Chapter Eight: The Regenerating Family
"Dipper, Mabel… Did you give your father the water?" Ford asked.
"No. Dad didn't want to drink it. And I think that if he had, he wouldn't have had the seizure he had." Mabel said regretfully. She wished they had pushed him a little harder to drink it.
"Hmm… It's possible that the restorative properties of the water would have prevented the seizure. But it's not guaranteed." Ford said calmly.
"But I did do some cursory examinations of the water." Ford said.
"And? What did you find?" Dipper asked excitedly.
"Nothing. It's just water." Ford said. He could tell immediately how disappointed Dipper was. Just water? That was impossible. He took out a knife and drew the blade across his arm, showing Ford as the bleeding stopped less than 30 seconds after he cut himself and the cut sealed over about 30 seconds later. His healing was getting faster. How that was possible, he didn't know.
Would he be able to regrow limbs? He didn't want to test that. Would he age slower because of the water? He had just healed an admittedly minor cut in a minute. How long would a major wound take to heal? Would brain damage still be a major issue? The only thing they could do was take the time to test the safer things.
"Wendy, let me see your leg?" Dipper asked. Wendy nodded and showed Dipper her wounded leg.
"Hmm… It's almost gone. Your healing is speeding up too." Dipper said. How much would it speed up before it leveled out?
"I'm gonna drink this too. If those nerdy movies you watch have showed me anything, regeneration equals slowed aging. How much would people pay to meet a 180-year-old man?" Stan said. Stan gulped down the water.
"You want some too, Sixer?" Stan asked. Ford sighed. He didn't know if he wanted to live forever. But regenerative healing could be fascinating to study. Stan had clearly drunk the water for the sake of profiting off of the new abilities they would gain. Ford figured that he should stick around if only to make sure that Stan and the others didn't get in too much trouble. He drank the water as well.
"Kid! Come here and test my new abilities!" Stan said. Ford sighed. Stan was getting carried away. There was no proof that consuming the water would grant the rapid healing.
"I-I don't know if that's a good idea. I mean, what if the spring only works by bathing in it? Wendy and I were in it all night for about 9 hours. What if a tiny vial doesn't grant the same effects?" Dipper asked.
"What if your abilities wear off because of the small amount?" Dipper asked.
"Fine. Coward." Stan said, cutting his arm wide open, laughing and showing Dipper as the wound stopped bleeding. It seemed that ingesting it worked just as well. Stan's arm sealed up rapidly.
"Yeah!" Stan said, pointing victoriously at the others.
"Okay, okay, Grunkle Stan." Mabel laughed. Everyone in the family had drunk the water now. Soon, there was a knock on the door. Dipper went to answer it. Usually people didn't have to knock. The Shack was closed at the moment though.
"Mr. and Mrs. Northwest. What brings you here?" Dipper asked. They were the worst. But he was sure that Pacifica would still want him to be nice to them. Especially since they had not so low-key threatened him.
"Young man, may we come in?" Preston asked. Dipper nodded, standing back from the door.
"Hmm… I do feel bad that Pacifica felt the need to come here of all places." Preston said pompously.
"What do you want?" Dipper asked.
"We're here to invite Pacifica to come home. We're willing to give her a second chance." They had heard about Wendy's rapid healing and given that they had lived in Gravity Falls for a long time, they knew Wendy hadn't always had such healing.
They wanted to find out about what was causing it and how they could get their hands on it and potentially make money off of it.
"You don't need to worry about that. Sweetie, come with us. We will permit you to continue dating this… Dipper… If that is what you want." Preston said. Pacifica could hear the cunning tone in his voice. There was something more that he wanted, that he was plotting. He always used that tone when he was scheming, when he had something horrible in mind.
"You're planning something. What is it?" Pacifica demanded. Preston narrowed his eyes at her.
"Planning? I'm not planning anything. I just feel that I was a bit hasty in kicking you out. Family is very important after all. Clearly Stanley recognizes that, having his whole family in one house like this." Preston said. Pacifica laughed.
"Yeah, right. Family is only important so long as you can gain something from them. I'm not going to be controlled by you anymore!" Pacifica said angrily.
"I think it would be best if you left." Ford said. He didn't want this to turn into a power struggle. He could tell that Pacifica was having trouble saying no to her parents. Preston nodded.
"I see. I'm sorry that we couldn't reach an understanding. We'll leave." Preston said, walking out with Priscilla.
He immediately called some private investigators that he had on call most of the time. He wasn't as rich as he used to be. But he could still pull strings.
"Andrew, I need you to send out five of your men to follow around a certain family.
