Half-Brother [Sporadic Updates]

The Letter

    The next day in the Mystery Shack after the Griffin attack was people healing. Emotionally and physically.
    Soon after Dippers panic attack, everything settled down, and the whole shack was quiet for the rest of the night. Then morning came.
    Tourists were waiting by the doors for the attraction to open, and as soon as the doors opened they flooded in. Stan did the best he could to control everyone, as it was not usually this busy. Eventually, even with Wendy and Soos working more than they were assigned, he had to ask Ford to help him, which to Stans suprise he agreed to. At least, the best he could.
    Fords right wing was bandaged, making it totally immobile, and his front right leg wasn't much better. He limped around the Shack, helping the tourists to the best of his ability.
    Meanwhile, Dipper and Mabel were up in the attic, Mabel enjoying her day off of work. She was also helping Dipper with his speech, as he was still having a little trouble pronouncing some letters. For example, no matter how hard he tried, he could barely pronounce the letter 's'.
    "C'mon Dip, you can do it! Say Sheep!" Mabel enchoured him.
    "Ch...keep." he said, making faces in the process. Mabel giggled slightly, but then went back to her task.
    "Sheep! Sha-eep!" She said, pronouncing the word.
    Dipper moved his head to the side a little bit, then squinted his eyes in effort.
    "Cheep...eep...Sheep!" he exclaimed, his face elating with happiness and pride. Mabel squealed.
    "That's it!" She yelled, a gigantic smile on her face.
    "Sheep Sheep Sheep Sheep!" Dipper said over and over again, prancing around the room with a smile as big as Mabel's in his face.
    Mabel laughed at his silliness, to which Dipper soon joined.
    The rest of the day was spent like this, with the Shack slowly easing down to only two customers in the gift shop down below. Stan, Ford, Soos and Wendy were all exhausted from the extrordianary amount of people that came today. Stan was more excited about all the money he made, though. Soon the two people left with their items that they bought, and everyone sighed in relief as Soos flipped the sign outside to say 'Closed'. 
    That's when Mabel and Dipper came happily down the stairs, slightly laughing in their way down. They entered the gift shop and saw that people were packing up, so they went to Stan  to ask about dinner.
    "Hey, Grunkle Stan?" Mabel asked innocently.
    "Yeah kid" he answered, not taking his eyes off of the money he was flipping through.
    "Can we go to Greasy's for some food?" she asked, hoping that he would say yes. Stan looked like he was contemplating the question, then abruptly said "no".
    "Whhaaaattt! Why not?" Mabel whined. Dipper also looked disappointed, but didn't say anything.
    "Cause I said so. Now one of you go get the mail." he replied casually, obviously in his default 'I'm a grumpy old man' mood.
    "Not it!" Mabel instantly yelled, looking at Dipper with a devious, yet playful, smile.
    "Aw, C'mon Mabel!" Dipper whined, giving her the puppy dog eyes. She looked like she was about to give in to the saddened eyes, but then looked away.
    "Nope! Not falling for it." She replied, not looking at Dipper. He gave up his act and groaned, making his way to the front door.
    "Thanks Dipping Sauce!" Mabel exclaimed as she watched Dipper go to the door, swimming off to go do something.
    "Whatever." he grumbled, though not loud enough for anyone to hear.
    He stepped out of the Shack, and felt a small breeze ruffle his fur. The sun was beginning to set, and the moon was now visible in the sky. He walked out onto the porch, and was suprised to see anyone out there.
    "How are you?" Ford asked, smiling a bit as he saw Dipper jump slightly, his eyes widening in suprise. He let out a small breath when he realized it wasn't anything dangerous, and walked over to Ford, who was sitting on the porch.
    "I'm okay, how about you? How's your wing?" Dipper asked, feeling a little awkward about the situation. But he felt awkward everywhere, with the only exception being when he was hanging out with Mabel.
    "It's fine." Ford simply replied. He then stared into the forest, as if he was deep in thought. Dipper, feeling a bit anxious to get out, walked over to the mailbox and opened it. Surprisingly, there was only one letter in there. He grabbed it from the mail box and placed it on the ground to get a better look at it.
    It was a simple white envelope with writing on the front addressed to Mabel Pines. In the corner was a stamp that was simply a light blue, no designs. He flipped it over, and found a wax seal keeping it closed. On the seal was an eagle, which was very strange to Dipper. He looked for the address of the people who sent it, but found nothing.
    He was suspicious, but regardless, picked it up and made his way back inside anyway. Before he could open the door though, Ford started talkingto him again.
    "Did you know their names?" he asked, looking at Dipper. Dipper was thoroughly confused by this question, and tilted his head slightly to the right.
    "Who's names?" he replied, in which Ford sighed. He didn't answer for a second, then spoke again.
    "Your parents." Ford said, and closed his eyes. Dipper visible stiffened at this, and it took him a small time before he could finally form words.
    "I know my Moms name was Molly, but I can't remember my Dads." Dipper could feel tears starting to form, but pushed them back. "Why do you want to know my parents names?"
    "Just curious." Ford then turned back to the forest and continued to stare, a little but hatefully now.
    "Okay..." Dipper said, walking inside of the Shack. He was still trying process what had just happened when Mabel called for him in another room.
"Dipper! I need your help!" she called, and Dipper guessed she was calling from the living room.
"Coming!" he shouted back, placing the envelope in front of Stan. He would have given it straight to Mabel, since it was addressed to her, but he had a weird feeling that Stan could see it first. Dipper then ran into the living room and found Mabel with a glue gun stuck to her small hamster ball.
"Can you help her this off? I was just comeing glitter onto a card and I accidently rolled over it, and now-" she paused for a minute to reach for the glue gun, but failed. "-I can't reach it."
Dipper giggled, then went over and started pulling on the glue gun with all of his strength, but nothing happened.
"Maybe I could swim the other way while your pulling!" Mabel suggested, and Dipper nodded. Mabel started to swim in the opposite direction Dipper was pulling, and after a few second the glue gun came free.
This made Mabel launch toward the wall and slam straight into it, while Dipper flew onto his back, glue gun in his paws. When they finally realized what had just happened, they began to laugh.
Once they were done laughing, Dipper saw the card that Mabel had been working on. He tried to read it, but found it to hard with all of the glitter that was plastered on it.
"Who were you making the card for?" He asked. Mabel swam over to him and reached out of her ball to grab the card with a saddened look on her face.
    "My parents. They got drafted to war and I want to try to keep in touch with them." her mouth then lifted into a smile as she pressed (the seemingly water proof) card to her chest. "That's actually the reason I'm here. No one else could take care of me, so I was sent here."
    Dipper looked at her with his ears pressed against his head. He knew what she was going through. They had very similar situations. Mabel was sent to Gravity Falls, away from her parents for who knows how long, and was taken in by some stranger who had grown to be an actual part of her family. Dipper lived in Gravity Falls all his life, but then his parents were killed, which led to him being taken in by the Pines family, strangers to him then, but now the only family he has.
    They both sat in silence for a while, that is until Stan called them into the gift shop.
    "Kids, can you come here." he yelled, but it wasn't his normal grumpy voice. His tone was softer than it usually was, which made both kids suspicous.
    "Coming." Mabel said, and led the way to the gift shop.
    Upon entering, they saw that Ford was now inside, and look extremely sad. They also found Stan in that same state, only he was on the verge of tears. He was also staring at the strange letter from the mail.
    "What's wrong?" Mabel asked innocently, clutching the card she had made even tighter than she had been before. Dipper saw the same scene, but had a hunch sad to why everyone was sad, but didn't want it to be correct.
    Stan sniffed, and gently put the letter onto the table that he was leaning on. He put his face into his hands to wipe the tears beginning to form, and looked at Dipper, then to Mabel. He sighed and closed his eyes.

 

"We need to talk"