Chapter One: To Grandmother's House, We Go

A/N: Welcome to the second story in the holiday canon! This is a shorter story that mainly is about Nick being upset with Finnick and helping develop the bond between Penny and Judy. It's a bridge from "Guess who's coming to Christmas" to the next story, "The A word". It's pretty much all fluff. I hope you enjoy it!

One thing I noticed when planning out a story with a lot of dialogue is that you can only plan so much dialogue of a scene in advance, but when you type it out, it tends to flow more like a natural conversation and can be much longer.

January 7th at the Bunnyburrow orphanage.

The former nun, Stacy Longears sat nervously in front of the desk where her superiors were glaring at her. She was under evaluation. They were looking over papers of her recent work. They weren't exactly happy with her. It was a catholic-run orphanage and she had not only come out as a lesbian but left the sisterhood and was no longer a nun.

The head of the orphanage was an ox who was upset with her recent doings. He was reading over her recent work as he talked to her. "So, miss Longears... How long have you been with us?"

"A-About five years sir," Stacy said sheepishly.

And in those five years, have you ever just... given a child to a stranger?"

"No, sir."

"Oh, but you have! Just two weeks ago, you gave a bunny named Greg over to Judy Hopps. No visits by welfare workers, no background checks, just some paperwork and BAM! Greg belongs to Judy."

"In all fairness sir, Judy needed no background check because I knew her very well already. I'm a huge, huge fan of hers and had studied all of her work as a police officer and the hard work she had done to become one."

"Ah yes! You're a fan of hers. But you're more than just a fan aren't you?"

"What do you mean, sir?"

"We know about the poster in your room."

Stacy looked embarrassed. "Oh."

"Are you telling me that your attraction to this woman had nothing to do with your decision to let her adopt Greg?"

"No! It was Judy's character as a person that made me go with that decision! She's a very loving and kind person while still being tough and fair. I knew she would be perfect for Greg!"

"Well... Even if we were to overlook that, there's the other matter of the fox-girl Penny."

"I did Penny by the book! I did not give her up on a whim, Nick and Judy were married at the time they adopted her AND I have welfare checking up on her!"

"You let a mentally ill girl get adopted by a cross-species couple who JUST got married! They were only engaged that day when they decided to wed early just to adopt her."

"She's NOT mentally ill! She's under a severe state of depression and grief from losing her parents and we have far too many children to take care of to give her the special kind of attention she needs."

"I heard there was fighting within the family the moment she arrived at her father's house, AND she's not too fond of her new mother."

"She's better now! You haven't heard the whole story! Penny had been a child who pushed away all other children. Who would barely talk to me, but Nick got through to her and she bonded with him within minutes. She started to eat better that night. She's still having grieving pains and there are times where she's still screaming and trying to hurt herself, but she's got the support she's desperately needed. Did you hear about 'Baby Grandpa?' "

"The viral thing on Ewetube?"

"Right! That's what helped save her and her family. I guess I should backtrack a bit. As you said, the family was in-fighting a bit. Mostly Nick and Finnick. Finnick is a fennec fox that got engaged to Nick's mom without him knowing. The two were best friends before this. Nick found out that Finnick was engaged to his mother that night when they had gotten off the train and Finnick arrived in his old van. Nick was FURIOUS that Finnick would even think of courting his mother."

"Wait... Is this going to go into a flashback?"

"I'm afraid so. It was Christmas night around 6:30 when..."

6:30pm In front of Finnick's van...

Nick still had Finnick by the throat, slammed against his own van. He was furious at the fennec fox for romancing his mother and getting engaged to her behind his back. " 'To be continued' is over Finn!"

Nick reared his fist back, but before he could land a punch, Judy screamed at him. "NICK STOP!"

Nick looked over at Judy. He could see the pleading in her eyes. "What are you doing?! Our children are seeing this!"

Nick was starting to gain his composure and easing up on Finnick. This allowed the fennec fox to bite his hand. Nick gave out a "YIPE!"

"Serves ya right!" Finnick said. "What the hell man?!"

"What the hell are you doing with my mother?!" Nick fired back.

"Making her happy, keeping her company and... things I can't say in front of the kids."

"And all this while keeping it secret from me for months!"

"Gee! I wonder why?! Maybe it's because your mother knew exactly how you'd react."

Nick growled, but things calmed down for now. Finnick noticed that Greg was staring at the mural on the side of the van. "You like that?"

"It's awesome!" Greg replied. "Did you make this?!"

Fennec smiled. "Sure did! It's my masterpiece."

"You're really talented!"

"Thanks! Ha! I like this kid!"

Nick's ears bent down in anger. "Careful Greg, He'll turn you into a con artist and a thief."

"That ain't me no more Nick!"

"Yeah, sure."

"Just get in the damn van!"

Judy tried to pick up Penny but she just growled at her. She picked up Greg instead while Nick carried the little fox girl. Nick put on her comfort mask and sat her on her lap. "There are no child seats for the kids Fiin, so go slow alright?"

"Alright," he replied. He didn't want to argue with Nick now that things were cooling down. He pulled out of the parking lot and was on the road.

All was quiet except for Penny who was fidgeting because she was scared. Greg talked to Finnick. "So... are you gonna be my grandpa?"

Nick butted in. "Not if I can help it."

This got a response from Judy. "Nick! Knock it off! Go ahead Finnick."

Finnick smiled. "Thanks, Judy. Yeah Greg, I'm gonna marry her in April."

"It'll be nice having a grandpa close to my size," Greg replied. "Are you a runt like me?"

Finnick grunted at the suggestion which made Nick chuckle. "No Greg, I'm a fennec fox. Our species is born small and we stay small."

"Do you do art for a living?"

"Well... I didn't for a while, but now I'm getting back into it."

"Cool! You're really good at it."

Finnick laughed and looked over at Nick. "I really like this kid. You picked a good one."

Nick didn't smile back. "Thanks."

Minutes later, they arrived at the Wilde house. It was an old, two-story home that Nick's mom and dad could only afford because it was handed down from generation to generation. They inherited it when Nick was a child. The house was fully paid for and the only major costs were utilities and the yearly taxes. It had three bedrooms, but only one working bathroom. The toilet stopped working in the top bathroom and Vivian could ill afford a plumber to fix it. Nick was surprised when he opened the car door as Penny leaped out of his arms and ran towards the house. "Gamma! Gamma! Gamma!"

"Hey! Wait up!" Nick shouted. "Why is she so excited to see my mom?"

"She's smart," Greg replied. "She knows which adult will spoil her the most."

Judy got Greg off of her lap and opened the back of the van. "Greg, go with Finnick and make sure your sister's okay. I need to speak with your daddy for a moment."

Greg ran off as Judy talked to Nick privately. "Now look, I know you're upset about Finnick and your mother."

"I'm BEYOND upset, Carrots! He lied to me! Mom lied to me!"

"Regardless, it's Christmas. We have the kids with us. I need you to be on your best behavior."

"They kept this secret from me for months!"

"Nick!... Please. For our family's sake. For me."

Nick rubbed his head in frustration. "Alright Carrots. I won't make a scene. I promise."

Nick's mother, Vivian Wilde heard some slight knocking as she opened the door and saw Penny there. "Gamma!" the fox cub cried. She was crying and her arms were raised for Vivian to pick her up.

Vivian picked her up and gave her a hug. "Awww! What's the matter, honey? Are you okay?"

"I towwy, Gamma!" Penny cried. "I tow towwy! I not mean to cry!"

"I...I don't understand honey."

"They dead! It's not fair! Not fair! I want 'dem back! AAAHAAAAAA!" She then barfed over Vivian's shoulder. "WHARRRF!"

Vivian was shocked. "Oh dear! Honey, don't cry so hard! You're making yourself sick!"

Nick and Judy caught up. "I think I understand, mom," Nick replied. "Penny, honey. This is not your blood grandma. This is your NEW grandma. She's my mother."

Penny looked at Nick and over at Vivian. "Not my gamma?"

"Well, she is, but she's your new one. Your blood grandparents were too old to take care of you in... in your condition. Understand?"

Penny looked down. The little fox was sad. "... Oh... Otay." She went back to hugging Vivian. "Towwy I barfed."

Vivian held her and rubbed her head. "It's okay honey.", She then felt a small person hugging on her leg. She looked down to see Greg.

"Hi, grandma! I'm your new grandson, Greg!"

Vivian smiled at the bunny, "Hi sweetie!"

"Did you get me anything for Christmas?"

"I... I literally just met you."

Nick couldn't help but laugh. "Deja Vu!" He then took the sobbing Penny off of her and held her as he kissed his mother. "Hello, mom. How're you doing?"

His mom hugged back. "A bit of puke down my back, but otherwise okay."

"Heh! Sorry about that."

"It's okay. It brings back memories of when you were that age. I'm so disappointed that I couldn't be there for your wedding."

"Sorry, but we had to do it in order to get your granddaughter. Besides, you're not the only one who's disappointed."

"Oh?"

"Finnick of all people?!"

"I knew you'd be mad!"

"Oh no! I should be ecstatic that my mother and EX best friend have been seeing each other behind my back for months and lying to my face."

"I never lied to you! I just kept that secret."

"Oh really? I've asked you plenty of times 'What's new?' and you'd say 'Oh, nothing.' I'd say that was a lie!"

Penny looked up at Nick. "No talk back to you mommy!"

Vivian laughed. "She's right you know."

Nick was a little miffed. "Well, the same holds true when talking to your daddy, puppy girl!"

Vivian left the hug. "Well, I'm gonna change my blouse. Dinner's almost ready." She then turned around and picked up Greg for a short hug. "And as far as Christmas presents go, your daddy has a bunch of old Star Boars toys you can have."

Greg's ears perked up as he hugged his new grandma and kissed her on the cheek. "Oh boy! Thanks grandma!"

Nick was upset. "N-Now wait a minute! Those are mine!"

"Oh, you haven't played with them for years!" Vivian replied.

"They're collector's items!"

"Well, you should have sold them!" She then talked to Greg. "Nick's room is upstairs. First door to the left."

"Awesome!" Greg shouted as he leaped out of his grandmother's arms and ran up the stairs.

"Hey! Wait!" Nick shouted. He then gave Penny to Judy. "I'll be right back honey. Please don't bite your mother."

Judy was a bit scared as Nick handed the child over to her. "Yes! Please! Don't bite your new mommy!"

Nick then ran upstairs to chase Greg as Vivian noticed Penny growling at Judy. "She's not very attached to you, is she?"

"That's an understatement," Judy replied. Just then, Penny was struggling in her arms. "Down! Down!" the fox toddler shouted.

Judy put her down and she ran over to Finnick. Judy was heartbroken. Vivian could see it in both her eyes and ears. "It takes time Judy dear. Her former family was all foxes so that's what she's used to."

Judy sighed. "I guess so."

"I'm gonna change my blouse right now. Why don't you meet me in the kitchen and help with set up?"

"Alright." Judy sighed.

Finnick rubbed Penny's head. "So, you decided to hang out with your future grandpa hunh?"

Penny eyed Finnick with some confusion. "You no grandpa. You baby."

"Nooo. I'm a fennec fox. We're always small. I'm 44!"

"No, you baby."

"I'm not a baby! I'm a middle-aged man! I'm your grandpa!"

"You baby gampa."

"You little... Shut up and watch cartoons!"

Finnick helped her climb up the couch. "Your grandma made me these steps to get on the couch. You can climb those."

"Okay baby."

"GAAAH!"

Meanwhile, Nick made it up to his room. "Now Greg, let's talk about... "

He watched as Greg was sitting on the floor of his bedroom, playing with the Star Boars toys. "Oh no! ARF2-D2! Bark Vader is coming to invade Endor! I gotta get in my X-Wing!" He took the toy ship and carried it around like he was flying it. "Reeeeowwmm!"

Nick had a huge smile on his face. Looking down at Greg playing with his dusty, old toys brought him back to his childhood. It's the thing he loved most about Greg. Despite the child being a bunny, he reminded him so much of himself at that age.

Greg stopped playing and looked up at Nick. "What did you want to talk about daddy?"

Nick smiled at the bunny. "Nothing."

Meanwhile, Judy was in the kitchen with Vivian. She was setting plates as Vivian was checking on the food in the oven. "I'm sorry for Nick's behavior," Judy said.

"Oh? I thought he'd be even more furious."

"You didn't see him slamming Finnick against his own van and almost choking him to death."

"He did that?!""

"Yes. I had to stop him from doing worse in front of the kids."

"Well I'm gonna give him a stern talking to."

"So Nick was talking about a little mouse girlfriend he had for a short time as a child. Made her a brick-o house and everything."

"Oh yeah! That was a cute time. He's always had a thing for tiny mammals. No offense. That was back when we lived in the city."

"It's funny. He talked about living in the city as a child, but this area's a few miles out of Zootopia. When did you move?"

"Oh, about a year after his very little girlfriend left. You see, this house is the family house inherited by my late husband, John after his brother died. It's been in his family for generations which is great because it's all bought and paid for. We just pay for taxes and utilities. Well, except gas in the summertime. Then it's cold showers and microwave food."

"Must have been hard for Nick to adjust."

"Not really. We're close to the city here, so we just had him take the train to his old school until he made it to Junior high."

"Oh."

"... Why do I feel like I'm doing some sort of retcon? Like our lives are written by some crappy author who made a huge mistake in my son's backstory and is fixing it?"

"Just go with it, Vivian."

"Anyway, I still can't believe you two are already married! I wish I didn't have to miss it."

"It was a whirlwind of a weekend," Judy replied as she set the cutlery.

Vivian took the food out of the stove. "Can you give me a bit of detail?"

"Oh, good! Some exposition from the last story to get people up to date."

"What?!"

"Nothing. Well... as you know, me and Nick spent Christmas at my family's home for the first time. He... wasn't that well received. It was the first time we had a predator in our home and many of my family were distrusting of poor Nick. My grandfather hated him from the outset. My brother, Steve was spying on him, looking for any dirt. Only a few friendly faces greeted him and that includes your new grandson, Greg or "Greedy Greg" as the kids called him. He was a visiting orphan who was my niece Cotton's boyfriend. Greg reminded Nick of his young self so they got along great. Even Steve saw how well Nick was taking care of Greg like he was his own. But... things went very south."

"Oh?"

"My grandfather came up with a plan and had ten of his grandsons including Steve invite Nick out to the local bar owned by my uncle Stan to 'celebrate' his visit. They put a roofie in his drink which caused him to pass out. They then beat him up."

Vivian turned around and picked up Judy. There was fury in her eyes. "I. Want. Names."

Judy had to calm Vivian down. "Hold on! Hold on! I'm not done! The roofie was not very strong since Nick is a mammal twice their size and he woke up right away. But before that, Steve who had been hanging back and having his own inner conflict decided to fight his own brothers to protect Nick. They then turned on their own brother and attacked him while Nick recovered and cleaned house with my brothers. He brought them home with the paws all tied together like a chain gang."

"Well, good for Steve. But I'm still furious about that."

"Well, I'm not done. Mom found out my brother Duke was the one that supplied the roofie and banished him from our home. There's nothing much we could do about grandpa but shame him and send him to his room and make him spend the day there for Christmas. In the meantime, Greg had really grown on me and Nick and Steve had the idea of me adopting him and surprising Nick with Greg as one of his Christmas gifts."

"Well, that could have gone very wrong! Adopting is a team effort."

"Unfortunately, in Bunnyburrow, only prey can adopt prey and only a predator can adopt a predator. Before I did anything, I asked Nick if he trusted me with any big decisions and he said 'yes'. Penny was a different case because she has special needs due to her severe depression. Both me and Nick had to marry to adopt her."

"How did that come about exactly?"

"Well that, was a Christmas miracle. After the debacle that happened at the bar the night before, my father really chewed out my brothers and did his best to make Nick feel at home, but dad was still nervous around him. While I was out adopting Greg, Nick was having a good time bonding with the family. I joined up with him later and we helped chop the Christmas tree down and decorate it. Everything was going great. At the stroke of midnight, Nick proposed to me, not knowing that I was going to propose to him. I topped it with Greg's adoption though. Sadly, it ended badly. Nick asked for my father's blessing and to our surprise... he said 'no'."

"Oh dear."

"We were both shocked and hurt by it. But then, something crazy happened. The two of us and Greg fell asleep on one of the couches and we were woke up Christmas morning with Stu and Grandpa singing together and being merry! They came straight to us begging and pleading for forgiveness. They had an experience that could only be described as a miracle. They both shard the exact same dream where they both saw my grandmother, Jean. She taught them all about the wrongs of prejudice and they saw things they couldn't have possibly seen or known about without some kind of grand intervention."

"Such as?"

"My father left to save his old raccoon accountant when she told him he was going to jump off a bridge that morning and it almost came true if my dad hadn't helped stop it. But the most shocking of all was when my grandpa told me all about Penny. You see, on the walk up to the orphanage, I only met Penny very briefly. I basically said 'hello' and she told me to go away. Her exact words were 'You go bye now'! My grandfather who was in his room that morning told me all about our short little meeting in exact detail like he'd been there including those very words! All because my dead grandma showed him. He then told me everything about Penny that he learned from grandma. I knew nothing of that child until this morning! I have to admit, it made me a believer."

Vivian was shocked. "That's...that's incredible!"

"It was like a sign from God that we were meant to adopt that child."

"Well, this is a lot to take in, but this food is getting cold. Let's call the boys."

Vivian stepped out of the kitchen. "Okay, everyone! Dinner's ready!"

"Coming!" shouted Greg from upstairs. Then, to Vivian's surprise, she saw Greg sliding down the banister with an X-Wing in his paws. "Rrrrreeeowm! Pew! Pew! Pew!"

His new grandmother was furious. "Don't go sliding down the banister like that, young man! You could get hurt! Be more responsible, like your father."

Like clockwork, Nick came sliding down the banister behind Greg. Holding a Tie Fighter. "Rrrrrooowm! Pew! Pew! Pew!" As he was chasing Greg around with his toy spaceship, he looked over at his mother's disappointed expression. "...What?!"