10:56 PM
He's been staring at the clock for ages now, tempted to just stand up and wind back the little hands. Maybe that's the key to controlling time, he wonders. Maybe they didn't have to hop across the world and all, and in fact, all they had to do was simply wind back someone's watch.
10:57 PM
They say he'll be fine. His brother is just sleeping now, and they have his heart rate back up to where it belongs. That's good, they told him. He'll probably just need to sleep for a very long time, and he needn't worry himself over the boy. Everything would be fine. Just because his parents were the only ones allowed into his room didn't mean they were upset with him. No one was to blame but the weather.
No one mentioned how he had been the one to suggest they take a walk outside when there were thunderstorm warnings.
10:58 PM
He can barely keep his eyes open now, staring at that infernal device that father time himself must have placed there to make him more edgy by the second. Seconds. Does he even have seconds in there? What if something's gone horribly wrong and they won't tell him? The surgery had taken barely an hour, the doctors probably messed up his heart and gave up. He's probably got one of those little tags tied to his big toe like he's seen on the crime shows.
Oh no, he murdered his own brother. His best friend. He was a criminal, a crook, a back stabbing cheater-!
10:59 PM
Or maybe he's just paranoid. For all he knows his favorite engineer is sleeping soundly without any problems whatsoever. Hadn't they said they took him off life support awhile ago? Or had that been someone else who had been struck by lightning because of his brother's crazy antics?
Is he comfortable? Do they know that he likes to have his pillow fluffed up and propped up by a slight degree or two just so his odd neck doesn't get sore by the time morning arrives? Did his parents tell them that his brother can't have certain pain medications because they make him woozy and he gets flustered when he finds out he turned into a chatter box for a few hours before crashing without warning?
Does Ferb know that Phineas so sorry and would do anything in the world to have more summer adventures with him?
Oh. He's sniffling now. That's odd, he was about to nod off, wasn't he? No, he had to stay awake. And that couple from across the room is watching him. Is it that obvious he's the worst brother on the planet?
Phineas had told Ferb they should walk out to the parking lot and find their parent's car to get some flashlights so they could do puppet shows in the tent they were sharing. Ferb didn't even question him, never questioned him, in fact. And that's what made it so awful. His poor brother could be dead for all he knew and he'd been the executioner. The Grim Reaper of Ferb Fletcher.
He looks over to Candace as the tears start rolling down his pale-from-shock face. She's been asleep for ages now. He won't be getting her comfort tonight.
11:00 PM
It's been three hours since he last heard anything about Ferb. Phineas isn't satisfied with just sitting around and waiting to be told that he harmed his brother in an unfixable way. Einstein forbid that he would no longer be able to build anything that Phineas came up with, or be asleep forever. Those occasional comments that meant nothing to his friends but meant the world and so much more to Phineas Flynn and him alone, erased from possibility forevermore. He needs those small little afterthoughts in his life. He needs that eccentric singing voice that appears out of nowhere yet just fits perfectly with his own. He needs those mornings where he smothers his brother gently with a pillow because he snores horribly when he doesn't do the proper procedures (which is often). He needs those nights spent stargazing,spent in Ferb's lap as a new constellation forms before their very eyes, of their own personal accord.
Phineas needs all those things. And he needs Ferb more than any blueprint or full day of summer or...anything. He surpasses even sanity itself.
11:05 PM
He's dragging his feet through the hallways now, like a zombie in search of the freshest brain it can possibly dine upon, a quest it may or may not achieve but will continue on for the rest of his days. He barely recalls asking for directions to Ferb's hospital room in the Recovery Ward, besides that it was two doors down the left of something. Phineas doesn't mind searching every room to find him; most are full, but since it's such a late hour, only one woman complains when she catches a 'peeping tom' looking around her doorway. But he apologizes quickly and moves along. If he weren't so tired he might have been more sincere.
His feet are so sore. He wants to go home, and go to bed. Phineas won't though, not without Ferb. The inventor vows not to sleep a wink until his brother is back to full health.
11:13 PM
He's found it.
Phineas doesn't have to open the door to know that the shift information on it says this is Ferb Fletcher's room. As far as he can tell from the mumbo jumbo, he's supposed to be stable and resting. He never trusted paper that much.
It's the moment of truth. He'll go in there, and find out how his brother is. This could be the end of...everything. Or maybe it's ended before now. When Ferb felt the electricity course down his entire body, lighting him up like a Christmas tree, maybe then he was thinking of how he never should have trusted Phineas. Maybe Ferb's alright but is so cross with his partner in crime that he never speaks another one-liner, or laughs when Phineas smothers him with a pillow, or lets him sit in his lap as they make the stars move at the push of a button.
He finds that his hand has already turned the doorknob.
And there he is. Reading a book. Moby Dick. His favorite.
His parents are asleep in the chairs nearby, but Ferb is wide awake, dressed in a hospital gown and sitting up in bed, as if nothing had gone wrong in the first place. And he looks up at Phineas, then raises an eyebrow. And this is when Phineas loses all control and sprints up the bed, collapsing to his knees beside it and sobbing into his brother's knees, begging for him to love him and forgive him for getting him hurt between hiccups. Ferb barely seems even startled by this display of guilt and affection-and this makes Phineas cry even harder.
His lip turns up just slightly, he pats Phineas on the head, then looks back to his book.
"Scientists theorize that lightning may have played a part in the evolution of organisms. If such is the case, then I like to think being struck by lightning provided a philosophical insight of sorts."
Phineas doesn't remember when he fell asleep, and he doesn't recall ever climbing into that hospital bed next to his brother. What he does eventually remember, however, was that the doctor had come out and told him personally was he was nodding off that Ferb was fine and making a full recovery.
He takes extra care not to mention this to Candace when she teases him later for being such a worrywart.