The twins took their baggages off of the bus. Mabel felt someone poking her shoulder and turned her head back to see who poked her, without taking her hands off of the pink suitcase she was holding. "Excuse me?" a woman asked. "Are you Mabel Pines?"
"Yeah! I'm Mabel Pines!" Mabel replied. "Who are you?"
"My name is Melody, I work for your Great Uncle, Stanford Pines." she said.
"Cool!" Mabel said. "Did you hear that, Dipper?"
"Yeah, I heard it." Dipper said, holding a suitcase in his arms.
Melody took the suitcase from his hand. "You must be Dipper, is that right?"
"Yes, I'm Dipper." Dipper said.
"Nice to meet you two, let me help you." Melody said.
Melody helped them take their suitcases out of the bus, she led them to an old car and put their baggages (with the twins's help, of course) on the car's boot. She closed the boot and looked at them. "Come inside, mister Ford is waiting for you at the lab."
"Lab?" Dipper asked.
"He's a scientist." Mabel said.
"A fake scientist." Dipper said.
"He said he was fake?" Melody asked.
Dipper and Mabel's eyes widened in surprise, both were confused at Melody's question. Did she think their uncle was a real one? Their mother told them he was a fake. Wait. . . Did their mother lie? Or did he lie to their mother? That was probably it! Excitement filled Dipper's chest, he smiled from ear to ear. "He's a real supernatural scientist? Does that mean the supernatural is real?!"
"Why don't we let your uncle show you?" Melody asked, with a soft smile.
Dipper rushed into the car, Mabel ran right after him. Melody walked to the driver's seat and closed the door. The three put on their seatbelts and Melody turned the key on the car and drove away, heading to the mentioned lab.
"I can't believe it!" Dipper said, his arms were raised up to his chest. "He's not a fake! This changes everything, Mabel!"
"Imagine all the things that could be real! Like unicorns, fairies," Mabel gasped. "Vampires!"
"Do you think he's gonna take us to magical adventures?"
"It would be cool if he did!"
Melody silently heard the twins chatting and giggling with excitement, she couldn't help but smile. She loved children, and having two little excited kids for the winter break was perfect to her, hopefully they weren't too much of troublemakers. She parked the car on a parking spot nearby a big lab, at the entrance of the lab was a sign written “Mystery Lab”. Dipper put his hands on the window, his smile grew. The three took off their seatbelts and opened the door — all in synchrony. Dipper jumped out of the car and almost ran inside, but Mabel caught his arm.
"Slow down! We have to get out suitcases first." Mabel said.
"Sorry, I'm just," Dipper let out a high pitched scream, bouncing excitedly.
Mabel giggled. "Nerd."
"Hey!" Dipper exclaimed, crossing his arms.
"What's with all the noise?" asked a man at the door of the lab. His hair was grey, with wrinkles on his aged face, he seemed to be around his fifties or sixties. He wore a white lab coat with protection glasses on top of his head. The twins and the man stared at each other for a minute, until Melody broke the silence and introduced them. "Kids, this is your great uncle, mister Pines, those are your niblings."
"Oh, you're Dipper and Mabel. . . you've changed a bit, Dipper mostly." Stanford said, walking closer to the twins, who went running towards him.
"You look like a really cool scientist!" Mabel said.
"I am a scientist." Ford said.
"So. . . Is it true you research the supernatural?" Dipper asked, not hiding how excited he is.
"I do." Ford said.
"It's not a bunch of fake stuff, is it?" Dipper asked.
"No," Stanford said. "Some are fake to attract attention, but a big part of what's in here is real."
That was it. Dipper almost exploded, he jumped and screamed in a high pitched voice. "I can't believe it! This is the best winter of my entire life!" he shouted, raising his cleansed fists.
Everyone stared at him for a while, embarrassment hit him and he looked away, lowering his arms. "Sorry." Dipper said, nervously smiling.
"It's alright," Stanford said. He gave some space for the two to enter. "I'll help you with that baggage."
"Mr. Pines, you're too old for this," Melody said, opening the car's boot. "Let us handle this."
"I'm not that old, Melody." Stanford said, walking to the back of the car. "I can help too."
Stanford took a suitcase. Melody sighed, stubborn old man. She grabbed some suitcases and put them down, Mabel wrapped some suitcases in their arms, Dipper dragged what he could, Melody took the rest and Stanford stocked to that one. Melody closed the car's boot and locked the car. As everyone went inside, an idea popped in Mabel's head.
"Great Uncle Stanford, can we call you by a nickname?" Mabel asked. "Like Stan, Ford, or do you have another nickname preference?"
"Ford," Stanford said. "You can call me Grunkle Ford."
"Okay!" Mabel said.
"The lab is quite big, but I didn't expect any guests, so, you're going to stay at the attic, of that's not a problem." Ford said.
"I don't mind!" Mabel said.
"If I get to see everything in the lab, then I can even sleep on the couch!" Dipper stated. "We can see everything, right?"
"You can." Ford said, he put the suitcase down. "But first, I have something for you."
"Really?" Dipper asked.
"A gift? I love gifts!" Mabel said. "What is it?"
Ford carefully took two boxes from besides a desk and gave one to each, one box had Dipper's name and the other had Mabel's name. Without waiting, Mabel rushed in opening her box and checked what was inside, she smiled a lot at the sight of what was inside.
"A baby deer!" Mabel said. "Is it alive?" The deer jumped out of the box onto Mabel, making her smile even more while she hugged it.
"I couldn't find a dog or cat for a cheap price, and your mother said you'd like whatever pet you got, so I thought a deer wouldn't be a problem." Ford said.
"A deer? Really Mr. Pines?" Melody asked.
"What?" Ford asked. "It's a pet."
Dipper opened his box. He was silent, staring at it without getting distracted and with no expression on his face. His sister noticed it and became concerned.
"Dipper? Are you okay?" Mabel asked.
Dipper pulled out a box of a board game, it had written in it “Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons”
"Great Uncle Ford. . ." Dipper paused. He looked at his great uncle with a big grin. "I love it!"
Ford let out a relieved sound. "I thought I did something wrong for a second." Ford mumbled.
Mabel laughed. "You and your suspenses, Dipper!"
"I was shocked, sorry!" Dipper said.
"Stop apologising." Mabel said.
"Sor— Nevermind, what will you name the deer?" Dipper asked.
"I'm thinking in naming it. . ." Mabel paused, looking at the deer. It bopped Mabel's nose with its own nose, getting a smile from Mabel. "Grunts!"
Dipper was about to say something, but his sister was happy, so he decided to let it slide.
"Come on, let's head up to your room." Ford said, picking up the suitcase he let down.
"Oh, yeah!" Dipper said. "Almost forgot about that."
"I want to decorate our room! We can make the attic look beautiful!" Mabel shouted, standing up with the deer in her arms and running.
"Mabel!" Dipper called, getting some of the suitcases back and running after Mabel. "Come back, we need to help them with our baggages!"
"So energetic." Melody said, chuckling a bit.
"Yeah," Ford said. "Children being children."
A memory came to Ford's head, two children a bit alike Dipper and Mabel playing on a seesaw and laughing together. Ford couldn't help but smile a bit at the memory, but then, his smile disappeared from his face.
"Are you okay, mister Ford?" Melody asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Ford said. "Let's put those in the attic."
Ford walked upstairs with the suitcases. Melody stood there with a concerned look, but she knew Ford well, he wouldn't say anything even if she asked about it. "Mister Ford and his mysterious past, am I right?" Melody asked herself, going upstairs as well.