Disclaimer: I do not own Zootopia or its related characters. All is the property of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Clark Spencer, and Byron Howard. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

There Can Be Only...

Chapter Three: Bolt Out of the Blue

The City Records office was a squat little building attached to City Hall. They had renovated it along with City Hall a few years back to make it more handy-caped and special needs accessible. They kept the old white stone facade, but added in ramps on either side of the stairs for wheelchairs and walkers, covering the concrete inclines in the same white stone as the facade in an attempt to preserve the look of the building.

Nick ran up one of the ramps just so he could slide back down the paw rail of the stairs -like a little kit.

"Can you please act your age?" Judy huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I am acting my age." The fox informed her. "This is how thirty-year-old bachelors act."

Delgato and Wolford came up beside the bunny.

"And that is why you're still a bachelor, Wilde." Wolford shook his head in distain. He was a family-wolf. Married for six years and had three pups.

Delgato was -thus far- also unmarried. But he had at least one girlfriend that they had met -she brought him lunch at the precent one day- and the feline officer occasionally implied that he had other females on the side. Ugh, lions. Nick was the only male of the three of them that had no wife, no girlfriend, and no prospects. That is... unless semi-regularly ogling your female partner's backside counted as a 'prospect'.

Judy pinched the bridge of her short bunny snout. "Can we all please at least pretend to be professional."

"Sure. I can pretend." Nick winked at her, offering a lazy smile.

The four of them entered the Records building and were immediately met by a female oryx in a light gray pantsuit. The plastic ID badge clipped to her blazer identified her as some version of a supervisor. She greeted the larger officers first, shaking the paws of Delgato, then Wolford. She almost didn't notice Judy and Nick until the latter cleared his throat conspicuously.

"Officer Wilde." The fox supplied, handing one of his ZPD issued business cards up at the oryx. "This here is my partner, Officer Hopps." He jabbed a thumb behind him at Wolford and Delgato. "They're with us."

Never mind that, literally, every other officer there had more seniority than Nick did.

"Please to meet you." The oryx said polity. Then turned to lead them to the elevators and down to the basement levels where they stored hard copies. "This is all archives going back forty years. We've been working on converting it all into digital files and going paperless, but as you can see..." she unlocked a door and swung it open for the officers to see. A large cavernous warehouse stretched out in front of them, cold aluminum shelves holding boxes and boxes of files and documents, the only thing distinguishing one from another the small label stickers stuck on their fronts. "...we still have a lot still to do."

She lead the four of them down the main isle, turned to the side, lead them down that isle, turned again. It was only by the third turn that Nick began to wonder if he should have been scent marking their path. All the isles looked the same down here and he imagined it being difficult to find their way out again without the oryx to guide them.

As she lead them, the oryx continued her explanation. "Seeing as how these are all non-active files, we don't have as many security cameras down here. Its pretty much just the one covering the elevator. If it wasn't for an after-hours hard-drive access last night, we probably never would have noticed this."

They finally turned down a row and all four officers could clearly several of the cardboard file boxes were pulled off the shelf, thrown on the floor, their contents spilled all over the place. But that wasn't what they were paying attention to anymore.

"After hours hard-drive access?" Wolford blinked at the oryx. "What do you mean?"

"Well, ya see, Wolfie," Nick began an explanation, "a hard-drive is a magical device where young tech-savvy Mammals like Carrots and I store data like music, videos, porn, or -in this case- important civil documents and records."

The wolf glared down at the fox. He was willing to let the 'old' joke back at the precent slide. But if he kept it up then the small rookie was just begging to get on the seasoned officer's bad side. "I know what a hard-drive is." He turned back to the oryx. "What I meant was, why didn't you mention this sooner?"

"I was getting to it." The oryx explained indignantly.

Wolford pinched the bridge of his snout. "Alright. Wilde, go upstairs and call dispatch -our radios won't work down here. Request a cyber-forensic team. Hopps, go upstairs with him and start interviewing the staff. Start with the last ones the leave last night and the first ones to arrive this morning." Then he turned to the city records' supervisor. "I assume you keep some kind of inventory of what's supposed to be in each of these boxes? So we can tell if anything's missing and what it is."

"Of course." The oryx moved to leave.

The wolf's eyes shifted to Nick and Judy. "Well, what are you two still doing here?"

The bunny was quick to follow orders, the fox paused one defiant moment longer -glaring at the wolf- as if to say, 'You're not the Alpha of me.' (Foxes didn't have "alphas" anyway.) Then he sauntered off after his partner.

On the way out, he found it wasn't all that had to find the path to the exit. Someone else had scent marked it for him. A musky canid scent. Hmph. Nick looked back at Officer Wolford. Maybe timberwolves weren't all dumb-dumbs after all.

After radioing for cyber-forensics, Nick went back inside to help his partner with the interviews.

Judy took the night guards. A hippo and a zebra. Neither of them saw or heard anything. One stayed in the security office all night watching the cameras -or rather, sitting at the desk surrounded by monitors while he watched Game of Alphas- and the other patrolled the floors semi-periodically during commercial breaks. Not exactly the most observant pair in the world. But then, what reason did they have to take their job seriously? How often did someone break into a boning old records office?

Almost never. That's how often.

Not unless they were looking for something.

The hard-drive access was from the cubicle closest to the elevator. A choice of convenience not out of any nefarious connection to the one who worked in said cubicle. A female sloth named Dawn Allen. Judy gave the honor of interviewing her to Nick -since he had so much patience for sloths. Sometimes the fox wondered if his hyper-active bunny partner was still recovering from her first encounter with Flash.

Nick was doodling in the margin's of his notebook, the sloth still explaining that it was 'Allen' spelled with two Ls, when the cyber-forensic team arrived to take a look at her computer.

That was also about the time Wolford and Delgato came back upstairs.

"Oh, good, the geeks are here." The wolf ruffled the fur between the fox's ears. "Looks like you can be useful after all. Now I need you and Hopps to bring in a Mammal of interest for questioning."

Pushing Wolford's paw off his head, Nick glared up at the larger canid. "What's this Mammal's connection to the case?"

"Her's is the only file missing from the vandalized box." Explained the wolf officer, a bit testily. He ripped out a page from his own notebook and lightly slapped it down on the shorter canid's head. "Red fox like you, female. Name: Longstride, first name: Marian. Now grab your bunny and get to it."

Nick didn't move. He froze the moment the wolf said the name 'Longstride'. The notebook page slipped from his head into his suddenly trembling paws and he stared at his mother's name in the sloppy pawwriting of his colleague. 'Marian Longstride'.

"Can't." Nick heard his voice inform the wolf. It was level, even, controlled. It was a good thing his mouth knew what to do. Don't let the other predator see that it got to him. His face was well practice and did it automatically now. Which was good, because on the inside, Nick's brain was having trouble stringing together a single coherent thought.

Wolford glared down at him. "I can put up with your scathing remarks and intentionally insulting jokes. But I draw the line at insubordination, Wilde. We have a job to do and part of that job is bringing this vixen in for questioning."

"I get that." The fox growled back up at him, that near perfect mask of calm indifference wavering ever so slightly. "But I can't. Marian Longstride has been dead for two decades."

There was a pregnant pause in which the wolf only raised a curious brow.

"Look, I know not all foxes know each other. So, how could you possibly know that?" Wolford asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Because she's my mother!" Nick bit out with a snarl, that waver in his mask of practiced indifference turning into a crack.

This time the silence was longer. It stretched on for one... two... three beats.

Then Wolford remembered that he was a police officer and recovered. "Alright then. Do you have any idea why someone would want to steal information about your mother?"

Nick remained silent for a moment, working hard to get his mask back in place. That face of indifference he wore whenever he went out and only ever took off on rare occasions for the benefit of his closest friends and his bunny. The fox had spent the great majority of his life on the receiving end of police questioning. But now he was on the other side and he knew his rights. He didn't have to say anything.

"Pretty sure you shouldn't be interrogating me about this until the Chief takes me off the case." Nick said finally. "And he will wanna take me off the case. Conflict of interest and all that." He turned to his partner, interrupting her interview of another of the records office employees. "Hey, Carrots, new development. Turns out we're off the case."

"What!?" The bunny blinked at him. "Why?"

"Conflict of interest." The fox explained with mock casualness. "I'll explain in the car."

He turned back to give a wink at Wolford.

Judy glanced from the wolf to her fox, wondering what one might have said to the other to get them taken off the case. She was sure it was something Nick said or did. He had been testing the senior officers' patience since the Chief assigned them the case earlier that morning. But in front of their colleagues and witnesses was not the place to reprimand him for it. So, the bunny followed her fox to their squad car with only a reprimanding glare aimed at his back as her only protest.

Once they were actually in the car, however, the doors shut firmly after them, then Judy let her displeasure be known.

"What did you do this time?" She demanded. She barely registered that he had claimed the driver's seat and that she -mechanically- took the passenger seat without thinking.

"I need to swing back by my place before we head back to the station." He said, pointedly refusing to give any version of an explanation. He moved to turn over the ignition, only to realize that he wasn't the one with the keys.

Judy dangled the squad car's key's from her tiny paw and smirked at him. "We're not going anywhere until you tell me why we're being taken off this case."

Nick glared at the keys she was holding just out of his reach, then at her. "Sly bunny."

"Dumb fox." She smiled back.

He sighed, resting his forehead on the steering wheel in defeat. She would find out anyway, it was an open case after all. Nick just didn't like talking about his parents. Either of them. "Whoever broke in here last night stole a file on my mother. Since I'm related to this case, the Chief will wanna take me off as soon as he finds out."

In all honesty, he expected her reaction to be somewhere between 'That's just means you can't work the case, but I can still help.' and 'Since we're partners when he takes you off too, I'll be taken off with you, go it.' Instead, she looked concerned. Actually worried. That was a surprise.

Judy's brows came down and she pursed her lips. There was a beat of silence, then in a sobering whisper she asked, "Does this have anything to do with your father?"

"What?" The fox blinked at her. "No. If John needed to know something about my mom he wouldn't need to break into city records. Anything anyone would want to know about her he already knew. They were married for fifteen years."

"I meant with whatever reason your father had to asking you to wear your tactical vest last night." She clarified. Judy never thought that John Wilde was the one who broke into the city records building last night. The idea never even crossed her mind. She supposed he could have after leaving Nick's place. But as her fox just pointed out, what reason would he have. Instead, the bunny asked a different question. "Why would someone be looking up information on your late mother?"

Nick had an answer to that question. But he wasn't about to share it with her. The fact that it would sound barking mad aside, the fox honestly didn't think his bunny would either believe him or even understand. Most Mammals just didn't think of the Robin under the Hood the same way foxes did. Another Mammal -not a fox- wouldn't understand how or why if my be significant to be a dependent of the Hood.

Instead, he deflected the question. "Did my mother work odd jobs to keep the family afloat? Yes, yes she did." But that had nothing to do with anything.

"You're not actually gonna tell me, are you?" The bunny crossed her arms over her chest.

"No. No, I am not."

Her eyes glistened for a moment, shining with an emotion that Nick could have sworn looked suspiciously like betrayal. But she blinked and the expression was gone. Instead, Judy dangled the keys one more time. "Fine. I thought we trusted each other, but clearly I was mistaken. You don't trust me enough to be honest."

"Carrots, that's not-"

"But since you apparently don't trust me, I have decided not to trust you." She continued, keys still dangling. "If you won't tell me what's going on, I won't let you go to your apartment before we go back to the station."

"There's something at my apartment I need to get." The fox argued.

"Well, though cookies." She wasn't gonna budge.

"Carrots, please." Nick held out a paw. "Give me the key."

Judy pulled her paw closer to herself, threatening to drop the keys down the front of her own tactical vest. "What's at your apartment that you need so badly?"

Oh, a couple of things... An ancient bow that was an heirloom of his mother's family, a method for contacting his father (because like hell was Nick gonna actually have the old bastard's number programed into his phone)... "My tactical vest."

The bunny blinked at him. Her surprise plain for any to see. She didn't hide her feelings anywhere near as well as Nick did. Emotional bunny. Then the concern was quickly back on her face. "Does this has anything to do with that cryptic warning he gave you last night?"

"I donno." He admitted.

"Its just very coincidental." She continued. "Your father shows up one night out of the blue needing to talk to you and wanting you to start wearing a bulletproof vest, then the very next day, someone breaks into city records to steal information about your mother. It doesn't take any Academy training to figure out that this has something to do with either your father or you." A pause. "Are you in danger?"

Nick was about to snap out a 'no', assure her that he wasn't in any danger at all. That his father was crazy and the break in at City Records was just a coincidence. But then, he already told her he wanted to swing by his apartment to get his tactical vest, why would he want to grab his vest if he didn't think he was in danger? So a complete denial was out of the question. Instead the fox admitted that maybe his father's insane ravings might have gotten to him. Heaving a heavy sigh, Nick muttered, "I donno."

Judy's expression softened at his admission. She hesitated half a moment longer. Then passed him the keys.

The fox took them and turned over the engine, pulling out of the parking lot.

"Ya know, you don't always have to play the untouchable ice king anymore." The bunny said once they were out on the road again. "I get that not letting Mammals see they get to you is your coping mechanism, but you don't have to do it with me." Judy reached across the space between them and placed a paw on his arm. "You're not alone anymore, Nick. You have someone who cares about you."

If he hadn't been driving, he might have turned to stare at her at that admission. See her expression. Gauge the depth of the 'caring' she was claiming to have. It was great to joke about 'loving' each other. But it was the kind of platonic love between friends. Nick might enjoy the sight of her well curved backside, but he knew where the line was. He knew not to expect anything more from her than what they already had. That should be enough for him. But every now and again she would say or do something that hinted at deeper feelings beyond just platonic. ...and he would be lying if he said the idea of his bunny thinking of him as more than a friend didn't gratify and excite him.

But he was driving and so couldn't turn to look at her.

Keeping his expression neutral, the fox shrugged the bunny's paw off his arm. "Don't tung on me while I'm driving, Carrots. What if I accidentally jerked the wheel?"

"But you're sticking with the Ice King routine." She sighed, leaning back in her seat, once again crossing her ams over her chest.

Nick pulled up in front of his building, parking along the red painted curb and leaving the hazard lights flashing.

Judy drummed her fingers on her door handle and glared at him. "Are you gonna ask me to wait in the car now?"

"You can do whatever you want, Carrots." The fox assured her.

So the bunny hopped out of the squad car and followed her partner inside. She was, however, respectful enough to wait in the living room while Nick disappeared into the bedroom. As much as she wouldn't mind seeing the inside of the secret and forbidden bedroom of her fox, now was not the time.

Nick closed the door behind him, well aware of his partner's eyes following him. Thank goodness for her conservative upbringing. Even growing up with over two-hundred siblings, she knew when and how to respect another's privacy. He gave one more glance up at his closed door before reaching under the bed and pulled out the box that held the Longstride bow. Lifting the lid, Nick checked to make sure it was still laid in its case exactly as he had done the previous night. No mysterious intruder had come in while he was out and tampered with. After all, there was nothing interesting about either him or his mother worthy of breaking and entering for except for their ancestry and this bow. Satisfied that everything was in order, he closed the case and lifted it under his arm.

As an afterthought, Nick pulled his tactical vest out of the closet. It was the excuse he told his partner so that she'd allow him to come here and get his family bow. Nick might not put much stock in the significance of his Robin Hood ancestry, but that didn't mean that other Mammals felt the same. Regardless of whether or not he believed the bow had any special properties beyond being old, it was still an heirloom of his family.

Bow under one arm, tactical vest in the other paw, the fox headed back out.

Judy raised an eyebrow at him. "I thought you were gonna put it on. What's that?"

Nick shifted to pull the case out of her reach. He didn't quite feel like explaining to her why he suddenly felt the need to rush home and grab some old piece of junk. "I'll put the vest on in the car. Here, you drive."

He passed the keys back to her.

She continued to glare suspiciously. Not at him, but at the case under his arm. "That's not a gun, is it?"

The ZPD could issue Nick any type of firearm he could request (provided he had adequate justification or need for the weapon), there was no need for him to keep something that looked like it walked out of the Uncivil War Era. Did he even have a permit for that?

"No, its not a gun." The fox assured her. He shifted the box in his arms, holing it out in front of him so that Judy could more clearly see the shape of the long, thin, wooded case. "C'mon, Carrots, what kind of gun looks like this?"

He tucked the box back under his arm and exited the apartment, pausing just long enough to make sure the bunny was following him. Down at the car, Nick threw the case in the trunk. Then climbed into the passenger seat, leaving the safety-belt off while he slipped the tactical vest on over the shirt of his uniform.

Judy climbed into the driver's seat and looked at him.

"What?" He shrugged.

"I think we should bring your father in for questioning." She said, as she turned over the engine and pulled away from the curb. "Put your belt on."

"We're not bringing John in." Nick growled, pulling the seatbelt over his chest. "The fact that he'll be as uncooperative as a witness can be, I don't actually know where to find him."

"Nonsense." Judy scoffed. "He's gotta be staying somewhere. We'll just check around at local hotels for a 'John Wilde' or 'Jonathan Wilde'."

"Knowing him, he'll probably be using an alias." This time it was the fox who scoffed.

There was a beat of silence.

Then, "What does your father do?"

Nick heaved an exasperated sight. "Its complicated." A pause. "And crazy."

"Its not illegal, is it?"

"No~o... its~s... no~ot..." The fox began to assure her, doing his very best impression of his friend Flash. Nick actually didn't sound all that confident that -whatever it was his father did for a living- wasn't illegal. But then he realized he was telling the bunny more about the old tod than he had told any other Mammal and quickly recovered. "But I don't talk about John."

The bunny sighed. Then groaned. At the next red light she banged her head on the steering wheel then glared at her fox. "Look, Nick, your dad shows up out of the blue with a vague warning, then the very next morning we learn that someone is stalking your late mother." A pause. "Or, they're stocking you. Either way, your father clearly knows something. So, if you don't want to bring him in, fine. I'll drop you off at the station and I'll find him and bring him in."

The fox massaged the sides of his head just below the ears. "Look, lets just check back in with Buffalobutt before he gets impatient with us. We can revisit the 'lets bring John in' debate after."

Secretly, he was hoping the chief would give them another case to distract her.

And that's exactly what Bogo did.

After giving Nick a firm warning that Wolford and Delgato might need to speak to him as a witness on their case, and a stern command that he was to cooperate with them and not hassle his fellow officers, the cape buffalo ordered the pair to Tundratown.

Nick slipped a jacket on over his tactical vest and suppressed the urge to sigh with relief. His bunny was adequately distracted by a new case and the subject of his father or the possibility of his absurd ancestry coming out was thoroughly dropped. The fox was smiling when he and Judy stepped back out through the double doors of Precent One.

"Hey, maybe after this, we can stop by and you can visit with Fru-fru and Judy-Two." He suggested, offering a sideways grin at his partner. After getting over the initial shock of the bunny cop being -more or less- adopted into the Big crime family, Nick couldn't help be find Judy's association with the crime boss' daughter terribly ironic. "I think its so adorable watching that little shrewlet crawl across your palm like some-"

He was cut off abruptly.

There was the sound of rushing air, punctuated by a harsh THUD! Judy didn't know what was going on when her partner was suddenly thrown back against the glass door by the force of something hitting him -and hitting him hard! The bunny turned to see her fox slide down the glass, the wind knocked out of him, a dark arrow protruding from his chest.

"Nick!? NICK!"