DISCLAIMER: I went for a walk in the woods, and saw a deer with a magnificent antler rack. I was told he was the Great Prince of the Forest. Unfortunately, the forest caught fire and burned my bid to own Zootopia, so guess what? I still don't own Zootopia.
Thanks to TheoreticallyEva and GustheBear for editing this chapter!
For the next month, the third since the Rainforest attack, the city adjusted to a new kind of normal. Some shops and businesses reopened, but many others stayed closed, with a majority throwing in the towel or filing for bankruptcy. Halfway through the month, all of the businesses that had been based out of the Rainforest and Canal Districts before the attack were gone, a few surviving by opening up in another district or switching to an entirely online model. Those that catered to the biome's specialized ecosystem were the first to fall, followed by tourism, hospitality, and small mom-and-pop shops that weren't able to adjust. Woolmart and the city's two grocery chains announced that they would consider reopening stores that had been in the district on a case-by-case basis, but they would not be opening any new stores elsewhere for the time being.
That was before Caldon Reclamation had announced through a message sent to the city council that fifty percent of the buildings in the district were permanently uninhabitable for all mammals. Soil analysis was still ongoing but was expected to be completed in another two months.
Mayor Clawheed had acted quickly, reassuring the population that the city was working on a plan, but also suggested the landowners of the condemned structures contact their insurance companies, "as an added safety measure."
That led to something of an outcry among the insurance companies, with claims backlogged so badly, it would be weeks before new ones could even be reviewed.
The second shipment from Brayer had been a godsend when it arrived. One hundred thousand doses of the antidote had been delivered and subsequently administered to the waiting population of still-savage predators, cutting the number in half. An additional shipment was already on the way, expected to cover all of the remaining savage mammals.
The city's deal with Brayer was often touted as a ray of hope by the media when compared to the continually beleaguered Furston Pharmaceuticals. While the company had continued to crank out their own antidote at record pace, the boycotting had taken its toll. The company had announced the discontinuation of several product lines and the layoff of over five thousand of its staff of ten thousand as low stock prices and bad press continued to plague them.
The news that one of the perpetrators of the attack had been murdered while in jail caused no small number of vocal opinions, either. Prisoner's rights advocates had condemned the ZPD and the Department of Corrections for allowing it to happen, even though the ZPD wasn't directly involved. On the other paw, some victims of the attack had praised the murderer as something of a martyr, saying that the murderer had delivered anything from "deserved punishment" to "judgement from on high" and "sent the devil back to hell," depending on who was asked.
For the ZPD, things had almost returned to normal. The prank and false savagery calls dropped off completely throughout the month, the message that emergency line abuse wasn't tolerated finally getting through to the mammals of the city after over one hundred thousand dollars in fines had been issued for the act and a number of arrests for malicious swatting had taken place. Fortunately for everyone, no one had been hurt or killed, only inconvenienced.
They'd even hired a new mechanic, a white vixen from Tundratown whom Shawn Dancing Rivers had seen off and on prior to the other mechanic's dismissal.
Looking around the bullpen, though, the elk would have thought that it was any other day on the job. The assembled officers were boisterous, challenging each other to everything from staring and scowling contests to arm wrestle matches or even rounds in the ring later.
What was unusual was the fact that his partner was late. Recently, she'd been looking exhausted and mentioned having a headache once or twice. But she'd never been late. He'd asked her if she was doing OK, and she'd been brushing it off, much to his consternation.
Nick and Judy were sitting together in their usual seat up front, sharing the chair like it was the most natural thing in the world. Rivers smiled to himself. Though fresh off the training wheels, the two would be great detectives in the future, depending on where they decided to take their individual careers.
The door banged open, and the surly Cape buffalo chief stormed in. The noise level didn't drop, and only a few officers noticed the new arrival. "All right, you wild animals! SHUT IT!"
The noise level diminished.
"Wow, sir, with an inspirational greeting like that, I think we're all ready to go out and make the world a better place!" The familiar voice of a fox broke the comparative silence.
The noise level was no longer diminished.
"SHUT YOUR FOX TRAP, WILDE!" The chief composed himself. "First things first. I need to address one of our own." He scanned the room, looking each mammal in the eye. "Someone who hasn't been here for quite some time." He spotted the mammal he was looking for.
The chief's expression softened. "Everyone, welcome back Clawhauser."
The room erupted in noise again, those who hadn't greeted the cheetah shouting out their cheers and hellos. Clawhauser had been doing an admirable job of getting back into shape, but it was clear to all who looked at him that he was still the friendly, cheerful feline he always was.
"Clawhauser will be returning to the dispatch desk temporarily, and we'll be putting him back on the beat as soon as he completes his physical and his academy retraining," the chief continued.
More cheers and whoops from the group of assembled officers.
"I'm glad he's getting' back out on the beat. Need more mammals like him out there."
The voice startled Rivers, and he turned to see his partner. She looked like she'd just gotten out of bed with definite bags under her eyes, which were a little dull, but at least she was here.
He would need to have a chat with her later. Privately, he hoped that this slip could fly under the radar, or they could dismiss it as the subway breaking down again, but he needed to know what was going on.
The chief gave out his assignments for the day, with Hopps and Wilde given patrol duties in Savannah Central while a large contingent of the other officers were to take care of the blockades that were still up in the Rainforest District.
Once the briefing was done—nothing new that he needed to be concerned about—Rivers put his hoof on Nolwazi's shoulder and gestured for her to follow him. She frowned but acceded to his request. He led the lioness down the corridors and, after briefly considering a conference room, decided that their temporary office was the best choice for the conversation they needed to have, cluttered though it was with case notes and files. Too great a chance of someone walking in to the conference room.
Closing the door, he turned to his partner, carefully considering his words before speaking. "What happened this morning?"
Adrian Bogo returned to his office, dropped into his desk chair, and rubbed his temples. The last three months had been stressful, both at work and at home, when he could get there. He was looking forward to a vacation when things were more stable. A vacation would have to be planned, though. Some countries that had lost citizens who had been visiting at the time of the attacks were refusing entry to Zootopians. Many were also arguing that since the nature of the crime amounted to genocidal terrorism and many of the victims were foreign citizens, not just Zootopians, then any and all trials of the group should be moved to the International Court.
Privately, Bogo hoped that it wouldn't come to that. International trials were lengthy, and he felt that this was one that Zootopia needed to handle to get past the horror of the event. Putting the trial in international hooves would rob those he swore to protect of a little bit of the justice they deserved. That was his opinion, anyway.
Of course, things for his wife hadn't been much better. At the hotel where she worked, half the staff had been furloughed, and another half of the remaining staff had been notified that they, too, may need to be put on leave. The hotel was just barely hanging on, though they were taking advantage of the lack of business to completely renovate the place. Of the twenty floors, ten were completely closed. According to his wife, they had been gutted and were now just empty shells. The remaining ten were still open for business. Once the upper ten floors were finished, those would reopen and the other ten would be done. She hoped it would be a way to help revitalize the devastated tourism and hospitality sector.
Bogo sighed and rubbed his temples. He was still years away from retirement, being in his mid-fifties, but that didn't stop him from entertaining the notion every once in a while. It was true what they said, though—once a cop, always a cop. He doubted that he'd be able to switch off that part of his brain, even in retirement. Coming out of a poor neighborhood in Sahara Square, he had joined the ZPD when he was twenty-two, fresh out of a criminology degree at Zootopia University, one that he'd worked several jobs to be able to afford. Thirty-two years later, he was the chief of police and had held that office for seven years now. He'd seen it all—riots, the mob, dirty cops, the gang wars, the best of Zootopia, and the worst.
All of it had reinforced his belief that the world was always broken, and that's why it needed good cops.
That thought drew his mind to his newest officers. He saw a lot of his early self in Hopps. Wilde as well. They almost seemed like two halves of a whole, and their work solving both the Night Howler case and the most recent cases involving both the murder of Officer Eric Wolford and the uncovering and arrest of the Night Savage terrorists had been extremely impressive, and both of the detectives with whom they'd been working had said as much.
Now if only Wilde could learn to shut his can.
Chuckling to himself, Chief Bogo clicked one in the proverbial avalanche of emails in his inbox. It never seemed to end, no matter how much work he put into clearing it out. This one that he'd picked was sent from Detective Longtooth to remind him about one she'd sent him a month ago.
By pointing out to the chief how instrumental Marian had been to solving their case, the lioness had suggested that she be considered for civilian employment, possibly in administration and records. Bogo remembered the original email, but like so many others, he'd put it off to deal with more pressing concerns, such as the murder of an incarcerated terrorist.
It was an intriguing idea, and he'd have to talk to Commissioner Pawnenberg about the idea. The vixen had certainly proven that she could be trusted to do the right thing, regardless of the cost to her. Her own investigative work before she involved Wilde and Hopps—and, by extension, his entire department—showed her to be thorough and attentive to detail, something that would be needed in civilian ZPD work. He didn't need her resume; that was something he'd looked up when she became an informant.
Maybe an interview was in order. The Cape buffalo picked up the phone and dialed. Fifteen minutes and a satisfying phone conversation later, he sent an email off to Hopps and Wilde to have them meet him in his office at the end of their shift. Having Mrs. Wilde on would only work if she agreed to it, or wanted to do it. She'd have to apply like everyone else, but he could at least make sure her application was given equal consideration.
Maybe he'd even have someone sit in on their interview to make sure that the bureaucrats in Mammal Resources didn't hold her past or species against her. The last part might be easier than before though, with Skye Karlek having breezed through the interview process and signed on as the new civilian mechanic of Precinct One.
"I know I was late. You don't need to rub my muzzle in it, Shawn."
Shawn Dancing Rivers frowned. He hadn't wanted this to be confrontational, especially not at the outset. "I'm not trying to rub your muzzle in it, Nol. I just want to know what happened. You know how Chief Bogo is about punctuality. The good thing is, he probably didn't notice you weren't in the bullpen. He's been that busy, but he might still bring it up when he looks at the time sheets for the day."
"I missed my alarm, OK? It was just one slip-up. I'm fine, all right? Let's just get to work." The lioness frowned as well and turned to her desk.
The elk sighed. "I'm just worried about you, Nol. You've been looking beaten down for weeks, you've been getting more aggressive with suspects and interviewees, and you're showing up late and acting like it was nothing. What's wrong?"
"I've just got a lot on my plate, that's all." The lioness' voice carried more than a little bit of an edge. She wasn't in the mood for the Spanish Inquisition. She'd stayed too long at the bar last night, and her head was reminding her quite painfully of the price that was to be paid for having too much alcohol and not enough sleep and water.
The elk looked over at her, deeply concerned. "Is there anything I can help with? I'm here if you need to talk or need a hoof…paw with anything."
The elk's voice was warm, and it stirred something in the lioness, but her frustration with being interrogated and the throbbing in her head won out. "I'll be fine, all right? Now can we please get to work?" She knew there was a hard edge to her words, but she didn't care. It wasn't any of his business what she did off the clock. And the last few fucking months were grinding her last nerve. She didn't need to deal with this. She logged on to her computer and pulled up her email program.
On the other side of the office, her partner stared for a moment, before taking a deep breath. "Listen. I know you're going through a tough time. I can tell, all right? I just want you to know that if there's anything I can do, just call me. Ask me. OK? We're all in this together." He hesitated. "If you need to take the day off, I'll cover for you. I'll tell Bogo you went home sick or something. Bogo probably won't mind. We've been putting in enough overtime as it is."
THAT proved to be the wrong thing to say. The lioness snarled and rounded on her partner, her slight twang coming through thicker than usual in her anger. "You think I can't deal with mah shit, is that it, Rivers? Think you need to hold mah paw while I deal with all of this fuckin' shit that's hit the city? That 'bout right?! Listen, you want me out of here? Fine, I'll fuckin' go! Just stay out of mah fuckin' business, Rivers!"
The lioness got up out of her chair and stormed off, slamming the office door behind her so hard the glass in it rattled.
The elk let out his breath, part of him wishing he'd not brought the topic up, but the larger part of him wondering how he could help. He knew that if he tried to offer her anything now, she'd likely get even angrier and reject it out of hoof. He hoped she wouldn't take this whole episode to mammal resources. THAT would be a tough one to explain to them and to Bogo without digging too much into her personal life.
Shawn Dancing Rivers rubbed his temples as he sat down at his desk and, for a moment, placed his head in his hooves, wishing his own headache would go away. He didn't know all that his partner was going through at the moment, but he knew it had started right around the time she'd kicked her boyfriend out. She rarely spoke of that, or of the mammal in general. Maybe that was the reason. Maybe it went deeper.
Whatever the reason, the elk knew that she had to open up first, or she'd just get upset again, and possibly shut down completely. If that happened, he'd lose her just as completely.
"Wow, did you see Benny? I mean, yeah, you saw him, but did you see how much weight he's lost? Wow!" Judy couldn't help but bounce in the driver's seat of the cruiser as they rolled along. "He must have really been working out!"
Beside her, Nick grinned. "Do I detect a hint of admiration there, Carrots?"
"What? No! I just mean… Well, you know… Before he was… well, I mean…" The doe was flustered and struggled to put her thoughts into words. She grunted in frustration before yelping and swerving around a zebra that carelessly pulled out of a side street in front of her without looking.
Judy didn't even need to tell Nick what to do. Before she'd even managed to stabilize the car, her fox had flipped on the lights and sirens and grabbed the radio. "Dispatch, Zulu 240 out on a traffic stop." Ahead of them, the vehicle continued on its way, oblivious.
The radio crackled, and Clawhauser's cheerful voice rang out over the radio waves. "Copy that, 240, out on a traffic stop!"
Nick grinned. "Welcome back, Spots!" Ahead of them, the car finally took notice of the myriad of flashing lights and accompanying siren noise, finally pulling over.
"Thanks, 240, it's great to be back! Though I have a craving for Lucky Chomps right now!"
Nick chuckled as Judy brought the cruiser to a stop, the target vehicle out in front of them. "Don't go sliding back now, Spots! Maybe have a granola bar or something, but not Lucky Chomps!"
"I know, Nick, I've managed to stay away from them for three months already!"
"That's impressive, but I have to go back Carrots up. You know how she is; she'd be lost without me!" He said that in jest, but it still earned him a punch on the shoulder.
"Take care of yourself, 240!"
Nick unbuckled and opened his door as Judy did the same, both approaching the other car from either side. Before they even got to the driver, though, she'd rolled down her windows and was apologizing at them.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't see you there!"
Nick climbed up to the passenger's side door window and knocked, indicating to the zebra that she should roll that one down, too. "How did you not see the cruiser? Painted black and big enough to hold a pair of polar bears?"
The zebra turned to look at Nick before sighing and answering. "My mate…I just got the call that he's been given the antidote and might wake up soon. It's been three months…"
"Your mate? Your partner is a predator?"
The zebra nodded. "He's a cheetah. I know, we're not a very common pair."
Nick laughed. "You don't need to tell us about common pairs!"
The zebra mare let a wane smile cross her face. "No, I guess not." The zebra pulled out her purse. "I'm guessing you want my license and registration."
Judy nodded. "Yes, please ma'am."
The zebra nodded, looking a little morose, and dug out the requested documents, handing them to the doe. The two officers thanked her and headed back to their cruiser, climbing in.
Traffic continued to move around them as the pair checked the vehicle's plates, registration, and insurance, along with the driver's license. Judy's eyebrows went up. "No outstanding fines, no tickets in the last five years. Not even a parking ticket."
Nick laughed. "Well, what do you know. A car that Super-Meter-Maid bunny hasn't ticketed."
The doe groaned. "Shut up, Nick! I wasn't on meter maid duty that long, you know that! Even when you were at the academy, or the week I was on meter duty after I got reinstated!"
"What, with three-hundred-seventy-five tickets a day for five days straight? I was sure you had managed to ticket every vehicle in the city at least once!"
Judy's expression turned smug. "That's only one-thousand-eight-hundred-seventy-five vehicles. Something tells me there are a lot more than that in Zootopia."
The fox shook his head, a grin on his face. "I should have known you would come back with the product of that equation. You bunnies are too good at multiplying."
It was Judy's turn to laugh. "Yes, yes, we are. And three-hundred-seventy-five times five is easy math. Give me something a little more challenging next time!" She looked ahead at the car stopped in front of them while the morning traffic, what little there was, flowed around them. "Think we should let her off? I mean…she's on her way to see her mate…"
Nick gasped. "Is the bunny cop who ticketed parked cars for being thirty seconds over suggesting we should just…ignore this? Let it go? Who are you and what have you done with my partner? Tell me!"
Judy just laughed at that and punched her fox. "I'm just saying, Nick, I think she's been through enough already."
Nick nodded at that. "Giving her a ticket or something would really put a damper on her day." His ears dropped. "I know if you were missing or savage or something for months, I would… Well, I would be pretty damn pissed at the cop who cited me for being a little too inattentive on the road. I agree, we should just give her a little proverbial slap on the paw and let her go."
"Yeah, that sounds good. Come on, let's go." Judy pushed open her door again after checking for traffic, and the two advanced on the car ahead of them. This time, Nick came up on the driver's side with his partner.
The zebra rolled down her window again as Judy returned her license and documentation. "We're letting you off with a warning this time, ma'am. Be careful, ok? There are a lot of vehicles smaller than ours on the road, and if you hit one, or any pedestrian, they could be hurt or killed. Just pay a bit more attention and drive safer."
The zebra looked like the weight of the world had just been taken off her shoulders. "Oh, my God, thank you. I'm sorry, I've just been so distracted lately worrying about my husband and everything."
"I understand, ma'am. I am glad your husband's getting treatment. I hope it goes well." Judy gave her a warm smile.
The zebra's eyes were leaking. "Thank you again, officer. And thank you for being an example for those of us who…well, are like me and my husband, I guess. Finding love outside their species."
Judy's smile grew and Nick's easy grin turned into a genuine smile as he spoke. "Anytime, ma'am. Anything to make the world a better place, as my partner says." He nudged Judy.
"You have a good day, ma'am. Drive safe, and best of luck to your husband," Judy added, waving.
The zebra nodded, her eyes still watery. She rubbed them and then started her car again, checking for traffic before pulling ahead into the street. As the two made their way back to the cruiser, neither could get the smiles off their faces.
"We made the right choice, Nick," the doe officer commented as she climbed into her side of the cruiser.
"Kind of hard to miss that look on her muzzle, Carrots. It looked like we just told her she won the lottery." He sat down and bucked up, staring out the window at where the zebra mare had gone. "I wonder how many others there are out there? Me and you. Gazelle—excuse me, Isabelle—and her tiger. That rabbit and bat we met on the subway. Maddison and Gideon."
"Don't forget my old neighbors. Bucky and Pronk. They were a kudu and an oryx. Gay, too. Not as far divided as inter-order, but still." Judy paused in her thoughts. "I wonder how they are doing?"
Nick laughed. "The Bucky and Pronk Show? I'm actually surprised we haven't gotten a noise complaint from them, given how thin those walls were. I think I remember seeing the pictures on your wall moving when one of them spoke!"
The doe joined in the laughter. "They did. Every time one of them spoke, a picture on the wall moved. I have no idea how that even worked! I even checked behind them for a pole or something that they pushed when they talked. Nothing." She started the car and pulled out into the road.
"I guess I should have guessed they were an item, though. They were three or four times as big as you and lived in the same size shoebox as you did." Nick thought for a moment. "You know, if they redid the interior of that place as a set of luxury units for very small mammals, they could probably make a lot more money than they are right now with mammals your size and larger paying as low as you were."
"Heh. If you think you could convince Dharma Armadillo to go ahead with that, you're welcome to try. She's one of those set-in-her-ways old mammals." The doe shrugged.
"Which sort of explains why the whole place hasn't been updated since the seventies or eighties."
"Agreed. Now come on, we have work to do. What do you say we head over to Sahara Square and see if there's any school zone speeders over there?"
"Sounds like an idea to me, Carrots!"
Nolwazi Longtooth sat fuming on a bench in Zootopia Central Park. She was certain passersby could see the steam and smoke coming out of her ears. Or maybe they were flames. Whatever. How dare Shawn. How dare he. What gave him the right to grill her like that?
She had a lot going on in her personal life, and her partner knew it, but that didn't give him the right to go all shrink on her and try to get into her damn head. She could handle her own shit. Sure, maybe she'd come home a little tipsy a couple times, even forgetting to set her phone last night to wake her up on time, but a lot of mammals did that. So what? It's not like he was her boyfriend or husband or anything.
The thought of boyfriends just made her even angrier, her most recent experience turning out to be a speciesist piece of shit. She hated that she hadn't seen that sooner and tried to fix him when she did, only for him to fall even deeper when she wasn't around. You know, thanks to half the city being poisoned.
An idle thought crossed her mind that maybe she should track him down and make sure he was staying out of trouble, but she squashed it, ruthlessly. He was nothing to her now. Just another mammal on the street that she'd gladly arrest if she caught him breaking the law.
The last few months had been doubly stressful, too, with the constant overtime, the prosecutors' visits to the ZPD, the constant interrogations, and the suspects' lawyers, always rehashing the same things over and over again, going over all the paperwork from the last six months, the mountains of evidence that had poured in from the IT raid a couple months ago...
She was so caught up in her own thoughts, dark as they were, that she barely heard her phone ringing or felt it buzzing in her pocket. When she did, though, she scrambled for it and answered without looking at the caller ID.
"Listen, Rivers, if you're callin' to apologize, you can just fuckin'—"
"Nolly?"
Her father's voice came through loud and clear and stopped her dead in the verbal tirade she was just beginning. She could almost hear the record scratch sound effect. She swallowed. Even though she didn't swear much in general, she never did it at all in front of her dad, nor on the phone with him, for that matter. Some unspoken father/daughter rule. Doubly so, since he was her superior in rank at the ZPD, even if part of another precinct, and swearing at your superiors was generally a very bad idea.
"Sorry, Dad. Just frustrated." She tried to play it off like it was nothing.
"Nols, I've seen and heard you frustrated. This isn't frustrated, this is full-blown angry. What's goin' on?"
"Just some stuff with work." Nolwazi continued to try to play it off as unimportant, but then grew suspicious. "Rivers didn't put you up to this, did he?"
"Your partner? No, I haven't ever talked to him. What's wrong with him?" There was no pause on the other end that might have confirmed it for her. Her dad was telling the truth. He'd never spoken to Rivers.
"He's being a total ass. Stickin' his nose in my personal business. I was a little late this mornin', missed my alarm, and he laid into me!"
There was a long pause at the other end. "You're never late, Nol. Not ever, since you were a cub and I caught you dawdlin' to school with your friends. Remember that? You were eight at the time."
Nolwazi shrank at the memory. She and her friends were already late for school and figured being a little later wouldn't get them in any more trouble. That was when her dad had rolled down the road in his cruiser and spotted the group. She'd been so embarrassed when her father had taken all of them first to the school's office, then to their class. All of the students had looked on as the police officer corporal watched them make their way to their desks before having a quiet conversation with the teacher and then leaving. "Yes, Dad, I remember it."
There was a hum from the lion on the other end. "Maybe this is something you and I should talk about over lunch. That's actually why I called. Want to grab a bite today?"
The lioness nodded, even though Amanzi Longtooth couldn't see her. "That'd be nice."
A/N
Well. What's going to happen between Nolwazi and Shawn now? Will they even still be friends after this? *Evil cougar plotting*
Happy end of tax season for those of you whose taxes are due at the end of April. I just barely got mine done on time. And the minute I clicked send, I got an alert on my phone that a new round of lockdowns was in place. I must be cursed.
One person caught the reference in the last chapter. Can you find the two in this chapter?
Coming up on May 14: Mea Culpa!
Questions? Critiques? Did a rabbit thump on the log you were hiding in? Leave a comment!