The she-wolf stumbled as she was practically tossed from the limousine, though the apology from her client mollified her somewhat. The guy probably wasn't quite used to mammals smaller than him, so it could have been an honest mistake. Still it didn't help her to clean the streak of muddy rainwater from her favourite red 'working' dress. She turned to complain to the him when a hoof extended holding a large block shaped baggy of white powder. Her anger faded, replaced with elation. This was more powder than she'd had in the last year! She grabbed it, rammed it in to her handbag and poked her head back into the limousine, kissing her client on his snout.

"Same time next week babe?" the unseen mammal asked.

"Definitely Stud, see you then," she replied. She watched as the limo pulled away, obviously a rental, but hey, it was his money to waste. And considering the size of the bag of powder he'd given her, he had plenty of cash to spare. She resisted the urge to look at it until she made her way to her run-down apartment. She looked down at her skirt, sighing again at the stain. That was the problem when you lived on the border to the rainforest district, the water had to leak out somewhere, and it ended up mixing with the detritus of the street. It usually wasn't this bad, but still.

As she started up the stairs a cry of "Hey Bighana!" came from behind, startling her, she turned and relaxed seeing it was only Vincent, her building's superintendent. The warthog waddled over, a package in hand.

"God Vince, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry B," he said shuffling his feet. Bighana sighed. She liked Vince, he was sweet, kind, and one of the few males she knew who didn't just want sex from her. But she knew he had a crush on her, which wasn't mutual. It always made talking to him slightly awkward. Plus, despite her profession she wasn't romantically interested in non-wolves.

"It's OK," she said as the Vince's silence began to skew towards the awkward. "Did you want something?"

"Oh uh, yeah!" Vince said remembering the package in his hands. "You got a package!" He handed it to her. Bighana looked it over, noting that there were no stamps or other indication of it being put through the mail system, not even a sticker from a courier. "Who delivered it?" she asked.

"Well it was another wolf actually," Vince said, raising an eyebrow. "She waited in the lobby for about an hour before asking me to give it to you. Said she'd be late for work otherwise."

"Anything odd about her?"

"Not really…except she looked a lot like you."

"Ugh, great," Bighana growled. It was obviously from her sister. She never could just leave her alone.

"You in trouble B?"

"Probably, but nothing I can't handle. You know how family is," before realising what she said. Her eyes went wide as she stared at Vince.

"Don't worry B," he said in a matter of fact voice. "I ain't going to pry. But I will say if you ever need to talk, and I mean talk, well you know where I am OK?"

"Yeah…yeah. Thanks Vince," Bighana replied, relieved. He really was sweet, and come to think of it, kinda cute in a piggy way. Maybe she'd have to reconsider her "wolves only" romance policy. "Listen I just got off work so I'm gonna hit the hay."

"Yeah, no problem B, I gotta go work on the boiler anyway. You take care OK?" he said before waddling away. Bighana smiled, he did have a cute butt for a warthog. She made her way up a couple of flights of stairs and entered her apartment, flipping on the lights. While the building exterior was run down, her own place was decently kept. A few errant dishes on her coffee table in front of her abused but still comfortable sofa, but otherwise quite clean. Not what you'd expect from someone addicted to pounce.

She placed her handbag on the table and moved the dishes to the sink, letting them soak to clean properly later. A few minutes of rummaging and she returned to the table placing a plastic cereal container next to her handbag. She then went to her bedroom, stripped off her dress and shoved it and her underwear in to the laundry hamper. She then rifled through her closet for a comfortable t-shirt left behind by one of her old boyfriends. She found it, a geeky number showing some cartoon robot or something. What was its name? Hoptimus Prime?

She thought about showering, but would only have to do so in the morning anyway, so decided to indulge her vice. After changing and making a few notes in her journal, she exited her bedroom and hopped over the couch, turning on her TV while she searched for a knife or scissors. The TV came on to ZNN, the 24-hour new service.

"…and there they go, Officers Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde have just entered the sewer in the hopes of rescuing lost tiger cub Tyler Macan who got swept away in a freak bottled water accident."

"Not officers any more I hear Peter," the leopardess news anchor commented.

"Indeed Fabienne, we've recently learned that starting Monday, the two smallest mammals on the ZPD force will be joining the ranks of the ZPD's Criminal Investigation Department, making them the first of their species to make the rank of detective in the city's history. And yet there they are on a Saturday, their day off even, helping a trapped child."

"I'm sure the citizens of the city will be sleeping easier knowing they're on the case with the ZCID…"

"Tch" Bighana huffed, changing the channel to ZTV, which was in the middle of an episode of Hell's Kitchen starring Gordon Ramsey. Having a bunny cop was bad enough without having a stinking fox fooling everyone in to thinking he was honest. Oh well, not my problem anymore. As the chef on the TV launched in to an explicit ridden tirade against a porcupine who had dropped a quill into the risotto, she removed the large block of powder from her bag, the sheer size of it made her almost yip with glee, but she controlled herself. If she wasn't careful she would waste this by spilling it on the floor. If she was careful she could have this stuff on hand for weeks! Meaning she could afford a few more choice dresses and luxuries than she could normally afford. She used an old pair of scissors to slice the corner of the bag, then picked it up and, with a bit of shoving, managed to get it to just fit inside the cereal container. She then took a nearby spoon and scooped a measured amount of powder out of the bag before closing the container. On a mat, she had for this specific purpose, she placed the pounce in front of her. As she was readying a playing card to divide her Saturday evening entertainment, she noticed something odd.

Some of the pounce glittered.

She extended a finger a dipped it in to the drug and brought it up to her eyes. She couldn't quite see what it was that caused the glitter, but it looked purple. It didn't feel any different to the rest of the fine powder. It wasn't the first time she'd sampled a product that had some unique aspect to it, ever since Breaking Baaad loads of mammals were adding colour to their wares to try and make it unique. The irony was not lost on Bighana.

She shrugged, and finished arranging the pounce in to lines, ready for a nice weekend alone indulging in her favourite hobby.

She was found dead in an alley two days later.

"Carrots, why do we get all the crap jobs?"

"Har har Nick," Judy said as she crawled through the sewer pipe. While she had plenty of room on all fours, Nick had to be careful not to slam his head on the ceiling.

"Hey I thought that was a good joke. Obviously, it was wasted on you."

"Is he always like this?" the rat in orange overalls and yellow hard hat leading Judy asked as he walked on a small raised section of the pipe, completely out of the water.

"No, he's usually worse," Judy replied, shaking her head.

"Oh poo poo to you!" Nick replied from behind. "Seriously though, why the hell did they have to interrupt our dinner date? This is ruining my pants and shirt!"

"Considering your taste in Hawaiian shirts I think it could only be improved," Judy chided and tried to ignore Nick who was being more aggravating than usual. True, she was also upset at their romantic dinner being interrupted, but when they got the call to help rescue the cub they couldn't do anything but rush to help. "Besides, you know why. We're the only mammals' small enough to fit through these pipes while being big enough to help the poor kid. And the sewer workers don't have overalls our size." Judy was also annoyed about that, but it couldn't be helped. At least the jeans and shirt she was wearing would be easily replaced or washed. The couple weren't ones to go all suits and gowns for a dinner date.

"I know but I had plans for tonight. I'm just glad Bogo is holding on to our stuff, I'd hate to think what this would do to the…JESUS!" Nick cried and Judy heard a frantic splashing of water from behind her.

"Nick, you OK!? What happened?" Judy asked, being unable to turn quickly in the pipe.

"I'm fine Fluff. It's just something brown touched my arm and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a candy bar."

"Definitely not," the rat snickered as he urged the paid to continue forward. "Don't worry, you get used to it."

"No offence but I'm hoping not too…sorry I forgot to ask your name earlier," Judy said in reply.

"It's Django, Django Linguini. Don't worry about forgetting your manners Officer. It's been a busy day and manners don't count for nothin' down here!"

"Linguini," Nick mused from behind Judy. "Hey, any relation to Remy Linguini?"

"Yeah he's my son!" the rat replied. "And he'll be happy you remembered him Office Wilde. I'd shake your hand to thank you for saving his life, but well, you know," Django stopped, gesturing to the sewer water. Judy tensed, wondering if Nick was going to be OK at the casual mention of a hostage incident from almost a year ago where one of Nick's old friends killed himself right in front of him. Then again, Nick was the one that brought it up…

"Yeah let's wait for after the third of fourth shower," Nick chuckled. Judy relaxed, Nick had come a long way in the time since that incident, but it did occasionally cause him to go in to depressive moods.

"So, Django," Judy started focusing on the task at hand. "How far have we got to go?"

"It's only another hundred metres or so, and where the drop is there should be enough room for you and Officer Wilde to stand." Judy was glad of that, while there was plenty of room for her and just enough room for Nick to crawl around, she didn't want to have her hands covered in urine, faeces and God only knows what else for longer than she had to. She was disheartened to learn that like here in Downtown, most of Zootopia's sewer system was a mass of small sanitary sewers barely more than three feet across, unlike the almost cathedral like structures you saw on TV. This is why most of the city's sewer workers were rats or similar sized rodents, with only the massive storm drains directly under the Rainforest District and Tundratown being big enough for the larger mammals, due to the huge amount of rainwater and snowmelt run-off they had to deal with.

"Hey, we can take as long as we like, the rear view back here is fine!" Nick said. Judy suddenly became very conscious of just how close Nick was behind her and what his view was mostly taken up with. Suddenly she felt a sharp pinch on her hindquarters. Reacting on instinct, Judy's left leg kicked out and smacked Nick right on his nose, causing the fox to yip in pain.

"Nick not on duty!" she shouted back. Bogo had been very explicit that they were to keep their relationship as professional as possible while on duty and too many infractions on this would lead to the pair being split up. He had been especially vocal on this since they were due to start their new job in two days' time.

"Hey, we're already in the shit as it is Fluff, I might as well get what little enjoyment I can. Also, technically we're not on duty, we're on doody."

"I can see what you mean about him being worse," Django chimed in, smirking up at Judy as the she tried to glare over her shoulder. "Anyway, here's the drop," he said as they finally reach the end of a pipe, and a small incline meant that Judy and Nick began to slowly rise out of the of the water "Careful, there's a walkway and guardrail big enough for ten rodents to walk side by side, but you'd best keep you backs as close to the wall as possible."

Judy exited into the mentioned drop off, and found she did have just enough room to firmly plant her feet and shuffle out of Nick's way as he exited the pipe. They found themselves in what was essentially was a large cylinder where various pipes converged, though thankfully the city had shut off the ones leading to this particular convergence site, otherwise they'd be rescuing a child while liquid waste poured all around them. Dozens of rodent workers were looking over the lip of the drop, so Judy followed suit. About ten metres down, a small tiger cub lay crying silently on a large grate that spanned the hole, apparently as some kind of filter as the various bit of detritus around him attested to. The workers above were trying to console him, but the ropes and equipment they used to move around the sewers would in no way be able to get to him or hold the cub's weight, hence why the ZPD were called.

"Poor kid," Nick whispered to Judy and then spoke up. "Tyler? Tyler Macan?" he called down to the cub, who looked up, his fur darkened under his eyes due to tears. "Hi Tyler! I'm Nick, this is Judy, we're police officers! "

The cub stopped crying and looked up. "Are you going to help me?" he asked in a voice full of sadness and pain.

"Sure are bud, isn't that right Judy?" Nick said.

"Yeah, that's what we do in the ZPD. Are you OK Tyler?"

"My leg hurts…" which caused the cops to look down, by the looks of it the kid had cut his leg open, not a good thing in this environment. There wasn't a lot of blood, but still infection would be easy to come by here.

"OK bud, we'll be down there in just a sec OK?"

"OK sir."

"Call me Nick."

"OK Nick."

"That's great slugger." Nick fished before turning to Judy "OK Fluff, how we doing this?"

"I'll go down alone. I can easily jump down there, and it looks like it'll hold my weight, but I'm not sure if it'll hold yours as well. You got the rope, harnesses, and first aid kit?"

"Right here Carrots," Nick said, removing the backpack he had lugged along the pipe He withdrew a length of rope, two harnesses, and a small first aid kit. "I don't want you jumping down there though, I'll lower you down on the rope, you make sure the kid's alright and I'll haul you both up. I should be able to do that if I head back to the pipe to give me a little space to back up, even if I have to kneel down again. Sound good?"

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"OK here we go," Nick answered then turned towards the hole and looked down. "OK Tyler, I'm going to lower Judy down towards you and we'll have you up here in no time OK?"

"Thank you, Nick. Thank you Judy," the cub mewled.

"Such a gentle-mammal, you'll be fighting girls off with a stick in no time!"

"Eww girls are gross!"

"Well in fairness you're the one stuck in a sewer Tyler," Nick chuckled. The exchange had managed to cheer the kid up and distract him from his pain for a few seconds. "You ready Carrots?" Nick asked as Judy finished strapping herself into the harness, after which she grabbed the first aid kit and spare harness and used an extra clip to attach it to her, leaving her hands free. "Ready and willing Nick," she answered as she made sure the rope was securely attached.

"OK gimme a second to give you some room," Nick said as he took up the rope and made his way to the pipe to back in to it. "Django, I won't be able to see over the edge from back there, can you keep an eye on Judy and Tyler for me?"

"Sure think Nick," Django said, throwing up a mock salute.

"OK then," Nick said and positioned himself in front of the pipe. "Once more into the breach," he sighed and got down on all fours and backed into the pipe. After a few seconds, his voice echoed from within. "OK, should be plenty, you get on the lip and I'll take up the slack." Judy did so and faced towards the pipe, her back to the drop. "You tell me when you're ready Fluff, you're in the driver's seat for this."

"OK, take up the slack Slick," Judy chimed and when Nick pulled the rope taut, she slowly backed her way towards the hole, and over the lip. After a quick sensation of weightlessness, Judy had her feet planted on the wall as Django directed Nick forward, guiding the doe downwards until after a couple of minutes, she placed her feet on the grate. It held her easily so she unclipped the rope and made her way to the tiger cub.

"Hey Tyler, how you doing?" she asked as she knelt by the child who was only slightly smaller than she was.

"My leg hurts," the cub sniffed.

"Yeah, let's have a look," she said as she opened the first aid kit. After making sure none of the materials were damaged by the sewer water, she looked over Tyler's right leg. It did indeed have a big cut going from his knee to his foot, but it didn't look deep.

"Let's get that cleaned up first and then get you out of here, OK?" Judy said as she prepared the swabs and disinfectant from the kit. "OK Tyler, this is going to sting, but it'll help keep your cut clean and help it heal, so I need you to be brave." The cub nodded drying his eyes, Judy washed the wound with a bottle of water, then sprayed disinfectant over the whole thing before bandaging it up. After looking at her work for a minute she also took a sheet of plastic wrap from the kit and wrapped his leg in that too, hoping it would keep it from getting any more sewage in it when they tried to move him.

"OK Tyler I need you to put this on and then Nick is going to pull us back up OK? Your parents are waiting for you up there."

"Are they mad?" the tiger asked.

"No sweetie they're not mad, they're just really scared and want you back. So, let's get you to them shall we?" Tyler nodded so Judy put him in the harness. She then made sure that hers was still secure, clipped Tyler's to her, and then clipped them both to the rope. "Can you be a brave for a little longer?" she asked. Tyler nodded. "Good boy, just hold on to me as tight as you can OK? Alright Nick bring us up!" Slowly, the rope went taut and Judy started to walk up the wall, reminiscent of the old BatRat TV show. Tyler whimpered slightly but did his best to hang on tight. After a few stops and starts as Nick had to readjust his grip a couple of times, eventually they made it to the top. The sewer workers cheered as Tyler sat down on the catwalk.

"Great job Tyler!" Nick said returning from the pipe.

"Judy did all the work."

"And humble too! You're going to be really popular when you're older, trust me," Nick said, winking at Judy, who giggled.

"Thanks for the help Django, you gonna head back up to the surface with us?" Judy asked the rat as he started getting back to work.

"Nah I'm good thanks, was never one who wanted to be in front of cameras. Can you two find your way back?"

"I think so, a straight line and the second left?" Judy asked.

"You got it, pity your radios don't work down here or I'd send them a message."

"We'll be out soon enough," Judy said. "Thanks for the help."

"And say hi to Remy for me," Nick added.

"No worries, you take care you two," Django said and started getting his workers in order.

"Hmm," Nick said looking down at Tyler who was looking much happier now. "I don't think we should risk putting him in the water with that leg, despite the plastic," he said as he reached down and picked the cub up in his arms. "Say champ, ever ridden a fox before?"

"No…" the cub replied meekly.

"Well you're about to," he said turning to Judy. "If I get down low enough and crawl on my elbows he should be able to ride on my back and be out of the water." Judy nodded knowingly. Despite his protestations over his clothes Nick had no trouble doing the dirty work when needed, especially when a kid was involved. The fox turned back to Tyler. "Just be sure to keep your hurt leg on my back OK?"

"Sure, but will you be OK? I don't want to hurt you."

"Oh, don't worry Tyler, Nick loves being ridden!" Judy said…and then her ears turned a dark shade of red as she slapped her hand over her mouth and groaned loudly at the realisation of what she said.

"Nick, why's Judy doing that?"

"I'll tell you when you're older kid," Nick said, a huge smile spread across his muzzle.

"We're coming up!" Judy yelled up the mammal-hole in the street where she and Nick had entered. She clambered up first, finally able to breathe without almost gagging in the cool night air. Dozens of mammals and cameras focused on her as she turned and held out a paw, which Nick grabbed gratefully.

"Hey, anybody lost this?" he said as he held Tyler in one arm. The crowd cheered ecstatically as the cub's parents ran over to their son, tears in their eyes. Despite the smell and obvious sanitary hazards, they couldn't help but smother Tyler in kisses.

"Thank you so much Officers" the cub's mother said crying as she held Tyler close. Judy felt that it would take a crowbar to separate them for the next few days.

"No need to thanks us ma'am, just doing our job," Judy replied and gave a salute which Nick followed promptly. Tyler's father remained silent before padding over to the fox and bunny. He picked them up in an arm each and hugged them so hard, Judy swore her eyes bulged out.

"You come to my restaurant and you eat free of charge for life!" the father said as the tears ran down his face too.

"No…please…too kind…" Nick tried to say as his lungs were crushed. Eventually the tiger let go and was ushered back to his family, and then in to an ambulance as Tyler was driven off to hospital to check his injuries. The cub waved to Nick and Judy as he was carried away in his parents' arms. They waved back, satisfied with a job well done.

"Officer Hopps, Officer Wilde! Woodrow Buckle! ZNN!" a particularly loud beaver shouted as he hustled over to them. "How does it feel to be heroes again!?" he asked as a camera and microphone was shoved in their faces.

"It stinks!" Nick joked as he tried to wring sewer water out of his shirt. The momentary confusion in the beaver was replaced by laughter from the crowd as they caught up.

"In all seriousness, we're not heroes," Judy replied raising an eyebrow at her partner, who shrugged in return. "We're just two mammals doing our job."

"Just two mammals nothing!" Woodrow exclaimed, his excitement getting the better of his journalistic integrity. "Ahem! What I mean to say is, not only are you the first cops of your species, you're also now due to be the first detectives. You also let your weekend get interrupted to help a single child. I wonder if you know how special you truly are?"

"I doubt myself, but I certainly know how special Judy is," Nick said before the doe could reply. The tone in his voice was odd, along with the fact that he said her first name caused a small bit of concern in Judy. Nick only ever used her proper name when something serious was happening. She turned to him and looked up, her eyes locked with his. His stare intense and loving, as if they were making love at that point.

Nick sighed, "I wanted to do this at the restaurant, but screw it. Now or never." Nick looked over Judy's head towards the police congregation. "Hey Chief Bogo! Can Hopps and I go off duty now?" Judy turned and saw her boss with his arms folded and an odd smirk on his face. Instead of answering verbally, the buffalo just nodded. He then held up a box that was dwarfed in his hands and lightly tossed it to Nick who caught it deftly. Judy couldn't even begin to guess what was going on, but it was starting to worry her.

"Judy," Nick started, his voice wracked with nerves. He cleared his throat and started again. "Judy, I don't know how you managed it, but you have brought so much happiness in to my life, happiness that I never thought I would ever have. I had the joy stomped out at an early age, when I let prejudice and fear decide my fate. But you showed me a better way, a beautiful way, almost as beautiful as you. You're amazing Judy, in every sense of the word. You showed me that no matter what happens in life, we always have a choice to do something better."

He got down on one knee.

"Nick…" Judy said, finally starting to understand.

"I kneel here before you covered in…well covered in stuff that I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to actually describe on television," he chuckled, gesturing to the camera. The crowd that had remained silent also laughed at the joke. "Yet despite that I have never been happier in my life, and I want to keep that happiness at all times. I don't know if you know this, but us foxes? We mate for life…and I want that life to be yours."

He opened the box, a tiny gold ring, with a single amethyst stone shining in the flash of the cameras was presented to her.

"Judith Laverne Hopps, will you marry me?"

Silence rang out around them, every single mammal holding their breath. Judy was speechless, she couldn't process it, when suddenly a wealth of emotions struck her, love, happiness, hope…and yes, a small touch of fear. She swallowed, wanting her voice to be as clear as possible.

"Yes."

Whatever Nick had planned to say to her, it was drowned out by the sheer volume of cheers of the Zootopia citizenry around them. Applause soon followed as Nick placed the ring on her finger. And then Judy launched herself at Nick, tackling him to the ground and drawing him into a deep kiss. She didn't care that he smelled like the backside of a sweaty elephant that had been marinated in lynx urine, she just felt an urgent need to bring him close. As the kiss ended, their ZPD brethren charged over and lifted them up, cheering the couple on. Questions started coming from the press, but they were drowned out by everything else. Judy just couldn't take her eyes off Nick and was astonished that he even had to ask if she could see to spending the rest of her life with him.

There was no choice to make.