Chapter 18: Emily
Nick had to wait a long time before being able to take his revenge on Jack due to the fact that the three friends had been debating for quite a while about the money they had acquired during the bank robbery.
The debate went on long enough that the fox wondered several times whether it would not be a good idea to enter the small chamber and prevent them from meeting. Fortunately, his enthusiasm cooled rather quickly reminding him of his main objective, he had no intention of interacting with the three of them. It would be pointless.
Soon his wait paid off, once it was completely dark and the only light was that of a street lamp, the fox heard the voices of James and Dominic saying goodbye - he hadn't heard Jack say goodbye, he'd most likely stay here for a while longer. Nick leaned out of his position a little to be able to see what was going on around him. He saw two figures coming down the stairs to their rusty cars, which looked to be in a deplorable state. Fox moved back to his position and could hear the sound of cars being fired up, which moments later drove out of the warehouse with a squeal of tyres leaving the meeting area.
Only Nick and Jack remained in the warehouse. Fox had the advantage that his opponent was unaware of his presence, so he could take advantage of that.
"Time to end this," thought Nick. He jumped out from behind the crates and approached the metal stairs leading to the small chamber as quietly as possible. At the same time he pulled his pistol from his belt and prepared to fire it. His hands were shaking like never before, he could barely keep his finger on the trigger so as not to accidentally squeeze it. His heart was beating in his chest much faster than it should. He could already feel the sweat on his forehead. He couldn't control his emotions but he had to keep them to the end before he did something stupid by accident. As he approached the stairs he took a deep breath and being careful not to create any unnecessary sound he climbed step by step upwards approaching the red door of the chamber. It seemed to him that he would never reach them as he walked fiercely slowly stepping very delicately on the sound sensitive metal steps so as not to create a sound.
Soon he stood at the red, slightly scratched door. His stress at first could not allow any bolder movement, he was almost paralysed. He didn't know what might happen when he opened the door. What if he too had a gun? Well, he would have to live through it, the goal was one. A moment later with a kick he opened the door entering the room.
"There I have you!" Shouted Nick as he stepped inside aiming his gun at the head of the rabbit who was counting the money. When he heard the sound of the door suddenly opening he rose from his chair and stared in bewilderment at the fox who was pointing the gun straight at him.
"Who...who are you?" Asked the rabbit raising his hands slowly upwards. The attacker's emerald eyes seemed familiar, as did his entire face, but he couldn't remember who it might have belonged to.
"It doesn't matter, what matters is what you did during the bank robbery...you hurt someone badly" growled Nick correcting the gun in his hand without stopping to aim at the hairy rabbit's head. Jack at first didn't understand what the fox was talking about, he didn't associate someone to hurt seriously, the robbery told him a lot but he didn't recall hurting anyone. His face spoke of not understanding what the fox was talking about.
"You shot someone don't you remember?" Nick asked.
Jack only now came to think of the shot at the female officer who had started to chase him and had almost succeeded in stopping him, but at the last moment just as she was beside him he drew his pistol and inflicted on her that one, sharp, successful shot for him which had enabled him to escape and complete the robbery successfully. Now he also associated Nick's face. It was the same fox that had tried to catch up with him when he had disposed of the policewoman, but had failed, being much slower than a rabbit. His badge on his chest confirmed his thoughts.
"Ah...now I remember...you were the one who chased me when I ran to the cart..." replied Jack dropping his hands slowly forward, but quickly raised them upwards as Nick took a step forward towards him.
"Do you know what state he's in?" Nick asked, to which Jack nodded negatively with a motion of his head.
"She's in a coma, almost dead. Perhaps she's already dead, just waiting for her time. I wanted to find you...to make you feel the same" Nick replied. He took another few steps towards Jack who, with nowhere to retreat to, leaned against the wall of the chamber hugging it. Nick's anger still lingered, he was confident, he had the target right in front of him, all he had to do was squeeze the trigger and it would be over, he would be dead, but he still wanted to wait...every second of this moment gave him a strange satisfaction
"Think what Judy would do... think what she would do in that situation..." Jack said between deep breaths.
"What, how do you know her name! Doesn't matter anyway...I only came here for one thing..." Replied Nick in surprise. How did he know her name?
"Judy is the only rabbit cop, everyone knows that. When she chased me, she didn't even pull out a gun, which anyone else would have done. She didn't want to hurt me."
"Why did you hurt her then!"
"I needed the money...don't kill me, I'll tell you all about it" replied Jack. Nick was faced with a difficult choice, should he kill Jack and take his revenge as he had planned or should he forgive him for the act he had committed and forfeit everything he had intended? After all, he hadn't risked so much to give up now. On the other hand Jack was right, Judy never meant to hurt anyone on purpose and that was something the fox knew and appreciated most. He didn't know what to do. His heart filled with rage said 'kill him', but reason said to act as if Judy had done it and hide the gun. Jack didn't even try to defend himself, he knew it wouldn't do any good, the fox was stronger. He turned his head so that the barrel was in front of the rabbit's temple. The fox couldn't make up his mind, he wanted to kill it, but he knew it would go against what Judy had done.
"Fuck..." Sighing heavily Nick lowered the gun to the floor. The sound of the gun hitting the metal floor startled Jack, who with the look on his face himself looked as if he couldn't believe Nick had done that. Nick himself stared sternly into the rabbit's eyes, which expressed many emotions at once: joy, surprise, agitation, hope.
"Thank you, thank you..."
"Don't thank me, I can still raise my weapon. Tell me what you needed that money for," replied Nick sternly.
"Yeah, yeah...but maybe let's get out of here eh? Bit of a weak place to talk" suggested Jack. Nick after a moment's thought nodded with a movement of his head sliding out of the way for the rabbit to pass. As he took a step forward the fox impulsively stepped on the gun beneath them drawing Jack's attention with the movement.
"Trust me, I don't want to hurt you."
"It's hard to trust someone who's already hurt someone" replied Nick walking behind Jack. They both walked out of the small room, going down the stairs, Nick's attention was caught by Jack's car being parked. An idea crossed his mind that Jack might try to take advantage of it, get in the car and drive away. To his surprise Jack didn't try to escape, he looked like he actually had pure intentions, but something told him to be alert and ready for action. They stopped at the threshold of the warehouse entrance. They leaned on either side against the concrete pillars of the entrance.
Around them there was complete silence. There were no sounds to disturb their conversation. The only place they stared at was the lamp, which, occasionally losing its glow, shone with a pale warm light.
"Three weeks ago my daughter, had a rather bad accident..." Jack began, drawing the attention of the fox, who was waiting for the rabbit to begin his tale.
"An accident?" Nick asked.
"Yes...a car from the opposite side of the road crossed into her lane causing a head-on incident. When my Emily, for that was my daughter's name, was pulled from the car she looked whole, she was just not conscious...
When she woke up in the hospital it looked like she came out unscathed...until she tried to get up..."
"What happened?" Nick asked.
"It turned out she had no feeling in her legs. She couldn't feel them. The doctors quickly decided on brain surgery, my wife and I hoping it would help agreed to it. When the operation was going on, not a single doctor came out of the room, which surprised us, usually someone always comes with information. The operation lasted 12 hours, most probably something went wrong because as soon as she was awakened there was something wrong with her..."
" What was that?"
"She didn't recognise me or my wife...she was getting confused sides, the feeling in her legs was only half restored..."
"Okay, but what does that have to do with the seizure?" Nick asked.
"When it turned out that another operation was needed, the insurance couldn't give the money, we had to pay ourselves, for the procedure, and we couldn't afford it...so we did a bank robbery..." Jack confessed. Nick didn't hide his surprise at the situation, in his life he wouldn't have expected the robber to turn out to be a desperate father!
"Who were those guys? You mean Dominic and James?"
"They're friends of mine. Dominic's been in prison before, he knows his stuff, and James when he heard about it wanted to make money. We decided to do it the three of us to make it easier. After the robbery, when I already had the money, I got a call from James who was visiting the hospital for me...it was too late..." Jack sighed lowering his ears down with his head. Fox could see the tears in his eyes despite the prevailing darkness, tears that were about to fall from his eyes in a moment.
"Did she..."
"She died, a brain haematoma. There was no saving her."
"Was your daughter laid up in Zootopia's central hospital, on the fifth floor?" Nick asked. Jack raised his head and looked at Nick in surprise.
"Yes... right there! How do you know?"
"In the same place, lies my friend Judy, the policewoman you shot" replied Nick.
"Ugh...sorry...I feel so stupid"
"You don't have to...it's me who's sorry, I didn't know that ..."
"That's okay, you're just doing your job. Back to Emily, once she died I shared the money with the guys and that's it..." Jack sighed. Nick was terribly dumbfounded by what he had heard, he hadn't expected that there could be such a story behind it. In any case, the fox was lost in his thoughts and didn't know what to say.
As they stood like that in silence, Nick came up with a rather original idea.
"You know, I think we can work things out...I have an idea..."
With this chapter I wanted to start the new year! Happy new year!