They had taken the elevator back down to the first floor, but before they could leave the building they were stopped by the bear officer who had been making a statement when they arrived. When she had seen him outside, Judy had noted that the bear was tall. Inside the apartment building, however, he was positively enormous. He stood more than twice as tall as Nick, and he would have been even taller if he didn't have to stoop to keep his head from hitting the ceiling. He was so powerfully built that, if she joined arms with Nick, Judy doubted that they'd be able to form a circle around him. His claws were bigger than any of the kitchen knives that Judy's mother owned, and his teeth looked sharp as razors. He probably would have been intimidating if it wasn't for the friendly, almost bashful look on his face. "My partner didn't give you a hard time, did she?" he asked.

Their hesitation to answer seemed answer enough for him. "I hope you don't hold it against her. Grévy can be a bit..." he trailed off, apparently trying to find the best word.

Judy had some suggestions she didn't voice, and she would have been willing to bet that Nick had many more of his own, but he mercifully didn't speak either. "Rough around the edges," the bear finished his sentence, "Bill LaMerk, by the way," he said extending a paw about the size of Judy's microwave.

She reached out to shake, "I know who you are, of course," he said to Judy as he grabbed her paw with his own, "The one and only Judy Hopps!"

He was still shaking Judy's paw enthusiastically as he spoke, and Judy felt as though he was about to accidentally lift her off the ground. "But I'm afraid I don't know you," LaMerk said, finally letting go and turning his attention to Nick.

"That's the way I like it," Nick said casually, "Hopps here can get all the attention. Keeps the criminals from focusing on me. Nick Wilde."

LaMerk's laughed at Nick's mild quip and favored him with a handshake just as forceful as the one he had given Judy. "Listen, I know how it is. Just politics is all, right?" LaMerk asked, with a casualness that seemed a little forced.

"Exactly right," Nick said, still in the throes of LaMerk's handshake, "The mayor-"

The bear released Nick's paw and cut him off, "Wants a good story, huh? Take a little of her celebrity for himself?"

"Something like that," Judy cut in, "But I don't want to be a famous cop. Just a good one."

"Too late for you not to be famous. But maybe you can be famous and good," the bear replied, with a smile that seemed genuine, "Just remember the little mammals on your way up."

With that, he left the building, ducking down even further and turning sideways to fit through the door. It struck Judy as a little absurd that, even metaphorically, a bear practically large enough to swallow her whole would consider himself a little mammal in comparison to her. She hadn't lied, though—she had never wanted to be famous, and the celebrity that it brought her was a burden she could have done without. She had worked so hard her entire life to be the best at what she did and not just a token bunny that she found it galling to be handed a case because of who she was instead of because she was the best qualified for it. The thought consumed her the entire drive over to the hospital, which passed without much in the way of conversation.

When they arrived at the hospital, there was a short, fat opossum in a suit practically hissing in anger at the elephant behind the reception desk. "Holly Leaves is my client!" he yelled, jabbing a claw in the receptionist's direction, "And you have to let me see her!"

In contrast, the receptionist seemed almost bored, "No, I don't, sir. And I'm going to have to ask you to leave if you keep shouting, sir."

That drove the opossum apoplectic with rage, "Don't you sir me! Do you know who am? I'm the-"

"I'm calling security, sir," the elephant cut him off, speaking with a mild but clearly deliberate emphasis on the word "sir."

Nick and Judy had been watching silently during the exchange, but that seemed like the appropriate time to act. "I'll take the actress and you'll take the agent, OK?" Judy said.

"Fine by me," Nick said, and strolled up to the opossum, who was ready to double down on his strategy and continue his tantrum despite its failure to get results.

"I don't think we'll need security," he said smoothly to the receptionist as he looped an arm over the opossum's shoulder and started guiding him out, "Nick Wilde, ZPD, and you were already on your way out with me to answer some questions about your client, weren't you?"

The opossum barely got a syllable out before Nick started talking over him, "Great, you'll be a big help. An agent like you must know everything about why anyone would want to go after your client, isn't that right?"

The opossum's anger had turned to bewilderment as Nick had started leading him out, and that was replaced by what seemed like wounded pride, "Of course! I know everything about my clients. I've represented Holly for as long as she's been acting, you know."

Throughout the entire exchange, Nick had continued to maneuver the opossum closer and closer to the door out, and successfully ushered him out on that note. Judy approached the reception desk and said, "I'm sorry you had to deal with that."

The elephant waved her trunk dismissively, "He's not the worst we've gotten. Judy Hopps here for Holly Leaves, right?"

The Holly Leaves that was sitting in the hospital room at the bedside of a rabbit with a heavily bandaged head was barely recognizable as the actress who played Athena White. At first glance, the only thing that they had in common were that they were both albino rabbit does, with stark white fur and pink eyes. On TV, Athena White was always sharply dressed in dramatically contrasting black with the occasional accent in pink to highlight her eyes. She wore high heels (despite how grossly impractical they would be in real life for a working detective) and her fur was always perfectly styled. At the moment, at least, Holly Leaves did not look like a detective ready to take on the world. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy and her mascara had run down her face in lines that vaguely resembled the facial markings of a cheetah. Holly's fur stuck out in all directions, her pale silk blouse and skirt were crumpled, and she wore nothing on her feet. Of course, Holly Leaves was neither a detective nor a law enforcement officer of any kind, and Judy knew that it was unfair to hold her to that standard.

"Holly Leaves?" she asked, more to get the actress's attention than out of any need to confirm her identity, "I'm officer Judy Hopps."

When Judy walked into the room, Holly had been looking off into the middle distance apathetically, but her gaze brightened and she turned her head to look at Judy when she provided her name. "You really are Judy Hopps?" she asked, as though there were other bunny officers that she could be confused with.

"That's me," Judy said brightly, "I know that you-"

Holly cut her off before she could finish, leaping out of her chair and grasping Judy in a surprisingly tight hug. The albino doe was significantly shorter than Judy was, and she had to look up into Judy's face. "I've been wanting to meet you for so long but I was afraid that it'd be too weird or you'd think that the show was mocking you or you'd hate the show or you'd think I was terrible but I only took the job because I really wanted to inspire kits," Holly blurted the words almost too fast to follow along, pausing only to catch a breath, "And I'm a really big fan of yours and I'm making this really awkward aren't I?"

Holly suddenly let go and pulled back. Judy, meanwhile, felt a pang of guilt for all the negative thoughts she had had about Black and White. Not enough to change her opinion on the show—she still thought that it was poorly written—but at least the star had gotten into it for the right reasons. "Don't worry about it. And I don't hate you or your show, either," Judy said, "I'm glad that you're following your dream."

Holly positively beamed at her words, but her face fell just as quickly as it had brightened and she sank back into her chair. "Jacques always said the same thing," she said, reaching out and grabbing the paw of the bandaged rabbit buck in the bed.

Judy didn't say anything, but Holly must have caught the flicker of confusion that went across her face at the name. "His name isn't really Jacked Rabbit," Holly said, with a watery smile, "It's Jacques Lapin. He just thought he needed a catchier name. We have that in common, actually. My agent said that Holly Leaves was a better name for an actress than Holly Leaps."

It made perfect sense, of course. Jacked Rabbit was a ridiculous name for a parent to give their kit, but a (somewhat) reasonable one for a personal trainer to give himself. "My partner is keeping your agent busy right now," Judy offered, figuring that if the opossum always acted the way that he had at the reception desk that Holly would appreciate knowing that he wasn't about to burst in.

Holly chuckled weakly. "Marty can be pretty forceful. But I don't want to think about a press conference or talking to reporters now, not when Jacques is..."

Her words trailed off into sobs. Judy grabbed the other chair in the room and dragged it over next to the actress, then took a seat and offered her a tissue.

Holly took it and wiped at her tears. "The doctors say that there might be..." her voice quavered, but she managed to continue, "...permanent impairment, if he does wake up."

Judy didn't know how bad Jacques's injury was, but knocking a mammal unconscious with a blow to the head wasn't as simple as movies or TV shows made it out to be. Far from being something that the victim would wake up from without any lasting side-effects, a hit like the one that Jacques had taken could have killed him, and he might suffer anything from forgetfulness to mood swings to a loss of motor skills. He could also have no long-term effects, but Judy was sure that was a difficult hope for Holly to maintain as her boyfriend lay in a hospital bed looking small and frail.

"It's my birthday," Holly said suddenly and apropos of nothing, "That's why I answered the door when I saw the flowers through the peephole. Jacques always brought me flowers for my birthday, but I should have checked that it was him before I opened the door."

It was obvious to Judy that Holly was blaming herself for what had happened to her boyfriend, so she quickly thought back to the layout of the apartment to think of something that she could use to dissuade her. She recalled that there had been an intercom panel on the inside of the apartment next to the door. "You had to buzz Jacques in so that he could get up to your floor didn't you?" she asked, "And you heard his voice over the intercom, didn't you?"

"Yes..." Holly replied, not seeming to follow.

"Holly, the mammal that attacked you and your boyfriend came in through one of the fire escapes. They waited for you to let Jacques into the building before they knocked on your door. They had the flowers specifically to trick you. The only one to blame for this is the one who did it, and that's not you."

"But I should have checked before I answered or given Jacques a key or, or—" Holly broke down into tears again.

Judy could have said that everything would be OK, but that would have been a lie. She didn't know if Holly's boyfriend would even wake up, let alone if he would be the same buck he had been before his head injury. Judy gently squeezed the doe sitting next to her, "Whatever happens, he's going to need you to be there for him the way he's been there for you. Sitting here blaming yourself isn't going to help him."

It was meager advice, but it was about all that she could come up with at the moment. Holly seemed to consider it, and a long moment passed before she spoke again. "What would help you find the mammal who did it?"

"Any kind of details you can remember. Gender, species, age, clothes, anything that we could use to identify them."

"I couldn't tell if it was a male or a female. I couldn't tell the species, but they were taller than I am. They were wearing a raincoat. A big yellow one that covered their entire body, with the hood up so I couldn't see their face."

Judy wrote it all down. "Did they say anything?"

Holly shook her head. It wasn't a lot of information, and probably wasn't anything that wasn't visible on the security camera, but there was still something else that Holly might know. "Is there anyone that you can think of who might have done this? Someone who might have had something against you or Jacques?"

She seemed surprised by the question, "No, not that I can think of. And everyone loves Jacques."

There were more questions that Judy could have asked, but Holly suddenly asked a question of her own. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

Judy wondered what caused the question, but it didn't seem unreasonable to answer, "Not right now, no," she answered, leaving out that it had been quite a while since she had so much as gone on a date.

"Then imagine if it was the most important person in your life in this bed," Holly said, gesturing towards Jacques.

The image sprung into Judy's mind, completely unbidden, of Nick in that hospital bed, his head swaddled in bandages and his body surrounded by gently beeping machines. Of Nick waking up without that sparkle in his eyes or the sly grin on his muzzle, a Nick who would be forgetful and moody and never feel like himself again. Of feeling like it was all her fault. She swallowed and forced the thought out of her head.

"I just..." Holly started, "I just don't know what I'm going to say. I know I'll have to give a statement to the reporters, but I'm going to look weak, aren't I? And everyone will laugh at me for being a stupid emotional bunny. Or if I keep it together, will he think that I don't care when he wakes up and sees it? Will everyone think that I did it because it doesn't look like I care enough? What would you do?"

Judy thought about it carefully. She had her own disastrous experience with speaking to the press, and it occurred to her that the mayor would almost certainly want to maximize his political gain by making her the face of solving the case. But that was a concern for later. "Crying because you care about him doesn't make you weak," Judy said, "Just be honest and don't answer any questions you don't want to or can't."

"Are you sure?" Holly asked, looking at her somewhat doubtfully, as though wondering if it could really be that simple.

Judy thought about what had happened when she had returned from her self-imposed exile and found Nick under a bridge. "I'm sure."