Judy flexed a little and Decided to move again for a little bit. The pain in other parts of her body had faded, she was grateful for that, but the pain in her shoulder was what she would label the worst it had been since the injury happened. She shivered from it a bit and lay still. Then as her mind cleared from sleep she remembered where she was, mostly because of the weight of Nicks' paw over her back. She was cuddled into his front, and he'd half-rolled onto his back so her head was on his chest like a pillow, her good arm under the pillow his head was on, and her cheek rising and falling with his slow and steady breathing. The pain faded as the pleasure of just cuddling set in. Judy quietly wondered if she would have ever felt like this with a buck if that was who she had fallen for. She couldn't imagine it. She moved her free hand carefully; mindful since it was the one that led to the shoulder she was not currently friends with. She placed it on his chest, stroking his cream-toned fur as he slept.
Memories of last night spilled into her waking mind and her ears fell down her back again, heated with a quick blush. That question he'd asked. How could he possibly have asked that? Did he suspect? Was he teasing? She rubbed her cheek against his chest a little, reveling in the silky softness of his fur, remembering the exchange. Why didn't she stop him? It was a bunch of reasons of course, mostly because she was terrified that she was messing up something critically important to Nick, but shouldn't she have wanted to mess that up if he wasn't asking but instead he was outright taking? Judy knew that the answer was no. She would never have hurt him by spoiling such an important moment right in front of his mother, but even if it meant what she was thinking it meant? Had she really stood there and let it happen?
Judy didn't have an answer for Nick, and with his teasing tone she wasn't sure that he really even needed one. In retrospect it seemed much more that he was trying to lighten the mood because he had that terrible dream. But all the same, she used a rare thing for her to even have access to with Nick. A get-out-of-conversation-free card.
Judy was locked in thought for a while right after he asked that, but finally had simply looked up and asked him to tell her about the stuffed bunny that Finnick had brought out of his bedroom when he was hiding the Taser when the apartment had been attacked by Darmaw's goons. It was not a new toy. It looked like he'd had that thing for a very long time, longer than he'd even known her. Predictably Nick was suddenly just so sleepy and promised to talk about it in the morning.
They cuddled up close just as Judy wanted so badly and she had some trouble falling asleep, reflecting not just on Nick's perhaps merely playful question, but the real answer behind it. She knew more and more this was not simple appreciation or affection for her partner. She needed him in ways that in another time would have been absolutely unthinkable. Was it okay? Would not being okay even stop it? Judy fell asleep with the cares for those answers bleeding out of her helplessly, her worries mortally wounded by the feel of Nick's hand over her back, tail wrapped against her and the sound of his steady, slower, larger vulpine heart.
As Judy woke it left her still pondering how she was going to cross a bridge that she would eventually have to cross. She casually stroked his soft fur along his chest, head rising and falling with his gentle breathing. Judy knew there was not a 'back' that she was likely to ever go to. She was in, she wasn't likely to ever be out. She closed her eyes, enjoying, for the moment, the serenity before the door of the bedroom was suddenly flung open. In her position, Judy was facing the door so she immediately saw the frightened face of their volunteer caregiver. Skye's expression fell immediately as Judy looked up at her and she turned around quickly, ears back. Those white ears did absolutely nothing to hide a blush.
"Sorry! Sorry. I knocked and no one answered and I opened the door and I didn't see anyone so I was worried you both took your medicine and immediately wandered off. I meant to check up on you last night but I fell asleep and I -"
