Pines, Reporting for Duty

Chapter 8

(Dipper pov)

I sit in the conference room at the police station as Jones drapes a blanket over my shoulders. "You sure you don't need to go to the hospital or anything?"

"The injuries he gave me are already starting to heal on their own. A trip to the hospital would just be a waste of time."

"Alright, I'm going to go find you some pants. Both your great uncles are on their way."

"Even Ford?"

"Yeah, Mr. Big-Shot District Attorney is on his way too. In all seriousness, I'm glad we found you, Pines."

He leaves the room and is only gone for a few minutes when I hear the door open again. I glance up and have to keep myself from groaning when I see that it's Detective Mark Hoffman. This asshole is the reason I was stuck in traffic control.

"Officer Pines, I heard you were back."

"Detective Hoffman. Didn't expect to see you again."

"After you disappeared I got assigned the Murphy family case."

"I didn't just vanish willingly, that psycho kidnapped me against my will."

"You went after him without back up."

"He was a criminal and would have gotten away if I didn't pursue him."

"He ended up escaping for almost a year anyway with no help from you."

"I did everything I could to try and stop him, I barely got away alive. He nearly killed me several times."

"Or so you claim. You could have given yourself all those injuries."

"Why the hell would I do that?"

"Don't know and don't care about why you would go with psycho." He sets a paper and pen in front of me. "Sign that so we can get on with things."

I look at the paper and upon realizng that it's a confession I angrily push the paper back towards him.

"Fuck you. You just want to close this case as fast and lazily as you can just so you can get a damn promotion."

"You listen to me, you little shit. You are going to sign this damn thing or I will make your life a living hell."

"I'm not signing shit and I'm done talking to you. I want my lawyer."

"Why would you want a laywer unless you had something to hide?"

"I'm not saying another word to you or anyone else without my lawyer."

"You must be all kinds of stupid if you think I would actually let you call yourself a lawyer."

"I don't have to. You will soon learn why you don't mess with someone who has an ex-chief of police and District Attorney for great uncles."

He glares at me as he angrily snatches the paper off the table. "This isn't over."

"It is from where I'm sitting."

He storms out of the room and it isn't long before the door gets slammed open as both my great uncles rush over to me hugging me so tight that it hurts.

They only let go when Jons askwardly clears his throat. "Sorry for the interuption, just brought him some pants." He hands me the jeans and I stand up pulling them on.

"Thanks for everything, Jones."

"Don't worry about it, and don't worry about coming back to work. Take all the time off that you need to." He leaves the room as Ford puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Come on, let's get you home."

They lead me out of the police station and to Stan's car as I get in the back seat. As Stan drives, no one says a single thing. I see him glancing at me before he and Ford share more looks.

He finally stops at me and Mabel's shared apartment and I get out fo the car before things can get any more awkward.

Don't get me wrong, I love Stan and Ford and I know that both of them love me in their own ways. I just can't handle all of the questions that I know they will have about what I went through and all the horrible things that Bill did to me. I just can't take that right now.

I head up the stairs to the apartment on the third floor and open the door already knowing she'll have kept it unlocked waiting for me.

The door swings open and she looks up from where she's sitting on the couch. Her eyes meet mine and I see small tears starting to trail down her cheeks.

Without warning she rushes over to me and hugs me tightly as she quietly cries against my shoulder. I hug her back as I do everything I can to not cry. The rest of my family is falling apart because of me, I have to be strong for them and more importantly I have to be strong for Mabel.

"I thought.....I thought I would never see you again, bro-bro....I thought that I lose you forever."

"It's okay, I'm here. Everything is going to be okay. I'm never leaving you like that again, I promise." I wipe her tears away and gently kiss her forehead as she looks up at me.

"Go wash yourself up, Dip-Dop, I'll get dinner finished."

"Are you sure that I can't help?"

"Yes I'm sure, now go." I go down the hall towards my room but stop hearing her speak up again. "Are you still going to do that kind of work?"

"I....I don't know. I'm going to take a few weeks or months off to figure some things out."

"Do you need to talk to someone? :ike a professional or something?"

"Yeah, probably, just not tonight. Tonight I just want to forget about all that shit."

"Okay....I'm glad you're back, Dipper."

"Me too, Mabes, me too."

I head into my room changing into my own clothes before going to the bathroom across the hall and splash some water on my face trying to calm myself down.

"Just keep it together, everything will be fine if you just don't fall apart in front of her."

I try my face off and head back to the living room seeing Mabel alking to someone with brown hair that looks lighter at the roots. His blue eyes glance at me and something about him just doesn't feel right.

"Dipper, this is William. He moved in down the hall recently."

"Nice to meet you." I hold my hand out to him.

He grabs my hand tightly as he pulls me closer, a sinister smirk on his lips.

"Glad to meet you....Pinetree."