whatever it takes • gravity falls

he goes on

Stanford steps through a portal and finds himself falling.

He's falling and suddenly he isn't, plunged into cold water that makes him gasp involuntarily. Salt water fills his mouth and he swims upward, breaking through the surface.

He splutters, spitting water every which way as he treads. Huh. It seemed that the portal dropped him into the middle of the ocean in an earth dimension. Luckily, a boat was also in the middle of the ocean and he was right next to it.

Two figures that he can't make out are staring down at him and Ford waves a hand at them, going underwater momentarily to do so. "Greetings! Can I board your boat?"

There's a pause and Ford can imagine that the two figures are murmuring to each other. "Sure," One yells back and Ford smiles, side-stroking over to the back of the boat to board.

He's climbing up the ladder on the back when a hand offering help up makes an appearance. A six fingered hand. His eyes widen and he falls off the ladder and back into the water in surprise. He lets out a string of alien curses as he breaks through the surface again.

"I told you, we shouldn't help him," He hears himself mutter to what he figures is the other person on the boat. Ford looks up and makes eye contact with Stanley.

Stanley is older than Ford's ever seen him and he just looks so happy. His hair is long like it was when Ford's seen Stan last, covered with a red beanie. His shoulders have widened, Ford notes, his stomach also having grown larger. Ford also notices how similar he and Stan look, a home-y feeling settling deep in his gut at that fact.

Stan lets out a loud laugh and slaps his Stanford on the back, making his glasses slide to the end of his nose. "Ha, Sixer! You need to get your prescription checked at the next port if you can't even recognize yourself."

Eyes wide with surprise, the Other Stanford makes eye contact with Ford. His mouth turns into a thoughtful frown. "That explains the portal, then."

Stan sticks a hand out this time, helping Ford onto the ship. Ford shrugs off his wet coat and gives a small wave to the brothers. "Sorry for bothering you, didn't really mean to end up here."

The Other Ford nods, rubbing his chin as he eyes unfocused, which Ford knows he does when he starts thinking something through. "No, no. It's alright. I understand," The Other Ford says, "We'll get you cleaned up and set you on your way. I reckon it's fine to send you to your home dimension. Bill's gone so even if a rift forms, it shouldn't be too much of a problem."

Stan snorts, "Ford, no one says 'reckon' anymore."

"I do," Ford says.

"Doesn't count," Stan says back.

"Wait," Ford says, just processing what the Other Ford had said, "Bill's gone?"

The Other Ford nods, a grim smile taking over his face. "Yes," his smile turns loving as he directs it into Stan's direction, "This knucklehead defeated him."

Ford wonders briefly what happened between the Other Ford and this Stan to make them get along so nicely. Ford looks around to the boat he's standing on for the first time, "Is this the Stan O' War?"

Stan nods with a wide smile of pure happiness stretching on his face. "Yep, got her at the end of summer a few weeks back."

Ford looks around at the boat again and doesn't really know what to say, so he settles with, "Wow."

"Lets talk more inside," the Other Ford said, "The sun is getting really hot."

And so Stan and Ford are sitting at the small kitchen table inside, the Other Ford leaning on a counter away from them. "Like I said before," he said, "I can help you get back to your home dimension."

"My home dimension?" Ford questions back, fiddling with the sleeve of the sweater that the Other Ford gave to him. He doesn't really know what that means.

"Yes," the Other Ford says with a firm nod and sip of coffee, "Although, I wonder why your Stanley hasn't opened the portal for you."

"Stan's been working on the portal? Doesn't he know how dangerous that is?" Ford turns to Stan who shrugs in response.

"Yep. Didn't stop me though." Stan doesn't look like he regretted anything.

"Maybe that's what differs in our dimensions," Ford said in response, "My Stan just never tried to fix the portal."

Stan shakes his head immediately with a gruff noise from deep in his throat. "Nope. That Stan's not Stan if he wouldn't do whatever it takes to get you back."

"I agree with Stan," the Other Ford said after a few thoughtful moments, "Maybe something happened to Stan to make working on the portal impossible..." The Other Ford jerks up with a finger pointed to the ceiling as Ford can tell an idea pops into his head. The Other Ford sets his cup down and rummages through the drawer next to the fridge, pulling out a tape measure.

He hands it to Stan, who hands it to Ford. "Dipper gave this me this time machine to study, I'm sure he won't mind if I give it to myself. You can use it if something too bad has happened in your dimension."

Stan raises an eyebrow at his Ford, "Are you sure this is a good idea? Doesn't that make, like, paradoxes and people not being born and stuff?"

"I don't see anything that would too bad happening," The Other Ford says, Ford nodding in agreement.

"Hey, that's not fair. You two can just agree with each other and out-vote me." Stan crosses his arms and the Other Ford ignores him.

"Give me your portal gun and I can modify it to send you to your home dimension." Ford takes it out of his pack and gives it to Stan, who gives it to his Ford. "I'll be right back. You both stay here."

The Other Ford leaves and Ford turns to Stan. "How long did you work on the portal for?"

"Thirty years," Stan says, "I had to teach myself all the high school math I missed and of course, all your dumb portal math."

Stan is teasing him and it feels nice. He never knew the day would come in which he missed teasing. A smile comes over his face that dies when he remembers the last time he saw his own Stanley. He voices his earlier question, "What happened that made your relationship so friendly?"

"The end of the world," Stan says seriously, looking at the ground. "I had to erase all my memories in order to defeat Bill. The weeks of recovery definitely brought us closer, more than anything."

They are both quiet until the Other Ford returns, a proud smile and hair looking a little more poofy than before. He hands the portal gun to Stan, who hands it to Ford. "All you need to do is enter your dimension and you're golden."

Stan winces at the Other Ford's words, "Too soon."

Ford ignores what seems to be a inside joke between them and enters his dimension name. He feels weird. Like he can't quite process the enormity of what's about to happen. All the Stans make their way to the deck of the boat.

"Thank you for your hospitality," Ford said to the two brothers, their arms around each other.

"Hey, I'm just helping myself out," The Other Ford said with a wink and a teasing tone.

"Go give your Stan a punch in the face for me. Probably deserves it." The Other Ford laughs at that, punching Stan in the shoulder. Stan pushes the Other Ford back and Ford's heart hurts at seeing the loving interactions.

"Well, goodbye." Ford gives a final way to himself and the alternate version of his twin brother (Man, his life is weird.) He shoots a portal and steps through.

He goes on.

-

[a/n]

hey, this is the end!

thank you for reading!

-emily