Hey guys, it's been a little while and a few things have been going on.

I have a new job so yay but it's pretty tiring, hence the delay in the chapter (it was three quarters finished for quite a while)

There may or may not be a hiatus for now, at least i'm not going to be writing as fast as normal (I'm knackered)

But don't worry, the story isn't over yet, I still have plenty of ideas (and some actual goddamn Wildehopps)

Chapter is a little shorter this time but there's some pretty important stuff going on so pay attention

As always, I hope you enjoy, and please drop me a line with what you think, I love hearing from you guys *yawns* I'm about as tired as Judy and Nick at the end of the chapter

Chapter 26

Elijah Brush-haven was a fox, and he had what a lot of his species greatly desired. He had respect and a place in his community. Elijah had spent his entire life building up the reputation of himself and his business, the Brush-haven General Store on Walnut Street.

He'd started with a little cart and had sold newspapers. The fox had been lucky enough to deal with a paper owned by the Rover family, not that he knew anything about that, he just thanked the stars that they were willing to let a fox sell their papers. And that was how he started, selling copies of the Zootopia Express to any mammal that would give him the time of day.

It had been hard at first, foxes were shifty, conniving little creatures, so most mammals walked on by like he was running a con. But a few passers-by bought from him and when they did, Elijah smiled, greeted them courteously and used a fox's greatest weapon.

He listened to them.

Certainly, most mammals would say the thing to watch out for the most was a fox's silver tongue, they'll talk rings around you before you know it, but the foxes all knew that. Elijah certainly did and he knew that others were a lot more amenable if you let them do most of the talking. So he was polite and slowly got to know his customers and listened to their problems.

Walnut Street wasn't particularly big nor particularly busy, it was in the northern part of Savanna Central, about half way between the coast and Downtown. It took a little while given the prejudices against foxes, but slowly word spread through this little community, eventually there were mammals greeting Elijah Brush-haven on the street.

From there he had nothing but hard work, he scrimped and saved as much as he could, and strived to be an upstanding member of the community. He bought a tiny little building, one room downstairs and another upstairs plus a bathroom, he turned the downstairs room into a little shop and lived up above.

Gradually things began to pick up, he made more contacts, both inside the community and out, and gained more goods to sell in his store. He met Rachel, the vixen who would become his wife, he bought the building next door and expanded both the shop and their living area. His family grew by one more when they had a kit, and everything was finally good.

Decades had gone by since then, Elijah was turning 58 this year, and both he and the Brush-haven General Store were a respected pillar of the community around Walnut Street.

As he did every morning, Elijah was awake, washed, dressed and ready for the day by 6:00 am. He had a quick breakfast and then took some early morning deliveries round the back of the building. After one last run through his inventory, the fox was about ready to open shop for the day. He made a few last-minute tweaks here and there to the various displays on the shop floor and then reached behind his counter to grab the folding sign that would sit on the street outside. At precisely 7:29 am Elijah flipped the closed sign on the door to open, unlocked it, and then reached for the handle.

His tail twitched slightly as his paw hesitated over the handle, as it did every morning. Shaking his head Elijah opened the door and stepped outside. There were quite a few cars on the roads by now and the earlier pedestrians were up and about. Elijah didn't mind opening a bit earlier for these morning mammals, after all, he didn't have much of a commute to work.

Elijah put up his sign with a click and positioned it in its usual spot opposite his door. Nodding in satisfaction, Elijah was about to turn and go back inside when his tail bristled. There it was, just like every other day, he could feel that gaze upon him. His left eye twitched slightly as he took a deep breath and looked up.

Across the road there was another business located on Walnut Street. It was clearly not a store, the only identifying feature was the sign, Furleeze. There was a wide window at the top of the building though the blinds were closed, but even so Elijah knew, he could feel it.

The blinds twisted momentarily unveiling a flash of emerald, even from that brief reveal Elijah could feel the coldness in the gaze fixated on him. He quickly turned and went back inside his shop, one last shiver ran through him before he pulled himself together and got ready to greet his first customers.

She is never going to let that go he thought sadly Not that I can blame her…

And then the little bell above the door chimed as his first customer of the day walked in and Elijah had more important things to deal with.

She stood at the window as she did every morning, staring through the gaps in the blinds, waiting for that glimpse. It was the only time she let her feelings get in the way. Elijah Brush-haven opened his store at 7:29 am every day except Sunday, had done for years, and that bare minute of looking down on him was all she allowed.

She wasn't a bad mammal, at least she didn't think so, but everyone had certain lines that should never be crossed, things that should never be touched. So that brief moment of hatred, that icy satisfaction at the expression on his face when he noticed her as Elijah always did, that feeling of power she had over him had long since become part of her daily routine.

And then the fox down, down, down on the street below would go back into his store and the moment was gone. With a sigh she turned away from the window and took her seat at her desk. Her work was all that was on her mind now and as the CEO of a medium sized cosmetics brand there was quite a bit to fill her mind with.

At this moment the door to her office opened and her secretary came in, a female weasel in a smart blue dress holding some papers and a cup of something.

"Good Morning Ma'am" said the weasel cheerfully, placing the cup on the desk.

"Thank you, Bella" came the reply as she picked up the cup and took a sip, coffee just how she liked it "has anything urgent popped up?"

"Actually yes" said the weasel sitting on the arm of one of the chairs in front of her CEO's desk "two things really. First of all, we received an apology from Beltham, they've completely changed their tune. No more aggressive marketing, headhunting or espionage, in fact they're extending an olive branch, from looks of it they may be pushing for a partnership"

"… Are you sure about that?" she asked in surprise, this was something very unexpected from their rival company.

"Mhmm" nodded Bella as she passed over the paperwork "Now I don't know if Beltham stepped on some paws it shouldn't have done but if you'd asked me about a truce yesterday, I would have said that there would need to be some serious strong arming involved"

She nodded in agreement, Furleeze had been built from the ground up by her and her colleagues and she was used to fighting tooth and claw against the competition. Beltham was just the latest and biggest of their rivals so far.

"What was the other thing?" she asked as she read through the paperwork, it really seemed as if her competitors had had a change of heart.

"You have a meeting in half an hour"

"I see… What!?" she nearly spat out her mouthful of coffee.

"They said they wanted to see the CEO as soon as possible" said the weasel grinning "So I booked them into the earliest slot you had"

"Bella, I'm very busy at the moment" she almost growled "you can't just go and…" she paused, Bella had grown tremendously as her secretary over the years, the weasel wouldn't normally do something like this "Who is it?"

"It's the owner of Chrysalis Tower!" Bella almost squealed.

"Chrysalis… why would they want to get in contact with us?" She pondered slowly.

"Does it matter?!" crowed Bella as she practically bounced back to the office door "this could be huge for us!"

She smiled as her secretary shut the door and took another sip of her coffee. Putting this meeting to one side, if Beltham really was looking to make peace then that reduced her workload and stress by nearly a third. Looking down at the work she had been about to start when Bella came in, she found she couldn't really concentrate on it with the news she'd just received. Instead she rose and went back to the window.

The view down below was familiar yet different, Walnut Street was fairly slow to change but nothing was exempt from the passing of time. She watched the mammals going about their daily lives and before she knew it half an hour had been and gone. There was a click from the door behind her.

"Good Morning Mrs Wilde" came a voice from behind her.

Noctis Lacerda was rather nervous, not that you'd be able to tell at first glance. He hadn't been nervous before going to visit Mr. Big, but this was a very different situation.

While he hadn't talked to Nick about this topic, the panther wasn't stupid. Nick hadn't mentioned his mother at all since Noct had reappeared. Clearly, they weren't on good terms and Noct could easily guess the reason why.

I'll give you a hint, it starts with an N and ends with an Oct he thought to himself ruefully.

Noct had been planning to slowly bring this all up with Nick and get a better idea of the situation but when the name M. Wilde had appeared in Broken Clockwork, he knew that he couldn't really put this off any longer.

And here he was now, waiting outside the CEO's office of the Furleeze cosmetics company while the weasel who seemed to be a secretary kept stealing glances at him. Eventually the secretary told him it was alright to go in and Noct walked to the office door. For a brief moment his paw paused over the door handle before he opened the door and stepped inside.

He immediately noticed that she wasn't sat at the desk in the room, and a brief turn of his head discovered that she was stood at the window.

Miranda Wilde.

From behind she didn't seem to have aged a day and the sight dazed Noct as his mind flew back many years into the past.

"Good Morning Mrs Wilde" said Noct as he came back to his senses.

Miranda Wilde shook slightly at the voice, she couldn't place it entirely but something about it struck a nerve. Turning from the window, she was somewhat interested to see just what sort of mammal the owner of Chrysalis Tower was. What came into her sight was a black panther dressed immaculately in black suit and tie. The sight unnerved her for a moment, and it merged with the feeling the panther's voice had given her.

He looks quite like… no… he looks just like… she sniffed slightly as a very distinctive scent reached her nose it is him…

Noct just watched as the older vixen turned from the window to face him, save for a few little wrinkles around her eyes and a slight grey streak through the fur at her temple, she looked almost exactly as Noct remembered. He could almost read her thoughts through watching her eyes.

First there was curiosity, which quickly turned to confusion and then in turn to shock. After the shock passed there was joy but that very quickly changed to anger and resentment.

"You have a lot of nerve just showing up again Noctis Lacerda" Mrs Wilde said eventually.

"By this point I don't think I know any other way" Noct smiled bitterly.

"So why exactly are you here?" said Miranda coldly as she sat down at her desk.

"I'd be lying if I said it was purely business" said Noct taking a seat as well, he produced a series of documents from his jacket pocket which he placed on the table "Believe it or not I am in fact the majority owner of Chrysalis Tower. While reviewing the goings on of the Zootopian business world I happened to come across the aggressive rivalry between two companies. One of which was founded by a very familiar name. I did not want our first meeting in years to happen while you were under additional pressure, so I pulled some strings to try and find an amicable resolution between you and Beltham."

Miranda Wilde's expression changed several times as she listened to Noct speak. While she found it a little hard to believe that the panther was the cause for the sudden change of heart of her rival company, she also found it hard to believe that such a change of heart could have happened in the first place.

"On a separate note Chrysalis Tower has many businesses within it, both central offices of companies and actual stores which are often frequented by the hotel guests and many others. Currently we have several open listings and, on a strictly business level, I feel Furleeze would be a profitable addition to the Tower's shops. Not on a business level, if I can't be a little biased about who I offer contracts to, then what was the point in me spending so much on the Tower in the first place"

Miranda read through the paperwork Noct had given her, it was essentially saying that Furleeze could have a store in the Chrysalis Tower, though with a lot more fancy wording than that. The conditions were extremely good, the rent would make some of the other stores in the Tower blanch at the cheapness, and there weren't too many restrictions on them. To a company the size of Furleeze this was an opportunity that they could only dream of, Miranda looked up at Noct with a lot less coldness in her eyes.

"Noct you… thank you but you can't just come back and…" Miranda let out a deep sigh "do you have any idea what happened after you just disappeared? What it did to Nick? You know you were the only thing pushing him forwards back then" Noct could hear her getting more worked up "When Nick was… was… was Hood…"

"I know" interrupted Noct before things got too heated "I know Miranda, I saved his life, I was there at the start, trust me I know"

"Then why did you disappear?!" she snapped angrily "for a while I really thought I was going to lose him again, and it was all because of you!"

"I couldn't stay" said Noct sadly and carefully, he and Nick had never clued her in on Broken Clockwork and the Lacerdas "my family were… well they were very bad mammals Miranda, it was why I abandoned them and escaped to Zootopia, they made a lot of enemies and it all came back to haunt them. All I can say is that I was putting you and Nick in danger just by being here"

"And so you just walked out of Zootopia without a word to anyone?!"

Noct winced, true, to any outsider his actions were callous, but if he had been tracked down as a Lacerda then he had to leave immediately, the less contact with his friends the better.

"I was scared" said Noct quietly.

There was silence for a while, Miranda had always known the panther to be confident, poised, and capable, she couldn't ever recall a time when he'd admitted to being afraid. Miranda knew a few things about Noct's family, though not much, and deep down she had always known that Noct wouldn't have left without a good reason. But with everything that had happened to her son she had always felt rather resentful of the panther. The problem was that now that Noct was back and they were talking she found her resentment fizzling like damp gunpowder.

"I… I haven't talked to Nick about you" said Noct a bit sheepishly "I was going to find out from him how things were first but then I found out about your issues with Beltham. Are you not talking or...?"

Miranda's eyes sharpened briefly but then she sort of deflated.

"No, we aren't talking" sighed Miranda "A little while after you vanished Nick began to go downhill, I tried to help, tried to talk to him but… well, you were the only one he'd really listen to after he was…"

"A good thing I listened to you" smiled Noct slightly.

"Yes, but that was it, I couldn't help him. If anything, I only made things worse, we started to argue, more and more. Eventually things devolved to the point that Lily was brought up and… and we stopped talking" there were tears glistening in Miranda's eyes, but she blinked them back.

Noct sighed, sure enough, it had been pretty much as he'd hoped it wouldn't. He'd known that he was probably the biggest pillar holding Nick up, but he still had to leave, the danger the Lacerdas had held over Nick and his mother was too much for Noct to risk.

"Have you heard how he's been doing?" asked the panther slowly.

"If you mean that my little Nicky has become a police officer" Miranda's eyes gained a little bit of glow back in them "Yes, I know, and I'm so proud of him… I just wonder if I'll ever get the chance to tell him that…"

There was silence for a while longer as they each came to terms with various things. Miranda was surprised at how calm she was on the whole, she had a nagging feeling that today's events would only really hit her when she went home and relaxed.

Noct felt that his first meeting with Mrs Wilde had gone better than expected so far, but also that the longer he stayed the worse things may get, sometimes it is better to quit while you're ahead.

"I'm glad that your 'little idea' has grown so well" said Noct thinking back to when he first met the Wilde family "Furleeze seems very popular with its consumer base, I can remember when you first started out"

"I don't think I was expecting it to go so far, all I wanted at the start was to one up those hypocritical Brush-havens" said Miranda as she glanced at the window "but now, this company means a lot to everyone who works here"

Noct smiled and stood up, Miranda was slightly surprised but quickly understood and stood up as well.

"It was… good to see you again Mrs Wilde" said Noct "When you've completed that paperwork just have someone bring it to Chrysalis Tower and then my people will start talking to your people."

With a short bow Noct turned and headed for the door.

"Noctis…" the panther paused before opening the door "I haven't forgiven you yet for just disappearing, you played a huge role in the direction my Nicky's life has gone, but… I'm glad you're alright, at some point you'll have to tell me what exactly happened back then."

Noct blinked away the mistiness in his eyes.

"The next time I see you will be with Nick" said the panther firmly "And we will both tell you, I promise you that" and then he opened the door and left.

Miranda sat back down and leant back in her chair as she carried on processing everything that had happened this morning. A business war had come to an end, an incredible opportunity had presented itself to her company, a mammal she thought she never wanted to see again had reappeared… but the thing that shook her the most was the last thing Noct said. The vixen had known Noct for years and she couldn't remember a time when Noct had spoken with that sort of resolve and hadn't gotten his way.

The majority of her knew it was impossible after all these years, there was no way she could reconcile with her son now, but she hadn't expected anything that had happened today. So a tiny little sliver of her soul held onto a tiny little sliver of hope… and, to be honest, it terrified her.

Judy opened the door to her apartment and then slowly dragged her feet inside. She was tired from work which was something that hadn't really happened since she first arrived in Zootopia and her emotions had had a lot to do with it at the time. Clawhauser had been right when he'd said he'd seen an increase in petty crimes, Nick and Judy were in and out of head quarters almost constantly with various criminals they'd picked up. Nick started out making jokes about the station needing revolving doors but by the time they were off shift he was saying it completely seriously, and Judy found herself agreeing.

They had said bye to Lunette back at the station since she walked home now that she was living in Downtown with Noct. The drive home had been fairly quiet, at most discussing what they most wanted to do once they got home. Nick had settled with heading straight for the shower while grabbing a snack from the fridge as he went past. And to be honest Judy couldn't think of a better plan.

Judy shut the door behind her and then wearily made her way through her apartment. She looked into the kitchen as she went past but the fridge just seemed so far away that Judy just settled with grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl she had out on the table.

As she reached the end of the apartment Judy could hear the muffled sound of water falling.

It would seem that Nick was faster than me in getting to the shower Judy thought to herself.

And then the doe found that she couldn't get the image of Nick showering out of her head. She shook her head to try and clear it away, she didn't want to be getting undressed and having her own shower with those sort of thoughts in her head, but Nick showering seemed particularly stubborn and didn't want to leave her mind.

Judy turned away from the bathroom and entered her bedroom to try and get further from the sound of water.

And bubbles, and red fur, and muscles…

"Aaargh" Judy groaned as she looked for the nearest solid surface to bang her head against.

Before she could find something suitable to bash those thoughts away, her pocket vibrated and that familiar ringtone of 'try everything' by Gazelle burst out. It was her parents of course and for a brief moment Judy considered not answering. But she knew from experience that if she didn't then they would assume something appalling had happened to her and she would be inundated by frantic calls and texts till she did respond. The last time that happened it had taken her three hours of video call before her parents had suitably calmed down.

Judy pulled her ears down over her face as she groaned before she shook her head and tried her best to put a big smile on her face as she picked up her phone and answered the call.

"Hi there Judy" came a soothing voice as Bonnie popped into view on the screen.

"Hi mom" replied Judy as enthusiastically as she could looks like it's just mom calling today…

"Hey, Jude the Dude" came a voice from off screen.

No such luck thought Judy as her ear twitched

"Hey dad" Judy smiled as best she could as her father appeared on screen as well.

"Are you okay Judy?" her mother asked concernedly "You're looking rather tired"

"Ah, yeah" Judy smiled wryly at how she couldn't hide anything from Bonnie "There's a lot been going on at work at the moment"

"Is it dangerous?!" asked Stu anxiously "are you alright?!"

"I'm fine dad" said Judy a little exasperatedly "it's all pretty safe right now, there's just a lot of small-time criminals around and we're a little rushed off our feet"

"But you're sure you're ok Judy?" asked Bonnie.

"Yes, mom, I'm fine, just tired"

"Well thank goodness, you know how your father can get all worked up and… Judy, is there something different about your room?"

Judy froze as she came to the sudden realisation that the spontaneity of Nick gifting her a new apartment, combined with the massive influx in criminals recently, meant that Judy had not yet updated her parents on her current accommodation.

"I… er… well, you see" Judy tried to delay long enough for her brain to come up with something but she was far too tired for that to work at the moment, instead she settled on saying as little as she could get away with "I actually moved into a new apartment last weekend"

"You did?! Oh, let us see it Judy" "This is big Jude, why didn't you tell us earlier?"

Judy really didn't want to show her parents the apartment, it was far too much of an improvement over her last one. But she knew they wouldn't be dissuaded so she reluctantly gave them a video tour of her bedroom. For once her parents were quiet while she showed them around, but this time Judy wasn't happy for the brief period of silence. Sure enough, they both looked a little worried once Judy turned the camera back to face herself.

"Judy… this looks absolutely lovely but…" "Jude are you sure you can afford this? This place looks expensive"

"I, uhm, don't think that'll be a problem"

Stu was still panicking but Bonnie at least was calm enough to get a read on her daughter.

"What's going on Judy?" she asked gently.

"I'm not paying any rent" said Judy more confidently, she'd had enough time now to get her story straight "I own the apartment"

"Y-you own it?!" asked Stu, the shock cutting through his panic "b-but how? Have you had a promotion recently?"

"Your father's right Judy" agreed Bonnie "I know you're good at saving but how did you manage to afford this?"

Here goes nothing thought Judy nervously.

"I know it sounds hard to believe" said Judy slowly "but Nick won the lottery"

"Your partner?" "The fox?!"

"Dad" Judy frowned before carrying on "yes, he won pretty big too, he spent the money buying his own apartment and redecorating it. He wanted to give me a share but I refused" Judy snorted softly "Then that sly fox went and bought the apartment next to his in my name without telling me. The moron's spent the entirety of his winnings now and I couldn't really turn him down, not with how nice this place is"

"That was very… generous of him Judy" said Bonnie slowly as she and her husband took this in.

"You didn't have to sign anything suspicious, did you?" asked Stu while wringing his hands together

"No dad!" glared Judy "I thought we'd gone over this, Nick is my best friend, he'd never do anything bad to me"

Stu opened his mouth for a moment before closing it with a sigh.

"I know Jude, I know" he said carefully "and I'm just… getting used to it, all of this is just a lot to take in"

After a few minutes more talk her father had brightened up again but had to go check on the fields.

"Your father's come a long way with foxes" said Bonnie smiling gently "we both have, and it's all down to you Judy. First there's our partnership with Gideon, and now there's you working shoulder to shoulder with a fox in the big city. Just, remember to take it slow, your father really is trying his best but you know how he can worry"

Judy smiled a little sleepily at this.

"Alright" chuckled Bonnie "I'll let you get some rest now, you look like you're about to fall asleep on the spot, good night Judy"

"Night mom" yawned Judy in reply.

"Oh and Judy" Bonnie paused for a moment "please be careful, I've been having a bad feeling recently, little things keep going wrong and that always leads up to something big"

"Don't worry mom, I'm always safe when I'm with Nick"

There was a tiny glint in Bonnie's eyes as she ended the call, but Judy was far too tired to have noticed.

The grey doe considered going and having that shower she had planned but honestly her bed was looking so tempting. Judy managed to half get out of her uniform before she collapsed on the bed and was fast asleep. Next door, Nick had gotten out of the shower and made it to the bedroom before he fell fast asleep as well. Because he'd just showered however he had no clothes to only get half off before he was off to the land of dreams.

The night seemed just like any other night in Zootopia with some mammals happily asleep and others happily going about their nocturnal activities. But no one could have imagined the chain of events that would shake Zootopia's underworld to the core that would begin the following morning.