Things felt slow, everyone having to adjust to what happened, Phineas and his family being properly introduced to Perry's boss and Doofenshmirtz's family as well.

Ferb and Vanessa were both surprised to learn their connection with Perry, but went with it, though the boy was still depressed.

It took great effort for him, for those who lost their families to pull out of their depression enough to know they aren't alone.

"So this is Melody, huh?" the boy's crush asked, seeing the little girl stand behind Candace nervously. "She's really adorable."

"Thanks," the other teen smiled bitterly, patting the girl on the shoulder. "Melody, why don't you go see if Phineas wants to play? I'm sure he and the others would appreciate a game that doesn't involve getting lost here."

"Okay," the diclinous whispered, still unsure before locating the mop of red hair, managing to convince him to play.

"Seems she's the only reason he can smile still," Vanessa commented when see how he lit up some as did others.

"Yeah, Melody just seemed to attach herself to Phineas. She looks up to him and Ferb as if they really are her brothers."

"Doesn't she look up to you too?"

"She does, guess you could say I see her as my little sister. I know deep down, if Mom and Dad were here, they'd adopt her on the spot. They'd love her, horns or no horns; she's just a little girl."

"Candace, I'm so sorry about them."

"It isn't your fault, our world; our dimension just drew that unlucky straw…"

"If I may ask, how was my dad doing? When you guys found him?"

"Mr. Doofenshmirtz?" the redhead inquired before remembering their relation with each other. "Right, well he was pretty bad off. I wasn't there when Perry, Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella first found him. I only saw him when he and Perry were brought to the hospital for possible hypothermia."

"What happened?"

"Somehow he fell out of a wormhole or something and landed in a river. He's just really lucky we were nearly out of winter. The water there really likes freezing itself, Phineas and the kids loved ice skating because of it."

"And he's luckier Perry and the others were there to see him."

"Perry recognized him, despite how he looked and jumped into the water and saved him. It really was a miracle."

"Ms. Panthera…Caitlin I mean, she told me that he can't feel anything."

"Yeah, that's what a doctor said when we were visiting them after all that. Yet despite it, he's able to still move, a little, but not much. The most was when…"

"Candace?"

"Sorry, it's…"

"You were almost raped, weren't you?" Vanessa asked, her face serious, grabbing the other girl's hands.

"H-how did you know?" she stuttered, silently grateful any who were around weren't close to overhear.

Not even Phineas and Perry know about this, both having blacked out from the pain they were in. She barely convinced Jeremy, Ferb, and Isabella not to tell anyone, not wanting to scare them more than they were, are already.

"Caitlin told us a bit about what happened, but she didn't give names. She merely wanted to fill us in on what was going on with my dad, physically and mentally."

"I guess that's understandable…"

"Candace, I can't say I know what you went through, but know that I'm here. And I know that Stacy would if you were to tell her. I'm not the most social girl, but even I know bottling something like this isn't healthy, so promise me you won't, okay?"

"Thanks, I wasn't planning on tell the whole world or anything, but I wasn't going to bottle that up either. Caitlin gave me the same speech, though without the antisocial part," the redhead half teased, seeing the other pout a little.

"That's good to know at least."

"That and I saw what it does through Perry. I don't want to say what he went through; I'd rather leave that for him to share when he feels it. But the secrets he kept, the biggest really being about the chances of us not having families to return to, not having a dimension to return to. That was really killing him. The only ones he told about that were Jeremy and me, no one else."

"When did he tell them?"

"It was when Phineas had told Melody about where we're really from, wanting to take her home. To think that it turned out true, huh?"

"Candace…"

Tears began to form in the girl's eyes, cupping her hands over her face, soft sobs wracking through her. Vanessa almost timidly rubbed her back, unsure if it would help or make things worse.

As they continued to talk, Jeremy was sitting by one of the koi ponds, his sister by his side along with the poodle.

He stared at his reflection, still guilt ridden over what almost became of Candace, realizing just how pathetic he is.

"Does she even deserve me?" he half growled, burying his face into his hands, knees drawn up.

"Jeremy?" Suzy whispered, grabbing her brother's attention. "What's wrong?"

"You're too young to understand," he half growled, hating how he sounded when seeing her flinch from his tone. "Suzy, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound like that. Things have been really stressful for me, for everyone."

"But it isn't anymore. You're back with us, our house is gone, but we can get a new one."

"You guys are alive, but what about Candace and her brothers? What about Buford? Baljeet even? Their families are gone. It doesn't seem to be fair. What did they do to deserve that?"

A little taken back by this, Suzy was silent, part of wanting to say something mean, about Candace and maybe Buford too. Yet she couldn't, realizing it would be way out of line. Despite how much she doesn't like them, there's a fine line between being a bully and being downright cruel.

No, she didn't want to go down that kind of path, risk losing her brother's affection, being found out what kind of person she is.

Seems she'll have to suck it up and be sympathetic, at least until they've recovered and can resume her normal tactics.

"Candace has you though, doesn't she?"

"But I couldn't protect her; I just lied there, listening…" he started, almost revealing what transpired, quieting up immediately. "I'm sorry, I need some time alone."

Suzy wanted to follow, but couldn't bring herself as her brother took off running, leaving her to sit, knees drawn up to look at the pretty fish, her dog curled up by her.

"Jeremy…"

The blonde ran out of the yard, going down several streets, losing track of where he was, not that he cared right now. Somehow someone will notice his absence and manage to locate him through using this reiatsu he's heard about.

"Slow down kid!" a voice called out, barely grabbing his shirt and jacket, stopping him before he ran right over a pit. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"I…what the hell is a pit doing in the middle of a street?" Jeremy started before a burst of anger of its location came over him.

"It's a former execution ground. It was meant to be filled up, but it's become rather useful for training and occasionally trapping trespassers inside."

"What?"

"Oh, right, you're one of those humans brought in recently. What are you doing out so far?"

By this time, Jeremy looked up, seeing a red haired man, recognizing him as one of the people who worked for that other man, Byakuya.

"I don't really know. I just started to run…"

Eyes softening, Renji loosened his grip on the kid's shirt, "Come on, you can tell me. It can be between us, kay?"

Feeling a bit ashamed of his earlier actions, he nodded, the two making their way back, the blonde explaining what happened.

"I see, you're afraid your girlfriend won't care about you?"

"Not so much that, I just feel so damn pathetic. I couldn't protect her from that sick bastard!"

"From what I found out, I don't think anyone really could because of those drugged balls. If that bastard hadn't used them, you may have been able to distract him long enough, maybe even take him out if you're pissed enough. I know I would if it had been Kuchiki-teichō in that position, or Rukia, anyone I care about really."

"Maybe, but Perry was able to still walk. It took almost five of those things to bring him down."

"He was probably running on adrenaline and based on what happened to him, the first couple were likely nothing compared to what he went through."

"Right…"

"If you'd like, if you're worried about not being able to protect your girl, I'm sure I can shirk away and teach you a few things."

"What? Really?"

"Why not? May not be anything overly fancy, but I can teach you a few basic sword moves, predicting things if possible. Maybe even some kidō if you're lucky."

"Th-that'd be great, thank you so much, Renji!"

"Alright kid, let's get you back and I'll talk to Kuchiki-teichō about teaching you, kay?" he grinned as they made their way back to the estate.

With Phineas and the kids, they were currently playing a game of tag, albeit more tamed than what the other kids played.

"You're it!" a pink haired girl giggled, slapping her hand on Buford's back.

"Seriously?" he groaned as he tried to take after her, only to watch her bounce up the wall. "That's cheating!"

"Whoops, gomen!" she laughed as she raced along the rooftops before jumping down, leaving him in the dust.

Eventually he caught up, seeing the mop of pink hair, not focusing if it was the girl or Melody, grabbing the shoulder.

"Ha!" he laughed proudly, the diclinous girl pouting as she watched him take off.

Despite her advantage with her vectors, she restrained herself from using them other than on those who may bend the rules, so evens the playing field with them. But with the others, she plays normally.

Running about, she threw herself into the arms of a blonde haired man, knocking him down with a grunt, his hat falling.

"S-sorry, thought you were one of my friends," she apologized when taking notice who she tackled.

"No problem, you're one of the kids Caitlin-san brought?"

"Y-yes."

"Don't worry; I'm not going to hurt you. I'm Kisuke, Urahara Kisuke," he greeted, helping her back to her feet while grabbing his hat.

"I'm Melody."

"How you feeling?"

"Better I guess…" she answered, wishing one of her friends were here, Phineas and Ferb especially.

"Something wrong?"

Still unsure if it was right to talk to him, she decided it couldn't be that bad, he knows that nice woman who took care of them when they were hurt. So he can't be bad, can he? He isn't like that creepy man covered in paint.

"I'm worried about my friends," she admitted softly, playing the edge of her shirt.

"I'm guessing you're talking about the ones who lost loved ones?"

Given a nod, he gave her a sad look, gently patting her head, mindful of her horns, seeing as tears began to form in her eyes.

"What's going to happen to them? Are they going to stay together or taken away, never to see each other again?"

"Caitlin-san won't let that happen. Knowing her, she's likely going to find someone who can take all of you in so you can stay together. And if she can't, then she'll do it herself."

"Really?"

"Of course, I don't know her as well as her kids, but I know enough to see she's very kind. She isn't the type to abandon people, something I see in her kids and any she acts as a guardian over."

"What about that girl though?"

"Girl?"

"The one the bad man had? The one he cut up, she isn't here, I don't sense her."

"I'm sure she tried to rescue that girl and will continue doing so. Caitlin-san's extremely stubborn and hardheaded, literally."

"Is she a good mom though? I saw that boy, with the mean sounding kitty sometimes scowl at her. Aren't they related?"

"Ichigo-kun? He usually looks like that, but they are close. They had a mild falling out when he got his memories back, but he's better. One good fight and they're back to being friends."

"That's weird."

"Families usually are."

"Mr. Urahara?"

"Call me Kisuke, calling me mister makes me sound like some old man," the blonde joked, the little girl giggling.

"Thank you for cheering me up, Kisuke," she smiled, "Umm…would you like to play tag with me and my friends?"

"Why not? Got nothing better to do," he laughed, before getting poked in the shoulder, seeing her running off.

"You're It then! And rules are no special powers!" she laughed as she ran off, the man smiling when seeing how much happier she looked.

He can only assume what she meant was no leaping across buildings or using insane speeding seeing she wasn't using her vectors to flee from him.

"Kids really are something," he chuckled softly.

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