(Shout out to someguyfromda in e621 for the GORGEOUS and STUNNING fan art! Thankyouthankyouthankyouyouareamazing! P.s. if you have a tumblr please contact me so I can follow you helthehatter)
Adjusting
(Judy is adjusting to having no last name and Violet is winning over the most stone-hearted)
"Now you sure you can handle this?" Nick looked at the chubby cheetah with caution, holding Violet to his chest.
"Of course," the cheetah purred from the other side of his desk. "Now let me hold her already! You and Judy gotta a stake out to get too."
"Yeah," Nick glanced over at the rabbit who was getting some files of their suspect from Grizzoli. Watching her with an concerned over-protectiveness, as if the unbreakable bunny would shatter.
He did that a lot these days, after they had returned a day early from the Hopps family reunion, Judy had come to the precinct with her head held high and told everyone to only call her Judy now, not Hopps. Of course this spawned curiosity among their fellow officers but none dared to ask Judy who someone who looked fierce and heartbroken at the same time. A few had braved to ask Nick but he had just quietly shaken his head, the less it was brought up the better.
With a sigh Nick deposited Violet into the cheetah's awaiting paws, "Now her bottle and diapers and everything are in the bag," he pointed to said bag that was resting on the counter as if Clawhauser hadn't seen it. "But if something happens radio us, or Fru Fru, or Finnick, their numbers are in the bag as well."
"Don't you worry about a thing," Clawhauser waved a dismissive paw, Violet sitting before him on the counter. "We're gonna have a blast together."
Nick frowned slightly, not sure how safe it was to have a dramatic, easily excitable cheetah as a babysitter but Nick and Judy needed to hurry and drive to their destination for the stake out. "See you in a few hours, Squeaker," he tugged his daughter's ear and she let out an annoyed huff. "Promise, Bogo already has a replacement for me and your mom if the stake out lasts longer than planned."
Saluting Clawhauser he hurried over to the rabbit's side, Judy waving goodbye to her daughter before disappearing through the precinct's exit.
"Okay," Clawhauser smiled down at the kit, "I'm sure Judy has let you listen to Gazelle once or twice but by the time I'm done with you you'll be her biggest yet smallest fan!"
Violet smiled up at the ecsastic cheetah, "Cwah!"
"That's right," he nodded before pulling out his phone and pulling up a video of one of his favorite Gazelle music videos, he urged the kit closer to the screen, "Okay, first thing you should know about the Angel of Horns is how she got her concert debut…"
.
Raindrops from the trees ahead splattered against the patrol car's window, Nick tried to look through the trickles of water to the very luxurious penthouse where their fur smuggling suspect was wining and dinning some guests.
"You know what would make this stake out better?" he asked Judy who sat in the driver's seat, arms crossed and also trying to see through the rain.
"A stake out not in the Rainforest District?" she asked dryly.
Nick chuckled, "That, but you know it'd be easier to watch this guy if Bogo could've gotten us invitations to his little party. I mean, we could've dressed up and everything! I actually have a really good Snooty Rich Guy Voice."
Judy glanced at him, "Oh?"
"Reginald," Nick began, his voice now oily and slick and nasally, his expression humorously pinched, "This caviar is detestable. Don't tell me you bought it from one of those commoner markets I've heard about."
To the fox's delight that got a laugh from Judy, "Oh, you must be put on more undercover cases. We need to have a talk with Bogo when we get back."
"Thank you," Nick threw his paws out as if he had been trying to prove his acting worth since he had graduated from the academy.
The two dwindled off into silence again, watching the blurry lights of the penthouse, according to Intel the otter would be leaving the penthouse along with his guests in a couple of hours.
But as time went on Nick saw Judy's ears droop and she once again wore that breakable look in her eye, the look succeeded in making his heart clench and his throat tighten in panic. Judy was a lot of things but she wasn't breakable.
He opened his mouth to say something, a word of comfort, maybe a silly pun, but she beat him to it: "Nick, can I ask you something?"
"Anything," he said instantly.
"Where are your parents."
His eyes widened, and he tried to swallow, "W-What?"
Judy turned to face him, her expression serious, "Ever since we came back from Bunnyburrow I've been wondering. You never talk about them, have never mentioned them, and you said Violet and I were all you had."
"You are," he replied.
"But what happened to them?" she asked, her voice insistent.
Nick released a sigh and leaned back against his seat, his eyes on the soaked window shield. "My dad died when I was a kit. Before I joined the junior ranger scouts."
"I'm sorry," she breathed, her voice sincere.
"It's fine," he assured her, "It was a long time ago."
"And your mom?"
"She's still alive, still lives in the apartment where I grew up…"
"Don't you ever visit her?" Judy asked.
"No," Nick said, still keeping his eyes on the rivulets of water that ran down their car. "To be honest I'd doubt she'd want to see me."
Judy didn't say anything but Nick could feel the questions seeping off her fur, he smirked bitterly, "After the muzzle incident…I stopped being a good kit. I lied, I hung out with the wrong crowd, I stole. I was about twelve when I needed some money for one of my 'ingenious' cons. I tried to steal money out of her purse, this vixen raised me on her own despite having barely any money to feed herself and I stole from her. She caught me of course, she's smart, she figured out what I was getting up to. We fought, I said something's I thought I meant at that time and stormed out. I kept walking until I reached Tundra Town and was found by Mr. Big's grandmamma and then well, you know the rest." Nick sucked in a breath and tried to dispel the self-disgust that boiled in his stomach like grease.
"Why didn't you ever say anything?" Judy asked her voice soft with disbelief and concern.
"Well, for one thing I didn't want to tell you how terrible I was…and, we had other, more important things to worry about. Besides, I left my home because I was a no-good thief, you left because of love."
"Nick," Judy's voice was sharp but the paw that was placed over his knuckles was soft and soothing. "You are just as important. You need to tell me these things, so we can get through them together."
Nick turned his paw palm up so he could wrap his fingers around Judy's, squeezing gently. "Okay," he promised his voice hoarse.
Judy undid her seatbelt so she could slide over so she could press against his side, her head in the crook of his neck. Nick affectionately rubbed his muzzle against the top of her head.
"Honestly," Judy began, her warm breath ruffling the creamy fur of his throat, "I think you should go see her, your mom."
"I'd really like too," Nick mumbled. "But that might actually be more terrifying then when you told me you were carrying my kit."
She pressed closer against him, "I don't want Violet to grow up without any grandparents, Nick. And you know I'll be right there by your side, no matter what you choose to do."
Judy was right of course, she was always right. Violet needed at least one grandparent and Stu and Bonnie obviously weren't going to volunteer. And it was past time to talk to his mother, to try and apologize for what he'd done…
"When?" he asked, his voice just a teensy bit wretched.
Judy's grip on his paw tightened, "How about this weekend?"
"That's only five days away."
"I think you've put this off for long enough, Nick."
Again, Judy was right.
.
"What's that?" the muzzled wolf being cuffed and held by Fangmeyer, sent a curious look to Violet who sat on the counter, sucking on a pacifier and watching the larger animals with a placid stare.
"You've never seen a funny before?" Clawhauser asked the wolf, having stopped both him and Fangmeyer to check out the latest Gazelle interview.
The tigress gave him a weird look, "Funny?"
The cheetah scoffed, "Well it certainly sounds better than box, doesn't it?"
The wolf still looked on without any inkling of what they were talking about. Fangmeyer spoke, "Why can't you just call Violet a fox-bunny? It's not like combining the words saves that much time."
"For the same reason I combine the names of all my ships," Clawhauser answered matter of factly, "Some things just are." He patted Violet's head with a large paw, the baby barely even blinked. "She's so well-behaved."
"Isn't she though," Fangmeyer smiled at the kit, "I wish Caleb was always so calm."
"CLAWHAUSER!"
The boom of Chief Bogo's voice quickly had Fangmeyer and the wolf moving along. Violet flinched at the loud yell and turned with Clawhauser to see the buffalo stomping over.
"I thought I told you I wanted those files sorted two hours ago," Bogo huffed at the cheetah.
Clawhauser head sunk between his shoulder, "Sorry Chief, I've just been…distracted." He weakly indicated to Violet who was looking up at the buffalo with wide scared eyes.
Bogo sighed in frustration, "You told me you could keep up with your work while babysitting Wilde and Hop-Judy's daughter."
"It's just a little slip up, sir," Clawhauser quickly assured. "Here, I'll go sort those files right now."
Then without further ado he picked up Violet and placed her in Bogo's arms ("Hold her until I get back, k, Chief?") and then he was running off toward the filing room.
"Clawhauser!" Bogo yelled after him but the cheetah was already gone. Meanwhile Violet's pacifier flew out of her mouth as she broke into a wail.
Bogo looked at the kit with an uncomfortable expression, glancing around but saw no other animal in the lobby. "Stop that," he ordered his voice softer than it had been in years.
But still the baby squalled, trying to struggle out of his hooves.
"If I let you go you'll fall to the floor," Bogo pointed out, his brow furrowed, "The rules of gravity apply to all of us."
Violet stared up at him with big watery eyes and he sighed, "Come now," he tried to sound reassuring; remembering the times they reunited lost or kidnapped children with their parents. "You know I'm not going to hurt you."
Then Bogo actually brought the baby to his shoulder, letting her head rest there and very gently pattering her back with the tip of one of his large fingers, all the while trying to remember how his mother had held and cared for infants.
The kit had tensed up in his grip but to Bogo's relief she had stopped crying. "There see," he said gruffly, "You were whining over nothing, just like your father." He felt her small claws knead his shoulder, the pressure barely noticeable. She was slowly relaxing.
"I imagined I'll be seeing you with a badge in a few years," Bogo muttered absentmindedly to the child. "If you're anything like those crazy parents of yours…" He added, as if an afterthought: "They're good cops, better animals."
The buffalo started slightly as the baby suddenly rubbed her short muzzle against his neck, a tiny purr rising from her throat.
Bogo felt his lips start to turn up.
"Here we go, Chief," Clawhauser's voice suddenly spoke up. The chubby cheetah jogging as fast as he could back to his desk, files in paw. "Those sorted files you wanted-" he stopped mid-sentence when he saw the buffalo cradling the purring infant.
His lips turned up into a big grin, "Aww, Chief."
The buffalo scowled at the cheetah, still gently rubbing Violet's bag, "You speak of this to no one, Clawhauser."
