this entire chapter is from Josh's perspective tomorrow we will see the day of the trade from judys and then the day after that will be from nick's.

Chapter 11: the girl

Josh was tired and exhausted. The past week had changed his entire life and at the end he was just done. He had done the best he could to save nick and stop Judy from doing something incomprehensibly stupid. He had been juggling school work , being the medic for a gang, and helping nick out. He was overcome with joy that he could get back to his normal routine, it was normal, safe and allowed more than five hours of sleep a night. He didn't even had the chance to read or play video games for the past week, something unheard of for the introverted medical student. He thought about all of this in bed that night. It was good timing too, tomorrow would be his first day of on the job training and he looked forward to applying his skills on a mammal when he had the proper tools to work with. Sure the trunk of his car was filled with everything he would need for any small injury but the occasional gunshot wound was still something that scared him. Most of the ones he treated were not serious but that is relative when talking about a small piece of shrapnel flying through your body faster than the speed of sound.

Just when he was about to drift to sleep his mind turned to Amanda. The wolf that he shard class with for the past two years had grown on him. She was smart, funny, and as charismatic as nick but most of all she was a mystery. No one had managed to find out anything about her past, she looked amazing but turned down every wolf that asked her out. She reminded him of nick in a way, she seemed cold hearted and a jerk to everyone but something just didn't sit right with that. She didn't have any friends at school and scarcely talked to anyone. Josh had often eaten lunch with her and she seemed happy because of it but she never talked about her personal circumstances, just about Movies, TV and school. He always tried to not bring up her past, it was obvious that was a hot topic for her. He made up his mind as he thought about this.

Tomorrow at lunch I'm going to ask her out for dinner. The worst she can say is no, right?

Day of the trade Zootopia hospital

"So class are you all ready," the zebra teacher asked the small group of students in front of him. A chorus of yeah's and nods gave him the assurance that he needed. As he glanced over his students he noticed one of them wasn't really paying attention. Josh was love struck, any idiot could see that. The stare he gave her out of the corner of his eyes couldn't be anything else. "So everyone you have your doctor you will be shadowing get to work," he ordered. As josh walked around the corridor to find the otter he was assigned to today the zebra cornered him. He needed him to concentrate, at least for right now, his hopeless crush could come later.

"Is something wrong," Josh asked honestly, trying to look innocent.

"Make sure your love life doesn't get in the way of your patients," was the only thing he said before walking away, leaving the deer dumbstruck and feeling guilty.

After composing himself and getting any thoughts of Amanda out of his head he walked into the small sterilized room where a female elk sat working at a computer. She looked up surprised then glanced down at her watch with a snarl.

"Sorry, time got away from me. You must be Josh," she said hurriedly as she got up and shook his hand. "We go on shift in ten minutes. Let me show you your equipment." she got up from her seat. "Where are my manners," she said, holding a hand out for him to shake, which he did." My name is Martha, it's a pleasure to be the doctor your shadowing today."

Josh looked like a kid in a candy store. He had always practiced with the correct tools but often he needed to use much less when he operated on the gang. The look of glee didn't go unnoticed, the elk chuckled lightly in response to this.

"What, you look like you haven't seen an scalpel kit before," Martha joked, not knowing she had just hit a huge nerve.

" Oh its nothing," he defended, trying desperately to avoid the subject.

"Anyway, we should get our first patient here soon. How are you feeling?"

"Fine, why?"

"Most mammals choke when they treat their first serious injury... I've had sixteen students and you're the first one to not look anxious. "

Josh shrugged saying the first thing to come to mind, " It's not the first time."

"Oh, really."

"Yeah, the first one was a coyote who got seriously hurt in a knife fight." he didn't know why he was telling her this. Being in an operating room which actually had the tools to do the jobs he needed to do seemed to calm him. He was happy to finally be getting out of crime.

"I'm guessing you don't really want to talk about it, especially considering what your telling me might get you in trouble."

He gulped hard and a wave of terror washed over him, "are you goin-"

"No I won't tell and I completely understand. If someone won't go to a real doctor and your all they have its understandable if you try to help," she reassured the stuttering deer.

"How did you know?"

She shrugged, "You look calm and happy when about to go and operate on someone. Your drooling on standard medical gear and you claim to have treated a serious injury before. It's not hard to connect the dots."

"Doctor, we have a gunshot victim coming in from tundra town," warned the weasel who stuck his head in the door. Josh would have fun during the next few hours, the leg wound did not bother him. He had treated worse with a first aid kit. It was actually quite relaxing for him despite the screaming patient that was on the table.

Martha was shocked at the efficiently and muscle memory laced within her students moments. She was here to teach him some small parts of the job but she found nothing to be taught. They quickly sedated the patient, took and x-ray and pulled out the bullet with a small incision and a pair of tongs. The entire process was finished within minutes and Josh had a beaming smile on his face. The bone had not been hit which had surprised both of them, there was serious tissue damage but nothing that wouldn't heal in time. It was only a nine millimeter and it only skimmed the leg of the hippo in front of him. He was going to be fine as long as the hydrostatic shock didn't take that big of a toll.

"How are you doing?" Martha asked sincerely.

"Good, he was lucky the bullet missed the bone. a few inches to the left and we would still be piecing his shattered leg back together."

"Good eye. anything you want to ask?"

"What's a normal day for you?" he asked, curious about the job he might one day have.

"Most of the time its operating on minor breaks, dislocations, or gunshots. Other times its removing something from the chest cavity or on a rare occasion doing an amputation. other than that its writing reports during the down time."

" sounds fun," he deadpanned

"It can be if you think about the good your doing," she encouraged, trying to cheer up josh.

"Anyway, how long until we have lunch?" he asked in a lighter tone.

"fifteen minutes, why?"

"I'm going to ask a girl out on a date," he admitted smiling at his instructor.

Her eyes lit up and she took a seat beside him," I'm not letting you leave without giving me details," she joked. It was always fun poking into the clusterfuck that was love and was one of her hobbies.

Later

"So you're going to ask that wolf out on a date?" she made sure she was hearing him right.

"going to try," he assured shyly. "what do you think?"

" I think you're one of the most interesting students that I have ever had," she responded earnestly, hoping that the wolf wouldn't break his heart. Everyone knew about the mysterious canine who had suddenly appeared at the school a few years ago and her reputation for breaking hearts proceeded her.

"Is that a good thing?"

"Very... Hey, lunch is starting," she noted, glancing at the clock. "Go get her tiger."

"I'm not a tiger," he jeered.

"I don't think that matters, and she won't either" she shot back hoping that her inspiring words would ring true.

He walked out of the room with his lunch in tow and left for the lunch room. He found her sitting at a small table in the back of the room alone. He thought of the conflicts that could come in a few short minutes before laughing at a thoughts that lit up his mind.

To battle, no retreat, no quarter... do you think she is going to be bothered by my antlers? come on focus... you got this

"Hi, Amanda," he greeted, taking a seat across from her.

"Hey," she responded with no emotion.

"How was your morning?"

"Good, Just three stab wounds, Nothing major," she deadpanned

"Sounds fun, I had a gun shot."

"Hit anything major?"

"Nah, just a graze."

"Well that's no fun," she teased, her mood brightening

Ice broken, go for the kill... you play to many video games... shut up brain...

"Hey Amanda," he said, trying and failing to appear nonchalant.

"What?" She was starting to worry because of how tense her classmate appeared.

"Are you busy tonight?" he asked, trying to make the words sound as calm as possible.

Normally she would have easily responded but something was off. Josh was always a nice guy and maybe her friend, even though she tried to push him away. Everything she did seemed to just draw the strange deer closer to her she just didn't know what it was. wait... is... "Are you asking me out on a date?" the confusion evident in her voice.

" I am."

The forwardness in his voice surprised her. Just a week ago the deer that now sat in front of her was one of the largest introverts at the school. She was the only one that he really talked to other then a few other friends that enjoyed playing video games. She always felt mildly amused at his attempts of being charming, even though they always came up shy of his original intentions. Sure she always liked the deer as a colleague, he was the only one that did not try to pry into her past but she was unsure of any relationship past that. She didn't even really think of him as a friend let alone anything more than that but from what she knew of the shy deer it must of taken immense courage to come up and ask her out, especially because of the taboo that they both would have to face. A deer and a wolf, what would the world be coming to? As if looking at him for the first time she stared with an open mouth at the deer. The more she looked the ore she actually wanted to interact with him. If nothing else she wanted to find out what had happened in the past week. How had a introverted geek managed to ask her, with a reputation of being cold hearted, out with such confidence even though she could kill him if she tried.

" Amanda?"

His words brought her back down to earth. She didn't know how to feel quite yet but turning him down and hurting the one person that she could talk to was not something she wanted to do. " What do you want to do," she squeaked out. If nothing else she would let him down slowly, she didn't want to hurt him, he seemed to innocent and cute for that, but then again he had just treated a gunshot wound. Compared to the rest of their classmates the two at the back of the room were by far the most composed. everyone else was either shaking or panicking from having to care for a real mammal and not just some dummy in a lab.

YES, SHE DOSNT HATE ME

"Did you want to go out to dinner?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure..." she responded.

" If you want I can pick you up in front of the girl's dorm at around five,"

"Sure..."

" Is something wrong?" he asked the stuttering wolf in front of him. He was never really good at reading expressions.

"it's just..." she sighed. " Why?" She couldn't wait till tonight. she needed to know why the deer who she had always tried to push away was suddenly exposing himself to be hurt.

"Why what?"

"Why me? Why not any girl of your species? Why not a girl who doesn't hide her past? Why a predator?"

He had expected this and was prepared." First off, I don't care about your past. No matter what you did or are hiding you seem to be trying to do good now so I don't care. If you want to tell me eventually you can and I won't judge you. I think you're really much nicer then you appear and I intend to prove that. Secondly, I don't care about all the other girls. You are the smartest and most charming woman I have ever met, even though you act like a ass sometimes, and I wouldn't care if you grew another arm, as long as you still acted the same."

"I do not act like an ass," she defended , knowing and showing on her face how bold face a lie the words were. All he did in response was raise a skeptical eyebrow. He was right. "Fine, five then," she said quickly. Whatever had happened to him the past few days she liked it. She wasn't sure how the night would go but she at least wanted to try.

Later

She looked at herself in the mirror and admired her outfit simple black jeans she wore complemented her t-shirt and dark blue jacket . It wasn't much but it was the best she had, plus it had pockets. something that she missed so much when she wore a dress. The T-shirt was covered with a depiction of an elder god from HP. Lovecraft's work. She didn't like the books that much but she knew Josh did and she like how the artist blended the stars in the background with the claws, teeth and tentacles of the monster.

When she stepped outside she found him waiting by the door. He was wearing a pair of clean nylon shorts and a plain green t-shirt.

"Hi, Amanda" he said with a calm stoic voice even though he was panicking on the inside. She looked amazing, He stared at her for a second just gawking at how the dark clothing contrasted with her white fur and bright blue eyes. even though he thought she looked amazing that is how he always felt about her so he got over it quickly.

" Hi, Josh," she replied, trying to not betray the anxiety in her voice. This was her first date with someone that she actually care about. All of the rest were just tiring exercises used to appease her parents. "So, where are we going?" He looks good...

"A friend of mine suggested a restaurant nearby," he admitted. Nick always told him of the Chinese restaurant that was across the street from Judy's apartment was amazing and catereted to both predators and prey alike so he trusted the foxes advise once again. They started walking together towards the parking lot.

"Hey Josh,"

"Yes?"

"Did something happen to you this last week?" she asked. He audibly gulped as he debated how much to tell her.

"Was it really that obvious?"

"Kinda. In a week you went from introverted and tripping over your words to asking me out on a date."

"Well I have been trying to ask you out for over a year now I just made a friend that told me to buck up and do it," he admitted. was I really this blind. I can't get into a relationship with him, I could hurt him... one night won't be that bad right?

"Over a year!" she said. "You have to be joking."

"Nope." She was shocked that she actually believed him and felt slightly guilty that she didn't see it earlier.

"So... what do you want to talk about?"

"I don't really know. I have been so busy recently that I haven't had a chance to watch, read, or play anything."

"I don't think we had that much home work," Amanda coaxed, hoping to get anything else out of the deer. She felt like he was holding back something.

"There hasn't been, thank god." He could only imagine how he could help nick out with a major project due.

They approached the beat up old can and Josh opened the passenger side door for her. The car was rusted, dirty and almost completely destroyed but it still ran which was all that was important to both of them.

" So, tell me about yourself, Josh," she asked, hoping to fill the silence.

He then jumped into the story of how he grew up not far outside of Zootopia and how he had a normal upbringing with a mother and a father. The only thing that surprised Amanda was how boring and normal it was. There was no grand tale of mystery and suspense, no one event that made him want to be a doctor. It just bugged her how normal it was, especially for how much he had changed over the past few days. He was an only child that wanted to help people by becoming a doctor and grew a love for reading and movies at an early age. He wasn't strong , didn't seem brave from the story he told, and certainly didn't seem like the type of mammal to be attracted to a wolf with a questionable past. She knew he was leaving something out but it didn't bother her as much as she thought it would. If he was willing to put aside her past she would do the same for him. When they parked the car and got out they walked about a block until they were at the place nick talked about. the building was overshadowed by the back of Judy's apartment across the street.

"Hey let me turn off my phone," Amanda said, she didn't want to be interrupted on her first real date. If this was to be their only date she wanted it to be romantic at least for a while. What are you doing Amanda... anything you do will just get him killed... the problem is I think he wouldn't care. As the screen on her phone lit up and Josh glanced down at the phone he stopped in his tracks.

"Why is that your background?" he asked, shocked at the revelation that appeared before him.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just a hero of mine. She was what inspired me to really put effort into my work," she admitted, embarrassed at the picture of the small bunny that josh now stared at. A wide grin appeared over his face as he toppled over laughing. "I know... Its childish." His laughter crushed her . The first person that she wanted to care about in nearly five years was laughing at her.

"what? OH, No I'm not laughing at you ."

"You're not?" she asked skeptically . He quickly pulled out a phone that she hadn't seen before, one that seemed way to small for his large hands and turned it to her. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Countless pictures of her hero next to a fox.

"Come on, I'll explain everything inside." josh responded eagerly as he walked into the restaurant.

The seat they found was by the window and purposefully had a great view of the apartment building across the street.

"Start talking," she ordered, half joking.

"Ok. You know that friend I told you about? The one that convinced me to go out with you."

"yeah"

"He's her girlfriend and this is his phone," he said, wiggling it in front of her.

" How do you have it?"

"He needed me to look after it for awhile."

"So you've met Judy Hopps?" Amanda asked, star struck.

" I ran into her once but we haven't been properly introduced. I have only known nick for a week," he said smiling. He had never seen her this adamantly happy before Nick had done more for him then he originally thought. Now all he needed to do was avoiding mention of dark or his gang.

"Do you think you could introduce me to her?" she asked. by this point she had almost completely forgotten about the date she was on and the buck in front of her that had asked her out.

"You know I could get used to that," he jibed.

"get used to what?"

"I've never seen you so happy before, its cute."

She blushed deeply when she was brought back to the table and confronted with the deer sitting in front of her. Unfortunately her white fur betrayed how embarrassed she really was when she turned a shade of pink. "I..." she stuttered. Let him down slowly " I think I could get used to this too." she admitted. What are you doing, he is just going to die like the others...

"after dinner ill text her and see if she would be willing to meet us."

"Tonight?" He really loves you, you're not blind.

" She lives across the street from here," he said as he pointed his thumb to the large building across the street.

"Josh, thank you. I don't think you realize how big this is for me. She's my hero." But we still have the problem of the quite nice looking deer in front of us, I wonder how his antlers feel, I never touched them before...

"I thought this dinner was supposed to be about us," he jibed before ordering.

One dinner plus we get to hear about Judy

The dinner they shared was amazing for both parties. Josh was relishing in how energetic and happy Amanda was after learning about Judy Hopps and she demanded incredible amounts of detail which he was happy to supply. She thought the many stories Josh recounted were romantic and she would have loved to hear more but their dinner was finished all too soon and they both stood up from the table and paid the cashier before stepping outside.

" A promise is a promise," she jibed before punching him in the ribs all to similar to how nick said Judy treated him.

With a heavy sigh he explained to her what really going on, "We both know that we are hiding something from each other." her face dropped. "Judy should be ok right now but something could have gone wrong and she could be seriously angry with me right now. If this works out between us I'll tell you everything. I just need to let you know that before I text her."

Am I falling for a deer? You can't do this

instead of being mad like he expected she pulled him closer to herself and forced their mouths together into a deep, long kiss. Time slowed down for Josh, every bit of anxiety he had left over melted. The only thing that mattered was her and no one could take that away. They both relished in each other's embrace end when she slowly pulled out of the kiss, not caring that some of the restaurants patrons where staring. She whispered in his ear against all of her instincts, " I think 'this' will be just fine." She felt amazing against his exposed fur, she could feel his quickened breathing against her chest and she just enjoyed the comfort that was 'him'. He longed also for this moment never to end but he knew that could never happen yet he still enjoyed it while it lasted. To her own surprise she also was lost in the moment.

Yes, Yes I am and yes I can

After the passionate embrace they walked a few steps towards his car, holding each other tightly. Both of their hearts were racing and josh thought for the first time in a long time that everything would be fine. He slowly pulled out nick's phone and looked back at the smiling wolf in his arms. " as promised."

Judy, how did the trade go?

within seconds he got a response.

You bastard. I know I should never have trusted you. I hate you. HE IS DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU.

The smile that he had enjoyed for the past few hours vanished within a second as he ripped himself away from the wide eyed wolf next to him. He pulled out his own phone and typed furiously.

Dark, what happened at the trade today.

Again he got a response within seconds and one that both put him at ease and confused him deeply.

went as expected. Come in tomorrow at the other location, we need you to patch up that fox

"Josh?" Amanda asked worried. What is he hiding?

"give me a second," he demanded panicking.

Judy. He isn't dead. come out the back exit of your building. I'm the deer you stopped a few weeks ago with nicks clothing.

"Ok..." he sighed, bracing for the storm that was about to come.

"What's happening," Amanda demanded fearfully, glancing between the two phones and Josh. What had he been through, Josh couldn't hurt a fly, could he?

" I think we are about to meet Judy Hopps."

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