Hey all, DLW here with a new chapter of CHU! Also, there's important info about my update log at the bottom and stuff I'm doing exclusively on Deviant Art. Thank you to all my readers, follows, fav's and reviews and for your feedback it makes writing all the more fun. Disclaimer: Zootopia and its characters are copyright Disney.

Kiss it Better

It was early morning at Saint Namela Hospital, Zootopia. The sun had begun to peek across the horizon, and the stars that once shown brightly in the empty sky had vanished one by one. Busy nurses ran to and fro to check on their patients and ensure comfort while doctors gave examinations and diagnosis. A typical start for any mammal that came in actually, this shift was rarely different.

One such doctor, an ocelot by the name of Khlaus, patrolled the halls silently as to not disturb his patients too much. With clipboard in paw and his reading glasses assisting him in the process of getting the right doses summed up for his next patient, he lead another, far more concerned mammal with him.

"And you're sure he's okay doctor?" came a voice, ladened with fear and shaken with worry.

A vixen - clad in purple a purple skirt and green shirt - shivered as faint memories flashed through her mind.

"Yes Ms. Wilde, he'll be fine," he replied almost mechanically as he had done the past several times. "Your son is stable: he only had light bruising and minor head trauma. Of the two, he went down harder, but we plan on releasing him this afternoon... however I am a little... concerned about his behavior-"

He let the word drawl as he made a sharp turn, finally at the correct room of the ICU ward.

"B-behavior?" the vixen repeated, unsure of what would qualify for worry about the todd. Sure he was odd, even from the start Faye knew that. But what could be that bad?

As they reached the room, a solitary mammal - a large water buffalo - sat on a hefty folding chair just outside. His stalwart and stone-faced gaze caught a glimpse of the doctor and the vixen next to him.

He gave a nod. "Faye Wilde?".

Flinching at the gruff tone of his voice, the vixen weakly nodded. She had seen him before, the chief of the police precinct her son worked for: Chief Bogo.

He said nothing more as the doctor swept by him and pulled aside the curtain that lead into the sterile room. White washed walls surrounded them and the room was dimly lit to not only promote sleep but to also protect the eyes of the narrowly awake patient.

Nick lay in bed, hooked up to several IV's and other devices that he had no coherent idea as to what they did. Clad in a hospital blue gown and wrapped in gauze all the way to his head, the fox sat up and lazily clutched a small pillow at his side. He twitched every now and again, mumbling something that couldn't be understood with a goofy look on his face.

The elder vixen's paws clasped to her muzzle as she ran to the todd. "My poor baby!" she shouted, undeterred by the doctors warning that silence was necessary. Nobody was going to stop the mother fox from protecting her child, no matter how old he got.

Reaching him, she threw her arms around him and softly cried. From Nick's motions, he was either protesting, or trying to return the hug... nobody knew.

Getting a call in the middle of the night, and being told by the police (which Nick ironically worked for) that your child was hurt was something that one never wanted to hear. Yet here Faye was, awake and wishing to never let the todd go again. She didn't even see that he was wiggling in her grasp.

The ocelot rushed over to her. "Ma'am, if you would, please..." He gently tapped her on the shoulder, mindful of her sobbing and attempting to console her. Having things stuffed into your arm to keep tabs on your vitals is painful enough without having them jostled every few seconds by someone trying to hug you.

In a moment, the doctor managed to convince and pry the vixen away so that he could get to work. There were vitals to check, pain meds to prescribe, and other various minute details to mull over before his release that day.

As the vixen watched the doctor work, she had to ask, "Is he really going to be fine?"

The doctor paused for a moment, seeing the obvious disbelief in her eyes. "Absolutely," he admitted, "He's delirious from the medication, but he can talk." He leaned over the fox with as bright of a smile as his profession allowed. "Isn't that right, Officer Wilde?"

The todd, upon hearing his name, turned in the direction of the doctor. His heart monitor beeped and he stared past the physician groggily; almost whimsically. Though he heard everything - to the extent his brain allowed with the amount of morphine being pumped into him - he was still focused on his own personal world.

He leaned over and grasped the pillow with both paws. "This-" he mumbled, staring at the cushion with some sort of fascination. "This is my girlfrien'-"

Nick's mother looked at him with both trepidation and fear before she turned to the doctor. So dumbfounded was she that her jaw started to drop.

"Carros'-" Nick continued, a lazy smile forming. "This is carrot... my girlfrnnn-"

His speech was slurred and he seemed genuinely happy, much to the dismay of the vixen. Once he was done introducing the pillow, he pulled it into a tight hug and began to affectionately pet it while whispering 'Carrots' to the best of his ability.

Still stunned, the vixen silently eyed the doctor. He cleared his throat. "As you can see, he's fine, Ms. Wilde. My only real concern is that he keeps calling everything 'Carrots'. The nurse that wrapped his gauze said it was Carrots. When I last checked on him, he looked at the papers and said they were carrots. And he says his girlfriend is a carrot..."

With the explanation reaching her, Faye thought for a moment. Recalling everything that Nick had told her in the past few months, her eyes brightened; it had finally happened. "OH! That's the nickname he gave his partner on the force! That bunny named Judy."

While she was ecstatic and beaming with joy that Nick had finally asked the bunny out, the doctor was less amused... and slightly relieved. "Isn't that a bit... offensive?" he asked, looking at the todd cuddling with the pillow and speaking to it as if it were alive and well.

Faye shook her head. "No, no, I've met her before. She actually doesn't mind being called that."

Khlaus eyed both of them, still not fully convinced, but he shrugged all the same.

"Speaking of which, where is she?"

The ocelot had resumed checking things off his list, minding the giddy fox who had taken to rocking his 'faux Carrots' in his arms. "Usually I wouldn't release such information, but her boss told me otherwise," he admitted, trying to reach Nick's arm only for him to pull away playfully and shoo him away. "She's been discharged already: minor bruises and chipped front teeth. Otherwise, she was better off and is no longer here."

Nick's ears twitched at this, and he stopped trying to push the doctor away. His eyes scanned the room in horror at what Khlaus said.

"Carrots-" Nick whined, taking a look down to the pillow he had been so fond of to see that it indeed wasn't her. "Thas not carros... where's Carrots!"

He became more erratic, trying to force himself to get out of bed, but both the exhaustion and medication prevented him from doing anything more than leaning forward; only for Khlaus to gently force him back down.

"Officer Wilde, Jud-... errr, Carrots! Is just fine. She left to-"

Nick gasped (more so groggily yawned) in horror. "She's gone!?"

The doctor shook his head. "No Officer, she's not gone."

For him, it meant 'no, she's not 'gone' gone'. But to Nick? It confirmed his greatest fear.

His lip quivered and a few tears started to sting at the corner of his eyes. In an attempt to figure out how to go on with his life, he tried to piece together a coherent plan.

"We... we ha... we need to dig her up! She's a carrot!"

The other two predators simply stared at him. It was difficult to tell who was more concerned: the mother who cared deeply for her son, or the doctor who saw his patients as his own family.

Khlaus sighed. "Officer Wilde, I-"

"We need a shovel," Nick continued his ramble, staring at the pillow and nuzzling it for comfort. "We gotta get Carrots back!"

The doctor tried to calm him, hearing the heart monitor beep faster. "Officer Wilde, that's not-"

Nick would have none of it. "She tol' me she looooooooovs me!"

The sound of the sniffling, incoherent fox brought tears to the vixen once more. She was proud to have him as a son and happy that he and Judy were together. Even more so, she was concerned that Nick was in such a state of dismay.

The doctor pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. It was days like these that really put him over the edge. "Officer Wilde. I've told you, Judy's not-"

"Nick! You're awake!" There was a small shrieking gasp that came from the doorway. All eyes in the room fell upon a small grey, flannel wearing bunny who clasped her chipped teeth in glee.

"Carrots!"

Nick tried to lean forward in an attempt to hazily run towards the bunny but found it too tiring. Instead, the rabbit bounded his way and leapt onto the bed with incredible speed.

The other two predators watched as the bunny jumped onto the fox and made herself comfortable in his embrace, snuggling her muzzle into his cheek. The two couldn't look happier, and Nick's pillow was all but abandoned. He resumed to lazily pet whatever he held within his arms, and was glad to find that this time it actually was Judy. The comfort he experienced while his claws smoothed over her ears was astonishing to his medicated state.

Faye wiped a few tears from her eyes at their reunion. Khlaus mumbled that he needed more coffee to deal with this. And Bogo came storming in with a scowl.

"Hopps!" the buffalo shouted, and the doctor motioned for him to lower his voice. He complied... a little. "I told you not to come back here. You should be resting, and not bothering Wilde. This sort of behavior doesn't look good on your reports."

The bunny mumbled something into Nick's cheek fur, lazily waving the buffalo away and refusing to make eye contact. This done in front of their superior made it look like they were... kissing?

All of which were career ending mistakes.

The buffalo, narrow-eyed and having had enough, trampled into the room much smaller than his size should allow. The tiny bed and smaller mammals were no match for his wrath should it be unleashed.

That's when Faye intervened. "Chief Bogo, please," the motherly vixen pleaded, stepping in-between the behemoth and his subordinates. Taking a glance back at the two, she hoped to deter him for at least a little while. "Are you really going to separate them? Now that they're in a relationship?"

Bogo stood there eyeing them for a long moment. Sneering, he replied, "So long as they don't fraternize at work: I don't care." Taking one last glance at them, he sauntered off; he had work to do and vowing to watch over his smallest two mammals was tedious enough.

Faye sighed. It was a small victory, but a victory none the less. Her focus returned to the two cuddled in bed, Nick softly breathing and looking as if sleep would overtake him in a moment.

Khlaus was unamused. He made his way towards the door, having his fill of the two patients for a lifetime. "Normally, I'd separate the two of them, but I can't in this case. So if you'd follow me-" he deadpanned, ushering the vixen out with him to sign papers for release soon. "Nick will be discharged in a few hours, and Judy's here on her own terms now. It's out of my paws."

As the room emptied, leaving the fox and bunny there, nobody else saw Nick struggle and weakly move his head. Judy had fallen asleep right on top of him and-

"Noooooo," the fox whined, reaching for either the call button or trying to push the doe off of him. "She's drooling on meeeeeeeeeeeee-"

With no way to remove Judy from him until he was later checked on, Nick had to simply wait. And somewhere in his mind, his only functioning thought, was that he didn't think he'd ever drown in kisses.

Hey there, a quick update/announcement. For those of you that are looking to see when I'll update something, please look no further than my Deviant Art account. I've been keeping a journal and status updates there to explan what I'm working on, and even show clips 'Snippets' of character dialogue and scenes from my current stories.

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Till Next Time
-DLW