McGucket's Sanity

SUMMARY: McGucket goes through the process of gaining his memories and some sanity back. His son Tate helps him out through this process with better understanding of his father's past.

MAIN CHARACTERS: Fiddleford McGucket and Tate McGucket

Fiddleford McGucket sat in his small bedroom in the small house that he shared with his son Tate, him looking in a mirror.

Slowly over time his memories were coming back, although they were in spurts. He knew that with given more time he would regain his memories, after all Dipper got his back. Well… most of them.

Fiddleford was remembering his time in college with Ford, and how he actually met his wife. He remembered when his son was born. A lot of his happier memories were coming back, and some of them made him smile.

Then the bad memories started coming back.

The memory of coming to Gravity Falls with his family was pleasant enough, until the research with Ford caused his wife to leave him. Then when the portal was first activated at he accidentally went inside, seeing all the horrible things that was beyond it. Him wanting to be rid of the memories so much he invented a memory erasing gun and he blasted himself so many times with him it caused him to go insane.

He slowly gets up, adjusting his patched up hat on his white hair. Fiddleford walks into the small living room, seeing his son fixing up some fishing poles. Tate had traveled all over the country like many people during Weirdmageddon, and he came back to Gravity Falls mainly for his father. The two did reconcile, although it took a little, or a lot, of explanation by Ford about the reason why Fiddleford was like this.

"Whatcha doin', Tate?" Fiddleford asked his son.

"Fixing the fishing poles, some of the townspeople are gonna start fishing." Tate replies, untangling a fish line. "Even though that Dipper kid does a lot of hunting, fishing will give those animals a little time to repopulate. That and it is good to change your diet one in a while."

"Oh!" Fiddleford exclaims. "Lemme help ya out!"

Tate gives a small smile. "Okay, Dad." He replies as he handed him a fishing pole.

After the fishing lines were untangled and everything was in proper order, the two went and passed out fishing poles to anyone who was willing to fish their Saturday away. This included both Ford and Stan, who did enjoy fishing as a relaxing activity, and included Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland.

The six had spent their Saturday in a large fishing boat the both sets of Pines Twins had helped rebuild for their outings on the lake. Each were telling their own kinds of stories, Stan's of course being dramatic as ever. Ford would ask Fiddleford if he remembered the things they did in college, and Fiddleford would tell a story he recalled.

Although he was getting his memories back in broken pieces, there were times where he would lapse…

On a good day he would remember multiple things, then he'd go and try to chase a raccoon again and make it his pet. On a bad day he would just keep talking about his once known ramblings of "the local town kook" and have no progress whatsoever. Because Tate understood his father's situation now, it was easier for him to help his father through it instead of brushing him off to the side like he had done in the past.

With these bad days Tate would sit his father down and ask him simple questions. What is your full name? What is your son's name? Then he'd move on to some bigger questions. How did you meet mom? What was your college days like?

On those bad days it did help Fiddleford get through them, him smiling when he would tell the story on how he met Tate's mother. Although the stories would be slow, as he was trying to piece the memories together, Tate never once tried to rush him or add in the details himself, he would just let his father process everything himself unless he was asked to give his father a hint to jog his memory.

Fiddleford was even dressing a bit better now, with the chilly weather wearing a sweater made by Mabel and pants. He was even wearing shoes instead of those old bandages, and it felt odd but he eventually got used to them. He trimmed his long white beard to make it a little more presentable and neat looking and his hair as well. It was going to take him time to get used to everything, but he was making due.

Like Dipper there were certain things that triggered a darker side of Fiddleford's memory… He couldn't look at a triangle without speaking backwards, him laughing insanely which would cause Tate worry. Certain blue lights made him start freaking out and pace around the room, again speaking backwards and talking about "the beast with one eye". With Tate's help Fiddleford gets through it, although it could take all day.

Slowly by surly, Fiddleford McGucket was getting his memories back. Although he will never truly be the same man that had entered Gravity Falls so many years ago, he can become a better man again for his friends and family.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello everyone! Sorry if this was a little short, but I figured we all deserved a little story about Old Man McGucket going through the process of recovery!

Thanks for reading as always!

~Skye Hendersen~