Chapter 4
Phineas had already swung open the door of the house and was starting to take his shoes off, when Ferb came in behind him. Immediately Candace spotted the intruder, and came running up to both of them. She pointed a finger at the red-haired face of her brother.
"Phineas!" she scolded. "You brought him back in here?"
"Well, yeah, I-" Phineas started, but Candace had thrown her finger down and turned to face the kitchen.
"MOM!" she hollered. "Phineas let that burglar kid back into our house!"
"He's not a burglar," Phineas started to defend, coming to stand in front of him. By now, their mom had come into the front hallway from her work in the kitchen.
Phineas did not make notice of the new listener. He kept talking. "His name is Ferb and he told me he wouldn't steal anything."
"Right," Candace said sarcastically. "And this is coming from the kid who you just met yesterday, WHILE he was in the process of breaking in."
"Hey! He wasn't breaking into anything," Phineas pointed out. "He had a key."
"Yeah. That he probably STOLE out of our garage or something-!"
"Candace and Phineas!" their mom interrupted with the tone of punishment. "Stop your fighting."
Phineas looked down guiltily, and peered back up at his mom. "Sorry, Mom," he said honestly. Then she gave him a comforting look, and prompted him with a smile.
"Phineas, honey. I know you always have a very good reason for doing things," she said softly. She looked over to Ferb, who also had his head downward in guilt to match Phineas'. Then she asked Phineas quietly, "It was you who let him back in?"
Straightening up, Phineas tried his best to be confident. He was now positioned so that he was standing no longer in front of Ferb, but to his side.
"Mmhmm," Phineas confirmed with an exaggerated nod. "I was talking with him outside for a bit. He's my friend now."
Candace just slapped herself on the forehead in disbelief. "Phineas, I saw you out there. You were talking for FIVE MINUTES."
"So!" Phineas retorted, putting his hand on Ferb's shoulder. "That doesn't mean we can't become friends."
He looked over to his mom with begging, puppy-dog eyes. "Can't he stay, Mom? He doesn't have anywhere else to go."
Their mom started to open her mouth, but Candace still wasn't through her protesting. "Phineas! We can't just go taking in every random homeless kid we find," she pointed out loudly.
"But he's different…" Phineas whispered. Looking upwards at Ferb, Phineas gave a slow glance. He watched as Ferb smiled back. Phineas then responded to Candace. "And I like him."
With a shot back towards his mom, Phineas continued his begging. "I want him to stay, Mom. Pleeeeaassee?"
Only after she had glared at Candace to make sure she was finished interrupting, did Phineas' mom finally concede, "Alright, Phineas, I'll trust you. If you think he's okay, he can stay."
Then she looked over at the taller teenager of the two, and Ferb shrunk down as if he was uncomfortable being analyzed. She turned her lip as she tried to read him.
"But just to be safe, he's sleeping in the bathroom. I don't want him wandering around the house at night."
"Aw, but there's plenty of space in my room," Phineas pointed out.
"Phineas…" came Candace's whine. After she had heard her mom's decision she seemed to have accepted the house's new addition, at least for now. However, she still made it a point to pester her brother.
"He's not some lizard you found out in the grass. You can't just put him in a jar and leave him on your desk."
"I don't mind sleeping in the bathroom," Ferb spoke up. Everyone immediately stopped their conversation and all eyes focused on him. They seemed to have forgotten that Ferb indeed had a voice of his own.
Ferb refrained from speaking for the moment as he recoiled in awkward surprise. "I-I just mean I don't want to be a bother to anybody."
"Well, you can at least have my extra sheets," Phineas promised, grabbing Ferb by the arm to show him up the stairs, planning to give him a whole tour of the entire house.
"Where is Phineas?" Candace asked as she set her plastic tray on the table beside her parents. Today, they had decided to have lunch in the hospital cafeteria.
Her mom just slid over a bit to let Candace sit down, and gestured her eyes up to the ceiling. Candace glanced up towards the second floor, and gave a reluctant and hurt sigh.
"I shouldn't have asked," she said as she re-gathered up the black plastic tray, piling a few items from the buffet onto it. "I'll take something up to him."
"Let's all go," her father suggested as he stood up, as well. "There's no sense in eating down here without him."
When his mom poked her head in the door, Phineas didn't look up from his spot leaning on the side of the white hospital bed. He was sitting in a folding chair with his chin resting on his hands, which were propped on the thin bed sheet tucked near Ferb's side.
Phineas had moved to the far side of the bed, so that he would not bother Ferb's right arm, attached to several wires and IV tubes. He rested his cheek on the side of his brother's leg as he peered tiredly up at him. He could barely see him behind the thick clear tube that was connected to a plastic piece in his mouth. Phineas only watched as Ferb's lids stayed still, not flickering with the regular signs of a normal sleep.
"Hi, Phineas?" he heard his Mom's voice softly call. The three other visitors came over to sit in other chairs situated throughout the room. "…We brought you something to eat."
Taking only a little glance at the food, Phineas huffed with disinterest. "I bet Ferb is hungry."
His mom looked at the calmly sleeping Ferb in the bed. They could all hear the even, melodic beeps coming from the whole room. She consoled, "He's doing fine, Phineas. The doctors are taking good care of him."
When all Phineas responded with was a distant blow of air, she slid her chair closer. "How about going to school tomorrow?"
Phineas tipped his eyes at her, and looked with sadness. "Mmmm…" he answered in debated thought.
"We let you take the first few days off," his mom elaborated gently. "But it's been a week now, sweetie. You don't want to get behind in your work, do you?"
"No…" Phineas replied. But he still refused to sit upright in his chair.
His mom just stroked his back soothingly. "Ferb will be okay without you here for a few hours. And you can come right back over after school, okay?"
"But-but…" Phineas denied. "The doctors say he'll wake up any moment. What if, when he wakes up, nobody is here with him?"
Phineas stuck his chin back onto Ferb's knee. "I want the first thing he sees when he opens his eyes to be something familiar. …I don't want him to be scared."
"Ferb won't be scared," his dad put out. "And if you're not here when he wakes up, then we'll bring you straight over. We'll even take you out of school early. How does that sound?"
"Al-alright," Phineas mumbled. He reached over and took Ferb's hand in his own. "But I sure hope he wakes up soon."
