Phineas relayed his conversation with Manny, as well as his idea, to Isabella. She instantly loved it. They were to create a romantic restaurant so that Manny and his friend would get together.

To start with, there was an overarching problem to deal with when they started construction in the backyard. Phineas realized that without his usual friends, there would be an enormous shortfall of manpower. It would all be up to him and Isabella. Despite the difficulty though, he fully trusted her.

To make it possible for the both of them to build it, Phineas ordered a prefabricated concrete base and walls, as well as the necessary machinery to help. When the walls were propped up and joined together, he ordered prefabricated trusses, along with other roofing, construction, and decorative materials. He did the roofing and outdoor work, while Isabella was in charge of the indoor decoration and organizing. Before they knew it, the restaurant was complete. It looked just like a Parisian café from the outside, and the inside was just as romantic. Inside, Isabella swooned at what both she and Phineas had created.

Phineas' mind was one full of mathematical concepts and formulas. Laws of physics and properties of materials. This left no room for Phineas to consider other things, like climate conditions. Thus, he had failed to see a second challenge to deal with: the desert sun. They were finished by midday, avoiding the worst of the heat. Nonetheless, the temperature climbed into the hundreds during construction. Roofing and doing the outdoor work in the unforgiving sun had taken a toll on Phineas; he was completely drained of energy.

After installing the restaurant's sign, he barely managed to get off of the ladder without falling off. He saw yellow stars as he entered the restaurant. His forehead felt hot and cold at the same time. His lips felt parched. If this would have been Danville, he would have walked up to Isabella and congratulated her. But this was El Paso. He quietly trudged towards a table, and plopped into a chair. He laid his head on the new tablecloth. He felt his warm breath, now irregular, on the cloth.

Isabella at first was excited when she heard Phineas walk into the restaurant. She was just about to congratulate him on his hard work, comment on how beautiful the whole place looked, when she turned around. She immediately noticed; something is wrong with my Phineas. His face was as red as a tomato, and his gaze was not the usual confident stare. It was spaced out, his face showing fatigue. Freaked out, she saw him plop into a chair, his head collapsing onto the table. She was frozen with surprise, until she realized:

"Oh my God! Are you okay!"

She hated how obvious the answer to her question was. She ran over to where Phineas was limply sitting, and tried to attend him as best as she could. "What's wrong Phin?"

Phineas mumbled something barely audible. The fact that his head was facing down into the tablecloth didn't help. Isabella knew what this was, though. Heat exhaustion. She knew what to do. She lifted his upper body off of the table and back onto the chair, which was harder than usual as he was so limp. It's like moving a dead person, she thought. Oh God, hopefully not. Knock on wood…darn, there's no wood in sight!

She took off his shirt. It was dripping with sweat, but his forehead was dry. This was severe. Fortunately, the plumbing and electricity were already installed. Isabella rinsed his shirt, and filled it with newly made ice. She grabbed a wet towel along the way. When she returned to Phineas, he was again lying on the table, softly moaning. She carefully put the wet towel on his back, and pressed the shirt filled with ice on his head.

"Phin, put this on your forehead" she instructed in a nurse-like tone. "It will help bring your temperature down. I'll be back with some water."

Phineas weakly obeyed, and Isabella ran over to the kitchen to get a glass, filling it with water. She brought it back, putting it up to his lips as he drank slowly. When the glass was emptied, he sighed, and smiled weakly. Isabella had a small tear running down her cheek. "You have to take care of yourself Phineas. That scared me."

"The restaurant had to be finished. I forgot about the heat, and didn't drink enough water."

"You didn't drink water that entire time?" asked a worried Isabella.

"Yeah, I brought a little water. It was one bottle, and I downed it in no time. Before I knew it, the restaurant was finished, and I was totally exhausted and hot. I don't even know how I installed the sign. I thought I was going to fall off the ladder."

"Phin, you need to take care of yourself" Isabella said in a half worried, half annoyed tone. "Good thing I'm a Fireside Girl and know what to do to treat heat exhaustion. But that's not an excuse. You scared the wits out of me." Another tear rolled down her cheek.

Phineas looked at Isabella, still holding the icy shirt to his forehead. He put the shirt down on the table. A lone ice cube slid out and formed a wet circle in the tablecloth. He grabbed her by the shoulders and puller her into a weak hug. Isabella returned the embrace, as her emotion started spilling out like a bag of marbles. Phineas felt her chest shake against him with each sob. He rubbed her back and pulled her closer. "It's okay, it's over now. I'm sorry, Izzy."

Between a sob and a sniffle, she said "I'm just afraid that something will happen to you. I'm afraid to lose you." Sniffle. "You mean a lot to me."

"I'll always be here for you, Isabella. You mean the world to me. When I was panting and almost at the point of passing out, I couldn't help thinking, this is it." Phineas paused. "Then…I thought of you. All of a sudden, I had extra energy in me. Not Energizer bunny energy, because I was still weak. But it motivated me to try to stay awake. That's when you came around."

Isabella pulled away and looked into Phineas' eyes. He wiped the tears off her cheeks, not standing the sight of them, even if they were for him. She smiled, eyes sparkling. "Really?"

"Yes, you saved my life, in more ways than one." Phineas took a good look at Isabella and chuckled. "Where would I be without you?"

"I don't want to even think about it. But you're here with me right now, and that's all that matters" Isabella said as she hugged Phineas again.

"Yeah. We're together right now. That's all that matters."

Right about here, I felt a sudden urge to shake things up a bit with a little drama. I hope that the symptoms of heat exhaustion and the dialogue between Isabella and Phineas were pretty realistic. Feel free to review to let me know what you think.

If you feel that the story is moving a little too slow with the Phinabella, keep in mind that they are taking a two week vacation. Anything (and I mean anything) can happen. There is a quite serious suspense scene a few chapters down the road, which I won't reveal, but Phineas and Isabella will get more romantic as the story goes on. Don't worry, the wait will be worth it :)

Until then, happy reviewing!