After a few minutes of silence, Melody spoke up. "How are we supposed to reset the clocks? They're not going to move on their own, are they?" She glanced at the analog wall clock, which had its hands pointing to about one fifteen.

"I think only Cipher knows what time it is exactly," Lincoln said. "I can ask him tomorrow and get some of the clocks reset at the Order and the Northwest Manor, and hopefully the correct time will spread around town."

Melody frowned. "That's right," she said. "Mabel said you would only be here tonight. Why?"

Lincoln shrugged uncomfortably. "Cipher needs me," he said. "Either I leave tomorrow morning, or he takes over and leaves himself."

The room went quiet at this reminder that Lincoln only had so much time here. It wasn't fair, he thought, that the day he met his real family would be the day that was three hours shorter than all the rest. It wasn't fair that much of the time allotted to him by Cipher would be taken by the night.

It wasn't fair that Cipher could keep him away from his family.

Another minute of silence. "Well," said Melody, "I don't know about you, but I'm hungry for lunch." She glanced to the darkness outside the front window. "I guess I'll make dinner now, and we'll just hope that our biological clocks reset soon."

"I'll cook," Lincoln offered. "You should take care of Fiddleford."

Ford stared at him. "You. . . you still cook?" he asked.

The question brought a smile to Lee's face. "I knew I must have done it in my old life," he said, "or else how could I be so good at it?"

Ford laughed out loud at this. "You saved my life with food when you lived with me. I hadn't eaten so well in years."

"I'll show you what I was planning, if you want to use that." Melody looked relieved that someone else was doing the cooking for a change.

Lincoln wasn't sure if he would go with her plans, but he agreed anyway. With that, the meeting was disbanded. Lincoln and Melody went to the kitchen; Ford and Gideon went to the gift shop to grab something that Gideon had left behind the vending machine; Mabel and Dipper disappeared to their attic room.

Melody had just left the kitchen when Ford returned. He leaned in the entry arch as Lee searched the kitchen for supplies. "I'd help," Ford said, "but I'm afraid Melody knows my kitchen better than I do."

Lee looked up. "I'll be okay," he said.

The kitchen lapsed into silence. Lee found the ingredients and dishes while Ford watched. Every time Lee glanced at Ford, the man looked deep in thought. This arrangement — Lee cooking while Ford stood to the side — gave Lincoln a faint sense of déjà vu.

Ten minutes later, when Lincoln's pot had just begun to boil, Ford spoke up. "Cipher said he'd leave you alone tonight," he said.

Lee glanced up from the stove. "Yes." He wasn't sure where Ford was going with this.

"Well, he can't go back on his word. This may be our only chance."

"For what?"

"To activate the Cipher Wheel."

Lincoln paused. "Tonight?"

"All ten of us are in town boundaries. You said so yourself." Ford took a confident step forward. "We already have over half the Wheel in this house alone. We need to try."

Lee poured a box of pasta into the boiling pot and turned down the heat. "Will Fiddleford be able to join us? Isn't he still unconscious?"

"We can try to wake him up."

"I don't think Pacifica would be willing," Lincoln continued, "and we would have to go back to the Order to get her. Then, with the seven of us here plus Pacifica, that still leaves two people that we'd have to find."

"Do you want to get rid of Bill or not?" Ford snapped.

Lincoln froze. In his periphery, he saw Ford cringe as he realized what he'd said and to whom he'd said it. "Do you?" Ford asked quietly. He seemed afraid of the answer.

Lee braced his hands on the counter and let out a long sigh. Some kind of Order leader he was, if people thought he might want to work against Bill Cipher.

But. . . well, he did. The realization frightened him, but he knew that this change in loyalty had been coming for a while. After selling his soul, he'd assumed that he had no choice but to help Bill. What had once been an enthusiastic willingness gradually became a sense of duty. Then, as he studied lesser-known books in the Order library that spoke against Lord Cipher, even his sense of duty wavered. After years of going through the motions, today was the last straw: Today, Lincoln met Stanford and discovered Bill's network of lies.

Bill had mentioned that Lee might become his enemy after today. After so many years of being his ally, such a change would bring uncertainty and fear. And, as Bill had also pointed out, it may not make much of a difference. No matter how Lincoln felt, Bill could still use him to his advantage.

But, as Lincoln thought of the pain that the demon brought to him and his newfound family, he knew that he could no longer pretend to be on Bill's side.

Ford stayed silent as Lincoln thought. Finally, "Yes," said Lee. "But I'm also trying to be practical. I don't think we can start the Wheel tonight." Plus, he added silently, I got this night so that I could spend time with you. Not so that we could worry about ancient prophecies.

Ford's sigh was both relieved and frustrated. "We should at least figure out who everyone is on the Wheel, then," he said. "We can do that over dinner."

Lincoln wanted to protest — his first real family dinner, and Ford wanted to spend it going over the Cipher Wheel? — but he refrained. If they really wanted to fight against Bill, then they had to get started as soon as possible. He nodded, then turned back to the food.

Another stretch of silence fell over the kitchen, though it was more comfortable than before. The twilight darkness from the kitchen window made it feel like Lincoln had been here a lot longer than he had. Had it really only been three hours since he'd met Ford? No, not even that — it'd been three hours since the gravitational anomalies had stopped, and Lincoln hadn't met Ford for at least half an hour after that. Yet, with the setting of the sun and the familiarity of the Mystery Museum, it seemed as if much more time had passed.

As Lincoln finished cooking the food, Ford disappeared and reappeared with a pen, a paper, and a book. Lee cast a curious look at the book's maroon cover and the gilded six-fingered hand. "That looks familiar," he said.

Ford glanced up. "You read my Journals once or twice when you lived with me."

"No. . . not that kind of familiar." Lincoln stared at the book. "I've read something that looks just like that."

Ford paused. "Did it have a one on the cover instead of a two?" Lee nodded. "That's the first Journal," Ford said. "It was in the Order library until we took it back."

"That's what you stole?" Bill never did tell Lincoln what the Pines had taken, but it made sense. The book had Stanford's name written on the first page, after all.

Ford nodded, and a smile found its way onto his face. "If you've read the first Journal," he said, "then you had something of mine. Even if you didn't remember me."

"It did feel like I'd read it before," Lincoln realized. "I just assumed I'd found it years earlier and forgotten about it." He smiled. "I started to respect you after reading your Journal," he added.

"Why, thank you." Ford flipped through the pages of the Journal in front of him. "I wrote this one — the second one — before I met Bill. But I found the Cipher Wheel in the cave of prophecies, and I copied it down here." He reached a page with a sketch of the Wheel. "I never did try the summoning spell," he said, glancing down at the incantation written beneath the Wheel, "but Bill still found me."

"You wouldn't have wanted to summon him, anyway," Lincoln said. "Then you would've had to make a deal." The first time he'd summoned Bill had ended with him selling his soul. He knew firsthand how serious it was to formally call upon the demon.

Ford redrew the Cipher Wheel onto his loose sheet of paper, then glanced at the pasta casserole as Lincoln moved it off the burner. "Is that ready? I'll go get everyone." With a nod from Lee, he left the kitchen.

A moment later, Gideon came in. He looked subdued — understandable, after Bill's promise of punishment. Lincoln wondered if the boy would be able to sleep at all tonight. "Northwest," said Lincoln with a nod.

Gideon glanced to him. "I'm sorry," he blurted.

Lincoln paused. "Why?" If anything, he felt that he should be sorry. After all, Gideon would be terrorized by Bill on account of him.

"For not telling you," came the reply. "I should've told you about Stanford years ago. Or told Stanford about you."

Lincoln transferred the casserole from the stove to a potholder on the table. The movement brought him closer to Gideon. "Wouldn't Cipher still have gotten his revenge?" he asked softly.

Gideon gave a slight nod. "Everybody's under threat from Bill if they give up the secret."

Lincoln's eyes closed briefly, then opened to look at Gideon. "Then I still thank you for being the one brave enough to defy him."

Soon, Mabel and Dipper entered the kitchen. Their quiet natures and splotchy faces were a stark contrast to their enthusiasm from earlier, when they ran down the hall to greet Lee. Ford and Melody joined them soon after, carrying two extra chairs; and Melody quickly set the table, which Lincoln hadn't gotten around to yet. Only a minute passed before the six of them sat at the table. It was crowded, as the table was really only meant for four people, but they all managed to fit.

Once they'd all served themselves, Ford pulled the paper and the pen from where it rested on his lap. "I want to try something," he said, and he showed everyone the Cipher Wheel that he'd drawn on the paper. "Between the six of us, can we figure out who everyone is?"

Gideon leaned forward. "Good idea. I'm the Lone Wolf."

Ford wrote Gideon's name next to the symbol of the wolf. "I'm the hand," he added, writing his name beside the six-fingered hand. "Mabel's the pine tree, and Melody's the question mark, and Dipper. . . you're the shooting star, right?"

Dipper nodded.

"Pacifica is the moon with the eye," Gideon said.

Ford wrote all the names on the paper, then looked to Lincoln. "We thought you were the upside-down triangle," he said, "because we thought you were inside the portal, and the portal looks almost exactly like that. But. . . what did Bill call you, again?"

"Blind Eye," Lee replied. He pointed at the symbol opposite the six-fingered hand. "That's where 'Blind Lincoln' came from." That, and his amnesia, to which he assumed the Blind Eye symbol referred in the first place.

Stanford started writing by the symbol of the crossed-out eye, and Lee's stomach flipped as he saw the letters S-T appear on the page. Then, with a pause, Ford glanced up at his brother. "Oh. Right," he said quietly. He scribbled out the S-T — the beginnings of the name Stanley — and simply wrote Lee.

Now the Wheel had seven labelled symbols. The remaining three were the ice bag, the heart, and the upside-down triangle. "If Grunkle Lee isn't the portal one," said Dipper, "then would that be Fidds?"

"Fiddleford is a Symbol," Lincoln said. "Cipher told me. He didn't say which one."

"The portal is the most likely option." Ford wrote Fiddleford's name underneath the upside-down triangle. Then, after a pause, he added a question mark. "But it's not a certainty."

"Robbie's on here," Mabel said. "I don't know if he's the ice bag or the heart."

"Ice bag, I think," said Gideon. Ford added Robbie's name above the ice bag and put a question mark after it.

"That leaves the heart," said Lincoln. "Or. . . the broken heart. What are those, stitches?"

Dipper's eyes widened. "Stitched Heart!" he suddenly said. "Mabel, didn't Bill call Wendy the Stitched Heart? When we were in Robbie's mind?"

Mabel nodded. "I think he did."

Ford added Wendy's name, followed by a question mark, since the twins didn't sound entirely sure. "That's everyone, then," he said.

Lincoln studied the paper. "I don't know who Wendy is," he said, though that wasn't too surprising. Really, it was surprising that hers was the only name he didn't recognize.

"She's Danny Valentino's daughter," Gideon said. "Her dad and brothers are brought in all the time, but not her."

Lincoln nodded. Made sense, if she was on the Wheel. "Have you tried reading the minds of everyone on here, Gideon? Is there anybody we're wrong about?"

"We're right about the six of us," Gideon said. "Not that. . . not that I've ever tried to read your mind, Blind Lincoln," he added, "but if Cipher told you, then we know. I've never met Fiddleford, but you said that Cipher told you about him as well. And you remember that I tried to wipe Robbie once and couldn't. Pacifica is definitely on the Wheel — Cipher said so, and I can't read her mind — and I tried to read Wendy once, because I thought it was weird that she was never brought down to the Order. She's immune. I think we're right about all the people — and which symbols they are."

"Good," said Ford. He poised his pen over the remaining space on the paper. "Now, what's stopping us from activating the Wheel?"

"Fiddleford is still unconscious," said Melody.

"Pacifica loves Bill," Gideon added. "I don't think she'd want to join us."

Ford listed the problems on the paper.

"We'd have to find Wendy and Robbie," said Melody. "Last I heard, they were out in the forest."

"I hope they get back soon, then," Ford said as he added another entry on his list. "The forest can be dangerous at night."

The table went quiet as everyone ate. Lincoln found his eyes intent on his food. His meal, which should have been delicious, suddenly tasted like cardboard in his mouth. There was something else to add to Ford's list. Another problem — the biggest problem of all.

He glanced upward and found Ford watching him. "Then. . . there's you," Ford said softly.

Lee looked away.

"Is there any chance?" he heard Gideon ask.

"What do you think, Lee?" Ford added. "Is there?"

"I don't know." Lincoln couldn't meet anyone's eyes. "Cipher can take over at any time. He could. . . he could definitely stop me from helping with the prophecy. The Cipher Wheel needs physical contact between the Symbols, and if I'm not physical. . ." He closed his eyes briefly. "I'm sorry," he said, and his voice was just above a whisper.

Ford leaned forward. "We'll try whatever we can," he said. "The creatures in the forest might be able to help. We can go out and—"

"You said yourself that the forest was dangerous at night," Melody countered. "We're not going to get anything done tonight. Even with. . . with Stanley's limitations, we still have other problems. Tonight, we need to rest. All of us."

Gideon made a small noise of derision — or maybe it was fear. Lincoln glanced to him. He probably wouldn't be getting any rest tonight.

Melody didn't know about Gideon's situation, so she continued on. "I think you, Ford, and you, Stanley—"

"Lee," he said. "Just call me Lee, please."

She nodded. "Well, if Lee is only going to be here for one night, then I think you two need the time together. We all need to adjust to the time jump — and I'm still on edge from the gravitational anomalies, myself. Let's just. . . let's just take it easy tonight."

"But tonight may be our only chance!" Ford insisted.

"We don't have a chance tonight," Melody said. "I doubt Fiddleford will wake up anytime soon, and these poor kids are dropping off with exhaustion."

"I'm fine," Dipper said. Lee could hear the sleepiness in his voice. Bill had left about an hour ago, which meant it was only five-thirty in the evening — only about two P.M. for everyone's biological clocks. Still, Melody was right that the children — and the adults, for that matter — were exhausted. Nobody had slept well during the gravitational anomalies, and the darkness outside only made them more tired.

"You're not fine, Dip," Melody said gently. "We've all had a long day, even with losing three hours."

"But we can't go to bed yet," Dipper insisted. "It's not late! If Grunkle Lee is only gonna be here for one night, then we need to spend time with him!"

"He has a point," said Ford. "If we aren't going to try the prophecy tonight, then we should spend time together, like you said, Melody." He finished the last of his pasta casserole and smiled at Lincoln. "You have no idea how much I've missed your cooking, Lee."

Lincoln smiled back. Melody was right: They needed this time together. He wouldn't think about the prophecy — or his potential inability to help with it — anymore tonight. Tonight was for family. Tonight was for his family.

"I'm going to go check on Fidds, and then I'll clean up," Melody said, standing up.

"Are you sure? I can help," Lee offered.

"Don't worry about it," said Melody. "This is why Ford pays me."

"She's right," Ford said. He got to his feet, folded the paper with the Cipher Wheel, and stuck it in his pocket. "Let's go to the living room."

Lee stood as well. He didn't like the idea of leaving a dirty kitchen without cleaning up, but he would let Melody take over if she wanted. She smiled at him before she left the kitchen and headed to Ford's room.

"What should we do, Grunkle Lee?" Dipper bounced to his feet. He seemed determined to stave off any tiredness with enthusiasm. "Play a game? Build snowmen? Go sledding?"

"It's too dark to go outside," Ford said. He looked like he was going to say more, but he thought the better of it. He closed his mouth and nodded to Lee.

"True," said Lee. "How about a card game? I'm good at solitaire, but I don't know much else."

Ford smiled, though it was tainted with sadness. "I could teach you your favorite game," he said, "back when you lived with me. I'm sure you'll pick it up quickly."

"Sounds great." Lincoln followed Ford from the kitchen; Mabel, Dipper, and Gideon followed. Ford took some decks of cards from a cupboard above the fireplace and led everyone to a table in the back of the room. There, he started teaching them a speed-based game with five small piles on the table per player and two central piles to play on. The game felt very familiar to Lee. It was only a two-player game, so the children made up their own three-player version as Ford and Lee played together. It only took a few rounds before Lee was solidly beating Ford at a game he'd only just learned.

"You seem to recognize it," Ford said with a shake of his head and a smile.

"I don't know if 'recognize' is the right word." Lee gathered up his cards and prepared for the next round. "It just feels familiar."

"What do you mean?"

Lee shrugged. "Cipher explained it to me once. He said that my memories were gone, but. . . the old brain pathways that I used are still there. They're just not connected to specific memories anymore, and a lot of them have been dormant for thirty years. So. . . I guess, when you taught me this game, it woke up the pathway that I used when I played it. It seems. . . natural, and familiar, but there's still no tangible memory. I don't remember ever playing it with you, even though it feels. . . right." He cracked a smile. "I've been feeling a lot of déjà vu today."

Ford gave him an indecipherable look. "Wow," he said simply.

"Grunkle Lee, can I play you now?" Dipper tapped his uncle on the shoulder and grinned at him.

Well, Lee couldn't say no to that face. "Sure," he said. So it was that they all took turns playing two separate games, while the fifth person watched. Dipper lost cheerfully, though Mabel gave Lincoln a run for his money. Gideon seemed hesitant to play at all, and more hesitant to play against his cult leader; but, once Lincoln convinced him, they played a close game that Gideon eventually won.

After hours of playing and talking about nothing important, Melody appeared and said it was time for bed. Dipper protested this amidst yawns, and Mabel and Gideon shared a worried look. "I'll grab you the air mattress, Gideon," said Melody, "and you can sleep on the floor of the attic, outside the twins' room. Ford and Lee, what do you want to do?"

The brothers shared a glance. Lee didn't think they would get much sleep tonight, what with all the catching up they had to do. "We'll just stay in here on the couch," Ford said. "We'll figure something out."

Melody nodded, like she had predicted this response. "I wish I had an air mattress to offer you, Lee, but we only have one."

"It's fine," Lincoln assured her.

"Where are you gonna sleep, Melody?" asked Dipper. "Don't you usually take the couch?"

She shrugged. "I'll grab some blankets and sleep on the floor of Ford's room. It's not glamorous, but I'll be able to hear Fidds if he needs me."

Ford looked disgruntled that his bed was occupied by Fiddleford, but he didn't say anything.

"I'll come help with the air mattress," Gideon said. "And. . . thank you."

"Of course." Melody and Gideon left. Mabel touched Dipper's arm and murmured something about getting in pajamas. Dipper opened his mouth to argue, but Mabel gave him a significant look and glanced at Lee and Ford. With that, the younger twins went up the stairs.

Ford stood, put the cards away, and settled on the couch. Lincoln joined him. "I thought," Ford admitted, "that I'd be the one asking you a million questions about what it was like to be in another dimension. But. . . well, is there anything you want to know? About. . . about your past?"

Lincoln thought about this question. Ever since his first deal with Bill in 1983, he hadn't worried about his lost memories. Bill's power had suppressed his desire to regain his memory, and this had made it much easier to live with his amnesia. Now, he didn't have a chance to get his memory back; but he had a chance to have his past life explained to him by his very own brother, who had lived much of it by his side.

He found that he wanted that explanation. Even if he couldn't remember, he wanted to know about life with Ford before his memory loss. Thirty years as Blind Lincoln hadn't completely erased his inner confusion about who he really was, and Ford could help ease that confusion.

"Yes," Lee finally said. "I want to know. . . everything." His eyes locked on Ford's. "Tell me everything about who I used to be."

Graphic by me