Chapter 5: Flowers and Drinks

Stan finishes up counting the money that he had made during his opening hours of the shop, surprisingly making a lot more money now that the weather was starting to get nicer.

He found out that Oregon had a lot of tourist traps, including for the biggest ball of yarn and other stuff like that. Now that he opened his shop up it was starting to go around and with a lore like Gravity Falls being weird, people were naturally attracted to it. He even had official merchandise being made, such as bumper stickers and t-shirts, things that tourists were actually buying next to paying to see he displays.

For once being a liar and cheat was paying off for him. He didn't know whether or not to be proud of himself or not.

His mother did end up sending flowers like she said she was, many of them were viola sororia, a beautiful violet flower that was New Jersey's state flower. Like he had promised his mother he had taken them and arranged them where he had faked his death, taking pictures with a disposable camera he bought at the mini mart Dusk 2 Dawn. Before he had sent the pictures he had looked over Stanford's handwriting, practicing for a bit before he could forge his signature perfectly, even writing a letter to his mother. Even though she sent a letter back in response, and even pictures of Shermie and his small family, Stan never wrote back after that. He thought it was better this way.

It had been over two months since he arrived in Gravity Falls, each day he worked in his shop to earn money to pay off the bills that were coming through the door. During the night, however, he went and tried to work on the portal, fixing all the mechanical parts that he could until he could go purchase special tools for other things. He was becoming sleep deprived, often sleeping at random points after his work day before he would go work on the portal.

During his two months in Gravity Falls he had already seen enough odd things that he could make a series of movies about them. He has seen gnomes walk around trying to steal sweets and he's seen weird things flying around that resembled eyeballs with batwings. He has turned a blind eye to it though, as he noticed once in a while someone would question him if he had seen anything odd in town, so he would outright lie saying that the town was small and sleepy and that was normal for that kind of town.

He had an odd feeling that if he were to mention the weirdness that was in the woods, or mention anything in Stanford's journal, that something would happen to him and jeopardize everything he was trying to accomplish. He couldn't risk it, so he just went on with his life like nothing was unusual.

As he set up shop for the day, his mind kept going back to his mother. Stan was more close to his mother when he was a child, her accepting him for his odd personality. Hell, because of her job practically being liar, he learned it all from her. Although his mother rarely showed emotion to her children, but sure a hell of a lot more than his father, he could tell his mother was always happy with her children.

With a sigh he gets on the phone and orders more viola sororia flowers. When he had received them in the next couple of days he set a few in vases around the house, as the smell reminded him a better time in his life. He also sent flowers to his mother anonymously, but he had a feeling that she knew who they were from.

But the past was behind him, right now he had to focus on his present, to get his twin brother back.


It had been about two months since Ford was thrown into the portal, and it had been two months since he's been running between the pocket dimensions with Layla.

He was getting better with his gun, the two always getting in gunfights whenever they enter a new area. Ford's wanted poster was starting to pop up everywhere now, being posted right next to a newer version of Layla's poster. Whenever they had the time they would rip down the posters and burn them. Now when they go into public places Layla covers her face with her scarf while Ford puts on his goggles, him not having a scarf yet. At taverns and other extremely crowded places they don't really unless they seem some suspicious activity, so they sat in their spots without their facial masks.

They were sitting at a table, drinking some odd green slop in yet a different dimension using one of the secret portals that Layla knew about. The drink didn't taste bad, but the odd green color had made Ford uneasy before he took a full swig of it. Layla was already on her third drink, her chugging it down like it was no one's business.

"Ford, you need to live a little," she told him, sliding him her fourth drink as she orders another. Her words were slightly slurred.

"Not while any minute we can get shot at." Ford retorts, him finishing the drink that she had passed him. The bartender was going to give him another but he declined.

Layla scoffs, taking a swig of her drink. "I've been here for over a decade, Ford." She points out, her words very slurred now. "I-I think I know what I am doing."

Ford rolls his eyes as he stands up, pulling a small card from his inside coat pocket. It was a small green rectangle, almost resembling a card. He leaves it on the table, grabs Layla, and walks off with her in tow.

"Hey!" she yelped as they made it outside, Ford putting the goggles over his eyes and forcing her scarf to cover the bottom half of her face. "W-what w-was that for?" she mutters to him as she stumbles.

"You're drunk, so we're leaving before a scene can be made." Ford sternly tells her, keeping a firm grip on Layla's wrist.

The two then walked by their wanted posters, Layla ripping away from Ford's grip and stopping to clumsily rip them down. She had stopped and really looked at the posters and was giggling.

Yep… she's drunk.

During the two months that the two were dimension hopping he's noticed that she was somewhat of an alcoholic. Everywhere they went she drank as much as she wanted oblivious to any kind of danger. Some drinks don't even make her buzzed let alone drunk, but then there were the kinds that even after two drinks she gets plastered. There were more than a few occasions where a simple bar fight turned into a full blown manhunt when the patrons recognized the two.

Ford had his share of drinking, he had had alcohol in his cabinets back in Gravity Falls, but he would only drink a shot or two once in a while. Ever since being in this dimension he has drank more alcohol than he had ever had before, but he doesn't get drunk. Ford didn't like to cause a scene, and when Layla was drunk enough a scene was made.

Despite her drinking tendencies Ford takes some form of comfort traveling with her. They were both humans trapped in another dimension because someone put them there, whether it be on accident or on purpose. Sometimes he wonders why she drinks… he never really asked.

The two were walking to an old building they were using as a temporary hideout, them having some blankets and pillows from one of Layla's secret alcoves. Ford had found some food amongst the odd shops that were around in the streets, some people trying to say he looked like the man on the poster, but he assured them with a threat that he was not. Once the two humans were inside the building, Layla starts her bubbling laughter as she rummages through her area and grabbed a fifth of vodka as Ford lit a lantern.

"Wait a minute… how the hell do you have Earth vodka?" Ford asks while setting the lantern down on the ground then proceeding to taking the bottle away from her and recognizing the brand. It was an expensive kind too…

"O-once in a-a while some t-things from other d-dimensions go through a p-portal and get sucked in." Layla explains in a drunken drawl. "I-I find them and I-I s-stockpile…" she then takes the bottle from him and goes to open it, but Ford snatches it back.

"I'm cutting you off, Layla." Ford snaps at her, giving her a hard glare. In a way he was more acting like he was a father of teenager trying to underage drink.

She rolls her electric blue colored eyes, giving a long sigh. Her breath reeked of alcohol. "You're no fun, Fordsy." She complains, her giving a pout.

He screams furiously, "Don't call me that!" The only other being that had ever called him that was Bill, and it was always in a sarcastic manner and now because of what Bill had done to screw him over, it was a nickname that he wasn't fond.

"Whatever, Sixer." Layla then mumbles as she stumbles to her little sleeping area.

Ford was about to yell again when he realized what she called him. The only person that ever called him "Sixer" was Stanley. As a child Ford was often made fun of for his polydactyl, so Stanley had made him the nickname to feel better about the anomaly. Stanley even said "High Six" instead of "High Five" knowing his twin brother would be happy.

What was Stanley doing now? Ford often asks himself this question on a daily basis. Would Stanley try to open the portal again? No, he couldn't… he only has one-third of the notes about it from Ford's journal, the other two were buried on the woods far away from each other. But Stanley wasn't the type of person to just walk away from it all like it never happened… especially when it came to family.

Ford shakes his head. He couldn't really think about that right now… right now he had to make sure Layla didn't get alcohol poisoning. Layla had went to her little stash and was trying to drink the alcohol when Ford comes and snatches it. She groans very loudly and tries to snatch it back, but to no avail.

"Layla, enough." Ford practically growls, him becoming annoyed. He held the bottles of alcohol high above his head, her trying to reach but she kept smacking him in his nose. He honestly felt like he was dealing with a toddler… or Stanley.

"Ugh… you r-really are a stick in the mud," she mutters as she gives up and goes to her pile of blankets. She flops down, not even taking off her coat and boots.

Ford tosses the bottles he had gently to the side, them making a slight clink when they clashed. He goes to his little sleeping pile and shrugs off his coat. He had replaced his white dress shirt with a solid black sweater-looking shirt, the dress shirt becoming way too dirty and ripped.

"Well, if there had been an incident, what would you have done besides get yourself killed?" Ford asked her seriously. He then picked up some books he had found around, Layla was helping him read and write the language, so the books he found helped him.

"E-easy," she drunkenly drawled, putting a hand in the air pointing at the ceiling. "I-I'd shoot them in their G-God d-damned faces!" she then proceeds to make gun shooting noises.

Ford sighs, "You can barely walk a straight line right now and you think you could've actually taken our gun, aimed, and shoot them in the face?" he rolls his eyes, clearly baffled at her logic.

There was no response. Ford glances over and she was snoring away, her mouth wide open and a hand on her chest. With a small chuckle of laughter, thinking how she could fall asleep so fast, he then goes and retrieves the lantern and blows away its small, yet brilliant flame. The room they were in became pitch black, his eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. He falls asleep, but he had trained himself to be a light sleeper back in Gravity Falls so he was prepared in case someone tried to the sneak up on the two.

The next morning Layla was of course hung over to high hell, her complaining about her headache and how all she wanted to do was sleep and throw up. Ford then always reminds her that she was drinking too much and needed to cut down or stop all together.

"Why do you drink so much anyway?" Ford asks her as he rolled up his blankets and pillow. He was packing up his "camping gear" into a shoulder bag he had found. This had been useful for when they couldn't find one of Layla's secret alcoves and needed to crash somewhere. "You're going to end up with liver failure and alcohol poisoning."

"The real question is why do you drink so little?" she retorts, her long, jet black hair spiking up in various directions. She then flops her face down and was trying to cover her head with a flat pillow when Ford lifts it off of her.

"I'm serious, Layla." He tells her. "Why do you drink so much? You know it's not good for your health, especially while living in shitholes like this."

She groans and snatches the pillow from him. "I drink to forget, but sadly you can never truly forget." She mumbles into the pillow, it was so soft that Ford practically had to put his ear close to her. "No matter how bad a memory is, no matter what you do to try to forget, it finds its way back..."

Ford then glances at her with sympathy. She was drinking to forget something… to ease a pain. But it keeps finding its way back. He wondered what she was trying to forget.

"What are you trying to forget…?" he asks her gently.

"My father…" she whispers. "The way he did things… the way he put us here…" she then sits up, fixing her hair. "But… that doesn't matter now… we need to get moving." She abruptly states as she stands up and quickly packs up her own little bag.

"To where?" Ford questions, surprised at how she sprang up so quickly from her hangover. Then again she probably was used to it…

"I have a lead on where important documents regarding about my father's research is…" Layla explains. "A lot of it is about the portals, so if we can access those documents we can easily find the portals to all the pocket dimensions and even access them ourselves without to wait for them to open naturally."

Ford gently shakes his head. It wasn't adding up with her… she was saying she was drinking to forget about him, but was going to find his research. He sighs as he puts a strap over his shoulder, carrying his bag.

"So… why do they have his research?" Ford asks, looking a bit skeptical. "Didn't you say he was on the run?"

Layla answers quickly, "I'm assuming at one point he got caught and they took some of it… but then he escaped. They don't know how to decipher his research, he put it all in code."

Ford raises an eyebrow. "Are you saying you can decipher it?"

"No… but you can."

Ford's brown eyes widened. "Wait… what?" he sputtered.

Layla just gives him a smirk. "You're the kind of guy that writes shit in code, so if anyone can write in it they can crack it. Once we get that research we can have access to the other pocket dimensions easily, which means eventually once we find my father's main portal research we can find a way to get back home!"

Home…?

Ford then shakes his head, causing Layla to look at him with a confused face. "We shouldn't mess with any main dimensional portals." Ford stated. "The portal I built was literally set up in a weak spot in the dimensional wall, punching a hole through it. If we did that here we basically give Cipher a one way ticket to Earth!" he then gestures with a hand. "Then once that happens he'll spread Weirdmageddon."

It was Layla's turn to look skeptical. "Weirdmageddon? Really? Couldn't think of a better name, Ford?"

Ford groans loudly and starts to walk away. "We'll find that research though… we have to, because if we don't, Bill will…"


A/N: Hello everyone! I'm sorry it took so long to update this story! I was having a little writers block about this one, but the short stories were coming very easily for some reason.

Thank you for reading again, I always appreciate it!

~Skye Hendersen~