18 Months Later

Isabella pulled into the driveway of their house and took a deep breath. This was the moment she'd been dreading, ever since she had gotten pregnant with Becky's younger sister. Rachel's two-week checkup had been today; the last time Isabella had come home from one of these, she'd found a note and hadn't seen Phineas for almost a year.

A lot had happened since then, though. He'd come home, and eventually moved in with them, and finally proposed to her. Three months later, they'd gotten married. Working together for the wedding had finally gotten their mothers talking again, although Linda had given Vivian an exasperated look for her wedding present to the happy couple: an ankle monitor. Isabella had almost let Vivian in on the joke about why they'd found it so funny, but decided she didn't need to know about the implanted trackers.

Shortly afterwards, they'd bought this house, and decided to give Becky a sibling - on purpose this time.

But that was then. Phineas had originally planned to come along to the pediatrician's office, but the appointment got scheduled through Becky's naptime, and Hell hath no fury like an un-napped three-year-old. They then planned have Ferb stay with him while Isabella took Rachel to the pediatrician, but Ferb and Vanessa's six-month-old twins had come down with something the day before, and nobody wanted to expose the newborn to whatever the Fletcher family had come down with. Somewhat reluctantly, Isabella had left him home alone with Becky. He'd convinced her that things would be fine; Ferb could keep an eye on him through the tracker, and if something came up, he'd call her. She knew Phineas wouldn't go anywhere. Absolutely knew it.

But there was that little niggling doubt in the back of her mind that just wouldn't go away.

There was only one way to get rid of the doubt. She pushed the garage-door button, and the door rolled up. Phineas's car was still there, but he'd left it behind before. She pulled her car in next to his, turned it off, and closed the garage door. Rachel was asleep in her bucket, so Isabella detached it from its base and brought it into the house.

The garage opened into the kitchen of their new house, with five bedrooms. Plenty of room, in case we decide Becky needs lots of siblings, he'd said, and she'd enjoyed the thought at the time. But now...

There was no note on the kitchen counter, but also no welcoming committee. "Phineas?" she called out, horrifying thoughts going through her head. Phineas running away, taking Becky with him this time. Phineas hurting himself somewhere where nobody found him until it was too late.

"Phineas?" she called again, carrying Rachel into the living room.

She was about to call out a third time when she heard him quietly say, "I'm here." He lay on the couch, stretched out with his eyes closed. Becky lay on his chest, napping, with his arm holding onto her. Isabella couldn't help but smile at the scene.

"Right here," he said, his eyes still closed, his lips curling upward. "Not going anywhere."


As always - thank you to all my readers for your time and attention. They're your gift to me, and I thank you. I give extra thanks to those who've followed, favorited, and reviewed this as we've gone.

Special thanks to Sabrina06 for putting up with me whining about writing this thing, and poking me until it was a better story.

My next story, Phineas's Christmas Carol, will start being posted presently.