The brown leaves of autumn tumbled over one another in the wind. The moon shone down on his house, comforting him by giving him a little light to see by.

His arms shook as he tried to keep still in the cold. Certainly this weather was even too cold for witches and goblins. Perhaps his family could let him sleep inside the house tonight. He lifted one stiff foot off the ground and...

"Don't move!"

He quickly moved back into position, his eyes becoming glassy. He felt so alone. His family was inside all warm and cozy, his neighbor Kenny was at his relatives house, and Balloony had floated away from him about three months ago. As his tears fell, he couldn't even wipe them away for fear he would get yelled at by his father.

And so, he stood there, and hoped the creatures that lurked around the village would be quiet.

"Aww, sweetheart. Are you sleepy?" Heinz sat up a little straighter. That was his mother's voice! Perhaps she was going to let him inside! "Time for bed, my little Roger!"

The boy frowned. That's right, his baby brother, nearly two months old now. Of course she wouldn't be talking to him. But as he listened, he heard his mother do something she had never done before.

She sung.

"Guten Abend, gute Nacht, mit Rosen bedacht." Her voice was so soft and loving, it sounded so foreign to Heinz, and yet he craved to hear more! Luckily, his baby brother had what his mother called 'colic', so he cried a lot, which meant she would be singing for quite some time.

Propping himself up against the wall of their house so it would look like he was still standing even if he fell asleep, he closed his eyes and listened to his mother's lullaby. He imagined laying in his bed, he imagined that she was singing to him, not his brother.

The tears stopped, and he didn't feel quite so alone.

()()()()()()()()

The thunder raged and roared. He shook in his bed, it felt as if his entire room was going to collapse. A spear of lightning struck outside of his window, it looked so close! Heinz couldn't take it anymore. He jumped out of bed and ran. He didn't know where he was going or where he could possibly go, but he just had to get out of his room. As he ran into the living room, he hit something hard and fell to the floor.

Rubbing his now sore backside, he looked up and met the glare of his father's dark brown eyes. "Boy, I thought I ordered you to go to bed."

Heinz gulped. "I-I was Father. But, the storm scared me!"

His father shook his head with shame. "It is only Mother Nature! What do you suppose I could do about it?"

Heinz thought for a moment, and only one thought came to mind. It was crazy, he would probably get slapped but. "Well, maybe, to help me get to sleep, you can..." He glanced up at his father, and immediately looked away. His voice became quieter. "Sing a lullaby like Mother does with Roger?"

His father glared. "I thought you would be stronger than this," he growled, "I let you come in here, give you back your old bed, and yet you still ask for more!" Heinz winced. "I didn't have to buy our gnome back, I could have let you stay our gnome forever instead of just two years!"

"I know Father, thank you Father," Heinz recited, hoping to keep on his father's good side.

"You've been on this earth for eleven years, and you're still nothing but a weak schnitzel! Now, bed!"

"Yes father." The young boy quickly ran back to his room. As he got into bed, the thunder continued to crash and the lightning continued to strike. Tears rolled down his face. He was beginning to feel like even Mother Nature herself didn't want him.

He wanted to be strong and proud, he wanted to be happy. But it was becoming apparent that he was going to have to depend on himself for that. Trying his best to block out the storm, he opened his mouth and became to sing.

"Guten Abend, gute Nacht, mit Rosen bedacht." He wasn't very good at singing. Even though he had a few years of childhood left, his voice had began to crack and squeak like an old rocking chair. But he kept singing, and eventually the tears as well as the storm outside slowly began to stop.

()()()()()()()()()()

The moon was full tonight, and the city was quiet. Heinz Doofenshmirtz collapsed in his chair. He had worked on nearly a dozen inventions today. Several exploded after the first test, but the ones that didn't he worked on through the day, skipping lunch and dinner to finish. If he was ever going to truly become an evil scientist and get his own nemesis, he needed to step up his game and prove he had what it took to be evil.

Slowly closing his eyes, sleep was just starting to come to him when a high pitched wail pierced his ears. Sitting up straight, he looked around and figured out the crying was coming from upstairs. It didn't take a genius to figure out the source of the crying.

"Charlene!" he shouted. Where was his wife? Oh that's right, a girl's night out. He was a little reluctant to leave his comfy chair, but he wasn't going to just let his baby cry. Quickly, he stood up and ran upstairs to his daughter's room.

"Vanessa, what's wrong?" he asked as he went into the room (sometimes he forgot his daughter couldn't really talk back yet). Charlene had put Vanessa in her purple pajamas and placed her in her crib before she left for her girls night. Charlene had said she would probably sleep through the night.

So much for that.

Picking up his daughter, Doofenshmirtz cradled her in his arms. "It's okay, it's okay, Daddy's here," he said, trying to calm her down. But she continued crying. He started to panic a little. "Okay now, stop crying Vanessa." She cried even louder.

Doof groaned. He tried to be a good father, he wanted to be a good father! But it seemed like no matter what he did, it was always Charlene who got her to stop crying. There had to be something he could do! "Okay, let's see, what makes babies stop crying?" He ran through the list:

Being fed... Charlene already did that

Being changed... She didn't feel wet or smell, so that wasn't it.

Being held by their mother... Doof didn't think Charlene would be happy if he showed up with a crying baby.

Singing a lully- "That's it!" Quickly moving over to a rocking chair Roger had given Charlene for her baby shower (Mr. Goody two-shoes) and slowly started rocking. He still wasn't the best singer, but he wanted to make his daughter happy.

He wanted to let her know that she wasn't alone. He never wanted her to feel the way he did. Just that thought alone made Heinz forget his nerves and begin to sing. "Guten Abend, gute Nacht, mit Rosen bedacht."

Vanessa slowly stopped crying, and looked up at her father with curious eyes. Doof smiled, but quickly continued singing. "Mit Näglein besteckt, schlüpf unter die Deck..." Vanessa smiled, and Doof felt his eyes start to fill. But even so, he kept singing. His voice became stronger, and while it still cracked and squeaked, the emotion was definitely there.

mit Näglein besteckt,
schlüpf unter die Deck:
Morgen früh, wenn Gott will,
wirst du wieder geweckt,
morgen früh, wenn Gott will,
wirst du wieder geweckt.

Guten Abend gute Nacht,
von Englein bewacht,
die zeigen im Traum
dir Christkindleins Baum:
Schlaf nur selig und süß,
schau im Traum's Paradies,
schlaf nur selig und süß,
schau im Traum's Paradies.

Eventually, Vanessa fell asleep in his arms. Still smiling, Doof let his head fall back and rest on the edge of the chair. "Goodnight, Baby Girl," he said before drifting into a peaceful sleep.

()()()()()()()()()()

"I don't believe you!"

"I'm telling you, it's the truth," Phineas chuckled as he took a small sip of his soda.

"I've been trying to make an -inator that runs on barely any power and yet still can run for hours with no breaks without heating up, and you're telling me you built an -inator that can run on just cooking oil for a week with no breaks in one day!"

"Well, it's not an 'inator', but yes, yes I did," Phineas replied. Doof glared at him.

"Well good for you, Mr. Perfect." Phineas just laughed, making Heinz smile a little. 'That kid is so darn upbeat it's contagious,' he thought as he looked around.

The entire Flynn/Fletcher/Johnson/Doofenshmirtz/Garcia-Shapero family was in one backyard. That red headed girl and the Johnson boy were sitting with their own kids, two toddler boys and a girl. Phineas' wife, Isabella, was holding their baby girl. What was her name again? Mary, Molly, Marie? Eh, he'll remember it later. Right next to the two was an old platypus who looked suspiciously like his nemesis (They even shared the same name! Who knew there were so many platypuses named Perry?).

His son-in-law, who still had that green hair (Vanessa insisted it was his natural color, but Heinz didn't believe it) was standing by Vanessa, who had blossomed into a beautiful young woman. In her arms was a napping toddler. Thomas, he had his mother's hair color but his father's nose (Heinz was secretly thankful for that. He would rather his grandson have a relatively big nose than a beak-like pointy one like him).

And honestly, Doof couldn't be prouder of his daughter.

But the scientist frowned. Thomas started to stir, his face started to scrunch up. Doof knew what was coming up next. Like a time bomb finally going off, the toddler's cry started to fill the air.

Ferb held out his arms, silently telling his wife that he would take care of it. "It's fine, I've got it," Vanessa replied with a smile.

After changing his position in her arms so that Thomas was comfortable, Vanessa began to sing. Even with all the party noise, the world around Heinz Doofenshmirtz fell silent.

"Guten Abend, gute Nacht, mit Rosen bedacht. Mit Näglein besteckt, schlüpf unter die Deck..."

His daughter's beautiful voice sang the song in perfect pitch. Not a single German word was mispronounced, and the toddler quickly fell silent and fell back into a peaceful nap.

Looking up at her father, Vanessa gave him a small smile. And Doof tearfully smiled back.

He may not have taken over the tri-state area, nor would he probably ever. His inventions still blew up in his face, and the ones that didn't couldn't compete with an inventor that was about thirty years younger than him. But despite all his failures, he still had one success.

He made his daughter happy, and made sure she never felt frighten or alone. And now she was passing that on to her own child, who wouldn't have to worry about standing alone in the cold in a gnome suit or having to withstand a thunderstorm alone and frightened.

And for that, Heinz couldn't be happier.

I just really wanted to write this, to kinda show why Doof strives to be a good father and why he is a good father. I also just really wanted to write a happy ending-of-sorts for Doof, because he really does deserve one success. (Also, idk why, but I wanted to write Doof singing in German. Yeah, weird but I wanted to). Sorry if this was too corny or sappy, I just really wanted to do this, and I hope you enjoyed reading it.

I don't own the song, "Guten Abend, gute Nacht" (it really is a German lullaby, google it) nor do I own Marie Flynn or Thomas Fletcher, those AREN'T my OCs (but those two are so popular you probably already know that). Please review, and have a nice day!