Mabel stirred from her slumber and stretched her arms before throwing off her covers and walking cheerfully to her closet to choose today's sweater. Her shooting star one was her favorite, so she decided to wear it on today's mystery twin adventure. She looked outside the window and noticed the sky was gray. This wasn't really strange, considering they were in Oregon, which got more rain than states south of it, such as California.

She looked at her brother in his bed to the left of her. It was pretty common he would sleep in, because he often stayed up late figuring out codes in his journal or reading his summer reading books. Although, he hadn't kept her up with his unusually loud reading, so he had probably sneaked outside on the roof.

"Wake up, kids!" Mabel heard the voice of her very favorite gruncle, Stan!

"Okay, coming!" She called back before beginning to shake Dipper awake. "Dipper, come on, time for breakfast!"

He groaned a little before rolling onto his back and drowsily sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He looked extra tired this morning. "Morning." He said, voice immediately cracking. Mabel giggled a little, then grabbed his hand and pulled him downstairs, causing him to stumble after her.

"What was that for, Mabel?" He asked hoarsely, glaring at her.

"You needed to get out of bed, Dipping Sauce!" He rolled his eyes and the twins walked into the kitchen. He sat down in his chair and yawned. Wendy had come to work early because she was coming on the mystery hunt as well as to cook some breakfast. She wasn't much of a cook, but she made some simple pancakes, which was good enough for the mystery twins.

"You really need to get more sleep, Dipper." Wendy commented as she saw the dark circles under his eyes and observed how labored his movements were.

"Y-yeah, I know. I was just so close to discovering this one thing." He gave her a weak smile before beginning to eat his food. Wendy gave him a slightly worried frown. Hopefully he wouldn't be too tired to keep up on today's adventure. Knowing him though, he would be able to stay awake and be alert as soon as they started.

Today was a slow day for the shack, as tourists didn't really like to hang around in the rain, so Stan let us go early. If a tourist group or two came, he could handle them. "You kids be careful out there." He advised as they ran out the door.

"So where are we heading, anyway?" Wendy asked Dipper as they walked into the forest.

"You'll see." Dipper said as he flipped through his book. He still seemed pretty tired. Wendy and Mabel looked at each other for a second, but said nothing. After all, he was just tired, right?

~~~~~

Mabel laughed as the trio left the lair of one of the many beasts inside of Dipper's journal. Dipper himself had remained kind of sluggish the whole time and was lagging behind as he wrote down more information on the monster. Mabel looked back at him. "Come on, Dipper! It's starting to rain!" Dipper jumped slightly, startled by Mabel addressing him so suddenly and loudly. He closed the book and put it under his vest so it wouldn't get wet, then he caught up to Wendy and Mabel, stumbling slightly before he reached them.

"You need me to carry you, Dip?" Wendy asked, her smile mildly worried.

Dipper blushed at this. "N-no, I'm fine. I just stayed up wayyy too long last night." Wendy gave him another look for a moment, then sighed and shrugged. The three made their way back to the mystery shack. By the time they got there, they were running and drenched with rainwater. An out of breath Dipper was the last inside and shut the door forcefully, sliding down it and sitting with his back against it, panting and looking absolutely exhausted.

Stan came inside from the other room. "How'd it go?" He asked. Mabel jumped toward him excitedly.

"It was so fun! We found the monster's cave really quickly and on the way I saw a shiny rock AND a butterfly and then we entered the cave..." Mabel's voice faded as Dipper made his way upstairs. He was suddenly feeling a wave of dizziness and almost fell down the stairs when he was half way up. Wendy heard him stumble and peered into the room.

"Dipper...?"

"Just slipped. G-gonna change into dry clothes now!" His voice cracked again and he closed the attic door before Wendy had a chance to respond. He took his shoes off and looked in the mirror. "What's wrong with me today?" He was feeling much more weak and tired than usual, and it was stressing him out a little, making him jumpy. He sighed and changed out of his soaked clothes. He then flopped onto his bed, put the blanket over him, and opened his journal, continuing writing in the stuff they had just discovered. His eyes felt heavy and so did his whole body and limbs. He found himself falling asleep on the journal very shortly.

~~~~~

"Dipper~! Dinner!" Mabel called, running into the room. She was surprised to find he was already asleep on his bed, on top of his journal, no less! Maybe he wasn't hungry. Still, couldn't have him sleeping on his journal; he would be upset if he drooled on it. Mable took the liberty of lifting up Dipper's head and picking up the journal and putting it on the nightstand. Something seemed... off. She put her hand on Dipper's forehead. It felt oddly warm, but not absolutely burning up.

She tucked him in better before heading back downstairs. "The kid not coming?" Stan asked.

"No, he's been really tired all day and he's sleeping now. He felt kinda warm, too; I think he's sick."

"That's too bad. Well, he'll tough it out." Stan began eating his food again. Mabel sat down and ate hers too. once in a while, she would glance at Dipper's empty seat.

"I'm done, I think I'll take Dipper's up to him." Mabel discarded her empty plate where it could get washed and picked up Dipper's stuff, bringing it up to the attic. Once there, she shut the door and put it down next to the journal. She gently shook Dipper to try to wake him up. "Hey, wake up, Dip! Want to eat something?"

Her brother groaned a little and coughed. He then pushed himself to a sitting position with his hands, similar to that morning, except he looked worse. His dark circles were darker and he looked pretty pale other than his cheeks, which were flushed with fever. His fever had gone higher while Mabel was eating her dinner. "N-nah... n-not too hungry..." His voice was hoarse and raspy.

Mabel whimpered and felt her brother's forehead again. "L-lie down, Dipper. I'll go get something for you." She helped him back to a laying position and dashed out of the room.

Dipper curled up in his blankets as the room spun around him. His head was aching a lot and he was very dizzy. He closed his eyes for but a moment, and when he opened them, he found himself on the couch in the living room with Mabel next to his feet and gruncle Stan on his chair watching baby fights. Dipper slowly sat up and Mabel looked at him and smile with her cute braces teeth.

"Feeling any better, bro?" She asked him. He was still pretty dizzy and his throat hurt, but he was less tired than earlier. He didn't know it, but Mabel had given him medicine while he was half-conscious after being brought down. He had a soft blanket and one of Mabel's sweaters on.

"Y-yeah, thanks Mabel." He answered, voice hoarse and cracking more than usual. Mabel felt his forehead, which was damp with sweat, but his temperature had went down from before.

"Geez, don't scare me like that, Dipper! If you're feeling bad, you can just tell us." She exclaimed. He just nodded, put his head back, and sat with his knees up and the blanket covering everything but his head. He stared blankly at the TV screen. Mabel leaned against him gently to try to comfort him like they did for each other when they were younger and not feeling good.

Stan wasn't as loud at watching TV as usual. He had been a bit worried about Dipper too, since the poor kid had been feeling pretty weak and his temperature was around 104.6. It was lowered by now, though. He winced slightly as he heard rough coughs coming from Dipper's direction. "Some cough you got there, kid. Get some rest."

Mabel was mildly surprised; Stan seemed to actually be a bit worried about Dipper. Dipper sniffled and pulled the blanket over himself better and laid sideways with his back to Mabel, Stan, and the TV. He groaned a little and leaned against Mabel's shoulder, coughing some more. "Shhh, shhh, it's okay." Mabel gently stroked his head. "I think I'll head upstairs early tonight, gruncle Stan. Good night!" She helped Dipper onto his feet with the blanket around his shoulders.

"Good night. Feel better, kid." Dipper gave him a little smile in return as they passed Stan on the way to the attic. To his dismay, he could hardly walk and each of his steps was shaky. Mabel finally got him into bed and made sure he was tucked in. His dinner plate was gone from the nightstand and Mabel had put the journal in its hiding place again. He closed his eyes as Mabel said a 'goodnight' to him, and drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~

It was around 3AM when Dipper woke up again. He was kinda feeling better after that sleep. He got up with the blanket around his shoulders, grabbed his journal, and shakily made his way downstairs. He decided to go on the roof and try to decode more of the journal, and stumbled up the ladder, nearly falling off. He shivered as he got outside. It was kind of cold from the rain that day. Fortunately, it had stopped, but he was still pretty cold. He covered more coughs with his blanket and pulled out the journal and his black-light. It was about fifteen minutes before his head began pounding like it had been before and his nose was all stuffed up. He sniffled, then jumped as right after he turned to the next page, lightning sounded and a very familiar laugh. It was that triangle moron! What did he want?

"Hey there, Pine Tree! Long time no see!" Bill said cheerfully, twirling his cane menacingly.