AN:Kind of jumping around a bit in the timeline here, so to clarify, this fic takes place on March 28, 2005, a couple of weeks before the main part of Security.
(I swear, I was going to do the 'Ford comes back' oneshot, but Wendy just kind of showed up, and I needed to work her in here first. But the next one will be Ford, definitely, probably, maybe I promise.)
"The kids just went down for their nap, and they were up pretty late last night and early this morning, so they should be sleeping the whole time I'm gone. You may not help yourself to anything in the fridge, and stay out of the gift shop and the exhibit areas. Any questions?" Mr. Pines said.
Wendy shook her head. "Nah, I got this."
Mr. Pines looked at her suspiciously. "You sure you do?"
"I look after my little brothers all the time ever since Mom… all the time," Wendy assured him, trying to exude cool confidence.
"Heh, yeah I guess that's a rowdy bunch. Alright, but if the house isn't in one piece when I get back I'm not paying you," Mr. Pines said.
Wendy shrugged. That was fine by her, it's not like she was going to burn the place down and the kids were asleep, so they wouldn't do anything. Though she didn't think she should be blamed if Steve the tree-giant got mad and decided to punch a hole in the roof or something.
After Mr. Pines left, Wendy headed back up to the kids' bedroom. She hadn't thought to bring anything to do with her, so she sorted through the kids' picture books and picked out some of the wordiest ones to read while she was waiting. Yeah, they were little kid books, but it was something to do at least. She'd been reading for about an hour and a half or so when the worst possible thing, besides Steve attacking of course, happened. The twins woke up.
Dipper started it, but his moving around was enough to trigger Mabel too, and pretty soon Wendy had two little kids glaring at her suspiciously. "Who are you?" Dipper asked. "Where's Grunkle Stan?"
"Mr. Pines is gone," Wendy started to say, but Mabel cut her off.
"Grunkle Stan is gone?" she screeched, and then the two of them started crying. Not just a little bit either, but full on sobbing tantrums and that made Wendy want to cry some too. Mr. Pines was going to be back any minute now and he was going to be so mad when he saw she'd made his kids cry; he was going to refuse to pay her and then call her dad and tell him what a horrible job she'd done and Dad had been so proud of her, talking about what a hard-working girl he had and he'd been so sad ever since Mom and now he was going to be disappointed and Wendy didn't know what to do.
Wendy forced herself to take in a deep breath. First rule of dealing with little kids: never let them see you panic. Because then either they'll panic too, or take it as a sign of weakness and pounce. Then she stuck two fingers in her mouth, just like her dad taught her, and whistled a loud as she could. That startled Dipper and Mabel enough that they stopped crying for a second, and Wendy took advantage of that to say, in her best 'I'm a big kid so you have to listen to me' voice, "Mr. Pines is gone to the store," – well actually, Mr. Pines had been kinda vague about where he was going, but the store was probably a close enough guess – "and he'll be back soon. I'm your neighbor Wendy and I'm supposed to look after you both until then."
Mabel sniffed and rubbed her nose on her arm. "You mean like Ms. Joann?"
Wendy had no idea who Ms. Joann was, a character from a book or TV show or maybe one of the kids' old neighbors, but she did know what the right answer to that question was. "Yeah, just like Ms. Joann."
"Do you know how ta knit?" Mabel asked.
"No, but I'm really good at climbing trees," Wendy told her, and Mabel looked reasonably impressed.
"I want Grunkle Stan," Dipper said in a voice he probably thought sounded firm. It was kinda cute, actually. "When's he gonna be back?"
"I dunno, a couple of minutes?" Wendy said. Just then, she heard the sound of a car pulling up. "Or maybe right now. I'll race you guys downstairs to check."
Dipper and Mabel looked at each other, then her, then back to each other, and then, at the exact same time, climbed out of their beds and started running. Wendy chased after them, taking the lead just in time to fling open the back door for them so they could see Mr. Pines walking up.
"Grunkle Stan!" they both cried, and then took off running across the ground, not even caring about their bare feet – oh man, Wendy should have made them put on shoes before going outside, shouldn't she?
"Hey kids, when did you get up?" Mr. Pines asked, picking one up in each arm easily, like he'd had a lot of practice. The twins didn't answer, too busy sobbing even harder than they had back up in their room earlier. "Alright, alright, it's fine; I'm back now."
Somehow he managed to pay Wendy while juggling two kids that would not let themselves be put down for anything, and would not stop crying. Then Wendy walked home, trying to convince herself that everything had gone just fine.
The next morning her dad called her from out of her room and gave her a sort of look. "Stanford Pines just called again." Oh man, this was it. The kids had hated her and once Mr. Pines had a chance to think it over he was mad at her for making them cry and he was going to want his money back and her dad was going to be so disappointed and… "He said the kids loved you; kept asking when they were going to see you again once they calmed down. And, since his handyman is out of town for the rest of the week, he was hoping you'd go over there and keep an eye on the two of them while he was giving his Mr. Mystery tours. Said the kids probably shouldn't throw a tantrum so long as they know he's in the next room over."
Wendy blinked a couple of times. "But don't you need me to watch the boys?" she asked.
"Nah, Dan Jr. is old enough to keep an eye on his brothers now; you go out there and be a productive member of society," her dad said. Then he picked her up and gave her a bone-cracking hug. "I'm so proud of you girlie."
Wendy felt tears prickle in the corner of her eyes, and not just because the hug was kind of crushing her. It was just, her dad was always him and the boys out doing manly stuff and Wendy was always welcome to come of course, but it was weird having him tell them to do things "like a man," because Wendy was tough and strong as anyone, but she wasn't a man, and so ever since Mom, Wendy had been feeling kind of, well…
She threw her arms around her dad's neck and hugged him back just as tight. "I love you too, Daddy."
(Dipper and Mabel did end up throwing tantrums again, but only for two days out of the six that Wendy was down there, and they were pretty cool little kids otherwise. So even after the handyman, Soos, got back into town, on days when being in the house with her brothers and her dad just got to be too much, Wendy would slip off and walk down to the Mystery Shack "to help out with the kids." And most days Stan would slip her a soda or some ice cream and sometimes, when he and Soos were busy and the twins had Wendy running all over the place trying to keep an eye one them, even a dollar or two, and that was pretty cool too.)