SKYEHOPPS Alert!
Judy goes to a photo shoot with Tony for a very special client: Skye Cycles! While she there, she meets a very special arctic fox, and extends her an invitation for a date. They go ridding, and experience a very magical moment together. A month later, Judy drops by for some dancing, and learns the fox's real name. Two months after that, Judy has very bad dream, and she finds her vixen is far more understanding than she ever realized.
And now for some SkyeHopps! action! Woot! Woot!
Also, a warning. As you all know by now, I am writing a hard-boiled emotional thiller. It doesn't pull an punches, and there are some dozies in this one. Judy will be experiencing nightmares and flashbacks from Cliffside in this, and this will give her and Skye a chance for a heart-to-heart. If you are triggered by childhood trauma issues, please be warned. There is some heavy duty emotional damage being dealt with here.
Originally this was going to be a light and fluffy chapter, filled with drunken debauchery and lesbian injokes. But as Skye's character evolved, and my research into the history of the Inuit that she is based on continued, that began to change. There arose a possibility for something deeper here that I hadn't considered before, an actual connection between the two females. Not as a joke, but as a real dynamic. And this had a profound effect on the way I was writing this chapter, and indeed the story as a whole. So I ran with it. And the story began to grow, and now I'm over 9100 words so far, and only halfway done with telling this one chapter. I'm going to do something radical, and that is to break this chapter into two back-to-back flashback chapters.
Please forgive me.
Flashback: 9 Years ago in Gateway Bay City
It was a quiet foggy evening at Dee's Kitchen. The city had grown still as the ocean clouds had rolled in at sundown, and the number of customer's at Dee's had dwindled to just a pair of nocturnal kinkajou construction workers, clad in safety vests and hard hats, sitting at the counter eagerly awaiting their breakfast. Judy placed their orders in front of them, a pair of fruit salads, and topped off their iced teas. She flirted with them as a matter of course, since she was a social bunny, but they were anxious to eat and get on to their work, so she left them be with a smile.
She moved down the gray formica counter, wiping it down with a damp cloth. She paused for a moment to watch the fog tumble and roll down a nearly empty Loch Ness Street, the waves of faded combers lit ghostly white by the streetlamps. A sprinkle of disparate mammals hurried past the windows; workers headed home after a long day's work or to the corner pub for a pint to ward off the evening's chill.
A low rumble penetrated the gloom, and she turned her ears slightly to the left to listen as it approached. A single headlamp pierced the street's gloom to shine in through the glass. She couldn't see the motorcycle itself, as it drew up behind the newspaper dispensers that crowded along the curb next to the iron street lamp post, but she could see the slim vulpine form of the feminine rider. She was clad in a black alligator leather jacket and wore a forest green scarf wrapped around her throat to keep out the damp evening air.
She sat behind the newspaper boxes for a moment, before reaching forward and silencing the rumbling beast with a touch. Her torso rocked to the side, and she slid off the seat to stand along side her steed. Pulling off her half gloves, she walked around the street lamp and fully into Judy's view. She paused for a moment, as she reached for the straps under her helmet. Judy took that opportunity to admire her muscular form under the black chaps that sheathed her legs, and the long lustrous white tail that was wound around her waist. The rider looked up as she was pulling on her helmet straps, and saw Judy looking back at her through the plate glass window. She let go of the straps to wave a white paw at her, and reached the other down to unclip her tail, which unfurled around her waist like a fuzzy caterpillar dancing on a leaf, before shaking itself out to lay down those legs. Oh, those legs.
Judy had hoped she hadn't been too forward at yesterday's photo shoot with her invitation to the white fox. She thought she was reading the vixen's signals right, but it had been so long since she had done this particular dance with another female that she wasn't sure. She had gently hinted that a visit from the snowy female would be welcomed the next day at the end of her shift, especially if it involved the offer of a motorcycle ride. If she showed up, Judy would know that she was interested, and if she didn't, well, Judy would have just gone home and eaten a pint of blueberry sherbet to console her crush.
It looked like the sherbet would have to wait.
[DING, DING…]
The door bells chimed as the biker walked in. She paused for a moment to finally pull off her helmet, shaking her head in relief, before taking her gloves and tucking them in her helmet. She raked a paw through her head fur, and flicked her ears, before she looked back up and caught Judy's eye. Judy smiled, and gestured to the bar stool in front of her. The vixen took her up on her offer, and sat down, setting her helmet on the counter next to her. Judy cocked her head, and took a moment to consider the arctic fox in front of her.
When she had gone with Tony to yesterday's shoot, all he had told her was the client was a fox who owned a custom motorcycle shop by the name of Skye Cycles, and that he was going to shoot promos with Judy for some of their latest creations. What he failed to mention was the fox was a vixen, an arctic fox vixen at that. She was adorable, Judy had thought, especially since she had been all awkward around Judy. She had stuck her paw out to Judy like her arm was a stick, and introduced herself as 'Skye d'Hiver', which was a pretty name for a pretty vixen as far as Judy was concerned. She had explained to them both that she was trying to break into the smaller mammal market with her custom electric motorcycles, which were more easily scalable than a custom gas chopper, and that they allowed the owners to avoid the heavy taxes that the Golden State enforced on gas motorcycles.
That reasoning for the photos was all cut and dry, as far Judy could see, but as Tony set up the lights and reflectors, she had tried to engage the awkward Skye in small talk. She had been confused with why the fox was so out of sorts at first, but as she watched Skye interact with Tony in setting up the shots, she progressively realized that Skye's awkwardness was reserved strictly for her.
It was later, when they were actually taking the shots, that Judy finally realized why. She had been trying to help Skye actually pose on her own bike, and had been in the process of posing Skye's arms when she was struck by a change in the vixen's scent every time she touched her. It was at that point that Judy's gaydar started twitching in time with her nose; it was Judy herself that was causing these reactions in the vixen. That realization had finally lead to Judy's invitation to Skye at the end of the shoot. It had been a risk to make the overture, but apparently a risk well spent.
She turned to the seated fox with the offer of a beverage, "Welcome to Dee's Kitchen, Miss d'Hiver. Would you care for some hot tea?"
"Yes, please." Skye bobbed her head up and down.
Judy set a saucer and a cup down with practiced easy, dropped in a teabag of chamomile, and with a smooth motion poured in the hot water. "Will you be needing a menu, to consider your options for the evening?" Judy put the pot back, and picked up a menu, "Our special tonight is the tuna fish sandwich, which I have on good authority is excellent, even through I've never tasted it." As she was speaking to Skye, she heard snickering coming from down the counter.
She put one paw down on the counter, put the other paw with the menu on her cocked hip, and turned to face the two jokers down the counter with a scowl. The two kinkajous were trying to hide their laughter behind their paws. What had set those two off? She wondered. She glanced over Skye, who had sudden gotten bashful, a red tint showing through the ivory fur on her ears. Judy took a quick sniff, and realized that she could smell the arousal in Skye quite easily. She turned back to frown at the construction workers, "Ignore the two fruit eaters at the end of the counter, Skye. They're a pair of perverts, they are!" They mimed being stricken by her words, one even put his paws over heart and leaning back like he had been shot.
She turned her attention back to the fox, holding out the menu. Skye smiled as she spoke up, "The tuna fish sounds just fine, thank you. No fries, though, please."
Judy stood back up, and put the menu away. "Roger, that! One tuna fish sandwich coming right up." She sauntered down behind the counter to the computer to enter in the order, completely conscious of Skye's gaze on her rump. She stopped in front of the kinkajous, and with a frown pointed two fingers at her eyes, and turned those two fingers to point at the two laughing honey bears. That just made them laugh even harder.
Her duty completed with Skye's order entered, she wandered back to flirt with the vixen. By the time that the tuna sandwich was ready, the two construction workers had finished up and left, leaving money on the counter to cover their breakfast. Judy knew that they wouldn't try to stiff her, not if they knew what was good for them, but she didn't know what kind of tip they would leave. Apparently, a very good one. Good. Now she didn't need to spike their tea next time with laxatives.
[DING, DING…]
Judy looked up as the door rang. Was it customers? Judy wondered. Actually, it was just the night waitress, Ayan the aardwolf, coming in for her shift. That meant Judy could clock out, and maybe see where this ride with the vixen took her. As she ran to the back room to change, she considered what her course of action should be.
Am I doing the right thing here? She wondered as she took off her uniform. Skye's definitely interested, and while I could hold out in the long run for Nick, why would I do that? Could I even find him and try to seduce him? That wouldn't be fair to him, since he's got Miki, and a promising career at the ZPD. He couldn't be a cop and date me. Plus he doesn't know me here and now. It took us months and months, and a major criminal crisis, for us to even grow close enough for him to admit that he loved me. And now he's 3000 miles away. I'm sorry, Nick. I want you, but we can't be together here in this life, and I won't destroy you just so that I don't have to be alone anymore.
As she put on what she like to call her fog outfit, heavy jeans, a tee-shirt, and a heavy jean jacket, she pondered that last thought. Is that why I'm doing this, just so I don't have to be alone? Is that really fair to Skye? How fair is it to dump a crazy bunny like me on her lap and expect her to cope? I only had the one girlfriend in High School, and we kissed a few times, but we weren't ever really serious. I really don't know all that much about how to be a lesbian. I know that they tend move faster getting into their relationships than heteros do, so what happens if we get too close too fast? I don't want to break her heart because I can't commit. Maybe I just want something light, a few dates, some cuddling, but no real commitment.
She finished dressing, and stared at the mirror. Gahhh! I have no idea what I'm doing! She took a deep breath, One thing a time, Judy! Flirt, then take a ride, and then see what Skye wants, and see whether or not you can accommodate that. Don't get ahead of yourself here.
She strode out of the back room, seeking answers to those questions.
Judy hung on for dear life, not because Skye was going all that fast in the fog, but because the wet made her leather jacket slick. Judy shoved her paws deep in the pockets on Skye's jacket, her cheek on the vixen's spine. She had asked the fox where they were going, but Skye's only reply had been 'some place magical'. They had left the city behind and for the past few minutes they had been climbing up the side of the mountain. Judy was conscious of only the wet of the fog, and the steepness of the road as they climbed. She just hoped Skye didn't run off the road.
They broke through the clouds near the top of the mountain. One minute they were in swirling grayness, and the next thing Judy knew was that they were bathed in starlight. She looked around in wonder, as the fog rolled past the mountain sides below them. It blanketed the city like multi-hued cotton candy, blurring the city lights together into patches of glowing fog. A full moon had rising the hour before, and it illuminated the mountain top in an otherworldly gray light, like they were on top of a moon, staring out over seas of billowing ammonia.
Sky pulled up to a park bench next to the road, and parked the bike. She waited until Judy hopped off before unmounting herself. She pulled off her helmet, and took off her wet jacket, shaking off the water, before draping it over the handle bars to dry. She turned back to watch Judy drink in the view like a kit who's just seen snow for the first time, "Like what you see, Jessica?" She asked the rabbit.
"Oh Skye, it's beautiful!" Judy exclaimed, as she unfastened her own helmet and passed it back to Skye, who secured in a saddle bag. "I knew the fog covered the city, but I never knew that it looked like this!"
Skye smiled, pleased that her idea had been met with such joy. She reached into the other saddle bag, and pulled out a large flannel blanket. She shook it out, and draped it over the park bench. Walking around the bench, she sat down on one end of the blanket. She didn't quite know how she was going to finagle the rabbit in sitting down next to her, but it turned out she didn't even need to worry.
Judy turned and saw her sitting there, and before Skye could do or say anything else, she hopped up next to the vixen, snuggled into her side, and pulled the blanket across to cover them both.
Skye sat stiffly for a moment, completely floored by the rabbit's actions. She had never had a rabbit this close to her, and she was at a loss as to what she was going to do next. Again, that was a problem that Judy solved by placing her paw on the vest covering Skye's chest, and looking up at her.
"Are you okay? You're really stiff. Am I making you uncomfortable, by being too forward?" She asked the snow fox.
Skye chuckled, as she started to relax, and draped an arm across Judy's shoulders. "No, not really. Not for a fellow lesbian, at least. I've just never managed to have a doe get this close before, much less one that did it all on her own volition. I'm kinda out of my element here."
Judy smiled up at her, "Hit on a lot of rabbits, have you?"
Skye just shook her head, "I've tried. I've gone to the female only bars in town, and while I might get a doe to talk to me, I can't approach any. They just look uncomfortable, if not downright terrified, when ever I get close, and then they make up some excuse and scamper off." She looked back at Judy, "You're the first one I've met that didn't try to run away the moment I looked at them."
"Well, that's their loss." Judy proclaimed, "I happen to like foxes, and I think you are very cuddly, even in all of your leather on." Oops! Did I just imply that I want to get her naked? Whoa, Judy! Running away with your libido already? You just met this fox!
"I like rabbits, but I've never met one that also admitted to liking foxes." Skye reached up, and with a tentative paw, she started to stroke Judy's head fur.
Judy sighed. Somebody was touching her, finally. It wasn't even sexual, or even playful. It was just touch. God, I've missed being touched. "Well, I'm not your average rabbit. Dad liked to say that I was a do-er, like it was some sort of insult, to know what you like and work to achieve it. He was always of the opinion that one should settle for the path of least resistance."
"Is he the reason you left home? Did he not like you looking at the females?" Skye had heard that before, so she wondered what this rabbit's life had been like.
"The does? No, he didn't care about me dating does. It was more of an anti-predator bias. He was afraid of just about any strange predator: bears, weasels, wolves, and especially foxes. With the exception of Gideon, but that's because Gid was a portly pastry chef. Not really a predator in Dad's eyes." Judy stroked the section of fur that peeked out of Skye's vest. "No, he wanted me to be a farmer, and settle like he had, and I thought that was a stupid idea. So after a couple of weeks of him treating me like a kit and ordering me around the farm, I couldn't take it anymore, and I packed up and left. It took me a few months, but I eventually ended up here, by dint of the fact that I couldn't move any further west of him, since I had run into the ocean. I found a job, and a roommate, and interesting things to do that don't involve farming in anyway, and I like it." She reached her arm out to gesture at the fog covered city.
"I mean, look at this! Look at this view! We had fog back in the hills of Podunk, but it never looked like this! It's beautiful..." She sighed.
"Yes, it is." Skye moved her arm back to Judy's shoulder and gave her a squeeze, "I think you are very beautiful too." She stated in a low voice.
Judy turned up toward her and grinned, "Aw, you're just trying to butter me up! I will have you know that I am very average for a bunny. Medium gray, medium height, medium build, all very average. Thank you, though, for the compliment." She patted Skye on the chest, "You're the one who's beautiful, with your white fur and your two beautiful eyes. Oh, and don't get me started on your tail! I love fox tails." Judy stared up at Skye's face, biting on her lower lip.
Skye was taken aback for just a moment. Her two eyes, blue and gold, had long been a source of embarrassment to her. They were a sign of her family's poor genetic health, an indication of the centuries of inbreeding that her people had done, just to survive. They were part of the reason she had sworn off ever having kits of her own. She viewed them as a flaw.
But to this rabbit, this plain old rabbit, they just added to the exoticness of the vixen. Skye decided then and there that this one was a keeper, not that she had a lot of other rabbit does waiting in the wings, but still. For all that she considered herself an average rabbit physically, she was extraordinary in ever other regard.
Skye reached over with her free paw, and stroked Judy's cheek gently, and wondered at the fact that she never even flinched at the touch of a fox's paw. She traced her paw under the rabbit's chin, and lifted her head slightly. Judy allowed the movement without resistance. Skye leaned in for a kiss, and as she had quickly come to expect of this extraordinary rabbit, Judy rose to meet her.
Two lonely females, each unique in their own ways, each far from home, kissed each other for the first time upon a tall mountain bathed in pale moonlight.
"Skye! You in here, babe?" Judy called out as she scampered into the garage, "Where are you at?" She looked around the build bay, with bikes in various stages of completion. It was the end of the work day, so Skye's two other employees must have gone home already. She could hear her girlfriend quietly cursing in the bay somewhere, but she just couldn't see her.
They were supposed to go dancing tonight to celebrate a month of successful dating. Apparently these milestones were important to Skye, who apparently didn't have the best of luck with her girlfriends. She wouldn't tell Judy why she thought that, so Judy just left the subject alone, for now. She didn't think Skye was doing anything wrong, as far she could tell.
They were communicating well, they respected each other's space, they went on plenty of dates, and the sex was fantastic. Judy had been thankful that Skye was willing to lead the first few times they slept together, since she didn't really have a clue what she was supposed to do with a vixen. It was also helpful that Skye had a blatant fetish for rabbits, which Judy had discovered after her first night over. Skye's bed sheets were even covered with pink and blue bunnies. That explained why Skye was so nervousness the first time they met; she didn't want to scare the fascinating bunny off.
Judy looked down at her ensemble, and hoped that Skye approved. It was a simple enough get up of a black halter top, a black mini skirt, and some black jean shorts for the times when she need to be modest, like on the bus. She could ditch the shorts for dancing. She also brought her motorcycle jacket, in case the clouds rolled in and it got cold.
Skye popped her head out from around a motorcycle she had elevated up on a lift. She waved the crescent wrench in her paw to get the distracted rabbit's attention. Judy skipped over to the lift and peeked at Skye's work. "What's up, doc?" she mischievously asked the vixen.
Skye sat up straight and stretched, then tipped her head back, looking of a kiss. Judy obliged, leaning to give her a quick peck on the lips while avoiding her greasy jump suit at the same time. Skye gestured at the bike, "I'm just trying to finish up the driveshaft's bearing re-seat. The customer wants to pick up his ride tomorrow morning, so I need to get this done. I'll just be a few more minutes, and then we can go." She waved her wrench at a stool by her work space, "Grab a seat, and tell me about your day off."
Judy Hopped up into the stool, and sat down. "It was just laundry day this morning. Three hours of watching the machines spin. At least this time nobody tried to steal my underwear." Judy snorted and then continued, "Then, after a quick lunch with Moni at the Art Institute, I modeled for a couple hours for the sculpture class with a pronghorn model. They were doing quick little maquettes of dynamic posing in the class which kept us moving every few minutes, so I didn't end up cramping so bad this time. The pronghorn did end up doing a lot of his poses on his knees though, since he was so much taller than me. Poor male."
Skye smiled as she worked, "What is with you and males kneeling at your feet?" she chided the rabbit.
"Hey! We weren't doing kink, we were doing art!" Judy indignantly replied, sitting up straight and placing her paw over her heart.
"Oh, art is it now? Is that what you call what you do with Tony?"
"Nah, that's glamour photography. My dad would probably call it soft-core porn, but I don't care. He's a bit of a prude anyway." Judy glanced over at the tool chest. There was an open letter there, with handwritten addresses on the envelope cover. She picked it up, and examined the addresses. "Who's Adlartok?" She asked Skye.
Skye looked up at her and grinned, "That's me, silly rabbit."
"It is? I thought your name was Skye!" Judy was confused.
"It is." Skye assured her, "Adlartok means 'Clear Sky' in my people's language."
Judy scowled for a moment, "Wait a minute. I know that Renard d'Hiver means 'Foxes of Winter', but what Old Country language is Adlartok from?"
"It's not an Old Country word." Sky pointed to the north with her wrench, "My people and their language come from Foxe Basin Island, far to the north."
"Oh?! Okay!" Judy rocked back in the stool, "I didn't know you were one of the Qayaq people!"
Skye put down her wrench, and furrowed her brow at the rabbit, "Jessica, qayaq is the name of our boats." She continued, "We call ourselves Tiriganiarjuk, which means 'The Little White People'. The Tiriganiarjuk have lived up on Foxe Basin Island for well over a thousand years."
Judy put her paws to her lips in embarrassment, "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I'm just a country rabbit from Podunk. I'm not the best educated bunny around." Judy apologized.
"You keep saying that, but I'm not sure I believe that anymore." Skye picked up her wrench again, and used it to point at Judy. "I think there is far more to you than meets the eye. You are 'tukisinangitok', a mystery to me." She turned back to her work, so she missed the face that Judy made.
Skye continued as she worked, "Back when my mother was still a kit, my Grandfather moved his family down to Mount Royal City, so that my Grandmother could get treatment for her tuberculosis, being that doctors were kind of hard to come by in their home village of Kinngait. Once they got to Mount Royal, they kind of stuck out, so Grandpa changed his last name to Renard d'Hiver so that they could fit in better. Mom grew up there, and she met my dad there too, while they were both in college." Skye put down her tools, and stood up.
She turned to Judy, "I was born there on the river, born at the dawning of a clear blue sky. That's why my mom named me Adlartok. It was also my great-Grandma's name, even though I never met her. Mom said she was a very funny female, given to laughter and practical jokes." She turned back to the bike, turned on the key, and gave the throttle a quick twist. The rear wheel revved up without a sound, as the motor bearing smoothly spun. She turned it back off.
"It was my grandmother who raised me, for the most part, while we lived in Mount Royal. Mom and Dad both worked, so I stayed home with her. She taught me our language and our history. She even taught me the names of all my maternal ancestors, going back over fifty generations. That's how the Tiriganiarjuk keep the memory of our ancestors alive, by naming our children after those who came before us. They live on, in us." Skye pointed at her chest.
Judy leaned forward on the stool, "That's so beautiful..."
Skye stripped off her work gloves, and scratched her head fur, "Yeah, well, just don't ask me to recite them now. There are a lot of repeats, and it can get kind of confusing trying to keep the names straight, and in the right order. I haven't done it in years. Usually the family females would get together and chant the names, so that we could help correct each other." She shrugged.
She pointed to the letter still in Judy's paw, "Anyway, the letter is from my brother, Torngarsuk – he goes by the nickname Torn, by the way. He's finally gotten his diesel mechanic's certification, after years of working on my Dad's fishing boat. He's since moved down to Zootopia to work from my mother's brother, who runs a mechanics and auto-body shop down there. I think he should get a mechanical engineering degree, like my electrical degree, but he's not all that anxious to return to school. Maybe after a few years of taking orders from his uncle, he'll be ready. Zootopia's got a bunch of good schools." She unzipped her jumpsuit to her waist. "You ready to go?" She asked the rabbit.
Judy jumped back down, "Yup! Let's go dancing!" She bit her lip and shook her hips for the fox.
Skye just laughed, "Alright, let me go take a quick shower to wash the grime off, and I'll be ready to go."
"Oooo, A shower! I can help with that!" Judy offered, staring at the white fur peeking out from under the jumpsuit.
"Help? Jessica, I said a quick shower. You jump in with me, and we'll be there all night!" Skye just shook her head.
Judy just grinned up at her and shook her head, "Nah! I'm a rabbit - we're known for our speed! I can finish you up real quick!" She assured the vixen.
Skye waggled a finger at her as she walked towards the front office,
"Finished up three or four times, you mean. You do that to me, and I won't even be able to walk, much less go dancing."
Judy pouted, "Oh come on! It's great cardio-vascular exercise, good for getting the old creaking bones working again!" She bounded in front of Skye to hold the office door open for her lover.
Skye turned to look down at the rabbit, "Jessica, I am not OLD!" Well, maybe a little, in comparison to the energy of this younger doe, she thought to herself.
Judy stood in the door way, and used both paws to gesture to Skye's body, "Yes, you are! You have a thousand year's worth of ancestors living in you! You said so! That's positively ancient! You need the exercise!" She beamed up at the fox, knowing exactly what consequence her bratting was about to bring.
"Exercise?! I'll show you exercise!" Skye boomed at her as she reached for the imputant rabbit. Judy turned and bounded up the apartment stairs, giggling and shrieking, with a growling Skye nipping close at her heels.
She was in the elevator, going down, all the way down. She tried to explain to the two wolves that stood like statues at her shoulders that she had completed her sentence, and they were supposed to release her from Cliffside, but they stood in silence, their over sized paws simply gripping her arms. The lights on the control panel slowly counted backwards – 3, 2, L, B, SB1, SB2, SB3.
Sub Basement Three. The place no patient in Cliffside ever wanted to go, and they were taking her there again. She could kick and she could scream, but that would only invite a taser burn. And still she would be taken. The elevator slowed to a stop. "Last stop, little bunny." one of the wolves breathed that into her ears.
The doors slide aside, and before her opened up an antechamber clad in lime green tile and moldy grout, a great big black vault door framed in steel standing at the far end. They dragged her bodily along the scummy floor, her toes scrabbling to gain some measure of traction on the slick porcelain. They stopped at the door, and the wolf on her right stepped forward to place his paw on the dial. 30...20...10… He threw the handle with a click, and gave the door a yank. It slid open with an oily moan, reveling an inky darkness beyond.
With no hesitation, they marched her down the well, lights coming on automatically as they progressed. She stole a quick glance back over her shoulder, and saw that the lights winked out as they passed beyond them. The vault door in the distance was slowly swinging shut of it own accord, moaning in time to the sinking feeling in her stomach. She was being swallowed alive in the bowels of Cliffside.
A light blossomed before her! Cold, pale, flickering light. She was dragged out of the esophageal corridor, and into a featureless concrete box. At the center was a rusted steel autopsy table. The two guards picked her up, flipped her around and dropped her flat onto the table. They attached her feet to stirrups at the end of the table, and her paws to manacles at the head. They pulled the chains taunt, stretching her rabbit frame to the point of searing pain. She opened her mouth… but no sound came out. Oh No! She had no voice here!
Squeek… Squeek… A vixen nurse, clad in a virgin white nurse's uniform, pushed a steel cart to the side of the table. It was just outside of Judy's view, but she could hear the instruments rattle on the tray top as the nurse arranged them. She picked up one, clicked a button to turn it on, and the room reverberated with the shriek that it made.
Judy strained to see what she was holding, and as she was distracted by the sound, a paw grabbed her face and forced her jaw open. She snapped her eyes back to see who was assaulting her, but she was blinded by the light they were shining down her throat.
The paw release her jaw and the light switched off. Judy tried to blink away the purple stain splashed across her vision, and as she did a shape before her resolved itself. A red vulpine head, in a white lab coat, holding two squeeze tubes in either paw. It leaned in and spoke.
"Heya, Carrots!" Oh, Thank God, it was Nick! He held the two toothpaste tubes up before her. "Which one do you prefer? Wintergreen or Spearmint?"
She screamed!
"JESSICA!" Two strong arms held her, crushing her to a soft furry chest, "Sweetheart, it's okay! You're okay! You're safe!" Skye crooned in her ears. Judy sat upright, gasping in terror. The nightmare faded, and she was left with the night time sepia tones of Skye's upstairs bedroom before her. She shuddered inside Skye's embrace, as she tried to get her breathing under control.
"Was it a bad one?" Skye asked, already knowing the answer. Judy just nodded. "Was it about Cliffside?" Skye asked next. Judy froze in her arms. "C.c. ?" She stammered, her eyes wide in fear. How does she know about Cliffside? Judy had always been so careful to hide. Where had she slipped up?
"Baby, you talk in your sleep." Skye nuzzled her head fur, and planted a kiss between the ears. "You've had a nightmare almost every night you've shared my bed. You even had one the first night you stayed over, three months ago. Most of the time, if they wake me, I can hold onto you, and that will calm you down enough that you settle down to sleep. This was the first time that you actually woke up after screaming."
"I've screamed before?" Judy asked, as she started to sob.
She could feel Skye's head move as she nodded. "Yes, and you would mostly be incoherent, thrashing, and crying, sometimes for hours. I would have to hold you, and sing to you, before you would calm down."
"I… I'm sorry… I didn't mean… You can't… I'll go now..." Tears streaming down her face, Judy tried to get off the bed, but Skye didn't let her go.
"Skye, you can't! I can't stay! I'm dangerous! You have to let me go!" Judy begged her, in between her sobs.
"Judy, the only dangerous thing about you is the way you ride a motorcycle." Skye let her go, but slid around in front of her. She put a paw on Judy's leg. "If you want to go, go. If you want to stay, stay. I'm not kicking you out of my bed. And if you want to talk, I am always here to listen. Always." She pulled her paw back, and sat quietly, expectantly.
"So… You know..." Judy looked across the bed at her in abject misery.
"Yeah… Like I said, you talk in your sleep." Skye just nodded, as she drew up her leg so that she could rest her head on her knee.
"When did you figure it out?" Judy asked the vixen, tears running down her cheeks.
Skye reached across the bed, lifted Judy's chin, and wiped the tears away with a finger. "About the second week or so. You were mumbling something about Carl Latrans, so I looked up that name. After that, the Cliffside stuff that you would scream yourself hoarse about made a lot more sense."
"But you never said anything! Why not!?" Judy couldn't comprehend why she never said anything for two and a half months.
"It's your story to tell, sweetheart." Skye assured her, "When you were ready, you would let me know. Until then, I would simply love you."
"Oh..." Judy looked down at her paws.
"Judy, Jessica, littlest rabbit, light of my heart…" Skye quietly stated. Judy looked back up at her. Skye continued, "You wander through life thinking you are alone, so alone. That no one can understand your journey, so you don't share. But that isn't so, sweetheart. You're not alone." Skye, too, looked at her paws. She realized that she too had a story to share as well.
"I've shared with you why my grandfather moved us to Mount Royal city?" Judy nodded, so Skye continued, "He couldn't get medicine for grandmother on a consistent basis, and if it ever ran out, she would have died. It was an act of desperation, to leave everything he knew behind, and come to the big city. But even as he did, even as it ripped his heart in two, he did it to give his wife, his children, and his grandchildren a chance to survive." Skye's own eyes began to water.
"Judy, my people are dying. Slowly dying."
She wiped her own tears away as she continued, "Diseases like TB are rampant throughout our communities, and we have little access to doctors or modern medicine to fight it. We are confined to permanent settlements, forbidden to hunt, and restricted in our wanderings. We are nomads no more. There are no jobs in these settlements, and everything costs more, so everyone stays poor. There is nothing for our young people to do, so they wander the settlements aimlessly. Once they get to where the road out of town ends, they turn around and just walk back the other direction. They're only other choice is to sit in a cramped bedroom staring at a blank wall, and eventually that drives them to despair. Judy, we loose more of our teenagers to suicide than we do to disease and accidents."
"Even the settlement in the big river where my parents live is pretty bleak. The only jobs are either on the fishing boats or at the canning factory, and all of those jobs are dangerous. My father may own his boat, but he still has to go out almost every day just to haul in enough to pay his bills. Both my brother and I have tried to help him, but it's a hard, hard life. Harder still is the effect that cheap alcohol has had on our society. My father is a hard, bitter, mammal most days, but when he turns to the bottle, he is a raging tyrant. I don't know how my mother stands him." Skye looked off to the north.
"My brother and I got out, and we'll probably never go back. I managed to find a scholarship, and went to the university. My brother wasn't so lucky, and he had to work on my father's boat for a few seasons before he found a job on a larger ship. From there, he trained as a diesel mechanic, and now he's in Zootopia, far away from home."
She turned back to Judy, "Speaking of far from home, have you ever heard of a residential school?" Judy just shook her head no. "Residential schools were part of an attempt by the Commonwealth to 'civilize' the native populations through force, by sending their kits to far away schools where the families could not reach them. There they tried to kill the kits' culture, and replace it with the Commonwealth's. Such noble goals, such noble failures. The kits endured forced indoctrination, beatings, sexual abuse, and even murders – all in the name of 'civilization'. My grandfather had survived that, and he wanted to make sure his kits and grand kits were never taken from him, and that they never had to endure what he did. But he still made damn sure that we understood what had happened to him and his generation, so that we never forgot."
"So when I read about what you went through at Cliffside as a kit, everything he taught us came roaring back. No kit, anywhere, should ever be sent to a place like that. They tossed you in, threw away the key, and laughed as you screamed."
Judy reached out to Skye, and drew her muzzle down so she could kiss it. "Thank you." She released it, and curled into the vixen's lap. Skye slowly stroked her ears, laying them down her back. After a few minutes, Judy spoke again. Skye had thought she had gone to sleep.
"I don't remember most of my time at Cliffside. They kept me drugged up to my eyeballs with psychoactive drugs, to keep me quiet and compliant. It fucked with my memory." She reached out with her own paw, and slid it down Skye's leg, just for comfort and a reminder of her vixen's reality.
"I didn't even start at Cliffside." She pointed out to the fox, "After my trial, they sent me to a mental health diversion program for rabbit kits in Bunny Burrow. That wasn't so bad for the first few months. There were a lot of autistic kits there, so I ended up being the quiet one. I read a lot." Judy rolled onto her back, cradled in Skye's lap, "But at some point, toward the end of my first year there, I attracted the eye of this older sleazebag of a guard. The other kits said that he like to touch them. The buck must have thought I was an easy target, cause he pulled me into a supply closet one day."
"What? He hurt you? I'm so sorry!" Skye's paws came up to her muzzle, "You don't have to talk about this if you don't want to." She assured the rabbit.
"Huh?" Judy looked back up at her, "Oh! No, that didn't happen. I'm pretty sure he wanted it to happen, but it didn't. I just lay there like I was a scared little bunny until he dropped his pants, and then I kicked him hard, right into the tip of his ding-dong. Folded the whole thing right in half. He screamed and fell over, clutching himself in his paws." Judy smirked.
She looked up at Skye's shocked expression and explained further, "The technical term for what I did to him was penile fracture. Ever hear of it?"
Skye just shook her head, "I'm a lesbian. I don't do much with penises."
Judy grimaced as she continued, "Yeah, I can see that. Anyway, after my kick ruptured his shaft, he immediately started swelling down there and not in the good way. But to make sure he stayed down after I got up, I made sure to kick him hard in the balls. Twice. And then I pulled a shelving unit down on him, just to keep him pinned down. After that, I ran out and found a counselor, and told them what happened."
"I mean, what did he expect was going to happen? I'm a country bunny; I know how these things work. Did he think I was some developmentally stunted rabbit kit with emotional processing issues or something? I shot a coyote six times my size at point blank range, for crying out loud! I'm not afraid of any stupid creep."
Judy settled down and continued her tale, "Anyway, the police came and arrested him. Turns out he been kicked out of other treatment facilities for inappropriate behaviors, so they finally sent him to jail to await trial, after he got out of the hospital. His balls had swollen up so bad that they both had to be amputated, and he couldn't pee standing up any more. He lasted a grand total of three weeks in county jail before the other inmates figured out who and what he was, and beat him to death."
"How do you know all of this?" Skye couldn't fathom who would have told a nine year old kit all this.
"Oh, my mom told me, years later, during a visit at Cliffside." Judy gestured vaguely off to the east.
Judy ranted on, "But you want to know what the truly stupid thing about all this was? This is an example of how fucked up rabbit society is. You want to know what they did to me after I defended myself from a creep, and told them about it?" Judy asked her.
Skye nodded, "Sure?"
"They threw me in solitary lockup for two weeks, a nine year old kit, for being violent and striking a guard. Apparently they thought I should have just run away, and then find somebody to talk to about it. Or maybe just let him have his fun, and then complain about it afterwards. What the hell did they think would happen? I was in a room with a mammal who's entire job was chasing after and running down kits who tried to flee. He was fast! Far faster than me!" She gritted her teeth as she scowled.
"So, when they finally let me out of solitary, I was so mad that I kicked the guard in the crotch, stole his keys, and took off. I managed to get out of the facility, and escaped into the Bunny Burrow fields behind it. I hid out there for about three weeks, sleeping during the day in a hiding spot, and coming out at night to eat vegetables I found in the fields and gardens. It took them so long to find me that they eventually had to bring in a wolf cop from the ZPD to track me down. I made them all look like idiots." She grinned.
"After that, they transferred me to the Tri-Burrows Juvenile Detention facility, mostly cause they had no idea what to do with me. I was the youngest kit there in the whole facility. Now, the guards there were smart. They never laid a paw on me. No, that's what the other prisoners were for. The guards thought they could just sit back, and let the other kits beat me up, and they wouldn't have to do any work." Judy shook her paw.
"And that worked for the first round of beatings. The kits beat me black and blue, which put me in the infirmary. After that, I went on the offensive. I had to, to survive. So I sought out the biggest, toughest, juvenile there, a wolverine, and broke his jaw with a single round house kick. The guards had to take action then, so they put together a riot team to take down little ol' me, and after they captured me, they put me in solitary for a whole month." She tapped her paws on her chest.
"A month was all it took for the kits to figure out that I was in detention for armed murder one, and beating the junk off of a guard that tried to molest me. The smart ones left me alone after that. The dumb ones took more convincing." She smacked her fist into her palm.
"Eventually every mammal there stopped fucking with me. Not just because I was willing to fight back, but because I was mean. I would go into a fight looking to break bone. I kinda got a reputation as a crazy fighter." Judy explained with a grimace.
"That particular fight club lasted for another whole year before some enterprising correctional mammal finally got around to reading my sentencing requirements and realized I was supposed to be in a mental institution. Since none of the other local psych wards wanted to touch my case, what with my history of violence, they kinda ended up sending me to Cliffside in Zootopia by default." Judy wound down.
"I don't remember much of Cliffside. It kinda devolved into this cycle of escape attempts, followed by solitary, lots of drugs, and boredom. Rinse and repeat." She tried to explain.
"Escape? Where would you go?" Sky wanted to know.
"Oh, nowhere. I mean, it was a maximum security mental asylum. There was only the one bridge to get to the place, and everything else was surrounded with a fast flowing river. I didn't try to escape to get out; I did it mostly because I was bored. Plus it kept me in shape, so I didn't turn into a couch potato. Not that the food there was particularly fattening, mind you. It was awful. It was a privately run institution, and they were always looking for ways to save money, so that they could maximize their profits, I guess. One of the ways that they did that was by serving us crappy food."
"Didn't they have you on expensive drugs? I read somewhere that they got in trouble for that?" Skye asked her.
"Yeah, well, they could bill Zootopia over and above for the expensive stuff, since they only got a small stipend for our basic care. No, they got in trouble because what they 'said' that they were giving us, those expensive individualized treatment programs that you read about, really weren't. The truth is that they had just used a whole lot of bad quality generic shit on us patients equally. Just what ever worked best in keeping us quiet and compliant. The Zootopians were all upset about the fraud, and we patients were the ones that got our brains fried. Nobody cared about us." Judy was quiet for a bit.
She looked thoughtfully and waggled a paw, "I take that back. I did have an art teacher for a couple of months. He was really nice. He got them to reduce my drugs; even got my mom into visit a few times. But eventually even he went away, and it was back to the same old Cliffside shit."
"I mean, other than the drugs, they really didn't abuse us. They didn't beat us or molest us, so I don't really know where all the Cliffside nightmares are coming from. Maybe it's just my brain, trying to fill in the blanks or something." Judy mused.
"What about the testing? You keep having nightmares about a testing lab or something." Skye asked her.
"You mean like down in the subbasements? That was just a rumor that the older patients liked to pass around to frighten the younger ones. The one that they liked to use on me was the rumor that they were doing cosmetic testing on rabbits down in Sub-basement 3. But anybody who tried to tell me that would just end up getting kicked. Did I mention I had a reputation as a dirty fighter?" Skye nodded.
"Yeah, the other patients, the stupid ones, would try that line on me, and I'd kick them in the crotch. That stopped that."
"But I guess my brain is still taking that rumor and running with it, even though it's totally stupid. It's like tonight's dream. It's all this awful build up, and I can't escape, and the wolf guards are marching me off to my doom, and at the end you know what happens? TOOTHPASTE TESTING! Argggghhhh!" Judy scrunched up her eyes and ground her palms into her eyelids. "Which do I prefer, Wintergreen or Spearmint? It's totally stupid!" Judy just shook her paws.
Skye disagreed, "No, no it's not. It was the isolation, and the inappropriate drugs, and the hopeless that scarred you. That's what your brain is trying to make sense of. Because it doesn't make sense." Skye went back to stroking Judy's head.
Judy was quiet for a few moments. "Thank you for listening to me. I'm sorry that I woke you up, with all my nightmares." She tried to offer the vixen.
Skye wouldn't have it, "I'm sorry that you have nightmares. And I'll point out that I'm nocturnal, so you really didn't wake me."
"Skye, you have to sleep sometime, I mean, you can't sleep during the day. You have to work! I can't keep you up all the time!" Judy was still feeling guilty for waking her every night.
"You mean like the way you do with your incessant demands for sex?" Skye tried to lighten the depressed rabbit's mood.
Judy answered hotly, "I am not incessant! I am enthusiastic! There's a difference!" She huffed.
Skye gently slid the indignant rabbit off her lap. "I can see that," she said as she bent her muzzle down to nuzzle along the rabbit's fur. She slid down Judy's torso until she dropped her head in between her bunny's gray legs.
Judy whimpered to herself, Sweet Cheese and Crackers! What is it about canines and their tongues, and their effect on my ability to think?
Skye demonstrated just that skill for her, and Judy could think of nothing else.
As she lay in Skye's arms afterwards, a thought occurred to Judy. "Skye, can I ask you a personal question? You don't have to answer, if you don't want to."
"Yes." Skye simply replied.
"Why did you break up with all your other girlfriends? I mean, you're kind, and patient, and incredibly understanding. You love without reservation and forgive without consequence. I don't understand why any other female would want to walk away from that." Judy gestured with her paws before dropping them.
"Oh..." Skye sighed, "They'd all start out great, but I don't know if this is a predator thing or a lesbian thing, but eventually the relationship would turn into a dominance game. Either they would want to be dominant, or they wanted me to be dominant, and then they would get mad when I didn't. I don't have the time or the interest to fight those kinds of battles, so I just wouldn't. And eventually they would leave." She shrugged.
"Oh, I see." Judy stroked her paw along Skye's arm. "You don't have to worry about that with me." She explained, as she turned her head to look back at her vixen.
Skye looked down at her, "How so?"
Judy smiled at her, "Rabbits are matrilineal. We always defer to the wisdom of the oldest female."
"Well, I guess that is one plus to dating younger rabbits." Skye considered that, "Wait, did you just call me old?"
Judy just smiled, and pulled her lover's muzzle down for a kiss.