Now that most of my reader have dropped this fanfic because of the last chapter, I can finally begin to unload the 'good stuff'.

;)

Have a nice read.

The train ride lasted longer than she remembered, stretching itself through the country, through multiple towns. People got in and people got out, their unknown faces only passing through Judy's mind.
She was a cop for nine months know, and proud to be one. It had been a challenge, to get accepted by her colleagues and to make her family accept that she wasn't going to change her mind. Now, 9 months after the night howler case, she was going home to visit. She was anxious, apprehensive. Even if she tried to talk with her parents at least every two weeks, seeing them in person would be different, and every comment on her well-being and their fears would be more real than in a simple face-call.

"Bunny Burrow, the train has arrived at Bunny Burrow, please don't forget any luggage on board and mind the gap between the train and the platform." It was around 8AM.

She stepped out, holding her luggage with her right arm, looking around to see if her family was waiting for her.

"Judyyyy !" Mutliples shouts came to her. A wave of big ears and little noses washed over her, and soon she felt more Clawsmas tree than bunny. A part of her siblings had come to meet her, they were hugging her and only part of her face was still visible.

"Kids, let go of her, we'd like to see her too." came a motherly voice. Judy's mother was a bit larger and smaller that her daughter.

"Yeah, kids, she's not you're personnal hoping ground." her father had what one could call a country voice. Thick farmer accent, jovial tone.
The kids finally let go of her, she went to hug her parents.

"Mom ! Dad ! I missed you !"

"We missed you too, girl."

She was sitting in the truck, next to her mother. Her father was drving while her siblings had piled up in the runk. She had cringed the idea. Since she was a cop she had seen a lot of accident and the more gruesome often involved kids with no seatbelts. There was nothing she could do, beside rationalizing that her father was a prudent driver and that there were few people on the road at this hour.

They arrived at her home. It was a massive repurposed shed, were many dependencies had been added each generations. She couldn't believed she had missed the place. As big as was this place, with all her siblings, it always feeled cramped. The noise and activity never ceased and it wasn't the best place if one wanted to take a nap. Still, it was more her home than the shoebox she currently lived in.

They entered the large house, accompagnied by the chattering of Judy's siblings.

"So what's the program for Carrot's week. Do you have a booth ? Are you selling stuff ?"

"Of course we are Judy. We're selling carrots, raddish, shallots..." began Stewart

"So much stuff we can't all list them."

Judy greeted the siblings that hadn't com the trainstation to meet them. Not all of them though, since it would have taken the whole day. She then took her luggage to her old room. Aside from the dusting, it had not been touched since she had gone back to zootopia. Contrary to most of her siblings, her room wasn't shared. She had insisted to have one so she could study more.
She signed in nostalgia, looking around her, detailing her room. She felt like an archeologist, going around a long forgotten place.

Decoration had been kept to a minimum aside for two posters. One about the ZPD, showing a bunch of officers with a big "Join us TODAY" written at the top. The other one was from Gazelle. There was also a now mostly empty cabinet as they passed down their clothes from a sibling to another.
She opened the luggage and hesitated to unload it in the cabinet. It was ultimately pointless, she decided. She then left the room to join her family in the common room.

The carrot festival had evolved as the year passed. In the beginning it had been created by the first farmers of Bunny Burrow. They were all rabbits that had assembled their belongings and money to create a carrot farm. As th years passed, the quality of thier products was well known. The year came when they finally had established themselves as the main carrot providers for the region. The celebration ensuing had evolved in a five days festival. Since then they had opened the event to the city's outsiders, using it to promote their products and culture. The production had evolved over the years, they weren't only selling carrots but a whole lot of differrent type of vegetables.

As an aspiring ZPD officer, Judy had never really paid attention to the celebrations. She thought of it being more of a chore she was forced to participate to than something she could be proud of. But now, as she had matured enough, it mad her happy to see everyone so busy with the preparations. Her parents and siblings were proud of what they made and she could now see how that was important.

Her parents were not in the commong room, one of her cousins informed her that they were working near the barn.

As she went outside she saw he mother filling a large basket with carrots, neatly aligning them. Judy came to help her.

"You don't have to do that Judy, you're on vacation. And I know how you always hated doing this."

"I want to help, mom. I can't really look while you're all work, can I ?"

"You wouldn't really be a Hopps otherwise" The Jovial voice of her father came from behing the two does.
He was carrying a pile of square basket that was towering over his head. He them down and hopped to take the one a the top. Judy was aware that rabbits had legs made for high jumps, but seeing her chubby father jump this high always impressed her. He began to fill his own basket with the orange roots.

"So what's the day's program ?" asked Judy

"We fill the baskets with as much product as we can, we load the truck, when the truck is full I go an unload it at our booth while you fill other baskets. Rince and repeat until 5PM. And then I'm going fishing with Gideon."

"You're going fishing ?" the doe had a puzzled look on her face.

"Yeah, Gideon introduced me to the practice. It's relaxing. I release what I catch though."

"And you mom ?"

"Me and the girls are having an aperitif at the house. You can join us if you want."

Judy perfectly knew what an aperitif meant. Her aunts, cousins and all other rabbits would be present and she'd have to face waves of questions and concerns about her personnal life. Did she have mate ? why didn't she have a mate ? Was she dating someone at the moment ? Would it be serious ? Had she considered having kids ? Did she know her internal clock was ticking ?

At the moment, she wasn't seeing anyone, and there wasn't anyone she was interested in anyone. At this thought, images came in the foreground of her mind. A lean and atheltic silhouette, a red and cream fluffy tail, pools of emerald were she would let herself drown into. Feeling red come to her face, she chased the pictures.

Don't be foolish Judy. There is no way- just don't think about it.

She decided to take the cowardly way out.

"I'm think I want to try fishing. I've never done it and it would be nice to see Gideon again.

If both of her parents had perfectly understood the real reason behind her choice, they didn't show it.

"So this evening it's me and Jude the dude. You'll see, it's less barbaric than it appears."

...

Judy felt her every muscle screaming in agony. As a cop, she was always training to keep in shape, but the farmers work sollicited parts she didn't usually use. She had lied down in the weed, looking at the cloud while her father prepared the fishing gear. The perspective of getting back up wasn't pleasant. The good news was that she would spend the morning after sleeping. There were perks at being on vacation.

"Get up Jude, we're going." Her father had come and offered his hand to help her up. She took it and soon they were in the truck, making their way to the fishing spot. As they arrived, she saw Gideon having already put up his equipment. A simple handmade fishing road, two seats and a portative radio.

"Hey Stu ! Judy ? Oh sorry, I didn't know you were coming, I woulda put up 'nother seat otherwise."

"Don't worry Gid'" said Stu, "I have brought mine."

She shook the fox's hand and helped her father se up her equipment. In reality she mostly watched him, since she didn't know how to proceed.

"Hey, big girl, can you give me two hooks from inside the little pink box ?"

She rummaged inside her father's fishing bag, found the box and opened it.

"Now Judy, be careful, the hooks are barbed. If you stick one in your finger, chances are we'll have to dig to take it out."

"Yeah, I've the scar ta prove it !" Gideon showed his right paw, wearing thin scars. "Painful lessons" he added. It was enough warning for her to be extremely careful around the hook's little boxes. She gave two of them to her father.

...

The radio was playing relaxing ambient tunes from one of Gideon's CD. Judy's father was slumbering on his seat, his cap covering his eyes. Gideon had an empty gaze turned toward the calm stream.
"So how is the blueberry pie business ?" She had asked in a low voice not wanting to disturb the fish nor her father.

"It's good. The shop's doin' great !"

"How did you get into the baking business ?"

"Oh. Uh. You remember I dropped high school after repeating 10th grade twice or thrice. Well after that I didn't do much, I wos still hangin' wid' Travis but he wos trying to become a mechanic so he didn't 've so much time anymore." He scratched his head. "I had began stealin' booze from pa at the time. Ah think he knew but wid' work and all, he and ma didn't have time to talk to me. They sent me to some kinda squirrel counselor after I crashed the car at the entrance of the garage. 'wos so drunk I didn't see the wall." He looked a bit ashamed

"The guy said he could help me to get out of the drinking habit, find a job and all but for that I had ta want it. I didn't really care anymore so just so my parent would lay off mah case, I kept going twice a week." He tugged at the rods. "In the end, I stopped drinkin', and he said to me that there wos a job for me at the Ol'Leaper's Bakery if I wanted it. I said there wos no way I'd work for some stupid loser rabbit. The way the squirrel looked at me, I thought he wos gonna shout. After that he said I needed some kinda real therapy cause I had some real problems. I don't remember the terms he used but I mostly answered that was bullshit. He gave me the adress to the 'real therapist', friend of his, I went and the guy wos a rabbit." he chuckled

"I wos a real jerk wid' him too, kept calling him a loser but he wouldn't quit, called my home when I didn't come or was late. So neither did I. I wanted to prove he was useless or whatevah. He said I had self-doubt and anger problem and projected on people to feel better." Gideon leaned back, looking a the sky with a smile "In the end, he got through to me. I can't understanded how he did so with the pig-head I wos, but he did. When I thank'd him he said he just asked the right question and I found the answers mahself. Then, when I went back to dah squirrel, he said the baking position wos still open." Judy was still listening. The fox yawned and she couldn't stop herself to do so too.

"I worked at Ol'Leaper's for three years. The ol' owner wos even more speciest than me, kept telling that foxes were red because they were made by the devil. He wasn't so bad, he still gave me a job, and he was the most honest mammal I ever met." he chuckled again, recalling the event. "Beside Ol'Leaper, there were other employes, rabbits too, a Carlin sum't'ing and a Jessica Hopps-"

"My cousin ?"

"Yeah. She didn't like the job though, I had been hired to replace her. Anyway, the ol'guy wanted to retire, saying that he would let the best baker buy his bakery. Loved the job, loved the place. And I wanted to prove the geezer species didn't mean shit. As if I learned that somehow." He snorted, containing his laugh.

"Three years, I worked my ass off. First to come, last to go, skipping off days, watching him work and learning as much as I could. In the end, he had to admit I was the best baker he ever had. Toldja he was honest. And he accepted ta' sell me the bakery. Pissed Carlin off so much he quit on the spot. I didn't really wan' it in the beginning, but since I love baking an' the patrons liked me, I thought I might as well go through with it."

"I renamed the shop 'Gideon Grey's Real Good Baked Stuff', I wanted it to be my own. I know it doesn't sound as good as Ol'Leaper's Bakery, but I wos a bit too enthousiast... After that, I associated with your parents and added the rest of the name to my delivery truck and on the front of my shop".

After he had told his story, a silence installed itself. Judy was taking in the fox's whole story. Finally she said :

"I'm impressed by you. I would never have imagined you could do all that."

"Hey don't beatcha self up. Neither did I !"

"Maybe but still. I owe you an apology."

He looked at her with a puzzled look "Why ? I was a jerk to you, not you to me."

"No you're wrong. Well, you were a jerk to me, that's true, but I was a jerk to you too. I called you small-minded, I thought you were small-minded, and always suspected you when bad stuff happenned at school."

"Yeah, but mostly it were my fault, 'remember the laxative fed marked chicken ?" He had a fanged grin akin to the one Nick wore sometimes.

It must be a fox thing.

"Numbered one, two and four. They looked for the third one for weeks. I must admit, it was hilarious." they laughed quietly but Judy continued "I still want to apologize. I was a jerk to you. I assumed that you were a complete idiot, and that you couldn't change. And that was partly due to my bias against foxes. So I'm sorry. Will you forgive me Gideon ?" She offered her paw and he immediately shook it.

"I change, you change. I don't see no reason to be upset with you."

As he said that, one the rods began to bend, the wire stretched. Something was pulling at the hook.

"We caught something !" said the vulpine as he rushed to pull the fish out. "Judy, get the net ! Stu, come an' help me, tha' one's gonna be big !"

The day before, she had fallen into her bed of exhaustion. She hadn't worked that much but the emotional and physical weight of her police work had suddenly washed over her. However she had trouble falling asleep, there was something amiss, something she couldn't pinpoint. She stared at the ceiling, trying to understand what was happenning, and the image of a fox appeared again . She chased it back to where it came from and turned to her side, burying her face in the pillow. Sleep slowly came to her, and she slipped into a calm slumber.

As she woke up, the sun was up, and she could tell it was already late. She felt icky, still wearing her clothes from the day before. The doe went straight to the shower, then dressed herself quickly and went down to the kitchen to take her breakfast. The house was calm. Sure, there were still bunnies, but way less than usual. As she stepped into the cooking room she saw a male bunny that she didn't recognise, back turned, going through the large fridge. He turned back to face Judy as he had heard her come.

"Hey sleepy head, you up at last ?"

"Uncle Terry ? Nice to see you ! How are you doing ? What are you doing here ?"

The rabbit took out a pack of soda-bottles from the fridge. "I'm good, thanks for asking. Your mom asked me to come and get those, we don't have anything to drink to the booth anymore."

"What ? What time is it ?" She took out her phone, she hadn't thought to look at it when she had woken up. It was past 3PM. "Oh carrots. That never happens."

"Seems to me you had hours of sleep to catch up to. Lots of them."

"Probably, yeah. Can I accompany you back to the festival ? Can I help you carry anything ?"

"Sure, there is another pack that I need to take. Carry it and I won't have to make two trip."

...

The car was running down the road, toward the city's center, where the festival took place.

"Did I miss anything important ?"

"Beside your father telling how he was so proud of you to everyone that came at the booth and your mother saying him to shut-up and serve the client, no, not much."

"Uneventful morning, so ?"

"As a carrot's festival day can be. There are thousands of people from towns around that have come this year. It's not the most we've ever had, but that sure is something. Oh, and Gideon's booth is right next to ours. It's always fun to see people react at him and your parents being so familiar with eachothers. You know what people think of bunnies with foxes."

"I know. Stereotypes die hard."

"But they do eventually. You opened lots of peoples' eyes, your parent's and mine included. No wonder your parents are proud. I know I am."

She and her uncle weren't so close, but she was really friend with his daughter Jessica, he had seen her grow up.

"Thanks, that means a lot."

The streets had been decorated with carrot themed posters and garlands. If anyone had been allergic to the color orange, he would have immediately died of choc. The town wasn't big, it was mostly a meeting center for farms around, so when the festival was up, there was not a place that didn't partake in the festivites. Music was played, people were loud and kids annoying. She and her uncle made their way to the Hopps' family booth.

It was probably one of the biggest in the festival, selling and presenting a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Her parents and family were busy, cheerfully chatting with every client, boasting the quality of their products.

Judy went behind the booth with Terry, carrying one of the bottle-packs. She put it down and tapped her father's shoulder.

"Hey Jude, Jude the Dude !" he hugged her.

"Hey, Judy ! I thought you'd never wake up." said her mother.

"Yeah, as said Terry, I had hours of sleep that I needed to catch up to. I was more tired than I thought. Do you need help with the booth ?"

"No, not really, go and visit the festival. You can go say hello to Gideon, he is right next to us."

Before leaving, she came and said hello to every present member of her family. It took her a whole fifteen minutes before she would be done. She then came around to Gideon's pie and bakery smelling booth.

Gideon was having a conversation with a doe in his booth. It surprised Judy at first, but since her best friend was a fox, there was really no reason to be.

"Hey Judy, you're here !" greeted the fox

"Judy ?" The doe turned around. It was Jessica. She leapt to her and hugged her. "It's so nice to see you ! It has been so long ! How are you doing ? How is Zootopia ? How is being a cop ? Wha-"

"I'm good. Jessy, calm down, breath."

She and Jessica had been friend since they were little. Her cousing had left the house to live on her own in bunny-burrow a few weeks before Judy had left to get into the police academy. They were as close as siblings with complete opposite interest could be. Her cousin was easily excited and a tad hyperactive. For a bunny, the combination could be deadly. She had stopped talking but she was bouncing in place, keeping at bay the metric-ton of questions she wanted to unload.

"Slept well ?" the fox asked.

"Like a log. I hadn't slept like this for a long time. Never in fact. Almost twenty hours."

He took out a plate with a slice of blueberry pie "Hungry ?"

She was about to politely refuse, but at that moment Judy and her body remembered they hadn't eaten that morning, or at noon. Her stomach loudly gurggled.

"Of course, thank you !" She devoured the slice in a matter of second. "Sorry, I haven't eaten today yet."

"In that case, you can have this." He took one of his carrot-pie and cut a large slice that he gave her.

"That's nice, but I'd like to pay." She didn't like handouts, it made her embarassed and it happenned a lot in Zootopia. Some people even paying for her groceries to thank her for the Bellwether case.

"Nonsense, those are your families' carrots. Take it, really." She hesitated but the fox's warm smile put down her resolve. And she was still hungry.

"Fine."

She glanced at Jessica. She was still bouncing in place but at a way higher frequency. Judy ate her slice of carrot. It was delicious, perfect mix of sweet and salty. Gideon really was a great baker. She finished the slice and turned back to Jessica who seemed about to implose.

"Okay Jess, go ahead, but one question at a time."

"How is Zootopia ?"

"Big. No gigantic. There is always something happenning and it can be scary, but it really is a nice place."

"How's the police life ?"

"Well it's tiring but really rewarding. People are not always happy to see us, but sometimes you get to really help someone and I think it's really what it's all about."

Jessica would have kept asking question for a long time but Judy had some questions too.

"My turn to ask something. I know you and Gideon met when his bakery was still called Ol'Leaper's Bakery. I thought you quit after that."

"Oh, I did. The work was too boring. I wanted to do something more intersting, where I could move more. We didn't work long together but we stayed friend. When he needs an extra-pair of hands, I'm happy to oblige."

"Yes, during the festival and near holidays, I can need part-timers. She's the first I call every time." Added the fox.

"And what do you do now ?"

"I'm a post-woman, I deliver mail."

"I can't imagine how that is a more interesting or exciting work."

"It can be if you know where are all the speed-traps and side roads." Jessica winked at her. She had never been the last to cause mischief. Judy rolled her eyes but said nothing. Bunny-burrows wasn't her jurisdiction, and as long as she stayed careful and did not hurt anyone, she could let it slide.

After that, Judy visited the festival on her own, sometime recognized by acquaintances. She was impressed by how much people had come to a festival that was at first a simple town gathering. Soon it was the end of the day and she helped her parents pack-up the few things they hadn't sold. They closed-up the booth and went home. That evening, Judy called Nick to take news, a bit concerned about him since he hadn't really been okay the week before. His face appeared on the screen.

"Hey officer Carrots, how are you doing ?"

"Fine and you officer Slick ?"

"Good. Having fun with all your carrots ? You're not feeling too lonely ?"

"I have 275 siblings. If I wanted to feel lonely, I'd have to try pretty hard. Yeah I'm having fun."

But the truth was, she was feeling lonely. Even though she rally loved her family, she couldn't talk, couldn't share with them like she could share with him. She missed him, but having the opportunity to see him on muzzletime made up for the time they spent appart.

She recounted the events of the two days to Nick.

...

"You slept twenty hours. Sheesh, you really needed those vacations !"

"Seems that way. Maybe I also needed a calm place to stay. I can't believe how loud Buck and Pronks can be compared to my siblings."

"You really should move."

"I don't have time to look for a new flat."

"You're on vacation, you have time. You could even leave your dump and crash at my appartment for a few weeks. I've meant to buy a new couch anyway. Or you could sleep with me in the bed, my sexy body didn't seem to faze you last time." He had the shit-eating grin again. It used to drive her nuts, know she liked seeing it. Most of the time.

"That's sweet but no. Bad idea. If I crash at yours, I'll get too caught up into work and end up never moving out."

"And the downside is ?" Still that grin. He was only half-joking but she couldn't see it. And she had no answer to that.

Hoping she wouldn't see her blush through the phonescreen, she switched topic.

"Unrelated, but how were your first days of vacation."

"Well..."

That's all for today, see you at the end of the week :)