Mari the Deer stood quietly in the hallway to the pediatrics ward in the Phoenix hospital where her friend Teddy was there to see his sister and be with her when she gave birth. That had left Mari with without much to do while Teddy met with his sister and so she had wandered through the hospital until she came to the pediatrics ward. She could see many of the rooms were occupied and that there were paper charts posted on them. As she walked by them, Mari noticed that they listed some fairly serious maladies afflicting the children in these rooms. Some might think that Baby Furs couldn't read or understand things because of how young they looked, or the fact that Baby Furs often when writing often either spelled out words phonetically (how they sounded when spoken) or by mixing in numbers or pictures with often no rhyme or reason, but that wasn't the case. Mari was still quite literate and remembered a lot of her time as a doctor/scientist before she and Jamie the Rabbit became Baby Furs.
"Children shouldn't be sick," Mari whispered, more to herself than anything else as she looked at one chart that read that the child had Leukemia, "Children shouldn't feel pain..."
"Quite right, young one," came a voice that made her jump.
Mari turned to see a lone man. He wore dress pants and a shirt. The pants where khaki colored and the shirt was a light blue. He wore a read tie that hung from around his neck and wore a white lab coat that only let her see part of his shirt. The coat wasn't buttoned shut, so it hung loosely around his sides. His face was tanned slightly and he had light brown curly hair and a slight but still bushy looking mustache on his upper lip, which curled into a slight but still friendly smile.
"Unfortunately, life doesn't always agree with that, and we must do our best to try and alleviate that," the man said to Mari.
Remembering her pinkie swear, Mari still wished there was more that she could do, and ultimately managed the one thing kinds said when something didn't seem to go their way.
"That's not fair," Mari stated plainly.
"No... no it isn't," the man told her, "but we do our best to ultimately help all the children here. And we've done a pretty good job of saving lives."
"That's good," Mari gave a small smile, "I only wish I could help."
From what Sammy and Jessy had already discovered, transforming into Baby Furs had the magical effect of curing just about everything, based on their friend singing about "no more cancer." However, Mari didn't know that. While she was still a scientist and a doctor, her knowledge and research had originally been geared to try and reverse the transformation, which science hadn't produced any answers. And even if she did know that, her pinkie swear not to deliberately transform anyone mean that she wouldn't even try to do so.
"Maybe you can," the man smiled to her, "It may not work like a drug... but I've always found that kids will feel better when they have a friend to talk to. Perhaps... if you'd like, you can talk with some of the kids here and make friends."
"But for Baby Furs that means transforming more Baby Furs and I already pinkie promised not to," Mari told him.
"Being friends doesn't mean you have to turn anyone into anything," the man said to her in a very assuring way, "friendship... it's something that goes past what we look like. It's in how we get along and how relate to one another. If you can show these children some kindness, they'll be your friends even if they don't become Baby Furs like yourself."
"Okay," Mari said hesitantly and walked into the room to find a girl who looked like she was ten at the oldest sitting in the bed the hospital provided. Mari noted that the girl looked to her intently and thought she saw a glimmer of hope in the girl's eyes. The man followed behind her, and the girl in the bed noticed him.
"Doctor Johnson, is it time for my meds?" the girl asked.
"Not now, Morgan," the man, Doctor Johnson spoke, "I've merely brought someone to say hello."
The girl, Morgan, managed a slight lean to look over the edge of her bed and directly to Mari who stood a bit quietly before she gave a polite wave to Morgan.
"Hi, I'm Mari the Deer," Mari introduced herself, "Who are you?"
"Morgan Weller," the girl said slowly, and then noted, "You're fuzzy."
"I'm a Baby Fur," Mari responded, "we live to be cute, furry, and friendly."
"I've heard about them on the news," Morgan commented, "You don't look like the way they've portrayed you... you're kinda cute."
"Thank you," Mari answered, "How 'av you been?"
"I've been better," Morgan spoke.
"I'm sorry you don't feel well," Mari apologized, even though she wasn't the cause of Morgan's being in the hospital.
"It's okay," Morgan answered, "they think I'll beat it yet..."
Mari smiled at bit at the optimism in Morgan's voice, "that must make your parents and friends happy."
"It makes my parents happy," Morgan looked away, "but my school friends haven't come by at all."
Mari frowned and came closer and offered Morgan her hand, "I'll be your friend. And I will be happy to see you get better."
Morgan looked down to the anthropomorphic baby deer in a diaper standing there like a toddler with her ears standing up and out and her dark eyes looking up to her. In many ways it was an image of innocent hope and kindness. She couldn't help but smile back and took Mari's hand. She felt a soft tingle go through her body as she did so, but it didn't hurt. In fact it felt rather good.
"Perhaps when I'm better... we can go somewhere and play," Morgan commented, "You can show me the games Baby Furs play."
"I'd like that," Mari smiled.
And so it went as Mari went from room to room with Doctor Johnson following and supervising her. She got names and addresses for where they lived and a few even told her where they went to school and as Mari befriended them, she remembered those things easily, as though they were the back of her hands. None of the children she visited became Baby Furs and she didn't turn any of their medical equipment into their toy equivalent, but to the joy of the children's parents and the hospital staff, everyone that Mari touched and talked with would actually show signs of recovery. In that, it would be something of a joyous miracle.