So, I'm kinda disappointed with this one. Again, reviews are always appreciated, good or bad.

Man, I hate Preston... He's so freaking dead. She came and for that I was happy, but seemed really distressed and I probably shouldn't have been as happy as I was. She was all disheveled from her trip here. I still can't believe she walked all the way to the Shack from the Northwest Mansion.

Dipper sat on the floor between the twin beds and leaned against his bed, trying to keep his eyes off of Pacifica. She looked at the ceiling, the floor, the bed, the wall, the lamp- really anywhere but Dipper or Mabel.

"Is there something you want to talk about?" Mabel asked, outright.

"I just... No." The blonde said into the comforter wrapped around her.

"Well, I'm glad you're here." Mabel stated happily as her feet began to kick against the side of her bed.

Dipper smiled at his sister. She sure knew how to make the tension leave a room just by being happy. Well, just by being Mabel, in truth. His smiled deepened inwards.

Pacifica sighed tiredly as she finally met Dipper's eyes. "I just... wanted to see you guys. You two are the only people I feel comfortable with anymore. That I feel like I can be myself around." She dropped her gaze and set herself to studying the floor again, chewing on her lip. "You two are my only friends."

"I-" Dipper reached as far as he could into himself, looking for the words he needed. "We wanted to see you too." he blurted instead, "We like hanging with you, and we like when you're yourself. I like playing dumb games with you, and I like getting surprised by your intelligence. You're my- our friend as much as we're yours."

She looked at him, shocked, finally she spoke and Dipper could release the breath he was holding, "I'm not the friend I should be."

"I'm proud to call you my friend." He replied with hardly a thought towards it.

She stared at Dipper.

"I'm proud to call you my friend too." Mabel followed.

She stared at Mabel, then Dipper again, then at the floor.

"I'm sorry." Her voice cracked and she covered her face in the comforter. Dipper watched the blanket shake as Mabel lovingly wrapped her arms around it. Dipper unthinkingly stood and sat on the other side as his sister and hugged the bundle as well.

They sat for long moments hearing her sobs, feeling her body shake, Dipper trying to understand.

After her sobs began to subside she raised her head and looked at him ashamed she had been so vulnerable. Dipper saw her eyes peek out at him and he couldn't help but smile kindly at her. "I'll be right back." He said.

When he stepped back into the room Mabel had taken his spot on the floor and Pacifica had taken the spot across from her.

"Here, Pacifica." He said sitting beside her and handing her a length of toilet paper, "Sorry we don't have any real tissues, Stan says it's an unnecessary expense."

"Thanks, Dipper." She said, fiddling with the cheap paper in her hands.

"About the night of the Northwest party." She began after a long moment, looking at wall behind Mabel, "I was really terrified, more scared than I ever thought possible. And I only felt so scared because I saw you dead, or what I thought was dead." She turned her head, looking at Dipper. "I wanted to run away, but you stood up to the ghost for your sister and you were frozen because of it. I- I thought you were dead."

Pacifica took the paper to her eyes as she began to shake again. She felt the reassuring touch of Mabel's warm hand on her shin and Dipper's arm touch her own.

"You were dead." She murmured into her hands.

"We're alive now and we're here." Mabel reached out and took Pacifica's hand in her own.

"Mabel, you were frozen longer than me, what was it like?" Dipper asked curiously.

She put her folded hands under her chin, supporting it thoughtfully. "It wasn't really 'like' anything. I was just talking one second and then the next I just knew that I had been frozen. I just kinda knew all that had happened." She folded her hands on her lap and leaned back against the bed again, "It was weird."

"I was really scared for you, both of you." Dipper nodded.

"How do you think I felt?" Pacifica chuckled, "My only friends were... dead." She laughed again, trying to release some nervous energy and emotion. Yet she still felt tears falling down her cheeks. I'm so stupid, She thought as she wiped her eyes with the wad of toilet paper, Why am I crying so much?

She covered her eyes with her hands, trying to think of something say or do to take the attention from her. Her friends let her cry in respectful silence as they considered they're own experiences.

"Hey, Pacifica, someone wants say 'Hi'." Pacifica heard Mabel say at last.

The blonde looked up through teary lashes as she wiped her cheeks with her wrist rather than the over used toilet paper. She saw Mabel with the squash in her lap, facing her. The gourd seemed to be more calming than before and didn't fill her with the same kind of discomfort as before and she couldn't help but smile, at least a little.

"Hi, Warty Gordy." She chuckled at the smiling features.

Mabel passed the gourd into Pacifica's hands, this time more hesitantly, more like a question. Pacifica took the face in her arms and smiled down at the gourd and at her friend's efforts. She rested Gordy in her arms as she would a baby and enjoyed the silent company of her friends for a few moments before a strange thought occurred to her. "What are your parents like?" She asked, her friends looked at her, "They can't be so bad if they're your parents, but they did send you guys to a dump like this too." She wondered aloud.

The twins made eye contact for a moment having a short conversation in their gaze, then dropped their eyes.

"We were an accident." Mabel started, looking at the floor, "They didn't really want kids, but they kept us anyway."

"They're in love and they've been in love since they first laid eyes on each other." Dipper added, "We can be a handful, more trouble than usually comes from a single pregnancy, certainly. And we know that, so, we try not to bother them too much."

"We understand that they sacrificed a lot of what they loved for us." Mabel added.

"That's not to say that they don't love us." Dipper inserted, looking at Pacifica.

"We were both happy to come here when Mom and Dad brought up the idea to come here." Mabel continued, "We still keep in touch, they send letters occasionally and having a conference call, just the four of us, isn't uncommon either."

"But," Dipper interjected "it's still hard being away from them."

The twins looked at each other understandingly across the way. Pacifica wondered at that, Their parents seem nice enough, but they seem really saddened by it.

"They seem nice." She smiled, to the quiet twins.

They smiled back at her.

"Gordy's not so bad is he?" Mabel asked looking at the gourd, "I'd say you two are getting along-." She stopped, seeing the expression on her gourd.

The other two looked also, wondering at her sudden silence.

Warty Gordy's pimpled face was contorted into a look of horror and fear.

"What's wrong Gordy?" Pacifica asked, turning the butternut to look him full in the face.

"He's scared." Mabel panicked, as she grabbed him from her friend's hands, "What did you see?"

Dipper stood up and walked to the triangle window where the gourd had been facing, investigating, "Something was out there." The rain had subsided leaving a few drops on the panes, but the air clear to look through.

Pacifica was suddenly gripped with such dread that she clutched the blanket around her defensively, like a turtle hiding in his shell. She could feel the same dread wrapping itself around her friends and she wanted to cry again. No, She determined, that's stupid. But the feeling remained all the same.

Dipper turned away from the window and looked at Pacifica resolutely. "We should get you home." He walked across the room and grabbed his shoes and a jacket from beside the door, "Mabel, help her get ready, I'm going to pull the golf cart up." He ordered as he opened the door and walked out.

It was a short, quiet ride back to the Northwest mansion. I admit I didn't like taking her back to that place, but something was out in the woods and she'd probably be safer in that house with servants about. She was pretty quiet on the ride back. When we reached the mansion she told me where to drop her off so she could sneak back in. I parked and she began to climb out of the golf cart, "Wait," I said. She stopped "I'm glad you came, I just want you safe." She didn't say anything. She just gave me this really sad look. I watched her sneak through a hole in the wall surrounding the estate before leaving for home.