-Welcome to my submission for Wendip week 2021! Much like last year, I've decided to link all the prompts into one congruent story. Also similar to last year, I fully plan on cheating my ass off!… Not really, I just moved some of the prompts around to differen't days to fit how I'd like the story to flow. (The Tumblr page didn't specify any specific prompt for any specific day anyhow. I know I'm reaching, shut-up) You can probably tell from the generic title of this story what the theme is this year.
-Fair warning, this chapter isn't exactly your standard Wendip Week submission, but it's necessary to setup the rest of the story. I also felt it was a unique way to approach the Time Travel prompt. I promise, starting tomorrow I'll be getting straight back to more traditional Wendip week fare… Literally! *wink
A Not So Certain Future
The eyes of Gregory Pines grew wide with excitement, his head nearly hanging out the window as the car pulled up to St. Margaret's Orphanage… Well, at least it was an orphanage until it closed down three decades earlier, reducing the structure to one of the many abandoned asylum-type buildings that dotted the United States, and all across the world really. Of course, like the rest of the most famous of these structures, the defunct orphanage was heavily believed to be haunted.
Catching a glimpse of Greg's reaction through the corner of his eye, Dipper couldn't help but smirk. His son's enthusiasm for Dipper's line-of-work never ceased to amaze him. Greg had been traversing North America with him investigating the paranormal since the boy was old enough to take an interest in the subject… Which was when he was around eight, which meant Greg had spent basically half of his life serving as his dad's de facto sidekick. Dipper figured he would've been numb to exploring these dark and creepy places after all these years, but the boy still approached each case with the same gusto as he had the very first. This particular apple definitely didn't fall far from the tree. In fact, it took root and started to grow a new tree right next to it.
"Do you think the legend of the Bloody Matron might actually be true?" Greg asked, as he and his father stood outside of their car staring up at the imposing structure.
"That's what we're here to find out," Dipper said dryly. Over the years, he'd learned to subdue his once youthful exuberance behind a mask of scientific curiosity and indifference. The circumstances of his personal life had done their toll on him as well, molding him into the man he was today… Somewhere between the young idealistic Dipper Pines and his late mentor Stanford.
Greg began looking around, noticing something was off. "Hold on… Where's the rest of the team at? Are they running late?"
"Nope!" Dipper placed his arm around his slightly shorter son's shoulders. "It's just going to be me and you tonight! No SpookTube, no camera crew… Just Father and Son diving into the unknown! Any discoveries we unearth this evening, the credit goes to us and us alone!"
"Really?" the boy's brown eyes began to shimmer. He'd been waiting for that elusive solo investigation with just him and his father for ages. "That's awesome!"
"Well, no sense in wasting time! Let's go get our gear, and then we'll do a sweep of the building to pinpoint the best locations to focus our investigation on."
Greg nodded his head and raced toward the back of the car where he quickly opened up the trunk. He failed to notice his father's smile erode once the boy's attention was no longer focused on him. Dipper didn't have the heart to tell his son that he decided this investigation would be just the two of them because it might actually be the last investigation they got to go on for a while…
Somewhere deep in the woods of Central Oregon, the forest had been overrun and taken over by a clan of loud, boisterous, red-haired, freckle faced creatures scientifically classified as Corduroys. It was that time of year again for the annual Corduroy family reunion where there was much food to be consumed, beer to chug, and numerous athletic, largely lumberjack themed, contests for the various family members to prove which Corduroy was the most flippin' of them all. For the moment, the youngsters were getting a shot to prove themselves. Burley boys ranging from ages 10-16 all competed in a tree-climbing contest… The catch being the trees were incredibly thick and the boys were forced to try and haul their carcasses up those trees with only the aid of a heavy weighted belt, all hoping to be the first to capture the flag at the twenty-foot mark of each tree. Amongst the mostly beefy boys, there was a slim-framed thirteen-year-old-girl, who quite frankly, was smoking every one of their butts.
"Go Amy! You can do it!" Cheered the girl's mother and adult doppelganger. Amy didn't need much encouragement, however. Once she set her sights on winning and showing up her loud-mouth braggart cousins, nothing was going to stop her. The boy next to her, the oldest of the participants, watched in dismay as Amy reached the top first, claiming her flag and first prize in the competition. She pumped her fists and then dangled the flag for her family to see while they all roared and cheered in support.
"That's my girl! I knew you could do it!"
Grinning, Amy loosened her belt and slid down the tree swiftly, her feet touching the ground with a graceful thud… As graceful as a thud could be anyway. Getting some peeved looks from her male cousins, she walked over to her proud mother, and her possibly even prouder grandfather, who handed Amy a small golden trophy shaped like a beaver. The standard prize for winning any of the reunion competitions.
"You earned this pumpkin. Congratulations!" Dan declared with a beaming smile. He loved all his many grandkids, but his favorite was a poorly kept secret. It was the one who happened to look like a small clone of her mother, who herself was the spitting image of Dan's late wife. Was it really any surprise that there never really was a contest?
"Thanks Grandpa!" Amy pulled out her phone and took a quick selfie of her holding up the trophy. "I gotta send this picture to Greg, he'll get a kick out of it!"
"Just can't wait to show off… You're comin' off a little desperate to impress there arentcha Amy? I thought you got over your little crush on Greg?"
Amy scowled, turning a very lite shade of red. It was kind of true… Amy did once have a small crush on her oldest friend but had gotten over it long ago. Those warm brown eyes of his at one time made her insides feel all gooey, plus she couldn't help but hang on every word when Greg would relay the stories of his various adventures with his father. Damn how she envied the life her best-friend lived. She'd gotten over that crush over time though. Greg was a couple years too old for her, and the more he started to feel like family, those feelings got so weird that they just started to erode. Amy smirked ever so slightly, knowing the perfect way to poke back at her mother. "It would never work out between us anyway… It would be so weird considering we'll probably end up becoming step-siblings one of these days."
Now it was her mother's turn to scowl and turn pink. "I've told you plenty of times that Dipper and I are just good friends… There's nothin' goin' on there, regardless of how persistent you and your little partner in crime seem to want to push us in that direction!"
Amy just shrugged and hit send on her phone. She began impatiently waiting for her bestie to respond.
"Well, that was disappointing," Greg pouted as the car pulled out of St. Margert's parking lot. "An entire night's investigation and not one piece of credible evidence!"
"In this field we fail far more often than we succeed Greg," his father reason. "You should understand that pretty well by now.
"I do, but I had high hopes for this place…" Always thinking ahead and never dwelling too much in the past, Greg promptly asked. "So, where are we off too next?"
"Gravity Falls actually…Figured we could take some time off and visit with your Aunt Mabel, and maybe even Amy and Wendy…"
Greg perked up ever so slightly. "That sounds cool… Haven't been back home in a while."
"Really?" his father spoke, sounding surprised… With perhaps a tinge of hope in his voice. "You consider Gravity Falls home then?"
"Well yeah, I guess…" Greg paused as he thought about the question in greater detail. In truth, the Pines father and son team didn't really have one set place they called home. They could best be described as transients with money, often bouncing around from place-to-place in-between what could prove to be lengthy investigations. Greg had spent most of his young life sleeping in various hotels and occasionally crashing at the home of friends and family. Heck, he hadn't attended public school since the second grade, having been homeschooled and mentored by his father in the same vein as Dipper's Grunkle Ford had offered to him all those years ago. The arrangement hadn't made for the most stable of childhoods, but it's not like the boy noticed all that much. He loved his life as it was, so some of his relatives pestering insistence that he needed more normalcy in his life fell upon deaf ears. If there was one place he could call home, it was probably Gravity Falls… That's where his aunt and most of his friends lived after all. In his case, home truly was where the heart is. "Where else would I call home? Why would you ask that all of the sudden?"
"Well… Funny you should ask that…" Dipper trailed off nervously. Before he could continue though, he was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. The theme from the Exorcist filled the car, causing both father and son to produce simultaneous groans of exasperation. Though if Dipper was being completely honest, this was one occasion where he was halfway glad to get an unexpected, yet somehow also totally expected, call from his ex-wife.
"Do you have to answer it?" Greg groaned, memories of past phone calls between his parents streaming through his head… Most of which involved a lot of insults and yelling over subjects that typically involved him.
"Afraid so kid… There's only so many times I can hit ignore and pretend I was too busy to take the call…" Dipper pulled over to the side of the road before reluctantly accepting the call. "Hello Terra…"
"Mason…" She greeted dryly. Dipper frowned, knowing she only used that name because she knew he hated it. "Thank you for finally picking up after the twelfth call… I'd like to know how my son is doing."
"Alive and perfectly happy per usual. Hey Greg, did you want to talk to…" Dipper looked back at his son, only to see he apparently had spontaneously decided to take a nap. Dipper sweat-dropped, a look of betrayal on his face. "Never mind, he's sound asleep… Apparently!"
"Where exactly are you two by the way? California? Texas? Maine? Stop me when I get close."
If Dipper's brow could furrow any deeper he'd have hair in his eyes. "Is there a point to this call? Or has your lawyer given you a quota for how much you're supposed to nag me during a given week to try and help your imaginary case?"
"The point is making sure my child is being well cared for! And that you haven't forced him into the woods looking for Bigfoot or crawling around some condemned asylum you think is haunted!"
"Of… Course not!" Dipper hesitated only briefly, taking a quick look behind him at the orphanage still visible from where he was parked. "I can guarantee you that we haven't been to any asylums, or even the woods for that matter. And for the record, I don't *force* Greg to do anything. For the cases when I do bring him along, it's more or less because he insisted on coming along. His interest in my work is genuine, not myself imprinting my own interests onto him!"
"He might feel like snowboarding off the top of Mt. Everest, that doesn't mean you let him do it! He's a fifteen-year-old boy! He needs a home, to go to school, and have a normal life! Not crisscrossing the country with his father like a couple of hobos riding the rails! Just because he wants something doesn't mean that's what's best for him! You are his father you know, so you do have the ability to tell him no! Or maybe I finally need to take this information before the judge and question your ability to be an appropriate guardian for our son…"
Sparks were nearly flying from Dipper's teeth by this point. How dare that bitch… "You go ahead and try it Terra! You abandoned the boy when he was two and signed over all your custody rights a year later just so you and your rich-ass husband wouldn't have to worry about paying child support! I know the courts usually favor the mother in custody cases Terra, but in our particular situation, I don't think I have much to worry about!"
"Maybe… Unless I can prove you're not providing our son with a safe and stable homelife, or that you're knowingly endangering his safety… Evidence of which you have plastered all over the internet the last time I checked."
"Funny how you had no interest whatsoever in our son's wellbeing until you found out about my web-show a few months ago and realized there might be money involved… What happened? Did your hubby cut off your allowance or something?"
"I've admitted to my mistakes, and I'm trying to repair my relationship with my son! If you'd stop getting in the way…"
"He's a smart boy, and he saw through your bullshit faster than anyone. Good luck thinking you're going to repair that relationship by removing him from an environment where he's thriving and happy! I know my rights Terra, and I have all the leverage here! As long as I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, there's not a damn thing you can do to challenge custody, so until that changes Terra… Kindly Fuck Off!"
Dipper abruptly ended the call and sat there for a minute silently fuming. Greg wouldn't have been surprised to see steam start shooting out of his ears. "Just another lovely chat with mother hey?"
"Yeah…" Dipper calmed slightly. "Sorry you've been within earshot of so many of them lately."
The younger Pines merely shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure what Mom's trying to accomplish by riling you up like she does…"
"She knows she doesn't have a leg to stand on legally, so trying to get under my skin, I guess, is her way of trying to create some illusion that she's in control of the situation. Usually by questioning my parenting skills, and threatening to challenge for custody over you…"
"Sounds like her…" Greg got quiet for a moment as he contemplated the situation. He couldn't exactly say he hated his mother, that was a bit much. He wasn't the type of kid who could bring himself to say he outright despised the woman who gave him life. No, he didn't hate his mother. He just didn't like the woman at all and would hardly care if he never had anything to do with her for the rest of his life. To his credit, Greg had humored his mother's transparent attempt to reconcile, even spending an awkward weekend at his new 'step-families' place. They put up a good show, posturing, was likely the proper term for it, but Greg was a smart kid and saw right through it. All it took was his mother slipping in one question about how much money his dad took in from the web-show to break the illusion. Not so much as a phone call or even a birthday card in thirteen years until there was money involved, and suddenly here she was trying to make amends. The most sickening part of it all was that she certainly didn't need the money, but somehow felt she was entitled to her share of the cut anyway. He left the day after and proceeded to avoid all contact with his mother, verbal or otherwise, since.
"Dad… You don't think there's any chance Mom could actually win custody do you?"
"Hey, don't you worry about that! Trust me Greg, I'm not going to let that happen. As long as I do what I'm supposed to do, your mother can't touch you. The courts don't look fondly on parents who declare themselves unfit and sign their rights away. I doubt they'd be too thrilled either with the fact that she's had zero contact with you for over a decade and only showed back up in your life when there was some profit to be made."
"I hope you're right," Greg mused. As established earlier, he was a smart kid. Meaning he was well aware that his father wasn't a perfect parent himself. He was a workaholic who sometimes allowed his passion for exploring the unknown blind him to what was best for his son. In the end though, his dad always put his son's best interests first when it really mattered, and Greg never once had to doubt how much his father cared for him. Something he definitely couldn't claim of his other so-called parent. "So Dad… Is it true that mom's head rotates in a complete circle every time she gets mad?"
This got a good laugh from his father as he started the car. "Yep, and spits pea soup like a lawn sprinkler!"
A comfortable silence fell over the car as they continued down the road, only broken when Greg suddenly shouted out. "Oh crap! The Corduroy family reunion was yesterday…"
"That's right… Amy was really excited about it wasn't she?" Dipper chuckled while his son turned on his phone and frantically checked his messages, grimacing once he noticed he'd received eight from the girl in question. "I take it from the look on your face that Ms. Corduroy's been in contact with you. You going to get in trouble for not responding right away?"
"Oh, I'm sure half her texts are yelling at me for forgetting to turn my phone back on…" He was right, but the first three made him smile… Amy posing with several differen't trophies from various contests she won at the reunion. "Looks like she did pretty well for herself… Hey, maybe she'll forgive me when I let her know we're coming to visit."
"Yeah, to visit…" Dipper trailed off. Thankfully, his son didn't notice.
A couple more hours on the open road later, and Greg really had drifted off to sleep. It had been merely a matter of time anyway, the boy exhausted from staying awake the entire night ghost hunting in St. Helen's. The only reason Dipper wasn't nodding off behind the wheel was the tolerance he'd built up to the rather insane sleep schedule of a paranormal investigator. The long hours without sleep barley affected him anymore. Now confident his son was likely out cold until they reached their destination, Dipper picked up his phone and made a quick call to his sister.
"Hey there Mabel! Just wanted to let you know, we're about three hours away from Gravity Falls, so we should be seeing you soon."
"Great! I've already got clean sheets on the beds, and I have a special diner planned for tonight, so no spoiling your appetites before you get here!"
"I wouldn't dream of it Sis… Thanks for putting us up while we're… Transitioning.."
"Oh blah! You don't have to thank me! You know I love having you guys visit… Just out of curiosity though, how long are you planning on staying this time?"
"Hopefully only a week or two… However long it takes for me to find a decent apartment. I'll need to save up for a bit before I start thinking about anything bigger…"
Dipper couldn't see it, but he could almost hear the smile forming on his sister's face. "So you're actually serious huh? You're going to move back to Gravity Falls and actually stick around this time?"
"Yeah… It's gona be weird for us for a while, but Nathan made it pretty clear what I needed to do to keep a certain gremlin off my back!" Nathan was Pacifica's husband, and by extension, a personal friend of the family. He also happened to be a damn good lawyer who'd been advising Dipper on his potentially pressing legal issues with his ex-wife over custody of their son. The bitch probably thought she had the advantage at first with her husband's high-priced lawyers, but thankfully Dipper just happened to have friends with deep pockets of their own. "My case is rock solid and there isn't much Terra can do to challenge for custody over Greg. There really isn't anything on any of our SpookTube videos she could use to prove child-endangerment since perceived threats from beings like ghosts, aliens, and cryptids aren't admissible in court since you can't technically be threatened by something the law deems does not exist. Nathan did advise that the court might look down on our transient lifestyle, and that might potentially be a window for Terra to try to sneak through to challenge custody. So, to make sure I don't lose my son, I need to make sure he has a permanent home where he can attend school and live the life a kid his age should."
"And Greg is okay with that?"
"I doubt it… I haven't gotten around to actually telling him yet. The only reason I'm calling you now is because he's asleep. I don't want to spoil his return home, so I'm going to wait a couple of days before I drop that bomb on him."
"He's not going to be happy at first… I'm sure he'll grow to understand sooner than later Bro-Bro. What's going to happen with your little SpookTube channel though, since you're going to be scaling back the investigation schedule?"
"I'm still working on that… I might have to change up my content a little bit and hope the fans don't get upset by it. I make too much money from that channel to just give it up, and it's still my best option for making a decent living. If the channel does go belly up, I guess I'll have to suck it up and get a real job…"
"Ewe, the horror!" Mabel teased, as she shivered for absolutely no other reason than to entertain herself. "Hey, you gotta do, what you gotta do right? Whatever it takes to keep super-bitch from taking our boy away!"
"That's the plan Mabel…" Dipper sighed. "The ironic thing is, if the channel stops making money, Terra will probably lose interest in getting custody and drop the issue entirely. She's not fooling anyone. Greg's wellbeing is nowhere close her top priority here. I highly doubt it's a priority for her at all. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if killing my internet career was her main goal in all of this."
"I know she's a greedy skank, but do you really think she's that vindictive? I mean, she's the one who abandoned you guys and never looked back, so what reason does she have to want to sabotage you thirteen years later?"
"Because I didn't have money back then and now I do… And for some reason she believes she's retroactively entitled to some of it, and she's obviously not above using our son as a pawn to get what she wants… That's what pisses me off more than anything Mabel… I'm not going to let her get away with it." Dipper looked at his still sleeping son through his rearview mirror. "No way in hell!"
Two days had passed since Dipper and Gregory Pines had arrived back in Gravity Falls. Two days and Amy Corduroy had yet to see her best friend, and it was seriously starting to get on her nerves. She understood why they'd visit Aunt Mabel first, but that didn't mean she had to like it, or pretend to be patient.
"Ugh, where are they?! They were supposed to be here an hour ago!" Amy complained, clutching the railing of their cabin's porch, rocking side-to-side impatiently. A structure Manly Dan himself had constructed shortly after Amy's father had removed himself from the picture. Wendy wasn't wild about the idea at first, but Dan knew his daughter's independence was important to her, and he would be damned if he was going to allow his only daughter and grandchild to have to fret over a place to live. It was one of the few occasions that Wendy allowed logic and practicality get a win over her pride.
"They probably just got held up sweet-heart," Wendy replied with an amused smirk. "Calm down will ya? You'll see your boyfriend soon enough."
"Not funny Mom," Amy pouted, sounding more irritated than actually angry or embarrassed. "And kinda gross. You know he treats me like his little sister…"
"I know. It's kind of adorable." Wendy beamed down at her daughter, whose foul mood rarely meant good things for anyone. As far as the kid was concerned, two could play at her mother's little game.
"So, are you and Uncle Dipper plannin' on having your traditional date tonight? Like you usually do whenever they come back to town?"
"It's not a date Amy…. But yeah, we're gettin' together for dinner. It's our time to catch up after all."
"Where are you goin' this time? Greasy's again?"
"Nope! Actually thought it would be nice if we just had a homemade meal here at home for a change instead of goin' out."
Amy's overall demeaner really perked up when she heard that. "So, you're going to invite the guy to stay at your house and cook him dinner, but yet somehow that's not a date?"
"No, it's not at all. Mabel's comin' too, so get your head out of the gutter!"
"Why are you wearing the necklace he gave you then if you're not trying to show off to him?"
Wendy blushed, actually flustered by her daughter for pointing that out. She hurriedly stuffed the piece of modest jewelry behind her shirt so it couldn't be seen. "What's gotten you so preoccupied with my love life here lately Amy?"
"I dunno…" she shrugged. "Maybe I can tell your lonely, and I don't want to see you grow to be some miserable old hag."
"I'm perfectly fine on my own Amy hon… When and if I want to start datin' again, I'm perfectly capable of findin' my own boyfriends, thank you."
Amy didn't appear impressed. "Are you forgetting that I've met most of your boyfriends? I strongly disagree."
Wendy regarded her daughter with consternation. "Who taught you to be so snarky anyhow?"
"Grandpa says I take after you…" she quipped, a slightly smug smirk on her face.
"Of course he'd say that…" Wendy grumbled, though she couldn't deny her child's affirmation because she knew it was true. Her daughter was so much like her that it scared her sometimes, especially now that she was at that age where she was starting to notice boys. If Wendy's own history was any indication… Well, let's just say there was a practical reason for Wendy to constantly remind her daughter of her once massive crush on her best-fiends son other than simple teasing. Somebody safe who'd be good to her as opposed to some of the more… Questionable relationship choices Wendy had made in her past. The year-and-a-half age difference wasn't quite as daunting as well… Hers and a certain someone else's, but the less she thought about him in that light nowadays, the better for her mental health.
The Corduroy women ran out of time to snip at one another, as a familiar car finally pulled up the driveway. Wendy smiled almost unconsciously, while her daughter bounced off the porch so hard she jumped clear over the railing and into the yard, or at least that's what it looked like from Wendy's perspective and amusement. Greg barely had time to step out of the car before he got slammed into by a red torpedo. He managed to stay on his feet and chuckled, having long grown accustomed to his friend's exuberant way of saying hello. After a tight squeeze, Amy quickly unlatched herself from the boy and tried her best to look cool and indifferent.
"It's been a longtime dork," she greeted evenly.
"It's good to see you too brat," he snickered as he tussled her hair, something Amy abhorred. Her scowl quickly turned into a smile as she grabbed him by the wrist.
"Come on! I gotta show ya my trophy's I won at the reunion!"
"Okay, but seriously! Do you have to run everywhere?!" the boy complained as he was dragged into the house by a girl with seemingly boundless energy. A stark contrast from her mother who could be notoriously lazy when she wanted to be.
Said mother laughed at her daughter's antics, having shared a much more subdued greeting with her old friend.
"They never miss a beat do they?" Dipper said observantly, now standing next to Wendy.
"Nope, and I'm glad for it… Believe it or not, Amy doesn't have a whole lot of friends outside of Greg and Penny…"
"Yeah, you've mentioned that before… It's kind of surprising to be honest. She's very outgoing. A lot like you were when you were a teenager."
"Not as much as you might think. I was more laid back while Amy tends to be a tad more aggressive. I don't think she feels like she fits in with most kids her age… Not tomboyish enough to get along with the guys, and not girly enough to be interested in the type of things most girls her age are. She's stuck somewhere in the middle. I'd be more worried, but she doesn't really seem to mind. She tends to seem more interested in the quality of her friends than quantity."
"I can relate to that," Dipper smiled.
Wendy rolled her eyes, but still fired back with a smirk of her own. "We still on for your traditional homecoming dinner?"
"And miss a chance for you and Mabel to drain my bank account a little more? I wouldn't dream of missing it," Dipper joked, but he still meant it. While it was true that the tradition of treating Wendy, Mabel, and occasionally Pacifica and her husband, to dinner started as a pseudo apology for disappearing for weeks and sometimes months at a time without staying in consistent contact, he still looked forward to those get togethers. They were great opportunities to catch up with everyone and just unwind. Two things Dipper had become quite notorious for neglecting over the years.
"Actually, as much as I enjoy moochin' a free meal off of you, I thought we could chill here, and I'll make you dinner for a change. Maybe watch a cheesy old monster movie afterward, like we used to do?"
"Are there any left we actually haven't seen?" Dipper wondered, a smile on his face.
"Dude, we live in the age of streaming media! I have three differen't apps on my T.V. that are nothing but cheap crappy horror movies."
"We truly live-in blessed times," Dipper snarked with exaggerated reverence before clutching at his stomach. "That sounds good if it's not too much trouble. I'm pretty sure my stomachs recovered from Mabel's welcome home dinner last night…"
"Poor Mabes' cookin' hasn't gotten any better huh?"
"It's not exactly that her cooking is bad," Dipper lied his ass off. "It's more that she finds it necessary to add ingredients to certain dishes that… Range from unnecessary to potential chemical weaponry."
"You don't have to sell me dude! I've been successfully dodgin' you sister's cookin' going on five years now!"
While the adults conversed outside, they were unaware that their children weren't quite as preoccupied as they might've thought. In fact, they happened to be listening in on parts of their parent's conversation through the other side of the wall. Sound traveled oddly well form the outside of the house to the inside.
"So, your mom wants to make dinner tonight instead of going out to eat… I don't think that means what you think it means Amy… Or that anything's changed since the last twenty times we've had this conversation."
"You don't understand what it means when a woman willingly cooks for a guy when she doesn't have too?" Amy asked with a raised eyebrow. "She doesn't go to that trouble because she feels like it, I can tell ya that much! Besides, I caught mom wearing that necklace your dad gave her."
"And that's supposed to mean something?" Greg asked, genuinely confused. "Other than she happens to like the necklace?"
"Seeing as she only wears it when your dad's around, yeah." Amy frowned at her friend in frustration. "You really don't know a thing about girls do you?"
"Of course not. You've met my dad right? You think I learned anything from him?"
"Well, can't argue with ya there," Amy snorted. "Why are you always so negative about this though? I thought you wanted this for them too?"
"I do, but only if it's what they want too… I just want Dad to be happy… And if Aunt Wendy makes him happy, I'm all for it, but I'm not going to try and force them into something if this isn't what they want. Sometimes I worry Aunt Mabel's radicalized you to the cause a little too well…"
"I'm not trying to force them together either! I know my mom though, and I can tell when she's being stubborn! If I seem pushy, it's because I know we have a small window to make something happen here before you and your dad disappear for another month…"
"Well actually…" Greg hesitated, unsure if he should share this information of not. If you can't trust your best friend with your secrets though, who could you trust? "From here on out, you might have more opportunities than you might think. Our current stay might be an extended one…"
"Oh yeah? How extended?..."
"Well, if I understand the situation correctly… Permanently. I know Dad spent a good portion of yesterday evening looking for apartments in town…
"Really?" Amy said, sounding hopeful. Far too much so for her taste, so she dialed her excitement down appropriately. "I mean, that's cool… But you guys have never stayed in the same place for very long. Why the sudden change?"
"Mom…" Greg spat in disgust. "Dad's just doing what he feels he has too in order to keep from giving Mom legal grounds to sue for custody. Which means a home, school, and all that normal teenager crap I'm supposed to be enjoying…"
"You don't sound very excited about it…"
"Over being forced to live a normal boring life after a lifetime of adventure and excitement? No, I'm positively thrilled… But things could be worse. Like being forced to live with my mom, and so-called stepfamily who'll probably forget I exist as soon as the checks start clearing." The boy clenched his fingers so tightly he nearly drew blood from his palm. "Tell me something Amy… Have you ever had any desire to meet you father, or even know anything about him?"
"Nope. No interest whatsoever. He cut out on me and Mom before I was even born and I haven't so much as heard a word from him since, so I don't even care to ever hear one or even know what his name is. Mom refuses to even talk to me about him, and that's perfectly fine with me!"
"I wish I had your resolve," Greg sighed as he pressed his back against the wall and slid down onto his rear. "Because I got curious, and it cost me bigtime… And now that bitch sees dollar signs and thinks that gives her the right to swoop in and try to threaten everything that's important to me. I wish I never answered that damn phone call…"
Amy fidgeted, unsure of what exactly she could say in support of her friend. She settled for sitting down next to him, looking uncharacteristically unsure of herself before finally offering, "Hey, it's not going to be all bad right? You'll have more time to hang out with me at least! Though I'm worried I'll get tired of you if I gotta look at that face every day."
Greg smirked at her barb and traded one of his own. "Just like I worry that having a little red turd clinging to my leg all the time is going to get… Ouch!" Greg winced as said leg got a swift kick from said turd. "Fair enough… Just do me a favor and don't mention what I told you to your mother, or my dad for that matter. I don't think I'm supposed to know yet. At least he hasn't gotten around to telling me we're settling down just yet."
"How did you figure it out then?"
"What can I say?" Greg asked with a shrug. "I'm my father's son. I figure shit out. The trick is not to let the authority figures in your life realize just how smart you are, and they tend to underestimate you."
"Huh… I gotta remember to use that sometime." Amy smirked and then nudged the boy with her elbow. "Hey, now that you're going to be around more often, that means you can finally ask Penny out! You know, now that you don't have the whole long-distance relationship business to use as an excuse not to."
"Wha-I-urgh!" Greg turned as red as Amy's hair. "I just moved back into town! It's a little early to start worrying about stuff like that isn't it?!"
"I'm not hearing a no…" Amy sang. "So, if you two ever get married, are you going to take the Northwest name to appease the family like her dad did?"
"Oh, shut-up…" She refused. The teasing would continue for some time.
"Food should be ready in ten!" Wendy called from the kitchen. Dipper was in the process of setting the table, having wanted a way to make himself useful since Wendy had all but banished him from the kitchen. "Amy, if you can hear me, why don't you and Greg wash up and come down for dinner?!"
A few seconds later, Amy's redhead poked into the kitchen. "Actually Mom, we're in the middle of a movie, so would you mind if we ate in my room?"
Normally a stickler for the rules she personally set for her home, Wendy wouldn't have allowed this but… This was a special occasion after all. "Alright, I guess… But I better not find a single crumb on the floor or dish left in your room, got it?"
"Got it Mom! Thanks!"
"That sure smells good," Dipper complimented, standing at the counter separating the kitchen from the dining room. He was technically still barred from entering the kitchen proper.
"Thanks! Its roasted chicken marinated with my special blend of seasonings."
"You roasted an entire chicken! What happened to not going to any trouble?!"
"Hey, it's my house!" Wendy smirked. "I'll decide what's too much trouble and what's not! Now, be prepared to have your tastebuds assaulted!"
Once the old friends had sat down at the table to eat, they immediately noticed the oddity that three of the five places Dipper had set sat empty. The kids were accounted for but…
"I guess Mabel is running late," Wendy assumed. Mabel had never been the type to turn down a free meal of any kind.
"I guess so… Maybe I should call…" Almost on cue, Dipper's phone vibrated. He checked his texts, and sure enough it was from Mabel. "It looks like Mabel won't be able to make it… Because her cat is feeling depressed, and needs Mabel to provide emotional support?"
"Oh, good grief!" Wendy groaned as she threw down her fork. Her forehead wound up in the palm of her hand. "Couldn't even be bothered to come up with a decent excuse…"
"She probably could've tried a little harder couldn't she?"
"No, the obvious lie is completely intentional because she wants us to know she's lying. You know your sister well enough to know when she's orchestrated a setup. I certainly can."
"Yeah, this is one of her favorite tricks now that I think about it… What's she setting up for though?"
Wendy glared across the table at her old friend incredulously. "Seriously dude? Mabel cancels on us abruptly, the kids excuse themselves from eating at the table to make sure we're alone together… You startin' to get what's going on here Dip?"
He didn't, and he stared at Wendy blankly for a moment until the answer finally smacked him the face. "Oh… Yeah, I get the picture now... But why?"
"People have been tryin' to hook us up for ten years now Dipper… I don't know why they still bother. Maybe because they see two single parents whose kids have no contact with their other parent and think, wow those two should be together! Like their some over-zealous fans of some lame-ass TV show tryin' to cobble together a couple from the shows spare parts."
"I'd like to think there's more to it than that," Dipper snorted, eyes slightly narrowed. "We have a history Wendy. I know I'm not your type, but is it really all that crazy to imagine that if our circumstances were differen't, one day we might've… Well you know."
"Why Dipper Pines!" Wendy grinned, not taking what Dipper said too seriously. Both were comfortable enough in their friendship that they could openly talk about subjects like this without things getting weird… Usually. "Are you suggesting you've been fantasizin' about me in your spare time? Well, when you're not preoccupied with ghosts and aliens that is."
Dipper grinned himself, more than willing to play this game with her. "You're asking if, when I was a kid if I ever fantasized about someday marrying and having kids with my first crush? Of course not, what teenaged boy does that!" Dipper snarked, before taking a bite of his chicken. He swallowed before continuing. "Nothing serious though, since I knew you never felt the same way but yeah… Of course it crossed my mind once or twice. It would've been weirder if I never had."
"Right…" Wendy's smirk dropped from her face as he sighed. "You really are dense sometimes aren't you Dipper?"
"So you've mentioned a few times…" he said, eyeing Wendy curiously after her unexpected reaction. "So you might want to be more specific."
Wendy's eyes remained on the table, but she grinned in return though that grin had a somber tint to it… Almost shy in a way. "You seriously never figured out that I had a crush on you once too?"
The loud clank of Dipper's fork hitting the table was the only audible sound currently in the room. Dipper was thankful he'd just swallowed, otherwise he might be chocking to death at the moment. Unsure of how to respond at first, he settled for laughing, assuming Wendy was messing with him. "I'm sure you did! Thanks, but I'm not an insecure little boy anymore Wendy. No need to try to make me feel better after embarrassing myself."
Wendy was looking up at Dipper now, her smile more genuine. "Not messin' with ya dude. I'm totally serious. Maybe I hid it a little better than I thought? You clearly never noticed."
While he couldn't tell you exactly how, Dipper could tell Wendy wasn't kidding him. Over the years, he'd learned how to tell when she was being sincere. This information nearly caused his brain to overload. All he could manage to squeak out in response was a simple, "When?"
"The summer you came up to Gravity Falls after your second year of college. I hadn't seen you in nearly two years, and for the first time I saw a grown man, and not a boy looking up at me with puppy dog eyes. I think it helped a lot too that you weren't actin' like a love-sick kid around me anymore. You were so much more comfortable and confident around me… You were just you, with gorgeous eyes, and this adorable little smile, but at your core you were still the same sweet guy I'd met eight summers before. What can I say? I was smitten."
"Why…" Dipper's mouth felt dry all of the sudden. He sputtered to get the words out. "Why didn't you ever say anything?"
Wendy's grin broadened, but that sorrowful tinge returned. "Think about the timeframe I just referenced dude… What else was going on at that time? The main reason you were no longer so enamored with me?"
Dipper thought it over for a moment and then winced. Oh how cruel the vindictive hands of fate could be. "Terra…"
"You were engaged… You seemed legitimately happy with her at the time too, and this was way before any of us realized she was a demon in disguise. What kind of friend would I have been to shit all over that? So, I walled myself up and pretended nothing had changed. Didn't do a very good job of it apparently, since pretty much everyone else in our little circle could tell with the exception of you obviously…"
"Wait… Was that the real reason you didn't attend our wedding?"
Wendy completely froze. She hadn't expected to be called out on that, but hey… She was already baring her soul to him, no sense in holding back now. "I didn't trust myself not to make a scene or embarrass myself… Or you, so I thought it would be best if I just stayed away… You could imagine how pissed I was when the bitch pulled what she did a couple years later, and there was so much more goin' on there than just being upset over what she did to you and Greg." Wendy paused a moment to sigh before continuing. "Of course, by then I was involved with asshole, and once that disaster blew up in my face, you had already jumped headfirst into your paranormal internet show, and quite frankly, all that mattered to me at the time was taking care of my newborn daughter."
"In other words, we were cursed with lousy timing," Dipper bemused. "We just never could quite get in sync with each other could we?"
"Everything happens for a reason I guess… For all the crap we've been put through, at least we got two great kids out of it…"
Dipper's smirk broadened into a warm smile. "Can't argue with that."
Unbeknownst to the two adults, their conversation wasn't as private as they might've thought or hoped. Those delightful children they'd just complimented happened to be hiding out in the hallway, eavesdropping throughout the entire meal.
"Bad timing… Not in sync…" Amy whispered to herself as she tried to process what she'd heard. "Sucks to think how differen't things could've been if things in the past had happened just a little bit differently."
"Like the two of us not existing?" her friend replied dryly.
"You don't know that for sure…" Amy frowned stubbornly.
"No, I don't… Just like I had no idea your mom actually had feelings for dad at one point.. I had no idea."
"Why do you think I've been pushing for this so hard? To fix the mistakes they're too stubborn to fix themselves! The only reason I even know about it was because I bugged mom enough one time that she let it slip… The fact that she confessed to your dad about it is telling…"
"How so?"
"Why do you think dumbass?!" Amy growled, frustrated at her friend's obliviousness. It's times like this she was glad she looked at him too much like an older brother to maintain that crush she once had on him. Pursuing any type of relationship with the boy would've proved absolutely maddening. She pitied poor Penny. That girl was definitely going to have to make the first move if they were ever going to go anywhere. "She's opening up to him, and a girl doesn't leave herself vulnerable like that for no reason, especially someone with trust and pride issues like my mom! The real question is whether your father is as braindead about girls as you are, or if he sees the opening and walks through."
Back at the dinner table, the old friends had been focusing a little more on eating, Dipper in particular needing a bit of a break from conversation after the bombshell just dropped on him. He knew the silence couldn't last forever though, otherwise she might think he was going to get weird and shutdown if she didn't think that already. "This chicken really is good Wendy."
"Thanks. You're pandering, but since I know it's true I'll let it slide this time," Wendy joked, hoping to establish a comfortable atmosphere. In truth, she was scared to death over how Dipper was going to take the information he'd just received. Wendy had her reasons for sharing however, for taking what she herself considered a tremendous risk. Another brief silence followed, and Wendy decided to break it this time. "So… What's the next big adventure you have planned once your visits up?"
"Well, to be perfectly honest…" Dipper hesitated, an awkward smile on his face. "Finding an apartment and enrolling Greg in High School… Funny thing is, house hunting is turning out to be more difficult than some of my ghost hunts. But yeah, it looks like Greg and I might be more permanent fixtures in Gravity Falls for the foreseeable future."
Now it was Wendy's turn to drop her eating utensil. "Really?" she asked, as she quickly picked up her fork to save face. "I mean, that sounds cool. Why all of the sudden though?"
"Nathan's recommendations… As you know, the succubus has been floating around looking for a payday, and she's more than willing to threaten my custody and Greg's happiness to do it. I'm doing what I need to do in order to make sure none of that happens, and Greg is taken care of… I need to put what's best for him ahead of my own ambitions… Something I hate to admit that I don't have the best track record of doing sometimes…"
"Hey, you're bein' the best father you can be Dipper," Wendy assured him, sounding considerably more upbeat than she had been a minute or two ago. "He's as bright, polite, and well-adjusted as most kids I've ever met, so you're doing something right."
"I appreciate it…" Dipper's rueful smile dipped into a frown. "But sometimes I feel like I've taken advantage of his enthusiasm for my work to keep charging full steam ahead without really considering that his childhood is quickly disappearing in the process… Selfish actions, regardless of if the results are positive or not, are still selfish actions."
"Well… Here's the way I look at it Dip. If you're a parent that never questions your own parenting skills, then you're probably not a very good parent to begin with." Wendy's supportive words got rewarded in the form of a soft smile from her friend. It was more worn and tired looking than the smile she'd enjoyed in the past, but it still stirred certain feelings in her even twenty years later. "What's going to happen with your internet show?"
"I'll just have to retool the content a bit. Maybe focus more on commentary of paranormal mysteries that I could never do a traditional video for, stuff like that. I'll probably lose some views and some revenue, but I've got to do what I've gotta do… Since I'm going to have to scale back my investigations considerably."
Wendy's demeanor dropped just a bit. "Oh… You still plannin' on doing a lot of travelin' for your mystery huntin' stuff?"
"Oh course! I don't think I could ever turn my back on my work entirely… The field still excites me just as much as it did when I was that wide-eyed kid visiting Gravity Falls for the first time. I wouldn't be scaling back at all if the damn legal issues weren't forcing me too… Then again, I am serious about considering Greg's needs more than I have in the past… Maybe being forced to slow down isn't such a bad thing."
"Nothing wrong with it all dude! I know family dinners, PTA meetings, and just crashin' on the couch watching TV aren't as excitin' as huntin' for ghosts and monsters, but a lot of those moments have been some of the best of my life. A normal life is nothing to sneeze at."
Wendy received a reaction she hadn't been expecting in the least. Dipper snorted, which slowly evolved into a hearty belly laugh. "Me? A normal life? I'm afraid I've sailed well past that option Wendy. I just can't see it… I'd be bored out of my mind, and probably next to miserable most of the time, always looking over my shoulder wondering what I'm missing out there. I've tried normal Wendy. It didn't quite work out for me."
"Oh… Yeah, I guess normal would be out of place for you wouldn't it?…" Wendy trailed off, unable to fully meet Dipper's gaze. The man wasn't sure what, but he knew he'd just said the wrong thing. Wendy abruptly sat up from the table and made herself busy by clearing what was no longer in use. "Well, I'm full… You gona finish your plate, or are you done?"
"Umm…" Dipper looked down at his plate which had been half-picked clean. His appetite was suddenly gone.
Meanwhile, back in the hallway, Amy slammed the palm of her hand against her forehead. "Argh, dang it Uncle Dipper!"
"I'm taking it dad failed to walk through that opening?"
"Failed?! He stood there like an idiot and let the door smack him in the face on the backswing!"
"What exactly did he do wrong?"
"Well, look at it this way. Take my mom, who's basically a shut-in whose devoted her entire life to raising me by herself, partly because she's too prideful to accept help, and partly because of serious trust issues she developed after whoever my asshole father is took off! Now take your dad, who basically just said he doesn't think he could ever settle down because he'd always be looking over his shoulder, longing for his next adventure. What do you think my mother thought after hearing that?"
"That if she got involved with my dad, she'd always have to worry he'd get bored and take off on her too…" Greg sighed. "The sad thing is, a lot of what Dad just said is kind of a lie…"
"Whaddya mean?" Amy asked, hopeful her carefully crafted plan might still be salvageable.
"One thing Dad wasn't lying about was that he had tried the normal life route before… With my mother, who pretty much demanded he get a real job and all but forget about his paranormal studies, which were really just a hobby of his at the time. Dad happily did as Mom wanted and played the happy family man, but that still wasn't enough. Mom still decided she wasn't ready to be a wife or mother and left anyway, completely devastating my father and leaving him in a very bad place. That's when he really started throwing himself into the paranormal stuff and never looked backed, even neglecting me at times in the process… Or at least Dad's apologized for it a hundred differen't times, though I can't remember ever feeling neglected. He didn't throw himself into his work to make up for lost time though… He did it to fill a void left in his heart after Mom gutted him and left him empty inside. Working all the time was the distraction he needed to help get him through… Even all these years later, he just doesn't really know how to slow down. Funny thing is, if he really believed your mother was an option for him to settle down with, I have very little doubt he'd take it… But unless he's confident that's a possibility, he's going to stay the workaholic he's been since the divorce."
"So basically… What you're saying is…."
"You've been trying to fix up a woman with trust issues who shuts herself in to hide from her problems, with a workaholic who's spent half his life running from his… In case you haven't guessed it by now, that's the reason I haven't been as enthusiastic with trying to get our parents together like you have… I can read the writing on the wall…"
Amy looked like a girl watching her best laid plans crumble into dust. She regarded her life-long friend with a frown. "That's awfully introspective of you… Are you messin' with me when you pretend not to understand other people or how to relate to them?"
Greg shrugged, a smug smile on his face. "Remember what I said earlier? About not allowing others to realize how observant you actually are. Gotta have my fun somehow right?" This earned him a hard elbow to his ribs. "Sorry, sorry! And no, it's not totally an act. I know jack about girls and relationships in general… But I know my dad, and I know your mom… I think dad might be right about the two of them never being 'in sync'. Neither of them has ever been in a good enough place at the same time to be emotionally available for each other the way lovers need to be. Maybe that means they're just better off staying friends."
"Maybe…" Amy's brow furrowed with determination. "Or we just need to resort to more drastic measures! Come on!"
Greg mildly protested as he found himself being dragged up to Amy's room. She locked the door behind them and quickly got down to business. "Please hear me out before you freak out on me okay?... Does your dad still have that time-tape thingy the fat time-traveling guy gave him?"
Greg paid Amy's request no heed and freaked out. "Wh-what?! Oh hell no, no, no, no, no, no! Whatever crazy ass idea you have in your head, erase it from your memory right now!"
"Oh, what's the big deal?! Your Dad and Aunt Mabel used the thing when they were kids, and the planet didn't explode! What's it gona hurt if…"
"Your cavalier attitude concerning messing with time is the only reason I need to tell you no, this isn't going to happen! And that's just one of dozens of reasons! You realize they don't hand out time-traveling devices like prizes at the county fair don't you? The Time Police entrusted that tape to my dad under strict instructions never to use it unless there was an absolute emergency! Dad's taken that promise so seriously, he hasn't used it even once as long as I've been alive, and I highly doubt he ever intends too! Especially for his own personal gain!"
"He wouldn't be using it for his own gain, we'd be doing it on his behalf! What's the worst that could happen?"
"Other than corrupting the current timeline, it could completely break the trust between Dad and the Time Police, and there's no telling what the consequences for abusing that privilege might be!... Not to mention that if you actually succeeded and got your way, that success would very likely result in the two of us being erased from existence!"
"Well, if you only want to focus on the negative consequences…" Amy whined stubbornly.
"No Amy… Just no… I was willing to skip out on dinner to give our folks some time alone together, but messing with time… I'm sorry, but I've gone as far as I'm willing to go…" Greg was done with everything. The conversation, and Amy's entire crazy scheme. He was halfway out the door before Amy spoke up.
"What if I told you what I have planned involves changing almost nothing in the past… More like leaving breadcrumbs for those two to follow and hope it leads them closer together before it's too late? Ten minutes is probably all we'd need. Get in and right back out!"
Greg paused and looked over at his younger friend sternly. "Ten minutes is all it takes to unravel an entire timeline…" His features softened considerably. "Why are you so determined to get those two together?"
"I don't know!" Amy howled in frustrated honesty. She really didn't understand her motivations. "It's just something I feel like I need to do… My Mom's sacrificed so much for me that I feel like I owe her something… Isn't seeing our parent's happy worth getting into a little trouble with the time coppers?
"Maybe… But is it worth the risk of wiping yourself from existence?"
"I don't believe that's going to happen… Our circumstances might be a little differen't, but I feel pretty good that we'll survive being erased completely… Who knows, maybe neither one of us will have to worry about having a complete asshat for a parent!"
Greg regarded his green-eyed friend for a moment. "How can you be so confident about this?"
Amy hesitated only briefly. "Because of the way you told me the flow of time actually works… And I trust you enough to believe that you're right."
A staring contest of wills broke out as green eyes met brown. Amy appeared to win, as Greg's body began to tremble in submission. "UGH! Fine, I'll try to get the damn tape!"
"Yes! Thank you, thank you!" Amy glomped the boy with a massive hug that he tried his best not to return, but he ultimately caved again and returned the embrace. "Try to meet me sometime after midnight tonight," she told him as they separated. "There's something I need to uh… Liberate from mom before we go."
"Alright Amy… But If I end up getting erased from existence because of your nutzoid plan, I'm going to be seriously pissed off!"
It was a quarter to 1:00am when Greg finally met Amy outside of her house. Rather than acting agitated as she usually would when he was late to something, this time she was just happy he hadn't backed out on her. "Did you bring it?"
"Yeah, I got it…" Greg reluctantly pulled the Time Tape out of his pocket and showed it to Amy. He then noticed the modest wooden jewelry box under her arm. "What's that?"
"The reason we're going back in time… It's a longshot, but if this can help nudge our parents in the right direction and not be stupid, it's worth the risk."
Greg nodded his head. "What date exactly are you wanting to travel back too?... Or have you not thought that far ahead?"
Amy had and whispered the date into his ear. Greg appeared surprised by her preparedness, or just the fact that she'd have a specific date in mind. "Okay then… Let's get this over with… Dropping off one box shouldn't have too many ramifications… Hopefully."
Greg hesitated momentarily. He'd never actually used the Time Tape before obviously, but his father had taught him how too just in case of emergencies. Believing he had the measuring tape set to the right place and time, he activated the device, and a white light enshrouded the two teens. As if by magic, though actually made possible by the wonders of science, the teens found themselves out in the woods in the middle of the day… Just outside a very nostalgic Gravity Falls landmark.
"Whoa…" Amy mouthed, her mind blown, both by the fact that they'd actually apparently gone back in time, and the building she was now looking up at. "The Mystery Shack… Did you accidentally send us into the future instead? The place looks like it's falling apart!"
"No… This is how it's always looked… Mr. Ramirez had a few renovations done over the years, so the place actually looks a little better in our time than it does now."
"Whoa… Dude…" Amy threw her hand over her mouth, but it was too late. The word had already slipped passed her lips. A word she vowed never to utter due to her mother's rampant abuse of it. She did let one slip every now and again, and naturally her loving understanding friend always made sure to point it out whenever he heard her slip up.
"He, he… You said dude…"
"Oh shut up!" Amy shivered as a cold breeze chilled her to the bone. "Whoa it's cold! I'm not dressed for this weather…"
"It's late November in Oregon, so what did you expect? We're lucky it isn't snowing… Why exactly did you want to come to this particular point and time? The year makes sense but…"
"Simple dummy, think about it! When's the only time of the year Soos closed up shop for a week to go to Arizona for the holidays?"
"Thanksgiving…" Greg's eyes widened upon realizing why Amy had chosen this particular point in time. "Which means no one's around and we'll have the run of the place without being noticed! You know, you're smarter than people give you credit for sometimes Amy."
"Well, you know what they say! Don't let people realize how smart you actually are, and they'll underestimate ya!" Amy sang to her friend's mild amusement. "Follow me."
Amy led Greg to a cave about a mile north of the Mystery Shack. There was something about this cave that bugged him, but he couldn't figure it out even as Amy headed inside. "I recognize this cave from somewhere, but I can't quite put my…" That's when Greg noticed the image of the Big Dipper drawn in marker on one of the rocks next to the cave, and it hit him. "Wait a minute! Isn't this the cave where?…"
Greg paused as he watched Amy jam the box she'd brought along in a crevasse in the cave wall. That's when it hit him.
"And that box is the one that…"
"Yep."
"But that means…" A look of clarity sparked in the boy's brown eyes. "This changes everything…"
"Changes what?" Amy asked, her question laced with both curiosity and concern.
"Well, shortly after the divorce, Dad found a jewelry box that looks suspiciously like the one you just jammed in that cave wall… Which means the only reason he found it was because you put it there… Which means we were supposed to go back in time to put it there in the first place!… Well, depending on which principle of time travel you choose to believe."
"What principles of time travel?"
"Well, they're more theoretical rather that steadfast laws but… Like the idea that you go back in time and anything you change can drastically affect the future. You know, step on a butterfly in the Jurassic Period and Dinosaurs never go extinct. That kind of thing… Or the theory that nothing you do in the past will change the future because technically it's already happened, so you'd already be experiencing those effects in the present. There's also the multiple timeline theory which dictates that every change or decision you make in the past creates an infinite number of alternate timelines based on every individual decision you make."
Amy stared at her brown-eyed friend blankly. "Huh?"
"You see, it's complicated! Which is why you don't go poking your nose in the past where it doesn't belong!" Greg admonished as he poked Amy in the forehead with his index figure. "I don't get what you think this is going to accomplish anyway… Dad found that box years ago and gave whatever was inside to Aunt Wendy. She sure seemed happy, but it didn't change their relationship any."
"Well, this is where we'll need to deviate from the original script now won't we?!" Amy replied smugly. "Follow me! We're not done quite yet!"
"So much for being in and out in ten minutes," Greg complained as he followed after his friend.
Their next stop was a cellar that seemed to have been placed in the middle of the woods for no apparent reason. Of course this was not the case. While very little of the original structure was left, you could still tell there used to be a cabin this cellar used to be attached too before it was lost to time. It was unlocked, so the kids had little difficultly prying the doors open and descending the stairs into the dark musty cellar.
"How the heck did you know this cellar was here?"
"I grew up in this valley duh! I played in this area a lot as a kid, so do you really think I wouldn't notice a ruined house with only the creepy cellar left intact? Or not investigate the moment I saw it? I know a certain relative of yours that wouldn't have been able to resist either if he ever finds it."
Amy decided not to venture too deep into the cellar… She removed an old brass key from her pocket and hung it on a hook near the bottom of the stairs.
"Wait, isn't that the key for the box? I'm pretty sure dad found the box with the key next to it…"
"Well, we have to deviate from the original flow of events somehow don't we? To me, placing the key somewhere else to be found sounds like a good way to change things up without altering the timeline too much… Oh, I almost forgot!" Amy removed a folded piece of paper from her other pocket. She lifted the key and pushed the paper through the hook to keep it in place, before sliding the key overtop of it.
"Seriously, now there's a note?! How do you expect Dad to even find this cellar in the first place?!"
"Simple… We make it a mystery that he needs to solve," Amy replied haughtily, as she produced three additional folded pages of paper. "All your dad's gotta do is find one of these and he won't be able to resist!"
"There's more?! You realize that the more objects you leave in the past, the more likely we are to alter the future right?"
"Hopefully, for only the people we care about… Just relax alright? Just three more notes to place, and we can ditch the past before we cause any serious damage. I know exactly where to hide two of them."
The brown-eyed boy had decided to stop complaining and just humor Amy with the notes. If they really were going to be a danger to future events, the Time Anomaly Squad would take care of them before anyone had a chance to find them. He didn't have the heart to tell Amy that and spoil this plan she was clearly so proud of though. Best just to humor her until they got back home and not risk her doing anything stupid. It wasn't until Amy was down to her final note that Amy turned to her childhood friend for advice.
"Greg… I know you don't really want any part of this, but could you help me with this last note? Is there any place I can hide it that can more-or-less guarantee your father is the only person who'll ever find it?… And preferably a few years from now rather than tomorrow?"
Greg really didn't want to participate but if it would get them home faster… "I actually might know just the place."
To Amy's surprise, Greg had brought her back to the Mystery Shack. Using his own personal key that Mabel had gifted him, he let himself and Amy inside the shack. Greg led her up to the attic bedroom his father had spent that first summer. Before Amy could ask why the hell he thought hiding the note up here would be a good idea, Greg walked over to a seemingly random section of wall and pressed his hand down upon it. It took a few seconds, but he finally found the sweet spot. Some of the wood paneling on the wall retracted as he pushed upward, revealing a safe-like compartment in the wall. Greg could see the question in Amy's eyes before she could even ask it. "Dad spent a lot of summers in Gravity Falls before he found this secret compartment. He was in college at the time, so it should be a while yet before he stumbles across it."
Amy nodded her approval and appreciation before placing the final note inside the compartment. Greg promptly closed it, hopefully for many years to come. "Well, our bodies haven't vaporized into nothingness yet, so that's a good sign. Let's just pray Oregon doesn't look like Fury Road when we get back."
"Yeah… Kind of weird to hear you jokin' about it now, seeing as you were so dead set against doing this. What changed?"
Greg declined to answer much to Amy's annoyance, smiling instead as he reset the Time Tape to get them home to their own time before they did accidently do something that might have serious ramifications to the timeline. Before long, Amy found herself enveloped in that same white light from earlier before getting hurled forward in time, and before she could blink, found herself standing the middle of… Of, an empty field?
"What the… Dude, what's the deal?! You were supposed to drop us back at the house, not in the middle of nowhere!"
"Sorry, I must've miscalculated…" Greg studied the Time Tape, but to his surprise, the time device had been set to the exact coordinates from the point where they had left… "That doesn't make any sense… The coordinates are right, but we're nowhere near the house…"
"Well, you screwed something up obviously! We were in the backyard when we left, not in the middle of the damn forest!"
"It's possible I miscalculated I guess… The date is correct, so we're back in our time at least."
"See, and you were worried we'd stop existing!" Amy bragged as she crossed her arms.
"That doesn't mean we're making this a habit. Let's hurry up and get home. I need to get the Time Tape back before Dad notices its missing, otherwise we may cease to exist after all!" Greg looked over at Amy and paused, regarding her intently much to her annoyance.
"Why are you staring at me like that?! Is there something on my face? Wait, I didn't somehow end up with more freckles did I?!"
"No, nothing like that… It's just… Have you gotten taller?"
Amy looked him straight in the eyes before breaking into a smug smile. "I warned you I was gona catch up eventually! Corduroy women tend to be tall ya know?"
Greg rolled his eyes. "So you remind me constantly. There's no telling how long of a walk we have ahead of us, so let's just go home."
"Sounds good to me!" Amy yawned, but as she fell into step with him, she couldn't help but steal an extra glance at the boy when she caught a good glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye, the light of the moon providing just enough illumination to get a good look at him..
It was kind of strange, but she'd never really noticed just how green his eyes were before.
End Chapter 1.
-I have to confess, when I saw Time Travel voted as one of the prompts this year, I groaned. I'd just gotten done with a time travel arch in my main story, and I made it pretty clear how I felt about the trope, and here I am forced to tackle the subject again!
Thankfully, I had another entry on my bookshelf of passed-over ideas just collecting dust, that I was able to repurpose to fit fairly well with the story I wanted to write. That was basically well… Pretty much what you read here. And older Dipper and Wendy as single parents whose kids were trying to push their parents together while typical Gravity Falls hijinks ensued. Loved the premise, but it doesn't matter how good an idea is without a decent plot, and that's what this idea always lacked. That's something I love about Wendip week, I get to dust off some of these ideas I've liked in the past and actually get to put them to use. I also hope you were paying attention, since there were quite a few breadcrumbs left throughout this chapter that will connect to later submissions. What exactly did these little rapscallions change? This is the type of story that's going to try to reward readers who are paying attention, just a little bit at least.