Putting together the wax museum didn't take nearly as much effort as Wendy dreaded it would. All what they had to do was move the statues from the room outside, where Soos would be hosting the grand re-opening.

Combined with a little bit of Dipper and Mabel's help, it all came together quite nicely.

Soos even found an old velvet rope in a storage closet, which they ended up using for the entrance beside the ticket booth. Wendy volunteered to work the ticket booth alongside Dipper, while Mabel helped Soos with the last-minute decorating.

"I gotta say kid, I'm impressed!" Stan said, clapping Soos on the shoulder in a father-like manner as they watched Mabel hang up a banner that said GRAND REOPENING.

Soos grinned in reply to Stan and watched with growing pride as the tourists began filing in from the entrance.

"I can't believe all of these people actually showed up," Wendy said, trading a customer a ticket for their money.

"Me neither," Dipper agreed. "Did Stan pay you to help out with this?"

"No, Soos asked me," Wendy replied with a shrug. "I volunteered."

"That's really cool of you," Dipper said.

Wendy attempted to hide her blushing by tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear.

"I know I'd do the same for Mabel," he added with a small chuckle. "She gets into the craziest situations."

"Speaking of that," Wendy said. "What were you guys doing when you got caught sneaking out yesterday?"

Dipper's shoulders drooped and his eyes narrowed slightly in remembrance of being grounded. "Mabel and I heard that the convenience store downtown was haunted so we were asking some of the locals about it."
He let out a low grunt of anger.

"Now the hunt's postponed until we're un-grounded."

"Oh," Wendy said awkwardly. She suddenly felt terrible for bringing it up. Dipper obviously hated being cooped up in the shack instead of exploring the town.

"But whatever, it's fine," Dipper said reassuringly. "It's not like it's your fault. We were stupid for trying to sneak off like that."
He smiled when he said "and maybe you could even help us out with the ghosts once we get in all the information we need."

Wendy suppressed her burning urge to jump up and down and squeal with glee. Finally, her opportunity to impress Dipper had come! She remained somewhat stoic and nodded.

"Sure, sounds fun."

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Soos's voice echoed through the sound system. "The event has begun! Please take your seats and grab your cameras!"

The audience fell silent, except for the occasional murmuring and flashes of cameras.

"Our first statue is good ole' Honest Abe," Soos announced, gesturing towards the wax statue of Abraham Lincoln.

"Right over here we have wax William Shakespeare followed by wax Sherlock Holmes. "
A man in the front row raised his hand, Soos turned to face him and said, "Yes sir, what's your question?"

"I'm Toby Determined of Gravity Falls Gossiper, are you aware of the wax statue uprising?" Toby asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Um. . . I'm not sure how to respond to that. Next question!" Soos said.

A few more hands flew up, eager to receive an answer. Soos picked a tall woman holding a microphone with a cameraman standing behind her.

"Hello, I'm Sandra Hamanez, a real reporter-" she shot Toby a nasty look before continuing "-are you aware that these wax figures fit the description of the reported stolen ones?"

Soos looked confused. "What?" He said, his voice becoming small.

Stan angrily grabbed Soos's microphone and said, "you're accusing me of stealing some wax statues?"

"Precisely," Sandra nodded, "and I'm sure that the police should be here any moment, seeing that I have just notified them."

"But that can't be right! Stan might occasionally "break the law" but he wouldn't steal from somebody!" Soos shouted desperately.

"The kid's right," Stan agreed, "I swear I haven't done anything illegal! Well, this time I haven't. . . You can't prove anything!"

The debate was cut off by the wailing of a police siren. The car stopped and two men stepped out.

"You've got some explaining to do, Stanford," Sherrif Blubs said, adjusting his sunglasses.

"I didn't steal these, I bought them at a yard sale years ago," Stan said, pointing at the statues. "Besides, how do you know that these are the right ones?"

"We have film evidence," Sandra said confidently, showing the audience a Polaroid photo of the statues that was dated about twenty years ago.

"You're gonna have to come with us," Deputy Durland said, walking up to the stage.

"But he didn't do anything wrong!" Mabel cut in from her seat.

Blubs had already snapped on the handcuffs and was guiding Stan to the police car.

"I'm sorry, but he can't be released until proven innocent," Blubs said. He slammed the door behind Stan and climbed back into the drivers seat while Durland took the passenger side.

"And he shouldn't be locked up until proven guilty," Dipper pointed out.

Durland and Blubs paused in consideration. They exchanged an unsure look, then turned back to them.

"Alright," Sherif Blubs announced, "you have twenty four hours to prove your uncle innocent."

Deputy Durland grudgingly opened the door, helped Stan out, and removed his handcuffs.

"Twenty four hours," Blubs repeated sternly before climbing into the drivers seat. Durland did the same, and the car sped away just as fast as it had appeared.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

An hour or so after their confrontation with the police and after Stan had dismissed the hoard of people, the family had gathered in the kitchen.

"What am I gonna do?" Stan asked while nervously pacing the floor, "I can't go to jail again!"

"Mabel and I would help gather evidence that you're guilty, but we're grounded," Dipper said with annoyance boiling in his voice. Mabel nodded in agreement.

"Fine. You're un-grounded, now help your uncle out of this mess," Stan said curtly.

Dipper and Mabel shared an amused glance. Wendy suddenly had the feeling that the two would definitely take this opportunity to abuse Stan's desperation.

"I dunno Grunkle Stan. . ." Mabel mused, "we sure do feel ashamed for what we did, I think we'd prefer to decline your offer of un-grounding us."

Stan looked somewhat dumb founded at them. "You're black mailing me?"

Dipper shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much."

Stan sighed and muttered, "What'dya want?"

"First off, we want our curfew extended," Dipper said.

"And cut down our working hours or start paying us," Mabel added.

Stan glared at them. "You know what? It's not worth it. You two can just stay grounded! I don't need your help!" He stormed out of the room. Wendy and Soos, who had been watching the scene, suddenly felt very awkward.

Soos turned to the twins.

"Why aren't you guys helping him?" He asked with eyebrows knit tightly.

Mabel crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "Cause he's way too over-protective! This could've been our opportunity to get out of the Shack more often."

"If he's not gonna help us then we won't help him," Dipper agreed stubbornly.

"But he's your uncle!" Soos exclaimed."He could go to jail!"

"Stan's broken out before, he can do it again," Dipper said grudgingly. They both turned away and began to make their way to the attic.

Soos looked at Wendy desperately, his eyes pleading her to help him talk the twins into helping Stan. Wendy really didn't want to get into the Pines family drama, but it was obvious that there was no escape from this situation.

Wendy sighed. "What about the thrill of the chase?"

"What?" Dipper asked, pausing in the doorway. Mabel stopped and looked over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow.

"You can't resist a good mystery, and that's exactly what this is. Don't you wanna find out who framed Stan?" Wendy offered.

A considerate look fell on the twins' faces.

Dipper fought against a smile as he said, "Geez, she knows our weakness, Mabel."

Mabel laughed. "You got that right."

"So. . . you changed your mind?" Soos asked hopefully.

"Yes," they said simultaneously.

"But we're not doing it for him," Mabel said bitterly. Dipper nodded.

"Great!" Soos said happily. "Now, where do we start?"

A/N:

I just realized that I'm basically writing Soos with Steven's personality. . . Can we all just take a moment to agree that that's exactly what Soos would be like as a kid?

Sorry that this update took so long, I've had a bit of a crazy week. This part was supposed to be the conclusion but it's ended up being a three-parter.

And something I thought was cool, there's a song titled "Cath...." by Death Cab for Cuties, it's officially my theme song/ anthem XD

See you next weekend, Cathercorns!

And don't forget to check out my other story that I'm currently working on, Triple Pines!

Bye!

~Cath