Chapter 14: Not The End
Author's Note: You'll have to wait until next week for the bonus chapter as I'm off to Comic Con this week.
As Nick and Judy were leaving the station, Clawhuaser stopped munching on his doughnut and called them over. "Hey you two! Where are you going?"
"We did such a good job on the pursuit, we got the day off." Nick replied.
"Yeah! Since we're still recovering from that ice cold river, we're gonna go take a rest." Judy added.
"That's nice!" Clawhauser said. "Oh Judy! Thanks for contributing that picture to this years ZPD calendar. It's both very cute and sexy at the same time!"
"WHAT picture?!" Judy demanded to know as Nick started sneaking his way toward the front door.
Clawhauser brought up the picture on his computer and showed it to Judy. It was Judy using all four paws to suck on the baby bottle while in the child seat. It gave her an appearance like a little infant. Nick took it when her back was turned toward the passenger window, but her reflection could be seen and made for a bit of an artistic photo.
Judy was livid, but she kept her cool. "Thank you Clawhauser. I thought it was pretty cute myself. If you'll excuse me?" She then left and started heading toward Nick who was at the door. He was starting to cringe a little and was waiting for her to lower the boom. It didn't come. She silently walked out the door and ignored him.
Judy and Nick left the station and headed down the street. They were still in their uniforms since Nick argued earlier that hanging out together in uniform would be best as people would see them as co-workers and not a couple. Judy was still not talking to Nick and it was starting to drive him crazy.
"Are you mad at me?"
"..."
"Look. I thought it would be a fun little joke and you'd just get a bit ticked off and we'd have a laugh and that's it!"
"..."
"Okay! Okay! Your reverse psychology worked! I'm really sorry Fluff! I was just hoping to get a reaction from you, but now that you haven't reacted at all, I feel much worse than if you had. Can you please forgive me?"
Judy got her smile back. "HA! I knew that would work. You're forgiven, Red."
"'Red?!' You can stop that. I'm not driving anymore."
"Nope. I like 'Red' and I'm keeping it. You have like, FIVE nicknames for me y'know?" Judy said as she elbowed Nick.
"I'm doomed" Nick responded and then he saw someone familiar coming down the street. "Hey! I recognize that stench from all the way over here. It's Yax!"
"Who?" Judy asked.
"Y'know, that Yak from the Mystic Spring Oasis?"
They both greeted Yax from a distance. The Yak was wearing a beat up a pair of shorts and nothing else. Flies were still buzzing around his head as usual.
Nick greeted him first. "Hey Yax! How's things?"
The yak parted his nappy hair to get a good look. "Oh hey! It's the cop lady and fox dude from last year! Thanks for finding Emmet man! His wife visits with him now. I think to keep an eye on him y'know?"
Judy was pleased. "That's wonderful! I haven't heard from them in awhile."
The Yak continued "Anyway, I'm like, headed to work, but I might stop at the police department later and make a complaint. Like, I almost got ran over by a squad car chasing a truck inside the Steeples center last night!"
Nick and Judy looked at each other nervously. "Hunh. You don't say!" Nick added.
"I do say! But things went pretty good anyway. I somehow got a date with a camel last night. She was pretty cute! Nice beard too. Date didn't end well sadly. She spat in my face!"
Judy looked sad. "Aww. Because you said something to upset her?"
The yak responded "No. That was her idea of foreplay! Kinda went downhill from there." The yak started munching on some acorns from a bag he had. "Anyway, 'munch, munch' I gotta get goin'. "See you dudes!"
Judy saw the sack of acorns. "Wait! Where did you get that bag of acorns?!"
"Oh this?!" Yax said. Pointing to the sack. "Found it around the river this morning. Can you believe some idiot threw away this huge sack of acorns?"
Judy rushed over and grabbed the bag. Starting a struggle with the yak. "I need those Yax! They're evidence in a case!"
Yax protested and started pulling back. "Hey lady! Get yer hands off my nut sack!"
Nick and Judy froze in embarrassment. Several people around the street were staring. Nick offered money to Yax to shut him up and take the sack. "Here's twenty bucks for the bag and PLEASE don't yell that out loud again!"
"Oh wow! Like, thanks man! I could buy like a whole bushel of nuts for that price!" and Yax happily walked off.
Nick and Judy started walking again with the bag over her shoulder. "Well THAT was embarrassing!"
"Tell me about it!" Judy replied. I'm dead beat! I could use a good nap. Say, your place is closer and you have a spare bedroom you don't use!"
"Why Carrots!" Nick said flirtatiously. "Are you suggesting you wanna go back to my place and 'sleep around'?"
"In the literal sense, yes. I'll sleep in your bedroom with the door closed and you sleep on the floor in your disgusting living room. Then, we'll get up around 6 and go get dinner. Deal?"
"Deal!"Nick replied and they headed over to Nick's place.
Nick and Judy arrived at Nick's place. His clothes were strewn everywhere and the pile around the trash can was starting to attract flies. Judy held her nose as she went in. "Oh wow! It even SMELLS worse than I remember!" She then went to cleaning up the trash despite Nick's insistence not to.
Just then, Nick heard the roar of a familiar engine. Finnick's van was about to take off. "Wait!" Nick yelled as he opened up his bedroom window and slid down the drain pipe. He made it to Finn's van. Finnick was behind the wheel with Honey in the passenger seat.
Nick banged on the window. "Finn! Open up! Finn! Please!"
Reluctantly, Finn rolled down the window. "We have to go Nick! What do you want?!"
Nick was almost in tears, but held himself together. "Look1 It's just... I'm sorry for everything that happened! I didn't know how bad it was for you without me or I'd have helped more! If that's why you're mad at Judy, then PLEASE don't be! Be mad at me! This is all my fault!"
Finn looked nervous. "Okay!Look! I forgive you alright?! Judy too! I just... I really gotta go! There's some guys watching me!"
Nick was confused. "Watching you?!"
"Yeah!" Finnick replied. "You know that anti-prey propaganda you saw? I ended up messing around with some really bad dudes and they got plans! BIG, HORRIBLE plans for this city! It's gonna happen in about a month! I'm going into hiding and you should too! Get yourself and Judy outta here! Go to Bunny Burrow! Go to your moms over on the outskirts of town! Just get out of this city! Now leave!"
"No way!" Nick pleaded. "I'm not leaving you and Honey in any danger!"
"I'm sorry Nick." Finnick said quietly and poked Nick in the head with his bat causing Nick to fall on the ground. He then yelled and looked around to see if any of his "gang" were watching him. "Now get away you prey lovin' filth! I don't ever wanna see you or that roach again!" and he sped off in the van leaving Nick confused and hurt.
Nick climbed back up the drainpipe and through his window. Judy was watching the whole thing.
"I saw the whole thing." Judy said. "Sounds like he's still mad."
Nick sat on the floor stunned. "No. He said he forgave us."
"That's good!" Judy added. Trying to make the situation more cheerful.
"But he's in trouble." Nick continued. "He said he's going into hiding because the anti-prey people he got involved with are planning something really big and really bad in about a month! Something that will affect the whole city!"
Judy gasped. "We have to find him! We need more information!"
"Sorry Fluff." Nick replied. "When Finn wants to hide, he stays hidden. He's impossible to find."
Judy hugged Nick. "I'm so sorry Nick! I don't know what to do!"
Nick hugged her back. "It's okay Fluff. He wants us to go into hiding, but we both know that's not gonna happen!"
Judy got up. "Dang straight! We're ZPD's finest and we don't run from anybody!"
Nick smiled. "We'll talk more later. For now, why don't we get some sleep?" Judy agreed and she walked into her room.
Nick circled around his blankets and laid down. He tried to sleep, but he couldn't. All he could think about was Finnick and their life together. He cried all night the night he ran away from home, but Finnick told him to "stop being a little wuss" and gave him half a beer to help him fall asleep. Finn took him to a free clinic when he broke his foot and stayed by his bed side. "I don't have anything better to do" he'd say, but Nick knew he was there to comfort him. Pretty much any other time of comfort was just getting Nick drunk. His first break up with a girl at 15? Got him drunk. The day his dad died in prison? Got Nick so drunk he couldn't remember what happened the next day. As a sort of foster dad, Finnick didn't do all the right things for Nick, but he was there for him just the same.
Just then, Judy shouted out from her bedroom. "Nick. Are you asleep?"
Nick got up and wrapped his blankets around him. "No Judy, what do you want?"
"I can't sleep. It's too quiet."
Nick got a smile on his face. "Don't worry Fluff. I got just the thing!"
He then went over to the outside of the bedroom wall and started banging and kicking at it while yelling. "SHUT UP! NO, YOU SHUT UP! NO, YOU SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"
After a good minute of this, Nick asked "Is that better?", but all he heard in return was snoring.
Nick thought to himself "Who'd think Bucky and Pronk's yelling could be considered soothing?" He then went back to his pile and fell asleep.
The next day, Nick headed over to Clawhauser's desk. He was sobbing while his intern was handing him tissues. "It's over! It's all over!" The cheetah bawled.
"What is it now?" Nick reluctantly asked.
A sobbing Ben replied "It's Bogo! He...he..BAAWWHAWHAWW!"
Mevlin, the goat intern rolled his eyes. "The chief blocked Mr. Clawhuaser's fan fic site off the servers."
"My 'ships' have been sunk!" bawled the fat cheetah.
While weeping, Ben took the last doughnut out of a paper bag and handed the bag to Melvin who happy ate it.
"Y'know, you can write up your stuff at home." Nick said.
"What? And cut into my busy social life?!" Ben replied.
Nick gave him a look.
"I could have a life! You don't know!" The cheetah answered. Nick just rolled his eyes and walked toward the meeting room.
Clawhauser then talked to his intern. "Melvin. I need time alone. Why don't you go to the recycling bin and snack on the cans?"
"Yes sir!" The goat replied and he took off.
Nick arrived at the meeting room and there was Judy. Bright and chipper and early as always. "I gave the chief the evidence. They've been questioning the squirrels since last night. I told them about what Finnick said too and it seems to match up with what the squirrels are saying."
Nick jumped into the giant seat he shared with Judy. "I hope they gave a car for you this time, or else we're patrolling on foot. I may never drive again!"
"You did okay the other night. All things considered." Judy replied.
"It was terrifying!" Nick responded "From now on I'm letting you do the driving."
Bogo came into the meeting room. "Quiet everyone! We have a new priority number one. After talking with several of the squirrels that officers Hopps, Wilde and Fangmeyer apprehended, it seems the small gangs of thieves are terrorizing this city not for 'kicks' but for survival. There is a new threat to this city and all we know is his name. "The Big Cheese". We don't know his exact plans yet, but we do know they involve attacking prey. The rodents did their crimes as 'tribute' so they would not be targeted later. This 'Big Cheese' has something big in mind within one month's time so we need to find out who he is and apprehend him! Needless to say this information does not leave this room as it would cause a city wide panic and further damage prey/predator relations."
"'The Big Cheese?'"Nick questioned to Judy. "Now we really need to talk to Mr Big. I don't think he's involved, but he may know something!"
Bogo continued. "I need all officers to question any possible leads to this case while doing your regular patrols. Officers Grizzoli and Fangmeyer? Sahara Square. Officers Wolford and Higgings? Rainforest District. Officers McHorn and Pennington? Downtown."
Nick looked over and saw McHorn and Pennington getting up and leaving together. McHorn just looked over at Nick and gave him a smile. Nick gave a smile and a wink back. They had managed to work things out.
"Officers Hopps and Wilde? Since you've already managed to wreck TWO cars in as many days, you'll be taking your old, crawling patrol jeep out for traffic duty until your squad car is repaired. Dismissed!"
Judy and Nick jumped up with tails wagging. "We'll take it!"
Bogo looked confused as Nick and Judy danced around on top of their chair and started singing. "We got parking duty! We got parking duty! Tralalalalalaaa!"
"Keep that up and I'll make it permanent" The Chief threatened.
Later that day, Nick and Judy were out on the street checking meters and making sure the cars were parked close enough.
"I can't believe I'd ever actually WANT to do this." Judy said to Nick.
"Well Carrots, having me drive will do that to you." Nick replied. He then thought of an idea. "Hey! Let's make this fun. You take this side of the street and I'll take that side and I'll bet I can serve more tickets than you!"
Judy laughed. "HA! It's on! I'm way better at this than you!"
"Great!" Nick replied. "Winner buys the loser lunch. See you!" and he took off across the street."
Judy just realized she got tricked. "Wait, what?! That's not how betting works! Nick! Get back here! No! Don't put quarters into the meter! Nick I'm not buying you lunch like this! Nick? NIIICK!"
THE END (FOR NOW)
Nick and Judy will return to bust some thieving ghosts in the short story. "The Case of The Haunted Convenience Store". Then, the Big Cheese Saga continues in "A Hole in The Wall."
Next Chapter: Epilogue, Final Notes and A Deleted Scene