Chapter 41: Hospital

"Where is she... Judy? Judy! There you are! Come on, wake up, wake up!" Voices came from the closed restaurant.

After the poisonous gas explosion, everyone who was in the restaurant lost consciousness for at least a few hours.

As Judy began to regain consciousness she still had a muffled feeling, most likely from the explosion of the two grenades she had noticed just before they detonated. She could hear the sounds of various sirens in the background, police, fire and ambulance sirens, she could hear someone calling her but she couldn't tell who was doing it and she didn't quite know what it was all about yet. Eventually she felt a touch on her shoulders and a moment later she noticed the familiar face of a cheetah who helped her up. She still had a strong weakness that did not allow her to rise on her own strength.

"Cl... Clawhauser?" Judy asked quietly. Her weak voice made it clear how bad a condition she was in. This was not good information. She had to squint her eyes to see anything, the light and glare from the sirens meant that her eyes were not yet used to this level of illumination and she felt pain and glare.

"Yes it's me, let's get out of here" replied Clawhauser quietly. He took her by the arm and helped her up, then they both headed towards the exit.

When they managed to leave the premises, Judy saw that they had been unconscious for at least a dozen hours, because it was already a starry, cold night. Several fire trucks and police cars stood surrounding the entire area. Behind them, a large group of spectators gathered to watch the action from behind and murmur among themselves as more victims were brought out. Some were examined on the spot and some were taken to hospital. As the doe was being led out she saw firemen and police officers, all wearing gas masks. They were all helping others to come out of the poisoned building, which had already been sealed with tape and was being cleaned of the poisonous substance. Commander Bogo and Caroline were already there, staring pityingly at Judy, who was barely taking step after step being held up by Clawhauser.

"What happened there Judy? Are you all right?" Commander Bogo asked, once Clawhauser had managed to walk Judy over to the police car where the two commanders were standing.

"That fox we're looking for. He used poison gas to make us unconscious. I saw two grenades fly towards us, but it was too late...where is Nick anyway?" Judy asked quietly. The two commanders looked at each other with confused eyes, Judy felt embarrassed at the situation. Their blank faces indicated that they didn't know where he was. If they don't know where Nick is, where could he be?"

"Our functionaries are still checking the area, but so far there is no trace of either Nick or the fox that did this" Bogo communicated. He lowered his gaze to the ground, trying not to look at the sad, depressed expression on his face, which looked even worse through the cold. Judy herself didn't know what to say in this situation. How could it be that Nick had disappeared? Just him? The information about the absence of his partner made her feel...strange. She was confused, but most of all she was distraught by the fact.

"How is this possible? Is he the only one who has disappeared? " Judy asked. Caroline looked at the notes she had received from one of the functionaries. She looked through two pages of the document, then put the entries down on the car's mac.

"Yes, just him. The rest are, they're being transported to hospital," Caroline replied.

"Tell us exactly what happened there?" Bogo asked. Judy with Clawhauser's help got into the police car leaning out of the door so she could tell. She felt bad, very bad and it showed. She could barely keep on her feet, sitting down she almost didn't fall. The headaches were so bad that she had trouble keeping in touch with the outside world. She felt like she would lose consciousness in a moment but an inner strength allowed her to keep in touch with the world.

"We waited as planned for the guy we were supposed to catch. Once he was we followed him to the restaurant, but when we entered he was gone! He must have concentrated into the crowd...or hid somewhere. "

"What happened next?"

"Nick suggested we split up and find this fox. As we walked between the tables I noticed something rolling under the tables. When I ducked down to see what it was it was too late. Grenades exploded, smoke billowed out all over the place and that's the end of my memory...ugh... my head" sighed Judy catching herself. Her condition made it clear to Bogo that the doe should be transported to hospital as soon as possible. It was a sad sight to watch Judy in such a state.

"Judy, you will go to the hospital for a check-up, you can see that you are unwell" replied the commandant. Judy nodded with a movement of her head, she didn't have much to say about it. She felt so bad that she couldn't resist anyone, she was tired. A moment later, a doctor approached her, who, along with Clawhauser, helped for her to get inside the ambulance. Once inside the vehicle, Judy was placed on a bed and the ambulance drove off towards a nearby hospital.

At the hospital, Judy was taken to an observation room where she lay for several minutes before a doctor arrived to attend to her. Beside her lay other victims of gas poisoning who were waiting for blood test results. During this time Judy continued with her visual problems (the white room of the hospital was not something Judy could currently be in without problems) wondering how it had happened that Nick had disappeared? After all, it was impossible for Nick to go anywhere, the gas poisoning everyone, without exception. The only person who escaped was the poisoner. Within a few minutes the doe remembered the moment a few seconds before she lost consciousness that the fox figure had been led out of the premises by someone. She opened her eyes tightly and rose vigorously from the bed when reminded of this.

"Nick's been kidnapped...by that guy" Judy said quietly when she realised this. It wasn't good news, the question just remained, why had he kidnapped him? What was so intriguing about this fox that he was the one who kidnapped him?

At this time a tall doctor entered the room. A tall fox with luxuriant hair and brown eyes put the doctor's headphones on and sat on Judy's bed squeezing her hand to check her pain impulses.

"Good morning, I'm Alex and I'll be your doctor. I'm going to check your stimuli first, okay?" The doctor asked. Judy obediently nodded with a movement of her head. The doctor squeezed her hand again, Judy clenched her teeth, so that was a good sign, she was feeling pain. Before he continued his examination, he pointed out that the doe had her eyes squinted delicately and was avoiding the light source that was above her.

"Why are you squinting your eyes?" The doctor asked.

"I can't look at that light...it hurts my eyes" replied Judy. Alex nodded with a movement of his head then pulled out a small torch to check his vision. Even before he aimed the trickle of light at her eyes, Judy managed to close her eyes and turn her head slightly to the side. Alex didn't even try to further examine her vision, he moved away from her turning off the device.

"You have a hypersensitivity to light" the doctor acknowledged. He tucked the torch into his bowels then pulled the blinds around the bed to maintain more privacy for the patient.

"Now I'm going to check your lungs to make sure they are all right. Please undo your uniform" The doctor communicated. Judy although with some problems due to cold and fatigue managed to unzip her police uniform and remove it revealing her strong silver white body covered only by a black bra.

"Please sit down, straighten up, take deep breaths in and out" the doctor asked. Judy tried to straighten up but her body felt like it was made of jelly. Trying to get up, her arms sagged, weak under her own weight. Making a second attempt, she was helped by the doctor who put his left hand on her bare back and held her up so that she did not fall on the bed. Eventually Judy was able to straighten up enough to perform the examination. When the doctor put the cold part of the earpiece against her chest Judy made a reflex in the form of shivers that went through her body. The doctor listened carefully to Judy's breathing in and out, fortunately everything seemed to be fine. He put the headphones back on the bed helping for the patient back on the bed.

"Everything is fine with her lungs. We'll do some more blood work and take your temperature. You are freezing" The doctor communicated. As the fox walked away from the patient a nurse approached her and put the thermometer to her feelers. The expression on the nurse's face indicated that she was not well.

"37.9," the nurse said quietly.

"Is it bad?" Judy asked, the vixen showed the result displayed on the thermometer screen.

"You need to rest. After the blood test you will be able to rest" The nurse communicated. She got up from the bed and walked away from Judy. Doe felt bad, really bad. She couldn't tell exactly what was wrong with her, but she was feeling very tired and had a problem with hypersensitivity to white light, which was in excess in the room she was in. Because of this Judy closed her eyes involuntarily and waited for the moment when the doctor would come with a syringe to take a few drops of her red plasma. In her mind she was still worried about Nick, who now could be anywhere! He had most likely been kidnapped like the others, the question was where are those who have been taken captive transported? Although Judy tried to put the facts together in her head she couldn't manage, she was too exhausted to be able to think of anything. She didn't know how long she had been in this state, but certainly a lot. The main problem was her sensitive sense of smell, which is very sensitive to all sorts of odours, and poisonous substances like gas were almost the first to be picked up by her and were very painful to her nostrils. In addition, when she left the premises, she was in uniform and the temperature outside was below zero, which weakened her body.

A moment later the doctor came to her, ready for a short procedure. In his hands he held an injection with a thin needle already ready to be inserted into her palm.

"It may hurt a little, but it will be a short procedure and you can rest. Are you ready?" The doctor asked as he grabbed Judy's hand and searched for a place to insert the needle. The doe gave an affirmative sign with a movement of her head while waiting for the doctor to do the procedure. After finding the right spot at the elbow, Alex prepared a syringe and then inserted the needle into the vein where the blood was flowing. Judy let out a quiet moan at the sensation, the stinging sensation is never a pleasant feeling, but not as painful as it might seem. The doctor took a few drops of the patient's blood and then gently pulled the needle out. When it was over he applied a patch where he had inserted the needle and put the syringe back on the tray.

"That's all there is to it. Tell me how do you feel?"

"I feel weak...I'm tired and my eyes hurt" replied Judy. She lay with her eyes closed and her voice indicated that the most she needed right now was sleep and rest.

"I understand. Please lie down and rest. Tomorrow there will be blood results, we'll see what they say" Alex communicated to which the doe nodded with a movement of her head. A moment later the doctor pushed back the blinds and left the room.