A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for all of the support for my last story. Hope you enjoy this one as well. ^^
"Thanks for the ride, Uncle Ferb!" Marie called back as she made her way up the stairs of her home. Ferb smiled and watched his niece until she was safely in the house before driving off.
As soon as the door shut behind her, Marie sighed and dropped her book bag beside the door. She walked over to the entry way of the living room and peered around. She looked from the puffy sofa to the small recliner in the corner, finding no one. On the coffee table, she noticed a scattered mess of blueprints and sketches. She walked over to them and giggled.
'Daddy is so unorganized. It makes me wonder how he manages to build such amazing things.' Her eyes scanned them curiously. She passed over the plans for flying vehicles and teleporters unimpressed. After all, her father had built many like them, even allowing her to help at times. She was about to walk away when she spotted an unfamiliar blueprint. She pulled it from the mess of papers and eyed it in awe. The device had the design of a small tablet with a small satellite dish sticking up from an upper corner.
'Cool, it looks like a cell phone. I wonder what it does.' She scanned the equations scribbled across the paper for any clues.
'Hmmm. A few of these equations I remember from when Daddy built those donut-shaped teleporters. The others are completely new to me.' She continued her investigation until a loud clash came from the kitchen. Marie smiled and shook her head when she heard a familiar voice grunt in pain. She made her way to the kitchen, blueprint in hand.
At first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Ingredients for dinner covered the counters lining the wall. The stove was heating a large pot and the island in the center of the room held bowls full of mixtures ready to be cooked. The only visible hint that something was amiss was the open fridge. Marie rolled her eyes and walked around the island. There, she found the cause of the racket. She bit her lip, trying to contain her laughter.
"Are…are you okay?" Phineas looked up at his daughter with a toothy grin. Various pieces of vegetables were scattered around him.
"Marie, you're home! Yea, I'm okay. I was just testing out how many items I could carry over to the counter. It…didn't go too well." Marie smiled down at her father and extended her hand. She pulled him up and helped him gather the fallen ingredients. Phineas placed them into the sink and began cleaning them.
"So, how was school?" Marie pulled up a stool to the island and lay out the blueprint in front of her.
"It was okay. The teacher got mad because apparently eleven year-olds aren't supposed to tamper with the laws of physics." He laughed and looked over at her.
"What did you do?" She propped her elbows on the counter and rested her chin on her hand and started looking over the mysterious plans again.
"I made an anti-gravity disk. I only meant for it to affect me and Tommy, but it went crazy and everyone began to float. Luckily, Tommy made a remote for it and shut it off before things got too out of hand." Her father shook his head and smiled.
"I remember teachers telling me and your uncle the same thing. I guess it runs in the Flynn-Fletcher blood." He dried off the vegetables and began chopping them.
"Anything else happen today?" Marie shook her head.
"Not really. After that, Tommy made me promise not to build anything until the weekend. I only said yes because I made him promise that he would help me build something way cooler than what we normally do in school." Phineas dumped the chopped veggies into the large pot.
"Just as long as it doesn't put anyone in danger." He grabbed the mixtures from the island and dumped them in as well. He set the stove to simmer and covered the pot. He sighed and wiped his hands on his apron.
"Well, that was fairly easy." Marie hopped down from the stool and walked over to her father, eyeing the pot.
"What'cha making?" She lifted the pot and inhaled. A spicy mix of beef, beans, and peppers filled her nose.
"Chili con Carne." Her eyes lit up as she looked up at him.
"You finally got Abuela's recipe?" Phineas nodded proudly.
"Yep, hopefully it will turn out just as good. It should be done by the time we are ready to eat." She jumped in excitement and returned to the stool while he cleaned up. When everything was clear, he walked over to the island. He stood across from her and leaned his forearms on the counter. He smiled when he noticed the blueprint she was inspecting.
"I see you found the plans for the cell phone I made your Aunt Candace when we were kids." Marie raised her head at her father curiously.
"So it's just a cell phone?" He shook his head and pulled the plans over to him.
"Hardly. We added a ton of extras onto it." He pointed to the small satellite dish.
"This, for instance, was used to teleport anyone anywhere. You just needed to say where you wanted to go and you were there in an instant." Marie stared at the paper in awe.
"So THAT'S what the teleportation equations were for." She pointed to the unfamiliar formulas.
"What are those for?" Phineas scratched his chin for a moment.
"If I remember correctly, these are space-time equations." Her eyes widened in excitement.
"You mean like time travel?" He nodded.
"Yep. Baljeet is doing research on the space-time continuum to see if it's possible to alter the existence of things like plants and animals presently by tampering with events from the past. I'm remodeling these old plans so that you can travel to any time you choose. He's hoping to finally have a pet dinosaur. " Her mouth hung open the entire time he spoke.
"Have you actually been back in time, Daddy?" He nodded slowly.
"Yep. When we were your age, we actually visited your cousin's Xavier and Fred to borrow something from them to bring back to our time. We managed to mess up the timeline and had to go further into the past to stop us from doing it." Marie saw her father's eyes glaze over in nostalgia. She loved when he told her stories that lightened their moods. She tilted her head as her father continued in his reminiscing.
"So how did you know what to do to fix it?" Phineas felt his heart get heavy at her question. He straightened up and pushed the blueprints back to his daughter. He turned around and stirred the contents of the pot. She raised an eyebrow at her father's actions. He placed the spoon beside the pot and turned back to her. He opened his mouth slightly, hesitant to speak. A sad smile formed on his face as he looked into his daughter's inquisitive blue eyes.
"Your uncle and I weren't that smart. Luckily, your mother was."
"Oh…" Marie said sadly. She lowered her head, losing her previous enthusiasm. She felt herself begin to tear up. Phineas sighed and walked around to her side. He pulled her into a sideways hug.
"Hey, hey, hey…don't cry. I know you miss her, and so do I. Just know that your mother is looking down right now… and is trying to beat me with a spirit stick for making you cry." Marie looked up at her father and smiled slightly. His weird sense of humor always cheered her up. He smiled and gave her a quick squeeze.
"There we go! There's the tough Garcia-Shapiro spirit I remember." He removed his apron and lay it on the counter. He walked over to the garage door and motioned for Marie.
"Come on. You can help me work on the phone until the chili is ready." Marie jumped from the stool and ran to her father, eager to build her first time machine.
For hours, they worked on the phone, programming and remodeling it. They loved working like this. It kept their minds in a happier place. With a final twist of a screwdriver, Phineas sat back and looked proudly at his daughter.
"It's finished!" He and Marie stared in awe of their work. The phone's dark metal shined under the garage's light. The small satellite pointed to the sky, ready to work. The screen was filled with various apps, both useful and random. Marie jumped forward and grabbed the phone.
"Alright, let's test it out!" Before she could press anything, Phineas took it from her, shaking his head. He turned the phone off and the satellite folded into the phone, making it flat.
"Not tonight, Marie. I want to run tests on it first before letting you try. Besides, I think I smell finished chili." The smell hit her nose as soon as he said it. He placed the phone on the work table and walked towards the kitchen. Marie looked back disappointedly at the phone before joining him.
Dinner was spent talking about his past inventions. Marie never grew tired of hearing about the impossible things her father did as a child. They often lead to a spark of inspiration. When they finished eating, she headed upstairs to ready for bed. She threw on her favorite orange pajamas and jumped onto her bed. A few minutes later, Phineas came in and tucked her in.
"So, Daddy. Can we test out the phone tomorrow? Pretty please?" Phineas chuckled
"We'll see." He kissed her forehead as she snuggled into her sheets.
"Goodnight, honey. Try to get some sleep." He turned off her lights and closed the door softly behind him. When she heard his footsteps disappear, she rolled over on turned on her bedside lamp.
'He expects me to get sleep after making such an awesome phone?' She grabbed the sketchpad and pen from her desk and began replicating the space-time equations.
'Tommy will definitely have to help me make a time machine. Let's see, how about…' She doodled different shapes and sizes they could make it. After a while, it became hard to focus. She yawned and threw the sketchpad and pen to the floor. The clock read 1:30.
'Man, I'm beat…and thirsty. Better grabbed a glass of water for the night.' She threw back her covers and walked quietly to her door, down the hall, and down the steps. She stumbled a few times in the dark, but the noise was minuscule. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she noticed a small light coming from the living room. Sneaking over the wall beside the entryway, she peered around to investigate.
Phineas was sitting on the couch, a small lamp above the couch providing a little light. He was leaning forward, elbows on his knees. One hand was covering his eyes while the other arm lay limply on his knee. The light reflected off of his face, revealing a small trail of tears. Marie eyed her father worriedly.
'What's wrong with Daddy?' She saw something in his hand. She leaned forward for a better look.
Hanging loosely in his fingers was a picture of a woman with long raven hair, in a hospital bed, holding a small baby with fiery red hair. Beside her was a small bouquet of flowers with a balloon that read "It's A Girl!" Marie backed away from the entryway and made her way back upstairs. She closed her door behind her and leaned against it.
'He's crying over Mama.' She sank to the floor and hugged her knees to her chest. She placed her forehead on her knees. Soon, she was in tears.
'Why did it end up like this?' She wiped her eyes and looked over to her bed. She lifted herself off the floor and flung herself into her pillows. She reached under her bed and pulled out a small pink box. A lump formed in her throat as she dumped its contents onto her bed. Tears began to return as she looked over pictures of her mother.
The first one was a picture of when she and her father were her age. They were standing in front of a spaceship that they had built earlier that summer. Her mother stood between the two brothers, arms thrown around their necks. She had on a red collar with small, tan wings sticking out, a thick red helmet, and heavy red boots. Her father and uncle simply wore red helmets and boots. All three of them were smiling widely, despite the danger ahead. Marie smiled as she remembered the story she was told, how they saved Meap's home world and still made it back in time for lunch. She fumbled through the pictures of her mother's childhood. She would recall everything she was told about them. She remembered how her mother and her friends dirtied up their Fireside uniforms at the old, abandoned Old Abandoned amusement park, how excited her mother was when her father asked her out on their cruise ship, even why her mother and aunt were dressed in a horse suit with tennis rackets.
Marie smiled as she picked up the next picture. Her father and mother were sitting on a bed in a white room. Her mother's chest was wrapped in cloth and she looked exhausted. Her father sat extremely close to her with an arm around her waist. She remembered him saying that this was scary time for both of them. Her mother had enough strength to pull through, though.
'If only she had it then.'
Marie picked through the remaining pictures. She relived their wedding day, honeymoon, and her mother's pregnancy. Finally, she was down to the last picture. It was the same one her father had. She smiled at the happy expression on her mother's face.
'Daddy said that I stopped crying whenever I was in her arms.' She felt tears fall down her face more heavily than before. She hugged the picture to her chest.
'Mama, I wish you were here now. We need you. Daddy is so lonely. I would give anything if you could be here.' She shook her head at the impossibility. Last year, she finally convinced her father to explain the circumstances of her mother's death. His answer shook her at her core.
"Complications at birth."
She remembered crying in his arms all night. He comforted her as best as he could, telling her that it wasn't her fault. It only helped a little.
'None of this would have happened if she didn't have me. I wish things were different. Maybe then everything would be okay with Daddy.' She looked at the picture intently.
'If only I could change the past.' Marie's eyes widened as her mind began to formulate a plan.
'Of course, the phone! I could go back and convince Mama not have me. That way she and Daddy could be happy together.'
She hopped from her bed and ran to her closet, quickly changing into her white tee and orange dress. She pulled on her shoes and belt. She walked back over to her bed and grabbed the picture of her mother holding her. She smiled and stuffed it into her dress' pocket. She snuck down into the garage, noticing her father had gone to bed.
The garage door creaked open as she stepped inside. She walked over and turned on the work table's lamp. She carefully lifted the phone and turned it on. The apps flooded the screen. She scrolled through them until she came across one with the picture of a clock labeled "T.T.". When she opened it, the satellite flipped out and pointed at her. A microphone appeared on screen and waited for a command.
'Okay, I need to choose a time where Mama isn't dating Daddy. Maybe I should choose when they were in high school. She's bound to agree with me then.' Marie leaned close to the phone to whisper.
"Go to Danville High School, 22 years in the past." The phone vibrated in her hand as the satellite charged up. A beam shot downward and began scanning her feet. She felt a tingling sensation as she began pixelating under the beam. She smiled towards the door.
'Don't worry, Daddy. I'm going to bring Mama back.'
And with a flash, she was gone.