AN: Sorry for the wait and slight cock up with this chapter. I completed it and up loaded it around two weeks ago, unfortunately three quarters of it got deleted and vanished from existence. Thank you for your hanging in there, and I hope you enjoy it.
P.S. In future this should not be able to happen as I have six back ups.
Nick watched Judy leave the building. He thought how easy it would be to just run out there and tell her everything, but no, that wouldn't do any good, he had to stay strong.
As Judy climbed into Nicks car she laughed. Funny, I spent a week using this, and now I have permission it feels wrong. Her thoughts were interrupted by a tune she knew well, 'Try everything'.
Opening the glove box she pulled out a small, pay as you go phone, "Hello?"
"Afternoon cotton tail."
"NICK?! Where are you?"
"That doesn't matter, but I'm safe. I take it you got my letter?"
"Yes, but what's going on? Please Nick, I need to know."
"You know everything that you need to. I hope one day I can explain everything. But for now, go see your family, go travelling. I don't care, just get out of Zootopia."
"Nick, I'm not going anywhere until..."
"Judy, do you trust me?"
The use of her name brought her up short, "Yes, I trust you, but.."
"Then for once in your life listen to what I am telling you. Leave, I don't have time to mess about here, but I need to know you are going to do this for me, please"
"Ok. But I need something in return. Tell me honestly, am I ever going to see you again?"
A smile pulled at Nicks muzzle as he answered, "That's the plan Fluff. Now get moving, and by the way, there's a booster seat in the trunk, looks like you could use it". 'Click'
Booster seat I'll give him booster seat, humph, "looks like I could...use..." HE CAN SEE ME! She span round trying to glimpse him but saw no sign. He was long gone and she knew it.
Nick hung up throwing the phone into a nearby bin, "Strange to think, you never really know what you have until it threatened" he muttered as he entered the tube station.
He emerged in the nocturnal district, and headed for O'Brien's, a small nondescript pub on the edge of town. As he entered he looked at the old wolf behind the bar, "Long time no see, John."
"Nicolaus Wilde. As I recall, you were told never to show your face in here again."
"Well you see, I never have been one for taking threats too seriously. Now if you wouldn't mind, I believe she's expecting me."
John lifted the gun Nick knew was under the bar, before picking up a phone with his other paw.
"Alex you have a guest... it's Wilde...ok I'll send him up."
The wolf placed the weapon back under the desk before grabbing a bottle, "This ones on the house, one last drink shall we say."
Nick took the whisky down in one swallow, before a smile came across his muzzle. "The good stuff? You do spoil me." he hopped off the stool and headed into the back room.
As the door shut behind him he felt the cold metal of a knife press into his neck. "Now now Nicky, you know better than that, come on arms out"
"Evening Alex, and there I was thinking we had an understanding. Why would I bring a weapon? I came here to die. Although I was hoping to at least see the boss himself."
"Your looking at her" Alex laughed, "In fact, old Frank has been dead for quite a few years now. An unfortunate fire at one of the warehouses."
"An accident I'm sure you had nothing to do with. And I must say I do feel honoured that you came all the way out to savannah central for little old me."
"Now Nicky you know that Frank was like a father to me. Would I really hurt him?"
"Well if I remember correctly, you stabbed your father 37 times before shooting him in the head. So yes Alex, I do believe you capable of killing frank, and worse."
As he spoke, a large grizzly bear placed a paw on his shoulder. "Now that's not very nice, is it fox?"
Nick winced as he felt the claws breaking his flesh.
Alex looked at the pained expression on Nick's face. That's enough Dave, after all he hasn't said anything that isn't true. Although I was hoping to have a civilised meeting worth you Nicky."
"Funny that, seeing as you have been threatening the mammals close to me."
"Yes well, as long as your a good boy your little rabbit will be fine.""
"So what's the plan? Dump me in the river? If so I would like apologise, I seem to forgotten my concrete boots."
"I see you still haven't learned when to shut up. But I suppose it makes no difference. Oh and as for dying I'm sorry you're not that lucky."
Nick looked up to see the other fox giving him a wide smile, "Well not yet anyway. Dave take him upstairs. If he causes any trouble you know what to do."
"Wait! What's this about?" Nick tried and failed to pull away from the bear.
Alex looked him dead in the eye. "Did you never wander about her family? Before you decided to marry her? She was always better than you and now she's dead."
"Wait? You mean Tammy! She... She has no family, she was like me. She told me they were all dead.
"To her we were, and then you came to Frank. I was so happy. I thought... I thought we could patch things up. But she said she didn't want me, DIDN'T NEED ME, SHE HAD YOU! She told me I was dead to her, and to stay away. Do you know how that feels?"
"So what? You killed her? She was everything to me, and you didn't even tell me she was dead, I spent years looking for her!"
"Frank killed her to teach you a god-damn lesson!"
Nick's brain clicked into place as he thought on Alex's words. "No, he didn't."
"What!?"
"Oh don't get me wrong, he killed her to send a message to someone. But it wasn't me. It was you. As I said I didn't even know she was dead. You on the other hand, let me guess. You were there, from beginning to end."
As the realisation of this settled on Alex she looked up, "Get him upstairs, and have some fun while you're up there. I would prefer it if the next time I see him, talking is more... difficult."
...
As Judy arrived at Nick's apartment she noticed the cruiser outside. She stopped next to it and the window lowered, "Haven't you got anything better to do than spy on me?"
Fangmeyer smiled, "Not according to the chief, no"
"I'm not even going to be staying here. I'm only picking up a few things, then I'm leaving."
"Good job I'm not here for you then isn't it, I'm here in case Wilde turns up."
Judy laughed, "And you don't think your a little conspicuous?"
The tiger just shrugged "If he doesn't want to come he doesn't have to"
Judy headed upstairs and made herself a coffee. What's going on with you Nick? And why don't you trust me to help? she thought, before slumping down on the sofa.
Her thoughts were interrupted however by her phone ringing,
"Hopps, where are you?"
"I'm at Nick's. I was just getting some stuff before heading to the train station."
"Stay where you are, the city's on lock-down. Bellwethers back."
"Then you need every officer sir, I'll be right there."
"Don't be stupid Hopps, the last thing I need is you being targeted. The fact is yes I could use you, but Wilde made it clear you weren't safe, that, and the fact Bellwether is not your biggest fan means I can't have you here."
"But sir..."
"No Hopps, it isn't just you. Think about it, whoever I partner you with is in danger as well."
This last comment stopped Judy. She hadn't thought about it that way. Bogo was right, she was a danger to any other mammal, it wasn't worth the risk.
"OK sir, but please keep me informed."
Judy turned on the news. It was filled with footage of savage animals. Screw it, this is too big. Bogo might have a point about a partner, but I can still try and help on my own. She grabbed one of her uniforms from her bag.
...
Nick awoke in a dark room. As he sat up his body screamed, before he once again passed out.
Several hours later he was woken by Alex, "Welcome back Nicky, I wouldn't advise trying to speak. From the look of it your jaw is broken, along with several other bones."
Nick looked up at his captor, " I'm noth hat slart" he slurred, before giving her a lop sided smile.
"Now that's something we can agree on, but not to worry, I was looking forward to using this". A smile pulled at her muzzle as two bears grabbed his arms. Nick's eyes went wide at the device.
"No pleth, I beg thoo" he said in terror.
"OK Nicky, but you need to keep that mouth of yours closed." Nick nodded in response.
"Now you know I am going to kill you don't you? But how and when depends on you, do you understand?" Nick nodded, "Good, so first things first, where is the money you took from Frank?"
"Thot thony" he said confused.
"Now Nicky this just won't do. If your going to act dumb I'm going to have to get Dave back in here, and I'm sure you don't want that."
"Aleth I didn't thak any thony"
Her face darkened "Fine if that's how you want to play this... DAVE!" As the bear walked in Nick saw he was smiling, "Have fun" Alex said as she shut the door behind her.
...
As Judy reached for the door handle she paused. Her phone vibrated and she looked at the screen. She froze as she saw chief Bogo's number.
"Judy it's Ben, the chief has been taken into hospital. He's fine but he wants to see you."
"What happened?"
"Bellwether. Look I know what he told you, but we need you here. Can you meet me at the hospital?"
"Sure, I'll be right there"
"Be careful"
Judy wondered what he had meant by that. But as she got closer to the centre of the city it became all to clear,.The streets were pandemonium. She stopped next to a squad car that seemed abandoned, except for five animals who seemed to have been shot. She checked on them and found three of them had been tranquillised, but the other two had been shot numerous times. When she checked for a pulse it was futile. As she reached the near side she heard a voice.
"STOP, OR I WILL FIRE"
Judy froze lifting her paws, "Don't shoot I'm unarmed. I am going to reach into my vest and get my ID, is that OK?"
"No need for that, ugh, but I needed to be sure you weren't going to attack."
Judy looked around bewildered, as she still had no idea where the other mammal was. Then she saw the dingo crawling out from under the car. He was in a bad way, his left arm was covered in blood.
He completely ignored her as he opened the back of the car. As he did, she saw the three large claw marks across his back. Without looking at her he said "I need your help"
He bent down and pulled another mammal from under the vehicle who was also covered in blood. Judy could see old scars covering his body. "I'm officer Irwin, and this is my partner boomerang, I need to get him to a hospital now." He loaded his friend into the cruiser.
"Officer Hopps, get in I'll drive." She jumped into the front and put her foot down. As they drove she heard a curse come from the back. She looked in the rear view mirror and saw Irwin checking his friends pulse, before he started CPR.
"Come on mate, you've been through worse than this, so don't you dare give up on me. This Sheila said she'll get us there so just hang on."
"Need me to pull over?"
"Don't even think about it. I'm not letting him die on me, the flaming gallah owes me $20"
"WAIT! Yes, I got a pulse."
As they approached the building she could see ambulances lined up right down the road. This can't be good, this looks like the entire fleet, and they're just sitting here, she thought, remembering the carnage she had past on the way there.
As she pulled up she jumped out of the car and ran inside. What she found horrified her. Everywhere she looked she saw mammals on stretchers, beds or just lay on the floor.
Grabbing a stretcher she rushed back out and helped get Boomerang onto it. As they rushed inside she spotted an ocelot in a white coat.
"Miss, I have an injured officer, I need your help."
The vets reply came short and sharp, "Join the cue. Unless he's dying there are about twenty animals ahead of him."
She grabbed the vets arm, "Then he's top of your list, he has already crashed on us once."
The vets persona changed immediately, and she and Judy headed over to the two other officers. "I'm sorry, but as you can see we are overwhelmed over here."
As they reached Boomerang the vet went to work grabbing Irwin who seemed to be in a state of shock, "Snap out of it officer, what wounds does he have?"
Irwin looked up regaining some sort of normality, "I don't know for sure, there's so much blood, but I do know he took a horn to the chest. I think one of his lungs has collapsed."
"That's all I needed to know, he needs surgery, but we are a little short on staff"
"I'll take him, just point me in a direction and I'll get him there"
"Down there, third floor right then second left" with that she turned and ran off towards the ambulance bay.
Judy sprinted after her and arrived to see two kits being resuscitated by paramedics, "What can I do?"
"Nothing just keep out the way"
Judy rushed over to one of the paramedics, "I can take over."
"No, we got this bunny just keep back."
"Like hell, I have just driven half way across town and I know what is happening out there, so please go and get more mammals" she said pushing him aside and starting CPR, "Look I know I might just be a cop, but we're trained as well, so get going."
Without another word he nodded and sprinted back to the ambulance. "You sure you can handle this?" the vet called over.
"He is small enough, lucky otherwise I would have been useless. I got a pulse" she said jumping off the bed.
"Get him inside, they are expecting him."
As she pushed him in, she heard a curse come from the vet. Once the kit was in she rushed out to find her in tears next to the other kit still trying to save him.
Another vet appeared by her side "He's gone, he was gone before he got here Clare. Your not helping him now"
The ocelot slowed to a stop before nodding "Time of death, 17.48"
"Take a break, you're no good to us like this"
"No, I can't, we don't have enough vets as it is."
Judy had seen stress like this with other officers, when their work became too much and they had reached breaking point. She walked over and took her by the hand "If you keep on like this, you're going to become a patient, the last thing you want is to slow the others down, right?"
She led her to a bench and sat down. "Look, you're going to burn yourself out, I have seen in with other officers, I know how it feels, I always wanted to be a cop and when I finally managed it I realised like wasn't that simple."
"You have no idea. Have you ever lost someone? Has a mammal ever died because of you? No, so don't tell me you know how it feels."
Judy lowered her head, "You're wrong. Around a month ago we lost two officers. They were my friends, and now? My partner is god knows where, and its my fault. As far as I know he's dead, and I'm the reason why."
Clare turned to the rabbit next to her and saw her in a new light, "I'm sorry, I didn't know. Today has been a very hard day. That kit back there, he was the tenth mammal I've lost today, we just don't have the staff."
Judy's ears shot up, "Not enough staff? I have an idea."
She grabbed her phone and called her sister, "Hi Lucy? Do you still work at John Hoppkins?"
…...
After explaining everything to Clare, Judy headed into the hospital and found Officer Irwin heading towards the door. "How's Officer Boomerang?"
Irwin laughed, "They say he'll make it, thanks to your maniac driving. And its officer Kakado, we just call him boomerang because no matter what life throws at him he always comes back."
"Well ok? I don't get it, but never mind. What happened out there, I mean it looked bad."
"We were attacked by a group of savage animals on the way to precinct one. I know they weren't in control, and I did try not to use deadly force, but in the end I had no choice. Both me and Boom were injured and there was no other option."
"Why were you coming into the city? Your from outback island right?"
"Where have you been? All officers were called into precinct one because of... well this. But from the chatter on the radio it didn't go to plan. Sounded like all the predictors in the station went mad and attacked."
"That can't be. Night howler doesn't just affect predictors, you saw that. Wasn't officer Kakado gored by a horn?"
"Yeh but as I say, I don't know much about it, we never even got there. I think your chief is here somewhere though, surely he should know."
Judy had completely forgotten why she had been heading to the hospital in the first place. She gave a quick thanks to Irwin before heading toward the reception. As she had guessed no one was there, and she had a feeling it didn't matter how long she waited, she wouldn't be seen anytime soon.
"HOPPS, OVER HERE" Judy turned to see officer McHorn in a corner with a large bandage covering half his face.
"What happened?" she asked as she reached him
"Oh this, Fangmeyer happened. He can be quite quick when he wants to be. Not as quick as Clawhauser though. He took out Trunkaby and Rhinowitz before the chief managed to dart him. They are fine by the way."
"Wait?! Did you say Clawhauser attacked? But I spoke to him, he was the one who told me to come down here."
"Look its very complicated. I take it Bogo told you to come here? He's upstairs, but he isn't in a good way. So don't stress him out."
They reached reached Bogo's room and saw him laying on a bed still in his uniform covered in blood.
"Sir? What's..."
"Hopps, where the hell have you been? You were meant to be here over an hour ago, I thought something had happened."
"Long or short version sir?"
"Short for now."
"I got held up."
Bogo snorted, "That fox is rubbing off on you! I got you here to ask you something. How would you like to run the force?"
Judy looked wide eyed at her boss who just nodded, "Not that I care. You are going to do it anyway. You know Bellwether, you caught her before. If I'm honest with you, with the very limited number of officers I have left you are the best mammal for the job."
"Sir I can't. I didn't catch her last time Nick did, and.."
She was interrupted by a very excited gazelle running into the room, "Chief Bogo? We would all like to thank you?"
"For what exactly?"
"Well for the extra staff you've managed to get the hospital, I just got the call. Apparently they should be here in the next hour thanks to you"
Bogo looked at her in shock and confusion, "I'm sorry miss, but I have no idea what you are talking about"
"I think I do" came a small voice next to him.
"Hopps? Would you mind telling the class?"
"Well I saw the state this place was in and the back up of ambulances, and that it was costing mammals lives so I... I might have called in a few favours back home. And then other favours may have been called in and well it snowballed."
"What have you done?"
"Well I called the train station and I told them to run a train"
"WHAT? THIS ENTIRE CITY IS IN LOCK DOWN AND YOU ARE LETTING MAMMALS OUT?"
"Not exactly, its coming into the city. With around a hundred vets and twice that number of nurses. Oh and quite a few extra ambulances."
Every mammal in the room was looking at her open mouthed, "How did you manage to find that many?" was all Bogo could say.
"Sir, the tri-burrows are made up of mainly rabbits and as you may know rabbits are rather good at umm duplicating. Lots of mammals means lots of injuries, and that means a lot of medical staff are needed."
"But where are they going to go? There isn't enough room in the hospital is there?"
" Well as they can only deal with small to medium mammals, I may have commandeered the stadium. It's built to take over three thousand large mammals, and so should be large enough."
"You know what Hopps, I'm glad you're on our side. If you joined Bellwether I don't think the city would last an hour"
"I have a problem though, I was told it's only predators being affected, is that true?"
"Not quite. Turns out Bellwether's been working hard. She managed to change the compound. We believe she attacked the station to test it. This new version affected only the predators, and it was in aerosol form, meaning the whole station was affected. Luckily it seems the affects completely wear off within about thirty minutes."
"Then what happened to you sir?"
Bogo looked around, "Can I ask everyone but Clawhauser, Hopps and McHorn to leave please."
As the nurses, Vets and several officers left, Bogo sighed.
"All senior officers were in a meeting. I think that's why Bellwether attacked when she did. She was hoping to take us all out at once. I'm only telling you this because it involves you. The meeting was about you and Wilde. We were deciding if we should help Wilde, unfortunately we never came to a definitive answer, and now I think we have bigger things to worry about."
"So if she only attacked the station, what's happening?"
"She only used the aerosol in the station. As for the rest of the city, her followers seem to have been hitting any mammal they could find. But thanks to the attack at precinct one, most of my officers are in here. That's why I need you."
"Sir I hate to say it, but I'm not sure what I can do. You gave me credit last time, but the whole plan was down to Nick, I wouldn't even know where to begin"
"If you truly think you can't do this without Wilde, Find him. I hate to say it, but he is a good officer, and we need him. And before you say it isn't possible, look into the night crawlers, they are the crime bosses in control of the nocturnal district. That's where Wilde was heading."
"Thank you sir." Judy said as she headed for the door.
"Hopps! Take a couple of officers with you."
"Sir I don't need.."
"Don't give me that I can handle myself crap. Ninety percent of my officers are hospitalised. Even you're not tough enough to take on the whole city."
AN: I am hoping the next chapter will be with you soon as I have the next week off work, Yay. But in the mean time keep reading, keep letting me know what you think but most importantly...
Keep those ears pointy, and that tail wagging.
Love ya all TJ. Mammal