A/N
Welcome to chapter 5 of what What Foxes May Come, entitled Bunny in a Haze
And as always my buddy Blkdragon7 did 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.)
****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 chapters. ****
Ch 5
Bunny in a Haze
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On and on she ran, for days, or weeks, she couldn't tell. The fog or mist or whatever it was staying at always the exact same distance from her no matter where she looked or what direction she turned and ran. Voices continued to sound from the depths of the fog, sounding distant and disembodied. Nick's voice remained prominent among all and the only one she tried to zero in on. She ran for what seemed like weeks, never stopping. Never feeling tired, or hungry, Never feeling fatigue or hot or cold. She simply ran. She would at times, randomly change course, if she thought it was the right way. Other times she found herself running away from the sounds of screeching tires and busting glass. The stomach squeezing sound of metal crumpling as it impacted with something solid. Each time she was met with a scene of her being crushed in the cruiser.
She would stare in horror as she watched her body slowly get crushed by the weight of the cruiser, then the scene reversed itself and then started all over again. She screamed in terror each time, and darted away from the scene. Faces flitted in and out as she ran, when suddenly a bright light flashed back and forth in what seemed like was just ahead of her. She seized the chance and ran as fast as her legs could carry her, and as the light flashed one more time, she leaped forward with all her might, willing herself to leave this, wherever this was. As she sprang forward the fog and mist swallowed her whole.
There was a swirl of light and shadow when suddenly voices snapped into clarity. Someone had her eye pried open and was flashing a light across it. She tried to turn her head away from the blinding light, but found her movements sluggish, like she was mired in thick tar.
"Nggg sto shng tht in m eys," she mumbled and tried to turn away again. It still felt like she was stuck in some thick liquid that hampered her movements. Suddenly she snapped her eyes open in terror, her nose twitching fiercely.
Her eyes quickly scanned the room and found what she was looking for, her fox. She instantly calmed, as she found his muzzle and looked into his eyes. She saw pain, but didn't know why. Then she noticed the doctor standing at the foot of the bed she lay on. She finally was able to move her head slightly, and seeing her arm in a cast drove home the realization that she had indeed been through hell and back.
"Nick?" she said in a raspy whisper.
She watched as Nick's knees buckled and he hit the floor with a thud. He just sat there, staring at her for what seemed like forever as tears flowed down his cheeks. When he finally climbed back to his feet, he moved up beside her, and simply kissed her between her ears, and then looked into her eyes and smiled.
"Well well, look who came back to us," said the doctor, "I'm Dr. Fast, and you my dear have been away awhile."
Dr. Fast looked at her over his half moon shaped reading glasses for a moment, smiled at Judy's confusion. He indicated that he would fully explain all that had transpired, but for now to get some rest. She didn't bother to mention that sleeping was all she had been doing. Taking stock of her situation, she found she had tubes running to and from machines that beeped and chugged. Others that simply hummed as they went about their business.
A while later Dr. Fast returned, and told her what had happened, and the fact that she had been 'on vacation' for the past three months. She tried to reply but he admonished her to not use her voice as she had feeding tubes and was intubated up until just that morning.
"Thankfully Judy, you are in fairly good health. There is just one issue that we need to talk about at length. Your spine was crushed in the roll over." At which point Judy gasped loudly and tried to put her paws to her muzzle in shock and horror, (only to realize that she was unable to move her arms). Thankfully your spinal cord is still intact. but because of the damage that has been done to the surrounding bone and tissue, we don't feel that we can safely operate to remove the damaged vertebrae, it's just too close to your spinal cord.
As it is, we can't really give you an accurate assessment until the swelling in your back goes down. The damage to your soft tissue has caused extensive edema, which wreaks havoc with our imaging scanner. When the swelling is gone then we can do a proper assessment and run a number of tests to check for feeling and motor control, if any is left. But until then the best we can do is make you as comfortable as we can. But I must be going now, if you need anything, use the call button." He gave her a warm smile and turned towards the door. "Oh and if the pain becomes an issue there is a button next to your right hand that will administer a light dose of pain medicine. You may press it once every 4 hours if needed." At that he smiled again and walked out the door, closing it quietly behind him.
After the Doctor left, Nick suddenly decided he had to go somewhere, anywhere. He was a nervous wreck and needed to clear his head so he could think objectively. He got dressed with a look of determination clearly plastered across his mizzle. He then kissed her between the ears,
"I'll be back in a while Carrots, there's something I need to take care of, don't go anywhere," he said as he went out the door.
Judy shot him a death glare.
"Really," she huffed to herself, " like I can move." She knew he was just trying to keep the mood light, but with what Dr Fast had briefly told her, she knew her career as a police officer, her lifelong dream, had come to an abrupt and violent end. No more would she be able to run down the bad guy, or feel the thrill and excitement of a high speed chase. She wasn't sure what to do next with her life. She supposed she would find something perhaps at least half as exciting as being a ZPD officer, maybe as a 'call girl', you didn't need legs for that, just a phone and a silky voice, but she was sure Nick would never approve. Maybe back to school as a programmer, she knew computers well enough to be slightly ahead. She would surely think of something, but she wasnt getting her hopes up. She knew injuries like hers were often permanent. Something you don't recover from. And often times, led to the patients doing something drastic to escape the depression.
She assumed that Chief Bogo would have called her parents with the news, or perhaps they saw the accident on the news. And her mom and dad more than likely drove the 4 hours from Bunnyborrow. She hadn't heard from them in any form since she awoke from her 'extended nap', so they might not know. Since it had only been a few hours, she had a feeling Nick and of course her doctor, were the only two mammals that knew. She wanted to call them but realized her phone had been destroyed in the crash. Maybe she could get a new one.
She decided to ask Nick if he would call her parents for her, she was positive that they were sick with worry. She was sure they would call several times a day to see if she was awake. She needed to hear their voice. Needed to let them know she was ok, well as ok as having a crushed spine and shattered shoulder and arm allowed anyway.
She was bored and tired. 'Turnips!' she thought to herself, 'I cant even watch TV. With a frustrated chuff, she fingered the button on the control near her "good paw," as the good doctor had indicated and what it was for, and in just a few moments she began to feel light and floaty. Soon she was asleep.
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A/N:
Judy forced herself to wake from the coma! She is a tough rabbit that is for sure. But what's next for our favorite duo? Find out in the next chapter called The Needs of the Bunny Outweigh the Needs of the Fox