Chapter 4 Shot through the Heart

Edited by BeecroftA

Nick barely glanced at the prone form of the rabbit doe lying face down on the ground. He knew what he'd done, and didn't need to see the matted grey fur, already being stained by his handiwork. He holstered his gun, walking away from the mammal he had considered almost a friend over the past few days. He kept telling himself he had done the right thing, that everything would work out fine in the end. Though the nagging thought of why she had been chosen by the organization to be assassinated made him hopeful he'd be able to get an answer about it. For how much he was trying to not care about what he'd just done, his long dormant conscience betrayed him.

She didn't deserve this...

He finally paused, eyes towards the ground as a pitiful whine escaped his muzzle. The thought kept hammering itself into him again and again, until finally...he dared to look back, thinking that things would have somehow, magically been different. That he had made a different choice.

Reality slapped him in the face when he saw Judy was still laying in the dirt at the bottom of a ditch. In an abandoned lot that nobody ever ventured to.

And so he left, heart pounding steadily as he meandered the streets. Only when he finally made his way back to his home, the door locked behind him, did he slump against the door frame and weep.

Someone, had finally gotten to him...and oh how it hurt.

The wind whistled through the field, the shafts of dried grass crafting a rustling, natural symphony that blended well with the sound of cicadas buzzing in the mid-afternoon heat. All blissfully unaware of the un-moving bunny laying in the blood toned dirt at the bottom of a dry creek bed. The world continued on, as if what transpired had no effect...

...an inconsequential blip in time.

It would have continued, the environmental orchestra never ceasing in its natural sounding beauty if not for the groan that came from the grey doe. Judy blinked as she rolled over, wincing as she stared momentarily directly into the sun. It burned her eyes and the pain made her hiss in displeasure.

At least I'm alive...she thought, slowly opening her eyes once more to become more accustomed to the noon-day sun. She patted herself down, the sounds around her not registering with the ringing in her ears that was still reverberating from the bullet that shot straight between them. She'd opened her eyes when she'd heard Nick let out a sob and saw him move the gun just a tiny fraction of an inch as the grief stricken fox's paw trembled. He'd then closed his eyes and fired. That tiniest fraction of movement had been enough to save her life, and Judy knew, that it couldn't have been accidental.

Nick Wilde, had just saved her life...most likely at the cost of his own.

The rabbit doe pushed herself to her paws, ears still ringing and probably would do so for a very long while. Her hearing would probably be permanently affected. With how the shock and noise of the shot and at a close enough range had been loud enough to knock her out, she would be lucky if she came away from this totally unscathed.

Her idea had worked, though. It had been a very foolish idea. A very, dangerous idea...but it had payed off. She knew that something had been bothering Nick, knew that a random fox coming up to a random bunny in a random cafe couldn't have been, well, random. She had believed that no matter what history Nicholas Wilde had, that he was a good mammal. A decent mammal, and that he wouldn't kill her.

She didn't know why she felt that way, but she just knew from the moment she had found out who he really was, that he wouldn't kill her.

She had done her homework on Nicholas Wilde after their first meeting. She had felt something towards the fox, and not just because of the way he helped lift her out of her sorrows the way he had. There was a certain, intrinsic quality to him that she found palatable. It was probably why she asked him out before even asking for his phone number, something she had kicked herself over once she got back to her tiny, cramped apartment. She had, as she had put it, tried to get to sleep for work, yet a certain russet-furred mammal with emerald eyes kept waking her, invading her dreams with his silken tongue and calming smile.

It had been her first assignment of the day to investigate exactly who it was she had asked out. She had taken to searching for him through the database while ticketing cars, and as her search deepened, her feeling for the fox grew.

Lost his father when a ZBI raid in the neighborhood went awry and the ensuing firefight sent a bullet through their home's window, paralyzing Wilde Sr. while he sat reading the newspaper and causing him to die of complications from the injury two months later.

His mother arrested several times for prostitution afterwards, apparently forced into it to try and keep their house. Then she simply vanished into thin air, leaving the young tod without any family or a home.

Judy had found Nick had a sealed juvenile record, then an actual record of petty theft; four reports from supermarkets where he'd been stealing food when he'd been caught. Then he, too, seemed to disappear about a decade ago, the last detail being an old address she doubted was good anymore.

So she dug further once she had arrived back at the precinct. Then even more earlier that morning after their date at the mini-golf course. It was only when she stumbled across an article in the archives about a string of unsolved murders in the neighborhood he'd grown up in that the clues clicked together.

The pimp his mother had worked under had been found murdered.

The ZBI agent who had launched the raid, found paralyzed in her home.

Four supermarket owners finding their stores torched to the ground.

A week before meeting Nick she had been asked to file paperwork, when a paper slid out of a folder she was handling. It was about a criminal syndicate that had been suspected of hiring assassins to take care of their rivals or enemies. She had asked around the precinct, speaking to several officers who she thought might be familiar with the case file about how the gang operated, what their motives were, or when they had emerged. She'd only learned that most officers didn't even have a clue to what she was even talking about, but those on the force the longest mentioned an uptick in violent acts starting twenty years ago.

It all made sense.

She had put on a brave face, tried to wave her burgeoning worry off as simple coincidences, even if she didn't believe in those. So she had called him to meet and taken the rest of the day with a request from Bogo. She wanted to put her fears to rest, to assuage those growing nervous feelings within her that she was dating a criminal…

...an assassin. One that had been sent after her.

She didn't dare go back to the precinct now. Who could she trust? She had been tasked with filing paperwork, had asked a few questions about previously unsolved murders in the city that had solid leads that hadn't been followed up on, and now had been targeted for assassination. The thought that there was a crooked cop in the precinct unnerved her. Her paw rested upon her badge, tracing the word integrity over and over again as she kneeled in the dirt. She now knew why she had been targeted.

But she didn't know why she had been spared.

If Nick had indeed been the mammal who was behind all those crimes, those killings...then why had he spared her?

After an indefinite amount of time sat kneeling in the soil, worry plaguing her thoughts, the bunny cop finally decided to do what she had vowed to herself all those years ago when she knew she wanted to make the world a better place. Judy pushed herself off the ground, eyes filled with a determination that she would make the world a better place.

And she knew just where to start.

Nick flung only the bare minimum into his bag. He had already had one packed, it was a necessity to have a go-bag for someone in his line of work. One change of clothes, side identities, a wad of cash, credit cards listed under assumed identities...all of it was already packed. The only reason why he was fretting now, and not already gone was…

Was it guilt?

Nick wearily sighed, rubbing at his eyes before pinching the point of his muzzle. Why does this have to be so difficult…

He hadn't killed Judy...the target...THE TARGET...like he had planned to. At the last second he shot wide, grazing her cheek before booking it out of there. He hadn't stayed to see what the bunny would do, couldn't have handled those large, beautiful eyes staring up at him with concern and love, things he hadn't seen in years. To think that a bunny of all mammals would actually care about him? Even when he was about to kill them?

The fox let out an angry growl, swiping a few papers and pictures off his desk, the picture frames shattering against the wall while the papers flew into the air around him. Nick leaned against the desk, panting heavily as tears once again stained his fur for the second time that day.

"Why..." he murmured. "Why a bunny of all mammals?"

He hadn't heard the door behind him open, nor the creaky floorboards cracking behind him. But he did hear the voice. The one voice that he had not expected to hear.

"Why not?"

Nick whirled around, coming face to face with Judy Hopps. The bunny stood with her arms folded across her chest, one foot gently tapping the carpet created a distinct 'whoomf whoomf' with each press of her padless paws into the soft and foamy material.

"How..."

"...Did I find you?" Judy finished, arching a single eyebrow. "I'm a cop, it's what I'm trained to do."

Nick stared at the rabbit unblinkingly as she walked further into the room. Her gaze darted about the room, taking in the spotless appearance. "I looked you up, Nick," she began, idly picking up a fake potted plant, eyeing the plastic rose set within before her gaze settled on him. "You seem to be a very sentimental mammal so I only assumed that you'd have wanted to be where you remembered being the most loved...at your home."

Nick cursed himself and his stupidity. He had hoped that he would have been able to get away with living here. Nearly every house on the block had been abandoned, windows broken and graffiti being more colorful than the dulled paint on the walls of the dilapidated homes. His old home had stood abandoned since he had left, the broken windows downstairs and peeling wallpaper proof of its years of neglect.

Lost in his memories, he didn't notice Judy approaching until he felt her paw gripping his own.

Looking down was a mistake, as he saw those oh-so-tender eyes looking up into his own.

"I came alone, if you're wondering," she stated softly as his eyes wandered to the blackened fur of her cheek, his stomach twisting into a knot at the sight. "I may not know exactly what you've gone through, but, I want to be there to help you get out of it."

Nick found himself shaking his head. "It's too late," he muttered, head bowing and tail curling around his legs. "I've already failed them. They are probably already after me...after you. They'll come for me first, to right my failure, and then they'll be after you."

The fox found his voice straining, his paw rising to Judy's cheek, not understanding why he would hold her in such a tender and intimate way. How has this bunny affected me so...he wondered as she surprised him further by leaning into his touch. "Run, little bunny. Whatever you've done to warrant an assassination will have them gunning for you until they find you. Disappear. Just...don't let them find you."

"I'm not going anywhere, Slick," Judy stated in a stronger tone. "And neither are you." Her paw forced down his own that was holding his bag, gently untwining his fingers until the object dropped from his paw.

"Why?" he asked, in complete and utter disbelief. Nick couldn't understand anything that had happened the past three days anymore. From his first meeting with this bunny to now, his life had been thrown into nothing but absolute chaos. "Why are you sticking around?"

To his surprise, Judy shrugged, a smile playing at her lips. "I don't know," she calmly replied. "Just have a feeling, I guess."

"A feeling?" Nick said in actual amusement. "Do you enjoy the idea of defying death or being the target of assassins and murderers?"

"You only live once, right?" she joked, and to his surprise, he found himself chuckling along with the bunny. Her expression softened once again as she gripped his paw tighter within her own. "I swore to serve and protect the citizens of Zotoopia, from whatever challenges they face. So consider yourself my project." Her lips formed a wry smile as Nick groaned.

"What is with you, bunny?" he rumbled.

The bunny smiled. "It's called a-"

She suddenly paused, her ears flitting up to attention and swiveling behind her. Nick straightened himself, and a smell wafting through the window caught his attention.

"Get down!" he whispered at the same moment he shoved Judy to the floor. A second after the pair hit the ground, a bullet whizzed through the air where his chest and her head had been perfectly aligned with the window. A second bullet zinged lower as Nick grabbed Judy and rolled her to the side of the room, just as the round implanted itself into the floorboards.

Judy pushed herself to her paws at the same time as Nick, both nodding at each other before going in separate directions. Nick went to the wall, flipped over the table and placed it against the window, blocking the shooter's view inside. A bullet shot through the wood next to him, grazing his suit jacket before he jumped to the side. At the same time, Judy heard near-silent pawpads sounding in the carpet on the opposite side of the wall in the hallway outside. Creeping alongside the noise from within the room, she withdrew her taser, waiting just outside the door.

Hearing the silent click of a hammer being drawn back, she leapt through the doorway, already aiming the tazer up and firing at into the chest of a stunned looking cougar. The feline shuddered for several seconds before collapsing to the ground. She removed her pawcuffs and walked over to the prone mammal who was laying face-up in the hallway, groaning in pain. Leaning against the wall, she pushed her feet into his side, grunting as she forced the larger mammal over onto his chest. She easily secured the knocked-out mammal with the cuffs as Nick exited the room, gun drawn, raised and sweeping the empty corridor.

"We've got to move, Fluff!" he stated harshly as he grabbed Judy's paw and tugged her along the hallway towards the stairwell.

"Not that way," she hissed, yanking back on the fox's paw.

"Do you know a better way out?" he shot back. "This is my home, Carrots, and that front door is the only way out of here!"

Judy smirked. "To an unimaginative fox, maybe." Nick stared at her as she jerked her head towards the end of the hallway where a window looked out into a neighboring home, its own window looking directly into Nick's childhood home.

The front door of the home burst open as two mammals, a wolf and a male rabbit, darted in with guns drawn. The buck had a large sniper rifle on his back and glared around the room as he pointed towards the upstairs where a creak was heard.

"Sergeant Wolvington," the bunny whispered, pointing towards the stairwell. The grey wolf nodded, weapon raised as he approached the stairwell. A sound of shattering glass and heavy footfalls coming from above.

"Go, go, go!" the reddish toned rabbit hissed. The two mammals rushed up the stairwell, guns aimed down the hallway towards the broken window at its end, the drapes fluttering across the broken glass. The pair hurried down the hall, oblivious to the open doors on either side of them until it was too late.

The wolf caught a vase to the side of his head, Nick using the pottery to its greatest effect as it knocked the wolf out cold with the antique shattering against the canine's skull. The rabbit was marginally faster than his companion, barely avoiding the leg of a chair that Judy swung at his head. The furniture nicked his ears, causing him to wince slightly as his paw shot out towards his assailant. Still mid-swing, Judy had no room to dodge and the fist connected with her shoulder, numbing her entire limb when he hit a nerve. She ducked under the second punch aimed at her head, sweeping her leg out and knocking the larger lagomorph onto his back.

A red and black paw swung down, chopping at the rabbit's head as he went to rise, knocking him back into the ground and into the land of dreams as his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

"Think there are any more coming?" Judy asked, rubbing her shoulder tenderly.

Nick shook his head. "We're a special circumstance it seems. They only ever send one." Judy nodded, accepting the fox's statement as she went to withdraw her radio from her belt.

"What are you doing?" Nick asked, worry sounding in his voice.

"Calling it in," Judy said, wincing at the pain in her shoulder. That rabbit hit harder than I thought…

Walking over to the unconscious wolf, Nick flicked back the wolf's trench coat, revealing a ZPD-issued bulletproof vest, complete with radio. Judy simply nodded, putting her radio back on her belt. "What do you suggest we do then?"

"We'll still go to the cops," Nick said with a grunt as he dragged the wolf into the side room where they had put the cougar from earlier. Judy joined him and dragged the rabbit behind her, accidentally bumping his head into the wall. Nick took some fishing wire from his pack and tied the two mammals up, binding their feet and hands together.

The fox fished around through the wolf's pockets until he produced a phone. Grateful that it wasn't passcode protected, he flicked open the contacts page and showed it to Judy with a smile on his face.

"Just not to any of these officers."

A smile formed upon Judy's lips. "Well, look at you," she declared as she walked towards him, the fox suddenly growing wary of the predatory look in her eyes. Before he knew it, she had grabbed him by his tie and dragged him down to eye level. "Stopping assassins, revealing corrupt cops and saving my life...I think I owe you a favor of some sort for making my job easier." She patted Nick's cheek and was about to release him when the fox spoke up: "Would the beautiful bunny like a kiss from a handsome fox as a reward?"

A sudden worried look crossed Nick's face as he realized what he had said. He tried pulling back, but the bunny's grip on his tie strengthened.

"What was that you just said?"

"I, uh...um..." the usually suave fox was at a complete loss for words. He wasn't sure why he had just said what he thought he said. The words had slipped out, sliding off his tongue like they were something that he'd naturally say to the lovely doe standing in front of him. A rustling sound from far down the hallway brought his paw to his jacket. In a flash, he had drawn his gun, raised it around the rabbit and fired two shots at a puma slinking up the stairwell. The cat crumpled against the wall, leaving a crimson trail as his back slid down the wallpaper before tumbling down the stairs.

Both mammals were breathing heavily, Judy staring at Nick and Nick staring at the red smeared stain on the wall near the stairs. He finally lowered his gaze to the bunny, licking his lips at the look she was giving him.

"How about a rain check on that kiss until we're out of here, darling?"

Judy, to her credit, blinked only once before smashing her lips into Nick's, the heat of the moment overwhelming the doe. Nick soon fell into seduction's embrace and deepened the kiss, his mind nearing bursting as she let out a groan against his lips. It took several minutes of his brain struggling to control the situation, especially as both of them found their paws starting to wander to the buttons of each others shirt. Only the thought of danger taking the life of the doe in his embrace broke his love enduced trance enough to break away from Judy's lips. He stepped away, a glazed look in his eyes as well as Judy's. She seemed to recover faster than he did as she reached up towards him and re-buttoned his shirt.

"Alright," she stated quietly, patting his chest, though leaving her paw there for much longer than need be. "Now we can leave."

Nick watched her finally turn and walk down the hall, taser in her good paw, though that wasn't where his attention was focused. No, it was on the little puffball of a tail that was twitching with every step she made.

"Are you coming?" she yelled over her shoulder, flicking her tail and making the fox fall more deeply into the abyss that was his love of Judy Hopps. Nick nodded before jogging after her to join by her side…

Two can play at that game my lovely little bunny...Nick though as he grabbed Judy's arm, spun her around, and pulled into a kiss once more.

AN: Looks like the 'bleeding effect' as I call it from their personalities is leaking through. :D And good thing too as otherwise this would have been a tragic story... Now how on earth will this story end? And does anyone still hate me after this chapter? XD