Boom baby, Chapter 2 has been revised, if this is your first time through, I hope you enjoy. If you're the anal type who likes to re-read for all the little edits, well frankly I love you, and I appreciate the sentiment. Revised Chapter 3 & 4 coming very soon.


She dripped with the red scent of iron until the pizzria owner gave her an extra towel. Some of the blood came off. Some of it didn't.

Judy vaguely remembered scooping her phone off the ground, Bogo giving her a ride. He didn't ask too many questions, just the important ones, the perps description, what led up to the event. There was a soft side to the big mass of muscle, it was just hard to come by usually.

Officer Fangmeyer had given her his black jacket to cover up with before she'd been whisked away. She wore it like a big leather bathrobe, now. It still smelled a little like body fluid, which was hard to ignore now that she'd scrubbed herself clean in the hospital showers. Before she'd been nose blind, now the dried blood smelled like fresh ooze.

She reclined in a giant chair, backrest against the wall of the large waiting room, thinking. The leather swaddled her while she ground her right foot against her left. She would have been tapping it against the floor if she could have reached.

What were the chances? What happened if they weren't good?

A few tears dripped silently.

How could she live with that?

She felt a cold, empty, place in her chest. Oh, she'd heard the 'hollow inside' cliche thrown around in poetry and TV drama, but it was only now that she realized it's accuracy. This was what it felt like to teeter on the edge of losing everything. How did life just come unraveled like that? There had to have been signs she could've better read into… Something she could have done better.

The lump in her throat swelled.

All she wanted was for things to go back to normal. She didn't care if the chief put them both on parking duty for the rest of their miserable lives. Hell she didn't care if Bogo fired the two them; crushed as she would be, it didn't measure up to this. They could make the city a better place off the books somehow, sell pawpsicles on the side to make a living. It didn't matter. So long as she had her partner...

A sizable portion of the force filled the waiting room, some in uniform, some dressed down. Johnson was practically in his Pajama's. Delgato's placed his massive tiger paw on her shoulder; it practically engulfed her, but she didn't mind. Everybody knew how close the bunny was with the fox. They'd treat her the same way they'd treat Francine if something had happened to Tigris.

It wasn't to say that everyone at the first precinct loved Nick, but they all shared a certain sense of comradery. If someone was hurt, you looked after them. That was especially the case now, what with the recent disappearances in hospitals all over Zootopia.

These disappearances seemed linked to a strange fever drifting through Tundra Town and Savannah Central right now. Among a number of other erie symptoms, sleep walking was often reported. This led, naturally, to some suggestion that perhaps sleepwalking mammals were the culprit. Such comforts were dashed when a brown bear with two shattered knees had managed to escape from the 21st floor of a nearby hospital. They hadn't found anything but a red smear on the tile the next morning, and no mammals had been reocvered since.

The officers that filled this room weren't about to take a chance on one of their own.

It all stank like Mayor Lionheart's cover up six months ago, but what was the point of it all, now? News of the Vanisher fever was public. On top of that, many of the mammals who fell ill recovered quickly and fully, even if others fell into a comma. Recovery meant that a cure was plausible, so why try to hide the sick away?

What if they aren't just hiding them?

It made her skin crawl. It also had her quickly losing interest in her current case: the burglary of the Fine Arts Museum. It was a classic who done it, and how… but seeing to it didn't really feel like helping the city anymore.

The bunny squeezed her phone.

The chief had been talking about promoting her to full time detective. She'd asked about Nick's prospects, just the other day.

"Naturally you will be required a partner for field work..."

She looked down at the phone screen, trembling.

Well now what?...

She was going back and forth on calling her mom. She needed to vent and she needed someone to soothe her... But then it was way past lights out in Bunny Burrow. That and they'd surely freak if she told them about the firearm.

Shootings weren't common in Zootopia. Assault, theft, kidnapping, and extortion? Maybe. But not shootings. The city council had worked hard at keeping guns locked up. The only mammals who put paws on them were the ZPD SWAT, and only right before a job. Judy didn't carry one, and neither did any of the other beat cops or detectives.

A petty thug having a gun meant trouble. At best, there was an out-of-towner trying to make a quick buck, which meant more guns would show up. At worst someone new was making a big push in the criminal underground.

Judy's thumb hovered over the home button. She didn't care anymore, she needed to pour out her feelings and sulk. She pressed the button and was surprised to find that her background had changed; there was also a new text message. When she unlocked the phonr the apps were different.

It wasn't her phone. Her thoughts shifted back to the goat who had scooped something up off the pavement when he'd run away. He'd grabbed the wrong phone! It struck her as eerie that they had the same model. Then it occurred to her how much evidence she probably held in her hands. She clicked on the 'messages' icon. The app opened up and she read the latest:

'You're in way over your tiny head, pissant. There won't be anything left, once my boy takes care of you.'

Her heart skipped a beat. Anger came next. For a second she considered sending a seething text message back, but a cooler head always prevailed. She scrolled up and found more messages. They dated back to September 22nd and seemed to repeatedly curse the holder of the phone for stealing it from the owner.

So it's directed at the our, perp?

She felt a measure of relief, but this also raised questions. Who-

Tigris walked back into the room, Judy's eyes darted up toward him.

"Hey guys. I talked to the nurse… there's… there's some bad news."

The tiger sulked and Judy felt her heart hit free fall. The tears welled up. It was all gone! Then she saw the muscle around the tiger's eye twitch. That only happened when he was pulling some kind of practical joke.

"The Coffee machine's broken," Tigris grinned, "Silver lining, they said something about Wilde pulling through surgery, if anybody wants to check him out. They've got him propped up in 0917. Said he's good for visiting for another 15..."

Judy was on the floor and down the hall in just a bra and her pants.


Judy peaked around the door. The first thing she saw jabbed at her heartstrings, but it couldn't quash the overwhelming feeling of relief.

The fox was bent over the side of the bed rails, a red deer nurse holding up a trashcan. The plastic rustled as he poured his guts out. The nurse reached for a monitor.

"Patient in nine-seventeen needs more Zofuran!"

"Sending someone up now, Ulga!"

"Yes yes there we go," the deer said in a thick accent "be careful not to tear stitches."

Drip bags hung on racks and lined their way into the fox, accompanied by several wires. A part Judy felt awful, but it was drown out by staggering joy. He was broken, and sick as a dog, but he was moving, breathing. Most importantly, he wasn't bleeding.

Nick glanced up but didn't seem too surprised. He'd probably noticed her the second she'd walked in. Speaking came between shallow breaths.

"Hey, Carrots."

He lurched again, but this time it was dry.

Judy couldn't help but fold her ears back.

After a few more obviously painful gags, the nurse helped him settle back down. He sucked in air and grunted as his shoulder touched the mattress, but deep breaths soon turned to normal breaths.

The nurse grabbed a stool and placed it next to the bed. Judy was ontop of it in a matter of seconds. Her paws dove into that bed. She felt his stomach rise and fall as he breathed.

"Probably not the best time," he said, "to walk in. I'm sorry."

The bunny's shaky voice oozed with sympathy.

"A-are you okay?"

"Yeah, I feel great. Brand new."

Judy had felt everything fall away before. Now here it all was again, all back in her grasp. Perhaps it wasn't so absurd to think normalcy would return.

"You know, your friend is very lucky," the deer chimed in, "is tiny fox, doctor give him thirty percent chance. Is quite impressive."

Nick gave a soft chuckle.

Judy tried a little smile, nose twitching.

"What in the world are you laughing about?"

"Nothing. It'll just take more than two bullets to keep me from aggravating you."

He seemed to await some witty jab back, but her vision just started to blur.

"Oh no," he chided softly, "and there's the waterworks, huh? Alright, bring it in, Carrots"

The bunny took a few more uneven breaths before she started to sob. Leaning over the edge of the hospital bed, she laid her head on the fox's stomach, and hugged his waist. The metal rail against her ribs was a minor discomfort.

"There, there, I know. I do. It's okay."

"Nick, I-I thought you might've…"

"Yeah, I know… we both 'thought I might've'. It's alright..."

She felt him place his left paw against her bare back. He rubbed it through her fur in a gentle circular motion.

"You know... if you keep this up I might have to start calling you sprinkler."

She sputtered out a laugh between sobs. Nick was quick to grab her arm as she raised it.

"If you hit me in that shoulder I will scream."

She smiled.

"I'm sorry,"

"It's alright… Hey, did you bring any food?"

"Uh-"

"Food!?" The deer interrupted, "you just throw everything up!"

"Yes, and as you can imagine that's left me quite famished, so if you could."

"No food until after medicine!"

The fox took a deep breath and grinned.

"That's my bad I just thought it was your job to-"

"Ulga will take care of you, but do not second guess!"

Judy ignored the bickering and leaned in further. She gave the fox's side a tight squeeze. A deep breath brought his scent through her nostrils, and though the room was crowded with antiseptics that musty stench prevailed. The fox seemed to allow her a moment take it in as he returned to scratching her back.

"So carrots. I've been wondering something."

"Hm?"

"What do you call a cow who's sucking it up on stage?"

"Oh um," she thought back, "utterly out of material?"

She jerked in surprise as that got a full blown laugh. The nurse cursed in another language.

"You're going to tear stiches!"

But he settled himself down into a more controlled chuckle.

"It's not that funny, Nick."

"It would have been, after that performance."

Judy hid her smile and glared at him.

"Hey now," his tone became genuine.

"...seriously, thanks for looking out for me again, Hopps. I know that was rough... I'll find a way to make it up to you..."

"Just get better, and don't give the nurse any trouble."

"Now that's a tall order."

Nick craned his head around.

Judy turned to see a large cape buffalo stepping in through the doorway, to join the forming crowd. It seemed as though Nick's laughter had been taken as a good sign.

"So, chief," he started "now that I've been shot down in the line of duty, s'that mean I get some kind of memorial, maybe a raise?"

And there it was, the con-man was already trying to smooth talk. Probably the best sign of all.

"Of course not Wilde," the chief replied seriously, "why would I give a raise to the mammal who abandoned his post to go to a comedy club?"

"Oh… see the thing about that-"

"Relax."

The Buffalo cracked a brief smile.

"You do get paid time off, maybe a purple heart."

Nick just gave him that big wide smile as if to say 'I'll take it."


And like that, everything was almost alright. Time passed, the fox spent another week in the hospital, Judy visited him every day, and soon he was back in his apartment picking up compensation checks. The only scare came on Nick's second day in the hospital when he had a brief tangle with the Vanisher's Fever. Judy was fired up to investigate the hospitals health standards, but it passed for Nick in two days.

Things seemed to return to normal after that, almost as if they would stay that way, but the disappearances just kept on rolling. The ZBI had not yet become involved, but there were whispers around the ZPD that the kidnappings might be linked to some sort of occult activity. Officers would occasionally recover scrawlings of strange symbols on paper when a victim went missing.

Each time it was different, but each time the symbol depicted would be absurdly complex. What was stranger still, was that it would often, but not always, be in the patient's hand writing that the scrawlings were made..

Judy began to fear for Nick. Coming down with the fever seemed to be all that one needed to be at risk. This fear would soon materialize in the form of a text message Judy would receive three days after Nick's homecoming. It was on that phone, the one the goat had stolen. Judy swore she'd turned it into evidence, but then she'd been so distracted lately. She would not realize for quite some time, the immense weight that this first message would carry.

"So a little bunny's got my phone now huh? Don't worry about Bleeton, I took care of him. Got a question for you though, love. You ever delve into darker fiction? If you have, have you ever heard of something called the 'The Outer Gods'?"


Hope you enjoyed, reviews always welcomed.