Not On The Wheel (Bill Cipher x Reader)

Chapter Nine: Stanley

"Y/n?" Sherman yawned on the other line. "Is that you?"

"Y-yeah," she muttered sheepishly, tugging on the wires of her headphones.

"Do you know what time it is?" He asked, laughing slightly.

"What do you mean? It's only 9:30."

"You're on the West Coast."

"O-oh. Oh my God," she stuttered, flushing slightly. It was midnight in New Jersey. "I'm sorry Sherman, I-I just got ahead of myself and wanted to ask you something and—"

"Slow your roll, kiddo," Sherman interrupted. "And what did I tell you about that 'Sherman' crap? It's Grandpa Shermie; you gotta stop distancing yourself like that. You're part of the family too, ya' know?"

Grandpa Sherman Pines was the last tie the Pines family had back in Glass Shard Beach. When the kids' father got older, he decided to move out to California for work. Eventually, he met their mother and settled down. Sherman stayed in Jersey with his wife— his other kids had since moved out— in the house once belonging to his own parents.

As one of the more prominent figures in the family's life, he was the only other person that knew that Y/n had been adopted. He was also the only one that noticed Y/n's growing reluctance to attach herself to her new family.

The kids never had many chances to fly over to New Jersey and visit— and Sherman didn't like flying so far, either— so most of their talking had been through the phone or online. However, despite their limited visits, Sherman caught on quickly when she started dropping "Grandpa" when addressing him. It started when she was just beginning high school; every so often, "Grandpa Shermie" became "Shermie" or even just "Sherman." She had told him a little bit of what she had started going through then, and he reassured her that she was just as much a Pines as Dipper and Mabel.

As Y/n continued through high school, not only did their time together lessen, but she started to bottle up the feelings she once shared with him. As far as he was aware, she was just feeling a bit self conscious about the fact that she was adopted; he had no idea the extent of depth that these thoughts had progressed to.

"Sorry, Grandpa Shermie," she said, correcting herself.

"Relax, Y/n. You're fine. Just didn't expect a call this late— or, this early, rather," he laughed. She heard him shuffle to sit up right on the other side. "You kids are already in Gravity Falls, right?"

"Yeah. We've been staying with Stan for about a week and a half now."

"How's the old man doing?" Shermie chuckled.

"He's fine— or at least, he's normally fine. It's complicated."

"What do you mean?"

"Well..." Y/n started. She gave Sherman the quick rundown of what had happened in the past few days. "So he's kinda mourning the wax figure." She ended awkwardly.

"Ahhh, I, uh... I see," Sherman answered after a moment.

"But I wanted to ask you something," Y/n said, quickly changing the subject.

"Ask away," he said, trying to suppress another yawn. Y/n didn't want to keep him up any longer, so she figured getting straight to the point would be better than trying to better explain the events of the past day.

"Uh... do you know a Stanley by any chance? Or at least recognize the name?"

On the other line, Y/n thought she heard him inhale sharply. At the very least, he remained quiet.

"It's just that," Y/n continued quickly, "the license plate on Stan's car is 'Stanley Mobile...' or something similar to that. And I just wanted to—"