Chapter Twenty

"Finally, after all this time…" Stan trailed off. The timer had thirty seconds left on it. That was hardly any time at all compared to how long he had been waiting all these years. Finally, he would see his brother again.

"Grunkle Stan!" he heard Mabel call. Stan frowned. She sounded panicked, but he couldn't just leave the portal like this. Not when there were only a few seconds left.

10…9…8…7…6…5…

"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel called again.

3…2…1…

When the timer stopped, the portal let out a burst of light before promptly collapsing into several pieces. Stan almost thought that it hadn't worked, and that he had done something wrong until the smoke cleared.

There he was.

His brother.

He looked much different than the nerd that had been frightfully sucked away into the portal those years ago. Like Stan's, his brother's hair had grayed and he was much older. Stan was actually surprised at how much they still looked alike after so many years.

"Stanford…" Stan trailed off.

"Stanley, you idiot!" Stanford exclaimed before pushing his brother over. "You weren't supposed to bring me back like this! Do you know what you've done?!"

"I saved your life, that's what I did!" Stan retorted.

"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel called again.

"Oh, god, I forgot," Stan said, turning to rush upstairs.

"Wait a second!" Stanford called, pulling Stan back. "Does anyone know about this?"

"No," Stan said. "But I don't have time to sit and chat right now, Ford. I got a niece upstairs that needs something important."

"Niece?" Ford asked as Stan left him in the basement.

Stan rushed upstairs and left the vending machine before finding Mabel upstairs looking for him.

"Mabel?" Stan asked. "What's wrong, sweetie?"

"Dipper's gone."

"This is so not what I had in mind for today," Stan grumbled to himself. He had left Ford behind with no explanation as to where he was going, taking Mabel into the forest with him. He couldn't introduce Mabel to his long lost brother without Dipper, and he was more important at the moment. Ford would be fine in the shack by himself, but Dipper could be hurting himself.

Mabel had already explained that she looked everywhere in the shack and that Dipper was nowhere to be found, which meant that he was outside somewhere. Stan had told Soos and Wendy and they all split up to find Dipper in the forest. Well, Soos and Wendy split up, but Stan kept Mabel by his side. He couldn't just let her walk away and lose both the twins.

"Dipper!" Mabel called every once in a while as they walked through the forest.

"What if he's in town?" Stan asked. It wasn't like the forest was Dipper's favorite place or anything. Well, not recently, anyway.

"He was here last time he went missing," Mabel said. She wondered if this had anything to do with the journal. Because like Dipper, the journal was gone.

"Maybe he changed up his routine," Stan suggested. "It's not like he's gonna go to the forest every time he runs off. He's probably at the diner or something eating pancakes on my tab." Stan was really just trying to make Mabel feel better.

"I know he's in the forest, Grunkle Stan," Mabel said. "I can feel it."

And Stan couldn't protest to it. Because he knew all too well what it was like to feel a lost twin brother.

"Well, we'll keep looking," Stan said.

They found Dipper in the same clearing they had spotted him in last time. The journal was clutched tightly in his hand, and Stan couldn't help but notice there was blood on the book. It was dripping from Dipper's arm.

"Dipper…" Stan trailed off, wanting to approach his nephew in a gentle way. If he made one wrong move, Dipper could do something really stupid. As it was, last time he ran away and hurt his ankle.

"Stanley," a voice sounded behind Stan and he couldn't help but whip around to see Ford standing there.

"What are you doing here?" Stan asked. "I left you in the Shack for a reason." He didn't want the twins to find out about Ford right now. They needed to be in the right conditions for an explanation.

"Oh, good old Fordsy," Dipper said with a grin. "I was wondering how long you'd take to show up."

"Bill…" Ford trailed off as he stared into golden eyes.

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Aaahhh this one was super short, but I wanted to cut it off right here just to leave you guys hanging. I'll try and make the next chapter super long for you.