Chapter 21 - Bartering:

Author's Note:

Ah… let's see. Last chapter we saw Wolfgang getting collared, getting shocked, and then being forced to sleep on a foldout couch between two hyenas. Not exactly a comfortable position, if you ask me. Unfortunately, it's only going to get worse for 'poor old Wolfy.' Not that he doesn't deserve it, of course. Unfortunately… there's something important I do have to say about this chapter and this story in general. I know I promised last chapter that this one was going to be longer… but after writing it and going back and editing, I realized that my story board is all messed up. So… this is a shorter chapter to compensate for my screw up, and I also won't be posting in two weeks like I promised I would start doing… because I have to fix the story board. But other than that, please, enjoy!

XXX

Judy woke up with a loud yawn, just before her alarm on her phone began to ring. Shutting off her alarm, she rolled over with a soft sigh, only to see that Nick wasn't there. She blinked a few times, the fact that she was alone in the bed taking a few moments to catch up to her sleepy mind. Realizing that Nick had woken before her, she sat up, eyebrow raised in confusion. Usually she was the first one up… to have him awake before her left her feeling a bit empty inside.

She rolled out of bed nonetheless and padded towards the door. She usually made sure that they had plenty of time to wake up and get ready for the day before heading over to the precinct. Even if that meant waking up at six in the morning, just when the sun was beginning to peak over the horizon. Nick always complained… why would he be awake before her?

Judy made her way into the living room to see Nick sitting on one of the stools at the counter, glaring at the foldout couch where Wolfgang and the two hyenas slept. All three of them were still asleep, Wolfgang lying on his back while both hyenas were on their sides, pressing themselves against the larger wolf. Nick was not in uniform, nor had he noticed her padding into the living room, pulling out a stool at the counter, and sitting down next to him.

"Nick… hey Nick," she said, snapping her fingers, hoping to get him to stop glaring at Wolfgang. She kept her voice low as to not wake the sleeping mammals in the room.

He looked over at her with a sigh, his expression softening as he did. "Hey, Carrots… how are ya feeling?" he asked, putting on a small smile.

"Well rested," she replied immediately, stretching her arms and letting out another yawn. "I feel ready to tackle the world again."

"Good… because you're gonna have to tell Bogo about this… development," Nick said, glancing back over at Wolfgang.

"I'm sure Bogo already knows we contracted him," Judy shrugged.

"No, not the wolf. Your pregnancy," the fox sighed.

"… Oh yeah, I should probably request time off for the birth now, shouldn't I?" the rabbit asked quietly.

"If you actually want that time off, yes, you probably should," he nodded.

"You don't think… Bogo will want a reason, do you?"

"There's a pretty good chance he'll want to know why his best officer is requesting time off."

"Well… there's no avoiding it, huh?"

"Nope…" Nick shook his head slowly. "Well… should we wake 'em?" he asked, trying to move the topic away from the baby.

"Do we have to? I mean, they look so peaceful," Judy grinned. "Julia looks particularly pleased."

"I'm sure she is," he snorted. "But we're going to be leaving soon… we have to figure out how we're gonna be doing this, Fluff."

"What do you mean?" she asked, cocking her head.

"Well, I don't trust him here alone," Nick said, crossing his arms.

"Why not? He's not gonna run away!" Judy said just a bit louder than she meant to, her sharp ears catching the minute shifting of the bed as Wolfgang readjusted in his sleep. "Is that why you're awake so early? To make sure he doesn't do anything funny?"

The fox was silent for a few minutes, before he shrugged. "I'm still a little paranoid, Judy, I'm sorry," he sighed. "But I figured maybe if we make sure they're all awake before we leave… and if you leave your remote with Shenzi, we can just be a little more certain that he won't try anything funny."

"I don't know… I mean, I understand your paranoia, but I just don't think Shenzi has the guts to shock him," she shrugged.

"And I doubt Julia could bring herself to either," he growled. "It's not like we can give the remote to him…"

"Yeah… at this point we might as well… we might as well…" the rabbit trailed off, thinking hard for a few moments. "We might as well bring him with us to the precinct."

"What? That's the last thing I want to do with him!" the fox snarled.

"Really? You don't want to take him to a place where he'll be surrounded by police officers as well as watched over by not one, but two mammals carrying remotes to his collar?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You make a good point…" he sighed. She only grinned at him and nodded. "Well, you're the alarm clock, Carrots, why don't you wake them?"

Judy managed a short chuckle as she padded over to the foldout and pulled herself onto the bed. She stood down by their feet, sucking in as much air as her little bunny lungs could hold, before letting out an unholy shriek of, "Wake up!"

Wolfgang bolted upwards, throwing the two hyenas off him. Julia and Shenzi collapsed onto the floor, the older hyena bouncing upwards, wide awake, while the younger let out a loud groan and tried to shut her eyes again, not caring she was on the floor. Wolfgang turned to glare at the bunny. "Was that truly necessary?" he growled.

"Absolutely," Judy nodded, hopping off the bed and landing next to Julia. She put a paw on the younger hyena's shoulder and shook her awake.

"Wonderful," the white wolf grunted as he pushed himself off the bed, just as Julia's eyes opened again. "What time is it?"

"It's six in the morning!" Shenzi said cheerfully, not at all perturbed by the abrupt wakeup call. She padded over to the fox standing by the countertop and took a seat on one of the stools, still smiling happily. Julia only grumbled something incomprehensible, rubbing her ass as she followed her sister towards the small kitchen.

"I'll get started on breakfast!" Judy said as she pulled herself onto the countertop, and walked over towards the cabinets to reach the items she needed. She pulled out a pan from one of the cabinets, before opening the fridge and grabbing some sausage links.

As Judy got started on breakfast, Wolfgang set to work turning the foldout back into a couch. Once he was finished, he let out a loud yawn, flashing all his teeth, before making his way towards the kitchen, his sensitive nose already catching the scent of sausage being cooked. He leaned against the counter, opting against attempting to sit on the too small stools. Besides, sitting on them made him look like a fool.

"So… would it be possible to get a change of clothes?" the white wolf asked, gesturing towards the orange jumpsuit he was still wearing. He was only in jail for a day, and yet they insisted he change into a uniform the moment he stepped through the prison doors.

"Actually, after I got Janja to agree to build you that collar, I managed to get my paws on one of your suits," Judy said, not looking away from the stove. "If someone could please go and get it…"

Shenzi took that as her cue to head towards Nick's room and fish Wolfgang's suit out from the dresser. She padded back into the room and presented the clothes to white wolf, which he graciously accepted. "Thank you, Shenzi," Judy said as Wolfgang headed towards the bathroom to change.

"You're welcome!" the cheerful hyena said as she sat down next to Nick at the counter.

By the time Wolfgang exited the bathroom, breakfast was nearly finished. Nick held back a snarky comment about him struggling to dress himself in favor of ignoring the wolf. "Is this the only suit you managed to get a hold of?" he asked as he once again leaned against the counter.

"Unfortunately," the rabbit replied as she began putting sausage links on a paper towel to help drain the grease off them.

"Hopefully it wouldn't be too much to ask if we could invest in some spare clothes for me, then," he said, eyeing the sausage hungrily. Besides the beef jerky last night, he hadn't eaten anything in days.

"Oh, hey!" Julia said, drawing everyone's attention to her. She was holding a carton of milk in one paw, and a golden credit card in the other. "Maybe we could use this!"

"My credit card?!" Wolfgang exclaimed, flicking one of his ears. "They didn't take it from you?"

"I wasn't exactly arrested," Julia admitted. "I still had this in my pocket from when you sent me out to buy that funeral dress for Judy, and they let me walk right out with it!"

Wolfgang stalked over to her and snatched the card from her paw. "Give me that! Why didn't anyone mention this before?"

"We didn't know she had it," Judy shrugged.

"Though we were starting to wonder how she was affording all that alcohol…" Nick growled.

"Well… if the police didn't freeze my accounts, then they likely don't know that anyone is still using them," Wolfgang rubbed his temples with a soft sigh, before turning to give Julia a hard look. "Alcohol… really?"

"I needed help coping after you were arrested…" the gold-eyed hyena admitted.

"I'm surprised my capture had such an effect on you," he smirked.

"I guess it was a shock to my system… I was so used to things being one way, and then all of a sudden… everything was crashing down around me," she sighed, setting the carton of milk down on the counter next to her sister.

"Well… I could deactivate your collar again, and I'm going to try and get my mansion back," he grinned. "Who knows? Maybe things will go back to being… marginally the same."

Nick looked over at the wolf with a raised eyebrow. "What? Mansion?" he asked, but he was ignored by both Wolfgang and Julia.

"Oh man, imagine sleeping in a real bed!" Julia exclaimed, putting a paw on Shenzi's shoulder as Nick's eye twitched in annoyance.

"Ah yes, a real bed… it feels like it's been ages since I've slept in one of those," Wolfgang chuckled. "That might be a good improvement."

Judy considered the possibility of what they were suggesting. It would be amazing… but, was it possible? "Do you really think you could get your mansion back?" she asked, walking over to the group of carnivores gathered at the counter and set the plate full of sausages on the countertop.

"Anything can be bought for the right price, and the information I have is extremely valuable," Wolfgang shrugged. "I don't doubt chief Bogo will bite."

"Well, then it's a good thing we're taking you with us to the precinct this morning," Judy couldn't help but smile at the idea of moving out of the cramped apartment and into Wolfgang's mansion. It really was a lovely building…

"Indeed. I figured if you were waking me up this early you were probably going to be taking me with you," he said.

"They would've woken you anyways with the racket they make when getting ready to leave," Julia grumbled. "Not to mention breakfast."

"Ah, I see. No matter, it all worked out in the end," the white wolf said.

"So… how much money is on that card anyways?" Nick asked, feeling curious as he reached for one of the sausage links. As much as he would've loved to ignore the wolf, he was interested in that piece of plastic Wolfgang had shoved into his pocket.

"Depends on how much Miss Hyena has spent on alcohol," Wolfgang shot the hyena a glare. Julia only smirked and reached for breakfast as well. "But it should have thirty million on it."

"Th-thirty million?!" Nick stuttered out.

"Most likely," the white wolf shrugged. "This is the card I usually gave to servants I sent out to run errands for me. It has enough on it to buy several of what I request, plus whatever else they think might be useful for me. It also finances a nice lunch or dinner for them, and occasionally they buy something for themselves."

"That's… that's a lot of money," Nick managed, staring at Wolfgang's pockets, not blinking.

"It's enough incentive to make the servants eager to run errands for me," Wolfgang explained. "But it's not really a huge sum of money."

"What?! What do you mean? Millions of dollars is a lot!" Nick replied.

"If I had successfully ascended to the throne and received my rightful inheritance, I would be worth three point two billion dollars, fox," Wolfgang growled. "Next to that, thirty million is nothing."

"Whatever," Nick growled, shoving his paws in his pockets, feeling irked. He grabbed one last sausage link before slipping off his stool and heading towards his bedroom to dress in his uniform.

Judy, seeing that the sausage links were just about gone and no one was clamoring for her to make more, decided to go and take a quick shower. She assumed Nick had already taken one, considering he had been awake longer than her. Once he heard the bathroom door shut, Wolfgang pushed the plate towards Shenzi, who had yet to take a single sausage link. There weren't many left, but he figured the hyena would want them.

And want them she did. Shenzi dug into the remaining sausages, thankful that Wolfgang had decided to give them to her, as she hadn't the courage to ask for them. She was a bit intimidated by the large wolf, despite him wearing a collar and her sister's comfortableness around him, and didn't want to piss him off. So, she kept her head low as she always did, and ate her sausages.

What she wasn't expecting, however, was for him to strike up a conversation with her. He couldn't help it. The small, nervous smile she had sent him caused an idea to bolt through the wolf's mind. "Hey… Shenzi, you built this collar, right?" he asked slowly.

"Uh… y-yeah! Nice Hyena made the outside… and I m-made the inside," she explained, glancing at Julia. Without Nice Fox or Nice Carrots in the room, she felt distinctly uncomfortable talking to the wolf. "There's a lot of little parts…"

"Nice Hyena? I assume that's Janja?" Wolfgang asked, looking over at Julia. The gold-eyed hyena only nodded. "Very well then. Do you happen to know if he included a… Faraday Cage in the outer shell?"

"Uh…" she trailed off, shutting her eyes for a moment. In that brief moment, she mentally pulled up the blueprint of the collar Nice Hyena had shown her, and quickly found what he had asked about. "Y-yeah… there's something called a Fara-day in the blueprints. It looked like it was important too."

"Shit," Wolfgang growled. "Well, he's certainly made some major improvements on the current design."

"What? How? What is a Faraday Cage?" Julia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A Faraday Cage is used to protect electronics against electromagnetic pulses," Wolfgang explained. "When I was helping him create the first collar, we decided that we didn't want to radically change the design of the collars in order to include a Faraday Cage. Plus, we wanted an EMP to be a failsafe against the collars malfunctioning."

Julia blinked a few times as she processed what Wolfgang was telling her. "Wait? So, you're saying that…" she trailed off.

"The collars can be shut down by an EMP blast… permanently," he finished for her.

"What?!" Nick's voice came from behind them. Turning around, they spotted the fox bristling with fury. "All the collars can be shut off with a simple EMP?!"

"I wouldn't exactly call it simple, but yes," Wolfgang explained. "It's to prevent malfunctions with the device… which have been known to happen. But my collar apparently has a Faraday Cage, so if my collar malfunctions…"

"Well at least there's that," Nick growled. "I take it not too many mammals know about this… weakness?" He had heard of collars randomly deactivating before, but no one had managed to put the pieces together. At least now there was an answer to that mystery.

"Just myself and Janja… and now you three," Wolfgang sighed. "I wouldn't exactly call it a weakness… but if word got out…"

"There would be chaos in the streets," Nick nodded in understanding as he heard the shower shut off. Turning around, he watched Judy walk out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel, and head towards their shared room to change into her uniform. It's gonna be a long day, he sighed internally as Judy shut the door.

XXX

Judy led the way into the precinct, followed closely by Wolfgang, and with Nick bringing up the rear. One of his paws was jammed into his pocket, fingering the remote to the white wolf's collar. One could never be too cautious.

Judy made her way past Clawhauser's desk, deciding it was a better idea to go straight to Bogo. She ignored the cheetah's gaping expression as Wolfgang passed him by, heading straight for the stairs that led to Bogo's office on the third floor.

Judy knocked on Bogo's office door before hearing Bogo's booming shout of, "Enter!" Letting Wolfgang open the door, she and Nick made their way into the caped buffalo's office, both of them taking a seat on the chair across from Bogo at his desk. The collared wolf stopped behind the chair, resting his paws on the back of the chair as he did.

Bogo had been shifting through paperwork as he watched the trio file into his office, the white wolf, and more specifically the collar around his neck catching his eye. Growling to himself, he stood from his chair and squared his shoulders so that he was standing above Wolfgang, though he did not step from behind the desk. "I had heard you managed to convince Judge Grizzly to get him a collar deal… I did not know you would be the one taking him," he said almost casually. "Is the collar secure?"

"Yes, the collar is secure, and the shock works… maybe a little too well," Judy nodded, to which Nick snorted. "Both Nick and I have remotes, and I can assure you that everyone is completely safe around him."

"I certainly hope so," Bogo replied. "However, that still leaves the issue of why you contracted him, when you already have a collared servant."

"Well… we don't like to call them 'servants…'" Judy trailed off. "But you see, chief… I'd like to request time off. In about three weeks."

Bogo's eyebrow arched when he heard those words coming from his best officer's mouth. She had never come to him personally to request time off before. She had always filed paperwork at the end of each month to put in for time off just like every officer. He was so taken off-guard by her request that the fact she didn't answer his question escaped him. "And what reason do you have for this unscheduled leave of absence?" he asked.

Judy sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly, calming her nerves as she did. "Well… you see, sir, I went to the doctor a few days ago, for stomach pains…" she said slowly. "And they told me I was pregnant."

The silence was deafening. Bogo stared at her for several minutes, doing his best to process what she just said. "Can you repeat that… Hopps?" he asked calmly.

"I'm pregnant, sir… and I would like to request time off for the birth. In three weeks," Judy mumbled.

The caped buffalo immediately glared at the fox, assuming that this was his fault somehow. "What did you do, Wilde?" he growled.

"Me?! This was his fault!" Nick practically shouted, jerking a thumb in Wolfgang's direction.

"Him?" Bogo growled, turning to glare at the wolf standing behind the chair Judy and Nick were sitting on. "How is that possible? A fox and a bunny is improbable, but I could see it happening… but a bunny and a wolf?"

"The chances are likely astronomically low… but it is possible," Wolfgang sighed. "Not that either of us were aware of it at the time of… conception."

"Then why?" Bogo asked. "Why is my best officer going to be put out of commission?"

"We were forced to seal the marriage with consummation," Judy explained.

"He forced himself on you?" Bogo snarled, immediately reaching for his gun.

"No! Well… not exactly," Judy said quickly, hoping that Bogo wouldn't shoot the wolf.

"Neither of us had much of a choice," Wolfgang clarified, eyeing the chief's firearm warily. "I was even more adamantly against it than she was."

"Your family forced you two to mate? That's sick," Bogo growled, through his hoof did not move from the handle of his weapon. "Though it's just as sick that you slaughtered all of them."

"Perhaps," the wolf mused. "But I will remind Judy that I did give her a choice. I gave her the choice to run away and forget about the marriage… and she chose to stay and help me. Now I am returning the favor. I am choosing to be collared underneath her, to help raise this child."

The caped buffalo glared at the wolf for a moment before collapsing back into his chair with a growl, his hoof leaving the handle of his gun and going to rub at his temples. "And I suppose there's no chance you're getting rid of it, Hopps?" he asked.

"What? No!" Judy exclaimed. "Why does everyone keep asking that?"

"Then I suppose what's done is done," Bogo sighed. "That's too bad… there's a promotion hanging in the balance and I was going to give it to you. But with your condition… I cannot promote you now, nor can I wait to promote you after you give birth."

"Promotion?" Judy asked, cocking her head. "For what?"

"Lieutenant," the chief replied. "Since it was discovered officer Wolfard was collaborating with a known felon, he has been demoted. And is currently on probation."

"Oh…"

"Congratulations, Wilde, you just made lieutenant," Bogo said, gesturing towards the fox. Judy swallowed hard, but managed to put on a smile as she turned to congratulate Nick, who in turn only gaped at the chief.

"Me? Lieutenant?" Nick asked, excited grin spreading across his face. "Yes! Thank you, chief!"

"You do good work, Wilde, you've earned it," Bogo nodded. "Now… is there anything else, or can I give you two your assignment?"

"Three," Wolfgang corrected. "I actually have something to ask for."

"That explains why you're here," Bogo grunted. "What do you want?"

"I want my mansion back. The fox's apartment is much too crowded with myself and the other contracts," the wolf said. "Not to mention the child when it is born."

Bogo was silent for a few minutes as he mulled over the prospect of just handing the mansion back to Wolfgang. "The house was seized under civil asset forfeiture, it won't be easy to get back," he said. "But… I think you're in luck."

"How so?" the white wolf's eyes narrowed.

"There have been a string of warehouse robberies, starting just after you were captured," the caped buffalo explained, reaching into one of his desk drawers, and pulling out a file, setting it on his desk. "The workers of the warehouse have been incredibly tightlipped about what was stolen and who stole from them, but the one warehouse we did manage to pin down was one of yours."

"I see…" the wolf growled, taking the file, and flipping through it.

"I don't have time to worry about getting your mansion back because of the mayor elections coming up, but if you could flip through the list of hits and tell me which ones are yours, and what was being stored there, it would clear my schedule enough to help you with your house," Bogo said, crossing his arms.

"Of course, sir," Wolfgang said, closing the file. He would worry about it after Nick and Judy were done with their shifts.

"As it so happens, Hopps, Wilde, another warehouse burglary was committed last night, and your assignment for today is to go over there and find out what happened. I want to know who robbed the warehouse, and I want to know what was taken… interrogate any mammals working there if you have to, but get me those answers!" the chief said, leaning back in his seat.

"Yes sir," Nick and Judy said at the same time, hopping off their chair.

"Good. Dismissed," Bogo waved them away, before looking back down at the swarm of papers on his desk.

XXX

I know, a little bit short, but still important. Like I said in my opening author's note, there's a problem with my story board, and it's going to take a while to fix. Mostly because I have no idea how I'm going to fix it, but hopefully the ending of this arc stays the same. In any case, hopefully the next chapter will be up in three weeks… and if not, hopefully not more than four. See you all then!