Zootopia Adventures

Doughnut Disaster XII

The hospital was not what Judy had planned to visit after solving the stolen concert tickets case. It smelt exactly like the air she had breathed when she paid Emmitt a visit in the recovery ward; somewhere along the lines of an old library packed with a heavy medicinal scent. Judy remembered taking a queue number from the hospital's reception desk and having to wait quite a while; sitting with Nick on the waiting chairs before she was called in and diagnosed by a certified doctor to treat her scratch. This time, the situation was the opposite. Nick was the patient now, seated beside her and attempting to distract himself from the constant, pulsating pain induced by the multiple lacerations on his leg. Judy cast a worried side glance at Nick's injuries. She had his wounds wrapped snugly with her flannel jacket to stop the bleeding. It did stop after a while, but not fast enough as a large part of the cloth was dyed a deep red. Hopefully, he is not giddy from the blood loss, she thought. Which was a good sign as Nick displayed no signs of feeling light-headed or drowsiness. Despite there being nothing alarming, Judy was still concerned.

"You okay, Nick?" Judy asked she rested her paw on his lap.

Nick turned to face her. "I am feeling better already, Carrots. Thanks for treating my wounds," he gave Judy an appreciative smile, reassuring the ill at ease bunny. Furthermore, it was supposed to be a  joyous moment for them, celebrating their success with Clawhauser and not warming up cold hospital chairs whilst waiting for medical attention.

"You would not be here if I darted Nat earlier," Judy apologized solemnly, slowly swinging her legs as she averted her gaze from him. "You might be right, I really do suck at aiming," she added.

"Hey, what happened to the optimistic, upbeat bunny cop that I know? It is not your fault, stop putting the blame on yourself; you emotional rabbit," Nick chided gently, reaching over to Judy as he comfortingly massaged her shoulder. "Look, I am alive and kicking! Well... maybe not the kicking part, but hey, I am not one paw in the grave, so cheer up!"

Judy turned her head towards Nick, looking at him in the eye. He returned her stare with a smirk plastered on his face. Perhaps Nick was right, maybe she was indeed overreacting; Judy thought to herself as she looked down at herself and considered what Nick had said. She managed a weak smile. "Sorry for being such a sentimental clutz, I cannot help it," Judy answered, laughing softly as she wiped the tears which had welled up in her eyes. "Maybe you do know a thing or two about us bunnies being emotional and all."

Nick chuckled. "That's the spirit!" he said, patting her back before resting his paw on her shoulder once more. "And yes, I have dealt with bunnies before, hard to explain how I came to this conclusion about your species."

"Can you at least provide a gist of what you have experienced? At least that way I can work it out," Judy replied playfully, actually curious about the matter. Nick rubbed his chin with his paw thoughtfully, trying to summarize it in a way that she would understand.

"In short, let's just say that they had many different and unique ways of expressing themselves after they realized that they were hustled by me. It was like watching a reality TV show drama take place live," Nick mused as he studied the analog wall clock on the wall.

The time displayed was fifteen minutes past midnight. Right beside it was a huge notice board pinned full of health product advertisements and fliers, with the majority of the posters mainly displayed for the sake of instilling health awareness and education into the patients. Though there were usually significantly lesser patients in the queue during such hours, they still had to wait for quite a while since they arrived at the hospital roughly around eleven thirty late at night. The nurses did recognize them being the city's finest ZPD officers when they stepped through the sliding glass doors. The one at the counter even offered to arrange the queue numbers such that they would be the first in line however, Nick had courteously refused the nurse's gratitude. Judy was hesitant about declining the offer but gave in as Nick mentioned that other patients may need the medical help much more than he does.