Fanfic: The Long Recovery of Judy Hoops: Nick and Bonnie
“I hate my body,” Judy declared. She was lying on her back in the bed in the guest room, her old room she’d shared with four of her sisters fully occupied, after the usual shift when older siblings moved out of the house. Nick sat on the edge, smiling down at her, the door propped open so no one started getting ideas about their relationship.
She’d walked back successfully, then rested like a good bunny until after lunch, when she’d walked again. This time around she actually had walked a full mile, only for Nick to make good his threat and bring her back in a wheelbarrow. Judy had been too tired and achey to argue with him, though she had insisted on walking herself up the stairs to her bed, rather than be carried.
“Think you can do it again tomorrow?” Nick asked.
“Slave driver,” she declared.
“I have a copy of The Nitwit’s Guide to Physical Therapy and I’m not afraid to use it,” he replied. “Starting a recovery program is easy. Maintaining it over time is the real slog.”
Of course he’d read the manual on what to do, because he’s Nick, Judy thought wryly. When she’d helped him move into his apartment, she’d found a well-thumbed copy of the Junior Ranger Scout Handbook in a box, plus copies of everything from self-help books to beginner’s knitting techniques. Sometimes she wondered if his mild obsession about figuring out how to do things the “right” way was a coping technique for all the anti-fox prejudice he’d put up with over the years. “I know,” she admitted, “just let me have ten minutes to whine before we start again tomorrow.”
“Fair enough,” he agreed. “Now roll over.”
“Why?”
“Ask me no questions, I tell you no thinly contrived justifications,” Nick replied. He made a spinning motion with his finger. “Roll.”
“Rolling.” Judy turned over onto her belly, grabbing a pillow to hug and support her chin. A moment later she felt a pair of tweezers pressing against her footpads. “Nick, what are you doing?” She tried to turn her head to see what he was up to, but couldn’t see around his tail, which was curled across the back of her knees.
“Picking out the little pebble shards still stuck in your pads from your walk,” he answered, as she felt the tug of something tiny and uncomfortable being removed, that she’d only barely been aware of compared to her overall body ache. After a few minutes she felt something warm being poured over her toes. “I’m going to give your feet a rubdown, okay?”
“Okay.” A moment later she felt his fingerpads rubbing the oil into her toes. Judy closed her eyes, feeling some of the tension in her body recede as Nick massaged her aching feet. “Ohh….”
“Better?” he asked softly.
‘Mmm-hmm,” Judy murmured into her pillow.
“How do your calves feel?”
“Could use a rub…” A moment later she felt his thumbs rubbing up and down her aching calf muscles, making her let a pained squeak.
“Okay?” he asked, pausing.
“Okay,” she confirmed. “It hurts, but it’s a good hurt.”
Nick nodded and continued. After another minute having her spine removed through her toes, his breast pocket beeped and the fox pulled out his phone. “Gotta take my pills,” he said, grimacing slightly. He looked down at her. “You take your pills?”
“Yes, Mom,” Judy replied. “Took my Noon dose of painkiller. Afternoon one is at dinner time.”
“Good.”
She felt him pull the quilt that was folded at the end of the bed over her. “I’m not sleepy,” she began to protest, fighting the urge to yawn. “Cheese and Carrots! I’ve been doing nothing but sleep for weeks.”
“Yeah, but today you earned it, one hundred percent. I’ll wake you up at dinnertime,” Nich reassured her.
Judy gave him a nod, feeling her eyes shut even as he quietly closed the door.
* * *
Nick stepped out into the hallway and closed the door softly, fetching his anti-anxiety pills out of his pocket. Almost two months now since the Night Hunter incident, and he’d taken them every day like a good boy. He popped out two tabs of temazepam and dry swallowed them, waiting for the slight mellowing effect to kick in.
Nevertheless he jumped anyway when he heard Bonnie’s quiet, “Hello, Nick. How’s Judy?” behind him.
“Fine, she’s just taking another nap,” he replied, turning towards her. “She wore herself out walking today.”
“I know,” Bonnie replied. “I’m glad she’s moving again. It’s not like Judy at all to just sit for a week.”
“Don’t I know it,” Nick agreed. “She runs me ragged when we’re doing a walking patrol.”
Bonnie gestured to the pill bottle still in Nick’s paw. “What’s that? Your arm and shoulder still hurting from when they were sprained?”
That would be a very logical conclusion, Nick thought, one that Bonnie would let drop if he confirmed it. Just one of those little lies he had been so good at way back when.
Sly fox.
“No, these aren’t pain pills. They’re for anxiety,” he admitted reluctantly.
“Anxiety?” Bonnie asked, ears perking up in curiosity. “You never seemed the nervous sort to me, Nick.”
“Yeah well, y’know, stress of patrolling etcetera, etcetera,” Nick hedged cautiously.
Bonnie turned, motioning for Nick to follow her as began walking down the hallway towards the stairs. “I can’t imagine what it was like, being there when Judy was hurt so badly.”
Nick nodded grimly, remembering Judy laying on the sidewalk, stomach slashed open by Volkov’s polar bear minion, blood pooling around her as he stuck his fingers in the wound, trying to stem the tide pumping from her artery as he screamed for help into his radio. “That’s part of it, yeah.”
“And then there was that horrible Volkov vixen, drugging you, making you want to hurt me and Stu,” she added.
“That’s…. another part of it,” he admitted.
They reached the stairwell. Bonnie paused in front of it, turning to block Nick from making some excuse and slipping past her down the stairs. “For somebody who loves to talk as much as you do, you haven’t said more than ten words to me or Stu since you got here, Nick. You think we’re dumb bunnies who couldn’t figure out why?”
Nick rubbed his face briefly and sat on the stairs beside Bonnie. “No, I just… Damn it, I almost ate you. You should be scared to death of me.”
“Why, because of Volkov’s drug?”
“It’s not just that.” He drew in a breath and tried to gather his thoughts. “Night Howler induced savagery, made predators lose everything that made them civilized and attack mammals at random. It made an otter into a snarling beast, and in pre-Great Compromise days all they ever ate were fish and clams anyway. That’s not how any predator used to act back then, unless they were rabid, otherwise we would never have been able to form the civilization we have right now. Night Hunter… I think… I think if we were living in the days before the Compromise, that’s how I would have been.” He ran his paw over his face again. “It didn’t strip me of my intelligence, it stripped me of my morality. One damned little pellet made killing and eating you and Stu seem like the most natural thing in the world.”
He stood up again. gripping the stair rail, looking away from her. “I have spent my whole life living on the margins, running scams, being the sly fox everyone thought I should be. Hell, even other foxes think like that. There’s a reason why Reynard and Robin Hood are culture heroes for us, we love our clever rogues. But I tried to be good rogue. Even when I was running my scams I may have been lying my ass off but I was at least within the letter of the law.”
NIck turned back towards her, palms spread wide. “Then, after years, I finally manage to break out of it. Having Judy pin that badge on my chest was one of the happiest moments of my life. I was a police officer now, following the law and being good are my job. I didn’t have to be the sly fox anymore, I didn’t have to run scams to survive.” He was breathing hard now, like he’d been running. “Then that crazy bitch Volkov shot me with her Night Hunter pellet and took it all away from me, made me try and kill the parents of my best friend.”
“Nick, I was there when she shot you,” Bonnie said quietly. “I saw you struggling. Yes, it made the predator part of you want to eat us, but the part that was Officer Nick Wilde still knew it was wrong.” She cocked her head for a moment, then said, “Think of it this way; the part of you that was trying to hurt us, that was the Night Hunter. The part of you that saved us, that was Officer Wilde, and I’m grateful that he was there.”
“I… I hadn’t thought of it quite like that,” Nick admitted. He took another breath, trying to relax and let the temazepam do its job. “Sorry,” he muttered.
“Nick,” Bonnie said, laying a paw on shoulder, “I don’t know if you figured it out yet, but you’re part of our family now, understand? Just like you’re part of the ZPD, you’re part of Hopps Family Farm.” She shrugged. “I mean, half the kits are calling you Uncle Nick anyway.”
Nick raised an eyebrow, one ear flopping to the side, disconcerted. “I never figured on being anybody’s uncle, much less to a bunch of bunnies.”
“Well, you are. So if Uncle Nick ever has anything that’s giving him trouble in his mind, you just come to us, all right? Family stick together.”
He smiled, remembering his mom. “Yeah, they do. Thanks, Bonnie.”
“You’re welcome.” He leaned down to accept a hug for her. Then Bonnie gave him a little poke in the arm. “Now wake up Judy and wash your paws. DInner is in ten minutes.”
Nick’s smile turned up into a grin. “Yes, Ma,” he drawled.
She’d walked back successfully, then rested like a good bunny until after lunch, when she’d walked again. This time around she actually had walked a full mile, only for Nick to make good his threat and bring her back in a wheelbarrow. Judy had been too tired and achey to argue with him, though she had insisted on walking herself up the stairs to her bed, rather than be carried.
“Think you can do it again tomorrow?” Nick asked.
“Slave driver,” she declared.
“I have a copy of The Nitwit’s Guide to Physical Therapy and I’m not afraid to use it,” he replied. “Starting a recovery program is easy. Maintaining it over time is the real slog.”
Of course he’d read the manual on what to do, because he’s Nick, Judy thought wryly. When she’d helped him move into his apartment, she’d found a well-thumbed copy of the Junior Ranger Scout Handbook in a box, plus copies of everything from self-help books to beginner’s knitting techniques. Sometimes she wondered if his mild obsession about figuring out how to do things the “right” way was a coping technique for all the anti-fox prejudice he’d put up with over the years. “I know,” she admitted, “just let me have ten minutes to whine before we start again tomorrow.”
“Fair enough,” he agreed. “Now roll over.”
“Why?”
“Ask me no questions, I tell you no thinly contrived justifications,” Nick replied. He made a spinning motion with his finger. “Roll.”
“Rolling.” Judy turned over onto her belly, grabbing a pillow to hug and support her chin. A moment later she felt a pair of tweezers pressing against her footpads. “Nick, what are you doing?” She tried to turn her head to see what he was up to, but couldn’t see around his tail, which was curled across the back of her knees.
“Picking out the little pebble shards still stuck in your pads from your walk,” he answered, as she felt the tug of something tiny and uncomfortable being removed, that she’d only barely been aware of compared to her overall body ache. After a few minutes she felt something warm being poured over her toes. “I’m going to give your feet a rubdown, okay?”
“Okay.” A moment later she felt his fingerpads rubbing the oil into her toes. Judy closed her eyes, feeling some of the tension in her body recede as Nick massaged her aching feet. “Ohh….”
“Better?” he asked softly.
‘Mmm-hmm,” Judy murmured into her pillow.
“How do your calves feel?”
“Could use a rub…” A moment later she felt his thumbs rubbing up and down her aching calf muscles, making her let a pained squeak.
“Okay?” he asked, pausing.
“Okay,” she confirmed. “It hurts, but it’s a good hurt.”
Nick nodded and continued. After another minute having her spine removed through her toes, his breast pocket beeped and the fox pulled out his phone. “Gotta take my pills,” he said, grimacing slightly. He looked down at her. “You take your pills?”
“Yes, Mom,” Judy replied. “Took my Noon dose of painkiller. Afternoon one is at dinner time.”
“Good.”
She felt him pull the quilt that was folded at the end of the bed over her. “I’m not sleepy,” she began to protest, fighting the urge to yawn. “Cheese and Carrots! I’ve been doing nothing but sleep for weeks.”
“Yeah, but today you earned it, one hundred percent. I’ll wake you up at dinnertime,” Nich reassured her.
Judy gave him a nod, feeling her eyes shut even as he quietly closed the door.
* * *
Nick stepped out into the hallway and closed the door softly, fetching his anti-anxiety pills out of his pocket. Almost two months now since the Night Hunter incident, and he’d taken them every day like a good boy. He popped out two tabs of temazepam and dry swallowed them, waiting for the slight mellowing effect to kick in.
Nevertheless he jumped anyway when he heard Bonnie’s quiet, “Hello, Nick. How’s Judy?” behind him.
“Fine, she’s just taking another nap,” he replied, turning towards her. “She wore herself out walking today.”
“I know,” Bonnie replied. “I’m glad she’s moving again. It’s not like Judy at all to just sit for a week.”
“Don’t I know it,” Nick agreed. “She runs me ragged when we’re doing a walking patrol.”
Bonnie gestured to the pill bottle still in Nick’s paw. “What’s that? Your arm and shoulder still hurting from when they were sprained?”
That would be a very logical conclusion, Nick thought, one that Bonnie would let drop if he confirmed it. Just one of those little lies he had been so good at way back when.
Sly fox.
“No, these aren’t pain pills. They’re for anxiety,” he admitted reluctantly.
“Anxiety?” Bonnie asked, ears perking up in curiosity. “You never seemed the nervous sort to me, Nick.”
“Yeah well, y’know, stress of patrolling etcetera, etcetera,” Nick hedged cautiously.
Bonnie turned, motioning for Nick to follow her as began walking down the hallway towards the stairs. “I can’t imagine what it was like, being there when Judy was hurt so badly.”
Nick nodded grimly, remembering Judy laying on the sidewalk, stomach slashed open by Volkov’s polar bear minion, blood pooling around her as he stuck his fingers in the wound, trying to stem the tide pumping from her artery as he screamed for help into his radio. “That’s part of it, yeah.”
“And then there was that horrible Volkov vixen, drugging you, making you want to hurt me and Stu,” she added.
“That’s…. another part of it,” he admitted.
They reached the stairwell. Bonnie paused in front of it, turning to block Nick from making some excuse and slipping past her down the stairs. “For somebody who loves to talk as much as you do, you haven’t said more than ten words to me or Stu since you got here, Nick. You think we’re dumb bunnies who couldn’t figure out why?”
Nick rubbed his face briefly and sat on the stairs beside Bonnie. “No, I just… Damn it, I almost ate you. You should be scared to death of me.”
“Why, because of Volkov’s drug?”
“It’s not just that.” He drew in a breath and tried to gather his thoughts. “Night Howler induced savagery, made predators lose everything that made them civilized and attack mammals at random. It made an otter into a snarling beast, and in pre-Great Compromise days all they ever ate were fish and clams anyway. That’s not how any predator used to act back then, unless they were rabid, otherwise we would never have been able to form the civilization we have right now. Night Hunter… I think… I think if we were living in the days before the Compromise, that’s how I would have been.” He ran his paw over his face again. “It didn’t strip me of my intelligence, it stripped me of my morality. One damned little pellet made killing and eating you and Stu seem like the most natural thing in the world.”
He stood up again. gripping the stair rail, looking away from her. “I have spent my whole life living on the margins, running scams, being the sly fox everyone thought I should be. Hell, even other foxes think like that. There’s a reason why Reynard and Robin Hood are culture heroes for us, we love our clever rogues. But I tried to be good rogue. Even when I was running my scams I may have been lying my ass off but I was at least within the letter of the law.”
NIck turned back towards her, palms spread wide. “Then, after years, I finally manage to break out of it. Having Judy pin that badge on my chest was one of the happiest moments of my life. I was a police officer now, following the law and being good are my job. I didn’t have to be the sly fox anymore, I didn’t have to run scams to survive.” He was breathing hard now, like he’d been running. “Then that crazy bitch Volkov shot me with her Night Hunter pellet and took it all away from me, made me try and kill the parents of my best friend.”
“Nick, I was there when she shot you,” Bonnie said quietly. “I saw you struggling. Yes, it made the predator part of you want to eat us, but the part that was Officer Nick Wilde still knew it was wrong.” She cocked her head for a moment, then said, “Think of it this way; the part of you that was trying to hurt us, that was the Night Hunter. The part of you that saved us, that was Officer Wilde, and I’m grateful that he was there.”
“I… I hadn’t thought of it quite like that,” Nick admitted. He took another breath, trying to relax and let the temazepam do its job. “Sorry,” he muttered.
“Nick,” Bonnie said, laying a paw on shoulder, “I don’t know if you figured it out yet, but you’re part of our family now, understand? Just like you’re part of the ZPD, you’re part of Hopps Family Farm.” She shrugged. “I mean, half the kits are calling you Uncle Nick anyway.”
Nick raised an eyebrow, one ear flopping to the side, disconcerted. “I never figured on being anybody’s uncle, much less to a bunch of bunnies.”
“Well, you are. So if Uncle Nick ever has anything that’s giving him trouble in his mind, you just come to us, all right? Family stick together.”
He smiled, remembering his mom. “Yeah, they do. Thanks, Bonnie.”
“You’re welcome.” He leaned down to accept a hug for her. Then Bonnie gave him a little poke in the arm. “Now wake up Judy and wash your paws. DInner is in ten minutes.”
Nick’s smile turned up into a grin. “Yes, Ma,” he drawled.