Gravity Falls is a product of Disney. No profit will be made from this fanfic.

Chapter 1: The Message

From the moment he fell through the portal, he floated in darkness. He no longer had his glasses, which meant he couldn't see anything over a few inches from his face. That alone was terrifying. He reached into his trench coat to pull out his other pair. Looking around, he tried to get a good sense of his surroundings. Then he heard a familiar high pitch laugh that penetrated his mind and his soul.

"So, you finally decided to grace me with your presence? It's kind of gutsy for you to come into my realm! I hope you don't end up like your assistant. Then again, you're different than other humans..." The young scientist swam through the darkness; his brown hair somehow blew around even though there wasn't a breeze. Suddenly, something grabbed him. A giant black hand. He pounded his fists into it. He screamed out curses at the fiend. Looking upwards, he saw the triangular shape and one eye peering down at him.

"Go ahead and do it! Just kill me already! I'm not ever going to serve you! I'm not ever going to bow down to you!" His cries just made the monstrous beast laugh. Another black hand covered the thirty year old man, smoothing him. He couldn't breathe...

Ford woke up in a cold sweat. The now, sixty-something year old breathed heavily, his heart pounding. His eyes darted around his room. It was a dream...no a nightmare. He hadn't had one of them in the last four years. Now, all of the sudden, he had this terrible dream. He got dressed and headed out his bedroom and down the hallway.

In the kitchen, Dipper and Mabel sat eating breakfast; his grandniece and nephew he was so thankful for knowing. Dipper sat reading a Quantum Physics textbook; it reminded Ford of him at that age. Mabel busied herself with her knitting. He remembered meeting them when they were twelve going on thirteen, and that was four years ago.

"Good morning," he said to them. Dipper looked up and suddenly plopped the book right in front of his uncle and began asking a bunch of questions concerning the properties of Physics. Ford happily answered any of his nephew's questions while inputting his own knowledge on the subject matter. Mabel continued knitting, but looking over at the other two ever so often. She barely understood what they were talking about. In some ways, it began to bother her that she couldn't talk to her great uncle the way Dipper could. They did talk a little about art and he was always interested in her projects. Maybe that was good enough?

Stan walked in holding his mug full of coffee. He saw his brother and great nephew going on about a topic he could care less about. He rolled his eyes. "Morning Nerds!" he greeted. Then saw Mabel. "What are you working on, sweetie?" Mabel flashed a wide smile.

"It's a baby blanket." Stan suddenly spit out his coffee.

"Wow! Do I have to deal with this already? Mabel, honey, I hope you're not saying you're—"

"It's for Waddles," she interjected.

Stan sighed with relief. "Oh, for the pig. Right." He sat down next to her, watching her change the color of yarn from blue to green. "So what are you kids doing today?"

"I don't know yet," Mabel answered. Dipper didn't answer as he kept talking to Ford more about science stuff. "I could see what Grenda and candy are doing. I kind of need a change in my daily routine," she admitted. "What are you doing today?"

"Probably fixing more stuff around the shack. Soos is doing really well with the business, so I don't need to do much there. It's actually getting kind of boring around here." Stan let out a long sigh.

All of the sudden, a few loud beeps sounded off from Ford's trench coat pocket. He jumped up with a cry. He grabbed his new cell phone. A contraption he never thought he would ever own. However, his grandnephew finally talked him into getting one so they could text while he was in California.

"Oh, I think I got a text." He showed the phone to Dipper. "Am I right? That's a text?"

Dipper laughed. "Yeah, just swipe the screen with your finger." Ford pulled his forefinger across the screen, but unfortunately, it wasn't working. "God! Why do they make this so hard! I just want to read my text message!" Dipper and Mabel both laughed this time. Dipper took the phone.

"Here, I got it." He easily opened up the screen that showed the text message. He handed it back to his uncle.

After a moment of reading the text, Ford's eyes brightened.

"Oh my Gosh! It's from an old friend of mine. I don't recall giving him my number. In fact, I haven't seen him since high school. Stanley, you remember Andrew Cartwell?" Stan raised an eyebrow.

"You mean, the guy that you constantly competed with?"

"Oh, it was all in good fun," Ford replied waving his hand. "But yes, he came in second as Salutation to me being Valedictorian—"

"Yeah, whatever," Stan said. Hearing about his brother graduating kind of burned knowing he didn't even get a chance to graduate.

"Anyway," Ford continued. "He finished a big project and he wants to share it with me."

"Can we see it too?" Dipper asked.

"Maybe we can all go. Sort of a family outing," Ford suggested.

"Uh, no thanks," Stan responded curtly. "I don't need to be around another big nerd."

"But, Grunkle Stan, think about the bonding," Mabel tried.

"What? You want to go too?" Stan asked his great niece in shock.

Mabel shrugged. "I said I need to change my daily routine," she said.

"Okay, let me ask Andrew if it's okay." Ford looked as his phone. "O-okay, how do I get the keyboard to come up?" Dipper touched the screen, making it appear. Ford slowly started typing. "Where are the punctuation marks?" Dipper hit the icon to bring up that screen.

"I'm going to finish three cups of coffee before you're done with that text, Ford," Stan said.

"Whatever, Stanley, you don't even know how to text or even have a phone for that matter."

"Yeah, because I refuse to enter another fad," he returned swiftly.

"Cellphones aren't a fade, Grunkle Stan," Dipper told him. "They just update them every few years, cellphone have been around since the 90's." Dipper turned to Ford as if needed back up.

"Don't look at me, I wasn't in this dimension at that time."

"So, can we all go?" Mabel asked excitedly.

"I'm waiting for his reply," Ford answered.

It was only a fraction of a second when the phone beeped with the text reply.

"He said 'yes.' In fact, he was hoping to meet all of you."

"So, where does he live?" Dipper asked.

"Oh, right. I need to get his address," Ford said starting to text again. "Okay, and got it. Oh, he's in Washington State; Seattle to be exact."

"Alright! Road trip! Road trip!" Mabel chanted.

"Oh boy, do I have to be involved in this?" Stan moaned. "I mean there are so many other things I can be doing instead."

"Like what?" Ford challenged.

"I don't know—anything else," he responded.

"Come on Grunkle Stan," Mabel tried. "We can all go in the RV like we did when we pranked all those attractions you're in competition with."

Stan sighed. "Fine."

The next day, the Pines family piled their belongings and other gear into the RV. Mabel carried Waddles towards the vehicle.

"Whoa! What are you doing with the pig?" Stan demanded.

"I can't take Waddles?" Mabel asked a little hurt. Stan put his fingers on the side of his eyelids.

"Sorry, no. It's too much to deal with." He looked up at his niece seeing her push her upper lip into a pout. "I'm sure Soos will take care of it—or him."

"Okay," she said sadly. She took the pig back inside the shack.

Minutes later, the RV was all packed up. The guys stood by the RV waiting for Mabel.

"So what else can you tell us about this guy, Ford?" Stan asked. "I mean, he called you out of nowhere and wants us all to come see him."

"Yeah, I'm still wondering how he got your number?" Dipper asked.

"I assume he looked it up," Ford answered.

"Uh, people can't look up your cell phone number like they can your home number," Dipper explained.

"Oh, they can't? Then how did he get my number?" Ford wondered. "I guess I'll ask him when I get there."

"Why not ask him now?" Stan asked.

Ford shrugged. "I really don't care. I'm actually happy to hear from him after all this time."

Mabel finally walked over. Her brown eyes stared down with her mouth in a straight line.

"Soos said he'd take care of Waddles," she said sadly.

"Sorry honey," Stan said. "We're not going to be gone too long. It'll take about four hours to get there and we're only staying for a couple days. Right?" he turned to Ford with a stern glare.

"I guess so," Ford answered, not at all intimidated by his brother.

With that, everyone boarded the RV. In the next few moments, the vehicle took off down the road.

A/N: Feel free to 'like' and or give a review. I accept feedback of compliments or constructive criticism. The idea is to become a stronger writer, right?