-Epilogue-

"I feel stupid…"

"That's because you are stupid," Judy buried her face in Nick's hospital gown as they shared a single gurney. Despite the doctor's orders and best intentions, Nick and Judy refused to stay in separate beds as they awaited they own respective surgeries. Nick had hardly waited for the doctor to turn his back on them before joining his fiancé in their commiserated medical misery.

Now that the nurses had finally finished prepping the duo for surgery, and treating Nick's frost bites; the fox and rabbit odd-couple shared a moment of rest.

Judy shuttered in Nick's arms as she thought about how cold his body still felt from the deep-freeze.

"But you're my stupid fox…" Judy blew out heavily as she attempted to keep the painkillers from blurring her vision any further.

Nick drew in a ragged breath as he regarded one of his shaved paws with a mixture of disgust and disappointment. In treating Nick's frost-bite, the nurses had shaved several of his afflicted areas. Both Nick's front and back paws had been trimmed down to bare skin, and the later of the two were wrapped in medicated bandages. Nick's ears had also been shaved, along with a large portion of his bushy tail. While he was bitter at his appearance, he supposed he should count himself lucky he wasn't going to lose any paw-pads or the tips of his ears.

"You think they'll wait till my fur grows back before they try to make a statue of me?" Nick joked, returning his shaved paw to its duty of stroking Judy's ears.

"Why, Mr. Wilde, are they going to make a statue of you?" Judy asked, face still smushed into her lover's thawing chest.

"Because I saved the city, remember?" Nick shot a smug smile down at Judy as she lifted her head to glare up at her partner.

"What," Judy tried desperately to focus in on the blurry fox in front of her "you don't want to be remembered as 'Nicholas The Bat-Eared Fox?'"

Nick's shave ears pinned back in embarrassment as he broke Judy's gaze in shame.

Seeing that she had jabbed too harshly at Nick's wound, Judy attempted to recover; "Hay, Nick…" Judy reached up to scratch behind Nick's bald ears; they felt cold to the touch. "It doesn't look that bad, trust me…"

Nick chuckled slightly at Judy's failed recovery. "Jee fluff, you really know how to make me feel better about myself."

"To be fair," Judy crunched up her brow as she attempted to clear the fog from her mind, "They've got me on some really amazing drugs right now… I can't even feel my leg…" Judy shifted off Nick's chest to pull up her medical gown, revealing her shaved leg and foot.

"Look at your leg, little miss kettle" laughed Nick at Judy's missing fur. "I always figured bunnies were mostly fluff, but even I would have never expected that."

Judy giggled at Nick's teasing as she marveled at the peculiar sight.

"They shaved so much off, I'm not sure if I should keep you or the pile of hair!" Judy tried to smother a laugh with her paw as Nick continued. "I'm serious carrots; if we're not careful, the doctors will come take the pile of fur into surgery, and the janitors will follow up by sweeping you into a dust-pan." Judy's laughter broke past her barrier, and she snorted out a heavy laugh.

"N-Nick!" Judy wiped tears from her eyes as she continued to laugh harder than she had in recent memory. "I c-can't breathe!"

"It really is a shame I never took up knitting," Nick laughed as he continued his roast, "otherwise I could totally knit myself a whole other bunny!"

Judy's laughter reached a fever pitch of panting before making a swift and bitter turn to sobs. "I Th-Thought I'd lost you…"

Nick's composure snapped back inline as he attempted to calm the mangled and chemically compromised rabbit. "It's ok Judes, I'm right here, I'll always be here… Don't you worry…"

"Promise?" Judy sniffled into Nick's chest.

"I promise," Nick assured his fiancé.

The pair sat in silence as their emotions normalized.

"I was so scared," it was Judy whom broke the silence. "At first I-I just lost a p-part of you, you know? I still had you, but there were pieces missing; and it hurt sooo bad…"

Nick's face crumpled up in unreadable emotion as Judy continued to talk into his chest.

"A-and I thought that was the worst thing that could ever happen… I thought; my heart couldn't break any more. You were still you, but you were… like a shell… and you didn't love me like I loved you. It felt like I'd lost you. But then you went into the wall… and I… I… knew… I'd lost you…" Judy's words trailed off as her composure crumbled again.

Nick bit the inside of his cheek in a failing attempt to hold in his own emotion.

"An-and I knew; it was all my fault…" Judy sniffled and stuttered as a tear escaped Nick "that you would never know how important you are to me."

"It's ok, Judy…" Nick mumbled as he wiped away the offending water-work. "It's very scary; I'm still not at peace with what happened… It's horrifying that something so dear to me was taken away; and I didn't even know. The fact that my bunny-girl, and our engagement, was wiped away… I don't know what to think…"

The pair returned to sober silence once more, as they embraced each other.

A sharp knock on their hospital room-door grab their attention, snapping the duo back to reality.

"Detectives," the Chief announced as he entered their room. "I'm here to congratulate you two on solving the case… again…"

Nick and Judy shifted and sat up on their shared gurney, to better address the authority figure.

"Thanks chief," replied Nick, "Let's hope it stays solved this time."

"For both our sake," acknowledged Bogo. "Well we now have all three hyenas in custody, and the… Mecha-Panther… has been drug off to impound. As for the missing rodents, their families have been notified, and they are all being debriefed as we speak. Stellar work detectives, you two are truly the best of the best." The massive mammal folded his hooves behind his back as he smiled proudly at his two newest detectives. "On a side note; you two are also on paid medical leave… again… If I didn't know any better, I'd say you two are gaming the system, and getting your money's worth out of those new badges."

Nick smiled sheepishly at the chief of police before turning his attention to Judy.

"About that," Judy raised a single digit as she regarded the blurry mammal. "I resign my position as a detective for the ZPD."

Both Nick and Bogo were taken back by shock as they processed Judy's request.

"I didn't join the ZPD to solve murders and piece together crime scenes," Judy continued, unfazed by the shocked mammals in front of her. "I joined to help animals, and to make the world a safer place. I joined to help stop murders, and prevent crimes. I joined to be a cop."

The chief of police shifted his attention to Nick, whom was still reeling just as much as Bogo.

"I guess… me to?" Nick shifted his attention from Judy to Bogo in an attempt to navigate the situation.

"Very well…" Bogo flattened the front of his uniform with his hooves before continuing; "I will take your requests into consideration…"

Upon Bogo's acknowledgement, the doctor returned to the rabbit-fox duo's room. "Nicholas Wilde, and Judy Hopps; one collapsed lung, and a shattered knee and foot, respectively." The doctor smiled warmly as he hung his clip-board on the end of their gurney.

Producing two syringes, the badger doctor regarded his patents "We're all ready to operate, but who wants to sleep first?"

Nick and Judy swapped glances before Judy finally spoke; "I guess that's my cue…"

The doctor nodded before making his way over to the rabbit's I.V. drip.

"Wait," Judy halted the doctor before turning her attention to Nick. With a quick shove, Judy had laid Nick back against the gurney. After planting a solid kiss on her fiancé's muzzle, the rabbit curled up on Nick's side and rested her head on his chest. "Ok, I'm ready Doc'"

The badger injected the rabbit-sedative into Judy's I.V. and watched as her lights began to fade. Making his way about the gurney to Nick's I.V. the doctor pushed the final plunger, and cleared his throat. With a quick nod, the Doctor and Chief Of Police exited the room as they waited for the pair to drift off to sleep.

Judy's eyes became unimaginably heavy as the sleeping-drug engulfed her brain. The warm embrace of sleep all but swallowed the rabbit as she fought to maintain Nick's emerald gaze.

"I love you Nicholas P. Wilde…"

"I know," replied Nick as sleep threatened to take him.

"Don't you… Han… Solo… me… officer…" Judy replied with a sleepy smile.

A single tired chuckle escaped Nick, before he planted a kiss on Judy's forehead. Pulling back, Nick saw that Judy had lost her battle, and now snored lightly onto his chest.

"I love you… to... Carrots… Don't… you… ever… forget… Tha'…"

-THE END-

Once again, thank you for reading my work. Big Trouble In Little Rodentia has been an amazing experience for me as a writer, and I look forward to continuing with my planned sequels very soon. A few readers had commented on the story not having enough proper closure, and I was inclined to agree with them. While the city was safe, and the criminals were (presumably) captured, Nick and Judy definitely needed one more exchange to re-solidify their relationship. as a result, I took a quick break from prepping Off Without a Hitch to bring some more closure.

As for future stories; we still have two more books in the line-up. Be sure to Follow and Favorite my account so that you get instant notification when the new story drops next month.

If this is the first story you've read by me, I encourage you to go back and enjoy The Fox In Bunny Burrows (which can be found by clicking on my name in the header).

Thank you all so much for reading,

-Duke