Chapter 9

Maggie pays closer attention to the timeline after that. It's been a while since she last watched the show, but she's also seen it multiple times. Therefore, unless her memory has completely failed her, the next big event she needs to worry about is Gideon stealing the deed to the Shack.

Luckily, they've prepared for this one. She already told Stan that Gideon would break in. She has not told him about Bill, however. Tonight's the night, though…

Down in the lab, Maggie opens her mouth to speak… and Stan beats her to it.

"So… how d'you know us?" he asks, fidgeting with a pencil.

Maggie, brought up short, blinks rapidly. "Huh?"

"From the future, I mean." He glances at her, clears his throat, and goes back to twirling the pencil.

Alarm bells are ringing in Maggie's head. Not part of the plan! Abort! Abort!

"I… um, well… you see…" Think, think, think! "I'm not sure how much I should tell you!" she blurts. "Don't wanna mess with the timeline too much, you know?" There, that sounded plausible.

Stan's shoulders slump. "Oh… yeah, you've said that before." He shrugs and throws her a halfhearted grin. "Worth a try, though."

Maggie smiles back uncomfortably.

"It's just… you know a whole helluva lot about me 'n' my family. More'n I'd ever want some stranger knowing," Stan admits, turning to face her fully. "So I figured ya must be somethin' more. To the family, that is." Stan colors and swivels back around in his chair. "Nevermind, I'm just gonna get back to this." He hunches over his work, but even in the weird lighting of the lab, Maggie can tell his ears are red.

What in the…?

She's not really sure what just happened or why Stan would be embarrassed. It was a perfectly valid supposition. Then again, he does tend to get self-conscious about silly things. Maggie decides that must be it and gets back to her own work. Two seconds later, she remembers she was going to tell him something.

"Hey, Stan?" she prompts, turning to face him again.

"Hm?" He doesn't look up.

"I know what I just said about the timeline, but I think there's something you should know."

He looks up at her then, his eyebrows furrowed. He's waiting for her to go on, but it's like her tongue has glued itself to the roof of her mouth. After a moment, Stan rotates so he's facing her.

"I'm gettin' a little worried here," he jokes, chuckling nervously.

Maggie sighs and scrubs a hand over her face. "Sorry… I just don't know where to start."

"Take yer time."

She smiles gratefully at him and pulls in a deep breath. "I need to tell you about…" Maggie's skin prickles; this feels dangerous. She forces the words out anyway. "... about Bill Cypher."

Stan raises an eyebrow. "Bill…?"

"Cypher, yes." She nods.

"Okay…" He's giving her a weird look; she doesn't blame him. "What about 'im?"

Maggie chews on her lip. This is a lot harder than she thought.

"What, is he yer boyfriend or something?"

"OH MY GOD, NO!" Maggie shouts, feeling like she's just been beat upside the head with that question. That question just dragged her into an alley and sucker punched her right in the gut. She feels a bit nauseated, actually.

"Yeesh!" Stan holds his hands up defensively. "Ya gonna tell me what he is, then?"

"H-he's a demon!" Maggie sputters.

Stan blinks at her. "A demon? Named Bill?" He throws his head back and cackles. "Pull the other one!"

Maggie's face heats up and her fingers curll into fists. "I'm being serious, Stan!"

"Fine, fine," he says, holding up his hands again. "Tell me about this demon named Bill." He chuckles again and settles into his chair.

Maggie composes herself. "When you first came to Gravity Falls, do you remember how crazy your brother was acting?"

The grin drops off of Stan's face. "Vaguely."

"He asked if you were there to steal his eyes?" Maggie says, hoping to jog his memory.

Stan nods. "I remember. He answered the door with a crossbow, then kept askin' if I'd been followed."

"He was acting like that for a reason."

"I just figured he'd been holed up here for too long."

"I'm sure that was part of it," Maggie responds. "But he couldn't really trust anyone at that point."

Stan snaps his fingers. "He mentioned that. Said I was the only one left he could trust with his stupid journal." Stan scoffs. "He probably drove everyone else away. I was just his last resort."

Maggie's lips twist. "Yes and no," she concedes. "He did drive everyone away, you included. But I don't think he decided to give you the journal just because he was out of options."

"But he said-"

"Come on, Stan," Maggie interrupts. "You know Ford better than anyone. Has he ever struck you as a good communicator?"

Stan shrugs and looks down at his lap.

"That's not my point, though," she continues, getting back on track. She thinks about it, however, and… "Actually, it might be. Ford drove everyone away and he was lonely. Lonely and easy prey for the likes of Bill Cypher."

Stan's eyes are boring holes in her now. "Are you tellin' me…?"

"That Bill tricked your brother into making a deal? Yes."

"What kinda deal?"

"The kind that gave Bill unrestricted access to Ford's mind."

Stan's head drops into his hands and he's silent for a while. And then he's exploding out of the chair. "That idiot! You'd think, with all those brains stuffed into his big head, he'd know not to go making deals with demons!"

"To be fair," Maggie interjects, "Bill lied and said he was a muse."

Stan narrows his eyes. "Yer kiddin' me, right?"

"And flattered him a lot."

"Son of a…"

"Told him he would change the world!"

Stan sits back down with a heavy sigh. "Yeah, I'm not surprised that worked. Still… unrestricted?"

Maggie gives him a sympathetic look. "Ford saw Bill as his research partner. Bill gave him a lot of the answers he'd been seeking."

"Why though? What did that demon get out of it?"

"The portal."

Maggie watches the emotions play across Stan's face. Then his sharp eyes connect with hers. "Explain."

"Bill tricked Ford into building the portal because he wants to be able to enter this dimension and cause chaos. The portal itself obviously doesn't lead to Bill's dimension, but the act of using it creates a rift which he can use to get here."

"But… we're gonna use it."

"Exactly."

Stan frowns and scrubs at the scruff on his chin, standing and pacing. Then he turns to look pleadingly at her. "I've gotta use it, Maggie. I can't just leave 'im -"

Maggie stands too and places a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I know, okay? We're not abandoning Ford. I'm just giving you a heads up."

Stan looks relieved at first, but then his eyes narrow. "I thought you didn't wanna mess with the timeline. Seems like yer messin' with it quite a lot here…"

She chews on his unspoken question for a moment. With a quiet sigh, she admits, "I didn't mean to travel back in time."

"Clearly."

She gives a wry little smile and continues. "There's something I want to avoid happening… something that doesn't need to happen. A last ditch effort that worked, but at a cost. If I can fix things so the first option works…" It's not until the words are out that she realizes the truth of them. Somewhere in the last two weeks, she stopped caring about just getting home. Maybe it was that way from the start. She always cared about these people as characters, but now… now they're real. It's crazy and impossible and scary, but… well, here she is anyway. Face to face with Stanley Pines in the basement of the Mystery Shack.

And still lying.

Maggie just barely manages not to cringe at the wave of guilt that passes through her. Why is she still lying anyway? What is she so scared of?

Stan coughs and breaks her out of her thoughts. She realizes she still has her hand on his shoulder and pulls it back quickly.

"Sorry, I kinda spaced out there," she apologizes, taking a step back. When did we get so close?

"Oh, uh, yer fine." Stan backs up, too, and they stare at one another for an awkward moment.

"Um, so…" Maggie scrambles to regain her train of thought. What was she talking about before? Oh! "I, uh, told you about Bill because we're gonna have to start dealing with him soon. Gideon is going to make a deal with him. A deal that involves Bill entering your mind while you sleep." Maggie pauses and looks Stan in the eye. "I'd rather he doesn't get that chance."

"You and me both, toots."

Toots? a voice in the back of her head wonders. Since when has he called me that?

Maggie struggles to focus. "Mmm… so, we need to get to Gideon before he makes that deal."

"Agreed."

"Sometime soon, he's going to break into your office. I say we do it then. Take the journal away from him so he can't do the summoning spell."

"Summoning spell?" Stan mutters incredulously under his breath, shaking his head. "Yeah, sure… that's as solid a plan as any."

Maggie nods. "For now, we wait. Maybe we could finally steal Dipper's journal," she suggests.

Stan grins and pulls something out of his robe, holding it up for her to see. It's the third journal! "Way ahead if ya."

"What!" she exclaims. "How did you manage that?! He cuddles with the damn thing when he sleeps!" It's the whole reason they haven't managed to attain it before now.

"I've got a few tricks up my sleeve," he brags, puffing his chest out.

"I bet you do," Maggie replies in a rather suggestive tone, then dies from mortification. Maybe he didn't hear me? But Stan winks playfully at her and she forgets how to breathe.

"Wanna help me copy it?" he asks, saving Maggie from herself.

She grins. "Only if I get to take a photocopy of my arm!"

"Huh?"

"C'mon!"

A short while later, Maggie is bent double with laughter at the look on Stan's face as a copy of her arm drags itself across the floor toward him.