Chapter Twenty-Six: A Date with Pacifica
The leaves were starting to fall around Gravity Falls. The trees were turning into their fall colors and the nights were getting cool. Wendy's stomach hadn't begun to show just yet, but it had been over four weeks since they'd discovered Wendy was pregnant and she took the accelerant serum, so sooner rather than later, she would start showing. Dipper took a deep breath, holding Wendy's hand as they went into Wendy's house.
"Don't worry, Dipper. Dad will be cool about it. I promise." Wendy said.
She didn't know why she was promising that. She couldn't guarantee that he would be cool. Her dad often proved that he had zero chill about a lot of things.
"Hey, Dipper. Good to see you again! You want a beer?" Dan asked, sitting down with him.
"Oh, no thank you. I don't drink. Underage, you know." Dipper said.
"Right, right. What do you want?" Dan asked.
"I-I mean… Sir…"
"I'm pregnant, Dad." Wendy said. Dan was silent for a long moment.
"So that's why you've been so moody lately." Dan said.
"And I take it you got her pregnant?" Dan demanded, staring intensely at Dipper, who gulped, nodding.
"And I assume you're going to take responsibility. When can I expect you to propose to her?" Dan asked. It wasn't really a question. It was an expectation.
"Dad!" Wendy protested. She didn't expect Dipper to propose to her just yet. They'd only been dating for about two and a half months so far.
"Sweetie… I'm just trying to make sure that he treats you right, that he doesn't take you for granted." Dan said. He liked Dipper, but he was still quite protective of Wendy.
"Fine. But if you hurt Wendy, you'll have me to answer to, boy!" Dan growled. Dipper gulped heavily, nodding. He was sure that he couldn't sustain a fight with Dan, even with his regeneration, he would lose quickly. He would just recover fast.
"I have to go for my appointment with Ford, Dad. He's examining me." Wendy said.
"Oh, okay. When did you get pregnant?" Dan asked.
"About a month ago." Wendy said.
"That's when I took my test anyway. I had sex with Dipper about two weeks before that, but four-ish weeks ago, Ford gave me a serum to accelerate my pregnancy. That's why I've been so stupid hungry and moody." Wendy said.
"Is that why you're already starting to show?" Dan asked. Wendy nodded. That was probably why. She was about four months along equivalently. Wendy went back to Dipper's place. She was surprisingly emotional these days. Even with the mood stabilizing serums, she easily got upset.
Ford assured her that was normal and that she shouldn't let it bother her, but she worried that she was dragging the Pineses down with it.
"Maybe I should just hang out on my own. I've been spending a lot of time with Dipper lately, even considering we're dating." Wendy said. She needed some time to herself though. She went out for a walk in the woods.
-0-
Wendy stayed in the shallow areas of the woods, wanting to be close to town in case she needed to rest her back. She was starting to show and as much as she hated to admit it, it was causing her some back pain. They'd been to see Ford several times. Ford had told her that her babies… Yes, she was having twins… Were healthy so far and that she needed to her shakes at least once every five hours. It wasn't necessary to wake up during the night to drink one. But she should drink one right before she brushed her teeth at night and immediately when she woke up in the morning. Ford also gave her some nutrient pills and various vitamins that would help her and the babies.
Ford had told her that it was likely the babies would develop mentally and physically much faster than normal babies. They wouldn't age faster, but they would walk and talk sooner than normal babies. They would develop language skills faster and would absorb information more easily. This was at least partially due to the accelerant having an after effect on the babies' brains and bodies. But right now, Wendy felt painfully constrained. She was being told by Dipper and by Ford to take it easy, to not work too hard, to rest if she felt tired.
She just wanted to keep her normal life, to hike in the woods, to climb trees, to rough it out in the woods at night.
"I wonder what we should name the kids. Deirdre if one of them was a girl. Dipper wanted to name the eldest Stanford if it was a boy, but he was conflicted on whether he should name their boy Stanley since Stan died so recently. Or maybe Matthew after their father, who also died recently.
"Hmm… There's been a lot of death in Dipper's family recently.
"Maybe I should let him name the kids, boy or girl." Wendy said to herself. She really wanted to name the girl Deirdre if they had a girl after her mother. But she knew Dipper was just as anxious about the kids as she was.
"They're my damn kids! I should be able to name them what I want. And we can name the boy Stanford or Stanley or Matthew if Dipper wants. He should be fine with me naming the girl after my mother." Wendy said. She was feeling strangely sluggish these days.
And these moments of intense emotion where she had outbursts tired her more than usual. She took a drink of her green tea. Ford had invented his own tea that supposedly had stores of a pheromone that would enhance brain activity. Ford wanted to test it. He assured Wendy that it wasn't dangerous. And it tasted really good. It had hints of lemon and cucumber in it, though the main flavor was mint.
"Mmm… Th-this is really good…" Wendy sobbed. She'd been having some sobbing fits lately. Her pregnancy, Ford said was more intense than it would be for most because of the accelerant. But he promised her she wasn't in danger.
Wendy gulped lightly, grabbing some snacks from her backpack, opening a bag of chips and starting to eat them. After half an hour, she reached the bottom of the bag, sighing. She'd gone through a whole bag of chips again. She wandered around for a little while before heading back to the Pines' place. A week had gone by since their meeting with Dan and she was taking a lot of walks. It was getting late though. She went back to the Shack and knocked on the door.
"Wendy! Come in… You don't need to knock." Dipper said.
Wendy went inside and sat down on the couch, needing to rest her back. She was almost six months along, so she was slowing down physically. She sighed as she sat down.
"You okay?" Dipper asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Just some back pain. It will all subside once I give birth." Wendy said. Dipper nodded, sitting with Wendy.
"You should spend more time with Pacifica. Just cuz I'm pregnant doesn't mean she's not still your girlfriend." Wendy said. She also noticed that while Dipper did go on dates with Pacifica, he went on more dates with her. They went on dates in the woods a lot while his dates with Pacifica were fewer.
-0-
"Hey, Paz." Dipper said, sitting down with Pacifica, kissing her lightly on the lips. Pacifica leaned in eagerly to the kiss. She knew that Wendy was pregnant. She knew Wendy needed Dipper's attention more than she did. But she wished Dipper would pay more attention to her still.
"Wendy says I'm not giving you enough attention… And… She's right. I want to fix that today. I'm taking you on a date. Anywhere you want to go." Dipper said.
"Really? Anywhere?"
"Sure. Where do you want to go?" Dipper asked.
"Portland?" Pacifica asked. Dipper chuckled.
"Sure. Let's go." Dipper said.
"I can pay for the date. Mom is apparently still giving me my 2,000 dollars a month in my account.
"Apparently she wasn't lying when she said she didn't have a problem with me dating you. Or maybe she changed her mind after Dad died." Pacifica said.
"Either way, I can afford to pay for our date." Pacifica said. Dipper smiled.
"If you want to. But you don't have to. I'm not as rich as you. I don't have any 2,000 dollars in my account. But I think I can afford a movie and dinner or something like that." Dipper said.
"You know, I don't think anyone's ever offered to pay for a date when they're going with me. They always just assume that I have more money than I know what to do with. And I do. But it's really sweet that you're willing to pay regardless." Pacifica said.
"We'll work it out on the go." Dipper said, opening the passenger door of his car for Pacifica.
"Merci beaucoup." Pacifica said, kissing him on the cheek and getting in.
Dipper's car was hardly high end, but it was nice and he'd made sure it had good security. He knew that Ford was working on a more advanced car and wanted Dipper to test it out when it was finished.
"Okay." Dipper said, putting Portland into his MapQuest. He drove them to the capital and found a garage to park in. He got a ticket and stuck it in his wallet.
"So, what did you have in mind for Portland?" Dipper asked.
"Why don't we just go and take a walk? We can go walk in the park or something." Pacifica said.
"Sure. Sounds like fun." Dipper said, taking Pacifica's hand. He locked up the car, setting the alarm and double locking the doors and windows. He knew that Ford's car for him would be a lot more secure. It would also likely have security measures that no current car had.
They left the garage and headed toward the park, their fingers laced as they walked. It was still pretty light out, so neither of them were that worried. It was a beautiful, warm day out. A little humid and cloud cover was starting to come in. Dipper saw on his phone that it might start raining later. It was about a 60% chance of rain. Not a huge chance, but more than half.
"Ugh… Why do these people always congregate on the sidewalk? Shouldn't they be inside?" Pacifica asked, looking at a homeless person.
Pacifica was much kinder than she used to be, but she was still a bit stuck up.
"He's homeless. He doesn't have anywhere to go." Dipper said, going into a store and buying some food for the person.
"Don't give the homeless money. Give them food. If you give them money, they might end up spending it on alcohol or drugs. You don't know. Give them food, and they'll have something to eat." Dipper said. He put a bag of things like bread, peanut butter, jelly, sealed packs of cheese, some celery and chips.
He gave the man the chips so that he would have a bit of a snack sometimes if he wanted them.
"God bless you." The man said. Not many people would put out this much money for a homeless person. Some were kind enough to give him between 1 and 5 dollars. Some people gave him a little bit of food. But Dipper had stopped into a store and probably spent upwards of 20 dollars on him.
"Have a good day." Dipper said, heading to the park with Pacifica.
"Did you really have to spend all that money on him? Do you know him?" Pacifica asked.
"No. But I had the money to spend and I thought giving him some food that he could actually benefit from in terms of nutrition would help him." Dipper said, kissing Pacifica adoringly. Pacifica sighed happily, running her hands through his scruffy hair.
"You need to get that mop on your head cut." She chuckled.
"I know. I've been a bit distracted lately. Otherwise I would have gotten it cut." Dipper said.
They went into the park. Just as they were about to cross the lawn, Dipper shoved Pacifica's head down and caught a frisbee.
"Whoa! Hey dude! Good catch!" One of the players exclaimed as Dipper threw the frisbee back.
"You okay, Paz?" Dipper asked. Pacifica rolled her eyes.
"Did you have to throw me down on the ground?" She asked.
"No. I could have simply pushed you aside. You didn't get dirty, did you?" Dipper joked.
"No. I'm fine." Pacifica said.
"You guys want to join us? Play frisbee with us?" A girl asked. Dipper looked at Pacifica, who shook her head. She didn't know how to play Frisbee. Dipper chuckled.
"Maybe another time." Dipper said, continuing the walk with Pacifica. He went running in the morning almost every day with Wendy. But lately, he hadn't gotten much of a chance to just hang out with Pacifica.
"You want to just sit and talk?" Dipper asked, looking at the trees, which were starting to turn red and orange and yellow. Fall was really coming. It was warm-ish during the day. But at night, it was really getting chilly. Not chilly enough to need the heat on. Because of their bionics, their bodies didn't need external heat sources as badly. The bionics provided an internal heat source and their bodies tended to be about 1-1.5 degrees warmer than the normal body.
"Sorry I haven't been as attentive to you as I should have lately." Dipper said guiltily.
"Ah, don't worry about it, Dipper. You've been focused on Wendy being pregnant." Pacifica replied. Dipper nodded, kissing Pacifica gently on the lips. Pacifica smiled, blushing slightly.
"You know, you really saved my life when you agreed to date me. I mean, not literally of course. But I still appreciate it." Pacifica said. Dipper nodded.
"Of course. I really do like both you and Wendy. And if you're willing to let me date both of you…" Dipper said. Pacifica laughed.
"I never thought I would be. I've always been the possessive type. But hey, it works and you really did save me from a pretty terrible situation." Pacifica said.
"This isn't quid pro quo, Paz. You don't have to accept me dating Wendy just because I prevented you from having to marry some jerk." Dipper said.
"I know I don't. I don't have to do anything. I could get my own boyfriend if I really wanted to, one that I didn't have to share with another girl. But I doubt that boyfriend would be as uninterested in my money as you seem to be. You've never once asked me for money. You've never once asked me to buy you anything or tried to get me to use my influence on your behalf. You must have known you could easily have a million dollar car and a big ass house if you dated me. But you've never asked for any of that.
"Of course not. Paz, you're more than just your money. Look, I'm not going to pretend that if your mother offered me a huge house or a nice car and didn't ask anything in return, I wouldn't accept it. But that's not why I started dating you. I really do love you." Dipper said, lacing their fingers again, kissing her, running his other hand through her hair.
"Mmmm… Dipper…" She breathed. Suddenly, her stomach growled. She blushed slightly.
"Let's go get lunch together." Dipper said, taking her out of the park and finding a restaurant for the two of them. Dipper found a theme restaurant called the Skull and the Raven. It was a Gothic Horror themed restaurant.
"You want to eat here? Looks like it's got a lot of Edgar Allen Poe themes in it." Dipper said. Pacifica shrugged. She was sure that you paid more here for the atmosphere than for the quality of the food. But she was willing to try it at least.
"And the darkest of evenings to you both. Table for two?" A young woman in Gothic dress with tattoos and piercings asked, coming up to the Maître-D stand.
"Yes, please." Dipper said. She nodded and got two menus, taking them to their table.
"Can I get you two something to drink?" The waitress asked.
"Water, please."
"Iced tea." Pacifica said.
"Very good." She said. She wrote the orders down and took them back to the kitchen, handing Pacifica and Dipper their menus.
"Hmm… Looks like a basic American restaurant. Just with a Gothic Horror twist. I like the ambiance though. It's kind of kitschy." Dipper chuckled.
"You would." Paz smiled, blushing slightly. She was sure that Dipper could quote Poe's entire bibliography in order of the years he wrote them.
"I'm actually more of a fan of Lovecraft than Poe, but Edgar Allen Poe's work inspired much of what HP Lovecraft wrote." Dipper said. Dipper saw several other waiters and waitresses walking by. They all had name tags that referenced works of classic horror. From Bram Stoker's works to Mary Shelley to Poe and Sherridan le Fanu, who wrote Carmilla.
"I never knew about a place like this." Dipper said. Pacifica shrugged.
"Neither did I. My family would never have taken me to a place like this. We only ate in 5-star restaurants where I have no doubt everyone knew our name." Pacifica said. Dipper sighed.
"Well, that makes sense for your family. For us, we liked kind of theme restaurants like this." Dipper said. Pacifica nodded, looking over the menu. They had Shepherd's Pie. She wondered if it was any good. But it was worth trying.
"What are you having?" Pacifica asked.
"I'm not sure. Probably cheese sticks and French fries. But the meatloaf looks good too." Dipper said.
"Very different choices. I've never had cheese sticks before. They don't serve them where I went to dinner and they definitely didn't serve them at my house." Pacifica said.
"I could order them and you could try one." Dipper said. Pacifica hesitated. She still got stuck in her old ways sometimes.
"I guess I could afford to try one. If I don't like it, you can eat it." Pacifica said. Dipper had really wanted to try the meatloaf here. But he could come here another time and try the meatloaf.
"Why don't you get both? Take some home." Pacifica offered. She seemed to recognize Dipper's apparent disappointment.
"I don't think I can afford both at the prices they charge here." Dipper said.
"Don't be silly. I'll pay." Pacifica said.
"I'll pay what I can." Dipper said, looking in his wallet. He had 45 dollars. Not a lot and he would have had more if he hadn't bought food for that homeless man. But he'd done the right thing doing that.
"Pay what you can then." Pacifica said as the waitress came up to the table.
"My name is Lenore. Can I get you any appetizers?" She asked.
"Mozarella sticks and French fries to share, please." Dipper said.
"And for your entrees?" She asked.
"I'll take the meatloaf dinner please." Dipper said.
"And I'll have the Shepherd's Pie." Pacifica said.
"Both good choices." She said with a light smile, writing down their orders and heading back to the kitchen.
About 10 minutes later, their mozzarella sticks and fries came out.
"Okay…" Pacifica breathed, taking one of the sticks, turning it over in her hand, looking at it.
"Just bite it. It doesn't bite back." Dipper said, eating one of the sticks himself.
"Mmm… These are really good. Nice and zesty. They use good spices on them." Dipper said. Pacifica gulped and took a bite, smiling excitedly.
"These really are good! My parents probably would have liked them, even if they wouldn't admit it." Pacifica laughed. They ate some of the fries and two sticks each. They then continued to talk until lunch came.
"Here are your meals. Careful. They burn like the fires of Carceri." Lenore said with a chuckle. She was asked by the management to try to use horror themed language as much as possible when she spoke. It was hard at first, but she started reading into that stuff and over three years, she got pretty good.
"We'll let it cool first." Dipper said. Lenore nodded and went back on to the next table that she was waiting.
They waited a few minutes before taking a bite of their food. Lenore was right. It was hot. But good. Pacifica couldn't say that it was high class food. It wouldn't have flown in any of the five-star restaurants she'd been to. But it was tasty and savory and that was really all that was expected, she suspected of the foods here.
Finally, they finished and asked for their check.
"We'll just take one check please." Pacifica said. Lenore nodded, bringing back the check. It wasn't cheap, the meal. But Pacifica put her card on the tray and signed the receipt, leaving a 20 dollar tip, which was definitely more than the requisite 10% or even the generous 20%.
"Let's get going. You want to walk around after this meal? We can walk off our dinner? Or we can take the food right home and get it into the fridge so that it doesn't spoil." Dipper said.
"Fridge, I think. We can walk when we get home." Pacifica said, taking Dipper's hand and walking back to the car with him.
