A/N: This is currently undergoing a major rewrite but I felt it was only fair to provide a better backstory for all the characters rather than springing it upon you at a later chapter. I ask for your patience and hope you like what I've written so far. Feedback is appreciated.

Chapter 3

They arrived at the Maternity Ward and were immediately met by her OB/GYN, Dr. Pangolin. She was a kindly old armadillo who hovered over her patient and started timing the contractions. She sighed and said, "We'll need to admit her into the Ward now so that we can monitor her contractions. Once they are at least 5 minutes apart, we'll need to prepare her for birthing."

They put Judy in a gurney and wheeled her into an area where the other pregnant mammals were. Only some curtains separated them from the others. They attached wires to various parts of Judy's body in order to monitor her and the babies' vital signs.

Nick sat silently by her side as Judy started to doze off, tired from having to carry the pregnancy full term. Although he did not show any outward emotion, he watched her with sadness in his eyes. How could Jack betray such a beautiful bunny like her? How could he be so callous as to treat her as just a sexual conquest and then leave her holding the bag, figuratively? Why had she fallen for Jack's charm? Why Jack? Why not him?

As he internally struggled with himself to find some sort of answer, his mind drifted back to when he first reconnected with Judy after ten years of separation…

Once a day, at exactly the same time these last two months, Nick would hook-up the satellite dish in order to login to his Furbook account under an assumed name. He knew it was risky but this was his only way to catch up on what Judy had been doing these past few years. Once logged in, he would contentedly sit and go through the various posts of Judy and would often chuckle at her interactions with others. Once in a while, Judy would post a selfie photo that he would then download. He would always stay only for no more than five minutes then disconnect. Once he had logged off, he would look at it and long for the chance to actually gaze again into those amethyst eyes but failed to gather the courage to even send her a message.

But this time, something different happened. The moment he logged in, a small chat message box with Judy's Furbook alias popped up with these words, "Hi there, Dumb Fox!"

He was caught a bit off-guard but then replied, "Judy?"

"Yes, it's me Slick! How have you been?"

"How did you know it was me?"

"Well, you remember that I wanted to be a computer programmer/engineer when I grew up? Well I did! Top of my class. :-)"

"Congratulations! And, so?" queried Nick.

"Oh, hush, Mr. Smarty-pants. I was curious as to why someone was viewing my Furbook account daily at the exact same time. So, I set you up by posting several photos that I knew you couldn't resist downloading. They contained a special program that allowed me to snoop inside your computer. ;-)"

"Sly bunny. However, you do know that it's illegal to post malware on Furbook, right?"

"Not if you work for the ZPD Cybercrime Division. ;-)"

"You do? Now that is interesting. I swear, Officer Hopps, someone placed that porn stash you found in my hard drive. I'm being framed."

"Nick! You know I found no such thing." Nick could practically hear her blush. He still hadn't lost his touch with her.

"Then, am I under arrest?" Nick waited for almost a minute for her to respond.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because, you've only been in Canidae for 24 hours with Jack Savage of the ZIA and all of a sudden, you reached out to contact me after all these years."

Judy suddenly sat up, screaming in pain as she clutched her stomach with both paws. The monitors started beeping loudly. "Nick, it hurts!" cried Judy.

"Nurse! Get in here! Stat!" yelled Nick as he ran to her side to comfort her. "She's in a lot of pain!"

As the team rushed in, he said softly, whilst holding on to her paw, "Hold on, Carrots! You'll be okay soon."

They pushed Nick aside and immediately began to assess Judy's situation. "The contractions are less than 3 minutes apart!" said one of the orderlies. The Hippo Head Nurse immediately spat out orders and they took the hysterically crying Judy into one of the Delivery Rooms. Nick tried to follow but the Giraffe orderly told him he would have to wait outside.

Nick sat down in a chair and nervously waited.