Spoilers: Erm, none.....yep, nope, none.....
Disclaimer:
KA: Ok, Leah is not my character, and neither is Ganlor or any of the others ones with a cool personality.
Me: ::nods approvingly:: Ok, yeah, and the rest are, but honestly, mine are better.......
Authors Note: Marco and Rachel! YEAH! hehe, ok, well, its under romance, but it has a little bit of everything......this is another way it could have ended......I love Marco and Rachel!
And yeah, I wrote this story a long time ago, and just now decide to edit out all the typos and grammatical error's…
I got bored ^_^
So yes, any review's always appreciated…but flamers beware. I have silly string and I am NOT afraid to use it.
(come on, I wrote it a long time ago, take it easy on me!)
The Final Case
Marco
I glanced down at my watch and groaned. This was awful, Rachel was gonna have a cow. She always chewed me out for being late. I grinned at the girl who had stopped me. She looked about 18, drop dead gorgeous, and she really wanted to talk to me. 6 years ago, I would have been ecstatic. Nowadays, it was just part of the job. "Look, I really am flattered, but I have a meeting to attend."
She looked at me appearing absolutely heart broken. "But, I know I can help you, really."
I gave her my best grin. "If I am ever looking for a new partner, you'll be the first person I call."
Her face lit up. "Thanks Marco, this means the world to me"
I nodded and hurried away. I would have to call security, my new identity had been leaked out again. Thank goodness the case was over, I was going to have to change identities soon anyways. I climbed onto the helicopter quickly, and phoned Rachel. "Rachel, I got held up."
"Obviously" her annoyed voice replied.
"Come on Xena, cut me some slack, I got fans to take care of you know."
I could almost see her rolling her eyes. "Whatever, hurry it up midget, the food won't wait forever."
I heard the dial tone and quickly hung up. It annoyed me she still called me midget. I wasn't tall or anything, but I was normal height now, as tall as her. Actually, half an inch taller. I was 5'8, she was 5'7" and a half. It was weird, she hadn't grown at all after high school, although I had had a huge growth spurt. I thank God everyday for that.
I also thanked God Rachel was back to normal enough to insult me now.
After Tobias had died when we were 16, Rachel had sorta lost it for a while. She hated Leah. Leah had joined our team 6 months after Tobias died. Rachel always resented her, felt she had taken Tobias' place. Ax fell in love with her though and she fell in love with him. He trapped himself in human morph the day the war was declared to have ended and they were married. That was 6 years ago.
We were all 24 now, Ax and Leah had two kids, 5 year old girl and a 3 year old boy. Cassie and Jake were married too, although they had waited a bit longer than Ax and Leah. Cassie went to college first, Jake skipped college and became a major in the US army. A year ago, at a reunion, they fell back in love, two weeks ago, they got married.
Everybody had moved on, I could have done the same, I know that. I did for awhile. Went into television, had my own sitcom. It was nice, but empty. One day I got a call, asking if I could do Jake and the government a favor. I said yes, of course, ready for some action. That was the beginning. Rachel and me both worked on that first case together, undercover agents. We solved it, and then we wanted another. Today we were top agents. The two of us were higher up than the FBI, the CIA, we got more respect than the freakin president.
Our names were known world wide, we did all kinds of cases. I liked to think of myself as James Bond, although most people said Rachel played that part better than me.
For four years we had been at this. I liked it. It was hard to stay undercover, mine and Rachel's faces were on about every poster on every kids room. Every girl in the world wanted to be Rachel and every guy wanted to be me. Hollywood tried for awhile to get me and Rachel together, everybody said we would be the perfect couple. Her blonde good looks hadn't faded since entering adulthood, and I of course had the looks and the charm. They gave up though when Rachel gave a speech, 3 years ago, about Tobias. It made even the heartless reporters cry. I respect Rachel, more than anyone in this world. I'm not saying I would mind hooking up with her, I have just accepted it as impossible.
I finally arrived at the restaurant, a private one reserved for me and Rachel, it had been built especially for us, in fact. I hurried in, and she sat looking bored.
"Hey Princess, what's up?"
Rachel
I glared at Marco. "Will you ever get over always being late?"
He smiled easily. "Ah, come on Princess, you know you love me."
I shook my head as he sat down and we began to eat. "So what's this all about? new case?"
He looked up from eating and his eyes sparkled. I guess he was good looking, if you liked that type. Dark eyes, almost black hair, a natural tan. Even though he was as tall as me now, in my mind I still saw him as Marco, short cocky kid. However, here lately, he had been making it harder and harder for me to not recognize him as a man. On almost every case he seemed to fall in love with a new woman, each one in need of him as their hero. Dork.
Actually, Marco was probably my only real friend nowadays. I never talked to Cassie or Jake, they had changed to much, moved on. Ax had married Leah. I will never forgive him for that. She always was vindictive though.
I had had about 100 marriage proposals in just the last year, but I didn't think any of them counted. they all came from people who didn't know me. People who thought just because I was blonde I would fall for any good looking guy. I got mad just thinking about it. I would never marry anybody. Tobias had been my one love. It made me want to hurt somebody thinking about it. Why didn't these dumb butts get that?
"Xena, have you heard anything I just said?" I looked up at Marco, who was shaking his head, his eyes alive with amusement. "I swear, you get more and more like bird boy with each year. First you start killing rodents, now your daydreaming on me."
I gave him a light whack on the head. "Shut-up, its not like you would kill the mouse, you were standing on a desk screeching like a girl."
He feigned looking wounded. "See, now I thought you would appreciate my feminine side."
I snorted. "I would appreciate it if you showed a side other than that one!"
"Princess, you wound me! This is gonna make it very difficult for us to get married."
I almost choked on my drink. "What?!"
"Wow, you really weren't listening. Our latest case. Were not going undercover, they know were agents, but now, were agents on a honeymoon. Their sending us to the Andalite home world. Were supposed to be there to learn more about Andalite culture and Ganlor's plan. If asked why we were sent instead of diplomats, we remind them we were the animorphs and know more about this kind of stuff. Really, what we have to do is find out what's up with Ganlor. Our government doesn't trust him. Apparently, he's not just some good Andalite trying to strengthen earths bond with the rest of the universe. He has an ulterior motive. Its our job to figure out what that motive is." Marco explained, then took a sip of his drink.
I shook my head. "Your crazy. Me, marry you? No way!"
"Hey, it will put a bit of a damper on my love life too, but even I didn't protest that vehemently." I was about to retort when I saw that there was a shimmer of a real hurt behind his joke.
"Look, its not you personally, why do we have to get married anyways?? Can't we just fake the documents" I asked biting my tongue to keep from exploding.
"We already checked into that. Won't work. The government have a new kind of encrypted code, can't be forged. Its on dollars bills, social security cards, id's and marriage license. Has to be the real thing. But, you know, we can always get an annulment. Or just not do it if you really don't want to." He said and the last part seemed forced.
I sat there for a minute thinking. This really wasn't a big deal. like he said, we could get an annulment. And it wasn't like we'd actually be husband and wife, it was just a cover. This would be a piece of cake…easy! I nodded, a grin spreading across my face. "Lets do it!" I said and Marco groaned.
Marco
I had just gotten married. Weird. The worst part was I was actually starting to believe it was all real. We had to make this public, so if they checked up on us, it would look like we had a big old wedding and all. Jake was my best man, he claimed he knew me and Rachel would get together all along. Cassie was Rachel's. Those two aren't as close anymore, I think it may bother Rachel a little.
Anyways, I was standing there waiting for Rachel, all that annoying crappy music was playing, and when I saw her, it was like, Wow. I forgot sometimes how beautiful she really was. I saw the confusion in her eyes when she looked at me. I guess my fawning over her had been really obvious. Hopefully she figured it to be part of the charades.
We met Ganlor together. He had a plane waiting for us, then we arrived at a station, where we climbed into a ship, and took off.
Ganlor showed us to our quarters, and I was relieved to see they had been modified for human use. There was a king-size bed in the middle of the room, a dresser, and a desk. There was even a small bathroom. Most humans traveling in space had to adjust to Andalite quarters. This was something special, I was sure of that. I almost groaned out loud, thinking of the next few nights I would be spending sleeping on the floor.
We had gone undercover as the married couple before. This was different though. Always before, it hadn't been long enough to where we would actually have to act the part. Not this time though. I wasn't worried at first, what did Andalites know about human customs right???
Alot more than you'd think. Ganlor made a point of saying it was ok if we kissed in front of him, he understood we were a newly wed couple. Rachel looked at me as if to say 'I can't believe that guy actually checked this out, if you touch me your dead'
Unfortunately, after the first week, Ganlor began to grow suspicious. It seemed he was determined to blow our cover.
Why is it you never seem to show physical affection, as most humans do with their spouses? he asked shrewdly one night after dinner.
"We just don't want to make you uncomfortable" I replied, offering him a charming smile, wondering where this question had come from. Man, this Andalite was weird. He gave me the creeps. Apparently my charming smiles don't work on male Andalites…
It does not make me at all uncomfortable. I find it odd that you even took me into consideration. Most newly weds would not have been able to keep their hands off each other he replied sounding more than a little bit onto us.
Rachel
I looked at Marco knowing he about to spout out some ludicrous explanation, that would just get us into deeper trouble. Sometimes situations called for talking. Other times, you just needed to take action. Which is exactly what I did.
I walked over to Marco and wrapped my arms around his neck, then leaned in and whispered, "Work with me". I pulled him to me and kissed him. He was the first guy I had ever kissed since Tobias. It was wonderful and different. I could tell he was caught off guard at first, but then he started to respond, and I had to force myself to pull away. I was mad at myself for enjoying that, mad at Marco for making me. I looked at him and couldn't help smirk. It was the first time in my life I had ever seen him speechless. I guess even with all those other girls, I must still have something. I nodded at Ganlor. "Your right, we should do that more often." I said and then sauntered off, Marco scrambling behind me.
There were no more kisses for the rest of the trip. Me and Marco both avoided it. I for one was upset at my response, and his. He seemed incredibly embarrassed by it all. I had never had him treat me so well as he did that next week. No sarcastic comments, no fun spars. He treated me like we were in a normal relationship. I hated it. I felt miserable. Like I had lost my best friend and I was wondering if this case was worth it.
We got to the Andalite home world, and got down to business. We first debugged our room. That was easy. Then came the wait, we couldn't go out till nightfall. The moment it came, we morphed.
My back hardened into a rock hard shell, my legs shrunk and wrinkled, and then my arms came to meet them. My ears disappeared and my nose flattened. I was a turtle. Turtles were the only earth creatures that had really taken to the andalite home world. They seemed to thrive on andalite grass and rain, today, there were some the size of a small horse. Mine and Marcos were smaller snapping turtles.
We hurried as fast as our turtle legs could take us to Ganlor's residence.
We both demorphed, but while Marco stayed human, I was remorphing again, to a leopard. It had become my favorite morph since childhood, when it was the bear. The leopard had something the bear didn't. Grace. I found being a leopard made me feel like I was that gymnast I always wanted to be. I was strong, graceful, sleek. I walked back and forth, as Marco searched frantically for proof against Ganlor. Then a light turned on, and I looked around in surprise.
Weren't you even going to ask before using my office? I looked up at the same time as Marco.
There sat Ganlor, with a gun pointed straight at Marco.
Marco
Ok, so there was a psycho andalite with a gun pointed at my head, and Rachel was surrounded. Things really weren't so bad. I looked up at the ceiling wishing really hard we had never showed the Andalites the ingenuity of having two floors. Ganlor moved in, pointing the blaster at my head.
Well, I knew you were secret agents, I should have figured they sent you here to check me out. Unfortunately for you, I don't like nosy humans He raised the blaster about to pull the trigger when a panther leaped from the ceiling on top of him.
And unfortunately for you, I don't like people who mess with my friends
I recognized the strong southern accent right away. "Leah!"
Well hi sugar, did you miss me? she asked with a drawl.
I almost laughed out loud. I turned around to see Ax with a blaster as well, and him and Rachel finishing the last of the other controllers off.
Three hours later, we all sat together, with Ganlor safely tied up, and Jake with his small army on its way. He had just gotten back from his honey moon, but Cassie had insisted she understood his need to go.
I looked at Leah and Ax curiously. "How did you guys know to come? Did the government send you?"
Leah grinned and shook her head, and Ax blushed. "We came because we wanted to see Ax's parents. I'm pregnant again. We wanted them to get to know this child."
I stood up with a whoop, and grabbed Leah around the waist giving her a small turn. "That's so great. If you have another boy, you better name it Marco!"
Leah shook her head and her eyes sought out Rachel. "Actually, it is going to be a boy. We're calling him Tobias."
Rachel
What was I supposed to say? Leah had known from the very beginning I never liked her. She had taken Tobias' place, everybody had accepted her so easily, like she was one of us, just like that.
Then there was the other thing. She had gotten the life I wanted. I had always thought, when the war ended, Tobias would trap himself as human, we would marry, have kids. I would have the life Leah had. No more fighting would be needed, I'd have Tobias. But he died. And Ax didn't, and Leah got everything she could ever want. It made me despise her more.
I looked at her now, her blue eyes begging for forgiveness for something she never did. Then I looked at Marco. I could tell that he expected it from me. Ax looked oblivious to it all, holding Leah's hand excitedly, his eyes sparkling waiting for my reaction. Finally, I gave Leah a slow deliberate smile. "That's great, I'm happy for you" I said standing up and giving her a small hug, blinking to keep the tears out of my eyes as I let go of something I had spent much to long holding on to.
She returned the hug with much more ferocity, I thought she was gonna squeeze the life out of me.
Then she pulled back and shouted. "Yee-haw!"
Marco grinned and I flinched. I would never get used to her random outbursts. But that was ok, I didn't see her often enough for it be necessary. A smile spread across my face at this thought. For some reason, I felt more at peace with myself then than I had in a really long time.
Marco
I watched Rachel looking happy, and I felt happy. I loved the way she smiled sometimes. Not the big fake smile she used for the camera. The small one, the one that was her real smile. I wanted to give her a hug, but knew that wasn't Rachel's style. It had been hilarious watching Leah though. She had never cared much about whether things were stylish, sort of like Cassie, except, even though Leah didn't care, she always managed to turn out stylish anyways.
I left them all sitting there, Rachel looking a bit uncomfortable, but happy, and Ax chattering away about his other two kids.
I met Jake in the hall. He looked happy too. Vibrant in fact. I hadn't seen him this alive since, well, since the war had been declared ended.
"Marco, what's up?"
I refrained from making a corny joke about taxes. "Ganlor was a controller. He had about five others with him who were as well. We're starving the yeerks now. Apparently, it came from the turtles. There were a few yeerks in turtles and other animals bodies. When the turtles were brought here, they began thriving and growing bigger, and the five of them that were controllers, conspired to take down a hunting group one day. They did, and then they infested them. Ganlor's yeerk wanted to make the ties between the earth and the rest of the universe stronger so that it would be easier for the yeerks to have access to earth. With only five, they couldn't go public, but they planned to after they had kids. One of the other yeerks, apparently a genius one, had figured out a way to carry portable kadrona rays in a small pouch, which became bigger when the yeerks needed them. Nobody noticed the small pouch on the bigger turtles." I took a big breath and continued. "Now the andalite government has destroyed the pouch and the yeerks have 1 more day. Rachel and Leah are friends and I'm in love with Rachel." I paused. "Did I miss anything??"
Jake shook his head. "No, I think you covered it all. Wow, can't believe the yeerks were ba- wait! did you say you were in love with Rachel?"
I nodded miserably. "Yeah, I did. And she's still in love with Tobias."
Jake stood there for a moment quietly. "I'm sorry Marco. Maybe someday...."
I nodded again. Not wanting to focus on it, I changed the subject. "So, how are things with you and Cassie?? Think she'll be popping out any kids soon? You know Leah's pregnant again, you and Cassie will have to work fast to catch up to her and Ax."
Jake shook his head, understanding I didn't want to talk about it, and letting the conversation move on. "I'm not worried about having kids right now. I'm just enjoying having her" he replied, and I snickered.
"Wow…she's really turned you into a sap!"
"Yeah, and your jealous and you know it" Jake replied.
I sobered for a moment. "Yeah. I really am." I said, as we continued down the hall to go find Leah and Ax.
Rachel
I turned around walking slowly down the hall, then into my room. After I had noticed Marco was gone, I went looking for him. I hadn't mean to eavesdrop, but when I heard my name....... He loved me. I felt like crying. This was awful. It would never be the same now. How could I go back and pretend everything was normal knowing this?
I was sick to my stomach thinking about it. I hated him!!! Why did he have to go and mess everything up like this?!
I had lost Marco. We would never be able to be friends now. It would always be between us, the fact that he was in love with me, and the fact that I could never love again.
I couldn't help it. I did something I had not done in years. I cried. I just laid down, and cried.
About a half an hour later, I heard a knock on the door, and I sat up, looking at my red rimmed eyes and sighing in disgust. "What?"
"Let me in Rachel. We need to make our statements."
Hearing Marcos voice on the other side just made me sadder. There would always be a wall between us now.
"I'll be out in a bit. Cover for me."
"Ok Princess, I understand, have to make yourself up." he said and I heard him walk away. I didn't want to go down there, I couldn't face Marco. Not after…
I would leave. Just run away, I knew how to disguise myself, they would never find me.
I needed to write him a note, to let him know I didn't hate him. It didn't take long to finish, I didn't want to stick around longer than I needed too. I had to leave now. Before I lost my nerve.
I climbed out the back window. I morphed leopard and ran, into a forest, as long and far as I could. I stopped for a break, and then I ran more, until I was completely lost, and completely positive no one else could find me. Maybe I would trap myself in this morph, live out my life on the andalite home world. The possibilities were endless. One thing was for sure…I could never go back.
Weeks passed, then months. I had decided not to trap myself, but most my time was spent as a leopard. I was lounging in the field one day when it happened. A red tailed hawk, swooped down, and stopped right in front of me.
Hello Rachel
I sat up incredulously. "Tobias?"
No, its me, sorry to disappoint you
I watched Marco demorph.
"I've, um, missed you." He said quietly, for once not joking.
I smiled, genuinely glad to see Marco. "Yeah, I've missed you too midget."
He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath, and if I didn't know better, I would have said he was nervous. He took another breath then plunged into whatever he had to say.
"So, I know why you left. It took me a bit, but being an undercover agent and all, I used my incredible wit to figure it out. You heard us didn't you? Me and Jake? I'm sorry Rachel. You weren't supposed to know." He shrugged and grinned. "Couldn't help it, you got to much charm in there I guess."
I could see how much it hurt him to joke about this, I wanted to help, but I wanted to avoid it too. Tobias. I had loved him. Marco. I did love him. But I wasn't sure if it was like that......
"Come on Princess, don't leave me hanging here!" Marco said, looking slightly pleading.
"Its to much. I mean, were friends Marco, I never even thought we'd get that far, what your asking now is so much." I said, knowing this would hurt him, hating myself for having to say it.
He nodded slowly. "Fair enough. Give me a year. I'll 'court you'. If you still feel the same way, I'll go into my corner, whimper and lick my sore wounds, and you'll never have to put up with me again."
He looked so hopeful…standing there, a grown man, wearing his spandex biker shorts and shirt. We never had learned how to morph more clothes.
I realized I could not spend the rest of my life in solitude. I needed Marco to make fun of…and if we had to get this out of the way first, I could handle that. Heck, I was Xena. I could handle anything.
I grinned "You know my motto. Lets do it!"
-9 months later and one week later-
I'm pregnant. I know, it sounds weird to me too. Turns out, it had only took me a week to realize that I loved Marco too, more than he loved me probably. We flew back home and got married, this time for real. And you won't believe who our pastor was. Tom. Right, Jakes psycho brother, a pastor, even though he's supposed to be Jewish. Turns out, he was married himself to some famous catholic writer named Emily.
The last 8 some months have been awesome. Who knew when we first walked through that construction site, I would marry Marco, class clown (not to mention dork, geek, and a variety of other things)? Right now though, the love wasn't exactly emanating from me.
"Honey stay with me, your gonna make it."
I glared at Marco. "Idiot, if you weren't so darn horny, I wouldn't be in this position in the first place."
He grinned. "Aww, honey, don't forget, you were getting a little horny too." I gave him a bonk on the head and the car swerved.
"Princess, be careful! Wouldn't want my driving skills to suffer…"
"What driving skills?" I muttered as he pulled into the hospital then circled to my side of the car to heft me in his arms.
"Let me down you fool, I'm in labor, doesn't mean I can't walk"
"That's right your in labor, and your heavy too, so stop squirming or I'm gonna drop you!"
I felt a spasm come on and screamed, gripping his hair. Marco gritted his teeth. "Nothing plugs and a good wig can't fix..."
The nurse came and put me in a wheelchair, and Marco fluttered behind me nervously. "Stop that! your making me nervous!" I snapped.
The they laid me down on an ugly bed and I couldn't help critically examine the room. "This place so doesn't jibe right."
Marco adopted a sleazy sidekick voice. "Yes your highness, I will get you a interior decorator, right away your highness."
"Marco. If you say one more thing that you think will be funny while I'm having your child, I will personally pull every tooth out of your mouth until you can no longer speak. Now hurry up and get me some water! I'm thirsty!"
Marco
I grinned, I was having a kid. A little girl. Rachel said she wasn't going to let me spoil her. Yeah right. I went and got Rachel water, the filled the others in on her condition. I hurried back to Rachel, who was screaming.
"Shut-up! I *AM* PUSHING!!!!!" The nurses were looking scared, the doctor just shook his head.
"Ok, we know your trying Rachel. Just one last push and she'll be here."
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" The scream was heard throughout the whole hospital.
The another one similar to it. "WAHHHHHHHH" and there she was.
She was beautiful. My brown hair, Rachel's blue eyes. She was small, and I groaned knowing she had inherited my short height. Poor girl. Rachel looked at her softly.
"Hello Elle, hello"
We had decided to name her after Elfangor, and that was the closest we could get.
"Lemme hold her lemme hold her!" I demanded, as Rachel hugged our little girl to her chest.
Rachel glared. "NO! I had her first! You'll probably drop her" she snapped.
"But its my turn!"
The doctor sighed. "That is going to be one spoiled kid....."
The rest of the Animorphs joined us, and I kissed Rachel on the lips and looked at Elle happily. Maybe some stories do have happy endings.....
THE END