Eight
Things did not improve for Nick or Judy in the following days.
The Climate Wall continued to suffer critical errors, forcing Judy's team to return daily for more and more extensive security checks. But no matter how meticulously they searched, they couldn't find any evidence of foul play. Here and there they'd find a frayed wire or a burnt out fan. All normal wear and tear. The only odd thing was the speed at which everything was breaking down.
"It's not that weird," said Indri when Judy pointed out as much. "It's like when your warranty runs out. The day it's gone—kzzzt—everything goes kapoot."
"The Climate Wall is a very old piece of technology," agreed Dill, "It's constantly running, and working with extreme temperatures, water, electricity. And it's seen very little in the way of upgrading since they cut back on things, and that was years ago. With only one animal left to see to its upkeep, it's no wonder it's all starting to collapse."
"Well I think he's sabotaging things on purpose because he secretly likes our company," said Fang.
The lemur rolled her eyes. "Somehow I doubt that."
"He nearly clawed your eyes out for making a fart joke yesterday," said Dill.
"That's just how he shows affection."
"I think we should talk to someone about this," said Judy.
That got everyone's attention.
"I don't know…" said Dill.
"Like who?" asked the lemur.
"You know what they say about forcing help on those who don't want it," said Fang. "It never ends well. And Dill already tried talking to Lionheart. Face it, for now we're stuck."
"Like a pig in the mud," said Indri.
"Unfortunately," added Dill.
And that was that.
Things didn't fair any better for Nick.
The rhino still hadn't turned around. Instead, he had started heading west, his path running parallel to a dark streak in the landscape—a river maybe, or a strip of forest. The GPS had started suffering connection issues as Nick's quarry moved farther out of area. If the rhino didn't turn back soon, Nick would lose the signal altogether.
The missing mammal case was even worse. Nick and Stella took turns updating the Blumenthal's, mostly to give each other a reprieve from looking into those tiny, despairing faces and having to tell them that no, they still didn't know where their children were. No witnesses came forward. No new evidence was found.
Out of sheer desperation, Nick got permission from Bogo to contact the chief of the Rainforest District and arrange for a meeting. Chief Mahery was a rare sight to see even within the ZPD. He never left the Rainforest District, not even to attend city-wide meetings. He always sent his secretary instead: a capybara of few words but diligent note taking. Even reporters seemed to have a hard time catching a glimpse of Mahery. Most photos taken of him were blurry, with Mahery an indistinct blotch of golden brown in the background, half out of frame or partially hidden behind other animals.
Nick had expected he would be meeting with the secretary. So it was a shock when a soft-spoken Tapir directed him down the hall to the elusive chief's own office.
The door was ajar. Nick gave a sharp rap on it to announce himself before poking his head through. When no one immediately appeared to welcome him, he pushed the door open wide enough to slip inside.
It felt like stepping into a hot house. The air was warm and muggy, and smelled like a mix of soil and citrus. Already his fur was starting to feel damp and sticky. Rain pattered against the glass ceiling above him. Tropical plants in bright, ceramic pots crowded the corners of the room and bookended every piece of furniture. Nick eyed a spindly-looking chair in front of the desk, half-concealed in the drooping leaves of a ginormous elephant ear plant, and wondered if it would be rude to leave and request they have this meeting virtually instead.
"Good afternoon."
Nick nearly jumped out of his fur at the sudden, soft greeting. He whirled around to see Chief Mahery standing over by a towering mango tree, though Nick would have sworn no one had been there a second ago. "You must be officer Wilde."
"The one and only," said Nick, and then wanted to kick himself. Mahery was a fossa, one of the rarest species to reside in Zootopia. In fact, Nick didn't know of any others besides Mahery himself, and hadn't known they were a species that existed at all before Mahery took office. For all Nick knew, the fossa could literally be the one and only of his kind left in the city.
If the glib comment bothered Mahery, he hid it behind a polite smile. "Please." He gestured for Nick to take the chair draped in elephant ears, then slipped behind the desk to take his own seat. His movements were quick and fluid, revealing a level of balance and grace that was not immediately obvious from his form, which, if Nick were honest, he found slightly odd looking. He imagined if a cougar and a mongoose could procreate, this is what the result would be: a long and skinny body with an equally long and skinny tail. A thick, golden brown coat, narrow snout, round ears, and bright yellow eyes that bulged just enough to be unnerving.
Those eyes watched Nick now from over the mess cluttering the desk. Official-looking documents were stacked in haphazard piles across its surface. There was a metal filing basket over to the side, but it was already overflowing with it's own inventory: brightly colored succulents.
Nick managed to shove the oversized leaves out of his way enough to sit, but no matter which angle he tried to tuck them they only sprung back to smack him in the head the second he let go.
"So," said Mahery, "Chief Bogo says you're wanting to lead a search of our drainage systems."
"Yes." Nick smacked away another leaf only for it to immediately flop back over his shoulder. "Particularly the ones with overflow from Little Rodentia. He… told you what we would be looking for?"
"He did." The fossa's face was somber. "Missing mammal cases are always hard, but especially when it's the young. We will of course lend you all the extra paws you require."
Nick forced back another branch with a bit too much force. There was a soft crack, and an elephant ear collapsed, limp, behind him. Nick coughed and flicked his tail over to cover it. "Thank you."
A search party was assembled. Mahery called in every free officer he had to investigate every outlet that two mice—or kidnappers with two mice—might have taken.
Mahery himself took Nick down to the Water Management Plant to check the filtration system where larger pieces of waste were caught and removed from the waterways. It was a long, smelly, and terrifying process. Every time they came across a mouse-sized clump of fur Nick's stomach would drop and his heart would race. But it only ever turned out to be fur, and Nick left at the end of that grueling process thankful of not having found anything.
Until, that is, Stella called about her most recent visit to the Blumenthals, and Nick had to wonder if he shouldn't feel disappointed instead. At least if bodies had been found, the parents would know for sure, instead of this never-ending wondering. At least there was a grim sort of peace to that.
But regardless of what anyone wanted to find, there was nothing. And there continued to be nothing as they searched every sewer drain, every run-off point, and every filter system the Rainforest District had.
Then, late Friday night, Chief Bogo called Nick back to his office.
"You need to take a break," he told Nick.
"A break?"
"Yes, a break. Go home. Stop stealing naps in your vehicle and get some proper rest. And a proper shower. You smell like a sewer, Wilde." He paused there, perhaps expecting some sort of snarky reply to that. When there was only silence, he went on, "And don't you dare come back in tomorrow. I want you to take the weekend off. All of it. I don't want to see your face again until Monday morning, you hear me?"
"But we still haven't found them." Nick hated how tired he sounded. He wanted to sound determined, strong, optimistic. But his voice was hoarse from days of calling out for Berry and Thistle, his lungs felt damaged from breathing in so much foul air, and his throat… his throat wanted to close up every time he thought about what the mice's continued absence meant—for them, and for their poor parents.
"Others will continue to search while you and Stella are gone," said Bogo. "Who knows? Maybe some fresh eyes will turn up something new."
Nick looked at the water buffalo's face and knew neither of them believed that. But he didn't call his boss on it. He just let the denial lie there, like a dirty sheet no one wanted to look under.
"Just go," said the chief. "I hear you have an important trip to take with Hopps this weekend anyway. Try and focus on that."
Nosy cops. Nick didn't even want to know how Bogo had found out about that.
As he shuffled his way out of the office, Bogo shouted after him, "And don't forget that shower!"
Nick showered. And he slept. And then he met Judy at the metro station the following morning. It had been days since they had seen each other, work leaving time for little more than some texts and short, exhausted conversations in the odd hours. Judy was a sight for sore eyes, but even her presence couldn't take away the emotional slog that had been the last few days or the looming visit to her family's.
As if she could read his mind, Judy said, "We can postpone if you're rather stay home."
She meant it, he knew. She wouldn't hold it against him if he told her he didn't want to go today. But Nick also knew how much she had been looking forward to this, and he didn't want to let her down on top of everything else. The last week had been disappointing enough.
So he said, "It's fine," and took her paw, and they descended the steps to the station.
It was early on a Saturday morning, so they had the car nearly to themselves. As they took a bench seat by the window, a perky voice broke in over the loudspeaker: "Good morning, folks! The Zootopia Public Transit would like to apologize for the longer commute today. In light of the warmer weather currently being enjoyed in Tundratown, ice melt has forced a temporary shut-down of rail lines there. For the safety of our riders, we will be rerouting through the Rainforest District. Thank you and sorry again for the inconvenience."
String music played as they pulled out of the station. Judy rested her head on Nick's shoulder, and for a moment things felt good again. He watched out the window as they wound their way through the city. It was a clear morning, and everything glowed in the presence of the rising sun. It turned the desert sands to golden liquid and struck sharp rays of light off the stylish high-rises. Even the dew coating the grass and trees seemed to sparkle extra brightly.
"Do you want to talk about work?" Judy's voice was quiet. They had talked a little bit about Nick's case on the phone last night, before exhaustion had forced them both to bed.
"I'm not supposed to be thinking about it," said Nick. He sighed. More seriously he said, "I'm trying not to."
"Okay, then."
He laid his head on top of hers, imagining he could feel her mental energies as she cast about for another topic of conversation.
"I spoke to Marian a little bit yesterday."
Nick tensed. "Uh-huh."
"Craven seems to be doing okay."
"Good to know." He knew he sounded curt. He wished he could stop himself. He wished Judy would pick another topic.
"She said she got him to join in a few boardgames with the family. She even caught him smiling once."
"Good for her." He closed his eyes, letting his cheek rest against the top of Judy's fluffy head. He hadn't slept well last night despite how tired he'd been. He could easily take a nap right here like this.
Judy poked him in the side. Nick grunted. "What?"
"Stop acting like you're not worried about him."
Nick huffed and lifted his head. He slouched back against the window. "Why would I be worried about Craven? He's got the great and powerful Robin Swift looking out for him."
"Because we both know Robin isn't invincible, no matter what he thinks. And…" She trailed off, biting her cheek.
Nick nudged her shoulder with his. "And what?"
"Nothing."
Nick just looked at her.
Judy blew out a breath. "I just… I can't help seeing some similarities. Between what happened to Tibor and… what's happening now… with Craven."
At Nick's face, she hastened to add, "And I know! I know I'm just conflating them. It's not the same thing. I know that. But I can't help worrying about it anyway. And that made me worry that maybe you might be worrying about it, too. And then I was worried even more."
How did she do it? How did she figure him out every time? She took his fears and made them her own, and somehow that made them seem less insurmountable. His fears always felt so overwhelming, inescapable and undefeatable. But her fears were something he wanted to defeat—would defeat—until he'd vanquished them entirely.
He looped his arm around Judy's shoulders and she leaned in to rest against his chest. "Craven's going to be all right," he told her, and felt the promise of it in his own heart. "We'll make sure of it."
"Yeah."
"And if not," he couldn't help adding, "then we'll just get your new buddy Scarlet to handle it."
Judy poked him again. "I knew you were still mad about that."
"Seriously. You befriended that fox's hacker. In what world did you think that was a smart idea?"
"I guess in the same world that made me think befriending a con artist was a smart idea," said Judy.
She had a point.
"I want to go back."
Judy tried and failed to muster a reassuring smile. "It'll be fine. It's not that bad. There's only—"
"All of them," Nick's voice was harsh with panic. "Every last one of them are down there."
Judy peered down the hill again. In the bottom of the valley where her childhood home was nestled were a sea of familiar bunnies, playing games and snacking on vegetables while they waited for the prodigal daughter and her fox partner to arrive. "You're exaggerating. I don't even see Great-Grand Rabby—oh, no wait, there he is."
"I thought you said this would be a small gathering of immediate family?" He whispered the words as if afraid the bunnies down below would hear him and come rushing over like a cotton-tailed stampede.
"I did, and I'm sorry. My parents must have told a few others."
"By 'a few others' do you mean everyone?"
Judy took his arm. "I promise to protect you from the worst of the ravishers—oops, I mean ravagers."
Nick stared at her. "Was that some sort of weird bunny joke?"
Judy smiled cheekily at him. "Maybe."
"The Great Turtle protect me."
"Just trying to help you relax."
"There is no joke you could make that would manage that right now." He took a deep breath and let it out. He shook out his paws and cracked his neck. "Okay, let's do this."
"Are you planning on fighting them?"
"You never know."
Judy bit back a smile and took his paw. "Come on."
Together they started down the hill. When her family caught sight of them there were shouts of, "They're here!" and a rushing forward from the younger kits who were eager to see Nick in person for the first time. Even Judy had to admit it could be intimidating to find yourself surrounded by so many animals, even bunnies, but Nick didn't flinch. He smiled gamely at the small faces that gaped up at him in awe. Some of the braver kits even poked at his tail and tugged on his paws.
"Are you really Judy's partner?"
"Do you really fight criminals together?"
"is it true you're dating?" This bold question was followed by a low chorus of ooooohs and fits of giggling.
And then the crowd parted and Bonnie and Stu Hopps were there, silence falling in their wake. Butterflies erupted in Judy's stomach and she felt Nick's paw tighten around hers. She smiled brightly at her parents, willing them to do the same. "Mom, Dad, you've met Nick, my partner." She gave Nick's paw a squeeze. "And mate."
Over two hundred pairs of eyes watched the four of them, waiting to see the reaction. The whisper rippled through the crowd—Judy's dating a fox, Judy's dating a fox—fading off as it went, until Great-Gran Rabby shouted near the back, "What was that? Judy's changing her locks?"
Bonnie stepped forward. This time Nick did flinch. But she only pulled him into a hug, saying, "We always thought you two made a great pair."
Stu patted Nick awkwardly on the shoulder. "Impressive work in the city there. We've been following all your exploits."
"Only the good ones I hope," said Nick, a hesitant smile breaking out crookedly across his face, and the parents shared looks of alarm before registering the joke and laughing along.
Happiness swelled inside Judy. She had hoped… but seeing her parents take this change in stride so well. She was beyond proud of them.
The rest of the day past in a happy blur. Judy and Nick were passed around the family like living talking points at a party. Everyone wanted to see them, everyone had questions, or at least an opinion that needed to be shared—all good things, thankfully. Judy noticed a few relatives missing from the gathering that she had worried might have some things to say, but they had either chosen not to come or been told to stay away, for which she was grateful.
The kits all wanted to play with Nick. They mostly hung around with other bunnies, so having a fox to play with was a novelty. They badgered Nick into joining them in their favorite of game of chase. Nick was always it. Every time he would make a feint to grab one of them the kit would spring away, fast as a grasshopper. They found his slower, loping gait hilarious, and Nick took their teasing with good humor, pretending to faint often so he could lay in the grass and rest. This, of course, only provided an opening for them to climb all over him, checking out his ears and tail and paws, peppering him with questions all the while. Clover, a speckled bunny and the youngest of the bunch, took the opportunity to crawl into Nick's lap and plant herself there, nibbling on the claw of her thumb and looking quite content, to the fox's bewilderment. Judy made sure to sneak a picture.
The older bunnies wanted to catch up on family gossip. As Judy chatted with her aunts and uncles about the abnormally warm weather and how the farming was going this season, Great-Gran Rabby voiced his complaints about the neighbors to Nick.
"They're digging tunnels below the legal limit, I tell you! I can hear 'em at night, scurrying right below my den!"
"You can't hear the dinner bell when you're standing right next to it," scoffed Hopper, a cousin whom Judy remembered had prided himself on his extra big feet back in high school. "How would you ever hear something through a wall of dirt?"
Great-Gran Rabby thumped his foot. "It's all about the pitch. The pitch. And I hear them, I tell you. Probably smuggling more of that hippity-hoppity grass the youth like so much."
"Nobody says hippity-hoppity anymore, Gran Rabby."
The old rabbit harrumphed and looked at Nick, who sat stiff and awkward on the bench next to him, Clover now fast sleep in his lap. "You'll look into it, won't you, son? What's the point of having a couple of cops in the family if they can't even keep the neighbors in line?"
"I'll see what I can do," promised Nick.
The younger adults wanted to know about the city: the entertainment, shopping, and the food.
"Forget about that," interrupted Honey, a fawn colored bunny and one of Judy's older sisters. "Tell us you know some hot, city bunnies you can introduce us to."
All day Judy's parents played host, passing around food and drink and fetching things for the older relatives. When Nick made a comment about loving blueberries, Bonnie appeared five minutes later with a whole blueberry pie, which she insisted was all his. It was small for a fox, and the kit's watched with wide eyes as he polished off of the whole thing. They started shoving other types of fruits and vegetables at him, just to see if he would eat it, which of course he did, just to shock them. Shreds of lettuce and bits of broccoli. The greener and leafier the more impressive they found it.
Clover held up a pink flower with great solemnity. It's narrow petals were angled upwards, giving it a vaguely pinecone-like shape.
Nick took it and held it up, inspecting it. "Very pretty. What is it?"
"It's a weed," said one young bunny with a missing front tooth.
From another picnic table an adult shot him a warning look. "Buster, be nice."
Nick looked at Clover. The little bunny ducked her head bashfully. "It's a clover."
"You want me to eat this too?"
She ducked her head even further and nodded.
From where she sat with her sisters, Judy watched as Nick made a big production of looking the flower over, blowing pollen off the top, feeling the leaves, sniffing it. Then he open his mouth comically wide and bit the pink bud clean off. Adults and kits alike watched in expectant silence as he chewed, eyes narrowed as if contemplating the taste. Judy smothered a laugh.
He looked down at Clover. Her eyes were wide, her fluffy paws clasped in front of her as she waited for his verdict.
"Delicious!" Nick declared, and the little bunny beamed as the other kits squealed and ran off to find more edible flowers.
As night trickled in, the younger ones were shooed off to bed. Judy and Nick retired early, claiming exhaustion from work. Judy's room had been cleaned up for them to use. Fresh sheets were on the bed, and her bunny plushies were stacked neatly on the dresser. New, white paper had been tacked over the dirt walls, and the rug looked to have been recently taken out and aired. A painting of a pasture had been added to one wall to give the illusion of a window. That was new. Judy had only ever hung up poster of bands and influential mammals she'd looked up to as a kit.
Nick saw the plushies and laughed. "Yep. This is your room."
Judy made a face at him, watching as he wandered from corner to corner, taking it all in. Having Nick in her childhood bedroom felt strange, as if she were seeing a collision in time. The present overlapping with the past.
He pulled a book from off the shelf, reading aloud, "Famous Revolutionaries in History. Oh yeah. This is definitely your room."
Judy came over and wrapped her arms around his waist, sighing happily when he hugged her back.
"Today was nice," she said.
"Surprisingly, I agree with that statement."
She tipped her head up and shot him a mock glare. He responded by leaning down and kissing her. Judy's toes curled. "Mmm. You taste like carrot cake."
"I think I ate a years worth of vegetables today."
"It'll make your fur nice and shiny."
"Is that how you bunnies get such nice coats?"
"Maybe." She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him again, long and slow. "You know what I feel like doing now?"
"I think I can guess." Nick slide a glance over at the bunny plushies. "But I don't know how I feel about having an audience."
Judy laughed and pushed away from him. "Not that."
"Then what?"
She skipped to the door, turning back to him with a cheeky smile. "I'm going to go steal the rest of the carrot cake."
Nick groaned and flopped back onto her bed. It was too small and his feet stuck off the end. "If I eat so much as one more blueberry my stomach's gonna bust."
"Well some of us didn't have kits bringing them food offerings all day. Stay here and digest then," she told him. "I'll be back."
He waved her out.
Judy crept down the darkened hall towards the kitchen. One good thing about living in an underground home, you didn't have to worry about squeaky floorboards or thin walls. It made sneaking in and out of the house as a teenager almost too easy. Not that she had ever done such a thing, but she'd stayed up late studying enough nights to catch her brothers and sisters at it. Okay, maybe she had done it a couple times.
Light spilled from the open kitchen doorway. She could hear the clinking of dishes and the sound of running water. Her parents, still cleaning up from earlier, no doubt. Washing up took forever after family gatherings like this. She'd help them clean up, and then reward herself with some cake.
As she drew near, she could hear her parents whispering to each other. Judy, having been around them long enough to to recognize an argument when she heard one, paused at the corner of the doorway to listen.
"We talked about this, Stu. It's her choice. How we feel about it doesn't matter."
"Well it should matter. I mean, not all the way maybe, but some. It should matter some, shouldn't it? We are her parents. We do have feelings. And what we feel should matter to her."
"Well what do you want me to do, Stu? You know how Judy is. If this is the mate she's chosen…"
"Well I don't know that you had to go and give him a whole pie earlier."
There was a moment of silence. "You wanted me to deny him pie?"
"Well, maybe not the whole thing. Half, I guess? Half a pie would have made enough of a statement, don't you think?"
"What statement?"
"Yeah, Dad," said Judy, stepping into the kitchen. "What statement?"
Both her parents jumped. Her father dropped the giant pot he had been holding into the sink with a splash that send sudsy water sloshing across the counter.
"Judy!" exclaimed Bonnie. "We thought you had gone to bed."
"And I thought you two were okay with Nick and I dating."
"We are okay with it," said her mother. "We're happy if you're happy."
"You don't look happy," said Judy, pointing to the damp towel Bonnie was wringing, hard enough to send droplets of water plip-plopping onto the floor. She turned to her father. "Dad, you're being awfully quiet. I thought you liked Nick?"
"I do," said Stu. "He's a great fox. And a good partner. We can all see that you make a good team. It's just…"
"Just what?"
"Stu," warned her mother.
"She's the one who asked, Bonnie. Look, we just don't think it's necessary that you buck every social norm just because. Some things you should just leave be."
"You think I'm dating Nick to make some kind of statement?" said Judy, flabbergasted.
"No, no, we know you care about him," said Bonnie. "Very much. But you have to see that dating a fox is not the same as joining the ZPD. This isn't something you can prove is okay the same way you proved a bunny could be a police officer."
"I'm not trying to prove anything," said Judy. "I just want to be with the fox I love."
"But what about all the things you'll miss out on?" asked her father.
"Like what?"
"Like… like…" He looked up at the ceiling as he cast about for an example. "Ah! Like help with the vegetables."
"What?"
"He might be able to eat them, but he'll never be able to help you pick out a really good radish. Foxes just don't have the noses for these things."
"I think somehow I'll be able to live with that," said Judy dryly.
"Or the three-legged hopping races during the harvest festival. You'll never be able to win with someone who can't jump more than a couple feet at a time."
"Now you're just being ridiculous."
"What about kits?" The quiet question came from Bonnie. Judy looked at her mother, who was still twisting that towel within an inch of it's life. Judy could hear the fibers creaking under the strain. "You'll never be able to have kits with a fox."
Judy took a deep breath. "That concern is between Nick and myself. No one else. But if we ever decided that was something we even wanted—which we haven't—there are other avenues. We're certainly not going to leave each other over it."
Her mother didn't seem reassured. Neither did her father. His expression kept crinkling into a frown before drooping into something more worried, then back again. Her mother just looked upset. Water no longer dripped from the towel. She had wrung out every last drop.
They weren't going to come to an agreement on this, Judy realized. Nothing she said would make her parents understand. Continuing to argue with them about it wouldn't help anything.
She forced herself to take a step back. "Still, I want to thank you guys. For being so welcoming to Nick today, I mean. I hope you will continue to support us, despite, uh—" It was suddenly hard to talk. Judy cleared her throat and tried again. "Despite your reservations. I would… we would really appreciate it."
With that, she left the kitchen. Her parents didn't try to stop her.
In the safety of the darkened hallway Judy paused to collect herself. The sound of washing slowing started back up again behind her. No words were exchanged between her parents that she could make out. That was fine. Judy didn't want to know what they would say now anyway.
The feeling of being watched came belatedly. Judy jerked her head up to see someone standing at the end of the hallway, watching her: Nick.
She carried hope for half a second that he hadn't overheard, but then she drew closer enough to see his face and knew he had heard enough.
"Nick… What they were saying… you know I don't… they're just a little…" But no matter how she tried to word it, the excuses all died on her tongue. There was no excuse she could give for her parents. And after she had insisted over and over that everything would be fine! She had inflicted this pain on him. She should have checked beforehand. She shouldn't have brought him here at all. What if he blamed her? What if he left because of this?
She had a sudden, awful image of him walking away from her, so real and visceral that she reached out and grabbed his paw without thinking, afraid he would vanish into the night and she'd never see him again. "Nick…"
"I was just coming to tell you that I remember seeing Great-Gran Rabby sneaking the last of the carrot cake into his bag earlier," said Nick. "So you're out of luck on that dessert."
His voice was normal, with no sign at all that he had just overheard his mate arguing with her parents about his unsuitability.
Tears welled in Judy's eyes. At the first sniffle Nick was there, gathering her close. His big paws stroked her back. "It's okay, Carrots. Cake isn't everything."
"But I really, really wanted it," she confessed.
"Yeah, I know," said Nick. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Me too."