"Grunkle Stan!" both of the twins shouted, running up to hug him just as Camo had done. Stan looked so happy, it made Camo happy. A smile spread across her face, and she felt tears in her eyes despite herself.
"Kids! I can't believe it!" He scooped up Camo again and held all three of them at once. "I thought I lost you three."
Soos ran up and hugged them too, causing Stan to shout out, with his fez half falling off his head. "Mr. Pines, it's really you!" the handyman said. There were tears in his eyes, too, though he didn't seem to realize everyone else was being squished by body fat. "I've been hugging strangers to practice for this moment."
Wendy added onto the pile, too. "We missed you, you old codger."
Camo, who was now gasping for breath, heaved a sigh of relief when Stan set them down. He chuckled. "I've missed you knuckleheads too. It's good to have you back."
"I know Camo said she was sending people your way, but why are there so many people here?" Dipper asked. A couple golf people ran under his foot and he yelped, jumping back. Camo frowned. She'd invited . . . maybe ten people. This was a lot more than ten.
"Yeah, there's, like, monsters and gnomes," Mabel added. She definitely hadn't invited any of those. "And is Pacifica wearing a potato sack?"
The rich girl, who was, in fact, wearing a sack, just said, "Hey! Even in a sack, I still look better than you."
Some bear with a whole bunch of heads stood behind her, wearing an eyepatch. Oh, scuff, she'd almost forgotten about her own. It was surprisingly easy to ignore it, though now that she was thinking about it, the darkness became very unsubtle. "It's . . . it's a long story," the bear said.
"Hey, is anyone gonna feed me?" a wax head in the vents asked. "Larry King's disembodied wax head wants num-nums."
"We're trying to ration our food, remember?" Grenda asked. Well, Camo was glad she and Candy had gotten there safely. She also thought she saw Mr. Hawthorne near the back of the pack. Wax Larry King started eating Grenda's hair, and she said, "Uh, it's happening again!" The bear closed the grate.
A deep voice that wasn't Grenda shouted, "Hey, everyone!" The speaker turned out to be some weird bull-man-minotaur thing, who pointed out the window and shouted, "Eye-bats!"
Everyone gasped, and a gnome shrieked, "Evasive maneuvers!" Stan shut the door, someone blew out the fires being used for lights, and everyone got down. The swarm passed over the house, and then they could relax.
Stan was the one to light the first fire. He tossed it expertly into the trash can, even though it was super dark. "Welcome to whatever's left of normal around here—home base," he introduced. There was a lot of people. Several Times, a bunch of gnomes, a biker guy, Old Man McGucket, the guy and his now-stone woodpecker wife, and a couple people she didn't recognize.
The twins looked in sad horror at the depressing scene, with half-stone people, and general sadness. Several Times sang, "We have several injuries!" and then shook with pain.
Dipper turned around, and he yelped, hopping back. "Rumble McSkirmish?" he asked.
Her eyebrows shot up, and it was indeed the video game guy. "Do not be afraid," he said. "Weirdmageddon has taught me there are some battles I cannot win. I am now Humble McSkirmish." -50 Despair appeared in the air above him, and the snarky part of her wondered if that meant he was losing 50 due to despair or if he was losing 50 points of despair, because that would mean he felt better.
. . . it was probably the first one.
"Grunkle Stan, how'd all this happen?" Mabel asked.
"Yeah, I'm a bit curious too," Camo added. "It's been a while since I was here."
He shrugged and started to explain. "So I was hammering signs out back when the sky started vomiting nightmares. I listen to a lot of AM radio, so I knew what this meant—the end of the world. What I didn't expect was what happened next. Turns out whatever you and my brother did to the Shack with your unicorn voodoo made the crazy place invincible to weirdness."
"Yeah, didn't Camo mention something about that?" Dipper said. "That's why this is the only place Bill's magic can't touch."
"Possum Breath over here showed up first," Stan said, jutting a thumb to McGucket, "leading a bunch of injured stragglers through the forest. They needed a place to stay, and since the mayor got captured, I elected myself de facto chief." He gestured to his sash, which helpfully read "chief". "The plan's to stay in here and eat brown meat until we run out. Then I vote we eat the gnomes."
Jeff the Gnome complained, "Hey, I'm short, not deaf!"
"Shh! Shh! Stress will make you chewy."
"Grunkle Stan, we can't all just hide inside the Shack," Dipper protested. "There's a town in need of saving! Me and Ford tried to do it, but he got captured by Bill."
Stan, trying to open a can of meat, said, "Serves that jerk right! My brother's had some stupid plans, but going up against an all-powerful space demon was his worst one yet. Trust me, we have everything we need right here. It's not the Ritz, but at least the monsters inside know how to massage. You know Shiatsu?" he asked the multiple-headed bear.
"Yes, I've taken some classes," he replied.
Camo glared at him with her hands on her hips. "Excuse me? I did not go out there to survive the literal apocalyspe, getting myself all dressed up like a demon worshipper, so that you could just sit here on your butt."
"Look, kiddo, we got a good deal here," he shot back with an annoyed expression. "Besides, I'm sure wherever the rest of the townsfolk are, they're fine." His hand landed on the remote and turned on the TV to prove him wrong.
It showed the inside of the pyramid, just as she remembered from that one time inside it. "This is Shandra Jimenez reporting live from the inside of Bill's castle," the newslady said. A chunk of her hair was missing. "Here for the first time are images of what's happened to the captured townsfolk. Viewers are advised to look away if they don't want to see their friends turned into a twisted throne of human agony."
They zoomed into the chair, revealing all the stone townsfolk. Her heart just about broke when she saw Jason in a defiant pose, but with a terrified expression, wedged in carelessly.
The viewers watched in horror. "Mom and Dad?" Pacifica asked, covering her mouth.
"My family!" Wendy exclaimed, somewhere between sadness and fury.
Sherriff Blubs went right in front of all of them. "Deputy Durland!" he screamed.
"Is there no one who will save the people of this town?" she asked. A beam of red light covered her, and she added, "I'm Shandra Jimenez, and I'm being turned into stone by a flying eyeball." The image cut to static.
Everyone gasped. "Oh, no," Pacifica said. "My parents are bad, but even they don't deserve to be turned to stone."
"Curse you, Bill!" Sherriff Blubs sobbed. "Why must you take everything we love?!" He ripped off his shirt and wailed.
Camo pulled off her jacket and chucked it out the window. She didn't care that it was invulnerable, that she was probably throwing away a major asset. Bill didn't deserve for her to keep it.
Everyone was quiet, and Mabel took advantage of that. "Guys, don't you see?" she asked, climbing on the bear. "Our friends need us, but we can only save them if we fight back!"
She helped pull up her brother. "Mabel is right," he said. "Bill wants us to run and hide. He wants us to think he's invincible. But Ford told me before he was captured that he knows Bill's secret weakness." Everyone turned towards him and started murmuring. "Now, if we band together, if we combine all of our strength, our smarts, our . . . whatever Toby has . . ."
"Aureus rashes!"
". . . then we just might be able to rescue Ford, learn Bill's weakness, and save Gravity Falls!" Everyone cheered, and the twins grinned at each other. Dipper was getting really good at pep talks.
Stan cut through it. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Have you all forgotten who's in charge here? Besides, we're only safe inside! It's not like we can take the Mystery Shack to Bill."
Her eye lit up. Or could they?
McGucket started making some crazy noises immediately. "Holy hootenanny! Flapjack and fiddlebanjos!" He got ahold of himself again. "Sorry. Sorry. Got a little excited." His leg continued to bounce, so he smacked it. "What I meant to say is, I think I figured out a way to fight Bill and rescue Ford. But we're all gonna have to work together!" He snapped. "Now . . . if you just . . ."
They all got up close, and he whispered the plans to them. A massive grin split her face. This was everything her reader self had ever dreamed of!
McGucket started to unroll his plans. "All right. I've made some thingamadiculous robomajigs in my day, but this is the first one that won't be used for evil!" The twins lit up, and everyone started staring, completely blocking her view. She pouted and folded her arms petulantly.
"Question: Does it have any gun-swords?" Soos asked. "I watch a lot of anime and, uh, trust me, you're gonna want some gun-swords."
"What's an anime?"
"We have much to discuss," the handyman said deliberately.
"Discuss nothing!" Stan shouted. "These scribbles are a bunch of cockamamie balderdash! Excuse my French."
A French ball person spoke in French, sounding ridiculing.
"And where would you even find a bunch of idiots crazy enough to build it?" he asked, which was a valid question, if he hadn't just been looking at Dipper, Mabel, and Camo, who were heroically idiotic a lot of the time.
"Grunkle Stan, you're looking at those idiots," Mabel said proudly. Everyone cheered in agreement.
Next came the long work of building it. If it were in a movie, or maybe even a TV show, it would've come as a montage, so the entire time, she had the same action song on loop in her head. And, when they were done, the Shack had been ransacked, but they all sat around a campfire, wearing sweaters. Camo had on a massive grin along with her fancy camouflage one.
"Thanks for these apocalypse sweaters, Mabel," Soos said. "The end of the world has never been so comfortable." Everyone agreed.
Pacifica, shivering in her potato sack, reluctantly said, "Ugh, fine! I'll wear it." She put on the llama hair one. "But I'm not gonna like it."
"Admit it," Mabel said. "This is the best day of the end of the world. I think we actually have a chance to beat Bill and win back our future."
Dipper, who still looked kind of sullen, said, "Yeah. Getting to actually live to see our thirteenth birthday party is the only birthday present I want right now." That dampened his sister's mood, too, and Camo rolled her eyes.
"Hey, if we're lucky enough to get there, I guarantee this whole town is gonna throw you the best birthday party you've ever seen," Soos promised. It must've worked, because both twins wore a grateful smile.
"Has anyone seen Grunkle Stan?" Dipper asked.
Camo's heart fell, and she went to go find him.
He'd helped her when she was down, it was only right that she do the same.
She found him venting to that one gnome that could only say Shmebulock. She saw the twins stepping up to ask, but she shook her head and motioned for them to back up. Maybe it was best if she took care of it on her own. "Yeah, exactly," he was saying, "it's a total load of shmebulock."
"Stan?" she asked, and he looked up at her. "Are you okay?"
He sighed. "It's this darn plan to save my brother. If you didn't notice, I already saved him once from that portal, and he never thanked me! He causes the end of the world, and somehow it's still always 'Stan's the screw-up, Ford's the hero.'"
She looked at him sympathetically. "Maybe I can say where he started out coming from, but you spent thirty years. He really should've thanked you."
"Exactly! You get me!"
". . . that doesn't make it okay for you to only pout and vent, though."
"Hmmph."
The Shacktron was up, and it was epic. A dinosaur attached to one arm, legs with cars on the end, the Gobblewonker neck coming out the back, the front replaced with a window—Camo was squealing on the inside. As Soos and the decapitated head of Wax Larry King went out to negotiate, the monsters jumped down and prepared to fight.
Then they were fighting, and it was chaos, and it was DOPE. Bill himself came over to deal with them, but none of his attacks landed, and his eye got ripped out by the dino head. She could hear him screaming, "Ah! My eye! Do you have any idea how long it takes to regenerate that?"
"We've got him distracted! Now's our chance!" Dipper shouted.
"Rescue team, move out!" Mabel called. Dipper, Mabel, Camo, Soos, Pacifica, Stan, Wendy, Blubs, and McGucket suited up and got in the tubes to be shot out.
Dipper laid the plan out one more time. "Okay, everyone! We get in, rescue Ford, get out, save the world."
"Just so we're clear, if I die, I'm suing all of you," Pacifica said snootily.
"Hey, on second thought, maybe we could come up with a plan that doesn't involve us plummeting to our certain death," Stan suggested.
"Now!" Wendy called, completely ignoring him. They shot up, everyone screaming as they were launched out of the mouth of the Gobblewonker head. Camo was caught somewhere between Dipper's panicked mutterings and Mabel's laughing and whooping. All their sweater-parachutes deployed without issue, and they cruised through the doorway.
Dipper successfully rolled to a stop, Wendy squatted dramatically, Stan slammed face-first onto the ground, Mabel landed with her hair all in her face, and Camo landed full-on superhero. It really hurt, but it was worth it for her epicness.
Then they saw the People Chair, and it was so much worse up close. Her breath caught in her throat, and she walked up, seeing all the faces in pain. Dipper voiced her thoughts. "Oh, man. It looks even worse up close." Mabel shot her grappling hook, going right up to the seat of the chair.
"I found Great Uncle Ford!" she called after a second. "He's golden! But not in the good way!" She pointed to the golden statue on the arm of the chair, which she guessed was Ford.
"Great," Stan called back. "Grab him and let's get out of here."
"But how are we going to unfreeze them?" Dipper asked, which was a valid question. She was already brainstorming when a voice she'd never wanted to hear again broke through her stream of consciousness.
"I know!" Gideon called.
Everyone turned to the cage dangling from the roof, where the gremlin was dressed up even worse than normal. He was dancing and panting with exertion. "Gideon!" Mabel gasped. "What happened to you?"
"Bill captured me. He's been forcing me to do cute dances in this cage for all eternity." While he spoke, everyone else took their turn with the grappling hook, getting up to the People Chair. "I'm so tired of being cute!"
"How do we undo this?" Dipper asked.
"Mayor Tyler. He's the load-bearing human. Pull him out, and the whole thing goes down." So, Dipper pulled on the mayor. As soon as he popped out, he returned to normal. Before long, the entire throne was crumbling. She stood there with bated breath, and when she spotted Jason, a wide grin split her face, and a couple tears slipped out of her eye.
She ran up and hugged him tightly, clutching him like she would never let go. Everyone was having their reunions around them, but she just held them, her tears staining his shoulder. No words were needed. He just needed to know that she cared, and she knew that he did from the way he wrapped his arms around her, too.
When they reluctantly pulled apart, Ford was spray-painting the ground. "Drawing a circle on the floor," Stan was saying. "Well, he's lost his mind."
"My mind is fine," Ford said confidently. "And there is a way to beat him—with this!" He gestured to what he'd drawn: a circle with Bill in the center and plenty of weird objects around. Eleven of them.
"The world's most confusing game of hopscotch?" Pacifica guessed.
"No, a prophecy. Although it would be a pretty fun game of hopscotch," he added as a second thought. "Many years ago, I found ten symbols in a cave. Some I recognized then. Some I only recognize now. The native people of Gravity Falls prophesized that these symbols could create a force strong enough to vanquish Bill. With Bill defeated, his weirdness would be reversed and the town could be saved. This whole time I thought it was just superstition. But seeing you all here now, I finally understand that it's destiny!
"Dipper, the pine tree." He pointed to the kid in question, who stepped on the spot in awe. It matched his hat perfectly. "Mabel, the shooting star."
Soos spoke the next one. "The question mark. This one's unsolvable," he said, oblivious to the matching one on his own shirt.
Wendy shoved Robbie on the broken heart. "That one's easy. You've been rockin' that dumb hoodie since the seventh grade."
"Whoa. Destiny hoodie!"
"The Tent of Telepathy sign! That must be Gideon," Dipper shouted, pointing to the symbol.
The gremlin walked up. "Whoo! An excuse to stand next to Mabel!"
She looked uncomfortable. "Don't turn this into a big deal."
"Oh, I won't." Then, as a whisper, "I will."
They continued to figure out positions. Pacifica was the llama, due to the sweater she was borrowing. Ford was the six-fingered hand, for obvious reasons. Camo gaped as she saw one. It was the hourglass symbol the Time Agency and the Time Wish used. It . . . it only made sense for her, and Bill had always called her Hourglass . . .
But she was from the future! There was no way that she could be on this Zodiac thing, because that meant that, originally, they wouldn't've been able to beat Bill! Still . . . it had to be her. So, with some level of shock, she stepped onto it, between Soos and the weird fish thing.
"Hold hands, everyone," Ford said. "This is a mystical human energy circuit."
"Ice?" Dipper asked, looking at the one next to him. "Who's Ice?"
"The symbols needn't all be literal, Dipper," the scientist said, grabbing Robbie's hand. "It just has to be someone cool in the face of danger."
Immediately, all of the teens started chanting for Wendy. The teen, with a slight smirk, laughed and said, "Shut up, you guys." Dipper smiled up at her, and they held hands.
"Much like the spectacles need to be someone scholarly." McGucket stepped up next to Pacifica. There was a little trouble as she refused to touch the hillbilly, but eventually she did. Blue energy coursed through all of them, and there was only one person left: the fishy thing next to Camo and Ford.
Stan.
"The rest of you get out! It's too dangerous!" Ford called. All the other townsfolk ran, like he ordered. "We just need one more person . . . Stanley! Stanley, get over here! You're the only one left."
Stan spun around. "You realize this is a bunch of hogwash, right? You really think some caveman graffiti is gonna stop that monster?" Everyone started shouting at him angrily. How could he say it was hogwash when they were literally glowing?! "Whoa, hey, I'm not the enemy here, people. Don't forget who literally created the end of the world." He stepped up to his spot, but didn't hold hands.
"I'm sorry, Stanley. I know," Ford said. "Just help me fix it! Please!"
"Fine. Just do one thing. Say 'thank you'."
"What?"
"I spent thirty years trying to bring you back into this dimension, and you still haven't thanked me! You want me to shake your hand? Say 'thank you'!"
Ford rolled his eyes. "Fine. Thank you."
Stan finally grabbed their hands—Camo mentally sighed in relief—though not without a couple jabs. "Now, see? Between me and him, I'm not always the bad twin." He gestured with his hand (and Camo's, since they were holding each other) and pointed at his brother.
Ford just had to ruin it with grammar correction. "Between 'him and me'. Grammar, Stanley."
"I'LL 'GRAMMAR, STANLEY' YOU, YOU STUCK-UP SON OF A—" He broke the chain to wrestle his brother, and Camo felt everything bubbling up inside her.
"What are you doing?!" she shrieked. "Can you deal with this later?! We are literally being attacked by a giant demon triangle, and—"
A large shadow fell over them, and her heart just about stopped.
"Oh, no, it's Bill! Right? Isn't that what you're all thinking? Hey, Gideon, why aren't you dancing? Chop chop, huh?"
Ford and Stan exchanged a look of "oh, man, we've scuffed up".
She knew, because she was thinking the exact. Same. Thing.
Bill laughed. "Oh! This is just too perfect! Didn't you brainiacs know the Zodiac doesn't work if you don't all hold hands? And what's better, you've brought every threat to my power together in one easy-to-destroy circle!" He threw out his arms, and the very lines caught on fire. As well as Pacifica's and Robbie's hair.
Two snaky red arms wrapped around Ford and Stan, trapping them and lifting them towards the triangle. "You guys want to see what happens to your friends when you can't get along?" He snapped his fingers and everyone besides the Pines plus Camo were covered in red light. They went slack and floated into the air behind him.
"You know, this castle could really use some decoration!" He threw out his arms, and everyone was turned into a banner with their symbol beneath it. "Looks like it's too late for your friends, Stanford!" A cage covered the twins and Camo. "But you can still save your family! Last chance: tell me how to take Weirdmageddon global and I'll spare the kids!"
"No! Don't do it!" Dipper yelled.
"I-I can handle it!" Camo lied.
"Yeah, Bill makes bad deals!" Mabel shouted.
He turned around and glared at her. "Don't you toy with me, Shooting Star! I see everything!" He had his eye as a swirling vortex, so Mabel sprayed it with the can, and he shouted out in pain. "Ow! Not again! Why?! Every time!"
"Nice shot, pumpkin!" Stan called. The arms holding the Stan Bros disappeared, and they fell to the floor.
Bill just continued whining. "I just regenerated that eye!"
"I know that hurts because I've accidently done it to myself—multiple times!"
Dipper pulled out his size-changing flashlight and grew the prison large enough that they could all hop out. The twins started running, but Camo ran for the Stans to check if they were okay. They were old men, after all, and they'd fallen quite a long way.
"Save yourselves!" Dipper shouted. "Run! We'll take care of Bill."
"What?! That's a suicide mission!" Ford protested.
"Trust us. We've beat him before . . ."
". . . and we'll beat him again!" Mabel added. They looked so epic and confident, and Camo stepped up behind them when they turned to face Bill. "Hey, Bill! Come and get us, you pointy jerk!" They ran off, but, naturally, she tripped. Her eyes widened as she collapsed, and Bill dragged her over with his telekinesis to chuck her into a prison with them.
She whimpered as she watched him chase them, all red and gold and terrifying. "I've got some children I need to make into corpses! See ya real soon!" All three of them pressed up against the bars in fear.
"What do we do, what do we do?" Stan asked frantically. She just curled up in the corner and clutched herself tightly, sobbing quietly. "Oh! I can't believe this! The twins are gonna die, and it's all my fault—because I couldn't shake your stupid hand!" He collapsed on the floor next to her. She sniffled and looked up at him. "Oh, kid, I'm sorry." He hugged her, and she hugged him back.
"Dad was right about me," he murmured. "I am a screw-up."
She pushed him away to look him dead in the eye, despite her tears. "No. Don't say that. Remember what you said? It's not your fault." More silent tears came, but she ignored them. He needed her. He'd been there for her, so she'd be there for him.
"Yeah, don't blame yourself," Ford agreed. "I'm the one who made a deal with Bill in the first place. I fell for all his easy flattery. You would've seen him for the scam artist he is."
"We all kind of scuffed up," she said softly. "I just . . . it's so hard to get stuff done when you two are together. You always make us decide. We don't get the Pines, we get Stan or Ford. It's . . ." She sighed. "I don't know. It's just hard on us, too, when you fight."
Stan sighed, too. "I'm sorry, kid. You're right. You don't deserve this. You only stuck around to help us."
"Well, you also gave me a bed and food and a job," she added with a small smile, though she didn't really feel the joke. "But . . . I'll deal with it, because I like both of you. Flaws and all. You're the best old men I've ever met."
They both smiled at her. Still, Stan asked Ford, "How did things get so messed up between us?"
"We used to be like Dipper and Mabel," Ford agreed. "The world's about to end, and they still work together. How do they do it?"
"Easy. They're kids. They don't know any better."
She piped up, "Seems like they know better than you do." Stan chuckled weakly.
Ford stood up suddenly. "Whoa, where you goin'?" Stan asked.
"I'm gonna play the only card we have left. Let Bill into my mind. He'll be able to take over the galaxy, and maybe even worse, but at least he might let the kids free."
"What?! Are you kiddin' me?!" Stan exclaimed. "Are you honestly telling me there's nothing else we can do?!"
Camo looked away. "It doesn't look like it. I vote you don't, though." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Even if we get tortured for the rest of eternity, even if everyone we know and love dies, the rest of the world will be safe. Maybe we just need to take a hit for the good of us all."
Whoa. That was really dark, especially for her.
"Bill's weak in the Mindspace," Ford argued. "If I didn't have this darn plate in my head"—he smacked his head to that familiar echo—"we could just erase him with the memory gun when he steps inside my mind."
She could see the idea forming in Stan's head. "What if he goes into my mind? My brain isn't good for anything."
Ford chuckled. "There's nothing in your mind he wants. It has to be me. We need to take his deal. It's the only way he'll agree to save you and the kids."
"Do you really think he's gonna make good on that deal?"
"What other choice do we have?"
Camo, after a moment of quiet, pointed out, "Well, you two look pretty similar. What if . . . what if Bill thought Stan was Ford?"
They both looked at her, somewhere between shock and excitement, and she could see they finally realized just how smart she was.
And humble. So humble.
Bill stomped in, having finally caught the twins. "All right, Ford, time's up!" he called. "I've got the kids! Well, two of 'em, anyway. I think I'm gonna kill one of 'em now, just for the heck of it!" His eye flashed between the Pine Tree and the Shooting Star. "Eeny, meeny, miney . . . you . . .!" It landed on Mabel, and he raised his hand.
Stan, disguised as Ford, shouted, "Wait! I surrender!"
"Good choice." He dropped the twins, and they landed roughly.
Ford, disguised as Stan, said, "Don't do it, Ford! It'll destroy the universe!"
"It's the only way!"
Wow, they were good at this. She supposed you got to know each other pretty well when you were twins.
Bill cackled as he floated down towards them. "Oh, even when you're about to die, you Pines twins just can't get along!"
Her part was coming up. She grabbed Stan and looked at him with a pleading look. "Don't do it," she said, just loud enough that she was sure Bill could hear. Well, that part wasn't fake.
He snapped his fingers, and the cage disappeared. Those red arms from before slithered around, grabbing Ford and Camo and pulling them to the ground. Stan, looking very nervous, said, "My only condition is that you let my brother and the kids go."
"Fine."
"No, Grunkle Ford! Don't trust him!"
Stan stepped up to the demon triangle dramatically. "It's a . . . deal!" His hand ignited with blue fire, and he shook it. Bill's body turned into stone as he left it to go into Stan's head. She felt the tears come up again, and she stepped up to him, his eye closed, on his knees. She sat in front of him and just hugged him tightly, not letting him go.
Ford pulled out the memory gun, and she scooted so that she wouldn't be the one getting shot, but she still didn't let go.
He pulled the trigger.
"Good bye, Stan," she whispered.