Adrenalin shot through Judy's body; she jumped up in an arc that made it seem like she had been launched out of a cannon. She heard Nick yelp and whimper, and, still while in midair, she looked down at him to see his thick, bushy tail hiding his face. The second she felt her paws touch the ground, she bent her knees and landed on all fours. As she stood up, she found the chief standing in the doorway, his arms folded and his eyes indicated that he was clearly irritated.
"You should be a jumpscare in a horror film, Chief," Nick said through his tail fur.
"Zip it, Wilde," the chief ordered. "Why are you two hiding up here?"
Judy stepped in. "Chief, we were looking for weapons and ammo."
He raised an eyebrow. "And the SWAT teams didn't help you out because…"
"Because they have a one-to-one employee-weapon ratio," Nick said, lowering his tail. "Sergeant Klaus told us they have a grand total of -" He held up a paw formed into a circle. "- zero spares to give us. Which reminds me...why didn't we clear out the station's assault weapons?"
"Because, if you were attentive, Wilde," the chief said slowly, "we thought we had no time to waste. And in addition to that, most of the available station wagons were already on patrol with nothing to do. And what do you think that means?"
"It means they didn't get the chance to grab anything other than what they had in the car," Nick said, his ears and face dropping into a sarcastic "Oh, that's just great" position. "Which is why we were digging around for spare weapons. And guess what we found in Daddy's cupboard." He pointed to the cabinet. Judy followed the chief, glancing at the weapons that she herself had barely seen. Now that she thought about it, she was surprised that her father, who had used to be such a sensitive, harmless rabbit, would have such a vast arsenal right next to him while he was sleeping. Bogo turned back to them.
"Well, why haven't you grabbed a weapon?" he asked them. "All boots on the ground, you two." He turned and walked down the stairs, presumably going back to the action. Judy cast a glance at Nick, who seemed confused.
"And on that awkward note…" he stopped his sentence short and leaped over the bed, planting his feet on the other side. He browsed the guns in the cabinet. Finally, he grabbed two, one a dark gray and the other made of a wooden frame, and turned around, giving Judy an indecisive look.
" Scoped Smith and Wesson M and P 15-" He held up the gray gun. "- or scoped .22 Ruger semi-auto?" He lowered the gray gun and held up the wooden one. "They're both legal."
Judy didn't want to have to choose. She didn't like shooting things. "I don't want to use a gun, Nick."
He looked at the hunting rifle. "Carrots, sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. As much as I hate it, I've got to pretend that nothing gets to me. And it gets very hard to keep up the facade." He loaded a round with the bolt mechanism, holding the other rifle between his body and his arm. "Honestly, I'm really hoping these are rubber rounds. Shooting living creatures…" He made a face of disgust. "Definitely not my thing. Always despised guns."
Judy was confused. "Why'd you join the force if you don't like guns? And how do you know exactly which gun is which?"
Nick sighed. "Well, for all my life I've believed in the 'know your enemy' mantra. So I trained myself to identify any kind of portable weapon I might encounter. And as far as actually using guns…" He stopped for a moment. "I always knew I was going to have to use one, and after our last escapade, I told myself, 'Piberius, if you're going to use a gun-" Judy stopped listening for a second. Piberius? That must have been his middle name. She gave Nick her ear again. "-then you're not going to use it to end an upstanding citizen.' And that's why I joined the force. Well, that, and-" He gave her an affectionate kiss in the cheek. "-Everything I could ever want is already on the force, as well."
Judy blushed, giggling out of bashfulness. "I feel the same way, Nick."
He laughed and looked into her eyes. It was a kind smile, a reassuring smile. She felt a rush of love urge her to throw herself towards him. Just as she was going to follow through with it, however, he raised his rifle and said, "Let's kick some bad guy butt." He threw the MP15 on the bed, which Judy picked up with some difficulty. It was heavy for a bunny. How could her dad have handled this beast if, God forbid, he ever had to use it?
All right, Hopps, she told herself. You've come this far. It's time to show the chief exactly why you were assigned to his precinct. This is the day you and your fluff butt show the rest of the force what it looks like to be a cut above the rest. She cocked the rifle.
"Let's go," she said, determined. But she had just started for the steps when Nick grabbed her wrist.
"Uhhh...where are you going?" he asked her shortly.
"Back to where we should be," she replied slowly.
He scoffed. "Carrots, come on." He gestured to the window. "Never, ever, ever do you ever give up the high ground. Especially when you have a long-range sniper rifle."
"Oh, yeah," Judy said sarcastically, spotting a large hole in his plan. "That'll work. Just a quick question: that's one window. There are two of us. So what do you suggest we do? Take turns?"
He snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "Great idea. I'll grab the first shift."
Judy gave a noise of disbelief. "That was supposed to make your idea sound ridiculous."
"Oooh," he said, inhaling through his teeth. "That's a logical fallacy, Carrots. Not good. Not good at all."
Judy scrambled to find any excuse to refrain from shooting anything. Wait...Who was looking for Wolford and McHorn?
"Chief Bogo!"
Judy ran to the buffalo as he swiveled around to address her.
"What do you want, Hopps?" he asked, a bit of hostility on his voice.
"Sorry, Chief," she apologized quickly. "But who's working on the Wolford case?"
The chief looked at the ground, thinking. "Good point, Hopps. But don't you want to help your family?"
She was about to reply, to say she wanted to stay here after all, but then she caught a glimpse of Klaus behind the chief. The German shepherd met her gaze and gave her a friendly smile and a thumbs up. She looked back at the chief.
"They're in good hands," she told him. "I'd never forgive myself if those two suffered because of my selfishness."
Bogo nodded slowly. "Okay, Hopps. Go off and find them. And you will find them," he added in an "or else" voice.
"Will do, Chief," she said, saluting him. Back to Nick she ran, bearing the news. The house flew by her eyes, the stairs were no obstacle to her instinctive jumping ability. "Nick! Nick!" she called out to him as she burst into the room. "We don't have to kill-"
And she stopped. Her face fell. Nick wasn't here. Where could he be?
Sniff. Sniff. Sniff-sniff-sniff. Sniiiiiff. She heard him smelling investigatively. "Nick?" she said uncertainly. 'Where are you?" As she turned around, she witnessed the fox crawling around on all fours, nose to the ground and ears laid back in a position of alertness. He looked up at her and beckoned for her to come with him.
"Nick, what are you -?"
"Ssh!" he said shortly. "Follow." It was a whisper, as if he was attempting to sneak through a security compound with utmost secrecy. Still not sure what he was sniffing for, she heeded his request and followed him. Up and down walls he sniffed, searching for something unknown, Judy assumed, to even he himself. Nick looked through each room with scrutiny, and Judy was no closer to figuring out what he was trying to learn. Finally, he stood up with a look of great fear on his face.
"Judy." His tone was foreboding. "There aren't any clocks in this house. Excepting the broken one above the stove."
Judy didn't know why that was a problem. "Yeah. Ever since my parents got smartphones, they've decided that clocks are obsolete and unnecessary. So?"
"So…" Nick said, "if they don't have any clocks…" He held up a finger and pointed to the ceiling. Judy didn't know what he was talking about. And then she heard it. The faint, rhythmic sound. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick…
"...what in the hell is making that ticking noise?"
Judy's first assumption was far from helpful. Bomb? she mouthed. Nick widened his eyes in agreement. "But where is it?" he asked.
"I'll listen for it." Judy perked her ears up. It wasn't coming from this room. It was near the stairs. She walked out carefully, motioning for Nick to follow her. The noise was getting louder. The stairs would lead to the source. The source was downstairs. She tiptoed down each step with caution. The noise was coming from the left, and it was louder. She turned to the left. Where was it? Where was the source? She scanned the room, looking for anything different. Then she felt Nick tap her shoulder.
"Carrots," he whispered, pointing to a box underneath the table. "There."
Judy approached the box carefully, knowing that if it was indeed a bomb, it could go off at any moment. "Nick," she whispered, turning around and getting his attention. "What does it smell like?"
Nick closed his eyes and smelled, and with each sniff he lifted his nose higher. "It doesn't smell like a bomb," he said quietly. He kept sniffing. "But it's bad news, Judy. Very bad news."
Judy turned back to the box, stepping on the balls of her feet, slowly making her way to the mystery box. She stretched out a paw and took hold of the lid, and slowly, ever so slowly, she lifted it and found what lurked inside of it. A red canister. A white warning on the side. And plastered to the top...a timer set to blow in two seconds.
It was pure instinct: Judy leaped up, yelled "BOMB!" and dove away from the lethal device. She felt Nick's body hit her right arm; he was still in the initial stage of retreat. With one forceful movement, at the strength of which even she was surprised, Judy tackled him to the ground and spread her body out like a pancake, acting as a shield for her partner. A concussive wave ripped through her insides, jolting her senses as the bomb detonated. But it wasn't an explosion. Heat snapped at her back as she scrambled to her feet, and as the carnage met her eyes, she knew what it was.
The canister hadn't been a bomb. It had been a flammable substance set to blow and provide her with a fiery demise. She heard Nick clambering to his feet, and once he saw the flames licking the ceiling, his voice turned much more urgent. "Carrots, run!"
Judy didn't need to be told twice; she grabbed Nick's paw and spin around, ready to escape her burning home. She rounded the corner and worked her way through the kitchen, still keeping a very firm hold on Nick's paw. She wove through furniture, appliances, and everything else that flashed by her as she focused on nothing but escape. As she worked her way to the back of the house, she threw open a door and came face to face with -
"Klaus?" Nick said it as if he hoped he was hallucinating.
The canine gave a twisted smile as he held them both at gunpoint. "Well, now, what do we have here?" He gave a low, evil chuckle.
Judy began to panic. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "Who are working for? I swear, if you've done anything to my family -"
"Oh, Officer Hopps," he started in an amused tone, his pistol never deviating from her forehead. "I don't want anything to happen to your family. Of that much I am certain."
"Answer her question, von Thirteen."
The German shepherd cocked his head and looked at Nick. "Very, very good, Mr. Wilde. You speak German."
"Ich kenne genug Deutsche heraus zu schnüffeln, böse, sadistischen fickt wie Sie," came Nick's anger-filled reply.
Klaus gasped, pretending to be offended. "Sadistic? No, no, Nicholas, I'm certainly not sadistic. Just playing for the winning team." He loaded the chamber of his weapon. A shiver of fear went through Judy's body. Is this how it would all end? Her hopes, her dreams, her life taken away from her by a rogue agent?
"This is it?" she said, her voice breaking with both anger and tears. "You worked for Big and Bellwether, and now you're going to kill us off? My life ends with a traitor being controlled by a coward who's too afraid to cut ties herself?"
The wolf shivered for only a second, then, without warning, zapped into nothingness. And there, standing in Judy's FURRIE and matching glasses, was Dawn Bellwether, much shorter and maniacal-looking than the menacing Klaus.
Judy gasped in horror. She felt her eyes open wide. Bellwether gave her an odd look, then glanced down at her gun-wielding hoof. her facial expression changed to one of realization.
"Oh, bother," she said shortly.
It happened in a second: Bellwether shifted the weapon's trajectory and pulled the trigger. Judy couldn't track the bullet as fast as it zipped by her ear, but she heard Nick yelp in pain. She turned around to see him fall to the ground, clutching his neck.
"NO!" she yelled, falling to her knees and turning him over. He was whimpering in fear, and tears filled his eyes. As he brought his paw away from his throat, a string of blue liquid followed his paw pad. Night howler. Judy couldn't stomach it. Dread trapped her mind, shooting through her nerves. "No, Nick…" She begged an invisible force to spare his sanity. "No, please…"
"What did I tell you, Judy?" Bellwether gloated. "'Us little guys gotta stick together?' And you had to ruin everything. We could have ruled Zootopia, Judy. The prey could have had the upper hand. And what do you do? You decide that a predator…" She pointed to Nick. "A single, useless predator was more important than the safety of prey!"
Judy shook with rage as she looked at the sheep in pure hatred.
"How did you know where my parents lived?" she demanded.
"Well, I just filled in for the singer, of course," Bellwether replied. "Nothing too difficult. Just introduce yourself as a different animal, ask where someone lives - not directly, of course - and they'll just talk for hours about their humble abodes."
"You were Herb?"
"Uh...duh," Bellwether said. "Bellwether. Herb Wellet. It's a pseudonym. Hel-looo." She glanced at Nick. "I'm surprised your worthless boyfriend didn't figure it out."
"Nick...isn't….worthless." Judy spat each word with fury.
Bellwether gave the same laugh she had given when she had shot Nick the first time. "You're right, Judy. He's going to kill you, and you've been a thorn in my side for quite some time. That's far from worthless. You do have a point." Bellwether laughed. "Bye bye, Judy."
And then Judy heard it: Nick's weak voice.
"I...won't."
She cast a glance at him. Judy watched as Nick met Bellwether's gaze with defiance.
"I'm sorry, fox boy." Her voice was deathly innocent. "What did you say?"
Judy looked back and forth between them as they exchanged words.
"I'll never...hurt...the animals...I love."
A rush of affection for Nick coursed through Judy's veins.
"She's prey, Wilde," Bellwether snapped. "You're a predator. This is what you do. You hunt prey. You kill prey. You eat prey. Now be a good fox and chase the bunny."
As she said it, Nick started howling and rolling around. Judy put a hand on his back, but he jerked away from it, emitting a deep, primal growl. And just as fast as he had changed, he came back.
"This won't happen," he told himself through gritted teeth.
Bellwether cackled. "You see, Judy," she started, "It's in their DNA. They can't resist the allure of the taste of blood. Especially after a bit of night howler." She twirled her pistol about her index finger. "And this is the new, improved formula. Super concentrated flower power, honey. Works on predators and prey. And I checked the cartridge." She gave a mock-cute giggle. "No blueberries in this one! All he needed was a bit of a pep talk from me. He'll succumb to the drug eventually."
Nick started huffing and growling again. As he turned to look at Judy, one last trace of fear lurked behind his green eyes. He was silently begging her for help, but there was nothing she could do. Smoke began to thicken. Judy's eyes began to water, responding to the black cloud of what used to be her home. The fire was spreading quickly.
"Well, I'll leave you two to sort things out, Judy," Bellwether said as she stepped around her victim's FURRIE and opened the door, still pointing the gun at Judy. "And remember, Jude, in the words of Deaf Leopard…" She cackled and gave Judy a chillingly psychotic look. "Love bites."
The second the door slammed and Bellwether disappeared, Judy grabbed Nick's shoulder with both hands, shaking his limp body.
"Nick!" Anything that came to mind, she used. Whatever she had to do to bring him back, she would do. "Nick!" she coughed, still shaking him. Nothing. Not a growl, not a whimper, not a single movement.
Judy threw caution to the wind: with both paws, she turned him over and began CPR. One, two, three...she counted every time she pushed on his unmoving chest. She fought tears and sobs back as she pinched his snout and exhaled into his mouth. And then she repeated the process again, and again, and again. Finally, she stopped and looked at Nick's open mouth and closed eyes, where nary a movement could be seen. He was gone. Nick was dead. But wait! His pulse! Judy pressed two fingers to his throat.
Faint. Weak. Slow. Thump. Thump. Thump. His heart was still beating! Judy felt a strong sense of relief. But there was no time. The flames had found their way to the kitchen and were hot on her cottontail. She threw Nick's arm over her shoulders and began to drag him back to the door that Bellwether had used.
Wait. Bellwether. If they went through that door, she might be lying in wait to shoot at them again - this time with real bullets. Judy quickly spun one hundred and eighty degrees and dragged herself towards the front of the house. It was a long shot, but she had to try. The smoke was thicker now, and she couldn't breathe without taking in a heavy load of ash through her mouth. Her vision was blurring. Her lungs filled with smoke. Her legs were weak. She felt her knees buckle, and her lower legs slammed to the ground, followed by the rest of her body. There she lay in the ruins of the fruits of her parents' labor, slowly losing consciousness next to the one animal that she cared about most. Nick. She was going to die here with Nick. He was still unmoving. She could barely open her eyes. And here they would be swallowed by the merciless monster of history: two faceless animals who died in a house fire. She closed her eyes, praying that she would fall asleep before she burned to death.
Movement. Weightlessness. Someone was picking her up. She groaned weakly, a failed attempt to ask for the identity of her savior. Slowly, she opened her eyes.
Nick was clearly hurting. Tears streamed down his muzzle and clashed with the soot on his face, ruining his normally lustrous fur. His arms and body shook with tremendous effort. And as he looked down at her, Judy could make out an exhausted expression of love and caring.
"I gotcha, Carrots," he said quietly. "I gotcha."
Back to the door they went. Into the midday sun they walked. Nick raised his voice.
"HELP!" he yelled, his voice cracking. "HELP!"
Then he fell down, hitting the ground with a fwump. Judy tumbled out of his paws and onto the dirt. It was painful, very painful. She looked at him, and he returned the favor.
"Nick…" she said. Her voice was weak.
"This love…" he said, "Doesn't…bite." And his ears drooped, his eyes closed, and he was silent.
"We have two animals in dire need of medical assistance. Get the paramedics over here now!"
The yelling of the SWAT teams got softer and softer as Judy drifted, gave a quiet sob, and fell into a pit of painless sleep.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Taunting colors. Blurry shapes. Painful breathing. Where am I? The question flooded Judy's mind. All she could hear was the beeping. The slow, monotonous beeping. She listened for her heartbeat. Thump-beep. Thump-beep. Thump-beep. The beep had to be a heart monitor. After all, what else synchronized perfectly with your heartbeat? But...but if she had a heart monitor attached to her, then...she had to be in the hospital.
Judy tried to fully open her eyes. The room cleared up. Everything was as crisply visible as it should be. The ceiling fan, the walls, the heart monitor. She looked down at her own bed. Hospital-standard sheets blanketed her aching body. Her left arm had been pierced by an IV, which was, she assumed, providing a morphine drip. When she turned her head to the right, she glimpsed a flash of the tip of a red ear peeking up over the large pillow. A fox. Nick. Judy could only hope that the animal next to her wasn't Nick. Please, she begged the same faceless deity she had groveled to after the night howler had infected him. Don't let it be Nick.
A twist. A click. Judy turned her head yet again to the door. The doctor. The doctor that had helped Lionheart in the Cliffside Asylum. The badger gave Judy a kind smile.
"Ah, Officer Hopps," she said, making her way to Judy's bedside. "I'm glad to see that we're feeling a bit better."
Judy propped herself up. She had a thousand questions. But which to ask first? They came spewing from her mouth uncontrollably, like a hyperactive child.
"What happened? Where am I? How long have I been out? What's happened to my family?" She fell silent at the doctor's raised paw.
"Well, Judy," the badger began, "you had a buildup of ash in your lungs, almost as bad as a smoker in their second year of cigarette use. Luckily, that's such a small amount that we were easily able to remove all of it. You've already made a full recovery and should be released before the end of the day."
Judy had to know. "What about…?" She nodded to the fox she assumed was Nick.
"Ah, yes," the badger said solemnly. "Officer Wilde. I have good news and bad news." The badger walked to Nick's bed and put a paw on it. "The good news, Officer Hopps, is that he will survive."
Judy was fearing a permanent disability. "And the bad news?"
Nick's bed moved. He was turning over. Judy watched in apprehension, and as his eyes met hers, he gasped in pain.
"Hey, Carrots," he wheezed in a quiet voice with a smile that looked like he was in pure agony. "I guess…too much…happened at once."
The badger provided Judy with her diagnosis. "Nick's body gave an unpredictable reaction to the night howler. As a result, he became heavily fatigued and suffered dehydration and further exhaustion from the fire. He'll need more time to recover...perhaps a week or so. That seems most likely."
Judy felt a rush of painful sympathy and injustice. He was the one who saved her life. She was the one who should be feeling like her throat was about to go dry. She should be forced to suffer the fate of a week in a hospital bed.
"Nick…" Words failed her. "I'm sorry. So…" She struggled against the tears that were fighting to roll through her fur. She swallowed. "...so sorry."
He gave an exhausted, understanding smile. "It's not your fault. Let's not forget…I was the one being carried…before you fell down."
A slow, heavy exhale brought Judy's attention to the doctor.
"Here's the crazy thing," she said. "Mister Wilde survived because of that energy drink he had for breakfast that day. It appears that an unidentifiable compound in the drink enables predators to, if they are motivated enough, resist the night howler serum and render it completely ineffective." She gestured to Nick. "Though, of course, it comes at the cost of a temporary personal sacrifice. I'm sure Officer Wilde's current condition proves my point."
"Nick…" Judy still couldn't accept that she would be out of the hospital sooner than he would. "I deserve to be stuck here, not you."
Nick laughed. "You are st-stuck here, Carrots. At least...for the rest of...the day.."
"Hold on." Judy had just realized something. "You said the energy drink he had for breakfast that day," she told the doctor, now realizing that Nick's hyper observance was starting to rub off on her. "What day is it now?"
The badger fidgeted a bit uncomfortably. "It's been six days since the accident."
Judy could do nothing to stop her mouth from dropping open. Six days. One hundred forty-four hours. Eight thousand, six hundred forty minutes of her life gone, never to return. Nearly a week of emotions, of events, of life, devoured by the jaws of fate. Six days closer to the end…
Judy had to know. "What happened to my family?"
The door opened again, and the badger was forced to abort the sentence she had just started. There stood Chief Bogo with a folder in his hand. The second he made eye contact with Judy, he hurried to her.
"Chief Bogo, sir," the badger started, "visiting hours are over, sir."
The buffalo brandished the folder at her. "This is police business, Doctor. And believe me, this is actually for Hopps's benefit. Like I care," he added as an afterthought.
The badger nodded understandingly. "I appreciate that, sir, but I'm afraid I cannot leave my patients until I am sure they will be all right without me."
"I never said you couldn't hear what I have to say," came Bogo's short reply, turning his back to the doctor and facing Judy.
"Hopps, Wilde…" He looked at them as he said their names. "There's been s breakthrough in the Wolford-McHorn case." He gave a heavy sigh. "They were discovered washed up on the riverbank in Savanna Central. And...they weren't moving."
Dread and fright shocked Judy, zapping through her entire body. "They...they're dead?"
The chief sighed morosely and looked at her with very sorrowful eyes. "They were pronounced deceased on-scene two days ago. I'm sorry, Hopps. It brings me great pain to say that your case has been closed. Wolford and McHorn have been found, after all." He sighed again. "Great. Now I have to face their spouses and children. Perfect."
"Chief…" Nick wheezed. "Her family...what happened?"
"It was a bluff, an attempt to divert police resources." The answer tore through Judy's heart so mercilessly she wished it had been a bullet. Why did they do it? Did two hundred lives really mean so little to them? Was it a fear tactic. "Why?" She hoped the question would prompt Bogo to elaborate and spare her some breath.
The chief knit his eyebrows. "We don't know," he said slowly. "There hasn't been a major crime committed since the accident, and nothing looks noticeably more ominous than usual."
"Doc…" Nick's voice came. "We've got...to tell the...chief...something important. Something…classified. Police work…"
"Oh," the doctor said. "I gotcha. You guys appear to be able to handle yourselves." She got up and left the room, but not before casting a backwards glance of uncertainty at them.
As soon as the door closed, Judy saw Nick roll over and address the chief.
"Chief…we saw...Bell...wether."
The chief's eyes widened in fear, but only for a second; he was soon his usual angry self again.
"Really?" he said. "Where?"
"She was wearing my FURRIE, Chief. She posed as a SWAT unit and then must have planted a bomb while we were looking for weapons up in my parents' bedroom."
"And if she was there, and she was in disguise," the chief said skeptically, "how could you have possibly known it was her?"
Judy faltered. "I...I…" She had the answer, but it sounded ridiculous even to her.
"She said the…magic words, Chief," Nick jumped in.
The buffalo looked at him. "What are you blabbering about, Wilde?"
Judy drew his attention back to her. "Well, Chief, you deactivate FURRIEs by saying, 'Cut ties.' When you do, your FURRIE - modified to react to your voice only, I might add - releases you and you become your own self again. Once that happens, the machine stops holding on to you and you can go about your business. In this case, Bellwether was wearing my FURRIE, and I inadvertently ended a sentence with 'cut ties.' She was ejected from the suit, shot Officer Wilde, and escaped before we could do anything. The SWAT teams couldn't start a search for her, because they thought the mafia was coming, but it was only a…"
And it clicked. Judy understood what happened. Bellwether had planned on being there and killing both of them, but she needed a heck of a distraction. So she planted the fire bomb in the house to get SWAT's attention and focus them on the fire, not her. She walked into the house disguised as Klaus, likely pretending she was going to look for Nick and Judy, then confronted them, nearly killed both of them, and lived to see another day.
"...diversion," she finished. "The attack was a diversion so she could kill us."
"That's...cold," Nick said.
"No kidding, Wilde," the chief agreed. He looked at the folder, then snapped it shut, startling Judy. The IV tube began to hurt again.
"Apologies, Hopps," the chief said indifferently.
"You should...have your own...motivational...card company, Chief."
"Cram a crumpet in it, Wilde." The chief started through the door, but paused and glanced at them. "I'll have mission assignments for you when you get out."
The instant the door closed behind him, Judy fixed her eyes on Nick.
"Are you okay?"
He nodded. "I've had...near-death exp-experiences before."
"God, Nick, I'm so sorry." Judy repeatedly threw the back of her head against her pillow in self-loathing. "If only I wasn't...so...stupid!" Her sentences paused each time she pulled her head back in preparation to slam it against the bed again. "
Weak...idiotic...useless...mother…fu-"
"Judy!" Nick's voice was broken, but his meaning was clear. Judy stopped herself from finishing her sentence and looked at him. He looked agonized but firm in his position in the conversation.
"Please," he asked her, his voice reverting to its weak, scratchy stage. "Don't ev-ever do that to y-yourself."
But Judy couldn't relent.
"Nick, that's sweet of you, really. But if I hadn't fallen, you might have been okay." She gave a bitter chuckle. "God. If I hadn't gotten so hung up with my dream of being a cop, we wouldn't even be here. This is my fault. All of this is my fault."
Nick looked at her with a level passion she could barely begin to comprehend. "I'm glad you did," he said. "If you hadn't...I'd...never have...met you. I'd never...never have changed. I'd never have...loved."
The all-too-familiar rush of affection hit Judy at full force. "Not even with May?"
Nick chuckled. "Fair enough. But in this case...I'm glad...that o-opposites at...tract."
Judy smiled at him. "I'd kiss you if we could move."
Nick returned her smile and placed his paw on his lips. Judy heard the smack of a kiss, and he fully extended his arm towards her. Judy understood; she, too, brought her paw to her mouth, kissed it, and reached for Nick's outstretched paw, intertwining her fingers with his.
In that one moment, an inexplicably deep sense of devotion to the generous, loving, selfless fox seized Judy's mind and body, and, though she might now know it yet, would bind their souls together for the rest of their lives. His kind green eyes were the only things Judy wanted to gaze into. She was surprised to feel a tear of joy fall from her own eye, but what was more beautiful was Nick's own tear, slipping away from his own eyelids in synchronization with hers. If this is what true love is, Judy thought, she didn't want to lose it for the world. "I love you, Nick."
Nick smiled. "Judy, my darling...I love you more...than life...itself."
"Let me know if there's anything I can do for you, Nick." And Judy meant anything; whatever she needed to do to ease his life, she would do.
"Well, I can think of something...I'd like you to do for me, but…" He gave a chuckle. "I'm not yet up...to the task."
Judy knew exactly what he was talking about. "Whenever you want, partner." She squeezed his hand. "Forget my father. If he can't accept us, then he can just shove that fox taser up his -"
Nick held up his other paw to stop her, and she heeded him. "Your father...has accepted me...as a p-part of the family, Judy."
The news was miraculous, so much so that Judy had a hard time believing it. "Wh-what? Did I hear you correctly?"
Nick nodded as enthusiastically as he could with his injuries. "When you were..still out, he came in and said that...if a fox was willing enough to...risk his life...in order to s-save a rabbit's daughter...then the fox's motives...his motives are pure. Then he said...s-something like 'There go the floodgates' and started crying."
Judy laughed. "That sounds like him, all right."
Nick grinned. "So he's...okay with us...being...together," he told her.
"I'll go talk to him after I'm released."
Judy was ecstatic. Her father was finally accepting her for who she was: a grown-up daughter with absolute freedom. He couldn't beat her, so he decided to join her...and she knew it. She didn't even have to talk to him to know that he was turning a new leaf. She rubbed her hand against Nick's rough palm pad, savoring the feeling. "I love you, Nick," she said.
He gave her a grateful, slightly wearisome look. "I love you too, Carrots." He held up his other paw to show Judy her pen, pressing the button as he did so. "I love you, Nick." Rewind. "I love you, Nick." Rewind. "I love you, Nick."
Judy groaned. "You're never gonna let me hear the end of that, are you?"
Nick shook his head. "Not for all the...jumbo pops...I can melt down. Though I do have...a question. How did Bell...Belllwether...understand what I...s-said...in German?"
Judy thought she knew the answer to this one. "Well, when I was in the casino," she said slowly, "I took a shot of root beer, which should have killed me, right?"
Nick gave her a look that made him seem impressed. "Yeah...it should have."
"Well, here I am. And then there was that little Russian interlude Kozlov and I had while we were pretending to be the readers of his father's will, right? I actually thought of this when I was drinking that shot. It must be the FURRIE. After all, I don't even know a single word of Russian, and I hate intoxicating drinks. So somehow, the FURRIE must copy some lurking attributes in addition to voice distortion and mirroring disguise."
"Wow," Nick said simply. "That's a...high-tech...piece of equipment."
The door opened again. This time, it was a zebra; Judy presumed he was a nurse.
"Officer Hopps, we'll just take you off the IV and you're free to go," he said.
Judy turned to Nick again. "I'll visit you, Nick."
He smiled. "I'd...like that...very much."
