"So then Natalie dared Tambry to climb the thing, and - you listening, Mabel-kid?"

"What?" Mabel looked up with wide eyes. "Oh, um, yeah. Sorry, Robbie, I was just. . ."

"Thinking about the laptop again?" Robbie asked.

Mabel ducked her head. "Well, yeah."

She and Robbie sat in the Mystery Museum gift shop, watching the last of today's customers in the last of today's sunlight. The sunset was beautiful over the mountains tonight. It had distracted Mabel for a moment. So had Robbie's stories. But. . .

"I'm sure Mr. Pines will let you go work with him soon," Robbie reassured her.

"Oh, it's fine," Mabel said, twirling a little bit on the globe that she sat on. Ford had a big globe in the gift shop that had become her newest perch. "I know why he doesn't want me around, I mean, he needs to concentrate, and I'll probably break something, and, you know. A-and he wasn't mean about it, not like he has been before."

"It's okay to be bummed, though," Robbie said.

"Yeah." She was a lot more than bummed, but she didn't feel like talking about it.

They lapsed into silence, looking over at Dipper as he helped out an indecisive customer.

"You and your brother coming has been the best thing to ever happen in this place."

Mabel nearly fell off her globe. The comment came out of nowhere, and Robbie said it so casually. "I-I - really?"

"Yeah, man. I don't have to deal with obnoxious customers anymore, because your brother does it. And you hang out with me when my friends aren't allowed to come visit me during work. Plus Ford is less grumpy than ever since you started going on adventures with him."

Mabel's face went red. "Well, i-it's fun hanging out with you," she stammered.

"Thanks. What is that laptop, anyway?"

Ford had asked them not to tell Robbie about Stanley or the portal, for "security reasons." Mabel bit her lip. "Oh, it's, um, something old of Ford's, but he doesn't remember what's on it." That was basically the truth. "So he's fixing it up."

"And you guys found it down in his mysterious bunker?"

Mabel nodded. That wasn't the only thing they'd found, but she didn't want to think about that right now.

"Dipper told me you have a grappling hook now. And that you used it to fight off some monsters."

Mabel blushed again. "I tried," she said. "My aim's not very good. And it knocks me off balance every time I shoot it."

"I'm sure you'll get better with practice," Robbie said. "It sounds like something that can really come in handy." He flipped on the microphone next to the cash register. "Ladies and gents, the Mystery Museum will be closing in five minutes. Come buy your stuff and clear out." He grinned at Mabel. "Mr. Pines doesn't like me talking like that over the speaker."

"I doubt he can hear you in his lab. Or hear anything, really." Mabel grinned back.

It wasn't much of a joke, but Robbie still laughed. "You Pines and your attention spans are crazy. Right now you're all over the place trying not to think about the laptop, but if you were working on the laptop, you would have this laser focus."

"Yeah," Mabel said. "Dipper's the same. And I guess Ford is too."

"I like it," Robbie said, leaning back and putting his feet up on the counter. He had to put them down a moment later when a tourist came up to buy something.

Mabel closed her eyes and once again guided her thoughts away from the laptop. Just enjoy this, Mabel. Enjoy being with Robbie, here in the gift shop, with the evening sun warming your back through the window. Enjoy these quiet moments.

It worked. For a minute or two.

"Ladies and gents, the Mystery Museum is now closed." Robbie drew out the last word, swinging the microphone as he looked around for lingering customers.

"Everyone's gone!" Dipper skipped up to the checkout counter and jumped up onto it. Mabel held on to the globe as it wobbled beneath her. "Man, that guy had a really hard time choosing between the puma shirt and the panther shirt."

"Tyler's always like that," Robbie said. "Thanks for taking care of him, Dip."

"No problem! They really were both great shirts. Where does Ford get his merch?"

"Melody would be the one to ask about that," Robbie said. "Honestly, how Ford stayed in business before hiring her is a mystery to me."

"He's not really a people person," Mabel agreed.

"Melody does everything around here," Dipper said. "Does she have magical powers that let her be two places at once or something?"

Robbie shrugged. "It's Gravity Rises. I wouldn't be too surprised."

The Employee's Only door swung open.

"There's the woman herself!" Robbie leaned forward onto his elbows. "Watcha need, Mels?"

"Hiya Robbie," Melody said. "Twins. Where's Ford?"

"Lab," Mabel said. "Still." Like he'd been for the past three days.

"Without you?"

"He said I could help later." Like he'd said for the past three days.

Melody leaned against the doorjamb. "That man. I don't think he even slept last night."

"That means he's close, right?" Mabel asked.

"That means he's sleep-deprived. He'll get himself sick." She shook her head. "I've never seen him like this. Which is mostly a good thing, but just the same. He can't just run himself to the ground."

Robbie shook his head. "Gotta love that Pines attention span." He stood up and stretched. "Well, I better get to rehearsal."

"Rehearsal?" Dipper asked. "For what?"

"Oh, for a show," Robbie said. "I'm doing the sound for the Gravity Rises Theatre Group. They're putting on The Spectre of the Theatre."

Mabel perked up. "Is that the one about the specter that lives in the theater?"

There was a moment of silence as she realized what she said. Then everyone burst out laughing.

"You know - what I mean - " Mabel said between laughs. "And there's that girl, that opera singer he falls in love with, and it's a musical, and - oh yeah, and there's a chandelier that falls right on top of the audience!"

"You like theatre?" Robbie asked.

"Not really," Mabel admitted. "I just like ghosts. I mean, I love theaters, like the buildings. Because they usually have ghosts."

"The theater here in Gravity Rises definitely is a good place for ghosts," Robbie said. "And Spectre of the Theatre is a pretty good ghost story. Tambry's starring in it. That's how I got roped in." He moved around the checkout counter, brushing Mabel's arm as she passed. His touch made her shiver, as usual. "It's my first rehearsal, so I'd better not be late. Are you three okay to close up?"

"Sure," said Dipper. "Have fun!"

They waved at Robbie as he left the Museum.

Melody sighed. "Alright, kids, let's close up, and then we'll go find your uncle and talk some sense into him."

Mabel grimaced slightly, but hid it from Melody. She knew the older woman was concerned, but Mabel thought that Ford was doing the most necessary - and interesting - work of all of them. Couldn't Melody see that getting Stanley back was worth a few days without sleep? Mabel only wished she could be helping instead of dusting off merchandise or picking up trash left by tourists.

She knew why she couldn't, though. She knew she wouldn't be any help.

Mabel knew she was useless.

Melody assigned the twins their chores and started counting the till. Mabel decided to head into the Hall of Mysteries, where the tours took place. It shared a wall with Ford's lab, and would be empty. She could clean up in there without anyone noticing that -

"Hey Mabes, you okay?"

- That she was feeling down. "I'm fine, Dip," she said, trying to make her voice sound light. She usually confided in him, but. . . well, he'd just tell her that she was wrong. That she wasn't useless. And she didn't want to hear that right now.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm just gonna go clean up in the Hall of Mysteries."

"Okay." Dipper didn't look convinced, but thankfully he let her go. Mabel slipped through the side door that led from the gift shop to the tour hall and let out a relieved breath, glad to be alone for a while.

Talking with Robbie had been a nice distraction, but now the thoughts crept their way back into Mabel's mind. Ford had promised that they would work together on rescuing Stanley, but he said he needed time alone to fix the laptop. Mabel tried to understand - neither she nor Dipper were good with machinery - she would just be an annoyance - she hadn't helped much down in the bunker, anyway - but it still hurt.

Did it really hurt because of Ford, though? Or because of her own incompetence?

"Face it," she muttered to herself. "Ford realized how little you have to offer. He's not trying to be mean, he's just being practical."

Mabel stayed in the Hall of Mysteries as long as she could, but one could only dust off the platypeople - fake half-human, half-platypus fossils - so many times before wanting to hurl at the sight of them. So she headed back into the gift shop.

She heard Dipper before she saw him. "So I told Amanda about Candy's crush on me, and the weird stuff she did to show it, and she told me that it was normal. I guess I can act weird when I have a crush too. I still kinda feel bad that I don't like Candy back. I mean, it's really hard to be friend-zoned, but I just can't be in the romance zone with Candy, you know? Sometimes I wish I could, just to make her feel better. But then - oh, hey, Mabes."

"Hi," she said. "You guys done in here?"

Dipper was sitting on the checkout counter while Melody slid bills of money into the till. She closed it. "Yep, all done." Melody looked between the twins. "Why don't we go see what Ford is up to?"

"Sounds good to me!" Dipper hopped down from the counter.

Slam!

Mabel jumped as the Employee's Only door crashed open. Standing in the doorway was Ford, his hands braced against the doorjamb, his hair wild and disheveled, his chest heaving.

"It's working," was all he said.

Mabel's heart stopped beating for a second, then made up for it by thumping faster.

"Really? Let's go!" Dipper ran past her, grabbing her hand as he passed and pulling her along. It only took a few steps before Mabel's legs kicked in, and soon enough she was the one pulling Dipper.

Mabel was the first one to make it to the lab, with Dipper on her heels. Melody and Ford weren't far behind.

The laptop was on a polished wooden desk, surrounded by tools and metal scraps and nuts and bolts and screws and cords and the occasional spray of crumbs. A leaning tower of paper plates had been pushed to the back of the desk. Everything else in the lab had been pushed aside, creating a halo around the laptop and its desk.

Ford made his way around the twins and led the group to the desk. "It should boot up now. I wanted you all to be here for it."

That made Mabel feel a little better. It was something, right? Ford really did care. He took the time to make sure everyone was there for the restoration of the laptop.

"If this works," Ford said, "we should be able to get started on the portal tomorrow."

"Oh no, sir," Melody said. "No matter what happens in this room, you are going to sleep right after."

Ford turned an irate eye on her. "Melody - "

"No," she said firmly. "I don't care if you press that power button and the whole thing explodes. You haven't been taking care of yourself. Half the food on those plates hasn't been touched!"

"I'm fine," Ford said tersely. He swayed a little as he said it.

"You are not fine. Look at those bags under your eyes!"

Ford pursed his lips. "Melody, you are not - "

"I am your legal guardian, Stanford Pines. If you're not taking care of yourself, it's my job to take care of you." Melody stared fiercely at Ford for a solid ten seconds. He said nothing, but eventually his gaze slid away from hers.

Melody smiled. "Good. Now," she said cheerfully, "let's turn on this laptop!"

They all gathered around the desk. Ford reached out and grabbed a power cord in one hand, resting the other on the power button. There was a still second of silence, and then Ford took a deep breath.

He plugged in the laptop.

No sparks or explosions. Mabel found herself holding her breath.

"Here goes." Ford pressed down on the power button.

The laptop started to whir.

"Yes!" Mabel shouted. She grabbed onto Dipper's arm, holding tight as she stared at the laptop.

The screen lit up, and blocky green words flashed into view: SYSTEM STARTUP. A loading bar, also bright green, started filling in box by box.

The Pines watched it hungrily. There was total silence, save the whirring and beeping of the laptop as it came back to life.

The loading bar finished its trek across the screen and was replaced by a green grid that morphed into a new screen. WELCOME, it said on the top. Beneath it was an upside-down triangle surrounded by four circles, with a fifth one inside.

"That's the portal!" Mabel said. "The upside-down triangle with the circle inside and those pillar things around it! This is it!"

She and Dipper cheered.

BZZT!

The laptop screen changed with the startling noise. //UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS FORBIDDEN//, read bright red letters that took up the entire screen.

Then it went back to green. Two words stretched across the screen above a dashed line.

ENTER PASSWORD.

Mabel's heart fell.

"Oh," said Dipper.

Ford's head fell onto the desk with a thud.

"Nope," said Melody. She reached out and closed the laptop. "Tomorrow." She gave Ford a stern look, even though he couldn't see her.

"Mmph," said Ford.

Melody sighed and put her hands on Ford's shoulder. "That's it," she said, easing him off the desk. "Let's get you to your room. C'mon."

She led Ford from the room. Mabel and Dipper glanced at each other before following.

Ford protested the entire way. "Melody. . . I'm not tired. . ." His words were mumbled; Mabel could only pick out half of them.

"You've done a lot of great work," Melody soothed. "It's time for a break."

"I have to. . . keep working. . ."

They made it to his bedroom. Ford bumped into the doorjamb before Melody guided him through.

Mabel watched from the hall as Melody helped Ford lay down. He struggled weakly against her grip. "I can't just. . . stop working. . . Stanley. . ."

"Later," Melody said.

"But. . . I'm not. . . tired. . ."

Ford's eyes drooped shut. His breathing settled.

He was asleep.

"Not tired my foot," said Melody fondly.