Ferb woke up Thursday morning dreading going to speech. Last night they'd befriended a chameleon named Steve, then had to go searching all over town for him when he disappeared both literally and figuratively. Just when Phineas and Isabella had been getting ready to give up, Ferb had been moved to make a speech to convince them not to give up. It had gone so well that passersby had stopped to listen. It had both been empowering, and terrifying and by the time it was over Ferb felt wobbly. He'd said more in that speech than he probably had all week, but the way Phineas was smiling at him had made the feeling worth it. "Nice speech, bro," he'd told him, throwing an arm over his shoulder. "Come on. Let's go find Steve." And now he had to go see a therapist whose job was to try and get him to talk and sound out his vowels and things he'd known how to do since he was one.
She was nice enough, but she didn't seem to understand that just because Ferb didn't like to talk didn't mean he couldn't or wasn't understandable. He was rather well worded when he wanted to be. That was another reason he wanted to stay with his dad. He understood that Ferb didn't like talking and he respected it. Ferb's mom was the one who'd insisted he start therapy when he'd celebrated his third birthday and still not said a word. His dad had managed to convince her to give it another year, but since he was 4 years old, 2-3 times a month found him sitting in his therapist's office going over vowels. The only good thing was that it got him out of school during lunch and he didn't have to go back.
Needless to say, therapy was tedious. She'd had him read off a series of sentences, prompting him to be louder when his voice dropped before moving on to the dreaded vowels. By the time the appointment was over he felt like Eliza from My Fair Lady, grateful his speech teacher never resorted to using marbles. His dad was in the waiting room reading a magazine when he came out, followed by his therapist. "Hey, you two! How'd he do today, Karen?" Karen smiled politely, patting Ferb on the shoulder. "As well as usual, Mr. Fletcher. His diction is good, now if we can just get him to be a bit louder. I'll see you both same time in two weeks?"
Ferb's dad nodded, taking his hand as the two left the office. When they were in the car and buckled up, the older Fletcher glanced back at his son in the rearview mirror. "Well, Ferb. Seeing as you didn't bite the therapist this week, I'd say we have a date with the solar system. What do you think?" Ferb's face split in a wide grin as he nodded in excitement. It left him feeling slightly dizzy but that was okay. Chuckling, his dad put the car in drive and pointed them in the direction of the Planetarium.
The planetarium was amazing. Being the middle of the day the building was nearly empty save a few parents with their young students, a handful of Uni students, and a tour group from one of the local schools. They wandered through the displays and under enlarged replicas of the planets and constellations, making their way into the observatory for the stars at night show. Ferb sat enraptured by the displays of the stars as they were categorized for them by the narrator.
The showing ended with a star going supernova in the middle of a nebula millions of lightyears away. He'd have to tell Phineas about it when he saw him tonight. As the lights rose again, Ferb turned to his dad with a giant smile on his face. "Thanks, dad. That was brilliant." His dad smiled back. "My pleasure, son. I agree that was most fascinating. Now what say we head home?" Ferb nodded, following the man out of the building. He was still grinning like a fool when he went to bed that night.
Phineas had loved the idea of the planetarium, but before they could come up with an activity for the day, Isabella had come into the backyard telling them they should go check on Baljeet. They'd gotten to the Tjinder household to find Baljeet hiding in the dark. He'd qualified for the science fair and wanted to build a portal to Mars so that he'd get an A. Ferb couldn't help think that Baljeet was an odd kid. It was perpetual summer here, but he was worried about school and grades and homework.
They agreed to help him and had got it working when Candace had gone through, short circuiting it in the process and leaving her stranded on the red planet. They'd tried to get it working again, but had only succeeded in creating a portal to Venus and one to Earth's Jurassic era. With a few more tweaks, the image fuzzed like a tv without signal before they were looking at themselves from a few minutes in the future. Their Future Selves helped them to properly set it to Mars so that Phineas and Ferb could go through and find their sister.
They made it off Mars in one piece, though it was interesting to be chased by aliens that could meld into one another to create one giant bloodthirsty alien. Candace had her friends to hang out with again and Baljeet had gotten an A+++ on his project. As they sat eating corn dogs and telling Isabella about the adventure, Phineas turned to him, grinning around his mustard goatee. "So Ferb, what did you think of Mars?" Ferb pondered the question for a moment, taking a bite of the sausage on a stick and licking the blob of ketchup that had landed on his chin. "It was lovely to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Couldn't see the stars."