Hello, my fellow Zootopians!
Stats review: 35 reviews, more than 4800 views, 40 favorites and 66 followers.
This Author's Note will not quite as funny as the previous ones. I'm sorry about that, but there are a few things I need to get off my chest.
For your information, the previous chapter wasn't just some stupid spur-of-the-moment by yours truly. It was outlined and pre-sketched from the very beginning. When I began writing this story, it was always clear to me that it would contain one funeral scene as part of a longer sequence, intended as sort of an interlude before the story continues. A funeral scene which will serve a purpose later in this story. And, just to shock my readers senseless, I wanted it to be a closed chapter, so it wasn't clear at first sight if it was true or not.
What happened a few minutes after I had published the chapter forced me to include the short interlude I have published instead of giving you Chapter Nine.
I received a heap of reviews and private messages, some of them quite acerbic.
Which got me thinking.
I finally came to the conclusion that I have just overdone it. It obviously was naïve of me to be so blunt about this thing. I was really going for the shock value, which obviously caught a lot of you on the wrong foot.
I do sincerely apologize for this. It wasn't my intention to annoy anyone, to the contrary. I write to entertain, not to annoy.
Well, like a certain bunny would have said, we all make mistakes.
To be honest, I felt so bad about this, I toyed with the thought of scrapping this whole thing, dismissing it as a bad idea. But I decided against it. I even decided to speed up publication of this chapter to clear up the mess I created. Because there still are a lot of people who told me that they love what I'm doing. I'm looking, in particular, at PointyHairedJedi, LucarioJV, Joel P (a lot of insight in a short commentary - color me impressed!), wolfman6969, AsekaSilver, and Chaos-Wolfy.
And yes, I am also looking at you, Samiam2468. We may have been caught in some sort of misunderstanding, but I hope it's okay again.
After all, it's only thanks to guys like you that this story's still alive.
Just as Judy's alive.
The disclaimer can be found in the first chapter.
Chapter Nine
Rude Awakening
Don't hang your head in sorrow and please don't cry.
Guns N' Roses: "Don't Cry" (Written by Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin, from the album "Use Your Illusion I," Geffen, 1991)
"She went into cardiac arrest yesterday," Bogo said, looking at the bunny lying in the oversized bed in the quarantine room. "It took the doctors almost four minutes to get her heart beating again."
"That's long," Leodore Lionheart said, looking at his old friend from high school days.
"It is, but the CAT scan showed no brain damage, so no harm's been done." Bogo made a pause. "As a matter of fact, her vital signs have improved since then. Dr. Pawson said that he was, and I quote, cautiously optimistic."
"Really?"
"Yes. He seems to think that yesterday was the crisis. And if you manage to survive this, it gradually gets better. At least that's the theory. I admit that I know next to nothing about medicine, but Pawson was in a really good mood this morning."
Lionheart chuckled. "That good to hear. I hope she pulls through. If we lose such a good police officer, our first rabbit officer, such a well-known face, the impact on the public will be devastating. Especially since she's working with a predator. Speaking of the mammal, where is Nick Wilde?"
Bogo simply pointed at the chair. Wilde was lying on the seating surface, curled up, his tail around his body, fast asleep. The blanket was covering him so effectively, he could have been a pile of clothing. "He had to watch it, and he went absolutely berserk. I had to sedate him. He's sleeping now, for the first time in several days actually, as far as I know."
"Interesting. Did he stay here all the time?"
"Yes, he did. One of the nurses confirmed it."
"Why?"
Bogo sighed. "I don't know if I'm the right mammal to tell you."
Lionheart pondered on that for a moment, then he said: "He's in love with her, right?"
Bogo nodded. "Very astute, Leo."
"What about her?"
Bogo shrugged. "No idea." He made a pause, then he put on a tiny smile. "But just so you know, there is a betting pool going on at the ZPD."
"I thought betting's illegal for cops."
"It is, but what I don't know won't hurt me. Officially, I don't know about it. Off the record, I just … know."
"And you don't care."
"As long as it doesn't interfere with our work, I don't, yes."
"And what does this betting pool you don't know about tell you?"
"What could it possibly tell me? It revolves around the question whether or not they will at one point be a couple."
"Ah. And what are the odds?"
"Well, the last couple of days saw a massive increase in people betting their money on 'Yes.'"
"No surprise there." Lionheart looked at Wilde again. "This could be one heck of a story."
"What do you mean?"
"Come on, Adrian! You know what I mean! Our first two recruits from the Mammal Inclusion Initiative, prey and predator, bunny and fox, not only as a team, but as a couple. Heck of a story!"
"You think so?"
"I do."
Bogo grunted. "Well, I don't."
"Why?"
"Because there are still way too many mammals out there who think that relationships between prey and predator are just … wrong."
"Yes, and that's why we need a good example. To just show the people that there's nothing wrong with this."
Bogo shook his massive head. "I agree with you on the basic idea, but first of all, Homicide needs two good lieutenants. They both tend to fool around a lot, but they get their jobs done. Now, when you use them as an example to proof your point that anyone really can be anything, you may just as well remove them from the ZPD altogether. I don't think they'll have one second of peace after this goes public."
"You think so?"
"I know. There are just too many resentments. You remember what Bellwether did."
Lionheart made a face. "Don't remind me."
"And the press will make it even worse. Not to mention the fact that ZPD rules and regulations explicitly forbid intimate relationships between officers of the force."
"They do?"
"You didn't even know? Some thirty years ago, it was all over the news."
"What was all over the news?"
Bogo sighed. "It was a few years before I joined the ZPD. Back then, there were no rules against fraternizing with fellow officers, so there were several couples working on the force. It had always worked fine, up until that fateful day when one officer was killed in the line of duty, in front of her husband even. He wasn't able to bear it and snapped. Ran amuck in the ZPD's cafeteria, shot three officers dead and wounded four others before he could be brought down. Made some big news back then."
Lionheart nodded. "I remember. They banished firearms as a result, right?"
"They did, but that wasn't all they did. The City Council also decided that fraternization would be a punishable offense from that day forth, resulting in dishonorable discharge and maybe, if the cases were severe, even two years in jail." He pointed at Wilde. "If they should really at one point pursue a relationship, they need to do so in secrecy. The moment it comes out, they will lose their jobs, and there's nothing I can do about it."
"Wait a second! You're the Chief."
"Which doesn't elevate me over rules and regulations."
"Come on, AJ! This is such a good story!"
"I know, and I agree. But it so happens that I can't help. Besides, Wilde told me that he is in love with Hopps. She, however, has told nobody if she loves him, so we must assume for the moment that she doesn't. And we're back at square one."
"Damn! There is so much potential!"
"To you maybe. To them, it's just a catastrophe waiting to happen."
Lionheart sighed. "Does he know?"
"Know what?"
"Know that she's alive. You told me you had to sedate him while they were trying to reanimate her. Was he awake when they managed it?"
"I don't think so."
"Well, someone should tell him!"
"Probably. But only after he has slept in. He cannot have slept more than twelve hours over the course of the last ten days."
Both mammals looked at Wilde, sleeping peacefully.
Or maybe not quite so peacefully.
He was moving about quite strongly. His paws were constantly moving, his head bobbed up and down, and he even gave little yelps and the occasional whining
To Bogo, the whining was barely audible. The predator, however, had no problems hearing Nick whine.
"You call this a good, relaxing sleep?" Lionheart snorted. "The boy's having a nightmare."
"Probably. He told me he had nothing but nightmares recently."
"Well, we should wake him in any case." Lionheart walked over to the sleeping fox.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Lionheart, however, was undeterred. He approached the chair and put his massive paw on Wilde's shoulder. "Lieutenant Wilde, wake up!"
He would do it for Judy.
The thought alone felt like a heavy weight on his shoulder.
The weight was so enormous, it almost made his knees buckle. He looked around in irritation, but apart from Stu and Bonnie, there was no one in sight.
Yet the weight grew heavier by the second.
And now the weight started to move, shaking him. Not violently, but insistently.
He also heard a voice.
"… wake up!"
Nick made a frown. Why should he wake up? He was awake. He was …
No, he wasn't.
Some small part of his mind told him that he was sleeping and having a nightmare.
Slowly, Nick opened his eyes. It took him a while to focus, and then …
… he stared into a face which could have accompanied him out of his nightmare.
It was huge, and it's large mouth contained a lot of big, sharp teeth, including two pair of enormous fangs.
His fight-or-flight instinct took over immediately.
"GAAAAAH!"
He pushed himself upward, away from the hideous face. Jumping up, his back collided with the backrest of his chair. The chair toppled over, taking Nick down with him.
The back of his head connected with the wall with a resounding crack.
And the world turned black again.
Ouch!
I never quite understood how tiny mammals like Judy or Nick could ever feel comfortable around a huge predator like Lionheart. Just look at the scene in the movie, when Lionheart towers over Dr. Badger. I would have peed my pants!
Again, apologies for the bluntness of the previous chapter. Just for your information, there is a happy end hidden somewhere down the road! Cross my heart and hope to die!
Take care!
J.O. aka TheCatweazle