Chapter Thirty: A New Generation of Twins

Wendy sighed. All day, all morning really, she'd been suffering from stomach pains. It seemed her babies were really active today for whatever reason. It had been going on since early that morning. She didn't know what time they'd started acting up, but it had still been dark out. She was nauseous and tired and she wanted to get some rest, but she wasn't sure she could even close her eyes with her stomach acting up like it was.

Work was thankfully slow that day and Wendy could stay off her feet most of the time. Sometimes, she had to go and help a customer make a decision on what dumb merchandise to buy. She still thought the people who shopped here were suckers and buying into the mystery hype of Gravity Falls. She had seen real mystery and supernatural phenomena in her life. This stuff was just bunkum.

She groaned as she stood up.

"Hey, you ready to check out?" She asked.
"Go sit back down, Wendy. I got this." Pacifica said. Pacifica had been surprisingly and almost suspiciously nice to her all day, for the past two weeks really. Ever since she entered her 6th 'month' of pregnancy, Pacifica had really stepped up to help. She hadn't even asked for a paycheck from Ford to help out. She said she was still getting money each week from her mom.

Apparently, Priscilla felt, unlike Preston, that Pacifica should make her own decisions. Maybe it had something to do with Preston dying. Whatever the reason was, Pacifica's life and her mother were much less hard on her now.

"Okay." Wendy was panting slightly just from trying to walk over to the counter. She collapsed back into her chair and Dipper rushed over to help her as well.

"Anything you need? Another nutrient shake? Something to eat? Drink?" Dipper asked. Dipper had also been a bit overly attentive to Wendy in the past two weeks. She worried that he was forgetting about the need to be attentive to Pacifica. But they both insisted that there would be plenty of time for that after the babies were born. Wendy had showed the night that Dipper went out with her and their friends that she was seriously slowing down and needed a bit more attention.

Still, she wished they wouldn't fuss over her quite so much, especially since her father and brothers were equally fussy about her, insisting that she not take part in family competitions, not go hiking with them. She was cooped up in her room most of the time, whether she was at the Shack or at her father's house. It was beyond stifling. She would have been happy to take it slow if she could just get out and take a walk.

But her stomach was churning now and it was getting worse. Wendy bolted up and rushed to the bathroom, her stomach clenching as she thought she needed to throw up. It never came though and she sighed, going back to her chair. This had been the most exercise she'd gotten in over a week.

As she sat down though, she felt something squelch and her pants and shirt became soaked.

"Shit… Ford… I think my water just broke." Wendy said. Dipper rushed over to her, helping her stand up while Ford rushed everyone out of the shop and closed the place down.

Dipper and Pacifica helped Wendy down to the laboratory, where they got her onto a comfortable bed and Ford examined her.

"Hmmm… Not quite ready to push yet. Just keep breathing and try to relax. I know it's a paradox to 'try to relax', but just do your best." Ford said.

Wendy nodded, holding Dipper's and Pacifica's hands while Mabel stood by to help in case she was needed. She had read up extensively on the delivery process and felt that she could at least assist Ford if he needed it or if Wendy preferred that a woman help her deliver.

"How are you feeling, Wendy?" Dipper asked. Pacifica rolled her eyes.

"As cute as you are, sometimes you ask really dumb questions. She's obviously in pain!" Pacifica exclaimed.

Dipper blushed slightly, turning away.

"Sorry…" He breathed.

"Hey, it's alright, dude. I know you're nervous because I'm nervous too." Wendy said, showing once again her ability to keep her calm under pressure.

"Mabel, put on these goggles and scan between Wendy's legs every five minutes to see how far dilated she is. When she's 10 centimeters or about 4 inches for those who aren't facile with the metric system, tell her that she can start pushing. I assume you've read up on how to push and deliver a baby, Wendy?" Ford asked, seeming like he was distracted.

"Yeah, of course." Wendy said.

"Good, good. Mabel, I think this requires a woman's touch so to speak. Make sure her legs are spread wide enough for the goggles to read her dilation properly. If you need her to spread them further, don't be ashamed to ask her to." Ford said. Mabel nodded, putting on the goggles and testing them out.

"Dilation at 5 centimeters and expanding." The goggles said out loud.

"Sorry, I haven't invented an earpiece to go with the goggles yet. But nobody is upstairs right now. Even Soos and Melody are visiting Soos's grandmother." Ford said. Wendy nodded, gripping Dipper's hand as a contraction started. They weren't close enough together yet to start pushing, nor was she dilated enough. A few minutes later, Mabel checked again.

"Dilation at 6 centimeters." The goggles said

"Ah, yes. I should have mentioned that the delivery will go faster as a result of the accelerant that you used. The delivery, well… You should be pushing within half an hour at the longest. As to how long the actual pushing will take, I can't guess. But hopefully this will show the naysayers that have detracted from my accelerant that the science that went into this is sound." Ford said, sounding like a mad scientist in the moment.

Almost eight minutes later, Mabel checked again.

"Dilation at 6.6 centimeters and expanding." The goggles said.

"Hmm… This is going faster than I thought it would. That's not a bad thing… I think." Ford said. Wendy was getting nervous. There seemed to be a lot that Ford wasn't sure of and if even the inventor of the accelerant serum wasn't sure of its full effects, how could she be sure that her babies were healthy and safe?

"Are you sure it's not safe for me to push yet?"

"Well, I've never been ringside at a human birth, but there were several alien species that were about 95-98% similar to humans and their births really couldn't start until between 9-10 centimeters. I can't make you wait, but I recommend you do for a little while. Don't worry, you're getting close." Ford said. Wendy nodded, although she was still nervous.

"I understand your ambivalence. This is a new kind of medicine that I've used on you. I've used a similar serum on alien expecting mothers and in 99.5% of cases, the babies born turned out better than babies born without the use of the serum. But I can't guarantee its effectiveness on a human baby. Still, I am hopeful." Ford said. Wendy nodded. That made her feel a little bit better.

"Check me again?" Wendy asked ten minutes later. Mabel checked once more.

"Spread them a little further?" Mabel asked. Wendy spread her legs further.

"There you go. 7.8 centimeters. You're getting pretty close, Wendy." Mabel said.

It wasn't for about 15-20 more minutes that Wendy was actually ready to push. Mabel finally checked and it said that she was 10 centimeters dilated and ready to push. Dipper held one hand while Pacifica held the other hand and Wendy growled as she pushed. Already, Mabel said she could practically see the head of the baby within the first few pushes. The baby seemed to be coming out quickly.

Wendy gripped both Dipper's and Pacifica's hands with each push. Pacifica seemed the one most affected by the grip. Wendy had very strong wrists and gripped very tightly. Dipper had larger hands than Wendy, so her grip, while strong didn't affect him as badly, though he definitely felt it.

Mabel cheered Wendy on with each push, encouraging her as best she could, wearing the goggles and watching as the baby was slowly pushed out.

Wendy whined loudly as she felt the head coming out. Soon though, there was a cry and Mabel helped pull out the first baby.

"It's a boy! And he's got brown hair and green eyes!" Mabel exclaimed. He also looked a lot like Dipper though. His face and nose resembled Dipper's, even though his eyes were just like Wendy's.

Mabel helped clean off the boy and Ford cut his umbilical cord before they set the boy down in a crib that they'd had down here for over a week. Wendy had no time to rest though. Though she was panting, she started pushing again.

The girl came faster. The boy had taken almost 40 minutes. But the girl, Deirdre as Wendy was planning to call her, came out within half an hour and was soon being cleaned off, her umbilical cord cut and set in another crib. A surprise came with Deirdre though. While she was the spitting image of Wendy, much to Wendy's tired delight, she had six fingers on both hands.

Wendy was still panting after a few minutes. Her nanomachines, the goggles showed, were already beginning to heal her. But she was exhausted from giving birth. She wanted to hold her babies though, so she forced herself to sit up and took the two in her arms.

"Stanley…" She said to the boy.

"And Deirdre." She said to the girl. Dipper sat with her for over an hour. He let Wendy be the one to hold them. He had read that babies needed to bond with their mother immediately after birth, and while he was eager to hold the babies, he was willing to wait a while.

-0-

That night, Dipper cooked dinner and brought some food down for Wendy. The whole town already knew that Wendy had given birth. Nothing stayed secret long in Gravity Falls. The shop goers who had been there when Wendy's water broke had then broken the news to more people, who broke it to more people. Dan especially was excited to meet his grandchildren.

He came downstairs, speaking in his lowest voice, which still woke the children up.

"She looks just like her mother." Dan breathed in a still shockingly loud growl. Wendy chuckled.
"Well, I named her Deirdre, after my mother." Wendy said. Dan was surprised for a long moment.

"It's a perfect name." He said.

Soon, Dipper came down and brought her food.
"Here, don't forget to eat." He said, sitting down and eating his dinner with her. Pacifica and Ford came down as well and they pulled out a table that was too small for all of them, but they managed to barely make it work. They ate as a family.

-0-

The next day, Soos and Melody came over with Soos Jr. and Elisabeth. They brought Soos's Abuela as well, though she couldn't walk very well anymore and required a lot of help getting down the stairs. Wendy was healing quickly from giving birth, but Ford insisted she stay in bed a few more days while she recuperated, though Wendy was sure that she would be okay. Still, she listened to Ford's orders.

Soos was great with the kids and Deirdre and Stanley immediately seemed to like him. They were less fond of Soos Jr., though Jr. was still quite young and wasn't as gentle with them as he should have been. As a result, he was told that he and Elisabeth should go outside and play. Though they complained, they eventually obeyed and left the adults alone with the babies.

For the next few days, things went like that, with members of the family coming down to see Dipper's and Wendy's new babies and Dipper, Wendy and Pacifica prepared for the future. Dipper still had a lot of studying to do under Ford and Wendy still worked at the Shack, though both their jobs had to be more flexible now that they had babies to take care of.

Still, life went on. Forever for them.

To be Continued