Through the Camera Lens (Dipper x OC)

Camera

I gasped awake, hearing Dipper do the same thing. We were leaning against each other after having been brought into that world. Mabel rushed down the stairs, coming to check on me and Dipper.

"We're fine, you two should go get some sleep" I say.

Mabel nodded and went back upstairs but Dipper didn't leave his spot on the couch. I stood up and started pacing back and forth in front of the couch, staring at the wooden floor.

"Are you okay?" He asks.

"How could I let him fool me like that?" I shout. "He was only a stupid boy I knew nothing about!"

I look up at Dipper, narrowing my eyes at him. His eyebrows scrunched together as I walked closer to him. I pinched his cheeks, checking to make sure he was real.

"You aren't some dummy sent to steal all my mom's research, are you?"

He grabbed my hands, putting them back by my sides. "I'm real"

"That's what you'd be programmed to say" I inhale then exhale, calming myself. "Sorry, I'm just a bit paranoid after what happened. I don't want to lose anymore than I already have"

"Do you have any ideas on how to get everything back?"

"The camera will show you the way" I  remembered Mom say after she gave it to me.

I smiled. "I just realized I do"

I ran into my bedroom, grabbed my camera, and went back down into the basement. With the camera in hand I took pictures with flash of each section of wall. The pictures turned out, revealing not just a plain wall but walls with words written on it.

"Mom was brilliant" I say, looking through the pictures.

"All the words that we didn't understand, they're in English now" Dipper points out.

"Maybe it was different ink for different methods" I suggest. "Some ink for candle light and black light, other ink for a camera lens"

"But what do you plan on doing with this? We don't know what it's for"

"Tomorrow we'll take these pictures to Ford and Stan and see what they have to say about it. They might know something"

***

The next day we brought the pictures to Stan and Ford. The both of them looked awed and confused.

"What is it?" I ask.

"These are like the numbers I used for the portal I made, but they're different"

"Different how?"

"It's like they're meant for a portal to some other dimension, not like the one I ended up in, a different one"

"That's only a theory" Stan adds to his brother's explanation.

"Then let's get started. You still have that portal, right? We'll just make some adjustments and see where it leads us"

"That's dangerous, you know what happened the last time we opened a portal" Ford says.

"But you made it back. I want to know why my mom hid this, what's so important about it"

Ford sighs but stands up, heading over to the vending machine in the closed shop. We all followed him down the dark stairway into the tech filled room. He looked over a couple of things then back up to us.

"It's possible, but we're going to have to make a lot of adjustments in order for it to work"

"What kind of adjustments?"

"Well to the portal for one, it'll take a lot of power. But we need certain numbers that aren't here, it will take a while for us to calculate them to get them to work"

"I don't care how long this takes, as long as you will help them I'm all in"

"I'll help!" Mabel says, her hand shooting up in the air. She nudged Dipper who nodded in agreement.

"I owe this to you, after what I let happen to your sister" Ford says.

"If my brother's in I'm in" Stan said.

***

Three weeks later I was working in my house, looking through every single one of the books about different worlds for any information I could find. Dipper and Mabel were there helping me as well while Stan and Ford worked on the information they already had, almost done cracking the code.

"Is it possible my parents could be at the end of wherever this puzzle leads us?" I whisper to myself then look up. "I'll be on the balcony, you guys can take a break if you want"

"I'm not going to stop until this is done" Mabel said enthusiastically.

I went up to the balcony as I said I was going to do and leaned on the railing, staring up at the stars in the sky. There was a little breeze that made me shiver a bit, but Dipper came out and put a blanket over my shoulders.

"Thanks" I say.

"Don't worry about it" he said quietly, leaning on the rail beside me.

"Hey Dipper, there's the Little Dipper, and the Big Dipper" I say with a laugh, pointing at the constellations in the sky.

When he didn't say anything in response I looked to him, wanting to check if he was still awake, and he was staring at me. I lowered my hand and kept my eyes locked with his.

"What is it?" I ask, swallowing in nervousness.

He smiled, one of his hands brushed some hair out of my face. I started to become less aware of my breathing and more aware of my heart beating fast. I put a hand on the back of his neck and pulled his face to mine, unable to bear the suspension. He instantly kissed back, one of his hands brushing through my hair.