Starting Over

Chapter 6: The Drive

A few days after Pacifica was hired at Mabel and Dipper's company, Pines' Twins Paranormal Hunters ("Obviously Mabel made that one up," Pacifica said under her breath when she found out), they were on the road back to Gravity Falls for Christmas. Instead of Pacifica sleeping throughout the car ride, she was wide awake, unlike Dipper and Mabel.

"Mabel, I can drive if you want me to," Pacifica said.

Mabel yawned for what seemed like the fifteenth hundredth time. "No, it's fine, Pacifica," Mabel said. "We've only got... how long Dipper?"

Dipper checked the GPS. "5 hours," he said.

Mabel groaned. "That's it. When we pull over, we're taking a break so I can take a nap."

"Or I could drive. It's not that hard. We're just following the road," Pacifica said.

Mabel sighed. "I guess we could maybe let you drive. But just know, I'm not happy about this."

It seemed like Mabel was happy about this, because as soon as she found a rest stop, she stopped, basically shoved Pacifica out of the backseat, and was out for a while.

"What kept you both up last night?" Pacifica whispered, trying not to wake Mabel.

"Oh, you can be as loud as you want. Mabel once slept through an earthquake," Dipper said. "Well, last night we found a ghost again."

"Why didn't you guys wake me up? I seem to be an expert at catching them," she teased.

"Well, the ghost was blocking the doors, so we couldn't get the device. We were stuck for hours and we couldn't fall asleep in fear that the stupid ghost would... I don't know, kill us or something," Dipper said and sighed. "But it's fine. Christmas is in a few days, so I'm happy."

"You can take a nap if you want to. I certainly know that Mabel is," Pacifica said, and at that moment Mabel let out a very loud snore.

"Oh, no, it's fine. You need someone to talk to."

"I'm good not taking to anyone. Did it for about 20 years, remember?" Pacifica asked.

Dipper looked out the window. "I'm sorry about that," Dipper said.

"Hey, it isn't your fault. And my nightmares have stopped a lot, too, so," Pacifica said, fake smiling.

In reality, her nightmares had gotten worse. It seemed like she couldn't get her parents' voices out of her head, telling her that she was a failure, that she had left them for no reason, and that she was at fault for everything. Even when she was awake, those words echoed in her head.

"Really?" Dipper asked.

Pacifica nodded, not wanting to outright say the lie again.

"That's really good," Dipper said. "I told you that it would get better."

"You sure did," Pacifica said. "So, take a nap. I'll be fine. Since Mabel can supposedly sleep through an earthquake, I'll just put on some music. Unless you can't either."

"Oh, so can I. That earthquake I was talking about, yeah we both slept through it," Dipper said. He rolled his seat back and closed his eyes.

Pacifica put her phone on Bluetooth and blasted her favorite songs, singing them as loudly as possible.

Dipper didn't really sleep through an earthquake. In fact, he was an extremely light sleeper. But he liked hearing Pacifica have fun and let her hair down. And he didn't even mind her singing. Her singing was very... nice.


After a while, Pacifica got tired of singing and turned off the Bluetooth and decided to drive in silence. She just took in the scenary around her. Oregon was a beautiful state, and she was sad that she hadn't seen a lot of it. The farthest that she had ever traveled in Oregon was the Coast, and that was on the rare occasion that some family were in town or in the Coast.

She heard a loud horn blare behind her. She checked the rear view mirror and saw a car that was very familiar to her. It was her parents' car. She shook at Dipper, who had fallen asleep after the music stopped, trying to wake him up.

"Dipper! Dipper! DIPPER!" she shouted and he shot up.

"Whatsgoingon?" he asked, though Pacifica could barely understand him.

"It's my parents' car! What should I do?!" Pacifica asked.

Dipper looked behind him and saw that the car was getting very close to them. "Speed. Go as fast as you can," Dipper said.

Pacifica pressed her foot down and the car started going extremely fast.

"NOT THAT FAST!" Dipper yelled. They were going over 120 miles per hour. Pacifica slowed down and her parents got even closer than before. "NEVERMIND!" She again sped up, but her parents also sped up, and soon they were almost touching her car.

Dipper jumped into the backseat and started shaking Mabel awake. "Mabel! MABEL!"

"What should I do?" Pacifica asked, trying not to panic.

Dipper grabbed Pacifica's phone and started playing Sev'ral Times. Mabel shot up.

"YES!" Mabel yelled.

Dipper turned it off.

"Awww," Mabel said.

"WE ARE HAVING A CRISIS!" Pacifica said.

Mabel looked behind her and saw the faces of Priscilla and Preston staring daggers at the three of them. "Oh, shit," Mabel said.

"What should we do?!" Dipper asked.

Mabel looked around and saw a sign for an exit for a rest stop. "Pacifica, there's an exit for a rest stop! You just need to get to the other side of the road!" Mabel said. "It's in two miles! Hurry!

Pacifica looked around her and saw no other cars were around them. In fact, it seemed like all of the other cars vanished as soon as her parents came around, though maybe it was because she started speeding. She merged right without putting her blinkers on. Her parents also merged right.

One more lane! One more lane! She thought. "Check to see if they're gonna turn the same way I am!" Pacifica said.

Dipper looked behind him and saw that Preston's hands were on the right side of the steering wheel. "They're gonna go right if you go right."

"Too bad I'm not," Pacifica said. She merged into the left lane. She saw her parents starting to merge there too, so she merged all the way to the right, right in time for the exit. Her parents passed the exit. The Pines cheered as she parked at a stop and sighed.

"Sweet mother of God that was scary!" Pacifica said, getting out of the car.

Dipper and Mabel rushed out of the car and hugged her.

"YOU DID IT!" Mabel yelled.

"Holy shit, Pacifica, that was amazing!" Dipper said.

"Oh why thank you," Pacifica said, bowing.

They heard a loud engine. They turned around and saw her parents' car parking right next to Mabel's. They got out in a fury.

"HOW DARE YOU?!" Preston yelled, walking towards the group.

Dipper pushed Pacifica behind him. "Leave her alone! She's not your property anymore! She was never your property!"

Priscilla gasped. "You ran away with the pizza delivery man?!" she said.

"I'm not the stupid pizza delivery man! I'm Dipper Pines, you idiot!" Dipper said.

"YEAH!" Mabel said.

"Oh, shut up you foolish girl," Preston said. He turned back to Dipper. "She is our daughter! We will have her back!"

"You must have kidnapped her," Priscilla said. "My precious Pazzy would never, ever, run away from me."

"OH PLEASE!" Pacifica yelled, facing her parents. "You stopped calling me Pazzy after I was three years old! And you know exactly why I would run away!"

"And why is that?" Preston said coldly.

"You abused me! You tried to force me to marry someone that I just met and don't love! I'm sorry, but I do not want a marriage that was built like yours!" Pacifica said.

"Ooooh," Mabel said. Dipper pinched her arm and she stopped.

"So, you will leave me alone, or I will file a restraining order against you! I don't know how you found me, but I promise you, you will never find me again!"

"Do you know how disrespectful you are being?!" Preston said.

"Not anymore disrespectful you were to me the first 20 years of my life!" Pacifica said.

This time both of the twins ooohed, but quickly stopped when Preston and Priscilla glared at them.

"I'm 20 years old! You can no longer control me!" Pacifica said. "I am living my own life, making my own money, and you can't do anything about it!"

Priscilla gasped. "But we love you, sweetie!"

"No, you don't. You stopped loving me the moment I showed that I was human," Pacifica said. "So leave me alone or I will file a restraining order against you!"

"That is enough, Pacifica!" Preston said. "You will come home with us and you will marry Jackson Avalon!"

"NO!" Pacifica yelled.

Preston grabbed Pacifica's wrist and started pulling her to the car. "YES, YOU WILL!"

Dipper punched Preston in the face. Preston let go of Pacifica and she fell onto the road. Mabel ran over to her and helped her up.

"YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE BECOME A PARENT!" Dipper yelled. "YOU DON'T DESERVE PACIFICA TO HAVE AS A DAUGHTER! YOU DON'T DESERVE TO HAVE ANY CHILD HAS YOURS! OBVIOUSLY YOU DON'T KNOW THE FIRST THING ABOUT BEING A PARENT OR YOU WOULD KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE TO HAVE PACIFICA AS YOUR DAUGHTER!"

"Is that so?" Prisiclla asked.

"Yes!" Dipper said. "Pacifica is kind and compassionate. She is warm and loving to everyone that meets her. She does not deserve the cruel things that you have done to her. No human deserves that. You took this amazing human being and treated her like shit for the first 20 years of her life. And know she has the live with the fact that her parents don't love her like they should. She has to live, remembering each thing that you have done to her in painful detail! She has nightmares every night about what you two did to her! And she still goes out there and treats every human with the most respect I've ever seen from a human being! And I know how she knows how to do that! She knows that because she thinks that no human should ever be treated the way the you two treated her, so she goes out of her way to make sure no one else is. So how dare you try to come here and act like you can take her back? She is 20 years old, and she can make her own choices! She's more adult than you have ever been! SO LEAVE HER ALONE!" Dipper walked back to the car, and opened the backseat door. He turned to Pacifica. "After you."

Paciifca, with tears in her eyes, walked over to the door. She hugged Dipper. "Thank you," she said. She got into the car and he closed the door. A few moments later, Mabel jumped into the passenger seat and Dipper turned the car on and they drove off, leaving the Northwests still staring at the place Dipper was in shock.

"Are you bleeding?" Dipper asked. "I saw that when I hit Preston, you fell."

Pacifica looked around. She was bruised, but wasn't bleeding. "No, I'm fine. Thank you, Dipper."

Dipper sighed. "Don't mention it. Those people are the nastiest people I have ever met, so you don't have to worry."

Mabel sighed. "Well, that was enough drama for one day. I'm going back to sleep." She leaned back the chair and was out in less than a minute.

Pacifica smiled and rested her head against the window. Dipper looked back at her and sighed.

His brain kept on telling him to say something. But he couldn't. He knew that whatever he was feeling for Pacifica wasn't okay, and he needed to get over it.

I will always be there to protect you.

But he couldn't get over it. He looked back at her again, and she was asleep. He smiled, then looked back at the road.

Maybe he didn't need to get over it.