Chapter 7:

Losing You

In all of the chaos it had happened so fast. Nick managed to taser the last criminal. Once he had him down he cuffed him.

"Fuck you, Wilde," Xavier growled looking up at Nick who was standing over him.

"Looks like you're the one who got fucked over," Nick said with a smirk. "Never mess with me and Judy Hopps."

That's when he realized something. He looked around frantically. Where was Judy?!

"Judy!" he called. He left the grizzly where he was and ran off to find Judy. His heart was pounding fast. Cold sweat ran down his forehead. "Judy!" he called again. He heard nothing. "Dear god, please let her be okay," he said to himself as he looked frantically back and forth. What had he been thinking? That was the problem, he wasn't thinking. He should have been keeping an eye on her. He felt like his heart was about to leap out of his chest from panic. He didn't know what he would do if anything ever happened to Judy.

He heard a faint groan. He looked in the direction where it came from and nearly screamed. Judy was laying on the cement motionless. She was surrounded by something dark, he realized it was blood.

"Judy!" he shouted. He ran over and bent down next to her. He gently lifted her head. Her breathing was ragged. She opened her eyes halfway. They looked glassy.

"N-Nick…" she whispered.

"Shh, don't say anything," he said wiping the tears from her eyes although they were now falling freely from his own. "You're gonna be okay Judy. I'm right here. The rest of the force is coming. They're going to help you."

She reached out her shaking hand to his. He held it tightly. It felt cold. Her eyes were starting to close. He began to panic. "Judy! Judy, stay with me!" He put his forehead on hers and looked into her eyes now sobbing. "I need you Judy. Please, don't leave me!"

He had never been so relieved to hear sirens in his life. Several cop cars pulled up to the scene and the officers began to put the criminals in their cars to take them to jail.

"Bogo! Somebody! Judy's hurt!" Nick shouted.

Bogo and several other officers ran over immediately when they saw Nick on the ground with Judy. "Officer Hopps!" Bogo said in shock. "What happened?!"

"I think she was shot," Nick said. He could barely speak through the panic and fear rising in his chest. "We need to get her to the hospital now! She's going to die!"

Within seconds Judy was loaded onto a stretcher and taken into the ambulance. Nick didn't leave her side. Her eyes closed. She went unconscious.

"What's wrong with her?!" Nick exclaimed thinking she had died.

"She's going to be fine Officer Wilde," the EMT said calmly. "The wound doesn't seem too bad. She's going to be okay."

That didn't make Nick's fears subside any less.

When they arrived at the hospital he wasn't allowed to go into the surgery room with her. It seemed like an eternity while he waited in the hallway pacing back and forth wondering whether Judy was going to die or not.

"Nick."

He stopped walking back and forth and saw Bogo approaching him.

"What happened?" Bogo asked gesturing for him to sit. They both sat on bench. Nick explained everything from when they had discovered where to find the criminals, they had found Lionhart in the basement and they attacked, they had opened fire and Judy had gotten hit.

"It's all my fault," Nick said. "I should have protected her. I should have done something. It should be me in there, not her."

Bogo put his hand on Nick's shoulder. "It's no one's fault. These things happen. We put our lives on the line every day. We know what we're getting into. We know that there could be that one fateful moment where we don't come back. Judy knew and she was brave. That's what makes her a hero."

"She is a hero," Nick said. "She's the bravest woman I've ever known." He looked towards the surgery room. "Is she going to die Bogo?"

"The doctors said it's not as bad as it looks," Bogo said. "But none of us can know the answers to these things. If Hopps died, it would be a great loss to the ZPD...and the world."

Nick put his face in his hands resisting the urge to cry again. If Judy died, he didn't know how he would live without her.

Suddenly the door opened and the surgeon walked out. Nick hopped out of his seat. "How is she?"

"She's going to be fine," the doctor said.

"Can I go see her?"

"Of course. She's asleep now. She should be awake soon."

Nick practically ran into the room where Judy was laying under the covers on the bed in the center of the room. It was quiet. Too quiet. He wasn't used to Judy being so still and silent. She was usually full of life and bursting with energy. Seeing her like this made his heart sink.

He pulled up a chair and sat next to her bed. He held her hand in his. It was tiny but soft. It was like it fit into his hand perfectly. Her beautiful violet eyes were closed and her face was expressionless.

The longer he watched her, the more he realized something that he had never known the full extent of until now. He needed her in his life. She had changed him in ways he would never have imagined. She made him a better person. She made him happy. Her mere presence was enough to light up his life. If he didn't have Judy in his life he would be nothing but a sleazy con man, a sly fox with no place in society. For that he was grateful to her. He was grateful to her for everything. For showing him what he was meant to do in life...and showing him what love was.

He was crying again but he didn't try to hide it this time. He ran his fingers through her soft hair and pressed his lips to her cheek.

"I need you Judy. I need you in my life," he said through his tears. "I love you."

Judy opened her eyes slowly. It was like she was surfacing above the water after sitting at the bottom of the ocean for hours. She didn't remember much. She remembered discovering the whereabouts of the grizzly bears, she remembered hearing an awful bang and a searing pain. And she remembered being in Nick's arms as she slowly drifted away to die. She remembered thinking if that was how she was going to go, then she wouldn't want it any other way than to be in his arms like that.

Her vision and her mind became more in focus. The first thing she saw was Nick. His hand was in hers and tears were pouring down his face as he cried.

"Nick?" she whispered.

"Judy!" he exclaimed.

"Are you okay?"

"I should be asking you that you dumb bunny! Are you okay?!"

She smiled. Same old Nick. "I feel like I just got hit by a train...but other than that I'm fine."

He held her hand tighter. "Damn it Judy, I thought...I thought I was going to lose you."

She reached up and wiped the tears from his face. She had never seen Nick cry like this before, let alone over her. It surprised her and at the same time it touched her to know that he really cared about her this much. "Shh, Nick, it's okay. I'm here, I'm not going anywhere. You'll never lose me."

"I need you Judy. I don't know what I would ever do without you."

"I don't know what I would do without you either Nick."

The two locked eyes for a moment and smiles touched their face.

"Want to lay next to me?" she asked.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course." She managed to moved over a little bit and he got under the covers next to her holding her close to him. He never wanted to let go.