Work Text:
The relationship Claire has with her father is, like everything else has suddenly become, complicated. She loved her dad more than anything. And she knew deep down from the bottom of her heart that he loved her just as much. That didn’t make it easy to be put second time and time again, however, especially to his job.
“It’s just a summer, Claire,” he told her as she raged on and on. “You’ll be back here for school.”
“You’re getting rid of me,” Claire responded. It was unfair of her to say, but she couldn’t help it. She needed him to hurt as bad as he was hurting her. “You promised we would have the summer together. You promised that this year we would–”
"I know. I’m sorry. We’re just having something really big happen at work. And I don’t want you getting hurt. I wouldn’t forgive myself if anything happened to you.”
Claire became a menace after that. She let her grades drop for a little bit until she realized that would hurt her more than it hurt him. She took to the silent treatment instead. Her father would ask about her day or ask about school and she would give him nothing. She was waiting for something, anything. For her dad to take the decision back, for him to apologize for doing this to her, for him to yell at her, something to show what emotion he felt about all of this.
But if there was one thing Courtland Gentry didn’t do well, it was emotions. Claire got nothing. Her rage got her grounded and lectured. She was told to see my perspective over and over again.
So, she resigned herself to her fate. Rolled over and took it.
“Fine, dad,” she said as he helped her pack her bag. “It’s just fine.”
“Next summer we’ll do something twice as big as the plans for this summer,” he tried to promise. But Claire couldn’t let herself fall for it anymore.
“Just forget it. It’s whatever.”
She heard him sigh as she zipped up the suitcase and placed it on the floor, grabbing the handle so it could roll down the hallway and out the door.
“Claire, don’t be like this. Can we just–”
“I’m gonna miss the bus. I’m sure tickets to Oregon are expensive. Would hate to make you pay twice.”
Claire doesn’t really remember the drive to the bus stop. She stared out the window for most of it and let the tears sit hot in her eyes, refusing to let them fall. She was just so tired of this.
“See you in September,” she told her dad, stomping towards the bus. “I’ll be thirteen next time we see each other.”
“We’ll do something when you get back,” he tried to promise. Always with the promises and promises and promises. Just to break them again.
“Whatever. Bye, dad.”
And so, Claire’s miserable summer began. Her Uncle Ryland picked her up from the bus stop after a rather long trip. She’d seen Uncle Ryland a few times in her life. She knew he used to be a scientist and changed career paths abruptly after a tragedy that her dad refused to talk about. And now he ran a dump called the Mystery Shack. Some kind of tourist trap that smelled weird.
And Claire would get to live in it all summer. Yay.
Uncle Ryland gave Claire about a week and a half to mope before he stepped in. Well, ‘stepped in’ was putting it lightly. He trapped her outside and shouted something like don’t come back until you made at least one friend!
So Claire wandered around the sleepy town of Gravity Falls all day that day. It was cute, honestly. She took some photos with her digicam. Luckily she had some money too and got a soda from the convenience store.
“Hey,” a voice called. “You’re that kid Dr. Grace is looking after, right?”
Claire sighed and turned around. She recognized the face, didn’t know the name. “It’s Claire,” she said. “And I’m not a kid.”
The girl nodded. “Right, okay. I’m Holly. I work in your Uncle’s gift shop. Pretty sweet.”
Claire kept trying to bow out of the conversation, but Holly refused to let her. She ended up dragging Claire around by the arm to show her around the town. Her favorite spot in the woods, the swimming pool club, the graveyard, anything and everything this town had to offer. She even snatched Claire’s phone from her hand and put her number into it.
“Text me,” she shouted. “I’ve got to get home to dinner. I know where you live, though! I’ll find you if you don’t text me!”
Right. Okay. Not creepy.
Taking the long way home, Claire found the thing that would very much change the rest of her summer. She really just stumbled upon it, literally. She tripped over a tree root and hit a branch. But it wasn’t a branch, it was a lever. Claire stared, mouth wide open as she watched as the tree opened and revealed a large book with the number three on it. After working up the courage, she grabbed it as quick as she could, slightly nervous it was a trap of some kind. But, it didn’t slice her hand off, and she was able to read.
Holy shit. Don’t tell her dad she swore but, holy shit.
Zombies. Gnomes, unicorns, something called a manotaur, whatever the hell that was. Gravity Falls was a beacon for all things weird and mysterious.
For the first few days of having the journal, Claire thought it was a prank. This kind of stuff wasn’t real. It didn’t exist in this world. That was the stuff for TV and books and whatnot.
And then the gnomes tried to marry her.
She should’ve seen it coming, honestly. A dark and moody guy suddenly falls in love with her? It was weird. What was weirder was when he revealed himself to be a literal bunch of gnomes. And that they wanted to make her her queen. Permanently. One leaf blower fight of epic proportions later, Claire was safe.
Uncle Ryland shut her down instantly. It was the one point of contention between the two of them for a long time. Really, the two of them were like little peas in a pod. But, any time Claire tried to bring up something supernatural, Ryland shut her down.
Until the zombie attack. Where Uncle Ryland confiscated her journal and admitted he knew she was telling the truth.
“I was trying to keep you safe,” he told her. “And I thought keeping you in the dark was the best way to do that. But you’re too smart for your own good, huh?”
“Damn right I am,” she said. He frowned.
“Don’t say damn. Your dad’ll kill me if he thinks I let you swear like that.”
Claire laughed. “No more secrets?”
“No more secrets.”
Claire should’ve noticed the way his face faltered when he said that. Uncle Ryland was a worse liar than her dad by a long shot. It was so easy for her father to lie and it was always for her own good. But Uncle Ryland, as Claire looks back on it, looked like he was in physical pain lying to her.
Which, indirectly brought her to the present moment. God, what a day she was having.
The last thing she expected to see was her father at the Mystery Shack. He didn’t look too happy to see her either.
“You were being taken to a secure location,” he said. “What happened?”
“What are you doing here,” Claire asked. “I thought you were doing your work stuff?”
“This is my work stuff. I was the lead on this case. What are you doing here, Claire?”
“I’m proving that Uncle Ryland is innocent.”
Her father swore at that. He pulled out his phone, muttering something about getting another car to take her away but, before he could get the chance, she was grabbing it and slamming the phone on the ground. It shattered as she stomped on it.
Claire had never seen her father that angry. But she knew, deep in her heart, her uncle was innocent. She just needed her dad to listen to her.
But then, the tapes proved Ryland did steal. Then, she found the aliases and police reports and arrest warrants. Charlie Seavers, Rusty Goodsmith, Ryan Gosling, all of these aliases with her uncle’s face attached.
But Claire couldn’t let this be true. She was so tired of being lied to by everyone around her. So, she fought her father on it. She fought Jody and Eva too, coworkers of her uncle. Jody from the Mystery Shack and Eva from his science days. She knew her uncle. He would never do something to jeopardize anyone he loved and cared about.
The shouting match started soon after that. Somehow, some way, Uncle Ryland escaped custody. Everyone kept shouting at her, telling her what to do. Or they were shouting at her Uncle and freaking out on him.
But in the end, and maybe this was dramatic and she let her teen angst get the better of her, her father had lied to her far more times than Uncle Ryland had. She trusted him whole-heartedly. He kept her safe. It was an easy choice to let go of the console and resign herself to whatever fate had planned.
Now. it’s not necessarily that Claire didn’t know about her Uncle Colt. She knew that Ryland had a twin at some point. She knew that something happened and now no one in the family talked about him.
In many ways, Colt was like a ghost story. Earlier in the summer Claire had tried to – as casually as she could – bring up his name to Jody. Jody didn’t get nasty, per se, but it was clear Claire wasn’t going to get anything out of her. She looked sad, almost.Which, of course, was frustrating.
So now, staring at the two identical men in front of her, Claire was freaking out a bit. And hey, everyone else was too.
“I can’t believe you could be this stupid, Colt,” the Uncle Ryland-shaped man says. “You obviously read the journals. You didn’t see the message that read ‘DO NOT TURN THIS MACHINE BACK ON NO MATTER WHAT’?”
“I skimmed it,” Uncle Ryland says, shrugging. “How about a ‘thank you’, by the way? For rescuing you from the dimension where everyone wears cloaks? You know you’re wearing a piece of clothing that hasn’t been worn since the eighteen hundreds, right?”
The man’s eyes widen. “Thank you,” he sneers. “Are you joking? You’re joking, right?”
Claire watches as the man rears his fist back, ready to land another hit on her uncle. Well, maybe he might feel guilty about hitting a kid and she can get some answers.
“Wait,” she shouts, jumping in front of her uncle. The man’s fist barely stops in front of her face. Thank god. She would’ve looked so weird with a black eye. “Can uh–can someone start explaining what the hell is going on here?”
“Don’t say hell,” Uncle Ryland says. “And don’t jump in front of the danger. Who taught you that?”
The man in front of her stares at her like she has three heads. Maybe he’s never seen a twelve year old before. It’s possible. Apparently anything is possible. Apparently, Claire doesn’t know a single thing about anyone in this room. “That’s a child,” the man says. Claire scowls.
“I’m almost thirteen,” she says, indignant. What else is she supposed to say to this stranger?
“A child. You let a child into my lab?”
“That’s your family, idiot. Court has a kid.”
At the mention of her father, she looks over at him. He’s pale and shaking in a way she’s never seen from him before. Eva is in a similar state, looking incredibly sick.
“You’re–one of you is supposed to be–I don’t–,” her father stammers out. He points at her uncle. Well, she’s starting to get the feeling they’re both her uncle. The uncle she knows. “Explain. Now.”
“Okay,” he says. “Uh. I’m not Ryland. I’m Colt.” Not-Ryland points at his doppelganger. “That’s actually Ryland. Me? I’m Colt. Actually.”
“Colt’s dead,” Jody interjects. “I–I lost Colt. I went to his funeral, that’s how dead he is. You–you aren’t Colt because Colt is dead and I’ve mourned him for years. You’re Ryland.”
The doppelganger looks furious as she says that. “You stole my name? Is there anything else I need to know about?”
There’s a long and awkward silence for a little bit. Claire can’t even find the words herself, she can’t imagine the adults in the room have anything to say. This is all just too crazy for her. She finds herself longing for this morning when it was just her and her uncle. They were having such a good summer. She looks over at her father who seems to be beckoning her towards him. Claire presses herself closer to her uncle. If she hangs on tight enough, things might start making sense again.
“I’m really sorry,” not-Ryland says. His voice sounds teary. “No one would’ve believed me if I told you what happened. I didn’t–I didn’t want to do this but–it’s Ryland. I needed to get him back.”
“You keep saying that,” Eva says. “Get him back. Where did he go?”
And so, the truth unfolds.
Claire never knew much about her family and what they were like growing up. Her father was decently older by the time his siblings came along and, by the time they were old enough to be their own people, Court was out of the house. Besides, Court hated reminiscing on the past. It made sense now. Claire didn’t have any siblings to speak for, but she couldn’t imagine the grief of losing someone you aren’t supposed to lose. She doesn’t blame him for that. Honestly, she feels a lot of pity for him over it.
The news said Colt Grace died in a freak accident. The stunt driver (god, Claire’s family was so cool) had failed his final stunt. He crashed into a tree late at night and his body was ejected from the car. They never found him, despite looking for weeks. His casket was closed and empty.
“I was told to make a fortune for the family or never come back,” Colt-Ryland says. “There was a big argument. Dad kicked me out. And I was doing good, you know? Danger is something I can run into easily. It makes for a great career. And I kept reaching out. To Court, to Ryland, to dad until he died. No one called back.”
“You ruined my life,” Real-Ryland argues back. “I wasn’t going to answer your call just because you were doing well.”
“But I came running the second you called,” Colt snaps back. Claire flinches, still holding her uncle tight. He pats the top of her head in apology. “That’s what family does.”
Claire notices her father is suspiciously quiet. Seems letting people down is what he’s always been best at.
Real Ryland had gotten himself into some trouble. He’d been rejected from his dream school which was objectively Colt’s fault. There was a science experiment that went wrong, Colt had messed with it somehow and it failed catastrophically in front of the recruiters. So, Ryland worked twice as hard to get to where he wanted to be.
He had settled in Gravity Falls to study some anomalies. Claire didn’t really entirely understand the science behind it. Some kind of biology something or other and weird anomalies happening in Gravity Falls. Things that shouldn’t exist existing here.
Gnomes, unicorns, zombies, the manotaur. He filled up three journals about it.
“I cut a deal with something I shouldn’t have,” Ryland says. Claire notes he says something and not someone. No one else seems to notice. “And I was stupid. I put Eva and myself at risk. I cut her from the project before it could catch up to her. No one knew her name. As far as anyone was aware, I was the sole contributor to this project. I needed Colt’s help.”
Claire’s starting to make the name connection now as everyone says it more. Colt. Colt. Colt. Colt. Her uncle isn’t Ryland, he is Colt. Well, Ryland is also her uncle. But not the one she knew.
“I came running,” Uncle Colt says. “We hadn’t talked in years. I knew it was important. I came running and he handed me this stupid fucking book and to get out of his face.”
“Don’t say fucking,” Claire says. Her uncle laughs. Good.
“Sorry, kiddo,” Colt says.
Uncle Spaceman narrows his eyes at her again. Colt’s arms are around her now, shrinking her behind his back. It’s a reflex he’s developed after the zombie attack. Uncle Spaceman looks at her dad.
“You had a kid,” he asks, suddenly processing the information his brother told him several minutes ago.
“Acquired,” Court says. “She came into my possession.”
“You can just say you adopted me,” Claire says. “That’s the normal thing to say.”
It had become a sensitive topic for Claire in the past several years. Her father always said that as a joke but, as he flaked on her more and more, she started to take it personally. Like she was this thing he had to care for. Like a goldfish, and not his daughter. They didn’t talk about it though. That wasn’t really their thing.
“That makes you my niece, then,” Uncle Spaceman says. He sticks his hand out. Claire moves herself from behind her Uncle Colt to shake his hand. That was one thing her dad taught her well. “Yeah, you’re Court’s kid. Sturdy grip.”
Claire flushes, shy.
“Okay, so how did the faking the death thing happen,” Jody interjects. “How do we go from shutting down a project to, and I’m checking my notes here, interdimensional travel.”
“I didn’t take kindly to being told to fu–” Claire narrows her eyes at Colt. He corrects himself. “Frick off by my brother. We uh–we fought. I’m not proud of it.”
Colt continues to explain. Eva and Ryland had been working on this exact portal. Colt and Ryland’s fight got physical fast. Pushing and shoving until somehow, the machine kicked on.
“You’ve seen what it does with gravity,” Uncle Colt says. “Ryland was too close. He threw the book at me and told me to do something. But I didn’t know what to do. I tried for weeks to turn this thing back on. I called Eva and pretended to be Ryland. I just wanted my brother back.”
Claire frowns. She can’t imagine what he went through. How lonely he was.
“How did you figure any of this out,” Eva asks, thoroughly confused. “No offense, but Ryland and I have PHDs for this.”
Colt nods. “Well, you fake your death and watch everyone grieve you and it’s pretty easy to pretend you’re the grieving brother that’s pivoting career wise. I did the Mystery Shack by day and the science by night. And I’ll be very happy to never do that again. If I have to memorize one more location I think I’ll lose my mind.”
“You shouldn’t have done it in the first place,” Ryland says. “What you did was stupid and reckless and stupid.”
“I saved your life!”
“I didn’t need to be saved. I needed you to do what I asked and make sure the journals were never seen again.”
“That’s enough,” Court snaps. “We’re barely wrapping our heads around this as it is. You two fighting doesn’t make it better. Right now we need to figure out how to get my guys out of here.”
“Oh, so Uncle Colt’s not going to jail,” Claire asks. There’s more attitude than necessary behind it.
“Well, considering Colt’s legally dead, it’ll be hard to prosecute him. And Ryland just got back from…wherever he was. He’s not serving a sentence for his brother’s stupidity.”
Claire huffs, crossing her arms. She looks around for a minute before her eyes land on Jody.
Bingo.
“Jody,” she says. “You’ve got the memory gun!”
Court’s eyes widen. “The what?”
“Jody, Holly, and I stopped a cult a little bit ago. They were like–erasing people’s memories and stuff. Jody kept the memory gun.”
Jody sighs. “Kid, do you think I just keep it on me at all times?” There’s a pause. She pulls the memory gun out. “Because you’re absolutely right, this thing is so cool. And dangerous.”
“Hold on,” her father says. “What do you mean cult? There’s a cult here?”
“There’s a lot of weird stuff here,” Claire says. “I wrote about it in my letters home.” A long and awkward silence follows that. Claire nods. Right. Of course. “You didn’t read them.”
“I have them,” her dad says. “I’ve been busy finding out my brother is a criminal. But I have them.”
Claire nods. “It’s fine. Whatever.” She turns her attention to Jody, who’s looking at her with a lot of pity. “We can just blast the agents with the memory gun and boom. It’s all fine.”
It’s not all fine, of course. There’s a whole extra uncle that Claire has now. Bringing the grand total up from one all the way to two. But they’ll at least be able to move onto the next problem. Whatever that possibly was. Claire’s trying to itemize the problems, but the laundry list keeps growing.
It takes them a minute to set everything up. Jody’s never erased someone’s memory, and they’ve only got one shot. Ryland, the real spaceman Ryland, sets up some kind of contraption with Eva that amplifies the memory gun and affects all the agents crawling around the mystery shack. It’s fascinating to see them work together. She had seen the way her and Colt worked together before and it always looked a little disjointed. Her uncle always seemed a beat behind. But now, Claire saw how it was supposed to be, a magnificent sort of chaos. They seemed to predict each other’s next move.
“Claire,” she hears her father say, suddenly next to her. She’d been put off to the side at this point. Not much a child could do in this instance, as much as it frustrated her. “Are you okay?”
Claire nods, picking at her nail beds. She really should’ve put a new coat of polish on her nails. She didn’t realize today would be so monumental.
“I’m so sorry Ryla–Colt put you in this position. We had been investigating anomalies but, I never thought that–”
“I was never in danger,” Claire says. She’s lying through her teeth. She tries to amend her statement. “ Uncle Colt kept me out of danger. The town’s just weird, it’s not his fault.”
Her father sighs. “Once we’re out of here, I’ll buy you a ticket home, you can’t stay here anymore. I’ll ask Mr. K if he can–”
Claire laughs at her father. Loud. “Where will you be?”
He has the foresight to look a little bit guilty. “Someone’s going to have to keep the government off of my brother’s tail. And figure out a way to legally resurrect Colt without causing suspicion. No one else can do it but me, kiddo.”
Claire nods again. “So I still get left alone the rest of summer? You do the late nights and the apologies and the cold take out and what? I sit on the couch waiting for you while Mr. K watches his stupid action movies? That’s not fucking fair.”
“Don’t say–”
“I’m not going home. I’m staying in Gravity Falls.”
Her father stares at Claire, as if hand picking each word he’s going to say next. She watches him mentally go through each option, deciding what could be good to say, and what would be a terrible idea.
“I’m the adult here, Claire. I’m your father, in case you forgot. I make the de–”
“You’re my dad when it’s convenient for you. If you cared you wouldn’t have sent me away all summer.”
Claire knows from the look on her dad's face that she’s gone too far. She can feel it in her bones that she’s put her foot right in her mouth and said something she really doesn’t mean. Her dad loves her. He’s just bad at showing it.
“You really think that?”
Her father looks pained. Claire’s mouth is sealed shut. She wants so badly to take it back. For her dad to forgive her instantly and just hug her like he did when she was little. When she would scream that he was a meanie and then start crying because she loved her dad too much to mean it.
But nothing comes out.
“Okay. Okay. Maybe it’s a good idea for you to stay in Gravity Falls. Ryland’s responsible. Eva’s responsible. Jody’s responsible. They’ll keep Colt in check. Okay. Yeah, kid. You’ve made your point.”
“Dad, I–”
A loud zap interrupts their conversation. Her dad’s head snaps in the direction it came from and sees that the memory gun’s worked its magic. Well, science. It’s a scientific device, somehow.
Jody waits for a few seconds, checking the cameras to see that the agents are looking around, wholly confused. It worked.
“Alright,” Claire’s dad says. “I’ll get them gone. Wait until I’m gone to come out. I’ll be quick.”
“Dad, please just–”
“I’ll be quick.”
He stomps up the stairs. Claire can feel her eyes filling with tears. Jody gives her a look, knowing she’s missed something, and that’s all it takes until Claire is sobbing like a baby in her arms. She’s embarrassing herself in front of the spaceman, but she can’t help it. She’s messed everything up.
“I know,” Jody says. “It’s been a long day. It’s alright.”
The rest of the day passes by in a blur. Claire cried so hard she gave herself a headache when she realized her dad really wasn’t coming back to say goodbye. Claire let the adults talk around her, sitting on the stairs quietly. She didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything. How could she even explain any of this to Holly?
Eva brought her dinner sometime in the evening, refusing to move until Claire ate at least half. She said something about Claire needing to grow strong that was definitely supposed to make her giggle, but it just fell flat.
Claire didn’t see new Uncle Ryland the rest of the day. It hurt a little bit, but it made sense. He didn’t know her. When was the last time he even interacted with a kid?
As the evening wound down, Colt finally showed up to see her. He looked exhausted and like he’d been crying too. Distantly throughout the afternoon, Claire had heard him getting lectured and yelled at over and over again. He sits next to her on the stairs, plopping down with a bit of an oof.
“You have every right to be upset with me,” he tells her. “I’m sorry I kept this a secret. I really just wanted to keep everyone safe and–”
“Dad hates me,” Claire blurts out. She feels dumb for saying it, but she can’t shake the feeling. She doesn’t care about the lying or the hiding or any of it. “I yelled at him and he looked so sad and then he didn’t say goodbye or that he loves me and I messed it all up. What do I do, Uncle Colt?”
Colt blinks. “Your dad doesn’t hate you,” he promises. “He’s just–rough around the edges. He wasn’t good with Ryland or me when we were kids, either. He shouldn’t have left like that. It’s partially my fault too, kiddo. I kinda dropped a nuclear bomb on everyone. He was in over his head. But he shouldn’t have done that to you. I’ll talk to him.”
“Don’t let him try to take me back home. I want to stay with you, Uncle Colt. I want to be in Gravity Falls with you for the rest of the summer.”
He nods, tearing up. “Uncle Colt. Woah. That’s–I’m Uncle Colt.”
Claire nods. “You’re my Uncle Colt. You’ve been taking care of me all summer and you’re the same person I knew this morning. You’ve just got a new name.”
Colt looks up at her, his eyes a bit glossy. “You’re a sweet kid. Okay. Okay, get to sleep. It’s way past your bedtime.”
Claire giggles a bit. Some kind of peace settles over them. Claire starts to walk up the steps but she stops herself, abruptly turning around and rushing towards her uncle. He groans a bit at the force of their collision, not really expecting it, but wraps his arms around her nonetheless.
"I like Colt better as your name anyway. Ryland is a stupid name. Don’t tell him I said that. And don’t lie to me ever again or I swear I'm never not ever going to talk to you again. Ever.”
Colt laughs at that. Hard. “Secret’s safe with me, kid. And I promise, that was actually the last secret. Now get to bed before I have to carry you up to your room.”
Claire won’t fix things with her dad tonight. Uncle Colt won’t make things right with his brother this evening either. But the sun will still come up tomorrow and they’ll be the same people they were before this. And they’ll have each other.
And things will be okay.