Fixing Vanessa Doofenshmirtz
Story Written by Freedom Fighter

So, last time... Vanessa got hit by a falling girder and got amnesia, just as she was about to spend the weekend together with Monty. Now, her dad, Heinz, is tasked with helping her recover her lost memories...

Disclaimer: The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney, natch!

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Chapter Two - Don't I Know You? (04.29.13)
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The next morning, at Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated...

"Vanessa? Vanessa!"

Heinz was walking towards his daughter's room, holding a tray in his hands, as he intended to serve Vanessa breakfast in bed. Reaching the door, he turned the knob and went in without knocking...

"I know we got off on the wrong foot yesterday, but I feel good about to-"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Heinz flew back out of the room a few seconds later, with eggs on his eyes and bacon strips on his mouth. The door was then violently slammed shut behind him.

"Note to self: walking into your daughter's room without knocking even when she's lost her memory? STILL not a good idea."


20 minutes later, Vanessa, now fully dressed, was sitting at her father's makeshift dining table, legs and arms crossed. Heinz came walking back in with a stack of photo albums, which he promptly dropped onto the table. He then pulled up a chair next to Vanessa, grabbed the album on top, and opened it, showing the contents to her.

"Here we go!" Heinz exclaimed. "See this? This is the first picture taken of you after your birth."

Vanessa looked at it and saw her just-borne self wrapped in a small blanket, sleeping quietly while resting in her mother's arms.

"And you are where exactly?" she questioned in return.

"Taking the photo! I was in the second one, but we lost it. Then the camera battery died, the gift shop was out of disposables, et cetera, et cetera..."

But he immediately could tell that she did not believe him one bit, if the angry scowl she was giving him was any indication.

"How about these?"

He turned the page, directing Vanessa's attention to a set of photos of her on her first birthday. Many of them had her looking at the party favors, which were all unicorn-themed...

"You always remember your first. Well..."

...and as they went through the sequence of photos, the one-year old was seen tossing, tearing up, and trashing all of it.

"...I told the guy at the party store that you liked things big. BIG! And I was right! You hated all that stuff 'cause it wasn't big enough! See, see, this is me cleaning up afterwards!"

The last page in the sequence was, indeed, Heinz cleaning up the remnants afterwards.

"Being at my first birthday proves only that Mom knew you. It doesn't prove you're my Dad."

"Wait, wait, how 'bout..."

He turned a few pages until they were looking at toddler pics.

"Okay, this was your first day of preschool!"

On the left side were photos of Charlene dropping Vanessa off. But not without some struggles.

"You'd grown quite attached to your Mom by that point. It took her, your teacher, and no less than four other parents to pull you off of her that morning."

The last picture on that page did indeed show the six adults struggling mightily to separate mother from three-year old daughter.

"And on this page is that afternoon, where I'm picking you afterwards!"

In the first photo on the right-side page, the teacher was seen trying to hand Vanessa over to Heinz.

"Unfortunately, in those few hours, you grew attached to your teacher. So much so that you didn't remember who I was and started attacking me."

The next three photos had baby Vanessa kicking her father in the face with her feet, biting him on the nose, and flicking a booger at him, respectively.

"In the end, it took the same people to get you to come with me..."

Heinz was holding on to Vanessa's legs, attempting to pull her from her teacher, while the four parents from earlier are all trying to keep him from doing so.

"...after sitting in a cop car for two hours until Charlene could make it there from across town. You know, after all this time, I still don't know why we picked a preschool clear on the opposite side of the Tri-State Area. It... it doesn't make any sense."

Vanessa stood up abruptly. Heinz took it as a good sign.

"Vanessa! You finally remember?"

"Yeah!"

She slammed the photo album, and then picked up and swung at her father, narrowly missing his head.

"I remember that I don't want anything to do with you!"

Heinz stood up and started backing away. Vanessa took another swing, this time hitting the stack containing the rest of the albums. They went flying off the table in several directions; one of them landing right on Doofenshmirtz's left foot.

"OW! OWWWWW!" he screamed, hopping on his uninjured foot while lifting his hurt foot to massage the pain away.

As Heinz hopped around both Vanessa and the table, the teenager started feeling a tinge of pain herself. She leaned onto the table, resting her right elbow atop it while pressing the palm of her right hand against her forehead. While doing so, she lost her grip on the book she was holding, letting it fall to the floor.

Seeing her in pain, Heinz stopped worrying about his and instead went over to find out the cause of hers.

"Vanessa! Are... are you alright?"

Vanessa slowly lifted her head, until her eyes were staring directly into his eyes. The pain was starting to dissipate, and something seemed to click in her head.

"D-D-D-D-"

"Yes! Vanessa, I'm your Dad!"

"No, not that!"

There was one book that Vanessa had failed to knock off the table in her anger. It was much smaller than the others, and it had a lock on it to prevent anyone without a key from opening it. But the lock was damaged to the point where it could no longer function as intended.

"Diary! That's MY diary!"

A quick flip through just the first couple of pages confirmed it for her.

"You broke into my diary?"

"What? No! Vanessa, I swear I didn't even know you hid it with all the photo albums! Or that it was unlocked!"

He was actually telling the truth. Vanessa herself had accidentally broken the lock when she had thrown it against a wall in her room two weeks ago, the last time she had stayed there. She intended to get it repaired when she had the money to do so, which she did now, and had hid it in hopes of keeping her dad from finding in a random search of her bedroom.

"LIAR!"

Unfortunately, that was one of many things she had temporarily forgotten after yesterday's accident.

"IF YOU'RE REALLY MY DAD, YOU'D TELL ME THE TRUTH!"

"But Vanessa, I am!"

Vanessa stormed off, going back to her room. Heinz winced upon hearing her slammed it shut.

"Oh, come on, it's not even my fault!" he said to himself. "I've got to jog her memory before this gets any more out of hand."

Suddenly, he had an idea.

"Oh, I know! How about I show her the blueprints for one of my -inators? She seemed to love telling Charlene about them... for... some reason. No matter. If she sees one of them..."

He ran into his lab to look for one to show him. While he was gone, Vanessa opened the door to her room. She walked out, with a shoulder bag strapped on, and she headed for the door. Heinz returned just in time to hear the front door to his loft close...

"Oh, Vanessa!" he said, knocking on his daughter's bedroom door.

...unaware that she had left.

"I knocked this time, so I'm coming in!"

He turned the knob and went in. Out of instinct, he held one arm in front of his eyes - not only to protect his face but to also avoid once more seeing more of his daughter than he would prefer - but when nothing happened after a few seconds, he lowered it so he could see.

The room was empty.

"Vanessa?"


25 miles away and 25 minutes later, in a hidden alcove nestled on a northwestern shore of Lake Winimahatikihaha, Monty had just finished setting up a spot on the grass just a few feet from the water. A large blanket with alternating red- and white-colored stripes had been set out. A wicker picnic basket was sitting in the center of it. Off to the side was an umbrella, pitched at an angle to shade some of the blanketed area from the bright rays of the sun.

"I think that should do it. Oh, wait."

He double-checked the strings on his Hawaiian-print swimming trunks, assuring that they would stay in place as intended.

"Now," he said with a smirk. "If only I had someone to share it with..."

He began walking inland, towards a nearby cabin. As he approached it, a beautiful brunette came around the corner from the far side, turning towards the lake.

"Well, hello..."

The girl froze momentarily, as if in hesitation...

"Oh."

And then she resumed her approach. Stepping out from the shade and into the sunlight, Monty smiled as the familiar figure sauntered his way.

Vanessa Doofenshmirtz.

"Hey. Don't I know you?"

To be continued...