Pulling into the Station
Dipper opened his eyes as the bus jerked to a stop, his head against the window, shielded from the hard surface by Wendy's hat. Mabel was still asleep as she leaned against him, her own head still resting on his shoulder as she curled against his side. Across their laps lay Waddles, his head nestled against the soft material of Mabel's homemade sweater.
Dipper instantly recognized the view despite the fact that it was lit by lamplight instead of the bright sunshine of the early summer morning when they started their journey to Oregon. Had it really been a few months? After all that they'd gone through, it seemed like both less and more all at once. And looking back, they had been totally different people when they left the station heading for Gravity Falls, their experiences since then reshaping them.
They had arrived in the Oakland bus station where they had begun their journey. From here Piedmont was just a car ride away. They were almost home.
Dipper smiled and turned to his sister, careful not to disturb her too much since she was leaning against him. "Mabel, we're here."
Mabel's first response was a moan and curling deeper into him, hoping to ward off his attempt in waking her up. Then, after a moment his words sunk in and her eyes popped open. She instantly sat up straight with a big smile springing to her face startling Waddles awake in the process. "We are?"
Dipper nodded, "Look out the window."
She did as the last of her sleepiness slipped away. She smiled her brace filled smile and waved out the window, confident that their parents were in a position where they could see the bus, even if the twins could not see them through the crowd of people milling about. Dipper joined her.
Their current bus was almost completely full now, a heavy contrast to the one they had gotten on when they had left Gravity Falls. As the doors opened, the twins let the other people getting off at this stop pass them before they got out of their seat and entered the aisle themselves.
Despite Waddles excellent behavior through the whole ride, they still got some weird looks from the other people on the bus as they walked down the aisle between seats. They'd been lucky to be able to get the pig through when they'd changed buses.
When they stepped off of the bus and into the bus station, a wave of heat struck Dipper as they stepped out of the vehicle's air conditioned interior, reminding him that they were not in Oregon anymore. The boy sighed, removed the hat Wendy had given him and tucked it into his bag as he and Mabel looked around for their parents.
Finally, their mom and dad stepped out of the crowd. Dipper was pleasantly surprised as their dad tended to work long hours. Still, he guessed their coming home after being away for so long was a special occasion.
They paused only for a moment to glance at the pig that stepped off with the twins. Dipper felt himself tense a little. He'd foreseen this being a problem the moment Grunkle Stan had placed the pig on the bus. As much effort as he and Grunkle Ford had put into making sure the pig got to leave Gravity Falls with them, they were not here to help now. It would be up to him and Mabel.
But neither Dipper nor his parents were given much time to contemplate the situation before Mabel ran up and pulled them both into a hug. He suspected that although the sentiment was real, part of the reason she'd immediately done it without taking a moment to greet them was that she intended to draw negative attention away from Waddles. She also knew her parents wouldn't want to upset her so soon after being home. Regardless of her tendency to act spontaneously in most situations, she could be as clever as Dipper when she tried and knew how to use her cuteness to help her get what she wanted.
Despite the situation, he went over and joined in the hug, uncaring about how childish he might look. They had come awfully close to never seeing their parents again after all. And so they ended up in a rare group hug.
"Dipper, Mabel," their dad said, his tone indicating a touch of pleasant surprise, probably at his son's reaction, "It's good to have you back. How was your summer?"
"It was awesome!" Mable said as the hug ended. "We had a lot of fun at Grunkle Stan's. We helped watch the shop, went on a bunch of adventures and made a lot of new friends."
Dipper smiled, nodded in agreement and said, "Yeah, it was a ton of fun."
A quick look passed between the twins. They had agreed that they shouldn't talk about anything supernatural that had occurred over the course of the last few months. Neither of their Grunkles had ever shared the darker side of their lives with their little brother Sherman's family, which over the decades, in Grunkle Stan's case, had extended with their nephew and his wife. They had never wanted their family to get involved in their messes.
From what Dipper had pieced together, both brothers had eventually been estranged from their parents. Grunkle Ford had never gotten anywhere in the scientific career, and on his final visit home he had been clearly going "mad" based on his description of experiences during his first half a year at Gravity Falls. Dipper was sure that his apparent decision to open a tourist trap probably seemed to further prove such suspicions.
Barely knowing one brother and not knowing he had a second, it had been easy for Grunkle Stan to pose as Ford when he and Shermie contacted each other shortly after their parents died and write off any talk of six fingered hands as his baby brother's imagination. They'd sent each other letters, talked on the phone quite a bit, and even met each other in person a couple times.
Still, until Dipper and Mabel stepped off the bus to Gravity Falls that summer, they had never met Grunkle Stan themselves. They had ended up going there because their grandpa Shermie had suggested it when he found out that the twin's parents were looking into shipping their kids off to separate summer camps all season. Apparently, his brother Stanford needed some extra hands around the shop during tourist season. It would be easier and cheaper than shipping their kids off to summer camps and if things went wrong, it was close enough that they could go out there or the kids could catch a bus back.
After some long phone calls between the adults the plans for the summer were soon changed and the twins found themselves on their way to Gravity Falls. Of course, knowing what he did now, Dipper suspected if there had ever been any doubt of Grunkle Stan letting the twins spend the summer in the Mystery Shack, it vanished the moment the man heard about their parents original plans that would separate them for most of the season.
Instead, they had an adventure filled summer together in Gravity Falls and had even gained a second Grunkle by the time it had ended. After everything they'd been through, it's funny to think that for every one back home that probably one of the weirdest things they could imagine.
Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford had decided the story was that Ford (who had to claim he was Stan since Stanley had claimed Ford's identity) had been in a coma for thirty years and just awoken. The brothers planned on leaving Gravity Falls to go somewhere familiar so that he could settle back into society after missing so much time.
It was an unlikely story Dipper supposed but not as unbelievable as the truth that Stanford Pines had returned from another dimension, that Stanly Pines had spent the last thirty years pretending to be him and that they were about to leave Gravity Falls so they could get on a ship and head straight into another section of the twilight zone. Still, he wondered what type of ripples the revelation that Grunkle Stan had a twin brother would make through the rest of the family.
Of course, Dipper was hoping that the next time they saw their grandpa, he could find out how much the man really knew. After all, he was Grunkle Stan's and Grunkle Ford's brother. The thought made him smile a little. Undoubtedly, Grandpa was at least wondering if his "new" brother had six fingers on each hand instead of five.
But that was not what he should be thinking about right now. This was the first time he'd seen his parents in months.
Mabel then exclaimed, "I can't wait to go back next summer, but it's good to be home."
Dipper nodded in agreement but noticed the look that passed between his parents. Obviously, they hadn't expected this to become an annual thing. That might be a problem.
"And this is Waddles," Mable exclaimed, picking up the pig and hugging him. "Remember how I told you about him over the phone? Grunkle Stan told me I could bring him home with me."
Her parents cast another glance between each other before her mom said, "Mabel, sweetie, I thought we discussed this over the phone. We don't know if we can afford to keep him."
"But," Mabel said, her eyes tearing up, "We love Waddles." She pulled the pig into a hug.
Dipper could tell that his parents were about to become more stern with his sister. He knew that they probably expected that it would not take much to get her to cave to their decision as she had always done before Gravity Falls. Although Mabel had become much stronger over the summer, he was worried that years of ingrained habits might overrule those changes if she didn't have help.
Dipper had sacrificed a perfect day with Wendy so that Mabel could have that pig. Since then Waddles had become so much more than a beloved pet. He had been their throughout many of their adventures, even carrying them out of Mabel's Prison Bubble when everything else within had turned on them. Mabel may have the closest relationship to Waddles, but he meant a lot to Dipper, too.
This was one argument that he knew that he couldn't stand by and risk letting his parents win. He hated causing tension so shortly after getting back, but he had to say something.
So with this in mind, Dipper took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, stood next to Mabel and stated, "He's a member of the family to us now." He knelt down next to Waddles and scratched under the pig's chin, causing him to lean toward the boy as he enjoyed the scrubbing before Dipper spoke again. "We love him."
Mabel smiled at Dipper gratefully as she knelt down and hugged Waddles tightly while Dipper stood up and scratched behind Waddles' ears. Then they both looked up at their parents, Mabel pleadingly and Dipper with grim determination.
Their parents were clearly surprised by how strongly they had reacted to the possibility of Waddles being taken away. To them, it was just an animal their children had been keeping for roughly a month and a half, long enough to be sad to lose him but short enough that he might not be established as a permanent pet yet. Of course they believed that, they didn't know how much their children had been through with the pig.
"We'll work something out," their mom finally said. "For now, we should probably get your things out of the bus and head home. It's late and your dad and I have work tomorrow."
Dipper felt his shoulders slump as he nodded. He was exhausted. Their birthday had been yesterday and the week before had been, honestly and truly in every sense of the word, a living nightmare. These last couple days he'd been drawing on his reserves because he was determined to make his final days in Gravity Falls wonderful. The sleep he'd gotten on the bus just wasn't enough to make up for everything that he'd been through. And now he'd finally reached the end of his rope. He didn't know how Mabel was still going.
His parents must have seen it too because when Dipper went to grab his stuff his Dad took it from his hands along with Mabel's and said, "I've got this."
Dipper nodded and said, "Thanks, Dad."
As he picked it up, he looked around and asked, "Where's the rest?"
"That's it."
"A whole summer and you just brought back one suitcase each. I can see that with you Dipper, but Mabel?"
Dipper could see his point and said, "She learned some serious organization skills. You wouldn't believe how much she fit in that suitcase. You'd think she used magic or something."
His dad chuckled at Dipper's statement and the boy couldn't suppress his own smile. "Come on, let's head home."
Neither kid said much as they followed their parents through all the hustle and bustle of people getting on and off buses and out to the parking lot. They paused when Mabel let a little girl pet Waddles while the pig gave her "little piggy kisses" in response, causing the child to giggle before they had to move on.
As they stepped out of the station the contrast between night here and night at Gravity Falls hit him like a ton of bricks. The stars visible almost anywhere in the town where he'd spent the summer were drowned out by the city lights, and the dirt paths and dusty roads that were rarely lit replaced asphalt and cement under hundreds of streetlamps. The few places that were in shadow seemed even darker since their eyes were unable to adjust to their dimness. The sounds of the forest at night, such as crickets, owls and frogs, along with the occasional creak of a shifting tree were substituted with the sounds of traffic on the nearby roads. Even the air was different now smelling of fumes and fast food.
Dipper and Mabel followed their parents through the parking lot to their car. They hopped into the back of the car with Waddles between them as their parents put the luggage in the trunk. Dipper took a deep breath taking in the familiar scents of the old car that was about the same age that they were.
Their parents started the car and pulled into traffic, lights from the streets casting strange shadows into the car as lamps, signs and vehicles shined their light in. Mabel grabbed Dipper's hand and he squeezed it as they sat in the back seat. This world had become strange to them after their time in Gravity Falls and he suddenly realized that there would be no going back to what it was like before. They had been exposed to the odd, insulated little world of Gravity Falls and it was now part of them and them a part of it.
Despite everything going on around them, Dipper must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing he knew his father was gently shaking his shoulder. When he looked up, his dad said, "We're home."
Dipper smiled and looked out at the garage where they were parked to see a familiar driveway running across their lawn past a white picket fence and out to the road.
They lived in a suburban neighborhood. The "American dream home," if one believed in that.
Suddenly, he imagined the fence coming to life and inching toward them like some giant caterpillar as the side walk squares scuttled away like freak giant beetles. Then he pictured the mailbox coming to life and gobbling up their neighbor's pet Chihuahua as he was taken out on his walk. This would be the type of hailing that his parents would have probably gotten for the end if Bill had gotten his way. He might have even payed them a personal visit, simply because they were part of the Pines family.
Dipper hadn't realized he had frozen in place until his dad placed a hand on his shoulder, calling him by his real name, rather than his nickname. He jumped, startled out of his thoughts.
"What's wrong?" Dipper looked up at his Dad. He sighed in relief as he reminded himself that he needn't worry. They had won and Bill was gone, right? Right? Surely, his family was safe from that monster from now until the end of time, which was in 3012, according to a certain mailbox that blew up after Mabel insulted and disturbed whatever was using it with a video of her shoving gummy worms up her nose.
But even if that was true, was Bill the only apocalyptic horror? Surely if there was one such terror hidden in the world, there could be more with similar intentions. After all, as Wendy had pointed out, the Death Metal albums had gotten it awfully right.
Still, he could not speak of such fears to his dad. He'd never understand, even if he was Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford's nephew. He hadn't been there, hadn't been tormented by an insane trillion-year-old triangle who'd been waiting the last billion years to wrap his dark wormy hands on their universe like he had grabbed up Dipper and Mabel.
So, fighting the urge to finger his bruises from when Bill held them, Dipper looked up and said, "It's nothing important. C'mon, this time I'll help carry the stuff." He ran around to the trunk of the car where Mom and Mabel were already grabbing bags.
Mabel looked at him worriedly and he knew that she had been having similar thoughts to his own. They nodded to each other as they started grabbing bags and went into the house, Waddles following closely behind Mabel, completely unfamiliar with his new surroundings.
Of course, it seemed a little odd to Dipper now too. There were no oddities in the house, real or contrived. The house smelled of cleaners and detergents to a nose that had become accustomed to the slightly dusty, moldy surroundings of the Shack's attic.
Everyone carried the bags up the stairs to the second floor, where there was a small hallway and bedroom at either end, with a bathroom between them at the top of the stairs.
Dipper and Mabel's room was on the left and their parent's room was to the right.
They put the small amount of luggage down in the twin's room. Dipper and Mabel looked around the space. Her side was covered in stickers of all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors. Dipper noticed a few of a certain shade of yellow or a specific triangular shape that he was willing to bet would be gone within the hour.
His side was a different type of mess, with a mix of books, diagrams and D, D&MD plans mixed with the occasional chewed up writing utensil. He knew somewhere among the books he had collected about conspiracies and supernatural phenomena pre Gravity Falls, he had his own set of books to deal with for their depictions of the all seeing eye. He wasn't going to turn a page to unexpectedly find an image of Bill staring at him. Actually, he might want to find out how the heck that demon's image has made it out into the world so long before Weirdmageddon.
He noted the green brownish hat with a star on it that was a duplicate to the one he'd worn during his first days in Gravity Falls, which was destined to be lost to the gnomes. He'd picked that hat for more reasons than how it looked. For one thing, he felt it represented him, with him having a constellation birthmark on his forehead. He also secretly was glad to have something that matched Mabel's favorite shooting star motif. He walked over and placed the hat on his head. Aside from hugging his parents, it was one of the first things he'd done since they got home that felt perfectly natural.
The pine tree seemed like it belonged to his life in Gravity Falls and while it would be something he'd be associated with forever there, he felt like the star was still important too. It had been there long before he was associated with the pine tree hat that he'd picked out that evening when Grunkle Stan let him and Mabel each pick out a free item. Both hats felt equally right to him.
Dipper turned to see his Mom staring at him oddly. "What's wrong?" Instead of saying anything, she walked across to him, carefully grabbed his arm and began gently rubbing it. Right over a set of scars on his lower arm from when Bill had slammed into a draw full of cutlery and even stuck a couple of forks in when he possessed him.
Dipper instinctively pulled his arm away, remembering being unable to do it as he had floated helplessly outside his body when Bill had taken it from him. A shiver of revulsion ran down his spine at the memory.
Then seeing the look on his mom's face, he stretched his arm out again, ashamed of his reaction to his mother's concern. This time she was careful not to touch the marks on his arm as she pulled the sleeve down. "What happened?" She asked, horrified.
Dipper's initial reaction had also drawn their Dad's attention away from Mabel and to him as well. Looking over his son's shoulder, he saw what had gotten their mother's attention and he immediately became concerned, too.
"I came across a bully who took things too far," Dipper stated before adding, "Grunkle Stan got rid of him, though." Nothing there was a lie, just not the whole truth.
"He didn't say anything about this to us," his dad said.
"I didn't want him to. I was worried you'd make us come home and we still had almost half of our summer left."
"Dipper, this looks like it was pretty serious," their mom said.
As if he hadn't noticed. He knew that those scars would probably be there for the rest of his life. It was a physical reminder of what was perhaps the worst experience of his entire life, let alone Gravity Falls, second only to Weirdmageddon, itself.
"Can we talk about this some other time, please? We just got home." Dipper begged. Not only did the subject make him uncomfortable, to put it mildly but he was actually starting to worry that they might pull up his sleeve any further. On top of the second set of fork scars from the incident, he was afraid that they would see the dark bruises that were there too. Bruises he'd gained during the time that said 'bully' had ruled over Gravity Falls. Upon deeper inspection, they would even find the ones from where Bill had grabbed him and Mabel during their final encounter just a couple days ago which covered almost half his body.
If their parents saw saw any of that, he knew that they would probably be inspired to check Mabel, too. There would no doubt be difficult questions if that happened and he wouldn't be surprised if their next move would be to rush the twins to the hospital. He certainly doubted that they would let them return to Gravity Falls any time soon if they saw the injuries.
Thankfully, rather than continue their examination, as Dipper had feared, they decided to back off. "Don't think that this conversation is over." their mom said.
"We want to know exactly what happened," their dad added.
And by that time, Dipper expected to have a reasonably believable story all planned out and Mabel's collaboration with a matching tale of what she'd witnessed. He felt sick at the thought of lying to them but they couldn't exactly go with the truth, could they.
Once their parents left, Dipper felt his shoulders slump. Then there was a hand on one and, knowing why it was there, he turned around and without a word, pulled his sister into a sincere sibling hug. They held each other tightly for a long moment despite the pain radiating from their healing injuries, finishing with their distinctive double pat on the back.
When he finally pulled away, he saw from Mable's tear filled gaze that she had needed the hug as much as he did. The twins looked at each other silently for a few minutes. The only noise came from Waddles as he wondered around the room, familiarizing himself with it.
Finally, Mabel broke the silence. "What if Bill had gotten out and taken over the universe?" She whispered, "What would have happened to Mom and Dad? And our friends and classmates? The mailman and the ice cream truck driver? We almost lost everything, Dipper."
And finally it sunk in why he had been so bothered as he looked out across the lawn. Yes, they had defeated Bill, but it had been such a close call. If he had seen through their Grunkles' ruse or gotten out before the mind wiping process got far enough along with Grunkle Stan, there would be nothing left. NOTHING! The world would have fallen to madness after they had met a horrible death or maybe a fate even worse than that.
But as he looked at his sister, something else came to his mind. "Shhh. It's okay. Everything is still here. Everyone is still safe. We won, Mabel. Grunkle Stan, Great Uncle Ford, You and Me. We did it."
"I know but what if something like this happens again and no one's there to stop it? Or if the people who are don't get as lucky as we did?"
Dipper looked out the window to see the streetlamps shining down on the street through the leaves of the single large tree growing in the front yard. He sighed as looked down the street at the familiar set of houses. A car drove by in the street. "I don't know Mabel. What I do know is that all of this is still here and I think, for tonight, that's enough. Maybe this isn't the last time that our family will be in danger or the universe will threaten to collapse, but this time everything turned out alright."
Mabel stood next to him and took his hand as he said this also looking out the window. She smiled. "It did, didn't it?"
"And maybe now that we know about this stuff, we can help make sure it won't happen again."
"So you're saying, what? We try to become superheroes that protect the world against alien monsters from other universes?"
"Why not?" Dipper said. "We did bring a good sized starter kit home with us, being able to shrink stuff with the size changing crystal." They both chuckled at that, recalling how Mabel had been so depressed about leaving her grappling hook behind, knowing her parents would never allow it. Then Dipper had thought of shrinking it, so it just looked like a toy to anyone who saw it. And with that, a whole new world of possibilities had instantly become available for packing. There was a reason they had so little luggage, most of which was clothes which they hadn't wanted to have to deal with shrinking and unshrinking to their proper sizes. "We also learned a little about the magic in our world and even know a couple spells thanks to our summer in Gravity Falls," Dipper added happily. "We've also saved lots of people's lives and helped saved the whole universe once already." he said.
Mabel laughed and said "Sounds good to me." She then stood as tall as she could, hands on her hips and stated, "The Mystery Twins: Super Hero Mystery Solvers." Suddenly, she broke her pose as she covered her mouth against a loud yawn, reminding Dipper of just how tired he was himself. Still, he felt a lot better now than he had a few minutes ago.
"I think the first thing we need to do is go to bed. We can talk about this stuff tomorrow."
"That sounds good to me," Mabel replied, turning away from the window. "I call bathroom first!"
"Hey, no fair! You take forever in there. I'll be super quick."
"That's just because you don't actually plan to wash up before you go to bed," Mabel said as she dug through her bag for her supplies.
"Exactly. So you won't have to wait as long."
"I won't have to wait at all since I'm going to be first."
Dipper grabbed the bag that had is toothbrush, which thankfully was normal sized, off the floor and said, '"Not if I beat you to it," as he made a run for the door.
"Oh no you don't!" his sister called out, rushing after him.
The two siblings ran forward, big smiles on their faces as they raced out the door and into the hallway.
I finally started watching Gravity Falls about a month and a half ago and have since watched the whole series. I loved it. Maybe I'll do a larger story for it in the future.
I had the general plot for this story down in one shot. Of course, then it took much longer to flesh out and ended up being over twice as long as what I started with. I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I did writing it. Feel free to leave a review to let me know what you thought.