It was nearly three in the morning the following day when the news finally came.
"Alright, Mom, I think we're just about ready to do this."
Judy looked at Nick with worry in her eyes.
"When she says 'we're,' does that include me?"
Nick nodded his head and chuckled.
"You know, I'm not the smartest when it comes to all of this baby stuff, but I do think that her word choice included you, especially since she said 'Mom.'"
"I was afraid of that," Judy sighed, making Nick smile again.
He then took her paw in his paw and kissed the back of it gently.
"You've got this."
Judy took a deep breath before closing her eyes and shaking her head, trying not to cry.
"I don't. I'm going to mess this up just like I do everything else."
"Hey, hey," Nick leaned in and dropped his voice to a soothing whisper. "You don't mess anything up at all."
"I do! I mess things up all of the time."
"And so does everyone else, but you don't mess up all of the time, and you aren't going to mess this up."
"How do you know?" Judy sniffled.
"Because I know you."
Judy smiled briefly before another crashing contraction hit, making her clamp her jaw shut and focus on not crying out. She then let out a small sob after it had passed.
"I can't do this."
"Carrots, listen to me, you can do this, okay?"
"Okay," Judy nodded, tears still filling her eyes. "I love you, Nick."
At first, Nick didn't reply. The feeling in his chest hadn't gone away since Judy had called and told him that she had gone into labor, but right now, the feeling changed slightly, making him aware of it all over again. In the beginning, when the feeling was a rare occasion, Nick had thought that it would go away after Judy gave birth to the babies, but now, he realized that this feeling was permanent. It showed that he cared, that he worried. It was the only thing that would always make him know when something dangerous like a polar bear attack was about to happen, or when to grab and hold out a trashcan just in time, or when Judy was about to slip and fall so that he could catch her, or when something special like a baby kicking was about to happen; it was the only thing that would always make him a wonderful father and a wonderful husband. In that moment, Nick looked directly into his life mate's brilliantly bright amethyst eyes, but the feeling in his chest told him not to say, "I love you too." Instead, he felt the need to say something that held a much deeper meaning.
"Marry me."
"What?"
"Marry me."
"You already proposed, like twice–"
"No, marry me right here, right now. Just the two of us."
"But that's not an official thing," Judy stated, puzzled.
"I know it's not, and we will still have a huge wedding for our friends and family, but I want to marry you before we have kids. I want to marry you when it's just the two of us. I want to marry you and then marry you again, but know that I have already married you. I want to marry you right now."
Judy was speechless, tears now streaming down her cheeks.
"Mom, we ready?" the doctor asked.
Slightly distracted, Judy nodded at the doctor before turning back to Nick.
"Okay, I'll marry you. Right now."
Nick grinned, wrapping her right paw in both of his paws. Judy grinned back at him, before kissing him gently on the nose.
"Do you, Nicholas Piberius Wilde, take me, Judy Laverne Hopps, to be yours?"
"I do," Nick smiled. "Do you, Judy – Carrots – Laverne Hopps, take me, Nicholas Piberius Wilde, to be yours?"
"I do."
"Well then I may kiss the bride."
Judy giggled as Nick leaned in and kissed her full on the mouth. When the broke apart, the doctor was speaking again.
"Mom, on the next contraction, I'm going to need you to push."
Judy nodded again.
"Here we go," Nick said before standing up from his seat. With the aid of a nurse, he then helped readjust Judy's bed so that she was in a sitting position, her legs open and spread wide at the opposite end. Nick then placed an arm around Judy's upper back, his other paw still entangled with hers. There it was again; the feeling. It hit Nick quickly, but he instantly knew what it meant. Leaning in one last time, Nick kissed Judy on the top of her head and whispered a speedy "I love you," right before the contraction that he knew was coming hit Judy with all of its might.
"Push!"
"Ah!"
Gripping Nick's paw, Judy bent forward and put all of her energy into the action of delivering, but it wasn't easy or painless. The doctor counted for ten seconds, although to Judy, it seemed like ten hours.
"Come on, Carrots, you got this," Nick stated as he tried to ignore the pain in his paw as Judy crushed it.
When the doctor finally reached ten, Judy hissed with pain before lying back against the pillow in short-lived relief.
"Alright, one more big push, Mom."
"Oh God, I'm never doing this again," Judy muttered with closed eyes.
Nick smirked, but furrowed his eyebrows as he thought over her statement.
"Wait, you don't want to do this again?"
Judy ignored him, primed and ready for the next set of instructions.
"Alright, push!"
This time, ten seconds weren't needed; at about four seconds, the news came
"There's Baby 1! Congratulations, Mom and Dad, you have a little baby boy."
"That's Robin," Judy breathed as her first child was held up for her to see.
Robin was a little fox whose fur was that of a soft maroon color. His eyes were a shade of green lighter than Nick's and his ears were absolutely massive, almost bigger than his entire body. Robin screamed his tiny little head off as a nurse quickly took him and began cleaning him up in the corner of the room. Nick let his gaze follow the nurse as she carried Robin away, but Judy didn't have time to enjoy her first child; she had three more to worry about.
"Here we go, Mom. Push!"
Another ten agonizingly slow seconds went by, but for Judy, it seemed to go by a little faster, with a huge reward at the end.
"And Baby 2 is another boy!"
"If I'm not color blind, that's Red," Nick smirked at his second son, a fox that was a tiny Nick Wilde with violet eyes.
A second set of cries filled the room as baby Red was also taken to receive his cleaning. Judy took a deep breath and let it out slowly before laying her head back on her starched hospital pillow. Nick leaned down and kissed her forehead softly.
"You're doing great, Carrots."
"I feel horrible."
"You look horrible."
"I hate you."
"I love you too," Nick chuckled.
"Halfway there, Mom. You ready?"
Judy nodded feebly and attempted to sit herself up slightly for the next contraction, but this time around, Nick had to aid her more than before, which he noticed with growing concern.
"Okay, and push!"
Judy squeezed Nick's paw much tighter this time, but the fox simply grit his teeth and let her. The effort paid off, though, as their third child arrived almost half a second later.
"Baby 3! Another boy!"
"That's Alan. I can already picture him in a suit," Judy laughed quietly.
Just like Red, Alan was the spitting image of Nick, pure fox all around; even his eyes shone a brilliant green. However, his fur maintained the dark and light gray color mix of Judy's. Judy let out another laughing breath.
"Of course, I have three boys who are all foxes and look just like you!"
"Hopefully they don't act like me," Nick smirked, making Judy laugh once more before needing another quick rest.
"Alright, Mom, I need you to keep your energy up. We're almost done," the doctor stated loud enough to be heard over Alan's cries. "And... push!"
Ten seconds came and went, and then another ten seconds, and then another, and another, but nothing occurred. Nick's ears were glued flat to his head as he attempted to coach Judy on, despite her clear exhaustion. She had let go of his paw a while ago to instead grip the handles set on the sides of her hospital bed, and it had left Nick feeling very lonely. If something was wrong, there was nothing Nick could do. This time, he was on the sidelines.
Halfway through the fifth time of counting to ten, Judy collapsed back onto the bed and ceased all of her effort.
"I can't do this!" she gasped.
"Mom, you're almost done–"
"I said I can't do this!" Judy snapped at the doctor, who immediately retreated.
Nick reached for Judy's paw, but the bunny quickly snatched it back from his reach.
"Carrots, you're almost done–"
"Does it look like I'm almost done? We've been at this for hours!"
"I know, I know. It's exhausting and it's painful, but I promise we are going to get through this. We've made it this far."
"I can't do this, Nick," Judy sighed heavily.
Nick knotted his eyebrows and gave her a very severe look.
"Judy Hopps, the ambitious bunny who risks everything to solve even the smallest of cases, beaten by four babies?"
"What? No, that's not–"
"I'm going to have to tell the entire precinct about this."
"Wait, I didn't–"
"I thought you never quit, Judy."
Nick's words hit a nerve deep within the tiny rabbit, who felt on fire as soon as the sentence reached her ears.
"When I'm done with this, I'm going to kill you."
The way Judy hissed "this" made Nick smirk, knowing that he had convinced her that this was nothing more than another job on her list. Still slightly mocking her, Nick took Judy's paw once more and nodded at the doctor.
"Okay, push!" the doctor instructed.
Thankfully, ten whole seconds weren't needed this time.
"Ugh!"
With one final breath, instant relief flowed through Judy's body.
"Here's Baby 4! Oh, isn't she beautiful?"
The doctor held up the one and only bunny, and the one and only girl out of all four children. She was a little Judy, from the shade of her fur and the color of her eyes to her overall tiny size.
"Violet," Nick and Judy said together with big smiles.
Judy had tears streaming down her face now. They cleaned up a shrieking Violet before taking all four babies from the room to do a routine checkup to ensure the children were completely healthy. Nick kissed Judy full on the mouth as the doctor congratulated the two. The happy moment was short-lived, however, as a moment later, Judy slowly leaned back onto her pillow, her eyes fluttering shut as she did so.
"Carrots?"
Monitors surrounding Judy's hospital bed began beeping frantically, alerting every nurse in the room to act quickly. Nick remained very still as chaos erupted around him.
"Judy?"
With doctor's orders that Nick didn't hear, nurses rolled Judy's bed from the room, leaving Nick completely alone.
Twenty hours of labor. Twenty hours filled with just the right words meant for soothing Judy through each contraction, twenty hours filled with holding Judy's paw as various shots and types of pain medication were given to her, and twenty hours filled with smiling and some laughing at the reality of the situation. After twenty hours filled with Judy on top of the three previous years that had been filled with Judy, Nick was left all alone.