21 Road Trip Pt. III

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With the formality of signing the proper documents and having them faxed to the ZIA office in Zootopia out of the way, Nick, Judy and family take the short drive from Bunnyburrow back to Aurora and set about car shopping.

Cruising past several of the lots slowly, nothing catches their eye, but the next lot seems to have just the right vehicle for them.

Parking the van, Nick and Judy have barely exited the vehicle when they are greeted by a well-dressed male skunk salesmammal.

"Ello" begins the mammal extending a paw towards Nick "My name ees Pepe LePew. What can I do for you today?"

Smiling at the accent and taking the skunks paw, Nick introduces himself "Nick Wilde. My wife Judy and I were admiring the large blue SUV as we were driving by and thought we'd check it out."

"Ah Monsieur, Madame, I weel be happy to show you zee vehickle. Please wait juust a moment while I get zee keys…"

While the salesmammal is gone after the keys, Nick, Judy and the kits scope out the vehicle.

The wolf sized Expedition seems to be just what they need – 3 row seating, DVD player with screens built into the headrests to keep the kits occupied during long trips, easy to reach climate controls, BlueFang connectivity for easy phone calls and even more access to movies and sound tracks, plenty of cup holders and even, of all things, four-wheel drive capability.

"You know" begins Judy thoughtfully "the four-wheel drive will probably come in handy during the winter..."

Seeing the does eyes suddenly pop wide open and her ears stand straight up, Nick is intrigued …

"Fluff?"

"The kits have never seen snow either Nick … this is going to be sooo much fun come winter!"

"So, maybe a quick tour of Tundra Town when we get back to Zootopia will be in order, just to give them a taste of winter?"

"That would be wonderful!"

"Then consider it planned…"

…

After a short test drive, mercifully going well with six rambunctious kits in the car, Nick and Judy return to the dealership to find the salesmammal waiting for them.

"And how did you like zee vehickle?" he asks.

"It's just what we need." answers Judy.

"And now for the fun part…" continues a slightly(?) sarcastic Nick.

"NICK!"

"What? you know as well as I do that dealing with car salesmammal's is a pain!" says Nick in his defense.

"Eet ees alright Madame, I have heard much worse." inserts Le Pew, trying to defuse the situation.

"It is most certainly NOT alright!" assert's the upset doe "Nick has absolutely no business being so rude to someone who is just trying to make a living."

"To allay Monsieur's concerns, eet will interest you to know zat zee management has been trying unsuccessfully to sell zis vehicle for some time. I am sure zat I can get zis vehicle for you at a substantial savings."

"That would be really nice of you." admits Judy to the skunk, all the while giving Nick her best stink eye (no pun intended), much to the amusement of all six kits.

Following the salesmammal into the dealership, Nick and Judy (especially Nick) were surprised to find out that indeed the vehicle had been extremely difficult to sell despite being a wolf sized SUV. Evidently it had been specially ordered and the buyer had been suddenly arrested on some unknown charges, with that, no one seemed willing to purchase the vehicle even with the price discounted due to the minimum 10% of the cost being paid up front. Getting the vehicle at a substantial savings, with much needed modifications for Nick and Judy's smaller size were thrown in at no additional cost (the dealer just wanted it off the lot). With the modifications taking several days to complete, arrangements were made to have the SUV delivered to them at the Palms Hotel in Zootopia when they were completed.

…

On the road back to the Hopps burrow, Nick spares a glance at his bunny and sees that she's still a bit upset.

"What?"

"I still can't believe that you insulted that poor salesmammal like you did!"

"I apologized … and I meant it. what more can I say, I'm sorry!"

"…" other than a short huff, Judy stays silent.

…

The rest of the short trip to the burrow was made in relative silence (not counting six overly excited kits).

Pulling to a stop in front of the main burrow, Nick and Judy unload their kits, hoping that the fluffle isn't too much of a trauma for their small group.

As Bonnie opens the door, Cotton and Sasha are the first to greet the Wilde kits.

"I made sure to tell the rest of the fluffle to be a bit less rowdy since your kits aren't used to all of the attention just yet." the matronly doe informs Nick and Judy

Watching the two Cottons and Sasha and James hug each other, the majority of the younger Hopps kits cautiously approach.

"We got this momma!" Cotton and Sasha tell the adults (mainly Bonnie) as they cautiously introduce the many Hopps kits to the Wilde's.

With no major panic setting in, Bonnie, Nick and Judy retire to the kitchen, leaving the front door partially open so as to keep a bit of an eye on the kits, not entirely trusting of the normally rambunctious Hopps fluffle.

Addressing Nick, Bonnie tries to put to rest a concern that she knows that Nick still has.

"Nick" she begins "I know that you're still concerned about Sasha and Nicholas possibly being related. I'd like to put that to rest right now if I may."

"Not very good at hiding that was I?" asks the todd in an unusually serious tone of voice.

"I'm a mother Nick, we notice these things. Since you're still concerned, I'm going to guess that Judy hadn't filled you in on Sasha's brief history."

"No I hadn't mom." admits Judy, a bit contritely "Sorry."

"It's alright bun-bun-"

"Mom, really?"

"Sorry honey, I had to make up for lost time … Anyway, Sasha is practically an orphan, and is two years older than Nicholas. Leroy's wife died during kitbirth and since he was so young and inexperienced, the entire litter was taken in by Stu and I to raise as our own and were legally adopted. So you see, Sasha and James are NOT direct cousins. You have no cause to worry about inbreeding."

"That … takes a lot of worry off of my shoulders, thanks … mom." which causes Bonnie's breath to hitch slightly.

Tearing up, Bonnie takes the todd into a tight hug.

"I'm so sorry about the grief I caused you all when Judy and the kits got back." Bonnie confesses softly into Nick's chest, which causes Judy to tear up and join them.

"If we've all learned anything" returns Nick just as quietly to both does "it's that everyone deserves a second chance."

"Bless you Nick" continues Bonnie "for bringing my daughter and grandkits home…"

"Got room in there for one more?" asks a just arriving Stu.

"Sure dad," admits Judy "there's always room for another."

After a few more minutes, Bonnie finally breaks the hug.

"Do – do you suppose you could give us that nice Agency vixen's number?" Bonnie asks Judy out of the blue.

"I don't see why not." answers a slightly confused Judy "but why?"

"Well, your dad and I were talking, and we thought that, well … maybe … we could take in a few of the kits that might not have anyone to go home to … to … to give them a loving home to grow up in."

Tearing up again, Judy grabs her mother "Mom, that would be wonderful."

Pawing over her phone, Judy makes a MuzzleTime call to Skye.

"Hello?" as Skye answers, not quite remembering Bonnie's face.

"Agent … Winters?" asks a suddenly unsure Bonnie.

"Yes, and you are…?"

"I'm Bonnie Hopps, Judy's mother."

"Of course! How are you and to what do I owe the honor of this call?"

"Well, my husband Stuart and I have been talking, and Judy agrees, that maybe, it it's ok with you, that maybe we could take in a few of the younger kits that might not have anyone to go home to regardless of species." Bonnie gushes out all at once.

With a broad smile, Skye tells the elderly doe "Mrs. Hopps, I'm ever so grateful that you called. The agency has roughly fifty or so younger kits, cubs, pups or what have you from all over the globe that we rescued that we were unable to find relatives for and were frankly at a loss to know what to do with, not wanting to place them in orphanages."

Wide eyed, Bonnie stammers "I-I-I, ummm I don't think that we can take in quite that many, but I'm sure that we can find good homes for those that we can't take in right here in the Tri-Burrow area. If you'll give us a little time, I'm sure we can work something out."

"Take all of the time that you need Mrs. Hopps, I'll run your suggestion by the higher-ups here at the Agency and let them know about your voluntary assistance in dealing with the displaced young mammals. I'm quite sure that there will be no problem with your gracious offer. please be forewarned that many of these young are of mixed species and that quite a few of those are pred/prey hybrids. If you'll give me your fursonal number, I'll call back when I have an answer for sure."

After giving Agent Winters the main burrow number, Bonnie breaks the connection.

…

Taking her mother into another tight hug, Judy quietly asks "You really are trying, aren't you?"

"Yes dear, I really am." answers Bonnie just as softly.

Just as Nick was about to join the hug, a shrill scream from outside garners the attention of the four adults.

As they hurriedly exit the burrow, all fears are put to rest when they observe all of the kits, both Hopps and Wilde, playing a rowdy game of tag. To everyone's relief, the kits took turns (intentionally or not) tagging the opposite family. With everybunny (yes including Nicholas who is half bunny after all) simply having fun, the entire mini-fluffle is apparently bonding.

After roughly thirty minutes of playful roughhousing, the adults manage to corral all of the kits by announcing that supper was ready.

With the evening meal taking place a bit later than usual, a quick movie was in order afterwards, then all kits were sent to get ready for bed.

While getting the Wilde kits ready, Judy and Nick made sure that their kits had actually had a good time and hadn't been simply pretending.

The answers from all the kits were unanimous – they all wanted to stay and play again the next day.

Hopes were dashed however (especially those of Nicholas and Cotton) when they were reminded that the family needed to go back to Zootopia to finalize the adoption papers and begin to organize their few things for their move to Aurora, with promises made to return as soon as mammalanly possible.

In the back of Nick and Judy's minds, a certain statement of Skye's stood out … that being the 'few other things' that the vixen had mentioned. For some reason her tone of voice was slightly different.

'I guess we'll find out soon enough!' they both thought.

…

With the ride back to Zootopia being mostly uneventful with the kits admiring the scenery, being lost in their own thoughts or chatting about their return to the Hopps burrow, Nick and Judy quietly discussed what to do with the money and property that she and the kits would be receiving from Reginald Taylor Leggson - aka Jack Savage.

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