Chapter 9 - Care

She went back and forth from aware to asleep, from waking to dreaming, from conscious to unconscious. At first, it was hard to tell which was which. Eventually, she could tell the difference by how she felt. In her sleeping nightmares, she would see sharp teeth and claws, hear vicious canine whining, and fear hungry tongues and maws. In her waking dream, she would see sharp teeth and claws, hear worried canine pining, and feel gentle tongue and jaw.

When the neck wound finally closed, Nick scrambled for what to do next.

Of course, stopping her from dying meant a lot more than stopping her from bleeding. Even worse, stopping her from bleeding now didn't mean he'd stopped her bleeding permanently. He'd already tried leaving for a few minutes to go to the bathroom, but when he came back, Judy was squirming and squeaking, her neck wound was bleeding once more, and he had to help close it again. That meant that if he left her alone for too long, she'd start moving, her wounds would open, and she would bleed out.

He wouldn't be able to save her if he couldn't leave her side for even two minutes at a time. He either needed to keep her from squirming, or, barring that, he needed a way to keep the pressure on her wounds even when he wasn't sitting right next to...

Oh, wait.

That's right. He did know a way to do that...

But it would take time, and if he left Judy alone too long, she'd squirm herself to death.

He needed for her to be relaxed, which meant she would need to feel safe...

In one of her nightmares, a canine began dragging her somewhere horrible. In one of her dreams, a canine began taking her somewhere familiar.

Once Judy was in her burrow, she could go longer without squirming. Maybe fifteen to thirty minutes at a time.

That was good. It meant Nick had time to get what she needed.

In one of her nightmares, a canine bound her body in a brutish bind. In one of her dreams, a canine wrapped her wounds with winding twine.

Okay, that's done, Nick thought, giving the vines one final inspection.

He'd never done this before, so it had taken multiple tries to get it right. He'd practiced on himself first, even though he didn't have any wounds. Once he was sure he could get the ivy to a good pressure that wasn't too tight, he'd started working on Judy. And he'd re-done Judy's wounds at least five times each, until he was sure the wrappings were as good as he could possibly get them.

Now he had a different problem.

Judy's body needed food and water to survive and fix itself. How was he going to get her either?

Well, food was easy enough...

In one of her nightmares, a canine brought her to its brethren for breakfast. In one of her dreams, a canine brought her breakfast, just like her brothers...

Nick sighed as Judy nibbled on a carrot in a daze.

Now came the hard part. He'd had an idea for how to bring water... it would be slow, and it probably wouldn't work very well.

But he didn't have any other ideas.

He left the burrow into the sun of day, ignoring how tired he felt after staying awake so long.

In one of her nightmares, a canine leaned over her bound body with bared fangs, ready to strike. In one of her dreams, a canine leaned over and-

"Guh," Nick heard, followed by hacking and coughing. He frowned, helped Judy sit upright, and waited for her lungs to get the water out. When she was done, he transferred the rest of the water in his mouth to hers. She didn't cough the second time.

Nick went to get more water.

When he came back, Judy was still sitting upright.

That was strange. Nick thought he'd laid her down again after sitting her up.

Then he saw her open eyes.

And he heard, "T-ck?"

Nick couldn't respond at the moment, so he smiled the best he could with the water in his mouth.

"T-ck?" she asked again when he was right in front of her. She began shivering when his mouth was a paw's length from hers. "T-CK?!"

Nick leaned slightly forward, closing the distance, and-

Got a slap across his face, causing him to lose most of the water in his mouth, surprising him into breathing in the rest of the water in his mouth, and throwing him into a coughing fit.

Judy felt her eyes widen at the sight of the spray of spit. Why had there been so much saliva inside-

Oh.

That wasn't drool, it was water.

Suddenly, Judy felt a lot less afraid and a lot more embarrassed.

Nick hadn't been trying to eat or kiss her.

He'd been trying to hydrate her.

And she'd slapped him.

When he'd gotten all the water out of his own lungs, Nick glared at the rabbit he'd tried to help, then stopped short when he saw her trembling, her face covered with her ears.

"Judy?" he asked, now worried he'd done another wrong thing. Earlier it had been licking. What was it now?

Judy's eye peeked out from her ear and she said a small squeaking sound that Nick couldn't understand at all.

"What?"

Judy, still with her ears mostly covering her face, made a small 'come here' gesture.

Nick, still frowning, walked forward... right into a hug.

And Judy made the same squeaking sound again. It was different from the 'thank you' squeak, and Nick could only think of one other thing it might be.

"I'm sorry," Judy said into the scruff of Nick's neck fur.

And then she said the 'thank you' squeak.

"It's okay. You're welcome."

And the moment he realized she was out of immediate danger, his exhaustion hit him all at once.

And his hunger. He barely had the sense to eat the owl before sleeping – it would have gone bad overnight... had come close to going bad overnight. But even if it was just slightly spoiled, you don't waste food if you want to live, and eating it after sleeping would have been much worse.

He rinsed his mouth in the river, getting one last drink for himself, then for Judy.

When he curled up for sleep, he tried doing it away from Judy. He didn't want to accidentally move and re-open one of her wounds in his sleep. But she insisted on sitting right there in the center as she went back to sleep.

He was too tied to argue.

The two slept through rest the day, and through the next night.