Judy's eyes fluttered open slightly as her eyelids battered and showed the signs of struggle that she was facing when waking up, she took her phone which was placed on the table opposite of her and turned it on and saw a message from her mother that asked her if she could drop by today. She groaned and sat up straight as she ears shot up at the sound of the room door opening.
Nick came into view, he was wearing a sleeveless grey shirt and black pants. He appeared to be sweating and had a towel slung over his shoulder along with a water bottle in his left hand, he smiled at her and greeted her "Morning Carrots!".
"Hey Nick, where have you been?" She asked as she rubbed her eyes to get some of the sleep off of her, Nick then takes the towel on her shoulder and wipes off some of the sweat on his face before saying "I was working out at the gym upstairs...gotta keep myself in shape".
There was a moment of silence before Nick asked "So...what's on the to-do list?". Judy thought of it for a while before replying "Maybe we could visit my parents place for a while, she texted me this morning"
"Sure" Nick said with a smiled as he took his shirt off and placed it in the laundry bag, as usual Nick looked built and was way different from when they arrested Lionheart. Back then he was more thin but now, he was muscular but not too buff. "You sure you're ok with it?" She asked with a concerned look splattered across her face and Nick knew that she was referring to her dad, he smiled and went close to her and practically laughed "Don't worry about it ok carrots? I'm sure he'll learn to accept me one way or another"
Judy smiled and nodded "I'll text my mom back, to let em know that we're coming for breakfast". Nick nodded as he grabbed his towel and went in the bathroom for a nice shower, from the outside she heard the water being turned on and the water hit the floor.
She took her phone out once again and stared onto the screen which reflected off of her purple eyes, she swiped the scrolled down her messages and replied to her mother and tapped the response "Sure thing mom! Just talked to Nick, we're coming over for breakfast...just hope dad's okay with it". She ended the message with an angry emoji in order to notify her that she was angry about her father's inability to comprehend that Nick was nice.
Her ears then jerked up and her eyes widened as he just remembered that her father wasn't the only one who was strongly against foxes and added another message, typing furiously "And please! For the love of god! Keep grandpa AWAY at all costs!".
She then received a two responses from her mother, one said that she had a talk with Stu yesterday and he was ok with it and the second response was a more horror filled one with Bonny replying "Oh dear! You're right, i totally forgot about that! But don't worry, he's not gonna freak out too much...I hope..."
That last part made Judy uneasy abit as the last thing she wanted was her her grandpa to burst in and shout "FOXES ARE DEVIL SPAWN!" again. And by again, she ment that it had happened before during that incident when she and Nick were 12 but Nick's reaction was more of a light chuckle rather than a hurtful expression but hey, anything could happen...anything.
After they had left the hotel, they went straight to Judy's place where they ate breakfast in peace. Nick was basically wolfing down the meal he had while Judy took her time in enjoying every bite, the atmosphere was getting a little too quiet so Stu had decided to ask some questions about the city and stuff related to it.
He cleared his throat which caught the attention of Judy and Nick, Judy however was still skeptical about her dad's trust in her partner so she raised a questioning eyebrow whereas Nick just looked at at him after swallowing the last bite of his meal of blueberry pancakes.
"So, Nick, how's life in the city been treating ya?" Stu asked as he avoided Judy's gaze and instead focused on Nick, who replied "It's actually peaceful at night, the stars are out and in the mornings it's a rush at first but it slows down when it approaches mid-day"
Stu nodded in approval as he smiled a little before replying "Really? Well that's great!". He then asked him how the job was going, and he playfully respond with "Oh man, where do I even start?"
Nick rubbed his chin with his thumb with his eyes closed before smiling and responding "Ah yes...the job's really adventurous to say the least. And Judy and I have only been on like what? 2 missions so far, and...wow, it's just...wow!"
Nick chuckled at the last part before opening his eyes, the dining light was reflecting off of them. This pegged Stu's interest to an unusual standard and a part of him of almost afraid to ask what they had been through so he pressed the question which actually shocked Judy to a degree as she'd thought that he wouldn't bother.
"How's about your first mission together? You know the one where you bagged Lionheart, tell me about that" Stu said as he listened. Nick flashed a look at Judy that said ' can i?' and Judy nodded her head.
Nick then clasped his hand together and sighed as Stu and the kids at the table were listening to how the mission actually went "So basically, we went looking for a licence plate number which led us a naturalist club, it was awkward but we got it. Then we went to get it checked out, but by the time it finished night had taken hold. We then broke into tundra town where we got..more or less, 'abducted' by a mafia group under the boss Mr. big."
By this point the kids were booing and were excited, Mr. Hopps however was horrified as he never imagined it to be this dangerous, nevertheless he let him continue. " Contrary to his name, Mr. Big was actually an Arctic shrew and he was famous for 'Icing' people...yeah i'm not gonna explain what that ment but you guys can take a good guess. But we were saved by the guy's daughter who turned out to be the same shrew that Judy saved before the case had begun and I was even involved...so now, we're friends with Tundra towns biggest Mafia boss...he's actually a nice guy if you set aside the Mafia part."
The other bunnies were cheering at this and even Stu was impressed, he then listened to the rest of the tale but was thinking about what 'icing' ment. "We then attended her wedding and he told us about the driver of the car who was a planter caller Mr. Manchas who lived in the rainforest district. So we went there and started to talk to him, when he got shot by a sniper from a distance!"
Everyone gasped as the eagerly listened, this was better than any bedtime story that existed! "He went savage on us, so we fought him but he drove us back to the edge of a cliff. The panther jumped at us but Judy slid under him and got his leg with a handcuff and chained him to a pole! But...but, he actually still managed to push us off of it..."
"Woah! How'd u survive?" Asked one of the kids, and now Stu started to mentally panic as his thoughts screamed 'JUDY WAS PUSHED OFF OF A CLIFF?! SHE COULD'VE DIED!'
"Well, she managed to grab a vine and she caught me as well and we safely swung towards a nearby tree and fell down that. But it wasn't dangerous as we were basically sliding down a bunch of huge leaves, and we ended up getting tied up. That's when the Z.P.D showed up and got us down".
Stu was deep in thought as Nick continued his story, he was contemplating weather or not it had been a good choice to have signed her up for the police business. As Nick said, she fell off of a cliff and could've died. What if the vine wasn't there? There were so many thing that could've gone wrong, like it snapping in mid flight...her life was one of danger now, but keeping in mind what his wife had told him prior to this little 'gathering' he shut his mouth and continued to listen but he could tell that he'd missed out on a bunch of stuff as now Nick was talking about how they were trapped in a cell with an alarm going on.
"So we were in there, trapped and cornered by three scary looking wolf guys. One of them entered the cell we were in and I knocked him out without a sound and tossed his gun to Judy who, on my mark, fired on the second wolf outside while i took out the third. So, long story short, we got into a gun fight with them and escaped but when we got outside we were pinned by snipers. Unfortunately, when we ran for it i got shot on the back"
"No!" gasped the kids but Nick chuckled "Oh relax, it was just a tranq-dart...not an actual bullet." This calmed them all down as he continued with the story "Judy tried to save me, again, and we reached the edge of the waterfall when she got hit too and the both of us fell down the waterfall and hit the water below. I don't really remember what had happened after cause i was out but it was clear that Judy pulled me out and saved me from drowning...we called the Z.P.D and the rest you all know".
Now Stu was getting more and more worried, they had fallen down a waterfall? This was so scary to listen too, he could've lost Judy a second time, although it looked like that Nick was the one who was near death most of the time.
The kids were cheering and said things like "That was awesome!", "You guys are literally living in an action movie!", "I wanna be a cop too!", "Best story ever! And it's true!" and "You guys are awesome!".
Judy laughed at all the comments and mistakenly looked at her dad, his worried face killed her happy mood and she frowned. "Excuse me for a bit, I gotta go put my plate in the sink".
"Yeah sure carrots, I'll be here entertaining them!" Nick grinned as he said "Now then, who wants to hear another story about what happened yesterday!". All the kids raised their hands and chatter burst out "We do!".
Stu then decided to follow Judy to the kitchen to ask her if what Nick had said was true or...just an exaggeration of what really happened. He tailed her to the kitchen where he also found Bonny washing the dishes.
"Hey Judy, can i talk to you for a second?" Stu said as he received a glare from Judy and a frown. "I'm still here dad, and that's that!" she said angrily as she handed the plate to there mother who sighed as she knew that he'd messed up in some way.
"I know dear but...you could've died! TWICE!" He countered, he then straightened himself and crossed his arms "I don't know why you chose the job you did, and i agree with it to a certain degree but THIS?! This is too much! Do you wanna get yourself killed?! Is that it!". Stu said with a more serious and angry voice as he couldn't just keep ignoring this anymore, and Nick, if he needed saving so much then he's not worth having as a partner as he may keep depending on her.
"Stu!" Bonny exclaimed in shock, Judy clenched her fists and barred her teeth to stop herself from exploding. "And one more thing, about that Nick". That was it, she didn't wanna hear anymore so she gave him her worst death-glare that made him flinch "What...about...him?! You have a problem with my partner?".
"Watch it girl! I don't care if your'e a Cop or whatnot, and what kinda friends do you have?! A MAFIA BOSS?! Are you joking?". "But back to the topic at hand, I DEMAND you find a new partner, cause what i heard from him told me that he's unreliable and he only clings on to you for support"
"Stu...remember what we discussed" Bonny said as she looked at him and then to Judy who's anger had reached the max and was about to spill over. "I know what we discussed, but after all this new info I cannot simply allow Judy to go through with life like this...I mean just look at her friends! A MAFIA BOSS no less".
Judy, unable to bear this anymore told them that she had other plans and thing to do. She thanked her mother for the meal and stormed out of the Kitchen, and found Nick finishing off a story.
"Nick, lets go" She said, trying to mask her anger and frustrations. Nick nodded and looked at his watch "Oh my, it's late i gotta get going. Until next time ok?"
The kids nodded and waved their action heroes goodbye as they got back on the road again.