Author's Note: My thanks to those who mentioned another word for a male fox: "Reynard." At first it sounded too much like a personal name to really use as a word, but after thinking it over I decided that it would work well as a synonym for gentlefox. Since I use that in this chapter, this one's for you guys.
And now, on with the show!
Bilbo: "Don't do that! (play with the knives) You'll blunt them!"
Dwarf: "Oh, do you hear that, lads? He says we'll blunt the knives."
The Hobbit (this bit is even funnier if you look up the "Blunt the Knives" scene on YouTube. Go ahead; I'll wait)
The cop and would-be cop met that evening to compare notes at Judy's apartment. Nick cast an eye around, taking in the shabby wallpaper and sparse furnishings, the nicest of which was a very small dresser Judy had picked up as a roadside freebie. The fact that one of the antelopes next door (thankfully while heading out) had almost stepped on the fox without so much as an 'oops' hadn't done wonders for his impression of the place.
"Luxury apartments, huh?" he asked.
Judy shrugged. "I know, I know. I wanted the whole 'big city' experience."
Nick smirked. "Kind of like wanting to ask someone out 'in the worst possible way'?"
He might as well have rolled out the red carpet. "Funny you should say that," the bunny couldn't resist pointing out.
"And why would that be?" he asked, frowning.
Judy glanced at him with the same look she gave a parking meter when it chimed. "Well, unless I'm going crazy, I saw you driving with that vixen earlier. Uh..." she stared at the ceiling with a paw to her chin. "Tabitha, was it?"
"That's Taelia," Nick replied, a little nonplussed at having been caught. He wasn't sure which Judy seemed to be better at: being in just the right place at just the right time to catch him up to something, or saying, 'I told you so' without actually saying it.
Nor was Judy going to stop there. "Ha!" she exclaimed. "Gotcha!"
Rrrgh. Nick could not believe he'd been caught with that trick. Judy, he thought, is beginning to get too clever for my own good. "You're right," he said cynically. "You are going crazy."
"Ha ha. Now spill it."
"For your information," he said in his defense, folding his arms, "I was making sure she wouldn't get pulled over for distracted driving."
Judy wasn't buying it, but she decided to play along. "And who's going to take care of your distracted driving?" she teased.
The fox weighed his options. If he told her the whole story – that Taelia had treated him to a bite to eat and he'd given her a lift to be a reynard – he'd never get a moment's peace. If he made something up, she'd probably find out anyway and be twice as insufferable once she did, which – quite frankly – was a far worse prospect than he wanted to even think about.
For her own part, Judy wasn't about to let a little thing like a lack of information stop her; no sir. "So does she have a ring?"
Okay, now she's getting nosy, he thought. "Now why would I tell you a thing like that?"
"You checked," she announced triumphantly. "If you hadn't, you would have said so."
Nick raised an index finger, opened his mouth... and found he had no argument to give. Defeated, he shook his head. "I have the right to remain silent," he said flatly.
"I'm supposed to tell you that," she complained, elbowing him.
He rolled his eyes and let out a very expressive sigh. "They should have you do interrogations," he muttered. "I'd pay any crook who could stand five minutes around you."
By the way Judy stared up at the ceiling in response, it was clear Nick was in trouble. "I may just take that recommendation to Chief Bogo."
"I thought you wanted me in the ZPD? Speaking of which, didn't I come here to compare notes?"
Judy smirked, taking his change of topic as an effort to avoid admitting defeat. "Did you come here for that? Yes. Yes you did."
He pointed one claw at her. "Okay, bunny, there is a fine line between sounding smart and sounding like a smart-aleck. You are definitely way over it."
"All I have to do is sound smarter than you."
"Hardy-har-har. Are we going to keep this up all night?"
"Oh, just make out already!" shouted a voice from the other side of the wall. Apparently one of the antelope neighbors had decided to stick around.
That threw a bucket of icy water on the repartee. Judy scrunched her eyes tight and stuck out a paw. "Truce?"
Nick shook it. "Truce. And how about we hold this meeting someplace where we won't have color commentary?"
Judy considered a quip about him supplying the color and her supplying the commentary, but decided it would take too long to word it right. Besides, he was right about one thing: if they didn't get down to brass tacks, they really would be up all night.
Then Nick snapped his fingers. "We could text it back and forth," he pointed out.
The tall, rounded ears dropped in confusion, and one of Judy's eyebrows went up as if to take their place. "While we're in the same room?" she asked. To her, the idea of using a phone when face-to-face conversation was doable was totally foreign. Despite the chaos which had been common in her house, her parents had firmly drilled the whole family in the value of sitting down and talking the old-fashioned way.
The fox just smirked, glad to be back on top of the banter. "Hey, 'big city experience.'"
Judy sighed and pulled out her phone. "If someone told me I'd ever do this, I'd have said they were crazy."
"Kind of like bringing a guy to your apart-"
Judy's index finger whipped out, fast and threatening as a duelist's rapier. "You finish that remark, and our friendship is over."
Actually, most of the note comparisons were pretty straightforward; all Judy had to do was let Nick look over her notebook. As for discussion, there really wasn't much to discuss. Judy had been hoping Nick could tell her something about her suspicions, but stock options weren't his strong suit. 'Too much paperwork,' he texted, 'and too easy to trace. I always deal in cash.'
Judy let out a huff through her nose. 'Can you think of anyone who might be able to help?'
Nick tapped his muzzle a few times and texted back, 'I know a few mammals in the stock market. I'll shoot them some texts.'
For all her merits, Judy was not a patient doe. Also, she was a creature of schedules; they had been an inescapable part of her youth. They had to be if one was to maintain any semblance of order in a house with over three hundred young rabbits (as the count had been by the time she left for the academy) running around. So as creative as she was, she now found herself growing fidgety with unexpected time on her paws. There was nothing to do but watch Nick batter away at his phone with his thumbs.
The string of emoticons he sent her now and again didn't help either. The :) was alright, and the ;) was worth a smirk, but when he shot her a ;P she started to get the feeling he was just trolling her.
Nick suppressed a snicker as he watched Judy's foot drum the floor. Pausing from his texts to other parties, he sent another one her way.
'Has anyone ever told you how cute you look when you're impatient?'
Judy felt her face and neck grow hot as she read the message. She took in a breath to reply, then caught herself and texted it instead. 'Has anyone ever told you not to call me cute? Oh yeah – me.'
The fox snickered, wondering if he could make her turn as red as himself. 'I didn't call you cute,' he replied, throwing in a wounded-looking emoticon. 'I just said you look cute.'
'Oh, you're hilarious.'
'You don't like looking cute? Okay, you look funny. Funny funny bunny.' He ducked a pillow and kept right on texting. 'And you throw like a bunny too.'
Judy groaned out loud. "Isn't there someone else you can annoy?" she asked, abandoning texts for the moment.
Nick grinned. 'Good idea. I'll text Taelia.'
By this time, Judy had migrated to her bed. Now she smashed her face into her mattress, having already thrown the pillow at him. "Wake me up when you're done," she groaned, glancing at the clock. She had scheduled for Nick to be around until ten. It was now 8:28. I am never going to make it, she thought.
Nick made a truly infuriating clicking sound. "Aww, is da bunny jeawous?"
Judy lifted her head just long enough to cast him a withering look before letting gravity take her. Nick smirked for about the fiftieth time that night, then looked back at his phone as it chimed. His 'Hi' to Taelia had gotten a reply.
'Hey, just finished some work for the big concert. How are you?'
'Fine,' he replied. 'Working on the case with Officer Hopps. You?'
'Great,' came the quick reply. 'Hey, this is kind of sudden, but can you spare some time tomorrow evening? I could use a favor.'
Frustrated and bored, Judy decided she wasn't going to move until Nick was done goofing around. Unfortunately, her body wasn't exactly on board with the idea; about ten minutes later, she felt the call of nature.
"I'll be right back," she groaned, trudging out the door.
As soon as the door was shut, Nick finished responding to Taelia's message and looked up from his phone. Both as a predator and as one used to being on the wrong side of the law, he always kept an eye on his surroundings – like a certain odd, flat thing sticking out from under Judy's bed. It looked like a sock, but there was something off about it (and besides, Judy didn't wear socks). Glancing at the door, he tiptoed to the bed and knelt to take a look.
Oh, wow, he thought, a grin covering his muzzle. This is even better than I thought it would be. Moving with silent speed, he locked the door. What he was going to do was beyond mean, but 'all work and no play.' Besides, between the stunt she had pulled on him at the traffic stop the day before and the fact that she had twice outfoxed him concerning Taelia that evening, he owed her some reprisal. It was a matter of honor now.
Judy was more than a little annoyed when she got back to her apartment to find it locked. Well, at least this happened with someone inside, she thought, supposing that she'd simply made a mistake. "Uh, Nick?" she called.
"Oh, Carrots!" he exclaimed a little loudly, taking advantage of the building's fantastic acoustics. "I was just admiring your collection. The little gray bunny with the badge is just so adorable! It even looks like you!"
Judy felt her face turn pale. "Nick!" she cried. "Someone's going to hear!"
"Past tense, bunny," came a voice down the hall.
"And the brown one," Nick went on relentlessly. "I never imagined a tough bunny like you collected stuffed-"
Now Judy's face turned red. She grabbed the knob and rattled the door for all she was worth. "Nick Wilde, you let me in and leave my stuff alone – now!"
"And oh my gosh, you've even got a fox!" Nick cried in delight. "I didn't even know they made stuffed foxes. He smells new. Is he named after me?"
"Your name's going to be Mud when I get in there!" Seeing that the door was getting her nowhere, Judy turned around and leaned hard against it to think. There's got to be a way in, she thought, shoving her paws into her pockets.
Suddenly a way did come to her – and it was so obvious that she felt brilliant and stupid at the same time. Resisting the urge to just storm in and let him have it, she hatched a plan while he cooed over her collector's set of dinosaur puppets from Pizza Hop.
"Nick," she said, sounding both desperate and menacing, "I am telling you right now to get out from under my bed – and don't even think about looking in the dresser!"
Naturally, Nick immediately abandoned the bed and went to the dresser. The little drawers were old and tended to stick, but he got them open. One by one he searched them, only to find... nothing whatsoever of interest; not even in the sock drawer. He hesitated at the underwear drawer, thinking Judy would probably kill him if he went that far.
Behind him, Judy opened the door as quietly as she could, although the noise Nick made as he fiddled with the drawers more than masked it. Stealthily, she crept up on Nick and put her foot down – literally.
"Gah!" Nick yelped, jumping up in the air and grabbing his tail. He spun around before he had even processed what was going on, making for a look which left Judy wishing like crazy for her body-cam.
"Carrots!" Nick yelped, panicking.
Judy just glared up at him as if her lavender eyes were about to turn into death rays.
"Eh heh heh..." Nick laughed nervously, his ears falling back. "Uh, look, you teased me before, so do you think we could just...?"
Judy had to smile just a little, knowing she had him right where he wanted him. So this is what hunting feels like, she thought, grabbing his tie and yanking down so that they were eye to triumphant eye.
"I'm going to count to three."
He was gone before she reached two.
"That fox," Judy groaned, shutting the door and locking it behind him. Heaven only knew how long he would have kept it up if she hadn't had the key in her pocket the whole time. Still, getting him to turn his back completely to the door so she could tailgate him had almost been worth the invasion of her drawers. Almost. Secure once again, she set about tidying up her belongings.
If Taelia wants him, she thought, she can have him. She only half-meant it; deep down Nick was still her friend and she knew it would take more than he was capable of doing to push her past her real limit. Forgiving this stunt, however, was going to take a while.
As she was straightening up, Judy discovered that Nick had forgotten his smartphone. Figures, she thought. Now I'll have a harder time getting ahold... of him.
Her ears pricked up, and a grin appeared on her face. Gosh, she thought, if only I could show him how that stunt with my collection felt.
Luck was with her; the phone was unlocked.
Helloooo, opportunity, she thought.
In another part of the city, a mammal sat in an office lit only by a single desk lamp, listening as his informant filled him in on the investigation of Olivia Poisson. Forming a steeple with his fingers, his brow creased as he considered the information. So, the ZPD's on her tail now? How interesting.
Whether Miss Poisson was actually involved with the recent scheme was more than he knew. It would certainly be convenient for him if she did get in trouble with the law, but not yet; not just yet. Guilty or innocent, he needed her on the loose… for the moment. Once he'd gotten what he was after, she could be shot dead for all he cared.
"Keep delaying the investigation," he said tersely, "and wait for further orders."
This worried his informant. Even the mammal's voice was pale. "Hey, if I get caught-"
"You're already caught by me," came the firm reply. He stabbed one finger down into the table top, somehow putting more impetus into that single digit than most mammals could have given to an entire fist. "I can't make my move just yet. The police are investigating every lead they can find, and it's only a miracle they haven't looked into my past connections with you-know-who. Keep them busy." He hung up and pursed his lips, turning his attention to a schedule of flights out of the country over the next month. He couldn't jump on a plane just yet; too much risk of arousing suspicion. He could prepare, though. He could always prepare.
Oh, snap. Did I just throw an evil mastermind into the mix? Yep, I did, and just when you thought you knew the rules of the game. Ain't I a stinka?
Now I know what a lot of you are thinking about the apartment scene; WildeHopps. Am I going to say one way or the other? No; no I am not. Where's the fun in that? Some of you already know, but please don't say anything. Let the other readers enjoy the suspense. Lol
Keep speculating on where things are headed with this; it really does give me a lot of inspiration. My apologies for the lack of action scenes or major plot developments. I hate to make you all wait, especially you who've read White Legend and gotten used to a cliffhanger in every chapter. Hopefully the new player in the game will whet your appetites for the fireworks to come.
Congratulations to AngloFalcon for guessing the source of Saint Ninian's (and for correcting me on the spelling), and to Benny for figuring out the actor linked to Emmitt Otterton (personally I would love to see – or rather hear – said actor in a Zootopia sequel. A certain other actor associated with him would go well too, especially playing a wolf). A reminder, though: if I ask for a PM, please PM. It's fairly easy to set up an account if you don't have one.
I was actually kind of surprised at how well the Easter Eggs thing seems to have gone; I actually got more views on the last chapter than any other except for chapter one. So there's a couple more in this chapter.
One: what movie did the dinosaurs come from?
Two: Any guesses on where I got the idea for Judy's entry? (it wasn't something that happened to me, but there is a clue in here about the origin)
Happy reading! Don't forget to review, fave, and follow!
