The Long Recovery of Judy Hopps

"I'm fine."

"You're fine."

"Totally fine."

"Excellently fine."

"I'm not fine," Judy sighed, watching the green hills go by outside the observation car, as the high speed Zootopia Express zoomed towards Bunnyburrow.

"Yes, you are," Nick countered. "You got out of the hospital in record time."

"Five weeks is not a record," she replied. Judy moved her right arm experimentally, wincing slightly as she felt pain twinges running across her broken and re-healed clavicle and shoulder blade, listening to the bones click.

Nick smiled, leaning back in his seat, "Beats the heck out of the alternative."

"Yeah," she agreed, then sighed. "This is going to be the longest six months of my life."

"It's a vacation, enjoy it."

"It's recovery," Judy countered, nose twitching. "I need to get back into shape so I can retake the ZPD physical exam. If I don't make it..."

"You'll... be... fine, Carrots," Nick firmly. "Unless you start pushing yourself too hard like you always do and manage to pop a stomach staple or something. Slow and steady wins the race, remember?"

"I know, I know." She frowned. "I always thought that story was silly. Whoever heard of a talking tortoise anyway?"

"It's just a fable."

She grinned, some of her good humor coming back. "Like the one about the fox and grapes?"
Touche," Nick allowed, and shut up until the train began to slow down as it approached Bunnyburrow Station. When it came to a halt he reached up into the overhead compartment and grabbed his and Judy's bags, slinging them both over his shoulder.

She frowned again. "I can carry my own bag, Nick."

The fox grinned back at her un-repentantly. "You can, but you won't."

"Give it!" Judy hopped upwards, making a grab for her pink duffle bag as Nick tried to lift it out of her reach. She just managed to hop high enough for her fingers to brush against it, before she fell back down, almost falling onto her tail before Nick reached down quickly to grab her by the scruff of her neck.

"See, you're pushing it," he admonished, setting her down on the floor.

"I could jump twice that high before," she panted. The ache in her abdominal muscles from the sudden strain reminded her that she was due for another dose of oxycodone when they reached the farm. I've been sitting on that seat on the train for two hours, I shouldn't be this tired still.

"And you will again, just not today," Nick reassured her.

She waggled a finger at him, "You're being patronizing."

His ears twitched in amusement. "You're really adorable when you're annoyed."

"Am going to have to start calling you 'articulate' again to make you stop this?"

"Nope, that'll just make it worse for you."

She shouldered past him. "Dumb fox!"

He bowed at her. "Always!"

Together they made their way out of the train car and onto the platform. Waiting there was Tommy, one of Judy's many brothers, older than her by about ten years and fairly heavily built for a bunny rabbit. "Hey, Jude! Hey, Nick!" he called out.

"Hey Tommy," she greeted, while Nick shook his paw. "Mom and Dad didn't come to pick us up?"

"Dad's at the farmer's market. Mom's at Doc Steve's office, you can guess why."

"Again?" Judy said, in mock astonishment. More seriously, she added, "They're never going to get fixed, are they?"

Tommy shrugged. "They keep talking about it."

"They've been talking about it since I was eight."

"They been talking about it since I was eight, and that was ten years before you were born," Tommy said affably. He walked with them towards the parking lot. "How'ya doing, sis?" he asked, his tone growing more serious.

"I'm okay," she replied. "Everything still aches, and I'm tired all the time, but I'm getting better."

He nodded. "That's good. The kits will be glad. When we got Nick's call the day you were attacked, it was a pretty bad time. All the youngin's were pretty upset that their big sister Officer Judy got hurt."

"I can imagine. I was their age when we lost Jamie and Adam," Judy said, her ears drooping.

Nick looked at the two bunnies in curiosity. "I never heard this story. Who were Jamie and Adam?"

"Two of my big brothers," Judy explained. "They were riding in the bed of the old pickup truck we owned. Dad was driving back from town and one of the front tires blew out. He went into the ditch and they were flung out." She gave Nick a little shrug. "It was a pretty bad time, like Tommy said. Dad was awfully upset with himself."

"God, I know would be," Nick sad, looking horrified.

"As much as Mom and Dad worried about me becoming a cop, they tend to forget that being a farmer is one of the most dangerous occupations to have," Judy said, pulling herself up into the cab of the pickup, while Nick tossed their bags into the cargo bed. "Young kids plus heavy machinery equals a very bad accident if you slip up. Never mind pushing yourself too hard doing manual labor on a hot day and coming down with heatstroke."

"Or even more fun stuff like the grain silo exploding," Tommy added, grinning with morbid cheer.

"What was stored in it, kerosene?" Nick asked in bewilderment, as Tommy started the truck and pulled out onto the blacktop road towards the Hopps family farm.

"Nope, nothin' at all," Tommy started to explain. "You get a silo that's almost cleared out, and you've got lots and lots of little leftover grain flakes hanging in the air, all of 'em dry and ready to burn. One little spark, from a nearby fire slippin' in, an electrical short in the conveyor belt, or whatever, and it goes off like gunpowder. If you're lucky it just blows the top of the silo off. If you're not..." Fortunately he didn't finish outlining the possibilities. Nick's wide-eyed City Mouse look was enough set Judy off laughing though.

"You think that's funny?" he asked her.

"How many things do we laugh at when we're patrolling that we never would if we were both civilians?" she pointed out.

Nick grinned, and slipped on his Ray Bans. "Good point."

"Like what?" Tommy asked.

"You want to give him the story about the two mice and the asphalt truck?" Judy prompted. That had been a memorable event in Nick's first week of patrolling.

"Yech, I'm not telling that one, Carrots," Nick replied with, mostly, feigned horror.

"Do I wanna know?" Tommy asked, ears perking up.

"Not before lunch," she said.

Tommy snorted briefly. "Yeah, I'll give that one a pass then."

The truck pulled off onto the dirt road leading to the farm. As they drove up to the house, Judy let out a brief, "Aw no, guys!"

Hanging from the porch railing was a pink cloth banner, with the words "Welcome home, Judy!" painted on it. Standing on the porch itself was at least fifty of her brothers and sisters, of all ages, but mostly younger than her, waving happily as they drove up.

"Surprise!" Tommy said cheerfully.

"Surprise, Carrots," Nick added.

"Nick, did you know about this?" she demanded.

"I cannot tell a lie," Nick declared, one hand over his heart, the other holding up his smart phone. "You didn't see me texting to your house to let them know we were almost here, since you were too busy talking to Tommy."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Sly fox."

"Dumb bunny," he replied, still grinning. He hopped out of the truck with her, grabbing both their bags again.

"Let me have mine, Nick," she asked, cocking her head towards the crowd on the porch. "Just until we get to the house."

The fox's eyes flicked towards the crowd, and he nodded. "Right," he said, handing it over. Judy shouldered it and walked with him to the house, where her family waited for her eagerly.

"Hey guys, did you miss me?" she said, as she as nearly swamped by a wave of siblings. The chorus of yeahs, and are you okay, Judy? told her that her instincts had been right. The younger kits especially needed to see that she was alright, after weeks of secondhand reports about her health from Mom and Dad. So she kept her bag over her aching shoulder until she could safely put it down, and sat on the rickety old wicker chair by a small table, where she could sip an iced tea one of the older kits got her and listen to all the stories about what had been happening on the farm in her absence.

"So how long are you staying, Judy?" one of the older girls asked.

"A few months, until I can re-take my physical and get cleared for duty again," she replied.

"What, you're going to leave again?" another asked. "I thought you were staying for good this time."

"No, no," Judy said, giving them a smile that was harder to maintain the more she became aware of how much her shoulder and belly ached, never mind the clinging fatigue that seemed to never really go away, even after leaving the hospital. "I'm just staying for a while, until I'm better."

Just a while, she promised herself and hoped she wasn't lying.