Happy birthday Alex (and Ariel)!

One Last Adventure

"Mabel?"

"Yeah?"

"How are you holding up?"

"Um…could be better but…I'm okay…"

"I'm sorry, this is all my fault."

"Don't blame yourself," she said. "Neither of us expected this would happen."

"I'm going to get us out of this," Dipper promised, "so don't worry, you just have to hold on, okay?"

"Dipper, I'm fine," she insisted with a strained voice.

"Mabel…"

"Okay, but it could be worse and it isn't…"

"It's bad enough."

"Yeah…but don't worry about it right now. We need a plan to get out of here like, pronto."

"No argument there…"

"Can you please sit down then?" Mabel asked, "Your pacing is making me dizzy."

"Oh, sorry."

Dipper sighed and sat down next to his wounded sister and in the faint glow of Dipper's flashlight they looked at each other. Mabel gave him a small, encouraging smile, "We're going to be fine."

Dipper couldn't help but smile back, marvelling at her optimism, even in a time like this. He wasn't so optimistic. They've been in tight spots before and managed to get out okay, but this time was different. This time they were trapped and Mabel was hurt, bad. She leaned against him and he realized she was trembling so he wrapped his arms around her and she smiled gratefully. "Yeah," he said quietly, "we just need a plan."

"Right," she nodded, "So since we can't go out the way we came in, do you think this cave might lead us to another exit?"

"Maybe," Dipper shrugged, "I'm not sure how far this goes…"

"Okay so we need to explore the cave a bit, maybe find some weapons, just in case. I have my grappling hook but I don't think it'll do much good in a cave…"

"You need to take it easy," Dipper said, "we'll come up with a plan but I'll do the work, okay?"

"It looks worse than it is," Mabel insisted, "but I won't argue. I'm…kinda tired."

"Okay so what do we have to work with?" Dipper asked, not liking how Mabel's voice suddenly got quiet when she said she was tired. "Besides your grappling hook, of course," he added with a smile. Mabel's grappling hook was something he considered to be useless until it saved their lives after Gideon attacked. And it saved them again here too.

He grabbed his backpack and rummaged through it, shining his flashlight to see what he was doing in the darkness, glad he was the type to always be prepared for an emergency, "Okay there's an extra flashlight, a lighter, my swiss army knife Grunkle Stan gave me, of course we have the first aid kit which we've already made good use of," he paused, glancing at his injured sister guiltily. It's all my fault…he thought, closing his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," she groaned, sensing the guilt in his voice and deciding to do something about it, "I get it, you were right to bring it, okay? You were right, I was wrong. But I'm not taking it back, you're still a dork." She blew a raspberry for effect.

Dipper grinned, grateful for his sister's ability to cheer him up even in dire circumstances. Before they left she made fun of him for being overly cautious and prepared for what was supposed to be a simple monster hunt. It wasn't even a monster hunt really but they would be going home in a few days and Dipper had just wanted to go on one last Mystery Twin adventure before they left. They were going to look for one of the unnamed creatures in the journal and try and get it on tape for Dipper's "Guide to the Unexplained" videos, but neither of them really thought they'd encounter actual danger. Even if they did, after the insane summer they had, they thought they would be able to handle it. Their overconfidence made them underestimate the creature and he hated that it was Mabel who paid the price.

"So what else we got?" she asked, her voice strained with pain.

"Uh…there's a bottle of water, bottle of holy water, our camera, and…that's about it," he frowned, wishing there was more but he lost some of the contents so he wasn't as prepared as he hoped to be.

"I have m…my grappling hook, s…some leftover snacks, glitter and yarn and knitting needles…um…" Mabel sighed, "yeah, I think that's all I've got. Hand me my bag, I'll see if there's anything else in there."

"You brought glitter?" Dipper asked, handing her her bag.

"You never know when there will be a glitter emergency," Mabel grinned.

Dipper rolled his eyes, "Well, it's not much but it's something."

She started to rummage through her bag but the movement made her injuries flare with pain and she cried out, "Ow!" She clutched the wound on her side and sank further to the ground, whimpering with pain.

"Mabel," Dipper exclaimed in alarm, taking her bag away and putting it aside, helping her to lie down in a more comfortable position. "Oh man are you okay?"

She nodded, but the look on her face told another story.

"Okay um, you take it easy, I'm going to look around and try and find another way out of here," Dipper said frantically, "maybe get stuff together to get a small fire going."

"Okay," she said faintly.

"Alright, stay here, I'll be right back."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Right."

"Be careful."

"I will."

He gave Mabel the spare flashlight and with his own flashlight and his army knife he headed deeper into the cave but the path eventually led to a dead end and there was no other path to take. The only way out was the way they came in, but that wasn't an option right now, at least not until morning.

He could hear a low rumble of thunder outside signalling that a storm was on its way and he could hear the creature howl outside, waiting for them to come out of their hiding spot. It was too big to fit through the small opening of the cave so they were safe for now, and according to the journal it was nocturnal and didn't like the sun so they just had to wait it out. No problem.

Except there was a problem. Mabel. He wasn't sure just how badly she was hurt. Sure, she tried to make it seem like she wasn't hurt as bad as he feared, but he was the one who patched her up and it was pretty bad. What if she got worse? And with an oncoming storm, who knows what else could happen?

He frantically gathered what he could find to make a fire and returned to Mabel who was lying on her uninjured side shivering. She was holding the video camera, looking at the footage.

"Mabel? Are you okay?"

"I'm c…cold," she complained, her voice was shaky and faint, "but I…I'm doing alright."

"There's no other way out of this place," he said, worried because Mabel sounded weaker than before, that wasn't good, "we have to wait out the storm and hope the creature leaves by morning."

"It's okay, we can rough it for one night," she grinned weakly, "we'll b…be fine…" she held up the camera, "L…look, you g…got good footage today…"

"That doesn't matter right now," Dipper said, taking the camera away from her to take her hand. She was so cold, he needed to get busy and make that fire, especially since they'll be stuck out all night and with the storm coming.

"Yes it d…does," she replied, "and guess what?"

"What?"

"It's after m…midnight."

"Yeah, so? We've been out for hours now," he sighed, "I guess everyone's looking for us by now. That's good I guess."

"True, I'm sure th…they'll find us soon, but th…that's not what I'm getting at."

"Oh?"

In the light of the flashlight Mabel grinned, "Happy birthday brobro."

He smiled back, but the sentiment made him want to cry, "Happy birthday to you too Mabel."

"We're teenagers now."

"Yeah," he sighed, "not exactly how I imagined our thirteenth birthday would be."

"Don't worry Dippingsauce. We'll be f…fine…" she closed her eyes.

"Wait, Mabel, don't go to sleep!" he gasped, worried.

"I'm tired, and I th…think it's only bad to sleep with a c…concussion."

"Okay, yeah, you need rest, got it, okay. I'll make a fire, we're going to be fine," he said, but Mabel didn't answer. She was fast asleep. She was still shivering so he took off his vest and tucked it around her bare legs for warmth, "yeah, we're going to be fine."

I'm so sorry Mabel, He thought as he made a pit for the fire, digging into the dirt. This is all my fault.

As he worked he couldn't help but think about the events that led to this. My fault.

Thanks for reading if you like review, and even if you don't, review anyway! Please? Flashback next chapter! TTFN