Ford scowled as he sorted through the scraps left over from the portal's destruction. He'd been hoping to find something that might allow him to make a more secure container for the Rift, but so far there was nothing.

A slight movement caught Ford's attention from the corner of his eye. It was coming from the security monitor that showed the area outside of the house. There seemed to be some sort of commotion going on out there, so he walked over to check out what was –

Why was there an ambulance here?

Ford immediately turned on his heel and hurried to the elevator. One of the bad things about being a genius was that his mind ran a mile a minute and could therefore think up a hundred different scenarios in no time. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, especially in Gravity Falls.

Maybe it was just that one of Stan's customers had gotten a bit too freaked out, though he didn't see how that was really possible with his ridiculous displays.

More worryingly, Ford knew that Dipper had borrowed one of the journals with plans to go exploring with Mabel today. If anything had happened to them because of his journals…

Stanley would kill him.

And he would let him.

As he was lifted up, it occurred to Ford that there might be people still in the shop that would be able to see the secret entrance to his lab. It would also be surprising to see another so-called "Mr. Mystery" appear. However, he couldn't let that bother him now.

Ford burst out from behind the vending machine, dully noting that the shop was abandoned. He paid it no mind as he rushed out.

To his immediate relief, Dipper and Mabel stood on the porch just outside next to Stan's cashier girl, so they were safe. But there was obviously something wrong still. Mabel clutched onto Dipper's arm tightly, as if afraid he would disappear at any point. Dipper meanwhile was wringing his hand in his anxiety. Both were watching the ambulance with desperate eyes.

"Kids!" Both of them slowly turned to look at him, as if reluctant to let their gaze leave the scene before them. "What's going on? Are you okay?" As he got closer, Ford gave them a better onceover, but he could see nothing wrong with them besides their distress.

"Are we okay?" Dipper shot him an incredulous look.

"Grunkle Ford…" Tears were welling up in Mabel's eyes, and the name was a huge red flag. She only called him Grunkle when something was going terribly wrong or she was super excited about something. This was most definitely not a case of the latter.

Wendy placed a comforting hand on each of their shoulders before glancing up at Ford. Of all of the regulars to come around, she was the one he had interacted with the least. Still, she looked up at him with a combination of compassion and sorrow.

Before he could ask again what was going on, Soos jogged over from the ambulance. "Okay, dudes, I'm going to ride with them." He looked at Wendy. "How much experience do you have driving?"

She straightened. "Stan's given me a few basic lessons."

"Do you have your written excuse for not having a license?"

"Always."

"Okay." Soos handed her the keys for his truck. "You can bring the little dudes if they want to come. And you won't have to hotwire it."

"What is going on?" Ford had no clue what was going on and he didn't like it.

Soos gave him the same look Wendy had. "I've gotta go." He hurried back and the ambulance shut the doors behind him, taking off.

Before he could protest at the continued lack of information, Ford felt a small hand grab his trench coat. He looked down to see Mabel had grabbed onto him.

"Grunkle Ford…" She sniffed and wiped at her eyes with her sleeve. "Grunkle Stan…" She gave a small sob.

It was then that Ford realized that his brother was conspicuously absent. He looked around, but there were no signs of him anywhere, and given that Soos had traveled in the ambulance…

His mind quickly put the pieces together. And with it came a dawning sense of horror.

"What happened to Stanley?" He looked between the three of them, hoping for an explanation.

"I don't know…" Dipper's hand came up as he clutched at his head. "We had just gotten away from this…thing we found in the forest and were walking into the Shack. He just… collapsed."

"And he said to call for an ambulance, so you know it's serious!" Mabel said.

"Yeah, I mean, he didn't even go to a doctor when you blinded him earlier this summer, right?" Wendy glanced back and forth between the younger twins and they both nodded. However, neither of their expressions lightened. She changed the subject. "Hey, want to go to the hospital?"

The two kids nodded and quickly darted over to Soos's truck. Wendy went to follow them but she paused and looked over at Ford.

"You coming?" She raised an eyebrow.

Ford blinked for a moment. He had rarely gone into town even before he had fallen into the portal, and he hadn't even remembered that there actually was a small hospital here. Of course, since getting back, he hadn't gone to town because it would be a bit odd for there to be both him and Stan walking around. But in these circumstances…

"Of course." He made his way to the vehicle as well.

"Do you want to drive?" Wendy offered. "After all, I've only gotten a few lessons and I got them from Stan."

"Uh," Ford thought about it a moment, "Huh. When was the last time I drove something remotely like an Earth vehicle?" He asked, more to himself than the redhead next to him.

"I'm driving." Wendy hurried ahead of him and slid into the driver's seat.

Ford followed after and luckily the kids had left him the passenger's seat in the front. As Wendy started the truck up, he tried to go over what could have made Stan collapse, but he needed more information.

"Kids," he turned around to face them, "you said that you had gotten away from something that I assumed chased you." They both nodded. "What was it?"

"I don't know." Dipper held up the journal. "There wasn't anything about it in here, and I didn't recognize it as any standard paranormal being."

"It looked like a giant weasel." Mabel put in, and she raised her hands in a claw-like motion, "except it had these lizardy-type claws that were kinda freaky."

Ford clutched the door handle as Wendy sped over a few potholes. "That sounds like an ichneumon." He muttered and frowned. After all, something like that couldn't have done anything to hurt his brother unless it literally got his claws on him.

"A what?" Though he was obviously still worried, Dipper did perk up a bit at the prospect of learning something new.

"An ichneumon is a weasel like creature known for killing dragons. Sometimes they also take over dragon nests and make it their own in order to lure more in." Ford shook his head. "There weren't any here 30 years ago, but it should have occurred to me that that could have changed in the meantime. I'm sorry you were put in danger."

"It's not your fault." Mabel tried to reassure him and patted his shoulder. Then, her face fell and she turned towards the window. "Do you think Grunkle Stan will be okay?" She asked in a quiet voice.

"Of course. Stanley's always fine." Ford attempted to return the favor and reassure the twins, but a treacherous voice in the back of his mind whispered, That's what you always think and at the very least, it wasn't true 30 years ago, now was it…

He shook it off. The kids didn't need that kind of negativity.

Wendy nodded at his words. "You guys know better than anyone how much it takes for Mr. Pines to get knocked down! And even then, he always gets right back up." She smiled at them in the rearview mirror, which did not help her driving.

The kids settled back at their reassurances, but Wendy and Ford shared a brief look before the teenager turned her attention back to the road.

They both had a feeling that it wasn't going to be that simple.

AN: More of a filler chapter, but it's needed to advance the plot.