The next day, before the sun rose above the horizon, Ferb Fletcher heard someone knocking on his front door. Groaning, the green-haired young man rolled over, burrowing his head into his pillow. He was just about to fall asleep when the doorbell rang. He groaned again and covered his head with his pillow. His wife rolled closer to him and poked him in the side.
"Go get the door," she said, eyes still closed. Ferb moaned.
"No," he mumbled. "Whoever it is will go away eventually." At that moment, the bell continued to ring, ringing faster with every passing second.
"I'm thinking they won't," Vanessa replied back, kicking her husband off the bed. Ferb hit the floor with a thud. He groaned and slowly got up.
"Fine," he said, yawning. "I'll get it." Shuffling out his bedroom, he slowly began making his way towards the front door. Whoever was waking him up at this hour better have a good excuse.
"Who is it?" Ferb asked when he finally arrived at the door. He yawned again as the ringing began to stop.
"It's me Ferb. Open up." Ferb sighed as he recognized the voice and opened the door. But before he could complain about the time of the visit, his brother pushed him to the side and entered his house.
"So I was thinking a rollercoaster for the wedding. Isabella loves rollercoasters. Or maybe a giant waterslide and we could have it during the summer. Oh, how about Atlantis. No, wait, Atlantis wants to stay lost. How about a Safari? We could ride up to the alter on giraffes. Wait, what about a wedding in Paris on the Summer Solstice. We can fly from Danville to Paris and make pit stops in Tokyo and Nepal just like we did ten summers ago. What about-"
"Phineas!" Ferb exclaimed, stopping his brother's rant. "What are you talking about?"
"Our wedding," Phineas said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "She said yes." Ferb's eyes widened.
"She said yes?" Ferb asked, surprised. Then he smiled and rushed over to hug his brother. "Congratulations Phineas!"
"Yeah," Phineas said, half-listening. He seemed to have more important things on his mind. "I want this wedding to be special, just like our date last night. I want something that shows all of our past adventures; the rollercoaster, the trip around the world, S'Winter, the cattle drive, the robot riot."
"She's not supposed to know about the robot riot," Ferb said. "Not even we are supposed to know about that. If Perry hadn't helped get our memory back, we would not even remember that day."
"Your right," Phineas said, thinking. "But I still need a theme."
"Can't this wait?" Ferb asked, yawning. "Also, shouldn't you be speaking to Isabella about all this?"
"I suppose so," Phineas said. "I guess I am just a little nervous. She said yes. Can you believe it?"
"No, I cannot," Ferb said, smiling sadly. "My brother is marrying the love of, uh, his life. You are growing up."
"Shouldn't that be Mom's job?" Phineas asked teasingly. "Worrying about her son growing up?"
"Have you told Mum yet?" Ferb asked. Phineas eyes widened and he shook his head. Ferb laughed.
"You're going to have to tell her eventually, you know."
"I know. But as her last child getting married, I think I'll wait till lunch time."
"What do you think about blue and green for the colors?" Phineas asked a few weeks later. He and Isabella were beginning to plan their wedding. They had already picked a date sometime next June and now they were working on the details.
"I'm not too sure about green," Isabella said. Phineas could hear her shuffling papers on her end of the line. They had decided to do most of their planning over the phone in order to make sure Phineas's sister Candace didn't go into to a crazy planning mode. "It's sort of the color of your brother's hair."
"True," Phineas said, shifting his phone to his other hand. "What about red and black. Red for my hair, black for yours."
"That sounds good," Isabella said. "They definitely work well together. But I think they are too gothic. It seems like something Vanessa would choose."
"Yeah," Phineas said, groaning. How did the task of picking two colors become so difficult?
"I know this is difficult," Isabella said. "Do you want to work on the guest list while I figure out the colors?"
"Sure," Phineas said. "That should be easy. I'll stop by your mom's house later to pick up the addresses of your family members. You can pick the colors."
"Let me do that Phineas." Phineas groaned and spun his chair around.
"Candace," Phineas said, "we can do this on our own. I have to go Isabella. I'll call you later. I love you."
"I love you too Phineas," Isabella said. Phineas smiled and hung up, giving full attention to his sister.
"Why can't I help Phineas?" Candace asked. "Ten years ago you asked me to plan your wedding, remember?"
"Yeah," Phineas said. "But ten years ago you were not seven months pregnant with twins and on bed rest. You need to stay calm."
"I can stay calm," Candace said as she sat down on Phineas's bed. "In fact, I can do all the planning in bed."
"I have no doubt that you can," Phineas said, walking over and sitting next to his sister. "But too much stress can cause a premature birth. That isn't good for multiple births, especially since one of them is smaller than the other."
"But I want to help," Candace said.
"You can help after the births," Phineas said. "You are due in two months and you still have to take care of Amanda. That's a lot on your plate. Don't add a wedding onto that, okay?"
"Okay," Candace said, hugging her brother. "When did you become the older sibling?"
"I don't know," Phineas said, smiling, "but I'm really not liking it." Two siblings laughed at this. After they had calmed down, Phineas helped Candace down the stairs and led her to the couch. There, on her brother's orders, she gave Phineas tips on planning the wedding, instead of actually making plans.
"I think we should incorporate some of our adventures," Phineas said, after the two of them had talked for two hours. "But I also think we should incorporate Isabella's heritage as well."
"A Mexican, Jewish, and crazy brother wedding," Candace said, lifting her feet onto the coffee table. "This wedding is going to be a nightmare to plan. It's a good thing I'm not planning this wedding."
"Told you," Phineas said, smiling. "But you can help in a couple of months."
"Pass," Candace said. Phineas laughed but before he could say anything more, the phone rang.
"Hang on," Phineas said, still laughing. "Hello, Flynn residence, Phineas speaking," Phineas said when he picked up the phone.
"Mr. Flynn?" A voice on the other end said.
"Yes," Phineas asked. "Who's speaking?"
"This is Chief Romani of the Danville Police," the voice said. "I am calling on behalf of your fiancée Isabella Garcia-Shapiro."
"What?" Phineas asked, gasping the phone harder. "What happened? Where is she? Can I speak to her?"
"I'm afraid she's been kidnapped," Chief Romani said.
"What?" Phineas exclaimed, almost dropping the phone. "But I just talked to her. How did this happen so fast?"
"Things happen quickly in Danville," the chief answered. "According to accounts, Isabella was at work when she was abducted. She was eating lunch in her cubicle looking through bridal magazines when her co-worker, who was eating with her at the time, went to the bathroom. When she came back, Isabella was gone."
"How long ago was that?"
"Two hours ago," Chief Romani said. "The co-worker told me you were the last person other than herself to speak to Isabella. We figured you needed to know."
"Why did it take you this long to contact me?" Phineas yelled. Candace, who had been watching her brother throughout the phone conversation, recoiled at the volume of her brother's voice. He never raised his voice unless he was very upset.
"We just realized she was kidnapped," the chief said. "At first it was believed she just left for a little bit but after an hour, the co-worker called us and we checked the tape. It had been tampered with. An inspection of the back door revealed evidence of a struggle. We think Isabella was trying to run away but her kidnapper was too powerful."
"Do you have any leads?" Phineas asked.
"No," the chief said. "Did Isabella have any enemies?"
"No," Phineas said. "Everyone loved her. She's the sweetest girl in Danville."
"We've been speaking with Isabella's parents and they told us you and Isabella are engaged. Is there any possibility you have enemies that might want to get back at you?"
"No," Phineas said, "I-"
"Mr. Flynn?" the chief asked when Phineas stopped talking mid-sentence. "Are you still there?"
"I know who took her," Phineas said. Phineas could hear the chief telling him to wait but he didn't listen. He hung up the phone and threw it on the couch.
"Phineas," Candace asked as she watched her brother jump off the couch. "What's going on?"
"Isabella's been kidnapped," Phineas said. "I'm going to go get her back."
"What?" Candace asked, slowly getting up. "Phineas stop!" But Phineas wasn't listening. He ran into the kitchen and knocked on the fridge five times. He opened it up and instead of the inside of the fridge, there was a chute. He jumped inside and felt himself sliding under the ground. He heard the fridge door close behind him and he knew Candace couldn't follow him.
"Phineas!" Candace called as she waddled into the kitchen. "Phineas where are you?" When she got no answer, she pulled out her cellphone and started dialing her mother's number. "Oh Phineas," Candace whispered as she waited for someone to answer, "please don't do anything rash."
Who do you think kidnapped Isabella? Really it could be anyone. I had a lot of choices but in the end I narrowed it down to two. Then, of course, narrowed it down some more. May update later today or tomorrow. Not sure yet!
~AvatarRikki