Isabella's POV

I stared at Phineas in shock, my jaw slack as I tried to process what he had just asked me. My eyes were as wide and wet as a plate in the dishwasher. I looked from him to his family, my whole mind a frenzy as I stared at them questioningly.

"W-what?" I finally managed to choke out, the tears threatening to spill out in a huge disarray as I was grabbed by the shoulders and brought into a tight hug, Ferb's shallow breathing next to my ear as he tried to protect me from something I had no control over. "Phineas, what do you mean? It's me, Isabella!" The young boy only shook his head, his confusion overlapping the fear and distress the teen was no doubt in.

"Isabella, calm down." Ferb said, his voice no higher than a murmur, though I could tell he too was on the verge of crying. I felt hot liquid drop down onto my wrecked top, my eyes softening as I realized he had already began to weep; weep for his brother, for his best friend who was clearly in pain and different. I looked up at my other best friend, his face a torrent of water coming down faster than a waterfall, his red rimmed eyes a disorienting green as I realized that, as much as I was in love with Phineas, I loved Ferb as a brother. There was a fierce protectiveness overcoming me as I wrapped him up in a hug, burying my face into his shirt like a child who had awoken from a nightmare. If only that had been the case, I would have loved nothing more than to fall out of bed screaming tomorrow. Because Phineas there to comfort me like he always did.

The doctor strode in, his steps loud and purposeful as his tall, lanky legs walked to the side of the bed. My boyfriend flinched the slightest bit as the white lab coat fluttered in the breeze of the open window. Ferb, in turn, gripped me a bit tighter, my entire being shrinking into the smallest possible shape. My breathing hitched as memories I tried so hard to bury resurfaced, my eyes squeezing shut and my body beginning to shake.

"Someone's broken in, and I know he's looking for something. I just don't know what that is."

"I'm going to ask you again; where is it?"

"I don't know what it is you want!"

"No… Please, don't…"

"Phineas, no!"

"Isabella!"

"I'll give you the key, just stop doing that to her!

"Isabella…" Ferb whispered soothingly, "it's okay, he's a real doctor. This guy isn't going to hurt you like Doofenshmirtz. You need to trust me." I nodded, but his reassurances did nothing to ease my tension.

"I know, it's just…" I let out a deep breath of air, my eyes never leaving the bed and its occupant, "Phineas… he reacted the way he always does to lab coats, but when he sees me, there's… nothing." Ferb raised an eyebrow, but didn't question the observation.

"Hello, Phineas!" The doctor said, his voice thick with an Austrian accent. His thick moustache twitched every time he spoke, his posture reflecting a gentle demeanor. "My name is Doctor Alexander Tripp, but you can call me Alex." The red headed youth nodded slowly, the perplexed expression never leaving his features. There was a pregnant pause before Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher finally spoke up, her voice stronger than it had been before.

"Dr. Tripp," she began, her hand going up involuntarily as though she were a school child asking the teacher a question, "can you tell us what's wrong with my son?" The Austrian looked thoughtful for a moment before he addressed Phineas.

"Son, what's your name?" The boy in the bed blinked before raising his eyebrows, his face reflecting his annoyance at the obvious question, to which his step father emitted the lowest of chuckles.

"Phineas Flynn."

"Good, good!" Tripp said cheerfully, his lips curving upwards in a genuine smile. "Now, how old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Where do you live?"

"Danville, USA."

"Can you name everyone in the room for me please?"

Phineas began pointing at the various occupants of the room, a grin covering his mouth as he began to recite the first words that came to mind. "Mom, Dad, Candace…" He stopped short at Jeremy, who looked at him in shock. I couldn't blame Candace's fiancé; they were like brothers, the wedding had brought Phineas and Ferb closer to him. "Uh…" His eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the man's interlaced fingers on his sister. I had the outrageous feeling to laugh at his over-protectiveness towards his sister.

"Phineas, it's Jeremy." His eldest sibling told him softly, her eyes pleading like a puppy. "Jeremy Johnson; you know, my fiancé?" At this, the red head opened his mouth, his lips parting in silent awe before shaking himself.

"Funny, you'd think I would remember that…" he muttered, his palms upwards as he stared at them in obvious worry. He looked up at Ferb and I next, his vacant eyes piercing my heart as though he had driven a frozen chisel through it. I took a step away from Ferb, my hand outstretched as I moved closer towards the one boy I could see myself with. What he said next simply put a hammer on the chisel and shattered my heart.

"Are you two dating?"

My arm dropped to my side, my eyes blurred as I choked back a sob and put a fist over my lips, keeping the heart break inside for me, and me only. I turned toward his step brother, the green haired Brit frozen in place as he looked at his closest companion for as long as he could remember, the pain of how much we had just lost thrown into our face like a wet towel.

"Phineas, we aren't dating…" Ferb said. My voice was barely audible as I clutched my elbow and turned away, adding the last part with the weakest of phrases: "You and I are." My boyfriend obviously hadn't heard me as he quickly asked another question, this time directed solely at Ferb.

"You have a funny accent. What, are you from Europe or something?" To his credit, the man of action looked at his brother evenly, a small smile on his lips as though he were introducing a toddler to the joys of multiculturalism.

"I know that we're brothers, Phineas, but you were born in America and I was –!"

"We're brothers?"

My head snapped up in shock in time to see Ferb's smile vanished entirely, his lips trembling as he struggled to hold in the tears. My hand went to my mouth again as I let out a soft gasp of astonishment. Phineas, however, paid no attention to the current ordeal and continued with his explanations of how he and the other teen could not be brothers.

"… I mean, we don't even look alike! You have green hair, and I have red hair! Wait, is that green natural, or are you one of those bad boy types who likes to mess around with the hair dye?" Ferb looked to his feet, his eyes squeezing shut as he strode quickly out of the room, his voice strong enough to get a single word out: "Stepbrothers."

Phineas' eyes widened with realization dawning as he watched Ferb leave. A faint pink hue washed over his cheeks from embarrassment and chuckled nervously. He stared at each of the people in the room, putting two and two together when he saw Linda holding onto Lawrence. My heart skipped a beat as he locked eyes with me; those deep blue eyes like an endless ocean, the ones who had captured my heart. They were alien, an invisible barrier of confusion and self doubt pushing me away from the boy I had lived my whole life around. His entire being was bent on helping other people realize their dreams, fulfilling his own in the process. Here was the same Phineas Flynn, and yet he was as unfamiliar to me as was a stranger fresh off the road. The way he spoke, the way he acted as though there were new faces to be seen…

But there it was; that glimmer of recognition, the way he seemed so sincere and upset at the prospect of hurting someone's feelings, all because of his over active imagination. My brain told me this wasn't the boy I had fallen in love with, that he was too broken up and beaten to be; but my heart yearned for the boy in front of me to hold me close, caress my hair and kiss my forehead, sing the lullabies over the phone on days I couldn't sleep. And in that moment of sincerity, I knew he was still in there. I saw him pick up his hand and point a finger towards my cheek, his eyebrows raised as he asked an innocent yet powerful question.

"Is that a scar?" My knees felt weak as I stared from him to the rest of his family, who looked on in horror at my reaction. Silently, I cursed my boyfriend's motor mouth. Dr. Tripp, knew that it was a touchy subject for me, although his was a much more vague sense; he had been on duty when I was brought in at fourteen. I begin fiddling with my hair, my eyes shifting towards the door as I felt lightheaded and in need of more room and fresh air than this tiny enclosed spot could give me.

"Yeah; you have one just like it." With that, I walked out the room, observing my boyfriend touch his own scar from the corner of my eye.

Ferb was kneeling against the wall of the hallway, his head in his hands as Dr. Tripp and I came out. I walked to my best friend, my heart going out to him as well as myself as I laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. He looked up at me through now tear stained cheeks and mustered up the weakest of smiles, the current situation once again hitting me full force. We turned towards the older man of the three of us, Dr. Tripp in a seemingly awkward and sympathetic position. There was a pause, before he sighed and grabbed the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes tight as though they were glued. He muttered something neither me nor Ferb caught, my eyebrow raised as I stared at him questioningly.

"What was that, doc?" I asked impatiently, my grief giving way to annoyance and desperation while I stared at the man with all the answers. Tripp dropped his hand slowly and looked at the two of us; two teenagers scared for their friend's safety. His eyes bore through mine as he repeated himself, his voice ringing true and clear this time.

"Retrograde Amnesia." Ferb whimpered involuntarily, and I stared at the two of them questioningly. Here was the problem with being between Ferb Fletcher and Alexander Tripp: It was as if you were being spoken to by a doctor and his boss (Ferb being the boss.) I waited for an explanation from either of them, but when none came, I cleared my throat in frustration and crossed my arms, staring at the two of them in annoyance.

"What is Retrograde Amnesia? Stupid girl with only an A average here, not an A plus!" Ferb let a slightly embarrassed chuckle out, rubbing the back of his neck. He turned to the doctor, his eyes silently letting him continue with an explanation. Tripp, seeing this, turned to me and placed test papers in my hands. I rifled through them, my eyebrow crease deepening with each sentence. Through data, charts and diagrams, words like hippocampus, diencephalon, and temporal lobes shot out at me like fists in a boxing match. I blinked before pointing out the last of the three terms.

"I've heard of the temporal lobes in science before. They're a part of the brain right?" At Dr. Tripp's nod, I continued with a little more knowledge than I had started out with. "These are all parts of the brain dealing with memories, aren't they." I said it as more of a statement than a question, my heart feeling weak and confused as I absorbed all this information. Dr. Tripp moved his head in consent once again before pointing at the squiggly lines at the bottom of the page.

"These are the trauma lines that were done to the hippocampus. The hippocampus is involved mainly to make short-term memories long-term. However, when an amnesiac patient receives damage to this part of the brain, they can only remember some experiences from their lives. Other memories are either wiped completely or thrown into the back of his brain under lock and key.

"This right here," he flipped the page over before pointing at yet another series of choppy lines, "are the temporal lobes. This is what helps us speak, hear, understand languages, and keep our long-term memories in track. As you can see, this part of Phineas' brain received minimal damage, though some of it was still jarred loose and could be the reason he doesn't remember the two of you.

"Lastly, the diencephalon deals with the episodic memory recall, meaning it retrieves past events the amnesiac has heard of or even been a part of. Unfortunately for us, Phineas Flynn received the most damage to that particular part of his brain when he was thrown against the window of the –!"

"Yeah, we know what happened, I was there, remember?" I cut in quickly, the blood draining from my face. "What I want to know is, what can we do to get his memory back?" Ferb nodded eagerly next to me, his eyes alight with determination and protectiveness. The doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment before turning his attention back to us.

"Well," he said, "helping to show him past events you two have done together or people and places he's been to may help, though some of his memories could have just shattered like a glass vase." I flinched at this, the doctor's hand placed on my shoulder as he chuckled good-naturedly. "Don't worry, my dear; chances are, he wouldn't forget such a big part of his life like you and Ferb. Now, I should probably stitch you up next; you've lost quite a bit of blood from your arm. Tell me, how exactly did you and Phineas come to get involved in that kind of serious accident?" I looked away, my nails scratching away at the dried blood accumulating on my elbow.

"We were in the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess." I whispered, my voice cracking. "We had the right of –!"

"Dr. Tripp?" Linda Flynn-Fletcher came outside of the room, her eyes wide as she shut the door behind her quietly. All three of our attention turned to the red headed woman, who looked as though she might burst into tears again at any moment.

"Yes, Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher?" The doctor said soothingly, his eyes soft.

"Phineas, he… he doesn't remember the accident."


Hahahaha, it looks like anyone who used to read this story now hates me.

Huh. ;)

I wonder whyyyyyyy!

JK!

REVIEWS!

humanusscriptor: Yes, I did! I am restarting the story just because I have edited a bunch of the chapters, I hope that's alright! :)

SweetAmethyst: Hahaha, yes, I am back (: I am currently writing the most dramatic chapter of this whole stupid fanfic, so be happy! And thanks for welcoming me back :heart:

Pirate Queen ofthe 21st century: It's nice to know that my stories still have a good effect on people :') Thanks for your review, it really got me motivated to keep writing! :hug:

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