Judy gave a sigh as she ran her fingers down the new steely-blue cast encasing her right arm. Sitting on the edge of a hospital bed, she tested her weight on it, wrinkling her nose.
"That should about do it, Judy," Carla Pedshark encouraged. "Just make sure you have no strain on the arm at all. Give it plenty of time to heal."
"Looks like I'll be stuck on desk work yet again," Judy gave a dry smirk. "And with my non-dominant paw, too." She sucked her teeth. "Y'know, theoretically, bunnies are supposed to be lucky animals."
The ferret nurse nodded and looked at her somewhat sadly. "Yes. I suppose when you consider 'luck'... is that just fortunate things happening to an individual? Is it bad things not happening to someone? Or is it being able to walk away after those bad things?"
The gray bunny actually managed a small smile at this. "Hey, you're not my therapist."
"No, but we nurses are in the business of making our patients feel better," Carla gave an encouraging smile.
Judy sighed and looked out of the window. A bright, clear day. Cold outside, windy, but palatable.
"Now, you do have someone that can help you with chores and the like while you recover, right?" Carla pursued in a motherly tone. "Someone like family?"
"Sure do," Judy nodded with a faint grin, her eyes giving a dull glimmer. "Speaking of, how's your little jill doing? Every time I see your husband, he seems to mention her."
"Oh!" Carla's body perked up in a way that was quite mustelid in fashion, amusing Judy. "Yes, she's doing just great." The ferret pulled out her smart phone and quickly scrolled to a picture of a much younger ferret, about seven. She appeared to be rampaging the house, wielding various pencils and colored pens in both paws, glasses barely balanced on the bridge of her small muzzle.
"Pff, oh, thats very sweet," Judy smiled genuinely, feeling a flush of happiness. "Her name's... 'Kara', right?"
"Mhm, we wanted it to be similar to our names, and thought it was the best pick," Carla smiled. "Her eyesight is really bad for a ferret, but she doesn't seem to mind wearing glasses very much. She's always going on about 'RESEARCH!'" The ferret took a break to giggle proudly. "She currently loves to study about the weather and space. Carl and I are hoping she'll want to be in the medical profession eventually, maybe even a doctor herself. Right now she's trending 'scientist' though."
"As long as she's not a chemist," the bunny found herself saying.
Carla almost said something, but her confusion turned into a sort of grim realization.
The bunny turned her attention back to the picture. "You have any other recent pictures?"
The ferret shrugged off her mild unease and grinned. "I'm her mother. What do you think?"
"Hey hey! There they are."
Nick and Judy walked into a diner where they were waved down by an enthusiastic Stanley Wolfard and Kristen Fangmeyer. The wolf was dressed in a dark shirt and colorful open flannel coat, whereas the tigress seemed to enjoy showing off her arms despite the cold weather.
"It's the cool cat and the bunny!" Stanley observed.
"Cat? What, is Benny behind me?" Nick looked behind him. Seeing the cheetah in question was not, he huffed. "Y'know, I'm much more closely related to you than her." The fox jerked his thumb at Kristen.
"I think he's just noticing your 'feline' qualities," Kristen almost purred, resting her chin on her fist. "When your partner is a cat, you tend to notice what you like about cats. For instance, your confidence, I'd say. Or maybe your preening."
"Hey," Nick chuckled, Judy soon following as the two sat down.
"It's like I notice your more canine-like traits," Kristen tilted up her head to put on an air of superiority. "Like your goofiness and loyalty."
"I didn't realize this was a roasting session," Nick smirked.
"I think she's complimenting you, Nick," Judy countered. "I think."
Stanley's tail began to visibly wag as he observed Judy's cast. It was already adorned with many signatures from the ZPD. He, Kristen, Nick, Benjamin, and several others had all signed it.
"I'm lucky I got to sign Judy's cast before it ran out of room," Stanley nodded up to Kristen. "I've never seen Francine write so tiny! Her gripping that marker so tightly in her trunk, I was really kind of nervous for a while."
"You and me both," Judy smirked, looking fondly over the signatures. "It's nice to be appreciated, though."
"Sucks that some of them got shooed out of the queue by Bogo," Kristen rolled her eyes. "I guess he said you were being disruptive by everyone wanting to sign your cast?"
"Not quite," Judy gave a mischievous glare, carefully rotating at the hips to show off a small section of the cast that had "Chief Bogo" written on it in tiny, yet precise lettering.
"No, way," Fangmeyer's jaw dropped, bemused.
"I knew he was an old softie," Nick clicked his tongue. "Speaking of softies, where's everyone's favorite cheet-aagh!"
"Hello!" Said cheetah ceremoniously placed down a large plate of fish burgers and fries before them all, as well as a few salads. "Sorry, I just had to get some fuel for the partners game!"
"This is all for you, then?" Nick joked.
Judy nudged him with her good arm. "Nick..."
"No no, it's for everyone," Benjamin chirped. "Help yourselves!"
"I love this place's fries," Judy said. "Could you pass me the curly fries, Nick?"
"As you wish," Nick said airily, making a show of doing so. The predator partners took sandwiches and fries as well.
"So, in the spirit of food," Benjamin said, taking out some notes he had on his phone. "I had my first question planned out. What is your partner's favorite food?"
"Of course it's about food," Kristen chuckled. "Stan likes tuna."
"Yup," said the wolf before he dove into a big bite of sandwich. After he gulped it down, he nodded to Kristen. "Kristen's favorite is salmon."
"Correct," she added with half-lidded eyes.
"Hoo boy," Judy grinned. "Nick's favorite dish is salad with blueberries, bleu cheese crumbles, and vinaigrette dressing."
"No kidding?" Stanley looked at Nick, hunched over a bit. "Salad?"
"Hey, being an omnivore has its perks," Nick shrugged. "As far as Judy-"
"Carrots?" Kristen teased.
Nick pointed a fry at her. "Incorrect. Judy's actual favorite 'real' food is tomatoes. And, for bonus points, her favorite dessert is strawberries."
"That is, indeed, true," Judy chirped confidently, licking her lips. "Strawberry shortcake is sent from heaven."
"Guess you need to update your nickname for her, then," Stanley grinned widely.
"What, call her 'Strawberries'?" Nick looked skeptically between the wolf and the bunny. "Thanks, but I value my life." The two cats responded with laughter, while Judy just smirked.
"So I guess that's points for all of you then, no big advantage for either team," Benjamin typed into his phone. "Okay, next question. Nick and Kristen are only-childs, but Stanley and Judy are not. Can you name their siblings?"
Nick's eyes briefly became wide.
"Easy," Kristen took a confident slashing bite out of her sandwich. "Stanley has an older sister named Ginger and a younger brother named Trevor."
"Right! And you, Nick?" Benjamin smiled widely at him, taking a pause to slurp his soda.
"You're serious," Nick said, deadpan. "You want me to name all of Judy's siblings."
"This should be good," Judy smirked.
"Here goes," Nick took in a huge breath. "You have Beth, Pepper, Lorelei, Brian, Arthur, Cassidy, Skeeter, Poppy, Jerome, Tennessee, Rachel, Violet, Trevor, Sean..."
Kristen and Stanley's eyes grew wider as they leaned in ever so slowly to listen. Judy's eyes also widened, but her mouth became a fixed triangle. Nick continued rattling off names for quite a few minutes.
"...Methuselah, Cotton, Jennifer, Jay, and... what was it, Ebony."
"No way..." Stanley marveled.
"Holy cats," Kristen shook her head. "I just do not have the memory. I could never remember a bunny's family names."
"I guess that means equal points for each of you," Benjamin said happily, jotting this down.
"Really? After all that?" Nick scoffed.
The table was devoid of food. Nick had been naming names for awhile.
"Maybe we can continue this game in a few days?" Benjamin smiled apologetically, his attention span dimming from a lack of present sustenance. "I think this is fun, though. Maybe we can make this a thing!"
"Sounds good to me," Kristen nodded, and the others agreed.
"Yeah, I got some stuff to do," Stanley said, pulling out a twenty buck bill. "For the meal, Clawsie."
"Such a good boy," Kristen looked at him proudly, to which he smiled and gave a thumbs up. She took her leave soon after.
"I'll clean up here so you don't have to," Benjamin offered, quickly scooping up the trays and leaving Nick and Judy to escort themselves out alone.
Nick held the door open for Judy with his back, motioning her forward. Judy gave him a wry smile as she exited.
"You're incredible, Nick," she said dryly.
"Of course I am," Nick said smugly. "...What for this time?"
"Thinking I had that few siblings," Judy laughed. "They ate it all up."
Nick shook his head and mouthed the word "few?" before moving to join her gait.
"Must be that feline confidence Kristy was going on about," Nick shrugged, tucking his paws into his coat. Did I get any right?"
"Some," Judy gave him a devilish grin. "But 'Methuselah?' REALLY...?"
"You did say your grandpa was over one hundred, right?" Nick winced.
"Grandpa Otto Hopps," Judy nodded. "And yes. I'll show you a family album!"
"Yeesh," Nick winced. "It take an elephant to carry that?"
Nick's eyes blearily half-opened. The comforting sound of old comedies played from the TV, flooding the apartment with dim light. Something was wrong though. He could smell Judy; she should have been asleep on the couch next to him. But he smelled a lot more than that. Smells similar to Judy, but-
"Hruh!" Nick leaped up from the couch and whirled around, pulling a stun gun from behind a throw pillow. "Stay where you are!"
As Nick's senses flooded information to him, he found himself staring at about ten pairs of bunny ears, wide eyes, and frightened faces. One quickly shot up both of their paws in surrender, and the rest followed suit. "What the...?"
"Nick!?" Judy snapped awake, cringing back into the couch. "What is it!?" Her nose started, terrified.
"Um... I think you know these bunnies."
Instantly dropping her fear, Judy shot up and began to look over the back of the couch. "Are you kidding me."
"Sorry, Judy," one of the bunny's sisters stepped forth. Judy turned on a light to see better. It was Violet Hopps, clothed in a dark sweater, skirt, and glasses. "We'd heard you injured your arm..." Her eyes flickered over to Judy's cast. "Looks like that was correct."
"How did you know that!?" Judy shouted, exasperated. A few of the younger of Judy's siblings began to look upset. "How'd you know where I lived... how'd..."
"I did some research," Violet cleared her throat. "Nothing too invasive."
"'Nothing too invasive'," Judy spat back. "Then how did you manage to get into my apartment!?"
A brown bunny female with blue eyes gave a nervous giggle, holding up a lock pick. "Heheh..."
"Jill," Judy said stonily.
"She's really quite good at it," Violet said, her eyes wandering away nervously to regard the early morning light from the apartment window.
"You and me need to talk, Violet," Judy said, her voice laced with seriousness. "The rest of you-"
"I'm glad you're okay, Judy..." Cotton Hopps came forth, Judy's little light gray niece. Her paws were together tentatively. "I was really worried."
"Oh, Cotton..." Judy had a pained look on her face. "Come here." She carefully hugged her small niece with one paw. "Okay, Cotton." She looked at the rest of the intruders. "Bradley, Jill, Manny, Rachel, James, Sally, Hector, Jerry. You all talk with Nick for awhile, okay? He's my partner. He's very nice."
All the bunny eyes turned to Nick.
"At least I got a few of them right," Nick chuckled wearily. "Okay, any of you up for a magic trick?"
"Ooh, okay!" Cotton nodded, instantly entranced.
"Great," Nick pulled a deck of cards out of an end table while Judy moved to the kitchen, pouring cups of coffee for her and her sister. He shuffled the deck and fanned it out in front of Cotton, setting the deck box beside him. "You wanna choose a card for me?"
Cotton nodded and grabbed a card. The other bunnies craned over to look at it.
"Don't tell me what it is," Nick said. "You all got it? Okay, put it back at any space in the deck." Cotton did as she was told, and Nick started to shuffle the cards several times. The bunnies watched him as if spellbound. "Never seen a fox shuffling cards before? We're kinda famous for it. Some of the best card sharks are foxes. We do look good in vests."
"Pff," Jill scoffed.
"Okay, it's time to find your card," Nick said, rifling through the deck slowly. He peered into the deck as he was rifling, and all the bunnies did so with him. "You see it yet? I don't think it's here."
"Not yet..." Cotton shook her head.
Nick made it through the whole deck without finding the card. "Darn, you know, I think the card you picked was just shy and went back to its burrow." Cotton looked up at him with an adorably confused face, to his grin and delight. He popped up the card box and shook it, and the rattling of one card sounded. Emptying it, the ten of clubs fell out.
"That's my card!" Cotton shouted with glee.
"What? How'd he do that...?" One of the bunnies scratched his head.
"We were all watching him, how'd he pull that off...?" Another added.
"Eh, magic is just cheap tricks anyway," said Bradley, another brown bunny. He folded his arms, aloof. "All it is is tricking people."
"Foxes are pretty good at that, those tricks," Nick wiggled his eyebrows. "What you want to do is misdirect, and it helps if you have someone on the inside to help you do it." Nick showed off his empty wrists and palms. "You see, I'm not hiding any more cards, but he is." Nick gracefully reached behind Bradley's ear, making it twitch, and pulled out the ace of hearts from behind it.
"What!? How'd you...!?" Bradley looked shocked. "Whoa..."
"He's pretty good with kits," Violet observed, smiling.
"He's not bad," Judy agreed with a mirrored smile.
"So... how'd you hurt your arm?"
"It was a runaway food cart," Judy shook her head. "Ended up stopping it, but it kind of smashed my arm in the process."
Violet shook her head, rubbing her paws on her coffee cup. "This is what we were all afraid of, Judy... we had a feeling this job might be dangerous, that it might get you hurt."
"Yeah but..." Judy sighed, her eyes getting a dull, hollow look to them. "Y'know, I'm still here. No big deal."
"I guess not, but..." Violet sighed, brushing her ears back. "We all worry so much about you. What if something really bad happened, huh?"
"Chances of that are... psh," Judy blankly shrugged, her voice weak.
Violet frowned.
"I'd deal with it," Judy finally looked up at her. "As long as I'm here, I can deal."
"If that's what you want," Violet barely smiled. Her eyes flicked back over to Nick. "Now, I can see why you haven't told anyone yet, but I'm totally okay with you living with Nick. We might need to strategize how to cleanly break it to Mom and Dad, though."
"You think they'll be that upset?" Judy winced.
Across the way, Nick's ear twitched.
"About you and Nick being together? Maybe not, but it will be shocking," Violet gave a light laugh. "I'll have to craft a plan to brace them for impact."
"Well, he's just... such a nice fox and all," Judy smiled sweetly. "You can't keep it secret for me, huh?"
"I can," Violet placed her hand on her own chest. "But..." she nodded her head to the side.
"Oh right," Judy's brow fell. "Manny's here."
"Exactly; wouldn't count on it being secret long," Violet gave an apologetic smile.
"Well, you can... just tell them that Nick and I are very close, so it made sense for us to move in together," Judy shrugged.
"I guess you can get him to do your chores while your arm's broke, huh Judy?" Cotton suddenly cozied up to her aunt's side.
"Cotton!" Judy laughed. "Well, yes, it does mean that."
Nick's face showed a bit of a scowl, but he turned to the other bunnies and grew a pleasant smile. "Okay, who wants to see another trick?"
All of the bunnies held up their paws, with Bradley most eager of all.
That evening, Nick was setting up their bed, fluffing the pillows and straightening the sheets.
"You want me to help?" Judy asked lightly, showing up next to him.
"Don't be ridiculous," Nick answered coldly.
"I could tuck in the sheets with my good paw," Judy wiggled it, only to see Nick briskly tucking in the sheets. "Guess not. Why do you seem... miffed?"
"Oh, I don't know, Judy," Nick snapped, turning to glare at her. "Maybe it was that whole thing about informing Violet about our 'relationship'!"
Judy quieted up, her ears going back, looking pensive. She rubbed the shoulder of her broken arm.
"Cause, gee, I dunno, it might be nice for your partner to know he's romantically involved with you," Nick held his paws out, straightening up.
"I tried not to make it seem that way," Judy offered weakly. "That's just how they saw it."
"Yeah, how else could they see it?" Nick sneered. "I got fist bumps, hugs, 'treat Judy right's' on their way out..."
"Sounds awful," Judy said distantly. "But I don't get why you're so angry about it."
"Because you-!" Nick sputtered, running his hands over his ears. "I... you'd rather LIE to your family than admit you're really hurt? You'd fabricate a whole 'thing' between us instead of admitting the more important things that have been going on?"
Judy looked hurt and walked closer to Nick. "What lie? What lie, though, Nick?"
"I mean- you... what?" Nick narrowed an eye.
"We sleep in the same bed!" Judy motioned to it. "We joke together, laugh together, you hold me while I cry, we fall asleep on the couch together... isn't this kind of a... a 'thing'?"
"I..." Nick's muzzle bunched up. "I thought it was just because you needed someone to help you-"
"And I DO!" Judy shouted. "I desperately do! I don't want my whole family to know because I don't want them all to help. I know how... mixed their 'help' would be. But I know you... I trust you with anything and everything of mine. I NEED you, Nick."
Nick quieted up, looking solemnly off to the side.
"I thought that... once we became partners together, that would be that," Judy's breath shuddered. "That it was an eternal union. Nothing would change. Well, it has, and here we are. I'm kind of a mess, you're... you're just what I need. Just who I need."
Nick came over to solemnly hug her, patting her ears.
"You don't have to..." Judy shivered.
"Don't what...?"
"You don't have to love me."
"Little late for that, I'm afraid," Nick bent over to softly kiss the top of her head. Judy responded with a happy, tearful little chuckle, her heart fluttering.
"Thank you, Nick," The bunny nuzzled into his midsection a little. "I really need you. ...And want you, too. Like... don't think that I'm just- just using you or something."
"You need to quiet down before you get to crying babbly mode," Nick teased. He gently helped her into bed. "In you go, Strawberries."
Judy laughed, getting under the covers. "Never in public."
"Of course not," Nick got in bed with her, kissing her between the eyes. "Good night, sweetheart."
"It is, with you," Judy sighed happily, nestling in to her fox. "...I'm so lucky to have you."