Continued from Chapter 44
Judy relaxed into her police cruiser's seat. It was currently parked; she was staking out a high-traffic area for any offenders. She affixed her Houndstooth headset to her ear and picked up her personal phone, calling Nick.
"H'lo?" Came the reply.
"How are you feeling, sweetie?" Judy asked with concern in her voice.
"I've feld bedder," Nick said, sniffling. "Doze is still stuvved ub."
"I'll pick up some NocQuill from MaulGreens on the way home, sugar fox," Judy said.
"Thad be grade," Nick sniffled, coughing as well.
Judy glanced down at the ring on her left hand. "I remember my promise. In sickness and in health."
"Mm.." Nick murmured. "I thing you jus' wan me do keeb talging widdis sig voice."
"It is kinda funny," Judy admitted, chuckling, but then saw a car speed by an intersection she was watching. "Oh! Gotta go babe, some idiot just ran a red light."
"Go geddem," Nick said, sneezing, then hanging up. The bunny winced at the loud sound in her ear.
"He could have hung up before he sneezed," Judy explained to herself, sucking at her teeth.
Judy set the lights and siren on her cruiser and the imposing vehicle roared after the offending red convertible. It pulled over. Judy came out and wandered over, looking at the nice car. She sucked her teeth as the driver's side window pulled down.
"I assume you know why I've pulled you over," Judy said. Then, her eyes processed who was in the car. It was a very familiar-looking red fox. In fact, she had seen him once a few years ago. Her eyes widened a little. "Oh. If it isn't the fox that Nick doesn't know."
"Ah, hello you're the gray bunny that..." the fox said, but then saw Judy's expression sour. "Yes, I know I ran the red light. I'm sorry, I'm late for a meeting."
"Yeah, well you're going to be even later now," Judy frowned. "License and registration, please." The fox turned these over.
"I don't know why I'm not more surprised to read this name. John Wilde," Judy said lowly. "I had my suspicions it was you."
"Guessing Nick doesn't talk about me much," John said.
"No, he talks about you all right, just never by your name," Judy's expression seemed to be filling more and more with contempt. She went to run his license and found nothing out of the ordinary. She considered the range of fines his offense merited and came back to him.
"So... your name tag," John looked at her chest. "Wilde-Hopps? You married him?"
"I hope you didn't expect to be invited to the wedding," Judy narrowed her eyes.
"No, no, of course not," John shook his head. "Just... a bit unusual of a pairing, you must admit."
Judy ignored this. "Well, 'Mister' Wilde, I'm going to write you a ticket for-"
"Do you feel lucky, rabbit?" John suddenly asked her.
"Excuse me?" Judy looked surprised at his audacity. "Lucky to have Nick? Certainly."
"I mean, lucky about the whole marriage thing," John said, frowning. "Fifty percent divorce rate in this city. You believe that? Fifty percent! I don't know the specifics among inter-species couples, but I'm imagining the numbers are even worse there."
Judy's jaw dropped a bit. "Are you... are you seriously trying to insinuate for even a moment that Nick and I's marriage won't work out?" Her face instantly switched into fury. "You don't know either of us!"
"Don't really have to," John shrugged his shoulders. "Numbers don't lie. Speaking of, that kit has fifty percent of me in him, so he's gotta be at least something like me."
"No, to me it looks like he got most of his positive qualities from his mother," Judy said icily.
"Aw c'mon, I know the kit's tongue is sharp like mine," John gave an eerily familiar half-smile. "Anyway, you just remember those statistics come five or ten years or so, and just take stock of where you are."
"You've got some nerve, Wilde," Judy narrowed her eyes. "Nick is the love of my life. I'll never betray him, and he'll never betray me."
"So you two are perfectly in sync, huh?" John asked, his eyes half-lidded. "You both know each others dreams and exactly what you want out of life? That's what it's going to come down to, bunny. Not 'love', not 'devotion', just whether you two 'work' together."
"Pardon me!?" Judy felt herself putting extreme pressure on her pen. She wished it was the carrot pen, because it might just bend or snap if she got too much more frustrated.
"I mean, I'm guessing you two are newlyweds," John sighed. "Still caught in that haze of young love. Well, I was there, and it doesn't last. You ask Nick what he wants out of life. If he says you, you should probably be worried." John gestured flippantly.
"Listen, fox" Judy said with barely restrained fury. "Does trying to place doubts about marriage in the minds of others give you some sort of sick pleasure? Just because you're a sad, pathetic excuse for a fox with no warmth in his life? Does it make you feel better to sow your misery among others?"
"Of course, without a doubt," John said, smirking. Judy felt a small chill at this.
"Well, you and Nick have one thing in common," Judy transformed her fury into a dark smirk. "When it comes to bunnies, you don't know when to leave well enough alone." She shoved a ticket at him. "Maximum fine. Have a 'nice' day."
John shrugged. "You as well." He drove off.
Judy stormed back into her cruiser. The nerve of that fox! Trying to tell her what her life would and wouldn't be like. How dare he? Suddenly, she snapped back to her thoughts.
"Oh right, gotta go to MaulGreens..." Judy said. She put her cruiser in gear and drove off.
Judy stood in an aisle of MaulGreens, trying to decide between two bottles of NocQuill.
"Guess I'll get the bigger one," Judy said to herself. "Just in case he ends up getting me sick." She heard some voices coming from a couple of aisles over.
"This candy is buy one get one!"
"Ugh, you hate that candy though!"
"Aw c'mon, it's such a good deal!"
"It's not a good deal if it'll end up getting wasted!"
"Hey, shut up! You should try some of it, it's not that bad!"
"Are you saying I need to sweeten up again? Shut up!"
"No, you shut up!"
"You shut up!"
Judy instinctively cringed at the voices of her former neighbors, but then she grinned and even laughed, knowing she didn't have to deal with them on a daily basis anymore. Thinking she might as well greet them, she headed into their aisle.
"Disturbing the peace again, boys?" Judy smirked, folding her arms.
"Oh, its Officer Bunny!" Bucky Oryx-Antlerson waved cheerfully.
"Hey, Officer Bunny," Pronk Oryx-Antlerson closed his eyes and gave a friendly, casual wave.
"You two haven't changed one bit," Judy said, laughing. Then, she got a quizzical look on her face. "But you're still together, huh?"
"Yeah, joined at the hip," Pronk said, rolling his eyes.
"When you're lucky!" Bucky shoved him. "And shut up; there's a lady present!"
"Yeah, like that's stopped you before," Pronk laughed snidely.
"So I don't think I ever asked you..." Judy looked down at the bottle of medicine she held as if it would help her concentrate. She looked back at the two curiously. "How... how have you two stayed together so long when you bicker constantly?"
The two widened their eyes and stared down at her. Simultaneously, they shrugged their shoulders.
"You got me," Pronk chuckled. "By all accounts, it doesn't make sense."
"Love doesn't have to make sense, idiot," Bucky flicked Pronk on the shoulder. "That's how it works. Mysteriously."
"That's a lot of help," Judy grumbled.
"Hey, you just got married, didn't you?" Bucky queried. "You're not gettin' doubts already, are you?"
"Oh no, no!" Judy chuckled. "I was just... y'know, kind of thinking about the long term."
"Well, I always thought that when two people got married, it was because they were meant to be together-" Pronk began.
"That's probably the most romantic thing you've ever said in your whole-" Bucky interrupted.
"No matter how much they irritate each other," Pronk counter-interrupted, finishing his thought.
"Yeah that's more like it," Bucky laughed.
"Well, I think in some bizarre way, you two have given me a small amount of hope for the future," Judy laughed, shaking her head. "You two keep on keeping on."
"See ya, Officer Bunny," Bucky waved as Judy walked by. "Say hi to your fox for me."
"She married a fox?" Pronk stared in disbelief.
"It was all over the news!" Bucky said. "I dunno how you missed it."
"The news is boring!" Pronk retorted. "Always full of hate-rallies and murders and hurricane warnings."
"Well if you deigned to watch it once in awhile maybe you'd be a bit more wise to what's going on in this world!" Bucky countered.
"If you're just going to watch it for me what's the point?" Pronk asked. "You can just tell me whatever!"
"Oh shut up! Like self-improvement is a bad thing!"
"Shut yourself up! The news is not really that big a deal!"
"You shut up!"
"YOU SHUT UP!"
Judy rolled her eyes and smirked, heading to the counter to check out.
Coming home to the apartment Judy and Nick shared, the gray bunny quickly went to their bedroom to check on her fox.
"Wow, you look awful," Judy smiled in pity at the miserable-looking fox in the bed.
"Lies," Nick said weakly. "I loog fabulous."
"You look like germ city," Judy shook her head. "Looks like I'll be sleeping on the couch again tonight."
"That'll teach you..." Nick gave a tired laugh.
"I got the NocQuill," Judy said. "You want some now?"
"Oh thang God," Nick sighed. "Yeah. Havin' been able to sleeb all day. Too much sinus pain..."
"Okay sugar fox, I'll go pour you some," Judy said in a very caring way.
"Hey, you gid thad guy?" Nick shifted around in bed. "The mammal who ran the red lide?"
"Yeah," Judy turned her smile into a smirk. "He was nobody important."