A/N: This chapter is a direct continuation of Chapter 41 of 'A Bunny CAN Go Savage' after Nick has been shot and rushed to the hospital. It is not a necessary read but more of a behind the scenes. I hope you enjoy it.
My apologies for it being shorter than normal. The concussion I sustained is still affecting me and I didn't want to leave everyone hanging for too long. It is getting better so I hope to have everything back to normal soon.

Disclaimer: ...What was that? Sorry, got distracted by Netflix. Zootopia. Rights. All that. *grabs popcorn again*


Chapter 7 - Holding one last breath

There are, on rare occasions, times when the ER department is calm. Almost serene even. The lack of patients needing desperate and immediate care near zero and the staff gets a chance to catch up with their paperwork. These times are viewed as favorable by those in the waiting room, thinking they will get in and out faster. For the doctors on call and the nurses at their stations however, there is an ominous cloud hanging over their heads. For while it seemed like a blessing, they all knew chaos would soon strike.

For one doctor, it was a time of great foreboding as she had experienced this phenomenon more than once in the last year. Though it was never a guarantee that bad things were about to come through those glass double doors, Sarah nevertheless began psyching herself up, getting ready for what she felt was an inevitability. Feeling closed off and slightly claustrophobic, she left her office, determined to seek out some company down the hall to take her mind off of the deceptive silence.

"Hey Jo." Thankfully, her most reliable nurse and closest friend in the whole hospital was not busy besides tapping away at the screen in her paws. More than once she had caught the feline scanning her furbook account on her phone. During downtimes, Sarah rarely had a problem with it and the cougar knew better than to look at her mobile if there were patients to be treated. "Anything coming in?"

Lifting her head, Joanna gave the bunny a sympathetic look. "Sorry hon. You know I would call you the minute something hot was coming in but it seems to be just a slow night. Although we should be grateful for that, right?" she said with a raised brow.

"I know, I know. A slow ER is a healthy Zootopia. But it's so boring. I mean, I don't want a fourteen car pileup but a broken bone would be nice." Jo couldn't help but chuckle at the joke although Squinny looked a bit shocked. While she had been there for a while working under Doctor Hopps, she still had yet to learn the rabbit's sense of office humor. "Worst thing I've had so far is a severe case of louse infestation on that honey badger in here earlier and honestly I would prefer not to end on that low note." She sighed before resting her paws on the counter. "I have a feeling it's gonna be a long night. I'm gonna grab some caffeine. Anyone want anything?"

"Umm, I'll have a rabbit small with three sugars." Though a squirrel/rabbit hybrid, Squinny was closer to the size of a bunny and would routinely go by that sizing scale, though for clothes she would need to go with extremely large squirrel clothing to accommodate for her long, fluffy tail.

"I'll take my usual cup of black with extra cream," Jo ordered while becoming absorbed back into her phone.

"Jo, how many times do I have to tell you. A cup of coffee with cream is not bl-. Ugh, never mind." Grumbling to herself, Sarah turned and headed for the staff lounge where several kinds of drink machines rested. Taking her spot in front of the coffee maker, she quickly got her friends drinks poured and stirred before turning to her own guilty pleasure. The dark liquid poured into the white cup, making an almost poetic duality that quickly vanished down the gullet of the white bunny. She quickly refilled her cup, wanting to enjoy her next cup more slowly while still getting the caffeine boost now.

Taking a few moments to savor her drink, Sarah leaned back against the counter, relishing in the rich aroma. The quality of the coffee might be lacking to use the term lightly, but it was such a stark contrast compared to the smell of sterilizing cleaner and latex gloves and a welcomed break. She knew she would eventually need to move back into the bright lights and bare white walls, but for now she was going to enjoy the much dimmer environment of the lounge. She did need to be quiet as several residents were currently crashed on the couches after having spent several long shifts following along different doctors. They weren't yet used to working an average shift most ER physicians would have to deal with, but they would eventually work their bodies up to it just as she had.

She was about to take another sip when the flash of red and white lights outside the window alerted her to an incoming ambulance. Because she had been in the lounge she had missed the advance call but she quickly leapt into action. Dark liquid splashed from three cups suddenly dropped from now alert paws, the emptying styrofoam nearly crushed under her feet as Sarah ran out the door to the entry way. She had barely reached the doors before they slid apart and two EMTs rushed in pushing a bed in front of them. Though the level was slightly higher than Sarah's head, she had no trouble seeing the bloody clothing hanging off on either side.

"What do we have?" Like most doctors, her ability to switch from casual and chatty to focused and determined was a great asset. Those who might become distracted could be a hazard and rarely made it to graduating. The bunny held her paw out for the chart, grimacing at the small droplet of blood resting on the bottom of the sheet.

"Male fox. Mid thirties. Gunshot wound to the chest during a traffic stop according to his partner. Close ra-doc?" The EMT, still wheeling the patient forward, halted his rundown as Sarah jumped high enough to land on the bed. Gazing down at the face of one of the very few mammals she had hoped would never end up on her operating table, she couldn't help but feel a sense of alarm wash over her.

"Oh shit. Dammit Nick, not you." Spotting the badge still on his uniform, the shirt of which having been torn open to reach the wound to apply pressure, the sight of blood coating the bronze made her shiver.

"Doc? You know him?" Ted the antelope, having worked as an ambulance EMT for several years and who was currently running the fox down the hall, was a bit unnerved for one of the first times in his career. Beyond her first few surgeries, he had never seen Dr. Hopps so flustered and figured it must be because she knew the patient which would be enough to startle any surgeon.

"He's my brother-in-law." Breathing in deep, she switched her emotions off, putting everything on the back burner until she was done saving him. He's just another patient, she reminded herself. "Condition?"

Straightening himself, Ted mentally slapped himself back into gear. "Shot close range. Small mammal calibre. Based on breathing trouble, may have punctured his left lung. No exit wound." Sarah swore under her breath. Bullets left inside the chest cavity made surgeries much more complicated as they had to remove it before treating the wound.

"Alright. OR three, now. Gordon," she cried as her team gathered around her. "Four pints fox blood. Meet us in the OR. Daniels! Where's Daniels?"

"He's off today," spoke up the hornless ram following close behind. The bunny shook her head in dismay.

"Not the day for this. Alright newbie, I need you to put in a call for a extraction surgeon while we get the bleeding stopped. He can't heal with that bullet in him and I'm gonna have my paws full fixing that damn lung." With a quick salute that Sarah would find amusing were it not for the emotional turmoil she was in, the ram took off, his hooves clacking loudly down the hall as he moved in haste. Turning to the two EMTs, she instructed them to slide Nick over to the table from the cart. With that done, she stepped over to the side where her nursing assistant put clean gloves over her delicate paws while the technicians left for their next call. They spared a glance for their fallen comrade, wishing they could help him more. The departments may be separated but they were still family.

"Okay, we need to move quickly here. I want that wound cleaned and the excess blood suctioned off as much as possible." Not for nothing was Sarah's team one of the most efficient and highest praised in the hospital. The speed at which they moved, almost in perfect sync without any words being necessary, revealed a harmony among the many different species working under Sarah. There were no prey, no predators. Only mammals that cared about every living being that came through their door.

"Intubate. Get that ventilator going," she ordered.

"Intubating." The sound of the tube going down the fox's gullet was highly unsavory to the rabbit, her sensitive ears telling her far more than she would ever wish to know about what was happening inside as it ran along his throat.

"Clamp." Hearing her words repeated before a cold piece of steel landed in her paw, Doctor Hopps moved it into place, stemming off the rushing flow of blood in one area. Calling for a second, and then a third, Sarah maneuvered them around each other making sure the worst of the bleeding was halted. "Prepare a chest tube," she called out to no one in particular, however they all knew their tasks and Squinny, her newest recruit, was quick to assemble the necessary pieces.

A small piece in the back of her mind made a mental note to approach the young hybrid the next chance she had, to reassure her that she was doing a terrific job on her staff, however the part of her in control paid little attention to what may happen in the future. Her steady paws moved from rupture to rupture, quickly stitching those she could and sealing the ones she couldn't with surgical glue.

Pausing for a moment to review her work, careful to view every artery and vein in case she had missed one, she only moved on once she was satisfied everything had been properly dealt with. Turning to her staff, she gave them a small nod allowing them to all breathe a sigh of relief. Though there was still much to do, they felt the worst might just be over. Now it was time for the spare fox blood to do it's job while they continued to put the mammal back together.

"Bring the tube over. Alright everyone, we're going in between the left ribs from his side. I want suction ready to clear the tube as we insert..."


With his bleeding under control for now and the chest tube helping to clear away the air left in the cavity, Sarah took a moment to let her mind focus on everything that had just happened. She was by no means a rookie when it came to surgeries or life and death choices, but not even her first emergency patient had caused her to feel this stressed before. It wasn't a surprise though, she knew. There's a large difference between having to operate on a stranger and having to save the life of someone you cared for and loved.

She took a moment to stroke back the disheveled fur from around the fox's eyes, hoping against hope that the brilliant greens of them would open and see her sister's face soon though of course with the amount of anesthesia in him and trying to deal with the blood loss, him coming around now was an impossibility. Probably a blessing, she thought. His snark would drive away my whole team. The sight of some of his fur being made an even darker red had her coming up short, realizing she had just wiped his own blood across his face with her used gloves. Shaking her head at how distracted she was letting herself get, she stripped the gloves from her paws and tossed them in the trash before leaning against one of the sink counters and taking a few deep breaths.

"Well Nick. I suppose you heard it was quiet down here and you figured you'd help us all break up the monotony, huh?" A few of her staff monitoring the fox's vitals gave a light chuckle at that. "The one day off Judy gets to have and you go and get yourself shot. You know she's never gonna let Bogo give her a day off again, don't you?" Now giggling to herself, Sarah clamped a paw over her lips to keep from outright laughing. "If I didn't know how much Judy loved you I wouldn't bat an eye if someone told me she arranged you to take a bullet so she would never have to take a vacation again."

Trying to keep the tears from shedding, Sarah kept her eyes on the vulpine currently on her operating table. The machines hooked up to him and the tube sticking out from his chest. It was so much worse seeing it from the perspective of a loved one and she found herself suddenly feeling much more sympathetic to those that faced such a vision before. A much more somber and serious tone entered her voice as she spoke without a waver in her words. "You will get better, fox. Judy needs yo-." Oh no. A sudden realization hit her with all the subtlety of a freight train. They're tied. If Nick goes...

Leaping from the counter, Sarah immediately threw on another pair of gloves before reinspecting every tied-off vessel and checking her work on the now sealed lung. Her overwhelming panic at having seen Nick on the table had temporarily shoved aside the underlying problem of the Bond he shared with her sister. She double checked and then triple checked her work, making sure it was the best she could possibly do to give him the highest chances at survival. She finally let out a relieved sigh at the sight of every suture and stitch being nearly perfect. Bar any complications, he should be fine.

A sharp and loud knock jolted the bunny from her thoughts. Turning towards the open door, she was a bit shocked to see a large cape buffalo in operating scrubs standing in the doorway. She looked familiar but Sarah was having trouble putting a name to a face and what department she might be in. "Can I help you?"

"Someone called for an extraction?" While most buffalo had a fairly deep and gruff voice, this one did not. Her voice was clear and soothing, something that must come in very handy when dealing with patients. Mentally the rabbit doctor sighed. Of course, I recognize her now.

"Beth Bogo. Been a while." Back in school the two mammals, while being separated by a few years in course study, had a healthy rivalry in some of their shared classes. They could easily have been friends yet they never seemed to actually click. The fact that they were in different specialties and so saw very little of each other outside of classes was most likely the main reason. While Sarah wanted to become a trauma surgeon, Bethany went into extractions dealing with bullets and shrapnel, anything that might be caused during a crime or major catastrophe. It didn't surprise the bunny considering who her father was.

"Hey Hopps. Who do you have on the table there?" Gazing at the red fox with more than a hint of curiosity, Beth moved slowly into the room taking care to avoid some of the more delicate instruments under hoof. While definitely not the first fox she'd ever seen shot, on the contrary a large amount of her patients tended to be canines, foxes in particular, she had never seen a doctor seeming so devoted to one especially a smaller prey mammal like the rabbit before her.

"Bethany Bogo, meet Officer Nick Wilde." She didn't miss the widening eyes of the cow nor the way her jaw dropped open slightly. "I'm gonna guess the flash of recognition there has to do with your dad?" Shaking her head to clear the sudden cobwebs that had taken root, the buffalo grimaced.

"Yeah. Daddy always has something to say about this tod whenever we have our Saturday dinners." Unable to keep a smile from forming, she gave the bunny an amused look. "Based on the way he described him, I half expected him to have a forked tongue and a pitchfork." The two shared a soft laugh at that, Sarah finding the description rather accurate on some days. "I take it you know him, too?"

"Mhm. He's married to my sister." If Beth's skull had been any thinner, she probably would have left herself with a concussion as hard as she smacked it with her hoof.

"Hopps. Judy Hopps. Wow. I'm even thicker in the head than my dad whenever mom tries to hint going on a date." Her mix of both embarrassment and amusement fleeing from her face in favor of a more serious look of contemplation, the buffalo moved over to the bed. "Well let's make sure Mr. Wilde is up and about to annoy my father even more in a few weeks. I don't want to move him so can someone go get a portable scanner? We need to find this bullet so we can get him fully closed up."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Sarah cried out as one of her nurses hastened out the door. "Are you sure this is such a good idea? No offense Beth, I know you're great at what you do, but don't you think you might be just a bit too large for this?"

"I just pulled steel shrapnel from a collapsing building out of a squirrel this morning, I can handle a fox. Besides," she murmured almost low enough that even Sarah's sensitive ears couldn't catch. "I owe him this."

"Owe him?" Taking a deep breath, the cow gazed down at the fox.

"His father saved my life."


"He's rupturing!"

"Someone clamp that! We're gonna lose him if we can't get this sealed again!"

"Vitals are falling!"

"Goddammit! Bullet must have been plugging an artery. Flip him, we'll have to get it from the back."

"Doctor that will only speed up the blood loss!"

"We don't have a choice! It's too deep!"

A pair of pink eyes stared hard at the vulpine whose skin was quickly paling. "Don't you fucking die."


Having changed out of her bloody scrubs, the mixed rabbit took a few calming breaths while moving down the hallway towards the waiting area. Her paws would not stop shaking which she knew would not be any help to the mammal she was about to go see. Though she had worn gloves, she could almost imagine the white fur stained red and dripping with the tod's blood.

Wringing her paws together, she leaned against the wall, focusing with every ounce of energy she had left to compose herself. She would not be the one to put that stress on the waiting bunny just beyond the next door. Finally feeling the shaking subside, Sarah moved towards the double doors and keyed the security lock before slowly stepping out.

Seeing her sister pacing back and forth without end made the doe all the more bothered about the conversation she was not looking forward to. Something that she never wanted to ever experience was just about to happen and she needed to be strong for her sister. Her feet started carrying her towards the other rabbit when she caught the motion of a gray paw unconsciously rubbing her stomach in an overly caring way. Oh my god, she whispered internally, her face blanching at the thought. She's pregnant.

Though she had stopped moving, Judy's eyes had not. On her next pass, the sense of being watched had her raising her head and spotting the painted bunny just a few yards away. Rushing towards her, Judy wrapped her arms around her sister and squeezed as tight as she could. "Please tell me he's alright," she whispered.

Squeezing her back just as tightly, Sarah opened her mouth to speak but found her words failing her. So overwhelmed with everything that had happened in such a small amount of time, she found herself barely able to stand and could feel Judy's knees wavering as well. "Let's sit down..."