Chapter Text
“What should we call them?” Judy excitedly asked out loud, breaking the silence in the room.
All eyes and ears turned their attention to the bunny lying in the hospital bed, her fur in disarray from the hours spent in labor having just birthed her two cubs. Both babies were swaddled in their blankets, one blue and the other pink whilst they slept soundly in Judy’s arms. Her mate, Nick Wilde sat next to Judy on the bed, his paw delicately touching his baby son’s forehead while he smiled lovingly at his new family.
“Didn’t you two make a list of names a while ago? What happened to the pre-labor planning checklist Doctor Hare made you guys do?” Bonnie Hopps jokingly interrogated the new parents as she sat up from the little couch tucked in the corner of the room, coming to the bed near her daughter’s side and offering her open paws to take the baby girl.
Once the bunny kit was secured in her hold, Bonnie rocked the girl soothingly, remembering the moment when she did the same thing with Judy as a baby many years ago. Turning her attention back to the couch, the rabbit grandma chuckled at the sight of her sleeping husband.
Stu Hopps lay snoring through the group’s discussion: stress and excitement from his daughter’s labor took all the energy out of the tired grandpa, earning him a moment of peace to catch up on some needed rest after the cubs were born.
Meanwhile, Marion Wilde walked over and took the baby boy in her hold, gently cradling the fox kit as he stirred about from the sudden movement.
“It was all so sudden, mom. One moment I was drinking the carrot smoothie Nick got me earlier, then next I was dripping like a broken faucet. Before you know it, I’m standing in a puddle and we both just quickly grabbed our overnight bags and rushed to the hospital- I felt like I was too close to giving birth in the car with how fast everything’s happened!” Judy tiredly exclaimed as she leaned into the open space of Nick’s arms, rubbing her paws through his matted fur while he nuzzled himself on top of her head.
Since Judy’s labor occurred in the morning and finished in the evening, the duo hasn’t gotten much of a chance to relax. Both parents desperately needed to shower and eat, though Judy’s doctor insisted that she wait another hour before she got out of bed. Some tearing and bleeding was expected, but the bunny doctor wanted to monitor Judy for any internal bleeding or additional damages due to her birth involving hybrid offspring.
“It’s a miracle that the cubs are healthy and living, but we need to make sure that Judy will be alright in the long run: it’s not often that we have successful hybrid births, especially when it’s a fox/bunny combo!” Doctor Hare briefly mentioned to Nick outside the hospital room before Judy began pushing the first cub. If the fox’s nerves weren’t already jittery with his mate giving birth in the room next to him, the possibility of complications to either Judy or his kids practically threw him over the edge.
It took everything in his willpower for Nick to get ahold of his emotions and bring himself back into the delivery room without worrying his partner.
“I can’t imagine how you two must be feeling right now. This whole day has gone by so fast, but everything is fine now. Just look at these two beautiful kits; we couldn’t have asked for perfect cubs like these darlings!” Marion affectionately expressed to the group, gently nuzzling herself on the baby fox’s head.
The boy cooed in response to his grandma’s touch, earning a chuckle from Nick as the new dad fondly remembered the times his mom would nuzzle herself on his own furry head. How life repeated itself in these moments baffled Nick, especially since he would never had envisioned himself in this position years ago; it was a good thing he decided to tag along with the bunny cop, even if it involved some blackmail and near death experiences.
He couldn’t have asked for a perfect life than what he was living in now.
“Well, I appreciate that you all are here. Me and Nick could’t have asked for a better set of grandparents than you guys!” Judy gratefully stated, her violet eyes gleaming with tears as she watched Marion cradle her son and her mom hold her daughter with the love that only a caring family could produce.
“We should be thanking you, Bun-Bun! Mari and I were placing bets on when you two would try for kids after the wedding. I swore that your stubbornness to motherhood and commitment to being a cop would keep us old ladies waiting till our graves before anything would happen!” Bonnie cackled, earning another fit of giggles from the grandma fox whilst Judy glared at her mom in annoyance; Nick hid his face from Judy’s sight, but quietly chuckled at his mother-in law’s offhand comment.
“I have to agree with your mom, Judy. Once Nicky called me about your pregnancy test, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing since the wedding only happened a year ago! I admire your dedication to your career, but I thought that it would take years until you two would start trying.” Marion added.
“Well excuse me for wanting to put my career first before diving into parenthood: Plus, Nick and I didn’t want to rush into anything we weren’t ready for-we were close to promotions and kids are expensive!” Judy rolled her eyes, sighing loudly in defeat as Nick adjusted himself on the bed to allow the tired bunny to lay down on the pillows underneath her.
“Take it easy, Carrots. The grannies are just messing with us, but I can tell that you’re at low battery now. How about we let you rest and take over from here, ok?” Nick soothingly hushed, making sure that Judy remained calm while he tucked her into the bed and soothed out the ragged fur on her forehead.
“Yeah, I guess I should sleep. Just wake me in an hour to feed them again, ok Slick?” Judy tiredly requested as she sunk her head into the pillows, eagerly waiting for sleep to overtake her from the day’s events.
Nick nodded in response, smiling down at the near-sleeping bunny as he gave her a kiss on the forehead and ushered the grandmas away from the bed to allow Judy to rest.
“Why don’t you take your daughter for a bit, Nick. I’m going to join Stu on the couch for a nap; Lord know once we hit the road it’ll be a bad mixture of energy drinks and two exhausted rabbits bickering for hours on the backroads till we get back to BunnyBurrow!” Bonnie exclaimed as she carefully handed the bunny kit to Nick.
“No problem, Bon. Thanks again for your help with everything.” Nick gratefully shared as he rocked the antsy cub in his arms, offering a smile of gratitude to the tired grandma on the couch.
Walking over to his mother sitting with his son in the armchair adjacent to the couch, Nick slouched himself on the armrest and cuddled himself against Marion.
“I really appreciate you helping us out after this, mom. I can’t imagine Judy and I doing this alone. I swear I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep till the kids are at least a year old!” Nick quietly chortled, making sure that he spoke quietly amongst the sleeping group.
Marion patted her son’s arm, chuckling at Nick’s remark as she grinned toward’s the bunny cub cooing in response to her father’s laughter.
“Well if these two are anything like how you were those first few weeks after your birth, I wouldn’t dare leave Judy alone to deal with that! Plus, I’m just grateful that I can be apart of your life again, Nicky.” Marion shared. While she smiled down at the baby fox snoring in her arms, Nick noticed the sadness in his mother’s eyes after her statement.
Grabbing his mother’s paw, Nick gently gave her a squeeze and shared his own sad smile.
“I know, mom. I’m sorry for keeping you away for far too long. But, I want you to know that I really appreciate you being here; not just for Judy and the kids, but for me too. I can’t ask for your forgiveness, but I want you to know that I regret cutting you out of my life, and I just hope that you’ll continue to stay in our lives.” Nick depressingly said.
Her green eyes filling with tears, Marion reached up to kiss Nick’s muzzle. His eyes matched hers in that moment, both son and mother silently forgiving one another as they sat cuddling the babies together.
“He kinda looks like a John, doesn’t he?” Marion shared out loud while rocking the fox kit back and forth, the little boy quietly gurgling until he felt back into a silent sleep again. Nick gazed at his son, nodding his head in agreement.
“That was one of our choices for boy names. Carrot’s was adamant about that being one of the top three picks since you talked about dad a while ago. I think she was inspired about his whole gunho approach to that family suit business he wanted to start back up.” Nick fondly recalled.
Though his dad passed away when he was a young kit, a few years before the incident he had with the Cub Scout Rangers occurred, Nick vaguely remembered his dad taking him on trips across Zootopia to different business meetings, all in the hopes of restarting the failed suit business that Nick’s grandparents had started many years ago and something that his father wanted to rebuild.
Nothing ever came from the numerous failed attempts and rejected proposals, but John Wilde’s determination and faith in his dreams always left Nick inspired by his father: maybe that’s why he was attracted to Judy when he first met her. Her unwavering determination to prove to him and the world that she could be a great police officer reminded him of how nothing, and no-one could beat his father down in defeat.
“Hm, I think it’s definitely something to consider; maybe even calling him Johnny would suit him well!” Marion kindly added. Just then, the bunny cub in Nick’s arms cried out. In a haste, Nick hushed the girl while Marion guided her son to gently rock the baby till she fell asleep.
“Oh, we’re not forgetting about you, baby girl. And look how much she takes after you, Nicky! That fur and those eyes are exactly like yours!” Marion lovingly remarked.
While the baby girl was born a bunny like Judy, Nick couldn’t deny that his daughter took after him: her bright, red fur and emerald-green eyes proved just how much she looked liked her fox father. Meanwhile, the fox kit shared his mom’s gray fur with black-pointed ears and violet eyes. It was insane how genetics worked amongst the cubs, but Nick and Judy couldn’t have been more in awe at how their kids looked like each other.
“I told Judy about that movie I used to be obsessed with as a kid. You know, that cartoon Robin Hood movie I kept borrowing from the library.” Nick giggled.
“Oh, I remember that one: I also remember all the late fees I kept having to pay because you insisted on watching that movie every night before bed, and you never wanted to return it back to the library. I think you actually burnt through the VHS tape because Mrs Fine chastised me for bringing back a destroyed tape that was overdue!” Marion laughed as she noticed Nick’s sheepish grin disappear from his embarrassment.
“Anyway, I think Judy wanted to add Robin to the list for girl names. She thought that movie was adorable, and kept nagging me about how much I resembled my “childhood hero.” Nick said.
“Did you share with her about how you would dress up with the costumes I made you? I remember that one day where you made your father act like that lion king who demanded gold coins from Robin Hood? You even had your own pretend bow and arrow set you made from the cardboard boxes your father would find at the dumpster!” Marion laughed, though she quickly quieted herself to avoid waking up the sleeping mammals near her.
“I did not tell her, and I would appreciate you keeping those photos away. She already makes fun of me for suggesting that as a couples costume idea when we saw that Maid Marion/RH costume pack in that “adult” store we had to do a raid on last year!” Nick embarrassingly admitted, his ears feeling hot and his face turned away from his mom’s devilish grin.
“Oh, I can’t promise that she won’t find them before I have a chance to hide them the next time you all are over at the house! You know how determined Judy gets when she has a goal in mind.”
“Yeah, I know that very well so I’d appreciate if you have my back on this, mom! She already has enough blackmail material to keep me wrapped around her paw till my funeral!” Nick exasperated, falling back against the armchair in defeat while his mom chuckled to herself.
“But you know that Judy would never use it against you, Nicky. Even if she knows your most sensitive secrets, then you can only be reassured that she would take it to the grave with her in order to protect you.” Marion reassured her son
“I know, that’s why I married her and had kids with her. That bunny drove me crazy the first time we met, but I knew she was something special. I can’t let someone that amazing hop away from me furever!”
“Nicky, please tell me that you don’t torture Judy with those corny bunny jokes?”
Before Nick to curtly respond, a soft voice coming from the hospital bed prompted the mother and son to look at the tired bunny waking up from her well deserved nap.
“He does, unfortunately. But he knows I love them.” Judy giggled. Nick smiled back at his mate, his proud grin reflecting back toward’s the rabbit.
“Does she know that? Yes, yes she does!”
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