Hey guys, I´m back finally. Had big troubles with fixing my car, but now its fine again.

Big thanks to MrShurukan for improving it again!

Hope you enjoy it a little, have fun reading!

Zootopia – Springtime Circumstances

Chapter 21 – Sly as a fox

POV Suzanne (Red fox, Cammy´s best friend)

Yesterday was anything, but not an ordinary day for me. For many people it was quite a special day I believed. First, Cammy handed herself in in front of all the City´s cameras and News programs, and then Zootopia´s two favorite Cops got heavily injured while arresting the other four prisoners who escaped because of a hostage taking. Everybody was talking about them, about Cammy, about what Nick did to those criminals and about what they did to Judy. They got all of the bad guys, but it wasn´t for free.

Judy would be staying in an induced coma for about a week, and I had just gotten to know that from my colleague Kirstin, who had joined me in front of the coffee dispenser as I began with my shift just a minute ago. I hadn´t even thought about it since I heard it in the news last evening, but now it came to my mind that I would actually see them in here. We had ZPD officers here too from time to time, and they also happened to be just normal animals. It turned out that they were no exception. But it was interesting nevertheless, especially today.

"…she has a few broken bones, heavy bruises in several areas and also a mild concussion that is messing with her system" the elderly zebra told me plainly, as she handed me the clipboard of the rooms I had to take care of today.

"I´ve seen a couple of reporters waiting outside the door…" I told her, as I began reading with great interest, "Looks like that´s still a big topic…"

"Wasn´t an easy day for the ZPD yesterday" Kirstin agreed, "First the hostage taking and then this? Though if you ask me!"

"Oh! Officer Wilde is here too?" I asked rhetorically, just as I read it on the next page.

She suddenly grinned a little about my happily-surprised expression. She may be just a year away from her well-earned retirement, but she still was a clever and wild lady. She knew that I liked to see that.

"I knew you would like that" she smiled, "That´s why I gave him to you…"

I couldn´t even hide a little grin, and she knew that anyways, so why would I try to deny it?

"A fractured rib and a twenty-inch wound on his back?" I asked her in shock, as I was reading his report "Holy crap, what have they done to him?"

"A Coyote had attacked him with a bayonet or something like that, at least that´s what his colleagues told us…he passed out because of the blood-loss yesterday."

"Was he awake since then?"

"Yeah, this morning. He seemed to be fine on a physical matter and he didn´t even care about his back, he was only concerned about his colleague" she chuckled, "That was all he cared about. We really had to calm him down a little before we carefully explained it to him…"

I nodded understandingly, trying not to look even more suspicious. What I read was only getting better and better: He was in a private room. He had an injury that would take a few days to heal properly and his bunny lady was in an induced coma.

"I had him all for myself!" was the first thought that went through my head, although it really felt wrong to think about it like that. Wrong but fantastically exciting.

"Anyways!" my colleague awaked me from my short day dreaming, "I´m done for today, good night!" she chuckled tiredly.

Although it was 9AM in the morning, I knew exactly what she meant. She has had the long night shift and therefore she had been awake for the whole night already.

"Yeah, sleep well!" I chuckled back, as she waved me shortly for the farewell.

I threw the paper cup that had contained my coffee into the trashcan besides the machine and went on my way.

"Save the best for the end or check him out more often than the others?" I asked myself. "Stupid question, isn´t it?"

POV Nick

I was lying awake in my bed and I was bored to death. The TV remote didn´t work and my phone was dead too. I had been sleeping on my side when I woke up this morning, and that was still the most comfortable position at the moment. The doctor had told me to not lay on my fractured rib if possible, and I had a huge plaster on my back. I also had a catheter above on my right arm, but it wasn´t connected to anything. Just as I was about to get up and go for the bathroom, I heard the door opening slowly. Since Judy wouldn´t be awake for more than a week from now on, I supposed it was just a nurse that was checking out on me. Just as she was about to close the door behind her again, she got stopped from one of her colleagues in the hallway.

"Suzanne!" they told her, "Could you please check out the room with the…"

As they were talking, I decided to turn around quickly and check out the person who came to visit me, because her voice seemed a little familiar to me.

"Yeah, sure!" she answered, as I took the first look.

A little sigh nearly escaped my mouth there, because what I saw was yet another vixen. She surely was a nurse from this hospital, the sterile white clothing made that clear immediately, but I was pretty sure I had seen her before also.

"This could be a long week" I thought to myself, before I turned around again silently. Hopefully, she was taken already and wouldn´t care about me. She was by far not ugly for a fox, so I had good faith that she was in a relationship anyways.

Luckily, she hadn´t noticed that I was awake yet, and that gave me a sneaky little idea: I would act like I was asleep, just to find out how long she would stay and what her intentions were.

A few seconds later, I heard the door falling into its lock and she came closer towards me once again.

"Officer Wilde?" she asked carefully, and I could actually hear the excitement in her voice.

"Oh great! She likes me…" I thought, "For god´s sake, please not that again!"

I still acted like I was asleep, but she wasn´t leaving the room that easily. She walked around me and watched me from every angle there was.

Although I was breathing very flat at the moment, it didn´t took long until her scent wandered into my nose and I realized that I knew her indeed. It actually was that Suzanne. The also rather beautiful red vixen who helped out in Cammy´s coffee-shop from time to time. So, my first initial thought didn´t let me down either. I never knew she was a nurse as well.

"This could get pretty interesting" I suddenly thought to myself. They know each other pretty well as far as I knew about it, and she clearly must have noticed what happened to Cammy in the last few days. She was even talking to her yesterday, I guessed. Cammy mentioned that shortly yesterday.

I actually really was considering to answer her right now, it would be inevitable anyways.

"Oh crap" I heard her saying lowly, as she carefully slid her paw across the plaster on my back, "What have they done to you?"

I really had to pull myself together not to move.

Since she was still behind me, I decided to open my eyes for a second and try to take a glimpse on her through the reflection of the windows. She really looked like she was fascinated by seeing me here, and that was not a good sign either. I hoped she was just curious about what had happened to me. I decided to find out and surprised her a little.

"Hey Suzy" I greeted her lazily, and it really shocked her, "There is no need to call me officer Wilde, the name is Nick, and you´re welcome to call me that too…"

"Oh! Y-you´re awake!" she stuttered in pure panic, "I´m sorry!"

I smiled at her warmly. "Don't be sorry for being polite" I chuckled, as I attempted to sit up carefully, "How are things, what is going on?" I continued in a smooth and friendly way, in order not to make her feel uncomfortable. She seemed to be really flattered by that.

I never had her seen reacting to me like that before either, she was like addicted to stare at me right now, as if her life was depending on it. I already had a slight foreboding what was about to come though. But she caught herself pretty quickly to my surprise: "Well…since there is no more donuts and coffee to sell, I´m doing my main job 40 hours a week from now on…" she explained lightheartedly. Usually she was quite self-confident, and that had saved her a little right now. She still seemed to be a little scared to talk to me about that topic though. I didn´t want to make her feel suspicious about anything, but I certainly was a little interested in some other details right now: "Are you mad at her for that?" I asked her quite directly, referring to Cammy´s actions. I didn´t want that to stand in the room for ages, so I just went for it.

"At first I was" she stated, "But now I´m really proud of her! She did the right thing yesterday!" she let me know with a confident little smile, "She told me how sorry she felt about all that…"

That cleared up a lot for me. She obviously knew about it, she even smiled a tiny little bit.

"What were you mad about?" I kept on asking her dryly, but still not in a skeptical way. She really needed to concentrate on answering that right now, it took her a little while.

POV Suzanne

It didn´t even take him two minutes to bring me in a spicy situation. Not only was he half naked, utterly handsome and charismatic, he also was clever. He obviously knew that I was very close with Cammy and that I was talking to her just yesterday before she handed herself in. He pretty much used that last question to test me on a few different levels, and that worked out well for him. Much too late to sound authentic, I answered him something pretty lame: "I was mad at her for not telling me about her second business. But I also can understand her a little, the rent for that shop isn´t cheap and she really loves what she does…"

He noticed that I was trying to get away from it, but he let me have it for now.

"That was one of the reasons I thought about when I saw her entering that club on the evening we arrested her. I didn´t expect her to be there at all, but I always wondered how that was possible…" he explained with a serious and honest expression. I was a little surprised about hearing that much honesty from him.

"I really hope she gets the chance to start over when she is back out again" I let him know.

For a second I really had thought about asking him if that was the reason he helped her with her heat problems, but I didn´t have the guts to start that topic in that moment. He had a big advantage in talking about that, he knew that I liked what I saw. This could end pretty embarrassing for me anyways.

"She will get the chance to start over" he said confidently, "Although she caused a bit of trouble, she really did the right thing with handing herself in!"

A little smile crept on my face, I just couldn´t hide it. Since he was talking that open to me, and since he didn´t have the intention of making me feel uncomfortable around him as a police officer, I had gained a lot of self-confidence pretty quickly again. I was so excited to get to the more interesting topics already.

"Yeah, she told me that she ruined half of her prison cell when she was in the first time…" I told him innocently, in order to get it into the right direction slowly.

While I said that, I acted like I was reading the info on the clipboard I was holding in my hands, but I barely could take my eyes of his beautiful body. He kept on watching me pretty closely though, he wasn´t expecting me to be that interested, or was he?

He watched me for a couple of seconds, and then his grin widened very slowly. He obviously knew why I was mentioning that. How could I be that stupid and think that he wouldn´t notice? He began chuckling a little, but he wasn´t really laughing about me, or angry about it, he was just happy. I couldn´t quite follow him, I just stood there and still tried to look innocent.

"Suzanne" he began lowly, but very meaningful, "You are not trying to make me believe that, are you?"

"What? I-I…I mean what do you think I´m…?""

"Cammy is really close to you I believe, isn´t she?" he interrupted my stuttering.

"Yeah…"

"Yeah. She even visited you yesterday because she knew she wouldn´t see you very often over the next few months. So, I would say that she pretty much is your best friend, isn´t she?"

"She is my best friend, yeah! …but what does that…"

"You know…" he interrupted me again, "…although I´m a police officer, I´m still just an animal. I have a best friend too, although I do not see him very often anymore" he told me, "…but when I see him, I talk to him about everything there is, everything on my mind. That is what best friends are for, aren´t they?"

"Yeah…" I sighed, he already noticed that I got it slowly.

"That´s probably one of the reasons why Judy and I are this successful at our jobs, because we do not only think like police officers, but also like what a normal citizen would do. I´ve even seen and been part of the other side of the law once in my life…I cannot say that I always was an angel…I´m also a fox, you know?"

I just nodded slightly. I wasn´t sure why he was telling me all that, but I was listening closely to what he said, I was really fascinated by how open he was talking to me.

"…back to topic, I wanted to make it easier for you and offer you to simply ask me anything you want to know. I mean… if you have time for that, I´m surely not the only one you have to take care of, am I?"

"No! I-I mean, yeah! I mean…why would I ask…" I just couldn´t stop stuttering, my heart was still racing.

"Suzanne" he calmed me down once again, still smiling a little, "I´m pretty sure you were talking about more than her prison cell and about the drug dealing yesterday, that´s just what good friends do, and I don't blame you for it!"

"What? …I-I mean, really?"

"Yeah" he smiled, "That was what I meant: You didn´t really think I wouldn´t notice, did you?"

"No" I confessed shyly, "I´m sorry."

"Don't worry, that´s what I expected. Police officers are being underestimated a lot…we´re not as stupid as you think" he chuckled, still with a happy grin.

"That all is just so interesting, you know…"

"Yeah, I know" he confirmed nodding, "Why? How? What? …I´ll tell you about it! …if you don´t know more already. Just ask me, instead of making stuff up or wait for me to talk about it" he grinned. I nodded once again, but I was still a little staggered.

I took a short little look onto my watch and noticed that I really had do get going again, I was here longer than I thought already. I really had a lot to do before I could visit him again. That really pissed me off right now.

"I would love to ask for some details, but I have to check out on a few other patients too before that…"

He just waved it off calmly. "Don't worry, I won´t run away that soon, and it also was just an offer! We don´t have to talk about that, if it makes you uncomfortable…"

I wanted to talk about it, even more than he could imagine. I really was curious and I really wanted to stay right now, but I couldn´t. I had to get through all the rooms before I could spend any more time here, I had to take care of the other patients as well, there was no exception. It would take me at least an hour, but if I hurried, I would have a lot of time for this later and in my break-time. I decided to get it over with as quick as possible.

"Is there anything I can do for you at the moment?" I asked him, while I already started making my way out of the room slowly.

"Yeah, a cable to charge my phone would be great…" he asked in a friendly way.

"Behind your bed is one!" I pointed out.

He turned around and found it hanging right behind him to his surprise. That made me giggle a little.

"Oh, yeah…good to know, thanks a lot!"

"Any physical issues right now?"

He shook his head, "All good, thank you!"

"Alright, I will be back later, bye!"
"Yeah, good luck, see you!" he waved.

And with that I was out of the room and closed the door behind me.

"Oh my god!" I thought to myself, "What the fuck did just happen? What a great fucking day!" I whispered lowly, "Let´s get done with the others quickly!"

POV Nick

I was in a better mood since she was here, I couldn´t deny it. I knew it was a little unfair of me to throw her into the cold water that rudely, but at least it wasn´t awkward. I was not totally alone and I had something to do. I actually had quite a lot to do today though, as it turned out just a few minutes later, after I got my phone charging and connected. I had messages from the Chief, from Jennifer, from Max and Daniel, from the ZPD media department and even from Finnick, who asked how I was doing. Everybody wanted to talk to me, and my colleagues even wanted to come and visit us this afternoon.

The first thing I wanted to do right now was much more important than that though. I needed to see Judy, I wanted to see her and talk to the medics on how her condition was. After my little visit of the bathroom I grabbed myself the white and sterile looking shirt they had left me besides my bed and simply left my room to go and search for her. Immediately, I found one of the other nurses in the hallway and asked where I could find her. That was very effective, because she simply pointed at the door just two doors further from mine. "You should ask the anesthetist before though" she told me, "He can tell you more about her condition as well!"

"Thank you very much" I told her with a little smile and went immediately for the door she was pointed at.

When I entered, I nearly crashed into Suzanne, who just attempted to leave that room hastily. It seemed like she was in a hurry.

"Oh…hey!" she greeted in surprise.

"Hi. I came here to visit Judy, can I see her?"

She pointed at the oryx antler who also wore a white medic´s coat, "Go talk to my colleague, it shouldn´t be a problem!"

"Thanks!" I told her, before I began moving again. She stood there for another second but then she was making her way again as well.

"No problem, see you later!" she said quickly, before she left the room and shut the door behind her quite vigorously. She really was nervous when I was near her, I really had to calm her down a little next time we met, otherwise this could get pretty stressful for her soon. But for now, there was more important stuff to do.

"Hey buddy" I greeted the anesthetist she was talking about.

He put down his clipboard and shook my paws kindly.

"Oh, hey! You must be officer Wilde, right?"

I just nodded a little, as I already noticed her lying on one of the three beds in this room.

"You´re here because of Officer Hopps I suppose…"

"Yeah, can I get a little closer to her?"

"Of course you can, no problem!" he said, before offering me to take the lead. He followed me towards her bed and watched every of my careful moves.

She was just lying there. She had a blanked covering her body, a mask on her face and she looked like she was just in a very deep slumber. It looked very peaceful at first, but it also made me a little sad, it looked a little depressing even. This would be a very long and lonely week without her.

"Oh carrots" I whispered lowly, "I´m so sorry I didn´t react sooner" I told her, although I knew she couldn´t hear me, "And just to let you know…I beat out the shit of those polar bears for doing that to you" I whispered, because I was sure it would have made her happy if she were awake. I held her left paw with mine for a little while, and that already made me thinking about what I could would do with her when she would be awake again. I needed something good to build her up once again, something she really liked. That thought alone gave me back a lot of hope and energy once again.

The oryx besides me chuckled a little about my words. "Her condition is very good considering the circumstances" he told me after a short little pause, "Most of her bruises and fractured bones will be nearly healed when she wakes up in six days…she has a quite good muscular structure, that saved her from a lot more of heavy injuries!"

I nodded gladly and with a warm smile, "I´m sure she´ll get back on her feet pretty soon! I´ve never seen anything stopping her for very long…"

"It must have been hard for you two in the last few days…" he guessed.

I just nodded a little.

"And you beat up all those criminals by yourself?" he asked, "Like they said in the news?"

I still nodded. "That´s what you get for doing that to her…"

He nodded with an impressed expression. "Have you seen how excited my colleague Suzanne was as she heard that you two are here?"

"Yeah, I have" I affirmed with a little sigh, "But that´s no wonder after all that happened…"

"I can imagine. But she really seemed to be impatient to see you again!"

I shrugged my shoulders shortly, then I began explaining for him: "Her best friend is in prison now, you know…the white vixen who was in heat because of me."

"You mean Cammy?"

"You know her?"

"Well, not personally, but Suzy had told me about her, because she was working in her coffeeshop as well…and it was in the news yesterday…"

"…yeah, I was talking about Cammy" I confirmed, "And besides that, I beat up two polar bears, two jaguars and a wolf all by myself yesterday…" I told him with a little smirk, "That probably explains the hype a little."

That stunned him for a little more now.

"Wow."

"You need more reasons?" I asked jokingly.

"No…I…I wasn´t expecting you to talk this open about it?"

"Because I´m a police officer?"
He shrugged his shoulders with an unsure expression.

I just waved it off with a little grin, "Don´t worry, I don´t mind talking about it. Half the city knows about it anyways…"

"Did you really…you know…with that vixen?" he asked carefully.

"Yeah, I did" I affirmed without any shame, "I had sex with her because my little bunny asked me to save her from the suffering already…" I explained while pointing at Judy.

"Wow. That is really kind of her!"

"Yeah, it is. But that´s just one of the many reasons why I love her so much…"

He still nodded and seemed to be quite impressed by hearing this.

"Honestly…that is like the coolest thing I ever heard about…I mean this whole story!"

"Wanna know the best thing about it?"

"Yeah, of course!"

"Cammy tore apart my whole police outfit when that happened, and I had to go naked through the whole ZPD-building afterwards."

"No way!" he laughed out.

I nodded with a little, before I kissed Judy´s forehead one last time and I left her bed slowly with that. Then I went back to the door I came from slowly.

"Looks like I chose the wrong job…" the antler joked lightheartedly, as he followed me back to where I met him at first.

"I wouldn´t call that normal in the ZPD" I chuckled, "But normal would be a little boring, wouldn´t it?"
"I always loved the idea of being a detective since I was a kid already. But that also sounded pretty interesting…" he chuckled, "I´ve never met a cop as cool as you" he added.

"I´m curious about what happens to Suzanne when I start telling her about the more interesting details…"

"That´ll be fun!" he grinned, "But be careful, she becomes very sly sometimes…"

"You know…" I asked him, as I already placed my paw onto the door-handle, "I´m a fox too, and I also know a thing or two about being sly."

"I do not even doubt it."

"See you later, buddy! Take good care of her!"

More is coming soon…I promise… … …hopefully.

Any wishes? You probably know what´s coming, don´t you?

Anyways, have a great time, see you soon!

~furrwolf