I didn't mention this before, but I don't own any of the characters, kay?

Chapter 2

"Candace, honey, can you put away your clothes?" Linda Flynn called up the stairs in the direction of her daughter's room. She heard the slightly annoyed "Yes, Mom," she'd expected and continued into the living room.

And stopped.

Over on the couch a strange teal haired woman was sitting quietly. Well, not really sitting so much as lying front-down on the cushions with her legs and arms tucked beneath her torso and an unfocused look in her brown eyes.

"Oh…kay… Um… hello…" Linda murmured before slowly backing out of the living room and into the kitchen. "Honey!" she called, trying not to sound hysterical.

"Yes, dear?" Lawrence called from just inside the garage.

"There's a strange woman in our living room!" Linda called back. She heard a mumble of "oh, dear," from the garage and was soon joined in the kitchen by her husband. He peaked around the doorway into the living room. The woman was still sitting there like nothing was happening.

"Well, now, that is a bit odd, isn't it?" Lawrence commented. "Get the phone. I'll try and talk to her." Linda hurried over to the cordless phone as Lawrence carefully walked toward the couch.

"Well, hello there," he greeted her cautiously. "You seem a bit lost. Is there anything we can do for you? Someone we can call, perhaps?"

The woman just gave a strange sound somewhere between a clicking and a growl.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that," Lawrence replied. The woman looked up in his direction, but her eyes remained out of focus. Lawrence frowned. "Okay… I don't mean to be rude," he began hesitantly. "But you've given my wife quite a fright. So… I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid you'll have to leave." The first sign of emotion showed in the woman's face at that. A slight look of worry as her eyes focused on him. Lawrence saw this and felt remorse as his resolve slipped a bit.

"Is she gone?" Linda peaked into the living room. She saw the woman still on the couch. "Honey, is she giving you any trouble? Should I call the police?"

"Oh, no, no," Lawrence replied quickly. "No need for that. But… she seems a bit lost. Don't you think that maybe there's something we could do for her?"

"We can't let strange people into our house," Linda murmured under her breath. "We have three kids to protect, you know."

"What are you protecting us from?"

Linda and Lawrence looked up toward the stairs at the sound of Phineas's voice. He and Ferb stopped halfway down the stair case when they saw the woman on the couch.

"Hey, cool hair," Phineas said to the woman. She gave out a short growl/click in reply. Phineas looked up at his brother. "Huh, she sounds like Perry." He frowned then and looked around. "Where is Perry?"

"Honey…" Linda murmured meaningfully. Lawrence sighed.

"Very well." He took the woman's hand and helped her up off the couch. She didn't resist, but she didn't help him either. "I'm so very sorry about this," Lawrence told her as he led her to the front door. "I do wish there was something we could do to help you out, but my wife is getting nervous." He opened the door and led her out. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a ten dollar bill and handed it to her. "Use this for the bus to get where ever you need to go and find yourself a nice snack, okay? Okay then. Have a good evening." With that, he shut the door and locked it.

Perry stood on the step, the bill in one hand, staring at the door.

She hadn't really thought this plan was going to work, but having no other ideas she had thought she would try it. The Flynn-Fletchers weren't stupid, but they weren't the most observant people either. She had thought maybe she would get a day or two to think up another plan.

Now what?

She looked down at the ten. That wouldn't get her very far. A bus ride and a snack, sure, but after that she would be broke. She really only had one option…

Sighing, Perry turned and walked down the sidewalk toward the bus stop.

By the time she got off the bus down town, Perry had actually managed to convince herself that this could be a good thing. While she had enjoyed being the family pet and would sincerely miss the Flynn-Fletcher family, being human could be interesting. As of yet, she hadn't decided whether she'd try to contact Major Monogram or not. Honestly, she could probably do better than working for him. He got a bit annoying sometimes.

Well, she had a week to think about it. After that, Doofenshmirtz would have the reverse ray done and all this would be forgotten. At least, it had better be.

Perry looked up at the towering building, its illuminated windows and company sign lighting up the night, before ringing the doorbell. It was a bit odd that a corporate building would have a doorbell, but then again, this was Doofenshmirtz.

It took three more rings before Perry heard an annoyed, "I'm coming! I'm coming! Geesh!" Then the door opened and Doofenshmirtz grumbled "What do you—" He stopped when he saw her, and a grin broke out over his face. "Perry Who-is-No-Longer-the Platypus! You came back!" He caught her up in a hug before she had a chance to react. "I knew you would!" He declared. Perry had to wonder what it was about their previous encounter that had made the man even remotely believe she would be coming back.

He let her go and stepped to the side, motioning for her to come in. "Now, where are my manners? Come in, come in. If you're hungry help yourself to anything in the kitchen. I'm sorry I don't have much, but I'm used to cooking for one when Vanessa's not here and I usually just get take out. We could go grocery shopping later if you want, just let me know if you need anything. This is your home now, too, you know."

At that, Perry held up one finger and scowled a bit.

"Right, right," Doofenshmirtz held up his hands in an I-mean-no-harm gesture. "One week. I know. But, well, I'm just trying to think positive here. Is that so bad?"

Perry rolled her eyes but her scowl faded and she shook her head. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Honestly, the thought of spending one week here, not working, and not having to worry about Doofenshmirtz pulling any evil stuff sounded like a pretty good vacation.

Mm… vacation. Yeah, a vacation was just what Perry needed. The thought made her realize just how worn out she actually was. Of course, that had more to do with fighting, being knocked unconscious, having her species and gender changed, being asked out by her nemesis, and being thrown out of her own home all in one day. Yep, it had been quite a day even by Agent P's standards.

Feeling the weight of the day's events suddenly pressing on her, Perry trudged toward the elevator thinking only of the bed she had woken up in just a few hours earlier.

"Perry-Who-is-No-Longer-the Platypus, where are you going?" Doofenshmirtz called after her. Perry simply pointed toward the ceiling without so much as slowing down. "What? You're going to bed already? But it's still early!" He began following her to the elevator which would take her to the higher levels of the Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc. building.

Perry ignored him as she reached the elevator and pressed the "up" button. The doors opened immediately and she entered the box. Unfortunately, so did Doofenshmirtz.

"I was thinking maybe we could watch a movie or something," he said as the elevator rose. Perry kept her eyes on the numbers above the door as they lit up one at a time. Doofenshmirtz pressed on, "You know… pop some popcorn, get some soda, lots of pillows and blankets on the couch… doesn't that sound nice and cozy? Just spend some quality time together. We've never done that before. Well, you know, without trying to destroy each other…"

The number for the floor Doofenshmirtz lived on mercifully lit up and the elevator stopped with a slight jerk. Perry was out the door as soon as it was open wide enough for her to fit through, but Doofenshmirtz was right behind her. She did her best to tune him out as she walked down the hallway.

"Or it doesn't have to be a movie," he tried, again falling into step behind her. "We could… uhhmm… well… Okay, honestly I was kind of banking on the movie idea. I really hadn't thought out any alternatives."

They were now at the door to the room in which Perry had woken up. She opened the door and stepped inside, flicking the lights on as she did. Sensing that Doofenshmirtz was about to follow her yet again, she turned, shook her head once then shut the door in his face.

"Well that was kind of rude." She heard him say from outside the door. "If you didn't want to do anything you could have just told me. Well, whatever. I'll be in my room if you need me. You've broken in here enough times you should know where everything is…" he sounded slightly bitter at that. Perry heard him sigh before he called, "Good night, Perry-Who-is-No-Longer-the Platypus. Sweet dreams."

Perry hesitated, wondering if she should do anything that might encourage this annoying behavior, and then gave a small sigh of her own. She gave her usual clicky-noise in reply. This must have satisfied him, because Doofenshmirtz didn't say anything else and Perry heard the sound of his footsteps fading down the hall. Once they faded away completely, she let out a deep, tired sigh and half sat, half collapsed to the floor. She felt better almost immediately. From here, the view-point was what she was used to.

She did a quick survey of the room. It was a small room. The bed was against the wall farthest from her, but would still only take maybe three steps to get to. This put the small table only about two steps from her. A couple wooden sliding doors were set into the wall to her right. Perry knew this to be a small closet from her memorization of the building's blueprints. A full-length mirror on the wall opposite the closet was the only other thing in the room. Perry found her eyes drawn to the reflective glass and stared.

She had been human now for nearly half a day, but this was the first time she had actually seen herself and paid attention. She was short with an athletic build and breasts much smaller than the ones she always saw on similarly built women on TV; but that much she had already known about herself. She also knew that her hair was the teal color her fur had been, but hadn't realized how straight it was. It fell to a sharp, even cut at her chin with not even a hint of wave to the strands. Perry thought of all the curlers, straighteners, crimpers, and hair driers Candace always had laying around and silently made herself a promise that she'd never use anything like that in the name of beauty. Of course, Candace was going to be a girl a lot longer than Perry planned to. It shouldn't be that hard a promise to keep.

Her eyes stared back at her, the same color brown they had been as a platypus but looked darker next to the paleness of her skin which had only seen sunlight once. She knew from her arms, neck, shoulders, and chest that the rest of her body was this same paleness. Most of it, however, was covered either by the tight tank top that matched her hair, or the brown pants which would have matched her hat nicely if it had still fit her. The hat was currently stuffed into one of the pockets of those pants.

Perry stared at the unfamiliar face looking back at her from the mirror. She hated to admit it, but the fact that Doofenshmirtz could create a device that could do something like this was actually pretty amazing. She'd never let him know that, but it was true.

She pushed the thought from her mind, blaming it on fatigue, and got back to her feet. Three heavy steps later and Perry was curled up on the bed. She didn't use the pillow and she didn't bother getting beneath the covers. She never had before.

As she drifted toward sleep, she stretched, rolled over, and tried to cuddle up to a body that wasn't there. She opened her eyes and stared at the empty side of the bed, sleep retreating from her quickly. She was used to sleeping with Phineas or Ferb at night.

That brought up a new set of thoughts. How were the boys taking the fact that their pet platypus had failed to come home tonight? Perry and Phineas had been together for as long as either of them could remember, and she had gotten close to Ferb shortly after he had become part of the family years ago.

Perry sighed and sprawled out on her back. She felt completely worn out, but knew it was going to take some time before she would manage to fall asleep now.

Doofenshmirtz had better get that device made soon, or Perry was going to be facing a lot of sleepless nights.

Doofenshmirtz is a lonely little man. Actually, only part of that is accurate. He's over six feet tall! I read that somewhere…