Chapter 16: Hospital

Over breakfast, Nick tried not to worry about the morning conversation he'd had with the doctor a few minutes ago. He knew he had to focus on the current day, which was incredibly important in his plan. Today everything was going to end. He didn't want to clutter his head with other things that would unnecessarily clutter his mind, today only mattered one thing. Before he could proceed, however, he had to go to the police station to hand in the documents for Clawhauser, who had been reprimanded the day before for not having the documents in the case. Fox was sorry that this had happened, but he foresaw that sooner or later the chief would realise that Clawhauser did not have the files. He was glad that he had not started the procedure of looking for them, this was also something that the fox thought about a bit, wondering and betting with himself whether the Commandant would look for these documents.

After having eaten breakfast, the clock on the wall struck 10.10 a.m., the hands of the clock made a distinctive sound every second, which was repeated all the time. Before going to the station to hand in his overdue papers, Fox had to contact his friend, still unable to be seen at the police station. He would not want to receive a mass of inappropriate questions that would only distract him. Before calling his friend Nick went to his room to get dressed and take the file the cheetah had requested. The fox, thanks to his neatness and out of his habit of keeping his house clean, had the documents lying packed and ready to be picked up on the top of the wooden desk, which additionally had drawings and other notes from the case. He quickly dressed in a black shirt, a grey sweatshirt and long grey trousers, before grabbing a leather briefcase from his room and walking out of it to then leave the house.

Although it might initially seem that the clouds that had appeared first thing in the morning, heralding a not-so-joyful, rainy atmosphere would disappear after a while, it didn't seem to be the case at all. In some places, there were some blue flashes showing sunny skies, but in general, the weather was sad and cloudy.

It was also much colder than the day before. It might seem that last night, was comparable in temperature to the current day, which was quite surprising, it hadn't been this cold for several days.

Nick got into the car and the first thing he did was dial his friend's phone number.

"Pick up, cmon..." Nick thought while waiting for the cheetah to pick up the signal. Eventually the signal was interrupted and a sleepy Clawhauser voice appeared instead.

"Hi Nick, is something wrong? Do you have the documents?"

"Hi. Nothing important, everything is fine, I just have one request..."

"Go ahead."

"You remember I'm on leave right? I'd better not be seen by anyone at the station..wait for me outside the entrance to the car park, I'll drive up there and give you the file"

"Okay, how many minutes will you be there?"

"25 , 30 minutes"

"Okay, I'll wait there. And please don't call again now because everyone wants something from me and I don't know where to start now..."

"Hehe, ok, hang on, I'm on my way" Nick replied, then hung up. He started the car, he was ready to start his day full of work.

The road to the police station from Nick's house was initially quite straight and pleasant. There were few intersections, there was little traffic, you could accelerate to higher speeds without much consequence. The problem began when you entered the city centre and there was no longer so much room to show off with your car. There were traffic jams everywhere, traffic lights practically every few dozen metres and it was rare to miss a series of green lights indicating the possibility of driving on the road, as the traffic did not allow to exceed 60km/h, which is not an impressive result. This often made drivers distracted, but there was nothing they could do about it. It was a problem for which there was no solution.

When Nick arrived outside the police station, he stopped opposite the entrance to the institution's car park, where Clawhauser was already waiting for him interlacing his fingers. When he spotted a familiar car, he immediately walked over to it and opened the other front door.

"Oh, how good you are Nick! Believe me, if you hadn't given me those documents I would probably be dead today!" Said the cheetah shaking hands for the fox. He took the document folder in his hand and looked through its contents, checking that everything was in it. To be honest, he didn't know himself if anything could be missing, he just trusted his friend.

"Don't worry, everything is intact" the fox assured him as he watched Clawhauser look through page after page with great attention.

"Uf, that's good. You know how the Commander is. Too bad you couldn't find anything in that evidence."

"I tried to pull out everything I could, but I didn't find anything interesting" replied the fox.

"Judy would probably have discovered something...ekh...she could read something out of nothing...just how does she feel? The Commander doesn't want to say anything about it" asked Clawhauser. Nick didn't answer for a moment. He hesitated whether to tell the truth or to lie to his friend so that he wouldn't worry too much about Judy's fate. However, he didn't want to deceive the cheetah all the time, not on this matter.

"Ekh...Judy's condition is serious, it's not clear if we will even come out of this...yesterday Bogo asked me to find a new partner to work with in the police force" the fox announced. Clawhauser's reaction, was what Nick more or less expected. His wide-open eyes and head waving from side to side hinted to the fox that he was not thrilled about this.

"Poor Judy...she sacrificed so much to her dream to end up like this, and whoever did this to her has impunity!"

"Until today" thought Nick smiling slyly.

"Why are you smiling?" Asked Clawhauser seeing the fox's modest smile.

"Hm? Don't be afraid, whoever did this to Judy will suffer the consequences of their deed, surely we can manage as police to find this criminal" replied Nick.

"You say? I hope so, Judy is the best officer I've ever known, she's worked here a dozen years and this is the first time I've seen someone so determined! Anyway what am I going to tell you, you were her partner, you know what I'm talking about"

"Oh yeah, I know I know" sighed Nick. A quick memory of their time together ran through his head as they threw jokes at each other during their free time and the enclosures laughed at them, even if they weren't successful.

"Okay, I have to go now. Get back to us as soon as possible, we need you in the police force. Are you coming back...?"

"I'll be back next Monday," Nick replied, to which Clawhauser nodded with a motion of his head. He took the file, then got out of the car closing the door with a slam.

"Have a nice day Nick!"

"Have a nice day," replied Nick, then drove away from the meeting place.

Two hours later

Two hours after Nick handed over the papers for his friend who needed the files, the fox had a moment to drive down to the hospital to see Judy how she was doing. Dr Adams had urged him to do so, he didn't have to, but to make sure the doctor didn't bother him he decided to ride over to the hospital so he could talk to the doctor. He didn't bother with the thought that this might be the last time he would see Judy with his own eyes. All the time he was thinking about his plan, he paid no attention to any other ending than saving Judy's life. All that mattered today was maximum focus and a good, positive attitude.

As the fox stopped in the car park and stepped out of the car to go inside the high-rise building, which had a large illuminated white cross on it, Nick noticed a doctor dressed in a white gown standing at the entrance to the building. He immediately noticed that it was the doctor who was caring for her partner.

"Mr. Adams!" Nick called out, to which the doctor responded by turning towards the fox. He adjusted his apron from under his neck, then nodded as a sign of greeting.

"You've been thinking though," remarked the man, once Nick was by his side.

"I've had a rough couple of days, had virtually no time for anything..."

"I'm guessing Mr Wilde. I spoke to your boss."

"With Commander Bogo?" The fox asked in surprise. He knew he had been and Judy to see her condition, but the commandant had said nothing about talking to the doctor.

"Yes, I talked to him about a few things. He told me how much you were going through, talked about the release you were on...one fact surprised me."

"What fact?" Nick asked curiously.

"Thinking logically, Judy's time is running out, the chances of her being saved are dwindling, it's a very sad sight to see everyone already saying openly that Judy won't live more than a few days...and you still believe she will be fine...where do you get so much good hope? I know you should have it all the time, but thinking logically..."

"Thinking logically I shouldn't have any hope at all, I should be looking around for a new partner to accompany me on the radio car, but I don't. I believe I'll be fine, I'm not going to give up, there will come a time one day when I'll have to face reality right?" Nick asked. Dr Adams listened with intrigue and curiosity to the fox's words, which were like a poet's punch line that said that despite the waves at sea, one would be able to sail the prescribed route.

"Intriguing indeed Mr Wilde. Shall we go to the patient? I think that's what you really came here for" asked the doctor.

"Yes, let's go" replied the fox entering the hospital together with the doctor.

When they were already on the floor where the sick rabbit was lying, the fox glanced at the room where the figure was wrapped in black foil, this figure was no longer there. Most likely she had already been taken somewhere.

"Take your time. We have time, so rack your brains" the doctor communicated as they put special suits over their bodies so that no bacteria could get inside the isolated room. Stepping inside, Nick noticed that Judy, although she couldn't show it with movement or speech, looked weaker or weakened. It was obvious that her spirit of life was slowly running out. Sitting down beside her in a small chair, the fox's attention was drawn to a gold badge in a dark blue elegant square case.

"Judy Hopps..." Said Nick quietly reading the print on the tin.

"Commander Bogo brought it when he was here. He wanted to pay tribute to the rabbit that way" Doctor Adams communicated sitting down on the other side of Judy. The badge despite having been used many times by the rabbit, displayed on her chest by many actions looked to be in brand new condition as if no one had touched it before. Its golden, shiny material reflected the light and its sheen meant that you could see your reflection on the frame.

"Looks brand new," Nick commented as he looked at her. It looked stunning, as did the crocus eyes of the rabbit to which the item belonged.

"Indeed. An amazing object," the doctor commented. Nick looked at his watch, it indicated 2.00 p.m. The time of final reckoning was coming.