Guardian Blue - Season 1

Episode 25 - Healing

There was a game show on TV. That's what Judy woke up to. She shifted a bit, finding herself on a bed. Her eyes slowly pushed open, seeming wholly unwilling to do so. The sound of some kind of trivia game was there, and she saw a weird sort of railing to the bed. In another second or so she recognized it. Hospital bed. Judy looked up at the TV with some effort. The two rodents on the podium were answering questions about ancient wolf pack hierarchy which caused Judy to crack a grin because the contestants obviously knew approximately nothing about wolves and they were mangling it pretty bad. If she were lupine she bet she'd be pretty appalled. Judy didn't know everything, but she knew that the omega's primary role had not been 'to be eaten in case of emergencies'. Judy's eyes then shot open as the reason she was back in the hospital flooded into her.

She tried to sit up and realized she could hardly move. She recognized that feeling. Pain killers. She held up a hand, finding that there was an IV there. The memories rushed in. Did it happen? Did that all happen, or was she dreaming? She fell off the ladder in Hell's Cauldron, had she just been found in that place and brought here? She found her arm was back in a sling, and moved the paw with the IV in it up to touch her head. Just above her eye she felt a bandage. It was where the asphalt fell and hit her. Her heart started pounding faster. That part was real. If that part was real then...

"Judy?" The voice was her mother's. She looked in the direction it came from. Bonnie Hopps was standing in front of the chair she'd probably been sitting in. Judy's father was beside her. He had his hat gripped tightly in his paws, eyes locked on hers, suddenly wet with gladness that his daughter was wake. Judy gave a weak smile to them. Oh yeah, her parents hadn't even left Zootopia this time before she put herself in the hospital again. This was not making it easier for them to relax about her safety in the big city, she was positive.

"Hey Mom... Dad..." Judy's throat was a little raw. She'd screamed and yelled a lot during all that, she recalled. She had a lot of things she wanted to say to her parents. She wanted to apologize. She wanted to tell them she loved them and appreciated everything that they had done. So she prepared to say those things but only the word "Nick..." came out.

Bonnie smiled to her daughter and stepped forward, taking Judy's hand carefully. She said in a tender tone, "... is doing a lot better than he was yesterday, dear." Judy suddenly felt like she was flying and gritted her teeth, trying to fight it off, but tears spilled out anyway, falling down the side of her head to the pillow as she looked up at the blurry ceiling. Her mother kissed her forehead softly.

Her dad took a turn speaking as she did so. "Yeah, Jude," he said in a proud and happy tone, thumbs in the shoulder-straps of his overalls, "He just got upgraded from dead to alive this morning. It's a remarkable improvement." Bonnie reached back and swiped at her husband. Judy was okay with it, the jest was well-intended if a bit dry. She tried to sit up but still couldn't really move.

"You tore some ligaments in your shoulder this time and did some other damage in there," Bonnie stated. "That's what the doctor said. She has you on a muscle relaxers to keep you from trying to get up. Natural for bunnies to try to get up she said."

"Where's Nick?" Judy asked a bit more coherently, but she wasn't sure why she even needed to ask it. He was at the hospital too, she was sure. But the real reason for her question, she supposed, was that she wanted to see him and he wasn't there.

"He's in room 235, other end of the hall." Bonnie's answer was not an emotional revelation, it was delivered like a data point, an answer to a trivial question like on the game show, and did not yield what Judy really wanted. She wanted to run in there and see him. She couldn't do that. She winced a little as she tried again to move. She would soon though. She'd get to see him. She felt another surge of happiness. She sniffled softly. It was real. She saved him. Her mind started tumbling around that concept. There were going to be a lot of excited mammals. There was not likely to be a lot of peace for her.