The door opened and a nurse brought Alexander into the room.
"Mrs. Fletcher, it's time to feed... Gretchen?" the nurse stopped when she saw who the new mother was.
"I thought his name was Alexander. Ferb, you lied to me," Candace remarked.
Gretchen burst out laughing. When Ferb realized why Gretchen was laughing, he started laughing himself.
Gretchen soon regained her composure, "Surprise."
"Am I missing something?" Candace asked.
The nurse handed Alexander to Gretchen, "Are you able to do it?"
Gretchen nodded, "I think I can manage."
"Do you need anything?" Ferb asked,
"Can you put this pillow behind me?" Gretchen paused as Ferb moved the pillow, "No, over a bit more."
Candace pulled Ferb's arm up a little and over, "How's that?"
Gretchen leaned back, "Perfect."
"Don't worry Ferb, you'll get the hang of this; right before you need to learn something new," Candace remarked as the nurse left the room.
Ferb raised an eyebrow.
"Trust me," Candace replied.
Gretchen followed the instructions given to her earlier. Alexander quickly started feeding.
"There he goes," Candace noted.
Ferb ran his fingers lightly over Alexander's head, through the baby's auburn hair, "He's got a lot of hair. I thought most babies didn't have hair."
Gretchen looked lovingly at her son, "It depends."
"You've caught on to feeding him fairly quickly. It took me two weeks to get Amanda to feed," Candace remarked.
"What did you do?" Ferb asked.
"We had to bottle feed her. The upside to that was that Jeremy could help out with feedings. Are you planning on bottle feeding as well?" Candace returned.
Ferb and Gretchen exchanged looks.
"We didn't really discuss that," Ferb admitted.
"I'm fine with taking care of the feedings right now," Gretchen said.
Candace looked at Gretchen then at Ferb.
"I don't want to drop him," Ferb said.
"You haven't dropped him yet," Gretchen pointed out.
"I've held him twice, with help," Ferb said sounding upset.
"You'll get used to it Ferb. You might find he prefers to fall asleep on you compared to Gretchen. Xavier wouldn't cooperate with me as a baby at all. Jeremy had to feed him, burp him and put him to sleep. Fred chose me," Candace said trying to reassure her younger brother.
"That must have been difficult," Gretchen remarked as she shifted Alexander to the other side.
"A little bit," Candace admitted.
Ferb watched Alexander.
Gretchen smiled softly, "He's just so precious."
"Glad he's here?" Candace inquired.
Gretchen nodded.
"When he's finished, can I hold him?" Candace asked.
"Of course," Gretchen replied.
"How did you hold up through the birth, Ferb?" Candace inquired, turning her attention to him.
"I don't want to talk about it," Ferb replied.
"Oh, I understand. It's okay, Jeremy almost lost his lunch when the boys were born," Candace remarked.
Ferb grimaced.
"You were wonderful honey," Gretchen said softly.
Ferb nodded slightly as the door opened and Shane came in.
"How's my Starshine doing now?" Shane asked.
Gretchen giggled, "I'm doing all right."
Shane clapped Ferb on the back, "Gretchen will be in tonight, how about we go out for a couple of drinks after my shift is done?"
Ferb's eyebrow went up.
Shane gave a broad smile at Gretchen, "You don't mind if I abscond with your dear husband for a couple of pints do you?"
"Just take it easy," Gretchen replied.
Ferb smirked.
Candace watched the interaction between the couple and the male nurse.
"But of course Starshine," Shane said then gave her sly wink, "Perce's the DD." (1)
"He has to work tomorrow doesn't he?" Gretchen asked.
"Yerp," Shane replied.
"I don't believe we've been formally introduced," Candace said.
"I'm Shane, I work with Gretchen," Shane said.
"I'm Ferb's sister," Candace replied.
Shane bowed, "He speaks very highly of you."
"You're very formal," Candace noted.
Gretchen snickered, "Only while on shift."
Shane made a face.
Ferb chuckled.
"Gretchen's mentioned that you and your partner are good friends of theirs," Candace said.
"Aww, Starshine... you make me blush," Shane said.
"Not that difficult," Gretchen replied.
Shane turned to Ferb, "Should we go out for dinner or just drinks after?"
"I need to check a few things first, today didn't exactly go as planned," Ferb replied.
Shane nodded understandingly, "Know how that goes."
Gretchen burped Alexander, "Candace."
Candace gently took Alexander.
"Such a loving Auntie," Shane said.
"He's my first nephew," Candace replied with a smile.
"That makes him extra special," Shane said, then turned to Ferb, "Good job man."
"That's out of my control," Ferb replied.
Shane looked at Gretchen.
"It's Alexander's doing, I just provided a place he could grow in until now," Gretchen replied.
Shane laughed, "Wish my sister had that attitude."
"What was her take on pregnancy?" Candace asked, cradling Alexander.
"Well, she went into the pregnancy believing all the fairy tales "it's a magical time". She changed her tune fairly quickly when the baby was making her uncomfortable," Shane explained.
"I'll admit that there were times I was very uncomfortable," Gretchen said.
Shane nodded, "I noticed. You didn't make a big fuss about it though. You would stop every so often and take a few."
"I had work to do," Gretchen replied, pointedly.
"Although you had difficulties in your tasks those last two weeks," Shane said.
Gretchen nodded.
"So she only has the one child?" Ferb asked.
Shane shook his head, "She has another little girl. At least the second go-around she was prepared. Her husband not so much."
"What happened? If you don't mind my asking," Candace said.
Shane shrugged, "She made sure he knew everything. Each craving, trip to the bathroom, kick and movement."
"That doesn't sound too bad..." Gretchen said then turned to Ferb, "Does it?"
"I don't think I would need to know about every trip to the bathroom," Ferb said.
"That's not all, she made sure he knew exactly how uncomfortable she was," Shane added.
"He must have been relieved when that baby was born," Candace said.
"Beyond relieved," Shane replied with a nod.
"The only times you made mention of when you were uncomfortable was-" Ferb began.
"When it was extremely uncomfortable," Gretchen finished.
"I tried rubbing your back, but there were a couple of times you couldn't take it," Ferb said.
"That's a loving husband. Trying to make his wife feel better when he has absolutely no clue what's going on," Shane said.
"That sounds like Ferb," Candace remarked.
Gretchen looked at Ferb, "You asked me where it hurt, I told you."
Ferb nodded, "But the times you couldn't take it, even though you said nothing, you would tense under my touch."
Gretchen frowned slightly.
"Sometimes you would just fall asleep and I'd try and rub your back but it would tense up by itself," Ferb explained.
Shane glanced at his watch, "And I have to get going. I'll be back after my shift."
"I like him," Candace remarked after Shane left.
"A lot of people do," Gretchen replied.
"He's good at what he does. I'm surprised he never went into counseling. He's a great listener," Ferb added.
"The same could be said for you, too," Candace said.
Ferb shrugged, "Listening to friends and family is one thing. Listening to complete strangers is something else."
"You listened to me when no one else would," Gretchen said softly.
"You tried to understand me first," Ferb returned.
Gretchen gave a slight nod then moved on to the still hot coffee.
"See where that lead?" Ferb asked.
"I wouldn't change that for the world," Gretchen replied.
"Aww, you guys... I wish I knew you two when you were dating," Candace said.
"We were in England," Ferb pointed out.
"Exactly. You guys must have been so adorable," Candace replied.
"Actually, things were very awkward between us," Gretchen admitted.
"Why?" Candace asked.
"Well, the schools for one thing," Ferb said.
Gretchen turned red, "And my roommate."
"What did your roommate do?" Candace inquired.
"She wanted to know every little detail about everything," Gretchen replied.
"Sounds like typical girl talk to me," Candace said.
"This went way beyond 'typical' girl talk. She was asking questions of a very personal nature," Gretchen remarked.
"Like?" Candace prompted.
"If Ferb and I had...What's the term she used?..." Gretchen paused to think.
Ferb raised an eyebrow.
"Well either way it equated to her asking if Ferb and I had gone 'all the way.' Thankfully I didn't have to answer that," Gretchen replied.
"That's really none of her business," Candace said.
"That's what I thought," Gretchen said.
"The guys took my silence as confirmation. When they asked for details, I raised an eyebrow at them," Ferb commented.
"When did it all-" Candace began.
Gretchen turned to Ferb, "Spring formal?"
Ferb nodded, "I wasn't putting my hands all over her like the guys thought," he smirked, "Or as some of them were doing to their dates."
"You guys were already dating though," Candace pointed out.
"That's the point. We were obviously boyfriend and girlfriend. Ferb's always been a perfect gentleman," Gretchen stated.
"I wouldn't say 'perfect,'" Ferb said.
"Close enough, I'm sure," Candace commented.
Ferb raised an eyebrow.
"In public at least," Gretchen said, and Ferb smirked.
"I don't want to know what happens between you two behind closed doors," Candace said.
"You're married," Gretchen pointed out.
"Yes...Well...Like I said you and Ferb are the most traditional couple out of Phineas, Ferb and myself and our respective partner," Candace replied.
RW26Z AE/N: 1. For those who don't know DD stands for Designated Driver. I figured that Shane and Percy would be responsible and have someone sober drive after the night out. Percy's not big on drinking, hence why he's the DD, he'd probably just have soda.