Chapter 3: What if Judy had never learned the truth about Night Howlers?

Author's Notes: The author of the idea is FoxyWithTheMoxy , thanks for this great idea! The story is rated T because I take some topics quite seriously and there may be swearing at times (though not necessarily)

Judy stood at a small carrot stall selling the vegetables her parents traded. As much as she tried to keep her head occupied with something, she couldn't forget about Nick and what had happened in Zootopia. All these events overwhelmed the rabbit, she couldn't find herself in it and she had to leave her dream place, where her dreams came true for a while. When customers came to see her, her face was grim and sad, her slicked back ears made it clear. She served carrots in a neatly wrapped newspaper then dismissed her customers with the goods they had bought saying grimly: "Have a nice day". All this was watched by Bonnie and Stuu, who were nearby because they had to see how their carrots were growing on one of the shelves where they had sown carrots. The sight of their depressed daughter was not the happiest sight, so they decided to react somehow.

"Hoppy! How's it going? How much is a carrot ?" joked Stuu trying to make any contact with Judy. He didn't make it and Bonnie elbowed him, telling him to be more serious.

"How are you feeling?" asked Stuu more seriously after the remark from his wife.

"Fine" replied Judy quietly without changing her position. She continued to look at the news excerpts from the newspapers that lay before her, ready to pack in more carrots.

"Well, but how good is it if your ears are lying down?" asked Bonnie.

"Not good...what was I even thinking going to Zootopia to be a policewoman..."

"You had dreams like that after all remember ? You always succeeded" Stuu replied trying to comfort her, but to no avail. She was chained too tightly for such small things to comfort her for once.

"I've succeeded now too... turn the lives of hundreds of people into a nightmare," Judy countered.

"It can't be that bad..."

"And yet it can. Why did I have to..."

"Well, but see. Not everything has taken a turn for the worse " said Stuu when he noticed a white and pink van driving towards them. Judy felt a strong sense of surprise when the car stopped and she noticed a large grey sign on it: "Gideon Grey's".

"Gideon Grey's?" read aloud to a surprised Judy. He had been a very bad boy in the past, or at least Judy remembered him that way when he made marks on her left cheek with his sharp claws. She hadn't seen that fox since. Judy walked over to the back of the car so she could see her old friend who was looking at the car's luggage.

"Gideon Grey's" said Judy drawing the fox's attention. He slid out of the back of the car and turned around behind him. His face showed his great surprise when he noticed the familiar rabbit in front of him.

"Hey Judy...listen forgive me for what I did to you...I...I...I was very aggressive back then and had uncontrollable outbursts of aggression due to anxiety and fear, that's what the doctor told me..."

"Ohh...You know, I managed to do some silly things too," replied Judy as Fox started to take out the trays of cakes. There were all sorts of cakes with different fruits on them, which Gideon was putting on the stall where Judy was selling the goods. There were quite a few of these cakes, but he didn't lay them all out as other cakes were to be distributed at other booths.

"Gideon is now our best associate. We have a lot of profits thanks to him and you can always count on him."

"You know. You can always rely on me now!" replied Gideon as he finished lining up the cakes for the stall. He approached Stuu, who handed him the money for his work.

"I'm going to keep distributing. Take care Judy, good luck to you!" said Gideon as he stowed the trays in the car and he himself got into the car. A moment later the car started and began to pull away from Mr and Mrs Hopps.

"Ok Judy, if you don't want to you can rest, I'll stand now " offered Stuu, but Judy firmly nodded her head forbiddingly as she walked over to the stand waiting for someone to come and buy something. Even though she was not in a good mood and every good morning or goodbye was gloomy and sad, even though the sun was shining happily, she didn't want to stop working because she would be lost in her thoughts about Nick. She felt very sorry for him; she felt very sorry for him. It was only now that she was able to see what a stupid and inane interview she had given that had hurt the fox so badly. She had not expected that a few words would be enough to bring about this tragedy. Just seconds before the interview they had unofficially been partners at work.

Soon it was 2 p.m., the hour when news from Zootopia was always broadcast on the radio. When Judy saw the hour on her watch, she immediately turned up the radio so she could overhear what was happening in the metropolis.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen, it's 2p.m. and that means it's time for the daily happenings from Zootopia, which have not been good the last few days. Since an interview with now former police officer Judy Hopps, predator feralism has increased daily, the mayor is considering quarantining parts of the city. From what we've been able to determine, residents are not happy that a quarantine is to take place. With us today is a special guest, namely a professor of rare diseases, Dr. Jeff. Tell us, if the situation continues like this, what will it come to?"

"Well, the consequences could be many, mostly bad ones. I think if it is introduced for part of the metropolis, soon the whole city will be frozen by quarantine. In fact, it all depends on our professors who work day and night on the antidote, so far unfortunately no satisfactory results. Assuming that the antidote is not invented, the quarantine of the predators will lead to the fact that Zootopia may soon change beyond recognition."

"And what do you think? Is there a chance of rescue?"

"Well... I'd like to think so, but no one knows what the future will hold..."

"Okay, thank you for those words. Now let's move on to sport..."

After talking to the professor, Judy turned down the radio. Her mood worsened again when she heard the man's words. Again she felt that all this had happened because of her. Her ambitions had always been high, but now her plans were too ambitious for her and now she would most likely have to swallow the bitterness of defeat. There was nothing more she could do. Although she wanted to help the town somehow she knew it was impossible looking at the riots that had been created after her ill-considered words.

"Listen Judy...why don't you sit down after all? You don't look well," Bunny said as she approached Judy. And indeed she did, in part. Her complexion was all pale, her legs were soft, and her gaze was thoughtful and vacant.

"You know... I think I'm going to go home...I feel bad somehow...I'm sorry "

"Don't be sorry Judy. We all know the situation you are in " said Stuu. Judy took the car keys from her father, then got into the car. She thought for a few moments if she really wanted to drive away, then decided. The car started towards the house.

As Judy drove away, Bunny and Stuu were watching in the same direction. They were not happy with the way their daughter looked.

"Did she say why she left the police force in the first place?" asked Stuu breaking the moment of silence.

"Well she didn't...she just said that she turned hundreds of people's lives into a nightmare, probably about that interview " replied Bunny.

"ah yes. Here come the customers, we'll talk about it later " said Stuu seeing a bunch of rabbits heading towards their stall.

Two weeks later

It's been two weeks since Judy gave up her job as a police officer and left Zootopia. During that time the rabbit had been working all the time at her parents' house just like her siblings. Sometimes she planted carrots, sometimes she sold them and sometimes she watched over the fields to make sure no one uninvited wandered into them. Although she did her job conscientiously and could not be accused of anything, Judy was still immersed in the situation that had forced her to leave the metropolis. Every day when she left for work she took a small portable radio with her to listen to the news from Zootopia every two hours, which was not the best. Every day she heard about the increase in the number of feral predators that were becoming more numerous. One day Judy heard on the radio that there would always be police on the buses and subways and there would be a limited number of predators on public transportation!

"What have I done..." sighed a distraught Judy hearing the news. But that wasn't her only worry. She was also thinking all the time about Nick, whom she had terribly hurt. They were already friends, they could already be working together, when she gave the inaccurate interview that had caused all this.

"I need to talk to him," Judy thought. At the moment all she did was sit and stare at the ground of the field, making sure that no one entered the field. Not many people did, but there had been a lot of people around lately who had been destroying people's fields or ripping off the fruits of their hard work, and as the Hopps family was large there was no problem in organising such an activity as guarding a field. Judy had the keys to the car behind her. She didn't have to think long about what she wanted to do. She got into the car and then drove away from her post to go meet Nick.

"I need to find Finnick" she considered in her head as Judy headed into the centre of town where Finnick usually parked his van when he had nothing to do. As the rabbit drove into town she was horrified at the sight she saw. Masses of people stood in the streets making a protest in front of the mayor's staff with placards that had all sorts of inscriptions. Some were aggressive, some less so. Some were cultural, but some were not. What surprised Judy was that it wasn't just predators protesting, because there were several other animals. This sight made her even more depressed knowing that it was all because of her, that her failure to solve the case had caused all hell to break loose in the town. Being a police officer she thought she would make the world a better and simpler place, but it turned out she did what she feared the most. She made things even worse. She didn't want to think about it anymore, so she shook her head vigorously, and squeezed her car through the crowd. Luckily for her, the angry citizens didn't recognize Police Officer Judy in her, and let her drive on peacefully. Driving on, she wandered into a tight alley where Finnick was parked.

"It must be here somewhere...oh! There it is!"

Judy found a red car rusty on the underside and stopped across the street. She got out of the car, then ran over to the car knocking on its back door. She heard footsteps inside. A moment later the door was opened by a small white fox holding a stick in his hand.

"What!" he growled, but his expression quickly changed to one of gentleness when he saw the familiar face of the rabbit.

"Where's Nick?" asked Judy. Finnick hearing the question indicated with his hand for Judy to get inside the car.

"Sit down, please " suggested Finnick as she sat down across from him.

"Nick...isn't here " said Finnick as the rabbit took a seat.

"What do you mean he's not here?"

"He left...After that thing with you, he told me that your words caused him pain. Did he tell you about what he went through as a child?" asked Finnick, to which Judy obediently nodded with a motion of her head.

"You made him feel those feelings again. That he's just a fox and that the bad must be in him because he's got it in his bottom. I tried to explain to him that it wasn't true, but your words hurt him so much. You don't even know how he went crazy screaming and cursing, even though there were tears in his eyes. If it wasn't for the fact that he liked to pretend to be steel he would have cried and it would have worked out for the better." replied Finnick. Judy couldn't believe what she was hearing. She would have loved to start crying herself, she didn't want to believe it, but Finnick nodded affirmatively confirming the authenticity of his words. She didn't speak for a few moments trying to put everything together in her head.

"Do you know where it is?"

"I know, but forgive me in advance, I can't tell you. I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone."

"And...Tell me what's going on in the city?"

"Chaos! Everyone's on strike, they're closing everything down for predators. I'm leaving for Nick's tomorrow myself, I'm sick of this place, it's no place for predators...not now " Finnick replied.

"If you leave...give him my phone number, and tell him I'm terribly sorry, that I acted like a hypocrite, and that he was right that I'm just a stupid rabbit..." swallowed Judy barely. She couldn't stand her emotions, and then she wept bitterly while burying her face in her soft hands. Finnick didn't react, he waited a few minutes for her to calm down a little, then placed his hand on her lap turning his attention to her.

"I'll tell him what he needs, now please go. I want to embrace the car before I leave " Finnick said, whereupon Judy obediently exited the car.

"Thank you," she said quietly, after which he said goodbye.

Epilogue

A day later Judy was feeling a little better, that night was very hard for her. She could not fall asleep. She had very bad headaches that only calmed down in the morning. She had been staring at the phone all day waiting for Nick to call, but it hadn't happened. Although she had hoped Nick would call, there was no call for her, which destroyed all hope. It wasn't until the evening that someone called. Judy quickly picked up the phone hoping it was Nick, however, it was an unfamiliar number.

"Hi Judy"

"H...Hi? "

"Ah , yes. You don't have my number. It's me, Finnick."

"Uf...it's just you. Why are you calling?"

"I could see by your reaction that you wanted Nick to call, so I wanted to call you and tell you that...he wasn't going to call you"

"He didn't accept the apology did he?"

"Well...I'm sorry, I tried to convince him, but nothing came of it..."

"I see, thanks for calling..." replied Judy, then hung up. She leaned her head against the table top closing her eyes trying to sort out her thoughts in her head. She needs to close this chapter.