Nothing Short of a Miracle

Chapter 1

My name is Jake. And I'm an Animorph. I'm sure you've heard of the Animorphs. Yeah, me, Marco, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, and Ax. But you haven't heard of Val. Valerie, actually. But we all called her Val. Everyone called her Val.

She was real nice. Sort of a loner, but not like Tobias had been. She had a few close friends, and then a dozen or so friends and acquaintances. Val was smart. I mean really smart. I'd go out on a limb and say she was smarter than Rachel.

Rachel and Val were friends. Good friends Rachel was probably her best friend. And that was Val's connection to our 'group'. That and the fact that she was dating Marco.

At school, they were considered a couple. Marco always referred to her as his girlfriend. And Val never denied going out with Marco. But in all honesty, they only went out once.

Well, Marco and I were playing video games at the arcade one night. We ran out of quarters and left. We ran into Tobias, who said he'd walk home with us. You know the rest of the story, well, some of it.

We were going to take a short cut, and saw Rachel and Cassie. Val was with them. Her latest hairbrain idea was to memorize the entire Periodic Table of Elements. Like I said, nuts. But Val could actually memorize it. She had already gotten the first three rows down pat.

I could hear her reciting as we caught up to the girls.

"...iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, gallium, arsenic..."

At that point, Rachel interrupted her. "You missed germanium. It's before arsenic."

"Rachel." I raised an eyebrow. "I didn't realize you were memorizing the periodic table too."

She shrugged. "I wasn't, but Val's been repeating it so often I'm beginning to remember some of it."

"You guys going home?" I asked. "You shouldn't go through the construction site..."

That, of course, set off an argument. The only reason Marco didn't participate in that one was because he had his arm draped around Val and was too busy talking to her.

We were halfway through the site when Tobias looked up and saw it.

The ship. The Andalite fighter. The one that carried Elfangor.

Val was with us that night. She was there as we cowered in fear. She too received the power to morph.

Yeah, she was there. She was one of us. Val was an Animorph.

Chapter 2

The next time I saw Val was when we all hooked up at Cassie's place the next day.

She was pretty cool about it. She said she'd do whatever the rest of us decided to do. And you can imagine how much Rachel and Marco disagreed on this.

Val didn't join us that night for the Sharing meeting. She had some family thing.

But she met up with us at the mall the next day. In fact, it was she, not Marco, who came up with the name Animorphs. Marco wanted to name us the 'Mighty Morphing Power Morphers'. I think it was a joke, but with Marco, you can never be too sure.

When we got separated at the Gardens, Val ran off with Rachel and the others and picked up an elephant morph with Rachel. It was the same elephant, actually. At the Gardens you could go on elephant rides for $5. So they acquired the one they rode on.

Val couldn't join us that night for the trip down to the Yeerk Pool that night. She had a doctor's appointment. Something about her fainting.

Val wasn't at school the next day, or the day after that. In fact, she didn't show up at school for the rest of the week.

It got us pretty worried. We thought maybe the Yeerks had gotten to her.

Then, finally, on Friday, Val called Rachel.

Chapter 3-Rachel

"Rachel? It's Val."

"Val! Where have you been? We've been so worried about you!"

"Rach...I'm at the hospital."

"Hospital? Are you okay? What happened?"

"You better get down. And bring everyone else."

"Val, what's wrong."

"Just come." And she hung up.

I wasted no time calling the others and jumping on a bus the hospital.

Val was in room 327. It was a single. She looked okay, and normal. Except she was pale and a little thinner.

But what bothered me was her eyes. Val was scared.

"Hi, Rachel."

"Why are you here?"

"You might want to sit down."

I sat.

"I'm sick. I mean, really sick."

That's when I got really worried. Val didn't talk like this.

She took a deep breath. "I have cancer."

Chapter 4

"I have cancer."

Those words drummed around in my head. I didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry."

"People always say that."

"But you'll be okay, won't you?" I asked, trying to convince myself. "I mean, cancer's treatable."

Val just looked at the floor. "I've had cancer for a long time."

"What?"

"I found out five years ago. Before I moved here. It's been in remission for five years. And now it's back."

I still didn't know what to say. It was such a shock. Finding out.

Val kept talking. "It's been spreading really fast. They started me on radiation and chemo again."

I nodded hopefully. "So you'll be okay?"

"I have a really rare case. The doctors said that this type of cancer rarely goes into remission."

"So you're not going to be okay."

"No, I'm not."

"What's going to happen?"

"I'm supposed to have six months left."

That made my blood run cold. Val had six months left to live. She was going to die.

"There a program. An experimental treatment for cancer. They need volenteers. Kids. My doctor said I should take it."

"Then take it."

"It's not here. It's in Canada. At Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto."

"That's pretty far."

"Yeah. And with what's been happening, I feel like I shouldn't go."

"Val, you have to go."

"And leave you guys to fight mind-controlling aliens?"

"I'd rather have you in some hospital getting treatment than risking your life running around with us."

"I don't have much of a life to risk."

"You're not going to die."

"We both know I am."

"Go, Val. Don't feel guilty."

And that's when Marco burst into the room.

Chapter 5-Marco

Rachel's call brought me to the hospital in record time. Jake's dad drove us and he ran a few lights.

My girlfriend, my Val was sick.

I was worried out of my mind.

And then she told us.

And it scared me. Even more than what had happened to Tobias.

Because she was going to die. My Val was going to die.

And I couldn't do a damn thing about it. It made me feel helpless. I hated feeling helpless.

We all agreed that she should go to Toronto. I didn't want her to go, because I didn't want to lose her. But I told her to go anyway.

We took a vote. The only person who voted against Val going was Val.

She felt like she was betraying us.

But Val did go. We sent her off at the airport. And she was gone.

We fought the Yeerks. We Animorphs. We acted like Val hadn't been there that night. Hadn't been an Animorph. Almost as if she didn't exist.

We never talked about her.

I called her a few times, and so did Rachel, but we never talked about the Animorphs. The phones weren't safe.

Then six months later, I got a call from Val. Her flight back was in an hour.

The treatment didn't work. Nothing short of a miracle would save Val. So Val was coming home to die.

Chapter 6-Rachel

We all went to pick her up at the airport.

Val looked terrible. She was pale, and thin, and all her hair had fallen out. Plus, she was in a wheelchair.

I told her she looked great.

She knew I was lying.

We all went over to Val's house and hung around.

We finally got to tell Val how we were doing against the Yeerks.

Then we left so she could rest.

The next day, we took her to on a trip. A flying trip.

Cassie had a woodpecker in her barn that Val acquired. A yellow-bellied woodpecker.

Val didn't know how to morph clothes, and we didn't bother teaching her. It was her first taste of morphing, and her last.

It was weird, watching her morph. It must have been weirder for her, but I got the strangest sense of déjà vu. It was like when we first morphed and experienced the thrill of a new body.

Val had been gone so long, we had almost forgotten she had been there that night. That she shared the horror. That she was an Animorph.

We were a mile above the ground when I remembered. You can't morph injuries.

Val had a disease. If she morphed, and demorphed, wouldn't the cancer go away?

We quickly flew back to Cassie's and Val demorphed.

She looked the same. But maybe, maybe, the cancer was gone.

Chapter 7-Cassie

We waited. Val seemed to be more cheerful and energetic. We took that as a good sign.

A week after she returned, Val went to the doctor's for X-rays.

I was in my barn cleaning up when Val walked in.

"What did the doctor say?"

Val stared at me for a long time before speaking. "It's still there. And it's still growing."

"I'm sorry." I gave Val a hug.

She started crying. "I thought maybe it would work. All time, all these years, I learned not get my hopes up at every new treatment. But this time, I thought the cancer might be gone."

"So did I, Val. So did I."

"Five years and I didn't cry once. And now, look at me."

I stared into her tear-streaked face. "Why didn't it work?'

"I should have known."

"Known what?"

"Cells."

"What?"

"Cancer is cells. Cells that malfunction and attack other cells. They're my cells. They're part of my body. When I demorph, they come back. I should have known that. I knew cancer was cells. And you don't leave parts of your body behind when you morph. I should have realized nothing is going to save me."

Neither of us said anything. We both knew morphing had been Val's only chance.

"Cancer doesn't carry over in morphs." I whispered.

"What?"

"When you morph, the cancer goes away. It's just when you demorph that it comes back."

"So? How does that help me?"

"You need a miracle, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, there it is. A cure for cancer. A cure that comes impossible price."

Val just stared at me. "Are you suggesting that..."

"You don't demorph? That you stay in that morph forever? That you give up your humanity? Become a nothlit? I'm not telling you what to do. I'm just giving you a choice."

"And I have to make it."

Chapter 8-Val

I went home. All day, I thought about whether it would be better to die or be stuck in another body.

I made a list. One of pros and cons.

Pros Cons

I won't die My parents will go nuts

I can help the Animorphs fight I won't be human anymore

That was how far I got when I realized no matter what I did, I was never going to be a normal kid again.

So I made my decision. And I went to tell Marco. He had been the first one I told that I was still dying.

He was home, and his dad wasn't there so we could talk privately.

"Marco, Cassie told me something today. Cancer doesn't carry over into morphs."

He stared at me for a few seconds, then hugged me. "Then you're saved! You won't die!"

"Marco, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to trap myself in a morph."

"But...but you'll die."

"I know. But think about it. I can't just disappear. My parents would be worried sick."

"But...Oh, God. Val, don't do this. Don't leave me."

"Then what do you want me to do? Become some animal and watch day after day knowing I can't be with you? Knowing I'll never be human again?"

"I can't bear to see you die."

"As long as I'm still breathing, there's hope."

"We need God to give us a miracle."

"He did. And I turned it down."

I took off my bracelet. My lucky bracelet. The one that I had never let anyone borrow. I gave it to Marco.

"You're lucky bracelet." He took it, unsure what to say.

I smiled. I had wore that bracelet ever since I found out I had cancer. Everyday, everywhere. It was plain. Just braided leather. The kind you can find anywhere. But it was special. Whenever I felt down, or scared, or lonely, or sorry for myself, I'd give it a rub and feel much better.

"It always gave me hope. So when you're fighting, and your scared and thinking it'll never get better, just rub it. Rub it and I'll be there. I'll there to cheer you on."

"I love you, Val."

"I love you too."

Chapter 9-Marco

Val died five days later. Her funeral was on a drizzly Saturday. It was gray and depressing, to match how I felt inside.

While I stood on the grass, I remember Val's words. Rub it and I'll be there.

Her bracelet was in my pocket. I rubbed it.

Val didn't magically appear, but I could feel her. I could feel her standing next to me. I could hear her voice saying 'You'll make it, Marco. And when it's all over, I'll be at the gates waiting'.