The bellow that filled the spacious office was deafening. "What do you mean the bunny's alive?! Doug said the fox went savage! He should've killed her!"

There was quiet, apprehensive muttering on the other side of the line.

"I know they were mates; that was the whole point, you moron! This just wasn't supposed to happen!"

With that, Bellwether slammed her hoof against the screen of her phone, effectively ending the call. Tossing the phone to the other side of the room with all her strength, she watched it bounce off the wall and slam into the flooring with a distinct 'crack'. Slumping back into the oversized black leather chair, she brought her hooves to her eyes and let her emotions run free. All the time and work she'd put in to clear the streets of the ticking time bombs of violence otherwise known as predators, and this is where it gets her?

She'd hit a dead-end.

"And you are a hundred percent sure he was injected with something and not just pushed over?" the chief of police inquired sternly, standing at the foot of the bed with a small notepad. "The doctors made it very clear they haven't found anything out of the ordinary from the victims' bloodstreams", he added before nodding towards the patient's father, indicating for him to translate the words into sign. Fortunately for the already pulsing vein visible in his forehead, the buck realized to keep his own muzzle shut and did the supposed task, having required only four remarks earlier to realize it wasn't him that was being interrogated.

Circumstances like these were ones of the numerous reasons Bogo was glad to be out of field work; glad that he had been out of it for many years now. Dealing with the mammals he'd sworn to serve and protect just wasn't good for his blood pressure. Or mental health.

But this case was different, one he had to take care of himself. Ever since the first savage attack after the former mayor was exposed as the culprit behind the so called 'missing mammals case', the city hall had been pressuring him nonstop to take control of the situation before it escalated completely. It had taken him a great deal of patience to explain that since no one knew how any of the predators turned feral, all he and the other precincts could do was to continue with the same protocol and send out extra squad cars on patrol. What he'd gotten in response was a yet another threatening reminder of growing tensions between the prey and predator citizens and a not so subtle reconsideration of his position as the chief of Precinct One. And as if that wasn't enough, the ZIA had decided to drop him a vague hint of corruption possibly playing a part in the case, rendering his hopes of less than two sleepless nights a week unrealistic.

He still trusted his officers, of course. There was next to nothing that could break the utmost confidence he had in the very elite the ZPD had to offer, but the news of the sixth overall savage attack survivor (which was a rather generous term to use of the other victims as most of them had gotten away with only scratches and other minor injuries) who - unlike the others so far - had presumably witnessed a predator turn feral right in front of their eyes had been plenty enough to haul him out of his office on an assignment of his own.

The buck having finished, Judy raised her gaze back up at the intimidating form of the brass shielded giant, finding it quite humorous that her father was able to practically frustrate the buffalo's horns off with his antics. The faint characteristics of a smile forming on her muzzle soon died out as her thoughts were once again brought back to the reason why she was in a hospital bed in the first place. The question was almost offending to her. "Yeah, he gets randomly pushed over by some sheep and gets so mad he decides to rip my leg off. Seems reasonable."

The bovine's nose flared as he gave a snort at that, breaking eye contact long enough to write the comment down. "And you are also certain of the attacker's species?"

There was a moment where the only movement in the entire room was that of brown paws. "Yes, but I'm not sure if they were a ewe or a ram", she answered with a much more quiet and sincere tone now, realizing that getting on the bad side of maybe the most competent mammal who could help her wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do at the moment. There was only one thing she wanted more than to see the mammal who'd dared to hurt her mate brought to justice.

"I'm assuming you don't know who could've been behind this either or why you were attacked?"

She shook her head, not even having thought about the option of being intentionally targeted. The whole thing made no sense to her.

"Your neighbor Ms. Cooney told us that you were already unconscious by the time she got to your apartment. Apparently Mr. Wilde showed signs of extreme aggression at her attempts at entering to check on you but she could nevertheless clearly see that you were injured so she contacted the emergency services. Can you remember what happened before you lost consciousness?"

Judy gulped as her father took longer than usual to process whatever had been said before finally interpreting the words, his face shaded by dread. Brushing his oversentimental self aside, she made a mental note to thank the older raccoon once she was discharged. "Yeah… He had a seizure of some sort. I tried to help him but I didn't know how and I was afraid the sheep was still there so I missed him creeping up to me."

The Cape buffalo cocked an eyebrow at her. "Can you depict any symptoms of this seizure?"

"He was convulsing really hard and his breath was unsteady and shaky. Not so much towards the end though."

Another moment of scribbling. She'd only now come to realize that watching Nick write down on those dumb notes of his was so much more entertaining than seeing anyone else do it. There was always a sense of antsy anticipation and warmth running through her when she waited for him to finish and hand the colored paper square over.

"Due to their superior size and your critical condition, the paramedics had resorted to capturing Mr. Wilde themselves and closed him off in another room while you were being attended to. You were taken to the nearest hospital in Tundratown and Mr. Wilde was taken straight here in a police cruiser. The city will cover the costs of your transportation here. Any questions?"

She shook her head again once the interpretation was done, having already heard the same story from her doctor. She saw his father try to unlock his mouth to say something, but the chief, oblivious to the buck's pleading and somewhat curious expression, beat him to it.

"In that case I'll be seeing you in the near future", he paused and ripped a small piece of paper off his notepad, then continued, "Here's my work phone number. Call- Text me if anything else crosses your mind. Thank you immensely for your help, Ms. Hopps". Realizing that the piece of paper in his offered hoof was yet to be taken, he turned his head to the older rabbit, needing no longer than a fraction of a second to take in his thoughtful façade. He had years upon years of experience, after all. "Is something the matter, Mr. Hopps?"

Stu raised his amber eyes to meet the larger mammal's own ones, clearing his throat as diffidently as one possibly could. He didn't know if it would be wise to make the request he was thinking of, didn't even know if she wanted him to make it in the first place. But he simply couldn't bear to watch his little kit wallow in misery all day while he sat beside her with no way to help her. He needed to try.

"What's wrong, dad?"

Brought back to reality by the meek voice, he turned to see his daughter staring up at him with shining, apprehensive amethyst orbs. 'One second, Jude.'

Turning back to Bogo, he finally accepted the piece of paper and tucked it in his pocket. "Umm… Is it possible for her to see Mr. Wilde by any chance?" he asked in an almost begging manner. "We've been told they don't let any visitors where the… uh… unlucky individuals are kept, but would it be possible for you to have a saying in it?"

As impossible as it may have seemed, the bovine's ears actually fell a few degrees at the petition, a glint of empathy highlighting the brown of his usually dour eyes. "My apologies, Mr. Hopps, but that's out of my field of control. I can inquire Dr. Bales if that could be arranged, but I highly doubt it'll happen. I'm sorry."

The rabbit's character turned even more sullen. "Oh. Alright", he said, trying his hardest not to appear as though he was a kit who'd been told the Easter Bunny wasn't real. "Well, thank you anyways. I'll let Judy know to call you if she remembers anything else." A nod was exchanged between the two and with a total of three spoken farewells, the door swung open and the chief left the room.

Texting had always been one way Judy had kept herself distracted from the many adversities that life would occasionally throw on her path. Whether the mammal on the other side of the line happened to be one of her friends, a sibling, or a certain vulpine, she would always feel much better by the end of the conversation- even if it only lasted for a few short minutes. There was just something so extremely soothing and relieving in sharing her own hardships with mammals she knew she could rely on. Talking might've not solved any of the problems, but it sure made them seem much smaller.

If only that was true in this case.

Having finally come to the realization that she did indeed have some parts of her life that - unfortunately - didn't involve Nick, she'd practically screamed for her phone, not having checked it even once after she'd woken up. There'd very nearly been another scream when she'd seen the amount of unread messages and unanswered calls she'd received. Luckily, it had turned out most of them had been either from a particularly concerned cheetah, or the bunch of harassing reporters who'd caused her friend's concern in the first place. Turns out she and Nick had become the headline of quite a few newspapers already.

The following, unbearably excruciating hours had gone by with her explaining everything to the spotted feline and her other, much smaller best friend. The two had said they'd tried visiting her earlier, but had been turned down as they weren't part of her immediate family, which was stupid in her opinion since the two were just as close to her as any of her relatives, if not even more so. Once she'd managed to convince both of them that she was fine for the moment being, they'd moved on to discuss other things, such as the cutest creature to ever exist, Fru's newborn. The number of baby pictures her friend had taken was shrilling considering how recently the parturition had been.

But just like everything else that was good had to come to an end, her freedom had eventually been ripped away from her as the device that enabled it in the first place ran out of battery, returning her to the reality of her cell.

"Please, dad! Change the channel already! Don't you get to grow enough beetroots at home?" Judy exclaimed in an annoyed tone, checking the time on the wall clock for the millionth time since her father had discovered the remote for the television hanging on the wall opposite to her bed. It was the single most hellishly boring gadget she had, or ever would, come across.

Stu, completely laid back on the chair he'd dragged beside the bed, turned to face her with an amused smirk on his face, signing. 'I thought you liked beetroots.'

"I do, but not enough to watch a frigging documentary of them."

He seemed to chuckle at that. 'Speaking of which, are you getting hungry? I could go pick up pizza or something.'

Ripping her focus off of her phone, the doe shook her head vigorously at him, the mere thought of digesting pretty much anything making her nauseous. "No, thanks. I'm still pretty full from breakfast."

The older rabbit eyed at her suspiciously. 'You sure?'

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

'But from what I recall, you didn't even have breakfast.'

"Don't go all mom on me, please. I did eat and I'm not hungry!" she replied sharply, not toning down the level of annoyance in her voice even when Dr. Bales entered the room. The brown furred doe simply looked at her with a neutral expression behind her thick glasses and walked to the side of the bed, seemingly waiting for the argument to pass.

'Judy, half a bite of a sandwich doesn't count as breakfast and you know it. I understand it might be hard, but you have to eat.'

Frustrated, she bit the inside of her cheek and slumped further back in the stack of pillows behind her, her nose twitching angrily. It was like she was a kit again, judging by the way her dad was treating her. "I. Don't. Want. To."

Then again, her behavior might've had something to do with it too.

She was confused at first when there were no other worried demands from her father, but instead saw him looking up at the doctor, his mouth wording something his paws didn't. Crossing her arms, she willed herself not to look to her right where the doe stood, but soon found her efforts useless as a bright screen entered her sight and captured her attention. As if on instinct, her eyes read the text displayed on the standard issue tablet that all the doctors in the hospital carried around. *I'd listen to your father on this one, Ms. Hopps. I've seen enough cases to tell you that being tube fed isn't all too pleasant.*

Scoffing, she lifted her chin to glare at the older doe, tears welling up in her eyes. She knew her reaction was nothing short of extreme and inappropriate, but simply couldn't bring herself to act normal. Her lower lip now quivering, she hung her head low, running the back of her paw over her eyes to clear some of the senseless moisture. "Shrimp and onion. One slice tops", she muttered, refusing to look at her parent.

"Shrimp? Did she just say shrimp?" Stu repeated out loud, looking at the doctor for some sort of confirmation with a confused face. When the doe nodded, there was little for him to do to keep his jaw from hitting the floor.

"I wouldn't push the matter further if I were you, Mr. Hopps. She's in a very delicate state and I strongly doubt she wants anyone to question anything in regards to her and Mr. Wilde right now."

Sighing, Stu got up from the chair and moved to stand next to the bed, his gaze fixated on his daughter's patched up leg. "I suppose you're right."

Seeing the buck drift into the depths of his mind whilst his paw slowly neared the white cast, she recaptured his focus by calmly grabbing him by the wrist. "It'd be better if no one touched it while it heals. But for her to be able to heal in the first place, she'll need nutrition. Even if it's just some pizza."

"Are you going to stay with her if I leave?"

Bales nodded sympathetically. "For the moment, yes. I need to talk with her about an experiment we would like to run with her help. With her consent and after she's eaten, of course."

The other rabbit's brows scrunched at the vague statement. "What kind of experiment are we talking about here?"

Judy couldn't so much as move a muscle as she let herself be transferred through the hospital's dull and long hallways. There was a storm of mixed emotions raging inside of her, burning her chest to the brink of the pain actually becoming physical. After what both her nurse and her doctor had informed her earlier the same day, the chance of her getting to see Nick had become nothing but a distant daydream in her bored-and-pained-to-death mind. So it definitely had been somewhat of a shock to be requested to do just that for an "experiment".

She hadn't been able to pay too much attention to Dr. Bales nor her father as the older doe had explained the importance of the upcoming test, having had her mind rather occupied at the time, but from the little she'd gathered, it seemed that the doctors and scientists wanted to see how the fox would react to her presence. Nick had been the first one to show something else than aggression towards a mammal and so they wanted to research this behavior further. She'd been told the results might help the police force to protect civilians from more attacks, but even she knew the chances for such a scenario were extremely far-fetched.

Just like the chances of her keeping whatever little bites of pizza she'd managed to force down her throat to stay down, if the damned wheelchair didn't come to a stop soon.

Her mind didn't register any of the countless doors, or rooms, or different sized cafeterias, or staff members, or guards passing by as her seemingly endless travel continued, but instead only focused on her own internal battle that left her wishing she was back in her bed being slowly eaten alive by ennui. Her dumb bunny brain simply couldn't shake off the uncertainty of her fox's reaction not being the one she was praying for. Not that she even knew what sort of reaction she was praying for, in the first place.

Her body suddenly jerking forward due to the wheelchair seizing its forward motion, she forced herself to focus on the present and take in her surroundings. She and her father had been given a very thorough description of exactly how the experiment would go down to reassure the buck she wasn't being placed in any sort of danger, so she at least knew where she was. The white, locked door in front of her was the last thing that separated her from the vulpine who'd become the epitome of joy in her life.

The beating of her heart felt hollow and rapid, and her vision was already turning blurry from the salty liquid that had gathered on them. There was a lump in her throat that made it extremely difficult for her to breathe as she watched the mammal who'd been pushing her around to unlock the final barricade between her and Nick.

The moment was far, far more horrifying than any of the last four days' events. Actually, nothing in her life came even close to the dread she was experiencing now.

At last, the door opened and the dimly lit holding room came into view. Judy wasted no time and instead of waiting to be pushed inside, she grabbed the wheels and did the task herself, keeping her gaze glued on the thick, see-through layer of glass that divided the otherwise empty space in two. Sure enough, her eyes soon fell on a familiar shade of red.

And she very nearly broke down.

Standing rigid on four legs behind the glass was her mate, still looking just as narrow eyed and driven by instinct as the previous time she'd seen him. He was only covered by his fur, which, even with it having been cut short, appeared extremely messy. It hurt her to see him cramped into such a small space with nothing but a mattress to sleep and - judging by its condition - chew on. The glass wall had a small gap at the bottom of it where metallic bowls could be slid under to the other side. Even they were chained to the wall to prevent the fox room from stealing them. The sight was more like that of a prison cell, not a hospital room.

What got to her the most though, was the toothy snarl on her mate's muzzle and his predatory stance. As certain as she was of her Nick never wanting to hurt her, her body kept screaming for her to roll right back out the doorway.

Nose twitching as if there was no tomorrow, Judy could merely stare into his green eyes, wishing they'd look at her the same way she was so used to. She scolded herself for never telling him just how much she loved those eyes and every other aspect of him; the thought was like a dagger all the way through her chest.

Just as she was about to finally lose control over her bottled up emotions, she spotted a change in the vulpine's character. Aggressive features were first replaced with cautious and curious ones, his ears snapping up and head tilting slightly as the nightmarish snarl gave way. Eventually her already crushed hopes were revived as his eyes and each motion filled with a new sort of look: utter desperation. Judy could only watch in agony as the fox stood up on his hind legs and pounced against the glass with his front paws, trying his hardest to get to her. It took a good minute or so before he decided that there was still no going through the clear material.

Doing nervous circles in his cage with practically all of his tail dragging on the floor, the red fox let out a continuous, longing whine, but the sound fell on deaf ears.

Wiping away her tears whilst still sniffling hard, she muttered words of consolation both to herself and her mate, but her cracking and unstable voice ultimately fell on two pairs of deaf ears.

Sleep hadn't been one of the easiest things for Judy to achieve the following night with thoughts of Nick still floating right on the surface of her mind. Thankfully her mother had returned in time for her to snuggle into her side and weep away some of the hurt. Had the bed been cozier and bigger, she would've probably continued her search for maximum comfort and safety by burrowing all the way under her parent. Nick had described the habit as "adorably disturbing" when he'd first been introduced to it a few weeks back, but had, unsurprisingly, not really fought against the idea of being used as a blanket.

She could nearly feel the weight and warmth of his body pressed against her own one as his humid breath and chuckles ruffled the fur around the base of her ear. She could feel their fur mingle together where they weren't covered by layers of clothing and smell his comforting musk that calmed both her mind and heart. But most of all, she could feel being cared for, feel as all of her worries and stress and frustration were replaced with pure relaxation and mutual love.

She very, very, very much didn't feel like eating at the moment, however. It was a new morning, which to her meant a new dry and disgusting sandwich. Her parents had spent the night at a nearby hotel and weren't going to be back till visiting hours, so she was all alone, too. Alone with a paining leg.

She'd barely noticed it the day before with everything else bothering her, but it sure was drawing her attention now. Each beat of her heart sent a new pulse of stinging and a sense of unbearable pressure down her left leg. It was like having someone try to rip off the fur of her thigh, sticking hundreds of needles in her calf, and running over both of them with a 20-ton road roller. It would be a long wait before she'd be discharged by the looks of things.

Sighing, Judy put the sandwich aside and reached for her phone. At least she could always keep herself sane by texting with her friends.

Or, there was also the chance to spend the following hours scrolling through her camera with tears in her eyes reminiscing on the dearest thing to ever happen to her.