Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Disney, least of all Zootopia (yet)


When Nick came to, he felt like he had been hit with a sledgehammer.

Wait, that was almost accurate wasn't it? After all the last thing he remembered was that one of the mad predators, a bear, had charged against the support column beneath them before latching onto the walkway itself which in turn caused the floor beneath them to give in and then resulted in all of them plunging towards the ground floor.

Nick was snapped back to the present by a loud banging sound like if someone was hitting a metal surface with a bat. Why?

He opened his eyes with a groan. When he finally managed to look around he saw that he was inside of a clothing store meant for mammals much larger than himself. Even though still dizzy he tried to sit himself up which resulted in two small paws pushing him back down.

"Stay down for a little longer and rest up. I don't want you to throw up all over the place." Oh yeah, Judy was here. But wait!

How did she get down here?

And when?

And where were they exactly?

And what did she mean throw up all over the place? He could handle being a little dizzy. It was not like he had never had a hangover. He had several, some would even say too many, during his teenage years.

He tried to get up again. This time she did not stop him. Once he was in a sitting position however he felt incredibly nauseous.

So nauseous in fact that he threw up all over the place. He managed to lean to the side though, meaning that he at the very least did not puke onto his own legs or tail.

"See? I told you getting up was not a good idea.", of course Judy would go for the low hanging fruit of I told you so. Could his heroic sacrifice of dignity not at the very least be honored?

He at the very least tried to get up so that he could protect her from the danger that was no doubt lurking all around.

Once he had finished loosing his lunch all over the floor he rolled onto his back and filled his lungs with some well needed oxygen with short labored breaths.

He turned his head to the side in order to look at Judy who was still kneeling next to him. She was covered in blood. However she was too calm for it to hers. After all if she had lost such a huge amount of blood she would be in even worse shape than he was. So he deducted that she was fine.

He pondered for a moment whether or not he should try to get up once more.

But in the end he decided to heed Judy's advice when he felt his body rebelling against the mere though of getting up once more,"you know Carrots I might settle for lying down just a little bit longer."

Judy smirked, "I thought so."

Nick returned a weak smile of his own,"So what is the diagnosis doc? Will I ever be able to do synchronized swimming again?"

Judy broke into laughter immediately and replied once she had settled down a little bit,"Well sir I believe that you will live. You seem to have a concussion though, as for synchronized swimming. I believe you will never be able to do that again. Not because of your injury, but because I would die laughing if I happened to witness it and therefore I can not allow it."

The battering noise let up a little and Nick relaxed a bit more,"Damn, now I won't win the Zootopia championships in synchronized swimming it has always been my dream ever since I have been a little fox. But we can't very well risk your life doctor Carrots."

This made her giggle, "the Zootopia championships in synchronized swimming?"

Nick closed his eyes still grinning, talking was getting harder but it took his tension away so he continued,"hey they might exist I have heard of stranger things in this big city of ours."

"Hmm,"she giggled once again,"I can only imagine a bunch of otters doing that as an actual sport and then there is you flopping along in the water like an idiot while they are in perfect sync."

"Hey Carrots, I am offended!Did you just assume that this handsome fox can not win the synchronized swimming championships because I am not an aquatic mammal?"

She laughed once more and he went for the killing blow,"it shall be a Rocky like story! My heroic rise to fame and success. I shall also play myself in the film adaptation of my life story." He could hear Judy collapse onto the floor next to him while laughing uncontrollably. "Can you imagine? What a film! The story of best cop in Zootopia as he leads his double life as a famous synchronized swimmer!"

Nick felt more tired with every word that left his mouth. It felt strange to him, it was not this normal kind of sleepy. It was more like his mind and his senses were being covered in cotton.

Judy seemed to realize that he was slowly fading away.

"Go sleep Nick, I will wake you in an hour. And then we try to get out of here."

His entire body felt so heavy and yet he still managed to find a response,"but...aren't...there...predators...around?"

He felt a paw gently stroke the top of his head, just between his ears and he eased into the comfort of the touch"sleeping will help you get better. We cannot outrun mad predators if you throw up whenever standing up straight."

And while she caressed the top of his head he was embraced by darkness.

Judy stopped petting Nick at little while longer after she knew that he was asleep, just to make sure that he did not wake up again. She had learned this trick from Sam, this time the though of her friend filled her with equal amounts of happiness and sadness when she remembered back to those simpler days. He had been wounded after a mission and had trouble sleeping. So she had asked him if she could help him somehow. He then asked her to stroke the spot between his ears, and he went on to tell her that his mother had always done that for him as a kid whenever he could not sleep like after watching a scary movie. At the end of his story he had faded of to sleep. Her heart felt heavy when remembering these happier times. It was such a sweet memory. And she was glad that it had worked on Nick as well. She really needed him to recover fast. Because even though the polar bear seemed to have given up. She tried to use her phone once more to contact her comrades or get any kind of information on what was going on. For all she knew this could be happening all over the city. But just like the other times she had tried while Nick had been out cold she was not able to get a signal.

It felt strange to her and her instincts told her that this mess was far from over.


Authors Note:

To think like the fox you gotta be the fox I say as I eat half a kilogram of blueberries together with my pet parrot while I wrote this.
So I did a little chapter again. I usually don't like making chapters that are this short, but this one really felt good to write. I tried to fluff things up a little bit I might have managed to do that I might have not who knows? But it is a nice bonding moment for our favorite pair.
I just had to write this when I had the idea so I did. Don't worry violence shall follow.

Funny story, I actually had multiple concussions during my childhood and I am justifying Nick's actions in the following chapter/s with my personal experience.
But for your amusement I shall offer up a story of one time I got a concussion.
So I was in school and we were having PE lessons and we were playing soccer outside on a real field.
So I was the goalkeeper and it had rained just before the lesson started and the grass was still really wet.
While on the offense one of my classmates was sprinting towards the goal and could not stop anymore and tackled me against the goalpost headfirst.
I stood up though an shrugged it off(I was just bleeding a little), played another 25 minutes before I realized that I could not walk straight anymore(maybe because I was just standing most of the time).
And when the lesson was over and everyone went back into the locker room I realized that I had no idea where the locker room was. Even though I had been at this school for 7 years. And the god damn building was right next to the field.
The teacher realized this when he saw me stumbling around the field and sent me to the local doctor and I threw up on the way there.
And he was like damn that seems bad and sent me directly to the hospital where I stayed for about a week.
The doctor there could not believe that I had finished playing the rest of the game before being sent to him since I had a very bad concussion. I am wierdly proud of that.
So all this comes from personal experience(exept the savage predators in a mall trying to kill everyone part[that may or may not be made up]).