I am back with the last chapter! *Cheers* I'd like to say thank you to all of my favorite-ers, followers, commentors, and viewers! (Which reached over 2,700!) You guys are awesome and I hope that you enjoy! I also probably made it over my word goal, woo hoo. (It was to get it over 10,000. But Quality over quantity, amiright?)

Chapter 8: Television Shows and Apologies

It has been a relatively calm morning, compared to the previous events, that is. Dipper and Mabel both woke up around 8 and went downstairs to eat breakfast with Stan. The trio watched a few episodes of Ductective before Stan remembered that it was about time to open up the shack.

Now it was only the twins watching TV, with Dipper taking up the armchair and Mabel sitting on the floor. Dipper waited until the next commercial break to get his plan going.

"Hey Mabel?"

Mabel said "Hmm?" in response, not taking her eyes off of the television.

Dipper twiddled his thumbs. "You know… one of us still needs to give Ford his carpet back…" He hinted. He hoped that Mabel will get the idea, but alas, she just hummed in agreement, not thinking any more of it.

He sighed. "...I was thinking you should do it."

That gave Mabel the right idea, alright. She turned her head quickly to face him with wide eyes. "What?!" She shouts. "You know how I feel about Great Uncle Ford!"

Dipper held up his hands in a non-threatening way. "Whoa, whoa. You'll just go down to the basement and give it to him. Not even a sentence has to be said." Hopefully not, though.

The two twins stared at each other, waiting for the other to back down and do it. After a moment, Mabel sighed and stood. "Fine," She pointed a finger at Dipper. "But you better keep the tv paused until I get back, Bro Bro. There's a new episode after this one."

Dipper smiled and gave her a mock salute. "You got it, Sister."

Mabel left the room.

Mabel shouldn't feel so nervous, she really shouldn't. It's just her fear of her second Grunkle. She knows it's irrational, and that she has no reason to be scared of him. She knows that Ford won't hurt her (physically) on purpose, Dipper had told her so, and she can trust her brother. But, unfortunately, fears are hard to get rid of.

(Also there's the fact that he doesn't trust her, so that doesn't help the current situation at all.)

Mabel took a deep breath and stepped inside the elevator, Ford's carpet in tow. She waited a long, agonizing ride down to the third level until the elevator binged and it's doors slipped open. She saw Ford sitting there with his back to her.

The girl stood there for a moment or two, trying to muster up some courage to speak. She gulped.

"...Grunkle Ford?" She peeped.

There was a faint sound of rustling papers before Ford swiveled his chair to face her. He greeted her with a warm smile. "Hello, Mabel. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Mabel relaxed a little bit, but that wasn't saying much. She shifted the Electron Carpet in her grip so that she was holding it with both hands. She held it up slightly. "I brought you your carpet back…"

A pause.

"...thanks, by the way." She mumbled.

Ford stood up from his chair and crossed the room to her in four strides. He went to ruffle her hair but thought better of it. He took the carpet from his niece's hands and beamed down at her.

"You're welcome, Mabel! It was not a problem, really. And thank you for returning it to me."

Mabel smiled shyly up at him before letting it drop. Ford frowned at this, but that action went unnoticed by the young girl.

She looked down at her hands. "Well, I'm going to go back upstairs. Don't wanna bother with whatever sci-fi stuff you were doing down here…"

She turned around and began to walk away. She pressed the button to go up and was almost inside the elevator when-

"Mabel, wait!"

Mabel turned around and let the doors slide close behind her. Ford was now a few steps closer to her and he had his hand outstretched slightly. He let his arm drop to his side and straightened his back. He looked down at her with a guilty expression. Ford cleared his throat.

"Mabel," He kneeled down to her level. "Before you go, I think that you deserve an apology."

Mabel's eyebrows shot up. She didn't expect this. She had hoped, maybe, but didn't expect it.

"When I thought back to what had happened, I realized that you were right. I shouldn't have kept the rift a secret, let alone only tell your brother about something that dangerous. And it had nothing to do with the fact that I don't trust you. Or Stanley in fact." Ford added.

"I think the main reason why I only told Dipper… was because I thought that you wouldn't be able to handle it, I guess." Ford grimaced. "But that was another thing I was wrong about.

"You are a strong girl, Mabel. And I hope that, one day, we can build a bond as strong as you. I deeply admire you, and it would completely devastate me to know that you are scared of me, hate me, or just don't want anything to do with me. I want you to know that I will be open to bond and get to know you more."

He smiled, the edges of his eyes crinkling as he does so. "If you want to, that is."

Mabel took a few moments to absorb his words. She smiled. Mabel flung herself at him in the biggest hug she could muster. "Apology accepted, Grunkle Ford!"

Ford laughed and hugged her back. "And my invitation will always be open to spend time with you. I mean, don't come up to me at 3 in the morning for arts and crafts, though."

Mabel giggled. "Alright, I won't." They stayed like that for about a minute before Mabel gasped suddenly and pulled away. Ford looked down at her with confusion.

"Oh, I just remembered! Dipper's still upstairs with the tv paused. There's a new episode that's going to play."

She darted towards the elevator. She stopped at the doors and turned to face her grunkle again.

"I know you don't really like the show, but do you want to come up and watch it with us?"

Ford smiled and nodded. "Of course, I would love to." He got up and walked into the elevator with Mabel and directed it to go up.

"Hey, Dipstick!"

Dipper turned from his seat to face both Ford and Mabel. He smiled and winked at Ford. The old man smiled back. Dipper motioned towards the paused television.

"Took you long enough! Hurry up and sit down, there's no way I'm waiting any longer!"

Mabel rushed back to her previous spot. When she sat down, she looked up and saw Ford still standing up, looking lost. She smiled up at him and patted the spotted next to her on her left. He smiled back and took a seat next to her, grimacing slightly when he heard his back pop.

"Ready?" Dipper asked. Both of them responded with a nod and he reached for the remote on his side and pressed the 'Play' button.

About half-way through the episode, Stan came into the room. He said hello to the kids and then looked towards Ford. He scoffed.

"I thought you didn't like the show, Poindexter."

Ford just held up a hand to silence him. "I'm afraid that I may have underestimated this show, Stanley. The plot is absolutely intriguing and the pun they make in the title is pretty humorous. Now hush. The twins said it was a new episode."

Stan raised his eyebrows. "What?! Why didn't you kids say something?!" He walked over to where Dipper was sitting. "Scoot over, kid. I need ta watch the rest of this."

Stan squeezed himself next to Dipper, despite the younger ones protests. "Shut 'yer yaps, kiddo. You're not the one who missed half of a new episode!"

…1 Episode Later...

"What?! Boo! I already predicted that the duck detective and the constable switched bodies before the episode even started!"

Two things: First, sorry if the ending went too quick or if it wasn't the best. I do hope you enjoyed, though. Second, I have no idea how overused this ending is, but when I wrote the beginning, inspiration struck me in the face like a wet fish. I couldn't help it.

Bye, and thank you! *Waves*