Author's Note:

Unfortunately, a family tragedy has prevented me from writing for a while, but things are starting to slowly get back to some semblance of normal. Hopefully I shall resume on at least a weekly update. I will have some weekend opportunities for some binge writing soon as well.

Sometimes a peaceful village is only peaceful because they don't put up with anything. Thank you everyone who has given me feedback on the new direction I approached this from. I did not like Retconning, but I believed very strongly that this was the best course of action. There will be some things that ARE different, but overall, we are back on track.

If you are just joining Guardian Blue for the first timeyou will want to check out Season 1 first, and I would highly recommend Thanks for the Fox before that as well so everything makes sense. ^^

Disney is in no way involved in this adventure, aside from providing the original characters and part of the world this occurs in. I enjoy writing this and hope to continue to do so for a very long time. Thank you again, all those who take the time to provide feedback, even if it's just a quick blurb about some particular part of the chapter. It's helpful to know what stood out sometimes, and it's not always the part I expected!

Also! A HUGE shout-out to J. N. Squire for assisting with editing for Season 2! I sometimes over-use a word rampantly in my writing without realizing it, like… seeming. That's kind of invisible to me without an editor so it's good to have one helping. We don't catch every single thing, but every boost in quality helps. Occasionally, in order to post in a timely fashion, I will allow the editing to take place AFTER the posting, which is unusual, but if I did not it might take a bit longer for the chapters to come out. Let me know how you guys feel about that. Is it better to get a chapter with a few typos out that I correct later so you have the chapter sooner, or has the quality difference been a hindrance to your enjoyment?

Guardian Blue: Season Two

Episode 11: Shetani

The silence of the tiny mountainside town of Siri Shamba was shattered along with a significant portion of the front wall of the tiny hut Nick and Judy were in. Faster than either fox or bunny could possibly react, the hyena, Motti, exploded with agonized rage. She hurled herself forward at Nick with as much force as her powerful body could muster. The result was light flooding into the dimly lit interior of the hut as a brand new roughly Nick-shaped door was created. The loud thump of the fox and his attacker hitting the ground outside was punctuated by a cry from Judy. She jumped through the new door and outside to find Motti savagely strangling and shaking her partner, tears streaming down her grief-stricken face.

Judy had not been in any way interested in causing an incident, but there was no way out of it at this point. Motti looked like she could and would kill Nick, and that thought threw adrenaline through Judy's veins like the very opposite of a tranquilizer dart. The hyena could do a lot of damage very quickly in her state and Motti didn't deserve to face the kind of consequences that would carry. She wasn't a bad mammal, was just overcome with grief. The bunny moved in sudden leap alongside Motti as the hyena straddled Nick to hold him down. The fox was unsuccessfully attempting to curl into a ball underneath her to protect himself and get his feet under him to push away. Once Judy was beside the kneeling hyena, the bunny planted her little paws in the dirt, digging her fingers in, and then spun around with all her strength and considerable momentum to deliver a satisfyingly loud kick to the back of Motti's head.

Judy's kick had the very potent effect of actually flipping Motti forward off of Nick, making her tumble two or three times into the leaves out in front of her hut. The bunny turned to help her partner, who was coughing and clutching his neck. Judy's heart sank as she saw blood spattered on the leaves. She needed to find out how much damage had been done. Unfortunately her attention was immediately pulled away from him as her sensitive ears picked up the sound of running paws striking the ground on a panicked approach. She turned in time to see two very angry-looking lycaons and another hyena rushing toward her. Knowing that Nick was hurt, possibly badly, Judy could not afford to let this devolve further than it had.

"Stop!" she cried, jumping back and attempting to dodge a set of paws trying to grab her. "She attacked him! I don't want to fight!" One of the lycaons shouted something back in his native tongue, and the bunny suddenly regretted not having Jack nearby. The one who had shouted lunged for Judy and she sidestepped slightly, catching his wrist in both her paws and turning into his lunge. This let his momentum carry his motion and she pitched her shoulder under him before literally launching him into the open 'door' of the hut with a loud crash. The hyena, a male with no shirt and obviously wet fur was the next one to reach Judy.

His misfortune was being interested in how far the bunny had just hurled a mammal at least three times her size. This misplaced interest left his attention off the bunny who quickly stepped forward and put her powerful leg behind his. She then put her paw hard into his sternum, folding him backwards hard over her hooked knee. Gravity did most of the work in this case as he grunted hard from the impact with the ground. Judy then turned before side-stepping the attack of the other lycaon. This evasion put her on top of the hyena's wet tummy. He had to have been swimming or bathing when the fight broke out. To put distance between her and the lycaon, she jumped hard off of the sprawled out hyena. That made him grunt again and fold forward with pain.

"Go easy!" Nick grunted, sitting up as Judy found herself facing him with the lycaon between them. He had blood on his neck. Judy felt the prickle of very unprofessional rage building. She pushed it back, heart racing. This was about protecting him, not avenging him, she couldn't afford to think like that.

"Tell them that!" Judy said, jumping to the side again. She was agile, small, and hard to catch. With only one opponent on their feet she felt a little safer not to engage the last one. The sound of running filled her with dread however. The rest of the village was likely on their way to kill their invaders given how it must have looked.

The other lycaon that had been launched into the hut emerged and immediately jumped on top of Nick, perhaps feeling his friend was now outnumbered. Nick pushed him back, able to deal with a mammal this size easier than the now limp female hyena who had been viciously attacking him before. Still, Judy watched her partner get pinned on his back, struggling again while all she could do is dodge the other splotchy canid.

Mid-struggle, Nick pointed off to the side suddenly and shouted "Buibui!"

His attacker looked that way fearfully, crying out "Wapi?!" Nick took advantage of his suddenly exposed jaw and landed a powerful ZPD-trained blow right on target. His attacker went instantly limp on top of him and the fox rolled him away.

Judy, encouraged by Nick's personal victory, jumped away from her attacker again in time to see Jack vault right into him, planting both feet into his back and sending the lycaon sliding a considerable distance down the adjacent embankment. Skye was behind him, followed by what Judy really dreaded. It was surely about half the village. She regarded the shirtless hyena who was finally getting up, bristling with anger, clutching his tummy. The conscious lycaon scrambled to get back up the hill. This did not seem to be the kind of thing that was likely to end well. Nick stood up shakily and moved back-to-back with his partner, panting. He was ready to fight, it seemed.

Jack shouted loudly, "Kuacha Mapigano!" Everyone stopped. Jack panted as heavily as Nick, having run the considerable distance from the hut they had likely just gotten their bags put away in. "Kuacha!" he shouted again. Jack then turned back and looked at the approaching mammals approaching behind him. They were much more cautious. No blows were being thrown so no one was in immediate danger. Jack spoke to them a bit slower, still panting as Nick and Judy moved over toward him. They were less likely to get jumped again if they stayed together.

Judy wasn't sure what Jack was saying but it seemed to calm the other mammals down. Instead of continuing to attack, the hyena and other lycaon tended to Motti and the prone lycaon. Motti was revived first, and she spoke rapidly, sobbing, to the male hyena who had shaken her back to her senses. He looked shocked, then pained and began to cry with her, holding Motti. The lycaon Nick knocked out was eventually awake again but not really back to his senses, flopping about in his friends arms as he tried to get him to sit up.

Judy felt absolutely miserable about all of this. She expected Ukweli's family to be devastated and maybe angry about things, but she had absolutely not expected that Motti would try to kill them for it. She hoped that Jack would be able to find out at least why that happened. The buck was sitting beside Skye on the grass. Two other mammals, a wolf and another lycaon who had been uninvolved, sat with him. Another older hyena had taken over comforting Motti as the shirtless one finally sat with Jack also, seeming agitated but conversational.

Judy took advantage of this distraction to check on Nick. The wounds which were still lightly bleeding were not too severe, and were definitely caused by Motti's claws. She checked on them a bit but found that the bleeding had already mostly stopped. She then approached Jack, only to find that the mammals sitting with him all scooted way back. She stopped short, tilting her head curiously.

Judy murmured softly, her tone heavy with regret, "Please explain that we didn't come here to cause problems or scare them, we are only here to help."

The shirtless hyena, now mostly dry, spoke up. "This is known now, as your friend is telling. I am Samaki. I… regret not knowing what was happening, I only see you kick Motti. My duty is to protect the village. I protect." He stood up, wincing a little. He was likely a little sore from the gut-kick from Judy spring-boarding off of him. "Please do not be angry with Motti, Sungura ya Shetani." He bowed a bit to prove himself genuine perhaps. Jack tensed up a bit at the phrase Samaki used and looked away uncomfortably.

Judy replied softly, "In her state of mind, I worried that she really would kill the other officer. She has every reason, every right, to be upset with what's happened, but I couldn't let her take a life over it. We are only here to bring Ukweli home, and to promise that we will do what we can to give him justice."

The male hyena grunted. "We do not seek justice for Ukweli. He was foolish to leave and his fate was known the moment he seek help from the outsider. Outsider says he will help, but has questions about secrets we do not speak of. All here knew he would not help"

"That doesn't sound like Lupin at all." Jack stated with a bit of irritation in his voice. Nick shook his head at the Buck. This was not a personal slight against his friend, it was the hyena's point of view. They didn't trust outsiders despite going through the trouble to accommodate them. Judy suddenly felt like the nice hut for visitors was just to contain them, not to invite them.

Judy helped Nick diffuse Jack's obvious defense of his friend. "This was the old wolf outsider?" she asked.

"Yes, Shetani," he stated calmly. Jack winced again. Judy made a mental note to ask about it later.

She ignored it for the moment and asked, "This outsider, he helped with a problem then?" she asked.

"No," Samaki said softly, "He listen to the secret he asked about, then he leave. Ukweli disappointed the village. He did something very unforgivable. We still loved Ukweli, but he was in much trouble for telling."

"What secret?" Judy asked.

"Really?" Nick asked, making Judy grit her teeth at her own ridiculousness.

"I will not discuss it. I beg to be forgiven, Shetani, but we do not talk of this thing to outsiders, and Ukweli's very bad luck, this is what happen." Judy felt nervous because the discussion of Ukweli and Lupin were so tightly interwoven it was impossible to say whether it would be able to be shown as a separate investigation, even if they solved it. She did not want to cause problems for Bogo down the line with this, and there was a chance word of the fight would still make it back to Zootopia. It had to go in the report.

"What was Lupin supposed to help with?" Nick asked. Judy tightened up, knowing that was sliding into Ukweli's case more than Lupin's. Where did the wolf go? Who did he talk to? Those were okay to ask. What Lupin was actually doing with Ukweli could be harder to pursue without making trouble for their boss.

Samaki answered hastily, "We do not need help."

"Uongo!" cried Motti as she stomped over to the group. Nick visibly flinched and Judy stood closer to him.

The shirtless hyena held up his paws. "Let it go, Motti. You should be resting!"

Motti shouted, "He dies for nothing then?! He is kitu by our own choosing?" The other hyena came back over to try to comfort her and calm her, but Motti pulled away.

"Kuacha! We do not want outsider help!" grunted Samaki as he stood up. Motti turned to Judy, tears in her eyes.

She sobbed, "You say you are here to help, then help this! You find out why Motti and Ukweli's family is not coming back from the mines!"

"Motti!" came a shout from one of the other villagers.

"Kuacha!" shouted another.

Motti fell to her knees in front of Judy, her face agonized. "You cannot bring Ukweli back, but maybe my family does not have to be all gone. Maybe I am not alone now!" Judy swallowed.

The other hyena shouted at Motti. "Shetani is not helping with that! Outsiders do not help! Leave her alone!"

Motti stood up and spit in Samaki's face. Judy feared another fight was about to start as the bunny backed up a bit. The female hyena cried out, "Then you are kitu! We all are kitu! Kitu kitu kitu!" She stomped off to her hut nearby and actually used the door, only because she could not slam the open hole.

Samaki sighed heavily, rubbing his temples. He said softly, "Sorry again. It is not… a good day for our village. I ask that you… do not stay long. Let us be as we were before you came." He then turned and walked away. Most of the other villagers turned to do the same. Judy regarded a couple of very young lycaons who were skulking near the bushes, regarding her. She smiled brightly to them, not wanting them to be afraid.

"Sungura ya Shetani!" one of them squeaked, and both bolted. It was too late. They were fearful of Judy because she'd been fighting with their friends and family. The bunny sighed and looked back to Nick, who just looked tired.

"That went well," he remarked softly with a shrug. Judy folded her ears back and reached to take his paw.

"Come on, Nick. Let's try to get you cleaned up. Hopefully this is going to be the worst part of our report." Judy led Nick back up the hill to the 'inn' where they were staying. Jack resumed talking with a couple of the villagers, Skye loyally staying by his side. Nick and Judy went inside their temporary dwelling. It really was just a slightly larger hut than what most were in, but there were two significant differences that delighted Judy the moment she walked inside. First, there was electricity fed from two large solar panels on the thatched roof which were not obvious from the path leading to the village. This allowed for plenty of light inside rather than the dark feel of Motti's hut. Second, there were fans.

It seemed that while those in the village didn't seem to care about that particular level of comfort, they wanted guests to feel at home. Judy again supposed this was more to keep their guests inside and not interacting with the village, given their obvious distrust. Nick moved over to a rather heavy, plump-looking couch and dropped down onto it with a chuff.

"It's like a cross between a couch and a bean-bag chair," the fox proclaimed joyfully. "Go on without me, I'm done for." Judy moved to the small kitchen area, finding a clean cloth. She soaked it with clean water and brought it back to the living room area. She sat down, scooting so that Nick's head could rest in her lap. Nick winced a bit as the injuries by hard, strong hyena claws were tended to. Judy was careful, but knew they probably stung a bit.

The bunny spoke softly as she stroked Nick's head. "We can't help them, you know. With the mine thing Motti was talking about." Nick took a slow breath and nodded.

"I want to, Fluff…" he said softly. "Can't we think of some way?" Judy closed her eyes. She knew he would want to help. The pain that Motti presented in her plea was very genuine. Her snarky, cynical fox had, buried within him, such a kind heart.

Judy murmured softly, "Even if we could, we have a limited time here and we would not be doing the thing we were sent to do. Lupin didn't get involved with this. They already said that. It's the wrong direction. We can report it to the ZBI, but… we have something else to do."

Nick asked in a secretive tone, "What if they are the same case? What if Lupin was helping them, and that's what got him killed?" Judy caressed Nick's chest and cheek, looking lovingly into his eyes as he just kind of stared up at the ceiling fan.

"Can we afford to make that assumption and not investigate any other possible lead?" the bunny asked.

"Something feels wrong here, Carrots." Nick said. "Call it a gut feeling, but I feel like time's running out here, and I don't even know exactly what that means for them. I don't like it."

Judy laid her ears back. "That doesn't sound much like the astute and confident problem solver that I'm used to." Nick looked up into her eyes pleadingly, only wincing as she brushed a pinprick from those claws a little harder with the wet cloth. She continued to speak under her breath, "If we go this route Nick, it's heavily entwined in the lycaon's business and only lightly involved in the wolf's case. You know that." There was a sound at the door and Judy looked up to see Skye and Jack as they walked in together.

Jack sighed heavily. "I got them calmed down, I think. They are mellow enough that we aren't being told to stay inside the inn, at least. I think they are angrier with Motti at this point. They really don't like involving outsiders in their problems.

"We are thinking of helping Motti." Nick said without asking Judy.

Jack continued in a tone that made it seem as if he were resuming Nick's sentence, "… is what you would say if you wanted to go missing too. But we are investigating my professor friend instead, are we not? I mean, that's what I'm here for." Judy sighed a bit at that. They did not need a conflict.

The bunny intervened before Nick could reply. "Nick thinks that the two cases are about the same thing." She had to admit that it was plausible enough that if there were not a specific instruction to avoid matters involving the lycaon's case, Judy would have latched onto that lead herself. This was so needlessly complicated because of some stupid bureaucracy from above.

Jack reflected on that a moment and looked over to Skye. She shrugged, not having an opinion to offer on it. The buck looked back to Judy and nodded. "Well, it's your investigation, of course. I'm just here to help translate and prevent you two from beating up anymore entire villages, Shetani." Judy's ears perked at the title that was being used.

"Okay, now… what is it they are calling me?" she asked plaintively.

"You probably don't want to know." Nick said.

"He's right, you know." Jack added.

"No, tell me." Judy insisted.

"Sungura ya Shetani." Jack repeated the whole name. "Roughly translated, Demon Rabbit." Skye gasped at that, and Judy groaned.

The white vixen pulled one of Jack's ears, making him wince. "Never call her that! Not even to be funny! That's awful!" She crossed her arms, looking sternly at her buck. That was what she was afraid it had been about. She did not want that kind of reputation. That wasn't who she was at all!

He rubbed his ear indignantly and grumbled, "I didn't make the nickname. They did. And you can bet it's gonna stick, Judy came out of that fight having dropped two hyenas and didn't have a scratch on her. It's partly why I think attempting to help them at this point is a bad idea. It's clearly superstition. They think she brings misfortune. If we look into the mine thing or whatever and find bad news, you can bet they won't place all the blame on the mine or anyone else. It's gonna be about outsiders. They are not a trusting lot."

Nick sat up on the couch, his neck more or less cleaned up. His white fluffy fur that had been marred with crimson a bit ago now hid the injuries just fine. He said in a serious tone, "I don't think anyone's going to even try to help these mammals if we do nothing, and if we succeed in helping them, or at least giving them a real answer to what happened, I think that we might be able to get some real answers to our actual investigation."

Jack nodded at that. "That is if they don't just blame us and throw us off the side of the mountain or something, Nick. You should be the least eager to piss them off of any of us. You've already enjoyed their response to bad news."

"She didn't really want to hurt me." Nick said. "It would have been a lot worse if she did. She was just overcome with grief. I wish I knew what triggered it. If there was a cultural issue to our bringing back ashes like this, you'd think the department would have warned us."

Jack shrugged. "They do funeral pyres here, so cremation isn't an insult or anything. It might have been something personal to Motti. No one else seemed to freak out when I explained what you were doing there… what you brought."

There was a bit of quiet as Judy inspected Nick's neck once more to make sure that everything looked clean. The punctures from Motti's claws were not deep. It was Skye, eventually, who broke the silence. "We should help them. Motti's right. There's nothing we can really do to help Ukweli or Lupin. But other lives might be in danger if what she said is true, and we should try to help. If it's wrong, I'd rather be wrong for the right reason."

Jack sighed resolutely. "I love you for saying that, Skye, but we need to think about this realistically. These folks who are missing in the mines, they've been missing for what… weeks? If they were trapped down there by a cave-in or something, they aren't likely to be alive now. We don't have much chance to bring pleasant news back to these people and they will only see that we got involved, which they didn't want. There's so little chance for anything positive to come of this that I just do not see the benefit of the time and the risk we would have to take." His explanation was carefully thought out to the point that Judy was a little surprised to hear it from him. He was right about how unlikely it was to result in something positive.

After a moment of silence, Nick spoke, his voice soft and tired. "She brought a bag."

"What?" Jack asked.

"Judy." Nick clarified. "She brought a bag for me and risked her life digging down to hell without a shred of hope in her heart that it would fix a damned thing." The doe's heart pitched into her throat as the significance slammed into place like a perfect pachyderm puzzle piece.

Skye put her paws over her muzzle at the mention of it, murmuring, "Oh shit…"

Nick looked down and continued talking. "She brought a bag with her because she didn't expect good news. She really didn't. But that didn't matter to her." Judy's partner looked at Jack. "So go on. Go over to Motti's hut. You look at her… and tell her that finding out what happened to her family isn't worth it to us. But I want you to pretend you are saying it to Judy the whole time you say it. I'll wait here."

"Nick." Judy felt like he was being a little hard on Jack, but she couldn't deny now that she saw the symmetry. Of course Nick would not feel right about just leaving this.

"No, he's right." Jack stated flatly. "I… I feel like a heel for not thinking like that. After everything that happened, I couldn't even see it. It still all feels unreal to me, I'm sorry." He looked away. Skye hugged him and he sighed. "We know it won't go great, but I bet we can find out the details from Motti. She was heading toward the spring up near the top of the mountain to get cleaned up. She was really upset, so we should probably wait till she gets back." Judy nodded at that. Wait till the violent hyena with sharp battle-proven claws had cooled off, that seemed sensible.

"Actually, I think we should try to meet her there." Nick stated. Judy sighed. Of course. That would be the better idea. What was she thinking?

"Why?" Skye asked blankly, making it so Judy didn't have to ask the obvious.

"I don't want her getting in trouble for our interference. Not any more than she's already in, anyway. The villagers do not want her talking to us. It's better if we try to talk to her alone." Judy nodded at that as well. She hadn't considered trying to reduce the blame for Motti if this didn't go well.

"Should we try to talk with Pembe?" Judy asked, suddenly remembering the rhino they had met at the airport. He was associated with the mines. She didn't know if they were the same mines, but he might be a good place to start if all they were trying to get was answers.

"I don't know…" Nick said in a softer tone. "I don't know that I trust him. I actually almost never trust anyone who obviously is disproportionately wealthy."

"Thanks for that." Jack stated.

The white vixen literally scooped up the striped buck embarrassingly. "He didn't mean you! You shovel it out and help people, Squeaker." Skye stated adoringly.

"Don't you dare, Nick." Judy immediately snapped, shooting a glare at her suddenly excited partner. He looked mock-crestfallen and headed for the door.

"Okay. Guess I'll just go talk to the murderous hyena lady then," he said with a heavy, jokingly-depressed tone.

Skye waved pleasantly, "We will have a snack and a drink and wait for you to get back. The less time I am out there where there are buibui the better. The bed's also stupidly fluffy." Still holding Jack in her arms, she turned and just headed right upstairs with him Judy felt if she were in a similar position with Nick she might look indignant, but Jack seemed happy instead. Maybe Skye picked him up a lot.

Judy looked at their bags which were still by the door and looked back to Nick. "If we are hiking up the mountain, should we wear something cooler?" she asked.

"You just want to see me take off my uniform." Nick grinned.

"You mean your shamefully blood-soaked uniform, courtesy of your public beat-down?" Judy growled.

"Huh." Nick huffed. "Good point. Yeah, changing is good." The two quickly changed outfits, Nick putting on a casual light button-up with a leaf pattern that made it count as one of his more reserved Pawaiian shirts. He put on tan shorts as well while Judy tossed on a pair of similar khaki shorts. This was much more comfortable now that their more official duties here were complete. While dressing, Judy turned with her back to Nick, suddenly remembering that she brought something that she had not told Nick she was wearing. The pendant around her neck, a heavy rectangular silver plate, was hastily tucked down into the grey-toned undergarment she wore under her shirt which prevented chafing of her custom body armor. She didn't care to explain the raw sentiment of carrying that around at the moment. She hastily finished dressing, throwing on a light but form fitting white cotton shirt.

As they went outside, Judy found that absolutely no one was walking around in the village. It was quiet, and everyone was apparently inside. At least if anyone was watching them it was from inside a hut. They headed up the path which led higher from alongside the inn.

"Nick…" Judy stated softly, falling into step close beside her partner.

"Yeah, Fluff?" he asked in a cheerful tone.

"Thank you for helping Jack to see what this meant to you. I didn't think about it like that either though. If you hadn't convinced me, I might not have tried to help Motti either. I know you tease me a little about my habit of bringing mammals back when everyone else thinks they are gone, but we have no reason to think that will just keep happening, Nick."

Nick slipped his paw around Judy's, holding it as they began hiking up the wooded trail. "It's alright Carrots. I know this is a different situation but… I think about it sometimes. But I think more about how it was for you, not me. I was miserable, sick, hungry and hurt, sure… but you know… I checked up on what you went through too, right?" Judy gripped Nick's paw a little tighter. Did he really need to talk about that?

"I told you what I went through, Nick, you didn't have to check. It's not like I hid how glad I was to have you back. How much it hurt not having you." Judy wanted the conversation to go away. She preferred not thinking about those weeks at all if she could help it.

"You didn't tell me everything. I didn't expect you would," Nick stated slowly as he plodded along up an increasingly steep hill. The pace at which he was moving made it hard for the bunny to tell if her partner was trying to draw out the walk so they could talk, or if his leg was hurting him. He seemed pained, but it could just be the subject matter.

"What did I not tell you? I am sorry if you think I was hiding things." Judy said with a hint of hurt in her voice.

"No… nothing like that, Fluff. Just things I know you didn't like to think about. I certainly don't hold it against you." He softly panted. It was feeling warmer with the physical exertion.

""Like what?" Judy asked casually. She figured at this point he needed to talk about it, and the situation with Motti had it on his mind.

"You forgot to tell me what you did after I fell." Nick stated.

"What?" Judy replied quizzically. "No, I told you about that. I got the cub back to her mom and had her call for the Fire Department and additional backup to help look for you."

"You told me that, but what did you do when you woke up in the hospital?" he asked.

Judy blinked at that, still clueless about what he was trying to get her to talk about. "Bogo was there. He told me that you … Nick do we really have to talk about this stuff? Is there something I did wrong?" Judy was beginning to fret about his mysterious reason for even bringing it up.

"Why did you wake up at the hospital, Fluff?" Nick asked. Judy then tripped a little as she realized there had been something she didn't tell Nick.

"Oh. Uh… Well…" She looked up at him. He looked back at her with concern. "Nick, don't be mad at him. He had to. You know how I am when I am really determined. I would have actually fought them."

"Carrots, Wolfard had to tranq you twice." Nick said with a tone of exasperation in his voice, giving her paw a squeeze.

Judy gestured a bit in irritation. "Okay, not my proudest, most 'in control' moment, I admit." Judy explained. "But I was really upset, okay? Remember, I told you I had just figured out that I had really serious feelings for you. It was a nightmare come true! My whole world was burning around me!"

Nick shook his head, stopping and kneeling, facing Judy. "Stop the wiggly-nose, I'm not upset about it, Love." Judy self-consciously cupped her nose, having not been aware it was on the wiggle. Her attention was wholly fixed on her partner and boyfriend, however. He didn't call her 'Love' often, so it was very potent when he did. The fox continued. "I saw video of you after it happened, where you were dodging the media when they wanted to talk to you about it. I saw something I'd never seen in you in the whole time I've known you. Hopelessness." Judy tightened her paw in Nick's again. "I saw it in Motti's eyes too. It's happening to her too. Her world is burning around her and she's hopeless. She feels alone. Maybe there's not any hope for her lost family, for Ukweli or for everyone in the village… But I will not let her have no hope that someone out there cares about it. If we can't give her family back, we can give her the peace of mind that they at least mattered."

Judy felt the sting of tears welling in her eyes and she just tilted her head, leaning in and kissing her fox. He gratefully returned the kiss, and then pulled her closer, a tighter embrace against his chest before pushing his muzzle down alongside her cheek. She tilted her head away, knowing what was coming and gladly welcoming it. His muzzle cupped where her shoulder and neck met and he gave a slow and savory bite, not too tight, but a delicate push of his teeth upon her flesh. This contact elicited the soft groan of pleasure that Judy knew he was so keen on hearing.

Jack was right. It would be dangerous. It might end in more heartache. It might not even be the right thing to do, but she followed her heart before and it put her beloved back in her arms. She'd follow it again, and hope that for someone, some good might still come of this tragedy to which she and her beloved fox were now bound.