Nobody Forgets Bill Cipher

A Family To Protect

I knock on the door of the house standing in front of me. Sil hasn't been giving me any information about anything in any of her texts about anything I ask her, and I'm growing restless. I found the tracking device on my necklace to have a glitch. The glitch allowed me to hook it's signal up to my own computer and after some thought out reprogramming, reverse the signal to its source.
I must admit, I was expecting the signal to lead me to some glamorous, undercover base, but here I am in front of a suburban home at the very edge of Gravity Falls. Perhaps one of the members of the Society of the All-Seeing lives here?
A young woman is the one who opens the door. Her bright orange hair shines and rests on her shoulders, nicely complementing her vermillion flushed face. Four small children toddle to the entrance behind her. Each infant has a similar face, yet wildly different hair, eye, and even skin tint colors. A small male child with tufty baby blue hair even takes the liberty to bounce over to me and pull on my pant leg in his excitement. His mother quickly reprimands him and pulls him away from me.
The woman studies my face warily. She looks to my eyepatch and something like a bout of recognition sparks in her naturally brown eyes. "Take that off for me, please," she tells me, pointing.
I do so, facing them with one existing eye, and an empty socket. The toddlers look at my face and ogle in awe. Their mother pulls her children a little closer to her and calls back into the house, "Hon, come here! There's someone here to speak with you!"
A muffled shout from another room answers her. "In a minute, I just gotta finish-"
"No!" the woman counters, urgency in her voice. "You're gonna want to see who it is!"
Soon enough, Dan Gerous joins his family at the door, still sporting the same green hair, eyes, and light complexion I last saw him with.
     He looks at me in utter shock. "It's you? But how-"
     I cut him off. "Your tracking device is faulty," I pull on the chain around my neck. "I was easily able to track its source signal."
     Dan facepalms. "Man, I've gotta work on that." He sighs and looks back at me. "So, what do you want?"
     "I need to know if you guys know anything new, have figured out what to do, anything at all! Sil won't tell me anything."
     "Well, that was probably for good reason," Dan remarks with a frown, "but I guess we can talk for a little. Just don't get your hopes up, ok? I can't do much for you right now."
     That's enough for me. "Yes, thank you!"
     He whispers to his partner, loudly enough that even I can hear, "He's alright. You all are fine."
     He nods to me and leads me inside. Side by side, we walk down a short hallway. Dan's children, as I assume they are, pitter-patter after us with thrilled squeals.
     "You have children?" I ask as the little ones beam up at me with gappy little grins. "You look so-"
     "Young!" He smiles. "I know! I'm actually only 21, but I married and had these kiddos early- they're quadruplets, actually, already two years old!" he exclaims with pride.
     "But you're a scientist, and you work with the Society! How did you have time for school and all that?"
     "I started school for my occupation early. I started my family while I was still in school, and also started work in the Society. Multitasking is key," he adds, sitting down on a chair in the living room after seating me in the one opposite him.
     "But why?"
     "Because I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for the Society. I owe them my life, so I will live it now in service to them."
     I suddenly notice a faint scar running down the side of his face. Though I'm curious, I won't press him for details. "And your family?"
     "I love them to death. If the Society took me away from them too much or endangered them, I would have them have my mind erased right away."
     One child with pink hair jumps onto her father's lap. He looks at her with love and squeezes her tightly as she screams with delight. Even I can notice now what an endearing sight it is. 
     Dan spins his daughter to face me and tells me with a proud smile, "This is my lovely Tulip." He pulls another kid by the hand to himself, this one with sunshine yellow pigtails. "My bright Dandelion."
     Wait a second...
     He picks up a third child and sets him on his lap, this baby with royal purple hair that is much neater than his other siblings'. "My treasured Aster."
     He's given them all aliases!
     "And finally," Dan gestures to the blue-haired child, who is again staring up at me with wonder, this time smiling and attempting to sit in my chair as well. "My special Snapdragon."
     "Snap!" the lively child agrees with a hop.
     "C'mon," I say with a smirk, "you can't even trust me with their real names?"
     "I'm under orders," Dan shrugs. "Plus, they are real names, because I gave them to them all!" He pouts, faking offense. "I picked out aliases that would suit each of them quite nicely."
     "Well," I look aside and snicker, "at least they're flowers, and that's a heck of a lot better than Dan Gerous."
     "What was that?!"
     I hear a light laugh from the corner of the room. "No need to yell, now, dear." The orange-haired lady smiles lightheartedly at me instead of warily this time.
     "Oh!" Dan exclaims, setting his children down and going to stand next to his wife to introduce her to me. "I could never forget my beautiful Lily!"
     "And you must be the infamous Bill Cipher?" She raises an eyebrow.
     "Bill Rehpic," I correct, "if we're going by aliases."
     Lily laughs again. "I suppose. I apologize I couldn't give you such a warm welcome at the door."
     "No worries, your caution is completely understandable," I answer, ruffling Snapdragon's hair, who squeals  with happiness in return.
     Dan looks at me with interest. "I'm surprised a demon like you is so comfortable and gentle with children."
     "Ex-demon," I correct again. "And there's a baby where I live too."    
     Snapdragon giggles when I speak and manages to squeeze next to me in the chair. He sits, kicking his legs and looking so darned proud of himself. "I like this one better, though," I remark jokingly. "Can we make a trade?"
     Dan laughs, then goes stone-faced. "Absolutely not." He then cracks one more smile. "Aaaallll righty!" he picks up Dandelion and swings her around. "I'm gonna talk with Bill now, okay everyone? Lily, could you take everybody out for a little while?"
     Lily has already lifted Aster in her arms and is pulling Snapdragon away from me, despite all of his whining. "Way ahead of you."
     Lily soon corrals all of them out of the room, and Dan and I are left to talk alone.
     I wonder, will he really have any information for me? I do have confidence now that he'll at least understand why I need to know.
     He has a family to protect. So do I.