Chapter Eight: Questions And Answers

"My future kids?" Dipper asked, quite uncertain about his feelings about all of this. He and the others, Gideon and Soos included, were gathered around and had only just finished listening to the story.

"And mine!" Mabel beamed and Dipper smiled warmly at her; she seemed like her old self again as she squeezed Chloe, who squeezed back with an uncannily similar smile. Those two were definitely related.

"With who?" Dipper questioned. He knew there should have been more pressing questions from all of this, and why this was the first question to come from his mouth, he had no idea.

"Oh, we're not supposed to say." Chris said. "If you knew than you might not...well, ya know – and we wouldn't exist."

"I guess that makes sense." Dipper shrugged.

"W-we came back here to stop Bill however we can." Stan stuttered, but he did look determined.

"Sorry." Dipper said, looking dejected. "But nothing can really be done until our uncles get back from their trip in a couple of weeks."

"So, we get to hang out here for a while longer." Chloe said with a smile, her eyes shimmering.

"Brace yourselves." Chris told everyone as she and Stan were quick to place their hands over their ears. Those who managed to do the same in time were spared the ear-shattering squeal Chloe let out. The girl must have had some of her uncle in her as well.

"This is so cool!" Chloe gushed. "We get to see this place in it's heyday. I wonder what was there before the boutique. Let's go see –" Chloe's words became a series of muffles when Chris covered her mouth.

"Hold on, we can't get too comfortable here." Chris told her. "We're not even from this time and we still have a job to do."

Mabel looked at Dipper. "Yep, she's yours." Dipper rolled his eyes at this.

"So, Chloe." Gideon asked, puffing his chest out proudly. "How am I in the future? I wonderful father, I suppose?" Mabel blanched in horror at the thought.

"Who are you again?" Chloe asked, looking genuinely confused, and the look on Gideon's face earned snickers from Wendy, Dipper and Robbie.

"You weren't listening before, were you?" Chris asked Gideon, her arms crossed. She sighed, deciding that it was too stuffy in here with all of these people, a few of which she could only just recognize. Actually, it was pretty cool seeing the younger versions of people she saw every day like Jack's mom, Jess's dad, and Mr. Mystery. Idly, she wondered if Danny was around yet. How long ago was this again? "On second thought, maybe some sight-seeing wouldn't so bad."

"Hey, can we go see grandma and grandpa?" Chloe asked, reminding Dipper of the deal he had with his parents in the first place.

"Might as well," Dipper said. "We're supposed to tell them about big things like this anyway."

"So are we done here?" Robbie asked.

"Like Dipper said, there ain't much we can do without Stan n' Ford." McGucket told him. "So long as we know what's goin' on."

"Well, let's go, than." Chris shrugged and the group began to head out.

The Pines', Chloe and Gideon had piled into Soos's pickup-truck. Gideon was sulking in a backseat, looking remarkably like that violent boy who'd tried again and again to outright kill the Pines twins before. This wasn't lost on Dipper, who sat as far as he could from the kid and eyed him wearily, even with Chris and Stan between them.

Mabel sat upfront with Soos, on his own request. "So, hambone, where was Pacifica?"

"Oh, her dad grounded her, so she couldn't be there." Mabel said. Soos looked disappointed. "Why?"

"I need her help." Soos said. "It's a huge secret, but I need her to help me with an errand."

"Well, her house is only a couple of blocks away from ours, so we could walk the rest of the way." Mabel said. "Maybe you can convince her dad to let her go on the errand. All you half to do is not mention us."

"Huh." Soos said. "Good idea."

"Okay, here's the block." Mabel said. Soos parked in the middle of a neighboring street and the kids unloaded fro the car. Gideon practically stomped the other way toward his house, as the rest of the kids started down the street.

Soos waited out a good five minutes, his heart thumping. He was really doing this, wasn't he? The Northwest house itself was still fairly big, but small enough so that it just blended in with the surrounding houses. He took a deep, calming breath as he rang the doorbell. A butler answered the door.

"Hey, dude." Soos greeted. "Can I talk to Pacifica for a minute."

"One moment, sir." the butler said, and left a nervous Soos standing alone for a moment. When he returned, he was accompanied not by Pacifica, but her father who looked very unamused.

"Who are you?" the man asked.

"Soos Ramirez, Mr. Mystery." Soos said. "I know this probably looks bad, but your daughter is the only one who can help me with a super-secret errand. It's really important."

"Soos?" Pacifica questioned, coming up beside her father.

"So you do know this man?" Preston asked, still eying him with suspicion.

"He's a friend of a friend, but I know him." Pacifica said. "He's safe, I swear."

"He says he needs your help on an errand." Preston said.

"Well, can I? I swear I'll come right back when it's over." Pacifica asked. Soos held his breath. Honestly, he knew what this must have looked like. Maybe he should have thought this trough more.

"Fine." Preston narrowed his eyes, still plainly distrusting of Soos. "But you'll be accompanied by a butler and Pacifica, you are to keep your phone on, are we clear?"

"Crystal." she rolled her eyes as she and the butler headed to the truck on their own. Soos raised a hand in a farewell, but the door was slammed in his face.

Soos got into the truck and started to where they needed to go, his heart speeding up again. There really was no turning back.

"So what do you need me for?" Pacifica asked. She was in the passenger's seat, and the butler was in the backseat. Soos could fell him watching them.

"Well, I need you to help me pick something out." Soos said. "I'm not very good at these things, and I need your advice."

"Well, what do you need picked out?" Pacifica asked.

"It's a secret." Soos said. "Like, really, really secret. You can't tell anyone. At least, until after Christmas."

"Right." she said. "But you know my dad's gonna hate hearing that when I get back."

"Just keep the secret." Soos said. "Please."

Pacifica sighed. "Alright, it's a secret."

At the Pines house, things were going on surprisingly smoothly.

"We should have anticipated this, shouldn't we?" Kristen asked. Joe nodded.

"So, you're our future grandkids." he said, looking at the three kids huddled on the couch.

"What year are you from?" Kristen asked.

"2039." Chloe said.

"And how old are you?" Kristen asked Chris.

"Sixteen." Chris asked, wondering what was going on. Kristen blinked, quickly doing the math in her head. Thirty-nine minus fifteen...

"Dipper, you're grounded. For three days." she said.

Dipper blinked. "For what?"

"Giving me less than ten years before I become a grandmother." Kristen said.

"So..." Joe started, clearly trying to steer away from this. "Where are you three staying?"

"The old mansion with McGucket." Chris said. "We lost Blendin a while ago, so it looks like we're stuck here for a couple more weeks. Actually, Da – uh Dipper, when you get ungrounded, Stan's always wanted to go on adventures with you. Whadda ya say?"

Reason I know that it's okay to have time-traveling future offspring revealing themselves to their past!parents: in the original script for Blendin's Game, Soos's son was to arrive from the future to tell Soos that he will be a wonderful father. N-aaw! Oh, and speaking of Soos, what does he specifically need Pacifica for? Hmm...Review.