A Jail Bird Set Free

Dipper and Lily spent a couple of days in recuperation. Mabel and Soos were of course ecstatic about their survival, and Jack and Pop had to be escorted from Lily's room every time they came to visit. The staff eventually but unwillingly allowed Blooper to visit as well. When the fire set in, Pop knew that he had to let someone else take the leash and drag the poor bloodhound away to safety. The blind dog wouldn't leave his side, nor Lily's after their visiting hours were up.

After they were released from the hospital, the two tweens saw that they had another mess to fix.

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"So they're gonna try to give Robbie the death penalty?!" cried Lily.

She and her friends were all gathered together in the empty attic room in the Mystery Shack. Soos was fiddling with a broken light bulb in the ceiling. Mabel was lying on the floor, her legs up against the wall. Dipper sitting on a crate, with a mopey sort of look on his face about the subject of Robbie. Lily and Wendy were on the window seat by the red window. All of them trying to put their heads together to come up with a solution.

"Only if you guys press charges and insist that he was willingly trying to hurt you," replied Wendy. "That's why you have to drop the charges and tell the court he should be released."

"But Pop and Grunkle Jack would never let me do that. They would tell me that I don't know what I'm doing and let a lawyer talk for me. I'd never have my say. They think that Robbie's guilty and should be in prison."

"Didn't you tell them that the triangle guy messed with his mind and was using him like a puppet?" Mabel asked.

"Sure, they believe that. But they still think that he was responsible for starting everything and needs to be punished. I'm afraid that they'll think I have Stockholm Syndrome or something and have put back in the hospital."

"I agree with them," muttered Dipper.

Everyone glanced in his direction. Seeing that all attention was on him, he stuttered, "T-that Robbie's responsible, not that Lily's crazy – or that her relatives think she's crazy or – or … I'll shut up now."

"Robbie messed up big time," agreed Wendy. "But it's not all his fault; he told me that he didn't want to hurt you guys. That Cipher guy did! But no one in court will believe that story, so now Robbie is getting a punishment he doesn't deserve!" She groaned with frustration. "Why couldn't that demon get put in jail?"

"It's a dilemma to be sure," replied Soos. He dropped the dead light bulb, and screwed in a new one. "I feel bad for you guys, especially you, Dipper and Lily. I heard that forest fire took out half the woods outside of town. That fire you had to run through – Sheesh! If I were guys, I'd wish that I could just forget that that ever happened."

As the light bulb flickered to life, Dipper paused. "Wait. Forget it happened? Guys! I know how to fix this."

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At the request of the victims, all the policemen and volunteers who knew what Robbie did were called to the station. They crowded into a tight room used for investigation, where Mabel and Dipper stood. Wendy convinced her family and Robbie's parents to attend, though none of them seemed happy to have to be under the same roof of that assailant. The twins talked Stan into coming with the promise of endorsing the Mystery Shack after they said a few words to the crowd. Lily had also requested that her relatives go there, but she herself waited outside the station. She just couldn't watch her loved ones be deceived, but for Robbie's future, it had to be done.

Mabel stood up in front of the crowd on a makeshift stage, holding a microphone.

"Fellow townspeople of Gravity Falls," she declared. "We are gathered here today to say a word on behalf of Robbie. We know what you thought you saw was him. And, it was. But it wasn't. I mean, he wasn't controlling himself; he never wanted to hurt my brother or my friends or anyone. He just listened to the wrong shape. Therefore, I beseech you, to find it in your heart, as Dipper has – but it wasn't easy since his heart was hard to find – "

"Hey! Off topic here!" called Dipper from one side of the stage.

"To find it in your heart to forgive him of his mistake and to release him, for it wasn't his fault."

The crowd of policemen and locals just shook their heads and cried out that she didn't know what she was talking about not trying to criminalize him.

Dipper already knew that his sister's speech would fall on deaf ears (he wouldn't have been convinced of it himself had he not seen the truth). He strode beside his sister, arms behind his back. He reached for the microphone, and Mabel handed it off to him.

"Now I have something that I'd like to say," Dipper addressed the crowd. The crowd quieted, and paid him their attention.

When all eyes were on him, Dipper whipped out the memory erasing gun.

"Smile!" He flashed the gun, and the entire crowd remembered not of Robbie's involvement with Bill Cipher's conspiracy.

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Even while people were confusedly trying to figure out what they needed to do, Lily found the door that led down the hall of cells. She wanted to finally meet Robbie and see him for who he actually was.

She found him boredly scratching in a new scar into the cement on the wall. He didn't notice she was there until her shadow blocked out the hall light.

"Who are you?" he groaned. "Wait – you're the kid that one eye guy was after. What do you want with me?"

"I just want to talk." she replied, trying to put him at ease. She sat on the ground by his cell, trying to get on his level. "I know that you didn't try to hurt me or Dipper, and Wendy put in a good word for you, so I – "

"She did?"

"Yeah. She cares about you. We all do. That's why we're … 'convincing' the police and everyone else that you're innocent and don't belong in here."

"But how are – never mind! If it's something weird or supernatural, I don't want to know about it."

Lily smiled, relieved. "No prob, Rob."

He glared at her remark. "How'd you get back here? No one's allowed here without the cops saying so."

"The door wasn't locked. I guess they figured you weren't going anywhere."

"Not funny." He turned sideways and faced the wall, only glancing at Lily every couple of seconds. "Leave me alone."

"But I just came to tell you that neither I nor Dipper blame you for what happened. We know you weren't the culprit."

"I don't care."

Lily's mouth hardened. "Yes, you do. You want everyone to realize that this wasn't all your fault – to realize that you aren't the bad guy. You want people to be able to trust you again. You want Wendy to be able to trust you again."

Robbie stiffened, and spun towards her. "How do you know all that?"

Even if Lily removed her glasses, she could see for herself that he didn't want to be what everyone thought he was. No one would in his situation. As for Wendy …

"Wendy told me you two used to be together. I just thought that maybe you still cared about those times."

She jumped at a sound behind her. Footsteps echoed down the hall. The police.

"Uh oh – Robbie, if the cops ask you why you're in here, tell them you don't know – or-or make up some other excuse!"

"Why?"

"They're going to set you free."

"What?!"

"Shh! I gotta go. I have criminal records to burn. See you out there soon!"

She ran down the hall, and out to an emergency exit. Robbie sat confused. But for the first time in weeks, felt a little hope in his sewn heart.

Sheriff Blubs was of course confused and angry that Robbie was locked up in jail without any apparent reason to be. He was released immediately, and his parents smiled at what they took to be another mischievous prank of his. Before pulling his hoodie and skulking back home with his parents though, he gave Wendy and her friends a weak smile.

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Pop and Grunkle Jack decided to have a cook out to officially celebrate Lily's return home. The grill was old and barely functioning, but the trio were happy nonetheless. The two old men made cheeseburgers, hot dogs, grilled corn, even shish-ka-bobs. No picnic, but still tasty. Lily savored every bite of the cheeseburger she had been dreaming of. And at Blooper's request, she sneaked him a couple of grilled hot dogs, which he swallowed down despite his lack of teeth.

While finishing their meal, Lily finally confessed something to her grandfather. "Uh, Pop. Dipper knows about our family."

He glanced at her over a can of Pitt. "After we escaped, I had to explain to him. But he swore to secrecy and he won't tell anyone about it."

Her grandfather sighed. "It was bound to happen sooner or later. But it wasn't your fault, Lily. You did what you had to do, and if you didn't, who knows what could have happened?"

"How are you sure that he won't tell anyone?" asked Jack skeptically. "Did you look into his heart?"

"No, I … I didn't. I didn't think that I should. I didn't want to! I never want to do that without a person's consent – i-i-it feels like I'm seeing someone naked!"

Jack raised an eyebrow, but made no comment.

"Besides, Dipper saved my life back at the lake, and I don't know how times from the forest fire. I trust him. I completely do."

Pop stood up from his chair. "All right. If you feel that way, then I see nothing wrong with it. I'm going inside now. I think there's something that Jack here needs to tell you, Lily."

He left them on the front porch. Lily looked over at Jack expectantly.

Jack sighed. He wasn't ready for this; he knew he wouldn't be ready. Not to tell her everything so soon. She was just too young.

He turned his lawn chair around to face her. "Lily. I know that you've been askin' about my family, and I haven't told ya much. It's … it's just been so hard. Thinking about them hurts. I loved them – I loved them so much. But they're all gone now."

Lily wasn't sure she heard him right. "They passed away?"

Jack then couldn't look at her. He stared at the railing on the porch. "My wife Jill died over thirty years ago. So did my daughter."

Squeezing his empty soda can in his fist, he threw it out unto the front lawn. "They were killed."

Lily understood everything now. His evasion. His lack of direct conversation with her. There was untold pain that didn't want to be told.

"I still can't talk about it. About their death, I mean. But I guess I can tell everything else. What they were like. How great my life was with those two."

"Y-you don't have to say anything!" Lily assured him. "I mean, you can if you want to, but … I won't bug you for answers."

Jack finally looked over at his grandniece. And smiled. She respected him. It was a sign of trust. Something that he never intended to break with what was left of his family.

The two of them sat contentedly until the sun set behind the piney point of Pinnacle Peak twenty miles outside of Gravity Falls.

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