***It was 5:00am on a Monday morning, and Gru was down in the laboratory with Dr. Nephario. He was catching up on his latest experiments, and visiting the minions before the girls woke up. As he took a sip from his morning cup of coffee, Nephario studied him rather intently.
"You seem a little lost in your thoughts. And I gather it's not about the subject at hand?"
"Not entirely. But do you realize dat de gurls have been with me a little over a year already?"
"Really?" Nephario replied, pretending to be enthused. "I could've sworn it was longer. . ."
"Not to me. . ." Gru answered, deep in thought. "I thought that maybe I should do something to mark de occasion."

Shaking his head, Nephario mocked.
"Why not? It's not like you don't spoil them already. . ."

Knowing he had to agree, Gru nodded. "Yeah, I know. But what else can I do?"

Pretending to be excited, Nephario snapped his finger and replied, "I know! They still have a bit of summer left. So why don't you take them on another vacation. But instead of Florida. . .how bout Alaska?"

Catching onto his sarcasm, Gru cocked his head. "Will you be serious?!" he snapped, as Nephario chuckled. "I want to give dem something special. But I want it to be something they'd never forget. . ." He replied, noticing one of Agnes's cute drawings that she'd left behind during one of her visits. Suddenly. . .Gru felt as though a bolt of lightening struck his brain, causing his eyes to slowly widen. "I've got it. . ." he muttered. "I've got it!"
"What? What are you babblin about?"
"I know what we can do!"
"We?" Nephario implied.
"Yeah. . .We! We can-" Now he paused, noticing how captivated the minions looked. But on this occasion, he didn't even want them to know! This caused him to lean down until he whispered the secret in Nephario's ear. Immediately, the old scientist scoffed,
"What? Are you mad?!" Letting out a chuckle, Gru shrugged.
"Yeah. But dat's beside de point. We can do dis. I know we can. . ."
Looking up at his dear friend, Nephario asked. "You are serious. . ." Now Gru's expression turned sober.
"As serious as you were, when you made de Minions. . ."
Knowing he meant business, Nephario said,
"But just like with the Minions. . .the development can go on for weeks. . .maybe even months. And then, I may not get a breakthrough. . ."
"Doesn't matter . .At least we can say we tried. Right?" Sighing heavily, he nodded,
"True. . ." Now he noticed Gru's somber gaze.
"Please? It would really mean a lot to me. . ." Knowing he didn't have a chance, Nephario gazed up at the ceiling with hopelessness. "Alright. . .alright. . .I'm in. . ." he sighed, rather amused at Gru's giddy reaction. "Great!"
"But. . . I can't make a move until you do your part."
"No problem. I'll get started as soon as de gurls are in bed!"

Several weeks later. . .
At first, Margo thought she was dreaming when she felt a light tugging on her foot. This had her head slowly lifting to the sight of Edith and Agnes standing on the side of the bed. Groaning, she flopped back down on the pillow. "Ugghh. . .What do you want?"
"Some breakfast. But we can't find Gru anywhere. . ." Edith complained. Sighing heavily, Margo replied, "That doesn't surprise me. He's never around lately." Giving one last stretch, she sat up in bed and threw the covers off. "He's probably down in the lab, working on that. . .whatever-it-is. I'll call him."

Within minutes Gru returned, hurriedly bursting through the kitchen doors to find the girls and one of the minions waiting for him at the kitchen table. "Goodmorning gurls. . ."
"Mornin dad. . ." Edith said in the middle of a yawn.
"Mattina Boss!" Larry chipperly called out. Looking toward him, Gru smirked and replied, "Morning Larry. Trying to sneak and get some breakfast, huh?"
"Si. . .si. . ." he replied, beginning to giggle. At the same time, Edith noticed the plans under his arm and asked,
"What cha workin on?" Setting them on the counter, Gru smiled and said, "Something very. . .veeery big. . ."
"Bigger than the rocket?" Agnes asked, hopping up on a stool. "Weell. . ." he playfully replied, "Lets just say it's pretty close to it."
"Can I see?" she asked, attempting to reach out for them. Just as quickly Gru pulled them away. "Oh, no. . no. . .no. You can't cause uhh. . .it's top secret and I'm not finished yet. But once I am I promise you can look. A'right?"
"Ok. . ."
"For now how bout some breakfast, hmmm? Pancakes?" He bribed, quickly trying to change the subject.
"No. . .Bacon and eggs. . ." Edith playfully ordered.
"Then bacon and eggs it is. . ." he replied, quickly going to the fridge. At the same time, Gru now placed the blueprints on the counter next to the stove. As he began to pull the stuff out the fridge, he noticed Margo glaring at him with her arms folded. Knowing her stance was irritated, Gru gave her a mocking leer. "Don't give me dat look. . .I just lost track of time. That's all. . ."
"As usual. . ." She intentionally mimed. "But . . .do you still have time to bring me to the mall today?"
Inwardly cringing, Gru muttered,
"Ohhh. . .I forgot about dat." Eyes widening, Margo scoffed.
"I've been asking, and you promised you'd bring me today."
"I know. . .I know. . .And I will. As soon as I'm finished." Gru quickly replied.
Beginning to grow angry, Margo quickly turned away and sharply muttered, "Yeah? You've been saying that all week too!"

Sighing heavily himself, Gru pulled the bacon out the fridge. Just as he grabbed the frying pan, the phone began ringing. Snatching it out of his pocket, he flipped it open. "Yeess?"
"Gru!" Nepharios excited voice chirped from the other side. "I think I've finally made a breakthrough!"

Eyes widening Gru set the frying pan down on the stove. "What?"
"Yeah! There's been a new development! You need to get down here ASAP!" Growing very excited, Gru nodded,
"Alright. . .alright I'm coming!" As he hung up, Margo rolled her eyes with frustration. "Tsk! Daaad!"
"Don't worry. I'll be right back. I promise. . ." He coolly replied, ignoring the aggravated look on her face. "Don't touch anything. I'll only be a few minutes!"

Eventually this turned into ten minutes. Then twenty. . .then thirty. Looking at her oldest sister, Agnes moaned,
"I'm hungry. . ." Finally at the end of her rope, Margo snapped, "Well, that's it!" Now she quickly walked up to the stove and hesitated. Suspecting what she was up to, Edith was right on the side of her.
"Uh. . .What are you doing?" She asked as Margo carefully turned the fire back on.

Trying to act grown up, she nonchalantly replied, "What does it look like? I'm cooking breakfast. . ." Eyes widening Edith replied,
"But. . .you know you're not supposed to use the stove. . ."
"I don't care! He's never here anymore. So somebody has to!"
Opening the pack of bacon, Margo began laying it out one piece at a time. And within minutes, it was beginning to fry. About fifteen minutes later, it was crispy enough for her to start pulling it out. "This ain't so bad. . ." she bragged, putting it on a paper towel. "I don't see what the big deals about. Edith, get me the eggs."
Proud of her big sisters accomplishment, she hopped off the stool. "Ok. . ." she said, running to the fridge.
As Margo waited, the grease continued to heat up. Little did she know that Gru always turned the fire down before frying the eggs. And she was about to find out the hard way. Taking the carton from her sister, she laid it on the counter and opened it up. Grabbing an egg Margo cracked it on the edge of the pan, then dropped it in the hot oil same way Gru done. Only instead of it frying normally the way the bacon did, it began to bubble up then pop like a firecracker! Stunned over what was happening, Edith pulled Agnes further away. "What's happening?"
"I don't know! It's like the eggs exploding." she replied, attempting to grip the handle of the frying pan, in order to pull it off the burner. But that's when a splotch of grease flew out, landing on her hand. "Owwww!" She cried, impulsively jerking the handle so hard that it sent the oil onto the flames, causing them to lap from underneath the pan.
"Fire! Fire!" Edith cried, running to the sink and filling up a glass of water. Quickly she turned and ran back to the stove.

Eyes widening, Margo cried, "No, Edith!" But by then it was too late. Instead of extinguishing it, the fire now floated on top the water until it was rapidly spreading across the stove and the counter. Petrified, Margo could only shake her head in disbelief. "Oh no." she muttered. This had Edith beginning to panic.
"What'll we do? What'll we do?!" Little did they know that Larry had already fled the kitchen, and was on his way down to the lab!

Meanwhile. . .
Gru was standing next to Dr. Nephario at the lab table. Intently he gazed into microscope, observing the now growing specimen in a petri dish.
"Dis is fantastic! I never expected a breakthrough to happen dis soon!"
"Well now that it has, the only thing we could do is watch and wait. But it won't be for long. Normally the gestation period runs 340 days. Well I've sped up the development to half of that. Giving him a look of uncertainty, Gru asked,
"But dat won't speed up it's aging, will it?"
Thinking about it, Nephario nodded, "Possibly. . .But not by much. Maybe two to three years to our one."
"Well. . .Dat's not too bad. I want it to be around for a long time-" Before he could finish, Gru was caught off guard to the sight of Larry coming down the chute. In a panic he ran up to him, all the while hollering, "Incendio in cucina! Incendio in cucina!" (Fire in the kitchen!Fire in the kitchen!)

Wideyed, Gru marveled down at him in disbelief.
"What?!"

By then the fire was slowly beginning to lap up the sides of the counter, causing the girls to start coughing.
"Quick! Get Agnes out of here!" Margo frantically ordered. This had Edith grabbing onto her sisters hand. Just as they got to the door, Gru barged in and froze. Gasping with horror he quickly ran to the top shelf and grabbed the fire extinguisher. Within seconds of pulling out the pin, Gru had wiped out the entire fire. Leaving a thick plume of white powder and smoke. As the dust began to settle, he could only marvel at the mess in disbelief. Dealing with the sight of the burned up stove, cabinets, and singed up walls was one thing. But it was what he saw on the counter that had him reeling. His eyes widened with horror to the sight of his blue prints, now scorched beyond repair. Feeling like the wind had been knocked out of him, Gru slowly shook his head and moaned, "What a nightmare."
Numbly his brain tried to deduce what caused all the mayhem. And then. . .he noticed the scorched frying pan with the nearly unrecognizable charbroiled egg in the center. Putting it all together, he could feel his blood pressure beginning to soar! As he slowly turned around, Margo felt her stomach turn cold when she saw the furious expression on his face. The last time she saw him this mad, was when Vector kidnapped them! Only this time she never dreamed it would be with her. Slowly shaking his head, Gru growled out, "What in de wourld happened in here?!"
Nearly a nervous wreck, Margo timidly stammered, "I thought. . .I mean I tried. . ."
"I don't want to hear it!" Gru snapped out, making her jump. "You, young lady, are grounded till you're 40!" As she gaped down at the floor, he flung his hands up with exasperation. "I can't believe you did this! How many times have I told you over and over again not to cook on dis stove without supervision?!"

Now this had her boldly looking into his eyes."Well I wouldn't if you had been here like you were supposed to!" Margo angrily protested. "But you're always somewhere working on your stupid ideas!"

Marveling at her, Gru huffed, "Stupid?! Do you have any idea how important dis is?!"
"Obviously enough to put us second!"
Realizing the root of where this was really coming from, Gru defensively replied, "Dat's not true!"
"Yes, it is!" She argued. "You're not acting any different than you were when we first moved here! You're plans always come first, no matter what!"

Stiffening with ire, he flung a hand on his hip. "Well you don't have to worry about it now, cause these have been incinerated! I hope you're happy!"
"Maybe I am!" she defiantly replied, causing his eyes to widen. "Cause now you can start acting like a dad again! Or was that part of your plan too?"
For Gru that cruel bit of sarcasm was the last straw. Desperately fighting to keep from blowing his stack, he angrily hissed through his teeth. "Dats it. Go to your room. . .Now!" He shouted, causing her to jump. Choking back a sob, Margo ran past him and out the door.

Through the intense chaos, Gru looked down at the two younger sisters, to find that Agnes was crying, and Edith wasn't very far herself. Although still very irritated, the mere sight of this had his heart aching. Determined to be as level-headed with them as possible, he took a deep breath and shakily replied, "It's ok. . .It's gonna be alright." Reaching into the cabinet he pulled out two chewy granola bars for each of them, then some juice boxes out the fridge. "Here. Take dis for now. And we'll get pizza later on, alright?" With a quivering lip, Edith nodded then timidly took Agnes by the hand, and pulled her out the kitchen.

As they walked out, Nephario and a handful of minions unexpectedly stepped inside and froze. Silently Gru watched as they all marveled at the kitchen in disbelief. "Ohh. . .no. . .What on earth happened in here?" Fuming beyond all reason, Gru reached out and snatched the scorched up plans off the counter. Roughly flinging it in front of him, he barked, "You figure it out!"
Thereafter he spun around, punching his way through the red double doors.