Gravitational Phantoms: After the Storm

Chapter One: Parental Concern

Oh look, it's the sequel that I promised! I hope you all enjoy it, but first, some good news; my phone is fixed! Yay! This means that I can go back to procrastinating at my usual pace. Of course, by the time I publish this, my phone will have been fixed for a long time.

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Dipper sighed and looked out of the bus window. The familiar sign passed by-the one that said "Now Leaving Gravity Falls." Next to him, Mabel absently played with a loose thread on the sweater that she was wearing. She gave her brother a hopeful look.

"Do you wanna play bus seat treasure hunt?" Mabel asked, getting ready to lift up the seat.

Dipper was about to say "no," but then changed his mind. "Okay. What've we got?"

The two twelve year olds ("I'm almost thirteen, Wendy! I can handle myself!") were both exhausted, because they had spent quite a bit of their summer helping Wendy and her family (along with the guild of lumberjacks that they worked with) rebuild the town.

Most of the houses and stores had to be completely remade, but some were mercifully spared from the damage that was delivered to the rest of the town.

And once Danny was cleared to be back on his feet, the ghost boy practically cut their workload in half. Of course, it took a quite some time for Wendy to trust his health enough to let the Halfa out of her sight-Dipper and Mabel still wouldn't.

The ghost boy still suffered from frequent panic attacks, as well as nightmares and flashbacks. They were triggered by seemingly innocuous things, like when Wendy delivered a particularly devastating blow to a piece of wood with her ax.

Although, Wendy was pretty scary.

When the Speedy Beaver bus pulled up in Piedmont, Dipper and Mabel were both asleep. The bus driver had to shake them awake.

"Hey, kids. Isn't this your stop?"

"Y... yeah, thanks." Dipper yawned. The two kids grabbed their bags and clambered out of the car.

Almost immediately, they were crushed in a huge hug from their parents. Mabel melted into it easily, while Dipper struggled for oxygen.

"Oh, we're so glad that you're okay!" Their mother gasped. "Why didn't you come home sooner?"

Dipper wormed his way out of what was the basically a choke hold. "We told you, we couldn't leave Gravity Falls. We had to stay and help."

"Yes, but after what happened with my uncle..." their father shook his head sadly. "But we're glad that you made friends."

"Oh yeah, that's right! I sent you guys pictures of Candy and Grenda already, right?" Mabel chirped eagerly. "And of course there's Wendy, Lee and Nate, Thompson, Tambry and Robbie (I got them together with love potion!), Waddles, but he's at the Shack because you guys said that I couldn't keep him, um, the Multibear, I think, Mermando (we kissed!), and kinda Pacifica."

"Forgetting someone?" Dipper prompted.

Mabel beamed. "Oh yeah, of course! I forgot Danny! He's really awesome, you guys gotta meet him."

The twin's parents smiled and exchanged looks. Their mother ruffled Mabel's hair. "Yes, I heard about most of those. Including the love potion. Really, I thought you had outgrown all of that fantasy stuff."

"It's not fantasy, Mom," Mabel huffed. "It's real!"

Her brother set a warning hand on her shoulder. "Mabel..."

"What? I was expecting you to be the one exploding on them about magic and monsters and all that stuff."

Dipper sighed. "Some battles... just aren't worth fighting anymore."

"So," their father said, setting his hands on their shoulders and squeezed lightly. "Tell me about this "Danny" character."

"Well," Mabel began. "He's got black hair and bright blue eyes. But sometimes he has white hair-"

Dipper coughed to interrupt her. "Sometimes he dyes it."

"Don't listen to Dippingsauce. But he's really nice, and he doesn't have parents anymore, which is really sad. And he's scared of lot's of things, so you have to be careful. But he likes bacon and cereal and anything except for toast, and he loves the sweater that I made for him." Mabel paused for breath, and Dipper took over.

"Danny was abused, sort of. But much, much worse. He still doesn't trust people, except for us, Wendy, Soos, and Ford. He saw Gr-Grunkle S-Stan d-die." Dipper pretended that his voice wasn't shaking. "Danny thinks that it was his fault for not being able to stop it. He tends to think that most things are his fault, actually."

"But he's really brave! He helped to save a lot of people! In fact," Mabel's mouth twitched up as if she were sharing an inside joke as she spoke. "Danny's kinda like a superhero."

Dipper elbowed her lightly in the side. In return, she swatted softly at her brother's ribs. Soon, it dissolved into an all-out slap war, as their parents watched in amusement.

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Danny was curled up in a shady corner of the former Mystery Shack, which was now just a house. His house.

It was far too sunny out for the tastes of a Halfa with an ice core, and Danny tried to cool himself down by forming small frosty crystals on his hands.

A blast of freezing water hit him in the face.

Danny looked up, spluttering. Soos grinned down at him. "Wanna have a water fight?"

The teenager shook his head and curled up again. From nearby, Wendy laughed. "It wasn't really a request, dummy. C'mon, let's have some fun!"

A water balloon splashed down onto his ribs, and Danny relished the cool feeling. Then the ghost boy had an idea, and smirked up at the two. They just challenged the wrong Halfa.

Danny launched a pair of snowballs at them, and then the water war began. Danny started to forget the doubts and worries that constantly pulled at the back of his mind.

Because this, this was worth fighting for. This was worth dying for. This was worth living for.

From the window of the house, Ford was watching him. The man looked on as the two teens and the man-child played in front of the fallen trees, momentarily shirking their rebuilding duties.

He looked down at the picture in his hand. A shard of times long past, one that he could live without reminders of. Reaching into his pocket, Ford pulled out a lighter. He set the edge of the photograph on fire, and watched it burn into cinders.

Ford left out the front door, intending to help continue house restoration. A great deal of his lab had been destroyed, so he was working with limited tools.

He was so engaged in his thoughts that he didn't notice when Danny's attention shifted.

He did, however, notice when a snowball hit him in the face.

Ford started, staring at Danny through askew glasses. The ghost boy smiled sheepishly and scuffed the ground. While he was making a conscious effort to stay still, Ford could see that all of the Halfa's instincts were screaming at him to run.

The man crouched down slowly, before scooping up the snow and molding it into the most aerodynamic ball he could. It whacked into the center of Danny's chest, right on target.

The incredulous-but delighted- look that Danny gave him was worth getting hit in the face a million times.