Pointdexter: A Swooning Over Stan-fiction

Chapter Sixteen

During the next couple of days, Alice, Ford, and Dipper got farther into the DD&MD campaign they'd left off on. She'd gotten more time to flesh out Odan to complement Tyrros and Vhernan on the team, it was more fun than she had expected it to be, even after the fun she had on the first go. Dipper had even told her that the three-person troupe was typically small for a DD&MD group, but she'd been getting the hang of it. Mostly from Ford's helpful nudges in the right direction, but she'd been doing well.

She also noticed Ford staring at her during the games, and couldn't deny that she'd been caught doing the same. And after her chat with Mabel? She was on edge for the girl to pull something out of her sleeve. Every time Mabel burst into a room with a fistful of crayons, Alice jumped nearly a foot in the air.

But she'd done everything she could to pretend everything was normal as it gets in Gravity Falls. She'd even ventured into Gravity Falls earlier that day and did some tourist-worthy exploring- And ran into the Pines family at the diner about an hour later.

According to a giddy Dipper and an exasperated Ford, a door to another plane had appeared in the fridge instead of food. Post-documentation and inspection- and lots of skeptical squinting from Dipper and complaints from Stan- Ford had suggested they just wait it out.

It was gone by the time they got back to the shack, Alice had secretly hoped to catch a glimpse, but when she asked Ford, he assured her it was nothing special. 'Wouldn't have even ranked it among his top ten' he'd told her, grinning and pushing his glasses up his nose.

After that series of fridge-related events, the Shack fell quiet. Dipper ventured out with his camera equipment, off to film 'something amazing' and Stan secluded himself in his office, 'checking in with his sources'. Whatever that meant. that left Alice and Ford, both intently reading on the patio.

It was warm and comfortable, yet the overhang shielded her eyes from the blinding summer light. Alice glanced at Ford, as calm and collected as he'd been all week. It was nice to be calm, despite the nerves around him since Mabel's matchmaking interview. It wasn't that she hadn't thought about him in that light before, it was the fact that she'd never planned on trying it out.

Not since the divorce in Connecticut, almost a year ago, now that she thought about it. 

She could have asked Mabel to call off the matchmaking, especially after the past stress-filled days when Alice was convinced that the girl would spring some unavoidable romantic situation on her at a moment's notice. She would have rather not lived with that kind of anxious anticipation.

Alice settled into her book, a paperback Ford had loaned her. It was a jargon-heavy sci-fi with an abstract cover she would have picked up off a shelf. And she thought she was going to see the first glimpse of a plot after a three-chapter introduction. She tapped her finger to her lips and flipped the page. Ford was immersed in a heavy volume of a scientific journal, his brow furrowed in concentration, now and then he scratched a note down on a piece of scrap paper, his mind occupied with whatever he was reading.

Alice noticed him glance up, his eyes drifting over to her, and staying there for a moment, the page forgotten in his hands. A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and despite her effort to refocus on her book, she glanced up.

"You're looking at something," She said, eyes fixated on her closing the book over her hand and leaning on the arm of the couch.

No- It's... It's nothing-" Ford seemed to snap out of his thought, she'd caught him off guard. A sheepish chuckle escaped him, the tips of his ears tinging pink and he focused on his book. "Just... lost in thought, I guess."

"An interesting thought I assume?" Alice asked, shifting her book onto her lap. "You seem to have a lot of those."

Ford chuckled, lowering his book and shifting so he was looking at her. A smile played across his lips as his brow arched, "Is that a compliment or a criticism? I hope you're not secretly judging me for my musings."

"Never-" Alice gasped in mock offense, trying to keep her smile from splitting across her face. "You're talking to the woman who gave up studying elephants to birdwatch for a living."

"A kindred spirit, I see," Ford said with a hearty laugh, leaning back into the seat and smiling at her. "We're both a bit strange, aren't we?"

"I think I like it better that way," Alice said, leaning against the arm of the outdoor couch. "It's better to be strange than it is to be what everyone expects of you."

She paused, her eyes flickering over him and landing on his hand. She was quick to look away again, she had questions. 

"Can I ask a weird question?" She asked suddenly, removing her hand from the closed cover of the book.

Ford glanced at her, having caught her glancing at his hand, but he seemed almost intrigued by her question. She could see the flicker of curiosity flashing in his eyes as he set the book between them and gave her his full attention.

"Of course," He said, his tone encouraging. "What's on your mind?"

"You-" She hesitated, trying to fit her words into place. "You're polydactyly, right?"

"Yes," He nodded, seemingly taken aback that she knew the scientific name, but he was quick to recover, raising his hands and spreading out his fingers. "It's a genetic mutation-"

"- An anomaly in humans and non-human animals resulting in supernumerary fingers," Alice finished for him, a small, shy smile crossing her face. "I've seen it in birds, but I've never seen it on people."

His brows raised, almost comically, as a mixture of surprise and fascination crossed his face.

"Impressive," He said with... Was that admiration in his voice? "Not many people know such specific details about polydactyly."

"Is that why..." She paused, forming words once more. "Is that why you study the supernatural?"

"In a way..." Ford responded, taking a moment to consider his response, seeming to choose his words as carefully as she did. "My own... unique features made me an outsider. I didn't quite fit into the 'norm' of society. Perhaps that drive to understand anomalies and the otherworld was a way to find my place in the world, to understand things others deemed... Unnatural."

Alice felt her face soften, her heart aching for the image of a younger Ford struggling with his hands. But he was here, smart, clever, and... Oh god... Alice found herself startled by her thoughts, her face tinged red. Maybe Mabel was right, there was something there that was far more interesting than anything else in Gravity Falls, and he was right in front of her.

"Well..." Alice managed to choke out, lifting her book once more and flickering over the page she'd lost, trying to look busy. "I like it... The... unnatural... As you put it."

Damn it, Alice- She cursed herself mentally. She could practically feel him watching her. She could imagine him tracking her movements, noting the color of her cheeks, she could imagine the start of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Alice knew that he was noting the double meaning in her words.

"And you..." He said, his voice a touch lower than before. "You're not scared of the 'unnatural'?"

"No," Alice whispered, letting her gaze flutter along the words that she would no longer be reading after this conversation. "Not when I'm starting to get to know it better."

The atmosphere between them felt thicker like she could cut it with a knife if she wanted to. He took a deep breath, and Alice could feel him moving his book back in front of him.

"And..." He said after a deep breath. "What if this 'unnatural' starts to get acquainted with you too?"

Alice thought she was going to die, her face was warmer than she expected it to be.

"I..." She said, hesitating as her scientist's brain screamed at her not to answer. "I'd like that..."

She moved to turn the page of her book, hoping to God that she didn't look like a dying mouse when the door banged open. Alice jumped, her hands instinctively shutting the book as she glanced over. 

Mabel exploded onto the porch, armed with oven mitts and an apron.

"Alice! Grunkle Ford!" She shouted, pointing (or at least Alice assumed she was pointing) between the pair ."I need help and I need it now!"