Dippers deal

Last chance

"Grunkle Stan!"

The old man was still snoring peacefully in his armchair in the living room while in the TV ran a colorful ad for cereal. The idea of watching a bit of TV to clear his thoughts had been a good one last night, but he'd only made it through the first show of "puppy races" when he drifted into sleep. That is, until his peaceful snores were disturbed by his niece's call again.

"Grunkle Staaaan!" The more urged shouts from Mabel startled him out of his sleep.

"Hmpf-who? What? Mabel!" He blinked and nearly fell out of the chair before he pushed himself on his feet gripping the nearest weapon-like thing in reach before he rushed into the corridor. But Mabel already jumped down the stairs taking two steps at once with rumbled noises like thunder and finally tackled her Grunkle at the bottom of the stairs.

Stan barely caught her, yelping in surprise to be thrown out of his protective mode so suddenly. The momentum got them both, pushing him off his feet and throwing both of them to the floor. Stan winced when his backside met the hard carpet, but he blinked the pain away looking up to Mabel on top of him to see the little girl hugging him with shaking breaths.

"Mabel sweetie, you alright?" But Stan only began to worry even more when Mabel didn't answer but tears began to glitter in the corner of her eyes before he recognized her raspy breathing as- laughter?

"Mabel?" Instead of explaining herself Mabel only burst out into finally shaking giggles, mixed up between her words.

"I saw him Grunkle Stan! He's still there!" She cheered, bracelets glittering in the early daylight.

"Huh? Who? What are you even talking about girl?" He questioned, while putting himself up from the floor to kneel beside his niece, who was obviously not in life threatening danger, but still freaked him out rather good. A wide smile stretched over her face, when she answered him, her voice full of relief while the salty remains of the night's tears still glittered in the corner of her eyes.

"Dipper, he was there!" But Stan only blinked at Mabel's explanation, his eyebrow slowly crawled up his forehead while his big hand cradled the girl's cheek in his palm, checking her for a fever or a bump on the head that could have explained her behavior.

'She's desperate Stanley- of course she's seeing things.' An inner voice explained, but he refused to listen, shaking it of when he seared for the girl's brown eyes in concern.

"Mabel..." However the spirit of her seemed to be back so he didn't come far when she irrupted him again, taking his hand form her cheek to hold it in her smaller ones, smiling brightly at him.

"There is still a way to save him Grunkle Stan! It's the Fluvius Cantatis, I didn't understand him at first, because Dip-dop of course didn't tell me right away what he meant. But now I got it! And we'll get him back!" Mabel grinned, but the name of her brother and the way she spoke about him only bothered him even more.

"Slow down kid- who have you been talking to?" He questioned again, making Mabel rolling her eyes at her Grunkle's bad hearing.

"Dipper of course Grunkle Stan! I met him tonight."

"What but-" His gaze wandered to the stairs where Waddles plodded down on his short legs while the fawn hesitated, looking at them from above with a shy bleat. He bit his lip's carefully setting his words to question her a little further without jumping in firsthand destroying the rest of her hope.

"You mean... Dipper was able to talk to you again?" She frowned, giving him a questionable look like she was talking over the very obvious thing in the world.

"Of course, why wouldn't he be? He was human after all." Stan's gaze fell to the floor for a second, counting the knot holes in the wooden carpet before he took a sharp breath to look back up to her.