Soos was in the waiting room when they got to the hospital. They had entered in a rush, but slowed down at the sight of him sitting quietly but wringing his hands.
"Any news?" Wendy asked as they approached him.
Soos shook his head sadly. "No, not really." He paused a bit and Ford could tell he was holding something back.
"What is it?" He pressed, because if there was any sort of information available regarding his brother's condition, he of all people had a right to know it.
Soos looked at each of them before speaking. "The paramedics said it was a heart attack."
Silence.
All of them stared at Soos, eyes wide. The words just weren't quite computing for Ford.
"What?" Mabel squeaked out. The blood had drained from her face. Dipper seemed to be in a similar state, except there was a tinge of green to his complexion.
After all, even kids could guess how serious that condition was.
"Yeah." Soos glanced over at the entrance to the rest of the hospital.
"But, how?" Ford stuttered out. "We're only 58! That's way too young. After all, I was once told by an unreliable source that I wouldn't even have a heart attack until I'm 92."
"Dude, you guys are only 58?" Wendy looked over at him with a shocked expression. "I thought you were, like, 80!"
"What?"
"Grunkle Stan told me that he was almost 70." Mabel whispered.
Ford couldn't believe this. Stan had lied about their age and… Well, actually he could believe it.
Ford pinched the bridge of his nose. "Stanley, normally when people lie about their age, they tell people that they're younger." He muttered mostly to himself.
"Yeah, but younger people don't get senior discounts." Soos chipped in.
Well, that explained that.
"What sort of unreliable source would tell you that anyway?" Dipper narrowed his eyes at him in suspicion.
"By unreliable, I mean he's a known liar and manipulator, but at the same time, he takes great joy in people's suffering so he tends to be incredibly accurate with these sorts of predictions." Ford adjusted his glasses, uncomfortable with the attention being cast upon that particular part of his life.
Besides, Stan was the one in trouble right now.
All of them looked to the doors as someone walked through. Ford studied the new arrival. It was a woman who looked as if she was perhaps a few years older than him, a few traces of black in her mostly gray hair. She was obviously a doctor due to her garb and there were stern, no-nonsense lines in her face from the hard profession. However, there was still a kind gleam in her eye as she looked up from the clipboard in her hands.
"Ah, you must be here for Mr. Pines." She looked over at Soos. "It's odd that for once you didn't have to practically drag him here, Mr. Ramirez." There was a knowing spark in her eye.
"Yeah, he seemed to know what was going on." Soos tried to crack a smile but ultimately failed.
"Well," she shrugged, "I guess he does have a sense of self-preservation somewhere." She looked down at her clipboard. "Let's see, Miss Corduroy, Miss Pines, nice to see you again. And you're looking a lot better than the last time I saw you, younger Mr. Pines." Dipper avoided her gaze and rubbed his arm nervously. "Ever going to tell me what really caused those injuries before?"
Dipper gave a nervous laugh and Ford wondered what could have brought the boy to visit the hospital. However, Dipper expertly avoided her narrowed gaze and she finally sighed.
"You are so like your great-uncle." With that, she finally turned towards Ford and blinked.
Ford stiffened not knowing what her reaction would be, especially given his apparent relation to Stan and the fact that she thought his brother was him.
Her reaction wasn't what he was expecting.
"Ah, you must be the original Stanford who lived here. Nice to see you back, though I don't think we ever had the pleasure of meeting." The doctor held out a hand in greeting. "I'm Vera Strange, your brother's doctor."
Everyone's jaw dropped and they all stared at her.
No one had ever seemed to figure out that Stanley was not Stanford, but this doctor apparently had. Ford had thought that only those at the Shack had known, mostly because they had been there or been told the truth as a matter of convenience. So how was this…
"How? Wha-?" Ford completely forgot the situation at hand in light of this news.
Dr. Strange lifted an eyebrow as she lowered her hand, probably sensing that he wasn't going to shake it. "Do you really think I'm so incompetent at my job that I wouldn't notice that my patient has five fingers instead of the six he's supposed to have. And there are no signs of having said fingers removed."
Ah. That made a lot of sense. That was, after all, the cardinal difference that could be a dead giveaway. It was more surprising that no one else had caught that detail.
"So you're Stanford Filbrick Pines." She pointed at Ford and then gestured behind her, "And my patient back there is Stanley Cassandra 'Stanford' Pines." She raised her hands to make quotes around Ford's name within Stan's.
"His middle name is Cassandra?" Soos whispered in slight awe, but Ford ignored that and the twins' giggles at his brother's middle name.
"You knew all along?" Ford could only stare at her. "And you never told anyone?"
"Eh." Strange shrugged. "Mr. Pines knew that I knew and we just never talked about it. Luckily, I was able to get ahold of his records since the first time he was under my care was before he 'died.'" She was using the quotation marks again. "Besides, my job is to make people better, not make things harder for them.
"Anywho, let's get back to the reason we're all here." Strange looked back down at her clipboard.
The mood immediately sobered. Ford noticed the youngsters exchanging worried glances.
"Is it alright that we kinda delayed in talking here?" Wendy asked, and Ford could admit that he had never seen the usually chill teenager look so anxious.
"It's okay; he's unconscious so it's not like he's going to escape any time soon."
Ford tried to quell the alarm at her words.
"Why would he try to escape?" He knew that Stan had always hated going to the doctor's, but that seemed a bit extreme.
Both the doctor, Soos, and Wendy seemed to avoid looking at him. "Habit?" The doctor finally offered, again shrugging. "He seems to have the philosophy that if he can walk, he's well enough to leave. Or more likely escape as usually he's technically not well enough to actually be given permission to leave."
Or to avoid paying hospital bills without insurance. Thinking back on the fact that Stan had been homeless once, that made way too much sense to Ford. He swallowed down the sudden uncomfortable feeling he had and focused on the current issue.
"So my brother?" He asked. "Did he really have a heart attack?" The thought still seemed so incredibly foreign to him. People their age usually didn't have to deal with those.
"Yes." She nodded in confirmation. "Mr. Pines did indeed have a heart attack. We're currently looking into the cause as it appears there isn't any type of blockage that normally acts as the trigger." She flipped through some of the pages. "He'll be all right though as long as he gets some rest. He'll probably have to make some changes though after going home."
"He's not going to like that." Wendy muttered, her face twisting up. Soos and the kids nodded at her comment.
"No, he won't, but he'll do it while complaining all the way if he knows what's good for him." Dr. Strange agreed.
"Why, since he knows it's best for his health?" Ford had to ask. After all, from the little he had seen about his brother's habits, it didn't seem like his health was his highest priority.
"No, because he knows that if he doesn't, he'll have to deal with me." She said dryly, a smirk twitching at the corners of her mouth. She gave all of them a look over. "A couple of you can visit at a time if you want to, but, like I said, he's asleep."
"I'll go." All five of them said it at the same time. Quick looks were exchanged among them. After all, they couldn't all go at once.
Wendy broke first and sighed. "Hey, how about you two just sit tight with me for a moment?" She put a hand on each of the twins' shoulders. "Let Soos and Dr. Pines check on him real quick and then we can go in."
Dipper and Mabel looked at each other. Both of them were tense and obviously reluctant, but slowly they nodded and sat back down, Mabel clutching Dipper's hand.
Wendy shot Ford a look that told him not to waste this opportunity and he nodded his thanks. He had thought he'd been keeping his cool, but she had obviously picked up on his anxiety and how he didn't want the kids to see Stan just yet. Given his brother's condition, he had no clue how he would actually look and didn't want the kids to freak out over the potential amount of equipment he'd have.
"Alright then. Follow me." Dr. Strange ordered as she led Ford and Soos into the hallway towards the rooms.
AN: I am very proud of the doctor's name (do you hear the pun?), and yes, she is the mother of Tad Strange. She doesn't know how he turned out so normal either.