(a/n) Okay! So, I would like to thank all of you that reviewed this last chapter. Which were two people. One of which is XxInvaderXIzzyxX, the other DarkChao1663, and I offer my sincere thanks to the both of you for your faithful reviews over the course of this story and your honest opinions. But seriously, I don't want to sound whiney, and I know that some of you readers might not have a working review button ( I didn't at first) and not every chapter is going to get a lot of reviews, but just the one? Please review! Even if you hate it, go ahead and tell me. But tell me why so I can fix it, or not if I don't want to.
The ride home was deathly quiet. Of course it was; there was nothing to say and the radio had been too loud, too cheerful, and they had turned it off. Phineas was never coming home; every hope they'd had when Leroy had been arrested was now demolished. Lawrence no longer felt the need to hurt this man so badly. He didn't doubt his relationship with Phineas. He didn't feel anything but the gaping whole left where his heart used to be, as if somebody had roughly scraped it out with a spoon, the pain of the ever-present absence of his son nearly crippling him. The worst part was that he knew better than to think it would ever go away; he wasn't even allowed that hope.
But he knew he couldn't stay in this state of misery. His family needed him, each of them equally. He glanced in the rearview mirror at Candace, who looked even more pale and drawn than she had before. Her red-rimmed eyes were like deep, empty wells and she was clutching her knees to her chest. His eyes slid over to Ferb, who looked just as dead as Phineas apparently now was. His entire body was limp, drained of any fight, strength, or color it had shown in the police station. His head rested against the window, bouncing with every bump, and his eyes stared at nothing with a lack of emotion that scared Lawrence. He tore his eyes away from his now-only son and braved a glance at Linda. She had her arms wrapped around her slender torso as if to hold herself together, as if she was falling apart at the seems. Lawrence wouldn't blame her; he certainly felt as though he was. Every bit of grief, misery, sadness, and hurt beyond what words could describe was clearly etched into her pale face, showing through every pore. She looked as though she had lived an eternity, a wearisome, terrifying eternity that had ended in tragedy. The three most precious things in his life now, and each of them was hurting worse than they should ever have to.
Lawrence had failed. He had failed Phineas as a dad, and that had caused the rest of his beautiful family to get hurt. He owed each of them an apology, and he knew it, but the thought of them shooting his apology down was more than he could bear. He knew they would, that even if none of them blamed him as they should, they would go through the motions of telling him it wasn't his fault. The knowledge that it was clawed at his insides and seemed to rise up in his throat like bile, sticking a lump there that he knew would make him break down – in front of his family that needed him to be strong – and start crying like he never had before.
They finally made it to the house that could no longer be called home and pulled into the driveway. Lawrence turned off the car, but nobody moved. It felt wrong to move, felt wrong to do anything that resembled normalcy in any way since so much was not right about any of their lives now. Then Ms. Garcia-Shapiro began making her way hesitantly yet hurriedly across the street – they had told her what was going on when Leroy had been arrested – ready to ask for information, and Linda got out of the car to go meet her. Candace followed suit, trudging inside to do something, but Ferb stayed exactly where he was. Lawrence looked at him, and an invisible blade of guilt painfully stabbed his gut. "Ferb, you need to get out of the car." Lawrence said as softly and as gently as he could.
"Why?" The child asked, and his voice sounded devoid of life, emotion, anything. He sounded like he no longer cared what happened, no longer cared if he lived or died, and Lawrence realized with a start that he might not. That had to stop.
He got out of the car and opened Ferb's door, causing Ferb, who had been leaning on the door with the entirety of his strength, to collapse sideways. Lawrence managed to catch him before his head hit the ground, but despite the fall, Ferb remained entirely limp in Lawrence's arms. That scared Lawrence worse than anything had yet. He reached over to unbuckle his son's seatbelt and lifted him out of the car, holding him close to him. He slammed the door shut with his foot and turned to walk toward Linda, who was now sobbing into Ms. Garcia-Shapiro's shoulder. The latter woman's expression was stunned and bleak, and tears were beginning to form in her eyes, but she still managed to pat her friend on the back in a vain attempt to comfort her. Lawrence put his arm around Linda's shoulders, whispering that they should go inside to Candace. He offered Ms. Garcia-Shapiro a small attempt at a smile and turned to go inside.
On his way he thought of how poor Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro would have to tell Isabella, who might take it almost as bad a Candace. The poor child had been frantic all week, unable to sleep and tearful, squeezing every drop of information out of them until it reached the brink of untactful. She had been out of her mind with worry, and when they had told her and her mom about the arrest, her face had lit up with hope. Now her mother was going to have to go inside and tell her that her best friend was never coming home, that they had lost Phineas forever. Lawrence, at least, could be grateful for the small favor of not having to tell them, not having to speak it out loud and see the reactions the news he had to tell cause.
He led Linda back into their room and sat Ferb down on the bed - he wasn't letting a single one of the three most precious people out of his sight anytime soon – and went back into the living room where Candace was sitting. "Come on sweetheart." He told her, and she got up to follow him to the bedroom. She sat on the bed in front of Ferb and looked him up and down, taking in his horrible state, and leaned forward to wrap her arms around him and hold him close. As Lawrence looked at them, he realized that Candace would no longer be calling her mother to complain about the boys doing something insane, they wouldn't be turning the garage up-side down or bringing monster trucks into the backyard anymore. Even if Phineas hadn't been the one coming up with all the crazy ideas in the first place, Ferb wouldn't have the spirit or heart if he tried. Candace continued holding Ferb for a while, until Linda muttered tearfully, "Come on. Lord knows we could all use some sleep," and she released him, not even arguing that it was only 8:30 in the evening, usually too early to go to sleep. However, these were definitely not 'usual' circumstances, and everyone began crawling into the king-sized bed, fully clothed and without brushed teeth.
Lawrence took his son in his arms and held him gently, lying down so that they might be able to sleep, if grief allowed it. Candace got under the covers, even though the weather was warm outside that night, and Linda, who was still silently crying, snuggled close to her. As Lawrence looked over his family, a fresh wave of guilt washed over him. He just couldn't see how their little ball of sunshine could just be gone. He couldn't bring himself to believe that even a man a sick and twisted as Leroy would actually kill his own child, especially after Candace had said she didn't think he would and Linda had agreed. They would have the best grasp on his personality, and it was rare that Linda misjudged anybody. But were they really wrong? Was Phineas really dead? Was it at all possible that the man had lied? Suddenly, with that last question, a new idea began to form in Lawrence's mind; Leroy had lied. He hadn't actually killed Phineas, he was still out there someplace. Hope, sparkling and wonderful, seemed to blossom in Lawrence's mind again. His son was still out there somewhere, maybe Leroy had hidden him elsewhere and he just needed to be found. Why Leroy had lied, he didn't know and only slightly cared to find out. Maybe he was still a little drunk at the time and thought he really had, or maybe he figured he should go all out in getting in trouble, or maybe he thought it would be funny to give everyone a good scare. But the point was he had lied, and Phineas was most definitely still alive, because Lawrence refused to accept any alternative. Maybe he should voice his thoughts? No, Ferb was already snoring lightly under his arm, and Candace's tired eyes were drooping. If he told them at all, it would have to wait until they were well-rested. And with happier thoughts of Phineas if not unhurt, at least alive circulating through his brain, he suddenly felt the weariness of the past few days catching up to him very quickly and causing his eyelids to droop drastically. Within a few seconds, he was snoring.
(a/n) Okay. So I hope this chapter earns some reviews, even though I know it's kind of boring in a lot of ways. By boring I mean uneventful. But please tell me what you think!