A Friend In Need
A part of Angstmas 2017.
Mabel sat back, head leaning against the wall above her dresser, tears trickling out as she took sobbing and ragged breaths.
Relieved. My apartment got busted into a few hours ago, and I’m relieved. She snuffled, wiping a sweater sleeve across her face to remove some of the mess, smiling ruefully while alone in her bedroom. Well, Derek flaked off like Mom always said he would, so I guess I should be glad I wasn’t home at the time.
She opened her clenched hand, revealing a cheap, fine chain in a silvered metal, attached to a sterling-plated pendant. The pendant was half a heart, broken in the middle in a distinct, ragged pattern, and she could make out the enameled half-message still visible on it:
ONE H- TWO B- OUR -
“One heart, two bodies: our love,” she murmured to herself. The necklace was priceless; it was a vending-machine piece of cheap metal, worthless to any appraiser, and yet beyond all wealth to her now, at this time, at this place in her life.
Mabel smiled, a hand drifting to below her churning stomach, to the slight swelling below, the reason she hadn’t been home all afternoon. Then she took the necklace, undid the fiddly clasp, and tucking her hands under her thick brown curls she put on the necklace, letting the pendant fall under the edge of her shirt. The metal rested, chilled, against her bare skin for a moment before warming.
Taking a deep breath, she suddenly started when the police officer knocked on her open door.
“Sorry to startle you miss,” she said after her “Eep!” of alarm, before she continued. “It looks like the burglar’s trail is cold enough that there’s not more I can do tonight.” The cop held a thumb drive between her fingers. “Once I look over the security camera footage from the landlord, we’ll probably have some solid leads, but for now it would probably be safest if you locked up as best as you can tonight, and stayed with a friend or relative. The lock should be back in place and stronger than ever, but we still advise prudence for the first few days following a breaking-and-entering like this.”
She noticed the open jewelry case, a few of the drawers lying where the thief had thrown them still scattered on the dresser and bed, and nodded towards them. “Uh, anything else to add beyond the jewelry losses we’d already recorded?”
Mabel looked towards the floor for a second, her breath hitching despite feeling the edge of a smile, the hint of warm relief as she shifted and felt the warm metal sitting on her chest.
It carried with it a sudden weight of guilt and memories afterwards, of quiet discussions, quiet arguments they’d had. Mabes, honey, there’s a reason we broke up. Teenagers and relationships, that’s bad enough, but teenagers in relationships with their siblings? That was asking for all kinds of trouble, and the Grunkles had started to get suspicious, and Candy and Grenda had started to ask questions, and it felt like everyone knew, somehow.
The necklace was supposed to be the end of it, and endpoint. “Remember what we had, love what we lost, but accept it and move on,” like that pastor had said at Great-Gramps’ funeral. A memory of what we had, not a promise. He’s your brother, and he’s the logical one, remember? DIpper probably made a risk-assessment flowchart a few weeks after that summer and threw out the necklace to “minimize risk,” or some nonsense.
She sighed. Well, at the very least I know he’ll let me in for the night, until I can get this stuff sorted and get back on my feet. I do wish-
“Miss? Ma’am?”
The officer’s questions snapped her out of the contemplation Mabel was having, and she shook her head.
“No, everything else is safe.” She met the police officer’s gaze. “And I think I have someone I can call.”
“Oh my god, Mabes, of course! Please, come in, come in.”
Dipper waved off the Lyber driver that had dropped off Mabel, and grabbed her backpack, ushering her into his condo before shutting the door behind both of them.
No sooner had he done so than Mabel felt him grip her in a bear hug. Puberty had given his noodle arms a bit of a much-needed boost, and she whoofed out a breath from the force of his worry as he held her.
“I’m just glad you’re safe. Do you think Derek or one of his scuzzball friends might have-”
Mabel felt a tinge of emotion, more backwash from the breakup last weekend than anything else, and her throat closed up as she waved a hand with more force than intended. “I-I don’t think so, but I’d rather-I’d rather not focus on that Dipper. Please-”
He just nodded. Her brother had taken on the occasional part-time private investigator job, and while he was apparently quite successful, she appreciated that he kept the questions doubtlessly boiling within to himself. The looming unspoken question burned through her aloofness, and Mabel quietly stated “Dipper, Derek and I found out I was-I am, pregnant.”
His eyes widened, as he sat back slightly, a hand coming up to run along the edge of his beard as she recognized his thinking face. Then just as quickly it dropped, and with a deep intake of breath, he just said quietly “When did you find out?”
She gave him a slightly-annoyed look and snorted. “Well, I missed my period last weekend, and Derek knew that I knew that he’d cheated on me last spring, so I guess he didn’t want to try and own up any more than he had already.” She dropped her glare from Dipper as his face fell, realizing that she had been accidentally directing her anger at her ex-boyfriend towards her brother.
“Uh, I had an exam this afternoon since the pregnancy test had been a negative. Turns out it was one of the rare false negatives.” She raised her fingers in little sarcastic celebratory circles. “Woo, good luck strikes in threes, huh?”
She laughed, and Dipper chuckled along with her. Then his face went back to the sad neutral from before as he asked “So, um, what-what was taken? Do you know yet?”
She sighed, and shook her head a little. “The officer that came over was super-helpful in tallying everything I could remember, but they scattered my jewelry drawer across the bedroom, so I need to check it with a fine-tooth comb to know exactly what’s missing. There’s not much left, but-”
She paused as she fished the pendant out from under her shirt, dangling it to show her brother “-at least they didn’t take the important stuff.”
She was surprised to see Dipper’s face flush, his eyes suddenly going moist, but then he reached to pull an identical half from his shirt. His pendant was worn, the chain replaced by something more substantial, a true sterling silver in a wide, flat pattern. The pendant had been well worn, the silver finish worn away to reveal the ruddy copper beneath, but the black enamel still making his half of the message clearly visible.
-EART, -ODIES: -LOVE.
Mabel felt tears well up for the countless time that day, and Dipper just came to sat next to her, She pulled him into a hug with a muffled “C’mere, you big dork,” and they both chuckled and held each other close. After a bit, Mabel could feel her breathing slow, and sat back to look at Dipper.
Her brother returned her look, one of unspoken questions bottled up for almost a decade. His hand gently reached out, paused a second while almost touching her face. She didn’t flinch, and he connected, the crook of his finger running along her cheekbone, his eyes studying her as if discovering his sister all over again.
Dipper’s eyes met hers, then dropped searching aimlessly while the nervous half-smile returned.
“Mabes, do-do you remember, back the summer we turned fifteen? When I-uh, you-um…”
He stammered off into silence, but she smiled, reaching over to put her hand on his anxiously-twiddling thumbs, giving his hand a squeeze.
“How could I forget? Dip, that was the best summer ever. Heck, that’s the only summer at the Shack that I ended up making two scrapbooks: the one on the shelf at home, and-”
Dipper chuckled. “-and the one taped into the false bottom under your bedframe in the attic. How could I forget?” He smiled, looking deep into Mabel’s eyes. “You know, for the record, I liked that scrapbook best.”
She grinned and then nodded solemnly. “Me too.”
His hand squeezed hers as he spoke again. “Mabel, while I think we did the best thing for us at the time in ending it-” She started to pull her hand slightly away, feeling like her heart had abruptly stepped to the edge of a teetering cliff. Dipper’s voice cracked, and he held her hand with a gentle, firm strength.
“Mabes, I’ve never forgotten. Ever. And, I-I-I, uh, I was wondering if you, uh-”
His stammering steadied, and he looked her in the face as her smile began to brighten, racing ahead to predict what he was asking, “-if you wanted to try again? I mean, if you still-”
The rest of his ramble was cut off as she pulled him close with a hand pulling his shirt over to her. She met his mouth with a kiss, and after a moment of shock he responded in kind, making a happy hum that she echoed and soon devolved into mutual giggles.
Fighting off the last edge of the giggle, Mabel patted his shoulder from where her arm was sitting around it.
“That answer your question, brobro?”
He smiled, his eyes twinkling and his voice thick as he choked out “Yeah, Mabes. Man, I’d always worried I was being obsessive, that I was-”
“-always remembering that first kiss under the hollow cedar tree, remembering the time we made each-other rings from the Gobblewonker cogs, the time we used that time-tape you photocopied from the picture you took of Blendin, and we got to make Soos eat the same popsicle for like an entire week?”
He leaned back, a snicker turning into a full-on belly laugh. “Oh, and he kept saying how weird it was that we only had blueberry ones, with the same firefighter ghost joke on the stick!” Dipper wiped a tear from his eye. “You know, I think by about the second day Ford was onto us, but by the third day I think both he and Melody had noticed, but were curious just how long it would take Soos to realize as well.”
She snickered at the end of her laughter as well. “It was too bad Waddles got into the box of them and caused that minor paradox, or else I think we could have kept that up for at least another month.”
Mabel gave her brother a grin, and then leaned forward. He responded in kind, and they gently kissed again; she noticed and enjoyed the taste of his lips on hers, and she noticed him smile in appreciation as she felt his tongue notice the taste on her own lips.
“Mmm,” he said as they broke the kiss. “Is that-”
She grinned at her twin. “Vanilla-strawberry? I remembered it was someone’s favorite!” Her smile became a bit embarrassed with self-consciousness as she murmured “I might have saved a stick of that along with the necklace, just in case we ever, uh…”
He ducked his hand under her chin, gently cupping her cheek and giving his sister a smile. “Well, I’m glad we did.”
He pulled his sister into a hug, and she felt her heart race faster than it had in nearly a decade.
I hope this was the right choice.
Thanks to @mrdaxxonford for the prompt: Okay, so its a few years after Dipper and Mabel had broken up, (mutual thing) and Mabel finds out she is pregnant. The father isn't in the picture so Dipper kindov steps in to help. Mabel says its a bad idea, but i think maybe they find out those feelings are still there.