for the love of the wounded
So, now Wendy is still trying to stop laughing as Mom approaches, and this isn't the first impression Dipper had wanted to make when it comes to Wendy.
And that's partly because he knows he made a mistake with Soos. Soos showed up out of nowhere and the twins had run off with him and Mom and Dad hadn't known what to make of it. Dipper and Mabel hadn't offered much in the way of explanation. Some of that was their secrets, but some of it was also because, to them, it is self-evident. They take it for granted that Soos is an integral part of their lives and always will be. Mom and Dad don't know that. How can they? How can they know that Wendy, too, is someone that Dipper considers to be such a cornerstone?
Dipper wants to make it a little clearer, as much as that's even possible, what Wendy means to him. It's important to him that Mom understands Wendy is… well, important to him. And this surprise encounter in the driveway isn't the controlled circumstance he desires. It's just started and it's already out of his hands and he's already messing up his words (nothing Wendy isn't used to, at least).
So… yeah. He'd hoped for a more crafted introduction. But this is what he gets instead, and he has to roll with it. If only he was as good as Wendy at rolling with things. Still, she did show up in the new hours of the morning for no other reason than to help Dipper out (and Pacifica, indirectly). That has to speak for itself, right? Mom must see that Wendy isn't some ordinary, temporary summer friend. Driving all night on a moment's notice to help someone who, to Wendy, is barely an acquaintance just because Dipper wants to isn't something an ordinary, temporary summer friend would do.
Mom looks at Dipper's blush and then glances towards Wendy, who straightens up and is doing her best to stop laughing. "You must be Wendy," she says with a slightly arched eyebrow, and Dipper hopes she isn't drawing any incorrect conclusions about the two of them.
"Hi, Mrs. Pines," Wendy says, holding out her hand. "Yeah, I'm Wendy Corduroy."
Mom takes the offered hand lightly. "So," she says, her expression neutral but her tone a bit firm, "Dipper says that you're driving to Malibu?"
"Oh, no, not me," Wendy denies. She jerks a thumb in the direction of Soos' slumbering form. "Soos is gonna drive the rest of the way."
Mom relaxes slightly at the sight of the man, probably glad there's going to be some actual adult supervision (which makes Dipper thankful that Mom doesn't really know Soos). She hands Wendy a piece of paper that's been torn from the notepad by the kitchen phone. "This is our home number and our cell numbers. You can call us if there's a problem."
"Will do, Mrs. Pines," Wendy agrees, pocketing the note.
Mom turns to Dipper. "I want you to be careful, and I want you to behave yourself for Wendy and Soos and watch out for your sister."
Dipper can see Wendy grinning widely behind his mother; she's clearly tickled by the idea that between her and Dipper, he's the one who needs to be told to behave. Dipper can't correct Mom without shooting himself in the foot, so he keeps his mouth shut. If Mom thinks Wendy and Soos can be responsible, he's not going to disabuse her of the notion.
"Okay, I will," he says.
Mom tugs his cap backwards a bit so she can see his face more clearly. She puts her hands on his shoulders, then moves one to cup the side of his jaw. "I don't know what you got up to last summer, but I know you're growing up. I wish you'd talk to me about it. But I'm glad you made such good friends, and I'm glad you're trying so hard to help them. And I'm proud of you. Don't you know that?"
"Yeah, Mom," Dipper says around the lump in his throat.
Mom squeezes his shoulder and then kisses him firmly on the cheek, making him blush even more (in front of Wendy? Aw, man…). Then she releases him and says, "I thought I told you to change your shirt."
Mabel comes tearing around the corner of the house at full speed. She skids to an ungainly halt when she sees Mom in the driveway with Dipper and Wendy. She's probably thinking that their trip is now canceled courtesy of parental supervision, because she looks crestfallen.
Mom turns and beckons. "Give me a hug before you go," she says to Mabel. "Be good and watch out for your brother."
Mabel doesn't question it. She throws her arms around her mother and squeezes hard before scampering towards the truck. Dipper notices she's wearing the same purple sweater with the repeating outlines of pine trees that she wore on Grunkle Stan's ill-conceived revenge road trip. He hopes their current expedition won't follow a similar path. He doubts there are any spider-people in Malibu (they probably can't afford to live there). As long as they don't encounter more Boss-Lobsters, all should be well.
"Try to be back before tomorrow," their mom says. "Don't you have time to pack anything else?"
Dipper has nothing on him but his phone charger, his dead phone, and the clothes he's wearing. Mabel has one of her many cloth purses, but it looks like she's filled it with cookies and snack cakes.
"It's cool, Mrs. Pines," Wendy says. "We've got food and junk in the truck. Better wake Soos up," she says to Mabel, indicating the rear seat.
Mabel gets a running start and leaps onto Soos' slumbering form. "ROAD DOGS!" she howls.
"Mabel!" Mom yelps, appalled by what appears to be an assault on a sleeping innocent. "What on earth—"
"It's fine: She did this all the time when he fell asleep on the porch couch," Wendy explains as Soos comes to life with a startled shout.
"Still," Mom says, watching as Soos curls into a protective ball, snorting with laughter as Mabel pokes at him, "she can't just jump on people, she could have hurt him."
Which she accidentally had on a couple occasions, as Dipper recalls, though Soos isn't one for grudges.
"Alright, road dogs!" Soos says, raising both hands for a double high five with Mabel still crouched on his stomach. "Yes!"
"Soos, you're up, man," Wendy says, rapping her hand against the edge of his shoe. "I'm gonna sack out. Cool?"
"On it, dude." Soos awkwardly scoots out of the truck on his back until he's able to rock forward and set Mabel back on the asphalt. "I could really go for a breakfast burrito. What about you dudes?" he says as he rubs sleep from his eyes and walks around to the driver seat.
"I was a breakfast burrito!" Mabel tells him as she climbs into the cab. "See, I wrapped myself in all my sheets—"
Dipper tunes them out when Wendy speaks to him. "I'm gonna be all laid out in the back. You think you can cram into the front or do you want to be my footstool?"
There had been a time, not so long ago, that Dipper would have jumped at the chance to be her footstool. Now, he's content to let her sleep. "I was in front when Soos came to visit before, we all fit pretty well. You can have the back to yourself."
"Sweet. Wake me up for food and rest stops or if there's something really cool; like, if they're filming a movie or whatever."
"What if it's a lame movie?" Dipper says.
"Okay, only if you see a helicopter or a car crash or pyrotechnics," Wendy amends.
"Got it."
Dipper is the last one into the truck. He closes the door with a bang and waves to his mom; she's standing at the edge of the garage, still in her robe and slippers, and she waves back. It's nice to have the approval, but it also sort of feels like the end of something. For most of his life, Dipper wasn't waving goodbye to anyone on road trips. It was him and Dad and Mom and Mabel. There was no one standing on the walk. But this time he's with a different sort of family, off to help another new friend. Everything changes, he supposes.
He watches as Mom disappears around the corner of the house and he knows she'll be there when he gets back. So, maybe not everything.
For the first hour or so of the trip they keep it down so Wendy can get some sleep after driving all night. But after a few incidental moments of loudness (not to mention Soos accidentally hitting the horn) fail to stir her, it becomes apparent that Wendy is as unflappable in sleep as she is in waking. They still don't go crazy but feel freer to converse.
The GPS stuck to the dashboard drones out directions for a while as they're leaving Oakland. Soon enough, the robotic female voice falls silent; they're on the highway headed south and it's pretty much a straight shot to Malibu.
Mabel and Soos don't have difficulty passing the time. "Soos! You're alone on a desert island and you can only have three kinds of ice cream from an infinity ice cream pond. What are they?" Mabel says.
Soos sweats like he's on the witness stand. "Only three? Oh, man… Man, I don't, I don't know…"
"Soos! You're dying of ice cream deficiency!"
"Okay, okay! Uh, um, definitely cookies and cream, gotta stick with the classics. And then brownie batter, for when I get sad. And the third one… I can't do it, I can't choose! Who could ask this of any man?"
For his part, Dipper tries to write in his journal. He's still in the process of transcribing the photocopied pages of Journal 3 and has been adding a lot of his own notations to them based on his experiences during Weirdmageddon. Great-Uncle Ford had been thorough, but also unable to field test some of his assumptions. In the wake of the dimensional rift, much of his guesswork has been either confirmed or debunked. Dipper has a number of new observations regarding Eye-Bats and their previously unseen larger form.
He puts his pen to the page and jots down a few words, carefully considered. It's slow going, for two reasons. The first is that he's getting more carsick by the second and it's just a matter of time before he'll have to roll his window down and let his head loll out. The second reason is that his mind is very much preoccupied with Pacifica.
He checked his phone as soon as he plugged it into the truck, but she hasn't sent him any messages. When he calls, it goes straight to voicemail. Maybe her phone is dead too. As much as she may have needed the comfort of another presence—no matter how distant—the night before, it hadn't been the smartest move to leave their phones on. He can't bring himself to regret it, though. Not if it helped her.
Oh. Oh, man. Yep. Definitely carsick now.
He presses his forehead to the glass and cracks the window, hoping the thundering of the wind won't wake Wendy. He's still worried about Pacifica, but for the moment he'll concentrate on not painting the inside of Soos' truck with whatever's left of yesterday's dinner.