Hey guys, how are you? Here is chapter 54, hope you enjoy it a little.
Big thanks to MrShurukan for the help!
Zootopia - Springtime Circumstances
Chapter 54 – The biggest prank in history (POV Cammy)
It wasn´t even ten in the morning and my nerves already gave me the rest. I thought I just could give them their normal cups of coffee, they would leave my shop and it was fine like that, but it wasn´t as easy as we thought it would be. The two rams who gave me the envelope yesterday were here this morning once again. They both ordered a cup of coffee, and although they had paid for it this time, they just wouldn´t leave my coffee-shop until Nick and Judy arrived. They choose a nice table to watch the customers who were coming and leaving and just stayed there, although their cups have been empty for almost half an hour. They wanted to make sure I would do it, obviously, and they knew very well that I was aware of that. They didn´t leave until they arrived, finally, and it happened eventually. Happily as ever and totally relaxed they smiled at the sun and at everyone who noticed them on their way. Nick and Judy were in the best of moods, but they also acted as professional as always. When they came through the door, they both took a look at their surroundings quickly. Nick didn´t at all change his expression when he noticed the two rams, but he winked me very shortly. I was pretty sure he noticed what they were doing as well, but I still was nervous as hell about it. Maybe that was not such a bad thing, since they really thought I would poison the heroic police officers right now. It was understandable that I was nervous, although it was for a completely different reason.
"Hey Cammy" Nick greeted me, "So good to see you!"
"Hey guys…" I replied lowly. It was arranged that I would play to be a little sad today.
"Something wrong?" Judy wanted to know, while I began preparing their cups of coffee already.
"No…it´s nothing…" I sighed.
"Hey!" Judy told me enthusiastically, winking me as well shortly, "Keep your head up, everybody has a bad day sometimes…"
"Yeah…guess you´re right…" I sighed, while I acted like I would drop one of the pills from the envelope into their cups each. They both obviously noticed that nothing was in my paws, all apart from the fact that I didn't even have that stuff in my shop anymore. The timing seemed believable though.
"Here you go" I told them, while I finally handed them their cups, "Have a nice day you two!"
"You too" Nick chuckled with another friendly smile, "…see you tomorrow!"
"Bye Cammy" Judy sang happily while they both went on their way out once again, "Have a nice day!"
I waved them once more with a forced little smile and then the door fell into its lock behind them. Now the real acting began. I let my head hang with a very deep sigh and then I shook it a little bit, like I just had committed the biggest crime in history.
As soon as Nick and Judy were out of the building, one of the rams dialled a number on his phone and waited for the connection.
"Wilde and Hopps just got their coffee. Looks like she did it."
"…"
"Yeah…pretty sure we´ll see it on the news later anyways…alright, bye!"
As soon as he had ended the call, both of them got off their chairs and went for the door.
"You really are one stone-hearted bitch, I gotta say" one of them snickered towards me, "…you didn´t even change your expression when you put in the pills…"
"Hurry up and get the fuck out of my shop you sick bastards!" I spat at them hatefully, and I was pretty pleased with my performance. They really seemed to believe it.
"Take it as a compliment…" he told me with a dirty chuckle, "…that was ballsy, and I admire that!"
I just pointed at the door once more with a dry expression. The ugly ram just gave me a little wink, then they finally left my shop.
I did my part. And I did it went successfully. I celebrated that with a little sigh of relief.
Now it was up to Nick and Judy.
POV Nick
Her coffee tasted just as fantastic as ever. The weather was nice, the central park was full of people and we got photographed about a hundred times before we finally arrived at the entrance of the ZPD building. The videos of the fight in the gala hall yesterday had spread through half the city over night, apparently, so the hype was quite big once again. Perfect for what we had planned.
"Hey Ben" I greeted the big cheetah when we passed him at the reception, "Ready for some drama?"
"Oh this is soo exciting" he giggled, "I hope I don´t prattle anything away…"
"I´m sure you´ll be fine" Judy told him with a little wink, "See you later, Benji!"
When we arrived at our office, I first of all took another big gulp of the delicious, not at all poisoned coffee.
"Should we call Rico and the girls?" Judy asked me then, "Or should we shock them a little as well?"
"Let´s not tell them at first" I suggested with an evil little grin, but not without a reason, "Rico is quite popular in the meanwhile, and they all know that we are good friends of him…they will ask him about his thoughts like a hundred times when he leaves the house…"
"Right…" she agreed, "…his natural reaction to the ´bad news´ will be much more authentic than anything he could play…although they might be worried sick about us…"
I nodded slowly.
"…but so will our parents…" Judy added with a little sigh, "I guess we´re going to hear a lot of complaints about this…"
"We´ll be fine" I chuckled, "Don´t worry too much, carrots!"
The moment I said that, we already heard footsteps in the hallway. It sounded like the Chief, and it was him when he knocked on our door a second later.
"Everything is set up" he greeted us right away, "I just called the guys from the ambulance, they´re ready to flash the lights. I explicitly told them to use the front entrance so a lot of people will see it…"
"Very good" I told him with a little nod, "Judy and I will just be laying on those stretchers and try not to move until we´re in the ambulance."
"I just got a call from the lab" the buffalo let us know, "It was Ricin which they wanted her to put into your coffee…"
"Ricin?"
"Yes…a sort of seed that will mainly cause symptoms of sickness, fever, pain in your stomachs…"
"So it does fit quite well when we´re just laying on those stretchers…" I summed up, "There doesn't have to come fake-blood out of our maws or anything?"
"No, just lying there would be believable" he affirmed, "…the dose of one of those pills would have been easily enough to kill you by the way. That´s some top-notch material they´ve given her to poison the two of you. Very highly concentrated and it wouldn't even have made a big difference in the taste of your coffee. They weren´t messing around. That vixen probably really saved your lives with telling you about it!"
"We know that" I affirmed with a little smile, "She´s a good girl, and we promised her to protect her when all of this is over…"
"Let´s hope that all was worth it…" the Chief sighed, "It was not cheap to set all of this up, just to let you know…"
"I´m confident" Judy told him, "Jack and Skye are in position already. They have a whole bunch of other agents on stand-by and we will join them as soon as possible as soon as that clan becomes active once again…"
"Try not to get this fight into the public once again" he advised us, "Agent Savage has complained about some ´irresponsible behaviour´ already…"
I couldn´t help but chuckle about this happily.
"Other question" I asked him then, "Have you told any of our colleagues about it yet?"
"No. From the ZPD it´s just the three of us right now. Oh, and Clawhauser of course. I´m not quite sure who I could trust and who not…"
"I was thinking so too. Furthermore, it is very hard to act sad although you know that it isn´t like that in reality."
He nodded understandingly.
"…but we could tell Max and Dan about it when we need support."
"Agreed!" the Chief spoke up, "Now let´s get this thing going!"
"We´re ready" Judy told him confidently, as he already was about to open our door once again.
"Oh, before I forget!" the Chief stopped himself quickly, "I´ve parked your new car behind the Hospital, your gear and weaponry is in the trunk!" he explained, before he tossed something over to me, "Take good care of her!"
I took a look at the fancy car-key he just passed over.
"Thanks Chief" I told him with a confused chuckle about his words, "…don't worry, I´m good with the ladies…"
The buffalo gave us a little wink, which was quite a rare sight actually, and then he left the room, ready to start with the action.
"Looks a little different than the normal ones" Judy said, after I gave her the key to inspect it quickly.
"Beat´s me. He was talking about some new high-speed chase vehicle yesterday…" I said while shrugging my shoulders. Then I took another gulp of coffee.
"Interesting…" Judy chuckled while checking her looks in our little mirror quickly, "Finally we get some exciting new toys to play with."
POV Cammy
It took maybe fifteen minutes after Nick and Judy had left my coffee shop, and now the first ambulance was to be heard. I went outside quickly to check out what was going on at the ZPD entrance and nearly the whole central park was watching in shock. The medics really were running into the building, and when they came back just a few minutes later, they carried Officers Hopps and Wilde out of the building. That would truly have been a shocking sight for me if I didn´t know better. Luckily, I had calmed down a little in the meanwhile, so I just got back behind the counter. I had the news running on my TV, so I wouldn´t miss anything anyway. And I wasn´t supposed to look suspicious in any way either. I was supposed to look shocked, but that was not a big deal anymore. I had myself under control in the meanwhile.
POV Christian
When I woke up this morning, I was worried for a minute that I would miss my first lesson. I didn´t know how late it was and searched for my phone in slight panic. Then I realized that it was Saturday and I didn´t have to be at school anyway. I had no idea how last night really had ended, but it surely was wonderful. Totally crazy, but wonderful. I woke up next something very comfortably warm, fluffy and good smelling. Sarah was still sleeping soundly, so I carefully got off the sofa to not wake her up. I rarely had been sleeping this well in the last time. I must have been the most-happy fox in all of Zootopia this morning.
My phone was laying on the other end of the couch table. Ivonne was also sleeping on the same couch as us, Rico´s girlfriend Anita was on the other side of the table on the other couch. I heard a few noises from the kitchen, so I decided to get into my boxers from yesterday first, grabbed up my phone and then checked out who was preparing breakfast already. There was just one possibility, really, and there he was. Rico Capaldi. The last night wasn´t just a funny dream of mine.
"Good morning!" he greeted me in a friendly way and with a chummy smile.
"Good morning!" I replied happily.
"Had a good night?"
"A fantastic one!" I affirmed, still a little too fixated on his totally naked I noticed a moment later. But he really didn´t mind running around like that. It was not like he had something to hide anyway. Had they known about him earlier, the would surely have nominated him for the SMA show as well, I was pretty sure of that.
"That´s good to hear" he chuckled with a little smile, "Coffee?"
"Yes, please!"
He grabbed a fresh cup from one of the many that stood besides the sink, filled it with the black liquid from the machine and handed it over to me.
"T-thank you!"
"Milk, Sugar?"
"A spoon of sugar would be really nice please."
He opened one of the shelves above us and reached me the tray of sugar a second later, "Here, help yourself…"
"Thanks!"
For a little while he watched me pouring some sugar into my cup, he had not very much else to do in the meanwhile.
"C-Can I ask you something?" I began again, mostly to break that awkward silence that had appeared there for a minute.
"Sure" he affirmed, "Go ahead!"
"Why are you so nice to me? I´m not someone famous or something like that…I mean…why would you even give a toss about me?"
That left him thinking for a second.
"…you know…" he began a moment later, "There is this one quite famous red fox…he was on the news again just yesterday…"
I nodded.
"…not even a month ago, that very fox and his girlfriend, who happens to be quite famous as well, they just stood in our doorframe, half frozen and begging for help. We granted them a warm shower, some spare clothing and allowed them to make a phone call. They really just needed our help, not as police officers, just as the helpless animals they were…"
He left a little pause here to let that sink in.
"Nobody knew about me or my music back then. Not even my roommates Ivonne and Sarah knew that I was earning my money by producing movie soundtracks…I was just some ordinary fox with a normal life…"
He took another sip of coffee before he continued. I was listening with great interest.
"…on that day we learned one of the coolest things ever: Nick and Judy do not make any difference between famous people, like themselves, or just regular guys like us. Honestly, those two are among the nicest guys I´ve ever met in my life. They even went to the mystic springs with us to thank us for the help on that evening. They just treated us like good friends of theirs. Really, Nick is not at all bragging with any of the many things he had achieved, he´s not putting himself above other males and he´s just a wonderful person in general. And it´s no different with Judy. Those two really were my biggest inspiration ever since. I learned from them that the only thing that really counts is how you treat the people around you. That all would never have happened without them. I probably would never have showed that song to them if they hadn´t boosted my confidence like that. And then I recorded that song at work just for fun. Nick just out of nowhere suggested that we could make a little YouTube-video for that song and they all joined in on it. A few days later it was played on the radio for the first time. That´s how that happened…"
"Wow! Like really? They did all of those nice things for you?"
"Yeah. At first, I thought this way too about famous people like them. But then they showed all of us that you don't have to be an asshole when you´re famous. There is no reason not to behave like that, why would there be?"
"That´s just so amazing" I told him in all honesty, "I was so baffled about that yesterday! I expected a lot of things to happen on that evening, but nothing like that at all. But I´m so happy about it!"
"Heh" he grinned, "But you´ve put on quite a show nevertheless…"
"Thanks…" I chuckled back, just after we heard something from the living room. It sounded a little like somebody had fallen off the couch or something like that.
"Ugh, goddammit" she cursed lowly.
Half a minute later steps where coming closer towards us. Sarah yawned into her paws shortly, but she smiled immediately when she noticed us.
"Oh, look who sensed the smell of coffee" Rico greeted her with a little wink.
"Morning, guys!" she grinned, as Rico handed her a cup and the tray of sugar.
"Good morning" I greeted her.
She still was completely naked, just like Rico, but I couldn´t say that I disliked the view. Seemed like after the best night of my life followed the best morning as well. She filled her cup with coffee and a few spoons of sugar, then she leaned herself against the kitchen isle with a mischievous little smile.
"That is one happy girl if you ask me" Rico commented with a little chuckle and a short little wink towards me, "…although she fell off the couch when she woke up…"
"Yeah, yeah" she giggled, "What about you, Mr. Casa Nova? You had a good night as well?"
"Hmm" he affirmed with a satisfied grin, "Yeah, I can´t complain, actually…"
"Nick had taught you well" she grinned.
"I´m his best student" Rico chuckled.
"Student?" I wondered lowly.
"She´s talking about the dirty stuff once again" he told me in amusement.
"Oh, okay. I think I understand…" I grinned.
"When there really is a master of sex, it´s our SMA of this year" Sarah chuckled.
"You´ve…like literally seen him doing…" I asked.
Both of them, Sarah and Rico, couldn´t hide a little grin about hearing this.
"Guess there still is quite a lot I need to learn…" I chuckled, shaking my head in disbelief a little.
"Nah…" Sarah waved it off with a little smile, "Don´t worry about it, you did well yesterday!" she told me while coming a little closer and then kissing me on the cheek lovingly. I wrapped my arms around her beautiful naked body and just enjoyed the moment.
A moment after we had released each other again, Sarah took another sip of her coffee and I took a quick look at my phone, finally, which I´ve been holding in my paws since I went into the kitchen. Originally, I just wanted to find out how late it was by now, but then I noticed something eye catching on my lock-screen. My heart nearly stopped beating for a second there. "News flash" it disclaimed, "Officers Wilde and Hopps were transported into Hospital this morning. First confirmations told us that they might have been poisoned and probably in great danger to lose their lives. Hundreds of fans are waiting in front of the ZPD building and the Hospital already, waiting for any new information."
I immediately got a heavy breath after reading that. That news was not good. Not at all. And we´ve just been talking about them.
I couldn´t get around to inform the others about it right away.
"They´re what?" Rico asked loudly, nearly spitting out the coffee he had in his mouth. I showed the little text on my screen and let them read It for themselves.
"Holy shit! That's not good!"
"Can you click on the notification?" Sarah wanted to know in shock, "Is there more info about it?"
I immediately tried what she suggested and waited for the website to load on my phone.
"Currently it seems like they have been poisoned…" I read out loud what the text repeated from the headline, "Doctors noticed similar symptoms to ricin-poisoning. More information will be released as soon as possible…"
"What´s ricin?" Rico asked fearfully, "Does it say?"
"I bet Ivy knows what that is" Sarah suggested, while I was searching a definition on the web already. I was sick of fear suddenly, and I was not alone with that.
"Oh my god" Sarah sighed fearfully, "This can´t be true right now! Please tell me that is just a joke!"
POV Judy
"Just look who we have here again" Nick chuckled happily, as we met a very stressed looking Suzanne in one of the many hospital corridors.
She immediately stopped in her tracks and stared at us in pure disbelief for a few seconds.
"Oh my god!" she sighed finally, "I thought you two have been poisoned! What the hell was all that about?"
"Didn´t Cammy tell you about it?" I wondered, "She was supposed to get us poisoned and kill us in order to not get into trouble with that clan that blackmailed her. We used that opportunity to save her from the trouble and fake our deaths for a little while. At least until we get them…"
"Yeah" Nick affirmed what I said, "Please be so kind and don't tell anybody about it."
"Oh…okay…" she stammered, "So you´ve not been poisoned at all?"
"No, never felt better, actually" Nick chuckled, "But please try not to talk to anyone about it. Cammy could get into major trouble if it comes out too soon…"
"Alright" she agreed with a sigh of relief, "…I won´t talk about it! I promise!"
Nick hugged her quickly, then he followed me again. I waved her with a short little wink.
"Thanks Suzanne" I told her with a confident smile, "See you later!"
"See you later, guys! Good luck!" she yelled after us.
Soon later, we had followed the dark blue line on the floor as we were told to, we found the backyard of the Hospital which the Chief had described to us. There stood some ambulance trucks and a few regular cars, probably from the employees here, but none of them looked like a regular undercover police cruiser.
"Huh" Nick sighed, looking closer at the key in his paws, "Where is that special new thing the buffalo was talking about?"
I just shrugged my shoulders at that question.
Nick found a button on the key and pressed it. A short beeping sound was to be heard from behind one of the ambulances and it flashed it´s headlights a few times as well. There it was.
"Whoa!" Nick chuckled, "He wasn´t lying, that thing looks high-speed…"
The car we were standing in front of looked just stunning in every way. It was painted in a beautiful matt black finish, had some pretty fancy looking aerodynamic tunnels and flaps on the sides, roof and on its back, it was not very much higher than Nick in total and it had toned windows as well. We liked what we saw immediately.
"Too bad I have the key right now, carrots" he grinned while rushing towards the driver´s side quickly. I just chuckled a little at his enthusiasm and got in on the other side. I was a little sceptical about the practicality of it though, because it didn´t seem to offer a lot of storage on first glance. But this thing really was thought through as it turned out. Besides a lot of fancy buttons on the dashboard, a pilot-style start button for the engine and some beautiful LED-lighting, there were a lot of spaces to store guns, gear and other stuff we might wanted to take with us.
"I assume the trunk is on the front of this car" Nick suggested, as he was searching for a hole he could put the key in.
"Yeah, I´m quite sure the engine is behind us…" I agreed, then I pointed at the start button for him.
He gave the red button a try and the heart of the monster behind us roared into life.
"Holy shit that thing is loud!" Nick grinned excitedly while teasing the throttle a little bit, "What the hell are we supposed to do with that thing?"
He pulled the lever into drive and we started rolling through the backyard slowly. It sounded really nice and powerful, I actually was a little bummed that I wasn´t driving it for myself right now. But next time it was my turn, there would be no discussion about it.
"Oh, we´re looking so much cooler than Jack and Skye right now" Nick chuckled, just as we joined the road in our new ride.
"Can´t argue with that…" I agreed, "He´s gonna make eyes..."
"Oh this is going to be fun on the highway!" he told me excitedly, "We´ve gotta try this!"
"Everything at its time, Nick" I slowed him down with a little chuckle, "First of all we should join Jack and Skye in the agency, the rams could already be active again…they might use all the trouble around us as a distraction…"
POV Max Wolfheart
"Chief!" I asked in shock right after Daniel and I rushed his office, "We just heard of it! What the hell happened?"
We knew that Bogo didn´t exactly like it when somebody came in without knocking, which was understandable, but right now that didn´t bother us too much either. It was understandable that we were shocked.
But instead of yelling at us or explaining the situation to us, he hesitated for a little while.
"Was something in their coffee maybe?" Daniel asked impatiently, "We saw them coming back from Cammy´s shop just a few minutes before the ambulance arrived.
"…Yes, there was…" he finally affirmed, after he hesitated a little more, "…at least that´s what the public believes…"
"What?" Daniel and I nearly said at the same time.
The Chief checked with a short look if the door had fallen into its lock behind us, then he waved us closer towards him.
"We´re faking their deaths for a little while" he finally told us now, "They have a big lead on one of the clans, but they can´t attack them by surprise if they don´t let their guards down."
"So they haven´t been poisoned?"
He shook his head very slowly.
"Don´t worry, Wilde and Hopps are totally fine."
"Oh my fucking god…" I sighed in relief, and our shoulders relaxed a little as well.
"…but now that you know about it, you need to be acting all sad and stressed out to the public!" he told us very clearly, "You cannot destroy their disguise just yet!"
We nodded understandingly.
"Is there any way we could help them right now?"
The buffalo just shrugged his shoulders to that question. "Why don't you ask them that for yourself? They should be on their way to the agency already…"
"Good Idea" I agreed, already pulling my phone out of my pocket. I searched for Nick´s contact and touched the call icon. Then I put it on speaker.
"Wolfheart!" he greeted me in the best of moods one could be in, "Hope you pissed your pants when you heard the bad news!"
"Nick!" we heard Judy giggling in the background.
"Yeah, Nick you asshole!" Daniel chuckled back, "We got the shock of our lives!"
"Yeah, sorry about that…so what´s up?" he asked then, "We just arrived at the agency, we´re talking to Jack and Skye just in a second…haven't got much time to talk right now…"
"Can we help you somehow, other than not telling anybody about it?"
"Yeah, maybe…" he said, "…can´t tell you very much right now…gonna call you later, okay?"
"Alright, Nicky! Keep us notified!"
"Tell the chief for me that I really like the new car if you see him!"
"Glad you like it, Wilde!" the buffalo told him himself.
"You should have considered that our colleagues might be jealous about it…" Judy told him with a little chuckle.
"We´ll see about that" Bogo told her with an overacted sigh.
"Anyway, good taste, Chief" Nick told him for the farewell, "Alright, see you all later, bye!"
"Bye Nick! Good luck you two!"
With that I ended the call and put my phone away.
"My god am I relieved right now" Daniel chuckled, "That really looked believable in the news!"
"We´re talking about Hopps and Wilde here, Fangmeyer" the Chief chuckled, "No wonder it looked realistic. And there surely is a reason why those two got the first of the new high-speed vehicles, isn't there?"
"What makes that thing so high-speed?" I wanted to know, because I never heard of those new cars before.
"The engine most of all…" the Chief told us with a proud grin, "…has a little over 700 horsepower…"
"Sevenhundr…" Daniel nearly chocked on that number, "When do we get one of those?"
"I don't know?" the Chief grinned, "Maybe when I get enough budget for a second one…and I don´t know… you proved to me that you earned it…"
POV Charlie
Today was the first day they told me to get back to work, finally. Proper work, not paperwork. I was able to walk without the crutches in the as well meanwhile, although it still felt a little stiff, but other than that I felt perfectly capable. We were in Jack´s office since seven in the morning and kept an eye on everything that was happening in the city. Jack and Skye had installed a few cameras around the clan´s hideout in different angles, but they couldn´t hide them very well, so they were pretty far away, sadly. Apart from the colour and shape of the cars we couldn´t really see anything. But it had been pretty quiet so far anyway. We also followed the news reports about Nick and Judy´s action of faking their death, and then, about an hour later, they knocked on our door finally.
"Hey, Charlie!" Nick greeted me, after I went to open the door for them, "Already back up on your feet I see!"
I nodded and he patted my shoulders with a chummy smile.
"Yeah, he´s fine" Jack commented dryly, impatient as always, "Let´s not waste too much time, shall we?"
"Easy, stripes" Nick chuckled with a little sigh, "We´ve had that yesterday already…"
I couldn´t help but grin a little. I´ve never witnessed anybody talking to Jack like that. But Nick seemed to be in a position that Jack had to respect, although he technically was the higher operator.
"You, Wilde..." the buck told him coldly, "…you owe me a car-wash by the way."
Now Nick couldn´t help but grin widely for himself. Even Judy chuckled a little because of it.
"Sorry, Jacky" Nick apologized, "Your hood was comfortable…"
I wasn´t entirely sure what has been happening last night, but Jack ignored it from now on anyway and got back to the topic.
"Your tactic with ´getting poisoned´ worked well…" Jack told them instead, "The social media is full of it…"
"Yeah, there probably are a lot of people who worry about us right now…" Judy sighed, "I guess I´ll hear that from my family as well when all of this is over…"
"I know it might seem hard right now, but we just can't tell anybody about it yet" Jack reminded her.
She nodded understandingly, but she didn´t have anything to add to it.
"Has anything crucial happened already?" Nick wanted to know, now that he noticed all the live footage from the cameras on the monitors.
"Not really" Skye sighed, "Seems pretty quiet still…"
"Guess we have to wait it out then…" Nick told us calmly, "Not quite sure what there is to stress-out about…"
"I was just saying that we should stay focussed…" Jack sighed.
"Alright" Nick agreed with a little smile, "Does anybody know any good Hospital-stories to fill the time?" he asked us then with a little wink, before he grabbed himself one of the chairs, "Charlie?"
POV Finnick
I haven´t really spoken to him anymore since that bunny stepped into his life, and I was sort of missing his company a little, but when I heard the news on the radio this morning, I left everything else where it was and got on my phone. I was sick in my stomach. There are not a lot of people who I really would shed a tear for, but that slick bastard of a red fox certainly was one of them. We´ve been through a lot together.
His phone was still online as it seemed. It received my massages, the two grey check-marks indicated that immediately, but he didn´t answer me. I guessed he was still being surrounded by some doctors who tried everything they could to keep him alive.
I´ve never really been a fan of the idea that Nick was on the other side of the law, but this situation really got me thinking about my life right now. He had made something out of himself. He had a happy life all over sudden, people love him for everything he did and changed in our society. Foxes had better reputation than ever, were accepted in jobs they couldn´t achieve before and even reached the top of the charts. All that was because of him and that Bunny. Because he got his ass up, trained hard and used his clever way of thinking to solve crimes, instead of doing shady stuff for himself.
And who was I? Still the same old Fennec with the same stupid elephant costume.
I couldn´t concentrate on anything anymore. Hearing that took away so much energy for me that I just laid myself down onto the matrass in the back of my van, which I had parked on the side of the road. I still had a few boxes of pawpsicles left to sell for today, and they started melting already, but I couldn´t care less about those few bucks right now. I just prayed that my old friend would make it, that was everything I wanted to hear right now.
POV Bonnie Hopps
"Oh no, my sweet little Judy!" Stu cried into his paws, "Why did they have to do this to her? She never did anything bad to anybody!"
It rarely occurred that I didn´t try to stop him from his emotional outbursts, but today I didn´t feel like I had to do that. I was just as shocked as he of course, when we heard the news from one of Judy´s many siblings. Now we all were hoping, crying and praying for Judy to make it. We all laid the work down for now.
"I´m going to find whoever did this to them and make them pay for it!" Stu announced angrily, "Nobody does that to my little girl!"
"She doesn't answer her phone either" Maria told us sadly, after she had tried calling her once again.
"Probably the doctors have turned them off" one of her brothers suggested with sad eyes, "When even the media is waiting in front of the hospitals…"
"But we are her family!" Stu complained, "Why can´t they talk to us at least!"
"Stu…" I tried to calm him down a little now, "They haven´t officially confirmed their deaths yet, let´s not lose hope just now, okay? I´ve heard of ricin poisoning before. If they noticed it soon enough, they can do something about it…" I tried to build him up. He just nodded a little, wiping the tears out of his eyes with his paws.
I was terrified as well though, I hoped so much that this nightmare would come to an end soon.
"But what if they couldn´t save them?" he stammered beneath more tears suddenly. It started all over once again.
"Let´s wait for what the media has to say…" I whispered while carefully hugging him again and patting his shoulders, "She will be fine, I´m sure of it…"
POV Rico
"Mr. Capaldi! How do you feel about the poisoning of Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps? You´re good friends with them as far as we know…" I got yelled at, and that right after leaving the building. They must have found out my address somehow and about fifteen people from the press were camping in front of the house now. The mood I was in was appalling. I just wanted to be alone right now.
"I love Nick and Judy. I only hope they make it, what more could I tell you?" I told them plainly.
"Will you release new music in the near future?"
I stopped in my tracks for a second.
"Honestly, who cares about that right now?" I asked harshly, "I surely don't. Yeah, maybe. Someday. I have an even more important question: What the hell are you all doing in front of this house? Isn´t there anything more important going on?"
There was a short moment of silence when I asked that, and I used that moment to get moving again. I pushed the microphones away with my paws carefully and moved through the crowd of reporters slowly but surely.
"Mr. Capaldi! Who´s the red vixen we´ve seen on the gala yesterday? Is she a friend of yours?"
"Yes. Her name is Anita. She´s very lovely."
"Where do you know her from? We´ve never seen her before!"
"You haven´t seen me before either, before I released that music video! Who cares? I´m not anything better than her and neither are you! Now please stop this nonsense and leave me alone, thank you!"
Although they kept on following me for quite a while, I didn´t look back anymore and just kept on walking.
I really just needed some time for myself. I had told the others that I would get a few things for breakfast at the bakery on my way, but the main reason was that I just couldn't take all that pressure anymore. Nick and Judy where the reason my life got this much better all over sudden. I was so happy ever since I first met them. I couldn´t take it if they really should be gone, I just felt like crying at this point. But nowhere I was going I had a chance to be alone. People recognized me everywhere I went.
I entered the bakery shop and went to the back of the line as inconspicuous as possible. Of course, I wasn´t alone here on a Saturday morning.
"Oh my god" some teenage otter girl further down the line yelled in excitement when she noticed me.
Predictably, they all turned around now and everybody stared at me in disbelief. I really wasn´t in the mood for all that right now, but I still couldn´t get it over my heart to act like an asshole about it either.
"Hey" I greeted her with a chummy little smile, and she looked like she nearly fainted because of it.
"Is this real?" she asked, still not quite able to believe it. This still was so absurd to me. Just a month ago I was a normal every day customer here, nobody knew who I was.
"Yes, darling" I chuckled tiredly, "I´m just here for some breakfast as well…"
Pretty soon she realized why I was in such a gloomy mood right now.
"D-do you think Officer Wilde and Hopps will be okay?" she asked me fearfully.
"I just really hope so" I sighed, and all the other customers and certainly employees in the bakery nodded in commiseration, "But those two are the toughest guys I´ve ever met in my life. And they haven´t confirmed their death yet…" I explained, as my eyes already began watering a little by the thought.
"They are such a big inspiration to me" she cried out lowly, feeling very down as well now. It was so sad to look at, that it pulled me down even further. I thought about it for another second, then I hugged her carefully.
"For me too" I agreed with what she said. It was so nice that nobody commented anything to that right now, they just watched with affected looks.
"Thank you so much" she whispered happily about my kindness.
"You´re welcome" I told her, after I had released her again.
"Do you want to go first?" somebody else in the row asked me quite kindly, and he wasn´t the only one who offered me to jump the line. I waved it off though.
"No, thank you very much. I´m not more important than any of you, and I´m not in a rush either."
They all stared at me like I had discovered fire. At least that lifted my mood a little bit.
"Oh, but I love your music so much" the otter girl now told me with gleaming eyes, "We´ve even practiced ´Pyro Heart´ with our teacher in music class!"
"Really?" I asked with a little smile, and that lifted my mood even a little more.
"Yeah!" she told me excitedly, "That was so much fun!"
"Do you like Christian as a teacher?" I asked her then.
"Christian is awesome!" she told me with a big exited smile, "And he would make such a cute couple with my other teacher who´s also a white…wait…"
I couldn't help but flash a little smile here. All of the earlier sadness seemed to be forgotten for a little moment.
"You know about Christian?" she asked in disbelief.
"I know about Sarah as well, because she´s one of my roommates" I told her with a little wink. She just folded her paws in front of her face because she was so shocked to hear that, "I´ve gotten to know Christian last night as well, she brought him home, actually…"
"Oh my god!" she giggled, "I can´t believe this, this is so awesome!"
"He´s quite a nice fellow" I told her, "I played a few songs with him, we even made a video about it. I´m pretty sure he will show it to you pretty soon…"
It actually was her turn to order her bakery now, because the row had moved slowly but surely, although they´ve all been listening with great interest. She was a few spots before me in the line, but she didn´t seem to be in much of a hurry either, so she let the other customers go first and joined me back at my spot.
"This is sooo cool!" she told me, "I can´t wait to ask him about that! Do you…do you think he has chances at her by the way? I was betting with a friend about it. The two white foxes look so cute together!"
I just nodded with a little grin. I couldn´t disagree with her on that.
"Really?" she grinned.
"What did you bet on?"
"I said that they would get together someday…"
"I´m pretty sure you won that bet" I told her in amusement.
"Hihi!" she smiled in triumph, "I knew it!"
While she celebrated, I just looked at my phone for a second, swiped away the annoying notification-bar that reminded me of the nearly 14000 unread emails I ´really´ needed to take a look at, and checked it for more news about Nick and Judy. No changes of the situation so far.
She noticed that I was still very concerned about it.
"Can I…can I ask you something else, please?" she wanted to know nevertheless.
I nodded with a patient smile.
"Are you going to give a live concert someday? Because I would really like to go to it if there was one…"
"I…I don't know" I sighed, "I´m sorry, I really haven't thought about it yet…"
"Aww…"
"I have an Idea though…" I told her then, "I´ll ask Sarah and Christian if I could visit your school someday next week. I will bring a guitar with me…and…and you know what…I will bring Nick and Judy with me as well!" I added, to motivate the both of us a little, "How does that sound?"
"Really?" she asked with big eyes, "That would be the most awesome thing in the world!"
"You´ve got my word" I told her, and my spirit really got a little better because of that promise I had to keep, "We´ll make a really cool music lesson out of this."
"Aww… thank you so much! You´re so nice!"
"You´re welcome" I smiled back. Then I pointed at the counter for her, because it really was her turn to order now. I was the next in line after her.
"I´ve got to say…" an elderly sheep-lady sitting at a table with her newspaper and coffee chuckled with a warm little smile towards us, "I surely am a little jealous right now."
The otter girl just grinned about it proudly and concentratedly looked at all the nicely presented bakery in front of her. The employee was patient with her though, because she was rather busy with staring at me, now that I stood right in front of her.
I gave the sheep-lady a friendly little smile for that comment of hers.
"You have a good heart, Mr. Capaldi" she told me in a wisely sounding tone, "Don´t ever lose that spirit!"
"Thank you for your nice words" I smiled back at her, "I´ll try my best."
Suddenly, my mood really wasn't that bad anymore. It felt like everything would be all right for a moment. But I still was very worried about my friends, those nice people around me just made it bearable right now.
About ten minutes later I arrived back home again. There still were some reporters waiting in front of the main entrance though. I just couldn´t believe the endurance of those people.
"What are those guys doing all day long?" I asked myself in annoyance, "Is that what they call work?"
"Mr. Capaldi!" I was stopped again when I tried passing them, "Have you been helping officers Hopps and Wilde with their undercover work at the gala yesterday?"
"I think I would have to kill you, if I told you about that" I replied ironically.
"Is it true that you really just live in a shared apartment?"
"Is there anything wrong with that?" I asked back while lifting an eyebrow.
"Is it true that you gave a surprise concert at the mystic springs oasis?"
"Yes, I did. They brought me a guitar and asked for it nicely, so I played a few songs for them…" I sighed, before I finally reached the door, "Excuse me now, please! I´m hungry for some breakfast. Please don´t block the entrance and make sure not to annoy the neighbours too much. Have a good day."
With those words I finally left them behind me and went up the stairs. I didn´t care about them anymore. I probably wouldn´t even leave the house today anymore anyway. I just wanted to be surrounded by good friends of mine right now and wait for the good news with them together.
There we are. Hope you enjoyed it a little ;)
Tell me what you think!
See you later, have a good day!
~furr