Serendipity's Shadow
Rated T
Chapter 46
"Carrots?" Nick called from the other side of the door. "You uh…you good?"
"I'll get back to you on that-" She had to stop talking as her stomach rejected the donuts.
Nick's ears flinched at the sound. He could no longer play pretend in his head. Judy was pregnant.
"Judy, I'm coming in. Don't draw any possible weapons please."
Judy didn't respond, making Nick think it was safe enough to open the door. And he was right. But the sight of Judy haggard over a toilet bowl was less than pleasing. If anything, it made Nick's heart feel even heavier.
"Can I take a seat?"
"It's your home." Judy huffed.
Nick sat on the floor across from Judy. She looked pale and extremely uncomfortable.
"I'll be fine." Judy eventually mumbled.
"Wanna talk about it?"
That question, or maybe it was the way he said it, that made Judy's heart stop. She wanted to cry, scream, shout but her body wouldn't allow it.
"How much do you know?"
Nick debated playing coy but decided this wasn't the conversation to be his normal annoying charming self.
"I don't know by whom or for how long. If that's what you mean?"
"When the doctor and I-"
"Yeah." Nick answered Judy's unfinished question. "Is…uh…is the dad still-"
"He's dead." Judy covered her eyes in stress.
"…Sorry to hear that."
An uncomfortable silence sat between the two.
"Am I an idiot for wanting to keep the baby?" Judy eventually asked.
Nick paused in thought wondering how to approach this subject. Or if he even had a right to comment on Judy's life? But in the end, Nick figured this was a question he was allowed to answer.
"No." Nick remembered a tale his mother once told him. "My mom had a kid before she met my dad. She lost it in the womb though. My mom had every intention to keep it. When I was younger my mom told me about my brother, in her heart, it was a boy, and how your life changes once a child is involved." Nick crossed his legs trying to make himself more comfortable. "And when my sister was born…I changed. I stopped being so rowdy and always looking for trouble. I just wanted my sister to be happy, healthy, and safe."
"…And what about the fact that I'm staying in this dangerous situation despite being pregnant? Does that make me a bad person…a bad mother?"
"No, Carrots…no." Nick answered immediately. "That's you being Judy Hopps. No one would expect anything less of you. Pregnant, near death, terminally ill…no matter the situation your heart won't allow you to look away from someone in trouble."
Judy sobbed a quiet laugh at Nick's interpretation of her being.
"Judy…Fluff, are you okay though?"
Judy looked at Nick feeling her heart sink at his question.
"I don't know, Nick. I just don't know." Judy pulled herself away from the toilet no longer feeling her stomach protest. "It's not me to get recklessly pregnant in the first place."
Judy tried to remember what drove her into dating her baby's father. She tried to remember the pride of rebuilding her reputation, the independence to be with whoever without fear of them being a criminal, and most importantly driving out the sadness from her crying heart.
"If I had to take a gander. I'd say it was you just trying to live a normal life after the hell I had put you through."
"It wasn't."
"What wasn't?"
"Us. Our time together. It wasn't hell." Judy smiled as memories came flooding through. "At least not all of the time."
Judy gave a small genuine laugh making Nick giggle along.
"Except maybe that time you made me stay up all night."
"Okay, One-" Nick began feeling slightly defensive. "It was a bet you agreed to. And two, you technically won the bet so…"
"Yeah, at the price of sleep deprivation."
"Okay, what about that time you made me wear a dress for a week?"
Judy couldn't contain her laughter at that memory.
"Okay, but you gotta admit. You had the legs for it." Judy jabbed between her bouts of laughter.
"…True." Nick agreed in a mumble. "But I still don't recall receiving my prize for winning that bet."
"What was the price again?"
"That you would actually use your vacation time to go on a trip with me for once and not just a few days to visit to your family."
"Oh yeah…oh well." Judy shrugged halfheartedly while giggling.
Nick feigned a wounded heart by being dramatic.
"The betrayal of a bet not fulfilled. Oh, my heart."
"Idiot." Judy smiled looking at Nick's 'corpse'.
"Loud and proud." Nick sat back up with his declaration.
The uncomfortable silence left the room, and a new warmth filled its place.
"No one can tell you what to do, Carrots." Nick shuffled himself over to sit by Judy. "If you need anything you have so many people who will be there in a heartbeat. Me included."
Judy looked up to Nick feeling her heart begin to beat faster.
I'm an absolute fool.
Getting lost in the genuine look of Nick's forest green eyes Judy felt an urge. It was an urge that she hadn't felt for so long. And since it involved Nick, she definitely would have ignored it. But for once in a long time Judy decided to say Fuck It!
Nick gave Judy one more smile, blinked his eyes closed for a second, and then felt a warmth on his lips. Opening his eyes his heart froze in time. Judy was giving him a kiss.
AN: Sorry I've been gone guys. Got promoted at work and life got hectic...again. And tonight I'm on store babysitting duty as the floor is getting waxed. So you might or might not get another chapter tonight.