Usually, when the Pines family had dinner, their table was filled with laughter and lively conversation. But Janice being here has thrown off their equilibrium, leaving them all sitting in awkward silence.

Dipper, Stan, and Ford were keeping an eye on Mabel. So far, she has been a little more reserved than usual but didn't seem terribly distressed as they feared she would be.

Janice had no desire to make small talk. She cut right to the point. "So, Mason, Mabel, I must ask, I know you claim to be 'happy' here, but do you honestly believe you're safe here?"

Dipper answered first and to his family's surprise, he replied with a bit of an attitude. "First off, Graunty Janice, if you don't want us to call you Graunty, I think you should know I go by Dipper." Dipper pulled his bangs back to show his odd birthmark proudly. "Second of all, we are safe because Stan and Ford always protect us."

Stan and Ford smiled at how the boy proudly stood up for both of them.

"Always? Well, I imagine Mabel thinks differently."

Mabel gave a confused look. "What? No, I don't!"

Janice reached into her purse and pulled out a stack of papers. "After your mother passed, I managed to obtain these… " Janice showed them what she had were the letters Mabel sent her parents throughout the summer.

"Where did you get those?" Stan asked angrily.

"I wrote those to Mom and Dad, not you!" Mabel said defensively, "And I never said we weren't safe! I just wrote about all the fun adventures we had!"

Janice shut her eyes and took a deep breath asking herself if she was going to really resort to this. She steeled herself, telling herself this was ultimately what was best for the children. She pulled out the paper at the bottom of her stack. "What about this 'fun adventure?'"

The Pines looked in shock. It was the original article of Mabel's attack. Mabel remembered seeing it the morning after the attack and how ashamed she felt afterward. The worst part about it was, Brad's picture was there.

"Well, Mabel, was this a fun adventure?" asked Janice.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Stan asked angrily.

"I'm trying to make a point! This happened under your watch!"

Stan was stunned for a moment. Janice's comment hit a little too close to home. "Oh yeah, well…where have you been, huh? Why haven't you been there for the kids?"

It appeared Stan's comment also hit Janice close to home. She was flustered for a moment before gathering herself and firing back. "I've been looking into the men raising my niece and nephew. And I found a lot of things I find questionable!"

As Janice and Stan argued, Mabel felt a panic attack stirring within her. Ford put his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him and he gently whispered, "Remember: breathe."

Mabel did her breathing exercises and managed to calm herself down. She called to her aunt, who was still arguing with Stan. "Great-Aunt Janice!" Both Janice and Stan stopped to look at her, surprised at how calm and in-control she was. "No, it wasn't fun at all, but Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford never left my side. They protected and loved me all the way through it. Grunkle Stan saved my life twice. He's…he's my hero." She smiled at Stan who smiled right back, touched to know that he was what he had always longed to be in her eyes.

Before Janice could reply, alarms blared over their heads. They looked over to see cooks running out of the kitchen. Smoke came through the doors and, from the Pines' vantage point, they could see a fire inside.

Mabel's eyes widened in fear. Her breathing exercises were forgotten. The panic she tried to stop from creeping in when she saw Brad's face again forced its way inside her, choking and suffocating her.

But Mabel wasn't the only one in the fire that night. Stan, Ford, and Dipper all looked at the fire completely frozen in fear. All of them remembered waking up in a burning house, pained by heat and smoke, and worrying where Mabel was as the flames trapped her in another part of the house.

Ford grabbed Mabel and Stan grabbed Dipper as they took them out of the restaurant. The men got far away from the building. Mabel was hyperventilating and burying her face in Ford's sweater. Dipper trembled and stared in quiet terror at the restaurant as though it could blow up any second.

Stan and Ford tried to comfort the kids, even though they weren't fairing much better. Each was holding the child they had to leave behind the night of the fire. Stan had to go save Mabel while Ford got Dipper out of the house. Both men were haunted remembering the feeling of having to leave one child to save other. Ford had to leave the house without Stan or Mabel to save Dipper, while Stan had to hope Ford and Dipper could escape without his help.

As the Pines family had their shared anxiety attack, Janice walked out to them looking frustrated. "Honestly, it was just a small kitchen fire. You're overreacting. It's already out."

"I don't wanna go back in there," Dipper whimpered. He looked up at Stan with tears in his eyes. "Please, I don't wanna go in there."

"We don't have to," said Stan. "We can go home now."

"Seriously?" Janice asked.

"We're taking them home," Ford said firmly.

Janice sighed. "Fine, I'm going to pay the bill, and then I'm going to your house to discuss the matter further."

The four Pines exchanged worried glances at each other as they huddled close together in the parking lot. Stan and Ford looked down at the shaking and panicked children in their arms. It killed them to know they weren't able to protect their children from the events that traumatized them. For a moment, the horrible thought that Janice could be right about her being the better guardian crept into their heads.

Dipper reached his arm over and gently took his sister's hand. If there was one pain that he still carried with him through this year, it was the fear and panic he had felt watching the shack burn knowing that his twin, best friend, and better half was inside. Some nights the nightmares were so vivid he could see his sister with burns all over her body, struggling with every breath to get the smoke out. Those weren't the worst nightmares, however, the worst nightmares were when the burning Shack crumbled to the ground, but Mabel didn't make it out in time. On those nights, Dipper would quietly crawl into bed with Mabel, unable to rest properly without being able to hear her quietly snore.

The four of them sat there clinging to each other for a few moments more. They needed this time together to calm down and realize that they were safe. They were safe, not because the fire had been put out, but because they had each other. Ford and Stan glanced down at their kids clinging tightly to them. They realized that despite everything Dipper and Mabel had been through, at the end of the day, they still trusted the old men to take care of them. They still needed them to take care of them and protect them. As they held the two children safely in their arms, they looked at each other and communicated a nonverbal message to each other. They reaffirmed their commitment to protect and remain with these kids until the end of time. No one…not Janice, not anybody, was going stop them.