One Day Reunited

Prologue: The Butterfly Effect

Author Note:

Hello everyone! This is my first-ever attempt at writing fanfiction. It's my take on the Reunion Falls AU idea, since this is probably my favorite Gravity Falls AU and none of the versions I've yet seen on this site seem like they're ever going to be completed. It will be a retelling of the series set in the Reunion Falls AU. I'm planning on taking this all the way through to Weirdmaggedon!

As I said, first-time writer, so please be merciful. There are some areas I'm a bit sketchy on, so any suggestions for future chapters are welcome, as is any and all constructive criticism. I'm not fishing for compliments, but writing reviews that are basically just 'you stink' repeated in different words is a waste of the reviewer's time and mine, as they do not help me become a better writer. Reviews are inspiration!

I can't promise a regular update schedule or anything, but I'll try to put something up every couple of weeks or so.

This chapter is the setup for the Reunion AU situation, and is probably the most 'original' one I have. I took the lazy route and named Dipper and Mabel's parents after Alex Hirsch and his wife (I think this is her name?).

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls or the Reunion Falls AU concept.

Piedmont, California, United States, North America, Earth, Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy, Virgo Supercluster, Dimension 4-6'\

July 19, 1999

Devon Ross had a choice to make. His small tech company had just been bought out and he'd been ordered to lay off some employees. After conducting performance reviews of all the employees under him and carefully considering each one, he had decided on all but one of the layoffs. For the most part, he had been able to keep his best workers, but one more layoff was necessary.

It had come down to one of two men: Sam Anderson or Alex Pines. Both were good workers, good friends, and needed the job to provide for their families. Sam and his wife had four children already and Alex's wife Dana was expecting twins in just a month or so. Devon wished he could keep both of them but knew that he couldn't ignore the higher-ups' orders.

What Devon could not have possibly known is that this heartbreaking yet seemingly ordinary decision would change the course of history and affect the fate of the entire universe. In many versions of reality, Devon chose to lay off Sam and keep Alex, reasoning that the new parents would have enough to deal with already. The timeline resulting from that decision is already known.

But what if Alex had been the one laid off? How would the timeline be different? How might it be similar?

In this timeline, Devon decides that Sam Anderson's larger family has the greater need, and calls Alex Pines into his office to break the news to him.

How will I tell Dana? Alex knew he'd have a hard time finding work; he'd been co-head of a project that bombed pretty spectacularly, which was probably why he'd lost the job, but… the twins were due in less than two months. Even with this job, raising twins would have been difficult, but now?

No Alex, you can't afford to despair. This is why you have savings, after all. We'll be fine for a few months. Just find a new job before the twins arrive and everything will be okay.

"You were fired?" Dana said, gaping at her husband. "Why?"

"No, not fired. Just laid off. Devon's a good friend and I could tell he didn't want to let me go, but he didn't have any good choices. We got bought out and whoever kept their job instead of me probably needs it just as much," Alex said, voicing the thoughts he had rehearsed in the car on the way home.

"But… what will we do now?" Dana asked.

Alex sighed, "I'll just have to find another job. It'll be fine."
But Dana did not share her husband's optimism, knowing of the blow his reputation had suffered and fearing for the future of her soon-to-be-born children.

August 25, 1999

Five weeks later, even Alex's optimism had begun to fade. It seemed like everything was falling apart. He had been searching for work nonstop, but his unfortunate reputation had preceded him. Dana had fallen seriously ill and was in the hospital. Their savings weren't gone yet, but if he didn't find work soon, they wouldn't last, especially once the twins arrived. The doctors said the babies could come any day now. But Alex still held out hope. He had one more job interview that day before heading to visit Dana, and was feeling good about this one. Surely, this would be it. He would get a job, money might be tight, but his family would be fine.

These were Alex's thoughts as he walked into the small computer repair store and told the cashier, "Hi, I'm Alex Pines, here for a job interview…"

Alex had mixed feelings as he walked into Dana's hospital room. "Well, honey, I have good news and bad news."
"Bad news first," Dana replied from the bed, where she'd been trying to read a book.

"Well… it'll make more sense if I tell you the good news first: I've got a job again. Or I will, next week. That computer repair store just off Main Street needed a new software technician, and they didn't seem to care about my past failure. My new boss said I could start work on September 1st."
Dana smiled at him, "That's wonderful! I'm so happy for you... what's the bad news?"

Alex briefly smiled back before his expression turned grim again. "The bad news is that this job pays less than half what my old one did, and I was lucky to get it at all. With your condition, and the babies coming soon… I just hope everyone comes out of this in one piece. Then we can worry about money. Things will be fine."

Oakland General Hospital

August 30, 1999

About 10:30 PM

Six days later, things weren't fine. Dana had gotten worse and the babies were due soon.

Alex was sitting with his wife, trying to prepare some of the stuff for his job, which started on Wednesday, while also attempting to cling to the remaining shreds of his optimism. Suddenly, Dana cried out in pain. Alex was at her side immediately, knowing what this must mean.

"It's time, Alex. They're… they're coming."

Oakland General Hospital

August 31, 1999

About 5:15 AM

Alex Pines collapsed into a chair in the maternity ward waiting room. He'd spent as much time with Dana as the doctors allowed, but she wasn't coherent right now, and he didn't want to see her like that. It looked too… final.

The doctors were very worried that Dana and both as-yet-unborn babies could die. Alex didn't understand the medical terms; the only thing that made sense to him was that his beloved wife was on death's door, and he might never get to meet his children.

About an hour later, at 6:13 AM, the first baby was born: a girl, and her cries were so loud that Alex hardly noticed when her brother's voice joined them after five minutes. When the twins were finally laid side by side, they clasped each other's hands, stopped crying, and fell asleep. The doctor was astounded that both of them appeared to be perfectly healthy, despite their mother's condition, and had run a number of additional tests to confirm his initial assessment.

The new mother was much less so, but after a very tense couple of hours, things were looking up a bit. Dana was loaded up on painkillers, but had been pronounced stable. Unfortunately, it seemed that her condition was more than just a birth complication and full recovery could take years. Years during which she'd need regular treatments, and medication that definitely wouldn't come cheap.

Dana was finally holding and feeding her two newborn children, an exhausted smile on her face. But, ever the practical thinker, she looked at her husband sitting next to her.

"We need to think about the future, Alex. You know as well as I do that money aside, there's no way you can work, take care of me, and raise two children at the same time."

Alex just silently looked into his wife's face, then at the peacefully suckling twins.

Continuing, Dana said, "As much as I hate to even think of it… we'll have to put them up for adoption."

This was the nuclear option that Alex had never let himself think about in the weeks of Dana's worsening health. How could he give up his children, even if it was the only way that they could have a chance of being properly cared for? Even though they are only a few hours old, he loves them more than he ever would have thought possible, and knows that Dana feels the same because she's crying just as much as he is, and Dana almost never cried.

Alex knew his wife was a far stronger person than he, often saying she had a will of titanium. Sad or romantic moments in movies, bad news (like that of her illness last month), nothing ever seemed to faze her. The only other times he'd seen her cry had been when he proposed to her, and their actual wedding. If Dana was considering something this drastic, they were truly out of options.

His voice croaking, Alex tried to salvage some of his trademark optimism, "Can… can we at least keep them in the family?" He was grasping at straws, as Dana knew full well.

Alex's father, Sherman Pines, had been in the military, married his high school sweetheart, and settled down in New Jersey, later serving in the Vietnam War. Alex was their only child, and he'd been a miracle baby just like their own twins were now. His mother had died about a year ago from breast cancer, and Sherman hadn't been the same since. Though he tried to hide it, Sherman's own health wasn't in the best of shape either, likely due to his long-dormant war wounds. Though he had moved to California to be closer to his son, there was no way Sherman could adopt a child in his situation.

Dana came from a big family, but she was the oldest by quite a few years, and all five of her siblings were still at home, some in their teens, but the two youngest were still under five years old. It also didn't help that Dana's family lived on the other side of the country in New York, where she'd met Alex before moving to California for his job in the booming tech industry.

Both Alex and Dana knew all of this. Alex's suggestion was a false hope the minute he spoke it.

Knowing how her husband could get when his optimism finally failed him, Dana tried to cheer him up, "I know, honey, I know. It's just like Sherman and my mom said: we've only known these two for three hours, and already we love them more than we ever thought possible. I know I'd go to the ends of the earth for them, just like we said to each other at our wedding."

Something clicked in Alex's despair-sodden mind. Sherman… our wedding… 'the ends of the earth'... why did that phrase strike such a chord in his memory? Suddenly, he was transported in his mind back to a very different time, when he'd felt exactly the opposite of how he did now…

Flashback: May 31, 1997

The wedding reception was in full swing, and Alex Pines was on top of the world. He had just married Dana Thomas, the love of his life, and they were now being congratulated by all manner of family, friends, and even people he didn't recognize at all.

After everyone had eaten, they cut the cake, then separated to mingle with the guests. Dana was currently sitting in the middle of a group of her sisters, cousins, and other friends as they tried to predict which of them would get married next, and to whom, with a great deal of giggling. Alex had wandered back to the food tables and was getting some punch when he noticed someone standing at the edge of the tent and looking pointedly at him.

At first glance, he thought it might be his father, but no, this man was in a dark suit, while a quick look behind him confirmed that Sherman was sitting at a table with Alex's mother, still wearing his military dress uniform. Which meant this must be Pa's brother: Alex's Uncle Stanford.

Alex had only seen Uncle Stanford once before that he could remember. It was at Uncle Stanley's funeral when Alex was thirteen. He couldn't remember Uncle Stanford saying anything to anyone there; he'd just stood with his hands in his pockets and stared at the casket, occasionally shooting dirty looks at Grandpa Filbrick. Alex knew there had been some kind of big-time family drama; his dad had told him that much, but refused to elaborate even when Alex asked, saying it wasn't his story to tell.

They'd talked on the phone a few times since then; sometimes Uncle Stan would call on birthdays or at Christmas, but he'd never made the trip back to New Jersey that Alex knew about. Intrigued, as his only remaining uncle didn't associate with the family much, Alex walked over to him. Uncle Stanford had apparently been waiting for him, just as Alex had thought.

"Hey kid. Congratulations. She's a fine one.", he said in a gravelly voice quite unlike Pa's thick New Jersey accent.

"I know. I can still hardly believe it myself."

"Bet you're wondering why I dragged myself all the way out here, right?"

Alex had been wondering that. After Uncle Stanley's funeral, no one had heard much about Uncle Stanford. Apparently, he'd finished up whatever scientific research he'd been doing in that middle-of-nowhere Oregon town (Alex hadn't ever been there except for the funeral, and they didn't stay long), then decided to settle down there and open some kind of local tourism business.

Uncle Stan answered his own question. "I just wanted to come and see the newest member of the Pines family. It's good to know there'll be more of us, because I'm sure as heck not gonna be attracting anyone like that. Just let me know about any more new additions, huh?"

"We haven't really thought that far ahead yet.", Alex replied.

"Well, don't wait too long. Anyway, I also wanted to give you and Dana some advice, but it looks like Pa just showed up, so I'll tell you and get outta here." Uncle Stanford put his hand on Alex's shoulder and his voice suddenly became much more solemn and serious. "Family's the most important thing in this or any other world, kid. I'd go to the ends of the earth for my family, and I hope you can say the same for yours." The look in his eyes when he said this was intense and penetrating, like if he ever heard of Alex doing something to hurt his family, Stan Pines would have something to say about it.

"I-I hope so too, Uncle Stanford."

Uncle Stan clapped Alex on the shoulder and said, "Well, I'd best get out of here before Pa sees me and I end up doing something I won't regret, but everyone else here certainly will. Wouldn't want to ruin my nephew and newest niece's special day."

With that, Uncle Stanford had lifted up the closest tent flap and slipped out. Alex was still thinking about his least-known living family member's advice. He sure felt like he'd do anything for Dana right now.

He walked back into the crowd, found Dana, and told her exactly that.

Little did Alex know just how literal his uncle's statement had been…

End Flashback

"Uncle Stanford," Alex said suddenly.

"Who?" his wife replied, surprised at the sudden, vaguely familiar name.

"Uncle Stanford," Alex repeated, "I completely forgot about him, but I guess that makes sense; I've only seen him three times in my life, and I don't even remember one of them."

Dana was puzzled. The name sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on where she might have seen him.

Seeing his wife's look of confusion, Alex elaborated, some of the light returning to his eyes. "Uncle Stanford is my dad's younger brother. He was at our wedding, but he left pretty quickly when Grandma and Grandpa Pines showed up. I remembered him when you said 'I'd go to the ends of the earth'.

"He told me that very same thing at our wedding, that 'Family is the most important thing in the world', that he'd 'go to the ends of the earth for his family,' and that I should be willing to do the same for you. I told you that right after he left, remember?"

Dana did remember that now, but she wasn't exactly sure where Alex was going with this. They'd been talking about keeping the twins in the family… Oh.

"You're not thinking of asking him to take one of the kids, are you?" Dana asked, incredulous.

Alex looked slightly guilty. "Well, um… yeah. I mean, what other options do we have?"

"Does he even have a job? Wasn't one of your uncles involved in some kind of 'shady business' for a while? Do we know anything about him at all?" As usual, Dana was thinking about the important stuff.

"I might not have talked to him in person all that often, but he's not a complete stranger. According to Pa, Uncle Stanford used to be some kind of fancy scientist, like a theoretical quantum physicist or whatever, and has a whole mess of PhD's. He was studying 'anomalies' or something up in some tiny town in Oregon. Right around when Uncle Stanley died (he was the one with the 'shady business', as you put it), Uncle Stanford said he'd finished up what he was working on and decided to settle down there. From what I've heard since then, he's gotten into the local tourism business and is doing pretty well, all things considered. My theory is that he was actually working on something top secret for the government and finished it up, so they made him keep quiet, but they're still paying him for his work."

Dana rolled her eyes at this. Alex was always coming up with weird theories about the government, the Russians, the neighbors, and occasionally, all three at once. Last year, he'd become convinced that their reclusive next-door neighbor was a vampire and didn't let up on the idea until seeing the man jogging in the park in broad daylight. He never did anything about them, but feeling upbeat enough to talk about his stupid conspiracies was a good sign.

Alex continued, "But what he said at the wedding, I could tell he was sincere. Also, he still lives in that tiny town in Oregon. Aside from Pa, he's the only Pines on this side of the country, and your family is all in New York still."

Dana bit her lip, something she did when thinking hard. She didn't think she'd ever met this 'Uncle Stanford' (was he that guy from the wedding who looked like Alex's dad? He must have been.), but from what Alex said, he was probably the best option they had.

After a long silence, she asked, "Do you know how to contact him?"

"Sure, I should have his number somewhere… probably in the back of my address book…" Alex began to reply, before the implication of his wife's question hit him. "Wait, you're serious?"

Dana nodded. "Unless you want to leave it up to the state foster care system, but I've heard horror stories about what happens to kids in there…" she said, voice cracking a bit, either from pain, or from the worst-case scenarios she was now envisioning.

Alex got up and called for the nurse, asking if he could use the phone.

The Mystery Shack, 618 Gopher Road, Gravity Falls, Oregon

About 11:00 AM

Stanley Pines walked into his office to answer the phone, feeling great after his first tour of the day. The tourists were in the gift shop now, with his new employee (what was his name again? Ted? Tad? Yeah, that was it.) handling the register.

"Hello, you've reached the Mystery Shack! This is Stanford Pines, Mr. Mystery speaking. If this is the government, you can't prove anything. If you'd like to schedule an event, what's in it for me? If this is a personal call, what's the deal?"

"Uncle Stanford? Oh, thank goodness! It's me, Alex, your nephew."

Alex… that was a surprise. Last Stan heard, he and Dana were having twins soon.

"What's the word, Al? Those kids pop out yet?"

"(sob)... Yes, just… just this morning, actually. That's what I'm calling about… but…(sob)... there's something else…(sob)."

Stan heard what sounded like his nephew trying to collect himself and stop crying. Whatever this 'something else' was, it couldn't be good.

"There's a… situation. An emergency. You once told me that family was the most important thing in the world; that you'd go to the ends of the earth for your family. There's nothing else either of us can do. You're the only one who can help us."

"Whoa, kid. You don't sound so good. Is Dana alright?"

"No, she's not. Well, she's alive, and the twins are fine… somehow… but… (sob)... I don't think I can explain this over the phone. Please come."

If this was serious enough for Alex to bring up the 'ends of the earth' thing, it wasn't something Stan could ignore. He'd been telling the absolute truth when he said that and Stan didn't do that very often. Besides, the last time a family member had called on him, with those same two words no less… he'd failed him. That wasn't happening again.

"Alright, Alex. I'll be there as soon as I can. Whether I can help or not, I definitely need to see the next generation of Pines twins."
Stan heard what could have been either a sigh of relief or another sob. "Thank you, Uncle Stanford. You don't know how much this means to us."

"Yeah sure, kid. See you in a few hours."

Stan hung up the phone and walked back to the gift shop. He was about to do something he'd never done before. Pressing the intercom button next to the 'Employees Only' door, Stan announced, "The Mystery Shack is now closed. Everyone out! I will not hesitate to use the hose on the elderly!"

As the customers in the gift shop cleared out, Tad the cashier asked, "What's going on, Mr. Pines?"

"Family emergency, kid. You get the day off. Now get outta here. I wasn't kidding about the hose."

Once everyone was gone, Stan grabbed a few snacks from the kitchen, flipped the sign on the door to 'Closed', got into the Stanmobile, and sped off toward the highway. Piedmont was what, ten hours south?

"Road safety laws, prepare to be ignored!"

About 5:00 PM

Roughly six hours later, Stanley walked into the maternity ward, where he found his nephew, niece, and newborn great-nephew and great-niece.

"Hey Alex. Sorry for the long wait, I got here as fast as I could. Pretty sure I broke every speed limit between here and Gravity Falls."

After a few seconds, Alex seemed to register his uncle's presence in the room, and pulled one of the chairs over next to his own by Dana's bed. Uncle Stanford was wearing the same dark suit as the last time Alex saw him, but now he also wore a red fez with a golden symbol that vaguely resembled a fish.

"So these are the kidlets, huh?" Stan looked at the newborn twins in his niece's arms and was struck by a sudden, vivid image. He seemed to be standing in a clearing in a forest of redwood trees, just like those surrounding the Mystery Shack. Looking down at his feet, he saw a tiny sapling, with just a few sparse needles clinging to it. Looking up, he saw the sky filled with more stars than he'd ever seen even living in a tiny town in the middle of the woods. Suddenly, one of the stars flashed brightly and then streaked across the sky, leaving a long trail of light.

Caryn Pines, Stan's mother, had been a psychic, telling fortunes and doing card readings over the telephone. Stan always figured he'd gotten his talent for lying from her. He never knew whether she believed she was actually psychic, but there had been a few occasions when it seemed like Caryn had known things she couldn't possibly have found out herself (but they were kids, and there were plenty of other hokey fortune tellers on the boardwalk, so they didn't think too much of it). Sometimes, she'd say she'd seen visions, and as the image of the pine sapling and shooting star faded from Stanley's mind, he thought that maybe his mother's clairvoyance might not have been entirely fake. That... or the long drive was getting to him.

"Um… Uncle Stanford? Are you okay?" Alex's voice shook Stan out of his possibly vision-induced stupor.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just…", Stan looked at the twins again and noticed something strange. "... look at the boy's forehead. Does that look normal to you?"

Alex stood up and looked at his son again (as did Dana), noticing what Stan was talking about on his forehead. It must be a birthmark, but he'd never heard of one like that. Made of weirdly straight lines connecting seven large freckles, it was a lopsided rectangular shape with a sort of tail coming off the top-left corner. Alex didn't think it was normal for birthmarks to have such straight lines, or to be shaped exactly like-

"The Big Dipper. That's what that shape is. It's a constellation." Dana said, wondering why neither she nor any of the doctors had noticed this already.

Stan called the doctor over, who also gaped at the oddity for a few seconds, then said, "Well, that is certainly strange, but I think it's just a… very odd birthmark. It shouldn't be a problem unless it gets darker or changes somehow later on."

"Don't let it bother ya," Stan said, patting Alex on the back but speaking to both him and Dana. "My… I mean, uh, I was born with six fingers on each hand and I was fine. Got 'em surgically removed a few years back though, so maybe I'm not the best example…"

This was the excuse for his fewer fingers that Stan had given to those few he associated with who had known Stanford, like the mailman, that lumberjack guy, his parents, and Sherman. (Though he kind of doubted that Ma or Shermie had believed it. When they were kids, Ma and Shermie always had been the only ones who could tell him and Ford apart without looking at their hands.)

Once the doctor left again, Stan finally remembered the other reason he was here. "So now that the twins are here and all, what's that emergency you were telling me about on the phone? Like I said, I broke a bunch of speed limits getting here, so it better be pretty serious." Not that Stan actually cared about traffic laws, but he did want to know just how legitimate he could make his excuse if he had to.

It seemed that Alex had also briefly forgotten why his uncle was there and stared at him for a second, then looked back at Dana, then at the twins in her arms, then at Dana again. Alex sighed as Stan sat down.

"I guess now's as good a time as any. It all started about two months ago, when one of my projects at work bombed and we got bought out by our competitor…"

When Alex finished the story with his call to Stan several hours ago, he was in tears again.

"... and… and so that's why we called you."

Even understanding the circumstances, Stanley still couldn't really believe it.

"But… I don't have any experience with kids. Why would you trust me with something like this?"

"You're the only other family left. Dad hasn't been in good shape since Mom died, Dana's parents still have a bunch of kids at home already and besides, they live on the other side of the country. But most importantly, I know you care about your family, Uncle Stanford. You told me that three years ago at the wedding, and I knew it was true when you dropped everything and came down here for a nephew you barely know… and I see how you look at these kids… If you can't do this, the only other choice is to put them up for adoption."

Stan looked down at his peacefully sleeping great-niece and great-nephew, but his mind was on the street outside the family pawnshop, nearly thirty years ago in Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey, looking up at his father's cold, stony glare and his mother's helpless regret. He'd come to see the next generation of Pines twins… and already they were too similar to the previous one.

Looking across the room at the small mirror over the sink, it was suddenly not Stan's own face that stared back at him, but that of his father. Stan realized he was now very close to the same age Filbrick had been on that day. He knew Alex and Dana were nothing like Filbrick and wished with all their hearts that their children could remain with them.

Would Stanley emulate his father, the only member of the Pines family he no longer considered to be part of his own? Would he be the reason that a second, no a third Pines twin was cast into the unknown?

No. My life has been one mistake after another, but this won't be the next. I won't let these kids turn out like me and Ford.

"I'll do my best." Stan finally said. "I told you that family is the most important thing in this or any other world, and that's true. I may not know what I'm doing, but hey, I guess that means I've got as much experience as you two do, huh?" he finished, attempting a smile, before remembering that this would make him a single father of two children, and reconsidering things slightly. "But… if I take both of them, I'll be outnumbered. Besides, just from looking at the two of you, I can tell this is already breaking your hearts. If you've gotta give up both your children after just barely meeting them, I think Dana here might just die of sadness, and then where would we be?"

Alex's expression looked like he was trying to smile back, but didn't seem capable of it at the moment. "So what are you saying? We split up the twins?"

"Exactly," Stan nodded. "Believe me, I don't like that idea any more than you do. I know all about being separated from your twin, but… I think it's the only way."

There was something strange about how Uncle Stanford had said that, and it made Alex realize something. "What do you mean by that? Wait a minute… Uncle Stanley… he was your twin brother? I never knew that! Yikes, no wonder you acted so weird at the funeral…"

Dana scolded her husband. "Don't be insensitive, Alex! And let's focus on the here and now." Now talking to Stan, she said, "I agree with you, Stanford. As much as I don't want to divide the twins… giving up both of them wouldn't be good for any of us."

Alex agreed with her as well. He didn't know how they would make it work, but it was better than never knowing either of their children. Both Alex and Dana gave Stan's plan their assent.

Stan said, "So, which one will it be? The boy or the girl?"

Looking down at their newborn twins, Alex and Dana knew exactly what Stan meant about the value of family. That's why they were doing this. That's why it had to be Uncle Stanford, not some stranger chosen by the state. But how could they choose between their children? No parent should ever be forced to make this decision.

Their continued conflict must have been painfully visible, as Uncle Stanford's next words made evident.

"How about this?", he said, pulling a quarter out of his pocket. "Heads, I'll take the girl, tails, the boy. Sound fair?"

As ridiculous as it seemed to base such a decision on the flip of a coin, the new parents knew it had to be made somehow, and nodded. Stan placed the quarter on his thumb and flicked it into the air.

The coin seemed to move in slow motion, which was fitting, as unknown to any in that hospital room, this coin flip was a crossroads of fate, the outcome of which would send this Universe onto one of two very different timelines. Three entities from the furthest reaches of reality watched it spin up toward the ceiling.

On a mountain peak in Dimension 52, Jheselbraum the Unswerving sat in meditation, her seven eyes closed. She had foreseen this moment, and the two paths branching off from it.

From his domain beyond time and space, the Axolotl, great protector of Order, looked as the coin flashed and spun, knowing this moment would come. In many timelines, this decision had never needed to be made. Here, he had sent that vision to the Mackerel for a reason.

And in the unfathomable chaos of the Nightmare Realm, Bill Cipher, the Beast With One Eye, watched from his throne of impossibilities, knowing that now only one component of the Zodiac was yet to be born, and the three now in that room would bring all the others together.

To their varying numbers of eyes, the symbol of the Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel blazed a brilliant gold, while the quarter's sides flashed the alternating symbols of an azure Pine Tree and a magenta Shooting Star beneath it.

After what seemed to be hours, the coin reached the peak of its flight and fell just as slowly downward, landing on Dana's bedside table with a clinking that sounded incredibly loud to the ears of the ears of those in the room, holding their breath as they had waited what felt like an eternity for it to fall.

Finally, the coin was still. The eagle on the back of the coin glinted in the light. It was tails.

In the eyes of the three eldritch beings watching from beyond, the symbol of the Pine Tree burned bright blue, separating from the Shooting Star to rest beneath the golden Mackerel.

Stan reached out to take the male twin, but then stopped, remembering something very important. Something only the twins' parents should do.

"Wait a minute. What are you gonna call 'em?"

Alex and Dana looked at each other, realizing they'd forgotten all about names in the emotional rollercoaster of the last several hours. They had tossed around some baby names while Dana was pregnant, especially once they knew she was having twins, but never really came to a serious conclusion, deciding that they would have to see what their children looked like first. Dana knew she wanted the twins' names to start the same way, so she had told Alex that she would come up with first names, and he could decide the middle names, and he had agreed.

With this in mind, Dana considered the twins in her arms once again. The older twin, the girl, had now awoken and was looking up at them. She saw her father's face, reached up, and grabbed his nose (Alex, like Stan, had inherited Filbrick's considerable schnoz), then giggled.

"Mabel. That's her name. It means 'lovable', because we love both of them with all our hearts, and I want her to show her love for life to the world," Dana said, then looked at her husband for his opinion.

Alex nodded and gave the girl her middle name, "Mabel Caryn Pines, after Grandma."

Dana then looked at her son, also now awake and looking around the room. His eyes flicked rapidly from one thing to another as if he were trying to learn everything there was to know about this strange new world he found himself in.

"His name will be Mason. I think that mark means he is destined for greatness. Meant to build, create, and discover, just as he is already doing."

Again, Alex agreed, then added, "Mason Sherman Pines, after Pa."

All three of them were now in tears, Stan doing his best to keep them hidden but failing. Stan turned toward the door, and replied to Alex's quizzical look with, "I'm gonna go ask about the paperwork. You know, birth certificates and adoption papers and all that. You four should spend as much time together as you can before I… before we have to go."

The paperwork had taken a lot longer than Stan thought. After Alex and Dana and the doctor filled out the birth certificates, they brought out the adoption papers for Stan. He signed them "Stan Pines" just like all his other official papers since Ford disappeared, since he figures this way he's not really forging anything. They also made a copy of Mason's birth certificate so both Stan and his parents would have one.

Finally, it was time. Alex, Dana (in a wheelchair, and holding both Mabel and Mason, who were themselves holding hands), and Stan stood in front of the Stanmobile, which now held Mason's new car seat in the back along with a bunch of other stuff that Stan was really not looking forward to figuring out, like diapers and baby formula.

"I'll keep in touch. Every chance I get. Photos, letters, report cards, everything… and someday, we'll tell them. We'll have a big happy reunion party," Stan said in a flat voice that didn't match his words at all.

Alex was once again silently crying, but Dana seemed beyond tears. Knowing there was little he could do to dull the pain, Stan opened the back door of his car. Dana handed Mason to her husband, and he walked forward, placing his son in the car seat. Only now since their birth did the twins begin to cry.

It was the hardest thing Alex and Dana ever did not to immediately pick their son back up and reunite him with his sister, but they knew that no matter how painful, it was the right thing to do.

Stan closed the back door of the car, opened the driver's door, and looked into the eyes of his niece and nephew. He opened his mouth to say something, realized there was nothing appropriate to say (not to mention it would be hard to hear anything over Mabel's increasingly loud cries), and just nodded stiffly before shutting the door, starting the car, and pulling out of the hospital parking lot.

Alex and Dana just stood there as the old red El Diablo grew smaller and smaller in the distance, starting on the long drive north to Gravity Falls, then slowly went back to the hospital, Dana clutching her only remaining child to her chest while Mabel's eyes watched the car disappear over the horizon, as if she somehow knew it would be a very long time before she saw the most important person in her life again.

Stanley drove, now not daring to speed or break traffic laws (after all, he was basically a father now and figured he'd better start soon if he was going to set a good example for Mason) as he had done practically the whole time on the way down. Fortunately, by this point Mason appeared to have cried himself out and gone back to sleep.

Unfortunately, before he even made it to the highway, Stan saw the flashing lights of a patrol car behind him and pulled over. When the officer walked up, Stan rolled down his window.

"Is there a problem, officer?" Stan asked as innocently as he could.

Looking at him as if she thought he were rather dense, the policewoman answered, "It would seem that earlier today, the officer preceding me on patrol saw a bright red El Diablo convertible, just like your car, weaving through highway traffic and clocked it at over 100 miles per hour. Why he didn't pull it over himself is beyond me, but when I saw this rather distinctive car, I figured I'd make an inquiry."

Stan's mind raced. It had been a while since he'd been in this situation, since the Gravity Falls Sheriff's Department was, to be honest, laughable. Though he hadn't been thinking about it at the time, Stan figured he'd been pretty lucky not to get pulled over on the way down here. How can I weasel out of this one? Should I try the… Wait a minute. I've got the perfect excuse right there in the backseat and I don't even need to lie! Thanks, kid!

Putting on his best sad face (not hard considering the tearful goodbye he'd just left), Stan began his story, "Yes ma'am, I'm afraid that was me your colleague saw. But if you'll let me explain- "

"I don't see what there is to explain, but let's hear it. I'm sure you've got a great story for me to tell the guys back at the station." The policewoman cut Stan off, thinking that this was just another midlife-crisis joyrider coming up with a sob story on the spot. Any other day, she would have been right.

"Well officer, I was trying to get to the hospital to see my new great-niece and great-nephew. Their dad had called me down from Oregon with the news and said they really needed my help, so naturally I came right down, ready to do anything for my family because that's just the kind of guy I am."

The policewoman wasn't moved. She'd heard all manner of 'hospital' excuses and they had never been on the level. Seeing her unchanged stance, Stan continued.

"So I get there and it turns out their dad just lost his job, and their mom's really sick so they can't take care of twins, but can't bear to let them leave the family, and they ask me if I could possibly be a father to their newborn son. What else could I do? He's family, and has no one else to love him. If you don't believe me, just take a good look in the backseat there."

Shaking her head at the lengths some people will go to just to avoid a ticket and knowing this story will definitely get some laughs later, the officer decides to humor the guy, taking a few steps to the left to look through the back window. Much to her surprise, there is indeed a car seat containing what is unmistakably a sleeping baby boy. So either this guy is way worse than a run-of-the-mill midlife-crisis joyrider and kidnapped a baby, or… he's actually telling the truth.

She turns back to Stan and asks, "May I see your ID?"

Stan hands over his license. The officer looks it over. Stanford Filbrick Pines… wasn't there a 'Pines' we were supposed to watch out for?

"Stanford Pines, huh? Any relation to Stanley Pines?"
"He was my brother. Died back in '83. Car crash, if you can believe it." After nearly thirty years, Stanley was an expert at keeping his various covers, and he'd kept this one the longest. No one suspected he was really Stanley, except maybe Ma and Shermie; he was never sure if he'd fooled them, but it didn't seem like they'd told anyone either.

"Uh huh. And I trust if that really is your great-nephew in the back, you have the paperwork to prove it?" the officer said, still rather skeptical of this outlandish story, and now alert to the possibility of this man being a kidnapper.

For once, my crazy story is completely true!, Stan thought gleefully as he reached into the passenger seat and handed the policewoman Mason's birth certificate and the adoption papers.

"Of course I do, ma'am. What, did you think I kidnapped the little guy? For shame!" he replied, now sounding slightly offended at the idea. (Which he sort of was. Stan might have broken plenty of laws, but he still had some standards.)

Looking over the papers, the policewoman was forced to admit that even if it sounded like the same dumb excuses she'd heard a million times before, this guy wasn't lying. Besides, she might be a hardened officer of the law, but she was a sucker for babies. This'll be the best story any of the guys have ever heard.

"... All right. I'll let you off with a warning this time. But you'd better not drive like that anymore."

Stan grinned as the woman walked back to her patrol car, looking at Mason again and waving on the way. "Wouldn't dream of it, ma'am. I've got a baby on board, after all!"

A few days later, Dana had been released from the hospital, though the doctors had stressed that full recovery would still take years. Alex picked her up after work and when they got home, they found a letter from Gravity Falls, Oregon. The photo inside showed Uncle Stanford, holding Mason (who seemed to be reaching for the camera) in his arms, sitting on a sofa on the front porch of a log cabin, with a towering forest visible to one side. The back of the photo read "Mason's first day at the Mystery Shack."

Smiling at the photo, Alex realized they would need somewhere to keep all the letters, photos, and other keepsakes of their son that Uncle Stanford had promised to send them. He went down to the basement and dragged up a large, sturdy wooden chest with a pine tree emblem on the lid (meant to stand for their last name: "Pines," but now even more appropriate for what it would shortly contain, though of course they didn't know that). It had been a wedding gift from his father, but Alex and Dana had never figured out what to do with it. Now they knew.

"Let's put this in the living room. Anyone else will just think it's a fancy coffee table, but we'll have everything about Mason inside. That way, he can still be a part of our home, even if he's not here."

Alex opened the chest, and Dana placed first their copy of Mason's birth certificate, then the letter and photo they'd just received inside.

And so begins the story of Mabel and Mason Pines. It's not the story you may be familiar with, but in the infinite possibility of the Multiverse, anthyding can hadplen, and always does.

Solve the code for some juicy foreshadowing!

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