The sunlight streamed in through the window.

Perry rolled onto his back and tried to get out of the sun's line of fire. He didn't want to get the light directly into his eyes when he opened them.

He heard the sound of typing. He rolled back over and opened his eyes.

Phineas was sitting on the edge of his bed. He was most likely chatting with Ferb via Ferbmail. Perry saw an animation of a unicorn fly away on Phineas's screen.

"I see the word 'cake'." Perry said. "Does this have anything to do with the fact that my birthday's tomorrow?"

"No." Phineas said, moving the screen away from Perry's view. "No it doesn't."

"It totally does." Perry said. "You're getting me a pygmy hippo for my birthday and you don't want me to find out."

"Stop trying to peek." Phineas said, closing his computer. "You'll find out tomorrow."

"On my birthday?"

"Yep."

"Well, if you're planning some surprise thing, I should warn you that I have to go into work tomorrow, so I'll be home late afternoon instead of all day."

Phineas frowned. "Monogram makes you go to work on your birthday?"

"No, but he forgets my birthday every year, so he doesn't mean to."

"Aww." Phineas said sadly. "Well… the surprise will take all day, but… maybe we can do it the day after and just have a birthday celebration tomorrow."

"That sounds fine." Perry said.

"I bet you're excited." Phineas said.

"Not really. Working on my birthday… not looking forward to that."

"You should tell Monogram you want the day off."

"I already took all my vacations and sick days for the month. Reminds me, I have to go in an hour. My suspension's over."

Phineas smiled sadly. "Would you cheer up if I let you read The New Nanny?"

"Oh, immensely. But I don't think we have time to finish it before I have to go."

The door swung open. O'Riley stood in the doorway. "What do you want for…" He stared at Perry. "What is that?"

"Who is that." Phineas corrected. "He's our pet platypus, Perry. At first Ferb and I name-"

"Phineas, I told you Nelson can't be around other animals."
"Nelson hasn't even noticed Perry's here." Phineas snapped. "Anyway, he isn't staying here. He likes to walk around. He just came here because he missed-"

O'Riley sighed. "Never mind. What did you want for breakfast?"

"I dunno. I'll get it myself la-"

"Get some clothes on. We're going to the park today." O'Riley closed the door.

"Yay." Phineas said sarcastically. "A whole hour of trying to walk around and do stuff without the guy following me around."

"While you attempt to finish sentences without being interrupted. Sorry, buddy." Perry said. "I wish I could go with you."

...

Phineas poured milk on his cereal and sat down at the huge dining table, avoiding eye contact with O'Riley.

"I found your other books last night." O'Riley said pointedly. "I'll pack them up for you."

Phineas shrugged. "Okay."

He finished his cereal in silence and looked down at the floor for a moment before speaking again. "Mr. O'Riley… um… my platypus's birthday is tomorrow-"

"Happy birthday." O'Riley said.

"Yeah… um… can I go home for it?" Phineas asked. "I mean, we have this party every year for him and he'd probably be sad if I wasn't there. And I want to go-"

"A party for a platypus." O'Riley said flatly.

Phineas shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Um… and on Saturday, we were gonna do this other thing for him." Phineas said. "It's an all-day thing. And… I mean, a month is a long time. Is it okay if I go home Friday night? And then… stay home?"

Nelson ate a piece of cereal that had fallen on the floor.

O'Riley was staring at Phineas.

"I just... I just really miss my family." Phineas bit his lip and tried to keep from crying. "I want to go home. I miss Ferb and Candace and mom and dad-"

"For the love of Pete, Phineas, would you just-" O'Riley stood up abruptly, knocking over his coffee mug.

Phineas shrank back.

Nelson happily ran over to lick up the coffee spill.

O'Riley looked down at the mug on the floor. He slowly sat back down again.

"A month is a really long time." Phineas said quietly.

O'Riley took a breath. "Yes. A month is a long time. I understand that you don't love me, Phineas, but you also have to understand why you're here. I wanted to be able to see you again. I'm your father, after all."

"You're not." Phineas said softly. "My father's at home. With my sister and my brother and my mom."

They sat in silence.

"I won't force you to stay." O'Riley finally said. "I see now that I can't fix everything I messed up."

"You did fix it." Phineas said. "By leaving. I'm happy now. We all are."

O'Riley didn't look angry now. Just sad.

"You can have the party on Friday. But you'll go back Saturday." He said.

"Really?"

He nodded.

Phineas jumped up and ran upstairs to tell Ferb.

...

"Phineas is coming home." Ferb said.

"Yeah, in a month." Perry was trying to rub permanent marker off of his fur. "Why on earth did you draw Chinese characters on my hand while I was napping?"

"I was practicing. See, that one's Shen Me."

"What does it mean?"

"What?"

"What does it mean?"

"What?"

"I said what does it MEAN?"

"It means what."

"Oh. Well, it's very hard to get off."

"Phineas is coming home early." Ferb said. "O'Riley's letting him come home for your birthday and then on Saturday forever and ever."

"Really?" Perry said, pausing in his futile attempt to rub the characters off his hand. "That's great! When did he find that out?"

"They negotiated it today." Ferb said. "And I was so excited I came to tell you, but you were asleep. So I just wrote Shen Me on your hand and went back to my room."

"That's great." Perry said happily. "I can't wait to see him back home again."

...

"Beep. Beep. Beep." Said the baby kitten.

Perry woke up.

"Beep. Beep. Beep."

Perry smacked the alarm clock with his hand, and it stopped beeping. He yawned and sat up.

"Where are you going?" Ferb mumbled sleepily. He was lying on the bed, covered in tape.

"To work."

"But it's your birthday. I stayed up all night preparing."

Perry looked up. Balloons were taped all across the ceiling.

"Aww, thanks Ferb. I'll see you around two." Perry stood up and walked out of the room.

...

The agency was completely dark and silent.

Perry wondered what was going on. Did the power go out?

If the power had gone out, the place wouldn't be deserted.

He nearly tripped over an overturned chair in the hallway. Perry began to worry. Had the agency been attacked? Was everyone gone?

He smiled as he thought of Synonym.

"Oh, what a special event! We're all being kidnapped by some very special criminals! How special!"

He heard someone cough and halted at the entrance of the main room, listening.

The lights blinked on.

"SURPRISE!" Everyone shouted.

Balloons came falling down from the ceiling.

Perry's heart was trying to escape from his chest. He looked around the room in confusion.

"Happy birthday, Agent P!" Monogram said, holding up a large teal cake with a bunch of number-shaped candles in the middle.

"He couldn't remember how old you were, so he just bought all the age candles and stuck them on the cake!" Billy the beaver said.

"It's your special day!" Synonym said happily.

"Were you surprised?" Peter asked.

"Yeah… kinda." Perry said, still trying to get his wind back. "Wow. Um… you guys actually remembered. Thanks."

Peter handed him a huge balloon and took him by the hand, leading him over to a long table. "Come on, Perry. Open your presents."

"Peter wanted us to all pitch in and buy you a big bamboo plant." Darren said. "But we thought better."

"I don't need anything." Perry said. "Really."

"Oh, come on." Darren said. "It's your birthday. Besides, we all went and got you this stuff, so you may as well open them!"

"Open mine first." Monogram said, handing Perry a large, flat package.

Perry opened it up. It was a collage of pictures of Monogram.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Monogram said fondly. "It'll remind you of me!"

"Won't remind me of Pinhead Pierre, that's for sure." Perry said.

"Here's mine, Agent P." Carl said. "I made it myself."

Perry opened the gift to reveal a pair of mittens that were much too big for him.

"I didn't make them too big, did I?" Carl asked nervously.

"Not at all, Carl!" Monogram said, picking up a mitten and placing it on Perry's head. "What a lovely hat!"

"They're mittens." Carl said dejectedly.

"Oh." Monogram said, clearing his throat. "Um… who's next?"

Baby Ned waddled up to Perry on his hind fins and placed a large box on top of the gift table.

Perry pulled the card off of the gift and opened it up. "Dear Perry, I hope your butt stays warm. From, Ned." He frowned. "Er… I'm a little nervous about opening this one."

"It could just be a pair of pants." Pinky said.

Perry opened the gift. "Oh, very cool! It's an inflatable chair with fake fur! That's really nice of you, Ned. Thanks!"

Baby Ned gave him a hug and waddled off. The agents all backed away to avoid being whacked by the narwhal's horn.

...

"I didn't know this many people liked me." Perry said, poking at his cake.

The new recruits were playing tag with Kyle, who wasn't actually aware he was playing. Peter was playing a game with the new recruits who weren't playing tag. It was called "Who Can Feed Peter The Most Bamboo". Devon was pouring fruit punch on Erica the ermine's head.

"They all love you." Pinky said. "You're a pretty loveable guy."

"I'd like to think so." Perry said.

"Excuse me, everyone." Synonym said, tapping her glass with a spoon. "Major Monogram would like to give a very special speech."
Monogram cleared his throat and beamed. "Time flies so fast. It seems like just yesterday I found this little baby platypus wandering around the street. Look how fast he's grown. Look what he's grown into."

"A big baby platypus wandering around the streets." Perry muttered, taking a bite of cake.

"Agent P is one of my favorites." Monogram said. "And I'm so glad he's here with us. Life just wouldn't be the same without you, Agent P."

Perry smiled.

"That's all I wanted to say." Monogram said. "Agents who want to watch baby videos of Agent P, please come sit in front of the projector."

Perry sighed. "And I actually thought I'd make it through an agency party without getting embarrassed for once."