Summer had barely started when everything changed forever.
"Dad I'm fourteen, I should be allowed to swear now." They both knew that Cary already swore, she just tried to hide it a little bit around her dad and other grownups.
"Okay, sure," Stan agreed, "Just don't grow up too fast."
"I've gotta grow up a little, I've got important shit to do."
"Oh, you do? Well, what's up, kiddo? What important shit's on the agenda?" Stan couldn't help but be a little amused by that.
"I'm gonna find my mom and I'm gonna get answers about the visions," Cary said, sounding incredibly determined.
It took Stan by surprise.
"Oh, yeah, absolutely. Your mother… Yeah. She'd probably have answers."
"Didn't you ever try to find her?"
"You mean after she stole my car and ditched you in the backseat? Hell no."
"That's fair. Any idea how we'll find her, though?"
"Oh, we, yes, I said I'd help… And of course, I will! I'm going to help. I can help. I um… I didn't try to find her, but I did look into her identity a little. Marilyn was likely an alias, one she's used in a lot of places. I found all the casinos she's been kicked out of, and I found a trail of bans and mugshots leading us right to Connecticut."
"Connecticut?" Cary groaned, "That's forever away. We can't go to Connecticut…"
"Sure we can, sweetie! Look, you do a little more research, double-check my findings, and I'll find a way to shut down the Shack for a few weeks."
"But we're in the busy months-"
"Don't worry about that, Carebear, we'll be okay."
"But you're banned from flying…"
"We'll take the RV! Pines Family road trip. I promised I'd help you figure this out and I'm going to. We're a team, right?"
"Right." Cary hesitated, "But what about your brother?"
"We can find him when we get back from Connecticut. We've got each other's backs, Cary. Wherever we go, we go together. Team Pines!" He held his hand out for a high six, reminded so much of his brother when she slapped his hand. Then she pulled him into a quick hug. She was getting taller, getting older. She said swear words now, and she had a master plan to find her mom and get answers.
"And leave me," Stan thought to himself as he held his daughter close.
As if she could read his mind she pulled back, "I'm not running away. We're Team Pines. I'm not going anywhere. Well, Connecticut, but you'll be there too, so it's not a big deal, right?"
"Right. Time for Team Pines to get to work."
Cary stayed up all night, which she did a lot during the summer. She had popcorn and jelly beans and a laptop she'd been loaned by the school and then "lost." She played some trashy dance music to keep herself awake and poured herself into finding the only person who had answers about her bird form.
At first, she thought she wasn't going to get anywhere, and then she struck gold. Somehow, five pages deep on Google, she found a real-life photo of the beast. The beast that haunted her nightmares, the beast she saw herself one day becoming. She'd never even described it in detail to anyone, so how could anyone have a photo of it unless somewhere it was real? This photo and her dad's research were going to change everything. They were going to get answers! They were going to go to Connecticut!
"Sorry, sweetie, we can't go to Connecticut." Stan looked remorseful as he broke the news to his daughter.
"What? Why not? I thought you said you could close the Shack for the summer!"
"I thought so too, but, well, my other brother, Shermie, has these grandkids, a girl and a boy, and their parents want me to watch them for the summer. I can't exactly do that in Connecticut."
"Why can't you say no?" Cary demanded
"Carebear, sweetheart, trust me when I say I'd rather travel the country with you and find answers about your prophetic dreams. That sounds so much more fun than babysitting strange kids for the summer. But I have duties to all of my family, not just you. Shermie is the only family I have left, outside of you."
"I thought we were Team Pines."
"We are," Stan said, "we always will be."
"You said you'd do anything to help me find answers."
"And I will, after the summer's over."
"No, our best chance to find her is now, that photo I found was recent, we need to get answers before something bad happens to me!" A scheme took hold in Cary's mind, "So if you're willing to do anything to help… Then you need to let me go to Connecticut alone."
Stan was immediately appalled and concerned, "Cary, you're 14."
"Almost fifteen."
"Almost fifteen my ass. You're not fifteen for like, five months. I can't just let you go off like that, it would be irresponsible."
"It would be like running a scam. You'd be here, trying to convince the world and your great-niece and nephew that we're a normal family and I'd be in Connecticut proving that we are absolutely not a normal family. Maybe I'll get answers. Maybe I'll find a solution so that the bad stuff never has to happen."
Stan's heart hurt. He didn't want to tell Cary that it didn't take prophetic dreams to know that bad stuff was going to happen, no matter what preventative measures they took. Bad stuff always happened, especially to their family, and nothing Cary did or didn't do this summer would prevent that.
"Okay, Caryn, alright. I'll buy you a plane ticket and see if I have any old friends or associates in Connecticut who can meet you at the airport and look after you, You have the summer to get answers but I expect you back by September, sooner is better than later. And you will keep in touch."
"Am I being a bad dad? Letting her do this?" No, he had spent most of his young adulthood on the road, without the support of his family. If he supported Cary now maybe he wouldn't lose her in the future.
"You're the best! I love you!"
"I love you too, Cary. If you give me a bit I'll come to help you pack."
"Oh, can we tell everyone I'm at some cool summer camp? Like theatre camp or magic camp?"
"Definitely not magic camp. But yeah, I'll come up with a good alibi and get everything squared away." This was the first time she'd be spending a week let alone a whole summer away from him. He was petrified that something was going to happen to her the way it had happened to Ford. He felt unsteady on his legs, wondering where his cane had ended up, wondering where his daughter was going to end up. Would Connecticut be a dead end? Or would she find everything she was looking for and more?
"I've got your back, Cary," He promised, but she had already disappeared.
As fun as it would be to have Cary interact with Dipper and Mabel in the normal canon, or to meet Luz and King, the setting and plot of this story mean that won't be happening, at least not in the first two arcs. I kind of didn't want to have to change too much of the actual canon. Okay well, I am changing a lot of canon but not the stuff that "technically matters". Let's see what the summer has in store for these two, shall we?
