Dipper came down the stairs, rubbing his eyes. His twin sister Mabel had already rushed in ahead of him, and bounced into a seat at the kitchen table next to their great uncle.

"You're sure full of—" Grunkle Stan hid his face behind the newspaper, but both Dipper and Mabel heard him yawn—" energy."

"Are you okay, Grunkle Stan? "Dipper asked, taking a seat across from his sister.

"Yeah, just didn't get much sleep last night."

Dipper looked at his twin sister across the table, and she returned the gaze. Neither of them could believe that their con-artist uncle had agreed to reveal to the town what had caused it to be nearly torn apart—his activation of the interdimensional portal in the basement. They both guessed that he had been awake most of the night thinking about it.

"Good Morning, everyone."

Stan, Mabel and Dipper looked to see Stan's twin brother (a.k.a the great uncle Dipper and Mabel didn't know they had until recently) in the doorway.

"Good morning, Great Uncle Ford."

Ford took a seat at the end of the table across from his brother. He could see the headline of the paper:

Local Businessman to Reveal Secret at Town Meeting Today!

"Are you okay, Stan? "

"Yeah, Sixer, I'm fine."

Stan put down the paper. "I just—I can't believe I'm doing this. The town's gonna hate me."

Ford sighed. "The portal is a powerful machine—you didn't know how powerful. I apologize again, but that's the reason I hit you when I came out of the portal. I don't know what kind of damage it might have caused to the space-time continuum—"

Stan rolled the paper up and held it up mock-threateningly. "What did I say, Sixer? One, stop apologizing! Two, no nerd-speak at the table this early in the morning, or I'm going to come over there and hit you! "

Ford held up his hands defensively. "Okay, okay, Stan! Sheesh! "

Dipper looked up at his Great Uncle Ford—more specifically, his hands. Grunkle Stan had explained to them that his twin brother had been born with a birth defect that had given him six fingers on each hand—and it had been a tracing of one of those hands that adorned the front of the journals Dipper had been obsessed with all summer. To think, he was actually related to the author of the journals…

"Hey, Dip! Dipper! Yoo-hoo, come back!"

Dipper blinked and looked over at his sister. "Huh, what? "

"Come on; let's set the table, fan boy!"

Dipper felt himself blush, realizing that he'd been staring again. "Uh, yeah, sure, Mabel—let's do that. "

He got out of his seat and followed Mabel to the refrigerator.

"So, Sixer, when was the last time you saw one of these? "Stan asked, sliding the newspaper across the table to his brother.

Ford stared at the paper a moment, and then picked it up. "Wow. Not for a really long time, Stan."

He opened the paper. "Oh my—there was a fire near here?"

Stan nodded. "Yeah—burned some trees, but fortunately they got it out before it got to town. "

Ford turned back to the front page of the paper, read the headline and looked up at his twin brother. "I've got to say, I always thought you'd make the front page because you won some title bout in a boxing match or something. "

Stan sighed. "Yeah. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. "

"Stan, it'll be fine."

Ford held up one of his hands. "High six?"

Stan smiled at the phrase he often used himself when he and his brother were growing up. "High six."