Love Unheard

Chapter 1

(Dipper pov)

I slowly open my eyes, it taking a minute for me to see that the bus is tipped on it's side and there is this horrible ringing in both of my ears. I feel glass shards in my leg and arm as I crawl over to Mabel, blood pooling from the back of her head. I weakly shake her, trying to wake her up and hoping more than anything that her eyes will just open.

"Mabel? Mabel wake up!" I stop realizing something in horror. I know that I just talked, I could feel my throat vibrate as the words left my mouth but I didn't hear anything. All I could fucking hear was this ringing in my ears and it just keeps getting louder.

I put my hands over my ears but it doesn't do anything. The ringing never stops.

Seeing flashing lights outside the window I grimace in pain as I smash my elbow against the bus window breaking it before crawling out the window, the rain instantly soaking me to my bones.

I struggle to my feet as an ambulance and police cars pull up, I see the lights flashing so I know the sirens are blaring but I still don't hear anything other than the ringing.

A police man gets out of his car and runs up to me. I see his lips moving but I can't hear what he says. I can't even hear the sound of the rain hitting the vehicles. It's all just gone.

........................................

I jerk awake feeling someone shaking my shoulder. Looking up I see the bus driver standing there and looking annoyed. Guessing that he's already tried to tell me to wake up and I know that if I try to sign he won't have any clue what I'm saying. Good thing I come prepared for this.

Reaching into my pocket I hand him a note I wrote with four simple words.

I am deaf. Sorry.

He looks slightly sorry as he reads it and gestures to outside. Looking out the window I see that we're in Gravity Falls again.

"Oh, thank you." I say and guessing by his face that I said it too loud again. It's hard for me to know exactly how loud I am since I can't hear the volume of my voice. I only know what I said because of the vibrations from my throat.

I give him an apologetic smile as I stand up grabbing my backpack and duffle bag as I step off the bus and smile up at Stan who comes up to greet me.

I see him making big gestures with what he's trying to say. Him and Ford understand sign language from when my grandpa went deaf when I was little, but neither of them are good at speaking it.

Sighing softly I interrupt him as I sign and speak it, doing what I can to try and not yell, only guessing from my volume by his face.

"You don't have to do gestures or try to sign. I can read lips and I still have my voice."

"Oh, right. Anyway let's get you to the shack so you can settle in."

He leads me to his car and I put my things in the back before getting in the passenger seat, putting my earbuds in and playing a dumb game on my phone as he drives. Even though I can't hear anything, it makes me feel more normal if I just at least have the earbuds in my ears even if it's super useless.

He nudges me and taking the earbuds I see we're back at the shack.

Getting out I take my bag out of the backseat and look up at Stan.

"You need help getting your things upstairs or anything?"

"No thanks. Just text me when dinner is ready."

I carry the bags upstairs into the attic room, nothing about it really changed except that the extra dresser and bed Mable had used is gone. I toss my bags on the bed and get to unpacking.

Feeling my phone vibrating I take it out and see it's my dad trying to Facetime me. Setting the phone on the dresser I press the accept button as I put on a small fake smile for him.

"Hey, Mason, you arrived okay?"

Hey, dad. Yeah I arrived fine. Was just going to start on unpacking my things.

"Why don't you ask Stan or Ford to help you with that?"

Dad. It's just some clothes and books. I can unpack my own things, I'm not a baby. We've talked about this before.

"I know I know I just worry."

How long is this going to be for? When can I come back and live with you for good?

"It's going to be a few months for me and your mother to figure out who gets what of our assets and then the custody battle will take even longer. There is the chance that she could possibly end up with full or partial custody of you, you know."

I know. But she doesn't listen or bother trying to learn how to communicate with me properly. She gets mad when I try to talk and instead of trying to learn how to sign she just shoves a whiteboard into my hands. I don't want to stay with her.

"I know you don't, I don't want to lose custody of you either. Let me handle the grown up stuff and you just focus on not falling behind in school. Ford say if he has you signed up for the school in Gravity Falls yet?"

Not yet. I haven't seen him, think he's busy in the basement.

"Well when you see him ask him about it." He looks over his shoulder before turning his attention back to me. "I have to go, love you Mason."

Love you too, dad.

He smiles before hanging up. Putting the phone back in my pocket I unzip my bags and get to work on putting my things where they belong.

I put the clothes in the dresser, books on the bookshelf, my dozens of hoodies that all look the same in the closet and put my writing materials in the desk before laying out on the bed as I feel an exhausted sigh leave my lips.

This, apparently, is going to be my life for a while. In the school I was in at Piedmount, the only language course they offered was ASL so I was able to sign freely without having to worry about someone not understanding what I meant. Everyone there knew about my accident so none of them really made a big deal about how loud I talked at times. They all understood it and I had adapted so being deaf was like second nature to me now.

But now, I'm in whole new territory where I'm pretty much going to have to readapt all over again. My dad always said I could come back here for summers if I wanted to but I chose not to. I wanted to, but I was scared to. Because of Bill, I barely slept that whole summer. I only don't have nightmares from him anymore because the accident took up so much of my spare time now. But being back here might trigger some things I would rather not think about.

Feeling my phone vibrate again I pick it up and see that Stan texted me letting me know dinner was ready. Getting up I put the phone in my pocket as I head downstairs.

I sit at the table as Stan puts a plate in front of me.

Where's Ford at?

"He's busy working on something right now so he'll eat later. He wanted to let you know that you start school tomorrow. He wants you to ride the bus but if needed I can drive you."

No thanks. The bus is fine with me. Is it okay if I eat upstairs so I can finish some things up?

"Sure thing kiddo."

Picking up the plate I carry it upstairs and sit at the desk eating the food as I watch videos on my phone, keeping the captions on so I actually know what's going on in the video.