Chapter Seven: Surprise Visit

Author's Notes: Just wanted to say I'm sorry about the delay, I've been busy with many things; some family reunions, some summer classes (ugh) and, lastly, my other story – I updated two chapters of it in the meantime.

But here we are! This chapter is going to be pretty serious, as well as the next chapter *Evil laughter* :))


The day after, for the two scientists, was mostly spent playing Dungeons, Dungeons And More Dungeons, drinking black coffee, and playing more Dungeons, Dungeons And More Dungeons. After all, the house was ready for when the others came back from their road trip, and there was not much else they had to do. All they needed was the periscope, which was in their lab, so they could check if the family had come back.

With nothing to worry about, they began their day with two mugs of black coffee, to get them through the day, then headed downstairs, to play their last game of Dungeons, Dungeons And More Dungeons where they had left off.

"Okay, so, I'm gonna go inside Diamond King's castle using… where's the die?" Clifford asked. "I'm sure I left it next to the board." He added, looking for the dice.

"It's at the corner of the board, look." Stanford answered calmly and pointed to the corner of the game, where a thirty eight sided die made out of wood was sitting.

"Oh, here it is." Clifford said as he picked the dice up. "That's weird. It was almost like camouflage."

"Yes, yes. Now, just roll the dice." Stanford said, and Clifford did so. The dice rolled across the game and stopped soon, only to show a five. Clifford groaned in frustration.

"Hope you have better luck next time." Stanford said and picked up the dice as Clifford waited for his next turn.

None of them had any idea that there was something way more important they had to discuss.

.

A few hours later, and a few miles away, an RV was on the Oregon roads, driving under the light of the setting sun. Inside the vehicle were five people of whom only two were awake.

"We're only twenty miles away, Dipper." Stanley said as he took the path that led to the town Gravity Falls. Meanwhile, Dipper who was solving a crossword puzzle, shifted his attention to his great uncle, who was driving.

"What? How long's it been?" He asked and put the paper down on his lap.

"You've been drownin' in that puzzle for more than two hours." Stanley explained, as if to complain. "I thought I told ya to keep me company, so I won't fall asleep." He added, which made his nephew feel pretty guilty for not doing as his uncle had told. "Sorry, I forgot to…"

"It's okay, kid. Now…" The old man said and pointed his thumb to the back of the RV, and that was when Dipper noticed a snoring sound coming from the back. "Wake 'em up. They've been Snortin' like hell for an hour. Tell 'em we'll be there in fifteen minutes." He explained and looked at Dipper. The twelve-year-old, though, felt a bit uncomfortable with waking the girls up, especially after what had happened with Candy – although he did apologize.

"Uh… okay… but…" He said as he started to sweat slightly. "Do we have to wake them up now? I mean, might be too early…"

Stanley, who had seen right through the kid, cut him off. "Don't worry about it kid, there's nothing wrong with that." He said, grinning at his nephew, as if to say 'I know what's up in your head.'

Dipper felt even tenser after he realized he had acted so obvious. "Okay, then… then I'll just… go wake them up, then…" He said and stood up from his seat, walking to the back.

At the back, he spotted one of the sleeping girls on the table. Grenda had fallen asleep on the lunch table and was currently murmuring words under her breath that Dipper couldn't understand – although he was glad the words were unclear, because said girl was chewing on the corner of the table as well.

"Maybe I should go wake Mabel first..." He said quietly as he adjusted his cap brim and moved on to where the rooms were.

He opened the door to the room where he and Mabel slept every night and looked inside. "Mabel?" He said slowly, but got no response – not even a sleepy moan, which was the way she always answered to her. He opened the door wide and saw no one on the beds. The sheets looked as if they hadn't been used since they woke up in the morning – they changed the sheets in the morning.

So he went to the other room, where the other two usually slept, and opened the door, and found Mabel and Candy taking a nap on two beds.

He slowly went to the bed where Mabel was and instantly knew that she was deep asleep. He gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze – he knew it was the best way to wake her up. Mabel, though, seemed to be in a deeper sleep than her twin had thought, as she simply began sleep talking louder.

Oh, boy, here it goes again. Dipper thought and rolled his eyes – he had heard Mabel's sleep talking before, and he knew what her dreams were made out of.

"mmmm…..Mermandooo…." Mabel said in her sleep, which made Dipper disappointed. He thought about just letting it go, but he knew that they were getting to Gravity Falls soon. So he resorted to calling her name – he didn't want Candy to wake up like that.

"Mabel, wake up!" Dipper whispered slowly, making Mabel's sleep talking louder.

"Mmmmm… Mermandooo….. C'mere…."

"Ewww! Gross!" Dipper said slowly, feeling stupid for doing this. "Wake up! Mabel!" Then he shook her harder.

"Dipper?" the boy heard a voice calling him, and turned to see Candy without glasses, rubbing her eyes.

"Whoa!" he yelped uncomfortably, then cleared his throat and face palmed. "Sorry, Candy. Did I wake you up?" Dipper asked softly and ashamedly, but the girl shook her head. "I have been awake for around fifteen minutes now. I started to read a book, because everyone was sleeping." She explained in her somewhat odd accent. She then showed Dipper a small and pretty thick book with the words "Darren Shan" written in big, capital letters on top. The cover showed a tall man with orange hair and a spider on his hand, who looked familiar to Dipper. "it's the Cirque Du Freak. Do you know this book?" She asked him with a smile.

"How… How far have you read?" he asked.

"I'm at the last few pages now. Have you read this book?" She asked again.

"I love this series of books! You've GOT to read all twelve of them!" The boy said enthusiastically, then remembered why he was here at the first place. "Uhh… uhm. Okay, I just wanted to tell you guys that we're only fifteen minutes away. So, pack up." Dipper said and started to leave, when he noticed that Mabel's bed was empty. "What? Mabel's not here…?" He said as he turned to Candy. She shrugged in response, but immediately looked at where the door was. Dipper turned and was suddenly taken to the ground by her floating ball of a sister.

"Booom!" Mabel said and burst out laughing as she tugged her brother to the ground. Dipper, though, didn't expect this, and, unluckily, didn't like it either.

"Mabel! Let go!" Dipper shouted as loud as he could. Mabel, meanwhile, was enjoying the prank perfectly.

"MABEL! MABEL! LET ME GO!" Dipper yelled, this time threatening. Mabel sat up as soon as she realized how pissed his brother was.

"Okay!" She said and held her hand out for Dipper to help him up. Dipper, though, ignored her completely and sat up himself.

"Wake Grenda up." He said simply as he left, only to find Grenda with a filming camera in her hands, which made him even madder.

He groaned and walked to his seat and sat down. Stanley noticed how mad his nephew seemed, and instantly found a way to calm him down. He showed his a sign they were passing by, which said "Gravity Falls, 10 miles".

"We're almost there, kiddo." He said and Dipper was relieved.

"I'm feeling sleepy, Grunkle Stan. Do we have anything to do when we get there?" Dipper asked.

"No, I'm gonna sleep myself. Driving is reaaaally boring." Stanley said and sighed. "Back before I came here to make the Mystery Shack, I drove for eleven hours a day, maybe even more. Now, three hours of driving is hell to me. I'm gettin' old." He added.

"Don't say it, Grunkle Stan, at least you do seem happier with this road trip." Dipper said. "Plus, your back didn't hurt when you did that prank to Upside Down Town, remember?" He added and Stanley chuckled.

"Yeah, you got a point there, kid." He said and sighed again. "In ten minutes, I'm in my bed, resting in peace."

"Don't say it Grunkle Stan, it feels…" Dipper paused because he ran out of words.

"What? Do I have to die to have rest and peace together?" Stanley jokingly protested, making Dipper laugh.

"Apparently, yes."

"You better not talk about my snorting tomorrow at the funeral, then." Stanley said without even a moment of hesitation, wearing a wide grin. The two laughed at their dark humor.

At that moment, the girls showed up with their backpacks ready on their backs.

"Grunkle Stan, we're ready!" Mabel announced aloud.

"Great, I didn't wanna wait for ya packing up." Stanley responded. "I'm hella tired. I'm sleeping when we get there."

"Me too." Dipper said. "I haven't slept since six o' clock in the morning."

"Come on you too! It's only eight O' clock!" Mabel protested. "At least prepare something for dinner before you sleep, Grunkle Stan!"

"There's instant ramen in the kitchen. Dipper knows where they are." Stanley said. "But don't touch the brown meat! It's for emergency." He added, then faced Dipper. "The apocalypse!" He whispered to him and winked. Dipper remembered the time when Stanley was collecting brown meat, and kept on saying 'It's apoca-licious!' and laughed.

Candy looked at Mabel with a questioning expression and the sweater wearing girl shrugged.

The thought of what the old conman meant was soon gone when they saw a sign saying "Now entering Gravity Falls" as well as the water tower at the entry of town – which was not sprayed by a certain emo teen. "Whoo-hoo!" The girls cheered as they reached the borders of their beloved town.

"I still feel a little bad for wrecking all those tourist traps." Dipper said with a shade of guilt in his voice.

"C'mon, everybody loves my pranks. And the best part is, I'll never have to face any consequences." Stanley said, smiling. "Ah, here we are!" He added as they saw the shack in front of them.

The kids jumped out of the RV as soon as Stanley parked the van. They all looked at their beloved home, the Mystery Shack, safe as ever, not even a scratch.

They had no idea that they owed a certain scientist in the underground lab for having their shack safe and sound, nor did Stanford himself.


An hour later, the shack was completely silent. Dipper and Stanley were asleep. All lights were out and no sound could be heard. To Mabel, it felt like midnight, but she had never stayed up after her regular bedtime, except one time when she felt rebellious – and regret it when she fell asleep at school during lunch break. All she could remember was Dipper waking her up and her face being covered in cheese and ketchup.

What made the young girl feel uncomfortably weird was the time the clock showed; Nine O' clock. To her, nine o' clock meant the two of them sitting beside their Grunkle Stan and having him shift through the channels until they found something one of them liked – of course, sometimes, when they went monster hunting, they would be at the forest at the time. But what was going on now was as if it were one AM.

The sweatered girl – she hadn't put on her nightgown yet – was bored at the moment. In fact, she was so bored that she had tried reading two of Dipper's books, one being a nerdy, complicated sci-fi book which bored her even more, the other one being 'The Sibling Brothers' which she decided not to read at seeing the cover – Dipper talked about that book a lot.

She also tried to lie down in bed until she would fall asleep. She tried thinking about something pleasant, so she remembered all of the details of their road trip. The biggest yarn ball (Rest in peace), Upside Down Town (again rest in peace), The Corn Maze – where they left without Soos, she remembered – the wood land (She didn't know what prank Stanley did to that attraction) The night they spent at the RV park, and then, the Mystery Mountain…

"No, that doesn't Work." Mabel whispered to herself as she sat up from her bed, then left the attic.

She then went to the kitchen and opened the fridge to have something. She found a few cupcakes inside and picked up one to eat. Hopefully it was one of her favorite flavors – chocolate with strawberry jam inside.

Taking a bite of the cupcake made her feel somewhat better, so she thought about finding something else to do, so she checked the time again to see if she remembered any program that she could watch on the TV. But she couldn't remember anything she could watch at 9 o' clock.

Since she had nothing to do, she walked out of the kitchen and turned the lightbulb inside the kitchen off.

Then she turned and looked at the lightbulb again. The lightbulb ticked something in her mind, then she remembered how they fixed the lightbulb one morning. Grunkle Ford helped them with that…

Grunkle Ford…

Then Mabel realized she had been missing the obvious solution. Of course! Grunkle Ford would never sleep so soon, and was probably downstairs in his lab at the moment.

"Of course! I'll pay Grunkle Ford a visit!"

She turned to the vending machine, but stopped and went back to the kitchen. Mabel wanted to take her great uncle some cupcakes as well.


"Alright, Ford. This is the broken mirror inside the periscope. Took me hours to get it out of there." Clifford said as he handed a broken mirror to Stanford, then wiped his brow.

"Huh. It's cracked more than I'd thought." Stanford said thoughtfully as he observed the broken mirror.

"Let's just hope the same doesn't happen to the rift." Clifford said with a shade of terror in his voice. The two scientists both knew what would happen if they let the rift crack open. "Have you checked if it's cracked any larger or not?"

"No, but it would be safe in two or three days. I've calculated that, and I'm sure I made no mistakes." Stanford assured his clone calmly, although he was a bit worried. "I'll go with Dipper tomorrow." He whispered.

"Where?" Clifford asked the old scientist.

"The alien spaceship. I'll search for the alien adhesive there, and I'll take Dipper with me. An extra pair of hands is always good. Plus, I might talk to him about the apprenticeship." He explained

"I don't think you should." Clifford said. "He's a kid, and as far as I – you – have seen their bonding, I think you should give it a few years. Let him finish school and college just might be a good time to ask him that."

"I don't want to enter the waiting game. It's a dangerous game, I've played it before in the last twenty years." Stanford said. "I'm too old to wait five years for his education to be over, I might even be dead then."

They stopped their argument when they heard a clicking sound from their side. They instantly turned to where the elevator was, only to find a girl in a pink, shooting star sweater holding two cupcakes in her small hands. Her jaw dropped and eyes wide in confusion.

Mabel had barged in on the Fords.


Author's Notes: I think this chapter isn't as good as I thought it should be, but I'd love to hear your views anyways :)

About the part with waking Mabel up and the whole thing, sorry if it seemed pointless and irrelevant, but it's actually a long story. I've had a lot of such experiences with sleeptalking. I once pulled an all-nighter and my cousin was over at our house, and I basically heard a full set of words a war commander would say. Imagine studying history and then suddenly; "Soliders! Attack!" – read in an epic, commanding tone. xD

Anyways, Review on this chapter as well! I'd love to hear your thoughts on my writing, and feel free to tell me any typos or errors you find.

-H80NP