The Best of You

by Closed-Cycle

In the wake of the Night Howler incident, the city of Zootopia does its best to pick up the pieces, although not everything is picked up. Loose ends rarely tie themselves and often make others. Nick and Judy will once again be forced into hardships as they attempt to solve the next big case and tie up what's left.

1. Officer Wilde

15

The Best of You

Chapter 1: Officer Wilde

The stillness of the morning sat in the apartment. Small amounts of dust slowly floated in front of the bedroom window. The rays of light that slips between the curtains illuminates the little specks of dust, likes stars in the night sky. The dust slowly sinks down towards the ground only to be carried elsewhere in the room by the small air currents that most mammals hardly notice. A few particles of dust slowly float their way towards a red furred mass, gently rising and falling as the sleeping Fox breaths in and out. The speck makes the journey to the ocean of red and creamy white fur, peacefully landing between the two parted seas of color. The calm of the room settles and so does the particles of dust, but only for a moment, before being torn away from its resting place by a violent exhale of air. Nick turns over in his sleep. Sprawled across his bed he subconsciously breathes deeply in and then huffs the air out, unsettling the stillness of the room once again. Rolling over onto his other side, his claws click out and his ears flick. His paws suddenly twitch once more before quickly digging into the ground.

He's running. Running quite possibly as fast as he has run before. The fields he ran through are covered in a rolling, golden brown wheat. The wheat slowly waves back and forth in the cool spring breeze, carrying the scent of his surroundings into his nose. The scent of wheat and Earth was carried into and then out of his nose with each breath of air his lungs suck in, trying to keep up with his sprinting pace. Another scent rested on his tongue though, a scent he reveled in every time he caught a whiff of it. The scent had a slight tanginess to it, a little earthy, but not overly powerful and an almost lavender-y aftertaste. Well, as far as Nick could guess what lavender would taste like, but If it did have a taste, this would undoubtedly be it. It made his mouth water as he chased a bouncing cottontail, leaving paths in the wheat as he ran after the one and only Judy Hopps.

Nick was getting closer and hearing Judy's small giggles only made him run faster. The little white tail bouncing every time Judy made another bound playfully away from Nick and deeper into the field. Closing the gap, Nick could smell the thickening scent, now starting to get mixed in with a slightly, almost musky, smell of Judy's body warming up from the running. It was easy for most canines to pick up, a giveaway odor that got produced when almost all mammals started to physically exert themselves, and Judy was no different. Nick huffed in the scent again, enjoying the smell of the youthful bunny, flaring his nostrils and he breathed out. He grinned and called out to the rabbit only a few feet away from him now.

"You might as well stop running, no need to wear yourself out now!" Nick smiled as the bouncing bunny took a quick look behind her, and then laughed.

"I would never wear myself out running from you, slick!" Judy giggled and then started to really pour the speed on, making Nick start to lag behind for a moment.

Oh, no you don't, cottontail, I'm not letting my prize get away from me that easily.

Nick pushed his legs down with the most power he could muster while he chuckled to himself at Judy's quick, but admittedly good, comeback. He forced his legs straight and the momentum sends himself gracefully through the air, the maneuver reconnecting to some primal urge to pounce on prey from long ago. Nick arched his body perfectly while flying through the air while at the same moment Judy looked back again to make another stab at Nicks pride. The look on her face was priceless, as her eyes went wide, while her ears shot straight up to attention. Watching the predator smiling, bearing his sharp teeth with his tongue hanging out and claws extended as his eyes locked onto the rabbits adorable and wiggling tail. Judy squealed something in between terror and delight as she watched the leaping fox close in on her, with nothing she could do. Nicks claws closed the gap, and the now cute wiggling tail was only inches away from his paws. His paws contacted the soft fluf-

Nick bolted awake at the sound of his alarm. He twisted and turned while shooting straight up, flying out of his sleepy state eyes wide wondering who had caught himself and Judy in a more than 'just friends' moment. He looks around the room and then down at his alarm. He stares at it a moment. It takes a second for Nicks eyes to adjust, but the red LED lights clearly make out 5:30 a.m.

God I'm some kinda freak, worse than a shifty fox.

Nick shakes his head and taps the alarm, shutting off its ear-piercing sound, silence quickly taking over the room again. Swinging his legs off the bed, Nick makes his way towards the bathroom, just down the hall towards the kitchen. He winces slightly from the cooler air in the short corridor that leads to the bathroom.

The things I d- The things I've DONE for the Bunny, there something wrong with me. Ok slick, head in the game, first day of work, easy, good first impressions, first fox cop, no problem, no pressure.

Nick makes it to the bathroom. He looks in the mirror to see an early 30's fox, about average height, healthy, though, he looks sleep deprived at the moment. Fairly well built, has some muscle, more than the average fox Nick likes to think. This scene would have been much different if he was looking at himself a year ago. The changes in the last year boggled his mind. He looked down past his chest and towards his waist, taking note of the noticeable bulge that pushes his black boxer's outwards.

Another cold shower to start the day, wonderful, at least it isn't mating season, god, lucky I delayed that by being at the academy… Hm not over yet though, that dream was… The academy really took my mind off things, wish I had something like that now.

Nick steps away from the mirror and sink while taking off his boxers and throwing them to one side of the bathroom, onto the slowly building pile of dirty clothes. He turns on the cold water and breaths in before making the jarring step from semi warm bathroom air to cold water. The water makes Nick's body tense up, quickly waking him up the rest of the way. He shivers before reaching down and changing the temperature to something more bearable. Grabbing for the shampoo, he makes sure to use more than enough, doing his best to wash the odd scent that covered him caused by his even odder dream.

After 20 minutes the fox is out of the shower and frustratingly trying to swipe his phone open. The humidity in the air of the now warm bathroom causing the phone to acquire a thin layer of water over the screen, making his paw swipes not register. He grumbles as he wipes the phone screen with a corner of the towel wrapped around his waist. He looks at the screen, the notification bar displaying the time, 5:58 AM and then something much more interesting, a pending message on Muzzlebook from Judy. Nick quickly taps the message.

Judy: "Better not be late on your first day! Remember to be early, no late foxes needed."

Nick smiles and taps out a reply.

Nick: "I'll be there 5 minutes early if you get me a coffee."

Nick clicks the power button, blacking out the screen while walking back over to the sink. He picks up his toothbrush and starts to brush his canines, while looking into the mirror. He makes a mental note to brush his head fur, before spitting and then brushing more. His phone buzzes as his eyes quickly snap to the now lit screen, the message is from Judy.

Judy: "Only if I get to pick where we're getting lunch."

Nick: "Fair enough I suppose better have something other than carrots though."

Nick glances at the time, 6:03. He needed to hurry along if he was truly holding to his words of being 5 minutes early. He finishes up brushing his teeth and then quickly brushes his head and tail fur before moving back to his bedroom. He drops his towel on the ground before rummaging through his dresser drawer for a clean pair of boxers. He finds them and struggles to put them on while walking towards his closet at the same time. He opens the sliding door of the closet and finds his new, ZPD uniform. He grabs the clothes hanger and pulls it towards himself, taking a moment to think about how his life has changed.

Fate has a funny way of going about things I suppose. Or maybe an odd sense of humor. All because of a bunny… welp, time to go out there and… be looked at funny, I hate being nervous, doesn't suit me.

Nick did his best to push these thoughts aside as he put on his uniform. Nick looks in the mirror after putting the uniform on and starts to make the final tweaks to it. He made sure that his shirt was tucked in well and his tie centered. Nick looks down at his badge and makes sure it is straight. The gold colored badge set proudly on his chest, what Nick likes most about the badge was what was under it. In bold letters "Nicholas P. Wilde" is printed. Nick smiles at himself in the mirror. He was finally something more than a con fox. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone to check the time, 6:09 AM. Nick then swipes open his phone to answer another Muzzlebook message from Judy.

Judy: "Deal, cream and sugar?"

Nick: "Yep, smooth and sweet, just like myself"

Judy: "Black and no sugar, got it."

Nick chuckles at the stab while grabbing his wallet and keys off his dresser. He then looks back at the dresser and sees his can of 'Musk Mask' beside his wallet. Well that would've been bad, damn Wilde come on. Nick grabs the can and sprays himself down, making sure to get the rougher areas the best, such as the armpits and around the base of his tail. Nick sets the can back on the dresser and looks in the mirror a final time. He smiles at himself and then turns towards the kitchen. Making his way through past it and to the front door. He opens it into a long hall, sporting many doors the same as his, the main difference being the number plastered to the front, though a few were sporting their own additives from the different tenants within. Turning around Nick looks at his door and then pats his pocket, double checking his keys and phone are where they should be. He locks the door and the starts his stroll towards the stairwell.

Here we go Wilde, its show time.

A few moments later and Nick steps out of the lobby of his apartment building and onto the slightly chilly pavement of the sidewalk. A cool early morning breeze sweeps through the streets and fills Nick's nose with the scents of a new day. The distinct smell of downtown Zootopia, stuffy, slightly trashy and with a touch of car exhaust to top it off, and of course all the odors of the different mammals that move about the streets. Nick starts his walk down the street, towards the entrances to the metros.

Looking around the street, Nick stuff his paws in his pockets and tries to relax. He looks down the sidewalk and takes notes of the funny looks he's already getting. Most subtle, but not all. His path takes him by a Fur-Topic clothing store next to his apartment building and he takes the opportunity to look at himself in the slight reflection of the stores front window displays. Looking at the handsome Fox, Nick notes that he is clearly tense. He relaxes his shoulder more and mentally puts a little more effort into his 'cool Fox walk'. He sighs and attempts to think of something other than the questionable looks.

Hmm let's see, I'll need to pick up food later today, oh and double check my PO box, doubt there's anything there but haven't checked it since I left for the academy. Hm and stop by MVS for more aspirin and good ol' Suppress Heat… hope they still have some in stock, they should, its just 2 – 3 months later then normal, yeah great, fucking wonderful.

Nick sighs realizing his thinking is making things worse. He puts his conman smile on as he walks across the street and gives a nod to a passing cougar. She smiles back at him while giving a slight wave with her paw. It was odd seeing a cougar with such darker marking on her face, but then again, it was odd for him to get waved out by one, so he passed it off. After making it across the street Nick turns down the sidewalk, following his pre-thought-out path to his destination. Nick must make his way through a small amount of the rainforest district before getting into the downtown area of Zootopia. This would be quite a way if he was strictly walking, but thanks to his apartment complex being close to the Zootopia downtown district it made the inner-city metro loop conveniently close. After a few minutes of walking he made it to the Ficus Grove station.

A small stairway with green railings leads into what seemed like the abyss. He makes his way down the lightly crowded path and into the halls, of the station. He worked his way onto the platform, moving through the light crowd of mammals getting off the subway and just making it onto the 6:15 train. He finds an open seat and takes it. Taking the moment to take a breath, he looks around the car and takes note of the few mammals. He suspected there would be few at this time, after all it is an odd time to be on the subway. Rush hour was 8:00 a.m. for most mammals. However, most accidents and police calls were made around this time as well, and Nick new that in an effort to avoid shift changes at these peak times of emergency shift changes were done early or late of prime rush times. Nick looked over to the other end of the car and took note of an exhausted looking tiger. He figured he must be just getting done with work, he wondered what odd job he had, or perhaps he was just out partying all night, it was hard for Nick to tell from the distance.

The ride, to his surprise, went by quickly. While the number of mammals on the car did increase the end of the ride the number of funny, or surprised looks at the first fox officer on his first day didn't increase that much. Or maybe he was getting use to it, he couldn't tell yet. The train stops at station and Nick makes his way out of the crowd and back onto the street smoothly, being small did have its perks from time to time. Getting more comfortable now with the unusual number of eyes on him he slows his stride slightly to something closer to what his normal pace is. After a few moments his ears perk towards a familiar sound. A deep, scruffy voice, certainly a smoker. Nick looks up and notices a familiar looking Fennec Fox up ahead behind a water cooler stuffed with snow and Pawpsicles. Nicks smirk covers his face as he approaches the unaware fox.

"Well well well, selling Pawpsicles, got a permit to for that?" Nick lets the words smoothly roll off his tongue and takes note of Finnick's comically large ears twitching from the sound of his voice. He quickly turns around to see a smirking Nick.

"Damn Nick, what's with the getup? Been running cons without me for the last couple of months?" Finnick looks back at Nick who begins his theatrical performance of a heart broken mammal.

"I'm wounded you would think such an upstanding mammal as myself would ever con another, and to think I would impersonate an officer of the law? Who do you take me for?" Nick places the back of his paw over his forehead while his other turns up and out away from his body.

"Hahaha, now me and you both know that ain't true Nicky, so "Carrots" really has tricked you into working with the fuzz? I thought you were just lying to me when you said you were going off to the academy and were really running cons without me." Finnick now turns fully towards Nick on the box he is standing on behind his makeshift Pawpsicle stand.

"Judy hasn't tricked me into doing anything, I really did want to go, and contrary to popular belief I'm a real cop, swear it, sc-." Finnick cuts Nick off.

"Yeah yeah, scouts honor, you know I'd appreciate if you leave, bad for business having a cop around." Finnick crosses his arms with a slightly annoyed look while Nick puts his paws back into his pockets.

"Aww come on now Finnick, don't be like that. Surely you want daddy to stay and visit? Need an excuse to put on the elephant suit again?" Nicks smirk grows as his friend gets more agitated than normal.

"As much as I hate to admit it Nick, money hasn't been as easy to come by after you left, its hard to run the Pawpsicle con without a second hand, and joey's shit for help so don't suggest that, so yeah matter of fact this 'I'm a new mammal, I've changed' act has been pretty shitty if you ask me" Finnick huffs, his ears slightly drooping form his small speech.

"Well, hate to break it to you Fin but It isn't an act, and it is for the better, no more cons Finnick, that's behind me, I'm trying to do the right thing now. What's so bad about that." Nick moves his elbow out with his hand still in his pocket, opening his chest up in an asking pose. A shit eating grin develops on Finnicks face.

"Damn Nicky, didn't know you were that into rabbits, I know foxes use to chase prey and all but, all the way through the academy, police station and into the squad car? Is her tail really that good?" Finnick smirks at the wide-eyed Nick before he quickly recovers his posture and attempts to smile at the joke but fails miserably. Nick does his best to push out the memory of his latest dream, which was all to fitting for the situation to be funny in the slightest, even for Nick.

"Now Finnick, do we need to revisit that memory of you hitting on that elephant at the shaking paw? If you think my NON- existing tail chasing is bad, you should have seen yourself when she started dancing on stage in that mini ski-" Nick gets cut off by Finnick.

"Nick, you go any further and I'll bite your face off, I was piss drunk. And it ain't like I bought stilts and gained 1,000 pounds for her either, 'Officer Wilde'." Finnick air quotes while he says his last words, drawing a tight-lipped frown for Nick.

"Look Finnick, as much as you want me to be into floppy ears, I'm not, we are friends, nothing more, and don't be mad at me for turning my life around either, you could do it too! And you'll be seeing me around, I haven't left my favorite son" Nick tries to ruffle the fur on top of Finnick's heads but gets his paw slapped away.

"Just friends yeah, sure Nick, I know your sick and twisted and if there's anybody that would be into some kinda pred-prey shit it'd be you. Oh, and speaking of that I take it you liked that gift I got DADDY for an early Father's Day, huh?" Finnick smirks at Nick, who looks thoroughly puzzled.

"What gift?"

"Oh, don't play dumb with me, you know you liked it."

"No really, what gift?"

"Ah come on Nick, playing totally dumb ain't like you, its fine if you just threw it away, I expected you too." The Fennec fox chuckles as the thought of Nick actually reading and looking through the 'gift' was even better than the gag itself.

"Finnick, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"The magazine, I put it in your PO box at your new apartment."

"Oh well that would explain it, haven't looked in that since I left for the academy buddy. Been too busy filling out paperwork before my first day, and hey speaking of that, I gotta get going, police stuff to do, y'know?" Nick smiles at Finnick and starts his stroll around the Pawpsicle stand while plucking one from the cooler.

"Hey, those ain't free for nobody, even for you!" Finnick grumbles back, forgetting there banter about the 'gift' as quickly as it came up.

"I'm letting you off with a warning buddy, and I'll be taking this as payment, be seeing you around soon!" Nick keeps walking away from Finnick while taking out his aviators from his front shirt pocket.

"Hey! Warning and payment for what? I ain't broke any laws!" Finnick shouts back. Nick looks back over his shoulder at this statement and smirks.

"Felony tax evasion, you and me both buddy." Nick winks at the fennec fox, his mouth hanging open wide, Nick snaps his aviators open and puts them on. Finnick quickly closes his mouth and slightly snarls at the red fox, before he turns and starts strolling away.

Nick chuckles to himself as he keeps making his way down the street, Pawpsicles in paw. He licks it and feels a bit of nostalgia hit him. Those day were gone for good now, petty cons use to be all he knew, working all day just to make enough money to get by the next day. It was hard, got repetitive and if he was honest with himself, it made him feel awful at the end of the day. He had never done anything to bad, sure tax evasion, and he had done more than his fair share of selling stolen items to questionable mammals in pawn shops. He figured the worst trouble he had gotten himself into was with Mr. Big, which was bad, but that was behind him now, he had made sure of that. He had always wanted to do what was right, that's why he wanted to join the scouts, that now seems like an eternity ago. But after that wonderful experience, why try to see the best in others while nobody did the same for him?

Nick ponder his past way of thinking while making the 2nd to last turn needed to reach his destination. He licks the Pawpsicle again, still lost in thought. Trying his best to pick out the smiles in his walk and not focus on the other looks he's picking up. He shakes his head and keeps walking down the sidewalk. He looks around, scanning for anything to absently ponder about, preferable something fun and not complicated. Glancing across the street he catches two female wolves pointing at him. One starts to get her phone out while the other excitedly pats her friend on the shoulder. The Fox chuckles to himself at the sight, while the one wolf finally gets her phone ready to take the picture. Nick turns towards them and give a slight wave while also putting on a toothy grin, he had heard most female wolves had a thing for this and judging from their reaction this was true. They excitedly looked at one another while wagging their tails, the one with the phone immediately showing the other wolf the picture. Nick turns the last corner and makes it to the stretch of sidewalk that his destination is on. He mentally prepares himself for the worst, the only good thing about police stations was getting to walk out of them, Finnick had once told Nick, and he had always remembered this.

He finally makes it to the door of the ZPD headquarters. Nick opens the door and sees Judy standing on a chair at the front desk talking to an almost comically large cheetah. A wave of relief hits him, at least he wouldn't have to find her in the jungle of police. Looking around at the rest of the inside he sees a variety of mammals. All larger predators, for the most part, many different wolfs, lions, tigers, a hippo and an elephant. The main lobby is huge, made to accommodate many mammals of different sizes. But not to forgiving of the smaller sizes like himself and especially a rabbit. Judy and the cheetah seem very wrapped up in their conversion, so Nick kept his approach as a surprise for the time being.

"Oh, Clawhauser, he's late! A whole minute late! Ugh that's just like him!" Judy sighs and her ears slightly droop to either side.

"Oh, come on Judy he's not late, it 4 minutes until call, he's got time." Clawhauser looks down at his desk and into his donut box, eyeing his next pastry.

"But he told me he would be here 5 minutes early, he promised actually! Urrrgh." Judy grumbles and rubs her ears with both paws, laying them back against her head.

"Now carrots, in my defense, when I opened the door I was 5 minutes early, so technically I held true to my word." Nick smirks as Judy quickly turns around, her ears lagging behind and slightly shaking once she stops moving her head. She smiles wide and jumps off the chair.

"NICK!" Judy yells as she makes her leap from the chair and into Nick. He does his best to catch her in midair as she makes her surprise hug. He wraps his arms around her midsection, trying hard not to drop his paws any lower then friends while not growing any redder than he already is. Judy wraps her arms around his neck and above his shoulders as her head slips to the side of Nick's, just blow his jaw. He almost hated how well they fit together, it was like having a taste of a good cake but never being able to eat it. Fate does seem to have a very odd sense of humor. Nick thinks as he carefully spins to the side and bends down to lower her to the ground.

"I can't believe this is actually happening, I've waited so long for you to get here Nick!" Judy says as her hind paws meet the cool linoleum floor. Reaching the floor her right foot starts to thump the ground happily while her now free hands shoot up and into her chest. Her ears cheerfully perk up, matching the rest of her posture.

"I'm happy to see you too, and this better be happening because I've put in too much work for it not to be." Nick chuckles and carefully finishes sitting her down, making sure to keep his paws in check and then taking a slight step away. Nick looks around and takes note of the now odd looks he's getting from many of the officers around the lobby. Most smiles, some confused looks, at least one slightly concerned gaze, Nick mentally shook the nervousness out of his mind. He had figured that his first day would go about like this, there seemed to be quite a lot of talk about the first fox officer, and the surprise hug from Judy didn't help any.

"Nick, you're still a minute late!" Judy playful hits him on the shoulder.

"He like I said, I walked in at 6:55 and besides, I ran into Finnick on my way here, see?" Nick holds up the Pawpsicles that he had been leisurely licking.

"Hmm well I would be mad at you, but I guess it evens it out because I have bad news about your coffee…" Judy puts her paws together and rings them.

"What, did you get black with no sugar?" Nick lets out a small laugh and follows Judy as she starts to walk towards the lobby desk with a cheetah behind it.

"No, they messed up the order and I didn't notice till it was to late so it's an iced coffee, not a regular, sorry!" Judy jumps up on the chair and gets the iced coffee from a drink holder and passes it down to Nick.

"Eh no problem carrots, it'll go well with my Pawpsicle."

"Oh my gosh, Judy! Did you hear him! He called you carrots!" Clawhauser looks at Judy with a shocked expression, even better than Nick could pull off on a good day. The fox honestly couldn't decide if it was real or fake.

"It's ok, she likes it" the fox smirks at Judy who rolls her eyes and then looks at Clawhauser.

"I let him slide most of the time, and I do call him dumb, so I guess it works out. But as I'm sure you now know, this is Nick!"

"Nice to meet you" Nick holds his paw up and out, doing his best to make it just over the counter top of the main desk the cheetah sits behind. The big cat gladly extends his paw to meet nick's and shakes it.

"Clawhauser, and It's nice to finally meet you I've heard a lot about you!" Clawhauser leans over the desk to look at Nick while letting go of his paw.

"Oh really? Good things I hope?" Nick chuckles as Clawhauser grins.

"The only time I don't hear something good about you is the days Judy isn't here! Which is only on the weekends, oh and come to think she even texts me over th-"

"CLAWHAUSER!" Judy yells in panic.

"Oh, does she really now? What all does she have to say, hmm?" Nick looks over at Judy and puts on his trademark smirk. Judy groans and pulls her ears back behind her head with her paws. This is exactly the kind of thing Nick loves to tease her about.

"Clawhauser! oh wow, look at the time we gotta go, only got 3 minutes until roll call!" Judy places both her paws on the desk and gives the cheetah a less than friendly look.

"Aww come on, I haven't even gotten my incorrect coffee." Nick takes another lick of his Pawpsicles and looks at Judy.

"Oh sorry!" Judy reaches over the desk and grabs the iced coffee off out of the cup holder and passes it down to Nick. Nick looks at it questionable and then back up to Judy.

"Rabbit sized?"

"What do you mean?"

"The drink is rabbit sized, I think?"

"Urgh Nick I told you they messed up the order." Judy looks down at nick with a sideways smile and Nick rolls his eyes. Nick takes a sip of the iced coffee and to his surprise it was actually pretty good, he made a mental note to investigate these more.

"And besides, they probably assumed I was getting it for another rabbit, ha-ha." Judy reaches back over the counter and grabs her coffee as well, missing Nick ears twitch at her response.

"This will take me like four sips? This is the size of something I would get as a kit." Nick attempts to force out a chuckle while Judy looks down from here chair.

"No, it is not, and we got to go! Don't want to be late on your first day, come on." Judy jumps down from her chair and lands beside Nick. She motions with her paw for him to follow and he waste no time in doing so. Nick looks around the building for a moment, taking note of how massive it is. Made for mammals many times bigger than himself, it made him feel very small. He supposed it made sense though, needing to take in everything from Weasel to elephant the facility needed to make accommodations for such circumstances. The open floor plan was fairly modern and must have very good upkeep. The bottom floor is the biggest and most open, and Nick could tell as the floors went up that they decreased in height. This was a common weight distribution plan, especial in structures that were made to take in all types of mammals. The bottom floor was made the biggest in terms of height, and its weight restrictions are the most generous, being able to take mammals up to 15,000 pounds in weight. While not many African elephants ran around Zootopia, if one did happen to get arrested, this place needs to be able to take them in.

The second floor seemed to take everything from cape buffalo and down, as well as the third, as far as Nick could tell, and then finally the fourth taking wolf and down. While not a big change in height, the real difference came in weight requirements. Wolfs, while still large mammals, coming up to the average buffalo's shoulder, were very thin and weighed significantly less than buffalos. Nick looks around at the upper levels and noted all the looks he was getting. Many mammals had stopped what they were doing and were looking from the above balconies down at himself and Judy making their way towards the bull pen. Nick quickly looked away from the upper levels and at the back of his partner, which in hindsight just made things worse, as he forced his eyes to not look lower than the back of her head.

Nick looked down at his coffee and then his Pawpsicles which he couldn't finish before he got to the bullpen. Not wanting to get any more looks then the first fox officer ever, he didn't want to add anymore with the 'first fox officer ever that also had a Pawpsicles on his first day of work.' He sighs and sucks down the last of his ice coffee through his straw. He skillfully pops open the lid to the cup with one paw and places the cold snack into the container. He pops the lid back on and continues following Judy to the bullpen.

A few turns deeper in the ZPD headquarters and they finally make it to the bullpen. Nick attempts to mentally prepare himself for what's inside and tries to stop and think a moment outside the door, but Judy quickly foals his plans of preparing by throwing open the door and given Nick no time. He quickly picks up his pace and walks close behind Judy, his heart starts to pound as he walks through the door, easily four times his height. As the door was slightly open and the rabbit and fox pair made their way inside it was clear that the mammals inside were quite rowdy. A large amount of noise came from inside whether it be overly loud talking or grows and hisses from the various officers inside. This made Nicks nervousness grow, not only was he in a room full of cops, but they were all acting, relaxed and for the most part seem to be fooling around like him and his friends do. This was very new to him and seemed so out of place.

The fox and rabbit made their way across the front of the room, easily missed by the other officer, the large tables in the room rose much taller than them. As they turned the rows of desk made Judy stops in front of a chair much larger then herself and than turns to Nick, she opens her mouth to speak but is cut off.

"Hey! I smell a new guy, where is he?" A wolf yells from the what seems to be the third row of seats, near the back, as best as Nick could tell. Judy easily hops up on the chair in front of her and the up to the table where all the officer could see her.

"Its Nick! He finally made it out of the academy!" Judy says excitedly.

At this, the room erupted into a mix of woofs and hollers of excitement mixed with questions all asked at the same time. From "Where is he I can't see him" to "And this is the fox that helped you catch bellwether!?"

"Nick come on, get up here!" Judy looks down at Nick to see a slight panic in his eyes. Judy smirks and gets a frown from Nick before he bins down to set his ice coffee cup on the floor beside the chair legs. He reaches up and grabs the chair and pulls himself up. He then gets up on the table beside Judy and turns to face the rest of the room.

"Hello everyone." Nick lets out after a moment of hesitation, he puts on his trademark con-mammal smile and does his best to relax. The rest of the officers in the room all smiled and said some greeting or another, seeming to be genuinely happy with their newest addition.

"Tell us about yourself, Nick!" The wolf from early shouts from the third row. The room gets quiet again as every mammal waits for the first fox officer's response.

"Well, as all of you know, I am the first fox officer, but more importantly, I am the most handsome and cunning officer on the force by far." Nick smirks and takes a sidelong glance at Judy who just rolls her eyes. The fox's nerves ease as most of the mammals in the room chuckle or laugh from his self-absorbed personality.

"Sorry Nick, buddy, but I think most handsome has to go to our friend Fangmeyer. He brought in this drunk Tigress last week and she was all over him, even made me jealous a little bit." The wolf laughed with the rest of the room as Fangmeyer groaned and covers his muzzle with his paw.

"Jesus, Wolford let it go! She was disrupting the peace, I swear, look at the report and beside I'm married!" Fangmeyer crosses his arms and slightly flashes his teeth at Wolford.

"Ahhh married don't mean anything, especially when that tiger was so cute." Wolford laugh some more, and Nick quickly interjects.

"Carrots! You didn't tell me I get to pawcuff hot babes and then tell them what to do!" Nick slips into his "theatrical fox persona", as Judy likes to call it, as he somewhat convincingly acts hurt and slightly upset. Wolford laughs the most out of the room as the door opens and in walks a hippo dressed in more formal police wear. He scans the room and locks onto the fox and rabbit standing on the table.

"Officer Hopps and Officer Wilde! Off the table and into your chairs. The rest of you cut the chatter, Bogo is on his way. Officer Wolford and Fangmeyer, report to the armory after Chief Bogo gives you your assignments. Also, Officer Wilde report there to receive your teaser and officer Hopps report there as well to check your tranquilizer. Officer Higgins, you and Fangmeyer must go to bookkeeping and go over your write up of a suspect the other day, there has been progress on the case. Also officer Higgins, Marry believes you left your field jacket at the booking desk. Bogo will give the rest of the assignments for the day." The hippo drops his check list to his side and makes his way towards a front row seat at the corner of the room. Judy hops down from the table and into her seat and Nick follows. He scans the room for an empty seat, but there is none, he then turns towards Judy.

"Looks like will have to be sharing a seat." He looks over at her with that smug face he almost always wears.

"Seems like it, slick." Judy lets the words roll off her tongue.

"Good thing it's made for someone 10 times are size." Nick mutters as he looks towards the front of the room again. The hippo kept flipping through his clipboard, presumable checking his notes. His uniform was more for show as far as Nick could tell and less practical than his. Nick ponders he is some kind of Chief in training, or at least some higher up manager position he was far away from. He considered himself lucky he got into precinct one right out of the academy. He guessed he got here from a combination of Judy asking for him to be her partner specifically, his better than average scores in the academy and the attempt to clean-up the public relations problem that was the "savage predators" situation Bellwether had caused. Whatever had the most pull dragging him to his current position he didn't know, but he felt very lucky to be where he is nonetheless.

The door to the briefing room fly's open, and the one and only Chief Bogo walks into the room. The chatter in the room kept going on between the officer except Nick and Judy, who watches as Bogo walk up to the podium in the front center of the room. He seemed unphased by the noise and walked straight to the podium.

"alight alright, ENOUGH. Shut it!" Bogo yells, the rest of the room grows quite as full attention is give to the cape buffalo.

"We have some new recruits with us this morning, including our first fox… Who cares." The chief looks down at his note. Most all the officers in the room chuckle at the jab. Nick quickly comes up with a comeback and spits it out.

"HA you should have your own line of inspirational greeting cards, sir." Nick smirks at Bogo as more officer laugh or lit out small chuckles. Some seemed impressed at the fox's ability to shoot comebacks at the chief. Even Judy looks over at him and gives a small chuckle to herself. Nick loved making her laugh.

"Shut your mouth Wilde! Assignments, Officer Grizzoli, Fangmeyer, Delgato tundra town swat. Snarlov, Higgins, Wolfard, undercover. Hopps, Wilde… parking duty." The other officers get up and leave as their called except for nick and Judy, who both had upset and shocked faces respectfully. Nicks mouth hangs open as a flood of thoughts hit him as he gets put on parking duty. Had he really done so much work to get here all just to be put on parking duty.

"Just kidding! We have reports of a street racer tearing up savanna central. Find him, shut him down." Nick snaps his mouth shut and leans back slightly, the chief had got both of them good, he had to admit it.

"Also, Hopps, report to my office before you check out today." Bogo seems to pause, he reads a little further into his papers on his clipboard and rubs his chin with his hoof. He appears to be undecided about some option. After a moment, he raises his head back up and speaks. "Wilde, you do the same. Dismissed."

Judy jumps down from the chair and Nick follows suit. He hits the ground a little harder then the rabbit, making a solid thud as he lands. Judy looks over her shoulder and smirks. Nick frowns and slightly shakes his head side to side while laying his ears back. He was getting older, sure, but he wasn't that old. Nick picks up his coffee cup and follows Judy close behind, not wanting to get lose in the sea of moving legs from much larger mammals. Judy navigates these potential hazards unphased, which strikes Nick as fairly impressive. He knew she had grown up in bunny burrow, which housed mainly rabbit species, most being cottontails, and the few other small mammals such as otters or minks but for the most part just rabbits. Hints the name 'Bunny Burrow'. While Zootopia had everything from the small humble field mouse to the ever so graceful elephant. The street could be dangerous for smaller mammals though often it was more scary walking around others up to 50 times your own body weight. Judy seemed to have mastered this though despite only livening in Zootopia just a little over a year. They make their way out of the bullpen and towards what Nick supposed this was the armory, they both had to go there after all.

After a few minutes of walking through the interior of the ZPD headquarters they come to a seeming pointless hallway with a step stool and a few chairs. Judy begins her way down the hallway and Nick follows suit. Upon closer inspection the hallway actually had a small counter and a barred off window behind it. They is a larger chair set to the side of the window with a smaller mammal sized step stool beside it. Judy walks right up to the step stool and goes up it and then up to the chair. Standing on the chair her chest was level with the counter, she looks down at nick who was still standing on the floor.

"Slick, don't tell me your getting slow, come up here and get your taser!"

"You should have said that's what we're getting sooner! Always wanted wanna these to play with." Nick smirks at Judy who rollers her eyes before looking through the window of the armory. Nick walks up the step stool and then takes the bigger step onto the chair.

"Hey Brock, how's it going!" Judy cheerfully greets a white wolf from behind the bars of the window. The wolf spins around at the greeting and smiles wildly when he sees Judy and Nick.

"Hey Judy! Nice to see you as always, and its looks like you finally brought your friend! I'm assuming you must be Nick, nice to meet you, heard a lot about ya." The wolf smiles and extends his paw through a slot cut lower in the bars. Nick takes his paw and attempts to give a firm handshake to the wolf, even though his paw was much bigger than his.

"Mammals keep telling me that and I'm really hoping it's not a bad thing." Nick smiles and let's go. He looks behind the wolf at the rows and racks of various arms and guns behind the him.

"It is a good thing, I doubt there is many that haven't heard of you, you know, what? saving the city and all or something like that?" Brock grins and puts his paws on the counter while leaning forward a bit.

"Ah whiskers here did all the work, I was just the sidekick."

"Nick, that's not true!"

"It is, I keep telling you that, but you won't listen." Nick leans against the counter as well and looks back over at Brock.

"Welp, Judy is pretty hard headed, I know this first hand, but it is good things were hearing, Nick, there might be a few that have their doubt, sure, but, as a whole, your welcome under this roof." The wolfs gives a genuine smile at Nick, who does his best to return the gesture, somewhat unsure of how to replicate this unusually friendliness.

"Anyways, just like everyone else, you came for the toys and not to chit chat, I'll get your taser Nick and what are you here for Judy? Making sure Wilde doesn't get lost?" The wolf chuckles at himself.

"Well their will always be that…" Judy looks over at Nick who rolls his eyes. "But, I need to get my tranqs checked and make sure they don't need to be replaced." The wolfs face lights up while his ears perk up a little.

"Ah yes, it's that time again isn't it? Well hey at least you two will be getting checked at the same time then, that will be easy, you two are using the same size tranqs." Judy unholsters her tranquilizer gun and carefully places it on the counter, the wolf behind it takes it and then disappears into the room behind the barded window. A few moments later he comes back with Judy's gun and black box. He sets them both on the counter.

"Your trang was just on the edge of expiration, so I went ahead and switched out the juice. Nick, this your taser, its slightly different then the one you used in the academy, the notes on the forms said you used a version of the F3 taser, like Judy has?" Brock looks up from his clipboard and at Nick for confirmation.

"Yeah, it was way too small for my paws, I mean, it was basically made for a bunny" Nick glance over at Judy who not so quietly huffs. "So, I'm not sure what they were thinking, but they claimed my actually service taser would be a little bigger and more suited for my size, or the grips would be bigger."

"Yeah that's pretty much what that says, alrighty cool, and you remember the terms for getting your lethal correct?" Brock scratches behind his ear with his paw while placing the clipboard somewhere below the counter on the other side.

"3 months of active service, no problems with detaining or handling mammals in the field, then cleared for my antlow F1." Nick smirks as Brock slides him his taser case under the bars.

"Good man, your two don't have too much fun now."

"See ya Brock! Have a good day." Judy hops down from the chair and onto the step ladder. Nick careful follows suit.

"Nice meeting you Nick, don't let that rabbit get you into too much trouble now." The wolfs puts on a sly smile.

"Ah, its much too late for that, She's the one who gets me into trouble." The wolf laughs while Nick grabs the box off the counter, he then hops off the chair and onto the step stool. He makes it to the ground with another step and quickens his walking pace to catch up to Judy with the box in his paws. He walks beside Judy and matches her pace in the empty halls.

"Man, this place clears out quick, where are we headed too now?" Nick looks around the halls, taking in the unfamiliar scenery.

"Yeah once the briefing is done most mammals that stay in the building are either in offices or downstairs near the lobby, not back near the armory or storage and where headed towards the garage to get to our squad car! Oh, Nick this is our first day together, aren't you excited!?" Judy playfully hits Nicks shoulder and puts a hop in her step, putting her ahead of him.

"Ow, that hurt, and yes, I am excited, I finally have my taser."

"Oh, come on, don't be all smarty fox with me now, I have waited forever for you to get here! And now I finally get to talk to you in person and not over text so this much better. And at the very least I finally have a real partner" Judy happily smiles while bouncing with each step she takes. The items on her belt slightly shake up and down from the movement.

"I know I know, but hey, thanks for waiting, it feels nice to uh… finally have a real, upstanding job." Nick skews his ears slightly while looking at Judy as she turns to face him. She gave a genuine smile, something Nick adores about her.

"Of course, Nick, I would have waited longer if I needed to." She smiled big, which slightly showed her buck teeth, Nick always thought this was slightly funny and somehow, oddly, very appealing, but he hid his amusement well.

"Thanks." He didn't know what else to say; emotional things were never his strong suit.

They make their way through the hallways of the ZPD. They passed by a few mammals on the way, Judy giving greetings and Nick following suit. Most seemed interested in the first fox officer but not as much as the officer he meets in the bullpen. Nick figures this was because he wouldn't be working with them on a regular basis. All types of ZPD members came through the headquarters, and for many being in the building was just to exchange files or go to meetings, sense sets they came from another district. After a few minutes of walking, they made it to a large elevator, made to take mammals up to the largest size. A small, and very new looking, panel sat at the height of Judy and she called the elevator with it. For the looks of the lightly used panel, it seemed very much so that it was added specifically for the rabbit. Nick stood beside her and a few moment later the elevator doors opened revealing a room big enough to fit an elephant in, literally. The pair step inside and ascend into the upper levels of the compound.