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*SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE SECOND SEASON*

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls.

Four years ago...

It wasn't looking good for the Pines twins.

Dipper glanced once more over a pamphlet handed to him by the bus driver, who was shipping them off to- Dipper groaned inwardly as he thought the name- Gravity Falls. An obscure town in the middle of nowhere where the main tourist attractions are a supposedly "psychic" child with white, feminine hair and- another groan- the Mystery Shack. It was where Dipper and Mabel could look forward to staying for the next summer.

No phones.

No video games.

No cable TV.

Just, as Dipper's parents put it, "the great outdoors."

And what's so great about them? Dipper thought bitterly.

Mabel's head fell on Dipper's shoulder and Dipper felt something wet slide down his arm. Mabel had fallen asleep, and she was drooling.

"Gross," Dipper grumbled. He pushed his sister to the side and wiped his arm on his shirt. Mabel fell off the seat as the bus came to a stop.

"Wethereyet?" Mabel mumbled, her voice slurred with grogginess. Dipper didn't reply. Instead, he gathered up his sister, their backpacks, said a quick thank you to the bus driver, and exited the bus.

As Dipper and Mabel walked from the bus stop to the Mystery Shack, Mabel barraged Dipper with unanswerable questions about their mysterious great-uncle, Stanford Pines, all of her sleepiness gone with the excitement of this new adventure. Dipper listened only because he had nothing else to do, and it was better than thinking of the summer ahead.

"What do you think he has at the Mystery Shack?" Mabel wondered. "A unicorn? A fairy princes? A FAIRY PRINCESS UNICORN?!"

Dipper cringed. "Mabel, I'm standing right next to you. You don't need to yell."

"Well somebody's grumpy!" Mabel poked Dipper's nose with her finger. "Boop!"

Dipper swatted the finger away. "Stop that." Mabel grabbed Dipper's stomach and started to tickle him. Dipper couldn't stop himself from laughing, but he quickly pushed Mabel's hand away and regained his "grumpy" attitude. "I'm just bummed out about how our summer is turning out," he admitted.

"Oh, come on! I'm sure the Mystery Shack will be a blast!" Mabel winked at him. "You just wait and…"

Mabel's voice trailed off as she and Dipper got their first glance of the Mystery Shack.

"See?"

Dipper glanced over at Mabel. She was no longer smiling.

It was a dump. It was a tourist trap.

And they were going to have to live there.

An odd man in a suit and fez met them at the door. He was holding a cane and had an eyepatch over one eye. "You two!" He pointed at the twins with his cane. Dipper couldn't help but cringe at his stupid getup. "I'm your great-uncle Stan. You can call me Grunkle Stan for short. Why don't you two put your stuff in the attic- that's where you'll be staying- and come back down and we can get you working? The floor needs to be swept, and the shelves need to be organized and dusted before the money starts rolling in tomorrow."

Mabel and Dipper didn't move. They just stared up at this strange man with awe and a little bit of terror.

"Come on!" Stan pounded his cane on the ground. "The floor isn't gonna sweep itself!"

Dipper pushed past their "Grunkle" Stan and Mabel followed.

"This is great," Dipper sighed. "Just great. What more would I want to do with my summer other than sweeping?!"

"I'm sure things will get better," Mabel said, but even her normally-happy attitude was dull and lifeless.

Dipper snorted, obviously not hopeful for the summer to come. "Welcome to Gravity Falls, I guess."

Present Day...

"Give it a break, kid."

Dipper didn't even glance up at his Grunkle Stan. He kept his eyes fixed on the pages of Journal Number One, blacklight in hand. Once he was done inspecting the journal cover to cover, he would move on to Journal Number Two and Journal Number Three, just as he had for the last four years. He had all three of them practically memorized by now, but he was still looking for something, anything, he missed.

"I won't stop until I find her."

"I'm sorry, Dipper." Stan put a hand on his nephew's shoulder. "There's nothing we can do. She's gone."

Dipper slammed the journal shut and stood up from his chair, brushing away his Grunkle's hand. He gathered up the other two journals and made his way up to the attic, leaving Grunkle Stan standing at the kitchen table, shaking his head.

Just wait. I'm going to find her. You'll see.

Dipper couldn't bear to look at Mable's side of the room. He already knew what it looked like. Everything was in its place, ready for Mabel when she came home. Even Waddles was laying in her bed, keeping a constant vigil for his owner, and only getting up to eat and relieve himself.

After Mabel's mysterious "disappearance" four years ago, Dipper convinced his parents to let him stay in Gravity Falls indefinitely, with Dipper making the excuse that it would be too painful for him to go home without her.

In reality, he wanted to join the search. It started off with him, Stan, and Soos, looking over the journals, looking for clues of any kind. Eventually, Wendy and Mabel's friends, Grenda and Candy, joined as well. Last but not least, Pacifica Northwest joined the search, making excuse after excuse about how she didn't want to be indebted to a commoner like Dipper after he helped rid her mansion of its ghost.

She wasn't fooling anybody, and she knew it too.

But Dipper's and Pacifica's feelings for each other were never admitted, and their relationship never went further than being acquaintances.

Sooner than expected, the group started to disband. Wendy left first, for college. ("Aren't you going to be a lumberjack like your dad?" Dipper asked, desperate for her to stay in Gravity Falls and help. "Are you kidding?" Wendy replied. "I'm going to go out into the world and make something of myself. Maybe become a doctor, or a psychologist, or something." She ruffled Dipper's hair. "Say hi to Mabel for me!")

Grenda and Candy both moved away within a month of each other for their own reasons. (Dipper was honestly glad to have them gone. They weren't much help and they got in the way more than anything.)

Soos' grandmother became seriously ill and died from her illness. ("Sorry dude. I just don't have the heart to continue," Soos had said, a look of utter despair on his face. Dipper let him go without a fight.)

Grunkle Stan was the last to leave. The work at the Mystery Shack started to become overwhelming, and he had given up all hope of finding his niece. He too had lost the heart to continue. Only Pacifica and Dipper were left.

"Dipper?"

"Come in, Pacifica," Dipper greeted, not looking up from the journal.

Without saying another word, Pacifica walked over to Dipper and slapped a piece of paper in front of him. Dipper looked down at the paper, then looked back up at Pacifica. Pacifica raised her eyebrows expectantly at Dipper as he unfolded the sheet of paper.

"This looks like a page that was ripped out from one of the journals," he said.

"Just read it."

Dipper read the paper front to back. He then closed Journal Number One and stood up to face Pacifica.

"It's dangerous," he said. "But Mabel is worth it."