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 Four: Iron Point
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 whatever hit him. 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!"
The bunny went down on one knee next to her fallen partner. Her heart in her throat.
All around them Mammals were gasping or making other sounds of exclamation or confusion. There was no sound of a gun, but an officer was down, his distraught partner over him. Those around them didn't know if they should scatter in a panic, or stand and gawk -pull out their phones and take pictures or video.
The fox groaned. He unzipped his jacket to reveal the tactical vest he still wore, the arrow sticking out from the center plate. If he weren't wearing a vest, it would have gone right through his heart. "Ugh. That's gonna leave a bruise."
Judy blinked, not realizing that she'd been crying. Stupid bunny emotions. "Nick, you're... you're okay!"
"Of course, Dumb Bunny." He reached a paw up to wipe a stray tear off of the fur on her cheek. "Did you forget I was wearing my vest? These things were designed specifically to stop sharp things from impaling us, I think they can handle a little crossbow bolt." He groaned again. "Now, if you don't mind, maybe we should get back inside before they reload?"
She blinked again, as if suddenly remembering procedure. Get the target to safety. Then ask the pertinent questions. "Right. Come on."
Helping her fox to his feet, Judy kept him between herself and the building. She wasn't a very effective living shield, Nick was so much larger than her, but at the very least her tiny body would ensure that the would-be assassin didn't have a clear shot.
Clawhouser gaped at them in confusion when he saw the pair reenter the lobby. The fox staggering. The bunny trying to support him. "What happened to you two-? Is that an arrow!? What the-?"
"Page the chief!" Judy snapped at the cheetah. "Someone just tried to shoot an officer of the ZPD right outside the station!"
Technically, someone did shoot an officer of the ZPD. It might not have been a kill-shot, but there was still an arrow sticking out of his vest right over his heart. But that was not the detail Nick was worried about. "No. Don't call the chief! Its not a big deal. We don't need to make a case out of this!"
The last thing he wanted was to get the ZPD involved. He didn't want his colleagues learning of his ancestry of how it was still relevant to modern vulpine superstition and beliefs. Any normal Mammal would think it was crazy and Nick did not want to get any more uncomfortable looks besides the ones he was already getting as a fox police officer.
"Someone shot you!" His bunny protested.
"With an arrow!" Clawhouser added, starring at the bolt still protruding from the fox's chest with awe. "Like something out of the Starving Games!"
"Clawhouser, page the chief!" Judy once again commanded.
"No, Benji, don't bother the chief." Nick objected. "I got shot in the vest, its not like I took an arrow to the knee."
"Don't bother me with what?"
The cheetah lifted his chin, the fox and bunny turned around and peered up at the water buffalo looming over them. Nick threw on his best casual grin. "Ah-ha, I didn't see you there, sir. Behind me. Where I don't have eyes. Are you by chance a fan of Masked Bat? Because you do a fantastic impression of Masked Bat."
Bogo glared down at the fox. "Why is there an arrow sticking out of your chest?"
"Is there an arrow sticking out of my chest?" The fox asked in mock confusion. He glanced down at his tactical vest. "Well, so there is. Would ya look at that. Ya know, I'm gonna go take care of this right now. A police station is no place for quirky shenanigans and tom foolery. Whoever put that there should be ashamed of themselves."
Nick darted away in the direction of the males' locker room.
Pinching the bridge of his snout, the cape buffalo turned his attention to the retreating fox's partner. "Hopps, explain."
…
In the males' locker room, Nick stripped off his jacket and looked down at the arrow protruding from the tactical vest. If he hadn't put it on less than an hour before just to placate Judy, he would be dead now. Wrapping a paw around the shaft, he gave the bolt a hard yank. When it didn't instantly come free, he added a second paw and pulled harder.
Finally the bolt came free, nicking the fox's paw with the tip as he did so.
Nick hissed in pain at the sudden burning sensation, far worse than any superficial cut should feel. Iron. The arrow was tipped with iron. Nick was severely allergic to iron. "Oh, yiff me!"
He climbed up to the sink and -sitting on the rim- ran his paw under the cold water tap, adding soap and scrubbing hard to clean out the cut. It was a tiny little scratch. Just under the fur. Didn't even get past the first layer of dermis. But because it was iron that had cut him, it felt like his whole finger was bubbling and boiling under the skin. Already his paw was red, puffy, and irritated under the fur.
When he was sure that he'd cleaned it out as best he could, and scrubbing would do more harm than good at this point, Nick shut off the water. Bracing his wet paws on the stainless steel faucet, the cool metal helping to sooth his burning cut, the fox glared at his reflection. His own emerald green eyes stared back at him, looking irritated and worried. His mask was off, his emotions on full display for any and all to see. Taking a deep breath, Nick growled low to himself. "Robin Hood was just a fox. Fae don't exist. Whoever this psycho is, he's the crazy one. Robin Hood was just a fox. Fae don't exist. Robin Hood was just a fox. Fae don't exist."
He chanted this to himself several times, the rhythm of the repetition soothing him more than the words themselves. His mother always warned him that his words had power. It was one of the reasons he was always so cautious in his phrasing of things. 'Red wood, with a space in the middle, wood that is red.'
"Robin Hood was just a fox. Fae don't exist."
Finally, he felt he was calm enough to exit the locker room. His mask was firmly back in place. No one would see that this was getting to him. As an afterthought, he retrieved the arrow from where he'd left it. This time being carful to just handle it by the shaft or the fletched end, keeping his paws far away from the iron arrow head. He pulled an evidence bag from his duty belt and shoved the bolt in. It was a little to long to fit all the way in the bag, but at least the iron tip was now covered in plastic and less likely to nick Nick again.
As much as he wished to just pretend this little attempted murder thing never happened -as much as he wished he could pretend everything between this moment and his father showing up at his apartment the previous night never happened- Nick was not stupid. Someone attempted to shoot an officer of the ZPD right outside a ZPD headquarters. It was an act that could not go unchecked or uninvestigated. The chief would demand the guilty party be found, arrested, and the full weight of the law brought down on them. After all, if Zootopia's police force couldn't protect one of their own on their own turf, then how could they protect the city. As much as Nick would have liked to deny it, this wasn't just about him now. He couldn't take vacation time off and lay low until this blew over and whoever was gunning for him either gave up, or was 'taken care of' by his father.
Resigned to his fate, Nick exited the males' locker room in search of his bunny -and Chief Bogo.
Of course the 'search' wasn't long. Nick went straight to the chief's office, which is exactly where they were.
"Come inside and shut the door." The buffalo barked the moment the fox poked his head in.
Nick complied, shutting the door behind him and locking it for good measure. He didn't know what Judy might have told him already. Thankfully she didn't actually know much. The worst she could have said was that his father was a Mammal of interest in the case. That he broke into the fox officer's apartment the previous night and seemed to have some prior knowledge of this attempt on Nick's life since he asked the younger tod to wear a bullet proof vest. That was all Nick could think of that the bunny knew. That was all he could think of that the bunny could have told Bogo.
Climbing into the chair that fit both him and his bunny comfortably, the fox set his evidence bag covered arrow on the desk. "I expect you'll want the lab to run tests on this or something."
The buffalo glanced at the arrow, shoved in a plastic bag that was to small for it, then back at the fox.
"Why didn't you inform me immediately after threats were uttered against your life?" The chief wasn't messing around, apparently. He wasn't yelling or shouting. He didn't even raise the volume of his voice. In fact, when Bogo spoke, it was lower than usual. Graver, more serious. The buffalo was always serious, but Nick was seeing a new level of it now. Having one of your officers shot on your doorstep was no laughing matter -not even if the officer in question wished it to be so.
The fox blinked, not used to this quieter side of the chief. "What threats, sir?"
"Nick! This is serious!" Judy exclaimed at his side. She grabbed his arm with her small gray paw and shook him. "Someone shot you!"
"I'm not dead." He pointed out.
"Shut it, both of you!" Bogo snapped, voice returning to its normal volume and force. That was the chief Nick was used to. "I've become used to a certain amount of rule bending and procedure shirking from the two of you. But when a suspicious Mammal enters your home without your knowledge or consent and then implies a need for body armor, that is a threat! Regardless of your relation to said Mammal. Why didn't you report it, Wilde?"
"John didn't shoot me." Nick shook his head. For a moment, he toyed with the idea of explaining to them that the older tod had devoted his life to protecting and continuing the Robin Hood bloodline so attempting to murder him was probably the last thing his father would ever do. But that would involve explaining that he was a descendant of Robin Hood and why that was significant for foxes. (Well, that, and Nick was also John Wilde's only child, so maybe there was a little parental instinct in there too.) Instead he said, "He hates crossbows and has got cruddy aim with regular bows."
That was why the majority of his archery training as a kit was handled by his mother. Marian Longstride-Wilde was a master archer (among other things).
Bogo fixed the fox with an assessing stare. "Looks like you have a bit of foreknowledge about the attack yourself."
Nick blinked. "What would make you think that, sir?"
"All I see is an arrow." The buffalo tapped the plastic covering the iron tip. "What makes you think the weapon was a crossbow?"
The fox glanced down at the bolt on the desk. It was sized for a weapon that could be held by a small-medium Mammal like a fox, but the shaft was just a little to thick for a conventional bow. It would have to have been propelled by something with more kick than a paw-drawn string. But then again, the average Mammal didn't have his training. Things that might seem obvious to Nick might not be so apparent to others. "The force it hit me with." He explained. "I was thrown back, like it was a real bullet. A conventional bow doesn't give that kind of force, but a crossbow does."
"How do you know that?" Judy asked. Her paw was still on his arm. Nick made no move to pull out of her touch.
"I know lots of things." The fox shrugged, determined to appear casual.
"Wilde!" Bogo snapped their attention back to him and the matter at hoof. "Do you have any information about the Mammal who shot at you? Besides the fact that they were using a crossbow."
Yeah. They were targeting him because he was a descendant of Robin Hood. Things like that happened every other generation give or take -or so his father informed him. "No. I can't think of anything."
"Cyber-forensics just got back to me while you were crying in the bathroom and the files that were accessed during the break-in at City Records were yours." The chief informed him. "Your current address, and where you work. Someone is targeting you specifically, Wilde. Can you think of any reason why someone would go to such lengths to find and kill you?"
Yes. "No." The fox assured the larger Mammal. "I can't think of anything."
Judy's paw tightened on his arm. Bogo continued to glare at him. Nick kept his expression neutral.
"Nothing at all?" The buffalo pressed.
"No. Nothing." He continued to maintain.
"I don't like sociopaths with crossbows running around my city taking pot-shots at random citizens, Wilde." Bogo informed the smaller Mammal, taking what looked like an old and slightly faded case file out of his desk. "I understand your mother was also killed under similar circumstances-"
"What?" Nick cut him off. "No. My mother died in an accident on her way home from work."
And the moment the statement was out of his mouth he realized how stupid and naive he was for believing it. For one, it was something his father told him and Nick had already come to terms with the fact that he couldn't just blindly believe the things John Wilde told him. Mammals tried to kill off Robin Hood's descendants every other generation or so -give or take. His mother died under suspicious circumstances. 'Lets make a fort under the bed. It'll be fun!'
Nick's vision blurred and he blinked tears out of his eyes. His mask trickling down his face with the realization. "My mother was murdered?"
It looked like Bogo was about to pass him the whole file -which was not very thick at all- but upon seeing the fox's shocked and dismayed expression, his feelings on full display (something that never happened) the buffalo paused, rethought the decision, pulled the file back to himself. The folder might have been small, but it did contain some rather uncomfortable crime scene photos. One in particular that showed the fatal wound after the arrow had been removed. The fur was dark and curled, the skin red and blistered, almost as if burned. Nobody needed to see their mother like that.
Instead he took out a single photo from the file. "Cause of death was a projectile through the heart. An arrow like the type from a crossbow, tipped with an iron point instead of the standard steel point found on commercially sold hunting arrows."
He laid down a photo next to the arrow Nick had pulled from his tactical vest. A picture of the projectile from his mother's cold case, a dark iron tipped arrow.
They were identical.
The arm under Judy's paw gave a shudder. She looked at the fox beside her and realized that he was trembling. Eyes wide with the horror of the realization. One paw over his mouth. She stood up on their shared chair and wrapped her arms around him, pulling the larger Mammal into a comforting hug. "Nick... are you okay?"
"My mother was murdered." He said again.
Judy rubbed circles in his back in an effort to help him calm down. "Chief, maybe we could save the rest of this interview until after he's had some time to process this information? He's clearly in shock."
Bogo once again pinched the bridge of his snout. Then cleared his throat. "Obviously, I can't have Wilde out in the field with a psycho gunning for him. Innocents might get killed in the crossfire. Wilde is relieved of duty until further notice." A pause. "And I'm placing him into protective custody."
"I don't need-" Nick began to say, but was cut off abruptly by Judy.
"Chief, I request a position on Officer Wilde's protection detail!" Of course she would.
The buffalo's serious expression softened with a gentle smile. "I would expect nothing less. Dismissed."
Judy jumped down from the chair and -holding Nick's paw- pulled him down with her. She dragged him out of the officer and through the station, not pausing until they got to their own work cubicle. Once concealed behind the -completely ineffectual- privacy screens, the bunny pressed herself against her fox in a much, much more intimate hug than the one she offered in the chief's office.
"I'm so glad you're alive." The bunny muttered, rubbing her chin against the tactical vest covering his chest.
"I'm pretty glad I'm alive too." That cavalier smirk was back on his face again. But it was weak and hollow, obviously fake even to the most unskilled of onlookers. Nick caught himself stroking Judy's long ears with a claw and stopped, actually paying attention to what she was doing to him instead. "Are you chinning me?"
The bunny froze abruptly. "N-no."
She didn't mean to scent-mark him. She was just so overwhelmed. When Nick was hit by that arrow... One moment he was standing next to her joking with her, the next thing she knew he was thrown back, slumped against the closed precent door, an arrow protruding from his chest. In that moment she forgot he was wearing a vest under his jacket. He didn't move in those first few seconds... Judy honestly thought he was dead.
...And the idea was more than just horrifying for her.
For half a second she thought she lost more than just a friend. She thought she lost- -she thought she lost the opportunity for... … for having a partner that was worth chinning. Judy suddenly realized she didn't know what to think about that. The idea that she might have lost him made her realize that she thought about Nick as more than just a friend. The bunny might appreciate the view of his sleek vulpine lines and long, bushy, bottle-brush tail. The aesthetic of 'fox' just appealed to her (since moving to the city). But she never would have imagined Nick as a... as a boyfriend.
Sure, they might indulge in relationship-chicken, joke around in ways that certainly weren't normal for strictly platonic friends, but... He was a fox! She was a bunny! A relationship between them just wasn't done. At least, not a relationship that was anything more than friendly.
But now was not the time for that. Judy pushed the new and terrifying realization to the side for the moment. The threat to his life was far more terrifying anyway. Judy didn't know whether or not she wanted him as an actual boyfriend or if it was just the adrenaline making her overly emotional -hysterical, almost- and she was clinging to him more ardently for fear of losing him instead of a sudden epiphany that she was actually in love with her vulpine partner. But she did know that she wouldn't know how to live with herself if he died.
The bunny coughed.
Nick bent his neck down and sniffed at the spot she marked, his expression unreadable. Should they talk about what just happened? Which thing that just happened, him being shot, or her scent-marking him? The fox was avoiding eye contact with her when he cleared his throat. "Alright."
"Its not alright! Someone tried to kill you!" Judy roared.
"I meant, alright, you win. We can bring in and question John." Clarified the fox.
He moved to exit the cubicle.
She put herself between Nick and the gap in the privacy screens. "No, you can't leave. Its not safe! You were shot walking out of this building."
"I'll have to leave at some point, Carrots." The fox informed her. "Even if someone else brings John in for us, I can't live here at the station. The bathrooms are the wrong size for one. You did heard my story of how I almost got my foot stuck in the shower drain, right? No one knows how long it'll take to catch this guy. I'll need to go home at some point."
"Well, you won't shut up about it, so, yes. I heart the shower drain foot story." The bunny huffed. It was no where near as traumatic as her 'fell in the toilet bowl' story and he really needed to get over it. Then again, knowing Nick, he was probably just bringing it up again now because he knew it irritated her and he'd rather she be irritated instead of worried. "And, no, you can't go home until this guy is caught. Did you not hear the chief? He knows where you live!"
Now it was the fox's turn to huff. "And so what do you suggest, oh great and wise Fluffbutt?"
Judy paused. She looked to the side, thinking. Glanced up at Nick. Her eyes drifted lower to the scent-mark on his chest, then flicked back to his face. He knew the moment she came to some sort of a decision because her brows came down over her eyes in an expression of determination. Bunnies. They wore all their emotions on the outside. No filter, them. Everything was on full display.
"Then I'll take you to a safe house."
Nick raised a brow. For some reason, when she said 'safehouse' is sounded suspiciously like 'my house'.
"Yeah!" Judy nodded, that energetic and optimistic light back in her eyes. "They know your address, they don't know anyone else's address. You'll just stay somewhere else!"
She grabbed his paw.
It was the one he'd nicked with the iron tipped arrow earlier and the fox winced at the touch.
Judy paused, looking at the reddish brown paw in her own small gray one. It felt a little warmer than Nick usually did. One finger was swollen, the skin under the fur red and puffy as if irritated. A small rash forming. "What happened here?"
He jerked his paw out of her grip. "Its nothing." The fox assured her. "Its just a tiny cut. I'm allergic to iron and I cut myself with that arrow's iron head. I'll put some silvergel on it when I get home -or get to this safehouse you wanna take me to."
His bunny continued to stare at the puffy rash under his fur. She looked up at him in confusion. "Silvergel isn't for rashes, you want calendula oil or anti-itch cream."
"Silvergel works really well for me." Nick informed her not deigning to elaborate.
"Alright then." Judy nodded, still skeptical but choosing to humor him anyway. "After I get you to the safe house, I'll swing by a CVS and get you some silvergel."
She let go of his paw.
There was a pregnant pause.
They just stared at each other.
Another Mammal came up behind the bunny and knocked on their cubicle's privacy screen. "Sorry to interrupt your latest session of 'gazing meaningfully into each others eyes as if the rest of the station doesn't know whats going on', but the chief says Wilde here is to be secured until Wolford and Delgato return to question him."
"What?"
Both fox and bunny looked up at the tigress officer. Fangmeyer. She looked down at the smaller Mammals with a gentle -and ever so slightly amused- smile on her face. "So, wherever you were about to take off to right now, Wilde can't leave the building."
Nick did not look the least bit impressed. "So I'm supposed to just, what...? Sit here and wait for Wolfie and El Gatito to figure everything out for me? Delgato couldn't find his way out of a paper bag!"
Fangmeyer raised an eyebrow. "Is that supposed to be a cat joke?"
The fox immediately regretted his words.
"I'm sure Nick didn't mean anything by it, Zoe." Judy said, stepping in to mediate between her partner and the senior officer. "He's just had a stressful day."
"Having someone trying to kill you can have that affect on a Mammal." The tigress digressed, offering the fox the benefit of the doubt. "Keep him away from the doors and windows, Hopps. If he gets difficult, you have my permission to taze him and lock him in an interrogation room."
"Hm, tasers and pawcuffs..." Nick shook his head. "You ladies are into some pretty kinky stuff. I think we'll need a safety word."
The two females exchanged a glance.
"You can also taze him if he just plain irritates you." Fangmeyer added, then walked away.
…