flying microwave."

Stan blinked at that, but quickly got over it. "No! I've already wasted too much time as it is! I have to get back to work, I have to stop Bill!" He made to stand up again, but this time when he fell, it was on his face. He groaned, and when he looked up his eyes were even more unfocused than before.

Mabel put her hand on her hips. "That's it! Doctor Mabel's putin' you on house arrest!"

"Yer not a doctor…" Stan said, his words slurring together, "I'm a doctor…"

"Then you should really know better, shouldn't you!"

"'M not a medical doctor…"

Mabel sighed, looking over at Dipper. "I was thinking about what to do with him while I was in the other room. McGucket's probably our best bet, as far as taking care of him goes."

"McGucket…?" Stan mumbled. Mabel and Dipper looked at him as he began to ramble. "Fiddleford…oh, I'm sorry Fiddleford…"

Mabel and Dipper shared a glance, before Mabel knelt down and gently asked, "Did something happen?"

"Accident…" Stan said, "Told me I was…bein' stupid…now he's gone. Oh, you were right, I'm sorry Fiddleford…"

Dipper straightened, looking thoughtful. "If he was staying here and left, then he'll probably be in one of the motels in town. Let's go."

"Wait," Mabel said, "One of us should probably stay here and keep an eye on him," She looked at Stan, who had stopped apologizing and was now reciting a string of numbers.

"3.141592653-"

Dipper started tapping his leg anxiously. "But what if he falls asleep and Bill comes back?"

"Um…" That was a fair question. Mabel looked around for inspiration, idly playing with a loose thread on her sweater. Wait… "I got it! We tie him up first!"

Dipper looked uncomfortable. "Okaaay, little weirded out by the enthusiasm, but it's a good idea." He helped her comb through the cabinets until they found a length of rope. Before tying him up, Dipper went through his pockets and pulled out a large ring of keys. "Ha! This'll help." He looked down at Mabel tying him up, and said, "Huh, y'know, from the outside, this looks incredibly suspicious."

"Probably," Mabel agreed, tugging on the last knot to make sure it was secure. She stood with a huff. "I think I'll stay with him, see what other intel I can get out of him."

"Are you sure it's a good idea to say that so brazenly?" Dipper said.

"He's not paying attention to us right now," Mabel said, waving a hand at where Stan was still reciting numbers.

" 8-"

"I think he just switched from Pi to the Fibonacci Sequence." Dipper said.

"Nerds," Mabel said, huffing a laugh, "And that's why I need to stay, so you," she jabbed a finger at his chest, "don't get sidetracked with dork speak."

"Alright, alright…" Dipper laughed, but then grew serious. "You're sure about this, though? Splitting up?"

"I'm not happy about it," Mabel said, sighing. "But we can't leave Stan alone, and we can't do nothing about his concussion. Something's gotta give."

"Yeah…" This time, Dipper pulled her into a hug, which she wasn't complaining about. It was his way of saying he was proud she was willing to go through with splitting up, even after the disaster that happened last time. After a moment, he pulled away and said, "The only thing I got out of him was that Bill promised him answers about Gravity Falls." Dipper's face darkened, "Basically, the same puppet deal he offered me."

"Oh," Mabel said, hit by a wave of understanding followed by a wave of horror.

"Yep," Dipper said. He gestured to Stan, "That could've been me."

"But it wasn't," Mabel said, echoing Dipper from earlier.

Dipper smiled, "No, it wasn't," He waved as he left the kitchen, "Good luck,"

Mabel smiled and waved back, "You too." Her smile fell as he left the room, its weight seeming to settle somewhere in her stomach. She sighed, sitting next to the tied up form of her grunkle. She let herself feel bad for just a minute, listening to Dipper unlock the several locks on the front door, before forcing an approximation of her regular cheer back on. Stan wasn't going to open up a grumpy face, after all.

Kcab srettel eerht

PDWFK RXW IRU IOBLQJ ZLFURZDYHV!

Previous code: ON HIS OWN, BILL RANTS AND RAVES/BUT EACH TWIN PROTECTS AND SAVES

Notes: I'm back! Sorry for the long wait. I wish I could say I've been super busy the whole time, but it's not true. I was only super busy for the one week that I said I would be, but I underestimated just how much I rely on momentum to keep my creative projects going. Taking just one week off completely destroyed my ability to work on anything, and I've had to slowly bring myself back around to semi-consistency in that regard. I really hope it doesn't happen again, because it sucked big time to want to get back to writing, and yet for some reason it just wasn't happening. Thank you all for your patience, and for the comments that rolled in during the break. I haven't responded to some of them, but I appreciated every one.

Now, for the chapter itself, it's kind of low key. I think it needed to be, after the intensity of the last two chapters. Still, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I liked writing the banter between Dipper and Mabel here, and I always love a chance to reference Mabel getting hit by a flying microwave. That's one of my favorite stills from the show, and if you've somehow never seen the shorts, go and watch them. They're great.

Anyway, thanks for waiting, and thanks for reading! Ratings and reviews are always appreciated, and I hope you have a good day.