Once Nick and Finnick finally made it up to the building where Honey's practice was located, it was all business for the two of them.
The front door was locked up tight, showing them that Honey was serious about making sure there were no witnesses around to blow their cover.
Thankfully, though, they were both told during their last trip that there was also a back door that was only accessible through an alleyway nearby, so once they managed to cross the street, they quickly veered off in the direction of said alleyway, disappearing into it once they were sure they weren't being followed.
"You sure Honey's the best mammal to pull this off?" asked Finnick as they turned the corner to the rear of the building. "I usually tend to stay away when you have to go through this many steps just to visit someone without anyone else knowing."
"We've been through this, Fin." said Nick, sighing heavily. "She's literally the only option we've got. Besides, it's too late to change our minds on this."
"Yeah, I know. I'd just…prefer not to have someone who thinks that sheep are going to take over the world. You get me?"
"I guess."
Despite all of his inner thoughts telling him to abandon what they were about to do and find someone more stable, Nick soldiered on, rapping his knuckles on the steel door that covered the back entrance to the clinic.
After a few seconds of silence where Nick was beginning to wonder if Honey even heard his knock, he was thankfully able to hear the thunk of multiple locks being released before the door finally opened to reveal the honey badger in question.
Nick opened his muzzle, ready with a joke to defuse the obvious tension that was going on between not just him and Finnick, but with Honey as well. However, before he could actually do so, he was immediately pulled through the doorway by a pawful of his undershirt, nearly tripping over his own feet as Honey let go.
"You know, you didn't have to pull so hard, Honey. I would have walked in here myself." commented Nick as he brushed himself off, quickly checking to make sure that Honey's claws didn't accidentally tear his undershirt.
Honey was barely paying any attention to what Nick was saying, though. Instead, once Finnick managed to make his way through the doorway, she poked her head out of said doorway, looking back and forth a few times to make sure no one was around before finally shutting the door and locking what seemed like an insane number of deadbolts.
Frankly, Nick was a little surprised a door would be able to fit that many deadbolts. He couldn't help but raise his eyebrows in surprise as it got to the point where she even had to kneel down to reach one.
Eventually, though, she did manage to get the door locked up insanely tight (at least with Nick's level of standards). Once she did so, she quickly turned back to the other two occupants of the room, staring at them for a few moments before clapping her paws together, catching both of them off guard.
"So, how about we get started? I'm looking forwards to getting this stupid thing off." she said cheerily, pointing to her collar as she spoke.
As for Nick and Finnick, the two of them were both understandably weirded out by Honey's sudden change in demeanor.
"What did I tell you? She's nuts!" said Finnick in a loud whisper, gesturing angrily towards the retreating badger, who was in the middle of leaving the room to get herself ready.
Thankfully, Honey was out of earshot, so she couldn't exactly hear Finnick's blunt assessment of her. However, Nick didn't want to take any chances, so after quickly shushing the smaller fox, he lightly pushed him towards the doorway Honey went through.
"Let's just get this over with. Believe me, after seeing that, I want to leave just as much as you do."
Finnick remained silent, his concerns still not abated thanks to Nick actually agreeing with him on Honey's state of mind.
Shaking his head in disgust, Finnick followed Nick as Honey led them into one of her exam rooms.
"I'm going to let you guys do what you need to do to get ready. Let me know when you're done, alright?"
"Where are you going to be, Honey?" asked Nick.
"In the back. I need to calm myself down if we're going to pull this off." she said, as she exited the room and turned towards the back of the clinic.
"How?" shouted Nick, hoping that she heard him.
"How do you think?"
Nick didn't answer back, knowing that Honey's question was more rhetorical than anything. However, while he was initially worried that she would do something dangerous and screw up their plan, after a few seconds he heard a small click coming from outside.
"Nothing to worry about. She's just getting a smoke." said Nick, more to himself than anything.
As for Finnick, though, he wasn't really in the mood to bandy about. So after waiting a few seconds to make sure that Honey wasn't going to kill herself, he quickly closed the door before roughly shoving Nick on to the table in front of him.
"Alright, take your shirt off."
"Wow, Fin, you're certainly coming on to me a little fast, aren't you?" asked Nick, unable to resist a crack at the multiple meanings of what he just said.
"Go screw yourself, Wilde. Now take off that shirt before I do it for you."
While admittedly a little disappointed that his joke fell flat, Nick did as he was asked and removed his overshirt, setting it down on the table next to him before pulling the muscle shirt over his head as well.
Unfortunately, Nick's act of undressing did end up tweaking his ribs a bit, and he visibly winced as the pain shot through his side.
"Ugh, remind me to get my painkillers refilled before we leave."
Finnick didn't answer, but as much as he wanted to just ignore Nick's request, he filed it in the back of his mind as he got to work.
Digging through the bag he brought with him, Finnick first pulled out a jar of soft dirt. After scooping out a pawful, he began patting Nick down, making sure to get him mostly dirty to make him look more convincing.
After spreading some more dirt on his pants, Finnick hopped down from the table once more, digging through the bag again before he finally pulled out a jar that Nick couldn't help but comment on.
"Fake blood? Really? I don't think I've ever seen you resort to that low form of trickery, Fin."
"Desperate times, Nick. And besides, it's either this or I beat you up myself. Then the blood will be real. You want that?"
"No, that's…quite alright." said Nick, quailing when he saw the dark glare that Finnick had on.
As Finnick began spreading the fake blood across the parts of Nick's chest, arms and other parts of his body that would look good, Nick once again couldn't keep his muzzle shut for long.
"You know, I'm pretty sure this is going to ruin my shirt."
"Oh boo hoo. It's your own fault for wearing all white."
"I know, Fin. I'm starting to regret that choice myself."
Thankfully, Nick remained silent after that, and once Finnick put the finishing touches on a blood splatter on Nick's cheek, he quickly moved on to the next step.
And so it went for the next few minutes as Finnick pulled out what seemed like a never-ending supply of makeup and other products, and Nick was increasingly looking like someone who'd just had the absolute crap kicked out of him.
The most visible "injury" that Nick was showing happened to be a pretty thick shiner that was painted under his left eye. That obviously wasn't the only way that Nick appeared as messed up as he was, though, as Finnick had spent a few minutes going to town on Nick's fur, mussing it up to the point where it looked like he'd been through a hurricane.
"You know, this really makes me feel like I'm back in prison after a round with the interrogators." commented Nick as he looked at his arms to get an idea of the job that Finnick had done.
"Well, I did my best. Hopefully the doctor will fall for it."
Finnick was in the middle of washing his paws, cleaning off as much of the mess he made as he could manage as he spoke. Eventually, after drying them off, he stepped out in front of the taller fox, shaking out his paws as he spoke.
"Listen, I've been thinking about how we're going to explain what happened to the doctor. Let me know what you think of this."
Finnick paused a moment to let Nick register what he'd just said before finally explaining himself.
"Okay, so…you were walking down the street when you accidentally ran into a bear, who just so happened to have a bit of a hair-trigger temper. Now, you didn't know that at the time, and you end up setting him off by saying something rude, and he beats the crap out of you. He nearly breaks your neck as well when he bashes you against a wall that had a protruding ledge. You think you can remember that?"
"Sounds simple enough. Do you think that the doctor will be convinced, though?"
"I doubt they'll care too much about the why if it involves a pred getting the crap kicked out of him, Nick."
"I see your point." said Nick after a few seconds mulling Finnick's reasoning.
"Alright, I'm going to go grab Honey. You just sit tight. I'll be back in a second."
Nick did as he was asked and stayed seated as Finnick left the room. As he waited, he carefully slipped his undershirt over his body, briefly lamenting the fact that he was going to have to get it replaced soon considering how difficult it was to get blood stains out of a white shirt.
He could also see the bright side of it as well, though. If they were going to be able to pull this off, they needed him to look bad enough that the doctor wasn't going to just walk away at first sight of him, and he was pretty sure that looking like he was nearly mauled to death would work nicely.
Sighing heavily, Nick briefly considered putting his overshirt on as well, but after a few seconds of thought, he realized that was probably not the best idea. Sure, he didn't actually have to pay anything to get it, considering he had Honey to thank for it, but he could tell that the shirt looked on the pricey side of things, and he really didn't want to waste valuable money on replacing it.
So, after gingerly picking it up with a part of his paw that wasn't covered with fake blood or dirt, Nick hopped down from the table, eventually finding a hook that was thankfully behind the door.
As he returned to the table, he could only really hope for the best as he mentally prepared himself to pull off possibly the hardest acting job he'd ever done in years.
Eventually, Finnick did return to the room with Honey in tow, and Nick could see the look of surprise on Honey's muzzle as she took a look at the state he was in.
"Wow, you weren't kidding. He looks like he's been run over by a dump truck."
"Thanks, Honey. You're a doll." said Nick sarcastically, not really in the mood to be reminded about how he looked.
"The doctor should be here in about a half an hour." said Honey, ignoring Nick's comment. "Luckily, Fin's story managed to convince the receptionist, and they said that they're bringing a collar key along."
"Awesome. So, I'm guessing you'll be handling the subduing, Fin?"
"Yup. We're going to be keeping the door open, and I'll be hiding behind it. You'll give me the signal, and I'll go from there."
"Sounds good. Any idea of who we're up against, Honey?"
"Not really. He sounded kind of small on the phone judging from his voice, but obviously you never really know until you see them in person."
This did kind of worry Nick a bit, as he didn't know what they were going to do if the doctor ended up being one of the larger prey animals. It was too late to reconsider, though, so all he could do was cross his fingers and hope that they would get someone easier to handle.
Nick began slowly breathing in and out, willing himself to calm down as he could feel his heart start to race thanks to the adrenaline. Even in his years of hustling, he'd never done anything this dangerous and this high-stakes.
If they screwed this up, not only would their plan be completely shot due to there being a good chance that Honey's clinic would be under more surveillance, but if they were recognized, there's no telling what would happen. They might just end up back in prison, and they won't have Mr. Big to help them this time.
Sighing heavily once more, Nick kicked his legs up on to the table, leaning his head against the pillow as he pressed his palms to his eyes, trying to relieve the headache that was coming on.
Unfortunately, it also led him accidentally getting some of the blood around his eyes on his paws. While he luckily avoided getting some of the blood into his eyes, he wasn't able to avoid getting yelled at by Finnick.
"Hey, be careful where you're touching! The blood's not dry yet!"
"Sorry. Do you need to repaint me?"
"Nah, it's fine. Just be careful."
Although Nick was admittedly a little concerned with Finnick's change in attitude, he saw no reason to go any further into it, as he figured that it probably wouldn't be best to do so especially with how tense it was inside the room.
So, in an attempt to keep his mind off of what they were about to try to do, Nick decided to take a bit of a nap to take a bit of the edge off of his nerves. He slowly closed his eyes, hoping that either of the other two in the room would notice what he was doing and wake him up when the time came.
While they did end up waking him up, it wasn't nearly enough time for it to have made much of a difference, so as he positioned himself so that it would be difficult for the doctor to see his face, his expression remained neutral as he looked away from the door.
He listened intently as Honey explained to the doctor what exactly was going on, thanking whoever was listening that she was acing remembering Finnick's story.
Soon enough, the room fell silent, except for the sound of footsteps as Nick heard someone come closer to the table where he was on.
"Is he awake?" asked an unfamiliar voice, which Nick assumed must have been the doctor.
"Yeah, he should be." said Honey.
"Good. Now, how about you turn around and show me what's wrong with you, huh?"
Nick was admittedly a little caught off guard after that last statement, partly because he didn't expect to be addressed so quickly, but mostly because he was expecting the doctor to act a little more nervous considering they were dealing with a predator.
Quickly forming a pained look, Nick slowly turned himself over, and when he finally got a look at the doctor in question, he was surprised to find out just who it was.