The Villain was defeated, and the boys were off to school. Perry curled up on the couch, and stared at the picture of the last Flynn-Fletcher picnic, while he turned a watch with a broken clasp over and over in his hands. Oh Annie…
His own wristwatch beeped less than twelve hours after Monogram had promised him time off. At least it's a diversion. To be honest though, his heart just wasn't in it today. To his surprise it was Doofenshmirtz.
Doof smiled. "Uh, hey, Perry the platypus. Monobrow gave me the link for your watch so that I could contact you now that I'm good. He just made me promise not to bother you, which I'm probably doing right this second. But I'm not trying to. I just wanted to tell you that all I'm doing is working on the Teleport-inator some more, so you stay right at home, and, you know… just, rest up, kay?"
Perry nodded and mustered up a grateful smile.
"Okay. Congrats on your victory. See you whenever you want."
He sighed as the signal beeped out. Sure, he didn't feel like going all the way over to Doof's, or listening to him ramble, but just being alone was going to drive him crazy. Stop stalling. You know what you need to do.
He shuddered, then got up, and headed over to Annie's house. Aside from his promise, someone would have to wipe all her files and he felt like it ought to be him. It was all he could do for her. He set his face firmly, and put his hat on. As he passed by the kitchen, he stopped, and decided to go in first. It's time to start letting go.
He walked into the kitchen, and quietly got himself a glass of milk, and a plate, than sat down at the table, took a cookie from the jar, and sat it on the plate. All so familiar. The request hadn't made a whole lot of sense at the time, but he thought he understood now.
She'd known how he'd feel, if something happened to her. So she'd asked him to do this one simple thing to remember her by. Because, she wanted to make sure he had this small shred of comfort, no matter what. It was her own special way of telling him not to let the good times go to waste just because there weren't going to be anymore.
He picked up the cookie, opened his mouth, and closed his eyes, imagining all the times he'd stopped by for snacks, his friend's welcoming smile, her quirky ways, and comforting voice... he closed his mouth as he set the cookie down. He just couldn't do it.
He'd thought he'd used up all his tears, but apparently he was wrong. He sat there until his sobs gave way to quiet gasps.