"There's a giant UFO under the town?" Marcus asked as they climbed the hill.

"Yeah, and you're standing on it."

"You know what, that makes sense. People should have put this together by now."

"Well, given how easily this trap door opens, it seems someone did, pretty recently."

"This is so surreal. Is this the kind of thing you see all the time?"

"Well, I've dealt with a lot of spaceships, but not abandoned ones stripped for parts," Lilo said as they climbed inside. She saw the language written on the walls and nodded.

"Marc, can you copy down these inscriptions? There isn't much when it comes to technology here, but those inscriptions, if I can decipher them, then maybe I'll be able to figure out this particular alien race, see what they had to do with Gravity Falls." Marc nodded and opened his sketchbook to a clean page, starting right away.

"I'm going to call the Grand Councilwoman, see if she can get me resources for decoding this language. I'll be back."

"Okay, I'll work on this." Lilo stepped away and made a call on her comm. watch.

"Agent Pelekai," The Grand Councilwoman began.

"Please call me Lilo."

"Very well, Lilo, what is the nature of this call?"

"I need to translate an alien language, do you have any resources that I could use?" Lilo held up the image of the Councilwoman to the writing on the walls.

"Oh dear... This is an ancient language. We can't translate it directly into English, but we can send you the lexicons for a language it is translated into and that language translated into English."

"Okay, I can work with that."

"And Lilo, I needn't tell you that you are required to keep your research under the radar." Of course, she'd already broken that rule. She looked at Marc, saw how much he wanted his family to be safe. If sharing her research on the town helped make it safer for the people who lived here, she would share it.

"Okay, no problem," She told the Grand Councilwoman, however, this wouldn't be the first time she defied authority to keep someone she cared about safe. And it wouldn't be the last. She walked over to Marcus.

"How'd your call go?"

"It went alright, I'll have the translation resources in a little while. Thanks for copying down the text." She looked down at his sketchbook to see that he'd finished copying the cryptic language a while ago and was sketching her and Stitch. She blushed.

"You're very talented," She complimented, causing him to blush hard.

"T-thanks. Should we go? This place is a little... Creepy..."

"Yeah, no problem, I might be back one day, but for now we don't have to stick around."

"You can have the sketch, I mean, I don't need to keep it..." Marc was stumbling over his words, trying hard not to come across as weird and creepy. He slipped his sketchbook under his arm and wrung his hands nervously. Lilo didn't seem to notice and brightened.

"I love it, thank you." His face was burning. He didn't know what to do with these feelings. He didn't have practice feeling things at all, really. His whole family was supposed to be level-headed and tough, but he just felt overwhelmed and out of place. He coughed and walked ahead of her, so he wouldn't be caught looking. They climbed out of the UFO together and he wracked his brain for something, anything to say.

"What are your plans for the rest of the day?" He asked, still not looking. If she noticed, she ignored it.

"I'm going to call my sister later, talk to her and to my niece and nephew."

"Oh, you're an aunt?" He asked, relaxing a little. If he kept talking, as hard as it was to generate conversation, maybe he could distract himself."

"Yep. My sister has twins- a boy and a girl. Kekoa and Lokelani. They're pretty young now, but one day, I'm going to teach them how to take care of the aliens on Kauai. I miss them," Lilo admitted.

"That must be hard," Marcus said quietly, glancing at her, seeing her sad smile.

"Yeah. They were a part of my everyday life and I never realized how much I'd miss that. How much I'd miss the ordinary, everyday stuff."

"I'm lucky to have my family around me, even when they drive me crazy. I... I can't imagine leaving them. I can't imagine going anywhere. You're brave, Lilo, leaving what you know."

"I don't know if it's brave, really... It's just, all my life things have always been changing. I was young and I lost my parents. And then aliens got introduced into my life. And then more and more aliens... I've had to adapt to something new and weird for almost as long as I've been alive. And I'm here now, and this is just a new thing to adapt to. It's just the first time I've had to adapt without my family."

"Well, you're here now, and for now, we can be your family. You can be an honorary Corduroy." Lilo laughed.

"Thanks. Welcome to my Ohana." He smiled and walked ahead of her, his face still blushing red.

Around dinner, she called her sister. She was three hours ahead of Nani and the kiddos would have just gotten off of school for the day. It was just kindergarten, but it was a big deal to them.

"Hey, Lilo, just picked Kekoa and Lokelani from school, guys, say hi to Aunt Lilo!"

"Hi, Aunt Lilo!" Lilo's heart warmed at their little voices.

"Hey, guys! How's it going?" Lokelani, a few minutes older, spoke first.

"I painted a picture of you in class today!"

"I can't wait to see it! What about you Kekoa, how are you doing?"

"Good Aunt Lilo! I'm making friends!" Lilo smiled. Kekoa was the social one, he kind of took after his dad, who pretty much always knew how to make someone smile and lift their spirits. Kekoa and David were both persistent and positive. Lokelani was a little more reserved and creative.

"That's great kiddo!"

"How's Oregon?" Nani asked, no doubt driving home from the school.

"It's pretty cool. I've been making friends too, you know. My host family is really nice, they're helping make Oregon feel like home."

"That's good. We miss you here."

"I miss you too."

"I'm glad you have people there to help you adjust. I was a little worried."

"I get it, I was worried too. But I think things will work out here. I think I can help people here."

"I'm proud of you, Lilo."

"I love you." Lilo missed them a lot, but she was doing what she thought was right, and she wasn't going to lose her Ohana doing it.