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The menaces and vocificarations of Milton Lynxley were cut short by the metal door of the police van slammed in his face.
Happy to avoid a headache, Judy slapped her hand with Nick's before the crowd of reporters.
Not a single one could get to them before the fox turned to Hoggbottom.
"Hopps' been atacked with snake venom. She got the anti venom. But..."
"Then you're heading to the hospital for a checkup right now, Hopps." Answered their coworker without missing a beat.
The bunny glared at the boar, then at the traitor. "I feel good." She tried to reassure them, but her words were falling into deaf ears. She was already dragged away from the crowd, into the back of a cop car. Nick joined her soon, sitting in the passenger seat, and their other board coworker taking the wheel. Leaving Hoggbottom to handle the crowd.
Nick didn't escape his medical checkup either. Their zebras colleagues interrogated him while a hare nurse was disinfecting and bandaging his right paw.
A little over three hours later, he was allowed to see his partner in her hospital room. She was sitting on the bed, dressed in a hospital gown, a clean bandage on her neck where she had been attacked. Her purple eyes were filled with injustice.
"I cannot do any sport for a week !" She complained.
"Dear God. You'll die of boredom before that."
"And I still have to stay here under observation for another twenty hours." She continued, her arms crossed, ears low and nose twitching.
"Poor thing." Sympathized the fox while collapsing on the chair next to the bed. A certain tiredness in his voice "I take it you aren't at death's doors if these are your biggest concerns." Judy raised an eyebrow without responding and her partner continued on a softer tone. "But seriously, carrots, are you okay ?"
"They didn't find anything alarming." Reassured the bunny. "But apparently I could have symptoms in the next few days, so they have to keep me here just in case. I negociated and got it shortened to one single day." She announced with a bright smile.
"Because that seems like a reasonable and safe thing to negotiate."
"Well they wouldn't have agreed if it was dangerous. I just need to have someone checking up on me every four hours." She chuckled. "Not like it will be hard. After all of this, my parents will ring me every single hour, for at least a month."
Her partner didn't laugh back at the thought. He narrowed his eyes, clenched his jaw and opened his lips to let an awkward whistle go though his teeth.
Judy looked at him, trying to figure what was going through his mind. But her head was fuzzy, her eyes felt heavy and irritated. "What ?" She asked.
"Well, I think that you will need to stop at a store first thing when you get out of here, then. Like, a phone store."
"Oh." Her head was hurting now. How long had they slept in the last three days? Less than four hours, that was for sure. She let out a frustrated noise and put her face in her hands.
"It's okay, I can get it for you if you give me the model. So you can have it before you even get discharged." Nick offered.
"No, it's not... It's just... Another thing to think about. And I'm tired. And I had this one model that is really good, without the built-in obsolescence. But I can only find it online." She grabbed both of her ears in each of her hands and was pulling down on them in frustration. "So I'm not getting it for at least a week. Do I get an old one in the meantime? Just for this? This feels so stupid !"
Nick gently put his paw on her left wrist. "Alright, easy partner." She let go of her poor ears. "You know what I think ? We're tired and hungry. We need rest and some food."
Judy's eyes widened, she suddenly gained consciousness of a strong feeling of hunger, hurting her belly.
"I'm gonna get someting for us. They sell sandwiches down in the hall." Continued the fox. "The doctors said you could eat? Any food you should avoid?" Judy shook her head to the negative and watched her partner leave the room.
She bit down the bread and vegetables like it was the best meal of her entire life - and it did seem as such in this very moment.
Quiet peace had settled in the hospital room. Not a word was spoken. Both the animals were too focused on their feast to say a word or even think a though.
Nick let out a big sight of relief after his last bite, he could feel his body thanking him for appeasing its hunger. He let out a huge yawn, quickly followed by Judy. Their eyes were still awfully heavy. And with their bodis and spirits appeased by the meal, they were both ready to drift to sleep. The hospital chair felt like the most comfortable nest to Nick Wild. He blinked slowly three times then failed to open his eyes again without realizing it.
Judy shook her partner's right arm gently. "Nick, you should go home to get a good rest." The fox groaned an incoherent response. Judy shook him just a bit harsher. Which only prompted the half asleep fox to mumble "Five more minutes. Leave me." And the rabbit realized that her friend would not be able to get home without at least a quick nap. So she gave him the pillow from the bed she was on. Helping him settle with it in his half conscious state, so that his neck wouldn't hurt when he woke up.
Once satisfied, she layed back on the mattress and welcomed a much deserved sleep with open arms.
It is still with a small pain in his neck that Nick woke up. He could not tell how much time had passed. But nurses were back in the room to check on Judy. So less than four hours, he guessed. But it could have been less than one too.
A wolf nurse shook the rabbit awake to ask her basic questions such as her name, the year they were in and the feelings of numbness and pain she had in her limbs.
Meanwhile, Nick slowly rubbed his paws over his eyes and the rest of his face, forcing himself awake.
"This is stupid." He said in a still sleepy voice, once the nurses had left. "Even if you got a cheap phone for the week, your parents are far away. They would have to call services in Zootopia if something was wrong. And who knows how long that could take."
Judy looked confused. "It's just a formality. I will probably be fine, they won't have to call anyone."
The fox raised his left ear while the other was still hanging low " 'probably' and now it's just you who is stupid. Just come spend a week at my place. It'll be easier."
The look on the bunny's face let Nicolas understand that her very first though was for the junk all over the floor of his flat.
"Look. I'll go over my place and change the sheets of my bed. You can have my room, I'll sleep on my very comfortable couch. I'll get a few groceries, tidy up a bit so you don't go all 'mom' on me and I'll be back here for when they let you out. Does that plan seem acceptable to the duchess of organization and tidyness?"
"To think it would take me almost dying from snake venom for you to clean up your place." Answered Judy with a laugh.
"It is a bit noisy because of the gym between the hours of 5 to 9 pm, and from 7 to 9 am." Admitted the fox.
"It's not a problem. But seriously, I'll be fine with the couch."
"Thou art too weakened by thy injuries to decree such things. And I shall have the upper hand in deciding whom shall lay on my beloved couch." Answered Nick in a dramatic voice, as he was getting up from his seat while opening his arms as if he was the star of a play. Judy smiled and decided she couldn't fight with crazy. So the fox went on his way out.
"Wait, Nick. Could you get my flat's keys from my pants ?" She asked, pointing at the nightstand next to him, her clothes resting upon it. "It would be awesome to wear clean clothes when I get out of here."
The fox searched for the pants' pockets for a few seconds before fishing a carotte keyring attached to two distinct keys. "Okay. But I gotta go now, if I want any chance on being able to bring my apartment to your standards in less than..." He looked up at the clock hanging on the wall facing the bed. "You're getting out tomorrow at 3 pm... Eighteen hours !" He exclaimed.
"I won't mind that much, Nick." Argued Judy while the fox was stepping out of the room.
He answered from the corridor "Yeah right, mom."
The next hours didn't go as slow as Judy had feared. She was still very tired but nurses and doctors visited her regularly, which resulted in her getting only naps of fourty minutes tops, and caused her sleep to be restless.
It was the next day when her coworker Clawhauser visited her with a box of treats. He gave her news about Gary, whom was forced to stay at the police station for his testimony.
"He asked for news about you and Nick. And he wants to thank you again for your help" Said the leopard with his ever kind face.
"We will meet again soon ! You can tell him me and Nick are fine. I have to stay here for two more hours only." Answered Judy with a big smile. Benjamin had an infectious energy that the Bunny always appreciated.
"Bogo is getting better too." Answered the feline. "But he's staying in the hospital a bit longer. I was so worried for all of you the past last days, Judy." He added, dropping his smile for a moment.
Their conversation went on. First about the case, then about their colleagues, and then common interests they shared in entertainment. Judy was more than thankful for the distraction at the end of this eternal waiting she had to endure.
Nick showed up again a bit before 2 pm, still looking exhausted. But wearing fresh clean clothes, the bandage on his paw had also been changed. It was visible he was showered and groomed. Judy felt very jealous in this instant. She had been cleaned in the hospital, but her fur was still messy and it didn't quite feel like the last three days of blood and sweat had been cleaned from her body. But she recognized one of her baggy jeans and purple shirt under the fox's arm and immediately felt better at the idea of wearing actual clothes soon.
Benjamin hugged the newcomer, lifting him off the ground for a few seconds.
"Hey ! Happy to see you too, bud." He said, getting squished in the embrace. He brushed the fur oh his arms back in place when he was finally set free and joined the conversation where it was interrupted. It was soon 2:45 pm. The wolf nurse came back to check Judy up one last time and change the bandage on her neck before her discharge. Her visitors were invited to wait for her at the reception. Benjamin offered to drive them down to Nick's apartment with his car, which they accepted with gratitude.
During the car ride, Nick fell asleep against the window in the backseat while Judy conversed with their colleague and gave directions. The night and morning of cleaning, errands, and public transport from the hospital of Tundra town to his apartment had been long on his side. The hour of sleep in the hospital seemed days away.
He jumped awake when Judy gently shook his arm, as the car had stoped in front of his place.
"I'll send you both an email when we need you back at the station for anything." Said Clawhauser. "But you're not expected to come for work for at least four more days, Nick." It was the best thing the fox had heard today. "And Judy, I think you'll have to take the whole two weeks of rest. I'll let you know if we need any document from the hospital."
"You are the absolute best, Ben." Declared Nick. Judy thanked him too. Visibly annoyed by the forced vacation.
But now, the best thing was about to happen to both of them : one full night of sleep. Real, actual sleep. If you didn't count the alarms Nick had to set for every 4 hours. He had a list of five questions written down by a nurse to ask Judy every time. Similar to the ones he had heard being asked the day before.
He pushed the creaky door of his apartment and Judy was actually surprised by the effort put in the cleaning. It was not near the tidyness of her apartment. But he had done his best so that she would have no material to criticize his life style.
"I should flirt with death more often." She joked.
"You do it often enough, carrots." He answered, and she thought that it was only half true. "So. Do you need anything ? Food or ..."
"Sleep. Sleep ! Oh God I want to sleep." She exclaimed with desperation.
"We're on the same page here, carrots." He answered, absolutely delighted. He led her to the door of his room.
"Nick, thank you so much for doing this for me." Said Judy with a sincere smile before entering the bedroom.
"See you tomorrow, partner." He answered while closing the door. Then he turned around and threw himself completely clothed on his couch, without bothering to even grab a blanket. It was a few seconds before he was drifting to sleep.
Meanwhile on his actual bed, Judy found one of her pajamas and her laptop, which Nick had picked up at her apartment at the same time as the clothes she was wearing. It was still folded, although the folds had gotten a bit less neat from the transport. She felt a soft smile creeping on her face again and she happily changed.
It was still bright outside. She was sure it would take some time to actually find sleep because of her naps back at the hospital. But in the clean pajamas, wrapped in the freshly cleaned sheets of Nick, it took her barely a minute more than her partner to fall into the arms of Morpheus.
She was first awakened by the first noises from the gym above, but she was quick to fall back asleep. She was later truly awakened by knocks on her door. She opened her eyes, it was now dark outside. She looked at the alarm clock on the bedstand, it was 8:30 pm.
The door opened on Nick, he leaned on the doorframe. The fox could still see clear as day in the dark, Judy was sitting up, her face sleepy and her fur messy.
"Knock knock, time to see if you're not dead." Announced Nick in a half asleep voice. She answered with a groan and he got closer to sit on the bed.
"What's your name ?"
"Judy Hopps." She answered while rubbing her eyes.
"When's your birthday ?"
"The fourth of March."
"Ding ding ding. Congratulations, you still have your right mind." He continued by checking her feelings of pain and numbness with a few more questions. "And you're not dying either ! Ladies and gentlemen, our winner." He concluded with lazy enthousiasme.
"Is my big prize a few more hours of sleep?"
"You read my mind. Back to the couch for me." He got out of the room, took the time to change into more comfortable clothes, took and a pillow and a blanket with him and went straight back to dreamland.
When his alarm ran again four hours later, he actually felt well rested this time. He stretched a bit, savouring the feeling. It was past midnight and very dark now. Which rejoiced him, he had always been more found and the night time. Even though he knew it meant he would have to readjust his sleep schedule to his ZPD work time during the next few days.
With his mind finally fully awake and relaxed, he went to the door of his bedroom again. Fully prepared to be slightly more annoying to his friend, this time.
While he was knocking on the door, he noticed a post it sticked on it. He recognized Judy's neat writing. "Woke up. Went for a walk. Be back soon." And a smily figure under it.
The fox's ears went down and he let out a very annoyed sight. He went back on his track and started pacing the living room. Pesting out loud. "For a walk ? And letting me know where would have been too much to ask ? Miss I still don't have a phone and I could faint or have a stroke or something out on the streets."
He got dressed in casual clothes and decided that he would keep himself busy in the kitchen. But he was still talking to himself while getting zucchinies out of the fridge. "Of course it is too much to ask to stay put for a few hours until I wake up. Not it is truly a cruel task that she has to accomplish." He quickly put together a zucchini gratin that he threw in the oven.
He stared angrily at the dish through the stained glass. "Officer Hopps, if you are not back in the next twenty minutes, I am pacing the whole neighborhood and once I find you, I am making this the most embarrassing night of your life."
He kept staring at the time on his oven, letting out a frustrated sight every now and then. It had not been five minutes more before he let out a frustrated groan and went to grab his keys, displeased but ready to go down a shearch party for an idiot.
Before he even put his paw on the handle of his entry door, it opened from outside.
Step in, Judy looking extremely pleased with herself. "Sleeping beauty is awake." She observed.
Her partner answered with a sarcastic laugh. "Very funny. A little note, though. I am supposed to check on you every four hours. For your serious injury. Remember? And you're not making it easy by disappearing on me when we still don't have phones for me to call you on."
Judy noticed the tension in her partner and tried to reassure him. "It's okay. I'm here and it's been about four hours. You know the doctors recommend four hours just to be safe, there's a huge leeway."
"Yes, well probably because of people like you." He answered, ears still low and arms crossed. "Seriously, you're usually so much more rigorous about following instructions, carrots. What is it about staying alive that makes you so reckless when it comes to your own good ?"
Judy looked around, trying to think of something to calm her partner. "Okay, well my name is Judy, my birthday is on the fourth of March, I don't have any feelings of numbness in my body right now. The part of my neck that was stabbed itches like a regular injury. On a scale of pain from one to ten, I would say that I am at three for my neck specifically and at two for my whole body. And also, I took care of ordering my new phone when I woke up, thank you for getting my laptop, by the way." She was making her way to the kitchen, followed by her friend. His shoulders had relaxed, although he was still quite unhappy and not hiding it. But he let Judy continue with her method of changing the subject whenever she got uncomfortable. "With the quick delivery, I am getting it in four days ! Turns out I was a bit dramatic yesterday." She finished, taking a seat at the kitchen table.
"Okay, well that is good because I will be back working at the ZPD by then, and I will still need to check up on you."
"You ordered yours yet?"
"I'll just buy one at a store when they open. Maybe I'll get the same model as my last one, I'll see at the moment." He threw his paw over his shoulder and used his thumb to point at his oven. "Anyways, are you hungry ? I made a zucchini gratin."
The bunny smiled and shook her head to the affirmative, her tapping foot betraying her excitement. She got up to get tableware, noticing with a silent amusement the lack of taste in the vivid purple colour of the plates. Meanwhile Nick got the dish onto the table.
"Quite the chef." The bunny noted.
"It's literally zucchini with oat cream, nutritional yeast, three minutes pastas and spices." But he knew that she was even less of a cook than him.
"How much do I owe you for the groceries ? Oh, that is a bit spicy." She noticed after taking a first bite off her plate. The fox refrained from explaining that he used the tamest spices he owned and answered that she could just pay the next groceries if it was important for her to pay him back. And he hoped it was, because he wouldn't get his first paycheck from the ZPD before another two weeks and a half.
Nick picked a few pastas with his fork. "You do plan to stay here for the two weeks, right ? Even with your phone arriving early ?"
"I mean, you decide. But I'll be fine once I get it back, so you really won't have to worry about it."
"What I meant to say was that I would like for you to stay until you are better. I can't force you. But I really do think it would be best." He said, looking down at his plate like it was the most interesting thing he had seen all day.
Judy was about to shove a zucchini slice in her mouth, she stopped her movement, fork right in front of her open mouth. She shot a look at Nick whom was now finding interest in his glass of water. A soft smile spread on her face and she answered. "Thank you, Nick. I will stay, then."
During the next few days, she realized how much she missed living with other people. And also that she actually did not like her small and lonely apartment that much.
Her first week of recovery was definitely less boring than she had feared.
On the first day, she waited for the sunrise to call her parents with her computer. She realized that she could have called in the middle of the night when she saw their exhausted faces. It was as if they hadn't slept since Nick had destroyed her old phone. But their faces lit up the moment they saw their daughter on the camera and followed a very emotional call.
Later, she accompanied Nick for him to buy a new phone. They then went by her apartment for her to get a few more clothes as well as a few particular hygiene products that Nick did not possesse. And she bought herself a book on the way back. Figuring she would need entertainment for the next days.
Then they went back to the apartment and she realized that this small errand did tire her a lot. She could feel her nose and ears twitching, upset to feel weak and low on energy.
But she watched a movie with Nick and fell asleep halfway through it, awakened later by the smell of another meal made by her friend. So she really would have been a hypocrite to complain about her day. She had noticed Nick was only making bunny friendly dishes, and she appreciated the lack of fishes. She did feel a bit nauseous, but still forced herself to eat a reasonable amount.
The next three days, they played board games, went for walks in town and in the park close to the apartment - which Judy had discovered on her escapade during her first night living with Nick. She had to admit that she wasn't the biggest fan of the noises from the gym upstairs, but she surprisingly got used to it quickly. It was normal to be surrounded by noise when you lived in town anyways.
The fourth day, Nick went back to the ZPD. Judy had negociated long and hard for him to get back his rom. She argued that he would need proper rest since he was going back to work. And the fox reluctantly let the rabbit have the couch as a bed.
He had lended her his new phone, since hers was arriving the day after. And he called her every four hours with his coworker's phones to check up on her. He was mixing up the questions every time, to keep it a small challenge.
When he got back home, he was slightly horrified to discover she had attempted cooking a casserole. And they both decided she would stick to cooking simple meals such as pastas with pre-made sauce.
She was helping him to take care of the wounds on his paw. And he was taking care of changing her bandage on her neck every night after she showered.
They needed to shave off the fur around her wound every two days, and to clean it carefully. Nick felt more reassured every days as he could see the wounds heal slowly. He was very careful with this task, and made jokes about her so that she wouldn't get used to him being too soft on her.
The day after that, Nick arrived with a surprise guest, Gary was free to go around and had insisted on seeing her.
They both shared a hug and caught each other on the last few days. He ate dinner with them and spent a good part of the night talking with them until Judy fell back asleep. So Nick escorted him to the hotel he was staying at.
Seven days after she left the hospital, she was becoming horribly frustrated by her forced rest. She was still weak and had vomited three times, which the doctors said it wasn't alarming. She had finished her new book - a history book about reptiles - and she negociated her return to the ZPD in the administrative section. They let her come mornings only and she was doing less tasks than an intern, but she had to admit it was already fastidious for her.
Still, she was happy to feel useful and active. And she got to take the road to work with Nick on the morning.
She didn't notice, but when she went back to the apartment alone around the beginning of noon, Nick was doing his check up calls earlier than he was supposed to.
It was four days before she would be allowed to get back to her job on full-time. She was assisting Clawhauser with reception, which mostly meant she had a few documents to fill while she was hanging out with Benjamin.
There was only two hours left to her work day when she decided she could go for a soda. Feeling low in sugar.
"You can have my donut." Offered her colleague with a candid smile.
"Thank you, but I feel more like drinking something. I'm feeling a bit nauseous."
"Well then I'm getting it for you. Just wait here."
She tried to protest, but for once the jaguar had been faster than her. She would have felt offended to be treated as if she couldn't do anything on her own. But her friend had barely left the hall when her peripheral vision got dark. She started breathing fast and she sat on the reception chair, but it all went completely dark in a few seconds.
When she woke up again, she was in a white room again. Next to her was a goat she recognized as the nurse of the ZPD.
After reassuring her that she had only fainted from exhaustion, the goat harshly reprimanded the cop. "You have been specifically told to lift your foot of the accelerator. But you apparently know better than doctors with ten years of formation." He went on for four whole minutes. Then asked her a few questions similar to her usual check up ones.
"Now, you are getting back home this instant and you are not comming back here for five more days. Do you understand me?" Feeling like a scolded child, she nodded quickly. "Clawhauser volunteered to escort you to your place during his lunch break. I am warning your coworkers that you are not to go back on full duty for a month. You are going to take it easy, young lady." Concluded the goat with the authority of a nurse who had been bossing around stubborn cops for the past fifteen years.
Back in the apartment, Judy went straight to the couch. The living room wasn't as tidy as a week and a half ago. A bag of her clothes was in the middle of the room, a clothes horse with her stuff on it was right behind the couch.
Facing the ceiling, she cursed her own body for betraying her and letting that old goat be right, she was exhausted. Following medical recommendations for once, she swallowed a pain killer and laid back down.
Barely twenty minutes had passed before she got her check up call from Nick.
He was on duty in the rainforest district for the day, stuck with their zebras colleagues. Clawhauser had told her that Nick hadn't been informed of her incident. And she decided that it would be best to keep it this way until the end of his work day. She answered the questions same as usual.
"Our champion wins the game again." Said the fox on the other side of the line.
"How is your magical day with the zebros?" Asked Judy, a hint of mockery in her voice.
"Oh they are lovely. Truly charming fellas. They had me doing the driving all morning."
"They are very brave." Commented the rabbit.
"They were also told off by a five years old when we pulled over a panther. But I'll tell you about it tonight. It was very funny." He added in a fake whisper then went back to his usual tone. "Do you need me to get anything?"
"Nope, I don't think so. All good." She answered a little too confident to her liking.
"Alright, call you back in four hours, carrots."
She sighted after hanging up. "Maybe he won't flip out." She thought.
"You are a stubborn idiot with no regards for her own safety." He flipped out after getting back home. "I have told you to rest. The doctors have told you to rest. But you just know better than everyone else !" Nick was standing in front of the couch where Judy was seated. His arms crossed, one ear up and the other down. Judy could swear steam was getting out from the top of his head.
"Okay, okay. You were right. I got my lesson, I swear." She answered, being truly honest. "I will rest. And apparently I will be getting back on the job slowly for a whole month, anyway."
Nick's left ear twitched. "Well, you would probably be better already if you had properly rested until now."
"I get it, alright. You're the second person to call me an idiot today. The ZPD nurse is not a softie."
The fox looked down, took a deep breath in and out, attempting to calm himself. "I need to record all the times you recognize you were wrong. They are rare and truly precious moments." A pillow flew right to his face. Which he deemed fair. "Okay, so you're getting back at work slowly. That's a few more weeks of this sleepover." He said, sitting next to her.
Judy's ears perked up. "Nick, I'm taking up all your space."
"You're, like, very small." That got him a punch in the shoulder. "Plus I get home to the sweet smell of burnt food thanks to you."
"You are not letting that go."
"Never." He assured with a very smug smile.
It was a comforting idea to know that she would be with her friend for longer. The idea to go back to her lonely apartment did give her the blues. Especially if she had to spend most of her day inside.
"I'm a bit surprised, you know. I would have thought you would have felt overwhelmed by the third day you had to share you space with someone else. I believe you value your alone time." She said with a smile, bringing her knees close to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs.
The fox visibly looked uncomfortable.
"Well it's not like you're hard to live with. Plus I still get alone time, you do sleep a lot. I'm more surprised you're okay with living on a couch for the past weeks. Although, it is bigger than your bed or your apartment. And, you know, I worry about you. And it's not like you're giving me reasons not to." He tried to hide embarrassment behind an annoyed look, but Judy looked at him foundly.
"Alright partner, I'll stay a bit longer then. Thank you so much for this."
Nick felt like a weight had nifty off his shoulders.
"I do have to insist on the fact that you are easy to live with. You do all you can to be useful. And I do appreciate that. But, again, you need to rest. So stop dusting my furniture every day and doing the groceries. I would like you to watch movies, do some puzzles and go take short easy going walks in the park for the next days."
"I'll try online shopping for the groceries." Compromised Judy. "But I'll do everything else you asked. Promised." And they shook on it.
Four more days had passed, Judy was following her partner and the doctor's request seriously this time. There had been no other incident since, and she was very happy to be back at the ZPD for a few hours a day soon.
She was sitting at the kitch table, doing sudokus with a video of a comedian playing on her phone. Said video stopped halfway through to show a call from Nick.
"What's up?" She answered. The fox mumbled an unintelligible answer. "You forgot you didn't need to check up on me anymore, didn't you?" She guessed with amusement in her voice.
"You got me. The four hour alarm rang and automatism took over."
They conversed for a minute before hanging up. The truth was that Nick absolutely remembered that he didn't need to call her anymore when he heard his alarm. But an irrational feeling that he would be missing out on a duty crept over him. He felt as if he would be going home to a catastrophy is he didn't check on his friend. And he called her anyway, only relaxing when he heard her calm voice.
He was uneasy about skipping the calls for the rest of the day. But when he got home to his partner stretching in the middle of his apartment - an habit she had taken to take care of her poor muscle getting out of shape - all his worries faded away. Replaced by a warm tranquility.