Now here is where we get into some of the heavier plot stuff. Takes place during "Not What He Seems"

Robbie's fingers danced across guitar strings, grinning like an idiot at Tambry as she danced around her living room. Her parents were gone, yet again so it made her house a much better hangout than his. Besides, even though she liked the darker side of things, the funeral home was a little too creepy for her tastes.

Tambry sighed contentedly as she flopped on the couch beside him, cuddling up against his shoulder. "What should we do now?" She glanced at her phone on the table, then at him.

"I don't know; we could hang out with the gang. I'm sure Nate probably wants to escape for a few hours." Robbie set the guitar down and wrapped his arm around his girlfriend.

"Yeah, Lee says he's still pretty broken up. I mean, I would be too but… you know. Wendy said she might be free today." She picked up her phone and started her social networking ritual, easily locating their friends and trying to coordinate everyone's Saturday plans. Obsessive? Maybe a little bit, but it just meant that at any point in time, she wouldn't have to be so lonely in the big, empty house while her parents decided to go who-knows-where on some kind of retreat, holiday or umpteenth honeymoon.

She looked over at her boyfriend again; he'd been down since Nate's little brother's funeral. "Hey, you okay?"

"What? Yeah, yeah I'm alright." He pulled away slightly and ran his fingers through his hair.

"I know something's up, Robbie. You haven't been yourself lately." She slipped the phone in her pocket and wraps herself around him again. Somehow, Robbie is always cold despite the thick hoodie and fingerless gloves he'd been wearing since she's met him. Over the past couple of weeks, he'd dialed down the body spray use; which only made it more obvious that he smelled like freshly turned earth from the graveyard. It wasn't a bad smell, but it was weird. Understandable though, since he does so much maintenance at the graveyard. She's never asked, but she assumes he digs graves. That would explain the toned arms that he hides underneath layers of cloth.

"I'm fine." He tried to shrug her off, but she's too persistent. "I was thinking about Nicky."

She's surprised by his admission. He never really interacted with the boy before. "Yeah?" But she feared anything more than a gentle prodding will make him slip back into his apathetic shell once more. She waited, twining her fingers with his.

"It was just another funeral; you know? But it wasn't. I guess… I guess I'm still kind of weirded-out you all had to see that." He mumbled, looking down at his worn shoes.

"Robbie… just because you work for your parents doesn't mean I'll think any less of you. Actually, I thought you were pretty amazing. You clean up pretty well." She smiled, trying to make him smile. She won't tell him that his sleek black suit made several appearances in her daydreams, his ego would inflate too large and that's not the real Robbie.

"I guess that's not exactly what I meant." He seemed to consider something then just shook his head. "It's not really important. So what're we doing?"

She pulled her phone from her pocket to check her messages when she found herself violently flung to the floor with a loud thump. "What the hell Robbie!?"

Robbie was awkwardly sprawled on the couch, a look of surprise on his face. "I didn't do it! Everything just… moved. Earthquake?"

A quick swipe to her phone and she saw some scattered posts from various reliable people about the tremor, but nothing official from the local news. "Maybe it's like, all that fracking?"

"Maybe. Let's get out of here." He slung his guitar case over his back, then reached both hands down to help her off the floor. He was a little rough around the edges, but he's sweet in his own way. She remembered a time when he was the shy little boy in class with an imaginary friend. When he only ate lunch with Thompson.

Tambry took his hands and stood, slipping her shoes back on before they head out. Sirens blared somewhere but it was probably just the earthquake. People in California would laugh at them for worrying about such a small tremble. On a whim, they went in a little-known field tucked between the cemetery and the highway, neat rows of trees separating them from traffic and the resting dead. She wanted to go to the park, but Robbie liked this field better. Less people around so he could be himself. She won't fault him that. She had her own issues that he's super cool about, she can give him this.

They were close friends before Mabel set them up together. Robbie was in Nate's grade and Nate and Lee had been friends forever. Robbie reluctantly brought Thompson to the group. She and Wendy were friends since they were three and hadn't bothered to expand their friend circle. Looking back on it, it was when she and Wendy were in seventh grade, shortly after Wendy's mom died, when Robbie up and sat down at their lunch table. Robbie hadn't been one of the "cool kids". He was in eighth grade, and on top of that a year older than most of the other kids. Nate, Lee and Thompson eventually followed him in the hostile takeover of the girls' lunchtime. At first it was annoying. Robbie barely said anything, but Nate and Lee would start conversations. Thompson would say something stupid. They would all laugh. Slowly, eventually Tambry saw her friend emerge from the sadness. Robbie brought them together, but he was often the loner in the group.

"Hey." Robbie was lying in the grass turned on his side, still wearing his hoodie and fingerless gloves despite the hot summer weather. "What're you thinking about?" He watched her, ignoring the hair that fell in his face.

"You." She smiled and brushed his hair out of his eyes. It was a futile effort though; his hair was much more stubborn than she was.

"I know I'm awesome, but… uh… what about me?" His smile faltered a little with some insecure thoughts.

"How you brought our group of friends together. How did you first meet Thompson anyway?" She gently pushed him back in the grass and rested her head on his chest. She wasn't about to get grass and dirt in her hair. Not when she'd just dyed it that morning. Besides, his heartbeat was steady and strong.

He hesitated, like he usually does when asked a direct and personal question. "His mom and mine are friends. Met at church group. They were always making us play together. After a while it just got easier to let him hang around." He seemed a little annoyed by the subject matter, but he was usually nicer to Thompson than the rest of them. Always making sure to include him, or when the teasing got out of hand, he'd pull him away and have a chat… then things would be fine again.

"What about Nate? How'd you meet him?" She indulged her curiosity. They rarely had time alone and today Robbie was just mellow enough to open up about himself and be serious about it. He could easily be coaxed into talking about his band or superficial things, but he kept most things to himself.

"We've always had classes together. And I met Lee through him, since they're best friends. What's with all these questions?" She felt him tense underneath her and she runs a soothing hand through his hair.

"Nothing. Just trying to get to know the infamous Robbie V. better. You don't talk about yourself. I mean, you know, about important stuff. Like why were you held back a year?" She can feel him hold his breath and she hopes he won't shut her out like he does to most people. Up until last week, she didn't know he even played the cello or was that involved in his family's business.

He shifted underneath her and he sat up. She turned and sat facing him. "I don't… like to talk about it. But I was a pretty… sickly kid." He fidgeted some, pulling down the zipper of his hoodie. "I like… didn't talk until I was almost five."

"Really?" She couldn't help the surprise, but she tempered his hurt feelings by holding his hands. "It's fine, you know. To talk about it. To me."

He nodded and sat up. After a few minutes, he unzipped his hoodie and lifted up his tee-shirt. Two large scars crossed his chest, the first long and straight, from his clavicle to just past the bottom of his rib cage. The second was a little more curious, slightly jagged, it started above his heart on the left side of his chest and slanted downward, creating a crooked sort of T. The scars were old, long healed but still frightening. Tambry reached out to trace the line over his heart. "What happened?"

Robbie looked down at the scars he's had as long as he can remember. He never even showed Wendy. Never told her half the things he finds were easy to admit to Tambry. Was it the fact that the men in red robes, (what did Dipper call them? The Blind Eye Society?), were gone now? That didn't seem entirely right. He never wanted to tell Wendy about the ghost of her mother, sitting at his kitchen table with a green scarf wrapped around her bald head.

He looked up at Tambry, seeing the question in her eyes and he sucked in a breath. "Heart transplant when I was nine." Over Tambry's shoulder he sees the old ghost, Janie Thompson, almost ten years old and eight years dead. His heart skipped a beat. Two. He looked right into Janie Thompson's dead eyes and his chest stopped hurting. "I don't really remember what happened." It was as close of a lie as he told to Tambry. He didn't remember why, but he vividly recalled his childhood best friend resting in the small casket in the parlor and being too tired and sick to go to the funeral. Janie's chubby younger brother giving him a gentle hug.

He bullied Thompson into keeping quiet all these years, not wanting to seem weak in front of the other kids. He already had to contend with being held back a year and the fact that he just didn't get the other kids.

"Are you okay?" Tambry's hands rested on his shoulders, his shirt slipped down while he was pulled aside by ghosts both literal and of memory.

"Y-eah, yeah. I'm fine. Really." He managed a smile for his girlfriend and turned away from the old ghost. "Promise."

Tambry feared abandonment more than anything. Her parents left her alone all the time. Their friends did their best to make sure she is never excluded and it seemed to help her anxiety. But he knew that when he told her those true things, she expected the worst and steeled herself for loneliness. "Good." The quiet stretched between them and she relaxed little by little. "You were held back because you missed so much school?"

"Yeah. Some state law. If you miss over thirty days they make you repeat. No matter what your grades are. And I don't remember having a tutor come. Like I said, it's kind of a blur." He said it out loud and the words sounded strange to him. Like he never thought about it too hard before. But it was true, he never did think about it. Not since he'd sworn Thompson to secrecy with the promise of friendship.

"I'm sure it was. But hey… you got to meet all of us, right? If you were a year ahead, we wouldn't have all been in the same lunch anyway."

He nodded. "Yeah. So. That happened." He briefly wondered if she would just as easily take the news of his… special abilities… as well. She wouldn't. Instead, he changed the subject. "What do want to do for dinner? My mom said you could come over. If you wanted to."

"Yeah? What's she making?"

He relaxed a little, knowing Tambry's dislike of his home. But she'd been by herself for two weeks now and would brave walking past the creepy parlor room for some home-cooked meatloaf.

His thoughts were interrupted when they were both thrown into the air, spinning and suspended for too long a moment. "ROBBIE!"

Tambry shouted and he flailed to get to her, grab her hand. "Hang on Tambry!"

He didn't notice how much his head hurt, but he did notice they ended up in a graceless pile on the not-so-forgiving ground. Robbie's phone started to buzz and he grabbed at it with numb and shaking fingers. "H-hello?"

"Robbie, it's your mother. Come home right now." He looked over at his shaken girlfriend.

"Y-yes Mom." He held his hand out for Tambry, picked up his guitar and ran home as fast as he could. Neither of them said a word. This was no earthquake. Earthquakes didn't make something inside him want to snap and pull away from the world. A mere earthquake wouldn't scare Janie Thompson's ghost away.

They reached his house, not far from the graveyard at all, and opened the door. His father greeted him and ushered them inside. "Something is going on outside, Son. It just made your mother feel better if you and Tambry were here and safe."

The teenagers allowed themselves to be fussed over. Robbie's mother smiled and set down a fresh plate of cookies. "You two are good kids. Just sit tight while we finish up." His mother wiped her hands on her apron and moved over too steady the ladder that his father stood on.

Robbie blinked, seeing the changes for the first time. The electricity was out, but several candles and lanterns had been set up but the chalk scrawling around the windows and door were new. He stood and moved over to the window, reaching out his shaking fingers but not touching. He picked up a piece of chalk and corrected some of the diagrams by feel.

"Robbie? What are you doing?" Tambry's nervous voice finally reached his ears.

"What?" He noticed that three pairs of eyes were on him as he continued to move, scratching the odd thing here and there. "L'p khoslqj!" He called, not realizing he slipped into the old language again. The one he's not supposed to use around his parents.

His mother stepped up to his work, adjusting her glasses. "Robbie dear, this is amazing. You've sealed up my wards tighter than tar on a sailboat."

His fingers shook and he dropped the chalk and then went down to his knees. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong as the chalk scrawling faintly glowed a bright green. He felt like there was lead in his chest and he opened his mouth to scream, but only a sad shudder came out.

He could hear his parents and Tambry shouting to him, but the world darkened at the edges until everything was black.