Nothing to fear

Chapter 16

Judy was thumbing through a magazine that had articles discussing the planting of popular autumnal crops when Marigold grabbed her arm and squeezed in apprehension as a raccoon in light green scrubs and a lab coat came out, her large dark eyes settling on the two bunnies that were the only ones in the waiting room at the momant. The main rush of patients normally came early in the morning or later in the afternoon when farm mishaps were likely.

"Miss Marigold Hopps?" The raccoon inquired.

Mari gulped and nodded timidly before raising the paw that wasn't maintaining a panicked grip on her sister. "Th... that's me..." she finally answered in a terrified whisper.

The nurse nodded, sighing inwardly. Not a day went by that she didn't have to run a pregnancy test on one of the young bunnies that called Bunnyburrow home when precautions were so much easier to deal with than an 'Oops' moment. At least it wasn't an outbreak of some social disease. "I have the results of your test. Do you want to come to my office and we can discuss them?"

Mari looked around as did Judy, seeing that they really were the only ones. "Can...can you just tell me now?" the yellow furred bunny asked.

The raccoon raised an eyebrow before nodding, a slight frown tugging at her mouth. "You dodged the bullet this time. You aren't pregnant, though I'm familiar with the sex education program here in the burrows and I know that you know the risks of unprotected sex." She pulled the sheet with the results from her clipboard and handed it to Mari. As the bunny took the paper with trembling paws the nurse reached into her pocket and pulled out several small boxes of condoms and set them next to Mari on the small table. "I would recommend these next time so you don't have to go through this again."

Without waiting for a response the raccoon turned and walked away, not even attempting to hide her irritation that she had to help out another bunny that thought she was pregnant when there were more interesting things she could be doing.

"So..." Judy began. "Happy? Sad? Relieved? What's the verdict?"

Marigold folded the paper and put it in her purse, her azure eyes darting to look at the small boxes before scooping them up and dumping them in along with her test results. "Better believe I'm using these from now on," the bunny declared. "I don't want to go through this until I'm married and want kits..."

Judy gave her sister an exasperated look, one paw on her hip as she pointed with the other, her right foot tapping angrily on the industrial grade beige carpet of the waiting room. "Or, instead of the condoms, you could try...oh, I don't know, closing your legs and saying 'No'? I mean, it's just a thought." Her expression didn't change even when her sister looked up with a flash of irritation in her eyes. "What?" Judy asked hotly. "Everything's okay so you're going to just forget about this not even five minutes later?" She let out an exasperated sigh and stalked towards the exit leaving her sister to run to catch up.

They got into the car, Judy's ire causing her to bark the tires as she gave the little sports car too much gas. She knew better than to drive when angry and pulled into a small strip mall and killed the engine, her paws gripping the steering wheel in an effort to bleed off the excess emotional energy.

"You're a sweet bunny, Mari, but you need to think with your brain and not your libido! When we were in school you were popular because you were pretty and, I hate to say it, as easy to open as a screen door! You can't expect to get by with a tail wiggle and letting any bunny that looks cute between your legs." She looked at her sister and shook her head. "Don't you want to be more than just a cute and fluffy bunny hump? Don't you want to do something that matters?"

Marigold readied to make a heated reply before sighing and looking out the window. "Yes," she said in a tiny voice. "I...I don't know how."

Judy blinked her eyes and looked at the other bunny to see if there was any sort of duplicity to her answer. "Okay. So what do you want to do?" She released the steering wheel with her right paw and reached over to grasp her sister's paw. "It's not quite there yet...not all the way, but I happen to know of a place where a bunny that tries hard can be just about anything she wants. The question is; what do you want to be?"