Chapter 9: Hero

The silence in the apartment's living room was deafening. Joseph, Judy, and Nick all had their eyes trained on either the coffee table or the floor, while Jamie was staring into space, her eyes wide, shocked at the tale she'd just heard.

At the station, Judy had told Jamie that she should come home with them so they could talk things over. The whole ride there, Jamie had never ceased asking what on earth was going on, and Judy just kept telling her that they'd discuss it at the apartment. When they'd arrived, although Jamie was getting more impatient by the second, Nick, Judy, and Joseph had all insisted that Joseph clean up before they started talking. The smell of dried blood and the onset of decay was beginning to emanate from him fiercely.

After Joseph had showered and changed his clothes (tossing the torn and bloody ones in the garbage), the group had sat down in the living room, and Joseph had told Jamie everything he'd told Bogo, with the inclusion of today's events.

Now, as the four animals sat together, the silence lay over them like a thick woven blanket, smothering them. Judy was the first to speak after Joseph finished his story.

"Jamie," she said gently, laying her paw on her sister's, "I know it sounds crazy, but we've seen it. He's telling the truth."

Jamie gulped, and then spoke for the first time. "So," she said hesitantly, "you're telling me that you come from a different world where animals are un-evolved, and one species rules the planet, and you were kidnapped and turned into a..."

"Monster," Joseph finished for her, deadpan. "Or hybrid. Whichever you prefer."

"Right," Jamie said weakly. She didn't seem to be comfortable using either of those words. "So, you were turned into this...thing, and you were on the run for two years, and then you came here and somehow turned into a fox, and you have no idea why?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Joseph stated matter-of-factly. He took a deep breath. "I know it's a lot to take in-"

"Oh, I don't think you do," Jamie responded, putting her head in her paws.

Joseph lowered his gaze from her face. "Imagine going through it," he said darkly.

Jamie raised her eyes, and Joseph saw that they were filled with tears. He felt a pang in his heart just at the thought that he'd made her cry. Then he wondered why he felt that.

"I'm sorry," Jamie said, wiping her eyes. "It's just...how is all this even possible?"

"I don't know," Joseph said with a shake of his head. "The mutant thing, I'm guessing could be explained through some pretty advanced science. But how I'm a fox, how I got here...your guess is as good as mine. I passed out as a human, and woke up as a fox."

The room was silent for about another minute, until Nick stood up.

"I'm gonna go make some coffee," he said to no one in particular.

"I'll help," Judy said, also rising from the couch. They both knew full well that Nick could make coffee on his own, but they both thought it would be a good idea for Joseph and Jamie to speak privately for a while.

After the pair had left, a tense silence once again filled the room. Jamie decided to break it.

"It... it's all true, isn't it?" she asked, her trembling voice a whisper.

"Yeah," Joseph said. "Unfortunately."

A few moments later, in a hoarse whisper, he said, "I am so sorry."

Jamie looked up at the fox. His head was bowed, his back hunched, his eyes dejectedly staring at the floor, and she thought she saw silent tears falling from eyes to the carpet. "For what?" she responded.

"For dragging you into this," he said, not looking up. "For...for being what I am."

Joseph's words were so full of self-loathing that it broke Jamie's heart. My God, she thought mournfully, he really hates himself. Jamie herself was surprised at the sudden lump that formed in her throat, her heart moved with sympathy for this poor, broken-down fox.

"You...you don't have to apologize, Joseph," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. "You haven't done anything wrong."

"I've killed people," Joseph stated flatly. "I've butchered them. I…can still taste the blood from earlier…" Joseph put his paw over his mouth, feeling suddenly nauseous.

"He was going to kill two children, Joseph. You said you didn't even think about doing it, you just did. You saved two kids out of pure instinct. That's not something to be ashamed of."

The fox raised his teary eyes to Jamie's. "I really wish I could believe that," he said.

Jamie let out a deep sigh. "Joseph," she said after a few seconds of silence, "let me ask you something. Do you want to be this way? Do you really want to hurt people?"

"No," Joseph said hoarsely. "Of course I don't. I'd give anything to just be normal again."

"Okay," she said. "And did you want to save those kids today?"

"Yes," Joseph said without hesitation. "Of course I did."

"Right," she said. "So, when you hurt people, like when you escaped the base, or when you…" She had to take a deep breath before saying the words. "Or when you killed that marmot today, you weren't in control of your own actions. That...thing was. But when you saved two children, you were in control. You chose to save them." Jamie got up from her chair and sat by Joseph's side on the couch, barely two inches away from him. "That's not something to be sorry for," she said softly.

Joseph glanced at Jamie, unable to look her in the eyes for more than half a second. "I'm still a monster," he muttered.

"No," Jamie stated emphatically. "You are not. Monsters are evil. Monsters don't sacrifice everything to keep people safe. Monsters don't want to be better than they are. Monsters don't save two defenseless children without even thinking about it. You know who does things like that?" The bunny suddenly reached out her paw and grasped Joseph's chin, turning his head so that he looked right into her sky-blue eyes. "Heroes, Joseph. Heroes do things like that. Just because you have this...condition, doesn't make you a monster. The fact that you're doing your best to be good, the fact that you acted to save two children without even thinking about it—that makes you a hero in my book."

Joseph cast his gaze downward, unable to look into Jamie's eyes any longer. For some reason, just being this close to her made his normally steady pulse become erratic and uneven.

"I've seen heroes, Jamie," he said. "Like, real, actual, flesh-and-blood heroes. And I am nothing like them." He gave a sarcastic, humorless snort. "Except for maybe the big green guy."

Jamie dropped her paw and let out a sigh of frustration. "Joseph, why can't you see that you are a good person who happens to have a problem?"

"Because I can't," Joseph retorted frustratedly. "I actually can't. I've never been able to. It's part of the disease."

"What disease?"

Joseph let out a heavy sigh, passing a paw over his face before he responded. "Depression," he admitted, feeling more tired than he had ever felt in his life. "Clinical depression. I've had it since I was a little kid. It makes it...impossible to see any good in myself. It's like, I know it's there, I know there's good in me, but it's just not real. Just like when...when Nick and Judy say they care about me. In my head, I know it's true, but in my heart...I just can't understand it. Every time I look at myself, I can only see everything that's bad in me. It makes it so I can't even imagine that...someone would love me...or even care about me."

"I do," Jamie said without hesitation, and she knew she meant it. "I care about you, Joseph. And if you need me to tell you every single day that you are a good person who has true value, then I'll do it. 'Cause I know it's true."

The fox looked back up at the bunny, staring at her in disbelief. "Why aren't you scared of me?"

"Because I don't think I have to be," Jamie said. "I think you're too good to hurt me, even on accident. If you felt the...change coming on, do you think you'd stand by and wait for me to get hurt?"

Joseph responded without hesitation. "No," he stated emphatically. "I would kill myself before I put you in harm's way."

Jamie was taken aback by the fox's comment. Although she knew he wouldn't let her get hurt, his reaction was a little...melodramatic. His voice was full of raw emotion—the kind of emotion you don't usually express for someone you've just met.

"Right," she said, hoping he couldn't notice the heat rising in her cheeks. "I don't have any reason to be scared."

Without even thinking about what she was doing, Jamie reached out and took Joseph's paw in her own, holding it in a firm but gentle grip. She could feel his pulse speeding up through his fur.

"You are good, Joseph," she told him, looking him in the eye. "Don't let anyone tell you any different. Not even yourself."

Joseph looked down at their entwined paws and made no move to extricate himself from Jamie's grasp. After a moment of silence, he spoke.

"Thank you," he said softly. "You...you don't know how much words like that mean to me." He let out a light chuckle. "You know, between you and Nick and Judy, I'm pretty sure I've received more kindness and compassion in the last three days than I have in the majority of my life."

Jamie smiled at him. "You're welcome," she said, and suddenly pulled him into a hug. "You've got my number. Promise me you'll call if you need anything, okay?"

"I promise," Joseph said, hesitantly returning Jamie's hug. At this point, he felt like he was on emotional overload.

As Jamie pulled back from the hug, she did something that made Joseph's heart literally skip a beat-several, in fact. She pulled back from him, looked him straight in the eye, and then leaned in and gave him one quick kiss on the cheek.

"I'm gonna go see if they still need help with that coffee," Jamie said with a glowing smile, and went into the kitchen.

Joseph sat there, frozen in place. Never, not once in his eighteen years of life, had a girl ever kissed him or even so much as held his hand. He'd never even been on actual date. Now, here he was, sitting on a couch in the middle of a city full of talking animals, and he'd just received his first real sign of affection from a girl who happened to be a rabbit.

Joseph really didn't know how his life could get much stranger.

Then, as he finally started to move again, the horrible realization hit him, and with it, his life somehow became even more complicated. As soon as the thought entered his mind, he knew it was true. He also knew that it was very likely to cause nothing but pain and sorrow, something he'd quite had his fill of.

Joseph Solomon realized that, despite all the safeguards he'd taken, all the walls he'd built up inside himself to prevent this, somehow, it was still happening.

He was falling for Jamie Hopps.


Judy leaned against the kitchen counter and watched as her boyfriend began to make coffee. She had a feeling that nobody in the house really wanted any, but both she and Nick had felt a need to let Jamie and Joseph talk alone. Judy knew that the two had already forged some sort of connection—what kind, she couldn't yet tell—but somehow, she knew they'd be able to talk through this.

As Nick plugged in the coffee maker and it began to brew, he looked over at Judy and saw that she was deep in thought. He quickly crossed the short distance between them and placed his paws on her shoulders. "Hey," he said softly, "you okay, Carrots?"

Judy looked up, broken out of her reverie. "Yeah," she said. "I just..." She took a deep breath, let it out. "Nick, what have we gotten ourselves into? What are we gonna do? I mean, we don't know what might set him off again, and I don't know if we can take him if he does change—"

"Hey," Nick cut her off. "He's not gonna change. Joseph's gonna be fine. We are going to be fine."

"How can you know that?" Judy questioned. "Nick, you saw what he turned into, you saw what he did-"

"You're right," he said. "I did see. I saw Joseph lose control, turn into a monster, and save two kids. He's fine, Judy. I trust him." He put his paws on her cheeks and lifted her purple eyes to meet his green ones. "Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do, Nick," Judy said without hesitation. Nick's wide green eyes were melting her heart again. "I trust you with my life."

"Come here," Nick said after a brief pause. He pulled his bunny love against his chest, wrapping her in a hug. "I love you, Judy."

"I love you too, Nick," Judy said. "God, I love you so much."

Nick leaned down and gave Judy a long, loving kiss on the forehead, then led her over to the kitchen table. "Come on," he said. "There's something else I want to talk to you about."

"What is it?" she said, sitting down in one of the wooden chairs.

Nick took a deep breath, and then spoke. "Judy, I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone or anything. And I… I don't wanna keep that a secret anymore. I want people to know that we're in love."

"Nick," Judy said, "you know I want that, too, but you know that this kind of relationship comes with risks."

"I know," Nick said. "I know."

For as long as anyone in Zootopia could remember, there had always been a social stigma surrounding inter-species relationships. They weren't illegal, of course, and they never had been. They were just extremely, extremely rare. It hardly ever happened that animals from two different species fell in love. It was simply a natural biological inclination that one species should find a mate within its own species. However, when inter-species relationships did happen, they were sometimes met with disapproval and disgust, if not outright hostility.

Although most mammals didn't take much issue with inter-species relationships, there were still those who saw these relationships as something unnatural and inherently wrong. However, none of them could really come up with a good, logical argument to defend that position. Most of the animals who opposed relationships like Nick and Judy's only did so because they saw it as "outside the norm". Even though it wasn't a good reason, these animals still held to it like a lifeline. They just didn't want things to change from the way they thought they always had been.

Judy could only remember one widely publicized inter-species relationship in her lifetime, and it hadn't ended well. She'd been thirteen at the time. She remembered watching the news one evening, and a story had come up about an inter-species couple living in the Rainforest District in Zootopia. Their names were Zach Larson and Leah O'Malley, a wolf and a cheetah, respectively. Word had gotten around that the two had been secretly dating and were now engaged, and a small (but still significant) group of animals had erupted into a protest that rivaled the anti-predator fury of the Night Howler Crisis. It had gone on for weeks, with marches and sit-ins and picket lines across the districts, mostly begun by those opposed to inter-species relationships. They had said that the couple was an abomination against nature. The more sound-minded animals had tried to peacefully protest back, but the others had simply shouted over them. Then, one small faction of the opposed went way beyond the line of reason.

One night, as Leah was walking home from work, a small group of the opposed had surprised her, dragged her into an alley, and beaten her to death. They were arrested not long after, and each member of the group was given a life sentence. The strain, however, had been too much for Zach. Two weeks after his fiancé's murder, Zach Larson was found dead in his living room, an empty bottle of painkillers on the table next to him, and a picture of Leah clenched in his paw.

This was what Judy feared if she and Nick decided to come out in public about their relationship. She feared ridicule. She feared isolation. But most of all, she feared that someone might try to hurt Nick. If something happened to him because of their relationship, Judy would never forgive herself.

All of this flashed through Judy's mind in just a few seconds, in which the two of them were silent. Judy turned her thoughts back to the present. Even amidst the darkness of the memories, a reassuring thought had come to her.

"Nick, honey," she said, laying her paw on top of his, "I love you in ways that words would never be able to describe. And I want everyone to know that. I wanna shout it from the rooftops that I love Nick Wilde."

Nick smiled at his beloved bunny. She never ceased to amaze him.

"I don't care what they'll say," she continued. "I don't care what they're going to do, because I know our love is stronger than their hate. Whatever storm comes, I know we can weather it. 'Cause we're partners."

Judy reached out and grasped Nick's other paw. He could feel the warmth flowing out from her. It gave him immense comfort.

"Besides," Judy said, "we're the first bunny and fox in the ZPD. We've already made history. Who's to say we can't do it again?"

Nick looked at the determined little bunny who had forever changed his life, and wondered how he got so lucky. Smiling, he slowly shook his head in disbelief and awe of her.

"I could have tried for a million billion years," he said softly, "and I never would have been able to imagine someone as perfect as you."

A smile broke across Judy's face as she began to feel herself choke up. "You are a sly fox, Mr. Wilde," she said, leaning in to kiss him.

"And you," Nick said, leaning in also, "are my perfect little bunny."

As their lips met, Nick knew that Judy would always be the only one for him. He wanted to be with her for the rest of his life.

As they were kissing, a quick, fleeting image passed through Nick's mind. He didn't know where it came from, and it was completely unbidden. In his mind, Nick instantly saw Judy and himself, locked in an embrace. He was wearing a sleek black-and-white tuxedo, and Judy was wearing a long, flowing, fluffy white dress. A wedding dress.

The image lasted less than an instant, but Nick knew that it was his destiny. He didn't know when, but he knew that he would make sure that, one day, it would come true.

The couple broke apart when they heard a small "Oh!" from the kitchen doorway. It was Jamie. "Oh, sorry, I—I didn't mean to interrupt." She cast her gaze downward in a sheepish expression.

"It's fine," Judy said quickly, habitually trying to straighten her clothes, even thought they were pristine. "Did you want some coffee, Jamie?"

"No, that's okay," the bunny said. "I was actually just gonna get going. My shift starts at seven tomorrow morning and... well, after today, I think I'm gonna need some more rest than usual."

"Yeah, I get that," Nick said with a grin. "Uh, sorry about, you know, dragging you into all this."

"Oh, it's fine," Jamie said. "After all, I was the one who came and found you guys. I dragged myself in."

"Okay," Judy said, rising from the table and walking toward her sister. "You call me tomorrow and tell me how you're doing, okay?"

"Sure thing, sis," Jamie said. She wrapped Judy in a hug. "Love you."

"Love you, too, Jamie. See you later."

"Bye, Nick," she said, waving to the fox. "Have a good night."

"You too, Jamie," he responded. "See ya."

"See ya," she said, then turned and left the house, saying a quick goodbye to Joseph in the living room on her way out. Judy saw that, as she passed him, she laid a paw on his shoulder for just a moment, and then left.

Once she was gone, Judy turned to Nick. "Is it just me," she said, "or is she taking this unusually well?"

"Yeah," Nick said. "I think I might have an idea why." He motioned for his girlfriend to come sit by him so he could whisper to her, not wanting their guest to overhear. Nick leaned in close to Judy and whispered, "I think she likes him."

"Really?" Judy said, leaning back skeptically. "They've only known each other for three hours. Don't you think it's a little soon for that?"

"Well," Nick said, shrugging, "love is a strange thing." He once again reached out and grasped her paw. "You and I are living proof of that."

"You're right," she said, leaning in to kiss her fox once more, all other thoughts momentarily vanishing. "We are."