Chapter 14 Summary
Judy receives a Cotton wake up visit. Bonnie and Stu meet with the Bunny Burrow Sheriff. Later that night, their Doctor swings by to check up on Judy. Waking from a fevered dream, Judy has something she has to do, if she could only remember what it was.
10 Years earlier In Bunny Burrow
Judy slowly awoke to the eerie sound of silence. It was the weirdest thing; Mr Millpond wasn't howling, so either the orderlies got to him first thing this morning, or he was dead. Not that she would be so lucky.
The ever present fan hum was absent too. Usually the fans blew cold air all night long, through vents directly over her bed, keeping her room at a cool 70 degrees at all time. But the fans must have either shutdown, which can never happen because there where multiple redundant circuits to keep them running, or the electrical power must have been switched off, which wasn't likely either since Cliffside had it's own backup electrical generators powered by the river falls.
The other thing she noticed was a warmth bathing her face and ears. She blinked her eyes, and all she could see was a warm golden light flowing from a giant window. The light wasn't some cold, flickering florescent that would make everything look sterile and sickly at the same time. There really wasn't anything like this golden cascade in Cliffside. Nor was there a giant windows in her cell, just solid walls of concrete covered with peeling institutional beige paint.
This must be a dream, she thought. I'm dreaming something wonderful, and any minute I'll wake to the rapping of knuckles on my steel door. Please don't wake me, it's such a nice dream.
Speaking of her ears, something was tickling her left ear. It kept moving the same little patch of fur on her ear up and down, making her whole ear twitch. She opened her eyes further, and found she was laying on her right side, facing the window, and she was oh so warm. She just wanted to lay there, closing her eyes to bask these sensations and stay in the dream. Except for the tickling, damn it. That she could do without.
She rolled over to her left, away from the wonderful window light, to try to discover was irritating her so. The ticking sensation moved from her ear to her nose, as she came to rest facing the other way. It had to be a fly. Damn thing had snuck on in, and it was now stuck buzzing about in her room, and she knew that if she opened up her eyes to shoo it off, she'd wake up to her cold, stiff, bed at Cliffside. Couldn't she please just stay here a while longer? Damn fly.
Damn it, it was flicking her nose now. She waved her paw in front of her nose, but the flicking sensation came back, along the sound of soft, excited breathing. Fly's don't breath, do they? She opened her eyes, and focused blearily down the length of her short muzzle at the end of her nose.
Hovering just in front of her nose was a black blob that was waving a red ribbon at her. She blinked, trying got make her eyes focus better, and what she could make out was a pattern of dark scales, and two beady black eyes. What the hell was that?! That's not a fly! Judy's body trembled as she focused her eyes on the face of a giant ebony nightmare as it flicked it's forked tongue over her nose. Then it spoke to her.
"HI, AUNT JUDY!"
"SHRRRRRRIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!"
A scream echoed through out the Hopps family residence.
Bonnie raced down the hall from the breakfast table, followed by half of her descendants toward a terrible cry of absolute primal terror. Judy must have woken up, most likely out of another nightmare, and she was probably couldn't figure out where she was. Oh Dear, she was still having trouble last night accepting that all this wasn't a hallucination, and she must be so confused right now!
Bonnie skidded to a stop at the doorway and shocked by what she saw, she peered into the room on a most particular scene. Judy had backed herself up on the bed and into the room's corner, staring at her little nine year old niece , Cotton Hopps, who happened to be standing by the bed holding what appeared be a long black snake in her paws. It was as long a she was tall, and was coiled loosely along her arms and shoulders. She was excitedly talking to Judy, "It's okay, he's really friendly! He won't bite you. You can pet him, if you want."
Bonnie, aghast, demanded "COTTON HOPPS, what are you doing? What is that? Where did you get it?!"
Cotton turned around and greeted her with a big Cotton smile, "Hi Grandma! I was introducing Benjamin to Aunt Judy. He's my friend!"
Bonnie brought her paws to her muzzle, "What? That? Is it poisonous?" she screeched as she pointed at the snake.
Cotton frowned as she corrected her clearly ignorant Grandma, "Of course not! Benjamin is a ring neck snake, so he's only poisonous to newts and earthworms. I suppose of you shove your finger into his mouth, he might try to gum you to death." Cotton, squinting with concentration and her tongue in her teeth, tried to lever open Benjamin's jaws with a claw. The snake, however, wasn't having any of that and he squirmed out of her grip to drop to the floor. Seeing his escape route blocked, the snake chose the only other option available to him – hide! He quickly slithered under the quickest available hiding spot to him which was, completely coincidentally, just under Judy's bed.
As soon as he disappeared underneath it, Judy shot out of the bed corner and over to her mother's arms. Bonnie gripped her daughter, who shook like a leaf in a high wind. As she comforted her terrified daughter, Bonnie was struck at that moment by the irony of the situation. This was precisely the kind of behavior that used to get Judy in trouble when she was Cotton's age, although Judy tended to be more injury prone in her adventures. She shook her head, and shaking off the horror of the experience she turned around and guided her terrified daughter out through the masses of rabbits crowded around the door. As she passed her eldest son, she fixed an eye on the buck, "Manny, deal with your offspring, if you please!" To everybody else she raised her voice, "Back to the table and finish your breakfast, you lot! You all still have morning chores to do!" She shooed them all away.
Looking back into the room, Manny thought he would much rather hide under the bed with the snake than to try to deal with his crestfallen daughter.
Bonnie wiped her paws on her apron, contemplating the events of this morning. Thankfully, the rest of breakfast had been a tranquil affair. Bonnie had sat Judy down next to her, and offered her a breakfast of dried fruits and hay, but Judy just nibbled on a fruit slice. She begged off eating anything more, complaining that she felt a bit of nausea. After her experience this morning, Bonnie couldn't really fault Judy for that.
Manny, holding a squirming pillow sack in one paw and a contrite bunny kit in the other, had brought Cotton over to apologize to Judy. Judy had thanked her for the apology, and told her that while she thought snakes were cool too, she just didn't want to wake up to one. Since Manny was going to make Cotton let the poor snake go in the woods, and her niece looked so saddened by the prospect, Judy offered to go with them. Bonnie fixed her eye on Beth who quickly took the hint. Manny was going to have his paws full with a rambunctious kit and her pet snake, so Bonnie wanted Beth to be backup out there for Judy just in case something happened.
Bonnie watched them head out the yard, and down the path to the woods. Just in time too, since there was a white sedan driving down the lane. She looked over at her husband, still finishing his tea, and said, "Stu? He's here."
Looking up and then out the window, Stu squinted a moment and then just nodded. He stood up, setting his paper and tea cup aside, and joined his wife at the door. They walked out to the center of their driveway, quietly waiting for the Bunny Burrow Sheriff to arrive, apprehension etched on their faces.
The older steel gray buck, clad in a khaki uniform and a ten-pint hat, pulled the police cruiser up next to them and parked. He arrived alone and without backup, appearing introspective but calm to Bonnie. She breathed a sigh of relief. The Sheriff was pretty easy to read, as far as bunnies went, being an honest buck given to plain speech with an avid dislike for the politics that his position sometimes required of him. Had he arrived looking apprehensive and with a backup deputy, he would probably have come to arrest her daughter for escaping Cliffside. She tried to ease a pleasant smile onto her face as the uniformed buck got out.
"Sheriff Harvey," Stu announced by way of greeting, "What's the word?"
He tipped his hat at the two of them by way of greeting, "Stu, Bonnie, Morning"
He faced Stu and replied, "The word is a right mess, that's what it is, Stu. This Cliffside thing is all gone sideways, according to my contacts over at the ZPD. Apparently Cliffside has been shipping the last of their patients out willy-nilly all over the countryside, without any warning to their families or the local authorities. Judy's just one case among many in this regard. May I please see the letter that they sent with her?" he asked the two of them.
Bonnie reached into the pocket on the front of her apron, and pulled the letter out. She handed it over to the sheriff, who opened it to read. He pursed his lips as he read down, nodding as he went. "Yeah, this is basically what the ZPD said. As far as they're concerned, she finished the conditions of her sentence and was legally released." He folded the paper up and handed back to Bonnie.
"And how is the Bunny Burrow Sheriff's department concerned?" asked a nervous Stu.
Sheriff Harvey took a deep breath and replied, "Honestly Stu, I don't know what to think. But, if she keeps out of trouble, and nothing further comes out of this whole Cliffside mess, she's a free bunny as far as my department is concerned." He nodded in affirmation.
Bonnie and Stu shared a look of relief, as the Sheriff continued, "She is a felon though, so she can't be around firearms, especially considering the conditions of her conviction. If you have any, Stu, you best to be keeping them locked up."
Stu just shook his head, "I never replaced my pistol after the trial. I couldn't stomach the thought of one of my other kits getting a hold of it and doing something stupid. The only thing we have left is a break open pellet rifle for snakes and a few bb guns for the older kits. Is that a problem?"
"Nah, airguns are fine. It's just firearms that gets the federal prosecutors all in a tizzy. I'd rather not deal with them on this issue, if I can avoid it. Judy's gonna have enough problems as it is without local law enforcement breathing down her neck." Sheriff Harvey just shook his head.
"Problems?" Bonnie and Stu echoed each other, looking at each other in concern.
"Yeah, the standard crap that ex-cons have to deal with when they try to reintegrate into mammal society, especially those who spent time in mental institutions. Folks will avoid her, thinking she's gonna get crazy violent on them, or some mammals will take what she says all out of context and get all offended. Ya'll might want to have somebody go with her, at least until folks round here settle down, just to make sure she has somebody on her side during social interactions."
He turned to back his cruiser. He sat down, but before he shut the door he added, "If you folks have any problems with her being back, either with her or with other folks, you let me know, ok?"
Bonnie and Stu nodded together. The sheriff touched the brim of his hat in farewell, and drove off, leaving the two of them to watch.
"Oh, Stu. I don't know what to do. What are we going to do?" Bonnie asked her husband.
"I don't know either. Take it one day at a time; that's all I can think off. Don't know what else we can do, you know?" He gathered her in his arms, and held her fast, as much for his comfort as for hers.
The past nine years had be a nightmare for them and their daughter, and while Stu hoped and prayed that it was all going to be alright now, he was afraid.
Afraid that the nightmare could somehow get even worse.
Later that Night
Her parents stood in the doorway while Judy thrashed back and forth on the bed, moaning in time to her twitches, Bonnie and Stu feeling helpless as they watched their daughter suffer.
Stu turned to the older buck standing next to him and pleaded, "Isn't there something we can do for her, Doc?"
Doctor Hansel Hase, the Hopps family Doctor, just shook his head, "Not really. We could hospitalize her, but since we still don't know what they were giving her, she would still be going through withdrawl symptoms there too. It's been a few days since she got back, and most of what they had her on will have been flushed out by her body already. Trying to guess at which pharmaceutical to give her might end up just being worse that the withdrawal she's currently going through, especially since we don't know what dosage to give her. Are you sure she didn't have any instructions with her when you found her? Anything at all?" He asked them.
Bonnie frowned, "Just that letter in the envelope that you already read. And a little bag of white powder, which fell out of the envelope. I didn't know what it was, so I put it back in the envelope."
Hansel perked his ears up, "White powder? Can I see it, please?" He held out his paw to Bonnie expectantly.
She held up a paw, "Just a minute, I'll need to fetch it." She scampered down the hall to the bathroom, and disappeared within. They could hear her rummaging around in the room before she came back down the hall with a little plastic package in her paw. She handed it to Hansel.
"Thank you," he said as he took it from her. He held it up to the hall light, turning it over. Most of if was just white powder, but there were some detectable bits of color scattered through out the bag. Maybe enough for him to identify what the pills were? "Hum. At first glance, I don't know what this is. It might be a daily dosage, since there isn't a lot here, but I don't know off-paw what the drugs were. I'll have to have it tested at the Tri-Burrows Medical University tomorrow morning. They have a really good chem lab there."
"Tomorrow? What about tonight?" Stu wanted to know.
"As long as she isn't vomiting or having violent seizures, she'll survive this. It will be really unpleasant tonight, but she will pull through, I think. And once I get this tested, we will have some idea of what to give her for tomorrow night to help her sleep better." Hansel put his paw on Stu's shoulder and gave it a squeeze to reassure the worried buck.
Bonnie turned to Hansel, "What about Cliffside? Shouldn't they have records on her treatment?"
Hansel twitched his nose and responded, "I tried calling them earlier, but I got shunted to voicemail. You can try yourself, if you want to, Bonnie. They should release those records to you, being that you are her parents and next of kin." Bonnie nodded.
"But I don't know how accurate those records will be." Hansel pointed out to them, "According to the news, Cliffside got shut down because they were falsifying patient treatment plans as part of a medical fraud scheme. Drug treatments that they said they were applying to the patients that didn't actually happen for the most part. I warn you that what those records say they gave Judy and what they actually gave her might be two completely different things. I'd be very careful believing anything you might be able to get from them." Hansel cautioned Bonnie.
She nodded again, "Okay. What about tonight? Might there be any other symptoms that show up that we should be concerned about?"
Hansel thought about it a bit and then replied, "If it was psychotropic drugs that they had her on, like Thorazine, you can expect more of what you are seeing now. She might also be delusional, irrational, or prone to hallucinations like the one she thought she was experiencing on the first day back. If that happens, just treat her like she was sleepwalking – be gentle and try not to startle her. Best thing to do is just keep checking in on her through out the night, and let me know if she starts to do anything else, okay?"
They nodded, and turned back to watch their daughter trash in her bed.
Judy woke with a gasp, trembling as she sucked in a fevered breath. She'd been having such trouble sleeping the past couple of nights, and the lack of meaningful rest was really starting to eat at her sanity. Her insomnia was caused, she was sure, by these damn nightmares she kept having where nothing made any sense, like this last one that had been filled with flashes of howling beavers, disemboweled foxes eating pawsicles, and a cat playing pickup sticks with mammal bones in the nude. Thank God that was over. She breathed in deep. Wait a minute! As she lay there sweating in her bed, Judy knew that she was forgetting something really important, but she couldn't figure out for the life of her what it was. She was all done with high school, she had graduated from college, and now she needed to do something else, but what? If she didn't figure it out soon, Dad would make her work on the farm, and then she'd never get to Zootopia.
Zootopia. Zootopia? ZOOTOPIA! The ZPD! You forgot to fill out the ZPD application, you dumb bunny! How could she forget that! But, but... was there still time to make the deadline? Yes, yes, there was! She could do it online. Where's the computer?
Judy bolted out of bed and ran down the hall to the family office, clutching the blanket around her as she crashed down in the seat at the family computer. She touched the mouse, and the screen came on. Oh thank you, Dad. He always forgets to log out of the computer when he's done for the day.
She pulled the Firesocks browser, and tried to type in the address to the ZPD webside, but she couldn't remember it all. Gah! That was too hard, so she tried Zoogle instead. Except that she couldn't find the letter 'Z' to type in for ZPD. I just had it, damn it, I had it to type in the Zoogle address. Did it move? Cause I certainly can't find it now!
She tried looking at the keyboard with one eye, and then the other. Nope, nothing. What, there on the right side, on the bottom! There it was; it had turned on it's side. Sneaky little bastard, trying to hide from her in plain sight.
Alright, NPD, here I come! Wait, what? Narcissistic Personality Disorder? No, no, no! I don't want a psych evaluation, I want the ZPD! She hit the back button and got back to the Zoogle, and there she stopped in a panic. Wait, if she goes to the ZPD website now, will they see her back web history, she wondered? Better to be safe than sorry! She shutdown the Firesocks browser, and opened up the Concert browser instead. Ha! Now they won't thinks she needs a psych evaluation based on her search history! Whew!
Oh, there that key is, the little devil, it had been hiding by the left shift key! No wonder I couldn't find it! Having found the 'Z' key again, she looked up the ZPD. Employment, employment, employment…. Rookies? Wait, no, it's the Online Employment Application. There it is, I found it!
K'…
Full name: Judy Hopps L,
Are you a citizen of Zootopia: Uh, no she's a citizen of Bunny Burrow, so it's a no there.
Height: Short, She snorted a laugh. Wait, does that include her ears or not? She could never remember.
Weight: Never ask a gal that question! Oops! She had better backspace those snarky answers out, cause Chief Bogo doesn't like snark. She shouldn't shoot herself down before she even started, should she?
Type: was definitely prey, that she was sure of, even if some of the other questions were confusing.
Species: Eastern Cotton Tail cause she was gray and really didn't look like Daddy.
Position applying for: Police Officer Well, duh! She didn't want to be a 'correctional' guard, cause she would have to work for Swinton, that stupid sow! And that Parking Duty sucked bunny butt, it really did!
Describe any special abilities: She could run fast, and scamper really well. Her hearing was excellent. And she was good at drawing, cause Dr Wiedii says so.
Was she ever arrested, yada yah, etc, or plead guilty to a crime, so on and so forth: Nope! She's always been careful to be a good and pious bunny! She really has, honest!
Although it was a bit of a struggle, she managed to fill out the rest of the online form, and clicked on the send button. Whew. Now she could go back to bed and sleep easier knowing that her life was going the way it was supposed to be.