It wasn't an incredibly long car trip home, not that Dipper would know. He slept the whole way back the Mystery Shack. That's what sleep deprivation and having a demon trick you into possessing your body would do to you.

Dipper remembered having Grunkle Stan pick him up and take him to bed, but other than that, everything after getting in the car was burry. He woke up to the sting of some disinfectant that Mabel was applying to his arm. He made a hissing sound over the medicine.

"Mabel," The girl addressed looked him in the eyes and gave him a sympathetic grin.

"Sorry Dipper, this stuff stings. It smells kinda funny, too, but it's necessary." She sniffed the bottle of medicine in question and pinched her nose. "Bleh!" She smiled when she heard a small laugh from her brother, but a more serious look returned when he made a pained sound and wrapped his arms around his torso.

"Oww," Dipper whined, "How did he even manage to hurt this much of me? He couldn't have been in my body for more than a couple hours!" Lifting his shirt revealed several purple, black, and blue bruises—probably from falling down the stairs, he guessed. He looked back over to the arm that Mabel was dressing and saw the fork marks. Bill really did a number on him, didn't he?

"Don't worry, bro-bro. You'll feel better in no time. You've got Nurse Mabel to get you back in shape!" She proudly gestured to her white sweater with a red cross embroidered on the front. "I'm gonna go get you some chicken noodle soup!" Finishing wrapping gauze on his arm, she leaped up and ran out the door to begin cooking her brother some food.

Oh no, Dipper thought. Not Nurse Mabel again. She always did this. Every time he got sick, she'd baby him, smother him, and cater to his every need until he was better. It drove Dipper nuts. He pondered on a solution to the problem. He hated being stuck in bed, unable to do anything, and he also didn't enjoy Nurse Mabel and her antics. If he could just get better immediately, then he wouldn't have to put up with either of those annoyances. The only problem was that 'getting better immediately' was an impossible feat. Unless…

"The journal!" He spoke his epiphany aloud. The journal probably had something that could help. Dipper grabbed the book from under his bed and flipped through the pages. Even that small action shot pain signals all throughout his body. He chose to ignore them for now, because once he found the answer in Journal 3, it'd be over and there'd be nothing to worry about. After a few moments of scanning pages, he finally found what he'd been looking for. He recalled reading about this, but he never really needed the information until now.

According to the journal, there was a spring of water deep within the forest that was said to possess incredible healing qualities. It could heal any bodily wounds. That's exactly what he needed!

"It's right next to the height-altering crystals, too! Haha!" This wasn't going to be hard at all. He stood up triumphantly, nearly falling over upon doing so, and began to march down the stairs.

Getting past Mabel was easy. She and Waddles were both in the kitchen, and both wore matching chef hats. Her loud rendition of her favorite Sev'ral Times song covered up any sound Dipper made while sneaking past.

Now he just had to make it to the spring. This'd be a piece of cake.

Once she completed the chicken noodle soup, she headed back upstairs with a hot bowl of it to give to her brother, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Dipper? Is that you under all those blankets?" She set the bowl down and lifted his blankets away, hoping he'd be asleep under them. But he wasn't. Where could he have gone? The bathroom was her first guess, but as she looked around the room, that theory started to seem very unlikely. Journal 3 was no longer in one of Dipper's hiding places, but it was now on the floor beside his bed and opened. She picked it up and read over the contents of the page. "Magic healing water? He didn't." She huffed in disappointment and concern.

He had to have gone into the forest to find this. And he didn't even put on shoes! Mabel shook her head and frowned at the vest, hat, and shoes that remained in their place. She was going to have to go and get him before he got himself hurt. If he's tired enough to forget the journal, his vest, his hat, and his shoes, then this was an emergency.

She grabbed Dipper's backpack and stuffed Journal 3 in it, along with everything else Dipper had forgotten and her grappling hook. He couldn't have gone too far, right?

How close was he? He had to be pretty close by now. He had been walking for half an hour, and he thought he saw some tiny birds earlier. Well, they were either miniature birds or just really far away.

Dipper hoped he'd get there soon. With every step, he emitted an "ow", and the aching seemed to get worse as he went on. Maybe he shouldn't have done this. What if he got lost out here? What if he was attacked by a bear or—or worse? Doubts and regrets filled his head, and panic set in soon after. He had to get back to the Shack. Mabel was probably worried sick. Oh, Mabel. She was just trying to help, and he had been a jerk and ditched her.

He definitely needed to get back. Definitely. Dipper started running in what he was pretty sure was the direction of the Mystery Shack. Running hurt more than his slow trudge to the spring, but he didn't care. He had to get back and apologize to Mabel. He had to.

Mabel hadn't had any luck with finding Dipper. How he managed to get that far ahead of him, she wasn't sure. She was starting to lose her hopes of finding him until she heard something. Panting noises lined between the word "ow" repeated over and over. And it seemed to be getting closer.

"Dipper!" She said as the two collided with each other. She grabbed him by the shoulders and made eye contact, while he dissolved into a freaked out string of apologies. "Dipper. Dipper!" He finally quieted down.

"I'm sorry, I just—I ran off looking for this spring and," He paused and collected himself again, "You were just trying to help me feel better, and I acted like a big jerk. I didn't want your help, and I just left you without even telling you where I was going. All because I'm just too stubborn and didn't want you fussing over me."

"It's alright. Maybe I do kinda come on strong and get annoying. Nurse Mabel doesn't know when to leave the patient alone." She frowned and pulled Dipper's shoes, hat, and vest out of her bag. "Here," She helped him put them on when he asked. "Can you just promise me not to go running off again when you're hurt like this? You gotta know you're in no shape for mysteries, right?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry. Guess I got in over my head. Sometimes taking a shortcut isn't the answer." He gave her an apologetic grin.

"Hey, but I think we're closer to that spring than we are to the Mystery Shack. Still wanna get healed up? It'd be easier than me having to carry your butt up to the Shack," She shoved him jokingly but cautiously; she didn't want to accidentally hurt him some more.

The twins visited the spring that the journal spoke of, and it worked just as quickly as they expected. They were amazed to see Dipper's injuries fade away so suddenly. He lifted his arm and stretched his fingers, thrilled that they no longer ached.

After the spring, the two headed back to the Shack and went up to the attic.

"Guess Nurse Mabel is off duty for now, huh?" She shrugged off the sweater and replaced it with a green one with a tabby cat on it.

"Guess so," Dipper responded. "Hey Mabel, thank you for helping me feel better. Nurse Mabel knows what she's doing, really."

"Aw, it's no problem, Dipper." She accepted his apology. "Wanna go see if Grunkle Stan will take us to the diner for dinner?"

"You're hungry too? Yeah, let's go. Pancakes for dinner?"

"Pancakes for dinner." They exchanged grins at the thought of the all-day breakfast menu.