Everyone looked up, and Stan stood. A man in a white coat with a stethoscope around his neck and a clipboard in his hand stood at the end of the line of chairs.

"I'm Stanley Pines." Stan announced.

The man smiled under his grey mustache, extending a hand which Stan shook. "I can certainly see the family resemblance—you told my nurse you were the patient's identical twin, yes?"

Stan glared in the direction of the desk. He was surprised "Nurse Ratched" had even been listening. "Yes. Please, how is my brother? "

"He'll be all right—we're taking good care of him, I promise. I'm doctor Feldman, if you'll follow me."

Stan looked back at the others. "Eh—is it all right if the rest of my family comes? "

Dr. Feldman looked at Dipper and Mabel. "Well—"

"Please, sir—we won't cause any trouble." Mabel said, giving the doctor the biggest eyes she could.

"We just want to see our Great Uncle Ford." Dipper added, trying to mimic the look, though Mabel was better at it.

The doctor blinked slowly and grinned. "Very well, follow me, please. "

Dipper and Mabel did their best to be especially quiet. They didn't want to get sent back to the waiting area.

After going down a hall and around a corner, they finally came to room fifteen. Stan went straight to the only occupied bed in the room.

He looked down at his brother, who was breathing slowly and steadily. His clothes had been replaced with a hospital gown, and his glasses lay on the nightstand next to the bed. On the bed's other side, a heart monitor beeped. Stan placed a hand on Ford's head.

"Aw, Sixer…."

He noted an i.v. in Ford's hand. The tube attached led to a bag of clear liquid. He looked at Doctor Feldman and asked, "What's this? "

"Your brother was very dehydrated." The doctor explained. "We're just replenishing his fluids. "

Mabel stood close to the foot of the bed. "When is he gonna wake up? "

Dr. Feldman smiled kindly at her. "When he's ready, honey. Your great uncle just needs his rest right now. "

Stan looked into his brother's face, noting the tear streaks that were still visible. "Eh, Wendy, Soos—take the kids down to the cafeteria and get them something to eat, will you? "

"But Grunkle Stan—"Mabel started, but Dipper looked at her and shook his head.

Wendy took the twenty that Stan was handing back to them, (shocked that he was actually giving them that much), looked at Mabel and Dipper, and jerked her head toward the door.

Dipper cast a concerned glance at his great uncle, who was still asleep, and took Mabel's arm. He had the sneaking suspicion Stan wanted to talk to the doctor about things he didn't want them to hear. "C'mon, Mabel. Maybe Great Uncle Ford will be awake when we get back. "

His sister sighed and went out the door with him.

Stan watched them go. After her was sure they were out of earshot, he turned back to the doctor.

Doctor Feldman was already looking right at him. "I'm guessing you want to know what we found when we examined your brother." He said. "I—need some information about how this happened. "

Stan looked at his sleeping brother. Not returning the doctor's gaze he said, "My brother is a scientist. He'd gone into the woods to find some old place he used to hang out or study stuff or something about twenty-five or thirty years ago, and…he didn't come home when he said he was going to. My employees and niece and nephew went looking for him, and we found out he'd been—"

Stanley took a breath. Calm down, Stanley, he told himself, Sixer's safe, now—no need to get all worked up again. Aloud he said, "He'd been—kidnapped—taken hostage, whatever—by some nutjob in the woods. When we found my brother, this whacko had taken him to this abandoned shack and was—"

He had to take a breath again. Don't get mad, Stanley, don't get mad….

"…was hitting him with a bicycle chain. "