She WAS My Sister (an Adoption AU story)

Chapter 3: The First Summer with Mabel

"Hi mom," Mabel said.

"Oh, hello sweetie. How's everything going?" asked Wendy.

"Great. Me and dad are having a lot of fun. But we do miss you," Mabel said.

Dipper sat there smiling. He wished he had spent more time with his parents. He was a very shy kid. But in those final years, he had tried to be more open with them. How was he to know that they would never live to see him graduate high school, get his degrees and have a family of his own? But then again neither did Mabel. She didn't even make it to sophomore year of high school. His thoughts were interrupted when Mabel gave him a playful smack.

"Dipper. How's it going?" Wendy said.

"Oh, uh, yeah. It's going great. How about you?" he replied.

"Oh, it's been great. My brothers wanted to go to the woodworking race today. So, I'm just here in the hotel room by myself," she replied. Wendy then noticed all the photo albums laying on the table.

"What are you two up to?" she asked.

Mabel looked over to him. He nodded his head. She then looked back into the monitor, "dad's telling me about Mabel," she said.

Wendy's faced went from concerned to surprised. She looked over to Dipper who was as nervous as she was. Dipper could tell what she was about to ask him why.

"Hey Mabel, I was thinking maybe we'd go to Greasy's diner after this. You think you could run upstairs and get my coat?" he asked.

"But, I wanna talk with mom," asked Mabel.

"Don't worry, sweetie, I'll still be here," said Wendy, "Go get your dad's coat and when you get back, we can talk about anything you want."

"Uh, okay," Mabel said in a skeptical tone.

Once she had left the room, Wendy started, "I thought we agreed we wouldn't tell her until she was older?"

Dipper sighed, "I know. But we were in the attic and she found her old scrapbook. You know, the one that had-"

"Yeah, I know," said Wendy in a sympathetic tone, "I should've hid that one better. Sorry about that."

"It's okay," said Dipper, "She asked me about her and I just decided it was time. No holding back...Mabel wouldn't want us to hold back on those memories."

"How much are you planning to tell her?" asked Wendy.

"As much as she wants to know."

Wendy sighed, "how are you holding up?" she asked, knowing how much talking about Mabel and her death hurt Dipper.

"Well, I've only cried once so far," Dipper said in a slightly sarcastic tone, "Pretty sure it's gonna happen again. But I guess telling someone else about it, especially her has helped me deal with it. I think it's a long overdue thing too."

The two sat in silence for a second until Mabel ran back down with Dipper's coat.

"Here you go, dad," she said.

"Thanks, Mabel," said Dipper, "So, didn't you have a question you wanted to ask mom?"

"Oh yeah. It's about, well, Mabel," Mabel asked.

Wendy looked over to Dipper. He gave her a look that she knew meant, "it's okay, you can tell her."

"Yeah sweetie, what is it?" Wendy asked.

"What was it like meeting Mabel and dad for the first time?"

Wendy pondered for a second before she spoke, "Oh, I remember that day like it was yesterday. Stan told me and Soos that he had some relatives coming over. I just shrugged it off. Then they showed up the following day."