Gravity Falls Twangst

Impressed

"Do you think Pa would be impressed that I saved the world?"

Well- that came out of the blue.

Two old men-I'm sure you can guess who they were-were sitting on the deck of the boat, long after midnight had passed (geez, both their internal clocks were so screwed up), admiring the starry sky, and how the lack of light pollution out here in the middle of the ocean meant you could see even more than just the stars that made up the constellations-more stars than seemed possible. Until Stan opened his mouth, all had been peacefully quiet.

Stan kept his gaze fixed on the sky as he went on, "Even a little? Or just-glad that it didn't have to be you?"

Ford winced.

He thought long and hard before finally answering, "I hope he would be."

Stan gave a resigned sigh. "Yeah, that's kinda what I expected ya to say."

****

It was more than a little messed up that they could agree on the unlikelihood of a definite "yes."

"...If it helps, there's a lot of other people who are impressed by you." Ford looked at him head-on. " I'm impressed-and ashamed for not seeing your potential sooner. It shouldn't matter what Pa would have thought."

Stan managed a small smile, but not for long. He just looked back at the stars and said, "Yeah. It shouldn't."

And that was the problem, right there.

It shouldn't matter what Filbrick's opinion of Stan was, since he had been completely wrong about him the last time they'd spoken. Besides, Stan was a grown man now, not a dumb teenager. But that didn't stop him from feeling like it mattered, or wanting to, I don't know, find some way to confront the old man and ask him if saving the world was good enough for him. Maybe punch him right in the sunglasses for all the crap he put him through over one dumb mistake.

"...I'm pretty sure he died thinking of me as nothing but a disappointment," Ford admitted quietly. "He was always going on about how I was wasting my potential studying that 'supernatural junk,' and that there was no profit in that. So neither of us was ever enough to impress him."

Stan snorted, pulling a handful of stolen leprechaun gold out of his coat pocket. "Yeah well, joke's on him."

"And I would still be doing something I loved even without that." Ford scooted his chair until he was right next to his brother, and wrapped his arm around his shoulders. "Screw Dad. We don't need him to be impressed with us."

Part of Stan wanted to point out one of the potential meanings of that phrase and how gross that was for a number of reasons. Instead he leaned against Ford and nodded.

"Yeah. Screw Dad."

********

Honestly, I don't know the answer either. In Lost Legends he seemed pleased that Stan admitted to taking the gold chain because of the reasons behind it, but that was when he was a kid. And anyone who would throw his kid out of the house and basically tell him he can never come back because of one dumb mistake...
I doubt any of us can fully understand that man.