A/N: It's now been several days since the official inception of Phindace - and Phineas has gotten to say plenty about it. But he's not the only one in the relationship, so it's about time that changes.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy.

For all the times Candace worried about what was going on anymore - about what she was doing with her life - things didn't seem to be going that horribly. At least not as horribly as one might expect trying to date your own younger brother would go.

The fact that the previous sentence was, in fact, the honest truth about what they were trying to pull off was proof enough of just how ridiculous her life had become. And what was even more ridiculous was the fact that, when you factored in all the reasons why this shouldn't work, it did. Not perfectly, or even smoothly, at times, but it worked surprisingly well for what it was.

It was those times that made Candace question herself - because those were the times, when she and Phineas would be hugging or cuddling or kissing or really any other thing that just wasn't appropriate for siblings to be doing - and more often than not, it wouldn't feel wrong. At least not as wrong as it should, for whatever undefinable reason it should that Candace still clung to in her mind.

It was often quite the opposite, really: quite enjoyable. Fun, even, if you could believe that dating your brother could be such a thing. Mostly lighthearted, and occasionally serious, though never for too long because it was Phineas, and he never changed.

She and Phineas, well, they were brother and sister still, and continued to do pretty much everything they had before in that sort of way. But they did more, too - more in a boyfriend and girlfriend sort of way, too. They went out - like, out out, in the way she used to go with Jeremy. And it was unsettling, in a way - to be doing almost the same things now as then - only with her brother instead.

But Phineas' optimism and general cheer was infectious on those occasions, even more so than usual, and she'd often find herself asking just how she'd managed to fall so easily into the pattern of dating her brother. Something about it just seemed so… familiar, in a weird way she couldn't explain. Sure, Phineas and she were more… intimate now than they'd been before, but there was something else too. Just the way he looked at her sometimes, a way which was really only appropriate for what they were supposed to be now - and yet, a look she'd seen on his face many, many, many times before - for a very long time.

And it was at times like that she would find herself thinking, if only for second, that this whole thing might not end up so bad after all.

But it would only ever be for a second.

Because where her brother could retreat back into his shell of happy oblivion about what they were doing, she simply couldn't. He never seemed to quite realize exactly what they were doing, and what sort of thing were to happen if they should ever get… busted. They were siblings - and they were dating, for goodness' sake. If anyone should find out - well, barring Irving, but he was the exception, not the rule, because he was… well, he was just Irving - then her life, in all likelihood, would be over. There's simply no way you can come back from that sort of thing.

And if they weren't careful and let their mother be the one to catch them again, then her life (and Phineas') could literally be over - although the Mysterious Force never harmed anyone as a byproduct of its actions, the same could not be said if a person was the target of its actions. So long as Linda never saw whatever it was targeting, pretty much anything was fair game to the Force. Thinking back on the countless times she'd seen it act, Candace shivered.

The amount of times she'd seen giant contraptions swallowed up by the surface of the earth, or shrunk down into nothing, or instantly transmogrified into other objects, or even straight up disintegrated by beams from the sky numbered in the hundreds now. And those sorts of things would not be as easily survivable as what had happened last time.

And so, as the rest of the week began to slide past, she worried. In between, she dated her brother - as seriously as one could expect, which was to say, not very, right? - and even she had to admit, the possibility of any potential romantic feelings aside, that it was fun. And in some cases, that she liked going out with her brother. He was oblivious, as always, and unable to stay serious for more than a handful of minutes at a time, and often got distracted into long rambles about random things, not to mention that he was her brother, but… well, she didn't really know.

Still, she worried. And, of course, things happened, lots of things, to put whatever it was that was going on between them (Phineas had called it 'boyfriend and girlfriend' which she supposed was technically right, but still…) in danger of being found out.

After the run-in with the Mysterious Force they'd begun taking great care to not let that happen again, but it wasn't as easy as it sounded, no indeed. Really, it stressed Candace to no end.

When Stacy came over to visit during the day Candace worried she'd somehow just know what had been going on. She worried that Irving would spill the beans to someone, that their father would accidentally catch them kissing, that Phineas would get overexcited and blurt out details that should be kept secret, that Isabella would nurse her broken heart over Phineas' rejection into something capable of trying to expose them.

Did Phineas ever worry about these things? Not hardly. Sure, he tried to help keep the secret, and he was the one who suggested the whole 'hide in the panic room for sound-proof privacy' thing, but she couldn't help but feel like her brother was much more relaxed about the whole thing. And she tried to follow his example, really she did.

But that was impossible. Sure, this… thing between them may have been… alright. But how could she be expected to be so calm about the whole thing when, at any given second, it could all come crashing down on their heads in a heap of fiery rubble?

The idea of that was what made her so nervous.

Because there really was only two ways this could end - either ending it on her own volition, which, for some reason, she really didn't want to do, or to let it continue until somebody slipped up and the cat got out of the bag.

Of course, she did briefly entertain the possibility that it could never end, instead persisting forever, but… well, she, uh, she had yet to form an opinion on the matter. Or to think about it at all. Yes. Because that was definitely the truth.

The Plan - such that was left of it - was in worse shape than it had ever been. But there were still a few things left intact, even if they were only hanging on by a thread. Like her future children, for example: Xavier and Amanda. And since she obviously couldn't have children with her brother, that meant at some point it had to end, right? It wasn't really a subject she liked to think about, honestly.

Not that it mattered anyway, to be fair, since it was really just a matter of time before somebody found out and they were forced apart, with all the fallout that would entail. And it was fear of what that fallout might be that still forced those sneaking thoughts of breaking this… thing off into her head at those inconvenient times.

Never those times when Phineas was around - no, he had a way of making that sort of thing not seem as… immediate. It was kind of weird in that way. She always knew exactly how dangerous what she and Phineas were doing was, and she was always acutely aware of just how sour things could go if they were found out. But his laid-back attitude about the whole thing was a strange sort of comforting, in a way - like, it was those times that kept coming back to her when she thought about the riskiness of the whole thing, and although the stress of trying to stay on top of the secret was almost enough to make her pull her hair out, it was those times that made her keep on trying anyway.

That, and the fact that her brother was so obviously happy with things. She would've felt guilty for spoiling his mood with her worries. It wouldn't have been right - she could figure out something on her own. And if that something was just to suck it up and deal with it, well, wasn't that what you were supposed to do with these sorts of things anyway? If Phineas was really supposed to be her… her boyfriend, then it was the least she could do.

And so, for the next few days, she alternated randomly between trying to enjoy this new thing, and actually enjoying this new thing, and stressing out over this new thing. It was an uncomfortable place to be caught, for sure, and she wasn't entirely sure why she put up with it.

Still, for the time being, at least, everything was going okay - if by 'okay' you meant 'a series of hair-raising close calls'. Which, of course, you wouldn't - because no normal person would - not that Candace's life could ever be called normal.

Take the very next day, for instance. For some reason, Stacy had decided to come over early in the morning and hang out all day. Any other time this wouldn't have bothered Candace in the slightest, but now? All it meant was that she got to be on edge all day long, watching her brother to make sure he didn't do or say anything that might give away the secret. And that, in turn, meant that she wasn't able to give her full attention to the day's project.

Oh, she tried, alright. But having Stacy hanging around, and with her the always lurking possibility of somehow being found out, it really just fell flat. She horribly miscalculated how much concrete mix they'd need, accidentally leaving a few zeros off the end of the order, which resulted in them running flat out of the stuff halfway over the Atlantic Ocean.

Of course, Phineas and Ferb didn't seem to mind all that much, but that wasn't the point. The point was that messing up like that was something that never happened, at least, not to this degree. And she knew it, and she could tell by the way Ferb looked at her that he knew it, and it was probably only Phineas' obliviousness that kept him from realizing the root behind it. And most frightening of all? Stacy knew it, she was sure.

And Candace felt as if her friend's eyes were always on her, watching and waiting, to find that one time she'd slip up - and seize upon it, ready to… to do something with it. Something unpleasant, and probably very much so.

She tried to be subtle. She tried to act normal. It shouldn't be hard - why would it be hard? But every time she tried to reason herself down from the heights, she would only come up with new and worsening reasons to worry.

What if Phineas said something a little too… unsiblinglike while Stacy was still in earshot?

What if one of Irving's drones crashed and got recovered by someone else - someone who would watch the tape and recognize the actors in it?

What if Stacy went to leave, but came back because she forgot something, and walked in on them in the middle of something?

There were just too many scenarios that could happen. Too many! And it drained her energy to worry about them, leaving her utterly unable to focus on the task at hand.

Still, she did her best despite all those things.

But apparently all her efforts failed - because she almost messed up again, bigtime. Thankfully, Ferb reached out and covered the red button before she pressed it unknowingly, otherwise that could have been very, very bad.

"Oh - oh, sorry," she tried to explain. "Uh - my bad. Whoops."

Ferb stared at her for a moment, then turned back to his own work. Candace breathed a small sigh of relief, thinking she'd managed to avoid a confrontation. But she was wrong - for a second later, Ferb turned back to her and cleared his throat.

Though he didn't speak, she could tell by the way he was staring at her that something was up.

"What?" she asked defensively. "I said 'my bad'. Sorry! I'm just a little distracted today, I guess." She glanced through the window of the control room, out to where she could see Phineas eagerly chattering to Stacy about something or the other, and winced. It would be just so easy for her brother to accidentally let something slide and mess up everything. She had to go out there and make sure that didn't happen - and quickly. Abandoning the bridge controls, she turned and began walking from the room.

But when she tried to actually leave, Ferb stepped in front of the door.

"What?" she asked again.

He raised one eyebrow and gestured to the panel behind her. She turned back, trying to see what exactly he was holding her up for - oh.

"Ugh - sorry!" she repeated, stepping back to the controls and quickly tapping out the combination needed to keep the place online without anyone there. "Why didn't you just do that? I'm kinda distracted right now, as you can see."

Ferb shook his head. "Because I don't really care about the bridge controls," he said matter-of-factly. "I care about the concrete mix and the upside down solar panels and the magnets and the levitation interface and the faulty wiring and all the other things. Including the controls. You're very, very distracted today - it's Stacy, isn't it?"

Candace grimaced. "Is it that obvious - wait, upside down solar panels? I didn't do…" Her voice trailed off as she saw Ferb shaking his head. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me. How many of them were upside down?"

Ferb shrugged slightly, gesturing with his hands spread widely apart.

"Oh, great," Candace groaned. "I swear I'm not doing this on purpose. Honestly, I'm not. It's just - like, even right now, I should really be out there. Phineas is - you know how he is! He can't be secretive to save his own life, and it would only take one wrong thing to completely ruin everything and it hasn't even been a whole week yet and I'm already tired of worrying about this but I have to worry, because if I don't, who will?"

Ferb blinked.

"Well, somebody has to!" she continued. "And trying to stay on top of Phineas is hard enough by itself, but I get so nervous that even when we're in private - we might only think we're in private and then get caught - and having to flee to a distant planet whenever we want to do - do couple stuff is inconvenient and would get really taxing on the budget really fast and so the only real option I have is to suck it up and deal because that's what you do… but it's so stressful… and I know I'm not handling it as subtly as I should be, but I'm trying my best, really I am."

She stopped and took a deep breath, winded from the rant.

Ferb reached up and ran his hand through his hair. He glanced around the room for a moment, as if deciding what to say - or being Ferb, deciding if he should say anything at all.

She hoped he would hurry up and decide - she really did need to get out there and salvage what was left of the situation. Still, for some reason, she waited. Ferb didn't say much, so when he did say something, it was generally worth listening to. Unless it wasn't. She swore that if he was to just come with some cheesy one-liner right now...

"If this is how you feel after just four days," he said slowly. "You should probably tell our brother that you want to end things."

"What?" she echoed, surprised. "No! I don't want to do that - it's not like - I don't -" she stopped mid sentence, somewhat surprised at her own violent rejection of the idea.

Ferb raised his eyebrows a bit, and an ever-so-slightly smug expression had crossed his face.

"Haha, okay, very funny." Candace rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes - I get it. You're very deep. It's not even like that… I mean, he's my brother. I just… I don't know. But I can't ditch it, I mean, I don't want to." She paused. "To disappoint him. You know what I mean, right?"

Shrugging again, Ferb shook his head. A small, amused smile crossed his face.

"Ugh." She rolled her eyes again. "Just because I don't want to end it - that doesn't mean that everything's just going to magically fall into place. I mean, seriously. Do you know how stressful it is to have to keep this whole thing secret, yet Phineas is just somehow so carefree about the whole thing?" She threw her hands in the air. "It's like he just doesn't care. And I don't know how he does it, but it doesn't work for me, whatever it is."

Ferb blinked and pointed out the window at the control room at Phineas, who'd since ceased talking with Stacy and now had the blueprint for the bridge out again, appearing to study it.

Stacy was still there, but she was a few feet away, fiddling with her phone.

"What?" she asked, not completely sure what Ferb meant by the motion, and not sure she wanted to know anyway.

Her brother rolled his eyes. He walked closer to the window and pointed directly at Phineas, then turned back to her.

"Phineas?" she asked. "You mean, like… what do you mean?"

He shook his head slightly. "Have you told Phineas about this?"

Told Phineas about this? About… how she worried about this whole mess that was their attempt at going out?

"Pfffft," Candace scoffed. "I can't tell him. He doesn't worry about it, so he shouldn't have to worry about it. It's just me being… worried, even if for a very good reason. Besides, he himself said he was supposed to be my boyfriend now. Which, if true, means I definitely shouldn't. And he has to deal with Isabella, too. Which I… don't really know how that's going, honestly. Should I? I do kind of feel like I should because, well, you know how he is - but I hardly think I could handle another problem to worry about."

Ferb frowned again, shaking his head.

"Look." She was growing exasperated with this whole conversation, but was determined to try and make him understand anyway. After all, he was literally the only person on the planet she could talk about this thing with - barring Irving, which would definitely not be happening. Therefore, it seemed important to an inordinate degree that she convince him she was right - which she definitely was. After all, of the two of them, who exactly had already been in a relationship - admittedly not of this type - for over five years? It certainly wasn't Ferb. "I would like to tell him, really I would. And if I thought he could solve the issue, then I would. But the thing is, I know he can't. Sure, we can sit down and talk about it for ever and ever, and I'm sure he'd be able to make me feel better… but that'd only last for a little while, then it would be even worse than before! You see where I'm going with this?"

Ferb only blinked stoically in response, prompting Candace to groan dramatically.

"Don't give me that! You know I'm right - and I know you know I'm right. Phineas is amazing at a lot of things, but even he can't fix this."

Tilting his head in thought, Ferb slowly nodded.

Candace sighed in relief, thinking she'd finally gotten through to him just how sticky this situation really was, when he spoke up again.

"You're right that Phineas cannot fix this - that's something you have to do. But talking with him about it is still… necessary, really. Given that you said you do not want to break it off - you must realize that this 'danger' you speak of will never be gone. Therefore, you must find some way to be at peace with it. And we both know that Phineas will be more than willing to help you in whatever way possible." He paused momentarily. "Even I will help you, if I can, though there are some things he may be able to do that I simply cannot, given that you are with him, and not me."

Ferb stopped and took a deep breath, obviously not used to such long-winded speeches.

Candace noted the action and smiled at it half-amused, but said nothing, still unsure of what sort of response would be appropriate.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" she finally settled on, even though she knew full well what he'd meant.

Rolling his eyes, Ferb shook his head firmly, clearly indicating that, if nothing else, he did not intend to repeat himself.

She frowned at the motion. Well, now she was back to square one, wasn't she? This whole conversation had been absolutely useless. She hadn't gotten Ferb over to her point of view on things, instead he'd only told her the same thing over and over again - along with reassurance that these worries would never go away, which, frankly, was not what she needed to be told right then.

Plus, she'd completely lost track of Phineas while talking, and could only imagine all the things he was letting spill out even now. Every passing second was a second that they could be found out - and making sure that didn't happen was going to be a full-time job.

She turned back and around and opened the door of the bridge control room, and this time, Ferb made no move to intercept her when she walked out.

"Oh, hey, there you are - finally," Stacy said, suddenly appearing behind her.

"Agh!" Candace jumped what had to be thirty feet into the air. "Why'd you - don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Sorry?" Stacy replied, seeming a bit confused. "I mean, I was just standing there waiting for you to come out. But it's no big deal." She paused for a moment. "So, I'm probably going to head off in a little while, but I thought I might as well get the grand tour before I left."

"Huh? Oh, uh, okay, I guess." Candace glanced around. "Where's Phineas? Did you talk to him - what'd you talk about? Nothing weird, I hope? Look, no matter what he said, you can rest assured that it's not that way, like, just tell me what he said and I'll tell you what part of it is not true - all of it, of course. You know."

Stacy raised one eyebrow. "I mean… all he did was ask me for my sister's number and if she'd told me anything about Isabella. To which I said that no, no she hasn't. Not much else, really."

Oh. Candace breathed a slight sigh of relief. That was okay - but she'd probably still made it out here not a moment too soon. Any slower and, well, you never know what could happen. Although in this case, she knew very well what could happen.

"So where's Phineas now?" she asked. "Do you know?"

Stacy shook her head. "No, he said something about needing to fix, uh, derivatives or something, and ran off. I haven't seen him since."

The derived geothermal nucleomagnetic suspension hyperdrives, probably, Candace thought. But I'm sure I already did those? Oh, dang it. I hope I didn't mess those up too. That would probably explain why we've been having all those issues with suspension.

Well, that was embarrassing. Phineas wouldn't be too upset, she was fairly sure, but again - here was one more piece of evidence that anyone who looked closely enough could easily pick up on. This was the kind of thing she needed to put a stop to. If it had been anyone but Phineas, really, it wouldn't be half so stressful - but her brother was just so bad at figuring out which topics to stay away from. And with the amount that he loved to talk… the implications were very, very worrying.

Suddenly remembering that Stacy was still standing right there, she started violently. "Hi! What were you saying again?"

Stacy raised one eyebrow. "I didn't say anything…?" She shook her head. "I mean, I do have to get home eventually - I know you're not done yet, but it's getting kinda late and I figured you'd want to tell me what all this thing does."

"Oh, uh, yeah, for sure!" Candace stammered. It was getting late, wasn't it? They didn't have much time left before the Force would whisk the project away into the sunset. And Stacy was right - they still weren't done. And she tried to tell herself it was just because a five-thousand-mile-long bridge was too big a project for three teenagers to complete in one afternoon, but she knew that wasn't true. And though she knew her brother would likely never bring it up, the delay was doubtless irking him - having more to do with the many mistakes her distraction had led her to make than with the size or complexity of the project.

Stacy slid her phone into her pocket and waited. Oh, right! Candace was supposed to be explaining this thing.

"It's, uh, it's nothing special really. Just a bridge. That was supposed to go from our backyard all the way to Dad's parents' house in England." She grimaced. "But I don't know if we'll actually make it today."

Stacy raised one eyebrow. "That's pretty unusual, isn't it? You guys not making it, I mean."

Candace swallowed. "Well, not really, I mean, sort of. We do generally manage things like this - but sometimes it just doesn't work out. You know, like, today." She tried to smile innocently, but apparently didn't quite make it, as indicated by the slightly amused, slightly confused expression that crossed Stacy's face.

"Yeah, for sure…" she agreed slowly.

"Right!" Candace announced, not liking that tone of voice and determining to change the subject to avoid it. "So, uh, this here… is a bridge. Our bridge. And that… is the Atlantic Ocean. We're kinda randomly in the middle of it."

"So I have observed," Stacy replied dryly. "The cell signal sucks out here."

"It does," Candace agreed. "But what do you expect? Anyway, that's… kind of it, really. It's just a really, really long bridge. Oh, that floats above its supports via magnetic levitation - like some trains do, only on a much bigger scale. It's for future-proofing, really. You know - tectonic plates and all that. Over the course of a century, the ocean floor'll shift by almost thirteen feet. Having the bridge not solidly anchored to its supports will allow it to remain perfectly stable even despite that."

"Also it'll help it resist hurricane-force winds!" Phineas' voice announced enthusiastically from behind her. "Summertime is hurricane season out here, after all. The Tri-State Area's too far inland to really get any, though we occasionally catch the tail end of one as it's dying. Out here, though? Entirely different story."

Candace nodded. Yes, that was true. Wait, Phineas? Where did he come from all of the sudden? She could feel herself growing nervous again.

Just stay calm, Candace, stay calm. As long as you make sure to pay attention, you'll be able to stop him from saying anything. If he does, which I totally bet he will, just any minute now. And I have to be ready.

"All this fuss about 'future-proofing' seems a little weird," Stacy noted. "Isn't this whole thing going to disappear anyway?" She looked down at her phone for a second. "In, like, an hour or something?"

Phineas looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yeah, you're probably right. I mean, we could've probably thrown together a rickety structure made of wood and had it hold together long enough to last the afternoon. But where'd the fun be in that?"

"Well, I'll let you be the judge of that, I guess," Stacy replied. "Considering I don't really see the fun in any of this. But, hey, you do you and all that."

"Yes, for sure!" Phineas turned to Candace, and for a moment, she grew irrationally afraid that he was going to try to make some… inappropriate gesture. Okay, in all fairness, even given what he'd told her of how he felt, that was still probably the farthest thing from his mind right now. But that didn't mean that it couldn't still slip out unwittingly, right? Her fears weren't completely unjustified. "Speaking of which, we really don't have a lot of time left before Mom finishes her errands - she just texted me asking if there was anything we needed before she checked out." He paused. "I finally got the maglev generators working properly so we can actually try and finish this thing before that."

She should probably apologize, shouldn't she? After all, it was her own distraction that led to all these delays in the first place. But apologizing for the delays would mean admitting to causing them… and she couldn't do that, not with Stacy right here. And admitting that she messed up something so simple as a magnetic field intensifier would definitely tip her off that something was going on - and that that something was a very big deal.

She could bring it up to Phineas later, if she really felt like it. Later when they were alone, or at least away from people from whom they were supposed to be hiding this thing. Which would be... everyone, really, aside from Ferb.

"Oh, uh, yeah, totally," she answered at last. "Uh, I mean, what's left to do?"

...even the fact she had to ask that was proof enough how terribly nervous this whole thing was making her. It wasn't that she didn't trust her brother… no, it was exactly that. Not when it came to secrets. And even all the times he'd tried to reassure her, the times he'd told her that he'd do his best to keep it under wraps - not even that could help, considering it was exactly what she was afraid of.

Phineas didn't seem terribly fazed, at least. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled paper. As he unfolded it, she saw it was the blueprint.

"Not a ton," he said, holding it out where she could see it. "The magnetic repulsion pillars are all in place and fully operational. We just need to extend the actual bridge part of the bridge. There's about fifteen hundred miles left to go. Barring any more setbacks, I think we can just make it."

Barring any more setbacks. Right. Even though he hadn't said - or even implied - that the setbacks were her fault, she knew that they were. Well, at least she had a very good reason for being so all over the place. If Stacy would just leave, honestly, it would be much easier to focus.

It sounded wrong to be thinking that, didn't it? It certainly made Candace feel guilty. Wishing for her best friend to go away - even if it was for an admittedly good reason. She didn't want to lose her friends over this, especially not Stacy. And pushing Stacy away would definitely start putting that at risk of happening. What were the options, though?

There were only two, really. Either end this thing with her brother, so that there was no longer anything to hide; or let it continue, and keep trying to socialize with her friends while acting like nothing at all was going on.

And when it came to the idea of ending her and her brother's new… thing, well, it didn't sit well with her. It would certainly be a lot easier that way, she supposed. Going back to the way they'd been for almost fifteen years now? It was certainly preferable to being a nervous wreck like all day today.

But as she looked over at her brother, who was still eagerly studying the crinkled blueprint in his hands, her brain for some reason tossed that idea right out the window, settling on 'nervous wreck' instead. Well, it was fair enough. Nothing bad had happened - yet, of course. And when that bad thing inevitably did happen, it would not be fun.

Was it even worth this? Candace hardly knew. Phineas must've felt her eyes boring into him, because at that moment, he lifted his to meet them and smiled at her.

It was so weird, really, to be looking at her brother in this light. Of all the weird things in her life, this had to be the weirdest, by far. She still couldn't believe she was even going along with it sometimes.

No one in the history of time itself had ever called Phineas Flynn 'soothing'. Boisterous, exuberant, and infinitely cheerful were far more accurate descriptions. And he hadn't changed a bit - he was still every bit as much those things as he'd been a week ago. And while Candace was pretty sure that she hadn't changed either - something had happened, and she wasn't quite sure what.

A thick fog of silence accompanied by the sloshing of the waves below had settled down on the incomplete bridge. But it was suddenly dashed to pieces by the sound of someone loudly clapping their hands - Stacy.

Stacy.

"What, no, I - we - nothing!" Candace spluttered, feeling herself turn very red. "Don't - don't do that!"

Phineas glanced back at the blueprint, then back at her, for a moment a look of genuine confusion crossing his face.

"I mean, I'm sorry," Stacy said, seeming somewhat amused. "I was just trying to get your attention - I did just asked three times whether you'd want to go shopping or something after you're done here, but you're both staring off into space like a couple of mindless repulsive pharmacists or something." She raised her eyebrow.

"No we weren't!" Candace hastily replied, sounding a little more defensive than she would have liked. "It was, uh, just - just nothing."

She reached over and grabbed ahold of Phineas. "Come on! Let's get this done - we don't have time to be standing around doing nothing if we want to finish this thing before Mom gets home!"

"Oh, I mean, yeah, that's true, I guess," Phineas said, still sounding confused as she pulled him away - back towards the bridge control room that was not more than a few feet away, away from Stacy.

Ferb glanced up from the control panel as she burst in, dragging Phineas behind her, and shutting the door firmly behind them.

"Hey Ferb!" Phineas greeted brightly. "I got the problems all worked out, I think. So we should be good to resume construction now."

Candace felt exasperation rising inside her at the way her brother had apparently just completely forgotten about what had just happened. That was sort of thing she was supposed to be preventing, not - not whatever had just happened.

"You do realize what just happened?" she asked at last, trying to keep her voice from going too high.

"Huh?" Phineas glanced over at her. "Oh, well, I mean, yeah. You are right - that probably wasn't the ideal place, but it was just a small slip." He grinned disarmingly. "I don't think that Stacy's one to make the leap from 'a few seconds of staring' to 'they must be, you know, dating'."

See? This was exactly the reason that she was so worried about Phineas' keeping the secret. Because his brain worked like that - which could be a good thing in a lot of ways, but not in this one. Not at all.

"You don't get it, Phineas!" she exclaimed. "This is how it all breaks down. First little things like that, which aren't much by themselves. But they add up! And they'll just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger and eventually something big will happen - and what then? Every time something little happens, it's just another chink in the dam and eventually it will give way and once it does - once it does, I won't be able to stop it." She paused for breath. "I can just see Stacy out there now - thinking to herself, 'hmm, I wonder why they were staring at each other?' Oh, you know who else stares at each other? Lovers, Phineas, that's who."

Phineas frowned slightly. "Doesn't that seem like kind of a big leap of logic to make?"

"Well, I mean, I guess so," she relented. "But that's not the point! The point is she could make it. It may be a big leap, but it's not that big. And if she does make it - well, we're screwed. And she could be out there right now making it - and we'll never know until it's too late to stop."

"I mean, it's not like it would be too difficult to know," he pointed out. Before she could stop him, he stepped over to the door and and pushed it open.

"Hey, Stacy," he said. "Sorry about that."

Candace winced slightly, taking a step backwards, farther into the room. This was it, then? The end was upon them.

"It's fine," she heard Stacy say. "What was that all about, anyway?"

Phineas reached up and scratched behind his ear. "Nothing."

"Oh." There was a pause. "So, where should I hang out when you guys start working again? Got some specific place?"

Well. That… had worked out surprisingly easily. She could feel Ferb's eyes on her, and turned to face him.

"What?" she hissed. "Just because it worked out this time doesn't mean it'll work out every time. I'm still right, you know."

Ferb just blinked and shrugged, prompting her to roll her eyes in annoyance. He still didn't get it, did he? For all that explaining she'd tried to do - he still couldn't understand. At least, if he did, he wasn't acting like it.

"Come on, Candace," Phineas said, the sound of her own name snapping her out of her thoughts. "We don't have much time left - let's make the most of it."

"And I will stay in here," Stacy announced, planting herself on one of the chairs in the control room. "All this seeing nothing but water on the horizon is making me seasick. I don't really know why I decided to come out here in the first place."

"Well, we do have a teleportation interface set up if you want to go back to Danville," Phineas replied. "Do you?"

She shook her head. "Nah, it's alright. If I went home I'd probably have to clean my room anyway. This way, I don't have to. Plus… yeah." She laughed. "I'm just shirking responsibility. Bad, I know. Oh, well. Might as well do it here, right?"

"Fair enough." He turned back to Candace. "Let's get this going, shall we?"

So Stacy was going to sit in the control room, then? Candace already felt guilty for it - but something about the idea made her feel more at ease. As long as Phineas was with her and Ferb, and they were out in the middle of the ocean were no one else would be - this was probably the safest the secret was going to be in a long time. She had better enjoy the relative security while it last, because it was not going to persist for long. Candace had never been one for secluded, out-of-the-way places, but if she intended on continuing to date her… highly indiscreet brother, then she just might have to get used to them.

For the next thirty or forty minutes, however, everything flowed relatively smoothly. No one was around that might accidentally learn something they shouldn't - and that fact alone helped her relax a considerable amount. It was to the point where, by the time the Force decided to bring the afternoon to an end, she'd not made any more horrific mistakes and was generally able to laugh and admit that while the early part of the day had been disastrous, at least the last little bit had been fun.

Like all good things, however, it had to come to an end. And it did - even though it was a perfectly clear and sunny day, a bolt of lightning streaked down from the blue and struck the generators for the magnetic repulsion that supported the bridge. The generators went into overload from the sudden surge of power, pumping far too much electricity into the electromagnetic repulsors, increasing the strength of the field to the point where the entire bridge was shot off into the sky.

Thankfully, Candace did have her phone this time around. They hastily made their way back to the control room. She grabbed Phineas' hand, he grabbed Ferb's, who in turn took Stacy's.

"Alright," she told her phone, "Take me home."

There was a brilliant flash of purple light, and then - there they were.

Teleportation was an amazing thing, wasn't it? Yes, yes it was.

"Whoa," Stacy said, looking a bit unsteady on her feet. "That was… interesting."

Phineas pulled out a small tracking device and studied the screen on it. "Well, it seems our bridge has just become a space bridge. Based on its trajectory, it'll…" he paused. "...it'll fly straight away from Earth for a while until it gets sucked up by Jupiter's gravitational field, probably falling into the planet." He stuck the tracker back down into his pocket. "Well, that was still a pretty good day, if I do say so myself. Oh, hey, there you are, Perry."

He turned back to Stacy. "Want to join us for pie?"

Candace's eyes widened slightly. No, this wasn't good! All the relaxation and enjoyment of just minutes prior rapidly drained away. As selfish and unfriendly as it may seem, Stacy just couldn't join them for pie. For the rest of the day Candace was going to have to worry to no end about Phineas revealing the secret to their mother or father - and getting either busted for it, or eaten alive by the Mysterious Force. Frankly, of the two options, she couldn't say which would be worse.

Still, that was plenty of people to worry about without Stacy, too. And as much as it made her feel guilty for thinking it - it really would be better if Stacy didn't stick around. They could talk on the phone or something. That would be fine. Just not in person.

Thankfully, it seemed Stacy had the same idea, if for entirely different reasons.

"I'm gonna take off now," she said. "It's almost half-past-three and I really do have stuff to do at home." She paused. "I'll call you this evening, 'kay?"

"Yes, yes, yes! Thank you," Candace agreed, incredibly relieved. Wait - she hadn't sounded too enthusiastic, had she? That wouldn't be good either. "I mean, sure, yeah, that's fine."

Stacy raised one eyebrow but said nothing else of the matter. "Alright. Talk to you later. Phineas, Ferb - see ya."

"Bye!" Phineas waved.

As Stacy turned and disappeared out the fence gate and down the driveway, Candace could practically feel the tension thinning, if only by a little bit. There was still a lot to worry about, but at least this would be part of it - for the time being.

Immediately after, Linda appeared at the sliding glass door and invited them all in for pie.

The pie was good. The conversation - with its constant threat of spilling more to their mother than she should know - was not nearly as good. Having to constantly listen to her brother to be ready to warn him off any subject he should get too close to touching, and knowing that she would likely not be able to stop him in time anyway, made the whole thing uncomfortable and difficult to get into.

By the way Ferb would look at her, she just knew that he knew exactly why she was being so quiet. And by the way that Phineas took that silence in stride and talked enough for the both of them - she could tell that he did not.

Ah, well. It was Phineas. What could you expect?

When the pie was finished at last, Phineas went into his and Ferb's bedroom and shut the door. That action alone worried her to no end. What was he doing in there? It could be any number of things - of very, very bad things.

So she waited in her bedroom, nervously trying to strain her ears and listen through the wall, which worked about as well as it seemed it might.

Finally, however, he opened the door and came back out.

She didn't want to seem too - oh, forget this.

"Phineas!" She marched straight into her brother's room. "What were you doing?"

He glanced up from the desk. "Oh, hey. I was just on the phone."

"With who…?" she urged.

"Huh?" He blinked. "It was Ginger. I just wanted to know if Isabella was feeling any better - if she thought I'd be okay to go over there tomorrow."

"That was all?" she echoed. "There wasn't anything… you know?"

He shook his head and smiled. "Don't worry, Candace. I may be bad at secrets, but I'm not that bad. It'll be okay."

She exhaled loudly and sat down on the foot of his bed. "Yeah, right."

He nodded, obviously entirely missing the sarcasm in her voice. "...well, she said she didn't know exactly, which is fair, I guess. I don't want to show up at the wrong time and make it worse like last time." For a moment, a worried look crossed his face. But he shook his head and smiled, and it was scattered in a moment. "Guess I just have to try. Won't know until then, right? So I will. Tomorrow, probably - though I did ask her to call me back if something major happens."

Candace sighed internally, once again wishing that she could as easily shake off her worries. But then again, her and Phineas' problems were very different ones. Sure, his was important. And it did concern the survivability of a lifelong friendship - whether it would recover from the stunning blow that had been dealt it, or would rot away into nothingness.

Which was important, really. She knew firsthand how much it sucked to lose something like that because of your own stupidity. But still - it couldn't quite compare to the constant stress that she was having to deal with over their secret, now could it?

And that was the reason she couldn't just shake it off like him. It was a good one, she swore.

"Hey, guys. Whatcha doin'?" Linda walked into the room.

"Meap!" Candace felt as if her heart had leapt up into her throat. "Nothing! Nothing at all!" She could feel herself paling for no good reason at all.

She had to get out of here. Turning around, she pushed past their mother and darted through the hallway into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind her.

Leaning against the inside of the door, she tried to calm herself with several deep breaths.

Nothing happened, Candace. Nothing at all. It's alright. Nothing happened.

She sank down to the floor as she listened to the conversation outside.

"Whoa," Linda said. "She seems… nervous today, hmm?"

"You know, you're right," Phineas agreed slowly. "I wonder why that is. I wonder if… huh."

"Well, whatever. I just wanted to let you know that we're having leftovers for dinner. So don't expect much tonight."

"Leftover tacos? Sounds good to me."

"I had a feeling you'd say that. Well, I'm off. Be easy on your sister."

Candace rolled her eyes, then sighed again.

Was being this on edge all the time really worth it? It was really starting to wear her down. But how was she supposed to relax at all with something as sensitive as their secret in someone like Phineas' hands? The only real alternative was to defuse the bomb before it could go off - to break it off with Phineas now.

But if she'd decided, for whatever idiotic reason, that she didn't want to do that, then there really was nothing she could do about it.

This whole thing was rapidly spiralling out of control, and she didn't know how much longer she could take it.