When she next came to, everything was dark. She panicked at first, thinking she had gone blind, until she turned her head and saw light. She saw a small campfire not far from her, which a figure crouched over. It took her a moment to realize that it was the same black-clad man who had saved her from the bird.

He hadn't tied her up or killed her, so that must have meant something. At that point he hadn't yet realized that she was awake, so she took a moment to survey her surroundings.

They were in some sort of shallow cave. It only went about thirty feet back, but it was enough to provide shelter. A bedroll and a bag lay stacked against the wall near her, along with a couple of books. In the center of the cave lay the crude fire pit that the strange man sat over.

She tried to shift her arms, and found something was weighing them down. She raised her head and saw she was wrapped snuggly in a dark blanket. Only then did she realize she wasn't cold anymore.

She tried to sit up, gasping as pain shot through her rib cage. Her noise alerted the man at the fire, who turned around to look at her.

"Oh, you're awake! How-"

Mabel inhaled sharply, the pain she felt vanishing in her shock. "Grunkle Stan?"

The man gasped. "How do you know that name?"

She blinked. "You're—" Her words were cut off as she suddenly found herself staring down the barrel of some futuristic gun.

"How do you know my name?" he snarled, his face contorting with a mixture of fear and rage. "Have you been sent to trick me? To capture me?"

"N-no!" Mabel cried, pushing herself as close to the wall as she possibly could. "I'm Mabel, Mabel Pines! And you have my Grunkle Stan's face!"

"Pines…" The man pulled his gun back slightly, rummaging around in his pocket for something. He pulled out a tiny flashlight and turned it on, shining it directly into her eyes.

She squinted at the sudden brightness. "Hey! What gives?"

He didn't answer, muttering something about "normal" as he pulled away. "Have you come from earth?"

"Um…yeah?"

"How did you get here?" asked the man, still sounding disbelieving.

"Well, my Grunkle Stan build this weird portal in the basement of the Mystery Shack." Mabel explained, daring to sit up a little now that the gun was no longer pointing directly at her face. "That's the name of the house he owns."

"Where is this house located?"

"Gravity Falls, Oregon."

He stared at her for a long moment. "What does 'Grunkle' mean?"

"It means Great-Uncle. Grunkle Stan is the brother of my grandpa, Shermie Pines."

The man opened his mouth and closed it again. After a long moment, he spoke again, his voice barely above a whisper. "I have a niece."

"I don't get it. You look like Grunkle Stan but you're not him." Mabel gasped. "Have I fallen into a parallel universe where my Grunkle is a totally awesome sci-fi warrior?"

"No, no." The man shook his head. "I'm Stanford Pines, your great-uncle's twin brother."

"Stanford?" Mabel echoed. "That's his name!"

Stanford paused for a long moment again, his face darkening. "So he took my name and my house."

"What?"

"His name is Stanley. I am the real Stanford Pines, and I'm the owner of this so-called 'Mystery Shack'."

"Oh." Mabel went quiet, trying to process all the new information. She had another Grunkle who didn't even live on earth. Now that she got a good look at him, she saw he didn't look exactly like Grunkle Stan. His hair still retained a bit of brown even in his age, save for a silver band running all the way across the middle, and he had a slightly cleft chin.

Stanford reached up to rub his brow. "I'm sorry. I don't really know what to—" He was cut off by Mabel's exclamation.

"You have six fingers!" she cried, pointing.

Instinctively, Stanford moved to hide his hands behind his back. "Yes, I do."

"Were you the one who wrote the journals?"

"What? You've read my journals?"

"Yeah! My brother Dipper has been going crazy trying to find the author all summer, and I finally found you!"

"Tell me everything."

She heartily obliged, starting at the first week where Dipper had found Journal 3 all the way up to Stan's activation of the portal.

"Then I got sucked through," she said. "I ended up here."

Stanford couldn't even begin to comprehend his anger towards Stanley. His brother had blatantly disregarded every single one of his warnings, and this innocent child had paid the price as a result. On top of that, he could have opened the dimensional rift. His brother could have been the doom of the world.

"What about you?" Mabel's small voice cut through his anger. "How did you get here?"

Stanford rubbed his forehead. "It's a long story…"

Mabel shrugged. "I'm not going anywhere."

He sighed. "Well, I suppose I do owe you an explanation for all of this." So he told her. He told her how Stanley had cost him his dream school, how he had began to study anomalies and found Gravity Falls, how he began to research a portal, and the resulting fight between them that led to him being pushed through the portal. However, he left out anything having to do with a certain dream demon.

"Oh, that's so sad!" Mabel cried. "You two need to hug it out."

Stanford sighed. "Unfortunately it's not that simple."

"Yes it is! That's what me and Dipper do whenever we're mad at each other."

A hug could not fix forty years worth of grudges and fear, but she didn't know that. "Maybe so."

Mabel shifted, and winced as her ribs complained.

"Do your ribs still hurt?" Stanford asked.

"Yeah," she said, her voice slightly strained as she relaxed herself again.

He dug around in his bag, pulling out a small tube of salve he had acquired from dimension 749. "Would you let me redress the wound?"

"Alright." She flipped the blanket off of her, shivering as the cold air touched her skin. Stanford came and knelt beside her.

"Do you mind?" he asked.

Realizing what he was asking, she shook her head, and lifted up her sweater slightly to reveal her ribs. The place of injury was obvious, the skin already darkened with bruising. Stanford squeezed a bit of salve onto his fingers and began applying it to the injury. Mabel shivered at the coldness of it, but did her best to remain still.

"Stanford?" she asked.

"Ford," he corrected. "Please."

"Alright, Ford." She said the name slowly, unsure if she should bestow him the title of "Grunkle" yet. "Why did you freak out when I first said your name?"

Ford grimaced. "I'm sorry about that. In my time in Gravity Falls and beyond, I learned something very important."

"What?"

"Trust no one."

Mabel fell silent. She knew those words all too well by this point. She watched the man who was her Grunkle's twin brother work on her, and she realized just what a lonely man he must be.

She could change that.

"You can trust me," she said. "I'm family!"

"So you are." Ford found himself smiling at her exuberance. Her happy attitude was contagious, even to one such as he.

"Do you miss home?" Mabel asked.

"More than you know," Ford murmured.

"Don't worry. Grunkle Stan will reactivate the portal and we'll be back at the Mystery Shack before you know it!"

Ford exhaled wearily. "As much as I hate to say it, neither of us will be returning to Gravity Falls."

"What?" Mabel stiffened in shock, jostling her wound. "Why?"

Ford pulled away, placing the cap back on the tube, avoiding her gaze. "Reopening the portal in the first place was an insanely dangerous move. If Stanley isn't as much of an idiot as I think he is, he'll keep the portal closed for good. To reopen it again would mean nothing but destruction."

"An idiot?" Mabel cried. "He was trying to save you!"

"He is a foolish and selfish man," Ford growled, rising to his feet. "All he does is the opposite of what's right."

"Maybe that's what you think," Mabel argued, "but beneath all the mistakes he's made he has a heart of gold!"

"You're too young to understand just how bad of a person he is," he retorted. "All he's ever thought about was himself."

"I understand he's spent a very long time trying to activate that portal and you back!" Mabel shouted. "He didn't have to do that, but he did because he loves you."

"Well, he should have left me," Ford said, stepping to the other side of the plasmafire. "He could have destroyed us all. The portal should stay closed. Forever."

"Forever…" Mabel swallowed hard, her heart pounding as the reality of her situation began to settle. "What about my brother, Grunkle Stan, my friends?"

Ford cast about for an extra blanket. "It is highly unlikely you'll see them again."

Panic overtook her now. Her breaths came deep and fast, unable to stop herself from hyperventilating despite the pain in her side. Tears spilled over from her eyes onto her face, and she let out a loud sob that echoed through the cave.

Ford turned back to her, the rage he had felt previously fizzling away as he realized what was happening. She was coming to terms with the harsh reality that lay before her, and he knew the feeling all too well.

He knelt down at her side, only intending on giving her the blanket until she literally threw herself at him. He froze as she sobbed into his jacket, having not felt the embrace of another human being in over thirty years. Then, hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around her shaking form, gently stroking her hair in what he hoped was a comforting gesture.

"I know," he murmured. "I know."

He had come to terms with his feelings of despair about never going home long ago, but even then he had been an adult. She was a child, and he couldn't begin to imagine the emotional upheaval.

"There…there might be a way for us to return that I just haven't thought about." He wasn't completely lying. There could be a way to return, but it was highly unlikely. He just wanted to give her a sense of hope.

"Really?" she sniffed.

"Perhaps. I've learned that anything is possible."

Mabel pulled back slightly, wiping at her eyes as she smiled a watery smile. "I know anything is possible. I've lived in Gravity Falls for two months now." A cold gust of wind blew into the cave, and she shivered.

"I suppose I'll need to get you some better clothes the next inhabited dimension we visit," he mused. He looked back at the mouth of the cave and saw that night was swiftly oncoming. "You should get some rest. It'll help your wound to heal."

"Alright." Mabel took the blanket from him, wrapping it around herself and making herself look like a burrito with a head sticking out of the end. "Ford?"

"Yes?"

"Do other dimensions have sweaters?"

He couldn't help a smile at the question. "I would assume so."

"That's good to know. Good night." She laid down on the floor as gingerly as she could, using her arm as a pillow.

"Good night," he replied quietly.

Not long after, her snores filled the cave, emotional and physical exhaustion having taken its toll. However, Ford stayed up long after the inky blackness of night had descended over the dimension, staring into the flames of the fire.

Of all he things he had seen and experienced over the past thirty years, this was the most mind-boggling. A human had been dropped into his arms, and not just any human, his own niece that he wasn't even aware of. On the one hand he was overjoyed. He had more family than he realized and she seemed like a lovely girl. But on the other, he was terrified. Dimensions beyond earth were extremely dangerous, especially for a child. On top of that, if the hunters realized he had someone with him, they would try to use her to get to him. Mabel wouldn't be safe.

But there was one place…

Ford sighed deeply, removing his gloves. He didn't know how to feel about Stanley. He had ignored his warnings and could have destroyed the world, and that filled him with anger at his sheer stupidity. But, somewhere in the depths of his heart, he felt the faintest flutter of gratitude. All those decades, all those long years, Stanley had worked to bring him back. But any gratitude he felt was swiftly buried by a wave of bitterness at all the things his brother had done to wrong him as he thought back over the years.

He scowled down at his hands, the anomaly that had led him on this path. His brother was to blame, yes, but it was his own fault too, and he knew it in the depths of his heart.

Knowing that there was no danger posed to the two of them at night in this dimension, Ford settled down on his own makeshift sleeping pallet, but it was a long time before he actually slept.