Chapter 64: Longing

Judy and Nick were finally able to get back together, back home. Doe only now realised how much she had missed their flat and, above all, the presence of the fox she loved so much. At last they could be in their flat without feeling stressed or worrying that something bad might happen. It was over, at last. The first thing Judy did was, of course, to go to the bathroom where she started pouring hot water into the bath to have her bath, while at the same time Nick poured water into the kettle and prepared cups of tea for himself and the doe. The two of them didn't even pay attention to each other that it was chiming 2.30 a.m. and a new day was already starting to arrive in small steps! It was a heady time for them, the time spent in the compound had caused them to lose track of time and they could not tell for themselves what time it was.

When the doe returned from the bathroom she noticed the fox sitting in his seat as always staring in a direction unknown to her. She saw that under his left paw was a memory stick with some rather gruesome recordings on it, she quickly guessed that he was wondering. She sat down next to him hoping he would pay attention to her, but he was too thoughtful to pay attention to anything else.

"Even though we managed to settle this case you don't feel happy do you?" The doe asked. Nick paused to stare out of the window, looked at Judy and nodded with a movement of his head.

"There's seemingly this happy ending...but it turns out my father was in charge of it and my ex was bribed. It's hard to think about anything else...and then there's the footage. The most important thing is that my mother doesn't see it! This may sound horrible, but maybe it would be better... ekh...never mind" sighed the fox grimly. He resumed his earlier position as a philosopher, driving his gaze into the skyscrapers.

"I know it's a pretty tough choice...but think about it right? Remember that no matter what he did to you, he's still your father. Why not at least show him some mercy and destroy those records?" Judy replied. Fox glanced at the device for a moment, looked at it then looked at the doe. She stared at him with compassion, it was clear that she didn't want to release this footage to the police, she wanted to spare him, which frankly surprised him! Judy was usually the first figure to obey the law, now all of a sudden she wants to break the law and withhold important evidence for the case.

"I appreciate your words really dear, but I have to think about it...it's not that simple" replied Nick. Doe nodded with a movement of her head. She got up from her chair, walked over to the fox and kissed him tenderly on the head.

"Choose wisely," Judy said quietly. She backed away from him, then went to their bedroom to grab her pyjamas and dressing gown. Moments later she returned and locked herself in the bathroom.

When Fox was alone he took the memory stick out from under his paw and looked at it in the light of the lamps hanging over the table. It had a few scratches on the casing, but otherwise looked like new!

"Such a small, inconspicuous item...and so important" thought Nick. He had absolutely no idea what to do with it. In theory he was obliged to hand it over to the police, but on the other hand only he, Judy and Mark knew of the device's existence. The rest seemed not to know anything about it. This gave Nick even more freedom of choice as to what to do with it. Judy urges him to let it go, destroy the device, or delete it, but he feels an uncontrollable urge within him to fit it in and pass the item on to the police. However, what will that get him? His father will go to prison for life, it will be even worse when his mother finds out about the whole incident! Nick felt like he was in some kind of trap, for the time being he couldn't see a way out of this problem.

Suddenly he had another idea. He didn't ask his best friend, who often helped him in difficult situations like this one, for advice - to Finnick. It was after 2.30 a.m., so he didn't want to wake him up, but he decided that this was the person who could actually help him.

A quarter of an hour later, Judy emerged from the bathroom - surrounded by the scent of flowers, a mix of fragrant flowers emanating from her towels and body. She came out of the bath as if she was born again! Her fur was shining, as were her eyes, and there was a slight smile on her face. You could see that she was really craving such a bath.

"You don't even know how happy I am that finally this thing is over! Uf, I already thought it would never end and we would have to fight it longer" said Judy relaxed with her bath. She sat down opposite Fox and took the memory stick from his hands, placing it on the table top to his surprise.

"Get some rest Nick and think about this calmly. This is an important decision, you can't think hastily about it," Judy communicated. There was something in that. Whether Mark would be sentenced to life imprisonment or not depended on it. However, it was quite difficult for him to stop thinking about it when he had it in his head all the time and was stuck in this cupid.

"Go have a bath, it will do you good," replied Judy. The fox had nothing else better to do in this situation, so he followed the advice of the girl he loved so much. He topped up his cooling drink, then went to the bedroom to take out a change of clothes. His thoughts running amok, he went to the bathroom, where he disappeared for a few dozen minutes.

By this time, Judy was feeling too sleepy to sit and stare at the skyline of the city, which was already slowly waking up! It was already after 2.30 a.m. in the morning, so the doe headed to her bedroom ready for bed. When she saw their bed she felt an indescribable sensation in her heart, something that gave her a pleasant feeling inside, a sense of security and comfort in which they could finally surround themselves. The doe lay down in bed covering herself with a warm duvet. After so many days of affairs, things were finally starting to calm down. The only thing left was the matter of the memory stick, but Judy didn't want to get involved in family matters, so she decided that the best choice would be to just give free rein to Nick as to what should happen to the device. Although she was very aware of Mark's actions she would feel bad if she gave the memory stick to the police, mainly because Mark was Nick's father and it pained her to see their poor relationship. She thought that once Nick found his father she would forgive him at least a little, but they were both stubborn! Just like Nick's mother said...

Judy didn't even realise how quickly sleep drifted away, the only thing she remembered before falling asleep was the moment Nick came back into the bedroom and wished her sweet dreams.

"Good morning, Zootopia! From this side as always Roxy Gregory, it's time for a dose of morning news! A dose of good news first thing in the morning! Last night the police managed to find Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps, two of Zootopia's top officers, and all the people who were kidnapped! They were all safely transported to Zootopia, where they will spend the next few days in temporary custody for questioning and for their safety. The surprising fact turned out to be that former Fox District Police Chief Caroline was already entangled in the whole affair! Everything looks like it is slowly returning to normal, but the police still do not want to give much daylight to the city's problems of the last days. It is most likely only a matter of time before we find out the whole truth of the whole story "

"Bogo hid a lot from the media," said Judy as she lay on the sofa with Nick watching a video that Clawhauser had sent them congratulating them on yet another solved case. It was slightly past noon when they lay together in front of the TV watching the video footage recorded from the morning's news.

"Well, I'm not surprised that he said almost nothing about it. Do you realise what kind of panic would have erupted if everyone had found out what was really being prepared?" Nick replied. There was something about it. News of the preparation that was going to allow the foxes to fight back in Zootopia and news of the monstrous research would not have been something that would have warmed the image of the foxes. It would have been the opposite - there would have been even more heckling of them, there would have been perhaps even more brawls in the city and that was unacceptable! Fortunately, Bogo had a cool head and did not reveal any details of the operation.

"You're probably right. Things are starting to get back to normal," replied Judy. Nick nodded with a movement of his head. He remembered the memory stick, took his phone out of his pocket and saw that Finnick had been texting him for days! The last message was even from two hours ago, which made the fox smile.

"They didn't take your phone?"

"No, I was undercover working for them, they returned it to me," replied Nick.

"Uh...unfortunately I wasn't so lucky. I'll have to buy a new one...and I had so many pictures of us on that one!" Judy sighed.

"Heh...don't worry. I have quite a few of them too" laughed Nick kissing Judy on the head. After that he glanced at Finnick's messages, the last one read as follows:

"You did it! I already thought you were done for! Luckily you survived! Clearly the same clever Nick Wilde, you haven't changed a thing the wily fox! Let's meet this afternoon at our favourite cafe eh? We have so much to talk about!"

"You know what Judy. I could give you a lift downtown where you could buy yourself a new phone, Finnick texted me to meet up and chat" Nick communicated.

"All in all a good idea. Finnick must have been worried about you all this time eh?" Judy asked. Nick quickly scrolled through all of his friend's messages, seeing the amount and content he realised that he must have been getting horribly tired of him disappearing!

"Yeah...heh, probably so. So, shall we do that?" asked Nick. Judy made a short affirmative sound and then they both rose from the sofa and began to prepare to go out on the town.

It got really sunny in the afternoon looking at the rather threatening weather that had been there overnight. There was yes a lot of snow, but the sky was completely clear! There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, it was pure brilliant blue itself, which heralded a beautiful sunset. It had been a long time since we had had such a sunny day, which encouraged us to go outside to admire the winter aura, which was at its best at this time of year. Despite the fact that it was quite chilly, it was a sheer joy to go outside and admire the view.

The same joy was no longer present in the traffic jams that were present in the city, mainly caused by the snow, through which it was not possible to drive fast enough to avoid getting into a skid. Fortunately, there have not yet been any accidents that have completely blocked the roadways, which would have been a nightmare. Waiting in place for an hour would have been annoying! Driving into the centre where there were various electronic shops one often had to look around to avoid running someone into by accident, it was the charm of winter driving. It required the driver to be doubly observant if they didn't want to get into trouble. Fox didn't have so much of a problem with this, being a police officer and therefore a lot of experience in chases had taught him good reflexes and the ability to navigate in difficult conditions. Traffic jams during chases were easy.

When they managed to reach the city centre Nick stopped at one of the bus stops where Judy got off.

"You don't have to come back for me, I'll take the bus back. Have fun with Finnick" said Judy, then got out of the car.

"Thanks darling" replied Nick with a warm smile on his lips. Judy reciprocated the smile, closed the door and the fox drove off seeing in the mirrors the bus turning towards the bus stop.

Alone already, the fox made his way a little way further afield to drive up to their favourite meeting place, 'Maestro Caffe'. Since the place had undergone a rapid refurbishment Nick made no secret of the fact that the place had, in his opinion, become slightly less cosy, but he knew that Finnick would want to meet there, for the fact that it had been their place of confidences from a dozen years ago. He himself preferred the place as a small pub, but he couldn't deny that now the small café had turned into a luxury restaurant. He felt that with the remodelling of the place, it had become less cosy and overall the place had lost its unique atmosphere.

When Nick stopped in the car park in front of the building he put his memory stick in his pocket - he carried it with him at all times, it was too valuable an item to leave unattended. He also wanted to show it to Finnick to help him decide what he should do with it. Stepping inside the premises, he saw his friend - he was waiting for him.