Chapter 1 – Busy Life

Judy managed to wake up exactly three minutes before the alarm would have chimed. She felt hot, thanks to the two vulpine warming bottles, one in her back, one in her front. Carefully, in order not to wake up the twins, she reached out and switched the alarm clock off. She wiggled out of bed. As soon as she was gone, the twins started fidgeting and Judy shoved them together carefully so they could find comfort in each others arms. She waited silently until she was sure they were fast asleep again.

She took a shower, then sat down in her huge kitchen, fur still steaming. She just had a quick bowl of cereal. She finished eating and put on her uniform. At 6:10 am she saw the green light above the elevator blink. The express lift from the garage up to the 265th floor opened and Nick entered their luxury apartment.

"Hey, Carrots!", he said but his usual smirk could not betray the fact that he was quite tired.

Nick had worked three long shifts in a row. Life had become difficult for the two cops in order to assure that there was always someone there for the kids.

Nick opened a closet next to the elevator and punched in the five-digit code for the safe. He put his gun, his maze and his taser inside and locked the door. With guns and kids in the same apartment, safety was essential.

He embraced Judy and they shared some rare seconds of tenderness. Judy sniffed.

"You are smelling of cheetah…", she whispered between two kisses.

"No wonder, Carrots, I just spent eight hours in a car together with one… Officer Yarola and me were patrolling in the Rainforest District most of the night and you know how hot and humid the car gets even with the A/C on!"

Judy sighed, "I just wonder why you always get the beautiful feline recruits… I think I'll need to have a word with Kitty about it. My last recruits were a warthog and a porcupine."

Nick smirked, "Kitty knows that hero worshipping helps a lot in training… ouch!"

Judy had pulled his ear, "You're just a sleazy fox, admit it!", she grinned.

"Okay, okay, I'll talk to Kitty, making sure your next recruit will be a handsome tiger!"

Judy sighed again, "I seriously doubt that… I'll get my new recruit in…", she looked on her watch, "… forty-five minutes, so there is nothing you can do for me… Okay, schedule for today!"

Both got their smartphones out and stared on the screen.

"I have seven-to-six, so I'll be home at 6:30 pm…", started Judy, "You'll make breakfast for the twins and bring them to kindergarten at 8. I know you'll need to sleep, but I have some chores for you… you'll need to iron our uniforms, I'm wearing my last one today… and please clean up the kitchen and vacuum the kids' room… and you'll have to prepare dinner… no fastfood, no pizza, the kids have to get decent food once in a while, understood?"

"You want me to cook?", asked Nick.

"You got it, clever fox… don't give me that look, you are a good cook, I know it, you're just lazy… we have meat surrogate schnitzel in the fridge, but please, Nick, also cook some veggies as a sidedish… not only for me, but for the kids as well. It's healthy and they won't die eating vegetables here and there, carnivores or not."

Nick sighed, "Okay, dear…"

"You're the best!" She kissed him again, them jumped up and hopped to the safe to get her weapons out. She heard the creaking sound from the bedroom door and when she turned around she saw two red furry clouds darting from the bedroom door in Nick's arms.

"Daddy, daddy!", Keira and Leia yelled. The twins had just had their third birthday two weeks ago. Nick took them in his arms.

"Wow, you guys getting heavier each week… I hope you behaved last night!"

"Sure, dad, mom let us watch TV and we slept in your bed!", Keira said.

Nick gave Judy a strange look and Judy sighed, "It was an exception…"

"Strange", smirked Nick, "Everytime I let the kids sleep in our bed, you call it a scandal and spoiling, but when you do it, it's an exception!"

"Scandal, scandal!", chanted Leia, pressing her face against Nick's furry neck.

"Okay, my fault!", admitted Judy, "Now come, give mommy a kiss… I'll be back for dinner!"

The twins darted to Judy and crashed into her. Judy had problems to stand up against their power, they were foxes and even at three years they were nearly the same size and weight as Judy.

Two long fox's tongues attacked Judy's face. "No licking, no licking…", she squealed, but the kids just giggled. "Great…", Judy wiped fox saliva from her face fur, "behave, you two rascals. Bye, Nick!"

"Bye, Carrots!"

The elevator brought her down to the double parking space labelled "Mr & Mrs Wilde". The big blue family car with the two child seats stood there and the green pick-up truck Judy and Nick used mostly for driving to the ZPD. When Judy opened the door she noticed that Nick had already installed the adapter set that enabled her to drive this car that had been built for bigger animals. He was such a darling! She drove off to the ZPD.

The big briefing room on the ZPD's ground floor was nicknamed "bull pen". When Judy entered it at 6:58 am, it was nearly full but the small chair in the front row was still empty. Every officer knew that this chair belonged to Nick and Judy, the uneven pair, two of ZPD's most successful crime fighters. She was greeted with respect and she called most of the cops in this room her friends. It had not always been like that… Judy still remembered the first hard weeks in ZPD. Without Nick's help…

She sat down next to a white furry mountain. She hammered her fist into it.

"Good morning, Sigthor!"

The mountain turned around, revealing the grinning face of a polar bear, Sigthor Gudbrandsson.

"Hey, little furball, want to wrestle?"

"Sure, I'll take you on before breakfast!"

Gudbrandsson let out a howling laughter.

"Darling, you'll get stuck in my nose if I'd inhale deeply… so, I heard they assigned you a new rookie?"

"Yeah… I wonder who it might be…", Judy said and turned around, but all she saw were familiar faces. Her thoughts were interrupted by the banging of the door and the loud call "Atten-hut!"

Everyone stood up. Instead of Chief Bogo, Lieutenant Katherine "Kitty" MacMahon, Bogo's attractive assistant, entered the room. Her almond shaped blue eyes looked around and met the eyes of her female colleagues – the male's eyes were more focused on the lower part of Kitty where her short uniform skirt revealed a pair of tremendously long feline legs with shimmering fur that had been meticolously trimmed.

Judy received a warm smile from Kitty as the ex-model cat was not only a close friend but also the godmother of the twins. Kitty assigned the teams to the various regions of the big city and one pair of cops after the other stood up and left the bull pen. In the end, Kitty and Judy were alone in the room.

"I thought, I would get a new recruit today", Judy wondered.

"Yes, dear, you should, but she is not here… yet!", Kitty answered with a shrug.

"At least it's a 'she' this time…", Judy murmured.

Just when Judy was about to complain about the fact that Nick always got recruits for which he admittedly had a 'soft spot' – young female felines – the door slammed open and in stormed a character that had the word 'rookie' written all over her.

She was a badger, young and rather stout, she had hit the door so hard, she lost half of her gear.

When she saw Kitty with her two golden paw prints on her shoulder, marking her as a lieutenant, she immediately ripped her arm up to salute her, her eyes widened in panic.

"Off… officer Jenny Feltner, reporting for duty, sir! I mean… ma'am!"

"I am glad you could arrange it to honor us with your presence, officer!", Kitty replied, sweet as candy, "I must apologize, but we were so heartless to start our briefing precisely at 0700 without waiting for your highness!"

"Oh, yes, sir… ma'am, I am so sorry, but I took the wrong bus…", the badger stammered.

"You are lucky, Chief Bogo is meeting the mayor right now, he would not let you off so easily. Keep this in mind for the next days. This here", she pointed at Judy, "is Lieutenant Judy Wilde, she will be your partner for the next weeks. Try not to piss her off, she had killed bigger predators than you."

The badger stared open mouthed at Judy and Kitty just shook her head, "Good luck with that one!", she said to Judy and marched out of the room.

Judy tried it with a smile, "Hey, Jenny, nice to meet you. Hope we will have a good time together!"

"I am so sorry, ma'am, I messed up on my first day… I bet, that cat is mad at me…"

"Okay, first, you call me Judy, second, she is not mad at you. The first day as a cop was difficult for all of us… before we go out, let's fix your belt…"

Judy pulled up the Jenny's utility belt.

"Okay, wear it really tight! Then move the baton in the back… the ammo pack goes here… and move your radio to the other side… the belt clip for the radio you got is good for nothing, use a rubber band or you'll lose the radio when you have to run… here, look, how I did it!"

She showed her the radio that was pressed tight to Judy's hip thanks to a rubber band.

"Here, I have a spare, you can use that… and the shoulder mike goes to the right shoulder!"

"But, ma… I mean, Judy, in academy they taught us to wear it left…"

"Yeah, they teach a lot of stuff… But the speak button is here and you can press it with your chin or your cheek when you wear it right… when you have to use your gun and need back-up, it's always good to have both hands free for the gun."

After three more minutes, Judy was satisfied.

"Now you look like a cop!"

She received a first shy smile from Jenny.

"Let's go, we'll pick a car and take a tour!"

It turned out that Jenny just moved to Zootopia three days ago and had quite a bad sense of orientation. Patiently, Judy let her drive to the different areas of Zootopia and explained a lot. At half past eleven, they stopped the car on a fast-food place to have lunch. Judy hoped that Jenny would losen up a bit during eating.

"So, Jenny, where are you from?"

The badger gave a shy smile, "You won't know that place, a small village named Coober Pedy, three hundred miles from here, in the mountains. Only 120 animals, half of them badgers."

"Yeah, I also come from a rural village, ever heard of Bunny Burrows? Man, I bet you have to tell your folks a lot when you visit them!"

Jenny's face turned into a grimace and her eyes got cold.

"I'll never set foot in this shit hole ever again, I promised that!", she said. Judy stared at her, surprised by the sudden outbreak. Tears were running from Jenny's eyes as she continued, "My parents were drunk all day, most of the population there is, there is no work, everyone is poor there and my family was poorest, and they all laughed at me at school for I hadn't decent clothes to wear and all I dreamed of was to join the police where everyone wears the same!" She slammed her fist against the wheel and Judy was glad they had decided to eat in the car and not in the restaurant.

Judy wanted to tell her that she was sorry, but there a moments when it's better not to say anything so she remained silent. The badger took a deep breath and wiped her eyes with her massive paws.

"Great…", she murmured, "I really have made a good first impression… I came too late… now I'm crying like a baby, pestering you with my sad story you're not interested in…"

"That's not true!", said Judy, "I am interested, heck, you're my partner now. And I had similar problems on my first days here…"

"You?", Jenny snorted, "In academy, Drill Instructor Hartman told us literally every day what a hero you are; it was Judy this, Judy that, Judy went over this obstacle in half the time, couldn't you even beat a little bunny? They gave you a big case on your second day and you solved it after 48 hours!"

Judy sighed and had a bad feeling. She definetely would need to talk to the academy about this.

"And did Hartman tell you how I nearly drowned in the toilet while she sat next door taking a shit? And how she talked to me after my first week, telling me a meek little bunny like me would never make it and I should do everyone a favor and go home? And that Bogo assigned me to parking duty and I would still do that job today if I hadn't got the missing mammal case by sheer coincident?"

Jenny stared at her open mouthed, but Judy was not finished yet.

"And, yeah, let's not forget, I arrested the mayor on wrong accusations, putting the entire city in mayhem and nearly lost my best friend just because I was as prejudiced and biased as everyone else! And did they tell you I quit my job because of this?"

Now it was Judy who had to wipe the tears out of her eyes. Jenny said nothing for quite a while until both said "I'm sorry!" at the same time. Both giggled. The rest of the shift was much more comfortable for both of them as they were finally able to talk to each other at the same level.

"Okay, let's call it a day!", Judy said at 5:30 pm, "Should I drop you off at your place? Or do you live close by ZPD?"

"I have a small apartment in Ferocious Heights", Jenny said, "That's the only place I could afford."

Ferocious Heights was a small district between the Rainforest District and Meadowlands, famous only for it's criminal rate and poverty.

"If you like, I could call my old landlady from Great Pangolin Arms Apartments", Judy suggested, "They have small crammy apartments, too, but it's much closer to the ZPD and the area is not so bad… and the rents are cheap – I lived there, when I started out here."

"It would be great to have a place where they don't take hourly rates…", Jenny said, "Would you really do that?"

"Of course, partner!", Judy grinned.

Just in this moment, a red pick-up truck zoomed by. From the corner of her eye, Judy saw the driver, a rural looking bunny lady.

"Wow, that was fast!", Jenny said.

"Too fast…", Judy answered, "Keep close to her. Check out her car and tell me what you see."

"Okay… license plate is from Meadowlands, two letters, four numbers, so she's from the far North region, maybe Bunny Haven?"

"Good…", replied Judy, "you definetely did you homework…"

"And her insurance stamp was due last month, so she has no insurance!", Jenny said excited.

"Or she just forgot to put the new stamp on… most companies send them out automatically!"

"And her right brake light is not working!"

"Wow, I haven't even noticed, yet… okay, Jenny, that's enough, we'll pull her over and have a chat… just as we learned at the academy."

Judy switched on the lights and pressed the siren's button for two seconds. The bunny lady saw them, braked and pulled over. Jenny stayed right behind her. Judy opened the door as soon as the cars had stopped.

"Okay, Jenny, watch me, listen to me, stand right behind me and always one paw on your gun, okay?"

"Okay…", Jenny was nervous.

The car was a D-sized model, which made it easy for Judy to knock against the window. The lady opened.

"Good evening, officer!", she said in a high-pitched, friendly voice, "Did I do something wrong?"

"Good evening, ma'am… as a matter of fact you did. We'll talk about it in a sec, but first I would like to see your papers and license, please…"

With the papers, they walked back to the patrol car and checked it via datalink, but everything was okay. Judy went back.

"Mrs Hockstetter, this highway is limited to 65 mph and you have gone over 80… and you need a new insurance stamp!"

The bunny broke out in a nervous laughter, "Oh, damn, I have the letter from the insurance company here in my glove compartment… should I put the sticker on now?"

"No, ma'am, this is much too dangerous on a highway. Please do that at home. And your right brake light is not working, please fix this as soon as possible."

Judy started typing on her ticket machine. "As you showed me the letter, I will not fine you for the missing stamp, neither for the light. But please, repair it, you're endangering the animals behind you. For the speeding, however, I will have to charge you 25 Z$. Please sign the ticket here…", Judy reached inside the car to give the ticket to the lady.

"Here is the amount, here is my name and the ZPD phone number, just in case you have questions later on…"

The lady stared at the ticket. "Wilde?", she said, "Your name is Wilde?"

"Yeah!", Judy said.

"Aren't you that bunny that married a fox?"

Judy's body stiffened as she heard the anger and disgust in the other bunny's voice.

"Yes, that's me…"

"How could you… aren't there enough nice bucks around, to produce new kids and ensure the well-being of our race?"

Judy had met this type of animal before and what she said was no news to her, so she tried resolving the unpleasant situation with a dry joke.

"Well, I don't think we bunnies are close to extinction yet, and…"

The lady made a chortling noise and before Judy knew what was going on, she spat directly in Judy's face. Judy closed her eyes instinctively and felt something wet and hot hit her under her left eye. The engine of the car revved up and Judy heard her shout: "You are a disgrace for us bunnies, you dirty sodomic bitch! Feel the eternal purgatory next time you suck that cursed fox's cock!"

She drove off. Judy wiped her face and heard Jenny shout, "Quick, Judy, in the car! We can get her!"

"No, let her go", Judy said. She collected the ticket and two bills the woman had thrown out of the window. "At least, she payed her ticket!"

"But Judy, she insulted you, she even spat at you! We could get her for this…", Jenny screamed, but without another word Judy got back in the car and closed the door. Jenny stood helplessly outside before she climbed back in the driver's seat.

"What would it change?", Judy asked quietly, "Do you think she will ever change her mind about me? Not as I care… I've met hundreds of animals like her, some may only think the stuff she spoke out loud, others think I'm just a mislead dumb bunny…"

"But we have her on camera…"

"Good thing you reminded me…", Judy opened the cover of the camera and took out the storage chip.

"Oops, Jenny, looks like we forgot to put a chip in the camera this morning… silly me."

She gave Jenny the money and the ticket.

"She… she hasn't signed…", Jenny said hesitantly, "Now we need to fill out form 87-B and…"

Judy took out her pen and scribbled an illegible signature on the ticket.

"Let's go to your place… I'll bring back the car! And no word to anyone about that stupid cunt.", Judy said.

Silently they drove on, both of them lost in their thoughts.