Not too much to say. Long days + little sleep + writing 3 stories = a general lack of focus.
Anyways, here's the next chapter as promised! Hope you enjoy!
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This chapter's been updated. Went to see Rogue One yesterday and didn't have time to edit. (By the way, go see that movie. It's miles better than The Force Awakens).
The next few days were the hardest days that Judy had ever been through. Each one of them consisted of four hours of sleep, ten hours of patrolling and policing, and ten hours of spending time with her partner.
The ten hours a day with Nick was a hundred times more stressful than pounding the pavement for criminals and a thousand times more stressful than doing it while sleep deprived. She and him spent most of that 10 hours talking and joking with one another. Their conversations were generally simple and happy, neither Judy or him bringing up the fact that their time together was quickly shrinking. And for the most part it had seemed to be working! Nick's spoken sentences were becoming longer and more complex as the days flew by, and by the weekend he was even able to show very basic facial expressions!
Yet the fact that he still wasn't in complete control his body still hung above them both, and even worse was that his physical decay didn't seem to have slowed. Even as Judy sat on the concrete floor with his head resting on her legs and her paw on his neck she could feel his heavy, irregular heartbeat through his matted fur.
What was truly scary, though, was his breathing. Judy tilted her head towards his head and perked her ears, listening to him slowly breath in and out. She shuddered at the sound, which more closely resembled struggled wheezing than breathing, but she ignored it for the time being. She couldn't even spare a second to worry about every little thing that was going wrong when there were at least a few things that were going so right.
And speaking of things going right, she and Nick had plotted out their every move once everything had returned to normal; even who was responsible for parking the cruiser on each day of the week! Once he was back in uniform they'd switch out of Precinct one and over to Precinct eight at the far end of the city and where, hopefully, their faces were much less well known. They were both aware that they'd have to say goodbye to the Chief and the members of the ZPD that knew about Nick's existence, but just because they wouldn't be working with them wouldn't mean that they'd never see each other again!
Another subject that they had talked at length about over the past few days was living arrangements. It was a consensual decision that they'd move in together, although they hadn't come to an agreement on where. She had thought it'd be okay if she moved in with him. It only seemed sensible, given that then she wouldn't have to pay rent and could get away from her loud and obnoxious neighbors. Plus then they'd both have more spending money - cash they could use to take vacations or to renovate the run-down parts of his warehouse.
But much to her surprise Nick seemed opposed to the idea, thinking that'd it'd be for the best if they moved into an apartment somewhere in Precinct eight. While she personally had no desire to move out of the edge of downtown and into the dead center of the Swamp district she kept her thoughts private, instead telling him that they could come to a final consensus once they could efficiently communicate with one another again.
But there won't be that time again. A small voice almost incessantly reminded her from the deepest places of her mind. Judy quickly shook her head, her eyes still locked with her partner's sleeping face as her paw gently stroked against his scruffy neck fur. She'd never lose him again. Never.
The sound of a mammal coughing caught Judy off guard, and she glanced up from her partner, her train of thought completely derailed by the foreign noise. It had been little more than Doctor Zdanskyi clearing his throat, but his mere presence with his pearl-white lab coat and his clipboard filled to the brim with notes and forms made Judy both at ease and uncomfortable.
He was kneeling on the other side of Nick, one of his paws occasionally picking up a blue pen laying on the ground and scribbling something on a page attached to the clipboard laying next to his leg while his other paw pressed and felt against various parts of her partner's body. Based on what she could decipher from his expression and, more importantly, what she could read from his gaze her partner's situation had deteriorated further.
Judy turned her head over her shoulder to try to temporarily distract herself from the situation, aware of her superior's steely eyes burning into her back. The Chief was leaning against the cell's closed metal door, his arms crossed over his broad chest and his eyes staring directly at her. His expression almost dared her to challenge him like she had done a few days prior when she had locked herself in Nick's cell for several hours without anything separating the two of them. Even though she had ruined Chief Bogo's trust in her she didn't think his angry attitude would last. Under his hard expression she could see grim worry, and it almost eased her own chaotic thoughts knowing that there were mammals who cared just as much about her partner as she did.
"Well," Doctor Zdanskyi exhaled as he nervously rubbed the back of his paw against his forehead and stood up from the concrete floor, taking his pen and clipboard with him. "I suppose you want to know how he's doing."
"Without a doubt," Judy answered with a small nod and a smile, her paws tightening around her partner's neck fur. Doctor Zdanskyi brusquely nodded at her response, turning his head down to intently study the notes he had taken on his clipboard. Silence took hold of the cell for several seconds as he did so, and in those strained and seemingly infinite moments his eyes became filled with loss and defeat. Judy could feel her heart rate speeding up at the show of raw emotion that she had never truly associated with him before.
"I'm sorry," He sincerely apologized, his striped tail falling to the ground as he turned his wide, pained eyes up from his clipboard and onto her. "There's been no slowing of his decay."
Judy didn't know how she was supposed to react to the news. Her mind was completely blank as she turned down to look at Nick's tranquilized face. She stared at it for several seconds. She felt like throwing herself into him and pressing against his fur, letting her tears drench him completely as she wallowed in depression. Yet she didn't; that was something she would've done two years ago. She had dealt with losing the dumb fox she loved before, and while that didn't make this time any easier it gave her a sense of control over the situation.
I can do this. She thought as she moved one of her paws up to rest on Nick's cheek and turned her determined gaze to stare at Doctor Zdanskyi. I know that his condition is worse off now than a few days ago. But he's improving, and that's what counts! There just needs to be something new thrown into the mix to help him recover faster...
"What's the plan?" She confidently asked, an eager smile forming on her face. Doctor Zdanskyi's paws flicked through dozens of pages on his clipboard, his demeanor completely different from what it had been only seconds before. Maybe she was good at cheering mammals up in the darkest of times!
"Judging from what I've recorded from Officer Wilde's last few check-ups, I think our next course of action should be to move him to a different location," The tiger explained, glancing up towards Judy again. "You say he's been speaking more, right Officer Hopps?"
Judy nodded in answer, curious of but open to Doctor Zdanskyi's suggestion. Her ears perked in interest as the tiger went back to flick through the pages in his clipboard, and over the noise of rustling paper she heard Chief Bogo push himself off of the cell's door and slowly walk towards the center of the room.
"I don't like taking Wilde away from the station, Zdanskyi," The cape buffalo grumbled, and Judy turned her head to watch him stoically walk up to stand in front of Doctor Zdanskyi, his arms still crossed over his chest. "What good would it be if we took him to the hospital? I thought we already concluded thaat medicine him doesn't improve his standing."
"You misunderstand, Chief Bogo," Doctor Zdanskyi politely elaborated, unphased by the Chief's aggressive stance. "The hospital isn't where I want to take Officer Wilde."
Doctor Zdanskyi turned towards Judy, dragging Chief Bogo's gaze along as well, and she straightened herself and widened her eyes in interest as she held the two of them in a stare.
"Have you ever heard of the Minas Girrais Recovery Institute?" Doctor Zdanskyi asked, and Judy shook her head. She hadn't heard of a place with that name before, but judging by the annoyance sprouting on her superior officer's face it looked like he had.
"What good would taking Wilde there be?" He growled, but Doctor Zdanskyi yet again calmly defied him with a cool expression, his eyes quickly moving back to Judy.
"The MGRI is an independently owned hospital and therapeutic center that was built for mammals of importance being relocated from politically tumultuous zones," Doctor Zdanskyi elaborately explained, ignoring the Chief's question for the time being. "The institute was built forty years ago with the permission of both the incumbent Mayor and the city council. Political prisoners, rogue cops; anyone that the courts have deemed innocent enough to be rehabilitated and relocated have passed through there. The institute itself is about three hours outside of the Jungle district town center, in an isolated valley far from any disturbances. If we move your partner there then I'll be able to see him much more frequently than I'm able to see him here and he'll be in a much more comfortable position."
Judy felt her nose beginning to twitch in interest at the description of the MGRI. It sounded more like a prison than a hospital with the kinds of mammals that passed through it, but if it meant that the Doctor could see her partner more often and that Nick would be more comfortable than he'd be in this concrete box of his then she was all aboard. Yet before she'd accept the idea there was still one question she needed answered.
"What happens if someone finds out about Nick?" She asked, a small feeling of hypocrisy building up inside her as she remembered the moment she told Finnick and Voltaire about their friend's existence.
But that needed to be done. She silently added.
"There's no need to worry about that, Ms. Hopps," Doctor Zdanskyi reassured, finally turning his eyes back to Chief Bogo, who's stern expression had become silently angry at his deliberate exclusion from the conversation by the tiger. "Everyone who works at the institute has to sign a pledge of silence, and its management guarantees that two patients will never see one another."
"I think it'd be for the best if Officer Wilde was relocated to the MGRI, Chief Bogo," Doctor Zdanskyi continued, all his attention now turned towards the Chief and his voice hushed, as if he was trying to keep it from Judy despite her exceptional hearing.
"Are you aware how difficult it'd be for us to move him without being caught?" The chief loudly rebuked, stepping a foot forward and pointing a hoof at Zdanskyi, who still didn't react to his aggressive demeanor. "And what about Hopps? She can't just skip patrol for days or weeks."
"Actually," Judy interrupted, trying to appear as polite as she could in front of her superior, as her paw beginning to stroke the side of Nick's head. "I have three weeks worth of vacation I've been saving up for the past few years. I can use those for these next few days and while he's recovering."
Chief Bogo raised an eyebrow at her, his hoof still pointed directly at Doctor Zdanskyi, but the doctor spoke before he could refuse her offer to take off work days.
"And I have a strategy to get him out of the headquarters," Zdanskyi added, turning over his clipboard and sketching something on its wooden back as the Chief's eyes quickly flashed towards the object, his extended hoof falling back to his side. After several silent seconds the doctor turned his board towards his counterpart, who moved to stand next to him, his arms resting on his hips as his stern gaze studied the diagram. Judy strained her neck to see what the doctor had drawn, but stopped when she realized that from her position on the ground any attempt she made to see the board would be futile; unless she suddenly turned into a giraffe!
"Fine," The Chief grumbled as he shifted on his feet, his eyes still stuck on the board. "We'll move Wilde."
"Perfect!" Doctor Zdanskyi exclaimed, a content smile forming on his face as he looked past the clipboard and at Judy. "We'll need your permission to transfer him, of course."
"Mine?" Judy quizzically stated, moving a paw to point at herself as a confused expression made its way onto her face. "Why do you need my permission to move Nick?"
"Well..." Doctor Zdanskyi confidently began, but he moved his eyes off of her and grimaced for half a second as he sought out an explanation. "City records indicate that Officer Wilde has no remaining family in the jurisdiction, and seeing that his current situation has left him unable to speak for himself, all decisions regarding his well-being fall to his next of kin. Seeing as that is not an option, however, those decisions would then go to his romantic partner. Which is you."
Judy's eyes widened in apprehension at the doctor's words. She didn't know whether to feel honored by holding her partner's survival in her paws or scared by it. It felt like such a big leap! But she knew that, in reality, it had been nothing but a small step. For these past few weeks she had been the one holding the key to the door of her partner's well being; now it was only official.
"Then I hereby give you permission," She responded, the anxiety in her face dying as she smiled at Doctor Zdanskyi. He smiled back at her, turning back down to look at the clipboard as the Chief brought a hoof up and motioned at a portion of it.
"You're dismissed, Hopps," Chief Bogo said, not bothering to glance up at her. "Go home and get some rest. Your vacation starts now; we'll have a fellow informed officer drive you to the MGRI tomorrow morning. I'll call when the preparations for Wilde's movement have been made."
Judy nodded at her superior but didn't rise up from her kneeling position from the floor. Instead she turned downward and stared at Nick's sleeping face. Even under his thin frame and slowly shedding fur, now almost back at its normal length, there was strength and determination, and that brought a warm and fuzzy feeling that was nowadays so rare to feel.
I'll be see you again in a few hours, Nick. She mouthed, not daring to say the words out loud, as she briefly leaned down to nuzzle the side of his cheek with hers. Hang tight until then.
With a final peck on his cheek Judy picked up his head off her lap and gently rested it against the concrete floor. She stood and turned towards the door, casting one last loving glance at her partner over her shoulder as she strolled away from him.
He loves me... She warmly reminded herself. If it wasn't for the long and hard days she was having she would've thought about what he had told her more, but in a way she was thinking about those three simple words in every waking moment she was with him.
"Remember to kill your scent, Hopps," The Chief called out to her, his eyes still focused on the back of the clipboard and his voice as hard as nails.
"Will do, Chief," She called back with a quick nod as her paw fell to her utility belt and flicked opened a container-shaped pouch. She lifted the bottle out of the pouch and held it out in front of her as she passed through her partner's cell door, and when she was completely in the hallway she held down the bottle's spray button. A huge white cloud began to form a few feet in front of her, and when it was large enough to cover every inch of her body she shoved the bottle back into its pouch and flicked it shut, her pace marginally speeding up as she hurriedly entered the cloud.
She was only in it for a second, but when she exited on the other side of it the scent of her partner that had previously combined her own scent to form something new was gone, leaving behind no trace and being replaced by an overpowering smell of anti-scent spray. She never liked drowning herself in the spray now that she could have physical contact with him again, but if it kept his existence under wraps then she'd do it for as long as necessary.
The next few minutes passed with relative silence and clarity as Judy opened the huge, metal door at the end of the hallway with her access card, locked it behind her, and made her way out into the rows of cubicles beyond it, quickly piloting to her own and beginning to pack up her belongings into her knapsack. The headquarters was nearly empty now that the darkness of night was almost upon the city, and the few mammals that remained in their cubicles that Judy saw as she strolled past them and out into the headquarter's commons were either her fellow day-shift workings packing up to go home or the mostly unfamiliar night shift workers that she had met on only a few scattered occasions.
The two or three mammals standing and sitting around the headquarter's commons weren't uniformed. They weren't very well dressed either, and as Judy passed one of them, a white wolf, she could smell the unforgettable scent of smoke coming off of his black turtleneck sweater. She walked around the mammal without paying much attention to him, her eyes and focused on the glass doors leading out onto the street and her mind beginning to form a list of what she'd need for her trip. But before she could leave the building a warm and familiar voice called out to her.
"Have a great weekend, Judy!" Someone lightheartedly shouted, and Judy turned her head over her shoulder and slowed her pace to stare towards the headquarter's front desk, where Clawhauser was glancing up at her as his paws packed his uneaten snacks into a massive gym bag laying atop his desk.
"You too, Ben!" She hurriedly shouted back across the commons as she turned back to and pushed open the glass door, letting the cool dusk air envelop her and cool her overworked form. "See you next week!"
Judy cringed, the merry smile on her face being replaced by an awkward grimace as the door slowly shut behind her and she walked down the sidewalk and away from the headquarters. She definitely wouldn't see Clawhauser over the weekend and she couldn't be certain that she'd see him anytime next week.
Who knows how long Nick will have to stay at the MGRI. She silently added, the awkwardness on her face dying as a contented expression took its place. And speaking of the Institute...
Judy let her paw fall into her uniform's pocket and she drew out her phone from it after a moment of tugging. She swiped it open with her thumb, quickly punching in her password and piloting to the Zoogle Chrome app on her desktop. She quickly glanced ahead at the almost empty sidewalk, making sure that she wouldn't get in any mammal's way, before she turned her eyes downward to look at the colorful Zoogle Chrome homepage and moved her other paw up so that she was holding her phone with two paws.
Minas Girrais Recovery Institute. She thought to herself as she pressed against the page's search bar and her thumbs tapped against the letters on her screen's keyboard. She hit the Search button next to the search bar and briefly looked up from her phone as the search's results loaded.
The sidewalk ahead was completely empty save for several well-to-do dressed pigs and cows waiting at a bus stop to her right. The sunlight was almost completely departed, and one by one the street lights and lamps along the edge of the sidewalk began to flick on, illuminating the darkened brick buildings on both sides of the mostly quiet road.
A small smile filled with memory came onto Judy's face as she realized what had happened just over two years ago. It was midsummer, and she had been walking back to her apartment when she had pulled out what she had thought to be her phone from her pocket. In reality it had been her partner's, and when she unlocked it she was greeted with two foxes doing... despicable things to one another. Yet the worst part was the volume was turned up to its maximum, and she could've sworn that she had died of embarrassment when an elderly sheep waiting at the same bus stop she was walking past now had looked at her furiously. She had sprinted to the street corner in a knee-jerk reaction, and she had secretly vowed to never speak of that moment again.
Looking back on it, though, It's kind of funny. She humorously thought to herself. If only Nick had been there to see it firsthand...
But he had been at Arctic One at the time, and it had only been a few minutes after her awkward debacle that she had first learned about his 'death'. The warm smile on her face shrunk and saddened at the memory of her breakdown on the front steps of her apartment building.
Never again. She resolutely thought, moving her eyes back down to her phone as she reached the end of the sidewalk and rounded the corner of a dark brick building.
The results for her Zoogle search had finished loading; a minuscule number of 1342 pages all in all. Most of them were only news articles that referenced the MGRI or posts on various forms that mentioned the same acronym. It was on the fifth page of results, a place she would never venture under normal circumstances, that she found the institute's website. She'd give credit to the institute's administrator's; they had made the MGRI almost invisible online.
Welcome to the Minas Girrais Institute of Recovery and Rehabilitation, or MGRI. The website's front page formally began, the black text layered in front of a simple blue and green splotched background. Our professional staff and isolated location in the province of Minas Girrais ensure that all mammals that have a need to visit us are not disturbed by the outside world. Aside from being a world-renowned hospital, our...
Judy skimmed the last few sentences on the website's front page, deciding to switch to the website's Facilities tab when she realized that she was only reading the synopsis that Doctor Zdanskyi had given her earlier. The page took a moment to load, but when it finally did Judy's ears perked in interest she she studied the image at the top of the page.
It didn't look like what she had expected at all. There wasn't a box-shaped building, concrete walls, or metal bars anywhere in sight, and the image was intricate in that it emphasized the institute's beauty yet didn't manage to give its location away. There were rows of what looked to be linked hospital rooms slowly terraced up the side of an otherwise jungle-covered hill, and from the perspective of the image at the bottom of the white stone-terraces it looked like the further the single building traveled up the side of the hill the larger it became.
Here at the Minas Girrais Institute of Recovery and Rehabilitation we pride ourselves on being the largest and most advanced hospital and therapeutic center in all of Minas Girrais. Judy read as she turned her curious and eager eyes downwards from the image. Our nearly one hundred and fifty thousand square foot hospital and almost four hundred staff guarantee that patients and their families will never have their privacy intruded on by any outside mammal. Our wide range of hospital rooms allow for mammals of any size or structure to feel comfortable during their stay, while our dozens of private residences not only accommodate but make our patient's visitors feel at home.
Judy quickly glanced up to her side as the familiar hum of a lightbulb entered her straightened ears. She absentmindedly turned towards the source of the sound, little more than an ugly yellow light screwed into the brick wall next to her apartment building's entrance, and she set her feet to autopilot as they piloted towards the building's double glass doors. She turned downward again to look at her phone, her mind excited by the description of the institute. Not only would Nick have a better chance of recovering there, she'd be comfortable while she helped him do so. Hell, even the room she'd be staying in sounded and looked spectacular! She might have to drag Nick back there sometime for a vacation!
Aside from our main hospital facility, the Institute is also comprised of several smaller buildings. Judy continued to read as she stepped up the only step leading up to her apartment building's front doors, raising a paw upward to rest on the old metallic doorknob just overhead as an interested smile formed on her face. They include, but are not limited to, several gyms and weight-training facilities, a recreational sporting building, a library with over 10000 authors to choose from, a multi-purpose outdoor activity area, a morgue...
Judy's eyes widened in shock and her heart stopped beating as she read that single, dreadful word over and over again. Without even realizing what was happening she stormed through the glass door in front of her, her ears strewn out behind her as she sprinted down the hallway and up the dingy stairwell to the building's story. She could feel herself beginning to break down. Her eyes were the first to go as she sprinted past Bucky and Pronk, her next door neighbors who filed past her without a second thought, and by the time she reached her door the sides of her face where drenched with panicked tears. Her mind was racing at a thousand miles an hour, but it couldn't concentrate on anything except for that one terrifying word.
Morgue.
When she was in her apartment she slammed the door shut behind her, threw her knapsack against the wall, and leaped onto her bed, letting her phone slip out of her paw in mid-air to land beside her. Her body was suddenly aching, and as she withered on her now messy bed, scrambling for her pillow at the end of it, she felt like something was going to burst out of her stomach. When she finally did manage to gain a grip the soft cotton object she shoved her face into it and began to weep.
She felt one of her paws crawling down her unmade sheets, but she didn't have the strength to care about what it was doing. She had been entirely consumed by despair and desolation. All because the mammal she loved was dying...
But why in all of the great green Earth was she crying now of all times? She knew Nick was dying! And she was helping him so he would avoid that fate!
Yet there was something different about the dejection inside her that kept her attention focused on everything and nothing at the same time. With the few and scattered parts of her mind that still had a few seconds before they too were to be stricken she realized what the feeling was, but before she could do anything except put a name to it the absolute embodiment of misery consumed her entirety. It was a feeling she hadn't felt with this intensity since she had first learned of her partner's death.
Grief.
She was grieving for a mammal that was still alive.
"Judy?" A familiar and worried voice interrupted. Judy could barely hear the noise through her pillow and over the sounds of her muffled weeping. Without moving from her laying position she lifted her head up off the pillow and looked over her shoulder and towards her apartment's doorway. She secretly hoped that she'd be greeted by a vulpine face with big, emerald eyes and an even bigger grin, but in reality the door was still firmly shut like she had left it.
"Judith?" The voice continued. "Are you okay?"
It took Judy a little too long to notice the blatantly obvious illuminated screen resting in the paw that had moved down the length of the bed on its own volition a moment prior. When she finally did notice it she turned herself over scooted herself to the corner of her bed so she could rest her head against her apartment's ugly wallpaper. She raised her paw upwards and studied her phone that seemed to be as bright as the sun in her pitch-black room through squinted eyes.
Mom. The screen read, a red hangup button at the bottom of it and a small profile picture of said mammal at the top. Call Duration - 00:00:33.
Judy silenced her sad sniffles and erratic tears at the sight of the name, and she forced her ears to perk and a content smile to form on her face as she raised up her phone to the side of her head.
"Hey Mom," She casually greeted, wiping the snot from her upper lip with her uniform's sleeve and clearing her watery eyes with her paw.
"Judy, what's going on?" The voice on the other end of the line asked, and Judy took a moment to think about how to answer the question without revealing anything that had happened over the past several weeks.
"Nothing," She eventually replied with a forced and heartbroken smile. "Nothing's wrong, mom."
"Then why'd you call me?" Her Mom countered, worry and anxiety laced in her voice.
Judy took a long time to think about the question, but no matter what she thought she couldn't come up with an answer for why she had called her mother when the shock and sadness from the realization that the mammal she loved was dying finally collided with her. Maybe it was because she just needed someone to lean on; metaphorically, of course. Yet a part of her deep down felt like she had called her because there was a question that her grieving mind couldn't bear to leave unanswered.
"I need to ask you a question, Mom," She politely began, turning to stare out her apartment's window and look at the moon as it slowly began its ascent over the city. The teardrops on her cheeks shone in it as if they were dewdrops on blades of grass.
"If dad was dying," She stuttered out, feeling tears beginning to force themselves out of her eyes again. "What would you say to him?"
The other line fell silent for what felt like hours, and Judy began to think that her phone had lost the signal, but eventually she heard her mom sigh on the other end of the line.
"I'd tell him that I loved him," Was all she said. "And I'd spend every waking moment with him so that, even if he didn't live, then his last few days would be the best days of his life."
Judy smiled at her mother's response, her mind touched and inspired by her answer, and she turned away from the window to stare down at her feet.
"Thanks, Mom," She lovingly but shakily replied.
"No problem, Judy," The rabbit on the other end warmly and lightly replied. "Does this have to do with your partner?"
"Yeah..." Judy answered, her eyes falling even further downward to stare at her ruffled sheets. Her parents were well aware of her struggle to overcome her partner's death two years prior. If only she could tell them the real reason for her grief...
"Do you want to talk about it?" Her Mother asked, and even though she wouldn't be able to see it Judy shook her head.
"No," She answered with a polite smile as she took the back of her head off the wall and moved to lay flat on her back, her head resting on the damp, tear-covered pillow messily pulled down from the top of her bed. "I'm okay. I think I just need some sleep right now."
"Alright, Judy," Her mother conceded, her voice full of understanding but still lined with worry. "But remember - no matter how much you grieve, Rick's not coming back."
"You mean Nick," Judy corrected with a humored smile, her eyes studying her stained, ugly ceiling.
"Right! Nick!" Her mother apologetically exclaimed. "Sorry about that! It's just been a while since-"
"Mom, it's fine," Judy interrupted with a small chuckle. "Really. I mess up names all the time."
No I don't. She silently and almost cynically added.
"Thanks for the talk," She politely finished, rolling over to lay on her side and stare at her desk.
"No problem, Judy," Her mother warmly responded. "If you ever need to talk, please call. Me and your Dad love to hear from you even if we don't have too much free time nowadays to talk."
"Will do, Mom," Judy replied, smiling, as her ears began to fall limp behind her head. "Love you. And tell Stu I love him too."
"I will," Her mother amicably said, and Judy imagined a loving expression was forming on her face right about now. "Love you, Judy. Keep on being the strong daughter you've always been."
With that last thoughtful goodbye their conversation was over, and Judy pressed the red Hang Up button on her phone's screen before she let the device and her paw fall to lay limp on her untidy sheets. She lazily closed her eyes and let her mind wander.
She couldn't grieve. She had been foolish these past few weeks, thinking that just because her partner was alive that meant his survival was guaranteed. Even these past few days had been filled with a lack of realization, even at the news of the sudden deterioration of his condition. Time was against them now; little more than a ticking time bomb ready to blow at a moment's notice. She'd have to remember what her mother would do in this situation.
Tell him you love him, Judy. Judy told herself as her sorrowful and sleep-deprived mind began to pass into the realm of sleep. Make him stay, but don't be an idiot about it. We can't afford to make mistakes anymore. Use every minute like it's his last, but most importantly never give up on him...
As soon as the loud echoing coming from the end of the hallway ended and the familiar sound of the giant, metallic door automatically locking shut took its place Chief Bogo turned his eyes up to Doctor Zdanskyi and stared at him expectantly.
"What's wrong?" He asked the tiger, who's eyes were still focused on the one word scribbled on the back of the clipboard.
"Did you notice how I didn't mention to Officer Hopps how long Officer Wilde has left to live?" The doctor asked, his eyes beginning to turn sad as they moved up from the word Talk on the back of the clipboard and onto the Chief's face.
"How long does he have?" The Chief demanded, a twinge of apprehension forcing itself into the corner of his otherwise well-defended mind.
"Two days," Zdanskyi neutrally responded, his voice noticeably quieter than normal, as he lowered his clipboard to his side and took a small step away his counterpart. The Chief looked stunned and speechless by the answer, and he quickly turned towards the fox laying in the middle of the floor a few feet in front of him, his eyes wide and mouth agape.
Several minutes of silence took hold of the room as both he and Doctor Zdanskyi studied the nude mammal who's breathing was louder than an air conditioner and who had curled himself into a ball at his partner's departure. The longer the two of them stared at the short and shaky rise and fall of his chest the more and more emotion drained from both their faces until they looked like little more than drones.
"He's not going to live, is he?" Chief Bogo asked, his hooves falling to clasp one another behind his back as his arms and shoulders became limp.
"No," Doctor Zdanskyi responded with an almost indistinguishable shake of his head, moving his arms behind him to copy the chief's pose. His clipboard was gripped so tightly by his right paw that one could almost hear the sound of its wooden frame cracking.
"How are we going to tell Hopps?" The Chief asked, his sullen eyes not yet ready to move off of the fox.
"We're not," Zdanskyi answered without any hesitation. Chief Bogo turned toward him with a surprised and disturbed expression, but the tiger's emotionless face still didn't react or look away from Nick.
"She has a right to know, Zdanskyi!" The Chief hurriedly explained as annoyance forced itself into his thoughts. "We can't just leave her in the dark!"
Doctor Zdanskyi didn't move or respond to his counterpart. Instead all he did was smile as he studied the nude mammal laying a few feet away from him as the fox fell into a short but violent coughing fit.
"Throughout my entire career, Chief Bogo, I've never really connected with any of my patients," The tiger recounted as memory began to well up in his eyes, and Chief Bogo listened to him in sullen silence. "Officer Wilde is no exception. I will say that he's been a very unique case, but aside from that I don't feel like I've developed any feelings of admiration for him or for Officer Hopps."
Doctor Zdanskyi turned toward his counterpart, his smile growing marginally as he studied the Chief's old, tired eyes.
"But when you put the two together, that's when something in me stirs," He warmly continued. "I don't have any desire to tell Officer Hopps that the fox she loves will die because what she's doing isn't enough to save him. She's donated seemingly endless amounts of time and energy to trying to help him, and I fear that if we tell her that's still insufficient then she'll work herself to death - or worse."
Chief Bogo turned his eyes back to Nick, reluctant to accept what the doctor was saying but overwhelmed by his show of sincere emotion that'd he had never seen from him before. With a final, sad shake of his head his eyes became filled with silent grief and his straightened stature lost some of the discipline that was always present in it.
"So that's it," He commented, his eyes refusing to move off of the dying fox. "We're giving up on Wilde and leaving his partner in the dark."
"Don't be so blunt, Chief," Doctor Zdanskyi neutrally commented as he stepped forward and squatted down to study Nick's sleeping but snarling face. "This is a complex matter. We've all done we can to save Wilde. We won't be able to salvage him, but we might be able to save his partner from a complete break down. The only thing we have to do is keep this quiet and let nature take its course."
Last Chapter of 2016 is next up!
Primal: A Zootopia Fanfiction Chapter 15 - December 31
A Fox in Shining Armor: A Zootopian Fanfiction Chapter 4 - December 31
Fourty Thousand: A Zootopia Fanfiction Prologue - TBA
Guilt, that Monster: A Zootopia Short Story - TBA
Dire Situations: A Zootopia Short Story - TBA
This chapter was last edited December 16, 2016