So sorry this took so long.

Chapter 4

Vanessa dove low into the turn, aiming underneath Jonny's Porsche to pass him back. She braked hard and wrenched the steering wheel over, throwing the Camaro into a drift. She managed to get a run on Johnny as he once again failed miserably at drifting and lost a lot of momentum.

And then everything seemed to happen at once. Vanessa saw the huge downed tree, though her path through the turn took her around the top most branches. She saw the purple Nedlington Nymph with its nose against the trunk, the long front end crumpled like an accordion.

"Ferb!"

Just past the tree, Vanessa slammed on the brakes and cranked on the wheel, spinning the Camaro around…just as Johnny maneuvered his Porsche around the tree and headed on down the road.

As she back peddled to the site of Ferb's crash, she thought to herself, I don't believe him! He's just leaving!

She swung the car around and parked it on the shoulder, jumped out, and ran over to the Nymph.

"Ferb!" she cried out. "Ferb!"

Reaching the car, Vanessa could see him. He was slumped over to the side, but appeared uninjured.

"Ferb! Ferb!" She reached over the door, grabbed his shoulder, and hoisted him into an upright position, pushing the now deflated airbag away. Through the visor on his helmet, she could see his eyes were closed, but he appeared relatively unhurt. She carefully removed the helmet. "Ferb! Oh, Ferb, please wake up!"

Leaning close to his face, she listened carefully for breathing as she felt his chest for his heartbeat. She was relieved to detect both.

"Ferb?" she asked, slightly more at ease. "Ferb?"

He stirred slightly, moaning a bit as shifted his head.

"Ferb?" Vanessa leaned closer. "Are you alright? Wake up, Ferb."

The green haired Brit moaned again and opened his eyes. "Am I dead?"

She smiled, tears of relief forming in the corners of her eyes. "No, Ferb. You're alive. Does anything hurt?"

Slowly, he sat up in the seat. "My chest…"

Vanessa helped him. "Your chest?"

He winced. "From the airbag…" Vanessa opened the door and took his hand, helping him step out. "I do not believe anything is broken, though."

In the distance, the sound of police sirens could be heard. As the two friends spoke, the Danville Police Department was rounding up the other racers.

Ferb staggered on his feet, still feeling a little dizzy. Vanessa helped him gently sit down on the blacktop next to the Nymph. She crouched down beside him. "I was really afraid something like this might happen." She shook her head. "I was really afraid you would get hurt."

Ferb placed a hand on Vanessa's shoulder. "The only reason that I entered the race was so that I could talk to you. I wasn't even going to race for real, but then…I didn't have time."

Vanessa's eyes widened. "You…you just wanted to talk to me?"

Ferb nodded.

"Wow…I…I don't know what to say…"

Ferb opened his mouth again, but didn't have a chance to speak. Three police cars rounded the turn and quickly braked to a stop, the officers jumping out and rushing over to the two racers.

The police car's rear door closed with a click, trapping Ferb inside. A moment later, Vanessa was pushed in through the other side, the officer blocking her escape with his body as he spoke to a fellow cop. She sighed heavily, rattling her handcuffs.

"I'm sorry about this, Ferb."

"It's alright, Vanessa. I suppose my feelings got in the way of my common sense."

She looked at him, confused. "You really missed me that much? I mean, we never even really hung out ever. We just ran into each other a couple times."

"Well…" Ferb stared out the window, focused on nothing in particular. "I…I harbor some…great affection for you, Vanessa."

Vanessa's eyes widened. Her mind was suddenly whirling, thoughts flying through her subconscious. And suddenly, everything became clear to her.

Making sure that no one was watching, she fiddled with her wrist watch.

"Hey, Ferb?"

Hesitantly, he turned to face her. She held up her hands…and her handcuffs fell away. "What'dya say…we make a run for it?" she whispered, her lips curling into a mischievous smile.

"How did you do that?" he asked quietly.

"Give me your hands." He did so, and she tapped her watch again. A small laser beam fired from the top as she ran her fingernail through the groove around the crystal, and she blasted the locks off of Ferb's cuffs. He looked into her eyes and smiled.

"A little gift from my dear ol' dad, before he practically disowned me." Vanessa winked.

Ferb's eyes turned down. "I'm not so sure about this…"

"C'mon! It'll make an awesome story someday!"

Their eyes met again. Ferb could see the gleam in her eyes, the passion, the desire…

"Okay," he said, flashing her a rare Ferbian smile. "But how do we…?" He nodded toward the police officer blocking the open door. His fellow officer had left, and now he stood leaning his arm against the open door, paying no attention to the two racers inside.

"Just watch."

Vanessa leaned over, reached up, and jabbed her finger into the cop's neck. He immediately lost consciousness. Quickly, she caught him to avoid attracting any attention when he fell. She lowered him gently to the ground.

"Let's go!" She took Ferb's hand and roughly dragged him out of the back of the police car, stepping carefully over the unconscious form of the KOed cop.

As quietly as they could, they ran across the empty road to Vanessa's Camaro. Someone had turned off the engine, but the keys were still in the ignition. Ferb hopped into the passenger seat as Vanessa fired up the Chevrolet. She gave it a rev.

"Hey!" yelled another cop, whipping around. The rest of the officers turned just in time to watch the forest green Camaro do a smoky burnout, slide through the grass on the shoulder, drive around the base of the fallen tree, and slide back onto the road on the other side. It sped away with a roar of the V8.

"After 'em!" someone yelled, as the police officers jumped back into their cars. Moving to avoid the tree, they found themselves in a log jam, and evading the obstruction became a quite slow task.

Vanessa accelerated away hard, wheeling the Camaro with a new motivation, throwing it through every turn. Her passion was powered by a powerful hunger to teach Johnny a lesson and her newfound realization of Ferb's affection.

Ferb turned in his seat, watching as the police cars fumbled their way around the downed tree. He smiled and turned back to Vanessa. She was smiling determinedly. "You have a plan, don't you?" he asked.

Her lips curled up further and her eyes narrowed as she wrenched on the steering wheel. "Oh, yes. Yes I do." Her eyes flickered to the back of the car. "Reach back behind my seat."

Ferb felt around and his hand closed on something made of smooth wood. He pulled it out onto his lap. It was a baseball bat. Vanessa smirked at him again. Ferb smirked back.

"Oh, this is going to be sweet."

Isabella felt Phineas's hand tighten around hers as the high-pitched whine of an engine revving at high speed broke through the night air.

"Here comes the leader!" Phineas exclaimed as headlights pierced the trees on the far side of the drive-in lot.

A moment later, the car came into view. It was Johnny's red Porsche. Its tires locked up and it slid to a stop in the loose dirt. The crowd let out a roar as Johnny stepped out and waved, looking quite smug. The young couple up in the tree couldn't tell if the spectators were cheering or jeering.

"But…where's Ferb?" Phineas asked aloud when no other cars appeared after several minutes had passed. "And Vanessa?"

Isabella searched the horizon. "Where are any of the other racers?"

Suddenly, their ears picked up the growl of a much deeper engine echoing across the nearby fields.

"Here comes someone!" Phineas cried.

What happened next transpired in about three seconds' time.

Vanessa's Camaro burst from the trees at high speed, heading straight for Johnny's Porsche.

"AHH!" Johnny shrieked, diving away from his car.

The Camaro streaked past, inches from the Porsche. An arm clutching a baseball bat extended from the open passenger window and made contact with the driver's window, shattering it, and managing to break off the side mirror, as well. Then the Chevrolet streaked away.

"Was that Ferb? In Vanessa's car?" Phineas asked aloud. Isabella just shrugged.

No sooner was the green racecar gone, the sound of police sirens could be faintly heard. From their perch up in the tree, Phineas and Isabella could see the flashing lights heading toward the drive-in lot.

"Um, maybe we should get out of here," Phineas said.

"My thoughts exactly." Isabella jumped down from the branch still clutching Phineas's hand, pulling him down with her. They hit the ground and took off around the side of the lot, heading for where Phineas had parked his Torino.

No sooner had the couple made themselves scarce and vacated the area, the police arrived in the drive-in. A few continued to chase after the long-gone Camaro, and the rest stopped, the officers quickly assessing suspects and taking them into custody as the crowd scattered. Johnny tried to slip away and bumped right into the Danville Sherriff.

"Where's the fire, son?" the Sherriff asked with a thick southern drawl.

"Um, I, uh…I really have to go to the bathroom, officer!" he blurred out without thinking.

"Not a problem, son," the Sherriff said, removing the handcuffs from his belt. "You can relieve yourself at the station downtown."

Johnny gulped.

The next morning…

Phineas rubbed his eyes tiredly as he walked down the stairs. He was exhausted from waiting up for Ferb the night before, and when he had finally dozed off, his step brother still had not returned home.

"Hello?" he called, walking into the kitchen. There was no reply. He had expected his parents to be gone for the day, for it was rather late, but he was disappointed not to hear Ferb reply.

The New Message light was blinking on the answering machine. Feeling a pang of hope that it might be a message from Ferb, he clicked the button.

*Beeeeep!* One new message. Message one: "Hey, guys," Candace's voice said, "Ferb, if you could call me, that'd be great, because I kinda NEED MY CAR BACK. Thanks. Love you guys!" *Beeeep!*

Phineas raised an eyebrow. He didn't take Candace's car back, either? Where is he?

He walked into the living room where Isabella was asleep on the couch. Sleeping at each other's houses had become a common occurrence since they'd started dating, and both of their parents were fine with it as long as they slept on different floors. She'd stayed up with him as long as she could, but had lost the battle with exhaustion long before Phineas.

He gently touched Isabella's arm. "Isabella…Isabella, wake up."

The girl stirred slightly. "Ugnn…five more minutes."

"Isabella!"

Her eyes sprung open. "Huh? Wha?"

"Ferb still isn't back."

A concerned frown crossed Isabella's face. "He's not? Then where is he?"

"I-" Phineas's thought was cut off by the throaty revving of a car engine outside.

Vanessa braked the Camaro to a stop in front of the Flynn-Fletcher house, but left it in gear. She smiled over at Ferb as he climbed from the car and jogged around to the driver's side. He leaned into the open window.

"Thank you, Vanessa. For everything."

The older girl could not stop her smile from stretching until her cheeks ached. "You're welcome. And thank you, Ferb." She put an arm around the back of his neck and pulled him further through the window, right into her lips. She gave him a forceful kiss, then released him and waved as she accelerated away.

Ferb watched the Camaro, which the two of them had repainted metallic electric blue during their time together to help hide it from the police, tear down the street, smiling to himself, a rush of heat and love filling his heart. He was too distracted to hear the front door of the house open behind him.

"Um…hello? Can I help you?" Phineas's voice called.

Snapping from his trance, Ferb spun around to his step-brother's voice. Phineas and Isabella were standing in the doorway, still in their pajamas, and both of them gasped and widened their eyes when they saw his face. "Ferb?!" Phineas cried.

Their eyes were locked on Ferb as the British teen made his way up the walk to the front porch. He was quite perplexed as to why they looked like they'd just seen a ghost. "Hello," he greeted them simply. Still, they continued staring. "Are you two alright?"

"Ferb…" Isabella started slowly. "…your hair is…black." And sure enough, it was nearly the exact same shade as her own raven hair.

Oh, right. I forgot about that. "Yes, yes it is."

"Why is your hair black?" Phineas inquired, his voice even more high-pitched than usual.

"Vanessa suggested it. It's a bit difficult to hide from the police when you have bright green hair."

"Is that where you were all this time? With Vanessa?"

Ferb nodded.

Phineas tore his eyes away from his brother and looked out at the street. "Where is Candace's car?"

Ferb shrugged. "Likely either the police impound lot or the junk yard. I am not sure what the protocol is for wrecked impounded vehicles."

Phineas and Isabella slowly faced each other, silent, stunned beyond words.

"I'll retrieve it later," Ferb continued, seeing their mystified expressions. "But at the moment, I am quite tired. I was up all night with Vanessa, so if you don't mind, I would like to get some rest."

Phineas and Isabella slowly stepped aside so that Ferb could enter the house. They followed him with their eyes as he climbed the stairs to his bedroom. When they could no longer see him, their eyes landed back on each other.

"What the hell happened last night?" Isabella asked.

"I don't know," Phineas said slowly, "but I do not I want to find out." He took Isabella's hand and towed her out the front door.

"Where are we going?"

"Anywhere but here. Any suggestions?"

Her stomach growled. "Um…Denny's?"

"Sounds good to me." They reached Phineas's Torino parked on the curb.

"Wait, we're still in our pajamas," Isabella said.

Phineas motioned toward his house. "Do you want to go back in there?"

She thought about it a moment. "Good point, let's go."

They strapped themselves into the old car and quickly vacated the scene.

And that, folks, is where this story comes to an end. I know, this was not the best ending ever, but at this point I just wanted to finish this story and be done with it. I'm sorry about the writing quality.

I hope you enjoyed this story, and I guess I'll see you around!

EDD17SP