Check Up

The Halfa staying at the Mystery Shack slowly descended the stairs with annoyance. That doctor just had to show up now...

As she entered the Living Room, the doctor had just been let inside and led into the living room by Mr Pines.

"What's up doc?" Were the first words that leave the girl's mouth.

Gregson smirked slightly at her question, "Hello, Ellie, I'm quite alright."

Dani nodded and Mr Pines made some excuse about checking the till before leaving the room.

"Now Ellie," The doctor continued, glancing at the clipboard in his hands as he spoke, "I'd like to make sure you're recovering well. So if you could, please tell me how you've been feeling for the past couple of days. Have you been feeling dizzy, nauseous etcetera."

The ravenette eyed the man for a split-second as he clicked his pen on before she answered.

"Well, I've been fine actually. I haven't had any problems at all." She lied plainly. She was refraining herself from mentioning the stumble she'd had in the forest so as to ensure the doctor would be a bit more lenient with her.

"Hmm. Well, once again this is excellent. " He scribbled down some notes, "There will be one final check up in about two days and then I won't need to visit anymore."

Dani held back a smile, "Oh, right that's great then."

As much as she had to endure one more check up, it was exactly that, one more. Plus, it gave her a deadline and time to say goodbye to everyone.

"I just need to take some more blood for testing that everything is definitely fine."

She felt the air leave her lungs as her eyes widened, "Wait what?!"

The doctor began to laugh, leaving Dani speechless, "Sorry I'm kidding. You're in a good condition so far so it's unnecessary. Just make sure that if anything does happen, you're taking your meds. Besides, I still need to take a look at the blood we sampled from you at the hospital."

"Uh huh." Dani stopped herself from rolling her eyes at his first words and focused on steadying her breathing, which became harder to do as he mentioned her old blood tests. At least he hadn't looked at them yet. She could still get out of town before that right? He wouldn't know where she'd gone because she sure as heck wouldn't be back in Illinois...yet.

"Have you used a lot of your medicine up? Do you need anymore?" Dr Gregson added.

She hadn't needed to so far, "Nope, good to go."

"Great, then that's all. I'll see you again soon Ellie." He smiled slightly and placed his clipboard and pen back into his brown shoulder bag.

"Bye." She mumbled in response.

Dani ushered the doctor out of the room and back outside. At least this checkup had been quick. Although it had left her a little on edge.

"Remember to call if you need anything." Gregson reminded her before going on his way and she shut the door with a relieved sigh.

"What was that all about?"

The Halfa pretty much jumped out of her skin when she discovered Mabel was standing behind her.

"Whoa! Mabel don't do that!"

"Do what?"

She sighed once more, "Nevermind, to answer your first question, the doctor wanted to check up on me. He unfortunately said he'll be back again soon."

"Did you get a lollipop?"

"A lollipop? No why?"

Mabel gasped, "Whenever me and Dipper see the doctor we get one."

"That's because you beg the doctor for them Mabel." Dipper pointed out with a shake of his head as he also came into the shop.

"Hey Dipper." Dani greeted him.

"Hi, so what are you two going to do today?"

Dani didn't have a clue to be honest.

"I'm gonna knit Waddles a new sweater!" The brunette girl exclaimed proudly.

"Wait, you knit?" Dani asked.

"Yeah silly, where did you think all my sweaters come from?"

"Shut. up. Your sweaters are so well made as well, that's amazing!" she gushed a little. It must've taken up so much of Mabel's time and yet she was always full of energy. Dani thought her sweaters were of a great quality, the girl could probably make some money if she decided to sell them. And the chances of Mr Pines approving were very high.

"Oh and to answer your question Dipper," Dani changed her focus to the male twin, "I don't have a clue about what I'm gonna do today. I might just watch Mabel with the knitting to see how she does it...If that's not weird."

"Of course it's not weird dumb dumb! I could even show you how it's done. Be warned though, you do get pricked a lot." Mabel suggested.

"How? It's not sewing Mabel?" Dipper pointed out.

"I'm a dangerous child." His sister mumbled with a smile.

"Okay, well how about we go upstairs and you show me how it's done Mabel." Dani advised her. The idea seemed to resonate well with the older twin as she suddenly raced out of the Gift Shop, pulling the Halfa along all the way. Even up the stairs where they were both fortunate enough not to trip and land back at the bottom.

As soon as the girls were in the bedroom, Mabel rushed to her bed and pulled a box out from underneath it.

"What's that?" Dani asked as she sat down on the floor.

"This is my knitting box of wonders! I also have a craft one but that's not important right now." She waved a hand dismissively.

A few seconds passed when the brunette exclaimed a little 'Found you!' as she took out a pair of grey metal chopstick-like sticks. Knitting needles.

"And now for the yarn! I think I'll go for lemon-yellow or baby-blue... Maybe even forest green! Blue would match my current sweater though but hmmm..." Her face scrunched up in thought.

"What if you did a scale of all three, like blue to green to yellow?" Dani suggested.

"Ooh! Good thinking Dani!" She praised the girl who nodded in appreciation.

Mabel dug around in the box again for a moment and brought out the yellow and green yarns but no blue.

"Looks like I left my baby-blue yarn downstairs. Don't go anywhere I'll be right back!" She announced before dashing out of the attic.

"Okay." Dani whispered to the empty air.

With a shrug, she got up and put her hands on her hips. It's not like she'd be gone for long but Dani wanted to take the chance to peek at the box.

Just as she was walking towards it, a shine from the bookshelf beside her caught her eye. The Halfa retracted a couple of her steps and stood in front of the shelf. A brown book with golden metallic corners right on the top shelf, half obscured by other books and items seemed to be what had shone for a moment. Something about it interested the girl a lot.

"What is that?" She mumbled.

Being a somewhat curious person-Not nosy, curious- Seeing something strange made her want to investigate. And that's what she chose to do in that moment.

Forgetting about the box, the book continued to grab her attention with it's shining corners and ruggedness. It seemed weirdly familiar to her, like she'd seen it somewhere else...

Due to being the only one in the room, Dani figured the coast was clear so she could take down the book and examine it now. And that's what she was gonna do.

First she attempted to jump up to it, but was too short to reach, so she decided to float to the top to get it. Back on the ground, she flips the book around to look at it's cover and back.

"Hello, what's this?" Dani whispered to herself as she examined the cover. There was a strange gold six fingered hand symbol with the number 3 on the palm. 3 for book 3? Where were 1 and 2 then? Another thing she noticed was that the book looked extremely old as if it was owned by someone a really long time ago...But who?

Dani suddenly realised why she recognised the book.

Dipper had always had it in his vest when they'd been out. In the forest for example, he and Mabel went away for a moment as Dipper took something out of his vest and she had caught sight of a glimmer from the object. She wished she'd paid attention to what they were saying, instead she had brushed it off and spoken to the teens.

What stumped Dani, was why would Dipper have such an old looking book that he carried around with him? Either he really wore it out or it didn't actually belong to him...

Full of curiosity and confusion, the Halfa opened it to the front page. 'Property of-' was implanted with the name torn off. If this actually belonged to Dipper, she had a feeling he would have rewritten his name somewhere else on the page.

Dani spotted a piece of magnifying glass on a string and looked through it. To her disappointment, it did nothing but make the words bigger. She thought it was a neat little accessory though.

Eventually, Dani flipped through the other pages, one eyebrow steadily rising with disbelief. It was filled with information about random fantasy beings. She couldn't quite tell if it was meant to be taken seriously or if it was just merchandise...The writing and drawings appeared to be pretty legit but for all she knew, the book could simply be related to some fantasy book series Dipper read, or Mabel even.

Even so, maybe she could go investigating some of the creatures?

"Hey Dani, you'll never guess what happened!" The sound of Mabel's voice travelled through the door and in a blind panic, the girl just managed to stuff the book into her pocket before the tween walked in.

"Hey, are you okay? You seem...panicked?" Mabel asked immediately with a concerned tone.

"What, yes of course, I'm fine." I assure her, "What is it you wanted to tell me?"

Suddenly the brunette was grinning again, "So when I got downstairs, Soos was fixing some merchandise and he was putting it together with super glue. But then he got the super glue on his hand and now his hand's stuck to the thing he was fixing!"

"Ha, that's pretty funny!" Dani laughed. She hoped Soos would get himself unstuck though.

"I know right! Anyway, let's get down to knitting!" Mabel declared enthusiastically while plopping herself down onto the floor.

Dani scratched the back of her neck awkwardly, "You know what, I think I'm gonna go for a walk first if that's okay with you. I'd like some more fresh air."

"Sure, don't get lost though!" The sweater-enthusiastic girl gasped and stuck her index finger in the air like she'd just had a eureka moment, "You could take some yarn and make a trail behind you!"

The ravenette blinked blankly for a moment before chuckling at her, "No thanks, I'm pretty sure you and Dipper's tour has me prepared." She smirked.

"Okay great! I'll see you later then."

"Bye." She said casually with a wave before exiting the room. Well that was pretty easy.

As soon as Dani was in the hall, she brought out the book and looked over the cover again before frowning.

"This better be worth it."