Gravity Rising

Sleep

Movie(s)/Book(s)/Show(s): Gravity Falls

AU(s): Unspecified, but major

Character(s): Dipper Pines, Mabel Pines, Stanford Pines

Pairing(s): None

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Okay, I legitimately made myself sad while writing this little guy. Good times. I'm working on writing a more lighthearted one-shot after this one, so it isn't all death and gloom.

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The snake that bit Dipper was bright pink. It's scales shimmered like sunlight on ice, and it's eyes held him in it's hypnotic stare. That is, until it sank inch-long fangs into the twelve-year-old's arm.

Dipper screamed, and in two seconds a grappling hook smashed into the side of the serpent's head. The snake released him, and Dipper immediately lowered his arm to stop the flow of dark green venom creeping up his veins like fire.

His ears sounded as if they were full of water, and he vaguely heard Mabel shouting for help before he lost consciousness.

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Stanford Pines sat next to his great-nephew's hospital bed. They had rushed him there as soon as Stan realized the alarming rate at which the venom was slipping through his bloodstream.

But the doctors couldn't do anything, and Ford knew it. The snake that had bitten Dipper was magical in origin, and science wasn't going to do a damn thing.

That wasn't the only reason why Ford was so solemn. It was because the venom had no cure.

It would slowly kill its victim, poisoning their body while giving them hallucinations and nightmares. Ford had already told Mabel and Stan, who in turn told Wendy and Soos.

As he watched, Dipper's back arched right off of the table and his mouth opened in a silent expression of agony. Ford winced. There was no way to help him, not within his knowledge.

He looked over at the table beside the hospital bed. On it, Mabel had set Dipper's hat, the one that Ford never saw him without. She had already given the hospital staff tons of trouble, and he knew that his great-niece was about two mistakes away from being kicked out.

Ford sighed. He looked at Dipper sadly. "I'm sorry, kid. I really am."

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Ford walked in on his great-niece when she was talking to her brother. Dipper was having a rare moment of relief from the pain, and Ford was grateful for it.

"You gotta get better, okay?" She whispered. "Mom and dad are worried, Wendy's worried, Stan, Ford, and Soos are woried, even Pacifica is worried. I'm worried, bro-bro! You gotta wake up!"

Ford watched as she spoke to him, before Mabel lept back suddenly. She gazed up at him with wide eyes. "Is his mouth supposed to be foaming?"

Ford called the nurses, and Dipper was whisked away by doctors.

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Mr. and Mrs. Pines were sobbing beside to their son the next time that Ford came to see Dipper.

It was the first time that he had officially met them, and it was awkward to say the least.

It should have been under better circumstances, like when they came to bring back the twins next year.

Wait, next year?

Ford couldn't pinpoint exactly when they had become such an important part of his life, but it had certainly happened fast.

Now, Ford knew that Dipper probably wouldn't live to see January.

His neice and nephew-in-law wanted to bring the kid back to Piedmont, but Ford, Stan, and Mabel staunchly refused. The high concentration of magic in Gravity Falls was the only reason why Dipper looked as well as he did.

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The objects weighed down heavily in Ford's mind. He knew that he shouldn't do it, but that didn't stop him from taking them out and studying the way that light played off of their edges.

He had just managed to tuck them away when he sat down beside the boy.

Ford reached out and squeezed Dipper's hand. "I won't do it, Dipper. Not until you say so."

He stayed there for about five minutes before there was a weak cough, and Dipper stirred.

The kid smiled weakly up at him. "Hey, Grunkle Ford."

The man could only nod. Dipper's hands twitched involuntarily. He let out a whimper. "It hurts."

"I know, kid. But they're doing everything that they can."

Dipper was silent for a moment before he spoke again. "I'm not going to get better, am I? No matter what they do, it won't matter in the end."

Ford couldn't lie to him. "No. I'm so sorry, Dipper."

"S'okay."

"No, it's not."

Dipper looked up at him with pleading eyes. "Can you? Please, Ford. I can't..."

The man nodded. He suddenly found it hard to speak.

Ford pulled them out of his pocket, their special casing gleaming under the artificial light.

"Why are there two?" Dipper asked. The twelve-year-old's voice was shaking slightly.

"One is basically a painkiller," Ford explained. "But a magic one. It will do better than the ones you have now, but not by much."

Ford did that one first, even though his hands were trembling.

Dipper blinked, tears in his eyes. "Will it hurt?"

"I don't know," Ford whispered. He was scared, so scared. "But I don't think so."

Dipper nodded. "Okay."

Ford was ready to scream at him. No, it was not okay. It would never be okay. Ford would have to live with this for the rest of his life. Stan would have to live with it.

Mabel would have to live with it.

But that didn't keep him from injecting the syringe into the IV.

That didn't stop him from holding Dipper's hand as the boy's face relaxed for the first time in months.

Until the heart monitor went flat.