A/N- And we're back! Sorry for the longer delay, but I wanted to get my Two Worlds Collide series finished (after over 8 1/2 years), and write through to the end of this story before finishing up here. But the next piece is here, and it's time to get over that cliffhanger from last chapter...

Chapter 39

The Third Door

/

Battle's over friend

Your task is now complete

But though the world settles

Some tasks still lay at your feet

Wrap up the strings lying loose

Tie the ends secure

Find your family and draw them near

Cherish them once more

And face the most daunting challenge of all

That which you know must come

Open the door to your future

Finish making two halves one

-0-

"…get back, we need to arrange foster services for him, and I'd like you two to seriously consider the notion of putting your own names down for it."

"You know we can't do that Embron! Any of the cops here even would have more stable lives to manage the overseeing of that and I wouldn't even think of suggesting that they"-

"Stable my ass, not why I'm pushing this. The house that Scarlet and I live in is more than big enough to be where he can stay most of the time if so necessary, and he's obviously started to get attached to most of us so he'll get along well, and he'll adjust to the new life better so long as he's with someone he trusts. But you two have the closest experiences to situations like his, you know what he needs better than anyone else here. And I know you can't actually argue when I say becoming his guardians would be a good experience for the two of you as well. Maybe finally knock that damn wall you've built up between each other down finally."

"Oh, don't you start with that again Embron!"

"Come on Skye, he ain't wrong! You're around him more than even your own cous' –not entirely by my choice, I'm saying now!- and even I can see it!"

"Shut it Rocky!"

He was hearing arguments from voices he knew, about a subject he was fairly certain he was thinking about immediately before things had all gone sideways again. And the world seemed to be humming and vibrating around him.

Guess that crosses being dead off the list…but where…?

A jolt of pain coursing through Nick's neck made him gasp and reach up, only to find no bullet hole where he knew there should have been one. After all, he'd been shot, should have been fatally, right in the spot that now hurt (or did; it was fading now). There was a slight raised spot, a tiny bump of a scar perhaps, but that was it.

A moment of short-circuited thoughts ran past as the tod's eyes opened, Nick failing to compute these things that weren't adding up, before his vision focused and he spotted Embron, Scarlet, and Rocky all sitting with Wolfard and Fangmeyer in the bay seats of Sam and Dax's jet nearby. Across from them, they faced Jack, Skye, and several of the other agents on their team, all of them still with the expressions of having been interrupted in the middle of a debate but now with their attention focused on him. Upon seeing them, things started to click.

Oh, right. Gifteds. They probably patched me up the moment I passed out. Why does that not seem strange anymore?

"Oh look, he's awake!" Scarlet exclaimed, before her relieved expression immediately shifted to mischievous. "Three, two, one…"

"NICK!"

The reason for the ocelot's counting bolted upright from a reclined seat near the platform Nick had been laid on, planting her paws on the side of his makeshift bed and leaning over him with desperate intent. "Oh thank goodness," she breathed. "Do you have any idea how much you scared me?!"

"Well, happy to see you too, Carrots," Nick rasped, licking his lips (and noticing then how dehydrated he was). "Not like I asked to get shot."

He could see Judy trying to glare at him, but it was breaking down under an exasperated smile. "Dammit, you dumb fox," she quipped, reaching over and punching his shoulder. He yelped, but couldn't help chuckling himself at the familiar action. "But I'm glad you seem okay."

Then she leaned forward, planting a kiss on his muzzle, and despite it not being a new sensation anymore the act still made Nick's mind blank out in excitement.

An ironic wolf whistle from the red wolf sitting off toward the front of the plane near the cockpit and a pair or trussed-up Primalists prisoners (a reason for the adjacency seen a moment later when the Dhole among them growled, and Mack turned to kick him, hard) made the two smooching mammals blush and pull away slightly. But, they still couldn't stop smiling at each other, and Nick's tail continued wagging a full speed.

"So, do we need to give you two some alone time when the jet lands?" Rocky teased, leaning forward and wiggling his eyebrows.

Judy immediately turned pink, ears falling to hide the blush as she shot the Arctic fox a glare.

Nick didn't miss a beat though. "Is half a day enough?"

"Nick!"

The red fox couldn't help but laugh. "Kidding, Carrots, kidding!" His head twisted to look over at the others in the plane again then, expression turning serious. "But much as it pains me to say something so unlike myself, enough joking for a moment. Anybody got a water bottle? And what happened after I passed out?"

Harrison turned and grabbed a plastic bottle near his seat, tossing it to Nick who quickly opened it and started downing the contents. Embron, meanwhile, grimaced and leaned forward to point an almost accusational finger at the tod. "You, Mr. Wilde, are a ridiculously lucky fox," he toned. "You got hit in the neck with no small bullet, and barely a millimeter from your ascending aorta; slightly further to the left or right and we'd have been fighting to keep you from immediately bleeding out or trying to patch your spine, which would have shut all three of us out of power for a couple of days, if you survived the shock. As it was, took us a few hours afterward to even get moving again; one of the other teams Trevahe sent in managed to show up in that time and had to help transport."

"And it scares me, just how close I came to almost losing you again so soon," Judy almost whispered, curling her fingers into the shirt on Nick's chest.

Nick's ears fell back, and he scooted up to a better sitting position so to reach over and pull her into his side. She looked up at him, that fear evident in her eyes, and it was all he could do to keep from turning and kissing her again to make it go away. He needed to hear the rest of what happened first though, and so resisted the urge.

"Otherwise, it's bee uneventful since," Jack dropped in, gesturing around the plane. "Teams are out cleaning up traces of Primalist presence with the help of the locals; Rocky's new friend Aeto being particularly helpful apparently to pointing out what doesn't belong, and that includes the missing Night Howler serum that we finally found when it started leaking out of the building after it crumbled. A few teams are also scouting the forest for Avery and Desireigh, but unfortunately to little avail so far." Then, the lapin smiled, and rested his chin on his fist. "But now, you needn't worry about the strings still hanging; we're not but a few hours out from landing back in Zootopia again, or more accurately Overwatch and we'll drive back from there. Skye and I will be heading back out shortly after to locate Ravelis and finish this chaos from the other root, and Mack's helping us corner him now cybernetically."

At mention of Mack, Nick glanced at Judy, and the rabbit noticed. Snorting, she twisted slightly and nudged at him with a fist. "Yeah, don't worry Slick," she drawled. "You've been out for hours, almost a full day now actually; we've all had time to talk. I'm not gonna try and take the guy down, especially not after all he did for us in this fiasco."

"I'd hope not; I helped save your life," the wolf quipped, before grinning and readjusting his glasses and fedora. "Plus, all those swollen bank accounts won't be doing the big lizard much good once he's in prison, and since a lot of the capital was gained illicitly, I've decided and gotten the green light officially to…redistribute them. Help out the poor souls who were taken advantage of, and maybe bolster some of our own endeavors for smoothing all this out."

"Gee, you guys have been busy then," Nick mused, sitting up straighter and cracking his back. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Bhoot sleeping like a stone on another small mat not far away, and smiled.

Then the sight of the pup triggered memory of the events just before Bhoot had shown up in the rift room. Nick's ears lowered again, and he glanced at Judy before turning to fix his gaze on the Caniston siblings. "Okay, so before the conversation steers off again, there's a question that I need answered," he said, gathering the full attention of everyone again. Gesturing between himself and Judy, he continued, "Back in the fight, Carrots and I. One minute both of us were drugged under chemical insanity, next we were flying through a cosmic interdimensional brain-bust, and then suddenly we were both standing in a melted puddle of a steel cage and catching lightning bolts and plasma fire in our bare paws. Even past the number of ridiculous surprises the past few weeks that have turned our lives upside down, that happened a little on the fast side. What. The. Heck?"

The rest of the plane fell silent and glances were exchanged, no one quite sure where to start. Scarlet and Embron shared a look for several uncertain moments, before Embron let out a sigh. His head pivoted back toward Nick, and he grinned slightly as he stood up. "So, first gonna answer another question that I know is coming," he said. "Heads up!"

The coyote's paw snapped up toward the fox, a tiny ball of fire coalescing under it and then slingshotting forward. Nick flinched and instinctively raised a paw, grabbing the little sphere, and then a moment later sat ramrod straight up as he turned to stare down at the fireball sitting firmly in his fist and not so much as smoking a single hair. He stayed motionless with a dumbfounded expression for a second, and then tilted his head up again to look with the same confused, questioning gaze at Embron.

"They already tested it with me earlier," Judy said next to him, reaching over and laying her own paw on the flames. Squeezing her grip down on his, she made it flare out like a miniature firework, and evaporate away. "Seems whatever it is, it decided to stick around."

"But as to everything else, we literally don't have a freaking clue," Scarlet confessed. This she emphasized with a guilty, apologetic shrug when Nick's stare switched to her. "Honestly, I wish we knew, but between the three Gifteds here and everything that Mack's been able to scour up in the dark recesses of old web archives in the past few hours, there's nothing." She looked down at her left paw, tilting it back and forth, and then looked up again. "You're not Gifted, at least not in the sense we are; Judy already played test subject as she said and she didn't seem to be able to call up any forms of energy herself or deflect purely physical objects, but…well, we don't have any records of it ever happening before. Though Rocky and I have a theory that maybe when Catalysts actually encounter rifts you end up…" she gestured vaguely, trying to find a fitting word.

"Supercharged," Rocky supplied, crossing his arms but gesturing also with his right paw. "Not really the right word I think, but hell, it fits a little at least. You two ain't just manipulating society, something a little more got added on. Though Embron doesn't agree with us." He shot the coyote a look.

Embron stuck his tongue out in return, then looked at Nick and shrugged. "Considering there's no record of this, ever, I personally think it was a special one-time thing with you guys, but maybe only time will tell," he said. "In all honesty though, maybe it's a good thing; Lotera's gone, but anyone else shows up trying to pick a fight and we might not always be ready at a call to help you out, so now you've got an extra boost on your side."

"Gee, like Carrots here needed anything to be more of a badass than she already is," Nick quipped, laughing outright and dodging when Judy turned to punch him again. "Hey, kidding, kidding! Enough with the punches, come on! But uh, methinks this uh…might want to be something kept on the down-low if we ever actually get to go back to regular police work after all this."

"Oh, no worries about that," Wolfard piped up, pointing over at Harrison. "He was on call earlier with our ever-dedicated Chief, assuring him that his four best cops were all on the plane here and heading home."

"And if there are any legal snares concerning your return, or…relationship issues," Harrison added, grinning when he saw the two mammals blushing again, "we'll smooth them over. And, we figured out an at least temporary solution for Mack's own 'legal issue' as well: pardoned for previous transgressions in the city, so long as he keeps open lines to you four for assistance if needed."

"But don't overuse that!" Mack snipped, leaning up slightly and brandishing a finger of his own at the cops before sitting back and readjusting his fedora again. "I've still got a reputation to uphold and a living to make after all so I don't want cop calls all hours of the day every day. Capisce?"

"Aw, don't worry Mack, it's just a part of making new friends!" Judy toned innocently, smiling sweetly at the wolf. When Mack sent her a stink-eye back, she continued, "I promise to call only every other day, I swear."

"We'll fill the other days," Fangmeyer tagged on with a grin.

Mack groaned and slumped in his seat. "And this is why I don't make friends," he muttered. Nick couldn't help but try and hide a snicker, and it got harder when the red wolf twisted just enough to glare at Embron and say, "I blame you. Fully."

"Guilty as charged birdie," Embron tittered back.

The last word made Nick's ears perk up. "Oh! Speaking of birds, I assume Sam and Dax are piloting again?" he asked, pointing to the cockpit door. At everyone's nods, he groaned with the slight effort of sliding to the edge of the mat he was on and slowly pushing to his feet. "Ah, good. I feel like bothering those two for a bit."

As he stood up, stretched, and began moseying toward the cockpit, sharing a hand-clasp and fist bumps with Fangmeyer and Wolfard as he passed them, a rustling noise behind them made him pause and look back. It appeared as if Bhoot had gotten in all the napping he needed, as he shifted and blinked before sitting up as well to look around at everybody. His contagious smile beamed bright at Judy, and then got even brighter somehow when he locked on Nick.

"M-Mr. Wilde! You're okay again!"

Nick couldn't help but chuckle. "Seems I am, Snowflake," he grinned back. "You feeling okay too?"

The pup nodded vigorously, sitting up on his knees. "Yeah! What's everyone talking about?"

The tod suddenly developed a wicked urge, and with a glance over at Embron's forming smirk he knew he had to say it now. "Well," he toned conspiratorially, "I heard tell something earlier about how Jack and Skye here," he reached over and patted both of their shoulders as he continued to shuffle toward the cockpit, and relished the sudden tensing of both, "agreed to help look after you from here on out, with Embron and Scarlet's support."

The beaming expression from Bhoot was worth it, but all the more so the smoldering glares the singled-out agents sent him alongside the somewhat betrayed looks the Canistons also swung his way. Shooting a wink at the latter two, Nick pointed finger guns at the former pair and backpedaled even further, reaching the door. "Come on you two," he sang toward the other fox-rabbit duo, "can't nag on Judy and I and then ignore all the red flags going up around yourselves! I expect to hear about living plans by the time I come back out with my own other proposition momentarily; Mack, could use a chat with you for that by the way."

Reaching back, he turned the knob and opened it, then looked up to see the dawning confused-slash-questioning expression on Judy's face, and added in, "We've literally been through life-or-death to the extreme now, Carrots, you know I have to. Ain't nobody else I could possibly spend my life with now." One last wink, and he disappeared inside the cockpit with a laugh, leaving mixed expressions all around the bay behind him.

Nick spent most of the rest of the flight back somehow keeping up conversation with the Archangels, and at one point pulling Mack into the cockpit to talk with him too (for reasons Judy was desperately trying to figure out now). Thus, he quite effectively avoided most of the aftermath of the "Bhoot Hustle" he'd just pulled. Having said such formal claims right in front of the pup, Jack and Skye now had their paws tied if they wanted to avoid ruining the young wolf's day, and the Caniston siblings also had their own paws forced in really helping out too.

Judy wanted to be mad at him, but between the hinted bombshell he'd dropped at her feet and the entertainment of the two head agents on the plane and the Canistons trying to tactfully figure out the situations Nick had dropped them into with Bhoot awake to hear every word, she was far too distracted to remain angry.

When they finally did land back at Overwatch, the unmarked vans they'd taken up to the place so many days ago were still waiting there already to shuttle them back to the city (courtesy of Lois the groundskeeper, the vehicles had been safely stored away while everyone was gone). And, in the hustle and bustle of loading up Nick managed to somehow continue to stay out of the same vehicle as Judy, the Canistons, and Savage and Wellinger, and thus avoid conversation all the way back to the Precinct. At this point, they were just impressed he was managing to be that slippery.

The moment they arrived at the police headquarters though, Wolfard and Fangmeyer volunteered to go help lock up the prisoners and Nick was left with no more places to run. Chief Bogo was waiting practically at the door for them all, with Ellie Minde and Vivian Wilde standing right beside him. Vivian burst into a run the moment Nick walked through the door, sprinting forward to grab her son in a hug and only moments later managing to drag Judy into the embrace as well.

"Thank God you two are okay!" she said tearfully, nuzzling both of them. "I hope that getting all the way back here wasn't too much of a task; are you two hurt at all?" She backed up slightly, looking them over in the concerned but intrusive manner only a mother can pull off.

Younger fox and rabbit doe leaned away slightly and exchanged a look between themselves, before they both reached up gently to take Vivian's paws. "W-well, perhaps we should leave it as we came back in one piece and are okay now, in the end," Judy said, glancing over her shoulder at the Canistons and Rocky. "Especially thanks to them."

Vivian pursed her lips, parental protective instincts working a troubled look onto her muzzle as she stared askance over at the Gifteds as well, but apparently decided better that the past was past. Her son and his partner were back, after all, and that was what mattered most. "Then my thanks to all of you," she said aloud, looking across the Gifteds and the agents together, before her gaze settled on the Arctic fox tod among them and morphed into a smirk. "And I'm glad to see you alive and well still Rocky; call and old vixen now and again, don't be a stranger, dear?"

Rocky's ears pinned back in the most sheepish expression the seasoned fighter could managed, and he nodded meekly. "Was…a bit of a finicky situation Mrs. Wilde," he tried to explain, and gestured to Skye. "I didn't even call my own cousin for a bit because of it."

"From here on out then. We're all a little mixed up in each other's lives now, an old friend of Nick's and new of Judy's has no excuse anymore."

"Yes ma'am."

"And call me Vivian, please."

The looming shadow of Chief Bogo officially joining the group curbed conversation momentarily as he glared down at all the newly arrived. "Pleased to see that all of my officers returned safe and sound this time around," he said monotone, casting a critical eye toward Jack…before it softened slightly and he gave a short nod that the rabbit returned. "Should we expect any more troubles in the foreseeable future?"

"Well, sorry to say that your star employees here are likely to remain trouble magnets for the rest of their lives," Jack replied, gesturing to Nick and Judy and shrugging off the underhanded comment. "But I think if we can arrange regular visits with the Canistons for training, they'll be far more ready now to take care of themselves. Even I might dare say they've become a force of their own to be reckoned with."

Bogo huffed, tightening his crossed arms and looking down at the aforementioned pair (and no one could miss that he still enjoyed the wince both of them gave him). "As if they weren't already," he toned, the barest hint of a smile turning the corners of his mouth.

"Uh, perhaps more than you realize, sir," Judy said with a forming grin. "This trip was rather…eye-opening."

The buffalo paused, eyebrow migrating upward slightly. "I see; perhaps in a moment we'll discuss implications somewhere more private. But first, what of the primary animals of concern: Lotera, Avery, Saber?"

"Saber and Lotera are dead," Skye answered for them. "Avery, and a tech whiz lizard named Desireigh are still out there unfortunately, but not likely to be an issue any time soon; neither are the type to cause big trouble without some real backing. We're also recruiting this guy to try and track them and their financial boss down, and then he's promised to be around to lend a paw for some of your officers." As she spoke she grinned and waved backward toward Mack, drawing attention that the red wolf clearly had been trying to avoid at all costs.

Mack looked up from his tablet as Harrison and Vela stepped back to leave him in full view, momentarily caught with a "deer in the headlights" expression (speciest as that phrase is, it still rang true all too often). It didn't last long though, as he reached up to adjust his glasses and fedora and flashed a devil-may-care smile at Bogo.

"Evening Chief."

Bogo peered at him critically, eyeing the tablet and putting two and two together. His frown deepened again and his ears pinned back. "The infamous Sparrow, I assume then. So nice to finally have a face to put to the alias." A shift in his posture then sent him into a slight slouch. "I should mention just how irritating it is that I've been informed I can't simply arrest you here and now."

The wolf's grin got wider, and Bogo suddenly got the feeling of staring at another, if more anti-social Nick. "Yeah, official pardons and all that I hear," he mused, giving a mock salute (and affirming that the canine had already spent too much time around a certain vulpine for the Chief's tastes). "But humor me with the knowing that it was never out of malice. I just want the real bad guys behind bars a little faster and more permanently than the rigid law typically permits in its current state. And hey, at least now it's gonna be more above the bar when I hand you someone."

The buffalo's gaze didn't waver, but his ears did tilt down slightly further as he let out a half-sigh, half-growl that made him sound more predatory than the wolf in front of him. "Just what I needed, more government oversight and loopholes."

"Actually, it'll be less," Jack said to counter, drawing Bogo's attention back down to him for better or worse. He looked up at the buffalo, and for the first time in more years than he cared to count, gave the larger mammal a genuine smile. "Thanks both to some shenanigans your officers pulled off on the way back, as well as leveraging to follow with the AOMISDOPS director concerning our involvement with…" he trailed off, before making a faint gesture toward Ellie, Rocky, and the Canistons. "Well, you know; anyway, it would appear that my team may be getting permanently stationed out of the city here rather than capital headquarters. We'll help manage the behind-the-scenes, as opposed to having to rope City Hall or the federal system into this mess with us. Agent Wellinger and I will have some new responsibilities as well that we'll need a more set location for, preferably within reach of Wilde and Hopps."

The buck paused there to glance over his shoulder at the wolf pup gawking at the space around him from behind Harrison, and Bogo's gaze followed his questioningly.

"He and Skye are gonna adopt the rescue pup there," Nick not-so-subtly half-whispered to his boss behind his paw, and it took all of Bogo's willpower not to actually laugh out loud in front of everyone. The smirk that appeared on his face could not be hidden though. Agent Savage, stoic and cold federal official and royal pain in the ass, a parent? Now that he had to be present to see the result of.

Jack, in turn, leveled a glare at Nick that told the fox the lapin was already calculating ways to make sure Nick joined in the shouldering of the burden in some amount though.

The immediate starting of a conversation as everyone had entered the doors had kept many of the mammals present unaware of the fact that the front desk had been conspicuously absent of its usual dispatcher. A loud squeal erupting behind them all though announced the return of Clawhauser from his break to resume his dispatch duties at the desk, though that return was now clearly further delayed as he'd spotted his two favorite smaller mammals in the gaggle by the doors.

"Nick! Judy! You guys are back!" the cheetah cried, bolting over despite the pair's audible protests (and that of Bogo's disapproving grunt) and grabbing them in a jolly embrace.

"Yeah-urk!-nice to s-see you too, Spots!" Nick wheezed out, awkwardly patting the cat with the one hand he could move. Lucky for him and Judy Clawhauser dropped them shortly after (thus allowing them to expand their ribcages again), bringing his paws up to his cheeks in another squeal before preparing to volley off a dozen questions all at once.

Even luckier for them both, questions too were halted when the Precinct doors opened once more, and in walked Finnick, of all mammals.

"Oh, so he's who you were talking to on the phone you wanted me to hook up," Mack mused to Nick, before glancing at his tablet. "Hadn't gotten around to actually tracking the call yet. Evening, Fin."

Finnick cast a somewhat surprised look toward the wolf (he knew the Sparrow's reputation; few who'd been in the underground hadn't, though he was one of the lucky few who knew at least Mack's species), before grousing out, "Yeah, the brushtail called me and told me he'll owe me one after this. Color me surprised you's here of all places; the fuzz finally catch ya with yer hand layin' traps in the cookie jar?"

"More like my own friends went underhand and dragged me into helping officials directly."

Finnick barked out a laugh at that, before his expression hardened again. He sauntered over past the group and straight up to Nick with a stony look on his muzzle. Reaching up, he placed a small box in the taller fox's paw, and then fixed him with a glare. "Ya get that payment to me pronto, and all you'll owe me afterward," suddenly his expression turned into a wicked grin as he nodded toward Judy's increasingly confused expression, "is getting' a proper reaction from ya girl there. 'Bout time, you's two been dancin' around each other for hell knows too long!"

Judy wasn't sure if her or anyone else's expressions could grow more perplexed at the sudden intrusion of the fennec (aside from Embron and Scarlet, who both seemed to have already figured out the secret at hand; what a shock), and she finally looked up to Nick, the one in the center of it all, with a stare that said she required an answer. "Wait, what?" she blurted. "Nick, what on earth is he rambling about?"

Nick could only grin, as he turned to face her fully. "Do me a favor and save asking how I know your size for later," he said instead, before dropping to one knee. "I told you earlier I wanted the right moment, and honestly, why not let that be right here, right now, in the workplace that changed both our lives and among the mammals who have done so even more? I'm ready to move forward as our lives settle to whatever new normal we've got now, and I want this to be a part of it."

Bringing up the box Finnick had brought in, he opened it to reveal a silvery ring crowned with a faceted amethyst surrounded by flawless pink rubies. "Judy," he said, suddenly losing the confidence in his voice that he'd managed to hold up to this point and hearing himself start to tremble, "will y-you do me…the, uh, the honor of marrying a sarcastic old fox?"

Judy froze. But, only for a moment, before she surged forward and pushed the box off to the side to land a hard kiss on the fox's stunned muzzle. "How could I say anything but yes?" she half-whispered into his ear, before reaching up to cover said ears (as he mirrored her a second later) and diving into a kiss once more.

Not two seconds later, the reason for the odd act made itself known as Clawhauser let out a hysteric squeal loud enough to set Mack, the just-returning Wolfard, and half the other wolves throughout the Precinct off howling. Thanks to the cheetah, news would spread like wildfire.

A/N -Teehee...Nick's popped the question. WildeHopps shippers rejoice!

Only one bit left (the epilogue) before Closed Doors is done, and that should be out very soon. Then, I'll start working on the next phase of the story...though that might take a little bit to get going. Writing for as long as I've been without a real break is exhausting, so between taking a break for a touch and then getting enough written to be ready for posting up the next story there might be a couple months at least...though don't forget: if you want to follow that tale, make sure to find me over on DA or AO3! As always though, until then make sure to let me know what you think of this installment in your reviews!

Until next time, HawkTooth out!