A/N

Another longer than normal chapter, hope you all enjoy.

Disclaimer: Disney you have to stop this! I didn't want to have anything to do with this! The Wildehopps Navy is trying to weaponize fluff! This stuff is just too dangerous to exist and its insanely contagious! They already have spies in Disney, one is acting like a tourist and the other is trying to steal the rights to Zootopia. The Navy is planning on (phone line goes dead)

Typo Disclaimer: This classified weapons research document was snuck out past the proofreader petty officer GoneKrazy3000. You'd better run because he's coming for it.

Chapter 9 – A Normal Morning

Judy felt numb as she nibbled at the food in front of her. She didn't feel hungry, not with everything that had happened today not to mention the bits of conversation from her older siblings she was overhearing and doing her absolute best to ignore. Thank Serendipity that all her other school age siblings had already eaten or this would have been a complete and total disaster.

Now if she could just do something about his scent on her, she thought distractedly. Bunnies didn't have the best of noses, but then again foxes had far heavier scents than rabbits. She could smell faint traces of Nick all over her from when his strong arms had held her close… she noticed she was looking at him, at his arms as he sat across and down the table. She snapped her eyes back down to her plate and her ears back against her skull.

Oh gods, what if someone saw me looking at him? Why was I looking at him? ... Again.

It had to be his mark, that strong musky scent that overpowered the lighter traces of his smell and hung around her head like a fog, muddling her thoughts. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to clear her mind.

Why do foxes have to have such strong scents? They don't need stronger scents; their noses are better!

If it was a bunny's mark she might be able to ignore the smell, but like some preplanned trick of fate his scent had to be strong enough to offset her lesser sense of smell.

She tried holding her breath with her eyes closed, but this only gave her a moments reprieve since she had to breath and when she did, the smell of him flooder her.

A musky, deep smell of fur. His ruff sticking through his unbuttoned collar had been so warm and soft… she noticed she'd been staring at him, at his ruff and tore her eyes away again with a barely silence sharp inhale.

A smell almost reminiscent of forest and violets, but distinctly male, predatory and male. Something in her belly seemed to flip and she put her fork down. He was a fox, foxes used to hunt rabbits! What if Nick chased and caught her? What if he held her in his strong arms, against his think luscious fur, her male fox holding her tight, never letting her go…

Her stomach flipped again and she quickly looked away from him, mind spiraling out of control and fracturing into a myriad of thoughts.

She watched in a near daze as deputy Wolften lead Nick out of the dining room as she tried to reorder her mind; why had she been watching him leave? She looked back at her plate, her ears drooping. Despite her efforts she failed to get her thoughts to stop ricocheting around, she tried again, and failed again.

She didn't know how long it had been but she found herself staring at the door deputy Wolften had gone through, her heart beating faster than it should and every breath seemed too fill her, blocking out all other smells.

Stupid foxes and their stupid strong scents messing with my thoughts. Stupid, stupid, fluffy foxes and their musky sweet-

Her Mom's paw on her shoulder broke her spiraling thoughts.

"Judy?" she looked up at her mom blankly, stupid warm foxes, stupid-, "I think you need to get some rest, honey"

Judy nodded and let her mom lead her toward her room. Stupid foxes that accidently kissed you, stupid foxes with beautiful eyes, stupid foxes with soft lips…

Her mom opened her door for her.

"Judy do you want me to help you get ready for bed?" her mom asked a bit of concern in her voice.

Stupid foxes, stupid male foxes-

She started when she realized her mom had asked her a question.

"Um… uh," she though back, what had she asked? "Oh, no mom. I… your right, I just need to get some sleep…"

She quickly went into her room, closing the door and changed into an oversized ZPD shirt she'd gotten from her internship and headed for her bed.

Stupid foxes, stupid dumb fox, my stupid dumb…

She groaned and flopped onto the edge of the bed and burrowed under the covers.

Thank serendipity she had never had issues falling asleep. She wanted, needed to just go to sleep and get this day over with before something else happened.

His scent seemed to amplified under the covers, and her mind went fuzzy as it mixed with the fading world.

Sleep. She wouldn't have to think about anything, not Jessica, not school, certainly not about a stupid dumb fox, her st…

Her thoughts were drifting off out of her control, but she no longer cared as sleep overtook her.

She snuggled deeper into her blankets, and his scent seemed to grow surrounding her like warm comforting sunshine from a rising sun. Her blankets felt as soft as his thick fur and she cuddled into them and they seemed to wrap back around her, strong and warm and welcoming, as she lost herself to dreams.

Dreams of possible and improbable futures all joined together. Dreams of a handsome russet mammal with stunning emerald eyes coming out of one of her fairy tale romance books and sweeping her away. Dreams where they'd laugh, love, catch criminals and make the world a better place. And everywhere they went, they'd go paw in paw as he brought bright color to a world she hadn't even known was bleak.

Bonnie shook her head as the door to Judy's room closed and she returned to the dining room. 275 kits with nearly three quarters of the old enough to be involved in relationships from schoolyard crushes to engagements and marriage and she didn't think she'd ever seen a bunny that badly in love. And as for the Wilde's boy, well she didn't know that many foxes but he seemed to have fallen just as hard as Judy. She'd need to call up Mrs. Wilde and have a talk with her as to what to expect.

From what she'd seen and her conversation with deputy Wolften she'd need to keep an eye on both of them. They seemed drawn to each other like magnets and while they might be too embarrassed, at the moment, to do more that cuddle… Wolften was right, as soon as that wasn't an issue she doubted there would be anything anyone, including Nick and Judy themselves, could do to keep the two of them apart.

She'd better call up a doctor Rivers and set up an appointment for Judy. The sooner the better, because there was no telling how long it was going to be before one of them snuck into the others bed. She was personally betting within the month. And being the young mammals they were, about to finish highschool and start their own lives… she seriously doubted that they'd make it through the year with only cuddling.

And as much joy as children where she didn't think Judy or Nick wanted any just yet. Judy certainly wouldn't be able to even try out for the Academy like she'd been hoping to if she was pregnant.

Bonnie nearly laughed. She could just imagine what Stu would think of that! He'd be so conflicted between trying to decide whether to keep them apart or getting them to hook up so he wouldn't have to worry about her trying out for the ZPD.

She smiled, Stu was just a big sweetie at heart that worried even more than she did about their kits. She worried too, but she knew that she couldn't always protect her little girl; Bonnie wanted Judy to follow her dreams but she couldn't deny that there was a small hope that Judy would decide at the academy that maybe a support position in the ZPD would be better for her, maybe a dispatcher or a lab tech or even a meter maid, something that wouldn't put her in constant danger with no one to watch out for her.

She came back into the dining room just as Sherriff Prongs set his empty coffee mug on the table and creakily got to his feet, careful so his antlers didn't poke holes in the ceiling.

There were a few pops as the old buck stretched, before he said, "Well Bonnie, your food was just as wonderful as always but I need to get my old bones home for the night."

"You know you're always welcome to drop by," Bonnie said, pleased at the compliment, "I still can't believe your running around just as spry as when you dragged me and Stu back home during our senior year of highschool."

Prongs let out a loud belly laugh at that, "You two where quite the rascals back then! Always getting into trouble with each other despite everything your families could do to keep you two apart!" he laughed again, "Only time I ever had to lock up the father-in-law and the groom on their wedding day!"

Bonnie scowled, muttering at the memory, "Had to go to the courthouse in my wedding dress, almost didn't manage to get his bail posted in time so we could actually spend our first official night together."

"We'll that was better than when I had to bring you two in for being naked in-"

Bonnie cleared her throat loudly, blushing, "Well, I don't think anyone wants to hear about that, but why are you still working full time? I though the Podunk station was going to be sending one of their sheriffs over a few times a week so you didn't have to work so hard."

Sherriff Prongs snorted, "More like giving us extra trouble. The boys over at the Podunk station are tired of dealing with that incompetent spoiled brat of the Hoggs family and are hoisting sheriff Rosco off on our small town just to get a break from him a few times a week." He leaned down to Bonnie and spoke in a quitter tone, "Two more years and that puppy of mine will be ready to take over as Sheriff, I might be able to sit back and let him do most of the work after that, but till then I can't give Poduck an excuse to saddle our town with someone like Rosco." He gave Bonnie a wink, "Don't you worry, there's still plenty left in these old bones of mine, but I need to get my rest. Now where did my pup of a deputy run off to?"

"I think he's in the kitchen picking out which pie to take" Bonnie replied smiling, and the sheriff gave her nod and headed off to get the deputy.

Bonnie went over to the table and grabbed a glass of water that hadn't been cleared away yet by the bunnies on clean up duty for the night and headed over to the couch in the entrance hall.

"Stu. Stu dear. Stewart, time to wake up." She shook the form of her husband sprawled on the couch but he did so much as budge. She sighed and upended the glass over his head.

There was a sudden gasp and some spluttering, "Huh, what?!" Stu looked around and then seemed to remember everything, "Why that carrot stealing rascal! If he forced himself-"

Bonnie cut him off, "Stu, they marked each other. And I though we already talked about this."

He turned and looked at her, his expression a mix of a bit of anger, contriteness, confusion, and pleading, "But she's only 17! I agreed to give him a chance, not let him walk right in and take my daughter! And it hasn't even been one night yet!"

"They didn't have sex, Stu," Bonnie said patiently

"And they won't be if I-" he started mumbling darkly but Bonnie cut him off.

"As for her age, he is he only 4 months older. And there in highschool."

"But-" he tried

"And there engaged,"

"But-" this time in a more pleading tone

"And they've marked each other, most of the town is going to consider them already married!"

"But-" he said now desperately

"And how old were we, when we did it? Humm." she asked, almost smug.

Silence

"We certainly weren't engaged at the time either." Bonnie continued.

"But she's my daughter!" Stu said piteously.

"Stu you have 14 married daughters, and do you even know which buck Mary or Sarah or Jessica is currently dating?"

Stu actually seemed to get some of his confidence back, "Mary is dating Fred Thompson, a nice respectable buck whose courting her properly, Sarah is going out with that cousin of the Smiths here for the school year; he might shape up but I made sure to give him a good warning glare in town in case he decides to try anything, and as for Jessica," he grimaced, "I chased that no good Leaps boy away from trying to climb in through her window just three nights ago, gave him a good poke with my pitchfork." He smiled, "Sure made him leap but he'd wouldn't make a good Hopps."

Almost, Bonny thought and gave him a smile and a pat on the cheek, "Jessica dumped the Leaps boy yesterday and is now going out with Tommy Jumper. And as for Fred Thompson, I agree he is a nice young buck, I'm pretty sure she's going to say yes when he proposes to her from the way she tried to sneak back into the house this morning."

"Why that double dealing scoundrel!" Stu started.

"Oh don't you start, you know you like the boy and he makes her happy. And he's already bought the ring." Bonnie lightly chided.

Stu crossed his arms, and harrumphed, "It's not proper! He didn't even come talk to me and ask for my blessing!"

"And did you ask my dad for his blessing?" Bonnie asked with a grin.

"I sent him a letter asking!" Stu said indignantly.

She gave him a look.

"Hey! He burned that letter and then hopped up and down on it!"

Bonnie chuckled thinking back on the memory and the irony of the situation, "I know you care for our kits but are you're going to be as difficult about this as your dad was?"

Stu muttered, "I'm not anywhere near that bad, our families had been holding that grudge against each other for years. But a father has got a right to be protective of his kits!" he said more confidently, "And that Fred Thompson has another thing coming if-"

"He's planning on coming to ask you this Friday," Bonnie said.

Stu narrowed his eyes, not convinced, "And how can you be sure of that?"

"Because his grandmother is Maratha Thompson, one of the queens of the Bunnyburrow rumor mill. Most of the town already knows he's planning on asking you for her paw in marriage this Friday."

"Oh," Stu seemed to reconsider, "well, it is a little improper, but he is a good lad…"

Bonnie gave him a peck on the cheek, "Now about Judy's fiancée," Stu's face darkened, "Stu, I can understand you being a little protective," she gave him another peck on the cheek, "It's sweet that you care that much but haven't you been holding grudge with the Mr. Wilde for long enough?"

Stu seemed to be wavering, "I get along with Mr. Wilde well enough now! We do business, it's just… just…" he was clenching his paws.

"Just?" Bonnie asked wanting him to get it all out.

"Look at what that Grey boy did to her! And they're not just foxes! Their cousins! And-And then he just waltzes in here with her after marked her?!"

"They marked each other Stu, and he's not Gideon Grey, he's his own mammal." Bonnie said soothingly. Stu was still grinding his teeth, so she continued, "And you missed talking to deputy Wolften or Sheriff Prongs about what happened and you missed watching them after you fainted."

"What does any of that have to do with it?" he asked mulishly.

"Because it's pretty obvious their completely ears over tail in love with each other and barely even know it. If you keep pushing the boy away, then you're going to end up pushing Judy away too."

His ears finally drooped and Bonnie knew she'd won, well at least won this first battle.

"Give him a chance Stu. It took my father years to finally accept you, and you know how much he regrets that now. Nicholas will be here for all of this school year and its pretty much a dead certainty they're getting married in the spring. So why don't you give him a chance, get to know him, and see who he really is?"

Stu sighed. "Okay Bon-bon, I'll try."

She gave him a final peck on the cheek and stood up, "Good. Now they're both already in bed," She rolled her eyes at his twitch, "In separate beds. You were the one who had the room next to hers readied for him. Now I have to help finish cleaning up from dinner, you go check on all the kits."

Bonnie headed of toward the kitchen, but stopped calling back as Stu started hurrying off.

"And no disturbing Judy or Nick! They need their sleep!"

…

Bonnie smiled to herself as she headed off down the corridor to her and Stu's room. The day may have been filled with far more excitement than she could have wished for, but in the end she no longer had to worry about Judy's arranged marriage. That worry which had been with her for years was now gone and replaced by the normal worries she was accustomed to with all of her other children.

Granted it was a little different, Nick being a fox, okay a lot different. But he seemed like a good kit, and Bonnie had never see Judy take that much interest in anyone else, not ever close. It was like the two small inseparable kits from over a decade ago had almost never been parted.

And, she got to plan another wedding! Bonnie's smile grew. She loved helping to put together weddings for her kits. It was one of the greatest joys of her life being able to help set up that special moment of their lives. She'd just finished talking to the Wildes and Mrs. Wilde seemed just about as excited as she was. Which was probably a good thing because from what she'd been told about foxes and imprinting, well it was a good thing she'd also scheduled Judy a visit with Doctor Rivers after school tomorrow so that she and the doctor could discuss, how had the doctor put it? how to make sure you didn't receive an unexpected bundle of joy?

She giggled, thinking back to her senior year. Yes, 'unexpected bundle of joy' was one way to put it. She probably should have had Judy talk to Doctor Rivers at the beginning of highschool but she'd never had more than a single date with any buck before. Well, it wasn't too late, thank serendipity, they-

Bonnie stopped walking down the hall right in front of Nick and Judy's rooms.

"Stu, what are you doing?" She asked almost amused.

Stu looked up at her from where he was sitting against the wall, blanket over his legs and pitchfork beside him.

"I'm not disturbing them! I'm just making sure he," she quirked an eyebrow, "they, behave themselves." Stu finished stubbornly.

Bonnie looked at him and at the two doors, and back at Stu, "If you had seen them tonight, you'd know that their going to be out cold for the rest of tonight, you don't need to sit here in the hallway guarding there doors."

Stu's stubborn look deepened, "Better safe than sorry." He replied.

Bonnie thought for a second, before grinning widely. "Okay dear," she said in a teasing voice and turned starting to slowly walk down the hall toward their room, making sure to sway her hips, "You can sleep here in the cold hallway alone all night if you want, I'm going to be in our warm, comfortable bed."

She didn't even need to look back to know his eyes had locked on her. She gave a flick of her tail and stopped right at the end of the hallway before turning around the corner. "Too bad, I was really hoping you'd want to join me, it's been a long day and I was hoping to, hum, have a little fun before bed."

One last tail flick and she rounded the corner snickering.

Let's just see how long it takes him to break. She thought with a grin.

…

Bonnie woke up the next morning in a pleasantly snuggle with her husband. She wanted to stay there a bit longer but the sun wouldn't wait and neither would the farm.

"Time to wake up Stu." She said and gave him a good morning kiss before sliding out of bed and stretched.

Well, he's certainly still got his Mojo, she thought with a grin. She'd might need to stretch a bit more and then get a long hot shower before really getting going this morning. She looked at the form of her husband still mostly asleep as his paw tried to figure out where she'd gone, and then at the clock on the night stand.

Well, they had some time and there was another way to loosen up in the morning that included the shower.

"Stewart," she crooned with a smile and a tone that made his ears pop up

…

Weekday mornings in the Hopps household were always an interesting affair. Something between a gracefully choreographed dance and barely controlled chaos. The oldest of Bonnie's kits that had married but chosen to stay and continue on the traditional family occupation of the Hopps farmers joined them for breakfast from their own burrows close to the main house bringing her grandkits which joined the youngest of her own kits, now in kindergarten, and the kerfluffle's ranks swelled back to the size of its glory days and rampaged through the house. The kits in elementary and middle school needed to be woken up and taken care of and the highschoolers either complained about wanting to sleep in or argued over who got to use the bathrooms first.

But despite the seeming chaos all around Bonnie and Stu managed it without any seeming difficulty. Breakfast was already cooking, with the first batch ready by the time her older kits joined her dropping off their own kits and lending a paw to help. Stu and her bounced around the house making lunches stopping squabbles, giving good morning hugs and keeping everything moving just as it should be.

Breakfast was now being taken care of by the other adult rabbits and the kerfluffle had been appeased with pancakes and was out in the front yard waging a three way war over who knew what. Stu was simultaneously briefing the other adults on what need to be done on the farm today and preventing a food fight from breaking out in the dining room and Bonnie was making her rounds to get any stragglers up and out of bed.

The morning route hit a bit of a bump when Bonnie went down the second corridor and realized why it had taken Stu a little longer than she'd expected to arrive in their room last night.

"Steward!" Bonnie's voice rolled through the burrow, hushing most of the talking as expectant whispers took their place.

"Yes, bon?" Stu's voice came back sounding overly innocent.

"Did you install a lock on the outside of Nicholas's door?" asked a not very happy Bonnie.

The house went almost quiet.

This time there was a noticeable gap before the response call from the dining room, "Yes. I, uh, didn't want him getting lost wondering around the house last night!"

There was almost complete silence.

"Do you want me to put a lock on the inside of our bedroom door to keep you from wandering in at night?" Bonnie called back.

Another pause, but the silence was broken by giggles and whispers.

"Nooo." Came the Stu's dejected reply.

Bonnie shook her head in exasperation and unlocked the deadbolt, "Then this better be gone by tonight!" she called back toward the dining room.

There was a resigned "Yes, dear." Before the noise of the house swelled back, now louder than before.

She knocked on the door. "Nicholas, are you awake?"

No answer, she knocked again, "Nicholas, it's time to get up for school."

Still no answer.

Bonnie opened the door, and entered expecting to have to go shake her newest kit awake. Mrs. Wilde had said that foxes weren't normally morning animals and that Nick had a particularly bad habit of sleeping in.

She only got two steps in the door before she came to a halt.

There was no fox in the room. In fact, the bed didn't even look like it had been slept in.

A thousand questions and worries popped into her mind.

Had Nicholas not gone to sleep here last night? Had the stress of the day been too much? Had he run away? Where was he? Was he alright? …

Bonnie tried to calm herself. She took a few sniffs of the room, but couldn't even smell a trace of the fox. It just didn't make sense, It was like he'd never been here, but this was where the deputy had put him to bed.

Bonnie pulled out her cell phone. First thing was first, talk to the last mammal who'd seen her newest kit and track him down from there. She punched in a number and held the phone up. After a few moments she spoke.

"Sheriff Prongs, good morning… no things could be going a little better… yes, that's why I'm calling, I need to speak to Deputy Wolften to figure out where Nicholas is."

Jessica was a bit frustrated. She knew something had happened last night after she and all the other school aged kits had finished dinner been sent to either go to bed or finish their homework. All her older siblings were talking about it but every time she tried to listen in they went silent. It had to be big though, otherwise they wouldn't be so cagey about it. And while she hadn't been able to listen in on the whole story she'd caught enough key words before they when silent noticing her to know it was about Judy and the new fox, who they'd been told yesterday was going to be staying here for the rest of the school year.

Things only got more interesting after hearing her parents little back and forth about the lock on the foxes door.

What had happened last night?

Jessica looked around, if she couldn't get her siblings to tell her what had happened then she might as well try to get the story right from the source. After a few moments of searching she stopped. Judy wasn't at breakfast, and Judy was never late.

Interesting.

She looked over to her dad, "Daddy? Judy's not at breakfast." She said in a concerned voice. "Do you want me to go make sure she's up?"

Her dad stopped the conversation he'd been having and looked around, brow crinkling when he couldn't find her sister.

"Please Jessica, that would be very helpful." He said with a smile and a quick pat on the head before turning back to the conversation about the what to do about the broken down tractor.

Jessica nearly skipped out of the dining room in her excitement, thinking all the while about her sister and the new fox.

Judy was always so reserved when it came to relationships. She needed to loosen up a bit, have a little fun, and Jessica was determined to help her sister in this. She hadn't ever seen Judy fall for anyone before, let alone run off and make out with them. she grinned, that little episode in the janitor's closet was a good start, but knowing Judy she'd need more than just a nudge to get her new relationship moving.

Jessica grinned wider. She could be like the secret fairy godmother and make sure that they fell completely in love with each other. Carrots sticks, they seemed to be already half way there. Granted, a relationship with a fox was a little… different, but Judy had always been a little different herself so he was a perfect fit for her.

Anyways, they were already engaged, so what was the harm in making sure everything went along smoothly for them? Her parents seemed to be alright with it since they'd set the arrangement up, ok her dad wasn't, but when did he ever approve of a new boy until the wedding day? Besides they'd agreed to house the fox, so they obviously wanted it to work out. Maybe they were worried that the marriage contract had a loop hole or something and were trying to help get them together? Well, that would certainly explain housing him and putting him in the room next to Judy's. But their parents were their parents, if they wanted to get them together and keep them together then they'd need the help of an expert. An expert like her.

She stopped in front of Judy's door and knocked, "Judy breakfast is already on the table!"

She smiled and made a silent promise that she would do absolutely everything she could to help her sisters relationship along, she cared for Judy after all and wanted her to be happy.

Jessica knocked again but still getting no answer opened the door.

There was lump under the blankets and Jessica giggled. If yesterday had been bad enough to get Judy to sleep-in then she'd need extra help. Best to start by getting her up.

Jessica went over and grabbing the edge of the blankets taking a large breath.

She ripped the blankets off and shouted a morning wake up.

"JUDY, TIME TO-" it took a second for her to actually recognize what she was seeing and she screamed delightedly, " O M G! YOU SLEPT WITH HIM?!"

Jessica could hear the shout and sound of breaking dishes in the dining room even all the way over here, and two heads from the cuddling ball of red and gray fur popped up and blinked at her sleepily.

Well, Jessica thought now grinning broadly, this might be easier than I though. I can go straight ahead to phase 3 of the plan.

A/N

Thanks again for all the reviews and support. At some point I'm gonna find the time to respond but until then well, go read some of the awesome stories by Cimar, Fox in the hen house, A big admirer of time, Starfang's Secrets or MinscLovesBoo. (There's a ton more awesome authors out there but there's not enough room or time for me to list them all)