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Stan placed his list on the counter in the gift shop. “I’ve got an idea for a new exhibit, so Soos I’m going to need you to go get these things for me out of the spooky part of the forest.”
“Sure thing, Mr. Pines,” Soos said.
“Can I go too?” Stan peered over the counter to see Dipper, who had apparently been hiding behind the thing and scribbling in the extra notebook Stan had got him when he had been buying the kids’ first grade school supplies.
Six months ago, Dipper had spotted a couple of gnomes rooting through the trash. At the time Stan had thought about blowing it off as a figment of Dipper’s imagination, but then he realized that if the kids were going to be in Gravity Falls at least until they went off to college, then they were bound to figure out the truth eventually. And when that happened, they wouldn’t thank Stan for lying to them. So he’d admitted that Gravity Falls wasn’t exactly your typical small town, and ever since then Dipper had been real gung-ho about exploring all the weird things that went on around here. (Ford would have loved this kid, was going to love this kid, just as soon as Stan saved him.)
Stan’s first instinct was to tell Dipper, no, he couldn’t go, but he made himself think it over for a minute. In his experience, if a kid wanted something bad enough, and the adults kept telling him no, he’d find a way to do whatever it was anyway. And the only thing scarier than the idea of little six year old Dipper out there in the woods, was the idea of Dipper and Mabel both sneaking out there alone, and Stan with no idea where they’d gotten to. “Alright, but you stick close to your brother. Soos, you make sure you keep an eye on this little gremlin.”
The kids both cheered and looked up at Stan like he hung the moon, and that made Stan feel like, yeah, this would probably work out okay.
A thought he was kicking himself for later when Dipper and Soos both came running out of the woods screaming his name. It only took him a moment or two to realize the looks on their faces and the tone of their voices were excited, not terrified, at which point he had to rest a hand down on the window sill to steady himself. His heart was not meant to take that kind of stress.
“Grunkle Stan, look what I found!” Dipper cried, and then he and Soos were tumbling over each other trying to tell Stan how they’d come across it. But Stan didn’t hear a word of it, because in Dipper’s hands was one of Ford’s missing journals. Finally, after all these years, Stan might be able to get the portal working again, and finally save Ford. Yeah, he was still one journal short, but now that he had two out of three…
“So can I keep it, Grunkle Stan?” Dipper asked, interrupting Stan’s thoughts.
“Keep it?”
“Yeah, ‘cause it’s got all kinds of cool stuff about the weird things I’ve seen in Gravity Falls, see?” Dipper held the book open to show Stan, and Stan’s heart nearly stopped again.
“When did you come across the undead?” Stan asked.
Dipper frowned and looked down at the book. “Sorry,” he said, flipping it back a few pages to a picture of a gnome. Holy Moses, this kid was going to kill Stan.
Then Dipper turned his big pleading eyes up at Stan and hugged the book close to his chest. “See, it’s really cool, so can I please keep it, please?”
One of these days Stan was going to have to learn to say no to that face. That day was not today, though. Besides, it might be a good idea for Dipper to have Ford’s notes, not that he’d be able to read and understand most of them yet. Since Dipper was going to want to learn about the weird stuff regardless, having some information on how to protect himself could definitely be a good thing. “Alright kid, give me a chance to look through it first to make sure it’s age-appropriate or whatever, and then you can keep it.”
Stan opened the door and then groaned; apparently the little demon child had come to pay them a visit today.
“Hello Stanford Pines,” Gideon chirped brightly. Stan glared at him.
“Mabel, get your keister down here,” Stan called, not breaking his glare, despite the fact that Gideon didn’t seem bothered in the least.
“Be there in one second,” Mabel yelled back.
A car horn blared from outside, and Stan looked up to see Bud Gleeful waving at Gideon. “Bye son, I’ll be back to pick you up later. You have fun now!” Then he turned his car around and drove off. Great, now Stan was stuck with the kid.
Just then, Stan heard his niece’s footsteps pounding down the stairs, and he turned to share some of the glaring with her as well, though she looked about as cowed by it as Gideon. “You know you’re not allowed to invite friends over without asking first.”
“I didn’t!” She protested, craning her head to see around Stan and practically cooing when she saw who was at the door. “Widdle Gideon!” Honestly, Stan didn’t know what she saw in the creepy kid.
“Please don’t be mad at Mabel, Stanford. I came here today of my own volition.” See, what kind of five year old knew a word like ‘volition?’ Well, Ford might’ve, but Ford was a genius. This kid was just unnatural.
“Whatever. Just keep him out of my hair, Mabel. I’ve got TV to watch.”
“Sure thing, Grunkle Stan,” Mabel said, coming the rest of the way down the stairs and taking Gideon by the hand. “C’mon Gideon, let’s go up to my room and give each other makeovers.” Stan turned to leave.
“Actually, first I want to show you something I found in the woods.” And then Stan turned right back around. Odds were that all the kid had found was a sparkly rock, Moses knew Mabel would love that, but when it came to Gravity Falls you could never be too careful. Gideon reached into the bag hanging off his shoulder and pulled out a very familiar red book with a six fingered golden hand and the number 2 on the cover. “Ta da! See, not only am I much cooler and a way better match for you as a twin than Dipper, now I even have a journal full of supernatural mysteries as well.”
“And now I have one,” Stan said, plucking the journal from Gideon’s hands and somehow managing to maintain his outward semblance of cool, despite the fact he was practically screaming on the inside. He’d finally gotten his hands on the last journal.
“Hey, that is my journal,” Gideon objected.
“And then I took it from you, and now it’s mine,” Stan said. Gideon’s lower lip started to tremble, a sure sign of an oncoming tantrum, and Stan had had enough of those back when his kids had been five. He needed to nip this baby in the bud. “Look, after I’m done with it, I’ll give it to Mabel to keep, alright?”
Mabel squealed with delight and threw her arms around Gideon, swinging him halfway around with the force of her hug. “Thank you so much for my present, you adorable thing you!”
“Of, of course. Anything for you Mabel,” Gideon said, completely unaware of the thumbs up and wink she was throwing Stan over his shoulder.
That was Stan’s girl.