Judy POV
When I woke again it was mid afternoon the next day. There was a new cup of pudding on the table next to my phone with a little note on top.
In case you are hungry when you wake up. ~Nurse Band
I ripped off the lid of the pudding and scooped it all into my mouth in just a few bites. I was starving. When the pudding was done, I pushed the small blue call button next to my bed and checked my phone again while I waited.
There was just one new message from my parents.
We're so glad you are okay. You scared us half to death. Call as soon as you can.
The door to my room swung open and a different nurse, an otter this time, walked in. "Hi, Ms. Hopps, my name is Nurse Rivers. What can I do for ya?"
The change in nursing staff caught me off guard. "Hi, uh, where is Nurse Band? Is she off work today?"
The otter picked up the empty pudding cup and tossed it in the trash. "Oh, she called out. They are administering the first dose of antidote for the affected predators and I guess she wanted to be there. Did you want me to bring you somethin' else to eat?" I gave her a curt nod before she left the room.
They finished the antidote. That would mean Nick should be getting better soon. I gently wiggled my injured leg, testing out the pain and the pull of the stitches. It wasn't too bad, the pain was manageable. I wanted to see if I would be allowed to visit Nick, even if I wasn't allowed in the room.
"Here you are dear." Nurse Rivers settled the tray at the foot of my bed before coming up to the head to help me adjust it again. I hadn't even heard her come back into the room. Once I was sitting up, she set the tray on my legs.
"Anything else I can do for ya?" She asked.
I took a large bite of some bread before I answered her. "I'm not sure if this would be a question for you or for Dr. Fangford, but do you know if it would be possible for me to get out of bed and visit another patient in the hospital?" Her brows knit together at my question.
"Ya know, I am not sure. That would be a question for the doctor. You eat, I will go check. Okie dokie?"
I ate the food on my tray so quickly, I barely tasted any of it. I was just finishing up my last few spoonfuls of soup when Dr. Fangford and Nurse Rivers returned to my room.
"Well, it looks like you have your appetite back, that's a good thing." The doctor said, his face had a warm expression but his eyes were full of concern. "What is this I hear about you wanting to visit another patient?" He washed his hands and went to take a look at my leg, even though the bandages had been changed just a few hours ago.
"Sir, my leg is feeling a lot better than it was earlier and I just wanted to see how another patient was doing. You said I would probably be able to leave the hospital soon anyway." I slid the tray off my leg and onto the bedside for Nurse Rivers to take.
Dr. Fangford was focused on my leg and didn't seem like he heard me at first. But after a few minutes he spoke up. "Well, your leg is looking very good. I do still think we can get you out of here tomorrow and I'd prefer it if you stay in bed until then but if you really want to get up I am not going to stop you."
He wrapped my leg again but this time put a different, sturdier looking wrap around the outside. "I have to warn you, though, if you are wanting to visit the wing with the affected predators they might not let you. It sounds like, at the moment, they are only allowing police and direct family members."
I thanked him and explained that I would still like to go down and ask. He agreed and instructed Nurse Rivers to bring a wheelchair for me while he filled out some paperwork.
It was only about five minutes before two nurses were helping me transfer to the wheelchair. The way my heart was racing with anxiety, it felt like an hour. There was a slight burn to my leg now that it was in a different position but nothing that wasn't manageable.
I tested out the wheelchair, rolling back and forth in my room, until I felt comfortable with it. The nurses station was only a few doors down from my room so I went there first after realizing that I had no idea where Nick's room would be.
A nurse in dark grey scrubs saw me roll up and immediately turned his attention away from his computer.
"Ms. Hopps, I'm happy to see you out of bed. Can I help you with something?"
I put the locks on both wheels when I stopped in front of the desk. "Yes, actually I am looking for another patient. I know he wouldn't be on this floor, I just don't know what floor he would be on. His name is Nicolas Wilde."
He turned back to his computer and began clacking away at the keys. After a minute, his eyes seemed to lose a bit of the warmth. Eventually he looked back at me but his tone had shifted. " Hmm. I am seeing one patient with that name but I am not able to pull up his room number. He's on floor B1, it's one of our lower level floors. I do believe that wing is currently being used for the savage predators at the moment though. Are you sure you have the right name?"
"Yes, I am sure and that is where he would be. Thank you." I was getting a little annoyed with the acquisitory way everyone seemed to talk about the affected predators. Like they somehow chose for this to happen to them.
The elevator was a little further down the hall and I had a bit of a difficult time getting the wheelchair through the door. Once I figured out the right angle and the doors closed, I looked at the long row of numbers. They ranged from 18 down to B3. I pushed the button for B1 and watched the numbers count down.
There was a sudden change in temperature when the doors opened back up again. Floor B1 was cold and I felt a shiver run down my spine as I wheeled out of the elevator. The attendant at the desk here looked very surprised to see me. She stood as I approached but changed her mind and sat back down.
Her eyes scanned my wheelchair and hospital gown before she spoke. "Um, hi, miss. Are you lost? I can try to help you find whichever floor you are on." Her words seemed polite but her voice was dripping with sass.
I put on my brightest smile. "I'm not lost. Actually, I am hoping to see a patient on this floor. His name is Ni…". She cut me off.
"I'm gonna stop you there. This floor is under very strict police jurisdiction. Outside of nursing staff and officers, each patient only has one approved visitor, usually a family member. I have met everyone on that approved list, so if you are not an officer I will have to ask you to leave." The young nurse turned her nose up slightly, like she was smelling something disgusting.
"Ma'am please, I'm…" I was cut off again. This time from a deep voice behind me. Someone had just stepped off the elevator.
"Donna, it's okay. She's with us. Let her through." I turned my chair around to face Chief Bogo and another officer I hadn't met before right behind him.
"Chief, what are you doing here? Is everything okay?" He looked tired, like he hadn't slept since I saw him yesterday morning.
The nurse jumped up and ran to the double doors. She pulled a card from a clip on her waist and scanned it. There was a soft click from the doors. "Of course chief, here you go. I will page the doctor to meet you." She walked quickly back to her desk, careful not to meet his eyes.
The tall water buffalo didn't acknowledge me again as he turned to go through the now unlocked set of doors. The other officer, a female jaguar, followed him close behind trying to match the way he was ignoring me. But she caught the door with her foot and gave it an extra little kick to prevent it from closing on me. I thanked her with a small nod when she accidentally met my eyes. She looked away quickly.
I wheeled behind the pair as they walked into the dimly lit hallway. A doctor rushed out of one of the many doors to meet with the chief. They spoke together quietly. I strained my neck to peer further down the hallway but from my angle I couldn't see into any of the rooms. There were a few mammals sitting on the hard plastic benches under each room's window.
I looked back to where the chief and doctor were talking. The doctor, an equally exhausted looking tiger, was flipping through a stack of clipboards in her arms. Each time she moved on to another clipboard she would point to a room. Chief Bogo glanced my way for a brief moment before turning his attention back to the doctor.
Was she talking about Nick? I held my breath and tried to listen to what they were saying but I couldn't make out anything definitive.
The jaguar officer knelt down next to me and spoke in a low voice. "I don't think we have met, I'm Ella. I was recently transferred from precinct four."
She held a stern look but her green eyes were kind. "I'm Judy."
Ella laughed quietly. "Oh, I know who you are. Every officer knows about Judy Hopps. What you did finding those missing animals was pretty amazing."
"Oh." I turned my eyes away from her, remembering the press conference from a few weeks ago. Of course everyone would know who I was.
"So, why are you down here? When we were in the elevator Chief Bogo had said, 'I am actually surprised I've not heard any complaints about Officer Hopps trying to weasel her way back here.' I almost laughed when the doors opened and we saw you at the front desk." She attempted to mimic Bogo's voice when she quoted him.
I smiled a bit and glanced back at the chief, looking away before he could catch my eye again. "A close friend of mine was shot with the night howler serum. I wanted to see how he was doing after getting the antidote."
She followed my gaze down the hallway before speaking again, a little quieter this time. "A friend of yours? No offense but I thought it was only predators who were shot and a bunny being friends with any predator is… uncommon. Plus with what you said during the press conference, well, I'm surprised that you of all animals would be friends with a predator."
I let out a sigh that turned into a shudder. I saw first hand how my words hurt Nick, but I hadn't considered how much they could affect others. "Yes, a friend of mine. He was shot twice when he was trying to help me get evidence to close the case. He means the world to me and I don't really care that he is a predator or that he is a fox."
Her eyes widened slightly after I said fox. Before she could say anything more Chief Bogo cleared his throat. Looking up I saw that the doctor had returned to one of the rooms and the police chief was alone. Ella stood back up quickly, her arms clasping together behind her back.
"Hopps. Walk with me." He turned and began down the hallway. I glanced at the little whiteboards on the doors, each with a different name. Some of the names I recognized from the original missing animal cases, a few I remembered from the news. My chest tightened a little bit when I saw E. Otterton on one of the doors.
The hallway seemed to stretch on forever, the only sounds I heard were the hum on the lights, my slightly squeaky wheelchair, and the soft click of hooves on tile. We finally stopped at the very last door in the hall. I took a deep breath to steel myself before glancing at the name I knew would be on the door. N. Wilde.
His room was different. Every other one had the curtains open so that you could look into the room from the hallway. Nicks had the curtains pulled tight. There was no glow of light peeking under the door either like all the rest.
"Chief." I didn't know what I was wanting to say or ask him.
Chief Bogo let out a long breath. "The affected mammals are taking to the antidote well. They were all administered a first dose this morning, as I am sure you know. Dr. Clawson expects it will only take one more dose for everyone to be back to normal. Everyone except for…" He trailed off, his eyes moving from me to the closed window.
I gripped the handles of the wheelchair. "What did she say about Nick?" The lights above us flickered and my gaze trialed up. I hadn't realized I had tears in my eyes until now. They rolled down my checks, soaking in the fur.
"The fox had over double the amount of serum in his blood than any of the other predators. While most are already showing a significant change in behaviors and promising improvement to brain activity. It's too soon to tell if the first dose has made any difference in him."
Oh, Nick. It would make sense that with double the serum he would probably need double the antidote. Even so, my heart broke for him.
Ella voiced my thoughts from behind and I was unbelievably grateful to her. "So what does that actually mean? Will the antidote still work for him? Sir."
"That is a question for Dr. Clawson. But from what he explained to me, it's not sounding good. Officer Marlot, we need to get back to the station." He walked between the two of us without another word. I stayed where I was sitting, staring at the covered window.
"I'm really sorry, Officer Hopps." Ella whispered. "Hopefully he does get better." She quickly followed her boss.
I was still staring forward when I felt a hand on my arm. The doctor from earlier stepped carefully into my field of view. "You must be Judy Hopps. I'm Dr. Clawson, the police chief said you wanted to ask me about Mr. Wilde?"
My body felt stiff and I had to coax each muscle to move in order to turn toward her. I wanted to ask what the plan was, if they were going to keep giving him more of the antidote or if there was another plan. I wanted to know what did happen when he got the antidote. Instead, when I opened my mouth the only thing that came out was, "is he going to be okay?"
The doctor glanced to the door next to us before kneeling in front of me. Now that I was coming out of my shock, I could hear a soft mixture of snarls and whimpering from the room. "Well, it's hard to say for sure at the moment."
My ears drooped more than they were already. The doctor reached a gentle hand back toward my arm, pulled it away, and then changed her mind again and took my arm in a soft grip. "I don't want to make any promises I can't keep, but I am not giving up hope for him. There was some improvement which is promising. It's not completely hopeless."
There was a tiny bloom of heat in the icy pit of my chest. I lifted my eyes to meet hers. "Chief Bogo said nothing happened when you gave him the antidote."
She stood back up and brushed her long white coat off. "I didn't say nothing happened when we gave him the antidote. There was a slight change in his brain activity, it just wasn't anything close to the change we saw in the other predators. In addition to that, he did calm down a little bit." She glanced at her watch and then back to me. "I'm sorry, Ms. Hopps, I really need to leave." She stepped past me and rushed down the hall. Before I turned to follow her, I pressed a hand to the door.