Chapter Seventeen: Hospitals and Bad Relations

Priscilla sighed as her chauffeur dropped her off at the Mystery Shack. She went up to the door and knocked, waiting for an answer. A minute later, Wendy answered.

"Yeah? What do you want?" Wendy asked. She wasn't being particularly hostile. But she wasn't being friendly either towards a woman who disowned Pacifica.

"May I speak with my daughter?" Priscilla asked

"Why should I let you speak with Dipper's and my girlfriend?" Wendy asked.

"I'm not your girlfriend, Corduroy. I'm Dipper's girlfriend and you're Dipper's girlfriend. We're not dating each other. I'm straight." Pacifica said, still refusing to acknowledge that she'd had sex with Wendy when they were all in the hot spring together.

"What do you want, Priscilla?" Pacifica demanded.

"Your father has been severely injured. He went to the hot spring with some bodyguards and it seems that he was caught in a landslide as he went into the cave." Priscilla said.

Pacifica gasped.

"How is he? Is he conscious? Is he going to make it?" Pacifica asked.

"I'm not sure. He was buried under a lot of dirt, so he wasn't able to breathe for about an hour. He's certainly not conscious. If he's alive and just in a coma or if he's braindead, I don't know. I'm not a doctor. But whatever the case, he lost his leg. It had to be cut off by the bodyguards to get him back to the mansion and he's being brought to a hospital in Salem." Priscilla said.

Wendy almost shivered, hearing how unemotional Priscilla was as she described what had happened to her own husband. It was unnerving that she could describe it so calmly. Pacifica on the other hand was crying. She knew her father was a bad man. But she still felt terrible that he was in such a bad state.

"Whatever you choose to do is not my business. If you wish, our chauffeur is going to be taking me to the hospital in Salem now and you may come with us." Priscilla said.

"Of course. Just let me get dressed properly. Actually, never mind. Just let me get some shoes on." Pacifica said, hurrying into some sneakers and heading to the car.

"Tell Dipper I'm going to Salem. I don't know when I'll be back." Pacifica said to Wendy. The redhead nodded.

"I'm sorry to hear about your father. I hope he recovers." Wendy said. Pacifica got in the car and the chauffeur drove them to Salem.

-0-

"My name is Priscilla Northwest." Priscilla said as they walked into the hospital, seeming to expect to be immediately taken care of.

"My husband, Preston is here." She said. This was a high profile, private hospital. She may not have been in love with Preston. But she wasn't going to let him go to a public hospital.

"Of course, Mrs. Northwest. Mr. Northwest is being taken care of in surgery right now. We've had to remove a piece of his right leg to clean up the rather rough amputation that was done earlier.

"He hasn't woken up yet and we fear that he very well may not." The doctor said politely.

"It's likely that he's in a permanent vegetative state. We've seen significant brain damage, likely from the lack of oxygen. He simply passed out and couldn't wake up. He's not yet braindead, but the amount of damage done, both from traumatic damage, due to rocks or the pressure on his head and from anoxic damage, lack of oxygen, he won't wake up.

"Once we get him into a room in the ICU, we'll test if he can breathe on his own without machines and then get back to you as soon as possible. I'm very sorry that this has happened to you, Ma'am." The doctor said. Priscilla nodded. She didn't understand everything that the doctor said. But she got the general gist of what was going on. She took Pacifica to sit in some surprisingly comfortable chairs. Priscilla turned on her Kindle and began reading as she waited. Pacifica was too anxious and worried about her father to do anything else.

She felt a little bit upset that Priscilla seemed so unconcerned. It was like her mother wasn't concerned at all about whether her husband lived or died. She knew that Preston and Priscilla never really seemed to show affection towards each other. They seemed to have more of a practical relationship than a loving one. It probably just made more sense for them to simply remain married than to divorce each other and go through the process of splitting their assets and everything. Or maybe they never loved each other, and like Pacifica, they'd had an arranged marriage.

Pacifica was grateful that she didn't have to get married to one of those jerks that her parents chose for her. But she could see that her parents may not have had that option. She sat there, thinking about what Dipper would say when he found out about what happened to Preston. Would he be concerned for Preston? Would he consider Preston to have gotten his comeuppance? No. That didn't sound like Dipper. Dipper was a good person and even if Dipper didn't like Preston, he wouldn't wish bad things on him. Right?

Finally, the doctor came to them.
"Mrs. Northwest, Ms. Northwest? Mr. Northwest is in the ICU. He's currently on a breathing tube. He has shown no signs of waking up and he can breathe without a tube, though he struggles to do so and I'm concerned that if he were taken off, that his condition would worsen and that he would die far sooner than if he was off it.

"How likely is he to recover his ability to breathe on his own?" Priscilla asked. Pacifica looked at her mother. She had always been very self-centered, but not terribly cold overall. Pacifica didn't get the impression that Priscilla loved Preston. But she also didn't see any animosity for him. It was more like she loved what Preston's money could do for her. She didn't know what her mother would do.

"We're not sure. But there isn't much voluntary brain activity right now. We could keep him on machines for a while and continue to run tests to try to figure out the best thing to do for him." The doctor said.

Priscilla thought for a moment.

"Yes. That might be for the best." She said. If there was a chance that Preston could recover, she would of course be happy to take it, especially since the finances were in his name and it would be difficult and expensive to put everything in her name. Lawyers and financiers would become involved, which would take time. But if that was what it came to, someone had to take care of everything if and when Preston died.

"Very good. If you'll sign these papers, we can begin his treatment." The doctor said. Priscilla signed the papers and gave them their insurance information and brought Pacifica out to the car, having the chauffeur take them back to Gravity Falls.

-0-

Pacifica walked into the Shack, sighing as Dipper hugged her, kissing her gently on the lips.

"Pacifica, I'm sorry to hear about your father." He said genuinely. Pacifica could tell that Dipper didn't wish her father ill. That although he didn't like Preston or maybe he didn't even respect Preston, he hoped that Preston would recover.

"I can go with you to the hospital if you like in the future. Maybe Ford and I can help him recover. I don't really know what we can do about that kind of brain damage.

"An hour without air… It's a miracle he's even alive hon… Oh, jeez… I'm sorry. That was kind of insensitive." Dipper said, showing his anxiety. He had said something impulsively. He didn't mean to hurt Pacifica.

"Just shut up, freak." Pacifica said dismissively, shoving him aside and going to her room that she shared with Mabel. She hadn't meant to be that mean, but in a moment of anger, she said something hurtful to Dipper.

Dipper was silent for a long moment, then sat down, muttering to himself, trying to convince himself that Pacifica was just lashing out, that she didn't mean it.

"Hey, dude… It's okay. I'll talk to Paz. I'm sure she didn't mean it. You're not a freak. You're one of the coolest people I've ever met." Wendy said, kissing Dipper lightly. He didn't really respond to her kiss or what she was saying. Wendy knew that Dipper was still a little shy and still had anxiety.

It was uncalled for for Pacifica to talk to him like that. Wendy went upstairs to talk to Pacifica.
"Hey, Paz. You need to go downstairs and apologize to Dipper." Wendy said, knocking on the door. Pacifica sighed.

"I know. He's mad at me, isn't he?"
"No. He's hurt. You know he's a little insecure sometimes. Calling him that didn't help his anxiety. He was trying to comfort you." Wendy said.

Sometimes Dipper said things that in retrospect weren't the best. And maybe he didn't have to bring up Preston's brain damage. But he hadn't said it to hurt Pacifica. Pacifica had called him a freak in order to hurt him. And it had worked.

"This is all his fault anyway! If he hadn't collapsed the cave entrance, Dad would have gone into the cave yesterday and the earthquake wouldn't have collapsed the entrance on him!"
"You're blaming Dipper for an earthquake! How dare you!" Mabel demanded.

"How is it Dipper's fault that your father got caught in a landslide?" Wendy asked.

"I told you! He collapsed the entrance to the cave and Dad went home. We then opened up the cave again to get the hot water. Dad came back today and because the cave entrance had been destabilized by Dipper's actions, a minor earthquake caused the earth to collapse on Dad! If Dipper hadn't shot the entrance to the cave, Dad wouldn't have had this happen to him!" Pacifica shouted.

"So it's Dipper's fault that your dad is greedy and that an earthquake happened?" Wendy asked.
"Whatever! I'm not apologizing to that loser!" Pacifica snarled. Mabel was silent for a long, long moment.

"Get out of our house. You're not welcome here if you're going to treat Dipper like that." Mabel growled. She and Dipper were still fiercely loyal to each other, even all these years later.

"Fine! Why would I even want to stay here! I could have my own boyfriend! I don't need to share one with this bitch!" Pacifica snapped, grabbing a few things and storming out of the house. She sighed as soon as she got out. She wasn't sure she could go back to Northwest Manor. Her mom might demand that she get married if she came back. And she couldn't do that. She still loved Dipper. She was just upset.

She still had other friends besides the Pines. She wasn't as close to her old friends. But she'd made some new friends amongst the common folk of Gravity Falls. She sighed, heading to Lizzie's house. Lizzie now had her own home. She had moved out of her parents' house and lived on her own on the money she made off of some makeup tutorials on YouTube and various CrowdFunding sites. She wasn't rich. But she pulled in a decent amount each year, enough at least to keep herself going and she was opening up a cosmetics shop in a nearby large town. She had some advertisements set up already online.

"Hey, Pacifica. What's up?" Lizzie asked.

"I need a place to stay for a little while. Is there a chance I can like, borrow the couch?" Lizzie hesitated for a minute.
"Oh, yeah. I guess so. Did something fall through at the Mystery Shack?" Lizzie asked. Many had seen her going in and out of the Shack, so it was no secret that she'd been living there.

"Kind of a breakup." Pacifica said.

"With Dipper? He's kind of cute… In a nerdy way. What caused the breakup?" Lizzie asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." Pacifica said. Lizzie shrugged, getting some blankets and pillows for Pacifica. She didn't have a guest room. But she could sleep on the foldout couch. Pacifica sighed, wishing she could have just swallowed her pride and apologized to Dipper. She cared about Lizzie, but she wanted to be with Dipper. She didn't even care that he was also dating Wendy.

It had been an issue at first, but now it just seemed right. Dipper had never shown that he loved one of them over the other. He'd been busy working with Ford a lot and doing research on supernatural events and he brought his tablet everywhere, even on dates, but he went on two dates so far each with Wendy and Pacifica. So he hadn't shown that he played favorites. And she appreciated that Dipper seemed to try, even if he was nervous and anxious, to show appreciation to both his girlfriends. And being around Mabel as well was always kind of fun. Mabel was so high-energy and cheerful.

It was hard not to be happy around her. And how could she not like Wendy. Wendy was so easygoing. She was so cool and had a good sense of humor. And Pacifica liked how she just kind of went with the flow of whatever was happening. If the three of them were hanging out together, Wendy seemed happy to do what Dipper or she wanted to do. And Grunkle Stan was a laugh and a half. He was such a cranky old man, but he also had these crazy ideas for making money and the way he fleeced the customers who came into the Shack with crazy fake supernatural stuff was hilarious.

She had a good life with the Pines Family. She was crazy to treat Dipper like that. She'd done it in a moment of anger. She was already mourning her father. She didn't like her father or what he represented, but he was still her father. What could she do? Maybe if she went back the next day and apologized, they would give her another chance. She could try.