Today was a big day. He finally got to race with a famous crew. As Jack told him, he will have two races, one against the crew, and one against their leader. On top of that, as Jack told him, the quickshifters are interested too. He was finally making progress. His ears perked up, hearing a loud banging on his door. As he curiously opened it, wondering who it could be, he saw a really mad rabbit.
"Hey carrots, what can I thank your visit for?"
"Oh, you know very well why I'm here." She said with crossed arms.
"Do I? Huh. I didn't know you deliver Pizza in your freetime. Don't worry, I'll give you some tip."
"No, Nick! I know what happened yesterday. I know you got rammed."
The fox closed his eyes and exhaled slightly. "It was barely a scratch, nothing to worry about."
"Uhum. And next time…"
"There won't be next time, because I'll be watching." Nick said immediately, before Judy could finish her sentence. If someone, he knew better than anyone to not let Judy get started on anything when she is mad. If you let the fire start, you won't be able to stop it.
"Nick… This is a disaster waiting to happen. Please stop!"
"No Judy, look. I finally have a lead to follow. I won't quit right when I'm finally on track. Or should I say 'I don't know when to quit?'"
"That was a completely different story and you know it too."
Nick just smiled and gently shook his head. "Come on, we take part in shootings and stuff like that, danger is literally a part of an officer's job. Of course there will be a few dangerous races but that doesn't mean I need to quit. It would be the same as running away from a shooting."
"No, it wouldn't be the same! I…" Judy tried to get her previous fury back, but it was already gone. The spark of anger was already out, Nick made sure of that, to not let it start the fire. "Just… Be careful out there alright?"
"You are starting to be really mothery, Carrots!" Nick chuckled.
"I… I'm sorry... It's just… The past few weeks have been so tiring and I can't even talk to anyone. Everybody already hates me because of this whole radio thing… I had enough of everything and on top of that I know you could crash any time and…"
Nick put one of his fingers on Judy's lips. "Shhh. Okay. It's alright. Come here." He spread his arms for a hug, which Judy gladly took. "You bunnies… So emotional."
"S-shut up." Judy's chuckle was muffled in Nick's shirt. While still fighting her tears, she finally broke the hug and made two sniffs.
"Wanna stay a bit? I still have about three hours until 'Work'" Nick proposed the idea.
"Yeah. That would be good."
"This way Miss," Nick stood out of the way, gesturing inside. "I Can also make some dinner quickly if you'd like."
"You really don't have to…"
"Yes I do! So? Any particular wishes? Well, I don't have much right now, but who knows? I might be able to satisfy your needs."
"Surprise me."
"One surprise coming right up." As Nick said, immediately heading towards the kitchen to see what he can cook from. The variety wasn't too big. He had some eggs, cheese, bread, some onions, potatoes and a few packs of instant noodles.
The contents of his fridge would probably show a personality that doesn't like cooking. Anyone looking at it would probably guess, he'd rather live off some quickly doable food. However, it wasn't the case at all. He just wasn't in shops during the past weeks that frequently and he didn't have the time to make complete dishes for himself. He quickly got used to being more active at night and sleep when he had the time, mostly during the day.
Staring at the ingredients, he shrugged and took the eggs, the cheese with a few onions. Within a matter of minutes great smells had filled the house with the braised onion and eggs.
"Bon appetit." Nick said as he placed the steaming omelette in front of Judy.
"Sure does smell great."
"The chef sends his regards." Nick bowed with a grin. "He had put his heart and soul into his work."
After setting his own plate on the table he added. "I'd bring some wine too, but we have the 'drink or drive' rule for a reason. Unless you really want some, in that case…"
"No-no I'm fine. The situation isn't that bad to drink alone."
"Alright," Nick shrugged and sat down. "So, how's the investigation going? At least I hope Bogo didn't make it classified too, like me being undercover.
"Well…" Judy took a bite and chewed on it for quite a few seconds to gather her thoughts. "I Have one crucial information, other than that everything seems to be a dead end."
"Really? And what's that important info?"
"It's about… An NRS."
"Seems about right," Nick said, with a full mouth. "I would have started with those too. And what did you find?"
"The NRS owner was nobody else than our beloved Clawhauser."
"You're kidding!" Nick stopped the fork half way through to his mouth.
"Nope. He said he had no idea about the existence of that entry since he is being careful not to leave any NRS. And he seemed so… Honest while saying it, I don't know what to think. Someone might have lifted it off the pult."
"Well… Jack said he 'pulled a favor' when I asked him about the radio, so… He has a connection but only a friend, and it was only a one time favour."
"So it's obvious it was one of us. It still doesn't explain the sudden NRS that belongs to nobody."
"Let's assume Calwhauser's was a mistake. Were there any other NRS-es?"
"Yeah, one with wolfard. Oh and one with Fangmeyer."
"Wolfard huh? What about him? Could it have been our big bad wolf?" Nick gave the idea, and watched Judy's reaction.
"I don't think so," Judy waved. "According to Delgato he had millions of NRS, that needed to be fixed later. This is most likely one of those."
"It still could be him," Nick pointed out. "Just think about it! The perfect crime. Everybody knows you are a bit forgetful with the entries so when you intentionally forget one, it will pass under everyone's nose and you can easily explain yourself."
"Well… I mean you are not wrong… I… I never actually thought about that. But again… Wolfard? I don't think he would…"
"Why? Do you think Clawhauser would be more willing in your opinion?"
"Well… no."
After a bit of thinking Nick asked. "Who was the last one again?"
"Fangmeyer." Judy said.
"Ahhh Fang! Yep it was definitely her. Pawcuff her and into the cells with the tiger."
"Well, to be honest she was actually acting a bit suspicious."
"Wait… Really?" The grin disappeared from Nick's face "I was just joking. Was she really suspicious?"
"Yeah. Overdenial, and got REALLY overprotective even before I asked her. You know what it means when a suspected criminal does that. I was just a bit more occupied with Claw's NRS because it was a bit more interesting."
"Huh… So we have a friendly receptionist, a forgetful detective and an overprotective tigress. Just like a cluedo game. All we need is the murder weapon and we are back on track."
"So… You don't think anyone else could be our guy?"
"Think about it! Whoever did the takey-takey, must have thought it would stay unnoticed, so they just went in to take the radio, and thought the NRS won't be seen until the next year's checkup, when they could have gone: 'Oh no I must have forgotten it, sorry won't happen again!' And nobody would have asked a thing. They would have gotten off without a single warning."
"You… You are saying something…" Judy said, seriously thinking about what Nick just brought up.
"Yeah." The fox laid back while looking at his claws. "Everybody knows I am the brain and the brawn in our team. You are just the adorable sidekick." He grinned, but that was quickly changed after a well timed arm hit from the rabbit. "Oof… Sorry, I'm taking it back. You are definitely the brawn." Nick said, tapping the place of the hit.
After this, the conversation got off to an entirely different path, never mentioning again the possible 'suspects'. This little talk however did good for both of them. They could finally forget about everything else and just talk to each other, like they usually do. However, as Nick's other phone rang, this lightened atmosphere suddenly disappeared.
"You should pick it up," Judy said with a bit of a frown. "Aaaand I should get going too. Thanks for the dinner."
"You don't have to go..."
"No, it's fine. You will have to go to… Work. I'm just gonna leave you to get ready."
Nodding, Nick picked up the phone "I'm listening." He said as he watched Judy picking up her coat.
"You'll have two races today, both are quite important, so don't take them off shoulder. First against the crewmates, then against their leader. No pressure, but based on how well you perform today, could have a huge impact on your chances of getting into the big 12. Are you following me?"
"Yep, I do." He said as he waved a silent goodbye to the leaving rabbit.
"Good. First race will be at 10:45 PM Griff road, the other one will be on the highway."
"The Highway?" Nick asked back. He never had a race there before. Few corners, only speeding through the 3 open lanes… He will need a perfect start and heck of a focus. If he gets too behind there won't be many opportunities to get back in position. The performance of his car will play a huge part in this race.
"Yes, the highway. Two laps around, expect cop interference. It's a popular crew we are talking about afterall, so I didn't even bother setting up bait races."
"Alright… Will be there in time."
"Waiting for you." With that, Jack ended the call. As Nick turned back to the door, he saw that Judy had already left.
"Alright then. Get ready." He muttered to himself, and started searching for his keys. He spent minutes thinking about where he had put them, before realising, he gave it to Mia to have it emergency repaired. He finally took the house keys, and left his home
As Nick got to Mia he saw his car without any scratch. There wasn't any sign of the accident that had happened on the road before.
"Hey! How do you like it?" The vixen asked with a proud smile, looking at her work.
"Wow… I'm impressed, you managed to pull this off in this short amount of time. You fixed everything all by yourself?"
"Wasn't that hard of a job." She shrugged. "I couldn't let you race with a horrible-looking car, could I? Ohh, and I have a surprise for you!" She said and opened the door of the car.
"Surprise?" Nick furrowed his eyebrows while trying to get a glimpse of that 'surprise' he will get.
"Yep, look inside." She nodded while pointing at a blue bottle-like container.
"What's this?" He glanced back at Mia, who just pointed at it again.
"What does it look like?"
As Nick took a better look he saw the red label, with NOS written in white letters. "Wait… Did You... Install nitrous?"
"Exactly. What you see there is 100 seconds worth of boost. You push this button and it will give you 10 seconds of plus horsepower, so if you do the math, you can use it 10 times before the canister empties out."
"Good to see what you are doing with my money..."
"Hey! If you don't need it I'll gladly take it back. And not your money, remember? I just decided to help you out a bit. My goal is that you keep winning the races."
"Well, Thank you for your generosity."
"You're welcome. Use it in the best possible moment and you will be unbeatable. Try not to push the button in corners though. It destabilises the car way too much if you do that. You can… But you definitely shouldn't. It brings more bad than good."
"Noted!" Nick exclaimed and took the keys from his instructor… or mechanic? In any case he actually got pretty lucky with a helper like this. A lot of problems got solved that he had no idea how to deal with otherwise. All he had to do was to win the races. Simple as that.
As he sat inside the car, he already felt the excitement rising within him, as always. Running his paw on the steering wheel, he chuckled a bit.
"What is it?" Mia asked while sitting next to Nick on the passenger seat.
"It's just so weird. I've been through so much with this car, that I feel like I have a bond with it. Almost like it has a soul."
"Oh believe me, I know the feeling," Thevixen answered, "If anyone got between me and my car, that would be their last day."
He definitely had a bond of some sort with his car already. They had some quite interesting races ahead of them, and he wanted to win. Now it was definitely not for the undercover job. It was for his own entertainment. This thought worried him a bit, but most of the time he just swept them away. He had other things to focus on.