A/N
Welcome, reader.
As it is a first time I am writing here, I must warn you of two things.
First, the thing is not perfect. Who cares? Read at your own risk, and do point out if I make grammar or other mistakes that should be corrected. I will appreciate that.
Second, this is planned as a fic of a medium size, maybe up to 20k words (if I ever find the inspiration to write that much). But, I am kinda not a fulltime writer or fictioner, so the waiting period between updates can take a while, though I will try to keep it between 1 to 2 weeks.
Thus, hope you enjoy. For full immersion, I suggest turning on The Enigma TNG - The Glass Alice. I prefer writing something with a song in mind (figuratively and literally).
Chapter 1
Loud wailing of police sirens could be heard across several blocks of streets. Accompanying blue and red lights lit the empty front yard of a big, if old, storage house at the outskirts of Savannah Central district. Here and there, officers in dark blue uniforms moved with quick yet precise steps, heralding a dozen or so criminals to cruisers, in which the remaining crew of once notorious Raubtier gang would be delivered to the precinct, processed and left to await their subsequent move to the more permanent confines of Zootopia Central Prison. The warehouse was cordoned by yellow tape at this point of time, and Chief Bogo took it upon himself to keep media away from the crime scene by agreeing to satisfy their cravings for a juicy cop-action drama. At least partially. Or not at all, since the huge buffalo simply shrugged off most questions asked about what happened and giving vague statements about ZPD conducting an investigation on Raubtier gang activity and the fact that this one was cracked by one of his smallest officers. Again.
Meanwhile, the source of a building headache from all the incessant questioning of one Chief Bogo, was sitting patiently in an ambulance car, being tended to by a small female lynx nurse and fussed over by her partner. – "Really, Carrots, the only day that I leave you alone and you go and give yourself on a plate into paws of the one gang that you should not have went after om your own!" – Nick Wilde was by far the most controlled mammal Judy Hopps has ever happened to know. He never showed his real emotions, always going by the motto of never letting anyone see they got to him. But here he was, fur sticking in all directions, as if he was just out of shower (which he might have probably been, considering it was close to twenty two thirty, and Nick probably heard about what happened from Clawhouser half an hour ago), tail twitching in agitation, and most notable – his eyes. Those emerald orbs, always closed off, held such fear as of right now, the rabbit was wondering if he was more scared from the ordeal she was through, than Judy herself.
– "Relax, Nick. I am fine, see?" – Hopps put on one of her most confident smiles, but the nurse decided exactly at that moment to poke on her lower left rib. The resulting yelp from the bunny, made Nick glare at her for a moment, before he turned to the lynx, who seemed finished with prodding his friend and started to pack up the first aid kit she used to treat some of the officers bruises.
Nick didn't joke around, when he said he knew everyone, his partner learned this the hard way first time she tried to conveniently skip a trip to a hospital after their first big run in into trouble. Judy thought she would simply sleep off the "light" bruising she suffered in scuffle with an angry tiger, even after promising to get checked on her own after bringing the culprit in for processing. Being dragged from her apartment by an errant fox by the ear, like some petulant child, was definitely not among the best memories she had shared with her partner, who got a call from hospital receptionist that his bunny has never showed up for a check up.
So it didn`t come to Judy as a surprise, when the red fox started addressed the lynx nurse in a familiar manner – "How is she, Meg?" – The small feline gave him a dismissive wave of her paw and after Nick seemed to relax, started talking to Judy – "Okay, officer, you seem to be fine, despite some rather hard bruising of your lower ribs on the left side. I suggest you take it easy for at least a week, and after that you are free to charge into a den of danger again." – Turning to Nick, the lynx gave him a small smile and a shoulder shove. – "You keep your partner away from thugs this week, you hear me, fox?" – Uncharacteristically, Nick didn`t have any fast quip on his tongue, and simply nodded to the instruction. He already was going to keep Judy as far away from activities as possible, but now that he had doctor's orders, it would be so much easier for Bogo to bar the bunny cop from pestering him for some action.
– "Let's go, Fluff. I think Bogo will want a good explanation for what has happened here." – Nick's voice drew Judy out from her grumblings in regards to once again being left with nothing but paperwork to do. Jumping out of the ambulance car, she said goodbye to the lynx, and followed her now looking more collected partner. She saw his mask returning back into place, face shifting back from previous anxiousness to confidence, eyes once again locking up whatever feelings ravaged his soul. Not really knowing what to say to him for now, Judy kept silent, simply following the fox. They probably would have a talk about this later, when Nick was sure his emotions were under his total control, and he would be able to discern her why what she did was totally wrong. What the bunny didn't expect though, was the fact that Chief didn't want to hear from her now. – "Get yourself out of my sight and before seeing you again tomorrow at thirteen hundred, I want to be reading a report about what and why happened here. If I see you before that report, Hopps, I promise, you will be on metermaid duty for the rest of your half-life. Am I clear?" – Silently making a gulping noise in her head, the bunny cop gave her chief a "yes, sir" and crisp salute, not daring to test his patience with whining and protests. The intimidating buffalo was apparently royally annoyed after having to be under the scrutinizing eye of press not on his terms and way out of his comfort zone. Which was exactly why one of the silent precinct rules stated that, if possible, Wilde was the one to deal with all the pests from press outside of an official press conference hosted by the ZPD. His con-man experience and silver tongue could twist and bend words to his will, making mammals believe they had been given something even if that something was nothing. Or simply evade all the right questions with wrong answers.
Now, having been officially made to wait until tomorrow to file her report (at the precinct, but no one would be aware if she did it at home, right?), Judy decided it was time to go back. But, before she could formulate her words to Nick, the first fox and bunny cops were surrounded by their colleagues. – "Hopps, you okay?" – sounded slightly alarmed voice of Whitefang, a white wolf (surprisingly enough), to whom she was assigned today as a partner, since both Nick and Degato took days off. In response, Judy once more showed her best smile – "Yeap, just a little bruise. Nothing a nights…" – being interrupted by one obnoxious fox's tap on the shoulder and a pointed gaze, the bunny concede with dropping ears. – "Alright, weeks rest won't be able to fix. Happy now?" – her last sentence was directed to Nick with a glare, and seeing his satisfied smirk did little to diffuse her, to put it mildly, unhappiness at the admission.
Preparing to say her goodbyes, the bunny officer opened her mouth, when she was interrupted by an unbelieving Grizzoli – "Wait, wait, wait, Hopps. You mean to tell us, that you yourself took on thirty tough as nails seasoned gang members with actual military grade diskthrowers, took out twenty of them, and left a dozen here, barely able to walk?" – The polar bear's progressively higher and louder exclamation drew attention of precinct one day shift officers, who responded to the call, but now left everything in the paws of night shift. Judy tried to respond, but was interrupted by Francine. – "You know what, guys, this is not how this is done. Like at all. We all want a proper story, right?" – The towering elephant turned around, and receiving only support from her colleagues, turned to the rabbit-fox duo with arms crossed. – "You, Hopps, owe us a good narration with all the details. I believe Jack Sparrow's is not far from here, right Wilde?"
After Nick confirmed that the restaurant was in fact just a block away, and open till at least twenty three hundred for receiving customers, the small crowd of officers dragged poor bunny and one smug fox there to share with them her exciting adventure. It was because of this, that Judy Hopps, first bunny super-cop, found herself, rather than preparing a report about her day for chief at her apartment, being in a circle of curious eyes of her colleagues. Dramatically sighing (that fox partner of hers was definitely rubbing off on her, after the whole year of their partnership), Judy started. – "Well, I was driving back home from my shift, when this one coyote ran across the street, seemingly chasing after something…"