It was Candace's 15th birthday, and Perry was tasked with getting the birthday girl up for the day. She never liked him being in her bedroom, however, so Perry hovered outside the door, knocking first out of courtesy.

"Candace?" he called. No response.

Figuring she hadn't heard him, Perry turned the knob and entered her pink bedroom. Sure enough, she was still sleeping, possibly dreaming if the smile on her face indicated anything. Quietly, Perry set his wrapped present for her on the dresser. She was almost always hard to get up in the mornings, but since it was her birthday he was going to try to give her a less rough awakening than he'd received that same morning.

"Candace," he tried again. "Candace." Stepping closer, Perry sat down on the edge of her bed, grabbed her by the shoulders and gently started shaking her. "Candace, Candace, wake up."

Candace snapped her eyes open awake, bolted forward to sit up a little, and exclaimed in surprise, "Perry?" Once she registered that she was awake, however, she slumped back in her pillow and glared at him. "What are you doing in my room?"

"Happy birthday, sleepyhead," Perry said, standing up. "Mom asked me to get you up."

"Well, you did, so just get out," Candace grumbled, turning over in her bed like she was going to try to go back to sleep.

"So you don't want the present I got you?" Perry asked.

That got Candace almost jumping out of bed, which was exactly what Perry had been aiming for, and asking excitedly, "What?! Where is it?!"

Grinning, Perry fetched it from the dresser and handed it to her. She eagerly ripped into it in mere seconds, revealing it to be the new Bettys album.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Candace shrieked.

"You're welcome," Perry grinned. "Well, see you at breakfast."

"Hey Perry?" Candace asked as Perry headed towards the door. "You were able to get today off of work, right?"

"I sure did," Perry lied, inwardly cringing. He hadn't been able to get it off, but she wouldn't notice he was really gone since they'd be at Mount Rushmore. Still, he couldn't help wanting to kick himself as Candace beamed. "Could hardly miss my little sister's birthday now, could I?"

Candace's smile dimmed only marginally as she rolled her eyes, "I'm taller than you now, remember?"

"Barely, and I still say that's just because of your hair," Perry disagreed.

"It is not!" Candace protested, throwing a pillow at Perry as he finally made his escape out of her bedroom. Chuckling, he ran downstairs.

"She's coming," Perry announced as he entered the kitchen, taking a seat next to Ferb.

"Thank you, Perry," Mom said as she put the finishing touches on Candace's special pancakes. When Candace walked into the kitchen a few moments later with a big yawn, Mom grabbed the plate and turned around, announcing, "Happy birthday, Candace! I made you a special breakfast!" which made Candace smile.

"And after that, we have a surprise!" Dad told her.

Candace rushed over to the table, "What is it?! Where is it?!"

"We have to drive to it!"

"Oooooooh!"

Perry had a feeling Candace would lose some of her enthusiasm when she realized where exactly they were going.

Later, when they were all in the family car, Candace was trying to guess where they were going.

"Is it the mall?"

"No," Mom answered.

"Okay," Candace kept excitedly looking around. "But it's the mall, right?!"

"No, it's not the mall," Dad said as they passed underneath the "Mount Rushmore" sign.

"Wait," Candace realized. "Please don't tell me we're going to Mount Rushmore…"

"Isn't it great?" Mom asked as she pulled out a pamphlet and gestured. "Four American presidents carved into a side of a mountain."

"It was Phineas and Ferb's idea!" Dad jubilantly explained.

Perry was glad that for once he was not on the receiving end of Candace's glare, which was directed towards Phineas.

Phineas, of course, was unfazed as he simply said, "You're welcome."

Pulling into the parking lot, they didn't see any readily available spots, so Dad stopped the car, and the rest of them hopped out.

"Okay, you lot go on ahead," Dad declared. "I'll find a parking spot and meet you there!" He then drove off, leaving them standing there. Perry expected that the parking spot he'd find would be out in the sticks, if he knew his dad at all.

Immediately, Phineas said, "We're going up to the monument."

"Okay, we'll join you in a minute!" Mom replied as Phineas, Ferb, and Perry walked off. Perry did feel a little bad for Candace since her birthday had gotten hijacked, but he was pretty sure she would love Phineas and Ferb's gift idea this year, and that would make up for her current disappointment. Plus, as they walked past the gift shop to haul the tools, Perry could see through the window that Candace was talking to Jeremy Johnson, so that would likely brighten her mood.

Perry would have loved to stay and see how it all turned out, but that moment seemed an opportune time to go get his briefing and complete his mission. After quickly changing clothes in the bathroom, he headed out to one of the garbage bins outside and pulled out a remote. As he pressed a button, the bin lifted up and revealed a secret compartment. He walked inside it and crossed his arm. The compartment closed and sent him through a tube to travel back to his lair.

Coming upon an intersection, he did have to stop as Agent Raccoon had the right-of-way, but after that Perry swiftly arrived at his house. He stepped out of the bush, pulled out another remote and pushed the button to open the compartment in his house. Once again, he stepped inside and took the green lift down to his lair. Although his screen was blank, he pulled the lever and pushed the button and Monogram's face immediately popped up on the screen.

"Good morning, Agent P. Dr. Doofenshmirtz is up to no good again. We just discovered his new hideout is located inside Lincoln's head at Mount Rushmore," Monogram explained while Perry narrowed his eyes. Seriously? "I-I know, you were just there… Poor planning on our part, actually. Sorry."

Well, at least he got an apology this time.

Perry took the lift back up to the ground, and then jumped back into the tube to head back to Mount Rushmore. When the compartment in the garbage bin lifted, however, Perry immediately caught sight of Candace. Thankfully, she had his back towards him.

"-eas?! Ferrrrb?! Ohh…" he heard Candace calling out. Carefully, Perry stepped past the garbage bin, and then ran to get out of there as Candace headed in the opposite direction. If she saw him right then in full agent garb, it would bring up a whole lot of questions he just didn't have time to come up with lies for.

Time to go find Doofenshmirtz.

(LATER)

"Fie upon you, Perry the Platypus!" Doof screamed as he was flung from the Drill-inator while Perry watched in his parachute. Now that he was up in the sky, Perry turned his attention back towards the monument, seeing that Phineas and Ferb had completed carving out Candace's head. It looked glorious, so he took a quick picture with his replicator camera inside his hat, though he did notice a strange hole where the nose should be.

Oh no, that's where the Drill-inator had exited, hadn't it? As if on cue, lava instantly started bursting out of spots on the statue.

Worried that his family might be too close to the lava, he searched for where everyone was. Candace was standing up on the viewing platform, Mom was climbing up the stairs to said platform, and Phineas and Ferb were semi-safely roasting hotdogs over the lava. Dad was quite possibly still trying to find a parking spot. Before the lava traveled farther than the side of the mountain, Old Reliable geyser with the Drill-Inator stuck on top of it started spraying water right onto the lava, cooling it. But the damage was already done, as the carved head of Candace was completely obliterated.

Oh well, at least she had gotten to see it. It wouldn't have fit in the theme to keep anyway.

As he slowly floated down to the ground while also trying to keep out of sight, Perry watched as Mom made it to the platform after the smoke cleared, then hugged Candace and left to head back towards the gift shop. Then Phineas and Ferb came up to Candace, jumping onto the rails as they talked to her. Candace turned around and walked down the stairs, where she was met by Jeremy, who gave her a gift before heading back to the gift shop.

"This was the best birthday ever!" Perry could hear Candace say as he got closer, which he smiled at. He landed on the ground underneath the platforms, out of sight. Rolling up his parachute, he started heading back in the direction of the gift shop to rejoin his family.

A/N: I skipped over most of the Doof plot in this one because I didn't feel like it changed with him being a human rather than a platypus.

I feel like the most unrealistic thing about this episode is that practically nobody is at Mount Rushmore (though I guess the parking spaces are full, so at least they allude to it somewhat). Idk, I remember it being busy and crowded, but that was also like 2008. Wow, crazy to think that I most likely watched this episode as a kid before I went to Mount Rushmore myself (and coincidentally Yellowstone on the same vacation, where Old Faithful is).