Judy thought she'd been puzzled back in Bunnyburrow when trying to learn the names of everyone at the Hopps family reunion, but now she knew what it felt like to be truly confused. It was as though nothing made sense regarding Nick anymore. He shunned her like she had the plague, every time she tried talking to him he'd blow up and storm off. She'd gone over it in her head a thousand times these past few days, trying to think of anything that could've prompted Nick to start behaving this way. She'd practically cross-examined the entire ZPD in search for clues to Nick's demeanor, she'd even gone so far as to call her own parents to check that her dad hadn't accidentally set the fox off.
Nothing. It just didn't add up.
An ear flicked towards the sound of Bogo's stern voice. It was nothing but a dull echo in the lobby that had managed to escape the confines of Bogo's office on the top floor. Given the circumstances, she had a fairly good guess about who was getting chewed out for the fifth time this week. It couldn't wait, she had to catch him, talk some sense into that friend of hers. Dumping her folders on Clawhausers' desk, Judy swiftly leapt up onto the banisters of the stairs, futher up onto the opposite banister, flipping back and then finally up onto the top floor railing before planting her paws firmly on the floor and marching towards Bogo's office.
The closer she got however, the more troubled her expression became. Bogo didn't sound like just his irritated, scolding self. No, this was throwing her back to her first day in the ZPD. There was a kind of disgust in his booming voice that she hadn't heard in a long time. She barely noticed the fact she'd stopped approaching the door to just listen in silence and disbelief.
"If I didn't know any better, fox, I'd say you're doing this just to get under my skin!" There was a thunk from inside, Bogo had probably slammed something onto the desk.
"Yeah, well, maybe I am! Maybe I'm sick of you and your.. Face!" Judy frowned with a bit of a scrunched up nose. What a strange insult.
"Mr. Wilde" Bogo seemed to be speaking through gritted teeth, desperate to keep his composure. " In light of your, sudden incompetence, to work in a team and do your job, I have no choice but to let, you, go."
"Fine! I didn't want to work for your stupid ass anyway. Screw all of you!" Judy had only just reached for the door to protest the whole situation when it was practically kicked open as Nick stormed out, tossing his police cap into a nearby trash can.
"Nick, wait!" She was mid-step when Bogo grabbed onto her shoulder to stop her from going after the fox, who'd hurriedly made his way down to the lobby and out the door. Yanking her shoulder free, she turned to glare up at the massive animal in front of her.
"You fired him?! How could you do that?!" Bogo's previous anger seemed like it had just washed away from him. He knew how close Nick and Judy were, and he was not going to make light of the situation.
"Judy, I'm sorry, but there was nothing else I could do." His voice had fallen to a mellow tone as he placed his hands together, as if cuffed. "My hands are tied by protocol. An officer who cannot do their job, who cannot work with others, is not allowed to remain an officer."
"But this isn't him, you know that..!" What was she even pleading for? Work had been exhausting this past week because of Nick, that she couldn't deny. Clawhauser hadn't been himself either, apparently Nick had been quite cruel to him.
"It's just.. It's not like him, there's, there's got to be a reason..!" Judy stroked her hands down her ears, looking at the floor as she was thinking. Bogo sank down to one knee, getting down as close to eye-level as he could to the small rodent, placing a heavy but gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Maybe there is. But I have a responsibility to make sure my officers are content and capable at work. Nick made that impossible. I had, no, choice." Judy raised her gaze to look her boss sadly in the eyes. He was right. His hands were tied, there was nothing he could've done but fire her friend and partner.
"However," Judy's ears perked up as Bogo once again spoke while getting up. "I won't stop you from trying to find the reason, if there is one. Have a good day, officer Hopps." With those words, he returned to his office, shutting the door behind him. Judy's hands curled into fists and she straightened out, giving herself a nod.
"I am going to find out what his reason is." Rushing over to the trash can, she pulled out Nicks' cap, dusting it off and looking at it with a bit of a curious smile.
"What are you up to, that's the question." With a grin, Judy made a great leap onto the lobby booth roof and down onto the floor, Nicks' cap firmly in hand, throwing a quick 'sorry for startling you' to Clawhauser who'd all but jumped out of his skin at the sudden bang of someone landing on the sphere roof above him.
This was just another case, wasn't it? Just one that involved a friend. A mystery in need of unraveling, a maze of the mind she just had to get through. Judy couldn't help but grin as she made a leap into a corner, kicking off the wall and heading further down the corridor, bouncing off the walls to make swift turns. She had no patience to simply walk. This was important. This was even sort of exciting! In a, nervous kind of way.
"Mr. Filcher!" The bunny had thrown the door of the computer-lit room wide open, letting it smack back against the wall, a noise sudden enough to nearly startle the raccoon right out of his seat.
"M-m-miss- I mean Officer Hopps!" He blurted out as he spun around his chair to face her, eyes wide with surprise. It was rare for anyone to visit his office. He quickly checked his clothes, good, they were on right, no coffee stains or nothing. Looking back at the bunny, he smiled a quivering smile, apparently a bit nervous about her bursting into his space.
"What can I-"
"How'd you feel about solving a mystery?" She'd zipped up right in front of him, holding Nick's cap with a wide smile. The raccoon blinked, looking from the cap to the bunny, cap to bunny, before tipping his head slightly to the side with knitted brows.
"Is this about Officer Wilde?" Judy nodded excitedly, her eyes never leaving the other as he got up to close the door she'd slammed open.
"He's been a bit... Different?" His voice peaked at the word different, unsure if it was appropriate for him to even comment on someone so close to the bunny. Judy simply raised an eyebrow.
"Different is a bit of an understatement, don't you think, Mr. Filcher?"
"Please, Kyle."
"Kyle." Judy smiled, she hadn't actually thought to ask his first name before. Everyone just went by their surname, it seemed. "Kyle, different is an understatement. It's like he's gone completely bonkers!"
The choice of word got a snort of a chuckle out of the raccoon and he returned to his seat, clearing his desktop screen, assuming Judy was needing his digital help.
"True. So, what can I do for you, Officer Hopps?"
"Judy." She grinned, placing the cap on the desk.
"Right. So what can I do for you, Judy?" Kyle smiled a bit, his small ears perked up, intrigued by this mystery.
"Well I figured, since you're our tech guy,"
"Technical analyst, yes."
"So that's what it's called!" She snapped her fingers in a sweeping motion. "Everyone always just says tech guy, why is that?" Judy peered curiously at the raccoon, who seemed to become a bit flustered by the whole situation.
"I, I think it's because it's shorter." He quickly cleared his throat. "You were saying..?"
"Right! Since you're our technical analyst, you can dig up things about people's past, right?" There was such a happy chirp in her voice, and she couldn't really stay still, bouncing ever so slightly up and down, her fingertips weighing on the edge of the desk. "Like you do with suspects to find connections and such?"
"Yes, that's, pretty much my job. I, dive into the data that's accumulated on the web, I, uh, dig it up and distribute it to the relevant officers... Why do you ask?" He jolted as Judy quickly leaned in close.
"I need you to look into Nicks' past." It took a moment for the task to sink in, but once it did, he stared at her in a bit of shock.
"Dig into the past of an officer? I'm not even sure, I mean, am I even allowed to do that? Background checks aren't, I mean, I've got to get the okay from Bogo-"
"Nick isn't an officer anymore. He got fired." The reminder was enough to turn her excitable expression into that of a more somber one, her ears lowering behind her. A silence fell as she stood up, her shoulders a bit slumped. She sucked in a soft, slow breath before speaking again.
"Bogo fired him, because of.. Well, everything."
"I... I'm sorry, I know he was your partner.."
"Yeah," A hand instinctively went up to rub at her own arm, a sigh escaping her. "It's.. Not fun. Everything was going so well, I don't know what's gotten into him." Sucking in a sharp breath through her nose, she straightened up and smacked a fist against the desk.
"And that's what I aim to find out!" She turned her steadfast gaze to Kyle. "Will you help me?" Kyle furrowed his brows slightly, watching her as he pondered about it. It was strange, the sudden change in Nicks' behaviour. It wasn't normal, it couldn't just have come out of nowhere. Scratching the back of his head, he then gave a nod with a bit of a smile, his hands returning to his keyboard.
"Alright. So, I dig into Nicks' past?" Judy grinned at his response and gave him a big squeeze of a hug around his neck.
"Yes! Thank you!" She hopped back, bouncing from one foot to the other with a big, excited smile on her lips. "Tell me when you find something! I've got work to do!" She had barely finished her sentence before she'd zoomed out of the door, leaping down the hallway towards her office, leaving a rather surprised raccoon to do his work. She was in a hurry, heading through the lobby and towards the offices.
"Just you wait Nick, I'll have you back in no time...-!"
"Judy! Wait!" Judy screeched to a halt as she heard Clawhausers' voice.
"Yeah, what is it Ben?" She automatically dusted off her clothes despite them already being impeccable.
"The Chief wants you to keep working the leads on the vandalism."
"What? But I've got to figure out what's going on with Nick, he said it was fine for me to do that..!" The chubby cheetah didn't seem to enjoy relaying this message, fumbling around with his tie, idly twisting it back and forth.
"Yeah, he says he knows you want to rush off to save 'that fox' - he said it really angrily too - but, we need you to keep being a cop." Clawhauser promptly handed her a folder, looking a bit uncomfortable with the task of messenger. "Just.. Do what he says Judy, okay?"
Letting out a short snort, Judy reluctantly took the folder. Of course, she shouldn't have expected Bogo to just let her run off and conduct her own private investigation without interference.
"Alright. Thanks, Ben. Take it easy, okay?"
"Are you really going to try and bring Nick back?" His voice was quiet, hesitant. Almost as if he'd become scared of the fox in question. Judy gently placed a paw on his arm, looking at him with intense resolve.
"I will, bring him back." She smiled, patting his arm lightly. "And he'll be back to normal, you'll see." Those words seemed to ease the cheetah's mind and he nodded with a smile.
"Good luck, Judy." He meant those words, she could feel it. They made her feel warm, because it meant that despite everything, Ben hadn't given up on Nick. She didn't even think Bogo had given up on him. In her eyes, only one mammal had given up on that sly fox.
Nick himself.
Heading towards her office, by now she'd slowed down to a quick-paced walk, flipping through the folder as she moved. It was a list of various names of both mammals and places. It wasn't limited to Tundra Town anymore - it seemed Bogo had given her even more to do. Perhaps that was his way of trying to keep her head in the game. Perhaps it was his way of telling her to let Nick go. There was no way to be sure, but the faster she managed to solve this, the faster she could continue working to solve Nicks' situation.
Her ears swiveled as she read. Apparently it wasn't just vandalism, but threats as well. Some spray-painted onto the side of businesses, some delivered as letters. One even had a dead bird slipped through their mail slot. Yuck. Things just kept getting weirder and weirder in this bustling city of Zootopia.
Still, despite all that had happened, she didn't regret coming to Zootopia. Not in the slightest. She'd grown so much as a mammal, and she'd learned so much. Sighing softly, she slipped onto her seat, pulling out a notebook as well as her iconic carrot pen from one of the drawers to begin making notes. Her nose was twitching and ears flicking, evidence of how her mind was racing. Only half her attention was spent on making a list of in which order she should go to the victims, with the goal of saving as much time as possible. The other half was spent on questions. Nagging notions. Suspicious statements. Worried whispers. What if there was nothing to find out?
She smacked down her pen to glare at the wall in front of her.
"No. There is something at work here." Using the pens' point to scratch under her own chin, she wore a frown of deep thought, looking down at her notepad. "I've just got to find out what." She then swiftly moved to open up a framed photo. It was a picture of her and Nick at his graduation. A faint smile ghosted over her lips before she pulled open a drawer, hurriedly twisting off a piece of tape, flipping over to a blank page and taping the picture to it. Clicking out the point of her pen, she bent over her notebook, scribbling down a new title above the picture.
CASE FILE - NICHOLAS P. WILDE.