A/N:

So Judy was paralyzed in a wreck while on duty?! Not the way we figured their first day as partners would end, but this is the risk you take when you are a police officer.

Please follow along in her journey as she battles her own demons of self doubt, feelings of worthlessness, and of feeling like a burden to her beloved fox. It looks like a long uphill battle full of regret and anger. Can the duos' strength see them through the pain and heartache? Time will tell …

I will be using actual Police callout codes, also known as 10 codes with meaning in parentheses whenever possible. Just to keep a bit of realism to the story and give it a bit of TTL dialogue.

Again, a special shout out to my buddy Blkdragon7 for the editing. Go check out his ongoing story called A Friendly Hustle and show him some love. You can also check out his original work and link to his writing Blog, Scribblings, where a lot of it lives by hopping over to ( Direct: dcballard (remove the spaces) and my own writing blog, BearSpace, at: bearspace … because the forwarding is misbehaving.)

**Also I should note that Zootopia, Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde, and other associated characters are the Sole property of Disney Inc. I do not own the rights, save a few of my own characters and those will be noted at the beginning of their respective chapter(s). ***

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Ch 2

Of Colors and Foxes

16:45 (4:45pm) Monday Nov 25, 2019

"Car Z-240 to dispatch," Judy said as she keyed the mic.

In the lobby of Precinct One sat the chubby, bubbly Officer Ben Clawhauser, happily munching away on a big bowl of Lucky Chomps, and listening to one of Gazelles news songs, when the dispatch radio chirped for attention. It was Judy and Nick in car Z-240.

"Car Z-240, what is your status?'

"Car Z-240, Dispatch we are 10-7 ( off duty check call) headed to the barn."

"Dispatch is 10-4 on Car Z-240 10-7, see you two soon. Dispatch out.'

It always made Judy smile to hear Benjamin Clawhauser be so serious over the radio, when she knew what a lovable goof he was in real life. She considered him her first real friend since she moved to Zootopia just over a year ago. She had made others since of course, but he was the first to treat her with any kind of respect.

They sat out the light due to the crazy amount of traffic heading into Zootopia. As the light turned green, they made a right onto Z-95, a main road that led into Savannah Central proper and easy access to downtown and the Savannah Square. Located there, among other business, was City Hall, Zootopia General Hospital, and of course ZPD Precinct One, the very heart of Zootopias' police force.

Getting up to speed, Judy didn't notice the car careening towards them from a side street, as something had caught her attention. When she heard the roar of another engine, she snapped her head around just as the other car collided headlong into the drivers side of the cruiser, causing it to roll several times both through the air and across the ground, finally settling on its roof in a parking lot near the main road.

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After releasing the mic button, Ben went back to eating his snack. The next call just a few minutes later nearly floored him.

"Car Z-240 to Dispatch, Car Z-240 to Dispatch RESPOND!"

It was Nick, voice strained with pain and desperation.

"Dispatch to Z-240 what is your status?" Ben asked worriedly.

"Code 10-18 (urgent response) to Z-95 and Whip Grass, (Nick grunted in pain) Repete 10-18 to Z-95 and Whip Grass Lane!"

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The intersection of Zway 95, and Whip Grass Lane, was completely closed due to a major accident. ZPD cruiser Z-240 was involved in a destructive incident that left one deceased and one in critical,but stable condition. The other occupant of Z-240 had been thrown clear of the roll-over due to an unknown fault in the seat belt mechanism.

A fire crew was working tirelessly to rescue Judy from the wrecked police cruiser. She was partially ejected during the rollover, but was trapped as the car finally landed on its roof, the weight of the car pinning her between the roof and the door. Nick stood by helplessly, knowing there was little, if anything that he could do for his partner, his Bunny.

That thought caught him off guard. He liked her and her company, and always enjoyed having her near. But was she really his? His Bunny? He couldn't help the myriad thoughts and emotions that crashed through his mind as he watched the Zootopia Fire and Rescue work to remove her from the wreckage.

While he stood there, Nick refused any kind of treatment in case he was needed to help in the rescue. He wasn't injured that badly anyway, a few scrapes and patches of missing fur. His priority was her, he could wait. After about an hour, they finally were able to gently pull Judy from the metal confines of the wrecked cruiser, and got her on to a flat board and into an ambulance. She was immediately whisked away to Zootopia General.

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Light and colors and sound, all under shadowed by a dull aching pain. She couldn't move, and groaned when she tried. She couldn't really remember what happened, only that she woke long enough to feel a small pin prick then a comfortable darkness closed in.

Judy awoke after what seemed like days. She didn't recognize her surroundings, or even the bed she layed on. The bed oddly enough was the only thing she did recognize for what it was, in this weird shapeless world she found herself in. All around her was what appeared to be a thick grayish fog that seemed to get brighter for a short time then it would dim to a soft gray, There were flashes of light and shadow, formless shapes of greys and colors. Brief glimpses of faces both familiar and unknown that flitted in and out of the fog. Voices, there seemed to be voices, some she knew and those she had never heard, But one voice she knew all too well, spoke to her, but instead of coming from any one direction, it emanated from all around her. The voice begged her to come back to him, to please not leave. The voice professed love and promises if only she were to come back.

Sitting up, she fervently looked around. She knew that voice, she smiled, but the smile faded as quickly as it came. Nick's voice sounded far away, almost desperate, as she called out, "Nick, I'm here. Nick, where are you, I can't see you."

Any direction she cared to look, the fog always seemed to be the same distance from her. She picked a direction, and began to run. She ran for what felt like days, but she never felt tired and never got winded. The only thing she felt was an over all pervasive fear. Like she was trapped in an endless dream. Each direction she looked was shrouded in mist and shadow. Faces flitted out and back into the heavy fog that appeared to stay several feet from her even as she moved.

"Nick, I'm here. Nick where are you, I can't see you," she kept calling out as she ran.

Occasionally she would stop as she heard Nick's voice plead and beg to any of the gods that would listen to please return his bunny to him. As she heard his voice she would randomly change direction, in hopes of finally finding Nick.

"Nick, I'm here. Nick, where are you, I can't see you!"

Her days were endless as the sun that appeared in brief patches seemed to stand still. There was no darkness except the dim fog she endlessly ran through, calling for her fox, calling for Nick. She couldn't understand why he didn't hear her, she was right here all he had to do was follow her voice.

More flashes and faces appeared periodically in the fog then retreated just as quickly. She saw her parents, Chief Bogo, Ben, and countless others she knew and didn't, flow briefly from the fog like disembodied ghosts haunting her as she ran. Some of those she didn't know she still started to recognize as many of them appeared at regular intervals. As her days went on in the strange land of perpetual twilight that always presented the same view,no matter where she looked, she began to notice that it seemed like there was a pattern to the flashes of bright lights and faces. She even began to notice a faint rhythmic beep, though that sounded even further off than that of the voice she recognized as Nick's.

Her surroundings never changed, the same view of the same path she had been following for what felt like weeks. Every time she heard Nick's voice she would stop and spin toward the direction she thought it sounded loudest from, but could never find its source.

Nick, I'm here. Nick, where are you, I can't see you!"

At length she sat down and just cried, cried because she was lost. Because she didn't have her anchor, her fox. Because she felt like a scared kit again. She cried for many reasons that she could neither name or knew about. "Car crash, you're dead 'fluffy' … "Just give up and go home," came the voice of Sgt Friedkin. She was beginning to lose her resolve, and that made her mad, causing her to cry even harder. She cried until the tears dried voice of Gideon Gray suddenly emanated from the fog, "Aw, you don't know when tuh quit do ya?" And he was right, just like when she was a kit, she didn't know when to quit.

Judy stood up and chided herself for acting like a scared little kit. She was Judith Laverne 'Carrot-munchin' HOPPS, and by gum she was not going to give up. Looking around she picked a direction at random and took off at a dead run. She didn't experience hot or cold, and neither hunger or fatigue slowed her down. She was dead set on finding a way to leave this, wherever this was, and by golly that's exactly what she was going to do or her name wasn't Hopps!