Chapter Thirteen – No More Secrets

Zootopia General Hospital

"… so you see, by the time Nicholas was now three it was only a matter of time. Johnathan's family and their influence was the only thing really keeping all of us safe." James finished telling Judy everything. Turning from Nick to Judy, James began to blink slightly before he raised his head slowly into the air, closing his eyes for a moment. "Both Marie and I agreed at that time, the only safe way we could possibly give Nicholas any kind of normal childhood was for me to try and disappear."

"But I don't understand…" Judy, spoke for the first time in over an hour, her face showing a mixture of sadness, shock, and disbelief, having listened to the whole story from James. "All those mammals you killed the night Nick was born, that polecat brother, what was his name… William McKell." Judy, still processing everything, stopped before speaking once again. "W… why not just take Marie and Nick and run?

James, his expression unchanged, continued to stare back at Judy "Grey asked me that same question a few weeks after it happen, while I was still recovering at Johnathan's." James replied, uncrossing his legs and taking a short breath. "I couldn't move them after everything that happened; both were still far too weak to make a run for it. So we stayed at my late uncle's house under careful watch."

His mind shifting back to that awful day once again, James turned his gaze away from Judy as he felt his ears move back slightly. "At the time, I was not the kind of fox who would just cut and run away from a fight. Quite more like the opposite in fact. After the ambush… waking up and seeing Marie lying there next to me on the city sidewalk…" The tone in James voice suddenly began to change to one of complete and utter hatred. "They should have killed me right then and there, when I was at my most vulnerable. Instead they sought to go after my unborn kits and wife. They stabbed her, multiple times in fact, in her abdomen after knocking me out. Waking up and crawling desperately to her, my vision still slightly blurred, I saw Jessica and her polar bears, rushing toward us."

"How did she know where you were?" Judy asked, her heart rating increasing as she continued to listen.

"Drake Grounder." James replied. "He had been ordered by the brothers to take part in the ambush, but he refused, knowing me and what would happen if he went through with it. He got word to Jessica immediately after. Both of the McKell brothers, of whom I was an associate at the time, had known of my recent intentions to walk away from the organization. Marie…" James stopped suddenly as the tone in his voice changed for a split second. "Something in me just seemed to snap at that moment as I was helped up, seeing Marie lying there. I went to go see the younger of the two brothers, Andre, at one of our bases of operation immediately after. What followed next was…" James stopped himself.

Judy, her ears suddenly raised high over her head, felt as a sudden sense of fear grew inside her as she suddenly saw for what seemed a slight second, fury and rage cross James face. "The horrors I did to Andre and two of his associates that day…" James stopped talking again as he began to feel both sides of his face, the horrible memory of blood and torn flesh everywhere, before looking down at both of them. "I was no better than the savage foxes from ancient times." James closed his eyes, still breathing deeply before opening them again. "After it was all over, I called William, the older brother, from the phone right there in the office. Still breathing heavy, I quietly listened as William picked up the phone, expecting to hear his brother's voice call out to him. I just continued to sit there, in the midst of all the carnage in that room and spoke to him in a calm manner, telling him exactly what I had done and what I planned to do to him for attacking Marie. I became a dead mammal at that moment." James let out a deep sigh. "So I just went home to the house Marie and I were living in at the time, still soaked in Andre's blood. I knew I had least two hours until William would be able gather enough muscle to challenge me, so I began preparing myself in the house for the fight that was no doubt about to come to me and simply waited."

"But still, why not…" Judy started to speak.

"I was not expecting to walk out of that house alive that night, Judy." James interrupted her. "I knew the amount of force that was about to come down on me. It was only due to Johnathan and also my friend Grey, showing up in the end, that I am even here talking to you today." James, leaning forward slightly and placing his arms on his knees lowered his head to the floor. "Grey, bless him, was called by Jessica just after I had hung up the phone with her. Jessica told Grey he needed to get over to my house immediately. Grey, years ago, had gotten himself drawn into a corner and asked for a favor from Jessica's family. So Grey was bound by our set of laws and rules to honor a debt when it is called in. Johnathan, Jessica's grandson, on the other paw was a total surprise when I learned how Grey was able to get me to safety and survive. Hearing his grandmamma talking to Grey about me, he immediately left with a few of his most trusted polar bears and, by some miracle, were able to intercept William and the second team on route to my house and stop them.

"But I still don't understand something." Judy spoke suddenly, recalling something from James' story, as she gazed back at James. "How were you able to disappear and remain hidden for so long?"

"Johnathan." James replied. "He helped plan and execute the whole thing himself." James leaned back and crossed his leg once again. "I knew I was being monitored by the organization. Marie and Nicholas were still living at my uncle's house in the meadowland district, I stayed in the city to help keep them safe and out of harm. William had tried a further two times by then to take me out. I nearly escaped the second time by the tip of my tail. Marie and I knew it would only be a matter of time before they or someone else would succeed. The price I had on my head at the time would have probably even made you forget you were a cop. I know personally, it did for one in the ZPD. I think the only reason I was still around after three years was because mammals in the underworld I had lived in for so long knew who they were dealing with. The night they tried to kill me, the organization lost some of their best mammals by my own paws. So I needed a way out."

"Everything had to be done precisely at the correct time in order to throw everyone off the trail. Johnathan had one of his men wire explosives to my car. The bomb, once activated, would activate a light within the car, allowing me about ten seconds to escape. The plan was to allow the individuals watching me to catch sight of me getting into the car I was driving at the time as I was about to leave the city. Once I stared up the car, one of Johnathan's men tripped the explosives and ten seconds later the massive explosion destroyed the car in full view of the public street."

"But how were you able to…" Judy began to speak quickly before being stopped by James again.

"Unknown to anyone, except for Jonathan and two of his most trusted bears, I had a small trap door along the driver side floor made a few years prior. Once the light was activated, I exited the car by the trap door and slid into a storm drain along the gutter just as the bomb went…" James stopped speaking suddenly as the sound of movement once again coming from the other side of the wall caused him to fidget slightly. Judy, noticing this suddenly movement, turned also toward the room's glass sliding door before turning back to James.

"But your body, wouldn't they have found remains in the car?" Judy asked.

"Well, that was also Jonathan's doing. You see, he had a useful contact that had supplied him a recent deceased fox." James, quickly seeing the shock spread across Judy's face cut her words off quickly. "The fox had died of natural causes, Judy, I can assure you of that." James, sitting up to his full height, motioned to Judy throwing out his paws. "As I got into the car, the other fox had already been placed in the back seat, covered. The amount of destruction the bomb created ripped the car to shreds, making it impossible to find all the pieces." James, taking a deep breath, lowered his head yet again. The only thing I regretted that day above all else was that the plan injured twelve bystanders severely in the process. The youngest being a little porcupine walking along the sidewalk with his mother."

"After that, Jonathan helped smuggle me out of the city and to Clarabelle Island where he had a relation there. Everyone pretty much bought that I had died from that car explosion, everyone except William. But without physical evidence he had not much to go on. Jonathan had an unknown contact claim responsibility for my death and collected the heavy reward. Jonathan then had that money set aside for Marie and Nicholas in a bank account. A year later, Marie moved house from my uncle's old house to back to the city. Jessica would always send me new photos of Nicholas growing up during the times they would visit her and Jonathan's house. She used to say in her letters how much he had inherited my personality."

"So that's how…" Judy, spoke slowly before stopping suddenly. Brushing the back of her head, her ears hanging down, she turned toward Nick as she watched his chest rise and fall gently. "That night… years ago when Nick and I first met, after I had hustled Nick into helping me find Mr. Otterton and…" Judy stopped once again, now recalling in her mind, being lead into a familiar office by two massive polar bears. "Mr. Big and Nick… it was because of you that he knew Nick for so many years." Judy continued to process in her mind.

"Wait, wait, wait…wait a minute", James spoke suddenly, waving his paws in front of him again, suddenly chuckling out loud as he began to lean forward. "Did I just hear you right, you hustled my son, Nicholas?"

"I had too you see, I…" Judy stared to speak. "I had just started as a police…"

"No, no, no." James began to repeat, raising his paws again up and smiling broadly back at Judy before turning toward Nick in the bed. His smirk, Judy quickly noticed crossing his muzzle was almost identical to Nick. "You don't have to explain anything, I just found that… when Marie would talk about you to me sometimes, I truly though she may have been exaggerating in some parts. Jonathan was never a mammal that would forget injustices, like what Nicholas did to his family and that whole skunk butt rug incident." James laughed slightly, thinking back to that particular event. "Jonathan's promise to his grandmamma was such that I had to remind him when he wrote to me on the island after the incident. Jessica and Marie were so close, the two of them." James lowered his voice to a whisper, reaching slowly into the inside of his coat pocket and withdrew his small photo of Marie and him together. Lightly rubbing the face on the photo of Marie, James blinked as he felt his heart skip for a fraction of a second as he continued to look at the picture. "She loved you, Marie did, so much." James smiled back at the picture. "It was because of you, Judy, Nicholas reconnected with his mother." James smiled again, now more broadly. "I still remember when she called me after talking with Nicholas after all those years, all she really could talk about was you. I had just arrived back at my flat that I was staying at when the phone there started to ring. Only two people knew of the phone to where I was staying. She started describing you to me from Nicholas' own description of you, talking about this young grey bunny cop that had somehow stolen her son's heart. How he was falling ears over tail for her." James simply looked back at Judy. "I was the proudest father that night Marie called me, years ago, when Nick returned to the old farm house where Marie had moved back to. She told me all about how nervous he was, coming back to see her face to face after so many. But most of all, when he had asked her if what he was planning to do later that evening I would have approved, if I had not died in the explosion. She said to him I would have wanted him to be happy, which was true." James continued to smile as he began to lean back against his chair. "I knew right then and there, Nicholas…"

"That was the night he proposed." Judy spoke suddenly. "He told me how he had called and reconnected with her, I think it was a year prior to that night. But due to me and work, he had not been able to find the right time to go see her. When he told her about what he was about to do, she was so happy for him. She told me the night before the wedding how she had given Nick her old wedding ring you had given to her." Judy, smiling back at James, felt her right paw cross over to her left as she began to touch a white gold ring with a small sapphire set into it on her paw finger. "Nick told me he went to an old friend to have it reduced slightly for me before he gave it to me that night. I felt so honored that day to have something so beautiful." James, still looking at Judy, remained silent as Judy continued to speak. "We were both coming off duty early that morning he went to see her. I had mentioned as we were about to leave, why not the both of us just head over to my place and spend the day together, since it was the closest. But he told me, sadly, that he needed to go and see someone very important in the meadowland district he had been meaning to see. Before leaving, like he did every day, he bent down and kissed me goodbye before lifting me up and embracing me. Setting me down afterwards, he asked me if I would meet him at our favorite restaurant, Ratatouille, for dinner later that night. I thought it seemed somewhat weird at the time, but being Nick… I just said yes, kissing him back before watching him rush off out of headquarters." Judy began to laugh out loud.

"You helped Nicholas become the fox Marie and I always wanted him to become, Judy, you know that?" James, getting out of his chair and standing up to his full height, turned around as he now came face to face with the closed window. "After Marie and Nick had their falling out when he was twelve, there was a time she felt I should have come out of hiding to help Nicholas." Placing his paws behind his back, James simply continued to stare out into the dark morning skyline. "Nicholas and I were quite the same in our youth, thick headed and uncontrollable at times.

"So why come out of hiding now?" Judy asked cautiously, staring at James back.

Turning around to face Judy, James looked toward her before lowering his head as he began to make his way back to Nick's bed. A few months ago I go a letter from a contact here in Zootopia. In the letter they told me about a plot involving your family. I immediately left the island for the mainland the next day. With the help of my friend Grey, we were able to track down and find my old friend Drake Grounder in order to gain some information. That and I had some unfinished personal business with him and I need to get resolved, pertaining to Nick's mother and that night…" James began rubbing the back of his head as he turned again.

"But then it, it must have been you who k…" Judy started too asked suddenly.

"No, I did not kill Drake, if that was what you were about to imply." James answered Judy's question before she was able to finish. "But I have a good idea who did. When I heard the news of his death I immediately knew something happened that did not seem right."

"How?"

"After Grey and I stopped little Marie from being kidnapped…" James listened as Judy suddenly inhaled slightly. "Yes, we were both there." James spoke in a casual tone. "I shot the wolverine struggling with Marie and Grey quickly subdued a brainless young lion. I tried to help Marie as best as I could, I started to bandage her up before the ZPD started to swarm the area. She was so disoriented from the stuff the wolverine had injected her with. During our…well, let's just say for the lack of a better word, talk with the young lion, my suspicions were proven right with the information Drake had let slip. I now know exactly what I am working with." Looking suddenly down at his wristwatch, James turned back to Judy, knowing he only had minutes before the two of them would be suddenly interrupted by one of the floor duty nurses coming in to check on Nick's vitals. "I sorry, Judy, but I need to go."

"But…how will I…" Judy jumped to her feet without finishing her words as she immediately rushed toward James as he began pass by her, grabbing on to his arm.

"Judy." James spoke softly, slow embracing her in his arms. "We'll see each other again soon, don't worry." Judy, her arms wrapped lightly around his midsection, she felt her head begin to rest deeper on James' chest. James, moving one of his paws from along the back of her shoulders slowly moved up to her ears, softly brushing one after the other with the pads of his paw. Releasing her from him he held a paw out and clutched his daughter-in-law's chin as he stared to notice tears forming from in her eyes. "Keep yourself and, most importantly, your family safe, Judy. Remember these words my father told me growing up, Wilde's always…"

"…Protect the family." Judy finished in a low tone smiling back him, remembering Marie telling her about the old Wilde family motto from long ago. "Marie told me the motto after we told her she was going to be grandmother."

James, smiling back, continued to hold her chin in his open paw as a thought suddenly crossed his mind. Placing the old small photo of both him and Marie gently in her paw, he looked into Judy's eyes. "Take this. She'll keep you safe, just like I will always will."