EPISODE 4: PULL THE TRIGGER

ZPD HEADQUARTERS, BOGO'S OFFICE, 4:30 PM
"Judy slowly pushed open the huge door to ZPD Chief's office.
Bogo was waiting for her, sitting at his desk.
"You wanted to see me, Chief?" The doe asked, her voice betraying how exhausting, both physically and emotionally, had been the day for her.

"Yes, Hopps. Sit." The cape buffalo gestured toward the chair in front of the desk.
His face wore the usual stern expression, but there was a kind note to his voice.
Judy walked to the chair, still slightly limping, and briefly struggled to climb on the oversized chair before sitting down.
"Do you know why you are here?" Bogo asked her.

"Because of what happened in Happytown, I suppose." Judy replied quietly, her head hanging down.
She was struggling to fight back the tears.

"That's correct. I want you to fill me in on the events the lead to that." He confirmed with a nod of his head.

"Sir, with all due respect, I'd rather not. Beside, it's all written down in my report." She said, still not daring to watch him in the eyes.

"Yes, I've read it." He replied, producing the file from one of the desk drawer " But I want to hear it from you. Start from the moment you woke up, don't leave out any detail."
Judy took a deep, trembling breath, then began to narrate.
"Actually, I haven't had any sleep last night. The pain in my leg was driving me crazy." She admitted.
Well, maybe admitting wasn't exactly the best way to put it, since most of what Judy was going to tell Bogo was a lie.

Judy and the rest of the team had watched as an unwilling Skye had been dragged by Kevin and Raymond inside the limo parked next to the one they had been trapped in.
Then, both vehicles' engine had started, and they had left the lake's shore heading for Mr. Big's mansion.
The journey had been short and quiet: no one had been in the mood for talking, not even Connor.
They had just realized what a dangerous ally the mob boss actually was.
Judy had been sitting near Nick: the fox had appeared to be calm, his expression flat, but the frantic and erratic movements of his tail told another story entirely.
She would have wanted to comfort him, but after their bitter altercation, she had been afraid she might have only make things worst.

When they had finally arrived to the mansion, Judy and the others had been brought in a small living room, adorned with elegant wooden furniture and a lit fireplace.
The only door of the room had been locked behind them, once again trapping the five mammals.
Waiting was the only thing they could do.
"Is-is he going to harm us?" Connor had asked, fear creeping in his voice.

"Don't think so. The bastard need us, he likes it or not." Finnick had replied "He just doesn't want us in his way right now."

That had been the only hint of conversation that had happened in that room for hours.
Eventually, Connor and Abby had fell asleep on a sofa; Finnick had kept searching the room for any possible way out or weapon: apparently, he hadn't been so sure they had not being in danger, after all.
Judy had been sitting on the floor, observing Nick across the room: he had still been wearing the wetsuit, and had been sitting near the fireplace, trying to dry himself up.
When the clock had stroke four in the morning, the doe had finally gathered enough courage to get up and sit near the fox.

At first, Nick hadn't given any signal that he had registered her presence near him, simply staring at the roaring fire.
Then, as Judy had sat near him, the fox slightly turned his face and had looked at her with his emerald eyes, filled with sadness and anger.
"Hey Carrots."

"Hey Nick."
An awkward silence had followed for the next few seconds.

"So, were you planning to have a conversation, or you just wanted to warm your paws near the fire?" Nick had asked, breaking the silence.

Judy had cleared her throat.
"I just... wanted to apologize. What I said to you was mean, and unfair." She had said.
Since Nick had remained quiet, she had gone on.
"It's funny. I've spent my whole life trying to prove the prejudices against other species were rubbish, and then, I'm the first to use them against my friend.
Maybe I'm just a dumb bunny, after all."

"You are wrong." Nick had said abruptly.
" What you said was mean, but not unfair. I deserved it. You trusted me, and I betrayed that trust. And for what? My wife has apparently become a lunatic who has let me think she was dead for years while she enjoyed sightseeing across prehistory." He had said with a sad sigh.

Judy had gave him a sympathetic smile.
"Then, maybe we are a both dumb mammals."

Nick had chuckled softly.
"That sounds pretty accurate." Nick had replied, returning her smile.
Judy knew full well that conversation hadn't fixed things between them, but it had been a start.

"Does it still hurt?"

"I'm sorry?" Judy replied.

"Your leg? Is the pain still bothering you?" Bogo repeated, slightly impatient.

"Oh, no, it merely sting if I touch it or I lean too much weight on it." She replied.

"Good. Proceed with your story."

"Around four o'clock, I grew tired of staring at the ceiling, so I got up and read a book, 'The Da Linci Code'." Judy said.
Details were important to make her story more believable.

They had sat there for a couple more minutes, enjoying the warm emanating from the fireplace, before the door had finally opened.

Koslov had walked inside, making sure to block the doorway.
"Wilde, come with me." He had flatly ordered.

Judy had quickly got up.
"I'm coming with you too." She had firmly said.
A quick glance at Nick had let her now that he wasn't going to stop her.

Koslov had sighed.
"Fine. But the others stay." He agreed.

Judy nodded, then turned to Finnick.
"Keep an eye on those two" The doe had said, nodding in the direction of Abby and Connor.

After that, Nick and Judy had followed the bear into another room: from the way it was furnished, Judy had assumed it was a study of some sort.
In the middle of the room, there had been a bear sized desk, on top of which had been Mr. Big, sitting on his shrew-sized chair.
Before him, Skye had been tied to a chair, and had likely been questioned all the night.
Between the vixen and the shrew, a portion of the floor was missing, revealing instead a frozen river flowing beneath.
"Nicky, there you are. Our guest says she is not going to talk unless you are present. And I'm glad Officer Hopps has decided to join us too!" Mr. Big had greeted them.

Nick had clenched his fists.
"Did you hurt her?" He had asked.

"Oh, sweetheart, so you do still care about me!" Skye had piped up in a mocking tone.
"You know, I had doubted that for a moment when you sent the Tundratown mafia to kidnap me!" She had growled.

"It wasn't his fault. He tried to avoid it!" Judy had cut in in Nick's defense.

"I'm sorry, and you are?" Skye had asked.

"Judy Hopps, ZPD Officer." She had replied, straightening her back.

The arctic vixen eyes had widened in surprise, right before she had burst into laughter.

"This is rich! They let bunny become cops now? I've been away too long!" She managed to say between laughs.

This time it had been Judy who had clenched her fists.
Luckily, Nick had spoken up before she did.
"Yes, you have."The fox had said flatly.

Skye had composed herself.
"What do you want, dear?"

"I already told you. We just need information. You told me you can locate anomalies. How can you do that? And why are they happening?"

"None of this questions matters." She had cryptically replied.

"Then help us ask the right ones." Judy had said. "We are trying to save lives. Your knowledge of the anomalies could be crucial."

Skye had looked at her, a mixture of curiosity and surprise in her blue eyes, but had remained quiet.
She had said nothing for several minutes.

"Look, I want to help you ..." Nick had finally said.

"Free me, then!" She had cut him off.

"... but I can't do that if you don't help us first!" He had continued.

They had stared at each other in the eyes for a few seconds.
Then Skye had moved her gaze from Nick to Mr Big, finally landing it on Judy.
"Fine. I'll help you." She had said with a smirk."A new anomaly has already opened. I know where it is, but I want to bring you there myself."

Mr Big had scoffed.
"I'm afraid that is out of the question."

"Then have fun cleaning up the massacre a pride of saber-toothed cats will leave behind. I've seen it and trust me when I say it's not a pretty sight." She had retorted.

Judy hadn't needed Nick to explain her what that words meant; thousands of years ago, when their mammal ancestors where still savages, like herself had once explained in a school play, one of the most fearful predator was the Smilodon, or saber-toothed cat, cousin of modern tigers and lions and one of the most famous extinct animals.

"How can you be so sure this... cats will come through?" Mr Big had asked.

"On the other side, the anomaly has opened in their hunting ground, it's only a matter of time before they'll wander inside it." Skye had explained.

After that, Judy, Nick, Mr Big and Koslov had left the study, while three more polar bears had remained inside with Skye.

"Is it possible that she is telling the truth?" Judy had asked Nick.

"Yes, but I have no way to be a hundred percent sure." Nick had said.

"This is obviously some sort of trick. She'll just run through the anomaly at the first chance." Mr Big had replied.

"You can't know that. Beside, what if she's right and we just sit here while deadly predators rampage through the city?" Nick had retorted.

"I could make her tell us what she know." Mr Big had suggested.

Nick's shocked expression had quickly turned in one of pure anger, but Judy had intervened before he could do anything stupid.
"No one is going to torture anyone. You're right, Big, we can't completely trust her, but we're out of options right now. People's lives are at stakes here."

Mr Big had stared at her for several minutes, before finally sighing and nodding in agreement.

Thirty minutes later, they had been traveling inside a limo, with Skye sitting between Kevin and Raymond, who wouldn't take their eyes off her, as she had kept giving the driver instruction on how to reach the anomaly site.
The arctic vixen's indications had eventually lead them to the Zootennial Stadium, also known as "the water hole", because it had been designed to resemble a drop of water hitting the ground.
The place was often home to various concert and sports event, but ,at five in the morning, it had been luckily empty.
After Koslov had unlocked the door with a key card Mr Big had gave him before their departure from the mansion, an event which had left Judy wondering in how many places the mob boss might have freely access in Zootpia, Skye had guided them deeper inside the building, in the maze of bare concrete hallways which was the unseen backstage of every events organized in the stadium.
The group had finally walked through a double door which had lead them inside a kitchen.
"It's here, somewhere." Skye had announced.

They had looked around, but the only thing out of place had been a soft music coming from a clock radio someone had forgot to turn off the day before.
"Red." Nick had said simply, but Connor had understood exactly what the professor wanted him to do.
Rolling up his sleeve, he had checked his wrist compass, and had shook his head.

"No signs of magnetic fields here." The red panda had stated.

The red fox had sighed, and had turned to face Skye, opening his mouth to say something, but the vixen had been quicker.

"It's in there." She had said, pointing at the stainless steel door of a refrigerator.

"Why doesn't the compass pick it up?" Judy had asked, skeptically.

"The steel of the door is too thick for the magnetic field to penetrate through it." She had readily replied.

Judy had turned and had given Nick a questioning look.
"It's possible." He had replied, shrugging.

"Okay,then. Koslov, open it. Everyone else, be ready." She had said, keeping her gaze on the vixen.
The polar bear had reached the door with one paw, while holding his rifle in the other one.
But as soon as he had opened the refrigerator, the rifle flew from his grip, sucked in by the magnetic field of the anomaly.
Suddenly, it had been like the whole kitchen had took life, as pans, spatulas and many other metallic tools had began flying right into the shiny rift in time.
Finnick had barely managed to save Connor from being hit by a bear-sized ladle by tugging him out of its trajectory.
When the last tea spoon had vanished inside the anomaly, the team had quickly returned their attention to the glowing portal, but no creature had crossed it yet.

Skye had stepped forward, heading for the anomaly, but Judy had quickly stopped her, placing a paw on her chest.
"Where do you think you are going?" The doe had asked.

"That refrigerator is filled with fish, bug-burgers and chicken. If we don't remove them soon, the smilodons on the other side could smell the meat and cross the anomaly!" Skye had explained, a little annoyed.

"Koslov, Raymond and Kevin, take care of it, please." Judy had said over her shoulder, without moving from the vixen's path.
Skye had glowered at her, at which Judy had simply responded with a satisfied smirk.
They had kept staring at each other for some time, before Judy had noticed that Nick, Finnick, Connor and Abby had been looking at the two of them.

"Good luck handling this, Professor." Abby had said, patting Nick on his shoulder, before walking away to help the bears, followed by a snickering Finnick and Connor.

Judy had quickly removed her paw from Skye, and had cleared her throat.
She had been about to apologize, when Koslov had shouted:" Something is coming through!"

Judy, along with all the the mammals in the room, had turned to face the anomaly.
She had prepared for the worst, when a sound had come from the anomaly: only, instead of a mighty roar, it had been a shrill SQUAWK!
And right then, a flock of goofy birds had waddled through the portal.

"Are those...dodos?" Finnick had asked, raising his brow surprised.
The grey, funny looking birds had began to spread inside the room.

"Quick, catch them!" Judy had said when she had recovered from the surprise.
Those words had snapped the others back to reality, and everyone had begun running after one of the animals each.
The bunny has quickly jumped, grunting a little due to her injured leg, and had caught one.
Connor and Abby had cornered a second one against the wall.
Finnck had used is jacket as a barrier, blocking one of the dodos and pushing it toward Nick, who had trapped it under a bin.
Finally, the three bears had surrounded a fourth birds, and Kevin had caught it.
However, as they would later discovered, one of them had managed to leave the room, taking advantage of the confusion.
Unaware of that, they had sent every other dodo back into the anomaly, except one, which Abby had found dead.

"How has it died?" Judy had asked saddened, looking at the body.

"I don't know. It seems for natural causes, but I think we should do an autopsy to make sure it didn't carry any disease."Abby had said, at which Nick had agreed

While they had been distracted looking at the dead bird, they had left clear path for Skye toward the anomaly.
The vixen had quickly sprinted, and had crossed it.
Nick had tried to run after her, but Koslov had blocked him.
"Where do you think you are going?" he had growled.

Still, the bear had failed to notice the quick glance Nick had given to Finnick, and the fennec slight nod.
Then Finnick had run through the anomaly.
Judy quickly had gone after him.

When the bunny had crossed the anomaly, her harmed leg had given in due to the sudden sprint and she had found herself rolling down a grassy hill.
She had got back to her feet, and had turned to face Finnick, when she had noticed the look of awe on his face.
Judy had turned around to see what had caused that reaction and, as soon as she had done so, a murmured "Whoa..." had escaped her lips.
Around them, in a seemingly endless grassy meadow, there had been dozens of anomaly: some had been taller than a giraffe, other as small as a mouse; some had been on the verge of collapsing, while new ones had opened every now and then.

"Did you see where she went?" Judy had asked.
Finnick had shook his head.
"Then let's head back."

One they had come back, they had told the others what they had seen.
"Cool! It's like an anomaly Spaghetti Junction!" Connor had exclaimed.

"Is this really how you're going to call it?" Abby had said, raising a brow. "Also, is anyone else hearing this noise?"
Judy hadn't noticed before, but a low sound of static was coming from somewhere in the room.
It had been coming from the radio-clock, which had previously been broadcasting music.

"Interesting..." Nick had said, as he headed for the device.
He had then proceeded to twist the dial, changing the frequency, and the radio once again had began producing music.
"There's an interference... it appears to be only on the 87.6 FM frequency. I wonder if it's linked with the anomaly..."

Only then Judy had taken a closer look to the clock, realising it had been 6:00 AM.
"Sweet cheese and crackers! I'm late for work!"

"I'll drive you there." Koslov had offered, but Judy had refused.

"I won't show up at ZPD with a mobster. No offence."

"None taken." Koslov had replied, chuckling.

"Give me the keys, I'll do it. It's on the way for the university. I need to gather the tools for the autopsy." Nick had cut in.
The bear had thrown him the keys of the limo.

"Call Big so he can send you another vehicle."Nick had instructed, while living the room with Judy." Someone should stay behind until the anomaly closes. Abby, Finnick, prep the dodo for the examination. See you in an hour or so at Big's place."

"At 6 o'clock I've met with professor Nick Wilde, a friend of mine. He had offered to give me a lift to work." JUdy said to Bogo.
This part was closer to the truth.

"A fox and a bunny? Friends?" The Chief asked, surprised.

"I've met him on the Otterton case. He was in the forest doing some kind of research for his classes." She explained, choosing to ignore the specist remark.

"I see." The buffalo put on his glasses and opened the current case file."Here it says he is one of the witnesses of the facts in Happytown, is it correct?"

"Yes, I'm getting to that." She replied patiently. "As I was saying, he gave me a ride, and on the way here we stopped for breakfast."

The waiter, a lynx, had just left with their orders, when Judy had spoken up.

"I'm sorry, but I need to ask this: were you trying to run away with her?"She had asked.

"If I was trying to leave the 21st century to be with my crazy ex-wife in the distant past? I-" Nick had suddenly stopped, as for an afterthought.
"What do you think?" Had been his reply.

Judy had thought about it for some time.
"I- Honestly, I don't know. Part of me wants to believe you wouldn't do it, but there's a little voice in the back of my head... "
She had sighed.

"Hey, don't worry, I get it." He had said, reaching for her paws and holding it in his own.
"I mined the trust you had in me. Tha the whole team had in me. But I'm going to make up for it. I swear, just give me another chance." He had told her, looking straight into her eyes.
She had looked back in his, and had seen sincerity.

Her lips had curled in a kind smile, and she had leant toward him, and he had done the same.
Their muzzles were only a few inches away from each other; she could feel his warm breath on her fur.

Then the waiter had come back with their breakfast, and the two had quickly sat back, embarrassment clear on their faces.
Judy had been sure one could see her blushing even through her grey fur.
When the lynx had left again, Judy had slowly raised her gaze, until she had met Nick's equally awkward one.
Then they had both burst out laughing, and the breakfast had continued as if nothing had happened.

"After breakfast, I arrived here. I went to the bullpen, where you assigned me to patrol of the Rainforest District with Wolfard." Judy went on narrating the facts of the morning.
Bogo had been quietly listening.
"Nothing of note happened during the morning. We stopped for lunch, then we reprised patrolling. That was when I received the call."

"...And so the lion says:'That's not my tail!'"Wolfard had said, delivering the punchline of his joke, and laughing at it.

Judy had shaken her head.
"I think you should try with another kind of audience, Harry. Kindergartens might be the perfect place where you could look for it." Judy had commented.

"Ouch! That was mean." The timber wolf had said, flinching.
This time, Judy had laughed.

"Oh, so you do have sense of humor!" Wolfard had added, with an expression of mock surprise.

Judy had been about to deliver another snarky remark, when her phone had rang.
She had extracted it from one of her belt pocket, and had seen that Nick had been calling her.
"This isn't over." She had warned Harry, before swiping her finger on the screen of her phone, accepting the call.

"Hi Nick, what's up?" She had said.

"Hi Carrots. We might have a bit of a situation here."
Even through the speaker of the phone, she could make out the worry in the fox's voice.

"What happened? We've got another..." She had made a brief pause, looking at Wolfard beside her .
"...one?" She had simply said.

"Nope. Look, it's hard to explain on the phone. Can we meet up?"

"What? NOW!? I'm on duty!" She had replied.
The sudden outburst had gained her a raised eyebrow from Wolfard.

"And I'm a concerned citizen who is calling the police force for a possible pandemic!" He had hissed on the other side of the phone.

Judy's eyes had widened in fear and surprise.
"Where are you?"

"Happytown."

"Nick had called me because there had been various attacks by what had been described as rabid or savage mammal in Happytown."

"What was he doing there?" Bogo asked, interrupting Judy.

"He was visiting his mother, who lives there." She lied.
Judy, Nick and the others had all agreed to what version they were supposed tell the ZPD.

"And why weren't these attacks reported sooner to the ZPD?" Bogo questioned.

"I can't be a hundred percent sure, but I'd blame the fact that not many Happytown residents are fond of the police force." Judy replied.
This wasn't a lie: despite its name, that district was the exact opposite of cheerful.
Happytown could be described only as a slum: it was composed by rows and rows of crumbling, anonymous, two-stories houses.
Most of its population was composed of predators or criminals (often both) and was infamous for its high rate crime.
When Nick had told her his mother lived there, she had felt sorry for her.

Bogo nodded, and gestured with his hoof to resume the story.

"I explained Officer Wolfard that I needed to head to Happytown due to an emergency, and he drove us there, where I met with Nick."

Wolfard had pulled over the cruiser near a pub: from the inside, many had welcomed its arrived with less than pleasant glances.
"Wait here, I'll let you know if things go south." Judy had instructed the wolf.
Reluctantly, Harry had nodded as she had got out of the car.

Nick had been waiting for her in a nearby alley.
"It's better not to be seen with cops around here." He had told her on the phone.

"I've come as soon as I could. What is going on? You talked about a possible pandemic."

Nick had sighed, then had filled her in with the events of the morning.
After he had left her to the precinct, the fox had gone back to Big's mansion to start the autopsy on the dodo.
But before they could start, an arm-long worm had crawled its way from outside the bird's beak.
After a brief attempt to get to Abby, the worm had died.
"Probably it's some kind of parasite which cannot survive long without a host." Nick had explained to Judy.

"But if it's dead, I don't see how it can be a threat." Judy had argued.

"Well, apparently, we've missed one of the dodos, which managed to reach the outside, where it was found by two friends of Connor."

"What?! What were they even doing there?" Judy had asked, confused.

"They had grown suspicious of Red, and so they decided to follow him to find out what he was up to." Nick had replied.
"When they saw the dodo exit the stadium, they grabbed it and brought it back home with them here, in Happytown. They were aware of the uniqueness of the bird, and they were planning on selling it or something like that."
"The problem is, our dead dodo wasn't the only one infected with the parasite. The dodo started to show a violent behavior, and bit Duke, one of the two, before it died."

"It bit him? But they never showed any sign of aggressiveness before." Judy had cut in.

Nick had nodded.
"The parasite is to blame for that. In order to reproduce, it needs to infects other hosts with its eggs. In order to do so, it manipulates its host, making it more prone to attack other animals, so it can pass on the eggs through bites."

"Wait, through bites? So, this Duke has been infected?"

"Unfortunately, yes. When he started to act weird, Duncan, the other idiot, called Connor and told him everything they had done. He and Finnick are right now trying to track him down. He has attacked three mammals, that we are aware of, which are now being treated in one of Mr Big's private clinics."

"What about Koslov and the others? Are they helping them ?"

Nick had shaken his head.
"Too risky. What if they got infected? We don't want to deal with a pack of polar bears on berserk mode."

Judy had had to admit he had a point.
"Abby?"

"Is looking after the infected mammals. She is the most competent in biology. I've spent too much time with bones and fossils, and I'm a bit rusty when it comes to still breathing mammals."

"So, what about us?" she had asked.

"We could make up some excuse for your wolf partner to help us patrolling the district, looking for our weasel." He had suggested.

"I'm not a good liar, Nick." She had replied. "It was already hard enough to write down those fake reports, and those were written. I don't know if I can manage to lie about all of this while talking to someone."

"If things keep getting this messy, I'm afraid you won't have much of a choice, Carrots." Nick had said.
Right then, his phone had rung.

Nick's words appeared to be almost prophetic: there she was, lying to the ZPD Chief, her boss, about what had happened hours before.

"When I arrived there, Nick explained he had warned some friends of his to keep one eye out for anything unusual. We received a call from one of them, Connor Temple, which told us where we could find the savage weasel.
Temple had been able to track down the weasel as he was a friend of his."

Bogo was listening in silence, focused, almost as if he was trying to absorb her words and print them on the inside of his skull.

"We got back into the cruiser, and Wolfard drove us to an old school, no longer in use." Judy felt her eyes become watery and her voice began to waver, as the memories of what had happened once again began to fill her brain.

"Finnick, you found him?" Nick had asked.

"Nope. You and Connor had any luck?" The fennec had replied on the other side of the phone.

At those words, Judy had given a confused look to Nick, who had furrowed his brow in confusion too.
"I'm with Carrots right now. I thought Red was with you!"

Judy had heard a series of colorful curses involving Connor's private parts, then Finnick had calmed down.
"He told me you needed him, and left ten minutes ago."

"Shit. Okay, keep looking around for the weasel and that idiot. Let me know if you find anything." Nick had said, before hanging up.
He quickly dialed another number.

"Connor's friend insisted to gave us his number, in case Duke came back for him or something. Now I'm really glad he did." Nick had explained.

"Hello?" Duncan's voice had come from the phone.

"No time. I need to know if there is a place only the three of you knew, where Duke could have gone to hide." Nick had said.

"Well... there would be this place where... we...you know... smoked..."

"Listen, you getting stoned is the least of our problem! Where is it?"

"The old elementary school." He had quickly answered.
Nick had unceremoniously ended the call there, and Judy had lead him back to the cruiser.

"Hey! He cannot come..." Harry had protested, but Judy had hushed him.

"it's an emergency. Trust me. Nick, guide us." Judy had said determined.
Harry had gulped and quickly nodded, hitting the gas.
Nick had instructed the wolf on the route to take, and in a matter of minutes they had pulled over in front of the school.

"Hopps, if this is about finding me a proper audience..."
But Harry had stopped as soon as they had heard a gunshot coming from the building.
It had been too loud to be a tranq gun: the sound had belonged to an actual gun.

"I, Wolfard and Nick entered the building. I suggested we split up, so we could reach faster the place of the gunfight. I want to point out that splitting up was my idea, Wolfard merely agreed." Judy said.
A single tear rolled down her cheek, dampening her fur.
She knew it was going to be only the first of many.

"Noted." Bogo replied.
Then he quickly added:" We can take a break, if you need to."

But Judy shook her head.
"I can do this."

After a sobbing deep breath, she went on with her story.

"You should have stayed out!" Judy had hissed to Nick, who had followed her inside the building.

"No way, Carrots."

They had turned the corner of the hallway, and the reply she had been about to say had died in her throat.
On the floor, in a growing pool of blood, there had been three coyotes: many deep clawmarks and bites covered their bodies.
One gun had laid there, near one of them, still smoking: he had probably tried to hit their aggressor, but in vain.
Apparently, getting stoned wasn't the only illegal activity going on in that school.
Judy had quickly checked if the path was clear, before kneeling down beside one of them.
She had been able to pick up the pulse.

"Officer Hopps, 10-52, I've got three civilians in critical condition. I'm at the Happytown Elementary School." Judy had said in her radio.

"Copy that, officer Hopps. I've dispatched medical assistance at your location." Clawhauser had replied.

Judy had placed her radio back into her belt, had got up and looked around more carefully.
This time, she had noticed bloody pawprints wander off the crime scene, inside one of the old classrooms.
Her ears had perked up, and she had heard a voice: someone was talking and, even if she couldn't make out what was being said, the voice had been slow and articulating the words, like someone who is talking to a child.

She had slowly moved toward the source of the voice, Nick right behind her, and had begun to hear some low growls and snarls.
When Judy had been only a few steps away from the door, she had recognized the voice: it had belonged to Connor.

She had flattened against the wall, and had peeked over the doorframe: Connor had been talking to a scrubby-looking weasel, who had been standing on four paws, his back arched.
The weasel had been giving his back to the entrance, so he couldn't see her.
"Duke, it's me. I'm Connor, don't you remember?" the Red Panda had said.
Duke had made an hissing sound.

Judy had fully stepped inside the doorframe, surprised she hadn't make a single noise in the process.
She had slowly risen her tranq gun, aiming at the weasel.
Connor had seen her, but had kept talking: he was distracting Duke.
She had moved her thumb to take the safety off.
The safety made only a small CLICK, but for everyone it had been like if a bomb had exploded.

Duke had turned, and for the first time she had seen his face: his pupils had been reduced to slits in his bloodshot eyes and his mouth had been twisted in a savage sneer, fresh blood still dripping from his teeth.

She had fired, but the weasel had dodged the dart and had rammed into her.
Judy had fallen with Duke on top of her: pain had exploded from her leg, and she had let out a scream.
She had lost her weapon in the fall.
The weasel was about to sink his teeth in her throat, when a loud BANG echoed in the hallway.

Nick had collected the coyote's gun from the ground, and had fired: however, he had aimed to high, and he had missed.
Duke had got off Judy and had charged Nick: the fox had tried to back off, but slipped on the blood and hit the ground with a pained yelp.
The savage weasel had jumped on him, piercing his arms and torso with his claws.
Nick had yelled.

The fox had tried to get rid of the weasel, but he had proven to be stronger than he looked, pinning Nick to the ground.
Duke had tried to bit him on the neck, but Nick had managed to pull one arm free at the last moment, and had pressed it against the weasel's neck, keeping it away from his own throat.

At that point, Judy had been back to her feet and had scanned the hallway for her tranq gun.
It had been a few meters from her: she had picked it up and had aimed for the weasel.
But when she had pulled the trigger, nothing had happened.
It had been jammed, probably during the fall.

Thankfully, Connor had come in aid of the professor.
"DUKE, STOP!" the red panda had shouted, grabbing his friend's tail and tugging him away from Nick.
The weasel had turned around, and it had been clear that he no longer recognized his friend.
He had slammed Connor against a wall.
"PLEASE DUKE, STOP THIYYEEEARRGH!" Connor's plea had turned into a scream as the weasel had bit down on his left arm.

Judy had been running out of option: she was in no shape to engage the savage weasel in a physical fight.
Her worried glance had then fallen on a metallic object on the ground, near Nick.

The coyote's gun.

She had hesitated.
'He doesn't deserve it. It's not his fault.' A voice in the back of her head told her.
Another agonizing yell from Connor ended her inner fight.

Judy had lunged for the gun and had rolled back to her feet.

Judy had aimed.

Judy had pulled the trigger.

"I killed him. With one single shot aimed to his head." She finished her story.
Surprisingly, she had managed to hold back the tears.
"What happened next is a blur."

That was a lie too.
She remembered how she had calmly pulled a bleeding, crying Connor away from the dead body of his friend.
How she had quickly come up with a story to cover up what had really happened.
She felt sick for that.
'What am I becoming?' She thought.

"A good cop." Bogo said. "That's what you are becoming."
She had inadvertently said it out loud.
"This job requires sacrifices." The buffalo went on. "And not just physical ones. Sometimes, what you have to do to protect others will haunt you, will torment your soul, maybe for the rest of your life."
"I've been there too. But we cannot let them define us. We must fight our demons, so we can keep this city safe. Zootopia needs good cops like you. I need them." He told her, his expression softening.
"I'll put you on a temporary leave. You will see our psychologist twice a week. Only when she'll believe you're once again fit for the job, I'll put you right back on the streets." He added, returning to his default stern look.

Judy simply nodded.

"Until then, go home, Hopps. Have some rest."

Judy left Bogo's office.
At the end of the staircase which lead to the main lobby, there was Nick waiting for her.
The fox had replaced his torn-up shirt with a ZPD t-shirt too large for him, which still failed to cover the bandages on his arms.

"You look terrible, Carrots." He greeted her.
The fox was smiling gently.
"Let's go home, what do you say?"

Judy simply nodded.
Nick put one arm around her shoulders and she let him lead the way.
She barely registered her colleagues waving at her and their words of sympathy, or Nick telling her that Connor was being attended by Abby and that he would make it.
The half-hour long trip to her home passed in an instant.

Only when Nick had closed the door of her apartment behind them, leaving the whole world outside, the dam holding back her feelings gave up.
She fell to her knees and began crying.
"I am a monster." She cried out. "I am a killer."

Nick knelt beside her and hugged her.
"That's not true" He had whispered. "You are the kindest, bravest mammal I've ever known."

"But I-I..." She sobbed, warm tears rolling down her cheeks, leaving darker marks in her fur.

"You saved me and Connor. That's what matter. You got best out of a situation when it wasn't possible to get it right." He told her.

She buried her face into his chest:"Thank you for being here."
He hold her a little tighter, and curled his tail around her.
He began rocking her back and forth.
"Bunnies, so emotional." She heard him whisper, before kissing her on her forehead.

Her weeping slowly came to an halt and, cradled in the warm hug of the fox, Judy drifted asleep .

NEXT TIME: The Mystic Spring Oasis is under attack, but this time, the danger comes from the sky.
The team must contain the new menace quickly, before it expands its hunting ground to the whole city.

NOTES: Hope you've enjoyed the fourth episode of Primetopia.
this time I messed with the past tenses (Thing I won't do again in a long time), so I apologize for any eventual mistake.
I also apologize if this came out a bit late, but life happened.
Finally, I'm not familiar with police codes, so pleaze tell me if 10-52 doesn't mean 'ambulance required'.

Thanks again to all who have supported me and the story so far!

Reviews and advices are, as always, greatly appreciated!

TheNightManager