Phineas and Ferb

Baby Adventures of Phineas

Chapter 14: The Timeout

Disclaimer: Phineas and Ferb does not belong to me. It belongs to Dan Povenmire and Jeff Swampy Marsh, who have done an amazing job with this show the past 8+ years.

Linda opened the front door and stepped into her house. She walked in to find her infant son sitting in the corner with his head down and fighting back tears, and a fractured vase not too far from him that looked like it had been attempted to be repaired. Her eldest daughter was on the couch, attempting to console her young brother. "Candace? Phineas?" She said, approaching the two. "What happened here?" But when she attempted to put a hand on Phineas's shoulder, he sprawled closer to the corner, away from his mother. "Phineas?"

Finally, Phineas turned around slowly and wailed. "MOMMY I'M A BAD BOY!" Then he stood up, screamed again, and hugged his mother's leg. "I'm bad!" And then he started crying uncontrollably. Linda picked him up, too him to the couch, and plopped him right between her and Candace.

"It's OK, honey. It's OK. You're not a bad boy. I'm sure it was an accident." Linda tried calming him, only to get louder wails. "Candace, what happened?"

"It's a long story, Mom. Phineas's been crying non-stop since it happened."

"That's because I did a bad thing!" He shouted before going back to crying. Linda tried calming him down again.

"Shh...Phineas it's OK. It's OK honey. It's going to be OK." Phineas slowly started to calm down. "Why don't you tell me what happened? OK?"

Phineas sniffled and wiped tears from his eyes. "OK...so I was here..."

(Flashback)

Young Phineas ran into the living room holding his stuffed puppy in his tiny arms. His giggling drew the attention of Candace, who was in the kitchen. "What are you doing, little boy?" She said.

"I wanna play the puppy with mommy!" He giggled as he tossed his toy in the air. Little did he realize he was doing it right next to a valuable glass vase on the table next to the couch.

"Phineas, no!" Candace ran into the living room and grabbed the puppy. "You can't do that in here!"

Phineas looked at her with a look that screamed "confused." "Why Candy?"

"Because this vase cost a lot of money, and if it breaks, Mom will be very, very sad. You wouldn't want her to be sad, would you?"

"No Candy, because if Mommy's sad, then I get sad."

"So will you promise to be careful?"

"Yes Candy. I won't play with the doggy. I just put him here." He tried to put the toy on the table next to the vase so he wouldn't play with it. But when he tried to do it, he accidentally hit the vase, knocking it over and breaking it. Distraught, Phineas started running around frantically and crying. "NO I'M SORRY!" Candace grabbed him and picked him up.

"Phineas, it's OK. It's OK, honey." She patted his back in order to calm him down. "It was an accident. I know it was an accident."

"But I did a bad thing! And now mommy be sad and she hate me!" He sobbed loudly.

"She's not going to hate you. Look, why don't we try to fix it before she gets home?"

Phineas, with tears running down his face, looked at his sister. "Really? You...You still love me?"

Candace hesitated before answering. "O-Of course I still love you. I won't stop loving you because of this. Or because of anything you might do."

Phineas sniffled back some tears. "Really?"

"Yes. OK, look, why don't you just..." She carefully put him on the couch. "...wait here, and I'll get some glue and I'll try to fix this."

"OK Candy. I'm sorry." He put his head down and tried not to cry. Candace left for a few moments, but when she came back, she saw a distraught Phineas sobbing in the corner, ashamed of himself. Heartbroken, she dropped her utensils and went to comfort the little toddler. She hugged him and kissed him and tried to reassure him, but he would't stop sobbing.

(End Flashback)

"I tried to fix it as best I could, and even Phineas tried to help." Candace explained to her mother, while the young toddler continued fighting back tears.

"Oh, Candace, Phineas." She brought them both into a hug. "It sounds like it was nothing more than an accident, right?"

"Y-Yes mommy." The boy said, legitimately frightful of his mother at the moment. "I'm a bad boy..."

"Honey, no you're not!" She hugged him tighter and kissed him. "It was an accident. You were trying to not break it."

"I'm a bad boy!" He sobbed.

"Stop saying that. Please? You're not bad. You're the most well behaved, wonderful, beautiful baby boy a mother could ask for. You made a mistake, but that doesn't make you bad."

"Really?"

"Yes, Phineas. I think you've had a long enough timeout. Don't you?"

"Can I have timeout forever?"

"No, no you can't, sweetheart. Because that would make me sad. I don't want you to punish yourself forever for something as silly as this."

"But mommy..."

"No buts honey. Your timeout is over."

"No!" He sobbed again. "I'm a bad boy! I did bad! I gotta go bye-bye forever!"

"Bye-bye? Phineas, who's telling you to go bye-bye?"

"The man! He told me that if I'm not a good boy, I gotta go bye-bye!"

"What man? Phineas what...oh..." She hugged the boy tightly again. "Phineas, was it daddy?"

"Yes! Daddy said that if I do a bad thing I gotta go bye-bye forever! Because you won't love me, and Candy won't love me! And-"

"Phineas, stop! He's lying! He's wrong. He's a bad, bad man and he doesn't love you. But your sister and I love you very, very much. We love you with all our hearts and something like this won't ever change that."

Phineas sniffled and looked at his sister and mother, who kept smiling for him. "Really?"

"Yes sweetie! We love you!"

"I love you, Mommy. And I love you, Candy. And I wanna do things right!"

"You will, sweetie. And you'll do things wrong, too. But that doesn't mean we won't love you!"

"Really?"

"Of course. OK Phineas, that's it. Timeout is over. Go play."

"Wait! Mommy," He said sweetly to her, still crying. "Can I stay here and love you and Candy?"

Linda started crying as well, as she embraced both him and Candace and they all cried and hugged together. All they wanted to do was convince Phineas that they both loved him very much, and all Phineas wanted to do was be the perfect child. A mentality that would be both admired and crippling.

End of Chapter 14!

Yeah, I went a little extreme on this one. I just saw Last Day of Summer and I'm pretty emotional.

The show may not be producing new episodes, but the legacy will live on forever :D