Lost and Confused

I can verify that she is indeed unconscious!"

The doctor stood up from his knelt position by the injured girl and the gang groaned at his words.

"No kidding," Stan mumbled before briefly clearing his throat, "Is she gonna recover then doc?"

"Hmm," The man rubbed his chin in contemplation, "I believe she has a surprisingly high chance of being alright with no permanent damage. She's actually regaining a steady heartbeat quite fast."

Sighs of relief came from everyone.

"Good to know. Will she be waking up any time soon?" Stan continued to inquire.

"It's hard to confirm at this point, but it could be anything from a week to a month." The doctor glanced around the room, "By the way, you don't happen to know her family or name do you?"

Dipper spoke up, "No we just found her in the forest, there was no one else around."

"Well, I don't think we can move her anymore due to the risk of further damage so would you all be able to look after her here?"

Looks were exchanged throughout the group and Stan scratched his chin uneasily. Free lodgers yuck.

"I suppose, we could make some space in the twins' roo-Wait!" His eyes narrowed, "Is there any medicine I have to buy or anything?"

Dipper and Mabel glanced at each other when he said this. He wasn't disregarding this girl's state right?

Ignoring the irritation evident in Stan's voice, the doctor responded calmly, "You may need to buy some aspirin, pain killers etcetera. And if necessary, we'll provide an IV."

The old man nodded in acceptance, "I think I can handle that. I don't expect to be paying for anything that should be provided for free."

The twins relaxed as they realised he simply didn't want to be conned into giving the hospital money for no reason. Classic Grunkle Stan.

"Alright, well I'll be off," The doctor gathered his belongings, "I don't think there's much else I can do. I will be back tomorrow to see how she's doing though. Please call me if anything is needed or her condition worsens drastically."

"We will. I'll show you out." Stan stated, ushering the man out of the room.

"Thank you!" Mabel called out.

The three left in the room heard the door open which was closely followed by a small 'click' before Stan came back in with an eye roll.

"I should get going too." Soos piped up, "My grandma's gonna want me for dinner. I'll be back early tomorrow morning though Mr Pines."

"Right, we'll see you tomorrow then Soos, thanks for your help."

He saluted the older man, "No problem," he turned to the twins and waved, "Bye dudes."

They waved back before he headed out of the room and then the building, shouting one last thing, "Lemme know if you need anything!"

Once the door closed, a silence fell over the living room. Stan suddenly let out a breath and knelt down in front of Dipper and Mabel. An action earning quizzical looks from the pair.

"I'm proud of you two right now."

He put a hand on each of their outer shoulders. Dipper went to speak but Stan shushed him.

"I'm proud because you've both been very brave and quick thinking in a serious situation like this. You straight away thought to get help and probably saved this girl's life. Well done." He finished giving them a hug.

"I honestly am really prou-"

"Is dinner ready yet? I thought it was getting kinda late and I hadn't heard anything so I decided to come up and see what's going on."

The trio practically jumped and turned to face Ford as he stood perplexed in the doorway. He quirked a brow, seeming to have noticed the tension in the air.

"I guess I'll ask again. What's going on?"

"A girl got hurt." Mabel blurted out, pointing to the sofa.

This opened up more questions for the man as he looked in that direction, "Who and how? What happened?"

"It's because of the storm." Dipper began to explain, "Me and Mabel were in the forest and suddenly a girl went crashing through the trees so we had to get help. Now she's staying here and we're looking after her." He relayed with a stressed expression.

"That's awful...You say she fell through the trees?" Ford's investigator side caused him to be intrigued by the incident more than anything and Stan folded his arms in the background in disapproval.

"Yeah, we're still confused about that part." The boy shrugged.

At this point,Ford was heading over to the sofa and started to inspect her. He tutted at the injuries she sustained, "How come you haven't taken her to the hospital?"

"I already called a doctor over and he told us to keep her here and that she'll likely recover well. I'm gonna have to make a bed for her and put it in the kids' room." Stan stated sharply.

"I could hel-"

"NO!" Stan cleared his throat while the tween twins glanced at him with bewilderment, "I mean, I can do it just fine."

"Alright..." Ford scratched his neck, "So is dinner still happening or..."

Looks of uneasiness were shared by Dipper and Mabel. They couldn't even think about eating right now with the stress of the girl's situation looming over the Shack.

"I honestly don't really have much of an appetite." The youngest pointed out.

"Me either." His twin agreed.

Although Stan understood why, he wasn't having it.

"You two still need to eat so I'll make you something small." He went to start heading to the kitchen but Mabel cut him off.

"I'll do it!" She jumped up and down.

Her Grunkle was caught off guard by her sudden change of attitude, "But I thought you just said you weren't-"

"You should let her do it Grunkle Stan, it'll take her mind off things." Dipper suggested.

Stan merely nodded as Mabel charged excitedly into the kitchen.

"So, I'm going to go back downstairs. I'll try to work on some medicine or something to help you out though." The other brother declared before wandering away.

"We'll call you for dinner." Mabel hollered after him.

A couple of seconds passed.

The two left in the room glanced at eachother.

"What now then?" Dipper asked.

"Umm, we could see what's on-"

A sudden bang came from the kitchen and a thick cloud of smoke poured out soon after.

Dipper deadpanned, "Nevermind, I'm ordering takeaway."

-Basement Lab 02:07 AM-

"Again, I'm sorry for coming here so late but I needed someone to vent to. And I didn't want to freak Mabel out more."

"Don't worry Dipper, these are stressful times, it's okay." Ford hunched slightly on his stool and rested his hand on his knee whilst talking.

"I think I'll try to go back to sleep now." The boy hopped off of his seat.

"If you wake up again, you can come back down here Dipper. And by the way, I hear that a glass of milk helps so perhaps you should get one."

Dipper was grateful for hos words, "Okay, I'll probably do that, goodnight great uncle Ford."

"G'night Dipper. Sleep well." He waved at the boys' retreating form before turning back to his work as he disappeared behind the elevator doors.

Ford shook his head, "Poor kid."

...

At night, the Mystery Shack gift shop would have an eerie calmness to it. A stark contrast to the bustling ambience of the day. On this occasion, as had similarly occur ed at previous times, the atmosphere was shattered by the grating sound of the vending machine being moved across the floor. The cause, Dipper, who stepped out and tiredly put the machine back into place.

He groggily trudged into the kitchen, going past the girl on the sofa as he did. She's still out cold of course, not like he'd expected any different though.

As he reached the fridge, after pulling a glass out of the cupboard, something caught his attention. Had he just heard something?

He halted what he was doing and turned in a 180. He must have imagined that right? Or maybe it was just a general nose you'd expect to hear at this time. Like some kind of bug outside.

Curious again, and a little concerned and suspicious, he crept back towards the living room, grabbing a cooking utensil for a weapon just in case. Upon re-entering the room, the first thing he noticed was that the girl had rolled onto one side.

He breathed a sigh of relief for the fact that there was nothing wrong and began to feel a little silly for getting so defensive. He went to her side to check that she wasn't lying on any cuts or bruises but as he did, she let out a noise and started moving even more. Her eyebrows furrowed as if she was about to wake up and Dipper panicked.

In a rush, he ran upstairs to wake the others up.

On the sofa, the ravenette's eyes cracked open slightly then closed again as she rolled over another time. A grimace formed on her face at the feeling of a small pain and she moved again. And why did her throat feel so dry? Her left eye stung too. She brushed her fingers against the skin just under her eyelid and cringed at the pain she felt.

Must have been the after effects of a recent ghost fight she suspected. Most likely the one before the sto-

Dani bolted up, her eyes instantly blown wide. She'd been flying! Where the hell was she now? Why was she lying down?

The surface was soft she noted, but the room was kinda dark. She let her eyes glow so she could see everything. It looked like she was in someone's living room. Too cosily decorated and "cheap" to be Vlad she thought immediately to comfort herself. Last time he strapped her to a cold metal slab no questions asked. Still could be someone else lulling her into a false sense of security.

She rubbed her throat in a soothing manner. So either this was a trap or someone was actually trying to help her...

The sudden sound of feet thudding down stairs startles her and she stops her eyes from glowing and lies down again, pretending to be asleep.

As the group of people descended the stairs, Dani overheard their conversation.

"Grunkle Stan, I'm telling you she moved."

"And I'm telling you that doesn't mean she's awake Dipper."

"Then why are you coming with me?"

"To get you to stop bugging me kid!"

A groan could be heard following that.

They seemed concerned about her. It sounded like there were two kids and an adult which surprised her somewhat. Maybe a family had taken her into their home. But why? Had they found her injured or something?

The trio reached the bottom of the stairs and Dipper was followed into the living room by the others where they collectively stood in front of the Dani.

She could tell they were there and decided to slowly blink her eyes open as if she'd just woken up. They didn't seem like a threat so far, but if they tried anything, she'd be bolting out of there like lightning.*

Three people became visible to her as she had expected. Two kids seemingly her age, and an old man, potentially a grandpa. The surprise and apprehension on their faces caused Dani to feel more relaxed. Seems they really were looking after her then.

She sat up slowly again but something went wrong. The pain came back but worse and she was forced to shut her eyes in discomfort. Dani felt a hand rest on her shoulder, attempting to move her to a more comfortable position. She blinked her eyes open again and noticed it was the elder man who helped. She appreciated the gesture but was too disorientated to show this.

"Hey, can you understand what I'm saying kid?" He spoke with a bit of a gruff voice and sounded uneasy.

Dani coughed and attempted to speak, "Yeah." she croaked out. In her ears, it sounded like a load a garbled nonsense. Her throat suddenly begins to burn as if she'd just been strangled for the past hour and she goes into a coughing fit resulting in all the pain spots of her body firing up.

The ravenette curled into herself slightly at the agony. As the coughs faded out, an intense headache started causing her to clutch at her head. Dani was vaguely aware of someone calling a doctor before her vision cut out and everything went black.

They'd had to keep her overnight at the hospital. After that pass out, the Pines knew they had to get her there fast. She looked like she'd been in immense pain.

Dipper and Mabel were in the living room playing a video game. Stan had decided to stay at the hospital and told the two that they could stay up and do something as he figured they'd have a hard time getting back to sleep. He wasn't wrong there.

The younger twin was struggling to concentrate though but he kept playing for his sister's sake. It wasn't necessarily due to sleep deprivation but rather the fact that he had previously spied something on the carpet. He assumed Mabel hadn't noticed but there was a dark red patch that had appeared when the girl was coughing on the couch. It was another reason he was glad he called the hospital.

Dipper's eyes kept darting the area every now and then. The mark itself was gone as Stan had cleaned it up, but he couldn't stop thinking about it. It seemed the girl had more damage then they had thought. Especially since the blood appeared to have had little flecks of green in it. Almost as if it were contaminated...

He shuddered at the ideas and saw Mabel glance at him from the corner of his eye. He moved an arm and softly squeezed her shoulder briefly before returning to gently mashing buttons on the controller in his hands.

He wouldn't be lying if he said he felt guilty that while that poor girl was stuck in the hospital, he was just sat on a sofa doing what would be considered "chilling out". Even though he and Mabel were only trying to calm themselves down, it still felt wrong.

Dipper glanced over at the carpet again and sighed inwardly.

He'd have to ask Ford about it.