Chapter 3: Night

When Nick got home and parked his police car outside the house he immediately went into the house and hid in his bathroom sitting there for about an hour if not more. He needed to isolate himself from anything that might irritate or distract him. He wanted to concentrate on calming his thoughts, which were causing him anxiety and dread. After all, no wonder, he had seen Judy in a tragic state, lying a girl in a pool of her own blood. Even now that he was alone and had calmed down a little when he thought of this sight shivers came over his body and a cold shiver went through him because of it. Once he'd managed to control himself a little, Nick took off his stained policeman's uniform and put it in the washing machine. He poured warm water into the tub, waited a few minutes, then using the warm water he stepped into the tub laying down sinking almost all the way into the tub. This gave him a brief respite from his worries, which returned after a few minutes anyway. What if Judy died, or fell into a coma where she would have to stay forever? What if Judy has some kind of disability? What if this event takes its toll on the rabbit?

All these questions made Nick unable to breathe for a moment because of his fear and concern for his friend. Even though he knew that it wasn't his fault that what happened happened, his conscience said that he could have gone with Judy, that he could have kept her company so that she wouldn't go alone, so that they wouldn't get separated. The problem was that Nick knew he had to obey Judy and if he even wanted to go with her he would have to stay to watch the other side of the bank.

"Ah, I need a nap..." Thought Nick when he could no longer manage the dizziness from his head. He got up from the bath, wiped his water-wet body, then dressed in the clothes that had first fallen into his paw. Since he couldn't do anything anyway in this state (he was too jittery), he decided to look for sleeping pills so that he could fall asleep and get some rest from these thoughts. Nick always had a few of these tablets, sometimes he had trouble falling asleep, so any help is useful. He went into his modest room and then started rummaging through his bedside table, trying to find some sleeping tablets. Once he found one, he swallowed two of them and immediately lay down on his bed. After fifteen minutes of lying down and shifting from side to side, the tablets began to take effect and Nick fell into a deep though unstable sleep.

A few hours later

It was late at night, the sun had long since set behind the horizon and a radiant blue moon had already appeared in the sky, illuminating the earth a little when Nick, after a rather long nap, woke up from it by lazily opening his eyes. Although he had slept quite a long time it was not the best sleep he had had in his life. His sleep often returned to the events that had happened the previous day. He would often mutter something to himself, or even scream at times. The tablets kept him awake, if he didn't take them, Nick wouldn't even sleep an hour. When Nick got up he cast his eyes immediately to the alarm clock that stood on top of the bedside table. The alarm clock indicated 2.30 a.m.

"'I should still be asleep' thought Nick laying still on his pillow, immediately as he closed his green eyes he felt that falling asleep now would be something simply impossible. Although it seemed that Nick had managed to relax his mind at least a little he continued to think about his partner and his fate.

"They should have called me," Nick reminded himself as he looked at his phone. There was no notification. Disappointed by this he put the phone back on the shelf and lazily got out of bed. He stretched out on it and then headed for the kitchen. Although it was terribly late, he decided to make himself a coffee to stimulate himself. Under the circumstances, he wouldn't be able to fall asleep anyway. All the while he waited for the phone call that would read: "Judy is fine, you can come" or something like that. Fox put some water in the kettle and fired it up, then sat down at the table and gazed at one of the pictures of him and Nick that they had taken on their day off together. They had gone to the cinema for the premiere of the latest film in the Avengers series, which had attracted a lot of fans and viewers from all over the world. As they stood in line, that's when Judy took this picture of them, which Nick stared at with a slight grimace. When Judy took them, Nick was angry with her for the rest of the day. He didn't like anyone taking pictures of him out of the blue, it distracted him terribly. Judy of course didn't take it to heart, she laughed at his sensitivity, which made Nick a little uncomfortable too, but he tried to keep a stone face. Now, as he stared at the picture, he wished he could go back to that, as it turned out, happy day. His thoughts were interrupted when the phone rang in the room. Fox rose like a rocket from his chair, then headed for the room. He didn't look up the number, immediately answering the phone by putting it to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Good morning. Am I speaking with Mr. Nick Wilde?"

"Yes...is something wrong?" Nick asked with a trembling voice.

"I'm the doctor who takes care of Judy Hopps. I was told that when there is anything known about her I should call you."

"Well...how is Judy? What is her condition?" Asked Nick with seriousness.

"Please come to the central hospital, I'll be waiting for you"

"It's the middle of the night..."

"That's okay. We're working all night" replied the man through the receiver. Although Nick was feeling tired, through his poor, sleep-deprived sleep, he decided that he had to turn up to see the doctor who was going to give him an update on Judy's health. After all, she was his partner so he cared deeply about her health.

"Well...okay, fine. I'll be there as soon as possible"

"great, at the secretary's office please tell her you have an appointment with Dr. Adams"

"Ok, I'll remember"

"See you then" replied the man, then hung up. Nick put the phone down after losing the signal, then went to his wardrobe so he could pull out some sort of jacket to keep him warm. Even though it was the middle of summer, the nights could be quite chilly. When he had put his jacket on, he still dressed in his sporty red shoes. He checked that he had all his important documents with him, then left the house to go check on Judy's condition.