"Nick! Stop dawdling around! We got work to do!" Finnick shouted as he was making pawprints in the snow but Nick was taking his sweet time about pouring the liquid on them.
The red fox sighed, "It's not the same without Carrots, Fin…"
"Uh, we did this long before she blackmailed you, remember?"
"Somehow, I just can't at the moment."
The fennec rolled his eyes, "You are so gone…"
"I can't get her out of my head. It's been a whole week since she went back to Bunnyburrow… I miss her company, I miss her laugh, I even miss that scheming brain of hers and the way she always tried to get back at me…" he released an amusing chuckle.
Finnick let out a low whistle, "Wow. You really are over the moon. So what are you still doing here?"
The taller fox furrowed his brow, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, why are you still here in Zootopia? When you should be in Bunnyburrow making out with the bunny."
Nick sighed sadly, "I wish I could, Fin. I would love to feel her lips again…"
"Again? Wait, you actually…?"
"We didn't exactly kiss. Judy had nearly drowned and I was force to give her CPR."
"Wait a minute… she was going to do that to you when she saved you from drowning only… for you…" Finnick started laughing hysterically at the irony of the whole thing.
Nick gave an exasperated look while waiting for his friend to calm down.
Fin finally did and asked, "So what was it like?"
"I don't know. I too busy worrying about Judy dying to really notice."
He shook his head, "You are such an idiot. You obviously have feelings for her and yet you just let her leave, what is wrong with you?!"
"You think I wanted to let her go?! I wanted to make the offer again of her working with us but she insisted she couldn't and I'm inclined to agree with her. She shouldn't have to stoop to this level as we have… I never wanted this and I know you don't either."
Finnick crossed his arms, "Well, it's not like we can get out of the hole that society dug for us…"
"Exactly. But Carrots… she has a chance, you know? I'm glad she quit the ZPD, because if they can't accept what she has to offer then good riddance to them, I say."
Suddenly, something caught Finnick's eye and he said, "Uh… are you sure she quit and left town?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure, why?"
"Because unless some other rabbit decided to join the police department too, I believe the bunny that had been working with us for past month is giving out parking tickets."
"Say what?!" Nick looked over where Finnick was looking and sure enough Judy Hopps was standing beside snow covered meters wearing the same meter maid uniform when he last saw her and had declared she was going to quit the ZPD, but there she was… standing in front of him even though she didn't see him and was writing up tickets and putting them on the cars that had expired meters. Once she was done she gave a sigh and went into her small car and drove off.
Nick was flabbergasted by the whole scene that he frowned and put down the red liquid and grabbed Finnick's arm, "Come on, we're getting to the bottom of this."
Carefully, they tailed her with the van as she stopped by a flower shop somewhere in Savannah Central they parked in an alleyway and the foxes watched from the corner as they saw a large ram talking Judy, at first they thought he was someone complaining about their parking ticket but once they walked close to the alley as the foxes remained unseen they overheard.
"He'll be here soon."
"I know." she stated.
"He'll give us the latest picture of whose next. I see him now."
A rabbit in black had a camera around his neck headed toward Judy and gave her paw a kiss. Nick saw that and a pang went through his heart but in the moment he had looked away, Judy had pulled her paw away in disgust.
The ram asked the rabbit, "You got it?"
The rabbit pulled out the photo and Doug took it.
"It's set for tonight." the rabbit said and gave a quick wink to Judy before walking away.
Doug said while eying Judy, "Remember…"
"Like I could forget." she bitterly said.
The ram then went on his way.
Judy was about to leave when a voice she recognized all too well made her froze.
"So. You didn't quit after all. Decided to stay in town and be a meter maid. Had a change of heart and didn't bother telling your friends your plans… decide you would just leave them in the dark having no idea what you really were doing…"
She slowly turned around and saw a scowling Nick with his arms crossed. She gulped, she was afraid this would happen, even though Zootopia was a large place and chances were she would never run into him again were slim but there he was standing right next to her. She had wanted to contact him to warn him but Bellwether's spies were watching her like a hawk so she couldn't tell him.
"I… I…" she tried to find a good excuse but there wasn't one.
"You decided you couldn't follow my advice?" he said angrily, "That I was the shifty fox animals always saw me as?"
"No! Never!"
"Then what, Carrots? Why are you still here? Tell me the real reason!"
Her eyes were starting to wet and her lips trembled and she wanted to so badly tell him everything but when she caught the reflection on the flower shop she saw Woolter watching nearby in a truck and she knew if she squealed now, Nick would be the Night Howlers' next victim. So with a heavy heart she turned away from him.
"Fine. Don't tell me. You obvious like being a meter maid so much that you don't care about being a cop or being a fox's friend… We'll stay out of your way if you stay out of our way." with a huff he went back to the van.
Judy turned back in time to see the van backing out and she held her arm out as she wanted to so desperately stop him and tell him of her deepest feelings to him but her throat was caught on the words and just started crying.
Finnick had saw this through his rear window mirror and was intrigued. He turned to his partner who looked dejected from the exchange. He drove all the way back to Tundra Town so they could finish their con. But he could see Nick's heart wasn't into it.
"You wanna talk about it?" the fennec asked.
"No." the red fox stated.
"You know, something screwy is going on here, why would the bunny change her mind all of a sudden…"
"I said I didn't want to talk about it, Fin!"
"Well, too bad we are. From the time you last saw her she was excited to quit but now she looks miserable and while you were talking to her she looked like was in a lot of pain."
"What are you getting at?"
"The moment we drove away I saw her crying in the rear window mirror."
"What…?"
"I think, something is forcing her from telling you the reason she stayed."
"That's crazy, Fin."
"And yet, it's the only explanation."
"Well what about that rabbit? The one that kissed her paw."
"You didn't see the look of disgust on her face?"
His eyes widen, "She was disgusted?"
"You must've been too jealous to notice." a smirk slowly spread across his face.
"So what if I was, Carrots is still keeping something from me!"
"Interesting… you still call her Carrots even when you practically told her to leave us alone…"
Nick stiffened realizing his words and felt his face go hot.
"See? As upset as you are with her, you still care about her…"
He was silent for a moment before he softly asked, "You really think she is doing something against her will?"
"I've seen it before in gangs. They make sure no one squeals or there be one hell of a price to pay."
"But what could make Carrots obey this someone?"
"Could be a number of things, they could have threatened her, her family, someone she loves…" he hinted that last one to Nick.
He caught it and frowned, "Come on, Fin, like Carrots could ever love me."
"Well, she seemed desperate to tell you something. If you have strong feelings for her whose to say she doesn't have same thing for you."
His eyes widen, "You really think so?"
The smaller fox shrugged, "You knows? Let's find out."
For the rest of the day they tailed her and kept at a distance. Once the sun was setting she made her way back to the police department to hand in her car and the ticket maker before walking away. They had followed her to an abandon underground station and there she met the ram from earlier today. They went inside.
They found an old train car and once they got in the foxes saw rows of Night Howler flowers in dirt boxes before Nick to guess what this meant they heard a clang as the ram and Judy were coming and quickly they hid from view.
"Okay, the otter just got picked up by a limo," Doug had a phone piece to his ear as he listened to his boss. "He left the naturist club about five minutes ago and is heading to Tundra Town, I'm going to have to hurry and intercept."
"That otter has a family." Judy said angrily, "You can't just expect me to stand by and let him be declared a missing mammal…"
"And yet you will if you want your precious fox to be kept off the hit list of turning savage."
"As long as you keep away from Nick, I won't fight. But that doesn't mean I can't gripe about all the other predators you used the Night Howlers on. They had never done anything to you to deserve this awful fate."
Nick could feel Fin's nudge as if saying, 'I told you so'. The taller fox was shocked that Judy was doing all of this just for his sake… And seeing the pictures before him he could remember on the news of those predators going missing. That could have been him if Judy hadn't made a deal with this ram that she would keep the police off their trail as long as he wasn't a target.
He muttered, "Crazy dumb bunny…"
Once Doug and Judy left, the foxes quickly got out of there.
