Chapter 58: Two Posters

This chapter is inspired by Flapjack's excellent comic, Rough Diamond.

Jake comes over to Nick and Judy's apartment with something he found. However, he doesn't get the reaction he expected from his friend.

"You won't believe what I found!" the raccoon in the dark blue sport shirt and well-starched khaki trousers excitedly proclaimed as he shoved past the red fox and into the apartment. There was a long cardboard tube in his paws and he grinned up at the fox in the old tee shirt and ratty looking pair of jeans. "I found it in Pete's old junk store downtown and just had to get it for you!"

"What I can't believe is that you knocked long enough for me to let you in coon and didn't pick the lock again," the fox sarcastically replied as he sipped his glass of iced tea. "So what's the big surprise?"

"This! This!" Jake laughed as he slipped two posters from the tube and began to unroll them on the kitchen table. "It's a set of those posters they made of Judy years ago!"

The first poster showed Judy in her dark blue police uniform, with her hat tucked in her left arm and her ears erect, as she was confidently smiling. The city was in the background and the words integrity, honesty and bravery were printed in gold lettering, along with a copy of a police badge. The other showed her in her usual light blue and dark blue field uniform proudly thrusting her badge out in her paw. Trust, honor, and service were the words printed on this one.

"I remember these," Nick said. "They began sticking them everywhere after Carrots and I solved the Missing Mammal's case. They even kept using them after she quit and went home."

"She was the public face of the ZPD, the city's great bunny hero!" Jake laughed.

"She was the most hated face on the ZPD for us preds," Nick softly replied as he ran his paw over the picture of Judy proudly showing her badge. "Gods, she was so naive back then!"

"I mostly remember that poster, they put it at all the bus stops down on River Street. My friend Jerry tore the first one down and peed on it, he must have been holding it back for just that occasion because who knew snow leopards could piss that long?" Jake laughed. "When they put a new one up, we left it because a street artist had gotten to it first and drew a beer over the badge. He did some of the other ones around the area too, most were much more obscene. It was really kind of creatively funny what he did and we all got our laughs about it."

"It wasn't funny to Judy, that was the low point of her life. I had stormed away from her and she thought she had broken the city."

"What did she say during that press conference, wasn't it something about being savage was in our nature?"

"It may have something to do with biology… aggressive hunting instincts… reverting back to their primitive, savage ways, those were her exact words! Trust me, I was there and those words were seared into my soul."

"You must have been really angry with her that day, I'll bet!" Jake said as he held up and admired one of the posters. He didn't notice the sad look the fox gave him.

"Angry, sure I was angry," Nick finally replied. He now almost looked as if he was overcome with weariness as the fox sat down in a seat and sighed again. "I never have told anyone this before and just Judy and Finn, thanks to Finn's big mouth, know about what happened to me after the press conference. I ran home and just sat on my old rickety bed as my anger gave way to a sense of betrayal…I had trusted her and that was something I didn't do easily back then."

The raccoon took a seat next to the fox, who was staring at the floor. "I was losing it when Finn found me there alone. He had warned me long ago, when I was just a kit, not to trust anyone. As I tried to sarcastically joke about things, he…he stubbed out his cigarette and stepped onto the bed, so that he was taller than me, and then grabbed my tie. Jake, I was in my thirties and should have known better, but I just stood there in his arms and cried like a baby."

If the fox expected the raccoon to make fun of him, he was disappointed. Instead, Jake stood up and hugged him.

After a few minutes, the two best friends awkwardly separated as Jake went over and began rolling up the posters again. "I guess somethings should just remain in the past?" he said as he slipped the posters back in the tube and put the lid on it again.

The first poster is based on the ZPD flyer Bellwether had in the movie and the second is based on the Disney promotional artwork of Judy showing her badge.