First time writing a Zootopia story, but this is just something that's been kicking around my brain for a week or so. It's a one-off that I have no intention of continuing, but if someone else thinks they can expand upon the idea, feel free to run with it.
Everything is, it goes without saying, owned by Disney.
Bunny Buzz
Some primal instinct told Nick to hit the ground a fraction of a second before the window exploded outwards, and he glanced up from between his paws to see Sergeant O'Roar, a veteran member of Precinct Ones SWAT team flying through the air amid a cloud of shattered glass. The Lion had a strangely happy look on his face as he landed on the hood of his own cruiser, denting the metal and cracking the windscreen. He was on his feet in a heartbeat, actually laughing as he dived back into the small coffee shop that was quickly resembling a war-zone.
Cursing under his breath, Nick reached for his radio.
"Dispatch, this is Officer Wild: we have a 10-79 at the corner of Burrow and Vine. Possible..." He paused for a moment, trying to think of the appropriate code to call in, "Possible 11-99 in progress."
"10-4, Officer Wild." Clawhauser sounded as excitable as ever, "Please stand by while we connect you to Chief Bogo."
"Um, Benny, are you sure that's really..." Nick started, but we quickly cut off.
"Wild? What the hell is going on down there?" Chief Bogo snapped, the sound of a racing engine and police sirens clearly audible in the background, "Last report we had was O'Roar responding to a possible 10-10 breaking out in a coffee shop? And where the hell is Officer Hopps?"
"It's... complicated, sir." Wild closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "Sir, Officer Hopps is the 10-10."
"What are you talking about? Officer Hopps is the 10-..." The Buffalo trailed off for a moment as Nick's ears picked up the distant sound of sirens fast approaching, "Officer Hopps is in the coffee shop?"
"Yes, sir." Nick conformed, wincing at the sound of something expensive sounding breaking nearby.
"You didn't buy her a coffee, did you?" Bogo sounded genuinely concerned.
"Sir?" Nick blinked, absent mindedly ducking backwards to avoid a table that came flying out of the smashed window, "What has that got to do with..."
"Damn it, Wild!" Bogo snapped, "Did you buy her a coffee?"
"Sir, yes sir." Wild found himself coming to attention instinctively, "She asked me to get her a hot chocolate, but she seemed a little tired today, so I got her a double-shot mocha latte instead..."
A timely burst of statistic covered whatever Bogo said, but Nick felt sure it wasn't fit for polite conversation.
"Attention all units, this is Chief Bogo." the Buffalo sounded strangely calm and focused, "We have a 10-100 at the corner of Burrow and Vine. All units in Savannah Square respond limitedly. All other nearby units remain on stand-by. Bogo, out."
"Clawhauser, what's a code 10-100?" Nick spoke softly into his radio, "That wasn't on the list they had us memorise at the academy."
"A Code 10-100 is... unofficial." the normally jovial and talkative Cheetah sounded uncharacteristically tense, "It stands for a Rabbit under the influence of caffeine."
"What?" Nick looked at his radio like it had suddenly grown two heads, "What's so bad about..."
A large and very expensive looking coffee machine sailed through the air over his head and crashed into O'Roar's cruiser, shattering the already cracked windscreen and spurting steam everywhere.
"You know what? Forget I asked." The Fox shook his head, "This is Officer Wild; show me responding to the 10-100 at Burrow and Vine."
Clipping his radio back onto his belt, Nick carefully placed his hat on the pavement, then dived into the coffee shop.
"Two police cruisers in the shop, three officers hospitalized and a coffee shop that's going to have to be almost completely rebuild, out of our budget!" Bogo stood behind his desk, one eye almost completely swollen shut and a bandage wrapped around one horn, "And that's before we go into just how this is going to play with the press; you of all people should know just how closely they've been following you and Hopps. I'm only glad that we managed to get the situation under control before any camera crews showed up!"
"Sir, I..." Nick started, then his face, and shoulders, fell, "I have no excuse sir." He reached for his badge, "I'll type up a letter of resignation immediately."
"Not so fast, Wild." There was a strange softness to Bogo's voice, "You never spent much time around Rabbits? Before you met Hopps, I mean?"
"Not unless they were a mark, no." Nick nodded, unsure where the chief was going.
"Rabbits react... strongly, to caffeine." Bogo sat down heavily in his chair, "I won't try and blind you with the science, mainly because I'm not 100% sure if I understand it myself, but it makes them, well, you saw what happened to Hopps today. Sometimes a young Buck will get their hands on a shot of espresso, anomaly when they're trying to impress their friends or a potential Mate, and we'll have to tranq their arse and throw them in the drunk-tank to sleep it off. And, sometimes a rookie officer will think he's doing his partner a favour and get her a drink that contains both caffeine and sugar in large quantities, and we have a Code 10-100 on our hands."
"Is Officer Hopps... is Judy going to be okay?" The worried Fox asked.
"She's stronger then she looks, but I'm sure you knew that already." Bogo snorted, "I hear O'Roar is already bragging in the locker room about being able to hold his own against her while she was on 'C'."
Nick nodded slowly; he'd made the mistake of entering a sparring ring with Judy, exactly once. He wasn't even sure why she felt the need to carry Fox Repellent when she first joined the force, given just how soundly she'd beaten him, and now tended to just sit and watch her go ten rounds with the like of McHorn and the other, larger members of the ZPD. Seeing such a little Rabbit zip around the ring, delivering painful looking kicks to Rhinos, Elephants and Bears was more than enough to convince Nick that his partner could hold her own in any fight.
But that was nothing compared to what he'd seen in the coffee shop that day.
"She'll be fine, once she gets it out of her system." Bogo assured his subordinate, "Tonight will be the hardest part; even with the amount of tranquilliser we pumped into her before she went down, she's going to be... jittery, for a few hours yet."
"Permission to go to the hospital, sir?" Nick asked, hopefully, "It's all my fault; I should be there to help her."
"Very well." Bogo stood, "I was going down there to check on her and the others anyway; you can ride with me."
The image of his partner, normally so annoyingly full of life, laying deathly still on a hospital bed, hooked up to monitors and an IV to replenish lost fluids and nutrients was something Nick knew was going to haunt him for years to come. If he was able to stop grinning at how silly she looked laying in a bed obviously intended for a far larger animal, like a Wolf or a Lynx, that was.
"The doctors think she should be coming round any time now." Bogo stood towering over the far shorter Fox, his hands clasped behind his back, "Until then, they have no real way of knowing just how much of the caffeine is still in her system."
"Someone should call her family." Nick kept his eyes fixed on the sleeping Rabbit, "They shouldn't hear about this on the TV or in the papers."
"It's already done." The chief nodded, "I'm going to call them myself, once I get back to the station, to update them."
"Tell them..." Nick hesitated, "Tell them I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt her in any way."
"I'll let them know." Bogo headed for the door, "You may not want to be here when she wakes up. A Rabbit coming down from a caffeine high can be... unpredictable."
"No, I owe her that much at least." The Fox shook his head, pulling his chair up to the bed, his eyes glancing at the almost comically oversized restraints that the medical staff had insisted upon when they heard they were dealing with a code 10-100, "She's one of the few friends I have."
"As you wish." Bogo opened the door and stepped out into the hall, glancing over his shoulder to see Judy string, "Don't say I didn't warn you."
There was an audible click as the Buffalo closed the door, followed by a far louder thud of a large bolt being thrown, locking Nick in the room. He felt the fur on the back of his neck stand on end as Judy sleepily opened her eyes and smiled what would only be called a predatory smile.
"Hi Nicky." There was an unmistakable and very un-Judy like tone to her voice, "Whatcha doin'?"
Chief Bogo chuckled as Nick hit the thick window in the soundproof door to the equally soundproof room where the Fox was getting a first hand lesson in what happened when a Doe got over the hyperactive stage of a caffeine high. Given that it wasn't technically illegal for Rabbits to buy and use the chemical, he'd heard tell that some couples used it... recreationally; a little something to spice up their love life. He didn't want to image what the Fox was being exposed to as his terrified face slid slowly down the window, his claws leaving deep grooves in the thick glass.
"Excuse me, Chief." Clawhauser walked up to his superior, glanced into the isolation room and winced, "I'm sorry, but the press office is asking for something to give the reporters about what happened today."
"Inform them that it was an unfortunate lapse by an individual," Bogo smiled, "that has now been dealt with by internal disciplinary procedures."
"One Number Five coming right up." Clawhauser nodded and looked again into the room, where Judy seemed to be talking so fast he wasn't sure how she was finding time to breath, tugging at the restraints holding her down while Nick lay huddled in one corner, clutching his own tail like a drowning animal grasping a life-preserver, his eyes wide and full of terror. "I kind of feel sorry for him."
"Consider it aversion therapy." Bogo laughed as he walked off, "One night of this, and he'll never even let her near a coffee shop ever again."
The End
Police codes:
10-79 Need assistance
11-99 Officer needs help
10-10 Fight in progress
