Staring out of her hospital room from the bed, Judy watched the rain fall outside the window. Her doctor's words seemed to muddle about her head and disappear leaving no impact. Time seemed to have slowed down for the bunny. She barely registered the doctor's careful touch of her arm, sighing emptily.
"Mrs. Wilde. Mrs. Wilde...do you understand me?" The doctor gently patted Judy's arm. "It's very important that you at least eat. Starving yourself isn't a good idea right now. The food here isn't all that bad, and I'm not saying that just because I'm working here." She looked over Judy's meal tray and shook her head.
Judy hugged her legs to her chest hiding her face from the brown hare doctor. "Not hungry. I just want to go home." She rocked, even as the doctor rubbed her back. "I want to go home, just let me go home. I need to go home. Dr. Monroe, just tell them to take me home."
"I'm sorry Mrs. Wilde. I can't tell them to do that. You are in no condition to leave. Soon, okay?" Dr. Monroe stepped away to gather Judy's meal tray and place it on the bed. "Let's just get something in that stomach first?" She scooped a small spoonful of mashed potatoes and offered it to Judy's hidden face. "Come on, it's good. I promise."
Judy rose her head and stared at the spoon and rabbit with sunken eyes. "What part of 'I'm not hungry' do you not get?" Judy pushed the spoon away, then slid the tray away. Grabbing the doctor's hand she squeezed as tightly as she could. "If you try to force that crud on me again, so help me I'll make you regret it."
Pulling her hand away easily from Judy's grasp, Monroe cleared her throat. "It's been a week, Mrs. Wilde. If you are not hungry, there is an underlying problem, and that means we will have to put a feeding tube in. You are not going to sit here and waste away." She narrowed her eyes as Judy turned away looking back to the rain outside. "Or perhaps that's what you are intending to do."
Judy pulled the covers over her back and hid herself underneath. "Don't analyze me. You have no idea what I've gone through." Angrily, she pointed at the door, demanding the doctor leave. The door creaked open, and Chief Bogo lumbered slowly through.
He passed a glance to the doctor, then to Judy before returning his eyes to Monroe. "A moment alone if you don't mind. Wilde and I have some matters to discuss."
Standing up, Monroe walked past Bogo, then leaned against the door closing it. "Officer Wilde is still my patient. Since you people refuse to give us details, and have already interrogated half the staff here, I am not going anywhere." She shushed the Buffalo before he could protest. "Out there you're the law, in here, I am."
Bogo rubbed the back of his neck then sucked his teeth. "Fine, but you don't say anything." He walked to Judy's bedside, trying to get a view of the bunny as she turned away. "Wilde, I'm sorry about this. But we do need to get this out of the way."
Judy pulled the blanket down, then peered at the floor. "I know what you are going to tell me. So don't say it. If you have any decency...please just let me think he's alive for a little longer." Judy pushed herself off the bed, stumbling slightly in her weakness towards the window.
"Wilde..." Bogo stepped beside her, resting a hefty hoof on her shoulder, then raising it remembering their size difference. "I'm not here to deliver a eulogy. There's no one to give one for."
Judy looked up at him, catching the small smile on his face before it went away into a scowl. "Then, where is Nick? Why hasn't he come?" She rested her head against the window. "That's not Nick. He would have been here. You can't fool me."
"He's not here because he's downstairs, cuffed to a chair. Two guards just like you." Bogo pulled out his phone and swiped to a photo of Nick pouting in a wheelchair, locked in place. "You could swear he was on the howler the way he acted. That impostor nurse is lucky we held him back, otherwise she would have lost more than a tooth."
"Impostor nurse..." Judy stood up straight, snatching the phone and crying in relief at the sight of Nick. "Chief...Bellwether. She...she was here and...oh god..." Judy dropped the phone and fell to her knees, heaving. As Bogo and Monroe tried to lift her back to the bed, her eyes raced about the room. "You have to believe me...Bellwether, she had Nick, and then she was here, and she held me down and..."
Monroe held an oxygen mask over Judy's mouth. "You need to calm down Mrs. Wilde. You are going to put yourself into shock." With Bogo's help, she laid Judy in bed, using her weight to stop Judy from kicking.
Judy huffed into the oxygen mask, trying to get words out, her memory coming in scattered pieces. "They drugged me. Then Bellwether...she came here. She was here, she isn't dead." Judy looked down at her legs, seeing a dim bruise around her ankle. A new memory became clear to her, and she shook her head, fighting the oxygen mask. She turned to Bogo, watching his face stiffen. "I need to talk to Nick, please just bring him to me. I need to see him, I'm begging you Chief." She clasped her hands together to plead.
"I don't think she'll calm down any other way." Monroe held the mask against Judy's face with all her might. "Go, now! Either get him, or get me as many nurses as you can find to hold her down." Wincing as Judy's knee hit her side, she shot Bogo a hurried glare. Bogo backed away, yanking the door and snatching a guard as he raced for an elevator. As the remaining guard peeked in, Monroe gestured harshly for them to shut the door. The door slammed closed and Monroe returned her full attention to Judy who grasped her wrists trying to pull the mask away. "Shh..shh! I'm not going to hurt you, but you have to calm down. I'm going to take the mask off, but you have to trust me as much as I'm going to trust you not to scratch my eyes out." She released her grip of the mask and offered her open hands.
Judy shoved the brown rabbit on her back, climbing atop her and reeling her fist back to strike. "Who are you working for? Are you another one of that sheep's goonies? Going to finish the job?" Not satisfied yet?!" Judy's tears fell onto the doctor's face, as more thoughts became clearer to her.
"Mrs. Wilde. I am not working for whoever did this to you." Monroe softly took Judy's fist and lowered it to her side. "Your husband will be here soon. I'm sure you don't want to show him what you are thinking of doing to me." Easily guiding Judy back against the bed, she covered the anxious rabbit's hands with her own. "Is it coming back to you now?" Judy nodded slowly, her expression still full of distrust. Dr. Monroe sighed, then sat on the bed. "Judy, we do need to talk. Just doctor and patient. And I swear on my oath that whatever I say to you is the truth, and what ever you tell me I will keep confidential."
Judy gripped the bed-sheets, keeping her eyes on the doctor as she pulled a PDA from her coat pocket. "Why are you doing this?" She tried to pull herself to sitting, but Monroe urged her to lay back, waving her hand. "You believe me right? She was here..."
Monroe handed Judy her PDA. "I have no reason to deny that she was. I was one of the few doctor's here to assist when we found you afterwards. I only wish I were there earlier." Monroe stood digging into her pockets. "We figured out that someone snuck into your room and changed your charts." Monroe took a small packet of pills from her coat and placed them on Judy's bed. "I wanted to get him out of the room before we had this discussion."
Judy covered her mouth as she read the PDA listing of her chart. "This can't be right. No...no...there's no way." Judy looked at the doctor as she frowned then reaffirmed her honesty. "I can't be pregnant. I'm still a virg..." Judy searched her thoughts as they screamed in the darkness of her mind. "No...she...what did she do? She couldn't have."
"By the time we found you, almost three days had past. What happened wasn't something we ever saw before, so we didn't know how to proceed." Monroe pinched her ear and then coughed. "I was the one who took the bandage off." Hearing Judy's breath accelerate, she stood, filling a cup of water. "I got the others to leave, did the test and kit myself. They are listed under an number so you can see them when the time comes, if you want to see them." She stat beside Judy and offered her the water. "When they caught that impostor, she gave up a lot of information." Monroe waited for Judy to take a large sip of the water and then took the PDA back from her. "I had to report some things to the police to confirm her story. I told them we found sheep DNA, but I never divulged where it was obtained from."
Judy felt sick to her stomach. "That...bitch..." She felt bile rise in her throat, and nearly fell from the bed as she lunged for the bedside trash can. "Oh, god...she put herself in me. She raped me...she was going to rape me and leave me for dead. I swear to god, I'm going to kill her." Her stomach tossed and Judy heaved into the trash, losing only the water she had just swallowed.
"More importantly, you have to make a decision." Monroe rubbed Judy's back as she lurched over the trash can, throwing up air. "I was able to confirm that you were inseminated, I can only assume before this all happened as the early markers point to a vulpine father." Judy raised her head, then her face went pale. "I'm guessing you can't remember back that far right now. I did confirm that what little contents remained inside you after absorption, did belong to your husband. And your actual nurse did mention you two showed some affection shortly before this incident..." Sighing as Judy climbed silently into her bed and buried her face into the pillow, Monroe placed the pills beside her Judy's head. "We don't have long until they return. If you take these, we can curtail the pregnancy. But it's up to you. As I said, I won't reveal anything."
Judy turned her eyes to the pills, then scooped them into her hands. She stared at them, then picked up the cup of water. "If I do this, it never happened. I can go back to my life. Nick and I can move on." Judy dropped the pills into the water then set it down. "But what she did will haunt me forever. And knowing..." The door opened and Judy saw only a red blur before warmth surrounded her.
Nick cried on Judy's shoulder, nuzzling himself against the small bunny's neck. "Judy, Judy I'm so sorry. I never should have left you here alone. I should've broken in here, I knew something was wrong." Dr. Monroe poured the pilled water down the drain, then raised a finger to her lips as she backed out of the room, pushing the guards back out as she did. "Are you hurt? What am I saying? Of course you're hurt. I'll get you a nurse to give you something. You just wait here!"
Judy grabbed Nick's wrinkled shirt before he could get away, holding him in place. "Nick..." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Don't leave me. Please don't go anywhere...never again." As Nick turned back to her, his face showing his worry and shame beneath the stains from his tears and sleeplessness. "We need to talk. It's about..Bellwether."
Nick winced at the mention of her name. "Yeah...we do. I.." He rubbed Judy's hand, then pulled it free of his shirt. Rotating his wedding ring on his hand, he exhaled, then knelt. "I made a mistake Judy. Something I can never take back. And I'm afraid that when I tell you, you'll be gone forever."
"Nick...I'm pregnant." Judy rested her hand on his head. As he raised his eyes to meet hers, she offered a small smile. "I'm pregnant...we're pregnant. Nothing else matters right now...okay? Let's just...let's just be happy for that much."
Nick stood. "You're what? How? Who?" As the smile left Judy's face, Nick scratched his head trying to figure it out. Coming to her side, he looked her up and down, then placed his hand on her stomach. "I didn't mean it like that. It's you I care about. I'll be by your side no matter what." He tried to comfort Judy by kissing her belly through her gown, then he lowered his gaze. "I owe you that much. Judy, please forgive me. I did something stupid."
"I know what she did...and that's why I can say...Nick, we...WE..are pregnant." Judy covered his hand with her own. "We aren't going to let her ruin any more lives, this baby growing inside me included. Our baby..." Judy kissed Nick's head. "You don't have to apologize for anything. The one who should be apologizing...she'll get hers somehow. I promise you."
