Stanley Pines, Our Hero (TEOC series #1)

The Reconciliation

It was much later that day; the sun had set hours ago, but the movie we had been watching had only just finished. I watched Soos drive away as I gathered more scraps of wood away from the door and headed back to the living room.

The kids had fallen asleep on the ground next to the chair. I stopped in the doorway and stared at them, snuggled together with Waddles in between them. It was incredible - these kids had been through so much in only two months, stuff I had never even dreamed of, even in my worst nightmares, and here they were, still able to hang out like normal kids.

I smiled down at them. Of course, I didn't have the strength to carry them up to the attic, so I just grabbed the blanket from the back of the chair and threw it over them.

The other man came back in; he had gone out to check on something or whatever (I hadn't really been listening) and was tucking a little vial into an inside pocket of his trench coat.

I studied him thoughtfully. Throughout all of Mabel's scrapbook reading, I hadn't gained any hints about who this guy was supposed to be.

Six Fingers saw me watching, and looked up. He saw the kids behind me, and his face softened into a smile.

"Those kids must be exhausted," he murmured. "They fought hard against Bill for the last four days. And the way they worked together, even when Bill made it in his best efforts to separate them." The man smiled at me. "Just like when we were kids, eh, Stanley?"

I blinked. We knew each other as kids?

The man's smile faltered at the blank stare on my face. "S - Stanley?"

I shook my head vigorously. Maybe my memories of whoever this guy was would come back over time. It wasn't a big deal; if he had been important to me, I would've remembered him by now.

"It's gettin' late - we need to sleep, especially if we're gonna start rebuildin' this old place tomorrow." I glance over at the man. "Do you need as place to sleep, or - ?"

"N - no, " The man looked uncomfortable. "I'm just going to my room - it's just down the hall - "

And he left, without saying anything else to me. I stared after him. Something about the guy nagged at me, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.

I shrugged, then headed to my room. I closed the door behind me, then sat down on the bed, not really aware of what I was doing.

Who was that man? Why did he seem so familiar? The kids were totally chill around him, so he wasn't dangerous or anything. But . . . wouldn't I have remembered him by now? Granted, I didn't have all my memories back. Right now everything before about 20-ish years ago was all a big, static-filled emptiness. Yet my memories of everyone else in Gravity Falls had returned. What was the deal with this guy?

Suddenly I heard deep, hurried footsteps outside my room. Then the door swung open, and the man with his elusive identity entered, looking worried.

"Stanley, have you seen the memory gun? I seem to have misplaced it, but that's not the kind of thing I want just lying around, even with Bill gone."

A tremor ran through my body, just like every other time I heard Bill's name. A memory gun? That sounded familiar, but I couldn't think of what it looked like at the moment.

"Sorry," I shrugged. "No clue where it is."

Six Fingers cursed softly, then ducked swiftly out of the room.

Then before I knew what was happening I had leapt to my feet and was sprinting into the hall - "WAIT!"

The man stopped suddenly and wheeled around, his eyes wide.