Chapter 2: Meet the Family

Wilde Abodes
June 25
07:22

Judy Hopps was still in bed. The last couple of days had taken a massive toll on her, but this dream that she was having made up for it- she could get back to that in a moment, after she checked the time. 7:22 was illuminated in glowing green letters. Satisfied with checking the time, she curled back up.

That's when it hit her, and with a slightly panicky hop, she leapt to her feet. CRUD! I'M GOING TO BE LA-

Just for good measure, she paused. Where was she? Had to be a home or apartment, judging from the keys jangling nearby, and a door opening. It couldn't be hers, as she couldn't quite make out what was being said- she could hear every argument that Bucky and Pronk had, and those weren't her neighbors. She was brought out of her musing by a knock on the door. "Come in!"

She was pleasantly surprised to see a fox cub entering. The cub had on a pink shirt with a white pawprint on it, and navy blue shorts. They couldn't have been much older than about 6 or 7. What surprised her most was the obviously homemade police cap, complete with ZPD logo in the center. It somewhat reminded Judy of how she was at that age. "Uncle Nick says you should come down for breakfast, Officer Hopps."

"It's just Judy, please."

"Alright, Miss Judy." The cub scrunched up her face for a moment, as if in thought. "Uncle Nick said I should show you where the bathroom is, and introduce myself." She pointed to a door with a towel rack on it, just slightly down the hallway. "That's the bathroom, Grandma said that she left some towels and soap and stuff for you. And as for me," she paused, stood at attention and saluted Judy, "I am Ellen Jennifer Wilde, junior ZPD Officer and Uncle Nick's sidekick when he's not at work!" It was slightly adorable how serious the cub's speech was. She also supposed that was why Nick had an occasional tendency towards slow responses at home.

Judy couldn't help but reciprocate. "Officer Judy Hopps, at your service."

Ellen giggled and then hugged Judy, taking the bunny slightly off-guard. "That was awesome, Miss Judy! I'm gonna go tell Uncle Nick that you'll be down shortly!" Once the cub let go of Judy, she then ran out of the apartment, forgetting to shut the door. Her cries of "Uncle Nick, Uncle Nick! Guess what!" echoed up the hallway. Judy hoped dearly that she wasn't going to wake up any light sleepers.

After closing the forgotten apartment door, Judy made her way to the bathroom. On the door was a painted cartoon of a fox covered in bubbles in a bathtub. She chuckled to herself as she entered the room.

The bathroom was a decent size, with a clean sink, toilet, and tub. Under the sink, there was a hamper marked "TOWELS" in big bright blue letters. On top of that was a set of towels and a small basket. Judy looked inside to find a complete assortment of toiletries- a new brush, toothpaste, soap- even Judy's favorite shampoo. She wondered how they knew.

Judy stepped out of the tub, feeling a lot more normal, even if only for a moment. As she pulled out a towel to dry herself, she found a corner where the fluffy towel seemed to get less fluffy. Upon closer examination, she found a small carrot embroidered in the corner. A closer examination at the stack of towels found that each had the same embroidered carrot.


"Uncle Nick, Uncle Nick! Guess what!"

Nick was still at the stove when he heard his niece shouting down the stairs towards him. "What is it, Ellen?"

"Miss Judy responded with a police salute!"

"Really? That's awesome!" He gave her a high five while turning the stove off.

"And she is as cuddly as you said—"

Nick's ears quickly dropped, as did his voice. "Shh shh shh Ellen."

Ellen looked back at him, slightly confused. "But it's the truth!"

Nick sighed. Wiping his hands off on the apron he was wearing, he knelt down to his niece's level. "Ellen, I need you to do me a favor."

"Sure. What is it, Uncle Nick?"

"You can't say stuff like that while Miss Judy is around. It's kinda complicated… you'll understand when you're older."

"Oh." Ellen looked down for a moment, then looked back at Nick. "Are you in love with Miss Judy?"

Nick sputtered for a moment. "No."

Ellen looked back at Nick with the I-Have-A-Suspicion-That-You-Are-Lying-Or-Wrong stare. Neither spoke for a minute, at least until she dropped the stare. "Okay," she said in a slightly resigned fashion.

"Why don't you go see what your Mom is up to?"

"Okay!" The energetic kit left the kitchen, and headed towards the dining room.


The scene that Judy walked into when she found the dining room was a scene of domestic bliss- Nick was tickling Ellen while an older looking fox looked on amusedly. At the other end of the table, a very small kit was in a high chair holding on to a bit of pancake, but was laughing as another male fox of Nick's age played peekaboo with them. Between them was sat a female fox, who was sipping a cup of coffee.

The older looking fox noticed Judy first. "Good Morning!"

The rest of the family stopped and looked over to Judy. The first one to speak was the little kit in the high chair. "Hi!"

Judy chuckled. "Well hello to you too." Turning toward the rest of the family, she replied "Good Morning. I'm Judy, I work with Nick at the station."

"I'm Marie," said the older fox, "I'm Nick's mom."

"I'm Nate," the other male fox Nick's age chimed in, "I'm Nick's brother. To my right is Jessie," the fox beside him groggily nodded her head before returning to her coffee, "and the kit in the high chair is Stephen."

"Well it's very nice to meet you all." Judy took a platter of pancakes and started serving herself.

"Likewise. Nick talks about you all the time." At Marie's words, Nick's ears dropped. "Though, to be fair, I don't remember him ever talking much about friends. Not even Finnick…"

"He was a business partner, mom. Purely business." Nick nearly missed his plate with the hash browns, but managed to save it before he spilled.

"Come to think of it," started Rick, "You never really mentioned him."

Nick inwardly groaned. I never thought I'd look forward to an event with one of Mr. Big's family this much.


After the trauma that Nick had gone through with the Wilde family at breakfast, brunch—or lunch, for him and Judy—was a more comfortable affair.

"I still can't believe your mom!" Started Judy. "I mean, she has never met me, yet she bends over almost backwards to try and help me, and all without expecting anything in return!"

Nick shrugged. "That's mom for you. Plus you weren't a complete stranger, in a way." He could see that Judy was still puzzled. "Carrots, how large was your extended family?"

"Very. Why?"

"Did you ever need to fall back on them? Or did someone need to fall back onto you guys?"

"Well sure, but—"

"Carrots, that dining table was all the family that we have. We had to fall back on charity before."

"You guys have that big ol' apartment building though! Speaking of which, how would I get an apartment there?" Hope was shining bright in her eyes.

"First things first, last name would have to be Wilde." Judy looked crestfallen. "Only family allowed- the building isn't certified to rent out beyond that. And even that took 2 years to do… there's so much more that would have to be done to get it to that point."

"I didn't realize."

"Don't worry, most mammals don't think it takes much more than a license and a big building for apartments. Besides, it's not as if we are hurting for cash. Jessie and Nate run a photo studio out of some of the ground floor. Pretty successful now, too. Usually in the running for best studio in town." Nick looked a bit proud at that.

Judy turned towards Nick as far as the seat belt would allow. "Why didn't you mention them much before?"

Nick paused. "Nate and I weren't speaking for a while. He didn't appreciate my con artist ways and how they were 'rubbing off on his daughter.'" To be fair, he supposed he shouldn't have shown Ellen how to run a shell game. "Jessie didn't think of it as badly, especially when I kept the artistry away from home."

"I could see the protective side of things." Judy responded. "But it's been nearly a year since the Night Howler case- shouldn't he have relented a bit?"

Nick sighed. "I'll tell you about it someday, just not today."

Judy wanted to press for further details, but she could see that Nick was looking a little… uncomfortable with this talk. So she switched the conversation. "I still can't believe that they would give me a card to FruFru's account!"

"Well, you are the godmother to JJ…"

"That nickname? Really?"

"Plus they know that you won't abuse it. And if you do, they can very easily ice you." Judy rolled her eyes. "I have it on good authority that they have iced people who have not held up their end of a business deal."

Judy looked at the card with a slight look of shock. Better be real careful with this then.