Snapshots

5. Alien Heart

An old thing I wrote that takes place after Invasion of The Ferb Snatchers. I think I have three or four shorts based off that episode... If you can't tell, it's one of my favorites, although I wish Ferb would have had a bigger role in it, what with his name in the title and all.

Candace flopped face-first onto her bed. This had not been a good day, not only had she made herself look like a complete idiot, she'd done a great job at making herself look even more crazy than normal in front of her mom.

There was a knock at her door, and she groaned. "Go away, Phineas!"

A moment of silence followed by another knock.

Groaning again, she got up and walked to the door.

"What?" Candace snapped, yanking it open. Her irritation fading away into confusion upon seeing her other brother. "Ferb? What do you want?"

Ferb blinked up at her.

"Yeaahh," she dragged out. "I have no idea what that means."

He rolled his eyes—she could translate that just fine, thank you very much—and gestured as if asking to come in.

"Uh, sure." Candace stepped out of the way. Had he ever come to her room on his own before? Normally, if he did, Phineas was with him. She closed the door behind him.

He was watching her, and she didn't know what to say to him. Phineas was almost always there as a buffer and translator for his silence. Sure, they did talk to each other but it was rare and the conversations short.

"Phineas told me you have 'evidence.'"

Candace jumped slightly, the words unexpected, and it took a second for them to sink in. "Yeah?" Why would he be interested in it? They'd already told her she was wrong, and she'd seen for herself that she'd been following the wrong person all day.

"May I see it?"

Was he generally interested? She stared at him when he looked at her for a few seconds before giving up; she never could read him. "Sure." Candace crossed the room and picked up the cardboard box off the floor. She hadn't gotten around to throwing it out yet, though Phineas had taken a few things out it and not put them back.

Ferb walked over the bed as she put it down and, after climbing onto the bed, silently began removing items from the box.

After a moment, Candace sat on the other side of the bed. "Phineas explained the thingy with the"—she made a twisting motion with her hands—"and reversing the thingamabob to make the thingamajig work."

He gave a split second smile before his expression returned to neutral and corrected, "It was a reverse power coupling unit."

"Right..." She realized something. "Why are you talking?"

"It's necessary." Digging around in the box, he pulled out some photos and spread them out on the pink sheets. He blinked at them before pointing at each of the five photos in turn. "Some stuff from Garbog's ship—you don't want to know. Tubing, glasses, standing behind it, and cleaning out a jammed pipe."

Candace leaned forward, looking at the pictures she had taken over the course of the day. It seemed so obvious now, but she'd been so caught up in the theory that the obvious answers didn't even occur to her.

He packed everything back into the box, much neater than she'd had it stuff in there, and jumped off the bed.

"Is that it?" Candace got up to follow him to the door. "You just wanted to see the pictures?"

Hand on the doorknob, he paused. "I wished to make sure your evidence was as false as Phineas had claimed." He opened the door.

"What does that mean?" She groaned, stepping after him into the hallway. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because, despite what Phineas thinks, he does not know everything about me. And you definitely don't," Ferb called back, even as he continued towards the stairs leaving Candace in a state of confusion.

"And what is that supposed to mean!" Her brow furrowed. "Wha-wait are you saying you are alien?"

Ferb glanced over his shoulder and winked at her.

Candace gasped before scowling. "Ferb! Are you messing with me again?" He ignored her, making her scowl deepen. "Ferb!" He still didn't look back. "He has to be messing with me," Candace muttered to herself, crossing her arms.

Casting one more suspicious glaze in the direction he'd gone-even though he'd already disappeared downstairs, and she could no longer see him-she continued, "Maybe I'll hold onto that evidence a little longer after all..."