Hey guys, how are you doing? I hope you´re doing good, and if not I hope that this will save your day a little.

Big thanks to Nastia for the great artwork and to Ilya for helping me with the corrections! You guys are great!

Have fun reading ;)

Zootopia - Springtime Circumstances

Chapter 51 – Rock ´n´ Roll

POV Cammy

It was about half past nine in the morning when something happened that made the blood freeze in my veins. There were multiple different thoughts that went through my head after reading the letter, and they all were terribly scary.

It was such a bizarre situation in the first place. The two rams who came in ordered a cup of coffee each, just like normal customers, but then instead of paying for their order they just stared at me with very intriguing looks, one of them tossed an unlabelled envelope on the counter, and then they both just left the shop, got into their car and drove off. At first, I was a little angered that they didn´t pay for their coffee, but then I opened the envelope and began reading.

"We reward you with 100000 Dollars if you simply put these, one each, into the next two cups of coffee officers Wilde and Hopps will purchase in your coffee shop…"

Before reading any further I looked into the envelope again, and really, there was a small plastic bag with two white tablets inside. I had no idea what it was, but I assumed nothing good. I hoped the letter would tell me more.

"There is no need to ask any questions about it. Just take the money, leave the city and all is well. If you refuse to do it next time they come to visit you, you will get into major trouble. You´ve messed up enough already."

That was everything. Everything that was on the letter. It had shocked me so badly that I immediately got a bad feeling in my stomach. They really gouged me to poison Nick and Judy. They wanted me to give up my business, leave the Zootopia, live under a new name in a new city, far away from my friends and my family.

I didn´t want that. Not at all. I didn´t even want to just think about it, I never even considered it, not for a single second. I liked my life as it was right now, I didn´t need that money and I sure as hell wouldn´t poison those two lovely police officers.

But I also didn´t doubt them when they said they would get me into major trouble if I wouldn´t do it. I didn´t even want to think about what they could mean with "trouble". I was in a total quagmire there, but there was no way I would kill Nick and Judy.

They haven´t been here so far, so I guessed they had a late shift today. There was no doubt that they would visit me sooner or later this week. They always did. I needed to let them know it somehow. They must be able to protect me from them. They saved me from so much trouble already, they probably would help me again if I told them about it. Furthermore, I was probably saving their lives therefore. That, and that alone, was the right thing to do now.

"You can do this, Cammy!" I told myself, "You´ve been through worse than that! They will help you!"

The day went on, and although I tried to relax myself a little, especially in front of customers, I couldn´t get it out of my head. Not even for a short little moment. It felt like every cup of coffee I sold could be poisoned somehow, although I had locked the envelope in my little backroom, and everything I did felt like it was a criminal activity, although it really wasn´t.

I needed to tell them about it. Today. There was no other way for me to stay sane if I didn't. I would close the shop as soon as possible this afternoon and ask for them in the ZPD city centre. If they only could be bothered for something important during their worktime, this should really be important enough.

POV Jack Savage

"What the hell are they doing?" I complained loudly, before I slammed my fist onto my desk in annoyance, "They even moved to a new flat in order to stay undercover! We´ve put so much effort into this operation already!"

I really was infuriated right now, as always very much to the opposite of Skye, who just had shown me the video on her phone.

"Well…" she chuckled, "Our enemies know that they´re in town and working in the City centre of the ZPD…and they certainly know about their fame…"

"But do they really have to provoke them like that?"

"I think it´s not that bad actually…" she told me in all seriousness.

"What do you mean not that bad?" I calmed myself down a little.
"There is a lot of media around them now, so kidnapping them should be even harder now. There will be witnesses everywhere and everyone will be searching for them if it should happen" she explained, "Furthermore…that media-presence could be quite a good distraction for our mission this evening…"

"Yeah…that´s true" I confessed, looking at the documents on the desk before me once again, "It would look even more like they really cared for charity…"

Somebody knocked on the door to our office suddenly.

"Come in" I told him without even looking at the door. I´ve heard his crutch clacking on the floor in the hallway already.

"My two favorite colleagues!" he greeted us with a little chuckle, "Guess who´s back!"

Skye went towards him with a little grin and patted his head carefully. Charlie still had a cast on his left leg, but they had removed the one on his right arm already. But he still had to support his left leg with a crutch and was still pretty much useless therefore, especially for undercover work. I forbid myself to comment anything stupid and just kept my mouth shut with a little sigh.

"Hope they treated you nicely in the hospital" Skye chuckled at him, "I´ve heard some quite interesting stories already…"

"Yeah?" he asked suspiciously but with a mischievous little smile, "What did you hear?"
"We´ve heard of a friendly nurse who gave you a very special treatment from time to time" I tried to get this over with as quickly as possible.

He wasn´t at all sparing us that story though. His respect for me had dropped quite a lot since that accident happened, and I couldn´t even be mad at him for it. It annoyed the hell out of me though.

"And what a special treatment I got!" he let us know without any shame, even enjoying that I couldn´t stop him, "What a talented and beautiful vixen she is…"

Skye just chuckled about it in amusement.

"…but I really wonder who told you about that right now…"

"You know that guy, who…basically got you into that hospital?" Skye began with a little grin.

"Nick mentioned it a few days after he visited you" I tried to end that conversation finally, "Seemed like he knew about that nurse…"

"Oh, he definitively knew about her" Charlie affirmed with a dirty grin.

"Whatever…" I sighed, really hoping it would end already, "…do you want to know what you missed in the meanwhile or not?"

POV Rico

I wasn´t able to normally walk through the city anymore. I had an important meeting regarding the latest movie production and I had to get into the city-centre therefore. Already, when I went down the stairs to the subway station of Tundratown, I got recognized by a group of teenage canine girls, who ran towards me like I was giving something for free. Of course, I granted them to take a few selfies with me, although their excited yelling was really loud and annoying, but then I hurried to catch the train that was just about to depart.

I really should have left the house sooner I noticed in that moment, because I missed that train by far and barely got into the next one that left ten minutes later. I had been surrounded from all sides, everybody wanted to know what was going on, and it was not much of a different story on the train either.

I knew that I was quite famous in the meanwhile, but I never believed that it would explode like that. The YouTube video we made had reached close to ten million views in the meanwhile and was still climbing fast. The song was played up and down the radio stations and sat at the top of the charts for more than a week already. How only could I think that I wouldn´t get recognized?

When I finally reached the office building, I tried to sneak in as inconspicuous as possible, but not even that made a big difference. I was stared at by everybody who passed my way.

I hurried to get onto the 12th level and into the right meeting-room as quickly as possible, but I was too late by a couple of minutes nevertheless. I couldn´t make up that time I lost by missing the first train.

"Sorry for being late!" I excused myself, already making my way to the seat that was reserved for me. I already anticipated to get told off for being late to a meeting like that, like it always happened when somebody wasn´t there in time, but today it was strangely quiet unexpectedly.

Something really important must have happened as it seemed. They all kept watching me as I got onto my seat and gave all of my attention to the group finally.

Another moment of silence appeared before someone finally took the word again.

"Oh it´s good to have you here, Mr. Capaldi…"

Then I suddenly realized what the important happening was that has happened: It was I.

I was on top of the charts right now and could easily stake a solo career on that. Now I finally understood why they didn´t tell me off for being late: They were glad I really came.

They must be wanting something from me, obviously. Something rather special or unusual, probably.

"Oh, this could get interesting" I thought to myself in the moment I realized it, and I couldn´t hide a mischievous little smile anymore. I always wanted to be in that sort of position, and now I was, finally. I liked where this was going already. This meeting could get more exciting that I actually thought it would.

POV Judy

I was excited. For the first time in quite a while, Nick and I would be going undercover again. Although we got quite a few of the black sheep in the ZPD departments in the meanwhile, we just got one of the three big players of Zootopia. Since he and most of his family have been captured, they had upped the safety standards in Tundratown-prison drastically, and that for a good reason as it turned out. They reported a big rise in prison-violence and they caught several shady mammals who tried to sneak into the prison yard without any permission. We´ve had quite a few interesting interrogations with those guys they caught trying to free some of the prisoners, and yesterday we got lucky with one of them. He was a young wolf, undoubtedly from the Nox Clan, and he was just fourteen years old as it turned out. He felt like the biggest threat to the whole ZPD when he was tied down onto the metal-table in the interrogation room, cursed at everybody and everyone and even spat onto the ground from time to time. He told us repeatedly to "fucking free him already, because we would all regret it later if we didn't" and to "show him the respect that he and his family deserves", but then, when Nick entered the interrogation-room he became strangely quiet all over sudden. That conversation was quite funny to watch actually:

"Listen here, kid" Nick told him, calmly as ever, while taking a seat on the other side of the table, "You won´t get out of here sooner if you keep on acting up like this…"

"Do you really think I´m scared of you!" the wolf retorted stubbornly, "You can´t tell me anything, fox!"

Nick couldn´t hide a little smile when he heard that, but nevertheless tried to stay serious.

"I think you´re, in fact, very scared of me" Nick calmly continued, "And there is a good reason for it. I would be scared too if I was your age, most of my family was in prison and I was sitting in an interrogation-room..."

"Shut up! I´m not scared!" he yelled in anger, "I would fuck you up if I wasn´t tied onto this stupid table!"
"That´s just what it looks like in your head" Nick chuckled, "In a real fight it would just take me one hit to send you to hospital for a few weeks."

"Yeah?! Come at me, bitch!" he yelled aggressively, before he spat onto the table before him.

"Nothing of that is going to happen" Nick told him in amusement while folding his arms behind his head in a relaxed pose, "I´m not fighting with kids, that´s neither fair nor legal. But don't worry, someday you´ll be through with that annoying puberty for yourself and then you may understand why nobody is scared of a fourteen-year-old wannabe gangster."

"Get me off this table and fight me you little bitch! Are you scared? Are you scared little pussy? Because I´m not scared."

The little wolf really was angry in the meanwhile and tried freeing himself from the chains vigorously, but Nick wasn´t impressed by that at all.

"I´ll tell you what´s happening now…" he told him calmly, standing up from his chair in order to leave the interrogation room, "You´re going back into your juvenile, with my serious advice to get some help, and I´m walking out of here with my girlfriend in the meanwhile and maybe go for a nice cone of ice-cream, thinking about what else I could do with my freedom. I wish you that you could also do this one day. It´s never too late to change your life."

"Yeah! Keep talking shit all you want, pussy!" he growled, "We´ll see who will by crying in the end!"

"And how do you want to do that?" Nick asked back, intentionally with a little sigh, "Do you want to tell your friends about it? Because I´m pretty sure they are just as scared of me as you are…"

"Just wait until that gala is over" he grumbled lowly, "Then you´ll see!"

That was such an important piece of information for us.

"Very interesting" Nick smiled at him while slowly walking up to the door, "Good to know. Judy, did you hear that? There is a gala that seems to be important…" he said through the one-way glass with a little smile, then he turned towards the wolf boy once again, "You really gave us an important clue right there, thank you very much, big-mouth!"

"Fuck off, go to hell!" he just retorted stubbornly, then he spat into Nick´s direction once again, "That won´t change anything!"

"We´ll see, buddy" Nick told him with a short wink while leaving the room, "Maybe it will."

And with those words he left him alone, ignoring all his further hateful swearing.

That was yesterday, and since then we figured out which gala he was talking about. Officially, it was just some campaign for a new charity project some rich person launched, but someone obviously must be using it as a distraction for something very substantial. The most interesting thing about that was though, that exactly those four police-officers from the city-centre voluntarily asked for that district for their night-shift patrol. We had marked them as suspicious already during our investigations, so we secretly positioned another security camera in each of their police cars, in case they would turn off the regular ones during that night shift. Bogo was the only one who knew about that so far, and we would keep it like that until that evening was over.

We used this the whole next day to very accurately prepare for our "undercover-mission". It wasn´t as easy as usual though, because we were much too famous to stay unnoticed on an event like this. So, in the end we changed the tactics completely and decided to act like we really just were guests for that charity event. Staying undercover was the part of Jack and Skye, who would communicate with us over hidden in-ear speakers and microphones on our clothing. That all looked quite promising already, but it still wouldn´t work the way we needed it to because of that one last problem: We would be stuck in a big crowd of people and surrounded by fans the entire time, which wasn't helpful at all if we had to get out of there quickly. So basically, we needed somebody who would distract them if the time had come to get into action. Luckily, we knew the perfect candidate for that already.

POV Rico

"…what do you mean with undercover-mission?" I asked, when Judy had asked me about it on the phone. She had tried to reach me two times already when I was in that meeting and I had called her back as soon as possible of course. Her little chuckle put me into an even better mood already.

"It´s a gala event for a charity organisation" she explained, "Nick and I pretend to go there just as guests, but in reality, there is something quite fishy going on in the background. We just need you to distract the people a little if we need to get out of there quickly…because: who doesn´t love you? A moment of distraction, that´s all we need."

"Yeah, if that helps you out, I will do that with pleasure!" I chuckled, "When does it start?"

I had just left the building and headed for the subway once again.

"It´s officially beginning at 7 pm, but it´s totally fine when we meet you there around that time, you don't have to be there from the beginning…"

"Alright, I´ll be there…" I promised with an excited little smile she obviously couldn´t see, "…one more question: can I bring Anita with me? I wanted to spend the evening with her today originally."

"Yeah, of course, you´re not forbidden to have fun there as well" she affirmed, "Just be prepared to distract the guests quickly when Nick and I need to get out of there."

"Got it" I told her, "I´m excited already!"
"Thank you so much for your help, hotshot!" she chuckled, "You´re really helping us out!"

"See you tonight!" I told her for the farewell, "Greet Nick for me!"

"Will do. See you!" she told me for the farewell, then she ended the call.

Not that bad of a day for me, really. For the first time ever, I was asked to produce the title song for a new movie, not just the soundtrack and background music, and I was about to be a part of an undercover mission. And I would be able about to spent the night with Anita on top of that. It couldn´t really get any better from my point of view.

But right now, I had to survive the subway ride once again in order to get back home. I already doubted that it would be any easier than it was to get here this morning. At least I got to the escalator before I got recognized.

POV Anita (Mystic Springs)

"Is there a reason why you´ve picked the early shift today?" he asked me with a little smile, "It´s been a while since you´ve asked Ivy to change shifts with you…"

Freddy had just joined me in the little massage hut and watched me preparing everything for the next customer. I was in a fantastic mood already, and since he changed that much, I had absolutely no problem with him being around me.

"There is, actually" I told him excitedly, "Take a guess who has asked me out on a date tonight?"

"That was a pretty good day for you, wasn´t it?" he asked with a big smile, "I´ve rarely seen you this happy before…"

"That was the best day ever!" I agreed, not even trying to deny it.

"It was. I had so much fun too. That was such a great evening with them…"

"Which one?" I wanted to know with a dirty little grin.

"Oh come on" he growled ironically, because I was bringing that up again. He was acting like he was coming closer to me first, but then he started laughing and wildly began tickling me suddenly, "You know exactly which one I meant!"

"Alright, alright!" I confessed in defeat, "I won´t bring it up again, I´m sorry! I know what you meant!"

We kept on fooling around a little more, but then he stopped his assault on me, finally.

"That first one was a little more fun for you than for me, I guess…" he chuckled light-heartedly.

"That second one was more exciting for me as well, don´t worry" I told him with a little smile. "Although I imagine Mikki getting it on with you to be quite good to watch as well" I confessed with a sly grin.

"Hmm…" he said with a mischievous smile, "…If you only knew about it."

"Oh, I can imagine…" I grinned, "…but I really can´t complain either."

"I love it so much how everything changed in here" he told me once more, "I´m so happy!"

"Me too!" I agreed with him, and I couldn´t help myself but hug him shortly, "I´m happy too, Freddy!"

POV Nick

I stood in front of the little mirror in our office when somebody knocked on the door suddenly. I just got done with adjusting the new black tie I put around my neck and Judy had watched me in the meanwhile.

"Who might this be?" I wondered, taking a step to my right and carefully grabbing the door handle.

"I don´t know" Judy chuckled, "Didn´t sound like the chief, that's for sure…"

"Nick, Judy? Are you there?", a female voice that sounded quite familiar asked through the door hectically. "I really need to talk to you, it´s very important!" she pleaded.

I opened up the door and the white vixen nearly fell into my arms when she saw me.

"Oh my god!" she cried, "Thank god you´re here!"

It took her a little while to calm down, so Judy had joined us as well in the meanwhile. Although we had no idea why she visited us, I closed the door behind her first of all.

"Come on, talk to us, Cammy, what is wrong?" I tried comforting her a little.

She began searching for something in her purse for a second and then she reached a plain white envelope over to me. I opened it up and took the piece of paper out of it, before I began reading. It said that she was supposed to put something into our Coffees next time Judy and I were about to get one. She would be rewarded with 100000 dollars or would get into massive troubles if she wouldn´t do it. In the envelope I also found a little plastic bag with two tablets inside of it.

"What is this stuff?" I asked, before I handed the piece of paper over to Judy.

"I don't know" she cried lowly, "But I don´t want to put it in your coffee!"

Judy finished reading as well in the meanwhile. I reached the little bag over to her as well in the meanwhile.

"I don´t want to get you poisoned or killed" she cried out, "I couldn´t take the stress anymore, that´s why I came here! I thought telling you about it was the only right thing to do…I hoped you could help me!"

I took a step towards her and pulled her into a little hug carefully. I really was relieved about hearing it.

"You did exactly the right thing" I told her proudly, "You saved our lives with that, probably. Thank you so much for coming here!"

Judy nodded in agreement. "Yes! I´m glad you warned us!" she said while hugging her as well, "Thank you so much, Cammy!"

I inspected the plastic bag with the two tablets a little more closely in the meanwhile. I had no idea what it was.

"Looks a little similar to grape sugar if you ask me" I commented with a little chuckle, "But maybe we really should give this to the forensics…"

"I thought about that as well. Maybe they just wanted to test my loyalty" Cammy whispered, "It drove me absolutely mad throughout the day!"

"I can understand you very well. I wouldn´t want to have trouble with those guys either, whoever they are" Judy told her, "Either way, it was the right decision to tell us about it! We will help you, don´t worry about it!"

"Thank you so much!" she whispered in relief, "I´m sorry for disturbing you too…I just really didn´t know what to do anymore!"

"Did somebody see you?" I asked her casually after laying the envelope onto my desk, "…coming to the ZPD I mean…"

She just shrugged her shoulders about it. "I haven't noticed anything…but then again, I didn´t know the two rams either who came into my shop this morning, ordered coffee, didn´t pay for it and instead left me this envelope on my counter.

"Two rams you said?" Judy asked, "…that´s interesting…"

"Are you thinking what I am thinking?" I asked her while closing the buttons on the sleeves of my black suit.

"It´s either that they need the wolves back as their business partners, or they want to prevent that the same will happen to them…" she thought out loudly.

"It´s probably a big alliance among the clans…"

Cammy just shrugged her shoulders about it as well. I was pretty sure she would tell us if she knew something.

"Either way…" I told them, "I think I have the perfect idea to fix that already. We´ll solve that problem when we get our coffees tomorrow."

I gave them a little wink while saying it, and I was pretty sure that both of them understood what I meant.

"You wanna fake our deaths, don´t you?" Judy asked with a little chuckle.

"Only for a little while, but maybe that´s quite useful for later investigations as well…"

"Quite interesting, actually" Judy agreed while nodding a little.

"You think that will work?" Cammy asked.

"We can´t even leave the ZPD building without getting noticed" I chuckled, "I´m pretty sure they will notice that as well…"

"As long as I just have to make some normal coffee I´m fine with that…" she told us with an unsure smile.

"We´ll figure it out, don´t worry about it" I told her with a little wink, "You´ll see, it´s going to be easier than you think…"

Judy still examined the two little white tablets in her paws, but there really was no way of finding out what it was just by looking at it.

"I really hope Jack and Skye can find something out this evening…" I sighed after a short moment of silence, "…hope that whole circus will pay off in the end…"

"Why are you dressed so fancy?" Cammy asked while taking a closer look at me. She seemed to have calmed down a little already.

"Judy and I are invited to a gala event tonight…" I told her plainly, not wanting to spare too many details, "

"And you´re going in your police uniform?" she wanted to know from Judy with a little smile.

Judy shook her head a little, apparently still not sure about what to choose. She went back to her drawer yet once again and took two of the dresses with her to show them to the vixen. One of them was bright red, the other one in a sort of blue-ish green, and I wasn´t at all able help her with that choice. To me, she looked beautiful in whatever she wore.

"Oh, I like the one in the light cyan" Cammy told her right away, being very interested in that topic, "It fits your eyes so nicely!"

"You think?" Judy asked, actually very thankful about her opinion. She held the dress beside herself for a moment and let us take a look at it once more.

"I want it to look natural, rather than functional" she told us, "That´s why I want to wear a dress…"

"I like it" I agreed with Cammy, "…and it looks natural if you ask me!"

"Oh you two will be the most beautiful couple of the whole evening" Cammy told us with a happy little smile, "I´m excited for the press photos already!"

"Aww" Judy chuckled, "Thank you!"

"That´s quite a big event, isn´t it?" I´ve even heard it on the radio this morning, "There are a lot of wealthy and famous people coming as well…"

"Yeah, that´s why it´s a great distraction for everybody who has planned something shady" I sighed.

"Well, I´m not quite sure if staying undercover would work out arriving there like this…" she chuckled, now noticeable a little more relaxed than before, "…it´s not exactly hard to recognize you…"

"That´s why we changed tactics and got ourselves someone who gets even more attention than us" Judy giggled.

"Hopefully" I added with a little chuckle.

"Who could gain more attention than the two of you at the moment?"

"Pyro Heart" Judy told her with a little smile, "You know that song?"

"Yeah!" she affirmed, "I hear it like five times on the radio every day…I love that song!"

My smile widened a little.

"Oh! Now I get it! You two know him personally! You´ve been in his music video!"

The both of us nodded proudly.

"Oh this sounds so exciting!" she giggled, "He seems like such a sweetheart!"

"He is" Judy chuckled, "But we´ll tell you about that on another day maybe. We´ve got quite a few things to do still."

"Yeah, I´m sorry for bothering you" she excused while making her way towards the door right away, "I won't hinder you anymore for today, best of luck for your operation!"

"Thanks, Cammy" I waved for the farewell, "See you tomorrow!"

POV Anita

Just like a gentleman, he rang at my doorbell this evening and waited for me to get finished in the bathroom. I wore a dark blue dress I really liked, a blue flower behind my left ear and the golden chain I inherited from my grandma around my neck, and I was quite confident with my looks. I was not alone with that as it seemed.

"God, you are so beautiful" he told me with gleaming eyes while pulling me in for a long and passionate kiss, "I´ve missed you so much already!"

"Oh thank you, Mister!" I giggled proudly, "But you´re not looking bad either, I´ve got to say!"

He really looked elegant in his fancy white shirt and the blue pants he wore. Now that I saw the both of us like this, I already got a little more nervous once again. I was so excited about this evening that I almost got a little sick because of it. But he treated me just as nicely as in the springs last time he was there, and he really liked my choice of clothing as well. So, there was not very much left that could go wrong.

The warm summer air crossed our fur as we went on our way to the subway and the mood in the city was just fantastic. Paw in paw we went into the train and leaned ourselves against the glass panels beside the door, because all the seats were taken already.

Rico didn´t act like he was a well-known celebrity at all, although he was recognized by about everyone who was on the train. They all kept looking and talking about us lowly, a few of them even offered their seats to us kindly, but we just waved it off with friendly little smiles. They couldn´t quite believe that he was this humble about it, but that was exactly what made him even more sympathetic. It guessed that the photos they took of us were spreading though the whole city even before we left the subway-station in the city centre, but I wasn´t too bothered about that in the end.

He did a few selfies with the people who had asked him about nicely, but other than that he was giving me every little bit of his attention.

"And how exactly did you get to know Ivonne and Sarah before you moved into their shared apartment?" I asked, after he had told me everything about his current living situation.

"They had been searching for a third person and an old friend of mine told me about it. I had been searching for a new flat anyway since my former landlord died and her children wanted to sell the house…" he told me the story, "And then, about half a year ago, I thought to myself: hey, those girls seem to be nice, let´s give that a try if nothing better comes my way! …And nothing did, luckily."

"Seems like it has been the right decision to make" I chuckled.

"It really was" he affirmed with a little smile, "It turned out to be the best decision I could ever make! I´m so thankful for everything that happened since then…"

In the moment he finished that sentence, another group of fans noticed and arrived him excitedly. It really took us forever to get there.

The closer we got to the event, the more crowded the sidewalks became and the more he got recognized. Although it had already started fifteen minutes before we arrived, there were still a couple of reporters and even camera teams standing outside the entrance and documented the new arrivals.

In the moment they noticed Rico, we immediately got surrounded and completely immobilised for a couple of minutes.

I could literally feel how much all that attention annoyed him by now, because the music world had been all around his debut hit single in the last few days already, but he stayed friendly nevertheless and answered most of the questions that were thrown at him.

"Mr. Capaldi" they yelled, "Will you release an album one day?"

"I don´t know, maybe…" he just said while shrugging his shoulders.

"Mr. Capaldi, are Officer Wilde and Hopps friends of yours?"

"Very good friends. Those two are awesome and I love them very much."

"When did you start making music?"

"At the age of six…" he sighed, "Listen, guys! I don't want to be rude, but please ask me about that some other day, okay? I´m here for a nice evening with this beautiful lady" he excused himself, pulling me with him gently, "Excuse me, please!"

With those words we finally left them behind us and entered the gala hall.

It just looked beautiful. Old but still fancy looking lanterns bathed the walls in soft but comfortable light, the chandeliers on the ceiling made this room feel like it belonged to a former president or something, and the catering was nowhere near disappointing either. Wooden tables with drinks, fruits and other snacks stood in every corner and waiters carried tablets with champagne through the crowd.

I couldn´t quite believe it at first sight. I never really was on an event as fancy as this, and now I was here with one of the most famous musicians of the entire city.

Some calm dancing music was lowly playing in the background and most of the people were talking to each other in little groups. But there also had one slightly bigger group gathered in the middle of the dancefloor, and because neither of us had spotted Nick and Judy anywhere by now, we wanted to see what was going on as well.

"You think they´re here already?" I asked him casually, "…maybe they´re just a little late…"

"I don´t know" he said with a shrug of his shoulders, "But I bet that they wouldn´t be alone if they are here already…"

Rico got noticed here pretty quickly as well of course, but at least that helped to split the crowd in front of us a little. They let us pass, but a few moments later we were surrounded completely, obviously. Rico kept on moving forwards nevertheless and still pulled me with him gently. He gave his fans a little wink here and there, but he didn´t let them stop him anymore.

Then we spotted them, finally. Nick and Judy were here and already busy taking selfies with the people who asked them. Which was everybody, practically.

"Sorry…" Rico told the other mammals in a friendly manner, "Coming through…excuse me!"

"Heeey!" Nick greeted us happily when he spotted us, "Anita! Rico! You sexy freaks, how are you?"

They came a few steps closer towards us and the people around us listened in great amusement.

"Mr. Wilde" Rico told him in a faked serious voice, "One second of your time, please! I must insist on taking a selfie with you and Officer Hopps right now!"

They both went to the left and right of us quickly and Rico made a photo of the four of us with the camera in his phone.

"Thanks" he grinned while putting his phone back into his pockets. Then he hugged Nick and Judy one after another, "So nice to see you!" he told them happily.

"Nice to see you too, pal!" Nick chuckled, "Glad you´re here!"

"Damn you guys are looking good tonight" Rico told them while I hugged both of them as well quickly.

Rico was right with what he said. Judy was dressed in a simple but very beautiful cyan-green dress accompanied with a white band around her waist. It looked like summer, it looked fresh, although it may have been a little classy, but most importantly it looked like something special, compared to how all the other girls were dressing themselves this year. I knew already that she would look so great in the newspaper articles.

Nick wasn´t looking bad either. He wore a quite expensive looking smoking over a white shirt and had a black tie around his neck. It suited him just as well as the blue suited Rico in my opinion.

"Thanks" Judy told him with a little smile, "But you guys don't have to hide either, I must say!"

"I was just about to say it" Nick agreed, "You two look like you´re ready to go dancing tonight…"

POV Jack Savage

For now, everything went according to plan. Officers Wilde and Hopps have been surrounded by gazing fans and press people for quite a while, later their friends joined them and it looked even more like they just were guests on this gala event. While I was watching the monitors in the security office of the gala hall, Skye had prepared Weapons and Ammunition on the other table in the meanwhile. When she was done with that, she joined me in front of the screens. Just in time to see the little speech that was held by one of the organizers. We had a good view of the backyard as well, but nothing had moved in there for now. Not even a catering lorry or something. Everything was calm.

After the speech was over, they turned up the music a little more and the couples began slow dancing in a very good mood.

Now, for the first time, Nick and Judy would have had the possibility to get out of there quickly. They had quite a lot of space right now, compared to when they were talking to the other people earlier.

I believed they even really enjoyed their dance a little, although we were here for work, and if I was honest I couldn´t deny that I was a little jealous about them in that moment. That looked like a lot of fun.

Artwork to his on: / artvopros dot tumblr dot com

Please do me the favour and check it out, I promise it´s worth it! ;)

(you can also see more of her amazing art, specifically drawn for this story, in Chapters 12 and 46 or on Tumblr of course)

I haven't done something like that with Skye in ages, and today it seemed that once again we would just remain watching instead of doing it for ourselves.

I had the feeling that I was not alone with thinking that.

"Aww" Skye chuckled at me teasingly, massaging my shoulders a little, "That looks like a lot of fun actually! Why do we have to be up here and just watch them?"

"We´re on an important mission, we´ve been waiting a long time for this opportunity!" I explained with a little sigh.

"Come on, Jacky" she grinned while reaching out for my paws and pulling me of my chair smoothly, "Dance with me, Jacky! Just for a minute!"

I honestly was considering it for a second. I really wanted to, but we also really had to concentrate. Then she gave me that look I just couldn´t resist.

"Alright" I sighed, before looking into her beautiful eyes and following her into the middle of the room, "But really just a minute…"

She gave me a heart-warming happy little smile as she patiently waited for me to take the lead and we began dancing in the little security office.

There we stood. Arm in arm, slowly taking steps for- and backwards to the low music we got from the security footage, looked at each other with mischievous little smirks and forgot about the world for a second or two. I couldn´t believe how much energy that gave me back in that very moment. We really should take some time off in the near future and just be ourselves once again. It just felt fantastic having her in my arms.

Then suddenly, I noticed something in the corner of my eyes. One of the screens had changed its footage and showed us that something was happening in the backyard now, and there was a lot going on.

"Skye!" I woke her up from her short daydreaming, then I pointed at the screen. Multiple cars were arriving and a lot of mammals were getting out of them. A lot of armoured mammals. Mostly sheep and wolves.

"Shit" I cursed, "They are more than I thought, those guys must be serious!"

"Yeah" she agreed while grabbing one of the dart riffles on the table and reaching it over to me, "Looks like it wasn´t worthless to bring this much firepower…"

"Seems like it…" I sighed why loading the riffle, "It could have stayed like that for once if you asked me…"

She grabbed herself the semi-automatic sniper riffle she had prepared for herself and hung it over her shoulders by its strap. God how much I loved it to see her like that. With that kind of weapon, she was a good shot in the first place, but her night vision just made her brilliant for the job. I always found myself falling in love with her even more when I saw her grabbing her big riffles.

"I´ll be on the roof" she told me, "Be careful down there!" she advised, before she kissed me on the forehead quickly.

"I will" I promised her, "Because I´m coming back for that dance later, darling!"

She gave me another beautiful little smile for those words.

"Rock ´n´ Roll!" she grinned, and then she was out of sight already.

I tucked another pistol to my belt quickly and put the other two riffles plus all the remaining magazines into the bag we had prepared for Nick and Judy.

"Well said…" I mumbled, as I went onto my way as well, down the stairs towards the kitchen corridor, "Rock ´n´ Roll."

There we are. Another terribly bad cliff-hanger. But I had to end it here anyway. I´m already working hard on the next one ;)

I would be very happy if you tell me what you think, thank you very much!

Have a great day everybody, see you later!

~furr