I NEED TO GET THIS OUT OF MY SYSTEM.

It was just pass dismissal time, Bucky is already in front of the school's campus. Kids of all different shapes and sizes were running everywhere, crowding the whole area, but bit by bit the ground got clearer.

In a couple of minutes it finally looked like a breathable field, only a few students lingered around, for either club activities or to just hangout. Bucky didn't care for them but Finnick was nowhere to be seen.

Bucky waited for a few more moments, conjuring up things that could have happened. Could he have gone pass him? Nah, he's been standing out in the open. Did he ignore him? The little pup is still kind of down, he might need some alone time, if so that means he's already out there, but… what if he's not? And still inside? He does know I'm waiting for him right? Or did he forget?

The kudu decided to just go inside and maybe ask a teacher for the fox's whereabouts… and for the sake of nostalgia.

Savannah North High is one humongous building, and it was no stranger to Bucky, more like an acquaintance. Glancing from left to right, he's familiar with the school's layout, he's cousin went here from way back when, he'd visit, hang out and he'll get a tour, a lot stayed the way he remembered, he could only point out a few that changed.

After walking for just moments he spotted a brown bear, looked pretty thin for one surprisingly. He ask the him if he knew a certain fox, Bucky then proceeded to describe Finnick's features, which to the brown bear was any other fennec foxes out there, "His name is Finnick, I think he's about 8 or 9?" The bear's brown raised at the mention of the name, telling the kudu to follow him to the faculty room for further assistance.

Bucky then found himself in front of a tall goat, "May I help you?"

"Are you Finnick's teacher?"

Not breaking eye contact, the goat gave a deep sigh, "Yes, yes I am."

"Oh good! Does the kid have activities after school? Or did he went home already?"

"Excuse me?"

"I was supposed to pick him up today, but he was nowhere to be seen."

The goat just stared at him, it looked like he's thinking but it was kinda hard to tell with his expression.

"So is he still here? Or-"

"I didn't see him."

"Huh?"

"He wasn't in on any of our class today, I assumed he stayed home for the day."

"... What?"

Pronk sat on a comfortable looking chair and type away on a computer, around him were other mammals typing away while some slacking off. The atmosphere around didn't seem so strict, it looked pretty calm, a relaxing background music played on one of the employees phones, mild chatter can still be heard while most of them are working.

His started to ring, his body automatically move to grab it from the side of his desk… only to grab nothing at all, he looked to the side and saw his seatmate with his phone on his paw.

"Dude…"

"Hey it's Buck! What is our juice for today!" the cheetah grinned as his paw slowly making its way to the green icon on the screen.

"... Put him on speaker,"

"HAHA!" his seatmate shouted in content, finally clicking the icon and holding the phone close to his face, "Hello honey boo! How is-"

Screaming was the only sound that was emitting from the other end. The cheetah caught by surprised flung the phone upward. After a hectic moment from the both of them, Pronk manages to grab hold of his phone mid-air, "Buck! What the hell!?"

"You're still feeling down?" Judy ask from the driver's seat. They were out doing their runs around town...

Nick's ears twitch to the message, but didn't say anything, he stared blankly outside and just gave a deep breath.

"Last night was kind of a mess," Judy tried reassured him "but we were all tired, and hungry, and frustrated. And were all good now! Right!?"

Nick still didn't respond.

"All rest up! Minds are clear and ready to go!" She looked around the traffic to see if it was clear, and then she swayed the cruiser just enough to knock the red fox out of balance.

His head slammed to the window and was propelled to the left, leaving him flat on the cushion.

Judy chuckled at her little antic "Seatbelt Nick, keep it on."

After pushing himself up his mouth smiled but his eyes showed annoyance. Clicking the seatbelt on, he went back to just staring outside.

At this point Nick would have commented on her bad driving by now, but the lack of response kinda worried her "Nick c'mon, stop being so down, you never let anything get to you for this long."

"I just don't know what to do," he finally replied.

"You don't have to do anything, just talk to him, alright," she parked the cruiser where they're stationed to patrol for the day and was finally able to look the fox in the eye "just prepare what you had in mind last night, it will go well."

"Pft. Easy for you to say, you don't have to live with him."

"I may not but I did have my share of living with around 328 kits, so you know... I kinda outrank you in this situation," she sat tall and proud of what her family has thrown at her. "So you could call it seniority... Just like my rank in the ZPD."

"Would you please stop rubbing that on me." Nick chuckled, remembering how that bunny manages to sneak that small detail on conversations like this.

"Hey, i'm just saying that I'm... better than you, in a lot of ways," Judy grinning from ear to ear right now.

"Huh, really. Well I just really didn't need me at all in the night howler case huh? Also I remember you crying your eyes out under a bridge, which was really romantic." Nick is also grinning from ear to ear, both doing their best to just insult the other one.

"I am so glad you brought that up!" Judy dug into her pockets and brought out a standard looking recorder, different from her usual carrot pen recorder.

Nick stared suspiciously at what she got "what is that?"

She fully showed her teeth this time, making her smile even more ridiculous. And then she press play, what came out of the recorder weren't even words, but just continues sobbing and sniffling and the occasional "help me, get me out of here" words.

"Why do you have that!"

"It's the time you were at the academy."

"I know that! Why!"

Nick then proceeded to grab the recorder, but knowing Judy, she wouldn't give up without a fight. In the end of it all Nick manage to snag the thing out of her paws, claiming the price of keeping his dignity with him.

"You know full well that that's just a copy right?" She said while still grinning.

These were the things both of them were looking forward too each day, just a fun banter with their best friend and the other officers in the precinct. It's the little things really, that keeps us going.

They fell into their usual routine, messing with the other officers through the intercom, planning out activities like the upcoming carnival in Bunny Burrows, whose birthday was coming up and what not. Judy was glad she got to distract Nick from his worries, it really wasn't a big deal to feel down on… she spoke too soon.

Hours had pass, looking at the time Bucky would be picking up Finnick by now. Her phone rang it looking at the contact it was Pronk on the other line. "Hi Pronk, this is Judy."

Nick just glance and continued on sipping from the frap on his paw, they were at a cafe, grabbing a few drinks to keep them going for the day.

"He's what!?"

"What is it?"

"Hold on," she pulled up a finger and turned around signaling Nick to be quite, "Are you sure? Did he talk to any teachers?"

Nick's ear twitch at the mention of a teacher that would only mean it's about Finnick… just great, just as when he finally got his mind off of that, was yesterday not enough for him? What kind of trouble is he into now...

"Alright okay, we're going there now," She hanged up, cleaned herself up and grabbed everything she needed, "Were going to the school. Now."

"Great..." Nick grunted and followed Judy to the cruiser "what happened this time."

"Finnick's gone," she said with a worried expression as she started the engine and stepped on the gas.

"Wow... No surprise there," he said bluntly, unfazed but irritated.

"You know a little worry would suffice right now!" Judy shouted, stepping on the gas pedal even more. "Something could have happen to him!"

"Yeah, he got busted yesterday, that's what happened."

After calming an apologetic kudu, Judy sent Bucky off, "We'll handle it from here, thanks for doing this." she walk towards nick, who was just standing in front of the car, "we should ask around I guess? I'll ask the teachers I know here."

"I'll ask some students."

"Alright let's meet back here in a few."

And off she goes, towards the problem she's not involved in. "Sometimes... She really needs to mind her own business," Nick thought to himself. "Whatever... Better ask around if anyone saw the little runt at all."

Nick wasn't in the right state of mind, he played along with Judy's antics just so she wouldn't bother him with anything. He didn't get to sleep well last night either. All of the events yesterday just kept messing with him, how it would go wrong, what kind of mistakes he did, and how he should have handled it... But even his thoughts didn't go the way he planned it, every time he replayed the event, every time he thinks of a different approach, it always goes wrong. Like it was destined not to work out no matter how he looks at it. His disappointment turned to frustration, then his frustration turned to anger. Even with the little sleep he got didn't made the feeling go away, it just lingered, all up until now.

Savannah North High, this was one of the schools his mother had in mind back in the day. They didn't follow through it in the end, because it was rather inconvenient, the distance was not something they could put up with. And now it was the most convenient one to send Finnick too.

He started asking around, picking the children that looked around Finnicks age. Knowing the runt, he probably kept a low profile, social interactions was never his thing. He knew wrong… instead of getting a simple "Don't know him, Never heard, Nuh uh" most avoided the topic. Some were eager to help an officer, with their big smiles and attitude, once Nick mentions a fennec fox, they seem to immediately knew who he was looking for, and decided to just give vague answers and leave as soon as they can.

"Is… he a bully?" he thought, it was possible… but still. He wouldn't fight back unless he was threatened, and he wouldn't threaten if he was on his own, He'd need a friend for that… or someone with similar interest, but even that seemed to be too far for Finnick to achieve… It can't be.

He made it to the back field of the campus, A lot of space for any activities, there's a playground at the right side, also huge, mostly to cater for the elementary students. But since there were no age restricted signs, it's free for all. Him walking around and asking question might just ruin the atmosphere of the teens hanging around, also most of them look hostile… that brought back memories.

He went back inside and continued on for his search, since he can't get a straight answer from some of the students, he decided to change his approach, picking out the troublemakers, and bingo he already spotted some, they look pretty rough up too, "you guys look like you're always having fun," he said with that sly grin.

The three canines gave an annoyed growl, "Oh great… another fox," one of the coyote snarled.

"Woah there, language young man. I'm an officer, I don't go aggressive unless needed too," Nick said, smiling even wider, messing with these three for a while might prove to be fun.

"PFT! Tell that to the fox yesterday!"

"Dude don't even say anything! He'll obviously take that runts side!"

And with that statement, Nick's interest meter shot up. They knew something.

"I'll just tell you what I told that antelope, 'I have not seen Finnick at all the whole day," Mr. Bundok said, he stood in front of the faculty room, deciding not to invite her in, dealing with this while the other teachers were around might cause more problem for him.

"My friend drop him off here this morning" her presence made it pretty difficult to make things private, some of the students recognize her, gathering from a side to get a glace or a picture, "Does the school have any surveillance cameras?"

"Unfortunately no, all I have heard it was in the list of upgrades the school will get, just don't know when though..." a little hard glare from any direction, the students started to disperse, he had that kind of authority with the children, "May I please have your phone number instead Ms Hopps? Whoever's number is written in his records clearly does not work, or have no interest at all! No wonder yesterday happened!" He started walking and signaled her to follow him.

"Yesterday?" He could have not possibly know what just happened yesterday, it happened in the precinct. Did word already got out on his involvement with Duke? "What do you mean by yesterday?"

They've reach the classroom where they had their last discussion in, he opened the door and went in, Judy followed. Taking their seats, Bundok properly composed himself before giving the news, "That kit beat up three students yesterday, in the middle of the cafeteria."

"Oh biscuits..." Was the only thing her mouth could say after hearing his words.

"To his defense the other three are delinquents... just like himself." He lowered his glasses giving Judy a good look to see her reaction, she was not pleased with that comment. "Bullying other students to get them to do what they want. They must have had a falling out to lead to such scene."

"Finnick. Is not. A bully." She said sternly, "he's just troubled."

"Troubled? And who's fault may that be?"

Judy couldn't answer, she still knows close to nothing about the fennec, and right now she'd do anything just to know more about him... But she does know someone who does! "Nick's here! Let me just-"

"Who's ever fault that is... He needs someone." His voice was suddenly genuine, Judy completely surprised by this,"Kids his age shouldn't be even getting involved in such things, they were all scared, even I was shock when I got there." He clasp his head, taking in a deep breath, and taking it all in again, "You told me you were going to talk to him."

"I did talk to him!"

"Well whatever you said didn't reach the kid," Bundok's stress was now showing, dealing with that event was clearly not going well for him, especially since these were all children he's handling. Showing any signs other than calm would have probably make them all go panic. "He's still as hostile and uncooperative. Fennecs aren't like that! Out of all the foxes they should be the most sociable one, cheery and outgoing! Why is he such an opposite?"

Bundok started fumbling under the desk, bringing out a few bundles of papers, it was just enough to make Judy wince, wishing that her reports would not reach to that extent.

"Have you considered adopting him? Or maybe that antelope friend of yours?"

"...Excuse me?"

"I know it's a huge responsibility, but if you're the one who's always looking after him… maybe it will be a good thing." Judy's expression was someone in deep though, Bundok could tell what she was in her mind, "I know what you're thinking, and I can assure you, a prey CAN adopt a predator, and vice versa. It was approved years ago."

That was not what Judy was thinking at all, "What are you saying? Finnick already has someone, what made you think he's an orphan?"

"Then why doesn't it seem like it? This number here is a no show, no one signs his test papers, and why hasn't his name change yet?"

Judy just stared, that was a lot of questions to take in, and she could only answer the first one, the other two was a blur… especially the last one.

Bundok could now clearly see the confusion on her, he doesn't know how much she know. He finished piling up the papers that belonged to the kid, he grabbed an envelope and place all of it inside, "Here, maybe these will lighten something up."

That's a lot of paper, "what are these?"

"His test papers, and some document copies we have of him."

"Okay…" Nick would be a much reliable source to answer her questions, "Ca-can you tell me more of what happened yesterday?"

"Nick! Great you're here," Judy ran from the entrance, greeting the red fox who was leaning on the cruiser, he did not look pleased though "Finnick was in more trouble than we thought, he-"

"Beat up three other kids in the cafeteria..."

"Yes…" guess he did ask around, "If you put it that way… yeah. And he-"

"He's been skipping class… like a lot, must be to join Duke on his switcheroo business."

Judy was taken aback to his tone, why was he talking like that? "What is with you? A bully is-"

"I thought of him being a bully but not this far."

"He's not a bully!"

"And who told you that!?"

"He told me so himself!"

"And you believe him!?" He shouted, his frustration just reach its limit, "He's from the streets Judy! A con artist like me! Lying is a second nature to us!"

The two of them suddenly froze.

"What do you think is going on?"

"We should go."

"Are they going to start shooting?"

Mumbling could be heard all around. Students started to speed up their pace. While some were gathering up from afar, observing the little scene the two officers were building up, no one dared to get near them.

Both of them hurried to the police car, Judy starting it up and drove it away. "I can't believe you think of him like that."

"I know the kid far longer than you have, so don't tell me that he's some kind of miracle baby!"

"You're acting like he's some kind of a mistake!"

"Well maybe he is! The kid is more trouble than he already is"

"He's missing!"

"He's just cooling off, facing him would just make it worse." they fell silent after, Nick had a point, he did knew the kid longer, and it looked like he needed space, but that didn't ease Judy's nerves, "He's fine! Obviously this is not the first time he had done this! He'll be back tonight. So can we please just patrol or whatever? Let's focus on that for now."

"Hey I've heard you guys went to the school? Everything alright? What happened?" Said Clawhauser at his front desk

"Don't want to talk about it." Nick didn't even stop walking to look at Benjamin, continued on to the back until he was out of sight.

"Well he's grumpy!" the smile on the cheetah's face didn't fade. "Something interesting must have happened?"

"Remember what happened yesterday?" Judy hopped onto the desk to clearly face Benjamin.

"That little fight? The shouting match?"

"Yeah that… He disappeared."

"The cub's missing!?" he shouted, Judy immediately shush him to keep his voice down, another round of questioning from the other officers would just worsen their mood "He ran away!?" Benjamin whispered.

"Nick said this isn't the first time he'd done it, said he's just cooling off but I'm still worried."

"Have you tried calling him? He has a phone right?"

"Oh yeah!" why didn't she thought of that in the first place!? Judy managed to grab the fennec's contact when they had that moment in the car. Finally, something to relieve her worries.

With the swift movement of her paws, she laid the phone beside her head and waited for the call to reach. She waited… and waited… and waited… and it rang. She smiled, but at the same time she heard another phone ringing around Clawhauser's area. She ignored it at first but as time pass the ringing continued and finnick hasn't pick up. She decided to redial, the ringing stopped as well as she canceled the call. She faced the cheetah with a confused look, Clawhauser's looking just as confused. She dialed again, and it rang at the same time.

Clawhauser rummaged through under his desk and gave a soft gasp,"Oh… I forgot… his stuff and Dukes came in last night, after you guys left yesterday…" he brought out a red bag that Judy recognize to be Finnick's school bag, they emptied it on the desk. A notebook, a couple of pencils and pen and a cellphone, "wow this thing is empty… he goes to school with just this?"

"He doesn't even have a phone!?"

"Really? Just this? Not even a lunchbox?"

Judy threw everything back to the bag and brought it with her to the back, "Please don't anything to anyone, another round of questions on Nick won't be good, thanks."

The cheetah saluted until she was out of sight. A few officers entered the precinct looking tired but successful for the day, "Hey guys! Wanna hear some news?"

The walk home was quiet and intense, and unnerving for Judy, Nick on the other paw was just quiet. Instead of talking this out and assess the situation, they decided to just ignore each other.

She perceived Nick stopping mid-way to the building and just gave him a look, "what?" she faced the direction he was looking at and notice that something was missing, "The van's gone..."

"I could see that."

"Did... Did he took the van?"

"Probably, we had a spare key under it. He must've used that."

"... Okay then." she faced him again, looking for a response, a reaction, one that she's been looking for all day, one that she's been emitting the whole time. Concerned, scared, or worried! Anything! But there was nothing… why did he put his mask on again.

She continued on to the building, with the envelope on paw that Bundok gave to her. There really wasn't much she could do, waiting and believing that the fennec would come back like Nick said was true… She's still not giving up on her promise.

Nick opened the door to his apartment and went in, in the most usual routine there would be a little sand colored fox waiting for him, then he'd greet Nick after with either a happy tone or an annoyed one... Sometimes both.

"He'll be back," he said, confident on the idea that he's just blowing off steam and not what Judy has been fretting over. He went on to prepare for the night, and for that kit's arrival.

Along with the bag Finnick left, he emptied all his pockets and threw them all onto the table in front of the couch, change into a much comfortable clothing, heated up some leftovers and brought out some movies to watch, in case the night needs to slow down for them.

Then he waited. He sat on the couch fiddling with his phone, browsing the net for whatever catches his attention and reading a few articles of his interest. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and just leaned onto the counter, looking at the table with the now turning cold leftovers, he sigh heavily and just drank the beer on his paws. He went to the balcony and just stood, looking up to the night sky, letting his thoughts to just wander everywhere to maybe just distract him from what's about to come. Nick decided to eat his share of the food and just join the other one when he gets back, with the fourth can of beer finish he went back to the couch and laid down.

It was getting really late. Tired and mildly drunk now, staying awake was quite a difficult task to maintain, the soft cushion beneath him didn't help either, the TV provided little help for him. It was only a matter of time until he completely doze off and-

The door opened.

Nick suddenly shot up from his spot and faced the door, "Finnick!?"

To his disappointment it was not the small sand colored fox he was expecting, but it was a grey rabbit… the one he's been with this whole day. On her paws was a few papers that didn't interest him at all, "Judy… what is it now?"

The concerned face she had glued to her face is still there, "So umm… I got these papers from Finnick's teacher,"

Those papers immediately became slightly interesting, "uh huh… okay…?"

"So… Fennec Fox?"

He was bound to tell her someday right? He turned the TV off, silence filling the room, "Yeah, Judy it's late… I'll answer your questions some other time, but now is just not a good time."

She looked around, saw the untouched plate on the table and a few beers lying around, she's been bothering him the whole day, continuing that might be a bad idea, "A-alright… okay. Good night then." she closed the door and left Nick to his own.

Nick laid back down, staring at the ceiling, and kept on thinking and thinking… and thinking… he then fell asleep.

HELLO PEOPLE! I'm so sorry for the super long (5months) wait. Life is still as crappy as it is, plus I had no idea how to handle this chapter, when I said "him running away was not in my plan" I was serious. Now here I am trying to figure out how to get back to the original plan so I wouldn't have to stress out and take too long in making chapters.

I'm sorry if this chapter didn't answer some of the questions, but I'm taking this slowly, like smoothly curving back to the proper story. Bear with me! I'll try to finish the next chapter in less than a month, but no promises!

Read and Review! I would really love to hear from you guys again! Old and new readers!