"Nick! Hey, Nick? Can you hear me?"
"Ca...r...rot...s...?"
"Shh, lay back. You hit your head pretty hard when you fell, so take it easy."
Nick's vision and hearing were fading in and out. Through his foggy vision, he caught glances of Judy, who was cradling his sore head in her lap. He heard her voice, but only caught pieces of it, as he also heard police radios, others talking, and the traffic outside. He felt his head throbbing with a dull ache, and he felt something stinging his chest, but he couldn't quite comprehend what was going on. Judy's voice reached his ears once more.
"Here, this is going to sting a bit."
For a few moments, Nick was left confused as to what Judy was talking about until the already stinging part of his chest suddenly shot with pain, as if a needle has just been pulled from his body. Nick let out a noise of discomfort, which he heard Judy lightly laugh at.
"Shut up," the groggy fox mumbled.
"I see someone's making a rebound," Judy chuckled.
Nick grudgingly pulled himself into a sitting position and rubbed at the sore spot on the back of his head. His vision almost completely clear, the fox took in his surroundings. They were sitting on the floor of the recently almost-successfully-robbed bank, with several animals moving around them. The street outside was filled with police cruisers and was roped off by caution tape. Several officers were escorting employees and customers out of the building, as well as taking their statements as to what they had witnessed. The four criminals were nowhere to be seen. Nick attempted to recount the events before his fall to the floor, but came up short.
"Carrots, what happened?"
"All of the badgers are on their way to the ZPD, all unharmed and in some serious trouble. No one was hurt… well, kind of. You hit your head pretty hard," Judy said with a pained expression. "I'm sorry, I honestly didn't expect you to fall that hard. An ambulance is on the way just to make sure you're okay. Try not to move too much."
"Carrots?"
"Yes?"
"Did… did you shoot me?"
"Uh, yeah, about that–'
"Hopps!"
The Chief's booming voice quickly commandeered the environment, making Judy and Nick flinch in surprise. The two looked up to find a very flustered cape buffalo with four babies practically crawling all over him.
"Find a babysitter next time or don't bother coming to work!" the cape buffalo snapped at the couple.
The four children shrieked several different greetings before bombarding the bunny and the fox with crushing hugs as the Chief stormed away.
"Let's go home," Nick muttered as he attempted to stand, but Judy immediately sat him down.
"Oh, no. You're staying here until the paramedics can check you out."
"I'm fine, Rabbit, and we've got to get the kids home–"
"I can take the kids home. Think you can catch a ride?"
Nick nodded in reply, his right paw still rubbing at the painful lump that was forming on the back of his head. Without another word, Judy planted a gentle kiss on Nick's forehead before gathering the children and loading them into the SUV.
Delgato, a fairly well-built lion who was a good friend of Nick and Judy's, helped Nick stand up and slowly make his way over to the back of an ambulance, that pulled up just a few moments after Judy's departure. A couple of antelope paramedics fussed over Nick until they found no serious injuries. The fox was given an ice pack and medical clearance. Nick then caught a ride with officers Delgato and Grizzoli, who made jokes about Nick's injuries until they dropped him off at home.
The house was surprisingly quiet when Nick arrived home, but from the sight of the fading daylight, he assumed the kids would either be asleep or close to. Moving at a snail's pace, Nick made his way upstairs, peered into the dark room that belonged to the children, found all of the children peacefully snoozing, and then walked to the end of the hall and into the master bedroom. Judy was seated comfortably on the plush king-size bed the two shared, paperwork surrounding her. She was wearing black sweatpants and a dark purple shirt that complimented her fur and eye color nicely. She looked up and smiled at the sight of a disheveled Nick.
"Hey," she chortled.
"Hey. Paperwork for today?"
"Yeah, I picked it up on my way home. You were there for a while, everything alright?"
"Just a headache, nothing serious."
Nick sat the ice pack he had been cradling against the base of his skull down on their mahogany dresser with a small thump, and began unbuttoning his light green Hawaiian shirt. Judy stacked up her paperwork nicely and slid down from the bed. In just a few steps, she was in front of Nick, helping him slide the shirt off of his shoulders. The look on her face was enthusiastic while also serene, overall aroused.
"I missed you," she smiled sweetly.
"Okay, what's up with you?" Nick laughed as he carefully placed his paws on Judy's arms. "You missed me? I was only gone for a couple of hours, and we were with each other all day."
"I know," Judy shrugged. "I just missed you. I was worried about you, you hit your head really hard. It was like boom!"
Judy used her paws to make an overly exaggerated smacking gesture. Nick chuckled at her adorable gestures, but his smile quickly vanished as a thought occurred to him.
"Speaking of which, did you shoot me today?"
"Oh, yeah," Judy blushed slightly with a small smile playing at her lips. "I did. Sorry."
"Why?"
Judy giggled at Nick's incredulous tone.
"That badger was going to shoot you, Nick! I had to do something."
"So, you shot me?"
"Well, yeah, but it was just a tranquilizer dart."
"Why didn't you just shoot the badger?"
"He would have fired no matter what, so I took you out of the line of fire."
"That's wild, Carrots," Nick laughed. "I mean, that has to be one of the craziest things I've ever seen you do."
"Yeah, and let's not forget you making fun of my aim when you were the one missing targets."
"Hey, I had it under control."
"Oh, I'm sure," Judy scoffed with a roll of her eyes.
"I have to admit it, though; you're Bunny of the Year today. Found the kids a babysitter, handled a case, saved my life, brought the kids home all by yourself, put the kids to sleep, and started the paperwork. That's hardcore."
"What can I say? I–"
"–don't know when to quit, yes, I know," Nick chuckled. "But seriously, Carrots. Thank you for saving me today."
Nick leaned forward and planted a kiss on Judy's forehead.
"Sorry, what was that?" the bunny asked with a smug look.
"Don't push it, Carrots."
"No, really, I think there's something wrong with my hearing," she giggled. "What did you say?"
"Nothing is ever wrong with your hearing!"
The couple broke down in laughter, arms around each other. Several minutes went by as the two tried to hush their laughter in attempt to keep from waking the kids, only to end up laughing harder than before. After they quieted down, Nick sighed.
"I missed this."
"Missed what?" Judy asked with her head slightly tilted to the side in curiosity.
"Missed the laughter, the fun, the craziness that is just the two of us. I love the kids and I love the life we've built here, I do, but I miss the old days."
"Like?"
"Like when I still lived in that rundown apartment and we'd order the same meals from the diner almost every other night. We'd stay up late watching movies on the couch and laughing at each other. Or how we used to grab coffee from that coffee shop that was just down the street, and we'd sometimes go in and sit in our favorite booth in the back and chat until we had to go to work."
Nick smiled at his words, but the smile disappeared when he saw the look on Judy's face.
"What's wrong?"
"Do you… do you regret having kids?"
"No! Carrots, of course not. I'm just reminiscing."
"I miss those days too," she admitted quietly. "Miss the dangerous missions, miss the inside jokes, miss the pranks we used to pull on one another."
"Those were the good old days, but we have good days now too, you know."
"Yeah, I know," Judy smiled.
Then, without warning, Judy's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Oh, Nick! Do you still have the carrot pen?"
Nick thought for a minute before replying with a smile.
"Yeah, come here."
Taking Judy's paw, Nick led her over to their walk-in closet. The couple then dropped to their knees as Nick began sifting through his side of the closet.
"Nick, you really need to organize all of this."
"Here it is," Nick smirked as he pulled the carrot pen (now dulling in color out) of a box that was filled with old paperwork and worn out neck ties.
"I stopped putting this in my shirt pocket a while ago, can't remember why, though," Nick muttered, somewhat to himself.
"I wonder if it still works."
"Let's find out."
With that, Nick pressed the "play" button on the side of the pen. Judy's voice, clearly happy, as well as some background noise, filled the closet.
"Yes."
"'Yes?'" Nick asked as he looked over at Judy, who was beaming.
"Oh, Nick, that's from when you proposed," she gushed as she rested her head against Nick's arm.
At her words, Nick smiled.
"I love you, Carrots."
"I love you too, Nick."
"This is going back in my shirt pocket, where it belongs."