"Wow, I knew your arms were durable, Pine Tree, but I never knew they were THIS durable!"

"I thought I told you to put that down!"

"Haha, you did! That's the point!"

Bill refused to break eye contact with Dipper as he took a blade and slowly ran it across his arm until it bled, and then took the knife out of the injury and began to create another one. Dipper cringed as he watched his own arms be destroyed in ways that could send him to therapy for months, and he had to look away completely when Bill began to lick the blood from the knife. Bill grins widely. "I don't see why you're complaining" he says as he drops the knife on the ground dangerously close to his feet. He walks over to Mabel's side of the bedroom and picks her grappling hook off of her nightstand. "I'm the one taking all the pain for you. You should be thanking me!" He aims the grappling hook towards the wall, and shoots. He squeezes his eyes shut, and grins when it bounces back and smacks him in the head hard enough to knock him over. Before either of them can make another comment, footsteps are heard outside the door, and then knocking is heard.

"Kid?"

Stan.

"Hey kid, I've been calling you for the past five minutes. Your food's ready, what gives?" His voice trails off into silence when he opens the door. Bill winks at Dipper, and then turns around to look at Stan. He drops his arms down to his side and stares at Bill for a quick moment before walking into the room and kneeling besides him. He wipes his hand across Bill's forehead and then looks down at his own hand when it smudges. "Is this blood?" he asks, and he sighs heavily and rubs his hand across his face when he nods. "I told you to be careful" he begins, but again his voice trails off completely when he sees the cuts, some of them still dripping with blood all over his arms, and the color completely fades from his face as his head drops to the ground. "I had no idea. I'm sorry kid" he whispers, and much to Dipper's shock, pulls him into a hug. Bill, looking very uncomfortable but not wanting to give anything away, hugs him back. "I should've come to check on you earlier. I'm sorry. I promise I'll do better next time" he whispers, before pulling away. He picks the knife up from the floor and takes the grappling hook from Bill. "Come down to eat whenever you're ready". He stands up, and heads out the door.

Bill pretends to gag once Stan's completely out of sight. "Yeesh, way to ruin the fun, am I right?" he asks, before looking around the room. He stretches. "Eh, I've got plenty of time to spare. How much different could food be from soda?" He runs into the door in an attempt to phase through the wall, and then swings the door open before running down the stairs. Dipper sighed as he rushed after him.

Stan and Mabel are sitting at the dining room table closer together than usual, and when Bill comes stammering into the room, Mabel jumps up while Stan looks down at his plate and begins to poke at his food with his fork. "Dipper!" she yells, running over to Bill and skidding to a halt when she notices all of the cuts and scratches. "What happened to you?" she asks, slowly picking up one of Dipper's arms so she can look at all of the cuts on it, and then goes to look at the other arm. Once she sees the injuries on his fingers as well, the shocked expression on her face disappears and changes into sadness. "Dipper, did you do this to yourself?" she asks, and when Bill doesn't respond with words, she backs up slowly until she bangs into the chair behind her. Stan stands up.

"Mabel sweetie, I think you should go to your room"

"But Grunkle Stan, I'm worried about him!"

He sighs. "I know you are. So am I. But I need to talk to him in private for a minute" She opens her mouth to argue, but when she sees how concerned he is, she shuts her mouth and slowly begins to head into the other room. When she's out of eyesight, Stan once again stands up and walks over to Bill to check on the injuries he left on Dipper's body.

"I'm amazed you haven't passed out yet, this is a lot more injuries than most people can handle. I better check your pulse when I'm done searching just to make sure you're okay" He says, lifting up Dipper's arms to check how many injuries he has, but then stops dead mid-search. He begins to feel around Dipper's wrist, slowly, with one hand at first, and evolves into a panicked motion with both hands. He checks the other wrist in the same panicked motion. He then grabs Dipper's hand that's injured the least, and drags him outside. Bill follows him in confusion.

Dipper makes sure to follow the car all the way to its destination from the start so he doesn't fall behind or lose them on the way to their destination. If he had a heart, he'd swear it would stop when he followed the car all the way to the hospital that lies right on the town's border. What is he going to tell Mabel? What is he going to tell Mom and Dad? They'd never let me back here again. He followed closely behind Bill as he followed Stan through the hospital and into the ER. He watched as Stan very nervously talked to the person at the desk, gesturing to Bill, and whispering something in an even more panicked voice. The person behind the desk hands Stan a form, and sits down in the closest chair to the counter. Before he can start to fill it out, a doctor comes into the room, calling his name. Bill stands up, and awkwardly follows the doctor into a room. The doctor says something to Bill, and he staggers over to the bed and lies down. "Your uncle said he'd be right back. He said he had to go home and get something for you" the doctor says, and Bill nods in acknowledgement. Once the doctor leaves, Bill grins as widely as Dipper's body will allow and looks over at Dipper.

"How could you still be smiling at a time like this? You nearly killed me and you almost gave Stan a heart attack!" Dipper shouted, which causes Bill to laugh.

"What are you talking about? That gives me all the more reason to smile! Hurting your body physically and destroying Stan emotionally? Kid, this is the best day of my life!" He sits up.

"Is that why you took over my body in the first place? To do more damage to my family then any amount of therapy or visits to hospital will ever fix?"

. "It wasn't before, but it is now!" Bill leans over and grins when he sees Mabel walking into the room towards them with her head faced down to the floor. "Now unless you want me doing harm to her too, don't say another word until I say you can" Dipper wasn't a big fan of the idea, but he doesn't want to take any risks. He bites down on his lip when Mabel slowly approaches the bedside and places the Journal down on the nightstand.

"For later, when you need something to read" are the only words Mabel says as she pulls a chair up to sit next to him. She sits there without doing anything for a moment, and then pulls the chair up closer. "Nothing?" she asks, her voice starting to crack with sadness. "No hello, no thank you, no nothing?" she stands up and walks to the side of the bed with the slight opening. "You're not even going to comment on the fact that I took your journal?" she asks, forcing a smile, which disappears again when Bill gives no response. She leans over, gently picks him up, and hugs him. She begins crying into his vest, and Bill hugs back, to stay in character, but rolls his eyes at Dipper, who's shoving his hands behind his back and trying his best not to make any comments. Bill smirks and nods at him. Footsteps are heard approaching the room, and everyone turns their head to see Stan approaching Mabel. She quickly places Bill back down on the bed and backs away from him.

"Mabel, I just got off the phone with your parents, and we all agreed that you should go home"

"What? No! Stan, I have to stay here with him, he needs me!" she backs up towards the bed again. He walks over to her and kneels down to her level.

"I understand how hard it is. But I don't want this to mess up your head. Your parents are flying out in a few hours to pick you up. We should go. The kid needs to rest, and you need to pack up"

Mabel takes one last look at Bill, a tear rolling down her cheek, and then she faces Stan again. "Okay, fine. But you have to promise to send him back home when he's recovered, alright?" she asks, and Stan grins sadly. "I promise" he says, leading her out of the room. Bill falls back in the bed in hysterical laughter when they're completely out of sight.

"Geez, Pine Tree, your family is easy! I haven't had this much fun since the last time I inhabited a body, and I blinded him in one of his eyes! Even his family didn't get this depressed about him when he had to go to the hospital!" he grins when Dipper tries to grab him by the collar, but instead phases right through him.

"You traumatized my sister! What horrible, twisted thing did I do to you to ever make you want to hurt me this badly?" He shouted, somehow managing to cry tears in his mindscape form.

"Nothing more than what you already know! Since you've proven the destruction of the journal impossible with you and your sister around, I figured that if you two are out of the picture, destroying that journal would be a cinch! But then another thought came to me. You ruined me when you got Gideon to break our deal. You cost me more than you could ever imagine possible. So I thought I should return the favor, and ruin your life just as badly as you ruined mine!" He grins. "And now that that's done, that means I won't be needing this anymore!" Before Dipper can ask what he means, he watches in sheer horror as Bill rips himself from his body and flashes away without another word.

When Dipper's sure he's gone, he sighs and floats over to his own body and checks over all of the injuries. He's not too sure if he wants to go back, but he sighs again and floats into his own body. The moment the pain from every injury on his body hits at the same time, he flinches horribly, and when he finally begins to feel his heart beat again, he begins to cough violently. When he stops, he lies down back onto the bed. For Mabel. He slowly turns on his side so he's facing the door. For Stan. He pulls the blanket up closer to him and closes his eyes.

He wakes up who knows when later to two voices whispering on the other side of the room. He opens his eyes slowly, and when his vision adjusts, he sees Stan very nervously gripping his fez and fake eye patch talking to the same doctor that had led him to his hospital room earlier that day. He sits up slowly, and when the blanket slides off of him, he notices that he had somehow changed out of his everyday clothes and was now wearing clothes provided by the hospital. The deepest cut on his arm had stiches on it. He pokes at it, to see if the stiches are real, and flinches when he pokes it too hard. Both Stan and the doctor look over at him when he does. Stan approaches him, "You're awake" he whispers, and Dipper smiles at him. "I guess I am" he whispers back, which causes Stan to laugh quietly. He then frowns.

"Look, kid, I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I should've been a better caretaker. I should've check in on you earlier, more often, and I should've looked for the early signs of depression when you were showing them. I almost lost you." He whispers, and Dipper shakes his head.

"No, Stan, it's okay, it's not your fault" he says, awkwardly rubbing at the back of his head.

"No. it IS my fault. You were really hurting yourself back then. You could've killed yourself. It's my fault for not paying better attention to you"

"Grunkle Stan-"

"No, listen to me. I'm being serious"

"So am I" Dipper whispers, sitting up so he can give Stan a hug.

"Is this a hug? Are you hugging me?" Stan tries to hide his smile as he says it almost sarcastically, and Dipper laughs, grabbing Stan's head and keeping him in a headlock.

"Nope," he says, laughing quietly. "It's a chokehold"