TWAF Chapter 8: Back on Track
Judys breaths were coarse and heavy, maintaining a well practiced rhythm with her jogging pace. Dressed in workout clothes resembling her police uniform save for the navy blue tank top replacing the sleeves shirt and vest. Her lungs ached and her legs were already sore, Come on, you can do this. Judy thought, challenging herself, failing her own standards, something her old instructor, Friedkin, would sportingly mock. "Your dead fluffbutt!" Judy said in as low a tone as she could to match the large bear. She chuckled lightly at this, shaking her head before taking a breath and continuing her run.
"Seventeen!" Judy announced proudly with a hoarse, rasping voice as she came to a stop next to a similarly exhausted, brown and grey furred ram; Thomas, her would be blackmailer.
"Seven-" he coughed, "-Teen... laps?" He asked disbelieving.
Judy nodded, doubled over into a slouch, poised with her hands on her knees to keep from wobbling from one side or the other, "You?"
He looked back over the round track of the precincts facility, other officers could be seen trotting along its lined paths as well. He turned back "One," he said with a chuckle that tapered into a painfully hoarse cough, "Ouch."
"Oh, That's good," she encouraged.
"If you're going to lie to me, at least sound convincing." The counselor offered with a more careful laugh this time, "Water break?"
Judy nodded, "Mhm." She fell into the same accomplished steps of a mammal that had a very successful workout. Thomas more trudged behind her towards the set of benches just between where the small indoor track met the weights room. There the goat counselor was able to plop unceremoniously into a vacant seat just beside where they had sat their personal belongings, Judy still had the small obstacle of leaping into the taller chair, a task her tired legs warned against with slight twinges of pain.
"Someone's in a better mood?" pried the portly goat who ended with the loud sound of of him wrapping his blunt teeth on the spout of his water bottle and glugging desperately from the contents.
"Hm?" Judy inquired, the raised brow on the goat's face as he nodded down towards her. Following his gesture she noticed her legs hung from the bench like a kid on a tall stool, subconsciously kicked at the empty air in front of her playfully. "Oh, sorry, no. I hardly got any sleep because of the long shift the Chief had us on."
"Thats right," he pressed more immediately with concern. "Your partner is alright?"
Judy nodded, "Slight concussion but otherwise ready to return to work."
"Then what has you in such a good mood?" The elderly goat asked, almost cautioning her mood alongside the news of her partner being attacked on duty.
"I ran into Nick."
Thomas was in worse off shape, it wasn't hard to tell, he hummed lightly taking another long drink of the cold water in his container, ending with an "Ahh." that he vocalized contently, "That must have been nice. Officer Wilde right?" He asked.
"Mhm," Judy took a smaller less important drink from her own thermice. "Although technically he is a civilian instructor at the academy, so its 'Instructor' and not 'Officer' as his current title."
"You two talked?"
Judy shrugged, "Not much." She said disappointedly. She thought back to the previous night, between Nick getting in so late and Judy already being stretched thin from the long work hours, the two settled into an odd sort of quiet as she drove him home in their old cruiser. Despite protests, Nick refused help getting out of the cruiser, Stubborn fox. Judy thought, Nick as ever ready to prove his self reliance.
"You should then," He began stretching, a loud pop resonating from his tired joints causing him to laugh embarrassingly. "It would do you some good to spend time with your old partner, an idea!" He paused pursing a lip in concentration, "I'll make that my next prescription."
Judy giggled alongside the bellowing goat, "I don't need to be blackmailed to spend time with a friend."
"Good," he said more seriously as the bench squeaked with him sitting back with another large chug of his water bottle. "Friends are just what you need."
The two fell into an companionable silence for a few minutes just looking out into the gym of other officers, sipping at their individual containers as they went.
"Well?" The older goat chided.
"Now?"
"Why not now?" He challenged.
Judy's phone was set to her right, sat with a blinking blue light facing up on the hard mass produced polycarbonate covered seat. She quickly retrieved it into her paw, a couple deft presses later and a blank screen with a half dozen reminders for app updates and junk emails stared back at her. To her left, Thomas, eyed her expectantly.
Judy noted how awkwardly she felt looking over the screens saved numbers as she scrolled, at one point Judy called or texted the image of the smiling fox several times a day. The two were still friends, Aren't we? Judy questioned thinking over that same image of a blue uniformed fox in her caller I.D. She called him every day since his recovery. She quickly noticed that Nick never called and even when he picked up their conversations were short, it was difficult to get the already reserved fox to talk beyond a hum to even acknowledge that someone was on the other end of the call. There were fewer calls, then fewer still until she just couldn't take the silence on the other end. Judy understood, the recovery was hard on him, becoming wheelchair bound for someone who was so independent was hard and Nick was in pain.
"Try everythiiing!" Judy could well have jumped twelve feet from the startling sudden sound for all the good the ring of her I-Carrot phone was in giving her heart a jump.
"HaaaHAaa haa!" Chortled her jogging companion. Sure enough, Judys screen was now looking back at her with the image of a smirking orange furred fox, a picture taken on that very same phone while on duty nearly a year ago.
"I gotta take this, sorry." Judy apologized, Thomas only shooing her as he still laughed lightly but heartily.
With a nod she hopped from the bench and walked a distance along the divide of the workout room.
Swiping her finger across the green 'pick up' icon she picked up. "Hello?"
The background sounds boomed from the other end of the call, dozens of loud talking mammals could be heard, "Hello?" Returned the voice of that familiar fox officer, "Hey Officer Hopps?!" He yelled in an attempt to be heard over the crowd.
"Nick! Whats up."
"Hopps?" He yelled back in response, "Sorry everyone's kind of loud over here. Anyway, just over here with the Major getting numbers for the graduation ceremony. Ya know crossing my i's and dotting my t's."
"Ugh," Judy playfully cringed. "So you met the old pain in the neck himself?"
"Coggy the old grey hare bastard." Judy barely managed to hear him over the sounds in the background but didn't miss the explicit amount of venom that oozed from the predator on the other end of her call.
"Acting mayor Cogsworth." Judy corrected sarcastically.
"That's what I said, right?" Nick matched her own indifference. It was an interesting question as to why the Major had Nick come with her, after all Cogsworth was a notable pain in the side of the general citizenry of the whole of Zootopia despite his fickle attempts at maintaining his public image.
"How was meeting with him?" Judy asked more cautiously.
A sigh of ill content faded into a tired whine in reply. Several more seconds passed with the only sound that told her the call hadn't ended being the loud backdrop of other rude mammals on the other end surrounding her previous partner. "Meeting the lazy, self absorbed narcissistic piece of crap that personally saw to making the most miserable moment of my life even worse? It went about as well as you can expect-"
Seething; as best a word Judy could use to describe the almost palpable levels of anger in the vulpines tone. Cogsworth's reign since taking up the mantle of temporary mayor of Zootopia in place of Lionheart and Bellwether was one noted with inefficiency and a general rule of incompetence in place of his ego. Formerly the treasurer of Zootopia; Cogsworth now saw to the whole of Zootopia in the chaotic aftermath of the two previous mayors of their city. His immediate actions sounded reasonable, until just what they meant took full effect. His redistribution of tax payer money meant a substantial decrease in the ZPDs funding. Pension, equipment and, of course, a timely cut to officer health and life insurance under the Greasy Hares Reign as several other officers had so eloquently put it.
Judy noticed the subtle creaking noise that sounded over the other end of the line followed by an immediate silence. "Nick?" She asked, afraid that the line had dropped or that the same silence that pursued the two had returned.
"Oh, sorry Hopps. To noisy out there so I dipped into the bathroom, can you hear me alright?" Echoed his voice across the tile of the large room around him. He sounded much like he did the day before, a lot better than the last time Judy remembered seeing him before the sudden and surprising news that he had taken up a job offer outside of Zootopia, an offer made to him from both of their previous instructors at the academy; Major Friedkin. A means to begin tackling the substantial debt of hospital bills that he was suddenly dealt after Them.
"You sound much better." Judy responded gladly.
"Good, good. So hey, i'm going to have some down time this weekend. Figured I would call and see if you wanted to... hang out, maybe grab something to eat?"
"Sure, normally I would be working but I'll have some time while Wolford is still recovering since the incident."
"Mhm, that makes sense. Hows he doing?"
Judy had no trouble noting the serious concern he had over the other officer. Nick for his part made friends easily enough in the ZPD, several times easier then she had but he fell in with the other canines with surprising ease. "He's doing good, called and told me his wife just about talked his ear off for getting beat up by some streetwise punk."
Nick laughed, it took Judy a couple of seconds to actually register the sound over the phone. "That sounds like her."
"She was just concerned." Judy defended.
"Wolfords a tough hound but death by nagging is not a better way to go."
"Nick!" Judy had to pause to laugh away from her phone, unable to give him the satisfaction of knowing he had caused it. "I'll tell Mrs. Wolford you said that."
"No, no, no!" He quickly replied, "Please don't do that, she makes the best cookies!"
"Cookies that she sends with her husband!"
"That I take-"
"Steal!" Judy quickly corrected.
"Ahem, 'take' every so often while offering my compliments." He sounded as snooty and difficult as ever.
"Whatever you say slick." She could hear him snickering on the other end for a good couple seconds before he sighed tiredly. "So where were you thinking to grab a bite?"
"Oh, sorry poor choice of words."
"Hm?" Judy began with a furrowed brow.
"I didn't actually mean to go get food. Figured you could stop by and I would cook something up."
"You can cook?" Judy scoffed.
"Yes I can, thank you very much. Figured it would be a good chance to catch up, we didn't talk much yesterday."
"Ya, you were kind of out of it."
"Me? You just finished a double shift and the incident with your partner. You were like a zombie that whole drive home."
"Oh, speaking of which I recognized the place, your old apartment?"
"Eh, you could hardly call the place an apartment." Nick chuckled, "But the old utility and boiler room was still open. No one was really looking to move into the place so the landlord let me pick up right where I left off, had to clean it up a bit. A lot of dust."
"Doesn't sound like a promising place to cook."
"Well la' de da. Little miss standards, you really that opposed to spending some time with your old partner?"
Judys eyes shot open "No, Nick that's not what I meant, I didn't mean, I'm sorry-"
"Woah, woah there Officer Hopps. I was just messing with you, relax." He ended with a half hearted laugh, an awkward kind that Judy quickly returned.
"Sorry." A silence settled in for a short while.
"You alright partner?" The tone lowered it was friendly and one that Judy recognized. It hurt in just how much Judy missed it.
"Yea fine, just a little stressed.
"Mm," She could practically hear the understanding nod. "I get it, saw part of the news coverage and some of the mayor's advisors were talking about it a bit. Sure has been a boom in gang violence lately."
"Yea," Judy conceded.
"You keeping safe out there?" Nick sounded genuinely concerned.
"Always, we weren't going there for any sort of bust or anything. It was just supposed to be a simple missing mammals-"
"There's your problem. When are missing mammal cases ever so simple with you."
"Hey, its not like I meant for the case to end up like that." Judy huffed definitely.
"You are about as opposite to lucky as any rabbit I know, the precinct should know to avoid giving you missing mammals cases to keep their number of conspiracies down."
Judy gave a defiant huff, he was probably right.
