Memories

First Impressions

     [Narrator POV]

     Bill was still upstairs sleeping, Ford however, was wide awake standing in front of the phone staring contemplating whether or not to call someone. Dipper, Mabel, Soos, maybe Wendy? Anyone really. What would he even say? 'Hey _____, sooooo crazy story, Bill's back and he's good?' That was stupid. Even if he did say that, no one would really believe it. He stayed staring at the phone for a long time until deciding on someone. He dialed the number.

     "Hello?" Ford asked.

     "Oh hey Ford, it's kinda early for you isn't it?" Wendy replied. Ford supposed he woke up rather early... or maybe just didn't sleep. Despite Dipper or Mabel probably being the best choice to call about this, he didn't want to interrupt whatever they were doing in California; especially since Bill wasn't causing any trouble.

     "Uhm... this is going to be really hard to explain."

     "It's cool, take your time." A heavy silence followed that seemed to last forever.

     ...

     ...

     ...

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     "Maybe you should just come over here. There's no way I'll be able to explain over the phone."

     "Is it serious?"

     "Kind of? I'm not 100% sure..."

     "Alright I'll be over in like, 20?"

     "Yea that's fine. See you then Wendy."

     "Cya Ford. Take care."

     Ford set the phone down and rubbed his eyes trying to come up with... well, anything really. He figured just showing her Bill probably wasn't the best approach, but he wasn't really sure how he could explain it to Wendy either. Worst of all, he only had 20 minutes(probably less if Wendy heard the slight fear in Ford's voice) to come up with something.

     "Good morning Stanford." Bill said walking into the room yawning. Ford turned to face him.

     "Bill, I've invited someone over."

     "Oh..." Bill looked kind of scared. "..who is it...?"

     "It's someone named Wendy. You might've seen her, she's one of the lumberja-"

     "What." Bill interrupted, pure fear in his voice and on his face. Ford looked at Bill puzzlingly.

     "What? Is something wrong? Did one of them attack you?" Ford walked towards Bill and reached for his hand. Bill quickly pulled away and tensed up. Ford was surprised but backed up waiting for Bill to explain.

     "I guess they didn't hurt me too badly..." Bill sighed, slightly relaxing. "...but it still hurt. Really bad." Ford was confused where Bill had gotten hurt. After the bath he figured he had seen all of his wounds, scars, and tattoos.

     "Where did they get you?" Bill pulled up his right sweater arm to reveal a scar across his fore-arm. Ford reached out to examine it closer, and Bill allowed him to. "How did I not see this? How did it happen?" Bill pulled his arm away and tugged down the sweater sleeve slightly flinching as it crossed over the wound.

     "I uh.. hid it from you."

     "What? Why? I could've treated it." Bill looked down at the floor, guilt written on his face.

     "You were already doing so much for me. I don't even know why. You clearly hate me." Ford grabbed Bill's face and forced him looked him in the eyes.

     "I hate who you were. You don't remember anything, and even though you don't, you've apologized and apologized for something you don't even remember doing." Ford relaxed and moved his hands to Bill's shoulders. "You're right. I want to hold things against you. But I know that wouldn't be fair. Until you remember something bad, you need to stop blaming yourself."

     "Ok.. sorry, I'll try to remember something." Ford wrapped his arms around Bill, and he hugged back.

     -About 20 Minutes Later-

     Bill and Ford were sitting at the dining table waiting for Wendy to show up. Bill was now dressed in a gray T-shirt, a green hat with a question mark on it from the gift shop, comfy pajama pants with snowflakes on it, some nice fuzzy socks, and a pair of boots from Ford(just in case Wendy decided to chase him with an axe). Ford had on his red turtleneck, a pair of black jeans, a jacket in the event he needed to chase down Bill and Wendy outside, and some snow boots he had bought just for this winter.

     "When do you think she'll show up?" Bill asked fidgeting with his hands.

     "Well sometimes she can be early, but more often than not she's late so I'm not sure." They sat in silence for a while wondering what they could while they waited.

     ...

     ...

     Then a knock at the door broke the silence. Ford looked towards the door while Bill started to panic. Ford rested a hand on his shoulder.

     "Calm down. It'll be ok." Bill nodded, now fidgeting even faster with his hands. There was another knock at the door

     "Coming!" Ford shouted getting up and heading to the door. When he opened the door, he was surprised to see not only Wendy, but Pacifica as well. "Pacifica?"

     "Sorry Ford, I ran into Pacifica on the way over and she insisted on coming too." Ford was even more nervous now, but let them both in anyway and shut the door behind them. Before they could get too far in, Ford blocked them.

     "Before I show you what I wanted to talk to you about, I need you to let me explain before you jump to conclusions." Wendy and Pacifica glanced at each other then nodded and followed Ford back to the dining table. As they walked in, they saw Bill sitting at the table staring at them, giving an awkward smile. Pacifica was completely speechless and her jaw was on the floor, Wendy however was ready to attack. As she was about to lunge at Bill, Ford blocked her path as Bill shrunk into his chair terrified.

     "Ford what the fuck is HE doing here?!"

     "Wendy calm down, you promised to let me explain."

     "That was before I knew it was the PSYCHO that traumatized and tormented us all for a week straight!"

     "Look Wendy, I need you to let me explain."

     "I don't know Ford, I don't think any explanation can make this normal." Pacifica added to the conversation, taking a step back.

     "He doesn't remember anything." Wendy and Pacifica looked at him very confused waiting for him to elaborate. Stanford sighed. "Just take a seat and I'll explain." He said gesturing to the seats across from Bill. Pacifica reluctantly sat down, very tense. Wendy begrudgingly took the seat next to her, staring daggers at Bill. Ford took his seat next to Bill.

     "Alright then." Wendy said leaning back. "Explain."