AN:/ Holy guacamole! This took forever to write! I apologize I have been super busy with school and plays but new chapters are coming! I hope you enjoy this looooooong flash back!

***(26 years ago)***

Stan detested shopping for presents for LeAnn. Markus was pretty simple to shop for, sports or science, LeAnn however went through phases. She now had a thing for birds. He had gone to just about every store in Gravity Falls looking for a nice looking bird statuette and only found ones that even his mother, an avid collector of tacky ceramic statues and other knickknacks, would find tacky. He now found himself driving into the town that was a half-hour outside Gravity Falls city limits. He stopped at a consignment store. As he walked in he noticed all the lights were on but no one appeared to be there.

"Any one here?" He called out in frustration.

"Yes, sorry can I help you?" A calm voice called as someone popped up from behind the counter

"Augh," Stan shouted leaping back in surprise but soon regaining his composer "I uh I mean yeah."

Standing behind the counter was a short, somewhat pear-shaped, twenty something with long blonde hair, and shockingly bright green eyes glinting from behind wire rimmed glasses perched on her pale face. She looked kind of like a hippy from Stan's perspective, making Stan a bit skeptical about how much help she would actually be.

"What can I do for you today?" She said sweetly.

"I'm looking for a ceramic bird." He said avoiding eye contact.

"You are in luck, people seem to make a lot of them. If you would follow me please" She said smiling, beginning to walk towards the back of the store. Stan followed behind peering around. It was a very nice store, most of the stuff appeared to be handmade. The short girl smiled and gestured to a shelf that appeared to be solely devoted to bird statues.

"Well here we are, at our wide selection of ceramic bird sculptures." the blonde girl said with a broad gesture.

"Uhh, thank you...uhh" Stan said glancing towards her looking for a name tag.

"I'm Annabelle, and it was my pleasure mister..." She started

"Uh Pines, you can call me Stan though." he said

"Well, it was my pleasure Stan, if you need anything I will be over there." She said pointing to a group of shelves on the right.

"Alright, thank you Annabelle." Stan said smiling at her, then starting to browse.

Eventually Stan decided on a small sculpture of a yellow bird sitting on a telephone wire. He began walking to where Annabelle had said she would be. The blonde was stocking the shelves, or she was trying to. She was short enough that she had to climb the shelves themselves to reach the top one. Stan coughed trying not to stare at her and Annabelle turned and smiled.

"All ready to check out?" She said enthusiastically.

"Umm yes I am, do you want help with that." Stan said slowly.

The woman let out a sigh and hung her head dejectedly.

'Yes." she said with mock sadness as she climbed down

"I would suggest investing in a step-ladder." Stan said laughing setting down the statue and taking a vase from a box and setting it on the higher shelf.

"I've been asking my bosses for an age and a half but they insist that everything that I need to get a hold of is in reach." She said laughing

Stan glanced her up and down.

"They do realize your about five foot, right?" Stan asked raising and eyebrow putting more stuff away.

"I am five foot three, thank you very much, and I was wearing heels when I applied and the owners are this little old couple who are kinda ditzy so I forgive them for it." She said stocking the lower shelves.

He smirked at her.

"So you work here full-time or is this just a thing to get you through college." Stan asked trying to change the subject from her body, all that led to was him checking her out and that was awkward.

"I graduated three years ago so this is more of a stepping stone to getting enough money to start my own bussiness." She said smiling back at him as he frowned at his hand starting to count on it "That means I'm 25 if you are curious."

Stan laughed awkwardly not sure what to say.

"What did you go to school for?" he said after an awkward pause.

"I went to school for business management." she said smiling.

"Seems very mainstream." He said laughing.

"I'm planning on starting my own business once I get enough money to start." She said.

"Oh, I'm kind of an entrepreneur myself." Stan said

"Interesting, what's your company name?" Annabelle asked.

"Well I originally started up the Stan-Vac but that went down the toilet," Stan said laughing "Now I am the owner of the Mystery Shack."

"You own the Mystery Shack?" she said smiling wide.

"Uhh yeah." Stan said.

"I've heard that you have some great taxidermy pieces, I'll have to bike down and see you."

"You bike everywhere?" Stan said stifling a laugh as he put down the last vase.

"I do, I don't have a car." She said laughing

"Oh lord, don't tell me you are one of those hippy, tree huggers." Stan said shaking his head and snorting.

Annabelle doubled over laughing so hard she started to snort and hiccup. She wiped a tear from under glasses and smiled.

"I am a little bit, I recycle and what not, but I bike because I can't afford a car right now."

"How do you get around in the winter?" Stan said raising an eyebrow.

" I walk and or borrow my parent's snowmobile." She laughed then dusted off her hands "Thank you very much for helping Stan, I can check you out now if you want."

Stan fought the urge to take that in a flirtatious manner.

"Uhhh yes thank you." He said picking up the little statue and walking over with her to the cash register.

"It's very cute, who is it for?" she said smiling at him as she looked at the bottom of it for the price tag.

"My daughter." Stan said, mentally cursing himself for letting that slip out before he had even bothered to try and ask for her number.

"That's sweet," Annabelle said smiling sincerely "how old is she?"

"She's turning 11 next weekend." Stan said smiling a little.

"That's a great age," Annabelle said smiling then looking up at him with her stunning green eyes " Do you want this gift wrapped?"

"Yeah, might as well, I can't wrap for crap." Stan admitted.

"Why not ask your wife to wrap it?" Annabelle said slowly, as if she were trying to figure something out.

"Uhh my wife left me four years ago, so I doubt she would wrap it for me." Stan said mildly uncomfortable.

A look of relief flashed across Annabelle's face.

"Oh I'm sorry to hear that." She said sincerely grabbing a bright purple bag and setting it on the counter along with sky blue tissue paper.

"It's fine, I'm over it." Stan admitted leaning against the counter.

"So do you have any other kids?" Annabelle said wrapping the statue in the tissue paper.

"Yeah, I have a son who is 12." He said.

"That is wonderful to have siblings that close to each other in age." Annabelle said then pushed him the bag across the counter "That will be 12 dollars."

"Oh, alright thank you." He said digging for his wallet.

"Thank you for shopping here, maybe once your daughter hits that jewelry hoarding stage you can buy her some jewelery from here." she said making a gesture to a display table covered in accessories next to the cash register.

Stan turned and looked. The display was very well put together and the accessories looked very well made, possibly even better than the stuff at mainstream stores.

"They're really nice." He said honestly laying the twelve dollars on the counter picking up the bag.

"Thank you." Annabelle said smiling proudly.

"You made these?" Stan guessed looking at her smile as she put the money in the cash register.

"Yes I did." She said smiling wider "If you want there are some business cards if you want to commission something."

Stan picked up one of the business card and noticed her phone number was printed on the bottom.

"I'll take one home with me, partly because this does look like stuff my daughter would like, but mostly because I've got to give you a call sometime." Stan said winking while walking out backwards trying his hardest to seem attractive and not like a socially incompetent 37-year-old e.

"Well I am sincerely looking forward to your call, I shall wait with bated breath." she said smiling widely waving to him.

Stan sat in the diner shaking his knee's nervously. He had fought with himself for two days before calling Annabelle and asking her out on a date. He was now wondering what he had got himself into . Most of the women he went on dates with were nowhere near as young as Annabelle, and most awkwardly shuffled off as soon as he brought up his kids. The only ones who didn't run away at the mention of his kids where smothery women who wanted a husband too desperatly. Hell, Annabelle didn't even look like the women he usually dated. He usually went for petite and curvy, dark-eyed, brunettes. Annabelle was a short blonde with a somewhat below average chest, big hips, glasses, and bright green eyes. Maybe it was those eyes that did it, or the smile, or the fact that she was nice and intelligent not just one of the two. No matter why he found Annabelle attractive he had no choice but to stick it out through the date as she had just walked in. She looked different from she had at the store. her long hair was done in a simple braid, her glasses were off, her make up was done, and her clothes were still very modest but much more form-fitting than the baggy sweater and loose dress pants she wore at the store.

"Hi." Stan said standing up smiling adjusting his glasses.

"Hi, sorry that I'm late, It's a little farther than I anticipated from here to my house." she panted nervously tucking a stray hair behind her ear.

"No big deal, you aren't that late." He said sheepishly sitting down after she did.

He paused nervously as she looked at the room nervously.

"You look nice." he said fighting off a stutter.

"Oh, thank you," Annabelle said, her face turning bright pink, "You look nice too."

"Thanks." Stan said laughing nervously.

Annabelle started looking around, trying to find something to talk about.

"Uhmm is that your car out front, the 'Stanley-mobile'." She said smiling.

"Uh yeah it is." Stan said smiling back.

"So Stan Pines is short for Stanley Pines." Annabelle said smiling gesturing enthusiastically.

Stan laughed awkwardly.

"No, Stan is short for Stanford." He said smiling, rubbing the back of his head.

"Stanford? Like Stanford University?" Annabelle asked smiling.

"Yeah my mom wanted to give us inspiring names." Stan laughed.

"Us? As in all your siblings are named after universities?" Annabelle said smiling.

"Yup, my oldest brother is Cornell, my older sister is Clara, then my older twin brother is Duke." Stan said.

"Okay I get your brothers name's but Clara?" Annabelle said confused.

"After Santa Clara University." He said.

"I see, your mom had high hopes." She said smiling.

"Yep, hence why I, as the one child who didn't attend college and who now runs a tourist trap, am the disappointment child." Stan laughed.

"Oh, don't worry I'm a disappointment child too. My parents wanted me to be a good little house wife and then I went to college and my legacy as a disappointment was born." Annabelle said patting his hand. "So if your name is Stanford why Stanley mobile?"

"To be honest I have no idea." Stan laughed "So what got you into making jewelery."

"When I was younger I had a big crush on my neighbor and he was a welder and made jewelery so I asked him to teach me so I could be like him and I realized how much I liked it." She said smiling "So what made you start-up the Mystery Shack?"

Stan paused in thought, he wasn't going to bring up the fact that they lived in a world infested with paranormal creepy crawlers so he was unsure how to explain that it was partly his way of showing it to people, so he decided to be honest besides that bit.

"Uhm, well I have always had an interest in the weird, and my kids have an interest in it too, so after my wife divorced me I built it and to be frank the people in Gravity Falls are so dumb it would be a crime not to take advantage." Stan laughed nervously.

"Oh you swindler you!" Annabelle laughed.

Stan grinned nervously and then turned to look away from the table to see the overly chatty, and awkward waitress Susan.

"Hey, do you want to order something?" Stan said waving Susan over trying to avoid any other intensely awkward conversations.

"Sure, I love food." Annabelle said smiling brightly.

They ordered their dinner and exchanged random, personal facts and chit-chat for a while. They both felt as if they were hitting it off. Annabelle looked up from her plate and fidgeted with her fork a little bit.

"Mind if I ask you a question?" She asked fidgeting.

"Sure, go for it." he said swallowing.

"Why did you and your ex-wife get divorced?" She asked tentatively.

Stan had not swallowed as well as he thought he had, because he began coughing hard.

"If it's too personal you don't have to answer." Annabelle said nervously.

"No, uh no, I get why you'd ask." Stan said still wheezing a little, when he regained his composure he started again " We split because a lot of things, she had a miscarriage and I lost my job and went to jail for trying to smuggle relics across the Colombian border and she just got tired of all of it and asked me to leave and served me divorce papers a week later."

"I'm sorry to hear that, are you on good terms with her?" Annabelle said.

Stan laughed loudly then covered his mouth.

"Uh sorry, no not even close, she is very bitter and angry with me, hence my shitty visitation schedule with my kids." He said, tones of bitterness creeping in at the end.

"You don't get to see them often?" Annabelle said slowly.

"No, not as often as I'd like, really, I get to see Mark and LeAnn one weekend a month, during the summer, and every other holiday excluding Halloween, because we have summerween down here, I try to make the most of it." He said

He felt like he was rambling on, so he looked down at his plate. Glancing up he noticed Annabelle was smiling at him.

"You really care about your kids." she said calm.

"Yeah, I mean, there my kids. They mean the world to me." Stan said awkwardly unsure how to phrase it.

Annabelle just smiled at him and Stan couldn't help smiling back.

The weeks went on with Stan and Annabelle talking on the phone almost every night and going on the occasional date. Before long they had deemed themselves an offical couple and most of Gravity Falls had caught wind. Usually this wouldn't be a problem. However Annabelle being younger than Stan, lead to colorful gossip starting up and being sent all the way to Stan's kids and, even more to his displeasure, his ex-wife.

"Good god Deb, don't give me that look." Stan muttered as he stood uncomfortably in the corner of the house that he used to live in as his ex-wife looked at him disgustedly, while he waited for their children to get back home.

"I'm not giving you a look." Deb said calmly.

Stan rolled his eyes.

"What was that for?" Deb said disdainfully

"Because, you keep giving me the stink eye like I started seeing my girlfriend before you even thought of divorcing me." Stan said

"That is not my biggest problem with your dating her, I more so have a problem with you dating a girl who is hardly legal." Deb said, her tone becoming more hostile.

"She's 25! Last time I checked that's legal." Stan said attempting to lighten the mood.

"Doesn't mean she was when you started." she said snarkily.

"I never cheated on you! I fucked up big time but I never, not once, even thought about cheating on you!" Stan said finally loosing his cool " May I remind you that six months after we finalized the divorce you started seeing somebody and have been married for a year now! I just started actively looking for someone to date a year ago!"

"Doesn't make it appropriate! Do realize how embarrassed you have made me and the kids!"

"Guess what, it's my life, not yours!" Stan shouted angrily.

Both managed to compose themselves before LeAnn and Markus got home.

"So how's school?" Stan said between bites of dinner.

"Fine." Markus said calmly.

"It's alright." LeAnn said .

"So, uh, I was thinking about having Annabelle over." Stan said

"Who?" Markus asked calmly.

"My girlfriend." Stan said.

Both of the Pines childrens' faces became filled with disgust.

"Oh god, no!" LeAnn said horrified.

"Thanks for the support honey!" Stan said genuinely hurt.

"Dad, she's almost half your age!" Markus said frustrated.

"I am not even close to 50 yet!" Stan said tossing his hands up.

"Doesn't make it any less weird!" LeAnn said exasperated.

"Why on gods green earth did I even bother." Stan said setting his head on the table.

From that point on Stan avoided bringing up Annabelle around his children. Eventually she was introduced to them but it ended pretty poorly, Markus called Annabelle a very rude name and LeAnn awkwardly stared at them both barely making conversation. In spite of this their relationship became stronger. Before long they had been dating for seven months.

"Augh nuts!" Annabelle said squatting down to look at her bike tires.

"What's up babe?" Stan said squatting down next to her. They had just finished up a movie and were getting ready to head back to their separate homes.

"Some jerk slit my bike tires." she said with frustration.

"I take it you'll want a ride?" Stan said flirtasously.

"Yes, please." she said smiling sweetly.

After loading her bike into the trunk of his car they began what was supposed to be a short drive. The drive ended up being much longer than anticipated because, although he had driven to her house many times, Stan had gotten lost. By the time they pulled into Annabelle's driveway they both were in good moods.

"Well here we are, honestly though I didn't do this on purpose." Stan said laughing.

Annabelle grinned back.

"I'm sure you didn't." she said kissing him sweetly.

Stan kissed her back.

"I guess it's goodnight then huh?" Stan said.

"Not unless you stay the night." Annabelle said.

Stan raised his eyebrow and pulled back a little.

"Do you want me to stay the night?" He said laughing a little.

"I wouldn't offer if I didn't." Annabelle said her tone becoming a little more flirtatious.

"Ms. Annabelle Lake are you implying what I think you're implying." Stan said equally as flirtatious.

Annabelle smirked and made a motion to exit the car.

"Maybe."

Stan pulled the door shut.

"Nuh-Uh I need a definite answer." Stan said.

"Not till I get one." she said, the smirk still playing across her face.

"Fine, yes I'd love to." Stan said leaning forward.

"Then my answer is yes." She said.

She then kissed him lightly and left the car, Stan following closely behind. This sort of thing continued every so often, as long as Stan's children were with their mother. Normally Stan would be nervous that people would start noticing and spreading rumors but they had started spreading this particular one soon after their first date. One particular afternoon Stan was surprised to find Annabelle standing at his front door. Instead of her yellow bicycle a small brown car was parked in his driveway.

"You got a car?" He said surprised.

"Yeah, my brother is moving to Arizona and he didn't want to bring his wifes' car with so they sold it to me dirt cheap." She said laughing almost nervously.

"You want to come in?" Stan said laughing as she stood awkwardly outside of his house.

"Oh, yes, thank you." She said stepping in.

"So what's the occasion?" Stan said walking into his living room with her.

"I wanted to let you know that I am pregnant." she said calmly.

Stan stumbled and turned around.

"What?!" he stammered, shocked.

"I'm pregnant." She said slower.

"It's mine?" he said confused.

Annabelle's face became serious.

"Well, seeing as you're the only person I'm sleeping with..." her voice, hinting to a bit of anger.

"No, No I didn't mean it like that, it's, uh, I'm surprised, wow." He said rubbing the back of his head and then taking her hand "So, how long have you know."

"I found out yesterday, they say I am about two months along." She then pulled her hand away from Stan and looked at him seriously "Listen Stanford, I am not expecting you to marry me or to even stay with me, I felt it was your right as the father of this baby to know that I am keeping it, and to be given the option to be involved."

"If you still wanna be with me I'd love to be involved in the life of our baby." Stan said putting his hand on her stomach.

"Of course I still want to be with you." Annabelle said smiling at him.

Stan grinned widely, picked her up, and spun her around.

"We're having a baby!" He said ecstatically.

"If you don't quit spinning me I'll have the baby now!" Annabelle shouted.

Stan grinned and put her down kissing her on the mouth. After seven months filled with Stans' family's disapproval, including his ex-wife, and his ignoring it with the help of the thought of having a baby, Katarina Harriet Pines-Lake was born. Stan and Annabelle continued living separately with Katarina going between the two houses. It was a happy existence, except for Markus and LeAnns' refusal to meet Katarina or be in Stans' house when she was there. Two years passed like this and Stan had reached the conclusion that he and Annabelle should move in-together. This conclusion was found flawed by his ex-wife.

"What the hell is this." Stan said picking up the textbook sized bundle of paper Deb had plopped in front of him.

"Our divorce contract, if you look at Section 3 sub section..."Deb started

"Just tell me what you're threatening me for." Stan said, frustrated.

"It says if you do anything inappropriate, that could be a bad influence on our children, I get full custody." Deb said.

"What am I doing that is inappropriate!?" Stan said.

"LeAnn told me you were thinking about having your...girlfriend...move in with you." Deb said slowly.

"How is that inappropriate!?" Stan said.

"You two are unmarried and you have an illegitimate child together." Deb said.

Stan stiffened up.

"You bitter crone, you honestly are going to threaten to take away my kids just because I'm moving on?!" Stan snarled

"I'm threatening to take sole custody because you are being a bad influence to our children!"

"How!?" Stan shouted

"You already have one child together, if you move in with each other you're bound to have more. I don't want my children to learn that , that sort of thing is ok."

"You hypocrite! Fine I won't have Annabelle move in with me, happy?!"

"No, you either dump her or I get sole custody."

"What!?" he shouted.

"You heard me." Deb said calmly.

"I can't stand you!" Stan shouted frustrated.

They shouted for a few moments at each other, ending with Stan being given a deadline to break up with Annabelle that he sadly agreed to meet. That next Saturday was 'family day', when Kat and Annabelle came over and hung out with Stan. As Kat was in the living room playing with her legoes, Stan and Annabelle did the dishes. She turned and looked at Stan.

"Are you alright?" she said looking over at him.

"Umm, yeah, I'm alright I guess, listen I need to talk to you." Stan said

Annabelle paused and looked at him calmly.

"Alright lets sit down then." She said sitting down quietly.

"Deb is threatening to take sole custody of the kids." he said slowly, starting to choke up already.

"That's terrible!" she said reaching out to his hand.

"The only way she won't is if we break up." he said quietly.

Annabelle pulled her hand back.

"I want you to realize that if there was any other way I would stay with you, but I can't lose my kids I can't..." Stan said getting choked up.

"Stan it's ok, if you didn't expect you to put your kids first I wouldn't have bothered dating you." Annabelle said tearily grabbing his hand.

"I am so sorry Belle, I don't..." Stan started his voice cracking.

"Shhh," She said cutting him off "Let's enjoy the rest of the night, we can talk about it tomorrow, alright?"

The spent the rest of the night together and the next day they parted on the best terms possible, splitting custody of Katarina half and half.