Judy tapped her foot impatiently against the tiled floor, the smell of cleaning chemicals and freshly coated wax causing her nose to twitch irritably. She wiggled it in a full circle a couple times before resigning to cover it with a paw. 'Qualified' nurses either sat in their office chairs or rushed to an exit, all feminine sheep in scrubs, bunnies, mice, the odd squirrel who fidgeted over a monitor. It occurred to Judy that she had only ever come to this particular hospital on official business, and while she'd noticed the shift in the predator to prey ratio she'd never actually registered it as a problem.

Until now.

'Family', they'd told her, 'you're not family', shooting her odds look as she stuck determinedly to his side. They'd kicked her out once the nurse had gone in, though they were only separated by a blue sheet of plastic.

Everything had gone so horribly, horribly wrong.

She glanced around the emergency room again, gritting her teeth as her eyes roved over each hanging curtain, finally forced to blink back the overwhelming anger she felt. Leading suspect number one had lunged at her, and Nick - being the amazing partner that he was - had taken the brunt of it, the ocelot's claws splitting his side and puncturing his hip. There had been blood... everwhere. And if it hadn't been for Wolfe owing them a favor, they never would have made it to the hospital. It was a miracle she'd been able to drag him out of the alley.

And then it'd taken convincing to get help, and WAITING, all the while she'd held that shirt to his side, stuck filing his paperwork before they would even admit him. A potential threat to other patients.

Stupid. Her head hit the wall with a thump. Useless, useless, useless. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Judy felt like the closest thing to family he had here, not that they would have let Finnick in either, and his mother... well, she'd not wanted to worry her. They were taking far too long in there, but he was... going to be okay.

The door finally opened and the brown sheep who'd locked her out casted her a sideways glance, still cleaning off her tools on the way out. Judy swooped in behind her, the only thing on her mind being the fox in the hospital bed, who fought to give her a smile, a wave, looking so, so tired. Her stomach made a terrible flip at the sight of him.

But God, he was okay.

Everything hurt.

Even his toes, they hadn't been in the danger zone but they'd decided to hurt nonetheless. Was there a morphine button here? A put me out of my misery button? Nick groaned as he tried to shift his weight a bit, promptly giving up and leaning back down, already out of breath. He hated hospitals. He'd been in too many of them as a kid. The dull lights, the fake 'happy' coloring they'd paint the walls, the oblivious nurses and doctors that flitted in and out as if you weren't there. Dammit.

He felt so tired too. But he couldn't pass out just yet, he'd already done it once when being rushed over here. He needed to see if she was okay, none of these damn sheep would tell him what'd happened to Judy. The last he'd seen of her she'd been sat over him, covered in blood and scared as they masked him. Please let her not have been hurt. That fucking guy had hit more than a little hard. Where was she?

As if answered by prayer (everyone thank bunny jesus who provides) he saw the tips of her ears sweep past the sheep and a wave of relief hit him hard. He smiled at her as she came into full view, catching sight of him and dropping her ears flat back in fright. Shit, did he look that bad? "Hey, Jude."

"Hi, Nick…" she said back quietly, worrying her paws at her middle. She'd never seen him look so… gray before. His fur had always shined with an exuberance, a bright orange that put most to shame. It was like someone had gone and sucked the life out of him. For all intents and purposes, someone had… Judy's small paws placed themselves on either side of his head, and without thinking she placed a kiss to the top of it, between his ears. Then she hugged him very carefully, taking in the scent of him from his neck to replace the horrible smell of the emergency room.

Thank God…

It was only when she heard him groan and felt a paw on her back that she pulled away, not wanting to strain him. "No, no, it's-" Though she had tried, Judy only found herself clutching his paw. She glanced down at it, then back up at him. "Did they… did they give you anything?"

Judy knew already that they hadn't. She could tell just by looking at him. And with as much pain as he was in and what they'd had to do… Seeing him lying there was making her heart break.

She was covered in blood.

His heart almost skipped a beat at the sight, but Judy was moving along just fine and with a determined step toward him. No limping, no holding her chest, the only thing out of place was her expression. She was smiling, but it was strained. Faked. It all happened in a blur, her small body closing in against him, the press of her stout, light muzzle touching his forehead, the hug that though gentle was still like a private version of hell. God, Judy. There were so many things Nick wanted to say right now to her. The relief was rampant, things he hadn't thought had mattered were suddenly flooding his mind and he was at a loss for words. Anything could have happened back there, to either one of them. What if he died before…

She pulled back the minute he'd tried to cling to her and he fell back with a heavy, pained breath, focusing on her face, making sure to keep it in view and not close his eyes for one second. His eyes roved down her shirt again and he finally realized whose blood that was. Oh. Okay.

"Probably, at least I think. I'd tell you for certain if it was working at all," Nick said snarkily, trying to make light of the matter for them both. It wasn't like it'd help being morose about this whole thing, though from the look on Judy's face, she wasn't about to play along.

Those horrible, horrible- "I'll go get someone," Judy told him firmly. She patted Nick's arm, letting her paw slide down his fur comfortingly. They weren't going to leave him there to suffer. They had probably given him a prey's dose of painkiller, not wanting to waste so much on him, but she would very quickly correct that little mistake.

As she turned, a larger paw weakly snatched at her own. It was almost as if she'd been snagged. Almost. It was so weak. Blinking, Judy stared at where they connected, Nick's gentle hushing proving to calm her. Her ears, which had been erect and alert only a second before, fell flat on her back.

He looked so tired…

"You need rest."

"I need a lot of things," he winked.

Judy smiled, and this time it wasn't so forced.