Note: Hello everyone!

Sorry for the long wait. The good news is this chapter is slightly longer than my others and it answers a question that came up a few chapters back. So relax and enjoy.

Morning came around and a gray bunny laid peacefully in the embrace of a orange fox. Generally Judy would get up before her alarm went off, but she so deeply enjoyed this feeling that waking up that early just wasn't an option. Nevertheless, her alarm would still bring about a rude awakening to the sleeping pair.

An irritating buzz was heard coming from that infernal thing and Judy cringed at the sound of it, which was followed by an irritated moan. She turned around in the bed and came face to face with Nick who had just opened his eyes.

"Morning fluff. Ready for duty?" He asked with a smirk.

"Nooo." She complained and berried her face into his chest.

Nick thought it was just the cutest thing in the world. Not that he'd use the word around her. He lightly kissed her on the head which caused her to look up at him once more.

"Chief buffalo-butt wont be too happy if we're late." He playfully informed her. "Besides, there's more than enough time for cuddles and snuggles later."

"Oh, get off." She said she said with an eye roll and a smile that wouldn't fade.

"Says the bunny who didn't want to let go just a second ago." Nick mused and got out of bed.

He adjusted his trunks and looked back at Judy who was scanning his firmed up form. "You know you like it."

"Oh do I?" She threw him with the pillow and he simply chuckled in response as he dodged it and went into the bathroom. "Yes, yes I do." She softly said to herself.

Clawhauser was having his usual breakfast at the front desk. His eyes looked up from his bowl when he saw Nick and Judy enter the building. They were teasing each other as they day almost everyday, but Clawhauser noticed something different. They were walking closer to each other, they kept eye contact for longer and most of all he could see the sparkle in their eyes.

His smile grew from ear to ear as they approached him. "Hey you two. How are things this morning?"

"It's good to be back at HQ." Nick said and took a quick peek at Judy.

"Not so cold here that's for sure." Judy added.

"Lots of reasons to like the weather huh, Carrots?" Nick smirked and received fist to his shoulder. "Ow!" He rubbed his shoulder.

Benjamin nodded with his still massive smile. "You know what I like about it? The heat really brings out the individual and mixtures of smells."

"Um... okay." Judy said not quite getting the message.

Nick however grew wide eyed at the realization. He took a few sniffs of the air and started pushing Judy to the bullpen. "OK, well have a good day Ben. Keep those doughnuts outta your neck."

"What's going on with you, Nick?" Judy asked confused with his actions.

"Didn't you get what he was saying? 'Mixtures of smells'." He said making air quotes with his fingers.

"Isn't that just all the different flavored doughnuts by his desk?" She asked placing her right paw on her hip.

Nick looked around them to make sure no one was listening. "He smells our scent's on each other. I smell like you and you smell like me."

"What?" She said softly and a bit worried. "Who else can smell this?"

"Probably every predator here and it's just a matter of time before chief Bogo finds out." Nick placed his fingers in the bridge between his eyes.

"What do we do?" She asked concerned.

"Just act like you do everyday. If people ask questions just tell them about us sitting together in the ambulance yesterday. That should keep them satisfied and off our tails for some time." Nick explained.

"Sounds good." Judy agreed and they proceeded to the bullpen.

Thankfully the mammals were to busy in their own conversations to even notice the two of them. As usual chief Bogo stepped in and handed out assignments to everyone. After that he called Judy and Nick into his office to discuss the case.

The two small mammals sat down together on a large chair and waited for the chief to update them. Bogo searched through some files and looked at one or two before finding the one he was looking for. He opened it up and adjusted his reading glasses.

"Yesterday we interrogated the the three wolfs and wombat that were arrested at the crime scene." The chief informed them.

"Did anyone cooperate?" Judy asked.

"Not intentionally. One of the wolves unintentionally blurted out the name Yuri and the name of the casino you found on the flyer a few days back. Guess who owns the casino?" He asked and leaned forward.

"Yuri Petrov, his business a partner of Mr. Big." Nick said. " I think his a polar bear."

"So you know him?" Chief Bogo asked.

"Just heard of him. Never met him before." Nick momentarily looked to the floor, remembering his past work with Andy.

He wondered if there were any other jobs he did that involved more than he was told of. Mostly he wondered how many more people suffered because of him.

"Nick?" Judy asked and he snapped back.

"Huh?" he shook his head and looked at Judy.

"You OK?" She asked a bit concerned.

"Yes, I'm fine." He lied.

"Wilde, I need to know that your up for this. I understand if-"

"I want to finish the job sir." Nick interrupted.

Bogo wasn't to pleased with the interruption, but shook it off. "Good. Because this is our best opportunity to catch a crime boss and you two have made good progress so far."

They were then dismissed and proceeded to their cubicles, taking special care to avoid Benjamin. When they got there they sat down at their individual desks and started work on there next lead.

09:21, The hospital

Candice blew on the steaming hot coffee she had in her paws. She'd spent the night at the hospital and needed some caffeine to start her day. Her boss was already informed of the events that took place and gave her a few days off for her to recover from the experience.

As she walked back to Chris's room she wondered whether she was just here because Chris had a kind of hero effect on her. One that would make someone think they like that mammal only because they saved your life. Then again, that other fox officer was the one willing to take the bullet. Maybe she just felt sorry for him or maybe she was plainly overthinking this.

She opened the door to his room and closed it again as she entered. The Jackal was busy watching the news and seemed weirdly interested for someone who just received painkillers. He looked at the screen with full focus, a raised eyebrow and nodded at every statement given.

"Hey Chris. Watching the news?" She asked in a friendly tone.

"Have ever noticed how everything in Zootopia begins with the letter Z? ZNN, Zoogle, ZPD it's amazzing." He said stretching out the z from that last word.

"I guess it is. The doctors said that the anesthesia should wear oof in an hour or so." She took a sip of her coffee. "They had to do late night surgery after you had a seizure and that caused some internal bleeding."

"What does that mean, bleeding internally? I mean if your bleeding on the inside of your body aren't you still bleeding on the outside of your internal organs. Or does it mean your organs are bleeding inwardly?" He pondered on that as if it was one of life's great mystery's.

Despite her concerns for him she couldn't help but giggle at him. "They also said you'll be needing some painkillers later on."

"Painkillers." He chuckled. "Who came up with that? You can't kill pain. It's not a living thing."

Chris clearly got hit hard with the side effects and was probably gonna talk like this for awhile. Candice giggled again and thought if she should take a video and show it to him later.

"They should have called it painreducers, or painaway. You could advertise that. Make the pain go away with painaway."

Yes, she was going to make a video and maybe even ask some random questions to add interest.

12:30, ZPD Headquarters

Nick and Judy had basically spent the whole morning doing research on Yuri Petrov and his line of work. He owns the larges casino in Tundratown, takes fees from from small businesses in exchange for 'protection' and has ties with the harbor to help import his biggest means of profit. All but the first statement are unconfirmed and is merely what the ZPD believes. One things for sure and that's that the last fact made Nick uneasy.

Judy had been wanting to talk to Nick about what happened that night, but didn't say anything because of the situation he was in. Now was her chance though and she was eager to take it.

"Hey, Nick." Judy called him in a soft tone.

"What's up, Carrots?" Nick asked back as he looked over a few files.

"It's almost lunch and I thought we could use the time to talk about something." She said uneasily and bit her lower lip.

Nick stopped what he was doing and turned to face the bunny with a curios look. "What about?"

Judy looked at her desk for a moment as she thought on how to correctly word the sentence. "Y-you remember when we were at Mr. Big's place and he told you about the harbor?" She looked back at him, wondering how he was reacting to this so far.

Nick sighed and looked at the stack of files on his desk. "You wanna know what happened that night, huh?"

"I know it's hard for you, but I'm here for you Nick. You know that right?" She turned in her seat so that her whole body faced him.

Nick took a moment to think about it and looked back at Judy. "We'll be going back to Tundratown after lunch, so we might as well go and get something warm to where at your apartment. We can talk there." Not for moment did he look Judy in the eyes when he said this.

He stood up, grabbed what he needed and headed for the parking area where all the police vehicles where parked. Judy watched him as he walked with his head hanging in what she assumed was shame. She hated seeing him like this, but thought it best to do this before they got even deeper into both the case and their relationship.

She quickly packed away her things and ran up to the fox till she came up next to him and then walked at his pace. The two walked to the police cruiser in silence and the ride back to Judy's place was almost just as quiet. The only sound being that of the vehicles engine.

Once back at her apartment Nick made for his usual spot by her desk and sat down. Judy closed the door behind them and slowly made her way to him and sat down on his lap. She cupped his one cheek and stared him in the eyes.

"I'm all ears, Nick." She said calmly.

Nick sighed and looked down at the ground. "It was a few years back and Mr. Big had a job for me. He said it was a no questions asked job, but it paid well."

Nick sat in the passenger seat of Finnick's van. The van was parked by a parking lot near the city's harbor. It was around 22:30 and the two waited for the go ahead.

"How much did ya say this pays again?" Finnick asked in his surprisingly deep voice.

"250 cash. Easy payday, huh?" Nick said with his trademark grin and half lidded eyes.

Finnick though wasn't to sure about this. "Big bucks and zero questions usually spell trouble."

"Are you telling me the Finnick is scared? The same Finnick that can make small mammals wet their pants just with his voice?" Nick teased him, which he didn't think was funny.

Finnick growled and glared at Nick. "I ain't scared of nothin'! But that also don't mean I'm stupid either."

"Your not even doing anything other than providing me with transport." Nick reminded him.

"Guess that's way I'm only gettin' a 20% cut. Just don't get yourself killed." He cautioned.

Nick chuckled. "Are you worried about me?"

"I'm worried I wont get my cut if ya die on the job." He said more aggressively.

Finnick would never admit it, but he was worried about his friend. He knew how these things could go wrong and didn't want Nick to be held at gunpoint or have his lifeless body get fished out of the river.

Soon Nick got a call from an unknown number. "Hello?" He answered.

"Zdravstvuy (Hello). This is Nick Wilde, correct?" Asked a deep calm voice.

Nick had no idea what that first word was, but shrugged it off. "That depends on who's asking."

"Your contact for the night. I'm sure Mr. Big informed you with the necessary details."

"Yup. Just waiting on the go ahead." Nick leaned into his seat.

"Good. Proceed to the discussed entrance. Someone there will be waiting to open it for you. Once your in I'll call back."

"Sure thi-" Before he could finish the call ended. "Rude." He muttered.

"Alright Finn. I'll be back soon. Try not to miss me too much." He joked.

Finnick actually stood upright on his seat ready to pounce at Nick. Luckily for Nick he got out of the van fast enough.

"You best be comin' back from a successful job or I'll beat the the shit out of ya! You got that!?" Finnick warned.

"Keep it down." Was all Nick said before walking away in a hurry.

Finnick sighed and sat back down. "Dumb ass. You best not die out there." He muttered to himself.

Nick came up to a tall fence with electrical wires on top of it stretching from where the fence began to where it ended. There he saw a polar bear looking around and seemingly waiting for someone. "That must be my way in." He thought.

When he came close the polar bear noticed him and removed a set of keys from his jackets pocket. He opened the small gate and let Nick in. Once Nick was inside the polar bear closed it and locked it up again.

"I'll be here when you get back. Don't be long." He informed Nick who nodded in response.

As Nick came to the large containers stacked all around the harbor his phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and saw that same unknown number. "I'm in."

"Good. There should be a large stack of yellow containers near you. Do you see them?"

Nick scanned his surroundings with his night vision really coming in handy. He kept walking as he looked around and finally spotted the yellow stack of containers. "OK, I see 'em."

"Look for the one tagged J117. The code is 2553."

Nick came up to the containers and looked at the tag for the closest one. "Not it." He muttered.

He came up to the second one and saw the tag he was looking for. A smile spread across his face and he entered the code. With the container unlocked he placed his phone on the ground for a moment and used both paws to pull it open. It wasn't an easy task, but thankfully container doors have been made litter and easier to open by smaller mammals.

Once open he picked up the phone and held it to his ear. "It's open. What am I looking for anyway?" He asked as he peaked inside.

"The only object inside."

The container was basically empty, except for a single metal create. Nick raised an eyebrow, but knew he couldn't ask what it was. "What do you want me to do with it?"

"You'll notice it's fastened to the floor and it has wheels at the bottom. Loosen it and push it out."

Nick put his phone away and did as he was told. He tried not to make any noise as there could be guards walking around. When he finally pushed it out he checked his phone and the call was still going on.

"Where to now?" He asked leaning on the create which was slightly smaller than him.

"Take it to warehouse A. Once there keep it out of sight and open the left hatch. You will see controls. Press only the activate button and exit immediately afterwards." With that the call was ended.

Nick put away his phone and pushed the create to the location, trying to avoid getting spotted. When he finally reached the place he came to a back door. He had hoped that the door would have been left open. After placing his paw on the door knob he took a deep breath and turned it. To his delight it wasn't locked and he could enter.

He got inside and looked around. There were a few mammals in the distance doing some work and talking with one another. He decided it would be best to hide the create behind some of the larger creates and boxes. When he did so he proceeded to open the hatch and saw a colorful display of buttons, with two large ones in the middle. 'Activate' in a light green color and 'deactivate' in a red color.

"What's this?" He noticed something that looked like a small gas tank behind the controls.

However, a nearby conversation informed him that he didn't have time to mess around. He quickly pressed 'activate' and was ready to leave when he heard the sound of compressed gas being released from the create. He donned a quizzical look, but quickly shrugged it off and left. He was quite happy with this easy payday.

The next day he heard on ZNN how a toxic gas had leaked from a create at the harbor and killed 7 workers. The thought of it being from that create never even crossed his mind, but after finding out that he was working with an assassin there was no doubt in his mind that it was that very same create. His easy payday was at the cost of the lives of 7 innocent people.

All he did was push a create from point A to B, but the fact that he was the one that activated it made him the murderer. He didn't know what he was doing, he didn't know who he was working for, he never for a second thought that Mr. Big would give him such a job. Nevertheless, the deaths of those mammals where on his paws.

"Koslov was the kind of mammal who kept his paws clean as much as possible with his line of work. That's why he didn't mind paying a lowlife shifty fox to do his dirty work." Nick's story finally came to an end.

He kept his eyes shut, not wanting to see the horrid look on Judy's face. She said she would be there for him, but how could anyone love a killer. Even if that killer didn't know he was one till recently. He sighed heavily and opened his eyes.

Note: Damn cliffhanger!

So there's the story of what Nick and Koslov did that night at the harbor. It may have been a simple act on Nick's part and the killing may not make much sense right now, but trust me this all plays a part in the bigger picture. I also slowly building up Chris and Candice's characters as later they will play a bigger part as well.

I also wanna say thank you to TheCartograher for suggesting a moment from Candice's point of view.

As always I hope you enjoyed and please fav. follow and/or tell me what you thought in the reviews. Have a great day/night.

P.S. There was an ester egg of a game in this chapter. Let me know if you found it.