The window of the red sports car whirred to a close, the engine gave a guttural rumble, and the idling machine trundled away almost sheepishly. In its wake, two petite figures leaned back in the padded seats of their oversized police cruiser, all smug grins and knowing looks, as they basked in the warm glow of an ironically satisfying job well done.
"Boy, it's much quicker writing a ticket for that guy than it is getting one from him," muttered Judy Hopps as she watched Flash's car disappear around the block at a trundling snail's pace.
Officer Nick Wilde, ZPD, peered over the rim of his reflective aviators and shot his partner a knowing look.
"Come on, Carrots, let's be fair to Hundred-Yard Dash. He's still the quickest guy at the DMV; I went down there for my temp licence last week, and I didn't get through my entire packed lunch before he'd finished it all up. Seemed like a waste to have booked a whole day off for it, in retrospect."
The grey fuzz on Judy's snout gave a little ripple as she snorted a laugh in response.
"Yeah, well, he should count himself lucky it was us that collared him rather than… well, pretty much anyone else on the force. You know he almost clipped Fangmeyer in the street the other day, right? He's not a popular guy; anyone else catches him pulling that again, and he's gonna end up waiting in the DMV queue with the rest of us chumps in 12 months' time, reapplying for his licence after serving a well-earned ban."
A familiar air of self-righteous indignation settled over Officer Hopps as she warmed to her rant. Nick recognised it all too keenly, and leaned back in the passenger seat, letting the sunlight beating down on Zootopia's streets warm the red fur of his face.
"Aaaah, we can afford to let this little one swim free, partner. After all, it's a special day of rejoicing and good will, and peace to all mammals. We can do a solid for a guy who's helped us out, right? No need to take a man's precious wheels for doing 40 in a 30 zone, or whatever..."
Judy regarded the fox across from her with a bristling, reprimanding look.
"Try 60 in a 20 zone, and you'd be closer! And what's all this about a special day? I know it's special for you-"
Nick returned Judy's stern look with interest, and a dash of mock offence.
"...OK, yeah, special day for the two of us, right, Mr Sensitive. But believe it or not, Zootopia is not holding a city-wide mardi gras celebrating the End of All Crime just because Officer Nick Wilde's got his first day on the beat. Particularly not if you're going to be bending the law to do "solids" for mammals you know!"
This time, Nick had the good grace to genuinely feel at least a little abashed, though he tried his best not to show it.
"Ah...well. Come on, Flash is hardly Mr Big, right? A good guy like that gets a little slap on the wrist, it scares him straight, knocks him out the boy racer phase, everyone's happy. Taking a bazooka to tiny guppies isn't what I've been training for; I wanna get out there and land me a shark or something, y'know? Make a difference, do something that means something. Not just nailing some DMV worker for a joyride."
Judy's hard expression seemed to soften a little, and a twinge of indulgent fondness punctured her desire to moralise further.
"Hey, Nick… I do get what today means to you, and believe me, I know what it's like to want to come tearing out the blocks, but … maybe temper your expectations a bit, OK? You won't be busting open a conspiracy every day; some days, you'll just have to mop up the traffic violations, and that'll be OK, because it'll be all you need to do to keep the peace and make that little bit of difference."
The fox digested this thought, feeling slightly too self-conscious to meet his partner's warm, imploring gaze. Instead, he surveyed himself, glancing downward at the way his red fur contrasted against the pristine blue of the spotless uniform he'd washed, ironed and laid out by hand last night, remembering how it had looked on him in the mirror that morning; he winced slightly at the glare from the morning sun glinting off his golden "WILDE" name tag, which he'd polished to within an inch of its life. Then he looked back at Judy, meeting her eyes from behind his impassively mirrored shades.
"Carrots, you forget who you're talking to. This is Officer Nicholas P. Wilde, reporting for duty. Keep your eyes peeled and ears upright, because you are going to bear witness to a first day that's going down in law enforcement history."
"Weaselton, don't be cute with us, OK, fella? I know the score here, you know the score, we all know the score. You don't think Nick Wilde knows a racket when he sees one? Here's the deal; you own up, tell us what you're doing, and maybe I consider letting you off easy."
Nick was attempting an impersonation of his usual unflappable demeanour, but Judy knew him well enough to see right through it. Seeing the way the hairs around her partner's neck were standing up and his tail bristled, she nervously chewed her lip, trying to maintain her own professional composure. Standing across from them in the middle of a sun-drenched park, Duke Weaselton blinked. His wide, red eyes flicked back and forth between Nick and Judy, a bewildered, blank look on his dilapidated face. Judy couldn't help but look slightly apologetic; Nick was, after all, not quite himself at the moment, and she felt quite sure this conversation was not going to go well.
In her view, the day had been pleasantly uneventful; since their brief pursuit of Flash, they had moved on a gang of badger youths loitering on a street corner, provided directions to the library for an elderly marmot, and calmed down a potentially raucous rush for Gazelle concert tickets. Her main worry, in fact, was the effect this idyllic day was having on Nick, whose poorly-concealed desperation to make an immediate impact was leading him to perceive conspiracies and potential crimes of the century at every turn. As such, Judy had been required to smooth over a number of instances of rash accusations and belligerent questioning by her partner, including a heated argument with rhino workmen that Nick had accused of trying to tunnel into a bank; an abortive attempt by Nick to search a kangaroo mother's pouch for concealed firearms; and the interruption of a "hate rally" that turned out to be a primary school teacher addressing students on a field trip. Judy had attempted to settle Nick's nerves by treating him to a Bug Burger at lunchtime, but even this had ended with her partner accusing the goat teenager behind the counter of trying to poison him.
With the afternoon trickling away, Officer Wilde's tactics had since shifted from collaring random passersby to an active search for people to accuse. Privately, Judy thought that if Nick had to arbitrarily accuse anyone in Zootopia of a crime with no evidence at all, then Duke Weaselton wasn't too bad a bet; in this instance, however, pointing fingers at an electronically-tagged weasel carrying a garbage bag and a litter picker was hard for her to justify. Duke seemed to feel this way too, and was having none of it.
"Own up ta what? Buzz off, Nick! Ah, uh, Officer Wilde, whatever. Look at me! I'm doin' my community service, as the courts ordered, in accordance with the terms of my bail and everything. I'm a changed mammal, a reformed weasel, keepin' my nose clean, et cetera, et cetera. You ain't got nothin' on me, so back off."
Nick leaned in close, his snout within an inch of Weaselton's as he sized him up, and Judy tensed as she saw Duke's bloodshot eye twitchingly reflected in Nick's aviators at close range.
"Listen, Weaselton, drop the Junior Ranger Scout act; it's as fake as anything else you've ever sold. I worked the same streets as you for years, and I know a weasel doesn't change his spots that quick. Clue us in, why don't you? You've always got a hustle going; we are going to find out what it is, and shut you down. You mark my words."
With that, he gave the weasel a hard push in his crooked chest with the tip of his baton. Duke gulped in discomfort, but hardened his posture in the face of Nick's probing.
"Hey, hey, HEY! Don't be threatening me, copper, I know my rights! You ain't got no gang boss friends here threatening to drown me in ice - yeah, don't think I forgot about that! Youse guys got no right to rough up a law-abidin' criminal in the middle'a broad daylight, when all I'm tryin'ta do is pick up this garbage and serve my debt to society!"
Weaselton gestured down at the half-filled bag of trash in his paw. Nick glanced down at it, back at Duke, and delicately used his baton to pull down the lip of the bag, peering inside with a look of deepest scepticism.
"Yeah. I'm searching this bag."
"You - what? Man, get outta there, I've been picking that stuff up all afternoon - hey! HEY! Knock it off!"
"Nick! You can't-"
Judy yelped as she reached out in a vain effort to intercept Nick, but too late, as her partner had already grabbed the bag out of Weaselton's hand and was starting to rummage through it, throwing the refuse out across the grass with growing agitation. Over Duke's incoherent yelps of fury and indignation, the fox upended the bag and tipped it all over the lawn, scrambling through festering garbage for any possible sign of wrongdoing. What he found was old newspapers, wads of chewed gum, fruit debris and a half-eaten Bug Burger that was now splattered across the ground. Nick's irrational annoyance seemed to increase with each piece of legitimate garbage he flicked past; when it became clear that the trash was, indeed, just trash, he shot Weaselton a look of icy disdain.
"...yeah, well. You win this round, Weaselton. But I'm watching you, got it? Officer Nicholas P. Wilde is on to you. You're on my list. I know you're up to something big, and I'm going to take you down. Got that? Come on, Carrots."
On that aimless threat, Nick turned on his heel and marched back towards the street, leaving Weaselton and Judy dumbfounded in his wake. The pair gaped wordlessly for a moment, barely noticing the other was still there; Judy could see Duke's anger was throbbing in his temple, and before he could entirely regain his bearings, she gave an apologetic laugh, her best attempt at a winning smile, and bounded away in pursuit of her partner.
Catching up with Nick was harder than usual for Judy, who could usually keep pace with her longer-legged colleague, but not when he was storming off down the pavement like a furious juggernaut, the front of his new uniform now covered in dark stains and bits of old fruit. Accelerating, she hopped in front of him and planted her broad feet in the pavement, physically bringing him to a halt with her small paws.
"Nick! NICK! You - have - got - to - get - a - grip! You are out of control, and you will turn around right now and apologise to Duke Weaselton, or I recommend to Chief Bogo that you be taken off active duty. What is even wrong with you?"
The fox, who had seemed only barely aware of his partner, seemed shaken out of his torpor by her words, and met her incredulous gaze. Pulling off his aviator shades, he began gesticulating with them wildly, his usual composure lost in an angry haze.
"Oh, nope, nothing's wrong here, nothing's wrong anywhere! Crime is over. We missed the memo, it's all fine now. The perps and the gangsters are all singing Kumbaya in the park, so the ZPD ought to just pack it up, go home, get some sleep. Tell me, Cottontail: how likely does that sound to you?"
Judy stared back, blank, at a complete loss for words. "What?"
Nick raged on undeterred. "Yeah, well, I don't buy that, not for one hot second. I know crooks, Judy - heck, I was one not so long ago, and they're everywhere. Everywhere from the little schemers like Weaselton, right up to the big masterminds like Bellwether. Every second we waste on speeding motorists and jaywalkers or, or, or shoppers who paid one hour on their parking meter and stayed for two? That's a second we're not dealing with the guys hiding in the woodwork doing real damage to lives! THAT's why I became a cop: to make the world a better place. Your words, Carrots, your words. Not to waste ZPD time and resources spending my first day traipsing the streets dealing with... overaggressive pamphleteers, or whatever!"
A fire was burning out of control behind Nick's green eyes; Judy had never seen him like this before. Wary of a nearby group of wildebeest commuters who seemed keen to eavesdrop on the two officers arguing in the street, Judy shepherded the agitated fox into the privacy of a side alley, and addressed him with as much composure and authority as she could muster.
"Nick... I told you to chill out about this this morning, don't you remember? You're putting so much pressure on yourself and this whole first-day thing, and it's making you... well, psychotic, honestly. I know you want to make a difference, but you cannot expect to crush all crime in one day, and even if you could, going door-to-door trying to find reasons to arrest people isn't the way you do it! Are...are you absolutely sure you're ready for patrol duty?"
Nick's eyes tweaked as he choked with furious incredulity. "Ready? I was born ready. I am laying down a marker today, and I don't care what-"
Without warning, Nick's ears pricked up, alert, and his bright eyes flicked upwards to a point halfway up the wall of the building in whose shadow they were currently standing. His eyelids narrowed as he scrutinised what he saw in the darkness, and a small smile seemed to play across the corner of his mouth.
"Bingo. Up there. 11 o'clock-ish. Tell me what you see, Carrots."
"Nick...what? I don't…"
Bewildered and distracted, Judy whirled around aimlessly for a moment, before training her own ears and eyes up in the direction of Nick's pointing digit. Above them was an old-fashioned series of steel ladders and walkways, a fire escape route attached to the Stately Rhinoceros Residential Complex, an upmarket apartment block next to which they were stood. A dishevelled figure was scaling them, trying to reach across to a half-open window on the third floor.
"Now, call it a crazy rookie hunch, but I think that gentleman right there is up to something, Officer Hopps."
"Ah, well, Nick, I...he could be, uh… hmmm."
Judy's trust in her partner's judgement had taken a hit after their harrowing day, but she had to admit that the scrambling interloper seemed highly suspicious. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she was able to make out some key physical details: a pointed face, glinting black eyes, a heavily-furred physique and a thick, unkempt striped tail. Fiddling with the window mechanism for a moment, the animal was able to prise the gap open wide enough to squeeze himself inside.
"Oh, he could be a lot of things, partner, so I think it'd be educational for all involved to head on up there to the third floor, and ask him in person to explain what his story is? I think it's gonna be a doozy."
With a swift flick of the wrist, Nick swung his sunglasses open and replaced them on his face; the lack of light from the setting early-evening sun made it very clear that the gesture was for aesthetic reasons only. He seemed to have regained all of his usual swagger in an instant, and Judy couldn't help notice a slight skip in his step as he strolled into the lobby of the apartment block.
A gloved grey paw rose to knock on the polished oak door of the luxury flat, only to be caught by a larger reddish-brown paw before it made contact.
"Come on, Carrots, let me have this one."
"Let you what?"
"I wanna knock, I wanna do the whole 'get down, this is a raid!' thing."
"Nick, what? Don't say this is a raid! It isn't a raid! We're here to ask questions, we don't have any evidence yet!"
"Carrots, relax, I'm tugging your adorable little tail. It's me! I'll be the model of professionalism."
"Uh-huh."
Feeling apprehensive, Judy relaxed her paw to her side as she watched her partner straighten his back, adopt a steely look and rap three times on the door in an exaggerated manner. A nasally whining voice came from the other side of the wood.
"Yeah? What?"
"Sir, this is Officers Wilde and Hopps from the ZPD. We've observed some suspicious activity in the vicinity of your premises, and we'd like to ask you a few questions."
Judy tried to suppress a slight smirk at the deeper "professional" voice Nick tried to affect when dealing with members of the public, but had no chance to dwell on it as the door swung open. Standing in the threshold was a raccoon in his mid-20s, who looked very similar in profile to the animal they had seen scrambling up the fire escape. He wore an unironed T-shirt that looked like it had been slept in, with matted, untidy fur spilling out of the sleeves and neckhole, as well as around the hem of the loose sweatpants he wore. His bristly tail had bits of sellotape and candy wrappers stuck in it, creating an air of neglect reinforced by his hunched posture and unpleasant aroma of old garbage.
"I didn't see anything weird. Who called the cops? Pretty sure I didn't."
Nick and Judy exchanged a brief look, raising their respective eyebrows fractionally, before the fox pressed on.
"Nobody called us in, sir; our questions are based on our own independent investigations and observations. May we come in for a moment?"
"Ehhh."
The raccoon turned on the spot and slinked back into the flat, leaving the door open. Taking this as a "yes", the officers walked in behind him, finding themselves in a living area of astounding affluence. Whoever lived here clearly had an eye for interior design and a penchant for minimalism; most surfaces were pristine white or spotless glass, with an entire wall dominated by a huge flatscreen TV. Gadgets and modern conveniences lay strewn across the tables, or else were incorporated flush into the furnishings; indeed, the only thing that looked out of place in this immaculate space was the raccoon himself, who was leaning against the back of a chair, looking agitated and defiant.
"Make this quick. I'm a busy guy, and time is money, so you're wasting both."
Nick, who was taking in the surroundings, snapped his focus back to the scruffy raccoon's inscrutable face.
"Oh, I shouldn't think this will take long at all, sir. You see, we have very good reason to believe that this property has been illegally entered this evening, and we'd like you to tell us everything you know."
The raccoon shifted his weight slightly, gave a little cough, and responded after a short pause.
"You...what? Right. Yeah, no, nobody's been breaking and entering in here. I live here, OK? This is my place. There's no problem, I don't need any cops, so if you'll just-"
As he spoke, the raccoon shambled towards Judy and proffered a paw towards her, motioning for the pair of them to leave the apartment. She bristled slightly at the grubby state of his claws, but stood her ground.
"I'm afraid, sir, that we really do need to do our due diligence here. My colleague and I observed an interloper climbing across the fire escapes and entering the window of this property, and we-"
"-we'd appreciate it oh so much if you dropped the cutesy act and just come clean, because we saw you drag your filthy tail in here, sir."
"NICK!"
Judy's jaw fell open as she rounded on her partner, who seemed to have entirely dropped his would-be professional voice and demeanour and was now staring down his suspect an open contempt that was obvious even despite his oversized shades. The raccoon, too, seemed dumbstruck for a moment.
"You- what did you say to me?" he spluttered.
Nick leaned down, using his extra height to loom over the suspect, and poked a clawed finger into his chest. "I said you need to come clean - I'm sorry, I know the idea of cleanliness must be confusing to you. I'll make this really simple, then: we literally saw you climb in this window, with our own four eyes, so you can either come quietly with us to the station and face the music, or we can do this the hard way. Personally, I'm good either way, so it's your call, buddy."
Judy's breath caught in her throat as she gazed wordlessly at Nick for a moment, who was cracking his knuckles in a needlessly threatening manner. Regaining herself, she attempted to defuse the mood, which had turned poisonous faster than she'd feared.
"Uh...Officer Wilde, you can't just- what he meant to say, sir, is-"
The raccoon rounded on her, eyes popping with fury. "Oh, I heard him! What is this, you think you can just barge into a mammal's house and accuse me with no evidence? Don't you know who I am? I don't have to put up with-"
Nick interrupted: "Look, Sweatpants McGee, I don't much care who you are; I doubt it would impress me particularly. But you aren't blustering out of this: we caught you red-handed, watched you climb in here, and now we're going to escort you out before you get any more grime on the nice carpet in here, capiche?"
At this point, Judy was struggling to maintain her composure as the situation threatened to devolve into an all-out brawl. Nick's lip was curling into an aggressive snarl, while the raccoon's fangs were bared in fury.
"All right then, yeah, FINE! I climbed in through the window, yes! So I locked myself out of my apartment, and I had to climb in from outside like an idiot. Are you happy now? Will you get out of my house now, you dimwits? I'll show you the documentation if it'll shut you up-"
The raccoon motioned across to a cabinet across the room, but the moment he raised his paw, there was a metallic flash and a click. It took Judy a moment to realise, to her horror, that Nick had handcuffed the enraged animal and was now attempting to get the suspect's paws behind his back to completely restrain him.
"Yeah, no, I don't think you'll be touching anything else in here, raccoon. I'm sure you have a great story, really great, and the guys down at the police department are gonna be really excited to hear it-"
"Mr Cooney?"
A cool female voice seemed to pierce through the chaos, causing everyone in the room to freeze and look up. Entering the apartment from a side room was a neat, officious-looking ferret carrying a phablet and a stylus, who looked politely bemused - if not overly startled - by the fracas that was unfolding in front of them.
"Grace! Where have you BEEN? You see what happens when I have to answer my own door? Get over here and sort this out, that's your job! Speak to the Keystone Cops over here, get them out of my house!"
The tension and fury in the apartment seemed to have evaporated in a moment, replaced by a fog of mutual confusion. Nick, who still had the raccoon in a hold, glanced across at Judy, who could only return his look of wrongfooted discombobulation. Through the midst of this, the ferret seemed to glide across the room, a picture of calm, barely looking up from her screen.
"I'm very sorry, sir, I was alphabetising the ring binders you left in the adjacent room, and my access to the door was blocked off. This underlines our need for a better organisational system in there, I would say. Good evening, officers, can I help you with anything?"
Nick tried to speak, but only seemed able to achieve a wordless "uhhhhhhh", so it was left to Judy to pull herself together and respond.
"Yeah...um. Yeah. Officers Hopps and Wilde, ZPD. What, uh...what the heck is going here? I don't even know any more."
The ferret, Grace, glanced up at the mention of their names and surveyed them over the top of her thin-framed glasses with mild interest.
"Ah, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde? Yes, I believe I saw you on the news a few months ago. My name is Grace Ferris, personal assistant to Mr Rocky Cooney. As to what's going on, I believe you're in the process of arresting my employer in his own home on what I can only imagine to be spurious evidence, based on the low quality of the conversation I overheard while in the next room."
A glimmer of recognition lit up in Judy's mind. "Rocky Cooney? The tech entrepreneur? THE Rocky Cooney? But...I've seen you on the news as well. A few times actually; you, uh, usually look more … formal."
The reality of the situation they were in was starting to dawn on the rabbit, so she was choosing her words carefully. Nick's expression was curdling like spoiled milk, and she could only assume he currently felt as queasy as he looked. Grace, meanwhile, tapped something into her tablet, and summoned a photo of Rocky Cooney from a corporate website. It was recognisably the same raccoon, though the animal in the image was much cleaner and considerably less furious. The flesh-and-blood Cooney threw off Nick's hold and started pointing angrily in Judy's face, the handcuffs jangling from the wrist to which they were attached.
"Well, excuse me, fashion police! Is this what passes for a crime these days? Working at home in my sweatpants? This is what my tax dollars are paying for the ZPD to do? You're a disgrace to public service! And you, Hopps, out of all of them! The hero cop that saved the city, right? Good to see your career is on the up and up, harassing people based on their grooming habits and clothing choices. Doing Zootopia proud."
Grace interjected: "It is Mr Cooney's preference not to leave his home if at all possible - he believes this helps him to focus better on his work without distraction. To this end, he dresses for comfort, rather than aesthetic appeal. It is no symptom of criminality or vagrancy, I can assure you."
Nick croaked: "But we...I saw you climb in through the window, I only thought…"
"Oh, now he gets his voice back. Wouldn't shut up before, would you? Not long enough to listen to me when I said I'd locked myself out and had to come in through the window."
Grace offered: "This is accurate. We exited the apartment for a brief period and returned only to realise Mr Cooney had accidentally locked the key inside. His pride compelled him to scale the building and enter through the window to let me in, rather than ask the concierge for assistance. A rash decision, perhaps, but not one that warrants insults or threats of arrest, both of which he has received from you this evening; as such, I believe the ethics and legality of your conduct is questionable, and you may be receiving a call from our lawyers if you persist."
Judy's mind was racing into overdrive as she sought a diplomatic solution to their predicament. Nick appeared to be deflating like a balloon, his bravado and belligerence gone, and he was staring in agitation at his own reflection in a mirror on the wall, seemingly struggling to recognise what he saw. The sight seemed to spur Judy into action.
"Ah...with due respect, I really don't think that will be necessary. I think it's pretty clear at this point that my partner and I have made a really very serious error of judgement in handling our inquiries here, and I can only offer our deepest apologies over the way this was conducted. Right, Officer Wilde?"
Nick was shaken out of his troubled reverie at the sound of his name, and responded in a subdued tone: "Uh, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Deepest apologies, I'm so sorry, I just thought- yeah. Sorry for all of this, sir. Ah! Let me just- let me get that cuff off you, sorry."
He hurried over and unlocked the handcuff from Cooney's wrist, who proffered his arm while staring Nick down with an expression of utmost loathing. The fox was the taller of the two animals, but seemed to shrink away in the venomous gaze, and retreated back towards the apartment's entrance looking diminished. Cooney's eyes narrowed as they followed him across the room.
"Yeah, well, I want that in writing. Grace! Set me up a meeting with the mayor's office, I'll be bringing this incident up with them. I don't care if it means I have to leave the house! You clowns are going to the wall for this, I'll see to it myself!"
Sensing the time was right to leave, Judy began backing towards the entrance, offering as many apologies as she could as she did so. She placed a paw on Nick's back and gently ushered him out of the door, as he didn't seem capable of moving on his own any more.
"...I can only tell you again how sorry we are, Mr Cooney, we do take this kind of thing very seriously. My partner doesn't have that much experience in the field, but believe me, he really was acting to prevent what he thought was a real crime in progress-"
"If you thought it was a real crime, then you should have sent a real cop to investigate it, rather your work experience idiot here! Get out of my house, I never want to see either of you around here again!"
With that, the raccoon slammed the door in their faces, smashing it heavily into Judy's toes and Nick's snout, leaving them writhing in pain on his front doormat as his scratchy footsteps receded away from the entrance.
"Hold your head back and pinch there, it should probably stop bleeding in a second. I think?"
Dusk had fallen on Zootopia, and Officers Wilde and Hopps were making their way back to the police department, both looking distinctly worse for wear. Judy was hobbling awkwardly, unsure of how to distribute her weight across two injured feet; she was also struggling to guide Nick, who was essentially walking blind due to the angle of his head and the mass of tissues he was clamping around his nose. His once pristine uniform, already blotted by his rummaging through Weaselton's garbage bag, was now stained red around the chest and collar, a souvenir of the heavy bleeding that had accompanied the initial injury. Gingerly, Nick withdrew the blood-soaked wad from his muzzle, and dabbed at it carefully. When he spoke, it was thickly and with little of his usual zest.
"Augh, I think it's stopped now, just about. Looks like my backup career plan in male modelling might be out of the window, though, I'm hideous now. Deformed."
Judy gave a subdued chuckle that turned into a yelp of pain as a hard paving stone brushed against one of her bruised toes.
"Haha-aaargh! Ah. Don't flatter yourself, fox, your chances of a modelling career remain exactly as low as they were yesterday. Besides, I wouldn't have thought you'd welcome the prospect of another first day any time soon?"
Nick tried to smile, but so weakly that Judy instantly regretted the comment. They walked in silence for a while until Nick tossed his head back and let out a sigh deep enough that it seemed his soul had escaped through his mouth. Judy tensed slightly, trying to keep her involuntary squeaks of pain to a minimum as she hobbled alongside him, and waited for him to speak.
"Hooo, boy. This has not been a success, has it?" he asked, not looking at her.
Judy eyed her partner closely. His body posture was slumped and defeated as he walked, barely seeming aware of his surroundings as he shuffled along on autopilot, dabbing occasionally at his injured snout.
"Well...it's not been a great day, no. But-"
"But nothing. No silver lining on this one, it's all cloud. I really messed up."
"Hey, look, everyone makes mistakes! And I know a bit about Cooney, he's one of those coder millionaires who came into some money and thinks he owns the city. He's always making demands to City Hall and the ZPD, he has a reputation for it. Nick, I wouldn't take what he said too seriously, everyone from Bogo downwards knows he's a jerk."
"It wasn't just what he did, Carrots, it was what I did. You warned me not to put too much on myself today, and I went and did it anyway, and I … ugh. Maybe you were right; I don't think I'm ready for this."
Judy put a paw on Nick's arm and gave him an admonishing little shake. "Hey, come on, you need to knock it off with that kind of talk. I saw your grades at the academy; I worked with you through training over nine months, and heck, even before you joined the force. You can do this. I know you can; I've put my own butt on the line vouching for you, so this isn't just big talk. You are 100% capable of this; sure, you made some mistakes, but nobody learns without getting it wrong sometimes. Right?"
Some light appeared to return to Nick's green eyes, but little fire. "I guess so...it'd just be easier to think that way if I hadn't just had the worst first day in ZPD history."
"Well...I don't know if I'd say it was THE worst."
It was now Judy's turn to let her gaze drift down towards the pavement, as she sank into a painful memory. Another pregnant moment's silence, and then-
"Hey. Carrots."
She glanced over and saw that Nick was now looking back at her, with an air of consternation and slight surprise, as though seeing her properly for the first time that day. When he spoke, it was with a halting, hesitant precision that was quite unlike his use smooth bluster, like he was choosing his words with extreme care.
"I'm...uh. Really sorry."
"Hey, it's like I said, mistakes happen! It's your first day, you'll learn."
"Not for my first day. For yours."
Judy didn't have an immediate response. That was an old wound that she wasn't keen to poke at, but there was a sense of purpose to Nick's tone that overrode her instinct to change the subject.
"Oh, Nick, you… you don't have to apologise for that now. Ancient history. Just goes to show that even the best of us have a few stumbles sometimes, right? You, me, everybody."
"Yeah, but there's a difference between just having a bad day where you make some mistakes, then brush yourself off again, and… what happened to you. Having some jerk come along and dump a lifetime of baggage on your head, then kinda kick you while you're down, trying to destroy you on purpose. I… well, I don't think I've ever actually said sorry for that, not properly."
The rabbit's eyes stung a little as a evening wind blew across her dampening eyes. The memory of her own first day on the ZPD wasn't one she liked to revisit, but as she looked back to Nick and saw his green eyes focused on her, waiting with apprehension for her response, she found that the pain of the recollection felt less raw than it had ever been.
"...you know what? It was rough, sure, but you were there to help pick me back up off the ground too, and that's always been more important to me."
Nick's weak smile returned, but this time it carried up to his eyes in a way it hadn't previously. "I guess this would be a bad time to remind you you did have to literally blackmail me into doing it."
Judy laugh-winced again as her toe clipped the edge of a lamppost. "Ouch! Well… yeah. But you were still there for me, and you helped me climb out of that hole when nobody else would. So today's my turn to return the favour, because that's what partners do, and that's what friends do. And you're the best one of those I've ever had."
She gave a watery smile and a sniffle as she gave the fox a playful nudge in the ribs. Stumbling slightly, Nick beamed back, looking happier than he'd been all day. For a moment, they walked side by side, neither wanting to take their eyes of the other's smiling face, until Nick broke the warm silence.
"You know, Judy, you really are a special little-"
CLANG.
"NICK! Omigosh, are you OK?"
Lost in their moment of mutual distraction, Nick had walked face-first into a white van parked on the kerb.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow. Yeah, that's bleeding again. This is what I get when I try to be sincere, I guess. Karma is trying to tell ya something, Nick ol' boy, stick to what you're good at. Leave the sappiness to the bunny. But man, I could've done without that van being parked there. In fact… why is it parked here?"
Judy, whose attention had been entirely focused on Nick's injury, looked over at the van, and her brow furrowed. In addition to taking up far more of the pavement than was safe, its front end was spilling over across an entrance to a side road, essentially blocking any other vehicles from coming in or out.
"Nick...this shouldn't be here. This is the entrance to a hospital, look! This wasn't just you being clumsy, this is some legitimately irresponsible and dangerous parking!"
Pinching his nose with his wad of tissues, Nick side-eyed the vehicle as he tilted his head back. "Huh. You know what, Carrots, you might be right on this! Should we… should we call this in? We can't leave this thing here to block off the hospital entrance; it needs to get towed, right?"
Within minutes, a winch was being attached to the front of the white van, and Nick - whose nosebleed had abated once again - was writing down the licence number with Judy's carrot pen, as he went over the procedure for file submissions in his head.
"Oh, Fluff, on the way back to the station, I need to stop at that all-night convenience store and pick up a box of donuts. I had a bet with Clawhauser that I'd collar at least one perp today, and somehow I don't think he's gonna accept a towed van as an arrest."
"Hey, no need to play it down!" said Judy, as the tow truck pulled away and they continued on their way back to the precinct. "You did a good thing calling that in. Remember what I said this morning? Some days, just mopping up the traffic violations is all you need to do to keep the peace…"
As she spoke, a siren fired up just behind them, and an ambulance pulled out of the opening they had just cleared, racing past them at high speed.
"...and make that little bit of difference. You see, Nick? That ambulance might not have been able to get out in time if we hadn't been here! Maybe you just saved a life on your first day, just by faceplanting into the side of a van. How's that for making the world a better place?"
She gave Nick a punch in the arm hard enough to make him yelp. As he rubbed the tiny bruise, he couldn't help but grin broadly.
"Well, whaddya know? I'm a crime-fighting prodigy, without even realising. Now imagine me on a good day, huh? You think I can spin this into something impressive enough to get Clawhauser to waive the donut-box forfeit?"
"Ha! Right. Then after that, you can talk Bogo into giving you a promotion to sergeant and a back rub. Don't push your luck, slick, even your tongue isn't that silver. But hey, while you're buying your forfeit donuts, how about we pick up a second box, take them back to my apartment and down them with cups of decaf until we pass out? You're a real cop now, Officer Wilde; better start acting like one."
"Yes, ma'am, Officer Hopps, ma'am!" Nick gave Judy a half salute and a smirk as they ambled their way towards the precinct, the sound of the ambulance siren drifting away into the Zootopia night air.