One bullet to the front left tire. That was all it took to get the goons off their trail. Nick was sure he could taste their good luck in the air he was breathing. Or was it bad luck? No, the bad guys didn't need to rely on bad luck to track them down so easily. Judy hadn't needed good luck to make the shot that put an end to the car chase. They were just lucky that they all made it out in one piece.

Other than that guy I just… fuck…

Nick found himself staring at his paws, barely listening to the conversation Judy was having with her parents over the phone. They were still in the back of the vehicle, Gabe and Starlight up in the front. After the ambush at the gas station, it had been a unanimous decision to admit the truth to Stu and Bonnie Hopps, that their daughter and her friends were being hunted by the remnants of a secret police force lead by a dictatorial pig believed by the world to be dead. Now they've failed to capture her twice, it was likely that NEST would alter their tactics. Maybe even go after Judy's loved ones, just as they tried to do with Sherry and Lance.

Going to the Hopps burrow wasn't an option anymore. They would stick to the first part of the plan and drive to the motel, but that was as far as they would get.

"I know it sounds crazy." Judy spoke into the phone, curled into a furry ball on the floor of the truck. "But you need to warn everyone even closely related to me, you can't tru-" She paused as her father, her mother, whoever was currently on the disposable cell phone cut her off. Her brows knitted together. "I know we're talking about over four hundred rabbits, dad, but any one of them could be a target, they have to-" She paused again. "I can't come home, dad. They could follow me again. They could…" Her eyes began to well up. Her jaw tightened as she struggled to control her emotions.

Nick's heart went out to her. He couldn't begin to imagine how his own parents would feel if they were alive to know what their son had gotten himself into.

The tears were running freely down the bunny's cheeks now. "This is all my fault. I'm sorry, dad. I'm so, so sorry…"

She dropped the phone as she succumbed, hugging her as she wordlessly sobbed into her folded arms. Stu Hopps called through the phone, his voice growing fearful when Judy didn't respond. Nick sighed and braced himself as he picked up the phone for her.
"Hey, Mr. Hopps. Nick Wilde here."

"Nick Wilde?"

"Yeah."

"The same Nick Wilde who created an illegal theme park and dragged our daughter into an insane criminal conspiracy?"

This is gonna suck.

"Yeah."

"Wilde, where is my daughter?!" It wasn't Stu who answered, but Bonnie, having likely snatched the phone in the seconds it took for Nick to answer them. "What have you done to her?!"

"You Judy's mother?"

"Yes!"

"She's fine, but we should give her a moment." Nick said. With his other paw he reached out and gently gripped Judy's arms, rubbing them in a hopefully comforting manner.

"Why? What's happened to her? What did you do?"

"Nothing, she's having a meltdo-"

"Haven't you caused her enough trouble?!"

The question stabbed at his heart. "Mrs. Hopps, these guys are coming after both of us. I never asked her to get involved!"

"But she did-'

"Mrs. Ho-"

"- because of you!"

"No, that's not-"

"You lied, you broke the law!"

"Mrs. Hopps…"

"You conned your own friend out of his boss's money!"

"Uh-"

"He almost died because of you! My daughter's shot was meant for you, not him, she had to get counselling because of what happened!"

Nick felt his face heat up. "Okay…"

"You have no business going near Judy with a ten-foot carrot, you're pathetic, you are a lying piece of garbage!"

"I know…"

"Give my goddamn daughter back her phone and don't ever come near her again!"

"She's right next to me. She's just having a little…" He hesitated. "Okay."

His skin feeling hot with anger and shame, he turned his attention back to Judy. At some point during the conversation she'd lifted her tear-soaked face out of her arms. Her purple eyes glimmered as she stared at him.

"Feeling better, Carrots?" He asked the question even though he knew it was a stupid one.

"Not really." Judy muttered.

"Here. Your mom's really worried about you." Nick handed the phone back to her.

"Thanks." She whispered. She wiped her eyes and took a few calming breaths before resuming the conversation.

They reached the motel not long after that, the truck the only vehicle in the parking lot upon parking. Nick, Judy and Starlight stayed inside while Gabe left and came back with the key to the motel.

Judy had regained control of herself by then, but the same could not be said for Nick. It had been a long time since he'd had his mistakes, and the consequences of those mistakes, thrown in his face like this. It wasn't just Bonnie's angry words; the fur on Judy's face was still slightly spiky with damp, and her eyes were tinted red. Why was it always someone else who suffered the most from his mistakes? First his mom. Then Ben. Then Honey…

There was a beep from the simple oval device Gabe had left with Starlight, supposedly a signaller designed by Honey to be non-trackable. "We're good to go." She got out first and made a beeline for the stairs leading up to the next floor. Judy set her jaw and got out next, followed closely by Nick. The wooden stairs creaked beneath his feet, as did the walkway as they followed Starlight to Room 1503. Starlight knocked and waited for the door to open. When it did, Nick's jaw dropped.

The grin Honey Ryder responded with was one of relief with a hint of mischief. "I was gonna tell ya once ya got outta prison."

Nick looked down at her legs, focusing primarily on the blue and black apparatus clinging to her calves and thighs. She held a normal crutch in each paw, which were taking the majority of her weight and made her posture appear hunched. Nick couldn't stop staring and thinking back to the last time he'd seen her, when she'd visited his suburban prison in an electric wheelchair, promising to get him the mother of all surprises once he got out. He'd expected a giant tub of blueberry ice cream, or maybe even a new job.

"What… I thought… what?" Nick breathed.

Beside him, Judy clapped a paw to her forehead. "Cheese and crackers, I forgot."

Nick whirled on her. "You forgot?"

"We nearly got kidnapped by ex-secret police. I forgot!"

Nick turned back to Honey. "W-what the fuck is that?"

"A little get well present from a pen pal in Ewerope. Anyway, I tinkered around for a couple of months, scrapped the wheelchair for parts, worked out some of the remaining kinks, and voila."

"Voila, you have to worry about chafing for the rest of your life?" Called a voice from inside, one almost certainly belonging to Jack Savage.

Honey rolled her eyes and turned her head to shout into the room. "Voila, I get a new toy to tinker around with until I'm able to walk without it."

Nick realised what she'd said. "What do you…"

He cut himself off when he remembered the conversation he, Ben, Finnick and Honey had two months after his sentencing to house arrest, one month before Finnick was sent away to a normal jail. After they'd stopped Cheryl's plan to assassinate Elba, Zootopia's best chance of healing the rot the Swintons had festered for decades, they'd all been taken into custody. Due to her injuries, precariously patched up by Mr. Big's crooked medics, Honey had been taken to the hospital before going to prison to await her trial. There, the doctors had taken a good look at the x-ray and found that she had what they had called an incomplete injury. Meaning the bullet didn't sever her cord as been previously thought. That day, Honey had given the news that she was to begin physical therapy as soon as possible. Nick had responded by breaking down in tears and apologising relentlessly for not taking the bullet that should have been his. Remembering it now would have been embarrassing if not for the shock.

"Don't get it wrong, I'll probably not get full function back." Honey said, her smile growing softer. "But at the very least, I'll be able to use my bunkers again. Ben talked about installing a little elevator in each of them, just in case-"

Nick lunged and hugged her, hard, hard enough to hold her steady when the sudden move took away her balance. The badger tensed in his arms, which still held her crutches.

"This is… I don't know what to say to you…" Nick breathed into her ear as his eyes burned, threatening to spill as they had done almost two years ago. "This is incredible. You have no idea… You have no idea how much I need this right now."

Honey let out a shuddering breath of her own. "I knew you'd like it."

"I'm happy for you too, Honey," Nick heard Alyssa's British voice call out from inside. "But could you maybe let them in now? Please?"

Honey chuckled, gently eased Nick off of herself and stepped aside.

Jack, Alyssa and a third agent were waiting for them when they finally entered the room, sitting among heaps of papers, guns and gadgets. Alyssa was initially camouflaged against the pearly white curtains behind her, but Nick spotted her red turtleneck sweater instantly. He'd never seen her wear any other colour. Jack was at the desk in a tieless white shirt, looking away from the map he was poring over to greet them. The third agent, a lady sheep carrying a Grass Burger King cup, was leaning against the desk. Nick felt an oddly light sensation in his chest at the sight of the white fox and rabbit, two mammals he never expected to see again.

Or be happy to.
"I heard what happened at the station." Jack said bluntly. "It's good to see you in one piece."

"Likewise." Judy said. "They won't find us here, right?"

"Not likely. I've been watching the surrounding area for days. If we were being watched, believe me, I'd know about it." Alyssa said. "Lucky for us, the wankers haven't tracked us down since the Bay of Moray."

"Meanwhile, I've been scouting the Redwood mansion." Jack said. "No sign of the box or the codex, but with what he paid for it, there's no chance he wouldn't keep it close."

"But he would keep it in plain sight." The third agent said. "Why pay millions for a historical work of art if you're not going to look at it?"

Nick scoffed and raised his voice an octave. "'Hey, guys. How long has it been?' 'Yeah, feels like only two hours, hard to imagine two years.' 'Did you lose weight? Or hair?'"

The others gave him odd looks, but Jack smiled and shook his head. "Sorry. Sometimes we forget you're not secret agents."

"Speaking of which…" The third agent spoke up with a scowl. Alyssa abruptly cut her off.

"Oi. They're sticking with us and that's that."

The sheep opened her mouth again, but Jack was the next to interrupt. "We've been over this enough times, Winters. We'll discuss it again after we get the codex."

To Nick's relief, the sheep didn't attempt to argue again after that. They allowed the group to freshen up one by one in the bathroom before Alyssa decided that everyone could do with a brew, which Nick thought to mean a round of beers before she produced four paper cups of tea, one for each mammal who accepted her offer. Nick thought it tasted like hot water, but a couple of sugars and some semi-skimmed milk fixed that. Then they all gathered on the twin beds and two cushy chairs in the room.

Nick sat on a bed between Judy and Honey, occasionally glancing at Winters. In the few minutes he knew her, he got enough of a read to know that she was a cold fish but she seemed trustworthy. When Jack had been captured in Ewerope, she'd worked together with Alyssa and her partner to get him back. When Judy had asked exactly what had happened, she'd been told, "Long story." Though Winters didn't resemble her in any way beside the colour of her wool, she reminded him of Bellwether. Last he'd heard of her, she was serving five years for a handful of charges nowhere near comparable to the charges Swinton's surviving Triumvirate member had racked up.

On a foldable table in between the beds, Alyssa had laid what looked to be a simplistic floor plan of a large building.

"Nice drawing." Nick said.

"Thank you." Jack said, grimacing as he detected the sarcasm in Nick's tone.

"Don't you have any high techy surveillance stuff to handle this sorta thing?" Judy asked.

Jack rubbed the back of his neck. "We did send a 'high techy' drone to scout the place but it sort of got… shot down."

"I said it once, I'll say it again. I told you so." Alyssa said.

"The drone was the size of a jar lid. It was designed not to be spotted!"

"Enough." Gabe groaned from the plastic chair where he was keeping watch through the curtained window.

Alyssa and Jack shut up for a few seconds, giving Nick a chance to scan the air between them. What he sensed brought a smirk back to his face. He looked down at Judy, who stared at them with her lips pressed together in a thin smile of her own.

Honey tapped the edge of the floor plan with her crutch. "Can we focus, please?"

Jack turned his attention back to the map. "I've only been able to get a layout of the grounds and some of the outmost rooms, but it's enough to formulate a way in and out if it comes to it."

"Let's hope it doesn't." Judy said. "I'm still not comfortable with this whole heist thing."

"Then you will be pleased to know that Plan A is to photograph each page of the codex with a hidden camera we'll bring with us to the party." Jack said. "The codex will be too big for us rabbits to sneak out of the mansion, not without damaging it."

Judy exhaled. "You're right, that is good to know."

"While we were waiting for you, I checked the town for NEST agents, and did some asking around." Winters said. "Rumor has it he also 'bought' some paintings stolen from Ewerope during the big war. If they're true, and he's hiding them to keep the authorities from taking them back, then chances are the codex will be hidden with them."

"Yeah, well, I've been telling you this for days." Honey said. "I betya he's keeping priceless artefacts in a repository so he can sell them should the Shepherds of the Sacred Lamb ever need to finance their-"

"Honey." Starlight said curtly.

"Right. Sorry."

"It's actually a very straightforward plan." Jack said. "You use your invitation to infiltrate the mansion. I come with you as your plus one. I locate the codex and document its pages while you enjoy the party and make sure I don't get discovered. We walk out with the photographs and send them off to Honey's associate for translation."

"And the codex itself?" Judy asked.

"I'll send an anonymous tip to the police after we're done." Honey said. "With evidence to boot."

Judy dropped down from the bed. "Sounds good to me. Ok, I'll head to my parents' place straight away."

"What? What for?" Nick asked.

Judy shrugged at him. "I need to find something to wear, don't I?"

Nick gained a little more respect for Winters when, despite her clear displeasure at their involvement, she agreed to escort Judy to the Hopps residence. He watched Judy go, not for the first time wishing that he'd been born as something other than a fox so he could go to the party with her. He didn't want to stay here, worrying for her, wishing he was there to help her if anything went wrong. And something else bothered him. The agents seem confident enough that Ben and Bogo would be left alone, having had the least to do with Tilda Swineton's fatal chopper crash. But there was no telling if that made any difference to Theodore.

Making a decision, Nick stood up to go to the bathroom, but then remembered that he had been forced to destroy his phone in case NEST managed to hack it. "Honey, you got any comms equipment I can use? I want to talk to Benji."