Chapter 10

Tabitha Stevens walked with an added spring to her step as she turned a corner leading toward the rear of the famous Zootopia Concert Park. Her heart expanded joyously as the sound of the music played in the distance. She stopped shy of two tall concert security lions. "I can't believe I'm actually going to have the chance to meet Rick Savage of Def Leopard." Dressed in her favorite green tartan miniskirt and black, sleeveless Def Leopard shirt, she stepped closer to the pair of lions. Reaching down into her shirt, she started to pull out a backstage pass. It was at that moment short vibrations went off in her back pocket, traveling to the tip of her tail. She came to a sudden stop as she turned her head. The screen on her phone illuminated with each new vibration. Tabitha, letting out a deep sigh, took a step back from the back entrance as she reached for her phone. She smile when she raised the phone to eye level. A warm, sinful, sensation of a memory from a mere two nights ago flooded through her. Tabitha quickly swiped the phone's screen and raised it to her ear. "Dose my big wolfy miss his fluffy—" Tabitha playfully began to say.

"Tabby?" Nick interrupted, unsure as to what he had just heard her say. "It's Nick, where are you?"

"Oh god…Nick." Tabitha, crouching suddenly, silently mouthed a chosen swear word. She raised herself up. Her face now completely flushed, Tabitha lowered the phone to recheck the number. She raised the phone back to her ear. "Nick… I'm so sorry… I thought you were… never mind; forget everything I just said, please. You caught me just as I was about to go inside—"

"Tabby, can you meet me at headquarters, right now?" Nick pleaded.

Tabitha, uneasy after hearing the tone of Nick's voice, turned back to the two security lions. One of them whispered something to his friend before they each laughed at her. Tabitha gave both lions a heavy, stern look before walking away. As she walked along the winding path leading from the park, she asked, "Nick, what's going on?"

"Judy is gone, Tabby, taken!" Nick replied. "Someone rammed our car as we were coming back from the station with her mother. Whoever they were, they grabbed her and left us at the scene." His voice become more frantic with every word he spoke.

"Oh god!" Nick, are you okay? What about Bonnie?" Tabitha asked nervously.

"She's alright," Nick replied. "She suffered a cut to the head and is a little shaken up, but I'm told she'll be fine. She's heading the hospital now. I need your help, please Tabby. I've got an idea on how to find Judy!"

"I'm over at the concert park at the moment, Nick." Tabby, took one last look back as the sound of heavy rock music started once again. She breathed another heavy sigh. "I'll head back over to headquarters and meet you there."

"Thanks, Tabby, I owe you one." Across the city, Nick hung up the phone and turned back toward Greg, motioning him over. He found his mind teeming with ever more new questions to ask his friend. Suddenly the name on phone became clearer. "Cottontail? Greg and Tabitha?"

Greg moved closer toward Nick, his cheeks reddening underneath his fur. The pair walked out of Hindquarter's hearing range. Rubbing the back of his head with a paw, Greg grimaced at Nick's stare. The secret he had been trying so hard to hide these last few months was now out.

"Tabitha?" Nick said in a deep voice, his eyes moving toward Hindquarter then back again. "You and Tabitha? How long has this been going on?"

"We've been physically living together, for almost four months now." Greg stopped rubbing his neck as a slight smirk crossed the side of his mouth. "But we've been dating in secret for over a year now. At first it was just innocent stuff, you know, under the radar, so we wouldn't draw attention."

"Does Judy know about you two?" Nick continued to stare at him.

"No… we've both been kind of nervous, letting any of our close friends or coworkers know anything at this time. Tabitha has been having a hard time keeping it from Judy as you can imagine. You know how she gets when they talk about stuff." Greg glanced back at Hindquarter with wide eyes, and his smirk disappeared.

"Who started it?" Nick asked. "I mean, I've seen you with quite a few attractive she-wolves in the past. How did you suddenly—"

"I can't quite explain it." Greg grabbed Nick's arm and led him further away. "I guess it's all the times, seeing you and Judy together. Well, I sort of started to think about what it might be like to, you know, be in a prey relationship." Greg searched in his phone for a photo and then showed Nick a selfie of him and Tabitha at a park, lying on the grass together. "Deep down, I've sort of have had this attractiveness to Tabitha. Since she started working at the ZPD. I couldn't explain why, but I just couldn't stop thinking about her. In the end, I just hid my feelings and fought with myself whenever we were close to one another. That is, until you and Judy's wedding. After that night, I made up my mind to just take a chance. So, one day when I was getting off work, I sort of ran into Tabitha. I got up the nerve to ask her out for a friendly drink that night."

"And?" Nick grinned back.

"At first it was just innocent stuff, like I said, a movie here and there, or dinner as friends. When I asked her one evening how she felt about us, you know, being together. She said something that I never would have expected." Greg looked down at the picture again before placing the phone in his pocket. "Tabitha, it turns out, had had the same feeling toward me for some time." Greg continued to smile at Nick. "So, after that night, we decided to give it a try, under the radar. We've been keeping it that way since, as I said, so we wouldn't draw any attention, until we were both ready to make it public. It wasn't until six months ago we took our relationship a step further and..." Greg took a deep breath. "You know." He turned around once again to make sure Joseph wasn't listening. "You know what Tabitha and Judy are like when they're together, telling each other everything. Well, it seems Tabitha started inconspicuously asking Judy questions about certain things. About you and Judy and...you know, when you're both alone at night."

"Let me guess, you became twitterpated after that night, didn't you Greg?" Nick smiled back at his friend, clasping his shoulder. "It happens to the best of us, Greg. They'll do that to us if we're not careful. Trust me on this one, Greg: they're very good at making guys like us twitterpated." The two of them stood there, and Nick sternly said, "Listen, Greg, I really need your help. I need to get back to headquarters and find out who did this…" He motioned to the car. "…and where they took Judy. Tabitha's heading back there now to help."

Greg, thinking of Bogo's orders to ensure Nick went to the hospital, took another deep breath before turning toward Hindquarter. "Hindquarter!" He called out as he thought, "God this fox is going to get me fired."

"Yeah?" Joseph turned toward to where Nick and Greg stood.

Greg walked over to him. "Wait here and continue processing everything we may have overlooked. I'll call Fangmeyer and Hoot to come over and assist you. Once the scene has been cleared, have Fangmeyer and Hoot bring you back. Once you're back, call Zootopia General and check on Judy's mom, Bonnie. Do you understand?"

"Roger that." Hindquarter replied. "Where are you going?"

"Headquarters, with Nick. Just wait here for Fangmeyer and Hoot." Greg finished, opening the cruiser's driver side door.

Minutes later…

Nick threw open the door to the police cruiser as it came to a halt. He dashed up and along the walkway leading to the front entrance of headquarters. Once inside, he shifted his feet as he suddenly made a dash for a set of elevators.

"Wilde!" The sound of Bogo's voice tore through the silent atrium.

Nick came to a stop as he reached the elevator doors and lowered his ears. Anger rising deep within him, he turned his head back as his shoulders fell.

"Wilde, I will not allow your blatant and continual insubordination continue to plague me or this department!" Bogo yelled, crossing the open atrium. "Did I not give explicit orders that you were to go to the hospital? Explain to me what you are doing here—"

"For once…just for once, Chief…" Nick interrupted, breathing fast as he faced Bogo. "…would you get the hell off my tail?" Nick gave a cold look back at Bogo. "After everything I have been through today...waking up after having my car rammed and finding out my wife – my pregnant wife..." Nick pointed a finger back at him. "…one of your best officers – has been kidnapped, and you have the nerve to look me in the eyes and ask what I am doing here? What do you think I'm doing, Chief?" Nick, still breathing fast, started around the main atrium. He glanced at a few nearby officers before he looked back at Bogo. "I need access to the city's traffic camera system, right now," Nick demanded. "I need to know who and where the SUV took Judy."

Bogo, faltering a little, turned around the atrium as he felt the stares of the officers around him and Nick. Exhaling, he lowered his eyes to the floor, as he stood there.

"Chief, listen to me. The mammals in that SUV would have been recorded by those street cameras," Nick spoke in a calmer manner.

Bogo's face became expressionless as he looked up. "If we know where they went and who is involved, then there a good chance we can find where she is." Bogo thought as he shifted his body toward a narrow corridor next to the elevators. "Wilde, follow me, now," he said firmly, brushing past Nick. Nick raised his eyebrows and immediately followed Bogo.

"Nick…Nick!" Tabitha appeared as she rushed across the atrium.

"Tabby!" Nick shouted, turning his head back around. "Over here." He moved back toward the atrium.

Bogo, whipping his head around, narrowed his eyes as Tabitha embraced Nick. Nick yelped as pain erupted from his now bruised ribs. Bogo exhaled through his nose.

Tabitha jumped back. "Oh…Nick, I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" Tabitha said rapidly. "No, of course you're not, with the accident and everything. Any news yet?" Her expression changed once again. "I mean no news is good news, right? Not that I want bad news, but if we did hear anything –"

"Tabby, please." Nick steadied her. "Come on, we need to go." Nick, sprinting along the corridor with Tabitha, approached Bogo.

Bogo, standing next to a door with the words Central Control painted across it, eyed Tabitha questionably. "Stephens, why are you here?" He noticed the tall rabbit's attire, raising an eyebrow. "I understand you requested today off in order to go to some event."

I did, that is I was, but then Nick called, and I –" Tabitha started to reply.

"I called her. She can be a big help to us in finding where they may have taken Judy." Nick replied, looking at Bogo.

Taking another deep breath, Bogo turned toward the heavy door and withdrew a plastic key card from his back pocket. He pressed the card into a computerized pad mounted to the right of the door and waited for a second. A short buzz sounded, followed by the doors lock clicking. Bogo pressed onto the door. "Both of you, come on." He motioned to the pair as he entered Central Control.