Unfortunately, Judy's journey back to her apartment ended up being delayed a little bit.
Dropping the cruiser off wasn't all that huge of a problem, but when she had to go in and notify Johnathan where she was going, she ended up catching the attention of Chief Bogo, who had heard pretty much everything she said to the receptionist.
"Where do you think you're going, Officer Hopps?" he asked.
Judy, having been facing away from Bogo when he spoke, grimaced before turning back around to face him.
"I'm sorry, sir, but I need to clock out a little early today. I've just found out that I've got something really important I need to take care of back at my apartment."
Judy fell silent, thinking that she was being vague enough so that Bogo would let her go without having to go into more details about their plan, but she could tell from the look on the cape buffalo's face that he wasn't going to be as easily fooled as she thought.
"Nice try, Hopps. Now, how about giving me an actual answer as to why you need to leave…a half an hour before your shift ends?" he asked, checking his watch to find out the time.
Almost panicking, Judy tried to go in a different direction.
"I need to meet someone back at my apartment. I tried to push the time forwards so that it wouldn't interfere with my shift, but he wouldn't budge!"
"Hopps…" said Bogo, starting to get angry from being given the runaround. "Don't push me, or I'll make sure that you get parking duty for the next two months! Now give me a bloody straight answer!"
Unfortunately, as much as Judy wanted to just go ahead and work the rest of her shift, she had absolutely no time to do so, so in a last ditch attempt, she blurted the first thing that came out of her mind.
"I'm going on a date, alright? I have to get ready, and you know how we can get after a long day on the streets, right?"
Judy quickly squeezed her eyes shut once more; waiting for the inevitable outburst and follow through on his threat, but to her surprise it never came.
Instead, she heard an audible sigh, and after slowly opening her eyes, she found that Bogo had his hoof against his forehead, clearly rubbing it to relieve a headache coming on.
"Fine, go. I do expect you to stay for a half-hour tomorrow to make it for it, though."
Judy was admittedly a little stunned, not expecting for that pitiful-sounding excuse to work, but after a few seconds letting it register, she was immediately brought back to reality, and she quickly began making her way towards the door.
"Thanks, Chief! I promise I'll make that half an hour up to you!"
As Judy made her way outside, Chief Bogo audibly groaned, looking up at the ceiling as rubbed his face with his hooves.
"Something wrong, sir?" asked Johnathan, having been present for most of the conversation.
"It's nothing, Hoofson. Get back to work."
Johnathan watched, slightly puzzled as Chief Bogo made his way upstairs, one thought running through his mind as he glanced over the balcony at the atrium below.
"That rabbit is going to be the death of me."
Unfortunately, with the delay, Judy ended up having to rush home to even have a chance to get ready before Nick and Finnick came to pick her up.
Thankfully, though, the city actually seemed to be working with her for once, as she managed to get a nice streak of arriving at crosswalks just as they were permitted to cross going.
Eventually, she managed to reach the front door of the Grand Pangolin Arms. After uttering a quick greeting to Mrs. Armadillo, Judy bounded up the stairs to her floor, nearly knocking her door off of its hinges as she rushed to grab a change of clothes.
Once that part was done, she went into the shower room, which was thankfully not occupied (and was frankly a miracle considering how long some of her neighbors on the floor took their showers).
Newly refreshed after a nice hot shower, Judy put her new clothes on, which was a simple grey t-shirt and sweatpants combo (even in her rush, she did manage to keep in mind what they were planning to do).
She then made her way back to her room and laid her uniform out on her bed so that it wouldn't get wrinkled before she had a chance to hang it back up.
It was just in time, too, as Judy's ears perked up when she heard the telltale sound of someone honking their horn.
Now, being in a city like Zootopia, honking horns would seem like a normal occurrence to some people, and most would probably think that it was just some mammal with a road rage issue.
However, as she quickly glanced out of her window, she noticed the garish design of Finnick's van and jumped.
"Oh cheese and crackers, they're here!"
Judy bounded back out of the door, nearly forgetting to lock it up. Once she did, though, she made her way down the stairs and back out the door before pulling the back door open and hopping inside.
"Looks like someone's in a hurry," commented Nick as he watched Judy shut the door behind her.
Judy wasn't in the mood to play around, though, so as she worked on catching her breath, she pointed a digit in the fox's face.
"You…be quiet. I need…some time…to catch my breath."
Nick brought out his signature half-lidded smirk as he looked at the digit in front of him, but he willingly remained silent, allowing Judy to finish catching her breath while Finnick pulled the van out of its parking spot.
Eventually, the sound of heavy breathing soon stopped, and Nick took it as a sign that she was now ready to go.
"You all good, Carrots?"
"Yeah, I'm good. Now, where are we headed to?" she asked.
"A place deep inside Happytown. Crime's so bad in that area, not even the police dare to go inside," said Finnick.
"Really?" asked Judy, having not heard about that area. "Wouldn't that just lead to it eventually spreading if they don't take care of it?"
"Well…here's a little secret for you, Fluff. Our friend used to work for Mr. Big. Thankfully, though, he still seems to be in good graces with the little guy, so he worked out a deal with the ZPD precinct that covers Happytown," said Nick. "As long as the police stay out of that territory, the criminals inside will stay within their boundaries."
"That doesn't sound like a really good idea. I mean, what's to stop someone from taking out a business or something outside of the boundary?" asked Judy, puzzled.
"Well, it's worked out so far, hasn't it? Besides, they're not just random looters. They all work for Big as well. I doubt the little shrew would be very happy if something like that happened."
Judy was still a little wary about this agreement, but she could also see Nick's point, so she remained silent, allowing Finnick to continue speaking.
"Anyway, I suggest that you let me do the talking, I used to work with him back in the day before I met Nicky here, so I think I have the best chance of convincing him to help us out."
Judy paused, reflecting on what Finnick said, before another question came up in her mind that she really felt needed to be answered.
"So…that's all well and good, but what does this guy even do? You two are speaking like he's the end all be all of criminals, but this doesn't explain how he's going to help us get into City Hall."
Finnick glanced over at Nick, becoming increasingly annoyed at the fact that he was delving way too much into their friend's backstory.
However, as Finnick and Nick turned to face front again, Nick failed to notice Finnick's collar turning yellow thanks to his current emotions.
"Look, I really shouldn't be-"
"Oh, come on! We're all in the mess together, so I think I at least deserve a hint about what this guy is that we're dealing with," interrupted Judy.
It was then that Nick noticed Finnick's collar changing to orange, meant as the last warning before a shock was triggered, and it didn't look like the fennec was calming down any time soon, especially after being interrupted like he was.
"Hey Fin, you might want to chill a bit before you get buzzed."
Nick had seen Finnick get shocked a few times before. It came with the territory when one had a temper problem like the smaller fox did.
Finnick, however, was barely listening to what Nick was saying.
"Fine. He's a professional thief, and he's-"
"Then why haven't I heard of him, then? You'd think the ZPD would have at least some files on him."
"Will you let me finish?!"
Judy was immediately shocked into silence by Finnick's outburst, but she wasn't the only one shocked, as Finnick's collar triggered, emitting a loud BZZAP as she could see the arcs of electricity coursing through the small fox's neck, a yell of pain coming from his maw.
Judy right away knew that she did something wrong, but before she could make a move to apologize, she soon realized that the van was swerving out of control thanks to the driver being too busy getting zapped to focus on driving.
Thankfully, though, Nick was there, grabbing the steering wheel and getting the van back under control and bringing it to a stop just before it rammed into a light post.
Once the van came to a stop, the occupants inside were for the most part quiet outside of a string of quiet curses being uttered by the victim of said shock.
"You okay, Fin?" asked Nick after taking a few moments to calm his rapidly beating heart.
Finnick didn't answer immediately, no doubt still a little stunned from the shock, but he eventually gulped, his throat feeling a little like sandpaper, before finally answering.
"I'll be alright."
Nick was admittedly a little surprised by the short and succinct answer, but he took it as a good sign. However, Judy was still pretty worried, mostly because it was her fault to begin with.
"God Finnick, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you like that," she said, her voice timid as the guilt pervaded through her every word.
However, she was met with a small paw rising into the air, the side with the pads facing towards the front in the universal gesture for stop.
"I said I'm fine. Let's just get this over with."
Finnick reversed the van away from the pole before getting back on the road, leaving Judy unsure if her apology even did anything.
Sighing, she fell silent, choosing to watch the buildings go by as the van made its way into the heart of Happytown.
After what felt like forever, the van soon came to a stop, and as Judy and the others hopped out and closed the doors behind them, Judy finally got a look at the building they were heading towards.
"Is this it?" she asked, gesturing towards what looked seemingly like a normal ramshackle apartment building.
"What do you expect, a fancy mansion?" joked Nick, making an attempt to lighten the mood.
However, Nick's playful banter fell flat, as Finnick still looked pretty pissed off after the shocking incident, and Judy looked pretty downcast.
Sighing, Nick decided that it was probably best just to go out and explain the real reason.
"He may have gotten his paws on a lot of money, but he's still a pred. Not even piles of money were able to convince prey to sell a house to him."
Judy's attention was split between making a note of the fact that this thief was also a predator and feeling despondent for the conditions that the preds were in when even one of the richest members of their class was unable to get out of the slums.
Falling silent, Judy began to follow Finnick as the fennec fox started to make his way inside the building. However, before he could make his way forwards too far, he ended up bumping right into Nick's leg, coming to a stop.
"Hey, what's the deal?" he asked, annoyed as he rubbed at his muzzle.
Nick at first didn't look too pleased, but after a few seconds of silence, he sighed, his eyes closing for a few seconds to clear his thoughts.
"Look…Fin…I get that you're miffed about what Carrots did, but if we're going to pull this off, we need to all be on the same page. I think you two need to kiss and make up."
"What? No! I'm not kissing her!" said Finnick, a disgusted look on his muzzle as he looked over at Judy, who looked surprisingly puzzled.
"No, I don't mean it like that. I know she technically caused you to get buzzed, but I really think you should take her apology into consideration. I mean, seriously, the guilt's eating her up!"
Nick was obviously embellishing that kind of detail, but when Finnick looked over and saw the despondent look on Judy's face, he realized that it wasn't worth it to stay mad.
"Alright…alright, I get it. I accept your apology from before, bunny cop. Just please don't do it again, okay? Getting shocked like that hurts."
Although Judy did kind of want to point out that it was kind of a given that hundreds of volts coursing through your neck was going to hurt, she didn't want to completely destroy any hope of getting back to where she was with the fennec fox, so she smiled and nodded.
"Thank you, Finnick. I'll make sure to be more careful."
"See that you do. Now come on, we're wasting daylight."
Even though it was already almost nighttime, Judy ignored the slight, following Finnick as he led her and Nick into the building and up the stairs.
The three of them soon came to a stop, though, at the fourth floor when Finnick came to a stop at a door at the end of the hallway.
Judy waited with bated breath to finally see what the two foxes were building up to, but to her confusion, Finnick didn't make a move to knock. Instead, he stood there, blankly staring at the door.
"Something wrong, Fin?" asked Nick, curious.
"Nah, I'm alright. I'm just a little nervous."
"Nervous? How can you be nervous?"
"I haven't seen him in years. Ever since I met you, Nicky, our interactions slowly became fewer and fewer before we stopped talking altogether. I just…I don't know what he'll think."
"Ah, come on, I'm sure things will be alright. Heck, I bet he'd be more than happy to see you again."
Finnick was admittedly still a little reluctant to follow through, but it turns out that he didn't have to, because Nick reached over and knocked on the door himself.
After a few seconds, Judy's hearing managed to pick up footsteps coming up to the door, and when said door opened, the mammal in the doorway was someone who Judy would have never expected to see.
"Clawhauser?!"