A/N-Yep, a week later than originally planned. Good news on that though, means just a little more writing getting done for future chapters, so I hopefully won't run myself over getting the idea down before having to type it up.

Also, for guest reviewers out there a very important note: The only language I speak or read fluently is English, and Google Translate does not do a great job particularly with short, 3-5 word comments, so if posted in another language I have no idea what you are trying to get across. If you can translate to English, wonderful, otherwise I have no guarantees I will be able to understand, let alone respond to or keep, guest reviews. I do the best I can, but that can only be so much.

Now that out of the way, a couple of stats: with this chapter, this story is more than 250 pages in length, more than 150,000 words, and I have no guarantee that we're even at the true halfway point either (there's a lot to cover still in just this book, and like all good tales it morphs and grows as it goes), so hope you're ready for the long haul! Additionally, so far I have over 40 followers, 27 favorites, and 15 reviews; those last couple especially I'd really like to bump the numbers up on, so any thoughts and comments you have I'd like to hear, and any friends whom you think might enjoy this story please give them a link!

Now, time to read on...

Chapter 20

A New Pace

/

Has it started to come clear yet

That your pathways need to change?

Have you noticed those around you

Are all walking the other way?

You've been striving for so long

To keep in the comfort zone

But all that's done is make it hard

For you to sing in peaceful tones

They've told you time and time again

It's now you should take your stand

But still you keep on holding back

From taking that needed hand

-0-

"I wonder how they're doing."

"They've only been out of the city for a few hours Elliot."

"Oh come on, don't tell me you're not concerned about them. This mess they ended up in the middle of is a big one, and it's kind of obvious that they're not telling us something really, really important about it all."

Christine lifted a finger to rebut the wolf sitting in the seat beside her, but couldn't find a point she could actually deny him on. Instead, as their patrol car rolled down the streets of the Meadowlands, she lowered her paw back onto the steering wheel and focused forward, one ear flickering as she half-attempted to scan the area.

They were heading toward Copper Park in an attempt to find out if there were any clues about the case that they'd been at least temporarily assigned to that might help them succeed where, thus far, Hopps and Wilde had not. It was a long shot (rarely did any officer manage to dig up something that either the rabbit or fox ever missed), but there was little point in just leaving the situation to stagnate while the two best suited for the job were MIA. While Antlermore's team pored over traffic camera footage in the hopes that perhaps the perpetrators had a car and were caught passing through an intersection somewhere, one Wolfard and Fangmeyer pair moved about as the eyes in the field until the detective team had something to chase.

"You are concerned," Elliot said smugly, noting the dropped finger. "Doesn't help all the conflicting vibes that I kept getting from the mammals they're with either. That white fox doesn't seem too bad, Agent Savage is…enigmatic but I know he's got a good reputation, but I have no idea what to make of that coyote and ocelot that were there. The latter one weirds me out a lot."

Christine snorted. "We don't really know most of them well enough yet to be making judgements though. But I wouldn't worry too much; Wilde's a natural at discerning the kinds of mammals he's around, and he looked pretty comfortable around them." She paused in thought. "Well, except for Savage, but I don't think that's much to go off of what with Judy in the mix."

"What does she have to do with it?"

The tiger gave her partner the stink-eye. "Oh come on Elliot, don't you tell me you've never noticed how Wilde hovers around his partner sometimes. If he isn't falling for her or at least being an incredible flirt –which I don't put past him either- I'll eat my badge."

She wasn't sure if her partner was snickering at the image of the fox pining after the rabbit or her gagging down the bronze pin on her uniform, but Wolfard nodded either way. "Guess you're right," he admitted. "Anyway, here we are. Hopefully there's something out here for us to find."

Christine pulled the cruiser over to the side of the road, alongside the usually unassuming sight of a calm, wooded park. In the daylight, and this far from the actual site of conflict, Copper Park was almost welcoming looking still. Or, it would have been, were it not for the length of yellow crime scene tape fluttering in the slight breeze from where it crossed between the first line of trees. The two predators climbed out of their car and ducked under the tape before heading through the woods, senses on alert.

"I hope this isn't a waste of time, considering the preliminary search didn't turn up anything useful," Elliot muttered. "Other than odd marks and blood from a coyote that didn't look like he had a scratch on him at all when we met him and the others." He paused in his step, looking at Christine frankly. "And there's something that's really unnerving me the most about this: if a paramedic reports that someone is bleeding out and on the brink of death, I don't expect them to be sitting up and having a deep conversation without the slightest sign of conflict on them only minutes later."

"Wilde did allude to something like secret tech involved," Christine pointed out. "Who knows what international agents have at their disposal. But you're right; makes me wonder how odd the 'marks' everyone else found on the ground and such out here are, and whether or not they mean anything for the case. I didn't catch any specifics."

Her question didn't take long to be answered when they reached the site of the final fight of the night before. Elliot's eyes bugged out as he jogged up to the spires of granite that appeared to have quite literally exploded out of the ground.

"This wasn't a feature of the park before, I know that without doubt," he said, reaching forward gingerly and touching the rock that jutted out nearest him. "The ground around here is cracked and tossed away, like these…like they literally just popped up out of the ground!"

"Could the perp have brought these in from somewhere, or have them rigged beforehand under the ground somehow as a trap?" Christine asked, looking over some of the others nearby. They were shorter than the ones Elliot was looking at, but thinner, like spears rather than the near-triangular taller ones and all the more sinister for it.

Elliot shook his head. "Not a chance," he replied. "These ones here are taller than me, which means they weigh at least twice what you and I combined do. Know any mammal our size who can lug around a weight like that, especially a quarter mile through the trees, let alone a dozen of them? And, the officers from the local Precinct also dug down along the side of one of them, see?" He pointed to a narrow hole a few feet deep, traveling right down the side of one of the rocks. As far as it was dug, granite continued even further. "They go down looks like probably at least as far as they do up, and to plant something like that the perps would have had to drive an elephant-size truck in here and dig up this whole area to put something like this in, not to mention bury a mechanism to push them up for whatever reason, which would take burying something under half the park to move stones this big. That would have been really obvious, and we'd have seen notes about it before coming here."

The wolf sat back and shook his head. "Heck, if this really does have to do with the animals chasing Hopps and Wilde, there wasn't any guarantee those two were going to come here, not with the info we got in the report or from the agents, never mind the chance that they would run though this specific point."

Christine pursed her lips in contemplation; nothing about what her partner was saying boded well. "So, if nobody could have dragged these in and there's no way you could set something like this up on a spring trap, how'd they get here?"

"I haven't the foggiest idea," Elliot admitted.

"Well, I knew that, but I'm talking about the rocks here."

"Hilarious. You've been hanging around Wilde too much. But really, the only inkling I've got is that this somehow came up from the bedrock below. They match the granite layer that sits between topside and the limestone of the Nox below, but I haven't the slightest notion how they ended up shooting through the ground like this. It's really unsettling."

Something bitter twisted in the tiger's gut. Wolfard was one of those oddballs that knew just enough about a whole lot of subjects that he could piece together theories, however unusual they were, for almost any situation, and more often than not they turned out pretty close if not spot on. Wilde was the only officer she knew that could top her partner at that game. It's what made him a great cop, and a phenomenal aide to her sharp eyes. That he couldn't think up anything at all for this meant that whatever was working behind this case was truly in the realm of the unknown for them.

That, or the theories that the canine probably did have were so outlandish that, like the fantastical silliness running through her mind before she dismissed it, he wasn't even bothering to entertain them. There were movies and storybooks, fantasy and adventure, and then there was reality.

Christine wandered away from the rocks, her eyes flickering over the slashes that littered the branches and trunks of several trees and assuming they were the marks of either claws or the myriad weapons she'd glimpsed on both the agents and the Canistons (she'd never guessed that anyone actually still used swords and throwing stars in real, modern combat, but all assumptions were going out the window with this situation). Then her gaze landed on a spot in a more cleared area further on, where the grass and smaller plants had been bent outward from a central, blackened spot in the dirt.

"Hey Elliot, over here," she called, stepping carefully over to the mark and trying not to disturb any of it. As she got closer, too, her ears bent in bewilderment; the black circle in the center was not the only mark, not by a long shot. Rather, snaking out from it among the bent plants were twisting, jagged lines of burnt ground and vegetation that spread out in every direction for a radius of ten feet. Christine wrinkled her nose at the odor that drifted ever so slightly through the air above the burns; it was a scent she typically associated with violent thunderstorms or power plug issues.

Elliot soon joined her. "What'd you fi- oh. What the hell?"

"Yeah. Looks like a lightning bolt exploded right here or something. You smell that?"

Though a couple of feet further away, with his stronger nose it still only took the wolf one quick sniff before he grimaced. "Yeah, smells like ozone for sure. That it's still lingering this long after last night though…your lightning notion ain't too far off I'll bet. But, uh, there weren't any storms last night, and we've got deep paw prints here, both a small cat –gonna guess that's probably the ocelot- and a set that almost looks like mine which I'm guessing is the Thylacine. Both sets look about as old as the burns."

"And so the plot thickens," Christine muttered, glancing around. Almost immediately, she noticed that this wasn't the only jagged burn mark in the area, though it was certainly the biggest. "Local witness reports say there was some sort of big flash over here, and a crack like thunder, around the time of the fight. Think this was some sort of electrical weapon they used here?"

"If it was, it's not one that I want to ever tangle with. If it can leave marks like that and make the air smell like a lightning strike hours after the fact, it'd have no problem barbequing one of us. Which begs the question again, why the heck nobody was wandering around with even so much as a singed patch of fur last night. I'm suspicious of Nick's half-claim about some awesome medical tech fixing that too. I mean…come on, we only got the call like 20 minutes before we got there."

The whole case stank something fierce, and Christine's flickering ear told her partner she agreed wholeheartedly. The tiger stood up straight again and turned to regard the area once more, her paws on her hips. "There are other sign of last night further that way," she said, gesturing further into the park, "but I doubt we'll find anything more odd than this mess here. We'd better get moving anyway; we're scheduled to meet up with Jameson and company in an hour or so to update them. Not much to add besides the agents' warning being affirmed, unfortunately, but maybe they found something on the cameras."

"Well, I can bet they're hiding out somewhere in the Meadowlands," Elliot mused as they turned back in the direction of the road. "Even with that huge eagle in the mix, they're not flying anywhere, and I doubt they've got a car honestly, never mind using public transportation. That would be too much to track them with. They will be limited in travel for the most part thereby, so they're probably not trying to set up traps too far from their holdout."

"It's probably not too close to here either though," Christine pandered, gesturing her paw vaguely beyond the trees. "That would put them at too much of a risk of being rooted out, since the first sweeps would probably cover the buildings nearby." She started counting off options on her fingers. "So maybe the outskirts, border areas with the other districts where it's also less crowded perhaps; an unassuming looking house, not likely the classic abandoned warehouse or apartment obviously. Might help narrow down the preliminary searches."

They reached their patrol car, and Elliot sighed as he popped his door open. "I hope so," he said as he climbed in. "Even with every precinct in the city on the lookout it would be a really, really long combing process otherwise. That's the one thing I really hate about being a cop in Zootopia: this city is huge, and you can't get everywhere in a timely manner."

In some ways, it was a lot like her old apartment in the city: small, minimal personal utilities, and there were always neighbors in the rooms nearby, often being rambunctious at any odd hour.

However, that was where the similarities ended, and Judy was very happy that her room had not been changed since she'd moved out. Bathrooms were only just down the hall rather than a trek through a complex (though, admittedly, they were no more private than those of Grand Pangolin Arms; less, even, in some ways), the laundry could be just chucked down the chute, all her old stuffed toys, awards, and youthful crafts were still scattered around, and instead of obnoxious, noisy and nosy neighbors whose only similarities to her were sharing the same apartment building, the occupants of the adjoining rooms here were all relatives, most of them her beloved siblings.

Although, now that she thought about it, some of them were just as obnoxious and nosy as Bucky and Pronk had been (and knew her a lot better, and so knew exactly how to get under her skin), so maybe there were still more similarities than she'd previously acknowledged. But at least here, if Judy needed peace and quiet and her room wasn't living up to that function, there were a dozen alcoves about the house that were held by nearly all family members as places of personal resetting, places she could always run off to at a moment's notice if she needed. Nick's designated guest room was also only three doors down the hall from her room too, just around the corner. Even better, the house generally upheld a strict "knock first" rule when it came to guests and their rooms, so more privacy could be had there.

The thought of privacy in Nick's room brought about a new and rather unsettling twist in Judy's stomach though. Sleeping alone in her room suddenly felt like a punishment knowing that her partner was so nearby, made worse by the fact that she had no idea how he would take to the notion of her bunking with him, or even the notion of her mentioning it. Heck, even just thinking about it herself brought a warm flush to her ears that Judy did not know how to get rid of, pushing the idea of even asking further from the list of viable topics in conversation. This unknown between them needed to be addressed between them while they were here, that was absolutely unquestionable now, but of all things that the lapine was absolutely terrified of, it was the mysteries when it came to her own heart, and that of Nick's, that scared her the most. The last thing she ever wanted to do was run him off, or hurt him with her words and wants.

Her eyes flicked to the copy of the photo stashed on her little desk, the one that she'd had her parents take at Nick's graduation ceremony. Judy felt another stab run through her looking at it. There they were, standing side by side, proud and tall as they could be in both of their full dress uniforms. It was perhaps one of the most genuine smiles Judy had ever seen on the tod, and only now did Judy notice how she was leaning slightly into his hand on her shoulder in the image. Her smile was broad too, but if one looked at it long enough, it was obvious that the expression wasn't from pride in her partner alone. There was something more subtle, flickering in her eyes, something only seen in the eyes of those with far more powerful emotions running through them concerning the mammals they were with.

"It's been there a long time, hasn't it?" she whispered quietly to herself, walking over and picking up the little frame. "All that time while he was gone, you never questioned why you felt you needed to call him every night, why it took that much longer to fall asleep." She snorted, and shook her head as she set the photo back down, smiling wistfully as she turned to pull out a set of clothes to lay back in her old chest of drawers for the next day. "God above Judy, you are blind, you know that?"

"Gee, with all those orange roots you eat you'd think your eyesight would be pretty decent," Nick's voice sounded through her open door.

"Aaahhh!" Judy yelled, shooting straight up in the air and spinning around, clutching a blue blouse for dear life and just missing scraping the ceiling with her ears. "Nick!"

"Wow, might have to get your hearing checked too," the reynard drawled, walking in and plopping down on the end of her bed. "I wasn't being very sneaky walking over here. My my, all of an hour back home and you're already losing your city senses. Is it typical for country bunnies to talk to themselves too?"

"Oh, like you never carry conversation with yourself," Judy snapped back, shoving his shoulder in exasperation as she walked over to the drawers.

"Not that I recall."

"Oh, so you admit to having imaginary friends at 33 years old? I always knew you were a child, but…"

"I admit to nothing of the sort."

"That's as good as saying 'yes'."

"But, I never said it. No words to use against me this time, Fluff."

The rabbit grinned as she turned back to him, hands on her hips. "That's okay. I can prove you guilty of being an obnoxious fox, and that's enough to get people to side with me just to spite you. Not to mention it won't be too hard to catch a recording of those convos I hear you having under your breath every now and then. So, what are their names?"

Nick leveled a narrow smirk at her and crossed his arms. "No can do, Carrots," he said. "Again, gotta have imaginary friends in order to name them."

"Gotta have an imagination to have imaginary friends too, I guess."

"Ouch, hitting right in the hustler's pride. I've been wounded!"

Judy sighed as she joined the tod on the edge of the bed, though keeping a touch of distance from him; despite the lack of other mammals in proximity to drop in on them, she couldn't find it in her to make now the time to talk about…that.

"Sometimes I wonder if you should have sought out a career in acting instead," she mused. "You've got the drama queen part down already."

"And I'd probably do pretty well to boot," Nick agreed, ignoring the jab. "But, it wouldn't make the point that being a vulpine officer does, and I doubt it'd be quite as exciting. Plus I wouldn't have nearly as many opportunities to irritate you, now would I?"

Judy couldn't help but let the sarcastic smile return. "Yeah, you just thrive on that, don't you?"

"You know you love it."

"Do I know that? I'll have to get back to you on that one."

Quiet fell for a minute or two, the pair of them both just enjoying the silence together (at least until the muffled noise of kits somewhere in the halls broke it) as well as trying to find words. Finally Nick sighed and flopped backward across Judy's bed, his height making his ears smack across her pillow even as his legs remained hanging off the end.

"This feels so odd," he muttered, vaguely taking note of the slightly too-old paint peeling off the ceiling above them. "And I don't mean lying on a bed too small for me. After all we've been hit with, suddenly we're here, being required to basically lounge around at a quiet country home. Well, quiet being a bit of a relative term sometimes," he amended as his ears flicked toward the sound of something thudding to another room's floor with some decent reverberation. "I mean, we all totally need to rest, but…uh, I don't know. Kind of feels like any second now life's gonna give us a wake-up call and we'll be back to watching reality fall apart." His head tilted up a bit to look at Judy's back. "Makes it hard to believe I'll actually get any rest while I'm here, alone in that room with nothing to distract me from the world, so what good will it do I then ponder."

Judy nodded, pointedly ignoring possible implications to that statement that she was sure she was just reading into as she looked around her room, before falling back against the bed as well. "Yeah," she agreed. "It's making this place feel…well, it still feels like home to me, but usually my room was always my own space to escape everyone else and be myself, relax and unwind and all. Now, trying to imagine sleeping in here after everything…" She shrugged, not quite knowing how to say it. "Well, just doesn't feel quite right," she finally decided. "Makes me think about how all the…well, all the guest rooms in the house have at least two beds; I think I've gotten used to you or someone else being closer around." She cringed. "And that's making me sound really clingy now."

"Hey, can't fault you for it this time," Nick said, swallowing thickly. "But, uh, m-my door's always open if you can make arrangements…how's that sound?"

His offer sounded way too tentative and not casual enough at all for his liking, and, suddenly feeling very awkward with the conversation, he tried to wave off the sensation with a grin. "Not that I could really stop you from going somewhere in your own house," he added, "but, uh…"

"Hey, even as a guest you're entitled to your privacy," Judy quickly added, before smiling softly. "Probably more so than the rest of my family. But really, thanks. I…I don't want to impose on you, but aside from the Canistons or the agents, you're really the only one here who's actually going to understand what it's like and, well, I'd much less rather share a room with one of them right now."

"Not even ol' Tiger Bunny?"

'God, no! Are you nuts?" Judy exclaimed, turning and punching Nick in the arm, unaware of the relief her outburst had given him. "The last thing I could see Jack being is an emotional cuddler or even decent support, whether or not he wears a mask like you do too. It'd be like trying to be roommates with a pet rock."

Nick burst out laughing at the image of Jack as a striped stone sitting on a bed, before he sat back up and began stretching. "I'll have to remember that one," he grinned. "Anyway, not much to do down here, so I'm gonna head up top, see if I can't catch the pie-mammal first when he gets here. Care to join me?"

"You are incorrigible, you bottomless pit," Judy remarked as she hopped of the bed to follow him.

"Guilty as charged," the fox tossed back. "But I know you can't stay away from his goods either; carrot muffins ring a bell?"

Judy winced, knowing full well that Nick had hit a weak spot, but luckily for her the sound of someone knocking at the front door on the floor above them distracted both mammals from the word war. Nick's grin got wider, and he accelerated his pace in the direction of the stairs.

"Must be Greyscale," he concluded. "Last one up is a rotten blueberry!" In seconds he was around the corner and gone.

Judy rolled her eyes and followed up at a slightly slower pace, hoping that her partner wouldn't be so childish as to end up actually running anyone over in his pastry-induced enthusiasm; she tried to stay close just in case anyway though. She reached the front living space just as the first kits of the house did, and Nick was pulling open the door. The larger, somewhat more rotund fox on the other side of it blinked in surprise as his reception started with reynard, not rabbits, but his expression soon morphed into an amused smile as Nick's arms spread wide in clear half-expectation that the larger fox would simply hand the stack of pie boxes in his arms over.

"Greyscale! If it isn't my favorite source for delicious goodies!"

"We-ell, whaddya know, the city fox is in town," Gideon chuckled, shaking his head and somewhat pointedly side-stepping Nick with a grin. "Ya might get a piece, but these ain't all fer you, greedyguts. I take it then that Judy's also –ah, there ya are! What's the occasion?"

"Case requirement for work actually," Judy replied, waving off the excited kits around her feet as she walked up alongside and elbowed Nick, "along with a few friends. Ignore the glutton here, he's probably more dangerous than the kits are to those pies."

"Now now, I'm just a very appreciative connoisseur of well-baked delectables," Nick defended.

"You're a face-stuffer who eats too many sweets for his own good."

"Nice t' hear nothin's changed between the two o' ya," Gideon drawled as he headed for the hall leading to the kitchen. "Keep the door clear, would ya? Got me some help comin' through."

Judy's ears perked. "Business booming for you, huh? Might want to look into expanding soon I'll bet. Who's helping?"

"Me."

Two sets of ears and eyes turned back to the doorway, and Judy's smile brightened further. Balancing a stack of pies as tall as the one Gideon had been carrying, despite her shorter stature, was a young black-woolled sheep, sheared moderately short and wearing a stylish orange blouse and tan capris.

"Oh my gosh, Sharla!" Judy exclaimed, bouncing up and down before dashing over to the ewe. "I haven't seen you in so long!"

Sharla laughed as she stepped inside. "It's been a few years, hasn't it Judy?" she replied. "I'd better got put the pies down before you hug me though; wouldn't want rhubarb or blackberry all over the floor."

"I'd be happy to help," Nick said lightly, only for both females to shoot him suspicious looks. "What?"

"You'd be happy to help eat them," Judy snarked, following behind Sharla and half-guarding her as Nick trailed along into the hall.

Sharla glanced back at Nick and smirked as they walked. "I guess that confirms it," she drawled, "you must be the Officer Nick Wilde that I heard about on the news, and that Gid keeps telling me tries to mooch off all his pastries."

"Honor him with my praise, you mean," Nick pandered back.

"Sounds like that's a 'yes'," the ewe chuckled. "Nice to finally meet you in person."

They entered the kitchen (or, part of it; as many mouths as the Hopps house had to feed, space for cooking took up two rooms and a half), and Sharla set down the pies next to Gideon's stack on the island in the middle before turning and accepting Judy's enthusiastic embrace.

"So, I'm sure you already know what I'm still up to," Judy said wryly as they let each other go, looking her old friend up and down, "but what about you? Color me surprised, what led you to working with Gideon?"

Sharla waved a hoof. "Oh, ran into him on a visit from a couple years ago, and he had to go on apologizin' for all that stuff that happened when we were all little and dumb"-

"Hey, I-I really felt bad fer what I did," Gideon cut in, pointing a finger. "Don't you go sayin' it was nothin'."

"Done and over is my point, ya big softie," Sharla chided teasingly, smirking as she gestured around the kitchen they were in. "no need to worry about it. I mean, you're workin' with the Hoppses, which says a lot about the years since, don't it? Anyway, like he does now he offered me a slice of pie and I was hooked, so I started stopping in at his store a lot. Liked it better there than at my other summer job, so when he offered me a spot to help him instead since he was getting' so busy, I took it. Been working there summers and on breaks between school since."

"So you're in college then?" Judy asked. "What program? I know your interests didn't change too much through high school."

"Oh yeah, not at all," Sharla agreed, before shaking her head. "Tryin' to be an astronaut specifically is hard though, so I decided to be a little more flexible. Got an engineering degree, and then I managed to actually get into an aerospace engineering program at Hoggleston University. It's a good next step I think; anything's possible, right?"

"Well Sharla, that's great!" Judy exclaimed. "You've got to keep me posted on your progress. Hey Nick, you think Savage or Wellinger might know someone who could- Nick!"

Said fox froze, his hand halfway inside the top pie box closest to him and a guilty look on his face that said everything about what his intentions had been. Gideon caught wind too, and adopted a hands-on-hips stance that looked for all the world like he should have been brandishing a wooden spoon to point at the other tod.

"Now come on Nick, ya know the rules," he admonished. "Ya buy a pie yourself, or ya ask the Hoppses first. No matter if ya know they'll say yes, you gotta ask."

Nick sighed, arms dropping to his sides. "And yet another tragic delay in my sampling of heavenly sweets," he groaned dramatically. "Fine. I guess we'd better go and find Bonnie or Stu right away then, hmm?"

Gideon huffed and shook his head in bemusement. "I should find a towel to smack you with just because at this point," he said. "Ya got a one track mind. So happens I do need t' speak to Mr. Hopps though, so if you're so famished as ya pretend to be, maybe we can go root him out together."

"But what if Judy eats all the pies while I'm gone?" Nick asked in mocking suspicion. "We can't just leave them all alone here with these two!"

Judy scoffed. "Right, I'm going to scarf down a dozen and a half fox-sized pies on my own. I'm not a glutton like you; go on, maybe you two can have some fox-to-fox time while Sharla and I catch up."

Nick glanced at Gideon, who shrugged, before replying. "Fine. But if I find that blueberry pie gone when I get back I'll be cranky, I warn you. Come on then, Greyscale; sooner we find Stu, sooner I feast!"

The two foxes left the kitchen, leaving the girls alone as they headed for the front door of the house. As they walked, Nick noticed out of the corner of his eye the other vulpine's demeanor change a touch. Gideon quieted quickly, and began glancing around the hall and foyer as they passed into it again. Or, more importantly, he was glancing in every direction except for Nick's, and his paws were fidgeting like he was sitting in a chair outside a principal's office. There was only one cause that Nick could think for the change, and he slowed in his steps and turned to regard the larger fox directly, folding his arms with a frown.

"We're not really going to do this again, are we Country Boy?" he intoned, fingers tapping on his arm.

Gideon froze, bearing nearly an identical expression on his face to the one that Nick had been wearing when he was attempting to pilfer the pie. "I-I don't know what you mean," he tried deflecting, about as effectively as blocking a rainstorm with a tissue square as he still couldn't even meet Nick's eyes.

The older fox sighed and rolled his eyes, before marching over and clapping a paw on Gideon's shoulder. "You know I know better than that Gid," he said imploringly, "and you know I said everything's okay already. Don't keep beating yourself up; it's been what, fifteen, sixteen years?"

Gideon sighed and spread his arms. "I know, I know," he said, "but…the thought keeps comin' back, ya know? I was prolly the reason you guys had trouble getting along at first, an' it was a terrible thing I did."

"And you were a kit, and kits are kind of pugnacious at times by nature. If it wasn't for the fact that we were civilized adults and she was already an actual officer of the law it might have been the same kind of thing I'd have done after that disaster of a conference a year ago, but Judy's got a big enough heart to see past the two of us being stupid, so probably best we should too."

Nick swung around to look Gideon straight on. "Now I'll tell you for a third time," he continued, "no need to worry. I don't hold what you did some sixteen years ago against you, especially when you took the initiative where I didn't to change. It took a crazy rabbit practically tying my paws behind my back with her enthusiasm to do the same thing for me. Plus, I gotta forgive a guy who makes blueberry tarts as addicting as you do." He grinned, shoving Gideon softly in the shoulder, and was finally rewarded with a reproving smirk from the other fox for it.

"Ya can't keep serious fer even a whole short conversation can ya, you beanpole?" Gideon remarked.

Nick snorted. "You kidding? Better to laugh at the world than cry about it. Now, drama's over, let's go find us a farm bunny."

They exited the house and started down the road around the homestead toward the guest cottages and equipment barns, expecting that Stu was probably in one of the latter. As they passed the now-occupied cottage, Nick noticed one of the new temporary residents sitting on the porch swing installed out front, lounging in the sun.

"Hold up Greyscale, got someone you should meet," he said with a smile, steering the two of them toward the cottage. "Thought all you guys were supposed to be resting inside, eh Embron?" he called out, grabbing the attention of the porch-lounger as evidenced by the perked ears that resulted. "What-cha doing out here?"

The coyote lazily turned his head and opened one eye to regard the approaching company. "Resting, yes, but nobody said inside," he drawled. "Sunlight's one of the best things for recuperating, especially for mammals like me."

"You can't just go along with it, can you?" Nick sighed. "You solar charged or something then?"

This managed to draw a smirk from Embron at least, who lifted his head up a little further. "Been around me for how many weeks now?" he retorted. "You should know by now: if I'm not being sarcastic myself, my entertainment is making others' attempts fall flat. And in a manner of speaking, I can be."

"Ugh, killjoy."

"At your service!"

Gideon huffed, watching the exchange with curious eyes. "Wow. If I didn't know any better I'd say you two were related or something."

"Funny thing, that," Nick chuckled, gesturing to the lounging canid on the porch. "Gideon, I'd like you to meet Judy's and my new friend, who also actually does happen to be a distant cousin of mine, Embron Caniston. His sister's probably inside with a pair of international agents who are tagging along; maybe I'll introduce you later. Embron, our local baker extraordinaire, Gideon Grey."

Gideon looked between Nick and Embron a couple of times, skeptical confusion his expression. "Wait, you ain't pullin' my leg, are ya? You're actually cousins? Agents? And quit flatterin' me, I ain't that good."

"I am in fact part fox, and that part just so happens to be a branch off his family line," Embron explained with a grin, pointing at Nick before sitting up and extending his paw. "Nice to meet you Mr. Grey; I'm sure with all I've heard about your cooking that you do well enough. I'm a baker as an occasional hobby so I like meeting others. Ever thought about advertising in the city?"

"I may have to, soon enough," Gideon replied as the initial surprise wore off and was replaced by resigned acceptance of the oddities, accepting the coyote's paw and shaking it. "Shop's getting' mighty busy 'round these parts and I have to look into expanding soon, perhaps."

Embron nodded. "Well, I or even Jack, who's inside, might know a mammal or two who could help with that. Though that might have to be a conversation for our next visit; he's out cold right now and I'm still not sure I'm mentally all here either. It's been an interesting past day."

"That's putting it mildly," Nick quipped.

Gideon chuckled, shifting his stance a bit. "Well if y'all are anything like Judy 'n the rest of her friends, I ain't surprised by that. Anywho, we've gotta go find Mr. Hopps, so we-we'll be out of your fur."

"No bother," Embron waved off. "No reason to be a stranger; we'll be here at least a few more days probably. I'll tell Travis I finally got to meet you too."

Gideon, who had just started to turn and saunter off the porch, froze and turned back to stare at the coyote. "Wait…y'know Travis too?" he said in surprise.

"Geez Embron, any circles that you haven't been a part of?" Nick remarked, also looking at him in surprise.

Embron shrugged and smiled lazily. "He's a biochemist at Zoo U; we hire him occasionally to help at the house or for AOMISDOPS work. Mentions his old country friend Gideon from time to time, and I've got to add in, he's a bit more socially tolerable than his cousin whom you might know Wilde."

"Oh joy, let me guess: orange-furred creepy noodle in the bowels of the Precinct 1 Morgue?"

"Yep. He's alright if you get to know him, but Nate's a bit off-putting at first glance."

"Or second, or third," Nick drawled, to which the coyote snorted in amusement. "You're making me develop a serious urge to start singing 'It's A Small World' right about now."

"Small than you might think, Nick. Anyway, won't hold you guys up any longer, though Gideon: if you've got the time later, I'll pay premium for a large strawberry pie, and I'll tell Travis to get in touch with you again soon."

Gideon smiled at that. "Not a problem, Mr. Caniston. I'll swing back by in a couple of days. Nice meetin' you, and do tell Travis I said hi when ya see him next. It's been a couple years since he last came into town here."

The two vulpines waved goodbye and headed off toward the barns beyond, Gideon still glancing back every now and then though at the odd canid on the porch behind them. "So Nick, that Jack guy he mentioned," he queried, glancing at his fellow fox, "just t' top off the odd coincidence pile ya stacked up for me today, he wouldn't happen t' be that 'Agent Jack Savage' fellow all the bunnies 'round here like to talk about in the shops and such, would he?"

"Oh yeah, one and the same Greyscale, one and the same," Nick confirmed.

"Figures. Nothing with you guys is normal."

Nick snorted and patted Gideon on the shoulder. "You're telling me; I blame Judy," he grinned, "as I was a perfectly normal fox before she showed up. Weird follows her like flies follow garbage trucks –and that was a terrible analogy. But, I'd say normal isn't all that it's hyped up to be either, so I won't complain too much. Oh, there he is; Stu!"

The Hopps patriarch was pushing open the door to the second barn down the path, probably to haul out one of the various farm machines hidden within, but he paused when he spotted the two foxes heading this way. Luckily, it was not a pause of apprehension, but of recognition.

"Oh, Gideon, Nick!" he called back, waving at them. "Just the mammals I needed to see. Hey, you two mind lending me a paw for a moment? I've gotta pull this tractor out and check the engine."

"No problem Mr. Hopps," Gideon replied, walking in behind the rabbit with Nick in tow. As Stu climbed into the driver's seat and unlocked the brakes, the foxes got behind the vehicle and started pushing, ever so slowly getting the tractor to inch its way out of the barn and into the sunlight.

"Thanks for that boys," Stu said as he crawled back down the side, looping his thumbs around his suspender straps as he jumped down. "Now, I'm bettin' you're here about the next scheduled fruit delivery, right Gid? And Nick, since you sauntered out here with him, I'm gonna guess you've got a question or two about the stack of pies on the kitchen counter inside, am I right?" The buck grinned knowingly, and Nick's half-guilty smile in return said it all.

The two girls watches the foxes head out of the kitchen, both of them with their respective gazes fixed on a different vulpine. "Half-tempted to hide that blueberry pie just to spite him," Judy commented nonchalantly, though her tone told the sheep she wasn't quite there anymore with the thought.

Sharla turned toward her friend at the words, and noticed the flicker of uncertain longing in the rabbit's eyes. She couldn't help but give a small smirk before hiding it; she knew that look, having worn it herself before. But, better to not start that conversation right off the bat, she decided; leading into it with something else entirely would be more likely to produce the answers the sheep wanted.

"You haven't missed much in town here the past couple months, I'm afraid," Sharla said, grabbing Judy's attention again. "That you have Nick and friends over will probably be the biggest news we've got around here."

"Great; that's what we were trying to avoid by coming here," Judy groaned, ears falling as she leaned against the counter.

"Aw, you know how it is in 'small' towns," Sharla drawled, waving a hoof. "Anything becomes news here. So, I guessed you had friends with you since you mentioned a couple of names and I spotted somebody lounging in front of that one guest house nearby who definitely wasn't a bunny, but who is with you anyway? Other officers, or did you actually make some other connections outside your job, Miss Workaholic?"

"Hey, I'm not that bad," Judy protested, landing a mock punch against the sheep's side.

Sharla snorted and crossed her arms. "Right. Never even had a boyfriend in high school 'cause all you could focus on was bein' an officer. But that's beside the point of my question."

Judy gave a hum of resignation, before glancing at the kitchen window. "Well, both and neither, in a way. We met them because our current case overlapped with theirs…quit giving me that look."

"You did just kind of drop yourself there."

"Fine, yes, more friends thanks to work, happy? Anyway, their case ran into ours, because two of them are actually international agents, and the other two are allies of theirs. Don't tell anyone about them though, 'kay?"

Sharla's eyes widened in excitement. "Really? Real agents? Like the whole action-film-spy kind of thing?"

Judy chuckled, imagining that both Jack and Skye would probably fit well into a movie premise somewhere. "Well, might as well be with what they can do. You remember when we were younger, and a bunch of us kits would go celebrity nuts over that one rabbit agent, Jack Savage?"

"Yeah-wait. You're not implying…?"

"Yep. Him and his partner Skye."

Sharla stared at her for a moment as if expecting Judy to backtrack on her claim, but when the rabbit didn't she took in an inhalation of mixed excitement and worry. "Oh wow!" she exclaimed. "So that's why you mentioned a 'Savage' earlier. Yeah I won't let that info get out too quick though, or the town just might go nuts. Bunnyburrow's unofficially claimed hero rabbit, actually here in person; some girls would still fangirl over him I'd bet. Oooh, gosh, Lorelei's here you know."

Judy let out a long-suffering sigh. "Yeah, Gage told me," she groused. "The longer I can avoid her altogether, and keep Jack away, the better. But, on the other hand…well, if she lives up to her namesake around Jack she'll probably deserve whatever she gets. Never mind how he'll react either, Skye's pretty protective of her partner too." She smiled at the image. "Maybe they'll get Embron and Scarlet involved for a lesson teaching. That'd be a show I'd watch."

Sharla cocked an eyebrow in interest, moving to sit down on a chair at the nearest table. "Those the other two then?" she asked as Judy joined her.

Judy nodded. "Uh huh, and those two are probably the more interesting pair actually. They're both self-defense experts, Embron's a biologist who knows a ton about exotic plants"-

"Oh you two must get along great then," Sharla interrupted with a giggle.

Judy shot her a glare before continuing. "Anyway, he's also a snake keeper, so there's that too. Scarlet's an actress and engineer, but they both actually train agents like Savage. And get this: Embron's a coyote, but he's a distant cousin to Nick, believe it or not."

It took a minute for Sharla to figure out what that meant. "So…the guy's part fox?" she asked. "I didn't think that was possible."

"Before we met them there was a lot that I thought was impossible," Judy remarked distantly, before snapping herself back to the present. "You should have seen Nick's face though when the guy laid out their whole family history to prove it too. I even learned a few things about my own partner in that exchange."

Sharla nodded, before tapping her hoof on the table. "Well, you'll have to introduce me before you guys head back," she stated emphatically. "Maybe Gideon and I can help you guys stay off town radar a little more too. Speaking of town gossip, if it ever gets out, there could be other news running around if we're not careful about it."

Judy's ears perked, looking at her with curiosity. "Oh? News about us, or you, or…?"

Sharla smiled cryptically. "Well…it's a bit more than I'm just working for Gideon during the summer, if that helps give you a hint."

That got Judy's full attention. "Wait…are you implying what I think you are?"

"We're expecting to go on our second official date in a couple of weeks, once we get a time and place set."

The rabbit's eyes bulged in excitement and shock, and she bounced up out of her chair. "Really? Wow, I'd have never called that! Whole lot has changed since childhood, huh?"

"Yup," Sharla agreed, emphasizing the last letter. "When I first came back after my first college semester I didn't expect to even run into our old grade school bully, let alone see him owning his own bakery. Became a curiosity, and I had to stop in and see what was up. Lo and behold, I found our current version of Gid inside, all awkward an' apologies like I mentioned before. It was kind of sweet, irony and all with his shop bein' a bakery, and…well, I guess things just started running from there." She paused, looking at Judy who was wearing a sugar-sweet smile of her own at listening to the story, and the sheep's own smile turned a touch more devious. "Ya know what would be a great idea too? Once you finally get around t' telling Nick how ya feel, we could go on a double date."

Judy immediately leaned away in surprise and embarrassment, ears falling flat again as she donned an expression like she'd eaten something terribly distasteful. It didn't last long though, the rabbit shortly deflating with a resigned sigh. "You too, huh?" she said softly.

Sharla gave an unapologetic chuckle. "It's kinda obvious the way you were lookin' after him when he left the kitchen," she said. "That longing stare that only someone with a crush wears who hasn't acted on it. Ya plannin' on doing anything about it, or is it you're scared what other mammals are gonna say or something?"

That wasn't the heart of it; Judy had never been one to care too much about what others would say. If she had, she'd have never even gotten into college for her criminal justice degree, let alone actually become a police officer or convinced a once-conmammal fox to join her. But, she couldn't say that it didn't play a part here. Sure, Sharla and Gideon would make for an almost equally controversial couple –more, even, in some ways- but they weren't in the constant public spotlight like she and Nick would be.

"It might be a little," she admitted quietly, "but I didn't actually know, really, that I liked him that way until recently…e-even if I think I was falling for him back during the Night Howler panic. I don't know if he feels the same way though, even if others keep saying they think he does."

Sharla nodded solemnly, her mouth forming a silent 'oh'. "So you're afraid of getting hurt if it ain't mutual."

The rabbit barely nodded, staring at the floor. "It isn't just me being hurt though," she said quietly. She flinched as she felt Sharla's hoof on her shoulder, and looked over to see her old friend smiling reassuringly at her.

"I think I know a little of what that feels like," the sheep explained. "After all, I was the one who said somethin' to Gideon just out of the blue to get things going between us. I was worried the moment I'd said it that it would be taken the wrong way and all that, but as I was telling him I realized it at least took somethin' big off my chest to just get it out. Things happened to work out from there; turns out he'd held a bit of a crush even from when we were all little. Now, you were always the more confident of the two of us, so if I can manage it, so can you. And if a lot of mammals are sayin' they think it's mutual, I'll bet he's been givin' off signs that you've just been missing, or ignoring, for a while too."

Judy sighed and waved her paw halfheartedly. "Probably," she admitted. "I missed the clue about the Night Howler thing that I needed for months, so why not something else that would change my life?" She paused, and glanced out the window uncertainly. "But…I've seen other mammals collectively make observations and assumptions that were flat-out wrong before, so what if that's the case here? I…I can't lose Nick from my life, and if we're not both into each other here then that…I'm afraid that would push him away."

Sharla could see the fear in her friend's eyes, and tightened the grip she had on the bunny's shoulder like a reassuring hug. "I get the feeling these 'lots of mammals' are probably ones you would trust, right?"

A nod.

"Then ya probably don't have much to worry about. And with how much Nick clearly cares for ya one way or another, following you into officer business and all, even if he doesn't feel the same I really find it hard t' believe he'd just up and leave ya. It takes dedication to become a cop even if you pushed for it first. And tell you what." The ewe scooted her chair over so she could basically side-hug the rabbit, squeezing her affectionately. "You get it over with while you're in town, and if things really don't go well, you come over to see me and I'll be a shoulder for ya to cry on for a while, sound good?"

Judy sent her a grateful smile, leaning into the embrace. "We have to talk it over while we're out here somehow anyway," she said softly. "It might be part of the tension we've been having with the agents recently, and with our current case…it's really bad when your personal conflicts start making your work dangerous. It's just…this is the first thing that I'm truly terrified to face, so I don't know what foot to start off with."

"Whichever you feel most inclined to jump on, of course," Sharla joked, earning a half-serious glare from Judy, before patting her on the shoulder and looking at her with that same reassuring smile, but with an imploring drive behind it. "Just be honest," she said, "and don't think too much before you say it. It comes out better, and a lot easier that way; your head will just muddle it up. Believe me, it'll work out somehow, and again, if it really doesn't, I'll be right here for ya."

Judy couldn't help but let a tear fall as she turned and hugged her friend fully. "Thanks Sharla," she sniffed. "It means more than you know."

A/N-I know there's at least one review question from a couple chapters back that should finally be answered here, and several relationships laid out here that should be of at least minor importance for later on (if not in this story, then the next perhaps). Couple foreshadows as well, so keep an eye out for things to come. And speaking of things to come, many of you will probably be very happy about the next chapter that I hope will in fact be out in 3 weeks or less this time...won't spoil anything outright though :)

As always, let me know your thoughts, suggestions, predictions etc. in your reviews! I like hearing from readers, and I do read every review, respond to those I can get answers or comments for, and I do try to consider any points brought up. So let me hear from you!

Until next time, HawkTooth out!