Don't Let The Nostalgia Pull You Under, You'll Drown In It

Mabel scrolled through her iPhone to find another playlist of oldies-but-goodies.

For the duration of the car ride, Ray hadn't seemed to mind her acting as DJ as long as the stereo setting was below twenty. Why so specific? Because she had tried setting it higher, only to find that he would use the controls on the steering wheel to turn it back down. Twenty was the max.

Sighing, she leaned back her seat and folded her arms behind her head, whining, "Why are we driving again when the Salem Police Department offered to pay for out travel expenses? Nine hours is a long time to sit still. We could have flown in less than half that."

"Because airports are a hassle." Ray answered, somewhat tetchily.

Smirking, Mabel rebutted, "No, it's because someone is afraid of heights."

Ray swallowed, "Fabulous deduction, detective."

"You know, I once cured my great uncle of his fear of heights."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. Gave myself a little bit of a scare in the process, but I eventually got over it."

He nodded.

"I'm sure you could get over it too." She said cheerfully.

His grip tightened on the steering wheel until his knuckles were white, "I don't think that's going to happen."

They drove on in silence for a few minutes, Ray expertly weaving around people on the freeway. The scenery flashed by. Mabel turned up the radio. Ray turned it down.

"You want to know something weird about deduction." Mabel sat up and looked at her partner.

"What?" he asked, flicking on the left blinker.

"In my experience it tells you something – a fact about someone – but you never have the whole story, just enough to piece an answer together. Never the why? Or the how did they get like that?"

"It's dumb." Ray mumbled.

"Deduction? You're a detective, you can't say that. I only said that it's weird."

"No, I mean my fear of heights."

"Oh."

"Yeah. It was right after Miranda and I first got married. We took a weekend trip to the Grand Canyon. Hiked around and stuff. Long story short, she almost slipped at one point. If I hadn't managed to grab her hand and haul her back onto the path, she would've fallen all the way to the bottom. I have these vivid images in my mind of what she might've looked like had that happened. It didn't help that a week later she found out she was pregnant with Nina."

"That's not dumb." Mabel chastised, sitting back, "It's perfectly reasonable to worry about people you care about."

"Yeah." Ray mumbled.

To snap him out of his funk, Mabel pointed to an exit, "Snacks this stop!"

Ray maneuvered onto the ramp and pulled into a gas station. It was filled with lumber trucks, the smell of pine reaching Mabel's nose as she stepped out of the car. She was thankful that she'd taken the first driving shift. With only a few hours left to their destination, her mind had grown preoccupied with other thoughts.

Why homicides?

She breezed past the shelves of crappy collectibles – big foot snow globes, mugs with the most common names, and embarrassing bumper stickers – the sight of them causing something in her chest to ache. Locating the bathroom at the back of the store took her mind off the matter.

Why her?

Two packs of gummy bears and a chilled coffee for Ray would be enough to satiate them for the rest of the trip. Paying and exiting without another glance back, she strode out to the waiting car.

And why Oregon?

The blur of trees started up again and she could no longer distract herself from the nostalgia that washed over her. It had been thirteen years now. Her life was different. And nothing would ever be the same. But maybe, for another few hours, she could pretend that she was on a bus with her brother. Just the two of them on their way to stay the summer with their great uncle.

Ray smiled a little as his partner's head lolled to the side, dragged down by sweet dreams.

Just to add another disclaimer, I know virtually nothing about police investigations (I don't even watch cop shows). I also don't know much about Salem, Oregon. So if the details suck, sorry.

This is how I feel after that last GF episode: (starfleetrambo tumblr com/post/111461254988/copperpossem-gravity-falls-fandom-right-now). I'm dead. Goodbye, Alex. You killed me.