Pacifica hadn't been sure what to expect when she went to Gideon's mansion. But she certainly wasn't expecting her — or, Gideon's — butler to tell her to get ready for a family outing on the lake.

"Why do we have to go?" she asked Mrs. Northwest, using the snobbiest voice she could.

"I don't want to either, believe me," Geneva Northwest replied, pulling on a fur coat that probably cost more than Pacifica's stagehands earned in a month. Pacifica liked her style. "You know Mother hates the cold. But your father thinks it would be a good time to remind the townspeople that we're one of them."

"Are we one of them?" Pacifica drawled in Gideon's lazy cadence. Though she'd never speak like this in her body, it was natural in his.

"No, darling, we're not. But it's good to pretend. It keeps them from prying into our lives too much."

Pacifica wondered if a gruff, "Don't call me darling," would be something that Gideon would say, then decided against it. Just in case.

"Go get out in the limo, Gideon; your butler already put your ice skates out there." Geneva put an earring in her ear.

Pacifica wished she could have her own earrings. "Yes, Mother."

"And Gideon?"

"Yes?"

Geneva turned from her mirror and gave a little sigh. "I know it's hard, but can you try to be happy today? To the common folk, we're a perfect, happy family who has everything they could want. And. . ." She considered her words. "Well, at the very least, we have to keep up appearances." There was a faint trace of bitterness in her face. Pacifica could probably only see it because she had experience with hiding her emotions behind smiles and make-up.

She wondered how Gideon would react to this, and whether this was a common or rare interaction with Geneva. It seemed rare. Pacifica didn't know exactly what to say, so she nodded and said, "All right, Mother."

Half an hour later, she was ice skating near Gideon's parents in slow, lazy strokes. A good amount of the town was out on the lake, and Pacifica realized that she didn't even know most of them. She could pick out people she had read at her shows, but she couldn't remember anything about them. She never held onto that information; it didn't matter outside the show. She could even see the people that had watched her show just last night, before she'd held the séance.

Last night. She had been in her own body last night.

She looked down at Gideon's stocky chest and legs with a sigh. She had to switch back. She couldn't be stuck in this body forever!

Her eyes scanned the lake again, though she didn't know what she was looking for. Had Gideon had any luck? Not that she wanted Mabel to think she was sorry, but. . .

Wait. Was that. . . ?

Her eyes focused. Dipper! Dipper Pines was here! Pacifica quickly looked around for Mabel but luckily couldn't see her. Good. By no means could she face Mabel in this body. If that girl found out about the switch, she could take advantage of it and attack!

But Dipper — Dipper was here. Pacifica watched him dreamily for a moment. He was so. . .

Who was that?

There was someone with Dipper! Another girl! They stepped out onto the lake on their skates and started gliding on the ice. They talked and laughed. Pacifica didn't recognize the girl, but that didn't mean much; she didn't know most of the people out on the lake.

All that she knew was that Dipper was with another girl. Pacifica had to do something!

She nearly started skating over right away, then stopped herself. She was in Gideon's body, which meant she needed a plan. She needed a plan that would get Dipper away from the girl and get him thinking about Pacifica without knowing that he was actually talking to Pacifica. Piece of cake, she thought sarcastically.

Then she started getting an idea. Maybe. . . Just maybe, if Gidica had to apologize to Mabel for Pacifica, maybe Pacifica had to apologize to Dipper for Gideon! Pacifica didn't know what had happened between the two, but surely Gideon had been a jerk to him at some point. Gideon could be a jerk to anyone. Pacifica smiled to herself and started skating over.

"He's never talked like that before," Dipper was saying to his little friend. "Mabel and I were really surprised, because he's usually—"

"Hey, Dipper."

Pacifica tried to make her voice gruff, even though it would come out as Gideon's voice all the same. Under no circumstances could she sound flirtatious. Not in this body.

Dipper looked up in surprise, and then folded his arms. "Gideon Northwest," he said, eyes narrowing.

An overwhelming urge to tell Dipper that it was really her swept over Pacifica, but she fought it down. It wasn't that she couldn't trust Dipper; it was that she couldn't trust him to keep the information from his devious twin sister. "Dipper Pines," she replied. "Who's your friend?"

Dipper didn't answer, but instead searched Pacifica's face.

"Amanda," the girl broke in after an awkward silence. "I'm Amanda. I'm. . . staying with the Pines for a bit."

Pacifica nodded. Would Gideon think this girl was pretty? She certainly was pretty, in a very plain way. Hopefully Dipper realized that Pacifica obviously looked better (in her own body, of course). "Nice to meet you," she said to Amanda with the touch of insincerity that always laced Gideon's words.

"So, what are you doing over here, Northwest?" Dipper asked, keeping his arms folded. Pacifica fought another urge to tell him the truth. Her Dipper, usually open and happy, was guarded and suspicious, and she could hardly stand it. So, to cope, she thought of this like a show. She was playing the part of Gideon, and she would do it the best she could.

"Well, I'm here to ice skate, like everybody else." It was the type of sarcastic thing Gideon would say, she was sure of it.

"I meant right here," Dipper said.

Pacifica pretended to hesitate. "Well, I came over here to apologize," she said, dropping some of the confidence from her voice.

Dipper raised his eyebrows, which was an expression Pacifica was pretty sure he couldn't hold for long without laughing. Oh, how she wished she could make him laugh.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, acting like it was painful to say. I'm sorry I can't be with you as myself, she said silently, because if I was, you'd have much better company than this Amanda girl. Aloud, she said, "For being a jerk to you. The other day."

When would Gideon have been a jerk to Dipper, anyway? Maybe the other day, when he had gone to take care of those Mabel clones. Pacifica hadn't seen Dipper that day, but maybe Gideon had.

"And for talking bad about my sister?" Dipper said.

"Yeah. And for that. Sorry, man." Would Gideon say "man"? That was a guy thing, right?

Dipper squinted at Pacifica for a long moment. Finally, he said, "Do you and Pacifica have a bet or something?"

Pacifica blinked. "What?"

"Well, she showed up at our house earlier, apparently to apologize to Mabel. And now you're apologizing to me. So, what, do you guys have a bet?"

Great idea! "Um, yeah," Pacifica said. "Yeah, we had an agreement to apologize to you guys and all that. But I do mean it. So, are we good?"

Dipper rolled his eyes.

"C'mon, just say you forgive me." Never hurt to be thorough. Oh, this had better get her back in her beautiful body!

"Fine," Dipper said, "I forgive you. But you'd better mean it!"

"I do," Pacifica said. She stood there for a moment, waiting. Please switch back, she silently pled. Please switch back!

"Well, we'll be going now," said Dipper. He started to skate away with Amanda.

Pacifica nearly called out, "Wait!" but stopped herself just in time. "Okay. Thanks, man."

Dipper didn't look back at her, and Pacifica watched him go, hating Amanda for being with him and hating Gideon for being in her body.

"Gideon, darling, who was that?"

Pacifica looked over her shoulder to see Gideon's parents skating up to her, arm in arm. Gaston Northwest looked uninterested, but Geneva looked curious.

"Oh, a commoner who tries to talk to me sometimes," Pacifica said dismissively, remembering to play her role. "I decided to humor him today, since we're here in the first place."

Geneva's lips stretched into a smile. "Good for you, Gideon."

Gaston nodded. "Keep up the family image," was all he said, but he seemed approving. Pacifica found herself feeling. . . relieved?

Oh no, she thought. Please tell me I'm not starting to feel what Gideon would be feeling. Why haven't we switched back?

"Gideon?"

Pacifica blinked back into the present. "Thank you," she said to her — wait, no, Gideon's! — parents.

Geneva put a hand on Gaston's arm. "Honey, I saw Mr. Jefferies and his family a minute ago. Now would be a perfect time to go talk to him about that dinner. Why don't you go over and start that, and Gideon and I will catch up with you in a moment?"

"All right," Gaston said with a thoughtful nod. "Having you come up a little later might help convince him to come. I'll see you in a moment, then." With a kiss on Geneva's cheek that neither of them seemed to enjoy, Gaston skated off.

Pacifica had a nagging feeling that Geneva wanted some alone time with her son. That wasn't good, for Pacifica was not that son. But, sure enough, "We have a bit of time," Geneva said. "Do you want to talk about what happened the other day?"

Uh-oh. Pacifica stared at her, trying to figure out what to say. She had no idea what Geneva was talking about. "I'm. . . not sure," she said. "I don't know if it's a good idea to talk about it in public."

Geneva nodded sadly. "You're right. I do wish we could spend more time together."

Was this the apology that Pacifica had to make? Gideon had mentioned it earlier as a possibility. "I'm sorry, Mother. I'll try to spend more time with you."

Geneva waved away the apology. "You're busy enough with. . . with those people. I don't want you shirking your duties just to be with me."

"Of course not," said Pacifica, and she couldn't help but wonder: what duties?

Geneva sighed. "I don't mean to be such a downer, especially after I asked you to be happy. I just. . . I heard some of the commotion, even through that passageway. They're not bringing dangerous people down there, are they?"

Pacifica had no idea what the correct answer was — indeed, she had no idea what the context was. So she went with the answer that she knew Geneva wanted to hear: "No, of course not."

"That's good. I want you to be safe." The tone of the words told Pacifica that it was a complicated statement to make, though she didn't know why. She stayed silent as Geneva studied her son — or, who she thought was her son — for a moment. "All right," the woman said. "Let's go join your father."

Pacifica skated after her mother — no, Gideon's mother — and wondered two things: One, what was this work that Gideon did? And two. . .

Why wasn't she back in her own body?

~~~~~

Gideon sighed and tried to sit back, but this skirt made it virtually impossible. He stood up from the armchair and instead settled on the floor, where the skirt ballooned around him. Could he change? Did Pacifica even have normal clothes? Was he comfortable changing clothes while in this body?

Well, the answer to that last question was a resounding no.

Bud Pleasure poked his head around the corner. "Pacifica, darling, did you get enough to eat?"

Gideon smiled at him, hating how easy it was. "Yes, I did, Daddy. Thank you." It was strange: He was partly acting as he thought Pacifica would act, but a lot of his behavior seemed to happen naturally.

I really, really hope that doesn't mean we're settling in each other's bodies.

"You know, sweetheart, I've heard a lot of the town is going out ice skating on the lake today," Bud said. "Since you canceled your show to be with your mother and me, why don't we all go as a family? Won't that be fun?"

Gideon suppressed a groan. No, it didn't sound fun at all. He just wanted to sit here and wait until he switched bodies with Pacifica. But considering that it had been a while since he'd apologized to Mabel, sitting here probably wasn't going to help anything. "That does sound fun, Daddy." He teetered on what to say next, then went for it. "Say, you don't have a change of clothes for me in here, do you? Since I'm not doing my show today, I might as well dress up like a normal girl." He threw in a little laugh to punctuate his words.

"Of course we do, darling," Bud replied, with a gesture down the hall. "We've kept a room for you ever since you got back, in case you wanted to come live with us instead of in that trailer of yours." He immediately looked nervous after saying this. Gideon had a feeling Pacifica had strongly denied this offer in the past.

"Oh, right," Gideon said with a token Pacifica smile. "Thanks, Daddy."

He stood up with some difficulty; his desire to be out of Pacifica's stupid skirt sent him hurrying down the hall.

About ten minutes later, Gideon was in a relatively normal outfit. He didn't dare take the black tights off, but he put on normal winter boots and a much more flexible skirt. A cotton long-sleeve shirt replaced Pacifica's suffocating bodice, with a winter jacket over that. Gone were the weird shawl and the way-too-long gloves. He might still be wearing girl clothes, but at least he wasn't wearing that outfit anymore.

He looked in the mirror, wondering if Pacifica would approve of the outfit. If Pazeon happened to be at the lake, he was sure that she'd chew him out for his appearance, since it was technically her appearance. He'd stayed with mostly purple clothes, so he just had to hope she would like it.

With a blink, he realized what he was thinking. Why was he caring about this? He had to get out of this body as soon as possible!

He patted his hair tentatively. It didn't feel like hair. It felt like straw. Was this what hairspray felt like? How did Pacifica stand it?

Bud hadn't given him a time limit; Gideon assumed Pacifica took as much time as she needed to get ready at any given time. Did he dare try to unmake Pacifica's hairdo? It looked out of place with his "normal" clothes, but he didn't know if he could brush it out. No, he decided. If he messed with her hair, Pacifica would really get mad at him. This day was already bad enough without that. He patted some stray hairs in and left the mirror before he could fuss with anything else. Pacifica, he thought, if I've done my part, then please do something to switch us back so that you can worry about your own hair.

He went back out to the living room, where Bud greeted him with a cheerful compliment ("You look beautiful, sweetheart!") and a pair of ice skates. Pacifica's mother was there, too. She looked vaguely into the distance, her face framed by curly grey hair.

Gideon started as he got a good look at the woman's face. His heartbeat sped up, and he felt like he was speeding along with no control. He stared at Mrs. Pleasure in horror.

"Sweetheart? Are you ready to go?" Bud asked tentatively.

He forced himself to look at Bud. "Oh, yes. Sorry." He followed them to the car, unable to keep his eyes darting from Mrs. Pleasure to Bud and back.

It was her.

Gideon sat quietly in the back seat of their small car. His eyes traveled back and forth between Bud and his wife, but they mainly stayed locked on Mrs. Pleasure's grey curls.

It was her.

Gideon closed his eyes as a mental image began to form. A dark room. A purple-robed, hooded man. A woman with a bag over her head. The hood and the bag, taken off. Bud Pleasure and a woman who looked afraid. An instruction from Gideon's father.

"Now, Gideon, this woman has seen things that she wasn't supposed to see. It's our job to make sure she doesn't remember seeing them. It's your job to use that amulet of yours to erase the memories."

"Doesn't that hurt?"

Laughter, but no mirth. "No, it doesn't hurt. She won't feel or remember a thing. Now, hold the amulet in your hand. . . ."

It was the first time he had ever used his amulet against another human. Eight years old.

"Father, why is she shaking? Father?"

"Son, take the amulet and leave. Now!"

Something had gone wrong. Something he had done. . .

The woman was Pacifica's mother. Bud's wife. Gideon had heard of the shy woman who rarely left the house, but he'd never connected. . . he'd never thought. . .

He remembered another day, almost two years later. That day, he'd walked in the woods with Pacifica, and they'd tested out their amulets. "Pacifica," he'd asked, "are your parents nice?"

It had just come out, but he wanted to know. He wanted to know if his parents — especially his father — if they were normal or not. Did other parents use whistles like his father did?

"I guess," Pacifica had said. "Daddy can be really annoying. Mommy doesn't do much. She just wanders around and cleans the house. Daddy says her grey hair is rare and really pretty. If you ask me, it just makes her look old."

In the back of the Pleasures' car, Gideon stared at his hands as they twisted in his lap. He did this. Six years ago. He'd done the memory job wrong and ruined this woman's mind.

And Bud. . . Bud knew. Not that Gideon was in Pacifica's body, but that Gideon was responsible for his wife's condition. And he never came and said anything to the Northwests, not as far as Gideon knew.

Gideon wasn't at fault. Not really. Bud had subjected his own wife to this. Gaston had made Gideon do this to her. Besides, Gideon never felt guilt for the memory jobs. Why should he? He was just doing what he was told.

But. . . that first job. It was the only one he had ever messed up.

He suddenly felt restless. He had to get out of this car. He had to get out of this body. He couldn't be Pacifica any longer, not if it meant being around this woman whose mind he had inadvertently destroyed.

Gideon never felt guilt for the memory jobs. . . except this one.

He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the car ride to be over.

A/N: I can confirm that Gideon's father is named Gaston primarily so that we can make Gaston parody songs.

(Noooooo oooooone's rich as Gaston; no one's wroth as Gaston; no one's such a big jerk to his son as Gaston!)