Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Cocotato ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.

Judy: 26

Nick: 28

Judy took another sip of coffee, resting her head on her paws as she looked forlornly at the piles of paper on her desk. Sighing, she twirled a pen in her paw, only able to form one thought.

This isn't what I signed up for.

She woke up at 5:30 a.m. for this? Sitting in a cubicle and idly filling out paperwork?

She let out an annoyed huff. I should be out making a difference, not holed up doing what any shmuck at a 9 to 5 desk job can do!

"Yer never going to get any work done by pouting, Hopps!" came a voice from the next cubicle over.

"What? No, no, I'm not pouting!" she insisted, channeling as much cheeriness into her voice as was possible.

"You've been sighing sadly for the last hour," her neighbor pointed out.

Aw nuggets, have I been? "N—no, I've just been breathing a bit loudly," she said perkily. "I'll try to quiet down!"

Taking a deep (and decidedly silent) breath, Judy grabbed the nearest paper and started aggressively filling it out. She was able to power through about 5 more forms before she flopped down onto her desk with her ears sprawled out and her forehead pressed against the oak, barely stopping herself from letting out the longest, most dramatic groan she had ever uttered.

I need a break.

She sat up and cautiously inched her way out of her seat and out of the entrance to her cubicle. Careful to make as little noise as possible, she crept past her neighbor's cube and made her way past the long row of cubicles into the hallway.

Only a few halls to walk through and she'd be at the little breakroom. Officer Fangmeyer had brought in cake a couple days ago, and the thought of nabbing the last piece had been the only thing that had kept Judy pushing through the workday.

The breakroom was at the end of the very next hallway when a passing open door caught Judy's eye. It was only open a crack, but she glimpsed a dark room lit only by an enormous computer screen.

This door must usually have been closed, because she was pretty sure she'd remember glancing into a room with a huge screen.

Nervously glancing up and down the hallway, Judy crept up to the open door and poked her head in. The screen was truly massive, almost taking up an entire wall. A program was opened up with a colossal grid filled with 8-digit numbers and species names. Below the screen was a control panel obviously meant for megafauna.

Whoever was supposed to be operating the computer was nowhere in sight. Gone on a break, or something similar. It seemed odd that no one had been asked to take it over while they were gone.

She glanced at the phone in the corner of the room, wondering if she should call the front desk and inform them that someone had seemingly left their post. She strolled over to it, her paw slowly drifting toward the receiver. Despite how hard she was trying to focus on doing what any sensible police officer would do, curiosity was making her itch more than an armful of mosquito bites.

Finally letting it get the better of her, she stepped away from the phone and walked over to the control panel. It was made up of cells that seemed to correspond to the ones on the big screen, each with two tiny screens of its own—one looking to be a map and one looking to be a menu—and a few buttons. Upon closer inspection, the big screen had something else written under the 8-digit numbers and species names.

Tiny names, almost fine print.

The realization hit her like a hard blow to the stomach, sending her stumbling backwards and clutching the back of a chair for support.

This was the control panel for the shock collars of every predator in the city. Whenever a collar came off, a signal telling the ZPD exactly where to go and exactly who to arrest must come in here.

Breathing hard, Judy found herself holding back an ironic laugh the more she thought about it. You would think that, out of the entire city, at least a predator or two would be trying to get away with taking their collar off, but nothing resembling any sort of signal was showing up on the control panel or the big screen.

Perhaps the threat of 20 years' prison time really did deter all who were tempted to. Judy shuddered.

"Looking for someone?"

Judy's ears shot up at the sound of the voice, her nose twitching furiously. She whipped around to see a zebra standing in the doorway, giving her what looked like a knowing smile.

"O-Officer Longmane!" she stammered. "I—I w-was just wondering why there was no one in here."

"Officer Trunkett is in the breakroom," she replied softly. "He'll get a notification on his phone if any signals come in. It's been kind of a slow day today."

"Oh." Judy's ears slowly drooped as she hung her head in embarrassment.

"Well, I don't blame you for being curious." Officer Longmane trotted over to the dashboard, inspecting it thoughtfully. "I thought this place was pretty overwhelming the first time I ever saw it." She let out a sad sigh. "I've only had to sit watch in here a handful of times. It's never a particularly fun job."

"Boring?" Judy asked.

"Well…yes, it can be, on a day like this where nothing much happens," the zebra said. "But I can't feel good about sending an armed squadron after an animal who only wants to escape having their every move controlled. I suppose it's part of the job to enforce the laws you don't agree with, but that doesn't mean I like it."

Judy nodded vigorously, feeling something like relief that someone else questioned the shock collars the same way she did. "I can understand," she said sincerely.

Officer Longmane let out a short, resigned sigh, meeting Judy's purple eyes with her own blue ones for a few seconds before briskly clapping her hooves together. "Well! No matter," she said. "The force usually has me doing better things nowadays."

"Do you think…" Judy glanced back at the control panel, a strange mix of anticipation and dread creeping through her fur. "Do you think I'll ever have to sit watch in here?"

The zebra seemed to sense her fear, and shook her head rapidly in reassurance. "Oh no, not anytime soon. I don't believe they asked me to until I had quite a bit of experience under my belt." Judy nodded, feeling mostly relieved. However, something that she couldn't quite place made her stomach sink a little.

She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could Officer Longmane spoke again, her voice unexpectedly dropping to a whisper.

"I know who you are, Judy."

Violet eyes widened, and long gray ears shot straight up. The rabbit's entire being throbbed with fear.

"Wh—what?" she stammered, staring at the zebra with thinly-veiled terror.

Officer Longmane laughed softly. "How could I forget? Little purple-eyed Judy Hopps, the bunny who hated seeing her friend sad so much that she broke the law to cheer him up. Even among all the animals an officer meets, that sort of determination leaves an impression."

Whatever coherent speech Judy was usually able to form caught in her throat, leaving her blubbering and stammering as she tried to think of a sensible reply. Her entire face burned as a sense of impending doom slowly washed over her.

This is it. The end of my entire career. Right here, right now.

Officer Longmane smiled kindly at her, dulling her panic slightly.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," she said. "To be frank, I really admired your spirit. Still do. And you're a good cop, Hopps. I wouldn't want to get you kicked off…we need more animals like you on the force."

Judy felt her entire body deflate, the panic and dread that had taken over her washing away like water down a drain.

"Thank you," she breathed.

"Don't mention it."

"But…" Judy's ear twitched. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I'm curious. The fox." Officer Longmane regarded her thoughtfully. "Are you still friends with him?"

"Yes," Judy said.

"You must be thinking of him."

She nodded. "I do. All the time."

"I don't blame you."

There was a short silence, broken by the buzzing of Officer Longmane's phone after a few seconds. She pulled it out of her back pocket and studied it, her brow furrowing slightly in concern.

"Officer Trunkett's coming back soon," she said. "Don't dawdle."

With that, she slipped out of the doorway and Judy was left alone.

Eyyyyy, a significantly longer and more important chapter! Well, what can I say except…you're welcome? ;3 Yep, we truly are on the home stretch now; some pretty important plot stuff's about to go down, and the story is coming to a resolution soon! Well, resolution of sorts, anyway.

I remember reading once that detective shows make being a police officer look a lot more exciting than it actually is, and you actually have to spend a lot of time filling out paperwork XD And it seems like the sort of thing that would drive Judy crazy, so here we get to see a little humorous moment of her realizing that sometimes her dream job is actually kinda boring X3 That, and it's a perfect segway into an important plot point!

And Officer Longmane is BACK! Told you she'd be important, didn't I? And yep, she definitely remembers who Judy is…who wouldn't? Probably good that Prongston and the other police animals from Chapter 3 seem to have either retired or switched precincts XD But luckily for Judy, Catarina appears to have no intention of being a snitch. Or does she…?

Fun fact: This chapter originally had a second half, but I decided that in order to make this whole project go on a liiiiiittle longer for you guys, I would turn it into its own chapter! :D Yay, the story now has one additional chapter! Probably good that this project is still going on…god knows I barely have time to write any new stuff with all of my schoolwork D: Man, if it weren't for this, I'd never be active on here!

Well anyway, until next week! I hope you enjoy this dawn-of-important-plot-developments!