Here we go! The long awaited sequel to The Worst Connection is finally underway. Hopefully this title sounds less dumb than the original.
It was surprisingly quiet inside the confines of Savannah Central, the place where a majority of the day-to-day operations are performed inside the city of Zootopia.
While the fact that it was quiet was a bit of a surprise considering how bustling it is normally, it was also understandable considering everyone was worn out from the Police Academy graduation ceremony that had just been completed an hour ago. It was also a possibility that they were still enjoying the fact that they didn't have to deal with the Bellwether crisis anymore, but that depended on who you spoke to.
Our story starts, however, inside a bar a few blocks away from the park. This bar, called McGregor's, was widely considered as only a few steps above an actual dive bar, but it's also the bar where most of ZPD Precinct One's officers hang out when not on duty.
Today wasn't just any normal hangout day, though, as the officers were in the middle of celebrating the aforementioned graduation of Academy recruits, the most notable recruit being former con fox Nicholas Piberius Wilde.
Despite only really knowing his new co-workers in passing considering the lack of time he spent inside the station, Nick was having the time of his life. He even managed to quickly get on the good side of the notoriously surly Officer McHorn, which was a fact that baffled his newly minted partner, Judy Hopps.
While some of the larger officers were busy talking to each other, Judy took the opportunity to lean over, hoping that she would be able to be heard over the almost constant noise that had overtaken the bar.
"How did you do that? It took me a week to even get him to say one word to me!"
"Lots of experience, Carrots." said Nick, leaning back in his seat. "When you've spent as much time on the streets as I have, you kind of have to be an extrovert to get anywhere."
Judy opened her mouth, wanting to point out the fact that she was just as much of an extrovert as he was, but by the time she was about to actually speak, Nick had already turned away from her, the fox in the middle of an animated conversation with Officer Wolford. Judy could tell that the timber wolf had too much to drink by this point, but she really didn't want to be the one who ruined the vibe of the party, so she kept her mouth shut.
Eventually, the party wound down on its own, considering it was already getting late, and Chief Bogo had no intention of letting all of his officers take the next day off. So, outside of Wolford having to be led to his apartment by Officer Fangmeyer, everyone else went their separate ways as they prepared for the influx of new recruits.
Judy and Nick, meanwhile, decided to head home together. However, just as Judy was about to make her way towards the darker part of the city to where she remembered Nick's apartment to be, she was stopped in her tracks when the fox in question.
"Hey, where are you going, Fluff?"
Confused, she turned around; pointing in the direction she was going as she spoke.
"Isn't your apartment this way? I was going to see you off until tomorrow."
Nick paused, staring blankly at her for a few seconds before his dipped his muzzle, closing his eyes as he chuckled a bit.
"Oh…that dump? I sold it back when I was still at the academy and got a nicer apartment closer to the precinct."
As Judy stared at Nick, surprise etched on to her face, Nick let some air out of his nostrils before continuing on.
"Sorry about not mentioning it to you. I guess it completely slipped my mind considering everything I was going through at that place." he said, shrugging.
While Judy was admittedly a little annoyed that she wasn't told about it until now, she had no real reason to hold a grudge, so she walked over to where Nick was, smiling.
"It's no big deal, Nick. Hey, why don't you show me around? I'm sure we'll have enough time, and besides, I'd love to see it."
Nick briefly considered Judy's proposition. While he was never really one to openly share some of what he's done with his life, he trusted Judy more than anything. Plus, he also showed her his original apartment as well (which to be fair was while they were chained together, so he didn't have much of a choice), so he found no real reason to argue.
"Sure, let's go." he said, shrugging once more before beginning to lead her towards the building.
It turns out that Nick's new apartment actually wasn't far from the bar. Even better, it was only a block away from Judy's apartment, which excited the young doe greatly.
"Wow, that is so cool, Nick! We can spend so much more time together!" she said, lightly punching him on the arm.
"Well, that was the idea." said Nick, smiling and chuckling a bit. "Come on, let's head inside and I'll show you around a bit.
Judy quickly fell silent, looking like she was eagerly awaiting the chance to see the differences between the proverbial trash heap that was Nick's old apartment and his new one.
Nick led her through the front door, greeting the landlord before heading up to the third floor, where he finally let her in to the door at the end of the hallway, and Judy finally got a chance to see the room.
While she wasn't expecting it to be anything magical considering the fact that she doubted he would have been able to get much for his old apartment, she found that his new apartment was actually pretty nice looking, not to mention the fact that he'd actually managed to keep it clean so far.
There was one thing that really weighed on her, though, and she couldn't help but voice it, turning towards Nick.
"Well, your apartment's way bigger than mine is."
Nick didn't answer, instead visualizing his question with a pair of raised eyebrows. Thankfully, Judy was still looking at him at this point, so she was quickly able to figure out that she needed to elaborate.
"Oh, I forgot that you never saw my apartment. Mine's…around half this size, if I had to guess. Honestly, it's barely bigger than a shoebox."
"Then why don't you find a bigger place? I'm sure there's at least one open nearby."
"Nah, I'm good. I've gotten used to it. I could live without the loud neighbors, but what can you do?"
Nick shrugged, realizing that it was better for him not to try and convince her to reconsider when her mind was already made up, so after glancing at the clock on his phone, he made a show of yawning widely, stretching his arms out into the air before turning back towards his partner.
"Well, it looks like it's getting late. We've got an early morning ahead of us, right?"
Judy glanced at Nick's unenthusiastic expression for a moment before checking her own phone and realizing that Nick was right. Frantic, Judy rushed towards the door, pausing as she had her paw on the doorknob.
"I'll meet you over by Clawhauser's desk, alright?" she asked, giving Nick a pointed look.
Nick, meanwhile, only acknowledged her question with a nod.
"Don't be late!"
Without waiting for an answer, Judy rushed through the door, leaving Nick to chuckle once again as he got ready for bed.
The next morning came, and Judy found herself waiting at the front desk for Nick, checking her phone every so often for the time while she attempted to carry on a conversation with Clawhauser. Unfortunately for her, Clawhauser was in the middle of a long-winded speech about the merits of Gazelle's earlier work before she became famous, so she had to keep herself occupied by keeping an eye out for Nick.
Thankfully, after a few more minutes passed, the fox in question came through the front door, a large coffee cup clutched in his paw as he tried in vain to wake up.
Despite his lethargic state, Nick's uniform was nice and cleanly pressed, so Judy decided to take it as a win.
Leaving Clawhauser to his own devices, Judy jogged over to meet Nick, giving the tod a smile.
"Hey, you made it! I was beginning to worry you wouldn't make it on time."
Judy was greeted with a massive yawn coming from Nick, his jaws opened wide as he sucked in air.
"Gotta get on Chief Buffalo Butt's good side somehow, right?"
Judy nodded, easily seeing Nick's point.
"I imagine getting up early must have been difficult, though, huh?"
"Oh, you don't know the half of it, Fluff. I'm eagerly awaiting the day when I get used to getting up early."
"Not a morning person, I'm guessing?"
"Not really. I'm more of a…whenever I feel like sleeping kind of guy." he said, struggling to describe his sleep habits.
Judy gave him a sympathetic look before deciding it was probably best to get moving before they were late.
"We'd better get to the bullpen, by the way. Getting up early isn't going to do much for Bogo if you're late to morning briefings."
Nick didn't look thrilled at the prospect, but he willingly followed Judy as she led them towards the bullpen, the two of them sharing a seat at the front of the room as they greeted some of the other officers around them.
Thankfully, they were just in time, as it was only a few more moments before the door opened and Chief Bogo himself made his way through, coming to a stop in front of the podium.
"Alright everyone, quiet down!"
The constant stream of chatter coming from everyone soon quieted down, and once everything was finally silent enough for Bogo to be able to talk, the buffalo cleared his throat.
"Well, I'm glad to at least see that not everyone was too drunk to come in after the party last night."
Bogo gave a pointed look to the empty chair that normally would have contained Officer Wolford, the wolf having regrettably taken the day off considering he was nursing an extreme hangover. Thankfully, though, he was the only one who really went up to that level, as while a few of the other officers had been drinking a fair share that night, they all did a much better job at controlling themselves.
Chief Bogo, meanwhile, decided it was probably best to move on from the subject, so after huffing just a bit, he turned back towards the rest of the room as he began speaking once more.
"Now…to business. Before we get started, I'd like to take the time to welcome all of our new recruits, including our first fox officer." he said. "Who cares?"
Despite barely managing to stay awake thanks to the coffee, Nick already managed to have a snarky comment ready.
"You should be a motivational coach, chief. Just imagine the record you'd have with that attitude." said Nick, earning him some sniggers from the officers around him.
"Shut it, Wilde." said Bogo, less angry than usual most likely due to the early hour.
Once everything was quieted down once more, Bogo placed his reading glasses on his nose, glaring at everyone around him before continuing to speak.
"Now, we have been receiving reports of a string of burglaries going on within the boundaries of Sahara Square and the Rainforest District, so most of you will be following up on any leads we can find to get these criminals arrested."
Bogo then picked up a stack of files that he had on the podium, straightening them out with a couple smacks against the wood before beginning to read off the assignments.
Everyone slowly began filing out of the room after receiving their jobs for the day, leaving Judy and Nick as the last ones in the room.
"Hopps and Wilde. You two are going to be patrolling the city with some of the other rookies."
Judy was about ready to argue, but before she could even say a word, Bogo held up one of his hooves to silence her.
"I don't want to hear it, Hopps. I know you're capable of handling higher profile cases, but Wilde doesn't. At least not using proper police procedure." he said, the last sentence spoken under his breath. "You should at least be happy that I didn't decide to put you on parking duty."
Judy was about ready to try and push her point more, but after hearing Bogo's subtle threat, she quickly shut her mouth, not wanting to get herself in trouble and by proxy bring Nick down with her.
"Glad to know that you see it my way." said Bogo, satisfied. "Now get going. Go see Clawhauser at the desk. He'll have your keys for your new cruiser."
Judy quickly hopped off of her seat, more worried about doing something that would screw things up for Nick's first day to think about what Bogo meant with his last sentence.
The two of them walked over to the desk to collect the keys, only to be surprised to find that Clawhauser had only just finished his Gazelle spiel, the cheetah having apparently never noticed Judy leaving in his zeal to extol the virtues of the singer.
Judy ended up giving Clawhauser a bit of an awkward look, but it never went anywhere past that, as she quickly decided to move on and ask what they were originally planning to ask.
"Hey Ben…the Chief said that you apparently have keys for a new cruiser. Can you tell us what this is about?"
Clawhauser's attention was a little unfocused after the speech he was on, so it took him a few seconds to realize what Judy was talking about.
"Oh, right! Chief Bogo told me when I got in that we finally got that new cruiser in. You know, the one custom-fitted for mammals of your size?"
Judy vaguely remembered Bogo mentioning that fact once or twice, but the Bellwether case had her complete attention during that time, so it was understandable that she wouldn't exactly remember.
"That's awesome! I can't wait to check it out." said Judy, looking eager.
After digging around in his desk for a few moments, Clawhauser tossed the keys to Judy, which she caught in an outstretched paw.
"It's near the front of the lot. I'm pretty sure you can't miss it."
"See you later!" she said, waving towards Ben as she led Nick to the parking lot.
They quickly managed to find their way into the lot, and to said car, which while it did look similar to all of the other cars, it was outfitted with specialized pedals, resized seats, and relocated equipment so that they could easily reach everything around them.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Judy hopped into the car, Nick taking the passenger seat without any fuss. However, as they pulled out of the precinct to begin their route, Judy couldn't help but notice that her counterpart seemed deep in thought.
"Something up, Slick?" she asked, concerned.
Nick paused, unsure of how to describe what he was thinking about.
"Hey Carrots, I've got a question for you."
"I'm listening." said Judy, curious.
The young doe waited as Nick briefly considered how he was going to say what he wanted to say. What he did end up saying, though, was something she didn't expect to hear.
"How would you feel about us spending some time down in Bunnyburrow?"