December 18th, 1988

The scene within the Pines household was one Stan had seen played out many a time before in his days living above Pines' Pawns. A six-fingered nerd diligently filling out his homework at the dinner table, practically dead to the world until he finished.

"Okay Nicky," Stan said as he eyed his watch. "I appreciate your dedication, but last time I checked little boys still need their sleep."

"M'not tired," Nicola yawned as he scratched in the solution to another problem. "'Sides I'm almost finished."

"Well if you don't have much left I don't see why you can't finish in the morning," Stan pointed out as he pulled the pencil from the kid's grasp. "When you're well-rested."

"Fine," Nicola agreed with a kind of sleepy grumpiness that had to come from Ford. "Can I read to you before bed?"

Stan grinned. "If yer up for it kiddo." It was downright adorable how excited Nicola still managed to be about reading. They'd probably gone through Treasure Island at least three times before Stan had finally caved and paid a visit to the library. They were currently working their way through a book series about a kid with a money-loving brother known for swindling the residents of their small hometown, Stan thought it seemed fitting.

Just as he watched Nicola disappear up the stairs, a knock sounded at the door.

"Mystery Shack's closed until tomorrow!" Stan shouted towards the front as he shuffled Nicola's worksheets into an orderly stack.

"I'm not here for your tourist trap Stanford!" A woman's voice replied. "And unless you open this door in the next five minutes I will break it down!"

Stan's mind raced as he tried to discern what in his recent activity had made a lady this mad. She thought he was Ford, so it wasn't a woman from his past, unless Ford- Nah, if there was one thing he could count on about his twin it was that he always struck out with the ladies.

He opened the door to reveal a brunette woman glaring at him like he'd kicked her dog. "Stanford Pines," She spat.

Stan had no idea who she was, but something about her seemed vaguely familiar. "Can I help you, Miss?"

"Oh don't play dumb with me!" She strode forward until there was barely an inch between them. "What's it gonna take for you to leave my family alone?"

"Wha-"

She cut him off before he could get so much as a word in. "Ruining my marriage just wasn't enough for you huh? You have to drag my son into your mess too?"

"Your son?" Suddenly it clicked. "Oh, you're Tate's mom?"

She grabbed his shirt collar and dragged him down to meet her eyes. "You know full well who I am! Or have you forgotten Fiddleford already?"

Stan didn't dare ask who Fiddleford was. "Whatever you think I'm gonna do to your kid, I'm not. Even if I wanted to hurt him, he's Nicola's friend. His only friend. I wouldn't risk scaring him away."

Tate's mom scoffed. "Right, because Stanford "please don't bring your child" Pines is suddenly a shining pinnacle of parenthood. If Fiddleford's friendship with you wasn't enough to protect him, why would your son's opinion change things?" She released his collar and looked him up and down. "Frankly I have half a mind to report you and get that boy to a proper guardian."

"Don't!" Stan gripped her shoulder. "He's all I've got left."

For a fraction of a second, her expression seemed sympathetic. "Then you can understand my worry for my son." She stepped back, clasping her arms by her waist. "I don't care how much you claim you've changed Stanford, I know you. When push comes to shove, your ego matters more than the people you supposedly care about."

An image surfaced in Stan's mind. Nicola, sitting in the backseat of the Stanmobile asking why the one kid willing to talk to him couldn't be his friend. Ford had Stan back when they were in elementary school, but without Tate, who'd be there for Nicola in the classroom? Kids could be cruel.

On the other hand, it wasn't like he could blame Tate's mom. Ford could be an egocentric jerk at times and he did have a bad habit of running into hazardous situations "for science!" But he wasn't Nicola's guardian. Stan was. And while Stan could acknowledge he was far from "proper" he would never endanger a child. Well, maybe if the kid really annoyed him.

This is either gonna work or be totally stupid.

"I'm not Ford."

Tate's mom stumbled back a step. "What do you mean?"

Stan extended his hand with a weak smile. "Hi, my name's Stanley Pines. Stanford's my twin brother."

She scoffed. "You expect me to believe you? You've done a lot of ridiculous things Stanford, but this might take the cake."

Stan gestured to the door. "Let me show you something." He turned and walked inside without looking to see if Tate's mom followed, listening carefully as he passed the stairs. Footsteps behind him? Tate's mom. Water running upstairs? Nicola brushing his teeth. Scratching outside the house? Probably gnomes. Altogether nothing out of the ordinary.

He led the way to the vending machine, taking care to angle his body so she wouldn't see the code as he punched it in. Ford would approve of that.

Tate's mom gasped as the vending machine swung open. "What on earth? What is this?"

Stan smirked. "Just the entrance."

The two descended the stairs and entered the elevator, Tate's mom observing everything with ever-widening eyes. After an interminable quiet ride, they finally reached the basement. But rather than slowly make their way to the dilapidated portal, Tate's mom bolted toward a corner of the large button-covered panel, gingerly lifting a long forgotten Cubix cube.

"This was Fiddleford's," She murmured. "It was the first gift I ever bought him, more as a joke than anything else. He said he'd forgotten where he left it, back when everything started going sour." She turned to the window overlooking the portal. "This must have been what he was working on."

Stan felt an electric thrill race through him at her words.

This Fiddleford guy worked on the portal, he should know how to fix it. Maybe I don't need the other journals after all!

But if he wanted any chance of getting more information out of Tate's mom, he'd have to prove he wasn't Ford first. He picked up Journal 1 from where it had been resting, opening the pages to the strange blueprints, marked by a picture that used to reside in the Stanmobile.

"Here," he said as he held the picture out to the brunette. "The one in glasses is Ford, I'm the other one."

She took the picture, but refused to set down the Cubix cube. After squinting at it for a minute or so she looked back to Stan.

"You really are Stanley Pines?"

Stan nodded. "Me and Ford had a falling out in high school. It had been ten years since I last heard from him when I got a postcard askin' me to come here. So I did. Things… didn't go well, heck, they went worse than I could've imagined," He paused to take a breath, turning away from Tate's mom and towards the portal. "That thing turned on, and he fell through. I've been trying to turn it back on ever since. But Stanley Pines, homeless grifter wouldn't be allowed to stay here, wouldn't be able to keep the house. People already mistook me for Ford anyway, so I rolled with it."

He turned back to Tate's mom, who seemed a bit dazed by the whole thing. "So yeah, I don't know what Ford did to your family, but all I'm interested in doing is saving mine."

"We were living in Palo Alto," Tate's mom said in a soft tone quite different from her furious exclamations at the front door. "Fidds was trying to make portable computers, I was looking to get back into the working world now that Tate was a toddler. Stanford called, said he needed help with some big machine. Eventually 'The Project' got so big we decided to move here. I'm a small-town girl at heart, so I thought the whole thing was perfect. And it was, but not for long. Fidds would come home shaking, never sleeping through the night without some kind of night terror driving him awake. Before I knew it, he was gone."

Stan opened his mouth to spew some generic condolence, but she held up a hand to stop him.

"Not physically, but he'd lost his mind. He wasn't my husband anymore. I tried to help him, to be there for better or for worse like I'd promised on our wedding day, but he just kept getting worse. Eventually, I started to fear that he might hurt Tate. Not intentionally, just while he was lost in one of his fantasies. So I left him." She was tearing up now. "I still feel bad about that. So, you can understand why I was so frightened for my son when I heard he was getting wrapped up in the Pines family just like we had been."

Stan chuckled mirthlessly. "Seems we're both a mess."

Tate's mom fiddled with the Cubix cube. "I don't suppose we can start over?"

Stan shrugged. "Why not?" He held his hand out like he had earlier. "Hi, the name's Stanley Pines, but you can call me Stan. My hobbies include hiding a mad science basement behind my vending machine and passing myself off as my twin brother. And you are?"

She smiled, though it was still a bit strained. "Emma-May Dixion, formerly Emma-May McGucket. I do some of the baking for Greasy's Diner and act as a part-time Lake Ranger."

He shook her hand. "Can I call you Em?"

"I have no issue with that."

"We should probably head back up, Nicola doesn't know about any of this."

"Do you intend to tell him?"

"Depends on if I actually make progress or not. There's no point in telling him if nothing'll ever come of it."

They were back in the elevator by now, Em's forehead crinkling at the mention of Nicola.

"Is he Ford's?"

Stan shook his head. "Ford had nothing to do with making him, and last time I checked that makes him mine."

She dipped her head in acknowledgment. "I just had to ask, since they look so alike."

"It's a long story that I don't feel up to tellin' tonight."

He held the vending machine open as they reached the top of the stairs. "I don't suppose I could ask you for a favor?"

"Tell me your favor, then I'll decide."

"Could you look through any stuff Fidds left behind? See if there's anything that might help with the portal?"

Em nodded. "I will. Goodnight Stanley," She paused with the front door partially opened. "I'm glad our boys found each other."

I just took advantage of the fact we don't know much about Emma-May and ran with it, hopefully you like the direction I chose. Also, the book series I referenced is one my dad read to me when I was about Nicola's age called The Great Brain. It totally seemed like something Stan would take to.

And to everyone who's followed, favorited, or especially reviewed, thank you so much! Your support means a lot!