HAT: Stanley's gonna go through a whole lotta crap in this story... hopefully that gets better. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: If I owned Gravity Falls this show wouldn't be on a kid's channel.
"Stanley, we need to talk."
"About what?"
"About that."
What Stanford is talking about is the fact that Stanley has Mabel in a baby carrier on his chest and she's been there all day- even when he was doing the tour he had her on his chest and during lunch he fed her with her still on his chest. Last night shook him so bad that he didn't want his great-niece out of his sight for even a second- though bathroom breaks were the only occasions that he allowed that- no need for any of that.
"What's wrong with a man carrying his great-niece around?"
"There are multiple answers! One: She's twelve; she's to big to carry around all day. Secondly: You're too old to carry even a baby without putting strain on your back. Thirdly-"
"I get it, I get it, but there's a valid reason for this!"
"And what is it?"
He doesn't want to tell the truth so he figures he'll tell half of it. "Mabel had a bad dream and I'm carrying her around to show that I won't keel over anytime soon."
"I think she gets the point now. Sweetie, do you wanna get down?"
She shrugs. "I dunno..."
"Stanley, could we talk without Mabel for a second?" Stanford asks, his brown eyes trying to get the man to see that it might not be something he wants to talk about in front of her.
Stanley sighs and picks the girl up from under the armpits and places her on the floor. "Go wash up for dinner, sweetie."
Stanford peeks to make sure she goes to do as asked and turns to his brother and hisses under his breath. "Did you have a nightmare about Mabel dying or something?"
"No, it's not that. She had a nightmare last night."
"What does that nightmare have to do anything? I know you'd be doing something else if that were the case."
Stanley pinches the bridge of his nose and lets out an irritable sigh. "Listen, it's nothing-"
"Don't lie to me, Stanley."
"Look, it's none of your business, Stanford!" Stanley starts out a bit louder than he intended, but gets quieter just in case so no one else could hear him. "You didn't care before, don't act like you care now."
"But, Stan-"
Stanley gives him a fierce glare and halts his brother in his tracks. "Don't, Stanford. Now I've gotta go pick up some things and I expect you to keep the kids safe- understand?"
Stanford looks ready to protest, but he nods. "Okay."
Without another word he turns and walks to the door and grabs his keys and storms out of the house. He won't be picking up anything except peace and quiet. He checks the back seat and the trunk for children- he can't be too careful- and then he drives off. He's always been a reckless driver- but he's had the reflected not to get in a wreck save for two or three other times, but that's a story for another time.
He just drives for a what seems like only a hot second, but by the time he pulls into the driveway it's been four hours. He goes inside and tosses his keys into their proper place before blatantly ignoring his brother and going straight to the attic to check on the children. Once he's sure that they're fine he goes back down the stairs and undoes his tie, his jacket button, and the top two buttons of his shirt and then takes off his coat. He enters his room and the lamp light comes on and sitting there is not just his brother- like he expected as soon as he saw the light, but also the twins.
These kids are much smarter than I gave them credit for, he thinks first, but then he gets angry. "What're you doing letting them stay up this late? Why're you all in my room?"
"They were asleep, but they work up because they were worried because of you and came to me. Where have you been, Stanley?"
"No where- out," he grunts in reply and hangs is jacket up and then he sighs. "I'm home safe."
"Grunkle Stan, don't you remember Auntie Hazel?" Mabel asks.
Stanford winces at that and his gaze lowers to the ground of the thought of his niece.
She died eight years ago in a car crash after going out for a drive to cool down after a heated argument with her husband. Ever since that day the entire family pretty much got up in arms about anyone going out for a drive. Sadly Stan needed this to cool down because leaving it pent up after a while doesn't work at all for him so every time he does it- which has happened more often since his brother came back- the twins have a near panic attack every time he leaves for a drive and often try and get him to stop for good, but he's yet to stop.
"I'm sorry for worrying you guys so much."
"You said that last time," Dipper reminds.
Stanley scratches the back of his head and then sighs. "I don't know what to say..."
"Could we stay in here with you?" The small girl asks.
After looking at her for a few seconds he sighs. "Yeah, I guess." He gets undressed into his usual casual attire and turns to see that his brother isn't leaving. In fact, he's staying and he knows this because Stanley takes off his robe and hands it up. "Oh, no. I agreed to the kids staying, not you."
"She said "we" which also implied me."
Stanley glares at his brother, but decides not to argue in front of the kids. "Fine."
Stanley gets on his side of the bed and the children lie in the middle and Stanford gets on the other side. Mabel is against Stanford and Dipper is curled against Stanley. When he looks down at the children he can see how exhausted they are. They waited four hours for him to come back and haven't gotten any sleep worrying about him. Guilt tugs at his heart and he kisses both of their temples and moves the hair out of their face.
"G'night kids..." He says just as his brother does- something obviously not done on purpose since the both of them look at each other in shock.
"G'nigh," they each mumble and cuddle into their respective grunkles.
This is so weird.
It's so weird that he only gets three hours sleep that night while the other three sleep like babies.
The reason that he only gets three hours worth of sleep is because throughout the night he's woken up by children moving and Dipper kicking him in the side. He even ended up nearly falling on the floor twice because the children decided to take most of the room on the bed. The only reason he even got sleep was because he picked up both children by their ankles- and he's surprised they didn't wake up- and placed one on his brother's chest and the other on his own. He doesn't know which child is on who's chest since he doesn't have his glasses and everything's dark, but he does know that it's easier to sleep when he has a bed to sleep on.
When it's time to start waking up he feels terrible- he just stopped trying to get sleep all together by that point. He hasn't gotten so little sleep since he was working on the portal. His body doesn't want to work with him, but he forces it to get up to he can work. He puts on his glasses and puts the kid on his chest back on the bed and quietly gathers his clothes for the day and makes his way out of the room.
Stanley takes a quick shower and takes ten minutes to fix his hair. He pulls on and buttons his shirt and then pulls on his pants only to find that he's left his belt in the room in the middle of stuffing his shirt into his pants. He goes back into the room and finds all three still asleep and grabs his belt before sneaking back out while putting it on. Once that's done he pulls on his jacket and buttons it before fixing his sleeves and grabbing the red ribbon with a heaviness in his heart and ties it around his neck with the image of a small, brunette twelve year old girl wearing the ribbon floating in his mind. He shoves the image out of his mind and fixes his hair once more before putting on his fez.
"Lookin' good," he says in the mirror and then turns around and curses himself for leaving his signature eyepatch and 8-ball cane in the room. "Oh, boy, this is just gonna be a great day."
He rubs his forehead and goes downstairs and pours himself a cup of coffee- he'll need it after the long night he had. He eats two slices of toast covered in jam and then walks out of the kitchen to brush his "teeth" so it won't scare away his customers with his bad breath like that one time Wendy decided she wanted to pull a prank on him and change his toothpaste- now he checks his toothpaste before he even dares brush his teeth.
Five more minutes and he's opening up the Mystery Shack.
Soos blinks in surprise at seeing his boss awake already when he walks up to the Shack. "Mr. Pines? What're you doing up so early?"
"Long night," he replies gruffly.
Luckily Soos gets the message to not ask anymore questions. "Want me to call Wendy and have her come early?"
"Nah, let her sleep," he grunts. Like I didn't.
He walks back into the tourist trap and is barreled into by a small body. "Whoa, you're getting snot on my suit.. what's wrong, sweetie?" He notices Stanford and Dipper walking in behind her- Stanford scratching his chin and Dipper rubbing his eye. Mabel tries to speak, but she can't and simply sobs into him. He hugs her to himself and runs his fingers soothingly though her hair while murmuring words of comfort. He turns and glares at the two Pines males standing in the doorway. "What happened?"
"She had a nightmare and thought you died so she woke us up to ask where you were and came running out here when she couldn't find you anywhere," Stanford answers.
Dipper looks at his sister with a sad frown. "She's never had a dream this bad before... I couldn't calm her down."
Now Stanley knows how serious this is. Dipper can always calm Mabel down, so for the girl not to be able to calm down until she sees the man alive and well is something that makes him worry. It reminds him not only of his daughter, but it also reminds him of himself when he had the dream where both Dipper and Mabel died. He doesn't want her to go through what he's had to go through.
"It was horrible," Mabel manages. "There was blood and-"
"Shhh, shhh, it's okay, everything's fine," Stanley assures, but he hugs her a little tighter. He can't let what happened then happen again. He cannot lose Mabel. He pulls back and wipes her eyes. "See? Look at me, sweetie, I'm right here..."
Mabel's bottom lip quivers and she nods. "O-okay."
He picks her up under her armpits and brings her up so that her cheek can rest on his shoulder and uses one arm to support her back and the other arm for her to sit on. "C'mon... Dipper, go get some of the nasal spray and tissues. Soos, fix everything up."
Dipper runs off to do just that and Stanley quickly walks back his brother to go to the the house part of the Mystery Shack. His insides churn at the possibility that it's happening again. He won't let Mabel die in his place- he can't.
"Mabel, it's okay, just breathe. It was just a bad dream- your old Grunkle Stan's a hard one to kill!" He reassures, taking out his handkerchief and holding it out to her. "Here, clean yourself up."
She wipes her eyes and then blows her nose. "Promise me you won't die, Grunkle Stan?"
"Listen, sweetie, I-"
"Promise!"
He sighs when he sees that she won't calm down unless he makes this impossible promise. "I promise."
HAT: I haven't decided whether I kill him or not- I have a problem killing my favorite characters (but torturing them is acceptable apparently).
Dipper: Why would you wanna kill Grunkle Stan?!
HAT: I don't want to, but I might in this case!
Dipper: Might? That means he has a chance!
HAT: Yeah.
Dipper: How much bacon to ensure he lives?
HAT: N- wait... we'll discuss this after. Say the thing now.
Dipper: Review, everyone! *turns to HAT* Now about not killing Grunkle Stan-
HAT: Wait until it fades to black.
*slowly fades to black*