Guardian Blue - Season 1

Episode 2 - Train

 "I'm gonna throw up," Nick stated morosely.

"No you are not," Judy scolded him, "Just stop looking out the window."

"I'm gonna do it. I should never have eaten at this hour. It's not even a real hour. I can't believe you... Nnnnnhnn..." He leaned forward, putting his head in his paws, the light of the inside of the train far exceeding the nearly pitch black outside the window as the cars shook gently on their way out of the station. Judy rummaged around in her pack. She took out a plastic sandwich bag filled with chopped celery and emptied it into another snack pouch filled with diced pineapples. She didn't care if those mixed; it might even be nice. She offered the little bag to her partner.

"Here, just in case," the bunny stated in a gentle tone. The fox huffed.

"Insufficient volume, I promise. Oh boy..." He leaned his head against the window and sighed. "Oh that's better. The window is cold. Cold is helping. Cold is good. Cold is my frieeeeend." He folded his ears back, puffing out a slow breath. Judy didn't know her partner could get motion sickness, but she felt maybe it was more that he was nervous. She hadn't even told him the bad news yet about her grandfather being there on Saturday. That could wait.

She reached into her travel bag and pulled out the pineapple and celery pack again. The bunny leaned forward in her seat, which was facing the fox, and pushed the bag to his forehead. He sighed pleasantly and moved his paw to it as the train car rocked a little as they went around a slow curve.

"I'm sorry the ticket was so early," the doe commented, "...but the next train going out wasn't until noon, and I did not want to miss half the day." Judy leaned back again as Nick took over the cold-pack duty. He appeared to be less 'disaster-imminent' as he held it there. The bunny continued to talk. "So, my parents are gonna meet us at the station when we get there. They brought the station wagon so it's going be a little compact for you, but in the back seat you should be comfy enough. I live about forty-five minutes from the station, so if you're still super tired I'm okay with you just dozing on the trip to the house if you're still feeling a little off." She wanted to ease his stress by implying that it would not be a tense meeting. Her dad had not called her to talk about the visit at all since she told her mom, but she assumed he was okay with it. Why wouldn't he be? Nick was her life-line at work and they worked with Gideon so the animosity for foxes had to be almost gone entirely, right?

Reflecting on that a moment, the bunny continued, "When we get to the house we'll get you upstairs. The guest room has a bed plenty big enough for you, so you can lie down and recover a bit until you feel like yourself. There are no plans for day one, Slick. We can see the farm, watch some TV..." Judy watched Nick a moment, not talking anymore as his head listed slightly side to side at the gentle rocking of the train car. The bunny hopped up and moved over beside him, pushing closer in such a way that he could not fall back the other way into the aisle. This pinned him up against the window as much as her small bunny form would allow.

He had fallen asleep. Given how miserable he had been while awake a moment before, she felt that was likely for the best. She checked her news feed on her phone for a moment and then peered back up at her partner. Judy could not help herself. Leaning up a bit more, she pushed her head up to almost his jawline, and then held her phone out and took a picture of them both, the bunny with a huge grin and Nick clearly unconscious with his head resting on a dark window with a plastic baggie full of fruit and veggies on top of his head. "Fox and bunny vacation photo number one!" she chimed sunnily under her breath.

Judy always had plenty of energy in the mornings and that seemed to be the worst time for Nick. However, even by Judy's standards, this was early. It couldn't be helped, however. She let her partner sleep for a while as the train stopped at the last stop before leaving Zootopia proper. A few other folks got on, including another couple of bunnies. Given where they were going, this was not at all surprising.