Trigger warnings: abandonment, mental breakdown, depression, thoughts of suicide

Rated T for themes, mildly offensive language, and some adult romance.

Time frame: Isabella and Phineas are twenty-three.


Phineas watched Frank's truck drive off, then took a quick look at himself. Fortunately, Frank had ensured he'd gotten a shower today, and had clean clothes. No more excuses. Phineas walked up to the second floor of the apartment building, shivering a little bit in the chilly late September weather. He took a deep breath as he knocked on the door.

The peephole darkened, as if someone were looking through it. Finally, after a pause, the door swung open.

Isabella stood there, looking daggers at him. "Nice of you to make it back for her birthday," she said bitterly. Clinging to her leg from behind, a toddler with bright blue eyes and auburn hair looked up at him questioningly.

"I'm sorry. I was the biggest idiot in the world. I can't justify running like that. I just got scared. I know it's too late to patch things up with you, but..." He nodded to the little girl behind Isabella. "I need to be there for her."

Isabella nodded and, scooping up the little girl, stepped aside to let him in. "So what did your mother have to say about you coming back? Or Ferb?"

"I haven't told them yet. Seeing you two was first on my list. They're next." He followed her gesture into the living room, and sat awkwardly on the edge of a couch. It all looked like he remembered, except for the addition of toddler toys on the floor. A small kitchen and dining area off to one side of a large living room, with three bedrooms and a bathroom coming off of it. Two couches faced each other; the TV sat off to one side of both.

Isabella sat across from him, holding the little girl. He waved at the girl, and said, "Hello, Becky. Happy birthday. I'm your father."

The little girl's brow furrowed, and she looked at her mother questioningly. With her lips pursed, Isabella nodded. "He is." Turning back to Phineas, she asked, "So where have you been for the past eleven and a half months?"

"Here and there. I wish I could say I knew why I ran, but I just got scared. And then I was two days away, and I made my second-biggest mistake."

She inclined her head questioningly.

"I didn't come back once the initial panic wore off."

"So what will you do now?"

"I don't know yet. See if Ferb needs a bottle-washer in his lab, maybe. If not, then maybe Mom and Dad need someone to work the register. But, first and foremost...do what I can to be the Dad she needs."

"She needs one who'll stay."

"I'm done running. I'm here for good."

"That's what I thought a year ago."

He nodded sadly. "I know. Of all the screw-ups I've done, that was the biggest. I don't deserve another chance. I know that."

Becky squirmed, and Isabella set her down. She toddled over toward Phineas, and he held out his hands in offering. With a suspicious look, she turned and toddled back to her mother as quickly as her little legs would carry her.

Isabella looked at him. "Going to stay with your parents?"

"For now, at least. If they'll let me."

She chuckled. "If not, maybe Ferb and Vanessa will let you sleep on their couch."


His father had yelled at him for what he'd done, and his mother had clamped her arms around him and refused to let go; they'd agreed to let him stay with them on the condition that he talk to a therapist. He borrowed their phone to call Ferb, who told him to show up at the lab the next morning and they'd talk, and Candace, who'd yelled at him before bursting into tears. He then walked back to Isabella's to help put Becky to bed. The little girl was still reluctant to have anything to do with this strange man, which he understood and didn't really blame her for.

After she was asleep, he sat up in the living room with Isabella and listened to her tell him how her year had been. About the pitying looks she'd gotten from her friends when they heard that he'd left. The snide comments behind her back. The money Ferb had given her out of Phineas's share of the lab they'd built. The help she'd gotten from his parents. Her mother providing child care so she could continue working at a nearby software company as a project manager. Candace and Jeremy offering to babysit to give her a chance to find someone new. Her two disastrous dates, set up by her mother: one with a guy who thought her having a kid meant she'd put out on the first date, and one with a guy who didn't like kids at all. Phineas apologized, but there didn't seem to be enough words to apologize sufficiently for what he'd put her through.

In return, he told her of his travels. Of rides from kind souls. Of waking up on the beach as the high tide reached him. Of odd jobs to pay for a bit of food. Of sleeping cold on the street when he ran out of money and was too proud to go to a shelter. Of considering ending it all on the Golden Gate Bridge, thinking it would be less painful than returning. Of deciding that his daughter deserved better than that, even if he didn't. Of trying to get back for her birthday, and a lucky break where a trucker heading to Danville had given him a ride across five states right to her door, making sure he was presentable on the way.

Finally, they parted for the night. "I need to go get some sleep," he said. "I suspect Ferb's going to make me work for a living tomorrow. May I come back tomorrow night to get to know my daughter some more?"

She nodded. "Please."