Therapy

SUMMARY: Ford and Dipper decide to go to therapy, but the diagnosis isn't something Ford is very fond of. Also, Dipper learns something about his great uncle's past.

MAIN CHARACTERS: Stanford Pines and Dipper Pines

Ford and Dipper walk through town, going to the small office that they had to go to for their first session of therapy.

Of course Ford wasn't too thrilled, he'd rather not go. But he had to for his nephew, he told him and Stan that he would get help too. Although he was haunted with nightmares himself, he was used to them as for years he has been plagued with the sounds of Bill Cipher's shrill laughter. However, he knew Dipper was having problems and since he was young it was much harder for him to handle.

Ford finds the building and with his nephew enters in. Inside was empty, only a few chairs scattered around. The two Pines walk to the front desk, both adjusting their glasses during the process in unison.

"Hello, how can I help you today?" the perky blonde receptionist asks them.

"Uh, yes," Ford says a little nervously. "We have appointments for Stanford and Dipper Pines."

The receptionist clicks on her old looking desktop. "Ah!" she exclaims when she found their names. "Stanford you will be seeing Frederick and Dipper will be seeing Emily. Then after you two are done you both are going to see Dr. Wells."

"Why are we seeing different people?" Dipper asks the receptionist.

"You are seeing a therapist and then seeing the psychologist." She explains gently.

The two Pines then sit on the chairs, Ford's trench coat hanging off the seat. Dipper was wearing a simple blue t-shirt and wore a navy blue puffer vest and jeans, his pine tree hat sitting proudly on his head. The two sat there, watching the door, waiting for them to be called.

"Grunkle Ford…" Dipper whispers to his great uncle.

"Yeah?"

"I'm actually kind of nervous… what if they send me to the nuthouse or something?"

Ford stiffens. "You're not. They're probably going to give you some medicine, like antidepressants or something…" he whispers back.

Dipper glances away from the door. "Are you sure…?" he asks softly, not convinced.

Ford puts a hand on Dipper's shoulder. "They won't take you away, okay? Stan and I will not have it. Understand?" Ford assures him.

Dipper nods as the door opens. "Dipper Pines?" a female worker called out. With a sigh, Dipper stands up and walks through the door, the woman asking him how his day was. A few minutes pass and the same lady then calls for Ford to follow. He was lead to a poster decorated room where there was a desk and a comfy looking couch.

Ford was alone in the room for a moment until someone walks in behind him. "Hello, Stanford, I'm Frederick." A man says, extending his hand. The man was as tall as him, and he was younger, probably about half his age, with dark brown hair and green eyes, his facial hair in a goatee.

"Ford, you can call me Ford." Ford insists, taking Frederick's hand.

"Ford, huh?" Frederick muses, an amused smile on his face. "I've never met someone with that nickname, it's usually 'Stan'."

Ford gives a smile in return. "That's actually my twin's name. Stanford and Stanley Pines. Ford and Stan." He explains, he gives a shrug.

Frederick makes an "ah" sound in understanding. He then goes and sits at his desk and gestures to the couch for Ford. "So, Ford, anything in particular you want to talk about today?" he asks casually.

"Um," Ford replies sheepishly. "I'm mainly here for my nephew…" he tells him. "He's in more rough shape than myself. I've been dealing with my thoughts for over thirty years, he's just a kid."

Frederick types something on the computer, causing Ford to frown. The therapist then looks at Ford as if wanting him to continue. Ford raises an eyebrow.

"So… you see, I don't really need this," Ford continues. "I'm a doctor myself, I have twelve PhD's."

"Oh?" Frederick questions. "Twelve PhD's at your age? I can see two or three, but twelve?"

Ford gives a shrug. "I'm smart." He says simply.

The therapist then notices Ford's hands for the first time. His eyes widened with awe. "Wow, six fingers on each hand? Polydactyl? That's something!" he exclaims.

Ford widens his eyes and glances at his hands. "Yeah…" Ford replies slowly. "I get very mixed reactions about it."

Frederick then raises an eyebrow. "So… you were bullied about it as a child?" he asked nicely, making conversation.

"Yes, I was actually- WAIT A MINUTE!" Ford was saying then abruptly changed his tone. "You're not tricking me into tell you my life story here!" he yells at Frederick.

The man puts his hands up in surrender. "Okay, sorry, Ford," he apologizes, his eyes wide at the sudden change in Ford's attitude.

"Like I said, I am here mainly for my nephew." Ford insists, his voice hard.

"I understand… you'll talk when you're ready." Frederick said, him typing something on the computer. "Probably within the next few visits."

"Next… few visits?" Ford questions angrily. "Who said I was coming back!?"

Frederick gives him a hard look. "Look I'll be frank, Dr. Pines, you obviously have some deep issues yourself. You probably have some repressed anger or sadness. You said you had a twin right? Did you two ever have a falling out or…?"

Ford glares hard at Frederick, him standing up. His hand reaches to his side and he moves his trench coat, revealing the interdimensional gun he owned for over thirty years. "It would be wise if you didn't bring that up again," he coldly said.

There was a knock at the door and Ford puts the coat over his gun again. Frederick said that it was okay to come in and the woman that had lead Ford to the room pops her head in.

"Dr. Wells is ready to see Ford now, Emily finished with Dipper," the woman said.

"Alright." Frederick says as he gets up. He hands Ford a card. "Please… when you're ready to talk, come back, okay?"

Ford reluctantly takes the card and puts it in the inside coat pocket. He follows the woman to a different room where Dipper was sitting on the coach, him looking at his hands as if he was seeing something. Ford takes a seat next to him and Dipper hugs him close, a panicked look in his eyes.

"Dipper!?" Ford exclaims in shock. "Are you okay?!"

A new voice then says, "He was just reliving some of the trauma while he was talking with Emily." A new person walks in, a middle aged woman with long auburn hair streaked with gray. Her eyes were a pale blue and her nose was sharp looking. She takes a seat in her chair at her desk, pulling up the Pines files on her computer. "It's only natural, Stanford."

"Ford." He sternly replies. "And I thought this was supposed to help him, not make him go into a psychological meltdown!"

Dr. Wells gives him a glare. "Like I said, it is natural for people to relive some painful memories when talking about them." She then types something on her computer.

"Oh, what!?" Ford yells, him standing up. "Are you typing that I'm not complying to talk with you guys!? That I'm incoherent to you?!"

"Dr. Pines, please calm down." Dr. Wells orders sternly. "From what I understand is that you two have been the personal puppets of Bill Cipher, the demon that had taken over the world."

Ford's heart drops. "How… how do you know that?" he asks, his voice barely above a whisper.

"One, I've had family obliterated by you in that one town in the Midwest," she coldly replies, practically sending shivers up Ford's spine. "Two, I've had friends in Italy that was brutally murdered by him," she then points at Dipper. "And finally, because Dipper mentioned it with his talk with Emily."

"Listen here-" Ford began to say but was interrupted by Dr. Wells.

"But, it's not anyone's fault." Dr. Wells then gives Ford a sympathetic glance. "It's not… from what I've read in Dipper's file, it's that you two made a deal to protect your family. You wanted to protect your twin and your great niece and nephew, and he was wanted to protect his twin and his great uncles. The demon manipulated the both of you to get what he wanted."

Ford then sits back down next to Dipper, the boy finally calming down. The old scientist puts a reassuring hand on his nephew's shoulder.

"Now…" Dr. Wells continues. "From what I've read and from what I've seen here in this room in the last five minutes is that you two are suffering from PTSD, clinical depression and anxiety, and even signs of Schizophrenia."

"… What?" Ford sputters in disbelief. "I can believe the other stuff, but Schizophrenia?"

"I'm not saying you have it, I'm just saying you have signs of it." Dr. Wells insists. "You two have what we call the 'positive' signs, such as hallucinations, delusions, and agitation. Those are very easy to control and handle with the right combination of medicines. As long as you don't have the 'negative' signs, you can lead a very normal life.

"But, these symptoms overlap with the anxiety, so it is a possibility that you two could be suffering Paranoid Schizophrenia, which is the most basic form and the easiest to treat. So, like I said we don't for sure if you two have it. What we can do is start you two on basic antidepressant medicines that also helps with anxiety. If I feel you need a higher dose or different medicine, I will change it." Dr. Wells finishes.

Ford sits there to process the information she just said. He's been in college, he had to take psychology classes for his degrees. But it had been so long since he had been school that psychological medicine has greatly changed since the seventies. It seemed he had no choice but to comply.

"Fine… I'll… agree to the treatment." Ford says to her.

"And for Dipper I will send you home with a consent form for your brother to sign." Dr. Wells says as she prints up the form.

"Why can't I?" Ford asks. "I am his guardian too next to Stanley."

Dr. Wells gives a sigh and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Fine… I'll allow it this one time…" she says as she hands Ford the piece of paper and he signs it for Dipper to receive medication. "Both of your prescriptions will be at the pharmacy within an hour."

"Thank you…" Ford whispers.

"Thank you, Dr. Wells." Dipper then says, gripping tightly at the pendant underneath his shirt.

Dr. Wells then stands up and opens the door. "Alright, we are done here, I will see you both again here in a month. I have another patient to see today…"

Both Ford and Dipper walk out of the office and back into the lobby. In the lobby they see McGucket and Tate sitting in the chairs.

"Fiddleford?" Ford calls out in surprise.

"Stanford?" McGucket shouts excitedly, him jumping up. "I'm actually surprised to see you here! It's like seeing a pickle out of a barrel!"

Dipper tilts his head confusion. "Pickle out of a barrel…?" he questions.

McGucket then gives his old friend a hug. "It's good to see you swallow'n your pride, ol' friend!" he says to Ford. "Now… it's my turn…!"

The two Pines then walk out of the building, the sky above them cloudy as cool rain began to fall down. Ford felt the rain hit his face, the drops forming on his glasses as he looked up in the sky as thunder rolled. This was the first time he actually felt the Earth's rain on his face since returning from beyond the portal, the rain reminding him of when a hand wrapped around his as they ran through the interdimensional storms…

"Grunkle Ford?" Dipper's voice interrupts his thoughts.

"Oh, yes, Dipper?" Ford responds, slightly distracted. "Sorry, I was just thinking of something…"

"It's okay…" Dipper assures. "Well… we have time to kill, wanna get some lunch?" he asks.

Ford honestly wasn't hungry, but he needed to eat more. They walk to Greasy's Diner and get a table and they sit across each other. Dipper got the on special soup and a lemonade while Ford got a small plate of fries and a water.

"So… you're okay, Dipper?" Ford asks his nephew. "You didn't suffer too much… right?"

Dipper looks up from his soup. "I've been better…" he admits sadly. "I mean… it felt nice to talk about it to someone other than the family and Pacifica… How was your session?"

"I… I wasn't comfortable telling a complete stranger things that I haven't even really told my family yet…" Ford whispers, him stirring the ketchup on his plate with a fry.

Dipper stiffens. "Oh…" he softly says. "That… makes sense…" He stirs his soup. "So… what haven't you told us about…? What about that 'someone' you met in the portal?"

Ford drops the fry. "Um… I don't really think…" he stammers.

"Can you tell me a name at least?" Dipper pleads, his brown eyes wide like a puppy's. It honestly reminded Ford of Mabel when she was begging for something…

"Layla," he gently tells Dipper. "Her name was Layla."

"Was…?"

Ford goes silent and pushes his fries away, barely touching them. The bill comes and Ford pays it and the two leave with a box filled with Ford's fries, him thinking he could give them to Stan or Mabel to eat so they wouldn't go to waste.

They went to small town pharmacy and picked up their medicine, Dipper carrying the small white bag trying to make sure it didn't get soaked in the rain. Ford preferred to walk everywhere in Gravity Falls, so they didn't take Stan's car like Stan said they could. He sued to have a car when he first came to Gravity Falls, but of course as soon as he got there one of the anomalies of the town destroyed it, which intrigued him greatly.

Once they entered the house, Dipper goes upstairs to his room to do some of his reading. Before he did Ford had handed him his bottle of medicine and reminded his nephew to take the medication before bed. Ford goes into the kitchen and makes a pot of coffee, and once he poured it into one of his science punned mugs he sat the kitchen table.

"Hey, Sixer, how'd it go?" Stan's gruff voice asked from the doorway. His tie was undone, his fez was crooked on his head, and his suit jacket was unbuttoned.

"Fine…" Ford absently replies.

Stan gives a sad smile. "So… same time next week for therapy?" he asks his twin.

Ford looks at him, his brown gaze sad. He knew Stan wanted him to continue to go, even though he didn't want to. He sighs and gives a nod.

"Same time next week, Lee."

A/N: Please note that I am not an expert in psychology, I have done some research to be able to understand that mental disorders that was part of this chapter and used knowledge from my own experiences and classes. If you suspect that you may have any of these disorders listed please see a professional for a proper diagnosis, and I wish you all the luck in the world as these kinds of things are sometimes hard to deal with.

So, on a happier note... Dipper learned Layla's name! Woooo!

Thanks for reading as always!

~Skye Hendersen~