It had taken a while as well as quite the effort on all four parts, but eventually Mabel, Soos, Waddles, and Wendy had finally been able to tie up the old man. After the deed was done, Wendy had to step back and wipe sweat from her brow. She had to admit Stan was far stronger than she would have imagined. He'd put up an exceptional fight too. The two gruncles wrecking the room hadn't seemed to be enough for them. They'd wanted more and fortunately before things could end badly, the fight had dissolved more into which crusty, old man could out-scream the other. Then Ford had made a break for it before any of them had had the chance to stop him. Stan had been about to go after him but luckily it had taken the combined efforts of the four others to hold him down. At least they'd been able to tie him up and trap him in the basement. It was a shame they couldn't do the same to Stanford. But he'd already made a break for the stairs and they were fairly sure he wouldn't try anything around Dipper. There was one point that he had, only Stanley had been up to read Dipper the diary and it seemed he had purposely been keeping Mabel busy so that she hadn't been able to see him herself. And separated from his twin, Ford tended to act a lot more mature. If only the same could be said for his brother. Wendy hoped he wouldn't destroy any of Ford's expensive equipment.

In order to recover from the shock of such a spectacle, Mabel, Soos, and Wendy sat back at the table with Waddles underneath at their feet. Soos held an ice pack that Mabel had retrieved from the freezer firmly to his grimaced lips. Wendy and Mabel had their own mugs of coffee, ones that were not broken. Every once in a while the girls shared a knowing glance but were unable to voice their mutual concern. They had to get back to the diary. Even though Ford had helped them add to it, they weren't completely sure that one person alone could be trusted to act responsible with it. It was a diary after all...

Luckily, Soos seemed more or less clueless to their troubles. He proceeded to continually sip cooled coffee from his new mug as if his lip had never been burned. Finally he placed it down on the table and looked up at the girls. With a raised eyebrow he glanced from the redhead to the brunette and then back again. He folded his thick hands together and stared them down, "So uh, do you dudes know what was up with all that drama?" There was a pause.

Mabel chuckled nervously, "Tensions are just kinda high right now. We're all really worried about Dipper and he isn't gonna get better if they fight like this."

Soos's face softened a bit back to his usual sympathetic expression, "How is the little dude by the way? You know I haven't seen him all day. This morning Stan told me not to come in because Dipper had caught something so I thought maybe it was something serious."

"Oh it's not so bad," Mabel assured him. "Grunkle Stan is just making it hard for him to get any rest. He keeps insisting he listen to him prattle on about how great it would be for Old Man McGucket to live here with us. I mean, I don't deny we're the ones that put that stuff in his head in the first place, us and Great uncle Ford. We kinda got into a shipping phase their, yeah."

"Come to think of it," Wendy looked thoughtful and glanced across the den at the staircase. "Ford is up there right now with him. I know that it was my idea that he take a turn to check on Dipper, but honestly I feel like all this excitement just followed him up there. But I still don't think it would be a good idea to go up and check on them. Sorry, Soos. I don't really feel right now is the best time for you to see him. But I'm sure Mabel will put in a good word for you, won't you Mabel?"

"Yeah," Mabel replied, not making eye contact. After a long pause, she put down her mug. Soos and Wendy peered inside, surprised to find out it was still half full. "You know what, maybe I'll go see them right now. I know we told great uncle Ford we wouldn't disturb him. I'll just take a quick peek." She then slid her chair away from the table, its legs creaking against the floorboards, and headed upstairs. Before she was out of sight she swiveled her head backward to give them one last look. "You guys can stay down here to make sure Grunkle Stan doesn't escape. Maybe you'll find something in the medicine cabinet to sedate him with!" Then she was gone.


"Great uncle Ford," Dipper struggled to find words. "Is everything okay downstairs? I heard sounds, loud sounds. What's happening down there? Are Mabel and Grunkle Stan and Wendy okay?"

Ford noticed him clutching the diary so hard his knuckles had gone white and sweat dripped down the leather cover. He took the book insistently out of the boy's hands, "It's okay now, Dipper. Everything's okay. No one got hurt. Stanley and I just didn't have the flexibility to crack open our thick skulls."

"What! D-do you mean you guys fought?" Dipper's eyes widened in shock.

Ford could tell he was feeling more and more out of it. He couldn't lie to him so he wouldn't he just pulled him closer but said nothing more.