Where We Came From

Nick was not expecting Judy to be in his temporary room when he woke up. Usually he was a light sleeper, so he was quite surprised when she appeared next to his bed when he first woke up.

"Nick-" Judy didn't get to finish

"I told them no visitors." He presses the 'call nurse' button.

"Well I'm not a visitor, I'm your roomie for the time being." She gestured toward her stuff that had been set up in the bed next to his.

"Besides we need to-"

"No we don't" he presses it again.

"If you would just-"

"Just what, hm? Listen to you defend yourself? Or is it that you want me to give you more?" His eyes seem to glow from the fire behind them. "I may not remember what happened. But I know that I must of forgiven you, why else would I be with you. And what is the first thing that happens to me? I end up out of commission for three weeks. Do you think that I don't have responsibilities or things that require my attention? Or do you think that all I do is hustle money from poor, hard working mammals." Nick growls

Judy eyes mist over with unshed tears, but she refuses to let them fall "Nick… nothing I do can make up for the time that was taken from you. I know that I owe you a debt that cannot be paid and I hope with all my heart that nothing was ruined because of me." She places her paw on his arm.

The Fox is silent. He doesn't move it.

The nurse enters the room with a soft knock "Is there something you need, sir?" She could practically see the tension saturating the air.

"Yes, I seem to be missing some of my belongings."

"I'm sorry sir, but most of the belongings on you when you arrived has been placed in evidence. Anything else that wasn't found is either lost or destroyed."

His head hangs and he sighs "Of course. Is there a land line I could use?"

"Yes sir, right this way."

"Nick-"

"I'll be back, we can talk then."

The phone is actually right outside the door at the nurse's station.

Judy can't see him but her hearing is good enough to listen to Nick with little difficulty. If Nick knew just how good Rabbit ears are, he would've closed the door all the way. Not that it would actually stop her from hearing. She could hear his claws tap against the number keys. He waits for whoever he called to answer, which don't take very long.

"Hey Ashe? Yeah it's me, I jus-" he stops talking

Judy however cannot hear the other voice that is speaking to Nick other than it's feminine, and it's mad.

"No! It's not like that and you know it."

"…"

"I'm in a temporary hospital at the police station in City Center… No I wasn't arrested… I don't remember everything but I know the gist of it… Could you put her on the phone now?... No I don't have my phone anymore… Fine, I'll see you later."

Who did he call? The uncertainty eats away at Judy. Was it a girlfriend? Or a Mate?

Nick enters the room. He doesn't think much of the worried gaze that follows him. "Do you remember what happened?"

"No I don't, my parents gave me a basic rundown of what happened. Somehow we found why the predators went savage, the Night Howlers are actually toxic flowers that was brewed into a serum. We found where it was being made and destroyed it. Afterwards we found out that Dawn was the mastermind, and got a recording of her confessing to what she did. But she infected both of us before help could do anything ourselves."

"Oh, is that all?"

She shook her head "No, there's more but they haven't told me. They said that it would be better if both of us were present."

"Well where are they now?."

"There is a couple of things that they need to get, but they wouldn't tell me what it is though."

Nick is fighting himself. During this entire discussion, he has been slowly warning back up to her. But he can't.

She needs to know that her actions have consequences. And those consequences affect not just her, he thought that she already figured that out.

He just wants to hold her and say 'I forgive you.'

He knows that she feels guilty, and that's good. She'll think about how her actions more carefully from now on. Because life usually doesn't give second chances, let alone three.

And it hurt knowing that he would be the one to teach her this lesson.

He plans on forgiving her, he is incapable of staying mad at her. When she looked at him with watery eyes, droopy ears, and a quivering nose.. he thought that would be illegal to say no to that face.

It was hard to do something that could make her cry.

"Can we talk later? I need some time to myself right now."

Judy nods, hope plants a seed in her heart. He still is willing to talk. As long as she can be his friend, she'll be happy. For as long as she can be before she needs more and ruins this.

For the next few hours Judy watches TV as Nick naps. The volume was low enough to keep from disturbing him, and it was all thanks to her exceptional hearing. He had closed the privacy curtain and hadn't come out since.

A knock at the door alerts Judy to a visitor. Guess he told them that someone was coming, otherwise they wouldn't let them in.

A Gray Fox vixen peeks her head in "Excuse me? Is this Nick's room?"

Judy nods her head "Yes it is, but he's napping right now." she keeps her voice down, but it's not a whisper.

The vixens' ear flicks in annoyance and her eyes narrow. She opens the door all the way and holds the door open.

Judys' heart breaks.

An older Red Fox vixen, whose muzzle fur started to gray and is in wheelchair, rolls her way in and parks herself in front of Judy's bed.

The gray vixen points to the curtain "Behind this?" At Judy's nod, she throws the curtains wide open.

Judy sees Nick laying on his side with his knees tucked in, resting his head on his forepaws, and tail curled around him.

She wonders what it's like to use that tail as a blanket.

The red vixen moves herself to his bed, and Judy sees her tail being carried in a bag. She moves her paw away from the wheel to scratch his scalp.

"Oh Nicky." Her voice was soft and full of relief.

The gray vixens' ear flicked in annoyance.

Judy watches them and they notice, but they don't acknowledge her.

Nick eventually opens his eyes.

He winces and his ears drop "Oh. Hi Mom."

Judy gets up and moves to the door, when she leaves she makes sure to close the door.

She can't leave the ward, the stairs going up to the main floor is guarded and the glass doors at the bottom are now locked. But that doesn't mean she can't walk around. There were chairs and a table set up for the patients that were a bit more restless.

She hears claws on laminate. She turns toward that should and sees the gray vixen come out of the room and make her way to a empty seat.

She decided to introduce herself so she packed the vixen and stuck out her paw "Hi, I'm Judy."

She is hesitant to grab it "Ashe."

"So you were the one that Nick called earlier. Seemed like you gave him heck earlier."

Ashe snorts "That's cute."

Judy immediately responds "You can't call a bunny cute."

A smirk all too familiar makes it's way onto her muzzle "I didn't call you cute, now did I? I called your refusal of swearing cute."

Judy frowns. Were all Foxes like this?

"Yes."

"Huh?"

"You were thinking 'Are all Foxes assholes' and I answered yes."

"Actually, I was comparing you and Nick."

The vixen cringed "Please don't."

They both had stopped talking. What now?

Pawsteps grab Judys' attention. She sees Uncle Terry and Chief Bogo. She wasn't expecting them to be this quick.

"Where is Mr. Wilde?" Judy rememberers the tone from Chief Bogo when he last spoke to her in Bellweather's office.

She points to the door "He's in the room with his Mother."

"We can come back later, we didn't have much time but Mrs. Felicity wanted to stop by anyways." Ashe moves toward the room before anything could be said.

"Liss, remember that we have to go to Luna's for dinner. She's expecting us to bring dessert."

The older vixens' ears perk "I completely forgot! Sorry Nicky, but we already had plans. We'll come back tomorrow."

Bogo waits until they leave until he addressed them "I don't know how to say this gently, so I'll say this bluntly. We arrived just as Mr. Wilde was shot, you had already been exposed."

He turns to Nick "You used your last moment of sanity to give us the recording of Bellweathers' confession. You two managed to not kill each other, but instead work together. We lost track of you two for six days where we found the to of you in the Silverpaw Reservation. And since then you have been here. The… state that you were found in, is something that is of a sensitive nature."

Nick narrowed his eyes "And what was the state that we were in?"

Just like ripping off a bandaid "You two were Mating. The Ranger who had to pull the two of you out of your den was quite upset."

More like superglue.

Nick and Judy stiffened up. That was quite a shock to just drop on them. Not like getting drunk then rutting something but more like getting drunk, rutting, and then waking up when the other mammal already left.

The inside of Judys' ears were just a red as Nicks fur and if one were to look closely, a bit of red showed through her fur. Her nose was twitching furiously, she got to be Nick's Mate and she didn't even remember it.

Nick was speechless. This seemed like something from an old action movie: the handsome protagonist goes through this dangerous adventure, gets in a fight with his love interest, makes up with his love interest, goes on another dangerous adventure, he beats the bad male (bad female technically) and he got the female, but he doesn't get to keep the memory.

Actually that sounds like a great movie, and it gets to say 'based on a true story'.

Then they realize who they are sitting next to. Their hearts begin to beat like thunder. Judy thinks she can hear his, but her own is too loud to make sure.

Their eyes flick to the other, and then flick back forward when their eyes meet.

Bogo clears his throat "I will be taking my leave, Dr. Hopps will remain within the vicinity for a while so if you need anything, go to him." He wastes no time escaping the room.

Terry leaves with him as he tells them "I will be checking on the other patients and will be making rounds, I'll be back later if you want to ask me anything."

Nick stops him before he can go "Wait, if that's true how come I don't smell my mark on her?"

Judys' ears shoot up. That's right, if they had… 'done it', then she would have his mark on her, but she hasn't noticed a single thing different about her scent.

"You two just spent thirteen days in a confined space with no one else in there for more than a couple of minutes. You two have just gone nose blind to each other. I can tell you right now that Judy smells exactly like you."

Judy is too busy staring off into space that she doesn't notice that Nicks' tail started to sway back and forth, and Nick doesn't notice because other than deliberate actions, most of what his tail does isn't really a conscious action.

They don't notice, but Terence does. He doesn't fight back a smile that forms. Looks like Bonnie doesn't have to worry about a thing. This time he leaves uninterrupted.

Nick and Judy don't say anything. Judy turns her gaze toward Nick, and sees conflict in his eyes. Her eyes drift toward the moving tail and her heart hammers away when she saw the wag.

Does he? Can he actually?

"Judy." She misses the nicknames. It just seems more personal.

Her eyes snap back up to look at him. His head is down and his paws clenching his knees.

"I'm sorry for what I have done."

Judy has to take a deep breath to utter the words that come next. This is it. This can make or break her future relationship with the todd.

"I'm not."

His eyes widen and his head snaps up. Those emerald eyes that she finds to be her favorite color now stares at her. His eyes lock with hers and he opens his mouth

"Huh?"