between pretending to read a magazine and pacing back and forth.

Eons later, a small female rabbit dressed in scrubs walked briskly into the room. “Mrs. Hopps?”

Nick stopped pacing and Mrs. Hopps put the blanket down and stood as Dr. Avery continued.

“Judy is doing as well as can be expected and should be in recovery soon.” The corners of her eyes crinkled as she gave them a toothy smile. “ Are you ready to go say hello?”

Mrs. Hopps quickly followed the doctor from the room. Nick started to follow them, but paused uncertainly.

Over her shoulder Mrs. Hopps said, “Come on Nick, you too.”

 

She came early, just one lone kit, but she is absolutely gorgeous. I’ve never held a baby rabbit before. You should have seen your mother give her to me to hold for the first time, I thought her nose was going to twitch right off of her face.

She has your eyes, Judy.

 

Judy rested quietly on the hospital bed in a sea of flowers, balloons, and get well cards as Dr. Avery opened each of her eyes in turn and examined them with a silver penlight. She made a few notes on a clipboard before briefly checking Judy’s tracheal tube. Next to the bed, the ventilator droned on with a monotonous swish-click every 2.8 seconds.

Dr. Avery smiled at Nick and Mrs. Hopps. “I think we’ll be able to take her off the ventilator later today and let her breathe on her own. Once the general anesthesia wears off, we’ll just have to keep an eye on her and wait for her to improve.”

 

I can’t take my eyes off your face, ever since they took the breathing tube out. I keep trying to forget what your face looked like, in the days after the accident. The bruising was so bad... I may never be able to eat a blueberry again. But you look so much better now.

 

Except for the occasional beep from one of the monitors, the room was eerily quiet. Nick slouched in a chair, his head propped up on one arm so he could watch Judy’s face. Mrs. Hopps’ paws worked quietly as she finished the final stitches in the blanket.

“You know that she loves you.” Nick blinked. Mrs. Hopps had spoken so quietly, he barely heard her. He looked at her and saw that her paws were still as she stared at him. Her nose twitched once as her eyes filled with tears.

“Every time we talked, she told us about you. She couldn’t talk about anything else, before you took her to that fancy restaurant. She spent days agonizing over which outfit to wear.”

Mrs. Hopps looked down at her paws as she rubbed them anxiously. “And that all changed when she came home. If only we hadn’t pushed so hard…” Her shoulders heaved as she began to weep quietly. Nick moved to sit next to her as he put his paw gently on her back.

She smiled at Nick and dried her eyes on her sleeve. “She didn’t even know how you felt about her when she came home.” Mrs. Hopps looked at the ground as her ears flushed bright red.

Nick’s ears flattened against his head and he clasped his paws together in his lap. “What’s wrong, Mrs. Hopps?”

She squirmed without looking up and said, “I read Judy’s diary last night.”

Mouth agape, Nick stared at Mrs. Hopps for several seconds before jumping to his feet.

Nick paced and flailed his arms angrily as he spoke. “What? I‘m appalled… you read her diary? I can’t believe that you… you violated her privacy like that.”

After several more moments Nick regained his composure and sat next to Mrs. Hopps.

He looked at the ground sheepishly as he asked, “So, uhhh, what else did you read in her diary?”

 

Chapter 3

 

Well that was… tragically insightful.

 

I’m sorry that I grilled your mom to find out what you wrote in your diary without your permission. Normally I’d try to shift the blame away from me and point out that technically your mom is the main culprit here, but instead I acknowledge that I’ve broken your trust, and I apologize for that Judy.

I wish you had invited me to go with you to visit Bunnyburrow like you wanted to, but I probably would have been too afraid to go. I can say that I’d go now if you asked, so I guess that’s progress?

I’m sorry that I didn’t get the note you left to call you, and even more sorry I didn’t just call you anyway, but I’m also sorry in advance for the murder I’ll probably commit when I find out who didn’t give me the note you stuck on the case files that they took off my desk.

I hope we can talk about whatever happened between you and… what was his name… Irvin? Your mom was a bit vague with the details, but my understanding was that copious amounts of carrot wine were consumed by everyone involved. In addition, with all of the unresolved issues between us, plus the confusion caused by us not talking things over on the phone, plus the large side order of guilt from your parents, I can see why the situation is... complicated. Whatever happened, Judy, it doesn’t change how I feel about you. I just need to know if it changes how you feel about us.

I better wrap this up, because your mom will be back from feeding Little Carrots soon. She threw a fit the first time I called the baby that, but I’m sure I’ll wear her down eventually. Calling her Baby J is just too weird.

She’s growing so fast, and should be out of the ICU soon. Believe it or not, I’ve gotten pretty good at feeding her, though I have to practically wrestle her away from your mom to get a turn.

You gotta wake up and meet your daughter. She needs a name and… I need you.

 

Nick and Mrs. Hopps glared at each other across Judy’s bed.

“You can’t take Judy’s baby back to Bunnyburrow.” Nick leaned forward slightly, causing Mrs. Hopps to flinch and involuntarily take a step back. “She belongs here, with Judy.”

Mrs. Hopps crossed her arms. “Nick, be reasonable. This is no place to raise a baby. She gets out of the ICU tomorrow, and the doctor said she’s ready to go home. If Judy gets better…”

Nick cut her off coldly. “When. When Judy gets better.”

Mrs. Hopps nodded. “When she gets better, what then? I’ve been staying in her apartment… that’s no place for an infant. And Judy is going to need care too when she gets out of the hospital. Care that she can only get at home, with her family.”

 

Well, that conversation with your mom could have gone better. She did finally agree that we could talk about it more tomorrow, though I don’t see her changing her mind. I certainly see where your stubbornness comes from now.

I’ve got to go take care of something I’ve been putting off for awhile, but I’ll be back to talk to you soon.

 

Nick stared at the front door of his mom’s house, a key clutched tightly in his right paw. He sighed deeply before he stepped forward and unlocked the door.

He paused in the open doorway and took his sunglasses off, hanging them on his shirt pocket as he peered down the dark hallway. He walked slowly, reverently, as he touched things: a picture of him when he was five, his mom’s gray knit sweater hanging on a hook, a scratched wooden bench next to the kitchen doorway where, until he was a teenager, he’d proudly stood every birthday so his mom could mark his height.

He walked past the stairs and turned down another hallway, his paw trailing along the peeling green wallpaper. At the end of the hall was the open doorway to his mother’s bedroom, where he stood, his paws on his hips, as he took a careful survey. The room was crowded, filled with a large four poster bed, dresser, lamps, and an old steamer trunk, scattered among the smaller piles of his mother’s possessions. Nick sighed again as he took a tentative step into the room.

“You sure were a packrat, Ma,” he said as he walked over to her cluttered dresser. He looked at his reflection and noticed a small card tucked in the corner of the mirror. He gently plucked the card from the frame and shook the dust off before looking at it closely.

He chuckled at the lopsided heart drawn in crayon with the caption HAPPEE VALANTINZ DAAY scrawled underneath. His eyes welled with tears when he opened the card and read, I LUV YOU MA written in large, scribbly letters.

He was startled by a loud knock, followed by someone calling his name. Wiping his eyes on his arm, He tucked the card into his pocket as he made his way back to the still open front door, where he found Rita waiting. She was sitting down and craning her neck to look inside.

“I saw the front door was open and figured you were here. How are things?” Rita asked as she grabbed Nick with her trunk and pulled him in for a hug. Nick hugged her back and replied, “Oh you know, just sorting through Ma’s stuff.”

Rita nodded. “Have time to talk in the backyard for a bit?”

Nick nodded. “Sure. Can I get you anything?”

She shook her head as she disappeared around the corner of the house. “Just your company.”

Nick shut the front door and walked through the house to the large patio door, where he could see Rita already settling herself into an oversized lawn chair. The backyard was a shambles, the lawn overgrown and weedy. A small gray shed was barely visible among the overgrown bushes and trees along the back fence.

Nick opened the door and walked over to sit in a small chair near Rita. He put on his sunglasses as he stared out at the yard.

“Your mom used to hire a goat to come by every now

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