Chapter 14: A Little Miracle

Cody's POV

...Where am I?

...How did I get here?

...Where is everyone?

These were the questions running around in my head when I blinked awake to find myself in a never-ending field of wheat. Nothing I could see for miles besides wheat and the orange of the possibly permanent evening sky. Was this Heaven? Had I finally passed away? Why didn't I see anyone else?

"Hello?! Dolly?! Dylan?! Anyone there?!" I called out, hoping that anyone would respond, but all I got was the silent wind delicately blowing the sea of wheat. I kept looking around, trying to decide which direction to even go.

"Cody, sweetie."

That voice… Why did that voice sound so familiar? I turned around and… No… It couldn't be.

A woman with long beautiful flowing hazelnut hair and blue eyes in a long white dress stood in the distance, looking back at me with a warm smile on her face, the wind making her hair and dress flow like a swan's wings during flight. "M-Mom..." I managed to stammer out before walking over to her, my face still in disbelief. How was this even possible? ...Was I really dead? Mom knelt down to me and gently caressed my cheek with a hand, still with that gentle smile. "Oh, Cody… You've grown so much." She whispered to me endearingly, her gentle touch was exactly the same as I remembered it when she was alive.

"...Mom? Am I dead?" I finally asked, making her chuckle a little.

"Not yet, sweetie. You're in the fields where everyone and everything goes through before they go to Heaven. The fields between life and death." She answered. "But… Then why aren't you in Heaven?" I wondered as she softly held my hands. "Because I didn't want to move on… Not until my little boy would find a much happier life. And you have." She explained to me before continuing. "And your new mother's great-grandparents were happy to keep me company." After she said this, I noticed the wheat besides us darken slightly from a shadow.

I looked behind me to see two adult Dalmatians standing above me, one being male in a simple beige shirt and brown pants with a red collar on his neck, the other being female in a blue shirt and black skirt, her collar matching the blue of her shirt. "Is this the little one you told us about, Maria?" The female Dalmatian asked as she knelt down to my level and gently stroking my head with a hand. "Yes, Perdy." She smiled at her before looking down at me. "Did Delilah ever tell you about Pongo and Perdita?" I thought for a moment before remembering one time about a few weeks ago when my new mom showed me a photo album she kept close to her, one of the pages containing an old photograph of her great grandma and grandpa, Pongo and Perdita, who happened to be the same Dalmatians that had foiled Cruella De Vil's intents. The Pongo and Perdita I was seeing now with my mom looked just like how they did in the photo I saw in the album.

That was when we all saw the sky slowly start to get darker as the sun was setting further. "It's almost time..." Mom said, making me turn back to face her. "What do you mean?" What exactly was it almost time for? "Cody… Honey… It's time for me to go and you to come back." As soon as she said that, I realised exactly what she meant.

"N-No..." I whimpered out a protest, I didn't want my mom to leave me again after losing her before. I felt mom's arms wrap around me comfortably in an embrace.

"Cody, sweetie… You need to go back where you truly belong."

"But I belong here! With you!" I sobbed out, tears on my face as I hugged my mom tightly.

"Cody… Before I died, I only had one wish: For you to always be happy with a chance to live and a loving family… And Pongo and Perdy's descendants' granted that wish for me. You belong with the Dalmatians, where you can be free, safe and happy with someone who can love you." She explained to me as I felt a hand on my shoulder, belonging to Pongo.

"Maria's right, son. It would hurt us so much if you passed on and left your new family behind. They're all waiting for you… to come back to them." Pongo said to me compassionately.

They were right. If I went with my birth-mom, the Dalmatian family would all be lost and miserable without me. I didn't want to cause my family any despair. I sniffled before letting go of mom and wiping my eyes.

"...Will I ever see you again?" Mom smiled at me when I asked this. "You will one day, sweetie… And when you do, your siblings will soon join you. You'll never, ever be alone." She reassured me and I wiped my eyes once more.

"I love you, mom..."

"And I love you too, my sweet little Cody."

And thus we separated, I turned around to Pongo and Perdita, the latter holding a hand out to me.

"Are you ready now, Cody?" I nodded in response before taking hold of Perdy's hand as she, Pongo and I walked onwards as a bright light slowly appeared and began to envelope me.

Dylan's POV

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

"I think…"

…

"I think we just had a miracle."

I looked up from the floor the very second those words came out of one of the doctor's mouths. Instinctively, we all looked at Cody who didn't show even a small sign of movement.

Until a few seconds or later…

Cody's eyelids slowly separated, letting us see the white and blue of his eyes as his head inched up a little to face us all.

"...D-Dylan…? ...Dolly…? Is that you…?" He weakly spoke out.

I couldn't believe it. Cody's will to live was much stronger than I thought. I… What's wrong with me? Everything's getting blurry. I can't see anything at all. It wasn't until a second later, I finally realised I was crying and I just lost it right there on the spot, collapsing to my knees, bawling like a puppy. I wasn't crying because I was sad, but because I was so happy, happy that Cody was alright. I heard a few of my other siblings start to audibly sob in relief as well as I felt Dolly's arm wrap around me and pull me next to her.

"Come here, bro." She said, one glance at her was enough to tell me that whilst she only smiled at Cody with tears in her eyes, she was just as relieved as I was. The only thing I wanted to do now was to run over to my little human brother and hold him tightly in my arms, the only thing stopping me from doing so being the probable risk of making his current injuries worse. Destiny however didn't seem to get the memo as her arms were around him.

"Oh Cody! Don't like, ever do that again! I was so scared, I thought you were gonna die!" Destiny pleaded as she sobbed into Cody's chest, Cody managed to reach an arm over and rub her back. Deja Vu stood on the opposite side of the bed and gently rubbed Cody's head whilst Dallas was holding back from breaking down into a crying mess as best she could but we could all see the tears making her mascara run down her cheeks and her lower lip quivering.

Cody's POV

It was maybe an hour or so later before I could finally go home. The doctors did one last check up on my head injury and found it to be healing well to my family's relief but they did apply some gauze to my head just in case to keep it protected. Along the way, a human teenager who was with the family during when I was being hospitalised made conversation with me, introducing himself as Hunter to where I learned that he was the one Dylan mentioned helping him and his family when Cruella's descendant tried to kill them. Because she treated him almost as badly as my birth dad did to me and since we both knew the Dalmatian family, we became quick friends to which I even hung out with him for the rest of the day alongside Dizzy and Dee Dee who told me about the funny nickname they gave him: Mr. Funnyface.

Speaking of home, as soon as we went in, everybody suddenly set up the house for a small party to truly welcome me into the family, and I just couldn't help but smile all the way through. The Dalmatian family was truly were I belonged and I would be sure to always stay with them and keep the love they had for me. Even Dante smiled at me when he first saw me, it was almost like me coming to this family had made a noticeable difference. Night soon came and me, Hunter, Dizzy and Dee Dee were all sat at the roof looking up at the stars. Sometimes, I managed to point out one of the constellations Dylan had educated me about, earning an impressed smirk from Hunter. At one point, a thought crossed my mind as I turned to the teen.

"Hey, Hunter?"

"Yeah?"

"You said you lived with your great-aunt, right? ...Did something happen to your parents?" I hesitated a little, hoping I wouldn't strike a nerve with him. He frowned a little before looking at me.

"...My dad was in a car accident and… he didn't make it." He answered a little solemnly. "And my mum… she got very sick. Doctors said it was something called 'liver cancer'." He continued as I shared his forlorn frown. "My mom died in a car accident too. When I was only four..." I replied as Hunter looked at me perturbed. "Geez… I'm sorry, Cody." He muttered sympathetically before smiling to bring back the mood up. "At least you're so-called 'dad' is behind bars were he belongs, and you have a new mum and dad." That made me smile optimistically. A doctor back at the hospital told us that after being treated for the injuries the Dimitri trio gave him, he was taken in and given a life sentence for child abuse, assault and attempted filicide. He wouldn't see the light of day until he was eighty-four at best. I'd need to remember to thank the Dimitri trio for saving my life and Dolly and Diesel especially for managing to find me. I looked up at the stars once more before whispering something out.

"...Thank you, Pongo and Perdita." And just for a moment, I thought I saw the stars align to form the faces of the two Dalmatians whom smiled and winked at me in response.

Sometime later, it was time to turn in for the night. I exchanged farewells with Hunter whom promised to visit us again sometime, before me and my siblings all went to our beds. As soon as I was in my own, Dylan briefly checked my bandaged wound before tucking me in as Dolly sat beside me.

"Well… Seems you've had quite an adventure, huh?" Dolly joked a little, eliciting a smirk from me. These past few weeks were definitely quite a journey for me. From being rescued by Dizzy and Dee Dee, to being given a new family and lastly to being rescued once again. "And if you're still feeling good tomorrow, we'll all go to the park if you want." I nodded, liking the sound of that as Dylan and Dolly walked to the bedroom doorway, both looking at me warmly.

"This'll always be your family and home, Cody. Sleep well." Dylan said to me as I let out a little yawn and said…

"Goodnight, Dolly and Dylan. I love you."

I let my eyelids close and I was soon sound asleep, but before I rolled into dreamland, I felt Dolly kiss me on the forehead before she and Dylan went to their own beds and I slept peacefully among Da Vinci and a few of my other brothers and sisters in the room with me.