48 hours later II
Continued from chapter 3
The artificial night lights of Zootopia flashed by outside the window and only made the inside of the police car seem even darker. Just like how the noise of the city made the silence between the three mammals more profound. Fangmeyer's cheerful chatter over at Cliffside had ceased as soon as they got into the car. Now she was silently focusing on the road, a frown on her face as Judy glanced at her through the rear-view mirror. In the backseat, Judy and Nick looked terribly small in the car meant for mammals far larger than themselves.
Judy blinked and shook her head as it once again felt strangely heavy. As if the muscles in her neck had lost their strength. She had tried to calculate just how many hours she had been awake, but when you've been awake for that many hours, that kind of calculation is quite difficult. She glanced over at Nick. Even though his head was turned away from her to gaze out the window, she could tell he looked just as tired as she felt. At the same time, the frown on his face made Judy wonder if his mind was still as active as ever, even when he was tired to the point of exhaustion. When he somehow noticed her gaze, he still had the energy to give her a small smile.
"Hey," she said. "You okay over there?"
Nick's gaze lingered at her for a moment before he let out what sounded like an amused sigh.
"Just tired, Carrots."
"Just that, huh?"
""Well, that and still trying to figure out what on earth we actually saw in that asylum."
"Hmm, yes."
"I've been a cop for eight years," Fangmeyer said, making them both turn their heads at the sudden interjection. "I've seen some weird shit in this city. But this… those crazed mammals... I've never seen anything like it."
She slowly shook her head, not taking her eyes off the road.
"To quote the chief: what a mess," she added.
Judy nodded silently, even though Fangmeyer couldn't see it. The past two days had passed in an insane blur of events. Somehow they had actually managed to crack the case of the missing mammals. And at the same time, so many questions remained. Questions that Judy had decided her exhausted mind better deal with some other day. At the moment, Judy had a hard time remembering what those questions even were. All that really mattered now was that they had done what they set out to do. That and the fact that soon she'd finally be able to sleep. She leaned back with a sigh, her mind still trying to figure out how long she had been awake.
When Nick nudged her shoulder, Judy at first assumed only a second or so had passed since their conversation.
"Hey, Carrots..." His voice seemed strangely distant.
"Wake up, Hopps!" Fangmeyer almost shouted from the front seat, making Judy sit straight up with a start.
Fangmeyer gave her a big grin while Nick rolled his eyes.
"The cop cab has arrived at your destination," he said, gesturing at the window to show that they had stopped outside Judy's apartment building.
"Oh, wow..." Judy mumbled and tried to rub the worst of her tiredness out of her eyes. "Guess I'm even more tired than I realized."
"Almost like you've been running around for two days without sleep or something."
"Hah, it almost looks like you did the same, slick."
They both laughed softly.
"Anyway," Judy said, clearing her throat as she noticed the look Fangmeyer was giving her. "Thanks a million for the ride, Fangmeyer!"
"Don't mention it", Fangmeyer said and remotely opened the huge car door that would have taken Judy way too much effort to open on her own. "Sweet dreams, Hopps."
"Heh, thanks. And Nick." Judy paused for a moment as she turned to the fox. "You'll come to the station tomorrow, right?"
Nick scoffed.
"I already told you - yes!"
"It's just that we did this together and-"
"I know."
"...it's important that-"
"I know."
"If you're that worried, I can just lock this slippery fox of yours up for the night," Fangmeyer said cheerfully. "Make sure he doesn't go anywhere."
Nick and Judy both turned their head to the tiger. Fangmeyer laughed at the expressions on their faces.
"It's a joke. Come on."
"Right," Judy said, trying to squeeze in a chuckle.
"Now out you go so I can drive foxy here wherever he needs to go," Fangmeyer added, nodding at Nick.
"Um, sounds good," Judy said. "Well, good night, you two."
"Night," Fangmeyer said, turning her attention back to the wheel, as if Judy had already left.
Judy and Nick looked at each other in silence for a few seconds.
"See you tomorrow, officer Hopps," Nick finally said with an amused, if tired, smile.
Judy nodded with an equally tired smile before she jumped out of the car. After a few steps out on the pavement, she turned around and gave Nick a gentle wave right before the car door closed again and the car drove off. She watched it disappear around a corner at the end of the street. For several moments, she stood there, alone in the city night, still looking in the direction of the car she could no longer see.
The door creaked and the light from the hallway shone into the room. Nothing had changed in Judy's new home since the last time she had been there. The blanket on the bed was still wrinkled and thrown to the side, in a way that reminded her of just what kind of mood she had been in when she got out of that bed. The strange smell from the greasy walls was still there and her alarm clock was still standing on the desk, pointing out to her just how late it was. She sat down on the edge of the bed and tried to remember what life had been like the last time she had been in this room. It felt like she hadn't seen it in months.
Finally, her exhaustion overtook her and she fell backwards into the bed. This maneuver wasn't quite as comfortable as she had hoped, and she groaned as her utility belt dug into her spine. Unbuckling the belt, she rolled around and let it fall to the floor, where it landed with a thud. With her face now buried in the sheets, she really didn't want to get out of that bed again, though a part of her mind reminded her that her uniform was probably both quite dirty and quite smelly. Then her ears perked up at the sound of a muffled voice coming from the floor.
"...365 days a year since I was twelve!"
Judy crawled to the edge of the bed and peered down at the belt. Gently, she picked it up and rummaged through its pouches until she found the carrot-shaped pen that had been activated as it hit the floor.
Turning it around in her paw, Judy sat still on the bed and just looked at it. When had she forgotten about this pen? When had she forgotten that the only reason Nick had followed along on this whole thing was because she had blackmailed him into it? She frowned. Had Nick forgotten about it too? Or was that her putting too much faith in this strange new friendship? But he hadn't even mentioned it since… Actually, she couldn't remember the last time either of them had talked about it. Her frown disappeared and she smiled softly to herself, mostly in disbelief at the entire situation she had suddenly found herself in.
Then the pen almost slipped out of her grip as she once again was close to nodding off. Judy shook her head, trying to keep awake long enough to at least change into something more suited to sleeping in than her uniform. There were so many things her mind needed to process, and they needed to be processed some other day. Things like this strange friendship (was it a friendship?) between a cop and a con artist. Things like how she wasn't sure how to handle this whole blackmailing business, or the fact that she, an officer of the ZPD, had evidence to put a lawbreaker (and a friend) in jail. It all just had to wait. She got up on her feet, put the carrot pen on the desk and looked for something comfortable to sleep in.
After having put on a t-shirt and deciding that a shower could wait until the morning, Judy paused, right as she was finally about to go to bed. In the darkness of her room, the carrot pen shone with an unnatural light as it reflected some of the light of the city that shone in through the window. Judy hesitated for a few moments before she picked it up again. Her thumb hovered over the pen's play button, as she wondered if it was better to not to hear that recording again. She hesitated for just a few seconds more. Then she pressed the record button instead, knowing that it would immediately erase the previous recording on the simple device.
"Thank you, Nick," she said. "For everything."
