Camille Pines lay back on the bed in her hotel room with a deep sigh. She felt so useless. And anxious, and panicked. Not a good combination.

"Good night, honey," said her husband, Samuel, from the other side of the bed. He was already half asleep.

"Good night," she whispered back.

She lay there in the darkness. The pillow was uncomfortable: overly fluffy, with no neck support. Camille usually brought her own firm pillow to hotels, but she hadn't thought to bring it this time. She and her husband had jumped in the car on Saturday as soon as Jesús Ribera had called them with the terrible news. They'd driven all day to get to Oregon, only to find exactly what Soos had described: an empty crater. No trees, no animals, no Mason, no Mabel.

Camille's children had disappeared.

There was nothing Camille and Sam could do here. Nothing at all. It had been four days since they'd arrived, and nothing had happened. The crater was now swarmed with reporters and scientists — everyone trying to figure out what had happened, everyone concerned about the people who had disappeared — but no progress had been made.

Camille and Sam weren't the only ones worried about family members. An elderly woman named Dr. Eleanor Pleasure spent most of her time with the scientists, grilling them on what they were doing to bring her precious granddaughter back to her. And just today, Sam had run into a distraught young woman named Grace Prewitt. He had tried to comfort her as she told him about how she needed to find her brother, but it was hard to comfort someone when you had the same worries as they did.

Had Stanford done something? Sam described his uncle as a paranormal researcher, but Camille had dismissed that as either a misplaced obsession or a selling point for tourists. She vaguely believed in a higher power of some sort, but she'd never believed in magic or the supernatural. So when she'd seen the crater for herself. . . when she'd discovered that the entire town of Gravity Rises had disappeared, as if it had never existed. . .

She was already anxious enough without an existential crisis on top of that. But one of her theories was that Stanford's paranormal research was somehow responsible for the town disappearing.

If you watched the news, it seemed everyone in the country had a theory for what had happened. Undetected meteor, said astronomists. Freak seismic activity, said geologists. God's judgment, said religious fanatics. What her children would be judged so harshly for, Camille had no idea. They weren't perfect, but they were good children with kind hearts.

She missed them so much.

The twins' vacation was only supposed to last a week and a half. Now they had been gone for two weeks, and Camille got more anxious for them by the second. They were supposed to be home four days ago; school had started two days ago. Where were they? What had happened to them? Would Camille ever see them again?

A light snore from Samuel told her that he was asleep. Part of her resented him for that. How can you sleep? she wanted to scream at him. How can you sleep when our babies are gone? But she didn't say that, because she knew he was doing the right thing. They couldn't do anything to help Mason and Mabel, so they should take care of themselves while they worried.

Useless.

Camille realized there were tears on her face. Those had been appearing out of nowhere a lot the past few days. She'd almost stopped noticing them.

She rolled onto her side and let the tears drain from her eyes.

~~~~~

Dipper woke up shivering. As he slept, Marigold had covered him and Ford with her wing to help them stay warm, but they were still on the cold ground outside in the middle of winter.

He had no idea what time it was. The sky gave no indication. But he felt rested, and Ford's healing had finished. The people at the Museum might still be asleep, but that wouldn't stop Dipper and the others from going home.

"We'll need to fly in without the servants seeing us," Ford said. Now that he was healed, he seemed ready to take charge. Dipper found that he was absolutely okay with that. He'd had enough of being in charge. Ford continued, "Rowan, Marigold, would you be willing to stay at the Museum with us once we get there? We'll find a place for you to stay."

Rowan and Marigold agreed. Ivy came out of her tree, said goodbye to her peryton friends, and made sure Ford was all right.

"I feel better than I've felt in weeks," Ford said. "Thank you, Ivy."

Ivy smiled, her curly black hair bouncing in the breeze. "I'm glad I could help."

Ford rode alone on Rowan, and Dipper sat in front of Geneva on Marigold. The perytons and Geneva needed to have one of the Pines touching them so that they could get through the barrier around the Museum.

The perytons took off, and they were back in the air. Dipper was sore after riding the perytons yesterday, and he shifted uncomfortably on Marigold's back.

They got to the Museum about five minutes later. Dipper didn't even see it until the perytons started spiraling down to it. They landed near the front porch, and no one noticed them until they were already on the ground.

Their arrival caused a bit of an uproar on the other side of the barrier, but Dipper and the others ignored it. The humans dismounted and went inside while the perytons waited outside.

It turned out to be early morning. The date was Thursday, January seventeenth. Melody was in the kitchen, and she rushed to the front door as they entered. She was beside herself with surprise and joy at seeing them. So was Waddles: He perked up from his spot on the couch and raced to Dipper's side to greet him. After Dipper's reunion with his pig, Melody insisted that they all sit down and eat some of the breakfast she had just made.

Fidds was sitting at the table when they entered the kitchen. He looked up in surprise at Ford, and Ford hesitated when he saw him.

"Welcome back, Ford," Fidds said. "I'm glad you're here."

Ford didn't respond at first. Then, "Thank you," he said quietly. He sat at the table and started eating.

Fidds gave a relieved smile. Dipper grinned at him and sat beside him, and Geneva and Melody sat in the remaining two chairs. They ate a delicious breakfast that made Dipper feel like he'd been away from Melody's cooking for a week instead of a day.

When they'd finished breakfast, the Valentinos came in to take the next shift. The three boys bounced into the room, and Danny and Wendy followed. Dipper stopped in the doorway and looked back at Wendy. "Hey, Wendy," he said, "how's your mural?"

"Huh?" she said. "Oh. It's done."

"Cool, that was fast."

She shrugged.

"Mural?" Ford asked.

"She's been spray-painting a protest mural on the side of the Museum," Dipper said.

"What?!"

Dipper grabbed Ford's hand, pulling him away before he could yell at the girl. "Come on, Grunkle Ford, let's go see it."

He took Ford outside to the spot where Wendy had painted the mural: on the wall to the left of the porch. A glowfly lantern sat on the corner of the porch, throwing light onto the mural so that the guards outside the barrier could see it. It was to protest them, after all, so they needed to know about it.

Dipper walked down from the porch to get a good view of the painting. "Woah," he whispered.

It was a picture of Bill. The triangle was big and imposing, with a bright yellow body and a blood red eye that stared out at the viewer. He sat comfortably on a grey throne, which was made of people. About a dozen people, grey like statues, were fit together like building blocks to create the throne. Wendy had detailed their horrified faces, as well as the way their bodies were crammed into place.

At the base of the throne were black and red words that read, "Long Live the King."

Dipper shivered.

"She ruined my wall," Ford said in horror.

"It's part of our effort to bring people over to our side," Dipper said. "The Corduroys and I spent time talking to the Order members and explaining stuff, and Wendy painted this."

Ford grunted. "She's very skilled. I have to give her that."

She was. The painting was horrifying, but it was a fitting representation of what Bill's victory would be like. Dipper had never seen Bill with a red eye before, but it looked very imposing in Wendy's painting. He had to wrench his gaze away from it.

Dipper and Ford went back inside to talk to Melody about finding a place for the perytons. Ford allowed Dipper and Melody to make space in his lab for them; so, with the help of the Valentino boys, they got started on that project. Ford went to talk to Pacifica and find out if Lee had visited her yet.

Melody seemed worried about caring for animals in a cabin that clearly wasn't outfitted for such things, but Dipper assured her that the perytons would appreciate the shelter they gave them. She nodded, but the worry in her eyes didn't quite go away.

Once the space was ready, and once Dipper promised that the perytons wouldn't go into the dangerous corner that had discarded gadgets and broken parts from when Ford had trashed his own lab, Melody relaxed a bit. Dipper gave her a big hug. "You're doing a lot to help everyone," he said. "You're the best."

Melody hugged him back. "Thanks, Dip."

She opened the door to the lab while Dipper went to go tell Rowan and Marigold that there was a place for them. The perytons could barely fit through the door, but they managed, and they mentally expressed their gratitude for the blankets and food that Melody had set out for them. Melody was enamored by these beautiful winged deer, and she told them she wanted to make them as comfortable as she could.

After that, there wasn't anything pressing for Dipper to do. He ambled back to the living room to find Fidds and Geneva sitting beside each other on the couch, holding knitting needles and yarn. "Whatcha doing?" Dipper asked.

"Oh, Melody dug out a box of my old yarn and knitting needles," Fidds said. "I used to knit a lot, you know. Your uncle's red sweaters are a gift from me."

"Really?"

Fidds smiled, looking nostalgic. "Yes, I made him one as a birthday present, and he loved it so much that he took it on adventures and ruined it. I made a lot more for him after that."

Dipper laughed. "Are you teaching Geneva how to knit?" he asked. "Can you teach me?"

"I've done some knitting before," Geneva said. "But it's been a while."

"Sure, I'll teach you," Fidds said.

"Cool! I want to make Mabel a hat for when she gets home."

"I'm sure she'll love that. Go ahead and pick out your colors from that box." Fidds gestured to an open cardboard box on the ground.

"Woah, that's a lot of yarn." Dipper rummaged through the box until he found navy blue yarn and cream yarn that he thought Mabel would like. "I like these ones."

"Good choice."

Dipper sat beside Fidds on the couch. With Dipper on one side and Geneva on the other, Fidds showed them how to knit. It was relaxing and fun, and Dipper enjoyed it. Waddles soon came to sit on Dipper's lap, and Dipper tried his best to knit despite the pig, which resulted in a lot of nudging and sighing and laughing. He didn't try to push Waddles off his lap, and Waddles seemed to have no intention of leaving.

They knitted until lunchtime. After lunch, Fidds offered to help him knit some more, but Dipper decided to go outside instead. He went back to Ford's lab and found Marigold and Rowan in the yard.

He could see the silhouettes of servants and Order members in the distance. He wanted to go find Tyler and thank him for helping them leave yesterday, but he didn't dare. He didn't want the servants to get suspicious.

He leaned against Marigold and gazed up at the sky. Mabel's moon shone down on him.

Mabel would love to hear the story of their adventure yesterday, Dipper was sure. But he didn't want to tell it out here where their enemies could overhear him. So, with a farewell to Marigold and Rowan, Dipper went back inside and up to the attic. The small room was as gloomy as ever without Mabel here to share it with, but Dipper reminded himself that she'd be home soon. Gideon would save her.

The window in the twins' room faced south, and Mabel's moon was to the southeast of the Museum. Dipper couldn't see it through the window unless he went over to Mabel's side of the room.

He sat on her bed and looked up at the moon.

"Hi, Mabel," Dipper said. "I had a crazy adventure yesterday. Wanna hear about it?"

END OF EPISODE FOUR

Art by undying_lilies