Disclaimer: I do not own Zootopia or its related characters. All is the property of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Clark Spencer, and Byron Howard. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Leave of Advance

Chapter One: Sitting Isn't A Solution

Many Years Ago...

The image was a bit fuzzy. But then, this call was being bounced off of two satellites to reach the middle of the Iberian desert. Dawn gazed as the distorted feed that would fizzle every now and again. It was good to see him. Seven months on tour was just to long to be parted from her husband.

"Are you about to go on a mission?" She asked him, noting that he was wearing a flak vest over his desert fatigues.

He gave a sheepish laugh. "I, uh, I can't really talk about it, babe."

Dawn chewed on her bottom lip with nerves. Seven months on tour, far away from home, and safety, and her. In the middle of the desert, surrounded by hostile Iberian lynx natives. Now leaving the base, going out and seeking conflict on an operation she couldn't ask about. It was all Dawn could do to worry. "But Doug's going with you, right?"

"Again, can't talk about it." He shook his head. "This is an unsecure comm and its an active op. Come on, babe, you know the rules."

Lowering her eyes, Dawn nodded. She knew the rules. Never talk about active operations over telecoms. Never tell your family back home what you're actually doing. Just give them proof of life every now and again.

Someone off screen made an off-color comment about how long he was taking with his wife. There were others who wanted to call their families before they moved out. Someone threw a balled-up bandanna at him.

"Listen, baby, I gotta go. Woolter and Jess still gotta call their girls." He told her. "But I love you! I can't wait to see you again, and when I get home we're gonna make beautiful babies!"

The inside of Dawn's ears pinked at that announcement, knowing that whomever was in the tent with him heard everything. "Okay. I love you too. Be safe!"

That was the last time Dawn Bellwether saw her husband alive.

…

Present Day...

"It has been one week since the Savage Escape from Zootopia General." Fabienne Growley folded her pause on the glass studio table and kept her face completely straight as she gave the evening news highlights. The warning light on her collar remained, green as she spoke. A welcome change from the yellow it had been a few days earlier when she reported on the hospital fire that killed eight of the Savage predators and injured several other Mammals -both patients and hospital employees alike. "While six of the escaped Savages have been apprehended and remain under carful police guard, supervised directly by Chief of Police, Westley Bogo, three Savages still remain at large."

Head shots of Emmitt Otterton, Renato Manchas, and Nickolas Wilde appeared on the TV screen beside Growley.

"They are considered extremely dangerous." She continued. Growley tried to glare soberly into the camera, but succeeded in just glaring. "If you see them, do not approach them. Call the police and report them immediately. Chief Bogo has set up a special hotline specifically for Savage emergencies." The number scrolled across the bottom of the screen. "Once again, they are considered extremely dangerous. Do not approach them yourself."

Their head shots stayed on screen for a few more moments after Growley finished, the hotline number scrolling across the screen one more time before the camera panned right to her co-anchor, Peter Moosebridge.

The moose cleared his throat. "In response to the Savage escape that resulted in a fire, claiming the lives of eight Mammals and injuring several more, Mayor Bellwether held a press conference yesterday promising more aggressive action against the Savage crisis and stricter regulations for at-risk citizens." He did not specify that 'at-risk' citizens were exclusively predators, it went without saying. "Here's a clip."

The screen faded from the image of Growley and Moosebridge sitting at the News Room table, replacing them with a full-screen clip from Bellwether's speech from the previous day. She stood at a podium in front of City Hall, four officers of the ZPD -none of them predators- standing behind her, watching the crowd critically.

"Public reports routinely state that great amounts of crime are being committed by predators. This must be stopped and it must be stopped now!" She proclaimed, not making a single reference to the Savage crisis at all. "Predators have lots of problems. They're coming into out city and they're bringing their problems with them. They're bringing crime, they're bringing drugs. They are rapists. They're not sending you or me, they're sending their worst of the worst."

The crowd roared at that statement. But it wasn't a roar of outrage, or offense, or even just disagreement. It was the exact opposite, in fact. The crowd was cheering. Cheering! With agreement -even approval- of Bellwether's mass generalizations of a marginalized group that was currently out of public favor.

"Because of this, I'm implementing a total and complete shut down of predators entering Zootopia until our scientists can figure out what is going on."

And the crowd went wild again.

"Dad, can you turn that off." Judy growled as she and a handful of her sisters helped their mother put the second round of breakfasts out on the table.

The Hopps family was so large, Bonnie had arranged a system wherein the children were divided up into groups and fed in shifts. First breakfast shift were the older siblings. The ones tall enough and strong enough to not need a grown-up's help, and mature enough to be trusted without adult supervision. The second shift were the ones Stu would take out and work with directly, show them how they would run farms of their own one day. The third shift was the children to young to be trusted with any kind of -important- work regardless of supervision.

It was the second group that Judy and her siblings were helping their mother serve.

"I just think its a good idea to stay informed about what's going on in the world." Stu informed his daughter. "Especially with your... guests visiting."

"That's fine, but I don't want the munchkins getting it in their heads that Nick and the others are bad guys." She informed her father sternly.

Placings her paws on her hips and giving the older bunny a Look that reminded Stu so muck of her mother. If Judy had settled and become a proper bunny wife to a reputable bunny buck and mother to her own herd of bunny babies -like he and Bonnie wanted- there was no doubt in his mind that she would have been the ultimate and unquestionable authority in her home. Stu was very proud of his daughter for breaking the traditional bunny mold, making history as the first bunny police officer, and became a hero to the city of Zootopia. But he still lamented the fact that she never followed in her parents' footsteps.

"If there's ever going to be any progress, we need to stop fear mongering." Judy continued. "Predators are no worse than any other Mammals." A pause. "Just look at Gideon Gray! He's your business partner and he's a fox."

"Speaking of..." Bonnie cut in between her daughter and her husband. She set two more plates on the table. "Xander! Slow down and chew your food!" She wiped her paws on an already dirty dish towel and turned to Judy. "What if we asked Gideon if your predator friends could stay with him? I'm sure it would make them feel more comfortable."

Which meant it would make her parents more comfortable.

Of course, staying in Gideon's fox den below his bakery might actually be more comfortable for them than when they were currently staying. The fact that one of them -Mr. Manchas- was to large to fit in the warren aside, Bonnie and Stu refused to allow the four predators Judy brought with her from Zootopia deeper into the burrow than the surface-level family room, kitchen, and dining room. Instead, her parents set up four cots in the drying house and invited them to bunk there -away from the main family home.

"First of all, that would involve more Mammals knowing I'm alive and that we're harboring fugitives." She said, getting the lesser objection out of the way first. "Secondly, you can't just ask a business partner that you're not actually personal friends with to harbor fugitives for you!"

One would think something like that would be obvious.

Judy wrapped four plates in tinfoil and stacked them on top of each other. Grabbing a handful of forks, she navigated her way around smaller bunnies and out of the kitchen. "Now, if you'll excuse me. I'm going to go and take some breakfast out to our guests before you two suddenly decide to start ranting about how they'll try and eat us if they get hungry. Or whatever other stupid scenario you can think of."

She kicked the door open. Not because she was frustrated with her parents, but because she didn't have a free paw with which to use the knob.

The sun had been up for a good hour already -a perfectly reasonable time for rabbits to not only be awake but also showered, dressed, and ready to start their day. But she knew that when she got to the drying house, Nick and the others would either still be asleep, or else still be awake. They were all either nocturnal as in the case of Nick and Finnick, or diurnal as in the case of Otterton and Manchas. After only just a week hiding out at the Hopps family farm, they hadn't yet adjusted to the shift in schedule.

The drying house was a wide, above ground building, made of brick, with many small windows set high in the walls for air flow. Her family used it for drying and storing herbs before they could be ground down into course powders and sold by the ounce at her family's stand.

Judy pushed open the door without bothering to knock and stepped inside. The scent of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme was the first thing to hit her as she stepped onto the hardwood floorboards, and the bunny had to wonder -not for the first time- how the strong scent of herbs affected Nick and Finnick's much more sensitive canid noses.

As expected, Finnick was fast asleep. Curled up on his cot, snoring loudly -far louder than his size would have implied. Manchas was also asleep, his body overflowing from his cot. The two foxes and the otter were Mammals of a size comparable to a bunny's, and so it was much easier to provide things for them such as, blankets, clothes, heck, even just shelter. Manchas, on the other paw, couldn't even stand fully in the drying house because, while it was taller than the average bunny structure, it was still a bunny structure. Made by bunnies, for bunny use. No one ever imagined trying to fit a black jaguar in it.

Otterton was sitting up on his cot, eyes closed, legs cross, paws folded in his lap. The posture of meditation. He didn't move when Judy entered, or make any indication that he even knew she was there for that matter. She knew he was a member of a naturalist club in Zootopia and attended yoga classes there, but she never really realized just how seriously the otter took his yoga stretches and meditation. Personally, she didn't see the appeal. But whatever it was -inner peace, or higher understanding, or whatever- Judy had to admit that he was taking their exile from the city best out of the lot of them. Even better than Judy herself.

Not wanting to disturb his meditations, the rabbit placed his breakfast plate and fork on the end of his cot. Manchas' and Finnick's she laid on the floor near their heads, then she turned to Nick.

Nick only Mammal who was actually awake, up, and alert.

Probably because he hadn't actually gone to sleep the night before. This had been going on for a solid week now. Ever since escaping the hospital fire and getting out of the city, Nick had gone full-nocturnal. Staying up all night and only going to sleep in the early hours of the morning when the sun creeped over the farm and all the little bunnies started to rise and scamper over the land.

He sat on the wood floor next to his cot. At some point in the last week, he managed to pry up one of the floorboards and was using the space beneath it to hide their leftover cash. During their stay Nick had also added to their cache of cash, a map of Bunnyburrow Town, and a map of the surrounding county. Both looked like the little touristy maps a Mammal could pick up at any visitors' center in town. Next to these, was a spiral bound notebook that the fox was currently sketching in.

Coming up behind him and peering over his shoulder, Judy saw that the page he was currently working on was a hand-drawn map of her family's farm with notes here and there 'good hiding place' over the corn field, 'escape to river' along the natural irrigation system they dug the year before she left for the academy, 'hide emergency go-bag' next to an old oak tree that had been on the property since forever.

Judy had a feeling he had been prowling around the property at night. Since he refused to sleep when everyone else was, like a normal civilized Mammal. He had to be doing something with his time. Apparently, he was familiarizing himself with her family's property and planning for contingencies.

"You shouldn't sneak up on a predator." He growled without turning around.

She huffed. Placing one paw on her hip while she held his breakfast and fork in the other. "Oh, please. Tell me you didn't know I was here the moment I entered."

The fox grumbled something Judy was pretty sure she wasn't actually supposed to hear, but thanks to her ungodly rabbit ears she caught anyway. "Smelled you before you even got to the door." and "Nose's been more sensitive since the Night Howler."

He didn't look at her as he started to pack away his notebook and maps. Tucking everything back into its hide y-ho in the floor. He laid the needlepoint portrait of Robin Goodfellow over everything before securing the loose floorboard back in place.

As Judy understood it, Goodfellow was a trickster fae -a faerie. But the way Nick and Finnick talked about him, you'd think he was a lesser pagan god instead. The patron deity to foxes, juvenile pranksters, and con artists. She thought the patron deity of foxes bit was a little odd since -in the portrait at least- Goodfellow didn't appear to be all fox. Oh, he had a fox's face and ears. But also the horns of a stag, and -it was a little hard to tell since the image was embroidered not painted painted- but his fur read more like the red leaves of Autumn rather than actual fur. Then again, he was a mythical figure. He could look like whatever the artist wanted him to look like.

She set the plate down on the floor next to him. "This is supposed to be breakfast, but I see since you never went to bed, it'd ben dinner instead. Eggs, again. Eat them before they get cold."

The four predators had spent the past week at the Hopps' farm eating mostly eggs. Being the closest food to meat that a bunny could buy at the market without looking suspicious. Rabbits didn't eat fish or poultry, but they did bake, and baking required eggs. Considering that the Hopps family herd was hundreds strong, nobody bat an eyelash when Bonnie Hopps bought eggs by the ten-dozen.

They still hadn't worked out the kinks in this plan of laying low until Chief Bogo could expose Bellwether's conspiracy and they could return to the city. It wasn't exactly like Judy planned this -or even had any warning. Things just sort of happened, and her parents were so happy that their daughter was alive and not really dead that they were willing to tolerate a few predators on their property for a while.

Yawning, mouth opening wide, displaying all those lovely sharp teeth with their delicate points that frightened her parents so much, Nick Picked up the plate and peeled back the tin foil.

"You didn't cook this." It wasn't a question. The fried eggs over medium next to potatoes looked to perfect. Judy Hopps was many things, but a perfect cook was not one of them.

"My mother cooked." She informed him, just a little insulted by how relived he sounded to not have to eat her cooking. "I was on juice duty this morning."

"Ooh! What kind of juice?" Nick asked excitedly, suddenly noticing that she hadn't brought a pitcher or any glasses with her. That wasn't fair. There was fresh squeezed country juice and she wasn't going to share. Rude bunny.

"Carrot juice." Judy supplied as if that should have been obvious. She knew better that to offer the fox carrots in ant form. His tastes ran towards sweeter produce. Fruits. Grapes, cherries, apples, and of course blueberries.

Nick made a face of disgust. "This hotel sucks. I demand a refund! And you can forget about me telling my friends about this place."

Someone threw a balled up t-shirt in their general direction. Judy looked to see Finnick rolling over on his cot, turning his back to them while he grumbled. "Save your foreplay for when you're alone!"

Not saying anything, Nick set his plate back down and began unfolding and setting up his own cot to finally get some rest. Full nocturnal. He'd gone full nocturnal since escaping the hospital and fleeing the city. Staying up all night, sleeping during the day.

Judy's ears pinked at the mention of foreplay and the implication that she and Nick were anything more to each other than just good friends. It wasn't the first time someone jumped to the same conclusion about them. The day they left the city, just as she and Finnick were getting ready to spring their rescue, Koslov -Mr. Big's right hand Mammal- made the exact same assumption about the nature of their relationship.

'Save the one you love.'

The idea of being 'in love' with the fox hadn't even crossed Judy's mind until the polar bear said it. The idea of being in love with any Mammal besides another rabbit never crossed her mind. It was completely absurd. Ridiculous. To fall for someone outside your own species -or even your own genus. But since then -since the idea was placed in her head- Judy found herself sometimes wondering.

She thought about his expression at the press conference. He liked to brag that he had such a great pokerface, that he never let anyone see how they got to him. But she saw. She got to him that day. She got at something deep inside him, poked at it with a sharp stick without even knowing what she was doing. And when she realized how deeply she had hurt him, it shook something inside her. Some deep foundation in her core that she thought was so stable and so secure -until she met him. Judy hurt herself when she hurt Nick.

But it wasn't just that. She thought about her cathartic release under the bridge when she apologized to him. How she broke down into tears and told him that it was okay if he never wanted to see her again. Judith Lavern Hopps was not one easily given over to tears or fits of hysterics. Yet she sobbed openly in front of Nick and didn't pull away when he offered her a hug -accepting their reconciliation and comforting her tears.

Judy watched him set up his cot before sitting down and scooping up his plate of breakfast-dinner. She did feel something for the fox. There was something there. She just wasn't ready to assign the word 'love' to it.

Things had been so crazy since she first met him. Blackmail, nudist clubs, near death experiences, cracking cases only to have them give rise to larger conspiracies, species tensions, propaganda campaigns, resigning from jobs, reconciling, more near death experiences, faking death and laying low, riots in the streets, and yet more near death experiences. So much had happened, Judy had to forcibly remind herself that she and the fox had only known each other for a few months. Whatever it was that she was feeling for Nick, it was far to soon to start applying the word 'love' to it.

"So, what's been going on in the world since we left?" He asked through a mouthful of eggs. "Are they blaming the hospital fire on us and branding us terrorists?"

"Probably. They honestly haven't talked much about the fire since we got here." Judy admitted. "At least, not that I've been inside to hear. Bellwether was on the news this morning. Apparently she's now banned new predators from even entering the city. Although, there was no mention as to what she plans to do with the predators that already live there."

"Oh, well that's not gonna have a negative effect on the economy at all." Nick scoffed. "I really have to wonder what her end-game is. I mean, prejudice is great and all-" his classic sarcasm "-but when it comes to motives, its just not enough to explain what she's doing."

"Well, tell ya what, when Chief Bogo finally arrests her, you can ask." The bunny suggested. She turned to leave. He needed his rest -not that she was particularly happy about his switch to nocturnal- and she had other chores to do. As far as the rest of the world knew Officer Judy Hopps of the ZPD was dead, killed by a Savage fox. But her parents knew she was alive and so long as she was not only living, but living under their hill she could help out on the farm just like all her other siblings.

"Carrots...?"

Judy paused, turning back to the fox. He sat on his cot, half-eaten plate of dinner-breakfast on his lap. For some reason he looked suddenly so vulnerable and unsure.

"Waiting for Chief Buffalobutt to fix everything for us isn't a plan." He informed her soberly, not making eye-contact. "I just... I know you're still adjusting to your newfound fugitive status, but... we need to have a plan. Several plans. In case Bogo can't actually do anything. In case we have to live like this indefinitely. In case someone turns us in. In case one of us looses control and goes back to being Savage. We need to have contingencies." Now he did look up at her, meeting her large amethyst eyes with his emerald green ones. "I'm really grateful to you for rescuing me. But a lot of everything has just been you making it up as you go along -you don't actually know what you're doing, and... I guess I just wanna know if you're actually making a plan this time."

He didn't mention that the majority of her decisions prior to rescuing him from the hospital were also made on impulse and without forethought or planning. Stealing the subway car, grabbing her family truck and hauling tail back to the city, essentially announcing 'its because they're predators' to the mass media, breaking into an abandoned hospital crawling with timber-wolf security, attempting (and failing) to intimidate Mr. Big. Heck! Even taking the Otterton case in the first place was a snap, spur of the moment decision that she didn't think about, she just made. Judy was a creature of impulse. Nick didn't really know just how well she would handle being a fugitive in the long term.

Judy Hopps was a creature of the moment, she thrived by actions. Nick Wilde was a creature of scheming, he thrived by gambits. The two were not an ideal combination, and Nick had never been very good at speed-chess.

The bunny's eyes flicked to the loose floorboard and his notebook, cash, and maps. "Do you have a different plan?"

"No." He admitted. "But I know what needs to be done when you wanna hide from the authorities." A pause. "Which I've never had to do, by the way."

Sure.

Judy was silent a moment longer. Thinking. Then, "I want things to go back to the way they were, so... so if Bogo can't expose Bellwether alone, I'll go back to the city and help."

Nick did not point out that, that was not actually a plan. That was another reckless decision, a premeditated reckless decision and that made it worse. What did she expect to do with her status as legally dead at best, and Zootopia's most wanted at worst? Was she gonna stalk the streets in a garish costume? The fox couldn't imagined her as a masked vigilante. She was no Robin Hood. Nick flicked an ear and looked down at the floorboard that held his emergency cash and other useful information. It was also where he was keeping his mother's portrait of the Goodfellow -Trickster of the Greenwood.

But then, it wasn't like he could suggest any alternatives. Slick Nick didn't have a plan either. He, also, was no Robin Under the Hood.

…