Gravity Rises (S1)

FE: Part Twelve

Mabel sat firmly on the small dock, barely feeling the cold as it seeped through her jeans. Her ice skates slid listlessly over the ice below, and she stared at the slashes they made.

"Mabel?" Dipper sat next to her on the dock. It wasn't the main dock, but a smaller one tucked into some trees. Nobody had seen them come over here, Mabel was pretty sure; and even if they had, they wouldn't have seen how upset she was. The last thing she needed was more attention. Dipper's was fine, but. . . Amanda was here, too.

"Thanks for staying out of it," Mabel said to her twin. "That probably just would've made Ford angrier."

Dipper's fist clenched as it rested on the dock. "He'll apologize for treating you that way."

Mabel let out a humorless laugh. "Will he? He's pretty used to getting his way. And he's years older than us."

"But he's wrong! What's the point of him being this cool explorer if he won't show us anything?"

"There's always the Journal," Mabel said. But. . . but she wanted to spend time with Ford, not his old field journal. She stared glumly at the ice. "I guess we know for sure that he would take it away if we showed it to him."

"Yeah." Dipper touched her hand, and she looked up at him. "Well," he said, "I'm sorry about Ford. But I'll explore with you. It's still fun when it's the two of us, right?"

Mabel summoned a smile. "Yeah. Thanks, Dip."

"And," he said, "I'll make sure Ford apologizes to you."

Mabel bit her lip. "I dunno. . ."

"For me, if not for you. I can't believe he would talk to you that way! Especially after we've seen what he can act like." Dipper glanced at Amanda with that last sentence.

Mabel thought of Melody's story. How Ford used to be excited and adventurous, but one day everything changed. "I think," she said slowly, "that we saw a side of Ford earlier that he's been keeping hidden for decades."

"Why would he hide it?" Amanda suddenly blurted. Mabel started; she had nearly forgotten Amanda was there. Amanda blushed when Mabel but continued. "Why would he treat me differently than you guys?"

"Maybe because you're a selkie?" Dipper suggested. "Or because you aren't related to him? I don't know. But like I was telling you earlier: He never talks that way to us."

"I think," Mabel cut in, her voice soft, "he recognized that you were scared and needed help, and some instinct or habit kicked in without him thinking. Like he said, he's helped another selkie before."

"Yeah, maybe," said Dipper.

A moment later, Melody slid to a stop before them, throwing up ice shavings in her wake. "Mabel?"

"Oh, h-hi," Mabel said, not making eye contact.

"What happened? Ford looks grumpier than usual, and I saw the three of you over here."

Mabel looked down at the ice under her feet. She wasn't sure how to answer.

"Mabel and Ford fought," Dipper said for her. "We came over here to cool down."

Mabel could feel Melody's searching eyes on both her and Dipper. "You must be really angry about that."

Mabel nodded, but Dipper spoke. "Yeah, I am." Wait, Melody had been talking to Dipper? But Mabel was the one who had been talked down to and humiliated. She glanced at Dipper, whose face was still red from anger, and realized that he was having a difficult time, too.

"Um, this is a nice little hidden dock," Amanda said. "I'll go get my seal skin and bring it around to here."

"Oh, I'll help you," Melody offered. "I can bring the car around so you don't have to carry it so far."