Note. I do not own Phineas and Ferb or any related characters. All rights go to Disney Television Animation.
Author's Note: I apologize for the long period of inactivity and the underwhelming previous chapter. Like I said, I have so many stuff going on (including my school stuff,), so I get pretty distracted. Hope this clears up any problems, and I'll try to continue. Thank you all for your patience ;)
Heinz was still scared by the dream he had as he was washing his face with h. After that, he just stared at his reflection in the mirror for a while, still feeling a bit queasy with the idea of visiting his family after a long time.
"Dad, are you ok?" Vanessa screamed from outside his hotel room in concern. That was enough to snap him out of his thoughts. "Yes, Vanessa" cried Heinz, "I'll be out in a moment".
He immediately dried his face and got out of the bathroom; he stared at the clock and saw it was 7:15 in the morning, and they both had agreed to go down for breakfast at a nearby café the previous day when they arrived at the hotel, so he knew he had to dress quickly, or otherwise Vanessa would get very impatient. But first, he had to deal with the fact that Perry the Platypus had came in as an unexpected companion. He turned towards the teal Platypus and asked him, "So, have you planned how to go unnoticed?". The Platypus nodded in response.
After eating a traditional breakfast at the café, Heinz, Vanessa and Perry (who was disguised as a guide named "Matthias Gigalter (Pronounced Gee-kal-tur)", with his size being handwaved as him having Dwarfism) were ready to explore the city of Gimmelshtump, with Vanessa being the most excited of the three, as she had never visited her father's hometown and had always wanted to see it, but couldn't because of his father's rather strong distaste for the place; plus, she was finally getting to see her paternal grandparents and see if they were indeed as bad as her father made out to be, much to the latter's dismay.
Meanwhile, Heinz was just looking around looking at the surrounding buildings and houses. "You know, Perry the Platypus", he remarked turning towards "Matthias" after making sure his daughter wasn't listening, "Gimmelshtump hasn't changed as much as I expected it would". Indeed he was right, as aside from the occasional luxury and gift store and modern building, Gimmelshtump was still the rustic little town he grew up in, not that it mattered much to him, and neither Vanessa, who seemed to enjoy it much more this way, as she was taking a lot of pictures of the old buildings, stores and some of the citizens, even befriending some of them, while Heinz seemed to a bit relieved to see that he hasn't seen anyone familiar.
"Dad", remarked Vanessa, "I don't know why you seem to dislike this place with such a passion! It's actually pretty cool". Perry himself seemed to agree, as he had already bought a few postcards and was giving Heinz a pretty funny look, for obvious reasons. "Is there anything else I can tell you about my past, Vanessa?", he replied, "I have told you many times…".
Vanessa simply sighed. "You know, dad", she answered, "your grudge against your parents might be a bit overblown".
"Overblown, what do you mean?" replied Heinz, "I know you didn't experience it because you weren't born, but believe me, it was pretty horrendous for a young child to experience such a thing!"
"I'm not saying it wasn't horrendous, as the scars were pretty obvious, you know, because your inventions". Vanessa giggled at the memories of her father's evil plans, which was surprising, given her disapproval of said plans in the past.
"You actually find my plans funny? I thought you still disapproved of them"
"There were pretty hilarious in hindsight, because of how over-the-top they were", she replied. "Speaking of which, that was the point I was trying to get across. People are capable of change, both in opinion and attitude, so, don't you think that might apply to your parents too? It has been a long time after all".
That question actually got Heinz thinking. Was he indeed being too harsh on his parents? After all, he did try to give his father his prized gnome, and he did hear that he glued back together. And his mother, he had only seen her a couple of times in recent years. Maybe they indeed might have decided to give Heinz a chance after all these years. In the end, he decided to wait until tomorrow when the reunion took place.
After a long tour of downtown, they eventually came to the boardwalk, where Vanessa decided to play some games. She invited her father to join her but he declined the offer, and he instead went on a walk through the boardwalk with "Matthias". This was the same boardwalk where he won a teddy bear to give to his mother as a sign of love, but instead gave it to his spoiled brat of a brother… who then wrote his name on Mom's apron. "No, no, no, try to not think about that for a while" thought Heinz to himself. He then turned over to Perry the Platypus. "Ok, so how are handling being away from the family you took care of for so many years?" he asked. Upon hearing that question, Perry seemed to become nostalgic at the moments he spent with the Flynn stepbrothers… especially the last summer where the younger one, Phineas, came up with all sorts of crazy ideas that no kid his age should probably do. After a few seconds, he just growled in response. "What else did I expected you to say, you're a Platypus" commented Heinz, as they both came strolling through the boardwalk while looking at the ocean, which, unlike the town itself, was a beautiful bright greenish blue.
After a few minutes of strolling, both Heniz and Perry decided that they had to head back to where Vanessa was, as they thought that they have spent enough time apart. As soon as they were getting nearer, Vanessa was rushing towards her father with something in her hands… a giant Teddy Bear. "Vanessa", stated Heinz, "that's a nice bear you have there! In which one of the games did you win it?". "I won it at one where you had to destroy a tower of sticks with a gun, and I managed to do it in only one try!" replied Vanessa in a very excited manner, and Heinz himself couldn't be disappointed either, as it was indeed impressive. Suddenly, Vanessa gave him the bear, much to his surprise. "This is for me?" he asked; "Yes, Dad" replied Vanessa, "I felt that you might really appreciate it!".
And indeed he did, as he got pretty teary eyed and wrapped his arm around her daughter's shoulder as they headed back to the hotel for the evening.