"To the lovers out there that have met with a terrible fate..."

Prologue

Wendy drifted in and out of consciousness as the sun's rays brushed against her eyelids. She opened her emerald eyes slowly; a stinging sensation went flowing to her temples, urging her to close them again.

A sense of nausea overcame the fifteen year old as she struggled to regain her eyesight. Peering out from a limited view, Wendy could easily see out that something was wrong with what was in front of her; everything seemed to be incredibly slanted.

"Ohh," she moaned, gently massaging the sides of her head with her index fingers, "What was all that about?"

A series of images flashed before Wendy's eyes. She remembered being picked up by her band of friends in Thompson's mom's van just as she had gotten off work. They cruised around the countryside in a search of adventure and excitement, goofing off and laughing all the way.

Suddenly, things started to go awry. A round of playful shoving in the back seats resulted in Thompson being accidentally elbowed in the back of the head. With him somewhat distracted, the oversized vehicle started to swerve, making everyone scream aloud and hang on for dear life.

*HONK! HONK!*

Their newfound trajectory placed the group straight smack in front of an approaching semi-truck, as it blared its horn wildly for them to get out of the way. The portly driver gritted his teeth nervously as he quickly griped the wheel and turned it in the opposite direction, taking the van out of harm's way.

Unfortunately, Thompson had overshot his turn by a huge margin. Before he had time to counteract, the van veered off the road completely. The left wheels caught on a small crevice on the side, making the huge automobile flip over on its side.

*CRASH!*

Wendy tried to open her eyes fully in spite of the painful effect the mere action had. She found herself still in Thompson's family van, strapped into one of the seats in the middle row. Strangely enough, no one else from her crew remained in the car with her, making Wendy wonder if the worse had happened and they were thrown from the van. The window to her left had been fully shattered, providing her with a close up of the hillside.

"Well, not getting out that way…"

The ginger winced once more, grabbing the side of her head, making her wonder if she was the cause of the broken window. Every part of her body felt weakened, almost like it was pleading with her to go back to go back to sleep…

Wendy shook away the wooziness as she continued to explore her surroundings. The windshield had gained several cracks alongside its edges. The grassy knoll they had landed on top of pinned down the driver side door. The passenger side exit was left wide open, meaning that someone had recently used to escape.

In the distance, Wendy could make out several muffled voices arguing loudly.

"We have to go back for her!"

"She was out cold! If Wendy's hurt and we move her now, we can seriously mess her up! We gotta wait for the paramedics!"

"There's no time for…wait – what is that?"

A noxious aroma entered Wendy's nostrils, nearly driving her to the point of vomiting once more. Being a bit more awake, she recognized what the repugnant smell was.

"Gas…" she murmured to herself. Despite having a short history being a driver, Wendy knew that the combination of leaking fuel and an overturned, damaged car was anything but a good combination.

"I've…I've got to get out of here!"

Wendy went to unbuckle her seat belt, only to discover that the clasp refused to release. She grunted as she continuously pressed against the button to no prevail.

"You've got to be kidding me!" The slender girl tried her best to slither out from the restraints. However, Wendy couldn't slide out from beneath the shoulder and waist straps that held her in place. She went to call out for her friends to help, only to have the scream come out as a series of coughing jags. The fainting lightheadedness returned, making the girl fight in vain as her body tried to shut itself back down.

As her eyelids grew even heavier, Wendy could hear that the argument between her schoolmates had become a shouting match. The last of her energy had been sapped. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Wendy could make out a new voice from the crowd.

"Are you guys alright?" it asked sincerely. "Wait, wasn't Wendy with you? Where is she?!"

A struggle could be heard. In the darkness, she could make out that the voice came closer as it grew louder.

"How could you just leave her in there?! Let me go!"

"Wait, kid! Come back here! You're going to get yourself killed!"

A series of light tapping sounds made Wendy open her green eyes. As pain filled her entire being, her now-narrowed vision allowed her to see that her young friend and co-worker, Dipper Pines, was pounding on the window on her right. He tried to open the sliding side door, finding it to be sealed up tightly. With the last of her strength, the redhead offered a brave smile as she reached out towards her young admirer before she submitted to obscurity.

"Wendy! Hang on! I'm coming!"

In her dreamlike state, Wendy was bathed in a gentle, warm white light as she felt the sense of being lifted up from her earthly confines.

"It feels like…am I dying?"

A deafening crash echoed in her ears. The world changed to nothing but absolute black for what seemed like forever until the girl could sense someone or something caressing her freckled face. The simple touch stung like crazy.

*GASP!*

With a bound of new founded energy, Wendy sat up and seethed aloud as the pressure returned to her temples. Holding her head tightly, she opened her eyes to see that she was tucked firmly into a bed inside of a room covered in chalky paint. Wendy peeked beneath the covers to see that her trademark clothing and lumberjack boots had been replaced with a simple pallid gown and bare feet. A middle-aged woman donning a neatly pressed green outfit stood at her bedside with a startled expression.

"Sorry about that," she apologized. "Didn't mean to wake you up; your wounds needed to be cleansed…"

With the back of her head throbbing, Wendy let out another groan as she questioned the mysterious woman, "What happened? Where am I?"

She placed her hand against her chest, "Well, for starters, I'm your nurse, and you've been admitted into Gravity Falls General Hospital." The nurse moved her arm onto Wendy's shoulder, "I'm afraid you were involved in a really bad car accident."

"Car accident?" The last few moments replayed itself in a complete blur.

"Uh-huh. Luckily, you only suffered a minor concussion." The nurse marked off some sort of checklist attached to a clipboard in her other hand. "If I was to take a wild guess, I'd say you'd be well enough to be sent home today once the doctor gives you a quick look-over."

The memories finally provided a clearer picture. Wendy lounged forward, "Wait, what happened to everyone else? And Dipper? He was there, too, right? Is he alright?!"

The nurse set her clipboard down on the bed and eased the nerve-wrecked girl back tenderly, "It's okay! It's okay! All of your friends are safe, save for a few cuts and bruises. They were all dismissed earlier tonight."

A sly smirk spread across the woman's face, "And as for this "Dipper" of yours…" She moved to the side and used an arm to highlight a set of chairs placed against the far wall. Sure enough, Dipper Pines was fast asleep in the seat closest to Wendy's bed; the boy's forehead and right arm were wrapped in bandages. A long blanket was spread out over his minuscule body. The mysterious journal he carried around with him everywhere rested face down in his lap. "I'm going to guess that's him over there…"

Wendy opened her mouth, only to be interrupted by the nurse, "Before you ask, he's just fine. We had to fix up his hand a bit, but other than that…"

"I don't understand –" Wendy said, "How did he…"

"You don't remember?" The caregiver seemed surprised by Wendy's confusion. "That little guy saved your life. At least that what your friends said."

"What?!"

The nurse took a seat at the edge of Wendy's bed, "They stated that after the van flipped over, they were all able to get out, but you were left unconscious by the force of the crash. The driver called 911 and waited for the ambulance to come. Your friends were afraid that if they moved you, they'd risk hurting you moreso. A few minutes later, they noticed that the gas tank had ruptured, spilling fuel everywhere. All of a sudden, the other damaged parts of the van started to spark. They were afraid that it was going to explode any second…"

The sickening smell of gasoline became stuck in Wendy's nose again, even though she was miles away from the fateful scene. The nurse turned away from her and focused on the boy peacefully snoring in front of her. "That's when your guardian angel there stepped in. I guess he was out in the woods exploring when he heard the crash. He ran to see if everyone was okay and noticed your buddies standing in the middle of the road. They explained that you were still inside of the van, and he raced to your side, despite their best efforts to stop him…"

Wendy beamed at her friend as the nurse finished her story, "I guess the kid couldn't get the door open, so he grabbed a rock from the ground and smashed his way inside. Poor guy cut his hand pretty deep doing so. Anyways, he said your seat belt was jammed, so he pulled out his pocket-knife-thingie and cut you free. As soon as he pulled you out of the wreckage, it exploded, and sent you two flying!"

"Really?!"

"Oh, yeah. He earned himself a nice bump on the noggin and you got a few scratches on that pretty face yourself. Still, I'd say you two were pretty fortunate to get off so easily…"

"You're telling me…"

The nurse nodded along, "That little one refused to leave your side for a single moment. The other staff already sent him on his way two times, but he kept finding a way to sneak back in. Your father tossed him out when your family came to see you, but as soon as visiting hours ended and they left…"

Wendy giggled at the thought of Dipper's stubbornness, "My poor little dork…"

"I didn't have the heart to kick him out again, so I let him stay as long as he promised to behave himself. Still, miss, I'd say you're incredibly lucky to have someone like that in your life."

A sudden saddened change overcame the teenager, "Don't I know it…" It had been some time since the duo had talked about their feelings. It was after the battle with the sinister shape shifter in the hidden bunker that Dipper had finally (yet accidentally) made his feelings for the plucky high-schooler known. When everything was said and done, Wendy reinsured the overly anxious pre-teen that he was one of her best friends, and how much of a difference he had made in her life in the short time since they had met that summer. However, with a heavy heart, she had tried her best to explain to her partner in crime that there was too great of an age difference to be linked romantically. As she rode her bicycle into the distance, she knew that had help take a heavy burden off of Dipper's shoulders.

However, there was a sense of lingering left in her soul. Something was different.

Wendy did keep her promise to Dipper and continued their traditional bad-movie-night as well as accompanied him on the occasional paranormal adventure, but she had taken several precautions to prove her intentions right. She consulted the latest teen-magazines in how to avoid making eye contact without seeming suspicious. When Dipper started to wig out at Mabel's puppet show, Wendy kept her cool when he threw his arm around her and called her by somewhat-forced pet nicknames like "Red" and "Toots." She had told Mabel upon hearing the twelve-year-old's boy troubles to ignore the heartbreak, that "boys are the worst" and how she shouldn't get hung up on them. Even when captured by the Society of the Blind Eye, Wendy had almost let slip of how stressful life was with her biological family that she preferred spending time with her surrogate one.

She looked back at her slumbering hero and her smile quickly returned. For some reason, every time she saw him, her heart would melt as it made her think of her first crush as a small girl rolling around town in her trusty big wheel. But it wasn't the same thing she felt as she dated Robbie V. or any of the other boys she left behind as missed calls and ignored texts in her flip phone. To her, Dipper deserved better than that.

Wendy tried to shake away the doubts and mixed feelings. She asked herself why was everything coming apart at the seams right now? Sure, Dipper had saved her life, but it wasn't the first time it happened. He had rescued her from the demented ghosts at the haunted Dusk2Dawn convenience store the same way she protected him from the author's deadly experiment underground. She figured, "Isn't that what best buds did for each other? Why is this time any different?"

The downtrodden girl knew she had to face the facts: her uncertainty had nothing to do with Dipper coming to save the day yet again. This feeling wouldn't go away until she told him the truth – even if she didn't exactly know what that truth was suppose to be.

Little did Wendy know that she was about to get her chance.

The nurse leaned over and lightly rubbed Dipper's shoulder, "You might want to get up, small fry. There's someone waiting to say "hi.""

Wendy went to protest as she needed more time to get her head together. However, it was already too late. Dipper's brown eyes flickered as he started to regain focus, "Huh…wha…?" His sights shifted from the kind-hearted nurse to behind her, where Wendy sat in bed and offered a small wave.

"WENDY!" Dipper jumped to his feet, knocking the blanket and journal to the tiled floor. He rushed towards his crush, only to force himself to stop in place, fearing he'd worsen her injuries. "Are you okay?!" He turned towards the nurse with a worried look on his face, "Is she going to be okay?!"

"Dude, relax!" Wendy eased her friend by sarcastically patting herself all over her body. "See? All in one piece!"

The nurse concluded, "She'll be just fine. Heck, with the doctor's say-so, she'll be able to go home tonight…"

"Oh, that's…" Dipper wiped away his brow, making his not-so-secret love question if he was getting teary-eyed, "That's great…really great to hear…"

The elder picked up her things, "I think I'll give you two some privacy. Just hit the button if you need anything."

Wendy thanked her and returned her attention to the concerned boy standing before her.

"Hey…" Dipper shyly greeted, nervously rubbing his hand against his shoulder, as he felt somewhat embarrassed about his overreaction a few minutes earlier.

"Hey, yourself…"

"How are you feeling?"

"Except for a splitting headache, I couldn't be better…thanks to you."

Dipper turned a bright shade of red. He chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Heh-heh! It was no big deal, really. You would have done the same for me…"

"You know it…"

A brief, yet awkward silence quickly filled the room, as Dipper and Wendy broke eye contact. He rubbed his sneaker against the linoleum floor, before breaking the silence, "You know what? I bet you're hungry, right? You gotta be starving!" The tiny sleuth started to make his way to the door, "I'm going to hit up the cafeteria and grab you something tasty along with a nice, ice-cold Pitt Cola to –"

Wendy called out after him, "Dipper, wait!"

Dipper froze in place and looked over his shoulder. Wendy brought her knees up to her chest and patted the empty spot next to her on the bed, "Come sit with me for a little while…"

"But I – "

"Please?"

Feeling his heartstrings being tugged, Dipper turned around and abided to her request. He hopped up on the white sheeted bed and met his companion face-to-face, "So," he asked, twitching his fingers, "What's up?"

He almost cried aloud as Wendy reached over and placed a pale hand on top of his, "I wanted to talk to you about a few things…"

Dipper assumed that she was still talking about the incident earlier, "Actually, Thompson already filled me in. He told me how he spun out of control when someone hit him in the back of the –"

"No, buddy," Wendy bit her lower lip as she squeezed his seized hand a bit tighter, "I wanted to talk about me and you – what we were talking about in the woods the other day…"

Dipper forced a shallow as a lump formed in his throat, "Maybe we shouldn't do this right now." He offered an encouraging smile, "You've just been through a ton of stuff and maybe we can wait –"

"Dipper, I don't think I can do this again," Wendy explained, "I need you to listen and hear me out, okay?"

Sensing the seriousness of Wendy's tone, Dipper simply shook his head, agreeing to give her his full and undivided attention. He could only hope that the new revelation wasn't anything else stressful.

Wendy looked up and took a deep breath, "Dipper, I – I wasn't exactly honest with you that day…"

Being struck unexpectedly, his brown eyes instantly widened, "I'm not following you…"

She turned away from her friend as he hung on every word, "Dip, I – I guess I kinda lied…"

Dipper found himself lost by her words, "You lied? About what?"

"I told you that I was too old for you – and yeah, that might be true, but that doesn't mean that I don't care for you the same way you care for me…"

He repeated Wendy's words in shock, "You…care about me?"

Wendy rotated back around and went into a tirade against herself, "I know that it seems stupid, but I don't know why I said what I did! There's like a million reasons why things would be great, but at the same time, there's another million why it would be the worst possible thing that we could ever do! Like there is the age thing –"

"Or the height difference?"

"Good point!"

"Not to mention what would we do when I have to back home for school?"

"Yeah!" Wendy pointed at him, "Stuff like that! People would talk and give us grief about it. It's not that I'm embarrassed of you, or what we would be, it's just that…" She grunted and pulled her hair in exasperation, "Ugh! Why does this have to be so hard?!"

Wendy covered her face with her free hand as she struggled to find the right words to express her feelings. She peered out of the spaces in between her fingers as she felt Dipper tenderly press against her other hand.

"It's not that you'd be ashamed," Dipper guessed, "You couldn't stand it if someone took something you held dear to you and twisted it around to hurt you…"

"That's exactly –" Wendy raised an eyebrow to the boy wise beyond his years, "How did you know what I was trying to say?"

"Trust me, Wendy," Dipper admitted, "You're not the only one who ever thought about being put into that sort of situation."

"Huh…well, there's also the other thing…"

"What other thing?"

"Well," Wendy sat back against the pillow at her back side, "I meant what I said to you; if you were to ever stop being my friend – if you were to exit my life over something crazy or anything like that, I would throw myself into the Bottomless Pit without thinking twice."

"And the scary thing is that I know you would…"

"But, Dipper," Wendy narrated further, "I have this thing that happens with me and the guys in my life. One minute we're closer than ever, and the next, we're fighting like cats and dogs, and never want to speak to one another again, let alone be in the same room."

She raised the hand that she held tightly in her grasp as their eyes met, "That's probably the scariest thing about all of this, Dipper. I never want you to be some guy that I'll never want to talk to again!" Wendy let out an exhausted sigh as she lowered her head, "You're probably thinking that all of this sounds pretty dumb, doesn't it? Especially coming from someone who claims to be oh-so-mature, right?"

Dipper had a mixture of emotions flow within his little psyche. At long last, his gingered crush finally returned his feelings! However, he was left well-aware on how Wendy seemed to be torn up by all of the conflicts raging inside of her. Dipper decided it would be wise to hide his excitement and focus on whatever would be in his crush's best interests; he could tell by the troubled look on her dimpled face that Wendy needed a friend first and foremost above all things.

"Can I ask you something, Wendy?"

Wendy kept her head hung low, "Shoot…"

"You talked about all of these different things like what could go wrong, to what other people would think, to how you're afraid we'd end up…"

"What's your point?"

"My point is that instead of worrying about all of these other tidbits, I would want to know only one thing: what is it that you want?"

Wendy looked up at him, "What I want?"

"Yep," Dipper bobbed his head, "To me, the most important thing is knowing what would make Wendy – my Wendy happy. So, what would?"

The lanky teen went silent for several moments, as Dipper's discomfort fester uncontrollably. After a minute or two, Wendy replied, making the unprepared lad jump in surprise, "What I want…the truth is, Dipper, I don't know what the heck true love even is. But, I do want to hang out with you for basically the rest of my life.

"And that's just fine," he responded. "To be honest, that's what I would want to do, too."

"Really? You're not just saying that?"

Dipper shook his head, "Nope. I'd hate to admit this, Wendy, but this kinda stuff is all new to me, too. If you wanted, we could start there. We wouldn't care about what the rest of the world thinks."

Wendy added her own conditions, "We'd make our own rules as we go along and see where it takes us."

He forced himself to look Wendy in the eye in spite of his entire body trembling in fright, "As long – As long as we both are happy. I can't promise that we'll be some great love story, and that's okay! I would love to see what kind of story we'll be! How does that sound?"

"I think it sounds – great!"

A sense of relief and pure excitement rushed over him as the duo had finally found common ground. Not sure on where to go next, Dipper asked, "Did you want to me to go find the doctor so we can get you out of here?"

"Hmm…" Wendy pondered, "Not just yet! First…"

Without warning, the ferocious redhead yanked her counterpart towards her, making him yelped out loud in surprise. Landing in Wendy's lap, Dipper looked up as Wendy held his cheeks firmly. Her cold hands provided a soothing relief to his sweaty skin.

"…I think you deserve one of these…"

The girl tucked herself downwards and delivered a sweetened, yet tender kiss on Dipper's lips. He pulled back in shock of his fantasies swiftly becoming reality.

"That's for getting me out of another jam, my little hero…"

A moment later, he nettled back and returned the favor as the two remained entwined for what seemed like an eternity; their special bond maturing into something new and beautiful. Wendy and Dipper drew away, only to lean forward into each other; their foreheads and noses touched, meeting with almost perfect precision.

"You don't know," Dipper confessed, "How happy I am that you're alright…"

"Sorry if I scared you…"

"Nah, not really…"

Wendy laughed softly in Dipper's face, "Liar…"

Both adolescents chuckled at the silliness of their own private joke.

"Y'know, I meant what I said in the bunker, too."

"And what's that?"

"I love you, Wendy…"

She hugged him as hard as she could without injuring Dipper's small frame. Wendy could make out Dipper's noodle arms wrapping around her shoulder blades.

"I love you, too…"