Chapter Text
9 MONTHS AGO
“Alright everyone, let’s get to work!” Dipper shouts. “This thing needs to be somewhat mechanically sound!”
The Mystery Shack is abuzz with activity. The massive group taking refuge inside its walls find themselves scavenging for parts, wiring switches and levers, and building complex machinery. Even those who know absolutely nothing about mechanics and coding are being directed on what to do by the people who do know.
And by people who do know, it’s really just McGucket.
Dipper walks around the shack with a clipboard and a pen, checking that every station matches close enough to McGucket’s blueprints. He walks by the area where Wendy and the Multi-Bear are attaching an old leg from the Gideon-Bot to the building.
“That’s perfect, guys!” he says, placing a big checkmark in the box. “Multi-Bear, you sure you weren't seen?”
“The big head with the arm said I should get in his mouth,” the Multi-Bear says. “But I doubt they’ll interrogate him.”
Wendy shudders. “That one’s definitely the creepiest freak out of all of ‘em.”
“What?” Dipper asks. “Come on, not the guy that’s just a pair of teeth?”
“I vote the weird baby one,” the Multi-Bear says. “Seriously, why does he have a pacifier? That is weird.”
“Look, guys,” Wendy says. “We should get back to work. Let’s totally have this discussion after we beat them.”
If we beat them, Dipper mentally corrects.
Dipper walks back to the main room of the Shack. He checks on Soos and McGucket’s progress in fine-tuning the Gobblewonker, and then makes sure that Several Times’ treadmill is working properly. So far, everything seems to be coming together nicely. Of course, they can’t afford to have something fail in the heat of battle. The world depends on them.
As Dipper continues, he hears a frustrated female yell from another room. “No! Ugh! I swear, I’m gonna sue the company that made this thing!”
Well, its pretty easy to guess who that is.
Sure enough, he finds the one and only Pacifica Northwest attempting to attach a metal plate to one of the many control panels scattered throughout the building. After finding out that Weirdmaggedon disrupted everyone’s phone connection, she asked if there was, “Something to do or whatever? I’m bored.” Dipper decided to give her this job only because it was a simple one, just put four screws in each corner. He didn’t really do it out of kindness, it was more to do with the fact that Pacifica has probably never done anything tool or construction related in her life. Putting her on a more complicated project could doom the entire operation. At least she could do this, right?
Apparently not, as here she is, hitting one of the bolts with the edge of a wrench. As expected, there’s no progress being made.
Aw well, at least she’s trying; he kinda expected her to not help out at all.
“Pacifica, what are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?!” she shouts, turning to face him. “This stupid hammer won’t work!”
At first, Dipper is taken aback by her outburst. However, once he realizes what she said, he tries his best to contain a laugh. “You… you know that’s a wrench, right?”
“…This is a wrench?” she asks with genuine surprise.
Dipper chuckles. “Wow, we really need to teach you about a lot of things, huh?”
“Shut up…” Pacifica says, face turning slightly red. “Tools are dumb anyway. You don’t need to learn them; you can always just pay the people who do know to work for you.”
“Not right now you can’t.”
“W-Well, I… fine,” she concedes, crossing her arms and looking away. “How, do I… do this?” she asks sheepishly.
“Look, it’s really simple,” Dipper says, taking the wrench out of her hand. He grabs a bolt off the ground, goes to the opposite corner, and places it. “You just put the mouth of it on this circle part, twist, tighten… and there ya go!” he proclaims, having just put one in. “Now you try.”
It takes Pacifica a few attempts; at one point, the wrench flies out of her hand and clangs against the wall, almost hitting a nearby gnome in the face. Nevertheless, she finally manages to tighten her first bolt into position; in little time, she completes all four corners.
“See, that wasn’t so bad,” Dipper says.
“Yeah… thanks,” she responds. “Look, Dipper, I’m… sorry for, y’know, snapping at you earlier. That wasn’t… okay, I guess.”
“It’s alright,” he says. “Everyone’s a little on edge right now, cause of… well, everything.”
Soos appears in the doorway. “Dipper, bro! You gotta come check this out! Cavern Team brought back a whole dinosaur, dude!”
“Woah, I’ll be right there!” Dipper calls. As he heads to the door, he turns back to Pacifica. “Hey, if you need help with anything else, feel free to ask me, okay?” He smiles at her, and then rushes off.
“…I will.”
***
PRESENT DAY
Dipper wakes up in the attic room, sunlight streaming through the window. He feels like he just had the best sleep of his life. Looking over to the other bed, he sees Mabel in a deep sleep, wrapped up in her sheets and holding Waddles tightly. Dipper, finally able to see this room in the daylight, makes out all the little details and quirks from last summer, like the sailing ship painting and the mold.
Man, aside from the window, Soos really hasn’t changed anything, he thinks. It’s all exactly as he remembers.
Dipper stretches and rubs the sleep out of his eyes. It’s the first (official) day of the new summer. Researching with Great-Uncle Ford, hanging out with friends, and solving mysteries. He legitimately cannot wait. Every single day of this summer is going to be spent to the fullest! Not a single hour wast-
“It’s already two o’clock!?” he yells while checking his phone.
With his outburst, Mabel is thrown into consciousness. “Ah! It’s not my fault!” she shouts, sitting up in bed and flailing her arms. Waddles squeals and jumps down onto the floor.
“Mabel, get up! We slept through the whole morning!” Dipper throws on Wendy’s hat and then jumps out of bed, hurriedly making his way to the door. “We gotta go meet up with everybo–”
Immediately after opening the door and taking a step outside, Dipper trips on a large mass lying on the floor. He hits the ground with a thud and mutters an “Ow, what the?”
“Oh, dudes, your finally awake!”
“SOOS!” Mabel screams, running across the room and tackling Soos as he tries to get up. The force of the impact causes him to stumble, but he manages to stay upright.
“Woah, sup Hambone!” he says, giving the girl a one-armed hug. He then offers his free hand. “Dipper, dude, bring it in!”
Dipper immediately does. Much like with the Grunkles, talking over long distance doesn’t remotely compare to being able to hug someone and feel their presence. Soos is just as lovable and as squishy as ever, and his warmth reminds Dipper of how much the big guy has really become family. At this point, there’s no question about it; Soos is his big brother, from another mother.
“Why were you just laying down in front of the door?” Dipper asks after a few seconds of heartfelt squeezing.
“Well, when I woke up this morning, I really wanted to see you dudes. But Ford told me that you needed to sleep, so I figured I could just sit here until you get up. I guess I fell asleep on the floor, heh-heh!” He takes a moment to think. “It was, it was actually pretty comfortable. More than my bed maybe.”
Dipper’s glad Soos didn’t wake them earlier. It’s not that he didn’t want to see him as soon as possible. But the sleep he had this morning was so good. And he knows he would’ve been a little cranky if he only got a few hours in.
Even so, there’s only so much sunlight in a day. And right now, they’re burning it!
Once again, Mabel’s eyes are glistening with tears. “We missed you Soos,” she says. “It wasn’t the same back in normals-ville.”
“Same to you dudes.” He lets go of both of them. “C’mon, you gotta see the others!” he says, heading down the stairs. The twins follow close behind.
Soos leads them into the gift shop, where a close friend wearing Dipper’s old hat sits behind the counter. Looking up from her Avoiding Work Monthly, her face instantly lights up.
“There you goons are!” Wendy says. “Really needed your beauty sleep huh?”
“Wendy!” the kids shout in unison.
The tall redheaded girl steps out and opens her arms wide. “Don’t keep me waitin’!”
Mabel runs ahead and, just like with Soos, tackles Wendy. Luckily, the teenager seems to either be more prepared for the impact, or just has better core strength, as she hardly budges an inch when Mabel’s mass charges into her.
“What’s going on, goofball?” she says.
Mabel’s response is incoherent; yet again, the tears of joy are flowing.
“C’mon, Dipper!” Wendy calls. “You wanna get in on this?”
Unlike with Soos, Dipper hesitates for a few seconds. He had spent the entire past year doing a lot of self-analysis and retrospection, and one of the biggest topics he had dealt with was his infatuation with Wendy. It had not been one of finer moments. Remembering about his assistant lifeguarding or his refusal to confess to Wendy even when their lives were at stake makes him internally cringe every time. Looking back, it’s kind of crazy to Dipper that he wanted so desperately to be seen by others as mature and adult, while at the same time obsessing over Wendy and following her around like a lovestruck puppy, desperate for attention and affection. He’s glad now that he’s finally over it.
Except… is he? Even weeks after she had easily let him down, it was hard to come to terms with the fact that what miniscule sliver of a chance that Dipper did have was now completely gone. On a subconscious level, he just couldn’t get over her. She was still awesome and pretty and nice and gorgeous and all the things that had led him to have a crush in the first place. How can you just get rid of the feelings you have for someone? He had said something to that effect on the road trip, and it still rang true. For months after summer ended, no matter how hard he tried, some small part of him still saw Wendy as the one. Fortunately, with a lot of mental wrestling (and distraction), Dipper had managed to quash that part of his brain. He had to accept that she just wasn’t interested, and when he did, it was very freeing.
All of that might be down the toilet though.
Seeing Wendy in person again is making him feel awkward. Here she is, the girl that had been his focus (aside from finding the Author, of course) for most of the summer. Dipper isn’t afraid that the sight of her will automatically reignite his crush at one-hundred percent strength; he isn’t that weak-willed. No, what he is really afraid of is that hugging her will end up having that outcome. It may seem kind of silly to think like this, but he’s still growing; who knows how his hormones are going to react to her touch.
“Dude, you just gonna stand there or what?” she prompts, forcing Dipper out of his thoughts.
Well, he thinks, I can’t get out of it.
Slowly but surely, he makes his way over to the girls. He opens out his arms, and Wendy does the same with one of hers. They make contact, and…
Nothing.
Well, okay, not nothing. There’s so much affection and caring and, love, with the hug. It’s just that none of these things are of the romantic type. It’s more… familial. With a mental sigh of relief, Dipper smiles. He knows that all that time he spent picking apart his feelings had paid off. He knows now that doesn’t see Wendy as a potential love interest anymore. Instead, he sees her as a cool big sister. And, really reflecting on it, isn’t that what she offered since they had first met? An awesome friend that will always be there, no matter what.
After a few seconds, Soos charges over and wraps his big arms around all of them. “I gotta get in there, dudes!”
The big guy squeezes them very hard, but Dipper doesn’t even care. He can say with confidence that this is his family now. These aren’t just friends that a person hangs out with for awhile before moving on; no, they’re much, much more than that. It’s impossible for him to imagine a future without them being around.
“Soos, I… love ya man, but… I can’t… breathe.” Wendy gasps.
“Oh, whoops,” Soos says, letting go of the group. “Sorry dudes.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Melody says, coming in from the living room. “Every time I went home and came back here, I thought I was going to be split in two!”
“I can’t help it,” Soos says while walking over to his girlfriend. “I just really miss people when they’re gone! Heh, I’m like a dog.”
Melody laughs and puts her hand on his left arm. “A very sweet dog,” she says as they look at each other and smile.
“You two… are… adorable!” Mabel says, regaining her breath.
Before Dipper can comment on Soos’ relationship, someone swipes the lumberjack hat off of his head. “Hey!” he protests, turning around to see who it is.
“I’ll be takin’ that back,” Wendy says with a wink, dropping the pine tree hat onto his head. “You don’t have to remember me by if I’m here, right?”
“Yeah, for sure,” he smiles.
Don’t even think about how it smells.
“Where is everyone else?” Mabel asks.
“Well, I think Mr. Pines is still sleeping, but I met up with Ford this morning. He was going down into the lab and–”
“Well, I should probably go see if he needs help or anything.” Dipper interrupts quickly, walking over to the vending machine.
“Dude, wait!” Soos calls. “He told me he was gonna work solo-style today.”
Dipper is taken aback. “What?” he asks, hurt by the implication that his idol doesn’t need or even want his help anymore. “Why?” he squeaks, a little too pathetically.
“Hey man, it’s alright,” Wendy says. “I was with Soos when we saw him. He said that you guys should just spend today chilling out and seeing all your friends!”
“Oh… alright,” Dipper says, his fears mostly dissolving. “But, I mean, he might need me, or…”
“C’mon, Dipper!” Mabel says. “You’ll have all summer to do nerd stuff with Grunkle Ford! Everyone’s waiting to see us again!”
“…Yeah, you’re right,” he says after a bit of thought. “I’ve just really been excited to work with him, you know?”
“Dude, it’s cool,” Wendy says, smiling. “C’mon, we’re taking you guys out for lunch! But,” she pauses dramatically, holding her pointer finger up, “You gotta tell us about the crazy adventure you guys had last night!”
“You know about that?” Dipper asks.
“Ford told us about it, he didn’t say much though, just that some real wild junk had happened,” she responds. “Can you verify?”
“We can indeed!” Mabel responds.
“Can you dudes tell me why I woke up super sore, too?” Soos asks.
“We can do that too,” Dipper says.
“Good. Cause dudes, I was in so much pain. Still… still kinda am.”
***
“Woah. So that Fake-Bill dude was trying to kill us or something?” Soos asks.
“We think so,” Dipper responds. “There was a bunch of electric jolts where the glass was.”
“Yeah, it went all, crrrack! Kablam! Kapow!” Mabel exclaims with theatricality.
“Nice sound effects, man!” Wendy compliments.
The gang walks down the road from the Mystery Shack toward town, tall pine trees lining the road on either side. In the distance, Dipper can see the various buildings that make up the square, and atop the hill stands the (former) Northwest Manor. The light of the day makes the little town just seem so cozy, so welcoming, so… homey. And they haven’t even seen anyone yet!
Though, speaking of Northwest Manor…
“By the way,” he asks, “Do you guys know where McGucket is? We didn’t see him last night.”
Soos thinks for a second. “Uhh, I think I heard he was away from town this week, something about meeting with the government or something?”
“Oh boy,” Wendy remarks, “that can’t be good.”
Entering the square, it doesn’t take long for people to start to notice them. For most of them, Dipper either doesn’t know them all that well or he’s never seen them before. Either way, some recognize the group of four, flashing quick smiles and waving slightly. Dipper simply smiles and motions back to them, while Mabel exaggerates her waves and shouts towards everyone she comes across.
“Guess who’s back?!” she calls. “Hey, you! What’s up guys? Sandra, lookin’ good!”
Based on the way that the older woman looked at Mabel, Dipper can easily assess that Sandra is not her name.
“Where are we going to eat anyway?” Dipper asks.
“The finest eating establishment in town, of course!” Wendy says. “Starts with a ‘grrr’ and ends with an ‘easy’.”
“We’re going to Greek and Easy?” Soos asks. “I don’t know dude, those ‘guy-rows’ really didn’t sit well with me last time.”
“Soos, they’re pronounced gyros, like ‘year’ plus ‘ohs’.” Dipper corrects.
“Well, there’s no more Greek people around to ask, so I guess we’ll never know!” Soos proclaims.
“Uhh, Soos,” Mabel says questionably, “I’m pretty sure they are?”
“Nah dude, why else would we call them Ancient Greeks? Cause they’re all gone! All we have left of their culture is myths and ‘guy-rows’.”
After making his claim, Soos adjusts his fez. The big guy had made them wait a little bit back at the shack so that he could put on his full Mr. Mystery outfit, eyepatch and all. Over the past year, Soos had really fallen into his role as the new head honcho at the Shack, showing off the less-than-supernatural offerings to curious visitors while swindling them at the same time. Grunkle Stan had really taught him well.
While walking, Dipper can’t help but notice all the little imperfections with the costume. There’s a small hole on the right side of the fez, a weird stain on the pants, and a part of the jacket that had obviously been torn, with new, unmatching fabric covering it up. Clearly, the uniform has been very well worn.
“Look, none of that matters right now,” Wendy says, ready to move the conversation forward. “What matters is that I’m takin’ you guys to Greasy’s!”
As she says this, the group rounds a corner and sees the log-car restaurant in the distance, still looking exactly as it did last summer, the large sign on the top of the building proclaiming the name and ‘We Have Food’ lit up by an arrow covered in light bulbs. With it being almost 2:30 in the afternoon, sun shining bright, Dipper wonders how high Lazy Susan’s electricity bill is if the lights are on every day.
“I can’t wait to try a coffee omelet.” Mabel says quietly.
“Woah, you drink coffee now?” Wendy asks.
Dipper sighs. “Yeah, but she really shouldn’t. Dad let her try some of his one time and now she loves it. It makes her even more hyperactive.”
“More hyperactive?” Wendy questions with a raised eyebrow. “Didn’t think that was possible, to be honest.”
Mabel shrugs. “I didn’t really either.”
The friends continue their walk. Out of the corner of his eye, Dipper keeps seeing Mabel looking very smugly at him. He already knows the reason why, and he decides to ask about it himself before she blurts something out. Mentally preparing himself, he turns to face her.
“Mabel, what is it?” he sighs defeatedly.
“Oh, nothing,” she smirks. “Just thinking about how there’ll probably be a certain someone at Greasy’s that’ll be very happy to see you!”
Dipper rolls his eyes. “And who might that be?” he deadpans.
“Starts with a 'Pacif' and ends with an 'Ica', bro-bro!” she winks.
Wendy laughs. “Man, I don’t know how you guys became best friends with the richest girl in town. Tell me your secret!”
“What can I say, Wendy? We're just buds with everybody! Ain’t that right, Jeffery?!”
The man across the street that Mabel called Jeffery simply raises his eyebrow in confusion.
“Besides,” Mabel continues. “Dipper’s really the best friend here! Or maybe mooorree?”
As much as he doesn’t want to, Dipper can’t help but blush. “S-shut up Mabel…”
“I can see it.” Wendy says matter-of-factly.
Dipper is surprised, turning even redder. “You can what?!”
“I can see it.” she repeats. “From what I’ve heard, you’ve really helped her out of some junk, man. People appreciate that stuff, and I know she does. You should try asking her out or something.”
“Yeah, dude!” Soos agrees, “Shoot your shot, y’know!”
Great. Not only are his friends commenting on his hypothetical relationship life, but Wendy, his former huge crush, just so easily determining who he should go out with makes him feel very strange. Less than a year ago, he would have been destroyed by the notion that Wendy wants to see him with another girl. Now, it just makes him feel embarrassed and, in some small way, regretful. Regretful that he had wasted so much time with Wendy on the brain, time that could have been spent, say, finding the Author quicker. He knows now that she never thought the same about him, but still, with hindsight it’s so obvious.
“Guys, I can’t do that,” he says. “We’re just friends.”
“Right now, you're just friends.” Mabel corrects. Dipper glares at her.
“Hey man, it’s alright,” Wendy says, putting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s just a suggestion. Nobody’s forcing you to do anything, just think about it, okay?”
“At least until I force you too,” Mabel laughs, earning a stronger glare back.
“Though, speaking of Ms. Northwest,” Wendy says thoughtfully, “how the heck did she end up at Greasy’s? I don’t think any member of her family even looked at the place before, much less worked there.”
Dipper knows exactly how Pacifica got her job, and it’s a story he would really rather not tell. The girl will kill him if he does. “It’s, uh, kinda some personal stuff.” he explains.
Luckily, he saved from sharing any more when a loud booming voice echoes out from nearby.
“HEYY GIRLFRAAANNDD!”
Before the others can even react, Mabel screams in happiness and dashes off in the direction of the voice, colliding with Candy and Grenda in a vise grip hug.
“My GIRLFRIENDS!” Mabel cries, holding them tight. “It’s been too long! How ya been?”
“Oh, you know.” Candy says, “Just hanging out. Chilling like villains.”
“SUPERVILLIANS!” Grenda adds. “But NOT the EVIL KIND!”
“Watch out,” Wendy smirks. “The Three Musketeers are back together!”
“More like the Three Fun-sketeers!” Mabel says. “One for one, and all for all!”
“That’s not how it goes Mabel,” Dipper says.
“Well, that’s how ours goes!”
“Anyways, we were just coming over to the Shack to say hello,” Candy says.
“Do you dudes want to come eat at Greasy’s with us?” Soos asks. “They got enough coffee omelets to go around!”
Candy shakes her head. “Sorry, we can’t. We only had enough time to walk over and say hi.”
“I have to go get my tonsils removed in a bit.” Grenda says, rather calmly. “I always wake myself up when I snore.”
“And I have piano practice at three, for four hours.” Candy says ominously, her left eye slightly twitching.
“Aw man,” Mabel says. Then she thinks for a moment. “Hmm, would you guys be available for a… SUPER AWESOME SLEEPOVER TONIGHT!”
“HECK YEAH!” Grenda shouts. “TONSIL REMOVAL PARTY! WE’RE GONNA EAT ICE CREAM TILL WE COLLAPSE!”
The girls make the plan with each other and then go their separate ways, giving each other a lot of goodbye hugs. At the same time, Dipper resigns himself to a night of screaming and chaos. He thinks about making a bingo card of all the crazy things the girls do whenever they have a slumber party. Taping Candy to the ceiling is definitely going to be one of them.
Soon after, they reach their destination. Smells of slightly-undercooked eggs and blacker-than-black coffee waft through the air as they walk up the steps to the door.
“Remember,” Mabel whispers with a cheeky grin, “don’t mess up your shot.”
Dipper just silently seethes.
But at the same time, that idea makes him silently panic as well.