Author's Notes:
Whew, that was a rough chapter to write.
I am sorry this one took a week longer than usual. Some personal stuff happened along with an increase in work from my training program. Don't worry, nobody was hurt...too badly.
Anyways, this was also a rough chapter for me to write because it's all part of the last two chapters. It's gone on quite long enough already! I want to write more about Nick! I want to stop writing mopey dopey scenes and get back to the action! But this had to be done.
On the plus side, it is done. I had a few more scenes for the Hopps family that I wanted to get out there, but decided they were best left for flashbacks so that I could continue the story (finally).
Anyways, more Nick and more action from here on out, I promise! Also, the next chapters should still be coming out either once a week or every two weeks again, so look forward to them please!
Copyright disclaimer: You know the drill, no profit, no ownership of Zootopia characters or intellectual property, etc. etc.
Anyways, as usual, please read and review. My soul yearns for your comments and criticisms!
A Tale of Two Thoughts
(J)Is there something more / (N)Don't take your eyes off the trigger (Part 3)
When chief Bogo parked the cruiser in the police department garage with he turned to Judy before getting out of the car.
"One month Hopps, longer if you need it. You have half an hour to prepare your files for the next officer, then you leave." He reminded her.
Judy silently nodded her head at him, the motion didn't even move her ears which were still drooped behind her back. Slowly she opened the cruiser door and took a timid hop out of the car. The chief stayed in his seat as Judy trudged towards the door that led in to the ZPD.
"Thank you chief." Came the whispered words of the broken bunny cop.
The chief sighed to himself. The ZPD was already spread thin, and he was now losing an officer who had more than proven her worth to the team. He knew however that if he wanted to keep her alive and in the ZPD she would need this month to recover from the last week.
Judy for her part, tried to avoid all interactions with the mammals within the ZPD. Eyes still burning, and her face feeling raw, she did not want to have to explain her new fur-cut to any of her fellow officers. Her ears burned at the shame, both of having been caught off guard enough to get sprayed with her own fox repellent and from realizing how ignorant she had been of how horrible the spray really was. She understood now why Nick had been so offended to see that she still carried it around after they solved the missing mammals case. She also understood why he was so upset at seeing her reach for it when he had asked if she thought he might eat her. Nick believed in me. He trusted me to be better than the other prey mammals who distrusted and abused him. And I betrayed him.
Judy had of course, nothing to do in order to prepare her files for the officer who would be taking over them. She had always been good at keeping the paperwork fully updated in case of emergency. So it wasn't to her desk that she was headed at this moment. Right now she felt that there were only two mammals in the entire ZPD she wanted to speak to. The two mammals in question were Clawhauser and Fangmeyer. Surprisingly, while Judy had known all of the officers in the ZPD by name, she never really had time to become their friend, nor did she feel a particular affiliation with any of them beyond the comradery of being in the ZPD.
Officer Fangmeyer had earned Judy's respect and trust when she had given Judy the map of hospitals she had worked out with Clawhauser. Her stoic nature and silent kindness had made the bunny admire the tiger. Officer Clawhauser had earned her friendship right from the start. His cheery, outgoing, and friendly attitude had made Judy love the ZPD on her first day, and every day after. His fat stature and kindness also made Judy feel completely at ease in his presence, especially since he was visibly upset at having possibly upset Judy after calling her 'cute'.
Judy found herself in the records office and before Clawhauser's desk faster than she had expected. She both needed and dreaded the discussion she was about to have.
"Hey there Clawhauser." She spoke up timidly from in front of his desk.
"Judy? Judy where… Oh there you are!" Clawhauser had been surprised for a moment, not being able to see the tips of Judy's ears which usually signalled that she was in front of his desk. It was only after he had leaned forward, completely resting his weight on top of the desk, that he was able to see her.
"Judy! Oh Em Goodness! What happened to you!? Are you alright? Jump up here and talk to me!" He blurted out, adding the last part as an afterthought as his belly was sending him non-negotiable demands to get off the desk.
He scrambled off of the desk and back into his chair as Judy gave a meek smile and climbed on to the top of Clawhauser's desk. Seeing her up close, he noticed the bloodshot eyes, the ragged breathing, and her furless and enflamed muzzle.
"Wow Judy! Someone really did a number on you. Can I get you anything? Some anti-inflammation cream?"
Judy took in a deep breath, letting the pain in her lungs clear her mind a little before responding.
"No Clawhauser, I'll be fine. I just needed to talk to you." She said smiling meekly at the cheetah.
"Ok, but first, you need to tell me that your face is alright."
"Yeah. It's fine, I'll get to that. I kind of wanted to tell you that I'm leaving. The chief ordered me to take a month long break."
"What?! Why? I mean, Judy you... Well, everyone needs to take a break sometimes, but…you?" The cheetah sputtered off. He knew that Judy loved her job, that to her, the ZPD was her break, her reason to live. Something serious must have happened for the chief to order this.
"Yeah," she gave a raw chuckle " even me. Look, Clawhauser I want to thank you and Fangmeyer for making that map for me. It really helped, even if the mammals at the hospitals didn't. Is Fangmeyer around?" Judy mentally hit herself, she was stalling and she knew it. She really wanted to tell Clawhauser about the last few days, discuss how she was feeling, apologise for…well she didn't know what exactly, for her being a bigoted prey and him being a predator? She knew she had never mistreated Clawhauser but she still felt sorry, almost responsible for the way others were treating him now.
Clawhauser's ears flattened behind his head. "Oh Judy, I thought you knew! Fangmeyer quit the force this morning along with the rest of the predators working in the ZPD. I'm the last predator in the entire department. But that's not why you're here is it?"
"You're right. It's not." Judy sighed again, this was going to be tough. "Look, I've got a lot I want to get off of my chest. Some of it wont make sense, but I need to say it. You've been a good friend, and right now I need a friend to just listen. So even if what I say doesn't make sense, can you promise not to interrupt until I'm done? Promise to just listen?"
"Oh! Oh, of course! Not a word until you finish. Just let me know when!" Exclaimed the cheetah. He recognized that this was not normal Judy behavior and as such it was important that he, as her friend take her more seriously now than ever before. She needed to vent, and he would be here for her.
"Thank you." She whispered, then more loudly. "I haven't ever done this before. Vented to another animal that is. I have lots of siblings that I talked to when things got rough, but they never really cared about what I said. It was more of a physical support system. They were there for me physically and that was all that mattered. Sorry, I'm ranting. Oh! You can speak."
Clawhauser smiled at seeing the rabbit officer get so flustered about a process as simple as venting. "It's ok Judy, nobody practices venting. It's kind of like what you have with your siblings, except I will listen to what you're saying and help you process that side of the problem as well." He said as kindly as he could. Clawhauser was used to being the emotional support of quite a few ZPD officers over the years.
"Thanks. Anyways, I need to first say that I'm so sorry. I really screwed up predator and prey relations during that press conference, and I've seen horrible things because of what I said. At first it was just the signs, the "no chompers", or the "claws, fangs, growling, no service", or the "down with dangerous preds", or the "save us from savages" or the…" Judy hiccupped at just recalling all the horrible hate signs that had cropped up after the press conference. She was stalling, she realized again.
"Anyways, I know that you've suffered because of the anti-pred climate that we have right now, and I feel like I caused it. For that I am so sorry. You can talk."
"Oh Judy, that wasn't you. The anti-predator attitudes were there way before you made that speech. It was just subtler." Comforted the cheetah. "All your speech did was increase what was already there, a fear and distrust of predators. It let mammals feel more justified in acting on their fears. Before your speech prey animals would cross the street so that I wasn't walking behind them. None would feel safe if I walked behind them at night, none would sit on the same park bench as me. Why do you think I got fat? It's reassuring to prey that I'm not a threat."
For a while Judy just gaped open mouthed at Clawhauser. On one hand she was relieved that she hadn't single-handedly ruined predator-prey relations, but on the other hand she was horrified that even Clawhauser had had to suffer the bias and prejudice of prey mammals. It was bad enough that foxes suffered, but the knowledge that all predators suffered even before her speech was bringing fresh tears to her eyes.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't know!" She blurted out, tears of frustration and self-loathing leaking out.
"Nor should you have! You didn't know because those thoughts never occurred to you! You are so much better than that, and everyone can see it! You don't act on bias and prejudice, that's why Nick befriended you, why I am your friend, and why Fangmeyer trusts you." Said Clawhauser, trying to soothe away the tears on the rabbit's face. He always felt horrible having to watch other mammals cry, so much so that he forgot he was supposed to be silent. "Oops, forgot about permission to talk."
"It's ok, let's forget about that. You're obviously better at this than I am." Judy said as Clawhauser's praise lifted her spirits enough to fight back the tears. "Ok I'm sorry, even if it doesn't make sense. I'm sorry, not for what I have done, although I'm sorry for that too! I'm sorry for how you have suffered, if that makes sense."
"It does."
"Anyways, so after I went to all the hospitals, which were no help. Oh wait, I need to tell you! Those hospitals were horrible. None of them bothered to follow any of the standard procedures for Nick! For any other mammal they would have had to take down personal information and contact information, but they didn't even bother trying with Nick. The few who had, let him write obviously false addresses like '123 fake street' and stuff like that. How dumb is that! It's like they thought that because he was a fox, he would lie about everything!"
"Well," chuckled Clawhauser, "he probably would have."
"Yeah," Judy conceded "but not because he was a fox. He lied because he was an orphan with no place to live. Anyways, despite that, he'd done some really good things for some of the animals in some of the hospitals. Like at the one in Little Rodentia, he'd saved rodents from a collapsing building, cutting up his paws in the process, and when he figured out that they needed medicine the hospital didn't have, he got it from Mr. Big personally and delivered it to the hospital!"
"Sounds like a dream." Sighed Clawhauser.
"What?" Judy asked, scrunching her eyes and twitching her nose at the confusing interruption.
"I mean, come on! Roguish fox, living his entire life on the streets with no one to love him, struggling desperately every day to survive. Yet somehow he thrives! Not only that, he manages to do good for other mammals at the same time. Despite being soaked in the prejudice of other mammals every day he is still a good guy! It's practically a classic romance! A modern day Robin-Hood!"
"I don't know about Robin-Hood." Judy said, mentally filing away this new perspective of her fox friend. She did not want to explore that particular thought pattern right now. "Anyways, at Little Rodentia I met up with FruFru who told me Nick lived at an address in Happy Town."
Clawhauser's face got a little squeamish at the mention of his old town. "Judy, please tell me you didn't go there alone!" He practically begged, eyes wide in fear at just imagining what Judy might have experienced there.
"No, the chief ordered me to just observe the border until I could go with him. And while I was doing that, I found a fox who had been trampled and left to die by an elephant! It was so horrible Clawhauser!" She choked out that last part as she fought back her tears at the memories of the broken and dying fox she had thought was Nick. The poor mammal suffered greatly before death. "He… he wasn't… there was nothing we could do to save him. His legs, oh God his legs…" Judy tapered off this time picturing in her mind the legs of the poor fox. The mangled mess of blood, flesh torn open from the broken and powdered bones of his pelvis and upper thighs. The reek of his bowls and bladder having emptied themselves among his final moments, and the whole time the piteous whimpering of the fox, practically begging for release from the pain.
Judy felt a large paw on her back, rubbing slowly. "There there, it's ok. He's not suffering any more. He's in a better place Judy." She shook herself of the mental image, focusing instead on the gentle paw rubbing her back.
"I had to over dose him on tranquilizers to give him some peace before he died. I swear Clawhauser please, please make sure the elephant who did that gets caught!"
"I will Judy, I will make sure the case isn't dropped until the elephant is caught."
"Good." Judy took a deep breath. Already she was feeling better than she had in the car. It felt good just to get her feelings out there, to have someone validate them, and to have a friend back her up. She really loved Clawhauser for how great a friend he was. "Ok, so after that I went with the chief to Nick's old apartment. Turns out the manager had to kick him out because the other mammals were threatening the fox for not having stopped me at the press conference. He seemed sad about it. It was as I was leaving that this…" she gestured to her muzzle, smiling weekly "happened. Duke Weaselton, oh you can't tell the chief this, snagged my fox repellent and sprayed me with it."
At the mention of the fox repellent Clawhauser's paw stopped rubbing Judy's back and he eyed her belt cautiously.
"It's gone Clawhauser, and good riddance. I had no idea it was that horrible! It should be classified as a torture method, not a method of subduing overly aggressive predators! The building manager, Mr. Gussik, was really nice too. He instantly led me to a room where he washed most of it off and shaved my fur for me. The relief was practically instantaneous. He also gave me creams to help soothe and heal my skin."
"Oh Judy! I'm so sorry that happened to you! What about your throat? Here, wait, I think I've still got…" Clawhauser dug around in one of the drawers to his desk and pulled out a lozenge that looked similar to the one Finnick gave her. "this, suck on this and It will help your throat." He finished.
"Yeah, thanks! That's the same one Finnick gave me! He told me Nick came up with it."
"Well, Finnick was the one who told me about it. I've been sneaking one to every mammal who is brought in to the ZPD after having been sprayed."
"Oh Clawhauser, that's amazing! I can't believe you've been doing that for them!"
"We all do our part." He said, shrugging. "Anyways, about Finnick."
"Right, so Finnick wanted to know if I'd heard anything from Nick, which was what I had wanted to ask him. Turns out Finnick has no idea where he is either. After hearing that I, I just kind of shut down. I was completely out of leads to follow, my entire face was burning. I was still emotionally exhausted from witnessing a fox die, and from hating myself for being so ignorant of how much you predators have suffered."
"And how do you feel now?" Clawhauser tentatively prodded. He needed to make sure his friend had gotten everything out.
"Better actually. I mean my face still hurts, and I still hate myself for being so ignorant, and I still have no leads on Nick. But somehow, I feel better. Thanks Clawhauser." Judy smiled. A real smile this time, and even though her ears were still drooping, Clawhauser felt that his friend was in a much better place emotionally now than she had been when she first visited him.
"Any time Judy, you enjoy your break ok?" He said, smiling in hopes of encouraging Judy to smile again.
"I will, I've still got a lot to sort out emotionally and mentally, but this talk really helped. Oh! And make sure you bring that elephant to justice!" She said as she hopped off his desk.
At that moment, Francine the elephant decided to walk into the room. In her hands she had a giant box of elephant sized donuts.
"Clawhauser! I thought you could use some of these to get you through the night!" She said in a falsely happy voice.
"Ooh Francine! You shouldn't have! Thank you!" Clawhauser gushed, tail moving excitedly at the prospect of consuming the donuts through his night shift.
Judy looked to the cheetah in shock and mouthed 'night shift?'. He just shrugged back at her.
"Oh, and Judy, I couldn't help but overhear, what's this about an elephant?"
Clawhauser answered for her. "Oh, you remember Judy's report about the murdered fox last night? It was an elephant who had killed him. Judy just wanted me to make sure the case got solved since the chief is ordering her to go on break."
Francine eyed Judy cautiously, as if weighing her. Judy stared back, defiantly. Judy knew that if Francine, being an elephant herself, wanted to protect a fellow elephant from the ZPD, all she would have to do was kill Judy and Clawhauser right here. As an elephant, Francine probably could, and as an officer, she could probably arrange it to look like Clawhauser had gone savage and attacked Judy before Francine was able to kill him. If Francine had all this in mind, then only Judy's outward appearance of strength and defiance might save her.
Smiling, Francine knelt down on to the ground, then bent down so that her mouth was at Judy's ear.
"Careful Judy." She whispered. "There are many at the ZPD who are far more loyal to their own species than they are to predators, especially right now. There are those who are more loyal to prey, even the bad prey. I know some mammals might try to make that file disappear. But I promise, on my honor as an officer of the ZPD, as an elephant, and as Francine Ivory, I will make sure that elephant is found and brought to justice."
Smiling, Francine leaned back and away from Judy so that she was no longer whispering. "No matter what, you have an ally in me Judy." She said.
"Thanks Francine." Judy said, finally getting over her shock at what she'd just heard, and at the fact that Francine was willing to do this for her. "It means a lot. Anyways, I'd better go let the chief know I'm leaving, this took much longer than the half hour he gave me."
Francine looked at Judy, confusion spreading across her features. "I thought he was just in here with you. He was just leaving the records room when I came down to give Clawhauser the donuts."
"Strange, I guess you don't need to tell him then." Said Clawhauser.
And so, after an uneventful train ride, accompanied only be her thoughts which were becoming increasingly gloomy as if trying to match the weather, Judy found herself walking home from the train station in the pouring rain. A violent storm was brewing in Bunny Burrow, the wind had started to pick up, the lightning flashes were becoming more frequent, and the rain had just started to come down cold and fast.
Judy's talk with Clawhauser had made her feel much better, but the rain and her thoughts were dragging her back down. There had been so much she hadn't known about the life of a predator. There was probably still so much she didn't know.
She had been arrogant to assume that she, a bunny encouraged to be a police officer by the mammal inclusion program, had had a difficult life. She had thought that because she personally had suffered what she now knew was only a small prejudice against her, that she had it just as rough as predators had. She had thought that because she had overcome the prejudice, on what she thought were her own merits, that others could do the same. That if they didn't do the same, it was because they were not trying or were weak. Because she attributed her successes to herself, the failures of others must be their own fault as well.
Little had she known that despite the prejudice, the system had been set up to encourage her success, even if only as a façade. There was no system to encourage the success of predators, and the prejudice of believing you to be weak, helpless, and cute, was far less harmful to her physical wellbeing than the prejudice of being dangerous and untrustworthy.
So, weighed down by her thoughts and water-logged fur, Judy found herself in front of her parent's house. Initially shaped like a giant carrot, the Hopps family home consisted of a large single story cone coming out of the ground, with a basement level meant for one giant living room. Once inside however, there were many sloped floors extending underground and leading to the bulk of the living area and bedrooms. However, thirty years ago the kitchen area started leaking whenever it rained due to the flat design of the house roof. So under Bonnie's constant insistence, Stu and the older bunnies in the family constructed a domed roof overtop of the carrot shaped house. After that the need for two new grain silos, and an comment from one of the kits at the time led to the silos being used to represent bunny ears, and the front double doors getting painted to look like rabbit teeth, the overhang to look like a nose, and two windows to extend light on to the front yard in the shape of eyes. Now in front of her family's bunny house, Judy knocked on the door to her home.
It was the beautiful bunny Bonnie Hopps who answered the door, dressed in her nightgown and holding a towel.
"Oh. Oh! Oh Judy! You're home!"
"Yeah, I'm home mom." Judy said, smiling awkwardly as she wanted to hug her mother so much, yet realizing that she was soaking wet.
"Come in! Come in and dry off, you're soaking wet hon!" Bonnie said, quickly getting out of the door way so that Judy could walk inside. Bonnie passed Judy the towel and continued. "Now dry yourself off so that I can give you a proper welcome."
Judy took the towel from her mother and dried herself off, trying her best to keep her face hidden the whole time now that she was standing in the light. As soon as she was dried off however, she hugged her mother. Feeling as if she were a leaf in a stream she held on to her mother as if she were a rock in that same stream. Judy just kept hugging, enjoying the warmth and comfort only her mother could provide. As she began to relax, Judy felt herself melt in to the hug and she had to resist the temptation to fall asleep while holding her mother.
A loud bang startled Judy out of her comforting state as the front door was slammed open by particularly strong gust of wind.
"Bonnie! Help me get this door shut before the wind tears up the whole house!" Came Stu's shout from the front doors.
Letting go of Judy Bonnie rushed to help her husband, stopping only long enough to grab the towel as Judy offered it back to her mother. Judy followed at a more relaxed pace, remembering past nights where she and her siblings had all rushed to help their dad keep the doors shut. On stormy nights like this, certain preparations had to be made on the farm. Any crops that could be protected had to be, the animals had to be calmed down, the silo and barn doors and windows had to be secured, and any loose tools left out in the farm had to be securely tied down or brought in to the barn. There was a certain fondness to the memory of those scrambles where the whole family pitched in.
Bonnie and Stu gave one final effort to shut the front door, and as luck would have it the wind stopped just long enough for them to shut the door and lock it. Bonnie took one look at her water soaked husband before throwing him the towel.
"Jumping junipers Stu! You're absolutely soaked! Completely water logged! Here, dry off before you step onto the hardwood."
"Heh, water logged? It's coming down so hard out there I'm practically a water ship!" Stu replied as he literally poured the water out of his ears and into a bucket Bonnie had kept near the door.
"Alright, 'water ship' Stu, hurry up and dry off so we can talk with Judy."
"What? She's on the phone already? What happened?!" Stu exclaimed, suddenly rushing to dry off in his worry for his most risk-taking daughter.
"No, silly, she's here. She just came home."
"Hey dad." Judy said timidly as her mother gave her a surprised look.
Stu for his part, was still towelling down his face. "Oh! You should have told us you were coming home, I would have picked you up. Sorry about that Jude the…" Stu trailed off as he finished towelling his face and looked at his daughter. "duu….what happened to your face!" He yelled, pointing a finger at Judy.
Bonnie too had just seen Judy's new…muzzle-cut but had managed to refrain from commenting on it until her husband had pointed it out.
"Hush Stu, she'll tell us all about it once we're warming up by the fire with hot mugs of carrot tea. Won't you honey?"
"Yes, of course. Tea first though." Judy said, as she moved off into the kitchen to prepare some of her mother's carrot tea. Bonnie hops made the tea herself and it was one of the many things Judy missed about home. The tea had always been not only delicious, but it always managed to relax and calm the Hopps family with its warmth and familiarity.
"Mom, I'll make the tea, can you make sure that there's no bunny hanging out in the living room? I don't think I'm ready to tell the whole family yet."
"Of course dear."
"Oh and dad… water ship, I need you to gather all of your anti-fox things and bring them with you."
"Sure thing Jude!" replied Stu with a slight look of confusion as he glanced at his wife.
Shrugging, the Hopps parents went to work with their assigned duties while they awaited their daughter to make tea and join them in the living room.
Five minutes later, she did just that. Walking into the living room from the doorway to the kitchen that was closest to the kettle station Judy saw her parents had cuddled up side-by-side on one of the biggest couches. In front of them they had moved a small table and in front of that was a lay-z-bunny pulled up for Judy, and a rather sizeable pile of anti-fox tools and gadgets was lying on the floor near Stu's side of the couch.
Walking up to her parents, slowly so as not to spill the tea, Judy gave each of them a mug of her mother's carrot tea before sitting down in the lay-z-bunny with her own mug. After taking a small sip Judy began.
"So, before I tell you the story, I want you to know that I'm going to be telling you the whole story. I know I've already told you parts of it on muzzle-time but there's so much more that I need to tell you. Please wait until I've finished before saying anything."
Steeling herself mentally, Judy launched into her entire story. Beginning with how she first got the Otterton case, through her adventures with Nick, her disastrous press conference, her desperate struggles to keep Zootopia together, her hunt for Nick, and finally, her getting sprayed with the fox-repellent and being given one month off by chief Bogo. Judy found herself mentally thanking Clawhauser as he had already gotten the full story from her once in messy, guilt ridden and emotional outbursts. Having vented to Clawhauser let her tell her parents the full story coherently and without her sobs or tears interrupting.
Having finished her story, she turned to her father.
"That's why I want you to get rid of all of your fox repellents! That stuff is horrible! It causes immense and unnecessary pain, and the callousness with which it is used on predators is disgusting. No predator could ever feel safe near us if we carry it around.
Stu made as if to argue. He could understand where Judy was coming from, but he needed to protect his family, and if it came down to the suffering of a predator or his family, he would choose the predator every time.
"No buts dad! I'm serious! You can keep the taser and other deterrents, but I won't allow you to keep anything that causes senseless pain and suffering." Judy interrupted, having already foreseen her father's objections.
Stu looked sadly at his pile of protective gear, knowing that his daughter was going to make him get rid of a good chunk of it. Picking up a can of fox repellent from the top of the pile he inspected it closely, trying to appear nonchalant.
"Really Jude, I just want to protect you guys. This stuff can't be that bad. I mean, you seem to be alright and you were sprayed just earlier today."
"Trust me dad, it's pretty awful. I'm in a lot more pain than I let on, it really is…"
"ARGHGHG!" Stu yelled as his inspection of the spray nozzle, combined with a small paw slip when he'd heard that his daughter was in pain, led to him spraying himself directly in his face.
Bonnie immediately grabbed the canister from her husband's hand and set it down where it was unlikely to cause any more trouble. In this short amount of time Stu had fallen off the couch and onto the floor, knocking his mug of tea over as he did so. By the time Bonnie turned back to her husband he was rolling around on a soaking wet carpet, hands over his face and yelling.
"My eyes! Oh sweet Roger my eyes! My lungs! It burns! Water ship down! Water ship down! Help me Bon!"
Bonnie for her part turned to Judy while she waited for her husband to stop yelling.
"If I remember you correctly, we must rinse his eyes, shave his fur, wash his face, apply some soothing ointment, and find something for his throat?"
"Yup, that's about it. I'm not sure what Finnick gave me for my throat though." Judy replied, some small amount of embarrassment at what her father had just done showing on her fur-less face.
Once Stu had finished yelling, though only because his throat had become too pained to continue, Bonnie picked him up and guided him to the nearest washroom so that she could clean up her husband. Turning to Judy before they left, Bonnie told her to enjoy her tea and that they'd be right back out once Stu was taken care of. Stu, for his part, whimpered.
Somewhere around twenty minutes later Bonnie and Stu returned to the living room, Stu sporting a new look on his face: red and fur-less. Judy just looked at her father while she sipped her tea and slowly shook her head.
"Alright *cough* I get it, that stuff has to go!" Whispered Stu in his newly hoarse voice. "It'll be gone by the *cough* morning. I promise."
Judy was happy to hear it. She had thought it would take a fair amount of work to convince her father but his self-inflicted spraying seemed to have done the trick. Speaking of which, Judy recalled how awful and hurt she'd felt when she was sprayed and got up to give her father a big hug. Careful to avoid his face, she wrapped her arms around her father and nuzzled into him.
"Thanks dad."
"Any time Jude the *cough* dude. Heh, at least now you're not alone in having a funny-looking face."
"Hey!" Judy exclaimed, giving her dad a light hit on the side. "I'll have you know I walked through the entire ZPD with this face, and not a single mammal laughed!"
"Yes dear, you're very intimidating." Interjected Bonnie before looking at the grandfather clock. "Now, I think it's time we all went to bed, we still have to clean up after the storm tomorrow and we'll need our rest."
The three bunnies left the living room and sought out their own rooms. Bonnie with Stu of course, and Judy left to find the hall for the rooms of bunnies whose names began with the letter 'J'. Two of whom were in considerable pain, and only one of them managing to hide it. Both bunnies were however, looking forward to spending the foreseeable future together.
Nearly one month later.
The fox was enjoying itself. Over the last month it had been listening to the voice that was not a voice. It had found plentiful food, even where it was not expecting to. The freedom and food had done wondrous things for its health, its fur was sleek and shiny, its muscles lean and rippling just under the surface of its skin. This was a vast improvement from the starved, bruised, battered, and dirty shape it had found itself in when it first came to being. This fox was strong, healthy, an alpha in its prime.
The fox was currently running, revelling in the joy of its speed. It was running for the sheer joy of running, the voice that was not a voice having already found it food for the night, the fox had no need to hunt, while running it sniffed the air, still thirsty for information and whatever new wonders the voice might show it. Sniffing again, something stirred the voice that was not a voice. Only this time, instead of showing it where some new wonder was, it was scared.
Cautiously, the fox slowed and slunk forward, trying to be as stealthy as it could. The voice kept demanding that it run away, but the fox was curious as to what could cause the voice to panic so much. Using the underbrush and the dark cover afforded to it by the night, the fox slunk forward, confident that it would be able to see its quarry before it spotted the fox.
Suddenly the fox was blinded by a bright and unnatural light shining in its face. Shock and pain froze the animal for a moment while it tried to recognize what it was seeing. In front of it stood three massive mammals, with strange looking blue fur that seemed to match the obviously different mammals. One was a cape buffalo; it was the alpha to whom the other two clearly deferred. The other two, which flanked the buffalo were a rhino and a hippo.
The voice that was not a voice screamed. Run! Run! Run! Run! Run! Run! Run! Danger! Run! But as the fox turned to run, it noticed the mammals were pointing something at it. Instinctively the fox knew it could not turn its back, so it turned sideways instead.
As the fox started to run to the side, keeping its eyes on the enormous mammals, it heard a whistling sound and noticed a small object flying towards it. Leaping into the air, the fox dodged the first projectile. His ears picking up more whistling, his eyes desperately sought for the gleam of a second projectile. Once it was spotted, the fox twisted desperately in the air to dodge the second projectile. The fox heard some indistinguishable grunting from the other mammals. As he landed, the fox continued his sprint, until he heard another whistling sound.
This sound was different, so the projectile must be different, unable to spot it however the fox had to make a move without knowing where to move to. The fox jumped into the air again, as high as it could so that it could get a better look at any more incoming projectiles. As the fox's leap took him closer to the ground, he heard the standard whistling sound and noticed another gleam. Twisting to avoid the shot again, he was unable to right himself properly before hitting the ground. The fox slammed into the ground on his side, and before he could scramble back up and continue running, he felt a small thud and prick hit him on his back.
The fox struggled to get back up, to continue its run, but its muscles were no longer obeying it. For some reason, it could not move. Fear rose within the fox as it watched the three massive mammals approach it. Despite its fear however, the fox was feeling drowsy and only the excess adrenaline was keeping its eyes open. Soon, even the adrenaline wasn't enough and the fox faded from consciousness. The last thing it heard before it blacked out was from the rhino.
"Nice plan chief, who knew you could whistle like that."
