The Door (Chapter 4)

by

Shadow Bunny Dragon

Eli was walking down a shadowy and twisted street. The lampposts and buildings were all crooked and shaped weirdly. The streets were full of cracks and crevasses, and the sky was a broiling series of dark clouds overhead. Everywhere Eli turned, everything just seemed more and more menacing. As he navigated his way through this dark and twisted landscape, Eli felt a growing sense of dread. Then, he heard a voice in the distance, calling his name.

"Eeeeeeliiiiii..."

"Mary?" Eli said hopefully as he heard her voice, turning in the direction it had come from, and started running.

"Eeeeeeeliiiiiiiii... where are you?"

"I'm here Mary!" Eli started to run faster. Despite the twisted nature of the streets and crosswalks, Eli started to get his bearings.

This is her old neighborhood! he thought excitedly.

Then he started to notice the landscape becoming less dark and twisted, the sky was brightening, and there it was! Her house! It was just as he remembered it! The oak tree in the front yard, the white picket fence, the big sunflowers she kept growing under her windowsills. Then the white front door opened, and Eli saw her. She looked just like she did the last time he had seen her. Her long brown hair, her favorite egg blue dress, her eyes that always lit up whenever she could make him smile.

"Mary! I'm back! I missed you so much! I... I..." Eli's voice trailed off as he stopped just at the front gate. Mary was on her front porch now.....and she wasn't alone. There was a man now out there with her. He had his arm around her waist. And in her arms was a little girl in a pair of pink overalls with pigtails.

"Mary?" Eli asked. They couldn't hear him, they were too happy. Eli tried to open the small white gate, but it wouldn't budge. When he tried to climb over it, the fence grew ten feet tall. He could hear them laughing still, and he could see glimpses of them between the slats. The sky turned inky dark, and the street broke apart as it twisted. Everything outside the fence was becoming dark and twisted again.

"MARY!!!"

* * *

"MARY!!!" Eli thrashed around for a few moments in the hospital bed. He looked around, slowly remembering what had happened, everything leading up to stumbling into a world of anthropomorphic animal people, as well as everything after that. Eli tried to calm down, his face was wet with tears, and his voice was hoarse as though he had been screaming for a while. Just then, the beaver male nurse who had helped him yesterday quickly entered the room.

"What's wrong?!" he asked as he looked at Eli, who was quickly trying to wipe the tears from his eyes.

"S-s-sorry! I just had a... bad dream," Eli said, looking ashamed.

"Boy kid, that must've been one heck of a nightmare!" the beaver said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Yeah... it was... um... sorry," Eli said while looking down.

"Oh hey, it's cool dude. I just thought you were being attacked in here or something." the male nurse smiled at the younger mammal.

"Um... thanks... uh... for helping me yesterday."

"No problemo, besides I owed Nick a favor. I'm Robert, but my friends call me Robbie," he said, extending his hand without hesitation to the boy. Eli smiled a little, and then shook his paw.

"I'm Eli."

"So hey, I've actually been wondering something for a few days now... are you bleeding?"

Eli looked confused. "You've been wondering if I've been bleeding for a few days?" Then he followed Robbie's eyes, and saw a dark red splotch start to spread on the side of his scrubs. He quickly pulled the scrubs up, to show that he had actually popped some of his stitches.

Must've been when I was thrashing around, Eli thought as he looked up at Robbie with a questioning look.

"Don't move bud! I'll be right back!" he quickly ran out of the room, and was gone for a few moments. He came back in with some things in his paws.

"Alright... this isn't going to feel great bud... but we gotta close that wound again.

Eli sighed as he realized what that entailed. "Oh, okay," he said, clearly not comfortable with the idea of getting some more stitches, at least while awake.

"I know, but it's gotta get done bud." Robbie said after quickly checking to make sure everything was ready, before getting to work while Eli continued to hold up his scrubs.

Robbie was about halfway done stitching, Eli wincing every now and again, when Judy entered in plain clothes instead of her uniform.

"Hey there Eli! I just came by to see how you're--OH CHEESE AND CRACKERS WHAT HAPPENED!!!!" she yelled, dropping a gift wrapped box she had in her arms as she rushed over to his side and started to hold his hand.

"It's okay Judy, I just popped some stitches while I was sleeping. It's no big deal, really," Eli said while looking away.

"That's a lot of blood for no big deal!" The little bunny tightly gripped Eli's hand in her paws.

"Judy..." Eli said, looking into her eyes, not sure of what to say to make her feel better.

"And we're done! All stitched up!" Robbie said happily as he finished up. Eli looked the stitches over, and as far as he could tell, Robbie did an excellent job.

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"Thanks Robbie," Eli said, blushing from the attention he was receiving from Judy, who was looking the wound over herself while still holding his hand. Once she was satisfied that everything was taken care of, she nodded and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, now that all of the excitement's over, I brought you something Eli," Judy said, hopping down from the side of the bed and picked up the present she had brought for Eli, while Robbie was giving them some privacy.

I'll ask him later, Robbie thought as he left the room quickly.

"Here you go Eli, I saw this when I got off my shift yesterday and thought of you." She handed him the gift. Eli stared at it for a moment. It was a an egg white paper with orange and green outlines of carrots on it. Eli smiled at that.

"You didn't have to get me anything Judy," he said while looking up.

"I wanted to get you a gift, sweetie!" she said simply, while pushing the gift closer towards him.

Eli smiled a bit at that, and then tore the wrapping paper off in a few seconds. Underneath was a white box, which he opened. Inside it was a phone, that looked brand new. Eli was speechless as he took it out and started to tap the screen. He had never received anything like it.

"Thank you Judy!" he said excitedly as he started to go through all of the different features on the phone.

"I knew that you would like it," she said, smiling at the how Eli's mood had brightened considerably since she first came in. "I already set you up with a service plan, and programmed my and Nick's numbers into it, so that you can call either of us at any time. Also, I downloaded a bunch of different songs and games onto it for you."

Eli was touched as he scrolled through the games, some of which looked really fun, before he set the phone down and looked at Judy.

"That must've been expensive... you did-"

"Didn't have to get it for you," she finished with a smile at his blush He said nothing and looked away, until Judy gently reached up with a paw and turned his head so that she could look him directly in the eye again.

"A: I already said that I wanted to get it for you. B: I don't mind spending that much on you for a gift now and again. I've actually got quite a bit saved up you know." She then gave him a hug. Eli smiled and gently hugged her back. After they let go, Eli started to go through the different features of his new phone, changing the different settings. Judy hopped down, saying that she needed to find a restroom real quick. After she came back out of the nearby ladies room, Judy bumped into Robbie.

"Oh, hey officer Hopps! Just the rabbit I wanted to see real quick." The beaver seemed cheerful.

"Oh, what about?" she asked.

Robbie's smile faded slightly. "Well, it's about how the kid popped his stitches."

"What happened?" Judy asked worriedly, her ears drooping.

"Well, it happened because he was in the middle of a really bad nightmare and was thrashing around and screaming. I'm sorry if this is intruding or anything. I just thought that you would want to know about that." He was now looking at his feet.

"Thanks Robbie, and you were right... that is something I want to know about. Did he say what it was about?" she asked, not looking at the beaver but at the door to Eli's room.

"He did call out a name by the time I got to the door... Mary, I think it was," Robbie said. "Anyway, I gotta get going, we're a little understaffed today." He started to jog down the hall and around the corner. Judy watched him go, and then turned to look at Eli's door. She squared her shoulders, her usual look of determination on her face, and quickly made her way into Eli's room. While he was still looking at his new phone, Judy hopped up onto the bed, moved his arms aside, and hugged him again around his middle.

"Uh... you sure do really like to hug," he said, mildly confused.

"I heard that you had a bad dream sweetie. Wanna talk about it?" she asked while looking up into his eyes while still hugging him.

"Um... uh... w-w-well... " Eli didn't know what to say in a moment like this. Judy sighed as she let him go and sat back down on the side of the bed facing him.

"I know that it's uncomfortable to talk about these kinds of things, but didn't you feel a little better yesterday after you opened up?" she asked, maintaining direct eye contact.

"I guess..." Eli mumbled.

"And you do know that I still mean it when I say that I'm here for you, right?" she asked. Eli nodded at that, trying not to look away. She smiled at his bashfulness, and continued to sit there, staring at him with that slight smile. After a few minutes, Eli sighed and looked at her again.

"Okay... I was walking down this dark street in this dark city under a dark sky when I found Mary's old house... except I couldn't get in the yard and she looked happy without me," he said while looking away a little. Judy just sat there, her instincts as a cop telling her that he was still hiding something.

"Is that all sweetie?" she asked, her eyebrow raised. Eli saw her expression, and sighed again.

"Okay... it's actually a memory of when I ran away from one of the orphanages. It was in the same town that Mary lived in, and so I ran to her house to try and see if she would take me in again... or at least tell me that everything was going to be alright and try to make it better for me."

Judy listened to Eli explain with rapt attention.

"It had been a like six years since I was taken away from her and I was a little worried that she wouldn't recognize me. I finally found her house, and I was really happy too... but... when I got to the front gate, I saw Mary, and ducked down before she could see me. She was with a man... that she kissed... you know... and out came a little girl... she couldn't have been older than four... she called the man Daddy and Mary... Mommy... and Mary picked her up and looked at her like she used to look at me..."

Tears had started to well in Eli's eyes again, and Judy's as well while she gently held his hand.

"When I was taken away... she had looked so sad, like it was breaking her heart... like it did mine... I thought that maybe she would at least... miss me... but instead she just moved on and forgot about me. Like I never really mattered... that hurt the worst... that night, it rained, and I slept under an overpass until some cops picked me up and I was shipped off again. I hadn't really mattered to her after all." Eli trailed off, a few tears streaming down his face. Before he could wipe them away, Judy stood up on the bed and reached up to do it herself with her thumb, before hugging him yet again.

"Oh Eli... I'm so sorry...for everything that you've been through. And I know it's hard to believe, but I will make sure things are different here for you, and I'll keep telling you that until you believe it," she said as she hugged him tighter. Eli gently wrapped his arms around the small rabbit, and started to cry. He couldn't help it. Once the first few sobs came, the rest just started coming faster and faster.

"Let it out Eli," Judy said as she and Eli continued to hug. "Just let it all out... you're going to be okay sweetie. You're going to be okay." they stayed like that for almost an hour before Eli's sobs became sniffles, and Judy wiped away more of his tears before fetching him a box of tissues.

"Thanks Judy." Eli said before loudly blowing his nose.

"Anytime sweetie." she aid, taking a tissue herself to dab at her own eyes.

"So... I have seen that the news really wants to talk to me... " Eli said, changing the subject.

"Oh yeah... that they certainly do. But don't worry, you don't have to speak to them at all if you don't want. The doctors are almost done compiling your test results and their findings, and when that happens, and when you are all healed up, you won't have to stay here in this room any more."

Eli smiled, but said nothing. He was still a little scared about what comes next, but Judy just had a way of making Eli feel better.

"So does that mean that I'll still have to go to school?" he asked, half-joking.

"Only if you don't want me and Nick to bust you for truancy." she said in mock seriousness.

"... And people here... parents... would be okay with... something like me... going to school with their kids?" Eli asked, a little nervous.

Judy sighed, but smiled widely. "When the rest of the world gets the opportunity to meet you, everyone is going to see the same sweet, wonderful, and amazing person that I'm so happy to have gotten to know."

Eli blushed at her praise and looked away. Judy giggled at his blushing. He couldn't help a small smile forming on his lips.

Later that day...

Chief Bogo received a very rapid and persistent knocking on his office door while he was streaming a Gazelle video. He sighed as he quickly turned off his phone and stashed it, grabbing some papers and shuffling them.

"Come in Hopps," he said, recognizing the familiar knocking.

Judy strode confidently in and sat down in the seat in front of Bogo's desk.

"So, what's this about Hopps? Something happen to the boy?"

Judy took a breath and nodded. "Yes sir. Something did happen to Eli... back on his original world. He has experienced abuse and abandonment to point of criminal negligence. He was completely neglected from an early age, and was made to feel that he didn't matter, over and over again! Just shipped from one place to the next, without even a shred of stability or comfort or love for the most part!"

"And? Hopps, what I read from the report is unfortunate, but the past is the past, and therefore not the ZPD's problem. I'm sure that one of the local orphanages can handle his case just fine when everything's processed," the Chief said, once more rubbing his temples with his hooves.

Judy nodded before continuing. "I'm sure that some of them can, but Eli is a special case. What he needs now is a home, a place where he can know he matters and is cared for. Not to just start the process all over again!" she said with conviction.

"And, just what do you propose that we do about it?" Bogo asked with a raised eyebrow.

Judy took another breath before continuing. "Allow me to become Eli's legal guardian."

"Have you lost it Hopps?! You hear some sob story and just up and decide to adopt an alien species that even after all these tests and examinations, we ultimately know very little about?"

"Sir please! He needs a stable home, and a place to feel safe. I know that I can do it! I'll give him the home he's been wanting and needing his entire life," she said jumping up onto the Chief's desk, looking him directly in the eye. "I know that this is all a bit sudden and unprecedented... but he and I have formed a bond of trust. The last thing he needs right now is to feel abandoned! he's had to experience far too much of that already."

The Chief looked down into Judy's eyes and snorted before pointing back to the chair, which Judy climbed back down into and resumed sitting. He thought about all that Judy had said and mulled it over in his head for a few minutes. Judy held her paws together, her ears laid back as she waited for the Chief's answer.

"I suppose that just dropping him into an orphanage or foster home on a world he's completely new to... alright, I'll help you file the proper paperwork. I also have a friend in child services who can assist." Judy broke out into a huge grin and jumped back up to the Chief's desk and hugged him. He quickly picked her up by her ears and sat her down in the chair, again.

"However, understand that you will be responsible for this boy, and all of his actions. Understood?" Judy nodded excitedly.

"Thank you sir! Thank you! Thank you!" she said. The Chief gave a sigh, and hid a small smile.