DISCLAIMER: All characters of Phineas and Ferb are owned by Dan, Jeff, and Disney. Not Larry, Moe, and Curly.

Chapter 4 - The New Chapter

Irving's mother took him home not long after his talk with Phineas and the gang, leaving very little time for him to digest the events of the day. He still felt very unsettled for getting Katie hurt, but Isabella had tried her best to make him feel like he hadn't do anything wrong.

"Tried", of course, being the operative word.

Perhaps this was why he was on his bike the next afternoon, with a nervous feeling in his chest. He certainly didn't have to do this, but he felt an obligation to do it. After all, if it was not for him, Katie wouldn't have gotten in this mess.

Irving double-checked his paper again, turning down another busy street. He had gotten directions online using the address that Isabella had given him. After explaining where he was going to his mother, he had biked out of the garage, not wanting to waste a moment of time.

After only a few minutes, he braked to a halt in front of her house. He was surprised at how close she lived to him. It was only a few blocks away, the white house sticking out amongst the yellows and browns of this section of Danville. He made his way through the gate in the picket fence, careful not to leave his bike on the sidewalk.

Irving approached the front door, anxious as ever. The sensibility that he had left back at his house was now catching up, leaving him on edge. Not knowing what he was about to get himself into, he pressed his finger to the doorbell, hearing the ring reverberate. He stepped back, hands held behind him.

Ten seconds passed.

Then twenty.

Perhaps he didn't think this through enough. How long did a broken leg require someone to be at the hospital for? He wasn't even sure if she was home, let alone her parents. Perhaps he should give Isabella a call. She would certainly know, being the troop leader and all.

Irving turned to walk off the porch, getting ready to pull his phone out of his backpack, when the front door suddenly opened to reveal a young woman. She was wearing a blue and yellow sundress, and her hair was tied back into one, shoulder-length ponytail.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

Irving cleared his throat, his nervousness rising again. "Uhh...yes. My name is Irving. I'm one of Katie's friends from school. I was just...stopping by to see how she was doing."

The woman blinked, and then a smile grew upon her face. "Ohhh! You're Irving!"

"...Pardon?"

"Katie's told me so much about you! I didn't realize you would be here so soon!"

Irving was sure his mouth was hung open in shock, but he was too dumbstruck to do anything about it.

The woman giggled, humored by Irving's demeanor. "Where are my manners? Come in, come in." She waved her hand, opening the door enough for him to enter.

The first thing he noticed about the house what that it was very...beachy. The foyer area was very white, with the stairs leading upstairs ahead of him white as well. Irving took note in the pair of crocs that inhabited the corner, no doubt belonging to Katie. There were various family pictures of the beach and ocean strewn along the walls.

Katie's mom led him to the living room on the right, where these walls were a very light blue. The white leather couch and rattan surrounded the glass-covered coffee table, a basket of orange flowers Irving did not recognize resting on top. Through the doorway to the left he could see the kitchen, the light yellows and blue accentuating the feel even more.

"You'll have to excuse me; I didn't realize we would be having company." Noticing Irving's bewilderment, she added, "You see, we just got home from the hospital a couple of hours ago. They wanted to keep Katie overnight, just for observation purposes. I must look a mess." She nervously smoothed out her dress.

"No, no, you look fine, ma'am," Irving said, positioning himself on the couch.

Katie's mom smiled. "How sweet of you. Let me see if Slater's still up in Katie's room." She walked over to the stairs, cupping her hands over her mouth.

"SLATER, HONEY! CAN YOU BRING KATIE DOWN HERE FOR A MINUTE? SHE HAS A VISITOR!"

Irving might have been able to hear the muffled reply from the second floor if it had been not for his eardrums being ruptured by the sheer volume of her voice. Walking back into the room, Katie's mom saw Irving shaking the cobwebs out of his head and winced. "Sorry, that may have been a little loud."

He still had a finger in his ear, making sure blood wasn't coming out of it. "Well, at least I know where Katie gets it from."

"Yes," the young woman laughed. "She sure can be vocal when she wants. Gets that trait from me." She took a seat next to Irving, twiddling her thumbs.

"I'm Kelly, by the way," she appended, extending a hand to Irving. "I don't get a lot of 'ma'am', as you've probably guessed."

Irving shook her hand, smiling. "I figured as much, ma-I mean, Mrs. Brooke."

Kelly looked back toward the stairs, eyes narrowing. "I wonder what's keeping my husband. I know he heard me. Maybe he's dragging Katie out of bed. Although I can't really blame her for wanting to stay up there; she's gone through a lot over the past couple of days."

Irving only nodded, not wanting to intrude on her monologue.

"She told me what you did at school yesterday."

Irving stopped his head in mid-nod, grimacing slightly. "Oh yeah, she...told you about that."

"Yes, yes she did. We were having quite an animated discussion about it at the hospital. You were quite brave to stick up for her like that. From what the principal told me, that bully could have seriously hurt both of you. He said she was very lucky to not have much more than a broken leg."

Irving shuddered, not wanting to think about the "much more" part. "Well, I was just doing the right thing, Mrs. Brooke."

"At great personal risk of yourself, Irving. I'm glad you were there for my daughter."

Irving blushed, rubbing the back of his neck. "It was nothing, Mrs. Brooke."

Katie's mom chuckled. "Smart and modest. Now I know why Katie likes you so much."

"Wait, she what?"

"Ahh, there you are, Slater!" Kelly stood up, and Irving now saw a tall man carrying what seemed to be a pile of clothes on his shoulder. He was wearing a white shirt with orange Bermuda shorts, his flip-flops whacking the stairs with every step. Irving noted the immaculate tan that covered the entirety of his body.

"Sorry, honey; the little tyke didn't want to get out, so I have to hogtie her," the man said, his speech almost lost within his thick surfer accent.

"I have a name, Dad," the pile of clothes said.

Irving raised an eyebrow, now noticing the clothes on Slater's shoulder had feet and a tuft of blonde hair on the top of it.

"Sorry, munchkin. We only call each other our names for formal occasions. Everything else is nicknames."

Irving could almost feel Katie's eyes rolling in mock disdain. "Can you at least show me who's here to visit, Dad? Is it Milly?"

Slater rotated her on his shoulder, smiling. "Nope, not Milly. It's a boy."

"A boy? Who-IRVING!" Katie's face came into view, a astonished expression upon it. "What are you doing here?"

"He came to visit you, sweetie," Kelly replied. "Wasn't that nice of him?"

Irving saw Katie's face start to get red. Whether it was frustration or embarrassment he didn't know, and he probably did not want to know.

"Honey," Kelly said, tearing Irving away from his thoughts, "Can you please not hold your daughter like a bag of dog food?"

"The doctor said for her to not put weight on her leg."

"Yes, well, carry her like a human being, and not like you're hauling a cooler off to the beach, Slater."

Katie let out a huge sigh. "Can someone set me down, please?"

"Oh, right." Slater walked over to the couch and sat her down next to Irving, her right leg straightened in a ankle-to-knee cast. "Now don't walk on it, missy. We haven't found a peg leg yet for your pirate costume, so don't mess up your cast."

"Thanks, Dad," Katie said, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

Slater turned his attention to Irving. "So this must be the tyke Katie was talking about yesterday!" He held out a hand, which Irving took. "Gave them the ol' one-two, didn't ya?"

"Uhh, not really, Mr. Brooke-"

"Cha!" Slater interrupted. "Mr. Brooke is my father. Call me 'bro'."

"Honey," Kelly said, rubbing the bridge of her nose, "I don't think he should be calling you 'bro'."

"Hey, the cool English guy called me that!"

"That's because Mr. Fletcher was just doing it to be polite." Kelly grabbed her husband's arm, pulling him away from the kids. "We'll be upstairs, honey, if you need anything."

"Thanks, Mom," Katie said.

After her parents made their way up the stairs, Irving stole a glance at Katie, who was trying to fix her hair. It was not in her normal two-braid format; it hung loose, all of it coming down to her shoulders. Her blue pajamas were not anything unusual, but it was weird for Irving to see her in anything but her Fireside Girl uniform. A tinge of pink was still on her cheeks, which he found very...pretty on her.

Trying to bottle the butterflies that were in his stomach, he tried to make his voice sound normal. "Sooo...those were your parents."

Katie raised an eyebrow at Irving, still trying to flatten her hair. "Yeah. I'm sorry about that; my mom's a little excitable, and Dad is...well, you saw him. He's using this whole thing as a comedy platform."

Irving smiled, glad to see she was taking it all in stride. "How long do you have to have the cast on?"

Katie sighed. "At least a month. Then I'll have to go back to the doctor to see if it's healed enough." She leaned back on the couch, exasperated. "It's going to be so annoying."

"Well, look on the bright side. It could have been a whole lot worse."

Katie turned her eyes on him, a indiscernible look in them. "Yeah. It could have. But it wasn't."

This was the point that Irving was dreading, the part where he would have to talk to her about what exactly had transpired yesterday. "Katie-"

"Irving...stop." She held up a hand, cutting him off mid-sentence. "Just...let me talk, OK?"

He nodded. He crossed his legs underneath him, nervously waiting for Katie to start.

"I'm sorry."

Irving narrowed his eyes, not believing what he was hearing. "Why are you sorry? Last time I checked, I wasn't the one in a cast."

"I'm sorry because it was my fault that you got injured," Katie replied. "I saw what Dylan did to you, and he wouldn't have done anything if I had not gone out searching for him. I...let my emotions get the best of me. If I had just let you go to the office and file a report, nothing would have happened. You shouldn't be putting blame on yourself."

"Yeah, it's a little bit late for that," Irving retorted.

"Isabella told me that you felt bad about it when she visited."

"I still do. Hence the whole 'me-coming-here-to-apologize' part."

Katie stared at him, smiling. "We can fight about it if you want. I have to warn you, though, that you probably have a significant advantage over me, with my bum leg and all."

"I'm...not going to fight you, Katie."

"I thought you would say that. You'll be depriving Adyson of some entertainment. Not that I really care, anyway."

He heard scuffling from her direction and looked up to see her inch down the couch, her cast slowing things up immensely.

"Look, Irving, the point that I'm trying to make is that yes, perhaps we both did things that we shouldn't have done. But at least we both acknowledge it, and now we're both paying for it. You got a concussion; I got a broken leg. We'll be fine, though. Things heal." She put a hand on his shoulder. "You stuck up for me yesterday, and for that, I'm really grateful."

"Anyone could've done what I did, Katie," Irving said quietly.

"Yes, that's true," she agreed. "But no one did. I didn't see anyone else make an effort. Whether it was because they were scared or because they couldn't care less isn't important."

"Phineas and Ferb-"

"Weren't there," Katie interrupted. "They can't be in two places at once. No matter how much they try," she added.

"Well, what about-"

"The rest of the troop members were somewhere else, Irving. We can't patrol the entire school 100% of the time."

Irving racked his brain, trying to think of anyone, anyone else would have taken a smarter approach to the whole ordeal. The more he thought, the more his brain hurt.

"It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. You reacted. It's instinct. You did the right thing."

He grinned sheepishly. "If you hadn't come along and gotten me out of my funk, I don't know what I would've done."

Katie gazed at him, her hand still on his shoulder. "I meant all of that, you know."

"What, the throwing me up against the wall, or what you said to me?"

"Well...at the time, both," Katie said, grimacing slightly. "I'm sorry for doing that, but I wasn't thinking too clearly at that moment. You were...frustrating me."

"Yeah, I do that sometimes." Irving suddenly remembered what Isabella had said to him the day before, something about Katie and her troop. "Although I may do that more often than I previously thought."

The blonde looked away. "Yeah, I told the troop that you may need some help, but they weren't having any of it. Initially, anyway. I did manage to convince Milly of that."

"But Katie...why did you go through all of that trouble?"

She looked back at him, and the eyes told him everything that he needed to know. With this, he knew her answer even before she said it.

"Because I like you, that's why."

He honestly wished that he could be more surprised at Katie's confession, but her actions at school and here, Isabella's chat, and her mom's hints were somewhat of a giveaway. This didn't hinder his simultaneous excitement and nervousness, however. There was something, on the other hand, that he didn't understand about it.

"I just have one question."

"What's that?" Katie asked.

"Why? Why me? I'm not that terrific of a person. I'm a huge nerd, I have issues-"

"We all have our issues, Irving. And as for nerdiness, I can tell you right now that the biggest nerd of all has someone crushing on him."

"Baljeet?"

"Yeah, and she's not exactly...quiet about it. At least, not to the troop, anyway."

Katie paused, and Irving saw that her green eyes were searching for the right words to say.

"I think you're a cool person, Irving. You're smart. You're a good guy at heart. You've hung out with and helped Phineas and Ferb a few times, and you know how many of the people at school would kill to hang out with them for an afternoon?"

"Well, shouldn't they be the ones you like, then?" Irving asked.

Katie scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Please. Everyone knows Phineas is already 'taken' (she pantomimed quotes for emphasis) by Isabella, and Ferb...Ferb's cool and all, but he's a little too quiet for me. I prefer someone who speaks their mind, who can work with the best of them, who can dismantle fifteen spy cameras in as many seconds."

Irving smiled, recalling the day that he helped the stepbrothers build a landmark for the city of Danville and foiled the combined busting attempts of their sister and his brother.

"Most of all, someone who's not afraid to stick up for me, even when it scares the crap out of them. Someone who would willingly put their own well-being ahead of someone else. That's the person I'm looking for."

He blushed, not wanting to look into Katie's eyes. He wasn't sure whether he could handle all of this or not.

"And yes, you may be a little...nerdy," she added, jokingly elbowing him in his side, "but some people like those qualities. I certainly do."

Irving didn't really know what to say to her. He didn't know where to begin. All of this information was threatening to overtake his mind. Had he not been tipped off earlier, it would have done so already.

"And I haven't even gotten to the most important reason."

"Hmm?"

"Believe it or not, Irving," Katie said, eyes glancing down into the couch, "...I kind of know what you're going through."

Now this was interesting.

"I wasn't aware that you had a pair of superstar inventors that you dedicated a fan website to."

"No, not...that." She waved his notion off with her hand. "I just...I know what it's like to be one of those kids that gets ignored and picked on."

Katie leaned back into the couch. Irving turned to face her, his curiosity piqued.

"I was the new kid here for a while. I moved here last year, and it took a bit of time for me to get used to things. Back in Hawaii, everyone knows each other. Neighbors are family. The kids you play with are the same ones you see every day. Danville doesn't have it to that degree."

"Hawaii?" Irving tilted his head. "I didn't know you came from there."

"Yeah, it's a great place to grow up, and it was sad for me to leave it behind to come here. It's so beautiful there: oceans as far as you can see, great weather, the works. It's literally paradise.

He must have had a concerned look on his face, because Katie quickly backtracked. "Don't get me wrong; I love it here, and I wouldn't change the experience for anything. But...there's something that this town just doesn't have. Everything seems...simpler there."

Leaning forward, she plucked one of the orange flowers out of the vase, rolling the stem in between her fingers. Just having it in her hands seemed to take her mind back to her former life.

"Do you know what this is, Irving?" she asked, tapping on the bulb of the flower. Irving shook his head in response.

"It's called a bird-of-paradise. It represents magnificence, liberty. Only really thrives in warm climates. Not really the best flower to be trying to grow in Danville. My mom has them delivered here personally from our florist in Hawaii."

She scanned the room, scoping the walls with her eyes. "Mom tries to make the house seem like our old house, with the colors and the flowers and what not. She knows that I miss it a lot, so she tries to make it just like back home."

Katie sniffed the flower, the scent strong enough for even Irving to pick up on. "I guess the point that I'm trying to make is that everyone needs a fresh start at some point. I had mine a year ago, and even though I didn't think it would end well, it has for the most part. Yes, nothing can ever really replace my old home, but there's a lot of good things here to look forward to."

She looked straight into Irving's eyes, and he could feel the confidence boring into him. "And the same thing goes for you. I was just trying to give you a fresh start. No, I don't know what it's like to live your life, but you have good things going on now. Just...don't forget that, OK?"

Irving sat silently, taking in all of her words. It had been very enlightening to hear her talk about her past, and things had become much clearer to him. Her words had made him feel very special and happy, something that he had not been accustomed to in the past few days.

"Two people," he whispered out loud. "Just looking for their place. For their new start."

Katie nodded quietly.

They sat for a moment, engaging in their silent musings. Irving looked from Katie to the flower, still in her hand. "Can I see..."

"Oh, sure." She handed it to him, the bright orange even more vibrant now that it was in his possession.

"You said that it symbolizes magnificence?"

"Yeah," Katie replied. She looked away, staring off out the back door. "Seems a little silly, right?"

"No, I don't think it's silly at all."

"You don't?"

"Of course not." Irving picked off some of the stem, leaving only a tiny bit of it left on the bulb. As gingerly as he could, he tucked it behind her left ear.

"Because I think you're pretty magnificent yourself."

Katie did not immediately acknowledge his gesture, although that didn't stop the immense amount of heat from resonating from Irving's cheeks. Unlucky for him, it was also the very same moment that his mind decided to catch up to his body.

"Wow." He paused, his hand still hanging in the air. "I-I really have no idea where that came from."

Her head turned back toward him, and he saw her cheeks had gone very pink. This did absolutely nothing to ease the burning sensation on his face.

"That means a lot, Irving. Thank you."

Her stare was entrancing. The silence was deafening. All of the nouns were awkwardly verbing, and Irving needed to cut in, if only to check to see if his voice was working properly.

"I should probably get going. Phineas and Ferb are building a giant ball pit, and I offered to help with the schematics."

"You offered, or are you going to just show up?"

Irving winced, scratching the back of his head. "Well, I'm going to show up. I just figured I would think of some way to help them in case they ask."

Katie shook her head slightly, her smile all the more evident. "Oh Irving...what am I going to do with you?"

"Nothing, since you have a bum leg."

They laughed together, a moment shared between the two that made Irving appreciate her even more. It was amazing how just two days ago he was in a funk, with nothing good on the horizon. Now he was happy, with...well...whatever Katie was to him. At the very least she was a worthy friend.

"There's just one more thing that I want you to do," Katie said.

She reached behind her back and pulled out a marker.

"I want you to sign my cast."

Irving smiled, taking it in his hand. "With pleasure." He bend down to gaze for a nice spot, but in all of the revelations and conversations, he had failed to notice the cast was completely mark-free. He looked up and saw Katie's grin grow even wider.

"Yup. You're the first one."

His smile matched hers. He knew exactly where he was going to put his words now.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Holy crap balls, this took way too long.

I'm not...completely satisfied with this chapter. Some of the stuff in here does seem a little forced (at least to me), and some of the dialogue might be cleaned up. But it was either this or strangle myself with writer's block.

The beginning half of this chapter was the very first part that I wrote when I first envisioned this story. Obviously, the three previous chapters had a huge say with where this one was going to end up, and it was such a different place that it took me the longest time to rewrite and rework this.

But given all of that...I'm pretty pleased with where I ended up.

It was difficult to not give Katie an easy reason for liking Irving, like being the damsel in distress earlier in the story. So I delved into my fan-made background a little bit, and tried to put some similar things to Irving in that past. It's not exactly apples to apples, but I think they're both relatable when it comes to things they've had to deal with. I hope that everyone who reads this likes those reasons (or at the very least is happy I didn't take the easy way out).

Oh yeah, and obvious surfer reference is obvious.

The good news is that since there are more things that I need to wrap up in this story, you guys will be getting another chapter. You see, this is where the story was suppose to end. But loose ends need to be tied, and one more little twist needs to be added to give this story a nice surprise for the end. And I promise that the next chapter will not take the better part of two months to complete.

Read and review, if you like. Until next time.