She WAS My Sister (an Adoption AU story)

Chapter 2: Growing Up with Mabel

Mabel sat on the couch in the living room as Dipper instructed and waited for him to return.

"Well it took a while, but I found them," said Dipper as he returned with a box full of old photo albums, "Your mom kept them well hidden. I probably should've told her to at least tell me where they were when I told her to hide them."

Mabel grabbed the first one she saw and opened it to a random page, "Hey, is that Grandpa Stan?" she said, pointing to a photo of Dipper graduating from the Portland Institute of Science and Technology. A much older man had the boy in a proud and playful headlock.

"Yup. Your great Grunkle Ford took that photo. That was about a year or two before I proposed to your mom," Dipper said.

Mabel flipped through the pages as Dipper looked through the box for the album he was looking for.

"Got it," He exclaimed as he pulled out a faded and coffee stained photo album with the title 1999 on it.

Mabel set the album she was looking at down and got ready to hear the story. Dipper opened it up. The first photo in it was of his parents.

"Is that grandma and grandpa?" Mabel asked shyly. The only grandparent she had ever known was Ford, but she had heard plenty of stories about Stan. She also knew how they had adopted her dad and twin sister, but seldom did her dad bring up the parents who loved them first.

"It sure is This was taken in June 1999, two months before me and Mabel were born. They kept everything a secret about us. Stan later told me that he didn't even know what gender we were until he saw us in person, let alone the fact we were twins like him," Dipper responded with a wistful laugh.

"Did you keep me a secret too?" Mabel asked.

Dipper smiled, "It was your mom's idea. She wanted the keep to the Pines family tradition, though I told her she didn't have to."

He flipped the page and was greeted with photos of the day he and Mabel were born.

"Aw, is that you and Mabel, dad?"

"Indeed. Mabel was born first, followed by me five minutes later. I think dad took this photo. Or it might have been your great grandfather Shermie. Stan told me he had to fight him off to keep holding us for another minute," said Dipper.

The two laughed until Mabel noticed something, "Hey dad, why does your face look so blue in this photo?" she said.

Dipper looked at the photo of him, "I almost died when I was born. Stan told me that my Umbilical cord had wrapped around my neck. I thought he was joking until I saw how serious he looked. I guess it was true. But personally, I don't think I really came that close to dying or anything....Stan was just a stubborn old worry wort," he replied.

"Wow. That sounds pretty scary," responded Mabel. "So, uh, what was life like with her?"

Dipper looked on into space for a bit. He then smiled and looked back to his daughter, "it was amazing. I guess I never appreciated it enough until after well...you know. Life with Mabel was incredible. Although be it insane. We both shared everything. We had one bathroom, one computer and one TV. It was tough but we managed."

"Did you ever argue?"

"All the time. But in a sibling like way. We'd argue, maybe push each other until mom or dad came and sent us to our rooms. Then after a bit of time to ourselves we would always come back and make up. That's one thing about having a sibling that no one else can understand. No matter how much you want to pull each other's hair out, you always get along with them in the end,"