A/N: Changed scene


It took a good ten hours for her to hunt Nick down. The address on the tax form Clawhauser had managed to find had at least been a real address, even if Nicholas P. Wilde wasn't living there. Nicodemus Wilde –"pronounced wil-dee," the maned-wolf had told her- had been nothing but pleasant and had even congratulated her on catching Weaselton the day before. He'd apparently seen them running through Sahara square and had been highly impressed with her ability to keep up with the thief. "I see him run through there on a weekly basis, it seems, although he never steals from the same shop twice. He always loses the larger officers around Little Rodentia, which really isn't a surprise, they're all much too large to go walking around a miniature city," he'd said.

Nick had been avoiding the areas he'd been in the day before as well. Judy was beginning to think he didn't want her to find him. She wished she'd thought to bring that folder with the letters in it, but it had been forgotten on her desk that morning. Then again, if all went well she'd have plenty of opportunities to give it to him later. Finally she spotted him pushing a pink stroller down the street. She set her foot to the gas to catch up with him.

"Nick," she called.

"Well, if it isn't Judy Hopps," Nick said, not slowing down in the least. "Are you going to lecture me again today?"

"No," Judy huffed. "I'm here to ask you a few questions about a case." She was going to handle this professionally, and if that meant pretending that she hadn't known Nick before moving to the city, then that was how she would act.

"Then they should have gotten a real cop to do it," Nick said. That was low, even for the depths Nick had apparently sunken to. She wanted to make him pay for it. Judy groaned and sped ahead of him, successfully pulling into a driveway directly in his path. "Come on, Nick," she said, hopping out of the buggy, "I think your ten dollars-worth of pawpsicles can wait."

"I make two-hundred bucks a day, Fluff," he said. 'Fluff', not 'Carrots', well, that was a new one. "365 days a year, for the past five years, and time is money so hop along."

"Please, just look at the picture," Judy said. She held up the clipboard and tapped it with her trusty carrot pen. "You sold Mr. Otterton that pawpsicle. Do you know him?"

Nick smiled and leaned on the stroller. "I know everyone," he said, "And I also know that there's a toy store somewhere missing its stuffed animal." That was too low. The last time she'd heard a jab about plush animals was when he'd teased her about the ones on her bed was when she'd been 14.

"Fine," she said. "I guess we'll have to do this the hard way." She was lucky that the stroller wheels were about the same size as some car tires. She was in and out of her buggy in seconds, and by the time Nick had processed what she'd done, the boot was already secured to the stroller. It wouldn't necessarily keep him from moving, seeing as a stroller is significantly lighter than a mid-sized car, but it would certainly make him look silly.

"Did you just boot my stroller?" he asked, looking back and forth between Judy and the yellow boot. Judy ignored him.

"Nicholas Wilde, you are under arrest," she said.

"For what, hurting your feelings?" He'd apparently recovered from the booted stroller.

"Felony tax evasion," she replied. "After all, you did say 200 bucks a day, 365 days a year, for the past five years, which comes out at $365,200 I think. I mean, I know I'm just the daughter of a carrot farmer, but we are good at multiplying, comes with the business you know." Nick knew. Being the go-to babysitter also meant helping at the roadside stand, as Nick had learned early on.

Nick sighed and shook his head before saying, "Well, it's my word against yours."

"Actually," Judy held out her pen and hit the 'play' button.

"200 bucks a day, Fluff," it said before she hit the stop button.

"It's your word against you. And if you want this pen, you're going to help me find Mr. Otterton." Judy looked up to catch Nick's expression and nearly doubled over with laughter. "You should see the look on your face," she giggled. The last time she'd seen that expression was when Adam decided that Nick's college homework –due the next day, of course- was the perfect material for paper airplanes, before flushing the entire assignment down the toilet. The funniest part right now, she thought, was that Nick had known about the pen beforehand –she'd had it for the past 12 years- and hadn't expected her to use it.

The stroller began to laugh, drawing Judy's attention. Slowly, the top lifted the reveal the fennec fox from the other day. "She hustled you," he said between laughs, "She hustled you good!" He climbed up the side of the stroller and stood on the handle, looking at Nick. "You're a cop now Nick. You're going to need one of these." He pulled out one of the false badges that usually comes with a police costume and stuck it on Nick's shirt. With that, he hopped down and walked off, still laughing. "Have fun working with the fuzz," he called back.

Nick scowled after him for a moment before turning back to Judy. "Fine," he said. "I don't know where he is, I only saw where he went."

"Great," Judy said, hopping into the buggy. "Let's go."

"I don't know," Nick said. He leaned on the stroller. "It's not exactly a place for a little bunny like you, Carrots."

"Don't call me 'Carrots. Get in the car."

"Alright," Nick said, abandoning the stroller and sliding in next to her. "You're the boss."