-Red of Blues- by Toga

She hugs him and does not intend to let go.

The rain seems to come down harder than before, weighing them down mentally and physically. Judy can handle it, but Nick’s strength is fading quickly. His uniform is made heavy enough by the blood pouring from the four gashes across his side, waterfalling down his torso and slacks, creating an ever-widening stain that begins to reach down to his knee.

A large pool forms beneath them. By now even Judy’s knees are soaked red, and the pressure she places on the wounds has so inundated her paws in crimson that she absentmindedly thinks the color will never come out. The puddle grows and grows, soon surrounding them and Judy feels her shins and feet warmly wet despite the cool rain.

The fleeting thought crosses her mind that she’ll never see him again, have him again, talk to him again. That all he is, was, and ever will be is gushing from his side and seeping through her paws. She vaguely remembers screaming into her radio and someone says something in return but she can’t hear it over the crashing din of her own mind.

He coughs out some unintelligible word, blood dribbling down his chin. She tells him not so speak, and for a second realizes how painfully real all of the cheesy lines from TV cop dramas are. She remembers how’d she and Nick would sit on the couch together, laughing at the overly dramatic dialogue, Judy saying that no one says this sort of stuff. As she reaches for another roll of bandages from her belt she wishes this was more like a TV show. On the shows the bad guy gets his, the music is heart-lifting, and injury grave but surmountable.

Judy hears the wailing of sirens fast approaching. Nick has strength enough to smile, though he has trouble lifting his head. Judy does it for him, leaving a red paw mark beneath his chin. He tries to say something but she doesn’t hear it; she’s yanked away by much larger mammals and kept at bay. And even with all her might she’s not strong enough to tear herself from the clutches of whomever holds her and get back to his side and tell him she loves him or she’s sorry for taking the last fruit bar this morning or that he can drive next patrol so she tries to scream all her thoughts from where she is but fear swells her throat and all the little insignificant things flood her mind while what she really wants to say carries with it a finality that she is unable to comprehend or accept and nothing she thinks of manages to leave her lips and the shivers that she kept contained burst outward and wrack her whole body to numbness while–

“Judy! Come on, Come back to me–there’s my bunny. You zoned out for a sec. You okay, Carrots?”

She shakes her head, blinks hard several times. Realizes where she is and when and buries her face into the scruffy fur of his chest, inhales deeply and begins to cry. He still smells lightly of coppery blood. The bandages and bedsheets need changing.

“I hugged you.”

“We do that a lot. Nice, isn’t it?”

She sobs gently, stifling a giggle. “No, I mean…I hugged you and it all happened again. Like we were there again, back in the alley.”

She feels his arms wrap weakly around her, cradling her body and head, gently stroking her ears as they hang limp. He sighs heavily.

“I know you’re hurting, Fluff,” he says, squeezing her as tightly as his returning strength allows. “We’ll get through it together.”