"Can I go inside?"
"Yes, Phineas, go ahead, Ariana wants to play with you!"
"What should we play, Ariana?"
"I dunno...what do you wanna play?"
I reach out for her hand and she holds it.
That's when I realise...she's not there.
"Daddy?"
He's not there, too.
Phineas could barely keep himself conscious. He was fighting it all, fighting the world, his own conscience, the death he had just witnessed in the chamber. And still he had to fight. For Isabella. For her, too.
Numbly, he looked around. There was Isabella's mom, her face equally numb with shock. There was his own mum, who looked at him. And there, back to his normal diminuitive self, always there but never talking, was Ferb.
Perhaps he should close his eyes. Maybe nothing would happen if he closed his eyes and didn't observe, because quantum theory stated that if no-one observed something, it didn't happen...
He opened his eyes. That's no good, Mum and Isabella's mom are still looking, looking at...Isabella?
For there was Isabella, waving and smiling at him.
Then, she's gone, too.
"Clear!" the doctor shout. The heart monitor showed a single, flat line. Asystole. He applies the paddles.
"Minimal contractions. Possibly v-fib...But there's no blood pressure.
The doctor said, "Increase the voltage!"
"220 volts, now!"
"Clear!"
Again the girl's body jerked. Again the pink bow shook. Again there were minimal contractions and flatline.
The ER team looked at each other and knew this was their final chance. If her heart didn't restart now, it never would.
The doctor shuddered a little. Twenty years of experience did not leave him numb to death.
"Maximum voltage, 300 volts!"
"Clear!"
The body shook. The girl jerked. But the heart rhythm remained resolutely flat.
"Blood volume?"
"It's fine. Everything else is working."
"Everything but this heart."
Everyone in the ER visibly slumped at this final proclamation of death. Yet they knew it was absolute and final.
The doctor just looked on, defeated as his assistants made notes: Time of death: 5:39 A.M. Possible cause: cardiac failure due to hypovolemic shock-
What was that?
The doctor went to look.
The doctor comes out to the waiting room through a haze of tiredness. In fact, he oozed tiredness as well. He says his name is Dr. Doyle-
-I don't want to hear this man. If I can't hear it, it's not real...it's not real...
-and he says-
"She has lost a lot of blood..."
I know that. I have her blood on my shirt.
"We had to infuse several units of blood..."
If only it could be done when she got hit.
"She went into severe shock..."
I could barely feel a pulse on her.
"Once, we had to revive her..."
I know I can't be revived if she died.
"We tried everything to keep her alive..."
So did I.
"and so far, she's alive."
He hoped sitting by Isabella's bedside would banish the nightmares. But the nightmare was real.
He hoped day would burn away all bad memories. Instead, it only burnt them into his mind.
As the day broke and the sun poured in onto Isabella's face, he felt tired. The sun's rays hurt. Since when had he longed for the night?
He was barely conscious of someone tapping his shoulder. He couldn't be bothered to see who it was, and neither did he particularly care. So many emotions mixed up inside of him...
He wished all the emotions would blow him apart. Saving him the slow, painful death of being eaten up by them.
The tapping at his shoulder continued. Aware he could no longer feign sleepiness, he looked around.
There was a man, possibly not out of college, in purple-rimmed glasses. Standing alongside another man in a green suit. The words 'MM' were written upon it.
Phineas could sense that somehow their arrival brought bad news, but didn't particularly care.
The college kid spoke first. "Phineas, about your pet, Perry-"
Just then Perry walked into the room. Phineas embraced him with no particular gusto. "Oh, there you are, Perry."
Perry made his typical rrrrrr sound, then saw Monogram and Carl, and froze.
Carl continued. "You know, now that you know Perry's a secret agent..."
Phineas listened, intrigued. What could this random person want with Perry? And how did he know Perry was a secret agent?
"...we have to transfer him elsewhere."
Phineas listened, disbelief written in his eyes. How could Fate be so cruel to him?
"There's got to be some other way!"
Major Monogram listened, remembering how this exact question was asked five years ago. He had an answer then-but not now.
"The Amnesia-inator is broken, and does not seemed likely to be fixed. It's too dangerous Phineas, we've got to keep you safe-"
"Well, you've done a great job then, haven't you?" Phineas was standing up now, walking across the room, away from Monogram. "Yup, just your normal everyday activities: being chased by robots, hitting back at them, jumping down 400 feet and watching your dad die. And to top it off you want to take him from me too!" The anger in Phineas' voice had made it harsh.
"That's why we want to take him, Phineas, we don't want you to face anymore such things!" Monogram was insistent.
"I've done a better job of surviving that long night that you have protecting me! AND I THINK I CAN HANDLE WHATEVER THEY THROW AT ME! WHO SAVED HER LIFE WITH A 400-FOOT JUMP-
"Phineas, calm down!" Carl was shocked.
"ME! I THINK I HAVE A RIGHT TO KEEP HIM!"
Monogram sighed and prepared to call in reinforcements, but just then, Phineas spoke, in a much softer tone. Somehow it sounded more dangerous then when he was shouting.
"We'll let Perry decide. It's either him," pointing at Monogram, "or me. Perry: how do you choose?"