The door slammed hard behind him once he was sure Bill had entered the building too, leaning heavily against the door as he was trying to catch his breath. It had been a close call.
Dipper had miscalculated the number of zombies present in the neighbourhood and had been surprised by their speed. Good thing they managed to enter his destination in time without getting caught.
His breath was finally calming down when he felt a hand grabbing his, making him look up at Bill, seeing the man looking at him with worried eyes. He managed to put a reassuring smile on his face as he straightened up a little bit, "Don't worry, I'm fine, they were too slow for us" he affirmed. This seemed to be enough as the tension in Bill's shoulder suddenly dropped, even if he kept his hand in his a little longer.
Dipper looked around, nothing had moved since the last time he came here. At least he could relax in here, he was always making sure no zombie could get in, less trouble when he was coming in to experiment ways to take care of this whole mess.
Yet, despite being confident no one would be inside, he still took a quick look around the house to make sure, Bill always taking the lead to keep him safe. "You know, you don't always need to stay in front to protect me, Bill" he pointed out only to have his hand squeezed a little, the other one showing his disagreement with this little gesture. A small chuckle escaped his lips, not really minding being protected this way. It was nice.
Only when he was sure everything was clear did he went for the last room, finally letting go of Bill's hand since he would need both of his. All was quiet behind the door, only when he opened it did some trashing around started, making him sigh a little. It wasn't going to be easy again. Once inside he took a look at the zombie tied to the ground, the other one looking clearly like he wanted to attack him, putting Bill on edge and coming closer to Dipper.
"Are you going to make my job hard again, Gideon?" he finally asked, watching the young man growling at him. Bill then looked at him, curious, not really expecting for him to know this one personally. "Let say we've had some conflict in the past, but he's not really a bad guy" he explained a little when he saw the look he was given, "He was a tough on to tied down".
He took a quick look around the room, seeing all the remaining of his previous attempt. Trace of chalk still on the ground, nearly all faded from his attempt at cleaning it. Candles nearly all burned out left to the side so Gideon wouldn't set the house on fire. Paper ball of notes left in a corner out of frustration. Clearly, it wasn't his first time trying around here.
"Lets get to work" he smiled to Bill, putting his bag to the ground so he could get his things out. He asked the blond if he could hold his notebook while he was drawing the circle on the ground, like this he could have the reference in front of him and it would make Bill happy since he could help.
He was doing it with precision, or at least, the most precision he could use with a zombie growling and trying to get to him. On top of that Bill would sometime start growling at Gideon too, surprisingly getting him to quiet down for a couple of minutes.
When that was done he sat some candles down at specific places, wiping his hand on his jean once everything was in place. Where Gideon wasn't giving any attention to what was set around him, Bill was looking at it with interest in his eyes. It wouldn't be the first time he saw Dipper's work, but it was still very interesting to him. Dipper thought that Gideon would probably have been interested if it wasn't for his present state.
The young man finally sat down, the notebook place on his crossed legs, ready to start reciting text. He could see from the corner of his eyes Bill standing next to him, most likely ready to attack if something was going wrong. It nearly felt like he had a guard dog with him, but again he wouldn't complain, at least like this he was sure he would be safe.
He didn't bother more with that, closing his eyes to relax. He needed to focus on this if he wanted it to work. Once he felt ready, he started reciting the text he had written down, hoping his pronunciation would be alright as it was clearly not English, nor anything he was familiar with.
It was a lead Ford had started working on before the accident. Dipper hadn't really touched it since then, but since it was one of the last things Ford did try working on, he thought it would be a good idea to try it. Yet, nothing was coming up despite all the sentence he was reciting, starting to make him doubt a little that it would work.
He was approaching the end of the text he was reading when Gideon stopped making sounds, only to restart again louder, making Dipper tense. His voice didn't waver, still speaking without a pause, trusting Bill in case something went wrong.
Then everything went quiet when he spoke the last words, none of them was moving. Dipper was nearly holding his breath as he was looking at Gideon, not sure what to expect, it was the first time he had such a reaction. Hopefully it hadn't harmed him either.
Then the zombie looked back up and around, looking somewhat confused. Only when his eyes fell on Dipper did recognition filled them, making him look a little more confused. The young man could finally let out his breath, a smile growing on his face, suddenly turning towards Bill. "I did it!?" he said in disbelieve.
He then turned back to Gideon. No. He needed to make sure before getting his hope high like this. "Gideon?" he then called out, catching again the attention of the other man. "It really you isn't it? Just nod two times to prove it" he asked. He received a look clearly telling him "What the fuck are you on Dipper", yet Gideon still nodded two times for him.
Dipper still couldn't believe it, he did it! Or well, close to it. It was just his consciousness from what he could see, but it was still a great improvement from nothing. He asked some more questions who could easily be answered despite his state, to make sure it was really Gideon and some easy action. The other one looked annoyed to be ordered around like this but still did it because he was still tied up and not sure of what had happened or why he couldn't really do anything normally.
Dipper then got up, ready to approach the young man only to feel a hand grab his wrist, keeping him from going. He was a little surprised by Bill action, not seeing any danger now that Gideon seem to be back. "It okay Bill, Gideon as his consciousness back, he wouldn't attack me like the others" he tried to reassure him, although it didn't really work this time.
Instead of letting him go, Bill just made him back up again, letting go only once he was far enough. Dipper saw the blond going himself to untied Gideon, coming back quickly to him, staying somewhat between the two of them. He really wanted to help Gideon get up correctly, having been tied down like this might have numbed his legs, yet he suspected Bill wouldn't let him do so.
He sighed a little. As happy as he was of this new development, he felt like this would be just more troublesome to deal with than anything else. He wasn't on bad terms with Gideon per se, but they were not the greatest of friends either. He could be a real little piece of annoyance when he wanted to, so he really hoped he would not do so right now.
"Well, I guess I'll have to take you with me too" he then said, surprised when he heard an unhappy grunt coming from Bill. He chuckle a little when the surprise passed, gently patting his head. "Don't worry, you'll stay my favourite little zombie" he teased to make him feel better. He then went to grab his things, putting them back into his bag, ready to go again.
But before that he did a little briefing to Gideon as to what had happened, only making suggestions about what had happened to him and finishing by what had just happened. "Everything is kind of a mess right now" he commented with a tired sigh, "You too did mess around with weird and supernatural things before, if you think of something tell me" he then asked, "It would be more beneficial to you than to me" he pointed out.
When everything was settled and Gideon had assured him he would follow him correctly they went back out. They had to walk some more before being able to use the golf cart since the road had too many zombies earlier for him to drive there safely. At least the ones from before seemed to have moved elsewhere for now. He was trying not to pay attention to the growling the two others were giving each other, guessing it might pass after some time.
When he was looking back he could see Gideon was picking on Bill, yet he couldn't do really much more than asked him to stop. "Okay guys let calm down now that we are at the car-" he jump when he suddenly heard a body hitting the ground right behind him, looking back worried. He froze a little when he saw Gideon on the ground, Bill above him, a hand on his neck and looking as if he wanted to punch him.
Dipper quickly went to stop him, hugging him from the side, pulling him with him as he fell to the ground. "Bill!" he scolded, keeping him to his chest as he seemed like he wanted to go back. Only when his name was called like this did Bill stop, looking back up at him with a weird look in his eyes. Dipper was surprised by the pinch it gave to his heart, his expression softening.
"Don't look at me like this or I can't scold you" he said to tease him a little, only feeling Bill turning around in his arms to hug him too, hiding against his chest. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scream at you" He gently went and patted his back, a little laugh coming from his lips. He wasn't sure why he had such a sudden harsh reaction but felt like he could probably ask him later on. "Just don't do that again, okay? Gideon is a friend of Mabel and she would be mad at us for hurting him".
Once he managed to calm the blond down he finally got them inside the cart, Bill sitting at the front with him, although he kept a close eye on Gideon for the whole ride. At least now Gideon wasn't trying to pick on him and was staying nicely at the back like a good boy.
The ride wasn't the best one yet, it was a little tense for Dipper. He wouldn't have expected for Bill to act in such a way. Sure, he was really protective when they were around other zombies, but it had never gotten to the point where he went to physically attack.
He had to drop them at the cabin first, hoping they wouldn't fight while he was going to drop what he brought back to the shack. Gideon looked like he wanted to stay as far from Bill as possible (he wouldn't blame him for feeling that), so he believed they should be fine for the time being.
Still, he tried to go as fast as he could to drop the supplies at the shack, not knowing how long the both of them would stay somewhat friendly to one another. He took a little more time than he would have liked because Stanley tried to convince him to stay, after all, he did go through the past days without coming back. He did stay a little, but even Mabel was on his side for this, which was helping a lot. He guessed it was because she had suspicion about something and knew he wouldn't just give up what he was working on. At least he stayed for diner, so Stanley and the other were satisfied with that.
When he finally entered the cabin, he found Bill quietly sitting at the table, going through one of his notebooks, while Gideon was staying far away at the window, looking at the darkness slowly taking over outside. "I guess it went well..." he thought to himself, turning to Bill when he reached him, "Do you have fun reading my older notes?" He then asked.
He receives energetic nods from the blond, making him chuckle a little as he looked over his shoulder to see what he was looking at. "The gnomes? Real little pest if you ask me, if you want a good suggestion, don't get involved with them, too much trouble for nothing" he commented, still remembering his first meeting with those little guys. Like always, he found that Bill was listening closely to him, which was a nice change from the others who didn't always understand what he was talking about.
He offered him a smile, even though it was a little tired. He looked around, not seeing anything he needed to do for now. Running around in town and giving back his consciousness to Gideon had been tiring. "Not that I don't want to stay with you two, but I need some sleep now" he stated while walking towards the bed, "we'll see tomorrow if I can repeat what I did today, You can come with us if you want" he said, the later part for Gideon.
The light then went out, Dipper guessing Bill had blown out the lantern, leaving them in the dark. Could have been a good time to change, yet all he did was taking off his shoes, feeling too tired to even do more. He then slipped into bed, hearing two sets of footsteps before finally feeling the bed move a little as someone else was getting in.
Looking up he saw Bill sitting next to him, Gideon standing next to the table as he was looking at them weirdly. Dipper was too tired to put more thought on that, closing his eyes again, staying close by Bill, relaxing a little more when he felt a hand going through his hair.
He did his best to simply empty his head, excitement from succeeding in at least bringing back consciousness still running in him despite how tired he was. He would need to follow that path, maybe he could finally bring an end to all of this.
At this point, what he felt like he couldn't wait for was turning Bill back to a human. This was a goal that had slowly awoken in him. He really wanted to be with him without all the trouble that was bringing his present state. He hoped Bill would accept to still see him after all this.
On such positive notes, Dipper finally fell asleep, the hand in his hair helping him do so.