Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls or its characters. All the kudos to Alex Hirsch for that privelege.

Heart Beats

Sweet Moses, I am getting way too old for this kind of crap, Stan couldn't help but think.

Mabel yelped and clutched tighter to his neck as he leapt over the fallen tree in their way. He ducked down low though as… the whatever it was that was chasing them took a swipe at them.

"Come on, come on." Dipper muttered to himself as he flipped through one of his brother's journals from his position tucked under his arm. Stan tried to ignore it and concentrated on getting back to the Shack as quickly as possible.

You know, Stan may have loved his brother (though he would never admit it to his face given how they were currently at odds), but in all seriousness, those journals were really more trouble than they were worth.

Take today for instant. The kids had gone off on some sort of adventure as per usual. Stan knew that they could really handle themselves, so he hadn't been too worried. He had gone along with conducting his tours and he had known that the kids would be back by supper at the latest, chatting about some sort of lesson they had learned while encountering the weirdness of either the town or forest.

And then, right in the middle of a tour, he had heard the sound of screaming coming from the forest. He'd known in an instant the source of the terrified sound.

Stan didn't even hesitate. He rushed off in the direction of the screams, directing the tourists into the shop with a yell over his shoulder. He knew Wendy was talented enough to milk them for what they worth, and Soos would make sure to make sure none of them got away. Mabel and Dipper were his priority though, and he had to get them now.

He guessed he was lucky to have such good employees that he could leave them at it.

It hadn't taken the conman long to reach where the kids were fleeing the monster that was now chasing them all. He had no clue what it was. It looked like some sort of mix between a giant weasel with some sort of lizard-like claws. Still, it had taken a shot at Mabel who had been slightly slower than her brother.

Yeah, as if Stan was about to let that happen.

He'd managed to slide in between his niblings and the thing, throwing a left hook. Stan felt a small bit of satisfaction as he got it right in the snout. It stumbled back a bit which gave him the perfect opportunity to scoop up the kids and get the heck out of dodge. He knew if he could get to the Shack then at the very least he could grab a bat to beat the thing up.

Which, of course, lead them right back here.

Stan couldn't remember having to deal so much with the supernatural side of Gravity Falls until the kids showed up. And he was getting way too old to deal with this stuff.

Anyway.

Stan maneuvered around a copse of trees, beginning to recognize the scenery as what he passed when doing golf cart tours.

"Dipper, anything?" Mabel asked desperately.

"Uh, uh," he was still frantically skimming the pages. Stan didn't really want to bring up the possibility that nothing might be in there. After all, the records in Ford's journals were 30 years old. "I got nothing!" Dipper said.

"Great." Stan grunted. He ignored the pain building in his chest that was probably from all of this running. Ugh, why do all these paranormal things insist on chasing others? Can't they just growl or whatever and let whoever invaded their space get away? "What'd you do to anger it anyway?"

"Uh…" Neither twin would look him in the eye, which just spoke of guilt.

He really needed to teach them how to successfully bluff. Mabel had a good start on it, but she could only do it during a card game.

"Whatever. Just tell me when we're done getting chased by this thing." Stan put on a burst of speed. After all, they were in the home stretch.

The creature seemed to sense this though and let out a ferocious growl. With a glance, Stan peeked back and saw its muscles bunching up in the back. It was going to make a final leap.

Just as the thing jumped, Stan ducked behind a tree. The creature hit the other side causing the entire tree to shudder and a painful groan to come from the beast. Stan smirked as he finished the trek out of the woods, only putting down the kids after they were out of the tree line.

"Wow! Nice one, Grunkle Stan!" Mabel beamed at him, pumping her arms up in victory.

"Thanks, sweetie." Stan returned the smile, trying to catch his breath. It shouldn't be this hard. "So what did you do?"

"Well," Dipper sheepishly avoided his look as they headed back towards the Shack, "we were actually going to see if we could find this really old dragon nest that was in the journal. It had been abandoned for quite a while even when this entry was written." He tried to reassure Stan when he got on the receiving end of a narrow glance.

"Yeah, but instead we found that thing!" Mabel said brightly.

"That's not really a good thing." Stan commented, absently rubbing his chest to try to make the persistent pressure go away. He followed after them as they made their way up the porch steps. "Just for this, you two are pulling extra hours in the shop tomorrow."

"Grunkle Stan!" They simultaneously whined, turning around to face him…

Just as the discomfort turned to pain, the sudden switch causing Stan to stumble into and clutch at the doorway. His other hand tightened on his chest.

"Grunkle Stan?"

Stan tried to figure out what was wrong. It was getting harder to breathe than ever and he could practically hear his heart pounding in his ears, but it sounded off…

"Stan?!"

Combined with the pain in his chest, that could only mean… Oh.

Stan really hoped his brain-to-mouth filter was working because the twins' parents would go off on him if they learned the curse words swirling in his mind from him.

"Grunkle Stan?! C'mon, answer me!"

He blinked and finally noticed both of the niblings had come closer. Mabel had grasped his arm folded up to his chest and was looking up at him with wide, frightened eyes. Dipper stood at his side and his eyes darted all over him, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Get Soos." Stan managed to get out through gritted teeth. He clenched the door's frame harder and trying to ignore the tremble in his hand.

"What?" They glanced at each other, though Mabel began to move back into the door.

"Get Soos." He repeated as the pain reached a crescendo. "And call an ambulance." His grip on the doorway failed.

"Grunkle Stan!"

The last thing Stan noticed as he slumped to the floor and unconsciousness was Mabel running towards the phone while yelling for Soos and Dipper hurriedly trying to catch him as he fell. He knew that he could leave it to those two as everything faded out.

AN: So I first got this idea when I saw The Stanchurian Candidate last year when Stan was talking a lot about how he was going to die some day and he was getting old. I was also kind of mad at Ford and wanted him to show some care for his brother because he was really blase in that episode. I ended up getting plenty of that in the finale but I figured I'd finally write this anyway.

Originally posted on my Tumblr and now I'm finally posting it here.