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Linda blinked open her eyes. Her first thought was that the other side of the bed being empty was what woke her up. In the months since their wedding, she'd grown used to having Lawrence next to her through the night and waking up to him in the mornings.
But maternal insistent said that wasn't it. Pushing herself up, she looked around, letting her eyes adjust to the dark instead of turning on the light.
Something moved near the doorway.
"Phineas?" Linda smiled at the small figure. The name didn't draw a reaction, and she realized her mistake. "Ferb."
He didn't move, but from what she could make out of his position, she expected him to bolt. Something told her he would have already if she hadn't spotted him.
"Did you have a nightmare, sweetie?" She patted the bed. "Do you want to talk about it?" Once she said it, it hit her how silly it was to ask. Candace and Phineas would happily talk to her if they had a nightmare, but this was Ferb.
He moved, not out the room, but towards her. The slow pace had Linda frozen. The last thing she wanted to do was scare him off. Reaching the bed, he hooked his arms on it and started to pull himself up. When he was on the bed, he crawled to where Lawrence would normally lay.
"He'll be home tomorrow." Lawrence should have already been home from the convention, but he called from the road to say he was having car trouble and wouldn't be back until morning. It made her wonder if the antique shop was good idea, when traveling to find items to sell would take one or both of them away from the kids for days at a time.
While Ferb had hit it off with Phineas, she didn't think he was completely settled into their family yet. It was no wonder he was nervous with his dad being gone this long.
"Do you want to sleep in here tonight?"
She couldn't tell if he nodded or if it was just a trick of her eyes. But he did pull back the covers and laid down.
When Linda woke up in the morning, she felt the presence of someone else in the bed and forgot for a moment Lawrence wasn't home.
The sight that met her was even better than if he'd managed to make it back early. At some point, Phineas must have had come looking for his brother. Both boys were snuggled up together with Bucky at their feet.