The sun was high in the sky as it overlooked the Bunny Burrows train station as its radiance provided a sharp contrast to the crisp morning are. The weather could not have been any more perfect for the last day of Judy and Nick's visit with Judy's family. All of Judy's siblings who were present to see her off gave their last hugs and goodbye before the couple boarded the train.
"Have a safe trip dear," Bonnie said as she hugged her daughter goodbye.
"And call us when you get home," Stu followed up as he did the same as Bonnie.
"I will dad," Judy replied as she got out of the way to let Nick hug Bonnie goodbye and shake Stu's hand.
After Stu finished shaking hands with Nick, he took the chance to say one last thing before they boarded the train. "Thank you for coming home to celebrate your second anniversary."
"And thank you for having us," Nick said in return. "We might just try to come back for our third. I'll never turn down free bed and breakfast," he joked.
Judy was seriously considering spending their next anniversary at home again. Part of it was due to them not financially in a position yet to splurge on something nice. However leaving the city for the week allowed them to slow down and unwind outside work and the hustle and bustle. Growing up in a large family oriented household, the trip also gave her the ability to spend some much desired time to visit friends and family and catch up with the ongoings of the farm since she spent most of her time away from them. She does desire to eventually go on a more romantic getaway for one of their anniversaries, but for the time being, that will have to wait. She would have to talk with Nick about putting money into a savings account to be put towards a second.
Nick and Judy made their way to their seats and waited for the conductor to come about and scan their tickets. "That joke was more terrible than your usual material. I think you're slipping." She said with a grin as she looked up at Nick.
"Nah, just being around all you bunnies is making me soft, that all," he said in return.
"Whatever you say, dumb fox," Judy said with a grin as she turned her head to look out the window as the train made its way up to speed. A short while later the conductor came by to check their tickets before leaving them be. A pain slowly began to seep into Judy's chest, causing her to rub her hand over its origin. "Nick, do you still have that bottle of painkillers on you?" This is not the first time she has dealt with this painful sensation of pulling in her chest. Over the past serval months, it has come and gone like headaches, only needing off-the-shelf medicine to alleviate the pain.
"You know," Nick said, reaching into his backpack, "I think it's about time for you to see your doctor about that."
Judy groaned in reply. She did not like to go to the hospital unless she had a serious ailment. She did not like the idea of going there just to be embarrassed finding out what she had did not need a hospital visit, or was nothing at all. She feared that they would make her look weak, foolish, or a little bit of both. Visits such as that also tended to be paid out of pocket, and would be a waste of money of she turned out to not have anything.
Nick frowned and gave her a light embrace, "I'm serious Judy, I don't want you blowing off something seemingly harmless like this for it to come back later and bite you in the ass."
"Alright," Judy relented, "when we get home, I'll call my doctor and make an appointment." If only one thing could sway her decision on a matter, it would be husband's concern for her. A quality of his that she deeply admired.
"Thank you." Nick kissed the top of her head before leaning back in his chair to take a nap.
The morning sun beamed through their bedroom window and reflected of framed photos that sat on the dresser and hung from the walls as it illuminated the room. The apartment was not big, but it was big enough to facilitate their needs and comforts.
The main entrance to it leads into the main room. The room consisted of the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Closest to the entrance was the living room area which contained only a love seat against one wall with a coffee table directly in front of it. Sitting against the opposite wall was a moderately sized cathode ray set that Judy's parents had given them when they bought a newer television for the burrow's den.
The kitchen is on the far side of the room from the main entrance with counters and appliances in the right corner of the space. The dining room was not so much a full dining room space as much as it was a small dining table that could seat two in the opposite corner.
One the left wall of the room sat two doors that lead into both the bedroom and bathroom and a third door to link the bedroom directly with the bathroom. The apartment did not have a space for a washer and dryer. Instead, each floor provided residents with a small washateria that contained a couple sets of coin operated washers and dryers.
Judy woke to the sunlight beaming into her eyes. She turned to her nightstand to pick up her phone. '10:28' read its clock. On their off days, it was nice to sleep in and get well-deserved rest to recuperate from a busy work week.
Her movement caused Nick to stir away. He took a moment to stare and smile at her. "Mornin' sleeping beauty."
She put her phone back down and turned to him, "good morning, sweetheart." She followed up her greeting with a kiss. "As much as I would like to just lay here and be lazy, baby. I forgot to take our laundry out of the dryer and you know how cranky Mrs. Buckley can get when someone does that." She said giving him another kiss before getting up and leaving for the washateria.
Nick had put a pot of coffee on and was in the process of making the bed when Judy came back with a basket full of their garments. Finished with the bed, Nick walked up beside Judy to aid her with the laundry. Half way through, Judy's phone lit up and began to vibrate. She walked over to her nightstand, answered the call, and put it on speaker. "Hello." She answered as she returned to the laundry.
"Good morning, Mrs. Wilde, this is your doctor." The doctor greeted.
"Good morning, Ms. Hornby." Judy greeted in return. "Is this about last week's appointment?"
"Yes." Ms. Hornby answered. "The results from the tests we ran came back. I have some good news and some bad news."
The thought of bad news concerned Judy. "Okay."
Ms. Hornby continued, "The bad news is that the tests for breast cancer came back positive."
Judy froze. Breast cancer? She thought. I have breast cancer? She thought about her family tree. As big as her family is, she could not recall her parents or any of her grandparents ever dealing with cancer. The news that she was just diagnosed with cancer hit her like a speeding train. It was too difficult for her to comprehend the first time she heard it. "Could you repeat that please?" She stumbled over her words as she tried to recover from the initial shock.
"You have breast cancer, Mrs. Wilde. I'm sorry." The doctor repeated. "Now for the good news. While the cancer is not early stage, it's not late stage be any means. So as long as we get act fast, we might be able to remove it completely. The earliest we can schedule you for a surgery is the middle of next week."
"Okay," Judy said somberly. It was barely audible over the phone.
"I'll give you some time to take it in and call back later to discuss the specifics of the operation." After a moment, the call ended.
Judy collapsed slowly, sliding down the foot of the bed, tightly clenching the article of clothing she was folding minutes ago. Her eyes watered as she began to bawl, soaking her cheeks. Nick sat down next to her immediately and wrapped his arms around her to try and comfort her. She turned her head into his chest as she continued to cry.
They sat there for what seemed to be an eternity until her sobs slowed. "It's not fair, Nick," she said between sniffles. "Why me? I have a healthy diet, I exercise, I'm in excellent physical shape, and I'm only twenty-eight years old!"
Nick took a moment to figure out what to say. "Cancer doesn't discriminate, or care if you're just twenty-eight. It doesn't care if you're married or you have kids, eat well, or exercise like you should. It doesn't care if you're prey or predator. It sure doesn't care if you're on your deathbed or just coming into this world." One of his hands was now rubbing her back while the other was scratching the top of her head and base of her ears.
Judy wiped her eyes with her forearm and chuckled softly before looking up at her husband, "I guess that's the twisted irony of it all, huh. We want discrimination and prejudice, and the likes to vanish. So few things in this world are truly unbiased, yet it's those few things that we never want to see." She returned her head back to its spot on his chest. "I'm scared, Nick." She was no longer clenching the t-shirt she was folding earlier, instead, she was now grabbing hold of Nick as tight as she could, not wanting to let go.
He brought her in to plant a kiss on top of her head. "I am too, Carrots. However, I'm going to be with you every step of the way. No matter what happens, I'm going to love you through this." With that, he gently picked her up and moved onto the bed, pushing the clothing off in the process. They spent the rest of morning and afternoon lying in bed, quietly holding each other. He'll fold the laundry tomorrow.
Nick had lost track of how long he was sitting in the hospital waiting room. His nose gone numb from the scent of the sterile air and his backside fell asleep from being glued to his seat since he took it when Judy went into surgery. Next to him sat Judy's parents who wanted to be with their daughter during her surgery.
Before the surgery, her parents answered her questions about cancer history in her family. One of her late great grandfathers was diagnosed with cancer along with a handful of her great aunts and uncles. Some won their battles, some did not.
A doctor walked out into the waiting room. "Wilde." He called out, looking up from his clipboard. Nick, along with Judy's parents stood up to greet him. "Mrs. Wilde is now in recovery. Her surgery went well. It's a good thing that we removed the tumor when we did. Had it grown or spread anymore, we probably would not have been able to remove it. However, we did have to remove more than we planned.
"More?" Nick asked with concern in his voice.
"Yes." The doctor continued, "We were forced to remove her whole right breast. Now come on, I bet she's eager to see you." The doctor led them down a labyrinth of corridors to Judy's room.
Later that evening, Judy's parents left to catch their train home, allowing Nick and Judy to finally have some alone time after the surgery.
"So," Nick began, "Now that it's just us in the room, can I see what it looks like?"
After a moment of hesitation, Judy lifted her hospital gown, exposing her chest to him. Her fur in that region had been shaved off so the surgeons could operate. Just like the doctor had said, her right breast was gone, and in its place was a large scar that had been sealed up with stitching.
"It looks terrible, doesn't it?" She asked looking at him as he gazed at her torso.
Nick looked up seeing a slightly depressed look in her eyes. "It's fine." He reassured her. "Your fur will grow back, we'll get you some baggy clothes, and it will be hardly noticeable." Then he grinned, "But I think you look sexy with battle scars."
She sighed, "Yeah, it's not like I was in any battles, Nick."
"Yeah you were. You were in a battle with cancer. As far as I'm concerned, that's a tougher battle than trying to wrestle any punk on the street into restraints." Nick replied. "Now, as soon as we get you out of this place, I'll treat you to someplace nice."
Throughout the next year, Judy made routine checkups to follow up on her recovery after having the tumor removed. Nick noted some behavioral changes of hers since the ordeal. Initially, she was much less bubbly and more somber in her attitude, but she slowly, but surely came around. She did start a new habit, however. She made looking at herself in the bathroom mirror a new part of her morning routine. Every morning, she would remove her nightgown to look at the scar that was left behind.
Nick was woken one morning by the bathroom light illuminating the bedroom. Usually he let Judy be with this new addition to her routine, but this time, he decided he should say something. He got out of bed and walked into the bathroom finding her topless right where he expected to find her. He walked behind her and slowly put his hands on her shoulders.
"Sorry, I woke you." She said.
"It's all good, Carrots." He replied
"I look ugly now don't I?" She asked. Even though the fur had grown back, the scar was still easily visible.
She had never been very self-conscious of how she looked before. She was always busy striving for her goal to become a police officer that she did not concern herself with relationships or what others thought of how she looked, but that changed when she found herself in a relationship with Nick. She found herself more concerned with her looks now, at least with Nick. She still did not care much about what others thought.
"Judy," Nick said, "you will always be the beautiful, smart, strong rabbit I know. No matter how many scars you have."
"You know," she said, rubbing the scar, "sometimes I just wonder about the what if. What if I would have gotten the pain checked out sooner? What if they couldn't remove the tumor? You know?"
"Asking 'what if' seems to be a question we all like to ask ourselves. It's not a very good way to let go of what has happened. I believe we should just learn from the past so we don't repeat the same mistakes down the line." He said after some thought.
"Quite the philosopher this morning, aren't we?" she asked. She then raised her hands up to his on her shoulders to hold them. "I don't know what I would have done without you."
"You'd be home plucking carrots from the ground." He grinned.
"Nick." She giggled as she elbowed him. "But seriously, I'm glad I had you here to help me through it all."
"I'm glad to see you in a good mood this morning, Carrots," Nick said. "Our third anniversary is in a month and I can't have my bunny in a gloomy mood when we go back to Bunny Burrows. Also, your anniversary is in about six weeks."
"My anniversary?" she asked, confused.
"Yeah, in six weeks, you will be cancer free for one year, and I think that calls for a double celebration," Nick smiled.
"I love you."
"I love you too, Carrots."
If you enjoyed this story, please take a moment to glance at my other Zootopia stories. They are all in the same respective timeline, but they can all be read as stand-alone, and they are all based on one country song or another.