Nick sat, twirling a pen in one hand while tapping on his keyboard to scroll through social media posts with the other. The bruise on his side pestered him with a dull throb, but so long as he focused on work and was careful not to move in the wrong way he could mostly ignore it. Fortunately Bogo hadn't been able to send them back out to Sahara Square today—regulations forbid him from putting them on the street for several days—so he was free to jot down notes on the legal pad he had balanced on his knee.
"What the heck do you think you're doing, Nick?" Judy demanded. The sudden outburst made him jump in his seat and he lost control of the pen, sending it flying across the room until it struck the far wall.
He gasped for breath and willed the fur on his tail to lay flat once more. "Jeez, Carrots, don't do that when I'm focusing on work."
"Is that what you call it? Because it looked to me like you were checking Furbook while on the clock."
"This is an investigation," he said, turning his monitor so she could see. "Seems like every kid uses this nonsense. I've been searching hashtags to see what I can learn about that party last night." He paused to hold up his notepad. "Already got about three dozen names."
Judy's ears stood a little straighter and she hopped from her chair to get a better look at the pad. "That's brilliant."
"All my ideas are brilliant, thank you for noticing."
"I bet with this we'll be able to track down everyone that was at the party," Judy said eagerly. "You should really take this to Bogo so we can get their addresses."
"Already got most of their addresses," Nick admitted.
"You did? How?"
"Because they post everything," Nick said and tossed the notepad back onto his desk, then scrolled up until he found a post that he began to read with his voice pitched a little higher. "OMG, I got totes wasted last night and flashed some guys on the street."
Judy snorted a little bit. "I actually have a sister that did something like that."
"Did she talk about it where the whole world can see?" Nick asked, already scrolling again.
"No! Are you insane? My parents were afraid of the web back then. We weren't allowed to go online without someone looking over our shoulder."
"Well, believe me that last one was pretty tame," Nick said, then gave her a sideways look as he found another one. "They post pictures, Carrots. Pictures! Of themselves drinking illegally and doing drugs. Then they tag everyone in the picture and brag about how wild things got."
"Well, when officers show up to have a few words with their parents maybe they'll straighten out. At the very least they're making our job easier," Judy said.
"I'll bet we could solve a lot of cases just by keeping an eye on this stuff," Nick said, watching the posts scroll along again. "Of course that assumes you can read it all before your brain leaks out your ear."
"It isn't all that bad. I use it to keep in touch with my family."
Half a dozen arguments sprung to Nick's mind almost immediately, but he pushed them off and gave an exaggerated sigh. "Oh no," he muttered, slowly shaking his head while Judy looked on curiously. "I don't understand what all the cool kids are into anymore. Soon I'll be spouting archaic slang in an attempt to prove I'm still hip and with it."
"You realize that Furbook was just getting started around the time you turned 20, right?" Judy asked.
Nick went back to scrolling through the messages. "It was all college kids back then, and that wasn't exactly my crowd. I was more worried with trying to make ends meet since I was out on my own."
"I can only imagine," Judy chuckled. "Trying to scrape by on two hundred a day at that age. What a struggle."
"Please don't tell me you actually bought that line."
"Well yeah," Judy said. Nick could feel her eyes on him once more. "That's what you told me when we met. Two hundred a day since you were twelve."
"You're more gullible than I thought." He paused in his search long enough to give her a teasing smirk. "Hustling takes time to learn, like most everything. When I was twelve I had trouble bringing in ten or twenty a week. I barely knew what I was doing. Looking back, I think most of my marks just felt sorry for me. Still, it was enough to help with the groceries as long as I made sure my parents didn't realize where the extra money came from." He paused again, his ears slowly dipping down as he remembered the time he'd gotten caught sneaking money into his mother's purse. "Actually dad knew. Never said anything though. Probably felt guilty that he and mom couldn't bring enough in to support us without the help of my dirty money."
For just a moment he found himself reliving those early attempts. He'd tried his hand at pickpocketing first only to discover that he wasn't any good at it. He got caught almost every time, but to his amazement found that if he just returned the wallet and claimed they'd dropped it he was almost always let go. Sometimes they'd even toss a couple bucks his way as a reward. Then there was the first time his mark hadn't bought it and called security. He'd been so afraid he was about to be sent to jail that he began bawling like an infant. The scene had been so pitiful they'd just let him go with a warning.
Judy's eyes were on him again, so he forced his ears back up and gave her the usual easy smile as he went back to scanning the posts. "Anyway, I wasn't averaging two hundred a day until I was twenty-six."
Judging by the expression on Judy's face she'd noticed the lapse. She'd been getting so much better at reading him recently that she continually surprised him. It was a bit unsettling really. For years he'd practiced maintaining a facade so he couldn't be hurt, but she seemed to be finding every crack. Clearly he had some sort of tell she'd found. She never pushed though. He wasn't sure if that was because she already knew, or if she just didn't want to pry into thoughts that made him uncomfortable. Either way, he welcomed the space.
He was so distracted that he was scanning on autopilot until Judy gave him a nudge. "What was that?"
Nick blinked, then scrolled back a couple posts until the he saw a video. The title simply read: Crazy F-ing Drugs. Without thinking he clicked to start it playing and was treated to the shaky footage of someone trying to record a party with their phone. It was immediately obvious that whoever held the camera didn't know the first thing about cinematography. Every few seconds they swung the camera around, barely giving it time to focus before they were on the move once more. Half the time they were zoomed in far too much, and the other half he wasn't actually sure what he was supposed to be looking at. Worst of all they apparently didn't even know to hold their phone sideways.
Just three minutes in and he was about to give up on the video, but then the cameraman was through the main party to the back rooms. Nick immediately recognized the office, although seeing it intact made him uncertain it was the same place at first. Perhaps intact wasn't quite the right word, there was already plenty of damage, but the desk and bookshelves hadn't yet been turned into scrap.
As they watched the camera focused in on a group of four teens gathered around a card table they'd set up in the center of the room with an impressive collection of drugs laid out. Nick couldn't tell what any of it was. The popular drugs had changed quite a bit from when he was a kid it seemed.
"There's our Wildebeest," Judy whispered.
Nick only nodded, unable to look away as the kid joked with one of his friends while he crushed some sort of pill into a fine dust, then laid it out in a neat line. He nearly paused the video, already knowing what was about to happen. It played past in an instant in his mind while the video crawled along at a snail's pace.
The wildebeest inhaled the entire line with one snort then began to sputter as he wiped his nose with the back of his hand. Some of the other youths teased him while others were already asking to know what it was like. "Weird" was the only answer they got before the kid grimaced and rested his head on the table, eliciting another round of jeers from his friends. Then the room got quiet as the kid started to gasp for air, his whole body convulsing for a moment. Someone asked if he was okay, but the question was only met with a snort as the wildebeest doubled over.
Judy stopped the video there, her eyes wide. "Drugs? They put it in drugs! Why would anyone do that?"
"Probably thought it would make the high more intense," Nick said, drawing an incredulous look from Judy. "I know, but there are all sorts of stupid stories about this kind of thing. Finnick is full of stories about it."
"He's an addict?"
Nick snorted. "No, but he used to deal a long time ago. Before I started working with him."
The bunny pursed her lips for a moment, ears lowered half way. "I'm not sure how I feel learning that your hustling kept anyone from doing something worse."
"That's me, an unbridled force of good."
Judy wasn't in any mood for his jest however. "We need to tell the Chief. Right now."
Chief Bogo watched the video without comment, his expression gradually growing darker as time went on until it finally ended. To Judy's surprise he wordlessly restarted it and watched through from the beginning, occasionally pausing once the drugs were in view. A heavy sigh slipped and he closed his eyes, rubbing them for a moment.
"I'll tell the crime lab to have the confiscated drugs tested. It's a good thing you brought this to me, it may be the reason the antidote hasn't worked on that kid yet."
Judy's ears perked up and she glanced over at Nick. "It hasn't worked?"
"No," Bogo said bluntly, grinding his teeth. "No it hasn't. The doctors think he may have gotten a particularly large dose, which I suppose is possible, but if he mixed it with his drugs who knows what could be going on."
Beside her, Nick coughed. "We also managed to get names of individuals who likely attended the party. Questioning them might tell us more about what was going on, assuming they don't clam up the moment a ZPD cruiser rolls up to their door." He handed the list of names over to the chief and they watched as the cape buffalo put on his reading glasses.
"We can get a court order compelling them to make a statement," Bogo said. "If this is about to be the next problem I'd rather get ahead of it while we have a chance. Good work, both of you."
"Nick found it on his own," Judy said happily, feeling a rush of satisfaction. "He came up with the idea of checking Furbook. I just happened to be there when he scrolled past the video."
Nick's ears folded back. "Actually I scrolled right past the video. You're the one that pointed it out."
"Spare me," Bogo grunted, his ears flicking in annoyance as he set the list down. "Before you pat yourselves on the back too much I should mention that I've already read your preliminary reports on the incident. Both of you are extremely lucky." He paused to give Judy a look. "Some luckier than others."
"Sir, I'm not sure what you are implying," Judy said, her whiskers quivering lightly. "We were expecting to deal with a noise complaint. At worst we were expecting a domestic disturbance. Nobody could've expected what we encountered."
"Which is exactly why we have procedures, Officer Hopps. Ones designed to keep officers safe when facing the unknown."
"Give us a break," Nick said. "Nothing bad happened, and we were able to get the kid under control and into a hospital without hurting him."
"Officer Wilde, could you please touch your ear tips?" Bogo asked calmly. When Nick hesitated Bogo folded one ear back and tilted his head. "Well?"
Slowly Nick did as he was told, wincing once his hands came above his shoulder. He quickly touched his ear tips and lowered his hands again, then rubbed his side lightly. Judy watched, her ears starting to droop behind her long before Chief Bogo's gaze settled on her once more.
"Don't worry, Hopps, neither of you are in trouble," he said evenly, "however I expect both of you to come in this weekend to review the proper procedures of clearing a building. Understood?"
"Yes sir," Judy said quietly.
"And I want you both to practice at the range for an hour before heading home tonight," Bogo continued. "I expect my officers to be able to hit their mark on the first shot, especially at such close range." He glanced at Nick. "And especially when missing means they might hit their partner."
Judy blinked, wondering how Bogo had found out about that since she'd left it out of her report. She cautiously looked Nick's way and was surprised to find that he didn't appear surprised, instead wearing a properly chastised expression. Her lips pursed and she considered defending her partner, Nick had only been trying to stop the rampaging wildebeest after all, but right then the chief didn't seem to be in the mood to ease up.
At least he wasn't angry. No lectures about duty or safety came, he merely dismissed them with a pointed suggestion that they head to the indoor range sooner rather than later. They both scurried out and immediately found their way toward the back of the building to check-out a pair of tasers and several boxes of practice cartridges.
After a quick round of rock, paper, scissors to determine who would go first Nick went to the firing line and started to take aim while she observed. He went through several shots before she spoke up to tell him that his arms were too stiff. His reloading technique was impressive though. Definitely faster than she could manage when at her best, although his aim wasn't as on point.
"So…" she started when he was between sets. "How did the chief find out you took a shot when I was behind the wildebeest?"
Nick paused long enough to look back at her, ears dipping briefly. "I might have accidentally let it slip."
Her ears perked up at that admission, her surprise that he would make such an obvious mistake rendering her briefly speechless. A second later she tilted her ears back as she noticed the way he avoided looking at her. He was lying?
She wrestled with the realization, an ache blooming in her chest as she stared at him. "You accidentally let it slip," she repeated.
"Sooner or later I was going to make a mistake," he said as he started into the next set. "I was on my best behavior so I just wasn't thinking about trying to gloss things over."
"Nick…"
He glanced her way between shots, then blinked and pressed his lips into a thin line. He looked away again just as fast, going back to his shooting without comment. The ache in her chest intensified. She began to wonder if she should let it go, or demand an answer, or…or she didn't know what else there was.
"The truth is, I didn't see the point in lying," he murmured almost under his breath. "I rushed the shot without thinking, Judy. Then I missed. I could have hit you…and what if it hadn't just been a taser?"
"You can't really be blamed for that," she reasoned, stepping a little closer. "I mean, you were just reacting when there wasn't time to think."
Nick gave a dry laugh. "That makes it better? I trained at the academy for nine months specifically so that sort of thing wouldn't happen. I want to be good at this, Judy, and if that means bending rules here or there to close a case then fine. But I screwed up, even if nothing bad happened. I'm not going to lie just to cover that up."
"Well, could you maybe let me know not to cover for you next time so I don't make a fool of myself?"
"I appreciate the thought, but maybe it isn't worth the effort anymore. The chief kind of already knows everything," Nick said, his ears tilted back half way. It took a moment, but she realized he was embarrassed.
"I seriously doubt that, after all the trouble we've gone through," she assured him.
He glanced at her again, his ears staying down. "Yeah. Yeah I suppose you're right."
Judy blinked and watched him finish out the next few shots, unable to shake the sensation that he was keeping something from her. Her foot began to tap in annoyance and she crossed her arms, waiting until he called the target forward again before speaking again.
"You told him everything, didn't you?" she said, unable to keep the accusatory tone from her voice.
Nick set down the taser and turned around to look at her, his head cocked to one side for a moment. "It's getting really hard to slip things past you."
"Nick…why would you tell him about everything?"
His ears folded the rest of the way down and he rubbed his neck. "Because Bogo gave me a lot to think about and made me realize that I won't be the only one to get in trouble if one of my tricks works out badly." He sighed, then shook his head. "Sorry I didn't tell you."
Her annoyance practically withered away and she glanced to one side, genuinely ashamed that she'd assumed he hadn't had a reason. She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly before giving him a smile.
"Don't worry about it," she said as she nudged him away from the table. "Can you teach me how you're reloading so quickly? I can't figure out what you're doing."
"Hmmm?" Nick said and perked his ears, then moved to stand behind her. "Sure. Show me what you're doing first."
