Chapter 7-Hey, I didn't leave you with more than a 5 second cliffee! (Unless you pressed review, which i hope you did)

Did anyone figure out Frank yet? You'll understand the "grape" pun in a few minutes. My dad does that all the time. "Oh, lets go buy some grapes!" "Oh, what a grape idea!" not really funny after 6 million times.

hardy har har...here's my chapter. Read, love, and then...

I stand up and have my hand on the doorknob when the little British voice draws me back.

"Frank."

CANDACE POV

I spin around, catching my heel on the carpet and almost falling over, tears filling my eyes, not willing to believe I had just heard what I had heard. "What?" I whisper, my throat clogging with the words.

"Ferb is short for Frank," Ferb manages to choke out. His eyes have an almost sly look to them as he raises his half lowered lids to look at me.

I'm half laughing, half crying at the statement that has brought him back, and I wrap my arms around him gingerly, afraid he might break if I squeeze too hard.

"Thank the Lord you're OK," I say, pulling away carefully. "What on earth were you thinking?"

"I was-was thinking…about how I'd rather only want one of us…hurt, rather than *cough* all of us," he gasps out, panting a little from the exertion.

My laughing dies away, and I wipe my hands under my eyes, trying to stop the flow of tears. Ferb takes a deep breath and rasps out a barely audible "Perry and Phineas."

I smile, and lay a hand gently on his cheek. "They're both awake and eating. Perry has a broken tail and wrist, Phineas a broken arm and leg and tons of bruises and cuts on both of them. But you…..you really had us worried."

Ferb smiles weakly.

"You up to eating anything?" I ask, standing up slowly in order to not wiggle the bed. Ferb shakes his head so slowly, I barely catch it. I wonder how much it must hurt him to move and talk at all, with his ribs the way they are. I turn and am halfway out the door when I just barely hear a soft "I love you too."

Rather than turn around, I let a wider smile alight on my face and shut the door behind me. I turn, ready to jump for joy, when I see Perry coming down the hall, his hands full of grapes, most of which he is currently stuffing into his beak. He must be really hungry. He glances up from his current fruit victim and when he sees the expression I know must be on my face, he raises his eyebrows until they disappear into his hat. He pops the grape into his mouth and cocks his head at me.

"He's awake," I say, feeling my smile widen (if that's even possible).

Every single grape but the one currently in his mouth falls to the floor, as does Perry's beak, taking care of that lonesome grape, who is now well on his way to becoming vacuum bag filler. A slow smile spreads across Perry's face, and then he glances down at the mess he's made and winces. Finally, he disregards it and darts to the door, opening it swiftly with his paw. His smile becomes a grin and he flies into the room happily.

I carefully step over the grapes, and make my way to the kitchen, running into that robot Norm.

"Hey, there are grapes on the floor," I say, hoping his job is to clean up. "Can you go pick them up?"

He begins to walk away, but before I can say anything, I hear him announce "Going to pick up grapes!"

I giggle and finally get to the kitchen, wondering if he actually will pick up the grapes. A quick glance at the clock in the corner shows me it's almost 7:30. Man, time is going slowly. It always seems to happen in these random periods of 11 minutes. Huh.

I walk over to Dr.D, who is currently cooking more food, as it looks like Buford has eaten most of it, judging by the 5 empty plates around him.

"Any request before Sir Greedy eats the rest of my food, and possibly my house too?" Dr. D says, turning to glare at Buford.

"Hey man," the bully says, holding up his hands, "I would only eat your house if it was gingerbread."

Dr. Doofenshmirtz scoffs and turns back to me. "So, anything?"

"Yeah," I say. "I'll take some pancakes, sausage, oh, and can you go see if Ferb wants anything to eat?"

Everyone turns to look at me, their eyes wide as saucers. "He's awake?" Jeremy asks.

I nod. "Completely."

Everyone begins to get up from their seats, Isabella helping Phineas from his chair, with Baljeet keeping a close eye on him. I hold up my hands quickly. "Whoa, hold up you guys!" I cry.

"What?" Baljeet asks.

"Guys, I know you want to see him, but he probably can't handle this many visitors right now."

Phineas looks troubled. "But-"

Vanessa, who has appeared behind him with Pinky at her side, puts a hand on Phineas' shoulder. "Phineas, think about it. Ferb just woke up and is probably in a lot of pain. He needs his rest."

I nod my thanks to her and look up as Carl speaks. "Who's with him now?"

"Take a wild guess," I say, and throw my arm out at the room, currently missing only one person,err, monotreme.

"Perry?" Isabella asks.

"Bingo."

Everyone sits back down, though reluctantly, and I turn back to Dr. D, who is still holding a pan of what I recognize as sausages in his hand. "Can you go check on him? You know, to like, check on his bandages and what not?"

"Of course," Dr. D says, and then glares over at Buford. "Just make sure that boy doesn't eat me out of house and home."

Buford throws his arms out in a "who, me?" motion, and Dr. D rolls his eyes and leaves. I chuckle at the squabbling and take a bite of the sausage, chewing it several times before realizing it tastes like sawdust.

FERB POV (Right as Perry walks in)

Perry dives into my room, looking like he's going to pass out with excitement-I mean, his bill is in such a widespread smile that it looks like it's going to crack. He walks over to my bed and attempts, without much success, to hug me without hurting me. I deal with the pain and rub his back with little circles that barely hurt my hand at all.

He looks over my injuries, raising his eye at a few, and then looks up at me in concern.

"I'm doing OK. I'm sore, but I'm OK. You?" I whisper, trying not to move my lips much in order to keep the pain at a minimum. Perry waves a hand at me, dismissing my concern. I smile and open my mouth to ask a question, when I notice the look on his face.

His smile has fallen, and he's looking at me sadly. "What?" I ask, confused.

He looks regretful, but he motions with his arm to my hands. I frown, still not getting it. He sighs, and pulls one of our baseball launchers out of nowhere. He motions hammering on it, and then looks at me again, his eyes asking if I get it. I blink, and then it dawns on me:

Building. Creating. Making. Doing.

My hands are crushed. I-I might never be able to build again. Or invent anything with Phineas and Isabella and Baljeet and even Buford…ever again.

My eyes well up with tears, and Perry looks like he wants to kick himself. He probably would have, too, if the door hadn't opened and Dr. D hadn't walked in. I didn't want Perry to be mad though. I mean, it would have occurred to me at some point.

"Hey, kid, how ya doing?" Dr. D asks me. I look up and his face scrunches in confusion, most likely because I'm crying.

"What's wrong?"

I motion cautiously with my left arm to the baseball launcher at the end of the bed and Dr. D pauses, looking confused. I'm about to open my mouth to explain when Perry takes off his hat and pulls a wallet out of it. He opens it up, and to my surprise, pictures of some of the inventions we had created earlier in the summer flip out, with Phineas, Candace, Isabella, or I caught in most of them. Dr. D's eyes widen. "You kids built all of this stuff?"

I nod.

"Wow. You know what, kid, get some rest. Oh, hang on. I stopped at the bathroom and got you some sleep-aid Tylenol. Here."

He hands me the pill and a glass of water, and I swallow the medicine easily. Dr. D takes the glass back, and turns to leave. "Come on Perry the Platypus, we should probably let him rest."

Perry nods and, with an apologetic glance at me, follows Dr. D out of the room.

PERRY'S POV

Geez, why did I even bring up him not being able to build stuff? Me and my big…um, beak? More like my hand motions. I look up as Dr. D closes the door.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Without him, my boys could be dead….and I could, too. If I didn't know any better, I'd say there wasn't an evil bone in his body. Before he can go back to the kitchen, I tug on his lab coat.

He glances down at me. "What?'

I smile as gratefully as my sore head will allow me and nod my thanks. Dr. D smiles.

"No problem. You know, they're good boys. They are so creative and full of life…I'd hate to see either one of them not able to do anything for the rest of their lives, even if they do happen to own you. This is why I'm going to help."

He begins to walk away and I blink before hurrying after him, slapping my broken arm against my side twice. I chatter to get his attention and he smirks. "You'll see."

We walk into the kitchen, where, unsurprisingly, there are a large number of dishes in front of Buford and where, surprisingly, there isn't a dirty spot in sight, except for the leaning tower of dishes. They must have cleaned up.

Dr. D takes a breath. What is he doing? "Um, guys?" he says timidly.

They all look up, Buford with another forkful of something halfway to his mouth.

"Ferb is doing absolutely fine," he declares, and is met with a sigh of relief, "but he has figured out that since his hands are pretty much crushed, he'll probably never be able to work with tools again."

At this statement, the 4 kids in the room freeze, and they all begin looking at one another in clear despair. "What?" Phineas cries. "But…I can't build like he can! I come up with the ideas and help him put them together, but I don't do all the main stuff!"

Dr. D smiles. "That's why I've come up with a plan. But I'll need all of your consent."

I glance over at the assortment of people as they all look at each other. Finally, Candace leans forward. "All right. Shoot."

REVIEW! yup! so, what is Dr. D's plan?

hmmmmm. i wonder...no i don't.

i had to make Buford a very hungry person, and i couldn't lose Dr. D's evil side completely, even if it was just a sprinkling. i thought it would be enjoyable to see Perry finally get clumsy, and i liked it (i Love Perry, don't think i don't. it was just amusing). how about you?

R and R some more!