2 months later
"FREEZE MEANS STOP DAMMIT!"
"Hey Carrots? I don't think yelling at her louder is gonna help."
"Just get after her!" Judy said, jumping through the window after their suspect. They'd spent the two weeks Nick had been back on active duty tracking down the local head of a syndicate that had become the main supplier of drugs in Happytown, and weren't going to let her get away. The second the pair burst in to Alisa Hartley's apartment, she jumped out on to the fire escape and sprinted away, quickly gaining a significant head start, the hood of her sweatshirt flapping behind her. However, few creatures can out run a rabbit and fox so as Nick and Judy bounded after her, after reaching the bottom of the fire escape they began closing the gap.
The aardvark surprised them with her agility and speed, unusual in the species. She ran full pelt out of the district turning left in to Pack Street, dodging pedestrians consisting of wolves, foxes, tigers, and one sheep. The officers ran on dodging the same predators, with Nick wondering what a sheep was doing living here, before focusing back on the chase.
"You know!" Nick said while huffing, trying to catch air as he kept pace just behind Judy. "I'm starting to not regret all those jogs you make me do. Pretty sure I'd be dead by now otherwise!"
"Told you it was good for your stamina," Judy replied, looking back, not breaking her stride. As she returned her focus ahead, they saw their target turn left in to Flock Street before running down an alley. They followed, the suspect knocking over trash cans and dumpsters to bar their way. Judy jinked left and right, and in one case, slid under a falling garbage can, while Nick easily jumped over them in her wake, managing to stay right on her tail. Hartley headed straight out of the alley, almost being hit by multiple cars as she ran across the street, heading towards a large glass covered building, shoving lots of pedestrians out of her way.
"Uh oh," Judy said, reading the situation. She pressed her radios speak button. "Officer Hopps to dispatch, in pursuit of suspect! Heading in to Troop Street mall! Possibly armed! Requesting backup! Possible danger to civilians!" she screamed as she reached for her dart launcher.
"Roger that Hopps, deploying two additional units to your location, eta 3 minutes," came the reply from Clawhauser. Say what you want about his Gazelle obsession, but he was a damn good dispatcher.
"I didn't see a gun Carrots," Nick said, keeping an eye on their perp as she ran through the glass doors of the mall.
"Doesn't mean she doesn't have one, remember when she almost got Grizzoli last week?"
"Good point!" Nick said, readying his own dart gun. As per standing orders, beat officers were not supposed to take their lethal weapons out unless they were expressly needed. They'd stumbled across a lead to Hartley's location thanks to a tip from Duke Weaselton, and hadn't the time to go to the precinct and request them.
Besides, nine times out of ten the dart guns did the job, being able to elephant in less than a second with no side effects worse than a splitting headache from the drugs.
"ZPD! OUT OF THE WAY PEOPLE!" Nick yelled as crowds tried to fill the holes left by Hartley's progress through the mall. Entering the food court, the aardvark slalomed between a herd of Oryx before diving under the legs of a bison, then swerved around a bright yellow warning sign where an employee was mopping a spill. Judy followed suit, matching the moves but easily hopping over the spill (and the heads of several mammals). Nick however, mistimed it and caught his foot on one of the bison's hooves. He fell to floor and would have turned it in to a roll back on to his feet if he hadn't tripped right in to the spill. He slammed into the ground and slid on the water into an empty table, causing chairs to scatter.
"Nick!" Judy shouted back at the noise, and began to slow to help her partner. Seeing this, Nick yelled "I'm fine, keep going! I'll catch up!" as he spent a few precious seconds getting back on his feet. At his insistence Judy nodded and turned back to Hartley, and managed to put an extra burst of speed on to close the gap. Hartley dashed back in to the crowds which began to slow her progress. Judy put on more speed and closed the gap. Realising she was about to be cornered if she didn't do something, Hartley reached behind her back, pulled a pistol from her trousers and fired in to the air.
"Crap!" Nick yelled as he sought to catch up to Judy and Hartley. He keyed his radio "Officer Wilde shots fired shots fired! Where's that backup Clawhauser!?"
"Still a minute out Wilde, they're hurrying!"
"Well tell them to hurry faster!" Nick said, and somehow managed to drag some more speed from reserves he never knew he had. By now mammals were all screaming and running at cross purposes, minor collisions happening all over as they tried to run from the gun fire. Nick leapt and dodged all around the chaos, finally getting a clear view of Judy and Hartley. Judy had almost closed the gap completely, mere inches from Hartley who didn't have time to stop and turn and bring her weapon to bear, as any reduction in speed would result in Judy grabbing her.
Suddenly a crash of glass from up ahead caused Nick to shift his view as he saw a mother sheep pulling her lamb away from machine filled with small novelty bouncing rubber balls as she tried to avoid the panicked mob. The impact caused the balls to start rolling and bouncing everywhere ahead right in Hartley's path. Judy reached out and grabbed the drug lord by her hood…which was the exact moment Hartley's foot trod on a group of balls.
The dealer feel to floor, dragging Judy with her. Both hit the ground with a thud, dropping their weapons. Judy fell awkwardly, rolling on to her back and caught a glancing blow to the head form the floor as she did. Both mammals came to a stop after a few seconds, giving Nick a chance to catch up. Before he could get there though, Hartley started to rise slightly ahead of Judy, the blow to the head causing her reactions to be slower than normal. It allowed Hartley enough time to grab her gun that had fallen by her feet. Nick's heart started racing as the aardvark rushed over to Judy, pulled her to her feet, twisting her arm around her back while levelling her gun at the back of her head.
"DROP IT HARTLEY!" Nick snarled, raising his dart gun in a two-handed grip. He tried to slow his heart as a burning pain he thought he'd seen the last of months ago started to resurface. Not again, please not again…NO, YOU DON'T HAVE TIME! he screamed internally, banishing the pain and panic away. He couldn't let this happen now.
"Nah ah fox!" the aardvark yelled back. "One step closer and the rabbit gets a splitting headache!" Judy just moved her eyes upwards, staring right at Nick, not saying a word.
"Urgh, I don't know what's worse, the fact you got a gun to her head or the pun!" Nick said. Woah, that's the sort of thing I used to say before…dammit Nick focus! "Backup will be here in seconds Hartley, there's nowhere to go!"
"I don't know if you noticed, but I have all the leverage here! Toss your gun down or I put a bullet in her brain!" Hartley pressed the gun hard in to Judy's head, causing her to grimace slightly, but she remained silent. Nick finally looked down at his partner's eyes. Hartley's demands fell on deaf ears as the partners, in life and love, locked eyes. Nick heart started to slow, drawn by Judy's unblinking, stoic defiance. Ever so slightly, she nodded.
Nick understood immediately. The world came back in to focus, Hartley now screaming at the top of her lungs as she finally figured out the fox wasn't listening to her. "I SAID TOSS YOUR FUCKING GUN DAMMIT!" she snarled, her elongated nose bobbing in fury.
"OK you win!" Nick said in frustration. He relaxed his stance, released his pistol from its two-handed grip, drew his arm back in an easy under arm toss and released the gun on the upswing.
Time slowed as Hartley watched the gun rise in a small lazy arc in the air, buying Judy the distraction she needed. Her powerful right leg struck out behind her, ploughing into Hartley's ankle. A sharp crack was heard by the sensitive canid and lagomorph ears. Hartley cried out in pain, releasing her grip on Judy, who dived to her right towards where her own dart pistol had landed. As she did, Nick dived forward to the floor, this time turning it in to a roll back to his feet righting himself right under where his own pistol was about to complete its descent. He grabbed it out of the air, focused on Hartley just as the pusher was attempting to aim at Judy who was still in mid leap towards her own gun.
Nick squeezed the trigger twice with no hesitation. The darts flew true, both landing dead centre of the Hartley's chest. The mammal looked down at her chest and tried to swear, but was cut off as her legs gave out, causing her to fall forward as she lost consciousness. She released her grip on her gun and it clattered to the floor.
Time started flowing normally again, but Nick froze, his breathing hard, his chest hammering…but slowing. Before he could fully process what had happened, Judy ran up to the now subdued criminal and cuffed her hands behind her back and secured the aardvark's pistol. Satisfied that there was no immediate danger, the small bundle of fur and dense muddle then slammed into Nick and grabbed him by the waist and squeezed as he fell on his rump.
"Nick that was brilliant!" she screamed, and squeezed harder, causing Nick to belch air out. "Nice work Slick, I knew you'd take her down!" she exclaimed. Before she could get another word in, a thunder of hooves and paws became clear as Rhinowitz, Snarloff, Jackson and Delgato skidded to halt, pistols drawn. They looked at the aftermath of the chase and holstered their weapons before turning their attention to Nick and Judy.
"Hey Hopps, I thought you needed backup?" Jackson said. "Or was that just to keep us on our toes."
"Oh you know me, just have to make sure you don't feel left out. After all, can't have Nick be the only one saving me from a mammal with a loaded gun to my head."
"Huh, really?" Jackson said. "Well good work Nick," he finished, a note of satisfaction in his voice. He had his worries about Nick returning to work after the hostage incident months ago, but was glad to be wrong.
"What do you mean really?" Judy replied, fire seeming to spew from her eyes as she glared at the unfortunate tiger. Jackson started to try and explain himself as Judy rose to presumably wrap his tongue around his neck, when she was stopped by Nick's paw grabbing her arm. She turned and found Nick staring intensely in to her eyes.
"Judy, are you OK?" Nick said, worry in his voice.
"Yeah Nick, I'm fine. All thanks to you," she answered.
"Good, now will you just shut up for a minute and sit here with me so I don't lose it?"
"Nick are you having a panic attack!?" Judy asked, vengeance on Jackson completely forgotten as she kneeled in front of Nick.
"No, but I...I just need a minute OK?" he said. He turned to the other officers who were looking down with slight worry in their eyes. "Guys could you keep the crowds away from the crime scene and give me a minute?" he asked gesturing to some of the braver shoppers who had started to flow back towards them. He hated having to ask for it but it was either that or not give himself the time to calm down.
"Yeah sure Nick, no problem," Jackson said hurriedly, eager to get out of Judy's crosshairs. He and the others began to disperse the crown as Nick took a few deep breaths. He looked down at his lover, concern starting to show on her features. He smiled at her, which she reciprocated. While everyone was distracted, fraternisation on duty still being frowned upon, he bent down and gave her a quick kiss on her forehead. "I'm fine Fluff, I just needed a sec OK? Now let's get this drug pushing lowlife behind bars huh?"
"You got it partner!" Judy replied, her eyes full of pride.
Three hours later, Precinct One, Chief Bogo's office
"Well done both of you," Bogo said, laying their preliminary report down. "Taking down Hartley means one less high volume dealer on the streets, and maybe we can finally make some headway or where they get their product from." He looked over his glasses at the partners who sat at attention. "As per standard practice, you'll be off patrol duty while the evidence investigators clear your weapon Wilde. You too Hopps, that's a nasty knock on the head you got during the pursuit."
"I'm fit for duty sir!" Judy said, saluting.
"I'll be the judge of that Hopps," Bogo said noting the ever so slight delay in the rabbit's usual speech pattern. He turned to Nick, who had been uncharacteristically quiet during the report, only talking when asked, instead of putting a snarky remark in every three sentences as normal. Bogo appreciated that a little as the snark was the reasons the interviews for this pair ended up twice as long as others, but it did make him worried for Wilde. "Now that the official stuff is out of the way, how are you feeling Wilde?"
"Sir?" Nick said, confusion in his voice.
"Well to address the elephant in the room, how did going up against another crazy animal with a gun who threatened your partner and girlfriend make you feel?" Bogo said, never one to mince words.
Nick Remained silent for a few seconds more, contemplating the answer. "To be honest sir, I'm not sure. I mean, I handled the situation exactly as I would have done before…but I don't know if that's a good thing?" he said, turning the last statement in to a question. "I mean I don't get it. Shouldn't I be happy that I'm over my issues?"
"I can answer that easily Wilde," Bogo said, removing his glasses. "It's because you're not over them."
"But sir!" Judy said attempting to come to her partner's defence. Bogo simply raised a finger to her which caused her to stop. He sighed before continuing.
"You don't get over trauma Wilde," Bogo said slipping in to a friendlier tone. "You learn to deal with it so it doesn't take its toll on you." The buffalo leaned back in his chair. "Believe me I know."
"Sir, with all due respect, I doubt you let anything get to you," Nick said, smirking.
"Oh you think I started out as cynical and jaded as I am now?" Bogo said. "Don't forget Wilde, I was a beat cop for years before climbing the ranks. I've seen my share of horrible situations…including when I killed a kid."
The room became deathly silent at the revelation. "Well I say kid, he was eighteen really but still, only an adult in the legal sense," Bogo continued as he ran a hand over his right horn. "I was barely three months in to my career, when me and my partner walked right in to a four-mammal bank robbery. We tried to intervene of course, and they tried to shoot their way out. My partner took a bullet to his vest and in a panic, I opened fire…and hit one of the idiots in the chest. The others got away, but that just left me with a dead body, no recovered money and severe depression."
"Chief…" Judy said as Nick just sat in silence.
"Back then, admitting mental 'weakness' was a great way to lose your job. So, I bottled up all those feelings until years lately when it nearly cost me my marriage." He sighed, leaning forward in his chair again. "I wish I had the help you have available years ago, that's why when I became Chief I made sure it was covered in the ZPD health insurance plan. But hey, I managed to learn to deal with my issues and here I sit now, getting to order people around for a living."
"Sir if I may, you do so much more than that!" Judy said.
"Yeah you started gaining weight from sitting around all day," Nick said, smiling.
"And he's back" Bogo groaned. "Though I suppose we wouldn't have you any other way Wilde."
"Good, I wouldn't either," Nick replied. "Though seriously sir, thank you for sharing. I hope to continue serving the ZPD for many years to come."
"Speaking of which," Bogo said, staring Nick in the eye before turning the expression on Judy. "Hopps, Wilde. Have either of you considered how you may be best suited to serve?"
"Sir?" Judy said, shoiwing it was her turn to be confused..
"Well it just so happens we're going to have some openings in the Criminal Investigation Department since George and Roy are going to be retiring in six months."
"Sir…are you offering us promotion to detectives!?" Judy said, almost bouncing out of her chair.
"No Hopps I'm not offering you anything," Bogo said, causing the rabbit to pause mid-bounce. "I'm just making you aware that in a few months' time, we may have some openings for mammals who, after a mere two weeks back, managed to track down a high-level drug dealer the rest of my team has been tracking for months with no success."
"Way to dash our hopes boss," Nick said through a smile. "Dangle that carrot in front of the donkey."
"Wilde, it's comments like that which will get you on a diversity course from Mammal Resources," Bogo said, shaking his head. "In all honesty, in the last year you've cracked more cases than most officers do in three. I don't see why I wouldn't recommend such a team for promotion PROVIDED," he added loudly, seeing Judy rise in here seat again. "Provided, they both got tops marks in the written exam."
Judy turned to Nick, her excitement causing her to start bouncing in place. "What do you say Nick? Think we can do it?"
"Judy I can do anything with you by my side," Nick said with no hesitation.
"I take it you're both interested then?" Bogo said, raising an eyebrow. The partners looked at each other, a shared smile crossing their features and in unison they turned to Bogo and replied.
"Yes sir!"
Notes:
And with that, this story ends. I'm not sure if it would have been more effective to end last chapter, but honestly, I felt like I needed to add this in to show that things can get close to normal after mental illness. Nick may be reacting differently than he would at the beginning of the story, but he's still Nick, it's just that he's a newer more mentally aware Nick than he would have been.
Mental illness is something that I don't think you can ever fully heal from, but it's something you either learn to deal with, or let consume you. At times I felt like it was going to be the latter, but thanks to therapy, help from my loved ones, and especially my wife, it gets easier every day.
Thanks for reading. I have a sequel series already planned and started, but it'll probably be at least another week or two before I get that finished. To give you a taste of the content, the working title is "Zootopian Vice" and it'll star Nick and Judy in their first big case as detectives. It'll probably have more humour, but at the same time be darker than this work. I think it'll end up being told more Judy's perspective, but we'll see how that pans out.