This chapter is slightly out of sync with the Cary chapters, but I thought it was only fair to check in on Stan :D
Stan had spent half the summer missing Cary. He couldn't lie and say that Mabel and Dipper didn't remind him of his daughter sometimes. Mabel's trusting nature and the way she could always make him smile were obviously reminiscent of Cary, and Stan had gone through a crisis when Mabel had threatened to never talk to him again. Dipper's relentless desire to understand the supernatural and his relentless crush on Wendy also reminded Stan of Cary. Cary didn't think he'd noticed her feelings for Wendy but Stan was merely being nice enough to let his daughter bring that up in her own time. They'd have a lot to talk about, when she got home, especially…
"Ford."
"Hm?" Ford glanced up from the gadget he'd been tinkering with on the kitchen table.
His brother hadn't been happy to see him. His brother hadn't been thankful. As angry as Ford had been at him, as angry as Stan was at that anger, Stan couldn't help looking at his brother with this desperate sense of sadness. He'd been living with that sadness for years. He'd thought it was because of the portal, because of the interdimensional distance between himself and Ford, but in reality, that distance had been there for much longer. It had been there since he'd been kicked out of their family home and Ford had turned away from the window. It wasn't just the physical absence from Ford, it was the emotional distance that cut like a knife.
"I have something else I need to tell you." When Lil' Gideon had tried to take over the Shack, he'd destroyed a lot of things, including some of Cary's belongings. Including some of Cary's photographs. But Stan always had at least one photo of her tucked discretely into his wallet.
"What else did you do, Stanley?" Ford asked, not giving him the benefit of the doubt.
"I'm trying to tell you something important, asshole, maybe don't jump to conclusions." Mabel and Dipper were off on some adventure with their friends, so Stan didn't hold back the curses. Of course, Ford could out-curse him, in a billion different languages, some of which didn't register in this dimension.
"Fine," Ford sighed, "What's so important?"
Stan slipped the photo out of his wallet and placed it on the table.
"I have a daughter."
"She has six fingers, like me," Ford said.
"Of course, that would be the first thing you notice. Her name is Cary. Well, Caryn, after mom, but she goes by Cary, and she's fourteen, almost fifteen."
"Who is her mother?"
"Some waitress in Vegas using the pseudonym Marilyn. We got eloped, we hooked up, she stole my car and then ditched it, which qualifies as a divorce I think, and in the back seat, I found a human-sized egg. Cary hatched from that egg."
"You're making fun of me." Ford crossed his arms defensively.
"Weirder things have happened, Sixer."
"You're not bullshitting me?"
"Why would I lie about my daughter? You can ask Soos or Wendy, they could at least confirm that Cary is real. You don't have to believe everything else but that's real too."
"So where is she?" Ford asked, continuing to stare critically at Stan.
"Connecticut. A while back I managed to track Marilyn down, and there were some things Cary wanted to ask her about, so she went to Connecticut for the summer. Wendy and Soos think she's at theatre camp. Dipper and Mabel don't know she exists."
"Why didn't you tell them? What else are you hiding, Stanley?"
"You're just going to not believe me again," Stan said, taking the photo and putting it back in his wallet, "I thought you would at least pretend to be excited to be an uncle but you're just cross-examining me like I'm on trial for having a daughter."
Stan turned to walk away.
"No, Stan, wait. I am excited to be an uncle, and I'm excited to meet Cary. If there's anything more you want or need to tell me about her, I'm here to listen." This was the longest proper conversation he'd had with Ford since they'd been reunited so Stan sat back down.
"Cary has these dreams, I thought they were just dreams at first but they started coming true, so she's prophetic, I guess. One of her dreams is about turning into this monster, she says it's like a mix between an owl and a lion, though she also says it's just difficult to describe. She really believes that this one is going to come true and that her mother has something to do with it. So I let her go to Connecticut to try to find answers. Here at the Mystery Shack, we like to celebrate and monetize differences but no one other than me and Cary understands the implications of this being real. If this is real, she could get stuck like that. I could lose her. Someone could get hurt. So, she has to find answers, or else we don't know how bad it could get. I would've gone with her, obviously, but then I got asked to watch Dipper and Mabel for the summer. And I didn't tell them about her because I didn't want her to become another mystery for them to try to solve. But I'm telling you because you deserve to know."
Ford smiled a little, "Thank you, Stan. For telling me. Depending on what Cary finds out about her… Condition, I may be able to help. I know about the paranormal and… I know a witch here in town. If she's even still alive."
"Is it the hand witch?"
"The what."
"The woman who takes people's hands. Is it that woman?"
"Uh… You know, actually, maybe? Not sure. Still, her talents might be useful."
"As long as she doesn't go stealing Cary's hands."
"What did you do to get her to steal your hands?"
"She was selling fake watches. I was going to buy a fake watch like any honest con man and she said she wouldn't sell it to me so I stole it."
"Of course you did. I hope Cary is less of a crook than you."
"Then you're gonna be disappointed. But listen, Cary is a good kid, an excellent kid. So don't you dare hold any of your grudges against me against her. She's the most worthwhile part of my life and she deserves better than either of us."
Ford held up his hands, "I'll be impartial, Stanley. You and I's relationship doesn't have to affect my relationship with my niece."
"That's all I ask."
But Ford was wrong. Their relationship had already negatively affected Cary. When she returned, Stan would have to tell her, among other things, that they could no longer live in the Mystery Shack. They'd get a place in town, maybe, and make do. But everything was changing and Stan was afraid of what would happen next. Would either of them be the same by the end of the summer?
