Author's Note
I have gotten myself obsessed with an animated movie. Oops. I think I'm a bit too old for this but honestly I don't care. It's going to be a romance/adventure/sci-fi story; it starts as romance though. Rated T in case I wanna do something gruesome or too lovey dovey. You get my point. It would mean a lot if you reviewed and told me what you think :D
Judy gulped. This was not suppose to happen. No, this wasn't real. There was no way that she, of all animals, was pregnant. She was sure, absolutely sure that nothing had happened. She may have fallen asleep but... never. She wouldn't have. It couldn't be his either.
-THREE WEEKS AGO-
Chief Bogo had just instructed her and Nick to take another extremely important case. Judy flipped through the file, looking at the pictures of the abandoned labs, the spilled chemicals, and somehow a teddy bear that was torn apart. Apparently the lab was robbed, but nobody was sure of why or how. The robber had managed to get away with a whole lot of some boxes - with something very valuable in one of them- and left no tracks. Well, none until she and her partner found some, anyway.
She wasn't paying attention to her surroundings and had decided to stand in the corner somewhere to scrutinize the details more. Every time she brought something to Nick, he would quickly assess the situation before she could even say anything. Not today. Today she was going to figure this out and show him that she could do it too.
"...I like you," she heard someone say. There was Nick, with a somewhat serious face. "I like like you."
For a second, the world seemed to stop and she looked up from the file. Gently, he took the file out of her paws, and started reading. His paw was so warm... Why did I just notice it now? Why did he say that to me? What? Like like? Isn't that love? Do I love him? I... I don't know where I'd be without him, that's for sure. I've never...Then her partner started laughing.
"What are you laughing at?" Judy asked, her cheeks hot. Wait, was he talking to her?
"You didn't respond to my question," he said playfully, "what if I told you 'I like you'?"
"Why would you ask something like that?!" She asked heatedly, embarrassed. This was crossing the line. Nick would always say something unbelievable just to get her attention off the assignment file... Snap, he's done it again, Judy thought to herself silently. How could she get distracted so easily?
Ignoring her question, he smiled. "Let's just head on over to the lab then, shall we?"
They headed toward the lab, which was only a few miles away from the police station. On their way, Nick casually turned on the radio and started humming.
"We're heading out to solve a very serious case, and you're humming? What's the occasion?" Judy asked, her embarrassment from a few ten minutes ago fading.
"Are you not going to tell me about the case? I mean, I read the file but it seems I was paying attention to something else at the time..."
Haha. Nick was being nice today. She perked up and began explaining. "Today must be my day. Okay, the lab use to have these boxes, it's not even a new lab. It's old and was used until ten years ago, when some incident happened. Since then, it's a storage for scientific equipment, just a bunch of unused stuff."
"Huh. That's weird."
For the rest of the trip, they teased each other talked about the case. Nothing about the "I like you" spoken earlier. Judy was pretty confused, but then she figured that it was all a joke, it meant absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. Yet she couldn't piece together the awkward remaining feeling she had.
The lab itself did not look that bad. There were, however, light tire tracks. They were definitely not from Nick and Judy, probably the tracks of A donkey in a lab coat was waiting for them when they arrived.
"I'm so glad you're here, officers. I just checked which boxes went missing... and... and..." She looked as though she was about to burst into tears. Nick waited patiently, though Judy could tell that he just wanted the donkey to stop talking and let them investigate. Finally, the donkey collected herself. "The box with accident items are missing too. They're quite dangerous, and very valuable. Many people would fight for these-"
Before the scientist could start sobbing again, Nick interfered. "What are these items that you've lost?"
"I'm just told it's important. I'm sure we need to get it back before..."
Judy raised her eyebrow. "Before?"
"I don't know," sobbed the donkey even more, "something horrible!"
"Your name is?" Nick asked, fighting the urge to roll his eyes at this useful information.
"Sandra, Sandra Grey."
"Well, Ms Grey, I assure you that we will do our best. Just stop-" sobbing like a dying horse, he was going to say, but thought better of it and shut his mouth. No matter what he thought, he would never let others know what he was thinking.
"I suppose we'll see you around," Judy said, as the two left to inspect other parts of the building.
"Woah, it looks like an acid burn..." Nick mumbled as he looked at a patch of floor that was eroded; the wooden floor, which Nick assumed was laid after the lab became a storage, was black and looked burnt instantaneously. This was probably where the spill was. He was about to take a picture of it until he heard a slight yelp. Judy.
He ran in the direction, forgetting to even take a picture. If something like this spilled on her... he couldn't even think. She was in another room with strange tubes, all of which contained a clear liquid. It was just water. Probably. Then again what did he know about chemicals?
"Cottontail, what happened?" He asked, trying to hide his overly concerned tone. He should be moderately concerned, like a partner would be.
"I'm okay, I accidentally spilled this liquid on myself-"
Nick breathed out a breath he didn't even know he was holding.
"-it doesn't really smell like anything, it's probably just water."
Nick gave a smooth smile.
"Oh. Good. Well, since we're both here, we might as well just look around together, y'know. That way we can consult each other when we find something suspicious."
Judy grinned. "Scared?"
Not for the reasons you think. "You wish."
After three hours of scouring the place, Nick and Judy had not found anything that was worth taking a look at. They did, however, find out that there was going to be an auction that sold scientific equipment a week from today. For the next few days, all they needed to do was relax... well, not exactly relax but pay attention to other cases.
The next morning was supposed to be ordinary. Until Judy's childhood friend decided to make an appearance. The rabbit, like most of them in the burrow, seemed scared as he approached her cubicle in the corner of the office. He obviously had never been around that many predators before. His normal casual attire was a red dot in the middle of a white paper in a police station.
"Judy!" He exclaimed as he saw Judy appear. Nick watched from the side, wondering if he should go introduce himself or not.
"Goodness, Ronnie! How are you? What are you doing here?" She called back once she saw him, and gave him a hug. The guy's a pretty awkward hugger, Nick thought to himself.
"Great, your mom and dad mentioned that you were working here now," Ronnie glanced around nervously, "it's pretty impressive, I mean I would get all jittery." Nick almost snickered. Of course you would. That tail's shaking like a chihuahua that's had a little too much sugar.
Judy laughed and shrugged. "You get use to it."
"I was just here... because... well, I miss you. The Burrow's not the same without you, and I just thought that maybe... and your parents-" Wow. Way to go. Using her parents.
"You came all the way to meet me?" Judy asked, surprised and touched at the same time.
"Of course I would, Jude, I'd do anything... except maybe get eaten by a wolf. Or a fox. Or anything that could devour me-"
Nick was getting sick of this Ronnie bunny. He was probably the prime example of what a dumb bunny was. But Judy was laughing.
Nick strode right next to Judy. "Carrots, want to get to work? Just because we didn't find anything yesterday doesn't mean that we shouldn't be looking for more leads. Oh, hi, Judy's friend." He gave toothy grin, revealing his sharp canines.
Ronnie started shaking even more. "Oh man, I think I should go now... I- I'll catch you around... maybe at a nearby pawpsicle stand?" And he turned around stiffly.
"Yeah but Ronnie-"
Before Judy could say anything else to call him back, Chief Bogo appeared.
"Hopps! Wilde! What are you doing still here?"
"Sorry chief. We were just looking over the files and someone came around. It's all taken care of now. Heading out right now." Nick said smoothly, and took Judy's wrist. Today they were suppose to go to talk to Professor Ploddenton,the former owner of the lab, probably the only one who knew what was actually in the box.
"So, I guess we're just visiting the guy's home today?" Nick asked lazily.
"Chief Bogo isn't here right now. Want to explain what that was all about?" Judy asked with a slightly irritable tone.
Nick gave a sly smile. "I just wanted to greet your friend in the most friendly way possible."
"You know that I know enough to know that you were trying to freak him out."
"What a complex sentence. Well, he wasn't holding fox repellent."
Judy started laughing, an adorable sound. "Whatever. Just be nice, okay?"
Nick smirked. "I can't promise you anything."
They arrived in front of a large building, half of it made out of rusted metal. this place too, seemed very old. It wasn't really possible for anyone to be actually living in. There were weeds all over the place. But once Judy looked closer, she realized that a light was on on the second floor. The scientist was in there. The fox and the bunny walked up to the door, looking at each other, wondering if this was a good idea at all. In the end, they had decided that it could be very important, so Nick knocked on the door. No one came out even after the fourth knock. Thinking that it was too much, Nick tried just opening the door. And it worked.
"You can't just barge into someone's home like that! We should be more patient," Judy told him, and he couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"We're ZPD. We're working for the good of the people, you know. And if opening this door could help a lot of people -which it probably will- it's best that we do it. So many things could change in a minute."
"You keep telling yourself that."
The two officers climbed up the stairs and found the room that had the turned-on light. Judy knocked softly on the door, and noticed that it was open. Inside, an old turtle was watching TV. The turtle did not move at all, even when the two entered.
"Excuse me," Judy began, not waiting for the turtle to turn around, "we're from ZPD and we'd like to ask you a few questions."
The turtle didn't move at all.
"Um, hello...?" Judy tried again. The two officers walked up to the turtle, who was still blankly staring forward.
Then, in rapid motion, the turtle gripped Nick's arm and put a needle close to it. Nick gasped, and tried to wriggle out of the turtle's grasp, which was mutated. The turtle had sickly green fingers with an iron tight grip.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you..." Professor Ploddenton murmured in a low dangerous voice. "Who knows what's inside this syringe? It could change you, kill you, or not do anything at all."
Change me? Kill me? Nothing at all? Yeah right. What if the change is just like the night howlers? Nick felt sick, his heart pumping about a thousand times quicker than before.
"Let him go! We just want to ask a few questions, and we'll be on our way," Judy said, in attempt to be calm and sort things out. She didn't want to startle the needle-holding professor.
"And what are those questions of? Nobody has bothered me in years. Why now?" Professor Ploddenton spoke in crisp tones. He still held the needle pointing towards Nick's arm.
Judy's amethyst flickered toward the sharp end of the needle. Even thought she was nervous, her voice came out calm, indifferent, professional. "The equipment from your former lab was stolen a few days ago. There was a box, and Ms Sandra Grey, your lab assistant said there were important things in the box that was taken. We just want to know what was inside and who could've taken it. We're trying to catch the thief."
The turtle paled slightly. "I assure you that that box was never opened by me. I have no idea what's inside." He let go of Nick, who, without hesitation, backed away from the crazed man with syringe.
"You're lying," he snarled. "Is it the same stuff that made your foot a hand? That's not normal for a turtle."
Nick knew he was making a wild guess, but it was worth it. As long as he wasn't arms reach from the turtle, he would be okay. He could say all the mean things he wanted. He also wanted to take the syringe and let the labs in the police station examine it. There are chemicals out there that change animals into something they aren't.
"I am a scientist, I experiment!" The professor simply shouted. "I cannot help you two!"
"When you decide you want to talk to us, call the police station and say that you want to talk to Officer Hopps and Wilde." Judy said coldly. Then to Nick: "Come on, let's go. Leave this guy to wallow in whatever of his life he has left." Judy whispered, and they left.
The two were once again on the road, and heading back to the police station. Nick kept thinking about the professor and how he had a hand. That was obviously not caused by a natural mutation. He had to have combined something and injected it to himself. Nick was no scientist but he knew that wasn't possible, was it?
"Are you okay? You're a bit quiet," Judy said, after five minutes of silence.
"Am I?" He simply said, and drove around the next corner. A car came out of nowhere, and they almost crashed. Nick hit the brakes as soon as he could,, and the two officers bounced back into their seats with their seat belts. They parked on the sides.
"Maybe I should drive now, you should just take a little break. Were you... scared?" She asked the last question softly.
Nick gave a small laugh. "Maybe."
"If it helps," she continued with the same soft tone, "I was scared too."
Was she scared for me like I was scared for her?
"I know you were," Nick mustered a grin. "It was written all over your face."
"Hey! I was just being concerned! I mean, I really..." Judy blushed. "I like being around you. And the thought of you... the you right now gone... it would just...feel wrong. My life in Zootopia began when I met you."
God, he wanted to hug her. Nothing was stopping him anyway. So he did, at first awkwardly, then more tightly. When they broke apart, Nick pulled her into a more-than-friends gesture. It was weird, foxes weren't made for bunnies or vice versa. But it felt right. And Judy went along with it.