Chapter 21:
A Glimpse into the Past
As soon as Mike left, Nick drove over to Judy's apartment. When Judy opened the door, she was surprised to see Nick at this hour.
"Nick! It's so late," she said. "Is there something wrong?"
"Kind of. Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked, uneasily.
"Sure. Come in," Judy said, stepping out of the way.
Nick took a seat beside Judy on the coach; he was unsure of where to start, so he just told her exactly what happened.
"My…my father came to visit me tonight," he said.
"Oh. How was that?" Judy asked. She had never heard Nick talk about his father before. To be honest, she always wondered why he never mentioned him.
"It was unexpected to say the least, but he was just as I remembered him: rude, arrogant, and selfish."
Judy's eyes widened. Now she understood why Nick had never talked to her about his father before. They obviously didn't get along.
"What happened exactly?" she asked, gently. "Why did he come to visit you?"
"I don't know. He came in, took a few of my beers, and basically berated me on my accomplishments; notably me being a police officer now. That's all the man has ever done in my life. Drink, and abuse me physically and verbally."
"Abuse?!" Judy asked, startled. She had no idea that Nick went through such a thing.
"Yeah, for most of my childhood, my mother abused me all the time. He did the same thing to my mother as well. I remember as a kid trying to go to sleep at night, and hearing him scream, and hit her from across the hall. I was so scared for her; I thought he was going to kill her! But I didn't dare intervene. If I did, he'd just take his rage out on me."
"Nick, that's awful. Why didn't your mother just get a divorce?" Judy asked.
"He wouldn't let her. He said that if she ever left him, he'd kill her," Nick said. "She believed it too. The way he hit her; he left bruises that lasted for months. Ditto for me."
"If I so much as stepped out of line, my father would give me hell. One time I was playing ball in the house, when I shouldn't have been, and I accidently knocked over a vase. Not even a minute after it broke, he walked into the room, and exploded with rage. He grabbed me by my tail, and threw me against the wall, and punched me several times in the face. It felt like a wrecking pall each time he did it too. When I went to school, and the teacher asked me why I had all these bruises, I always told her the same thing: I fell down the stairs."
"Your father sounds like a terrible animal," Judy stated. "He doesn't deserve to be a father."
"Yeah, well he was the one I got," Nick mused. "And when he wasn't abusing me physically, he was abusing me verbally. Nothing I could ever do would please him. I get an A on a test, he'd say it's just luck, even though I studied all night for it. I won the lead in the school play, he'd say they only cast me because out of all the terrible auditions, I was the only one that wasn't as bad. Everything I did, he'd always belittle me over. He always used to say that I wouldn't amount to crap."
"Do you think his drinking had something to do with it?" Judy asked.
"Probably. I seldom saw him without a beer in his paw. And God forbid that we run out of beer when he wanted one. He'd take out his anger on my mom and I. I remember one time when he told my mom he wanted another beer. Just as she was about to get it, he angrily told her that he wanted me to bring it to him. Needless to say, I was scared to death. I slowly walked towards where he was sitting watching TV in the living room. The beer was already open, and my paws were shaking with fear. One wrong move, and he'd beat me till I was black and blue. As I crept closer to him, he saw me trembling, and taunted me about it.
"What's wrong with you, Nick?" he'd say. "Don't you love your father?"
When I got as close as I wanted to get, I held it out to him, and said, "Here's your beer, dad."
He looked at me menacingly, and said, "Hand it to me. Put it in my damn paw, Nick."
When I took another step closer, I accidently trapped, and spilled the beer all over his shirt. Oh, did I feel his wrath. For the next ten minutes, he beat me repeatedly; calling me a klutz, and a pathetic excuse for a son. All the while, my mother tried to calm him down to no avail. That night, I couldn't sleep because I was in so much pain. Anyway, when I was fifteen he left us for another woman, and I hadn't seen him until tonight. I tell you, the second I saw his face, I was flooded with bad memories. He hadn't changed a damn bit either.
Judy knew that Nick had had it rough with many animals assuming that due to his predator status, he was not to be trusted. Never did she realize that his childhood was filled with violence and abuse. She wrapped her paws around him, bringing him closer.
"You didn't deserve that, Nick," she said. "Nor did your mother. Your father isn't a father at all. Any animal can have a child, that doesn't make him a father."
"Don't listen to what he tells you. You're amazing! And you have so much potential. All the good that you've brought to Zootopia, and all that you've done for me, your father doesn't realize what an amazing son he has. Quite frankly, that's his problem, not yours."
Nick smiled, bringing Judy in closer. "Thanks, Carrots. You always know what to say."
Judy kissed him on the lips. "I'm a police officer. Helping others is my job."
Nick smiled. "And you do it so well."
A/N: More fluff between these two. Mike will return very soon. He's the next obstacle in our beloved couple's way.