Twenty-four hours later, Mabel was rested, cheerful, and able to think about something other than what Ford was hiding from her. She stood in the entry way, holding a stack of photocopied party invitations and waiting for Dipper.

"Grunkle Ford, we're leaving!" Dipper shouted across the Museum as he ran up to join Mabel. He had his arm through one sleeve of his sweater, the rest of it dangling beneath.

"Where's Melody?" Mabel asked.

"Cleaning up and decorating," Dipper said. "She said we can go without her."

Mabel pulled the door open, shivering as the cold rushed into the house. She zipped up her orange sweater and tugged at the knit white gloves Melody had given her to make sure they wouldn't fall off. Only then would she brave the outdoors.

The sun was shone brightly over the snow-covered path, but it gave little warmth. Mabel shivered again as she closed the door behind her and Dipper.

"So what's our story?" Dipper asked as he bounded down the porch steps.

"Huh?" Mabel replied. She fell into step next to her brother, and they started briskly down the driveway toward the town of Gravity Rises. The way the Museum was situated, the front open on the town, but as soon as you went to the backyard it felt like the Museum was the only building within miles and miles of forest. Mabel liked that about it.

"Well," Dipper said, "we just disappeared off the face of the earth for three days. The Museum was closed, and we were hiding out in the forest. So now that we're back, and we're holding a party, what do we tell people? We can't exactly tell them 'town darling Pacifica Pleasure' stole our house and tortured Ford and kidnapped me. The only person who knows what really happened is Robbie. We should go to him first, I think."

"Hold up," Mabel said. "Give me a second to think."

They walked in silence for a minute.

"We'll just tell them we went camping. I mean, we kinda did." Granted, they started out on an innocent camping trip and then went into hiding in an underground bunker, but both were technically "camping."

Dipper nodded. "Sounds good. Although now that I think about it, Robbie's friends were all there when Ford showed up at the campsite. I guess we'll have to explain a bit more to them." He stopped, looking around and frowning. "Wait, which one is Robbie's house?"

"It's back in the woods," Mabel replied. She remembered Robbie telling her at some point. "That road, I think."

The road, which was little more than a path, wound through the forest under a thin layer of packed snow. Knee-high piles pushed to the side created boundaries of the path, so it easy to tell where they needed to go. After a few minutes of walking down the road, sheltered by white-capped pines, the twins rounded a bend to see a modest log cabin nestled into the trees.

"I think this is it," Mabel said. "But I'm not sure."

Dipper shrugged. "If it isn't, we can give whoever lives here an invitation anyway!" He started towards the house.

Mabel decided not to argue with that, since it was Dipper's party in the first place.

She followed her brother up the steps, catching up just as Dipper knocked firmly on the wooden door. He stepped back, then started bouncing up and down in the cold. Mabel shivered, but just stood there.

The door opened, and Mabel let out a quick sigh of relief. It was Robbie. His black hair lay at awkward angles on his head, and he wore a red sweatshirt underneath a Hard Rock Café tee. His eyes widened as he saw them.

"Kids! You're okay!"

"Hi Robbie!" Dipper said. "Yep, everything's okay. We got the Museum back!"

Robbie grinned and fist-bumped Dipper. "Right on!" He turned to Mabel with his fist out, and she smiled shyly and bumped it with her own.

"Ford's letting us throw a party to celebrate," Dipper said. "It's tomorrow. We brought an invitation for you!"

Mabel fumbled with her stack for a moment before extracting an invitation for Robbie. She wondered if he'd be able to tell she drew it.

"Sounds great. And you'll have to tell me everything that happened since I last saw you, alright? I bet you have some crazy stories."

Mabel fought to keep a smile on her face. Crazy, yes, but probably not in the way Robbie was thinking. . . .

"Absolutely," Dipper said. "Hey, you want some invites to give to your friends? Ooh, or better yet, come delivering with us! You know more people around here than we do."

Robbie considered that. "Sure, sounds great! Let me just make sure I can go out. You guys come on in out of the cold."

Mabel and Dipper stepped into the house, Dipper closing the door behind them. Robbie disappeared into the halls, leaving the twins to look around at the cabin.

"Can you imagine living in a place like this?" Dipper asked.

"The Museum has log walls," Mabel pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's really big. This place is nice and cozy."

After a few minutes, Robbie came back to the entry way. "Let's go, dudes!"

"Sweet!" Dipper said. He opened the door again, and the three of them went back outside.

In the few minutes they'd been inside, it'd started to flurry. Small flakes drifted down lazily from the sky, landing on Mabel's head and shoulders but melting almost instantly. Mabel found herself smiling again. She loved when it snowed.

"Onward!" Dipper shouted, running down the porch steps. Robbie laughed, and he and Mabel followed Dipper away from the log cabin and back to the town.

"So where did you go Friday night?" Robbie asked as they strolled down the wooded path.

"Ford has this underground bunker," Dipper said. "We hid out in there until Tuesday night, when Pacifica kidnapped me."

Robbie blinked. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, she had these levitation powers that made it so I couldn't move. She took me back to the Mystery Museum and tried to tell me Mabel was evil and all this garbage. She's out of her mind."

"Sounds like it."

Mabel was quiet. She didn't really want to talk about how crazy Pacifica was. Not after what had happened when they shattered the amulet.

"But later that day, Mabel and Ford and Melody came and rescued me—"

"Well, we showed up right as he was escaping," Mabel cut in.

"—and then Pacifica came out and turned into this huge glowing thing—"

"An astral projection. It was taller than the Museum."

"—and we fought her, and Mabel totally took her down. And then I broke the amulet she had to get rid of her powers."

"So she's not a threat anymore?" Robbie asked.

"Shouldn't be," Dipper confirmed. "And that's basically it from my side."

"Wow," Robbie said. "That does sound crazy. What happened with you, Mabel?"

Mabel tried not to flinch. She was hoping he wouldn't ask. "Um, basically the same thing. We went to rescue Dipper and found him halfway through escaping, and then we all fought Pacifica together."

She ignored Dipper's quizzical gaze. She didn't want to tell Robbie about her and Ford fighting. She didn't want to tell Dipper about Gideon stealing her Journal in the forest. And she especially didn't want to tell either of them about her nearly making a deal with Bill Cipher, the dream demon who had invaded Robbie's mind on Friday night.

Mercifully, before Robbie could ask her anything else, the path ended, and they emerged onto Main Street of Gravity Rises.

"Let's go to Greyson and Candy's houses first!" Dipper said, his face lighting up. Mabel knew how much he wanted to see his friends again. He took off down the street towards Greyson's place.

When Mabel and Robbie caught up, Dipper was standing at the bottom of Greyson's porch steps, gazing up at the house.

"You okay, Dip?" Mabel asked.

Dipper glanced at her. "There's a part of me. . . that keeps thinking Pacifica came and did something to them. I mean, I know she probably didn't, but. . ." He shook his head and took a deep breath. "I'm just so glad she can't do anything to us anymore."

Mabel couldn't help but agree. The knowledge that Pacifica's amulet was gone was a major relief.

Dipper breathed deeply, grabbed some invitations from Mabel's stack, and then took the steps up to the porch and rang Greyson's doorbell.

The door opened to reveal both Greyson and Candy. "Hi guys!" Dipper cried, jumping forward to hug his friends. Mabel thought she saw Candy blush as Dipper threw his arms around her.

"Hey, Dipper," Greyson said, his deep voice sounding confused. "Where've you been?"

"Camping," Dipper said. "I forgot to tell you guys first, though. I missed you a lot!"

"We missed you too," Greyson replied slowly.

Dipper pulled back, and even though Mabel could only see the side of his face, she could tell he was beaming at his friends. "We're having a party tomorrow to celebrate us coming back," he said. "You guys should come!"

"That sounds awesome!" Greyson said.

"How many people will be there?" Candy asked.

"I dunno, a lot," Dipper said. "You're only the second house we've come to. We're gonna have great food, a world-class DJ, a karaoke contest — it's gonna be way fun."

"That sounds cool," Candy said, "but I don't sing. Or dance."

"Yes she does," Greyson said. "We'll be there."

"Great!" Dipper said. He handed each of them an invitation. "See you guys then!" With a wave, he jumped back down the porch steps and rejoined Mabel and Robbie. Greyson and Candy waved back and then closed the door.

After that, Dipper had an extra spring in his step, and Mabel could tell he'd been really worried about his friends.

For the rest of the morning, Mabel, Dipper, and Robbie circulated the small town handing out invitations to basically everyone. They stopped by Robbie's friends' houses, posted an invitation on the news board inside the grocery store, and handed out invitations to people they passed on the street. Dipper did most of the talking, while Mabel did most of the handing out. She liked it that way.

As they went around, Mabel found her thoughts turning to Ford and the secret basement again. It was obvious something big had happened in that room, that the huge metal triangle was important. But it was doubly obvious Ford had no intentions of telling her anything about it. She didn't know why — she thought they'd made progress when she gave him back his Journal — but she was determined to find out somehow. She deserved to know, she'd seen the room. But how else could she find out the secrets of the Mystery Museum if Ford wouldn't tell her?

The idea came to her on the way back to the Museum.

"Of course!" she gasped.

Dipper startled next to her. "What is it?" They'd parted ways with Robbie a few minutes ago, and the remaining invitations were stuffed in Dipper's pockets.

"In the Journal," Mabel said, "there's this page about how to summon ghosts."

"There is?" Dipper asked.

Mabel nodded. "It says that some ghosts are the best way to get information, because all they do is eavesdrop on other people. So if I could summon a ghost that lives in the Museum, it might know something about the basement, and the triangle thing, and the Lee guy!"

Dipper frowned. "I dunno, Mabes. Do you think Ford will even give you back the Journal?"

"I don't know," Mabel admitted. "He said he would Tuesday night, but he didn't say when."

"I think he'd be mad if you went behind his back, too."

"Yeah, well," Mabel said, her voice growing angry. "If he's too self-centered to tell us what's going on, then I say we have every right to do some research of our own."

Dipper bit his lip. "I guess." He didn't sound convinced.

The twins mounted the steps up to the Mystery Museum house door.

"Kids? Is that you?" Melody called from across the house as Mabel pulled the door closed.

"Yeah!" she called back. She hurried into the living room, where the fireplace roared. The heat felt abrasive against her cold cheeks, but she welcomed it.

A minute later, Melody strolled in to meet them. "How'd it go?"

"Great!" Dipper said. "We handed out nearly all of them. How does the party room look?"

"Ready for partying," Melody replied, grinning. "Come and see."

"Okay!"

Dipper ran across the room and was about to follow Melody out when he turned back to Mabel. "Mabes? You coming?"

"Um, yeah. In a minute." She stared into the flames.

"One sec, Melody," she heard Dipper say. A moment later, he was at her side. "Oh wow, that's warm," he said. "Hey, Mabel."

She turned to look at him.

"Give Ford a little while, okay? Before you try the ghost thing. Maybe he's just waiting to tell us some other time."

"Yeah, maybe. It just. . . it isn't fair, that he's being so secretive."

"I know," Dipper replied. "But if you push him, he might get mad again. And I don't want you two fighting when we're about to have a party. Could you maybe wait until after? Take a few days to celebrate." He smiled gently. "I know it's selfish of me."

"No, I get it," Mabel said. "Okay. I'll wait. But only for so long."

"Thanks, Mabes," Dipper said. His smile widened. "Do you wanna come see the party room with me?"

"Sure," Mabel said. Dipper got to his feet and helped her up, and the two moved away from the fire.

But some of the fire stayed with Mabel. An inside fire. One that said that even though she would wait, she wouldn't give this up. She wouldn't let Ford hide whatever he was hiding forever.

And she'd find out however she had to.