Dipper & Wendy vs The Future

Part Four

Dipper Pines knocked on the door of his childhood home with apprehension. While he was almost certain that the news he and his wife Wendy had to deliver would be met with joy, part of him worried that it wouldn't be. The relationship between the Dipper's parents and Wendy had at best been mutual tolerance and at worst a silent dislike of one another. Of course, all of this was lost on the brown haired man, as they had made sure to keep their quarrels away from the young man. He did pick up on the fact that there was some sort of tension between them, but just wrote it off as nerves on Wendy's part and his parents just being protective of their now only child. Wendy, meanwhile, was full of fear that the covert battles she had waged against the parents of her lover would at last come to light. She loved Mason Pines with all of her heart, but when it came to his mother and father, it was an entirely different story.

The first time the auburn haired woman had ventured to the suburbs of Oakland, California was on a cool fall night in 2014. It was a long weekend off from school for the then seventeen year old and her provisional driver's license was burning a hole in her pocket. The day that Wendy had earned her provisional license, she received an emerald green 2002 Fjord J-150 pickup truck. It was an old fleet vehicle for the lumberyard that Manly Dan Corduroy worked at and definitely showed it. The older vehicle had some bad shocks and struts, the exhaust past the catalytic converter had long since fallen off and the engine had multiple issues. At first, Wendy complained about receiving a broken down vehicle as a gift, but soon learned that it was a lesson of self-reliance from her father. For the next few months, Wendy worked nights and weekends to save up for the necessary parts needed to make the truck drivable once again. The young teen girl studied many different repair manuals and YouView videos on what she needed to do to be able to drive her truck. After a bunch of hard work, the truck fired up and was roadworthy once again, much to her delight. Dan was proud that his daughter figured it out on her own and now knew how to fix it if she were ever stranded by herself. While she knew that her license didn't allow her to travel out of state, the defiant teen wanted to pay a visit to her favorite pair of twins.

Loading up her truck, she set off for the city of Piedmont in Northern California. Unknown to Wendy, it was far from a short trip. After about a seven hour journey, she had reached her destination. The almost eighteen year old was amazed by how bland and conformist the neighborhood the mystery twins lived in was. She couldn't see herself growing up in what was stereotypical suburban America. It was around six in the afternoon on a Friday night when she first knocked on the door of the Pines residence. A thin man with short brown hair answered the door. Taking a glance at the man, she knew that she had the right place. Dipper's father resembled a younger version of Ford and Stan, as well as an older version of the teen. "Can I help you?" the polo and khaki clad man asked the ginger teen girl that had unexpectedly arrived on his doorstep. "Is this the Pines house?" she asked. "Yes, it is. Who are you?" Mr. Pines inquired. "Oh… Yeah… My name's Wendy… Wendy Corduroy. I'm friends with Dipper and Mabel…" the nervous young lady continued. "Oh, so… You're that Wendy that Dipper ran off to last year when he was having his issues… Aren't you a little old to be friends with them?" the man asked the seventeen year old. "Nah… I-I work with them when they come up to Gravity Falls every summer" the redhead explained. "Oh… Okay then…" Mr. Pines said before turning around. "DIPPER! MABEL! You have a friend here to see you!" he shouted up the stairs. Dipper had been doing math homework when he heard his father call for him. "I didn't invite anyone over… Who could it be?" the brown haired teen asked to himself as he got up from his chair and left his bedroom. Mabel, meanwhile, was on her phone with Candy and Grenda when she heard her father. "I gotta go! Someone's here for me!" she ended the conversation before joining her brother in the hallway that overlooked the front door. Whoever it was, the twins couldn't see because their father was blocking the door.

The pair made their way down the stairs and into the foyer, where they couldn't believe the sight before them. "WENDY?!" the twins shouted in unison as they practically trampled their father to greet the young woman. "Dudes, I missed you!" Wendy said as she wrapped up her friends in a tight hug. "Come in…" Mr. Pines instructed the teen girl; closing the front door behind her. "What are you doing here? Is everything alright in Gravity Falls?" Dipper asked with a bit of concern in his voice. "Yeah man, everything's good there… I mean, it's hella lame, but good…" she answered. "Did you catch a flight here? Or a bus?" Mabel inquired. "Nah… I drove…" she proudly said as a beaming smile broke out on her freckle covered face. "Aren't you a little young to be driving that far?" Mr. Pines asked. "Nah… In Oregon, it's fifteen for a permit and sixteen for a provisional license…" she explained to the middle aged man. "Oh… Well… What brings you by here?" the father of the mystery twins continued. "I just had a long weekend and wanted to take my truck out for a spin…" she once again said with a sense of pride. "A seven hour trip is far from a spin around the block…" Mr. Pines commented in a fatherly tone of voice. "Yeah… I just wanted to see these two so bad… It's not the same up there without them…" the redhead explained.

"Who's there dear?" asked Mrs. Pines from the kitchen, where dinner was almost done being cooked. "One of the twin's friends from Oregon…" he shouted. The stay at home mother, who was in her early forties, made her way out of the kitchen and to the foyer where the redhead stood with the rest of her family. She took in the sight of the seventeen year old redhead, who was dressed in a pair of muddy boots, skinny black jeans with tears in the knees, a green t-shirt, a brown firehose jacket with a red flannel lining and her trademark trapper cap. "Hi, I'm Linda…" the mother introduced herself to the slender teenager. "Hello Linda, I'm Wendy Corduroy… I'm a friend of Mabel and Dipper's from Gravity Falls…" she introduced herself to the woman with long dark brown hair. "So… You came all the way down here just to say hi to the kids?" Linda Pines inquired. "Yeah! I missed them a ton! They're, like, the coolest people I know… This one time, Mabel and I fought this unico-" the ginger teen began before her younger female friend cleared her throat. "I-I mean… we went horseback riding through the forest… It was a fun time!" Wendy tried to recover. It was clear to her that the Mystery Twins had failed to fill their parents in on the odd occurrences that they had encountered in the small Oregon town.

"Well… Dinner is almost ready if you'd like to stay…" Linda said to the teen visitor. "Can she stay for the weekend?!" Mabel asked; taking her mother and father by complete surprise. "Well… I… Uh… Bob?" she stammered as the middle aged woman turned to her husband, looking for an answer. "Well… I suppose so…" the father relented as he rubbed the back of his head, where a bad comb-over barely hid a growing bald spot. "Sweet!" Wendy exclaimed; kicking off her boots as Dipper and Mabel cheered. The next couple of days were fun for the trio of adventurers, but not for Mr. and Mrs. Pines. The older girl had kept the kids out long past their curfew and both nights the teens had returned with scratches and bruises. Linda pulled her husband aside on Sunday night and had a frank conversation on how the newcomer had been a bad influence on the twins. "She keeps them out late, puts them in dangerous situations and just has an odd way about her. She just seems like trouble if you ask me. Maybe it's best if they don't go back to Oregon this summer… I mean, who knows what kind of trouble they're getting into up there?" the concerned mother said. "Honey… I feel the same way about her, but I'm sure that Stan keeps an eye on them when they are there. I mean, they've gone up there each summer for the past few years and they come back alright. I think they should maybe just hang out with someone who's a bit more their age…" Bob Pines commented. Unknown to the concerned parents, Wendy had heard the whole conversation. Tears filled her emerald eyes as she listened to the hurtful comments about her. Part of the feisty redhead wanted to tell these people off, but she knew that would put her chances of ever seeing the twins again in jeopardy.

The next few years only drove a bigger wedge between the Pines parents and Wendy, as the twins spent more and more time in Oregon. They had even skipped a Christmas with the family to spend it with their friends in Gravity Falls. Bob and Linda Pines also noticed some changes in their teenagers. Dipper had developed a somewhat more cavalier attitude when it came to things that only a few years ago he would have averted, while Mabel had become even more of a stereotypical teen girl; something that Linda blamed on hanging out with older girls like Wendy, Tambry and Pacifica. The redhead would drop in every few months completely unannounced and cause the twins to drop everything they had planned. Her carefree attitude was what rubbed Mr. and Mrs. Pines the worst though. Being fairly straight-laced and no-nonsense, they saw Wendy as a bad role model for the teens. The fateful day of June 3rd, 2017 set their opinion of the young woman in stone. They were grateful that she tried to save their only daughter, but held resentment for her being unsuccessful in doing so. Later that summer, when Dipper revealed to his parents that he and Wendy were dating, it greatly bothered them. They saw her as someone who would drag down their son and keep him from reaching his full potential. When Dipper proposed to the auburn haired woman that Christmas, Mr. and Mrs. Pines were beside themselves. Sure, they were happy for their now only child because he had found someone who made him happy, but they felt as if she were a poor choice. The couple loved Pacifica and was just about, if not more so, hurt by the passing of the blonde heiress than their son. They saw her as everything that Wendy was not; feminine, stable and able to provide a life of endless possibilities for their son.

When Dipper and Wendy had married that spring, they were still convinced that their son would come to his senses and realize that there was no future with the wild ginger woman. Wendy feared that the parents would now feel as if she had managed to trap Dipper for life. She knew that the concerns the parents had about her were at least a bit valid, as she was a bit reckless from time to time and was far from a shining example of mental health, but she still wished they would give her a chance. After knocking on the door, the now familiar pair of Bob and Linda Pines greeted the couple. "Mason! Wendy… What are you doing here?!" Linda said with surprise. It was five o' clock on a Tuesday evening when the pair showed up on the door step of the suburban Oakland home. "Well… Can we come in?" Dipper asked in an unusually muted tone. Dipper and Wendy had decided that they would play this off as something serious at first, in order to lower the older couple's guard and truly surprise them with the good news. "What's the matter son?" Bob asked his only child as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let's take a seat at the table…" he said with a somewhat sullen look on his face. Linda noticed a large manila envelope in Wendy's hands. While she didn't care for her daughter-in-law, she hoped that it wasn't anything serious. She had been meaning to have a conversation with the newest addition to her family for some time now, but tended to be non-confrontational. Taking a seat at the dining room table, Dipper began to address his parents. "Well… Wendy hasn't been feeling well lately… So, she went to the doctor yesterday morning… A-And she got some pretty shocking news… When we found out, we figured that you guys ought to be the first to know…" he said in a serious tone. Linda's eyes filled up with tears as she began to feel horrible for the young lady. "So… What's in the envelope?" Bob inquired. "Well… It's the news… Go ahead… Open it up…" Dipper said as Wendy slid the package across the table. "Wendy… I-I know we haven't really gotten along as well as either of us would like to have… But… No matter what, you're my daughter… A-And I love you… You make my son happy… And that's what is most important… Bob and I will be there for you…" the dark brown haired woman said as she reached across the table and took the porcelain hands of the ginger woman. "Thanks Mom…" Wendy said as her eyes welled up.

Taking a deep breath, Bob opened the envelope, to reveal a white cardboard folder. "Go ahead… Open it…" Dipper instructed his father. It was an eight by ten black and white photograph of their son and his wife. Two bright splotches of pink and blue illuminated the otherwise monotone picture. "Pink or Blue, either will do. We just know that we are due. May 2020" the chalkboard that Dipper held in the photo read. "Mom… Dad… Wendy's pregnant… We're going to have a kid… Y-You're going to be grandparents…" the brown haired teen hesitantly said; awaiting a response from the shocked parents. "Th-That's great! I-I was so worried that she was sick… What a relief!" Linda said as the tears that filled her eyes managed to escape and now cascaded down her face. Bob took his wife's hand and adjusted his glasses before commenting. "This is wonderful news! I-I'm so excited for you guys!" the man said as he stood up from the chair and walked over to the other side of the table. Dipper and Wendy rose from their seats and soon embraced the soon-to-be grandfather. Linda joined in and the group hug lasted for a few moments. "So… how far along are you?" the dark brown haired woman asked as she held a hand to the young woman's sundress covered stomach. "They said maybe about five weeks… But I'll know more in a couple days when I go back for a proper exam" Wendy explained to her mother-in-law. "Well this calls for a proper celebration! Let's go out!" Bob Pines suggested. All four members of the Pines family departed the two story suburban home as night began to fall on a long day in Northern California.

Author's Note: So, this chapter was kinda a hard one to write, as I wanted to properly show the dynamic between Dipper's parents and their daughter in law. Like much of my writing, I drew from a similar situation in my own life. I hope you enjoy and look forward to your reviews!

Shooting Star Falls AU Reading Order:

Underage Discoveries On A Reckless Night: A Shooting Star Falls Prequel

A Shooting Star Falls

Echoes Of A Nearby Future: A Shooting Star Falls Story

Scarred Summer: A Shooting Star Falls Story

The Dark Days of Candy Chiu: A Shooting Star Falls Story

Forever Memories: A Shooting Star Falls Story

Stable Times Or A Wild Ride?: A Shooting Star Falls Story

Grenda's Confession: A Shooting Star Falls Story

Birthday Weirdness In The Rose City: A Shooting Star Falls Story

The Gift Of Forever: A Shooting Star Falls Story

Wendy & Dipper Vs The Future: A Shooting Star Falls Story

My Playlist for this chapter:

John Mayer – "In The Blood"

Foster The People – "Sit Next To Me"

Arcade Fire – "Signs Of Life"

Jessica Lea Mayfield –"Sorry Is Gone"

The Killers – "The Man"

Grace Potter – "Alive Tonight"

Jewel – 'Foolish Games"

The Naked And Famous – "Higher"

Lorde – "Perfect Places"

Grimes – "Oblivion"

Paramore – "Fake Happy"

Middle Kids – "Edge Of Town"

Metric – "On A Slow Night"

PVRIS – "What's Wrong"

Band Of Horses – "The Funeral"

Blink-182 – "She's Out Of Her Mind"