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Earlier he had heard the car rolling through the snow rather than actually seen it. When they had left the hours earlier they hadn't even passed the car back then either. He saw it in the distance, sure, but being up close to it now was just odd. He floated around to the passenger side of the car suddenly feeling like he was in a dream.

A very brief panic seized up his heart at that. He was very much awake though. Cold, head pounding, sore, and drained; but awake.

He sat down in the car, the surrealness of it stronger than before. He had ridden in the passenger seat several times before. Stanley had been the one with the car, after all. Obviously, things were different now, and the car reflected that too. It still felt the same though. A cold morning drive to school with cold air blasted into their faces, it took the heater a couple minutes before warm air would actually come out.

"So, what's good to eat around here?" Stan's question suddenly pulled his attention back from the car.

Ford hadn't been to Greasy's diner since that last night with Fiddleford. After everything, it held a bit of a bitter memory now. As for that other diner, he didn't want to even think about what happened. "There's a couple diners, but it's probably best not to go to either of them." He glanced aside as he continued, "actually, if we're going to stop somewhere to eat we should go outside of Gravity Falls."

Stanley started the car with a nod, backing the car up and turning back down the path. "Should I worry about getting jumped or something?"

"Oh, no, no this is a small town. Crime is low here. No gangs." He paused before amending, "well, a cult of sorts, but I don't think they qualify as a gang."

"I meant- wait, a cult? Is that what's going on around here?" Stan asked glancing briefly at Ford.

"What? No. I mean- I actually haven't found their hideout, which is a bit upsetting. I don't know what their goals are either; I haven't been focusing on them lately."

"Have they been sacrificing like animals and stuff?"

Ford gave a heavy shrug taking a deep breath before finally answering. "I don't know." He looked off into the woods, and not even a moment later, mumbled, "I would ask around about any missing livestock, but now hasn't really been the time." Ford also found in his past experiences that people didn't really take that well to the question either.

Stan hummed. "Well, what I was asking was I don't really know if someone is going to attack us or something. You know," he gestured between them, "because of our faces."

"Oh… no, no it should be fine." Ford said, though he doubted himself, surveying the street, "probably." Almost anything could happen. There were a few cars out, and he found himself unable to realize whether or not it was actually a normal amount for the day and time or not... Come to think of it, he didn't know which day it was.

"Okay, so not gonna beat around the bush here. That's not comforting at all, Sixer."

"H- We wouldn't get attacked . That's definite at this current point." He assured. "That would already have happened, most likely. We may be trailed though." He covertly glanced over his shoulder at a car a fair distance away from them.

Stanley sighed. "So, you didn't make an enemy like that. Good."

"'Good?'" Almost immediately, Ford turned his head around, glowering at Stanley.

"What?" Stan asked, glancing briefly at him and keeping an eye on the road. "If we're not gonna get riddled with bullets then that's a positive. Cars aren't actually all that bullet proof, ya know. "

"Right…" Ford muttered, looking ahead, growing tense as they got closer to the edge of town. "Right, no, you don't have to worry about that today."

"'Today?'" Stan immediately picked up on the wording.

"This entire thing hasn't exactly been that predictable." He mumbled bitterly.

Stan nodded his head, driving them out of town. Ford watched behind them a bit suspiciously once they actually crossed out of Gravity Falls, slowly settling back into his seat when nothing happened. He wasn't sure what he had even been expecting.

"How about that diner?" Stanley pointed out a spot up ahead on the road. A neon green sign showed the name and had an arrow pointed down to the building as well, just in case someone didn't catch the restaurant with bright, matching green lights lining the roof.

"Why not." Ford said, looking ahead with a grim expectation even still. There were a lot of reasons 'why not,' actually. It wasn't far enough away (would any distance be though.) Anybody could be inside. He really had not had the best luck with diners as of late either...

Stanley pulled the car into the parking lot, and the pair went inside taking up opposite ends of a booth. With nothing in front of them the silence that had been stretching on became quickly awkward. And it made looking up to see the others face rather potent.

"Is the diner alright?" Stan asked.

"Uh, yes. It is." He replied.

The two lapsed back into silence again, much more awkward than before, though thankfully a waiter came with menus and they ordered.

Ford pensively tapped his fingers on the underside of the table, glancing over everybody else in the diner. It was rather empty for the most part, only a couple other customers were inside. None of them actually in the space between the door and where he was at right now though. Was there a backdoor though? There had to be.

Stan cleared his throat and Ford looked back to him. "Are you alright?" Stan asked, trying to make it a casual question.

"Uh, yes. Yes, I'm fine. Just thinking." Ford replied, stopping the tapping. "... Are you?"

"Yeah, fine. Getting a little tired, but not bad." He answered, leaning back.

Ford nodded his head, mind listlessly wandering off again. The diner would be fine, it should be at least. No, no, it was- it was fine. He had to believe it was fine. Still, there was no harm in just being aware of where everyone was placed around the building. What was he going to do after this though? Keep anything from happening with Him, of course, but... he couldn't ward off sleep forever.

His brother had fallen back into silence again and Stan let him. He tried to relax a bit himself, but even as he tried he could see Ford warily watching the other people inside the diner. It was just a diner off of the interstate by a small town. Not exactly foreboding.

Not to mention the customers behind him were an older couple who seemed perfectly comfortable, their chattering being the only background noise outside of the workers. Old people didn't exactly add up to 'innocent,' but they were no rowdy group of teenagers. The most dangerous thing here was probably the bathroom, honestly.

The rest of the time in the diner was spent in relative silence, though nowhere near as bad as before, both twins respectively thinking to themselves. Stan put his hands in his pocket as he walked out and Ford crossed his arms across his chest to brace against the cold.

Stan spoke up as they headed towards the car, his brother looking up to him. "So, uhh what's your plan?"

Ford didn't answer initially, and the two made it to El Diablo. "I don't have one," he admitted slowly. "My options are," his brother's face twisted slightly at his own word usage, "'limited.'"

In other words, he really was stuck. Stan nodded his head, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand. "Right, well, what do you think about maybe, you know, getting out of town?"

"Out of Gravity Falls?"

"Yeah," he glanced aside with a shrug, "I mean, you're looking for some solution or whatever and you've already looked through this town, right? So, best option is to look somewhere else." He ventured a glance back to him. "Gotham University has a pretty big library."

Initially, all Ford did was look at him, but Stan could tell he was thinking it over. He was actually considering it. "I still have to ensure the first journal is hidden... and it'd leave the p- the machine unguarded." He said with a glance back towards where the city itself lay.

"Then we can hide the journal on our way, sink it into the bottom of a lake if you want. Besides, it's not exactly easy for someone to get in your creepy house, much less downstairs past everything."

"It's not that creepy" Ford replied absently, not even actually thinking on the comment. Then he looked at Stan again, searching over his face. "You're… offering to take me to Gotham?"

He shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to appear casual. Whatever had happened, Ford needed to get out of it. If Stan couldn't help get rid of the issue then he had to at least get his brother away from it.

"Well, yeah, I'm driving back there anyways. No point in you hitching a ride or whatever." Stan kept going, just a slightest hope he tentatively considered. "And if you wanted, I mean, I got an apartment. It's not a whole house or anything, but…" He trailed off, the small hope flickering out and realizing he should have just kept his mouth shut. It was too much. He shouldn't have even tried.

Stan gave a laugh, smiling at Ford. "Heh, no, you probably don't want to live with me again, huh." He swept the idea under the rug, looking towards the ground. "I can give you a ride though, but then again I guess you could just buy a plane ticket or something."

"No," Ford almost interrupted him entirely and Stan looked up, a bit surprised. Ford cleared his throat and continued, "ah, no. I mean, I could, but if you have space then I think it'd be easier if I were to… live with you… in Gotham." He finished slowly, watching over Stan's face.

Did... Did he really mean it? He had to. He would have taken it back by now. Hell, he wouldn't have even said it in the first place. "Really?" Stan asked, a slight hesitant smile on his face.

Ford nodded his head, relaxing slightly. "Yes, really."

Stan smiled more confidently now, opening his car door. "Well, then, you better get ready for a 40 hour cross country road trip, Sixer." He said, getting inside.

Ford smiled slightly, walking around the car.

AUTHOR NOTES:

Relatively short chapter, as will the next one be if I'm correct. However! There's an 11k road trip chapter coming up very soon. The order of these chapters is actually likely to be switched around a bit actually - but I'm gonna post them first and leave it a bit before moving them around.