The wooden schoolhouse's paint peeled in more areas than Judy could count, and the name "Sunshine Middle School" looked more like "Sun hine Mi le hool" unless you looked closely. The bench they sat on, also wood, had rotted away in parts, but enough remained for both Judy and Nick to sit comfortably on it.

Though the school was in some disrepair, the yard where the twenty-some cubs played had been kept neat and tidy, the grass trimmed short and the jungle gym clean, if rusty in parts.

Possums and raccoons clambered over the gym, while foxes and coyotes and weasels played tag around the yard and badgers and skunks roughhoused on the grass. "Did you play in this yard too?" Judy asked Nick.

He nodded. "When I went to school."

"How long do you think these kids will stay in school?"

"Who can say? But it'd be none of them if the school didn't stay open. I'm glad we did that at least."

"Think we might've convinced some of them to stick with school this morning?"

"Maybe one or two." Nick leaned back and watched the cubs run around, wrestle, and climb. "That badger seemed interested in being a cop. A little too much, if you ask me."

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, just…" He waved a paw and lowered his voice. "You heard him. And look at him out there. He's not wrestling the kids his size; he's picking on the littler ones."

Judy folded her arms. "Sounds like he'd be a good fit for the ZPD then."

Nick perked his ears. "Carrots? Is that you?"

She snorted. "No, really," he said. "What's got under your fur? Tired of getting commendations from Chief Bogo? Worried there won't be room on your desk for the next one?"

She elbowed the fox's side, and he grinned, tail wagging. "We solved that case," she said. "Jenny's testimony proved pretty definitely that Councilor Sand plotted with her husband to steal the money from this school and send it to theirs. And what happened? Freddy went to jail. Jenny got probation for conspiracy. Sand got 'reprimanded' by an ethics committee, and her husband got a suspended sentence."

"Roarey got fired."

"From Precinct Four. He's applied for a job in Pride Springs."

Nick frowned and pulled out his phone. "Where the heck is that?"

Judy laughed. "So there are things you don't know."

"If it isn't in Zootopia, it doesn't matter," Nick said. "Except Bunnyburrow, I'll give you that one."

"Pride Springs is a town a couple hours south of here, mostly lions and gazelles, you know."

"Makes sense."

"Anyway, I was keeping an ear to the ground and I heard McHorn talking about Roarey getting a job with the Pride Springs PD. Not official yet but it sounds like it's happening. And McHorn wasn't even angry about it. He said Roarey was a good cop who got busted by 'politically correct operators,' which I guess is us?"

"McHorn's a—well, let's just say he thinks with his horn."

"He's not the only one, though." Judy sighed. "Nick. I thought the ZPD was supposed to make the world a better place, and I know we've done that, but…"

"But it's not making it a better place for everyone?"

"Exactly. The rich people who commit crimes, they mostly get away with them, unless it's something horrific like Bellwether did, and even most of the sheep who helped her got short sentences or probation."

"We do what we can." Nick gestured at the cubs. "And we did this, don't forget. We got the money returned to the school."

"I know. I was just wondering—" Judy broke off as an adult coyote in a pretty green dress made her way through the tangle of cubs to their bench.

"Hi," Jenny Scar said. "Mind if I sit down?"

Nick eyed the rotted wood on the exposed side of the bench and got up, offering Jenny his seat. "Thank you," she said as she sat down. "And, well, thank you both, again."

"How's the job going?" Judy asked.

"Well, slowly." Jenny laughed a little nervously. "The people I know who have money don't want to support the school, and the people who want to support the school don't have money. But we're working on it. I have some ideas about how to get people to be more aware of what the school can do, and I'm working with other people in the community to maybe put on a larger scale fundraiser."

"That's great," Nick said. "Like a big bake sale?"

"Bigger than that." The coyote smiled, and Judy thought about how different her demeanor was here. She wasn't nervous or fidgety; she had perked, hopeful ears and a bright smile. "A little fair, maybe. I was going to ask if you two would come and help out with it."

"Of course," Judy said, and Nick nodded agreement. "We'd be delighted to."

"Great. And thanks so much for coming in today. It was fun to watch you talk to the cubs about policing, and you really have made such a difference."

They chatted with her a while longer and then Judy and Nick had to head back to the station. On the way back to the car, Nick said, "See, we definitely made a difference for her."

"Right," Judy said. "But…Nick, what do you enjoy about being a cop?"

"Enjoy?" His ears splayed. "I have a pretty cool partner."

"Apart from that." She smiled.

"I guess…I like solving cases. I don't like the paperwork and I don't like getting involved in petty crime stuff. And I'm not that fond of most of the other officers, though Clawhauser and Rainy and Bogo are okay. I still think Whitehorn's in deeper than she was letting on."

"I do too." Judy took a breath as they got to their car. "I like a lot of those same things. I like catching criminals—but real criminals, not like the Freddys but more like the Sands."

"So if we keep going…" Nick opened the door and got in. "In a few years we could make detective?"

Judy walked around and got in her side. "We could, yeah." She put the keys in but didn't start it. "Or we could just become detectives."

Nick tilted his head. "Like…private investigators?"

"It's just an idea."

"Giving up on the ZPD so quickly?"

"It's been over two years, Blueberries. And the more I learn, the more I don't like. This case—and you—really opened my eyes."

"You realize," the fox said, tapping his paws together, "that if we were private investigators, the main difference in this case would've been that we couldn't get a warrant to search the theater office, and you couldn't get to Freddy's arrest record."

"And the Better Days bartender might have trusted us more, and Jenny Scar might not have been afraid of us."

"And we might've actually been arrested rather than just suspended and reprimanded."

"And we wouldn't have to listen to anyone telling us to get off the case. We could keep going and implicate Captain Whitehorn if we wanted to. We could dig up more dirt on Sand. We could look into all those developments and any other stuff they did."

Nick nodded. "All right. I like it. What do we have to do?"

"There's an exam. It's a process, but…I think we could do it. And we've got some name recognition now."

Nick flicked his tail back and forth. "I don't know how much all the rich people will want to hire the team that got a mayor and councilor arrested."

"We didn't get Sand convicted." Judy tapped the wheel. "Anyway, neither of us needs a lot of money, right? We can take small jobs. And we could pick the ones that make a difference."

"You're making it sound good. What would we call ourselves? Fox and Carrots?"

Judy laughed. "Hoppin' Wilde?"

"Well, if you're sure it's what you want to do, I guess it couldn't hurt to look into it." Nick leaned back in the seat.

"Have I ever steered you wrong?" Judy grinned as she started the engine.

"Not outside the car." Nick gripped the handles dramatically.

"Ha ha." Judy pulled out into traffic and sped down the road. She and Nick talked all the way back, even as they passed the Happytown sign and the old shop with John Wilde's name on the front, all the way back to ZPD headquarters. And when they pulled into the garage there, Judy felt a curious sensation, a growing certainty that this was not her final stop, but just a place for her to learn before moving on. The idea of giving up on the ZPD was a little scary, but if Nick had taught her anything, it was that dreams could change. And anyway, Simon was going to write a really good article. In a few years there would be more bunny cops. Maybe it was time to forge a new path, a new way to change the world.

Whatever they decided to do next, she was glad that she and Nick would do it together.