Chapter Eighty-Four
Remission

A lifeless figure lay motionless upon the dull-white sheets of a bed. The figure itself looked as though it was sleeping, although, in truth, it was something much more like death. The tubes and bandages and beeps and hisses of the breathing apparatus was a strong indication of the thinness of the knife upon which the 'sleeping' rabbit walked.

The door swung in on this dull-gray room, and two other figures appeared outside—their figures backlit-bright by the sterilized-white corridors outside. One of them released a long, uneasy sigh. "What're his chances?" The femammle didn't respond, just turned and observed with impassive, sharp-blue eyes.

Bogo paced in, slowing to a stop beside the jackrabbit's bed, his expression grim, his stance heavily afflicted by his surfacing anxiety. "What's his condition?"

"Large but shallow cuts across the chest; lower back damage; heavy respiratory damage; burns on the paws; multiple facial cuts; strangulation leading to acute oxygen deficiency to the brain; possible brain damage as a result; dislocated leg; serious blood-loss and hypovolemic shock.

"Damn."

"We've put him in a coma. It's about the best chance he's got."

"Can he hear us?"

Flo shrugged, just a little. "It depends. There's no way of telling for sure. Some patients can hear things. Other patients either can't hear at all or don't remember once they wake. It's like trying to remember a dream. By what I can tell: it can be vague, vivid, random and logicless, or as close to reality as real life. We'll only know once he wakes. If he wakes."

Bogo nodded, his mind running thick with uncertainty. "Is there anything I can—"

"Nothing. It's a waiting game now. I'll do what I can, but... well, it's all in the paws of the dice now." Flo crossed her paws delicately across her chest. "Would you like me to leave the two of you alone?"

"No, erh— I've gotta get back to the HQ. There's a couple of vans from Blackheath coming, I need to oversee the transfer."

"What will you do about the deceased convict from the raid?"

"Hope no one asks too many questions."

"They will."

"I know," he huffed, "I know. Take care of Wilde for me. Keep an eye on him, will you?"

"As often as I can."

...

A hot zip of searing red pain rocketed up the back of Judy's spine. The rabbit's face contorted and she tried to sit up in impulse, her eyes shooting open with a jolt. She gritted her teeth and made a terrible sound, with the back of her neck, as the movement caused a dull sensation of muted agony all across her limbs, leaving her fingers and toes tingling with incandescent heat. She pushed herself flat-hard against the mattress of the bed to try and subdue the pain, her face contorted, tight; her eyes closed; her teeth exposed behind a repugnant grimace.

The fox beside her awoke with a start, his heart pounding in his chest with sudden fear at the rabbit's outcry, his eyes wide, panicking at the rabbit as she pushed herself flat against the mattress, sitting up hurriedly once his body had caught up with his mind, and moving his paws out towards the precious rabbit.

"Judy-Judy-Judy," he quickly hissed, "you're okay, it's okay, you're gonna be fine." Hopps managed to make one eye open slowly as Nick's paw gently stroked the side of her cheek, the other eye still closed tight in the afterburn of misery. "Hey, bun-bun," he breathed, his voice a whisper. "Hey, Jules. You in there?"

The rabbit licked her dry, dry lips. "Eyh—euh. Course I'm here." The act of speaking seemed to exhaust the rabbit, and her eyelids drifted down, until they were almost closed again, and her breathing deepened to slow, deep breaths.

"How... well," he sighed understandingly. "I guess 'how are you feeling' is a dumb question to ask, but... how're you feeling?"

"Like… d-drugged. B-blurry, vague." She lay and considered for a short while. "I'm in… hospital?"

"Yeah. Yeah, Carrots, you had a..." his chest tightening, the fox's words failed him, a hotness prickling in the corners of his eyes. "You— it was—"

"Nick, could... think you could help… me sit up?"

"Of course, hon, of course I'll help. I'll give you as much help as you need to get better." The fox reached out gently and put a supporting paw on the rabbit's back, allowing her to hold onto his free paw and push herself against it. Pulling herself slowly higher on the bed, her face showed obvious signs of discomfort, but she endured the pain, with the fox's help, and got herself up into a more comfortable position.

"So," she began carefully, her voice dry and rasped. She paused for a long moment and just breathed slowly, staring out at the far wall. "What… what happened?"

"You remember anything?"

"There was... Jack, I was at the café with Jack… You were breaking— Fin… out of his cell? We..." her eyes closing, the rabbit tried to focus on the previous night's activities. "There was... concrete, damp, cold, salt... Was chased… blood… Jack was… blood... and there was... there... was—"

Her eyes widened. An image leaped into the rabbit's mind—a sharp flash of snarling white, which appeared like a lightning crack. She reacted like she'd been whipped, her breath gasping and her whole body jerking with shock, as she pulled herself back from those memories. Nick quickly got close to and around her, his soft warmth and familiar scent helping sooth the sudden image of horror that had vividly entered her.

The fox's voice became a string of delicate hushes, his hug becoming a little tighter around her as she panted in shock and consternation-primal, his tail resting bushily on her body, while his paws moved lovingly around her head. Judy whimpered as she held her head against the fox's shoulder. "What happened?" she muttered into his ear. "What happened to me?"

The fox sat quiet for a time, just breathing Judy's earthly scent. He grunted to himself, frustration bubbling. He wanted to tell her that there was an accident, be as vague about all other details, but his promise to her to tell the truth, it stung him hot in his mind. "I... I'll tell you about it later, Carrots. Just rest for now, just rest."

Judy considered this slowly. "Then… what's wrong… with me?"

"It's ughm, well..." Nick drew himself back and gazed softly at the rabbit, whose head was bandaged all around, with her ears sticking out of the top. "You're going to be okay, Judy. That's all that matters."

"Jack?"

"He's here, he's in the hospital too."

Judy's expression held for a longer period, but then she closed her eyes, exhaustion written all across her face, and rubbed at her closed lids with her unbroken paw. "He... he was injured, badly, wasn't he? Killed, nearly? There was... there was a—a group of them, and… a boat. We had to..."

Nick looked on sadly, his expression falling further and further. He wanted to stop Judy, stop her from thinking about that night and keep her from remembering what had passed. But at the same time, within the repository of her mind, those reaches of aspiration and zeal that had transpired between them both, the moments shared together in heat and cold, in tiredness and gloom, in affection and warmth, in closeness and understanding… in need… Those were the moments that kept him moving forward, those were the key points that had made him forsake the pain of the past and had given him sight to the future ahead.

He knew the darkness. He knew what it felt like. It wasn't a good thing to go through—not a nice place to be in—but he knew, through all that, it had made him stronger in the end. If she was to be robbed of all that, how was she to develop as a person? How was she to grow, mature, if not by experiencing these things? Who was he to say that she was too innocent, too young, too weak to have these memories?

It would've been speciest. The same speciesism both he and she detested and fought against all their lives. She wasn't the innocent, naive little bunny she was when they met, after all.

"I remember... I remember a big, white wolf… with these teeth and, an— these eyes that..." Her expression clearing, Judy turned at the fox. Nick saw her lip starting to wobble and pushed himself closer against her as her breaths turned deep. "H-he, he tried to— r-rh—ra—"

"Judy, Judy, shh. I know, Judy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I wasn't there, I should've been, I should've stayed with you, I knew you were in danger, I knew someone was after you. It was Finnick who... no. No, I stayed back and tried to save myself when I should've been there with you." Nick sighed bitterly, biting his tongue from saying more—this wasn't what Judy should be listening to, not in her condition. His voice trailed off to silence and the two of them sat quietly for a few, slow minutes, the room quiet and the air perfectly still.

"He was savage," Judy blurted out of nowhere.

Nick looked up, his eyes opening and gazing down upon the rabbit—her expression distant, her eyes straining to stay open. "Savage?"

Hopps nodded. "His eyes. Slit."

"I saw, Judy... yeah, I saw."

Her straining eyes opened with surprise. "You saw it?"

"Briefly. I was the first on the scene. First one to arrive at the harbor… and, I was just going inside the, guh... inside where I found you, and this wolf jumped out. Overpowered me instantly. Damn massive thing! Like no wolf I've seen before. Probably could've beaten Bogo in an arm wrestle."

"What happened?"

"I... I don't know," Nick said, impassively. "His teeth bore down on over me, he looked right into my eyes… And then, he was just... gone. It wasn't the police who frightened him away, all he would've needed was a split second, and I would've been straight-up dead. It was strange. It was like… like I startled him with how I looked. He would've killed me without thinking, but when his gaze lingered on me, just..."

A long moment of nothingness passed. Behind them, the door slowly swung open and the figure of Chief Bogo came into view. Judy didn't notice him, but Nick glanced over his shoulder and nodded a little—the Chief waiting silently from the doorway.

"Nick," Judy whimpered weakly.

"Yes, Judy?"

"That ship, that's why we were there, wasn't it? Me and Jack, I mean."

"Yeah. Yeah, it was."

"You catch them?"

"Don't worry, Carrots. Don't worry about the—"

"I want to know," she pushed with weakness, yet in obscured zeal, "I want to know… was it worth it?"

"They got 'em, Hopps. Don't you worry."

Despite everything, the thin crack of a smile appeared on the rabbit's face as her expression started to clear and her breathing slowed. "That's good," she breathed. "Jack's tracking device worked then."

"The what?" Nick tried to find out if she were imagining things or was saying something none of them knew.

Judy pulled her eyes open just a tiny fraction once again, and noticed Nick's lowered ear against his head, while the other was raised in surprise. "He had a gun in the back of his van. We were there, there to shoot it at the boat. But, now that I come to... I'm not sure it was even— Heh, gave that wolf a nasty shock, at least."

"The wolf? What'd you mean, Carrots? Hopps?" The rabbit's head came to rest softly against the white pillow, her expression becoming calm, untroubled almost. Wilde slowly withdrew his arms away from around the rabbit's body, and then he stood and rushed over to where the Chief waited against the wall.

"How is she?" Bogo asked quietly.

"She, huh..." Nick sighed with a glance at his lover. "I don't know, Chief. She's still in there, she's still Judy… even got a smile out of her when I told her those gang members had been caught— but, well, with what she's been through..."

"We both know what it's like, Wilde, to live through horror. There were many reasons why I didn't want this rabbit to become an officer. One of them was because I knew that, sooner or later, some criminal was going to try and... anyway. She has strength. She still surpasses my expectations from time to time. She'll pull through, I'm sure of it."

"Chief, she mentioned something about some tracking device, something Jack had."

"I am... aware, that he keeps a small selection of specialist equipment in his car, yes."

"If you've got any way of finding out where it is, it might be worth a look."

"What've you found?"

"Don't know, yet, but... she mentioned something about getting the wolf with it. The one who attacked us?"

"Curious," Bogo said, simply. "Its usual design is to be attached to the side of cars or other such vehicles, but... I'll look into it."

"Can I hel—"

"No! You're staying here, Wilde. You're looking after Hopps."

"I want to help, I want to get back at whoever's behind this!"

"Wilde, I… I'll keep you informed. That's all I'm prepared to do at this time. I need to get back to HQ and facilitate the transport and… and I'll, ughm..." Bogo glanced both ways, up and down the corridor outside. "I'll make sure a certain fennec slips through the net."

Reacting as though stunned, Nick's eyes shot wide. "You'll— what?" Bogo's face remained stony and impassive. "Bu— but how?"

"I'm the Chief, Wilde, the Chief. I'll find a way. The Murder Investigation Bureau will be contacting me with their report, soon. I'll go through the evidence and the findings, look into the tracking device and see if that leads anywhere, and come back here to let you know what's been found." Bogo dusted off his sleeve and glowered at Nick with cold command. "In the meantime, Wilde. You will not leave this building! You will not leave this room, except to use the lavatory!"

"What?"

"There're still some serious questions I need to ask you; things you need to answer. I trust you, Wilde," he added, his voice softening, "but you must make my trust in you justified; you must be honest with me: about Scarlett, about The Firm. I'll see you later, Wilde." He looked over the fox's shoulder and nodded towards where Judy rested. "I know you'll be here."

The door swung shut smoothly, and the russet-furred fox remained gazing up at the large spot of white-painted wood. He turned slowly to the rabbit behind him, looked up at the door, looked back... and walked slowly, evenly back to Judy's bedside.

Author's notes:

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