3. Chapter 3: Hospitalised

(Quentin's POV)

The police lights off in the distance had finally shut down, bringing him a certain amount of ease. He really wasn't sure that he was ready to communicate with the locals, and he wasn't exactly feeling cheery or up for conversation. The sirens had been enough of an aggravation to his already fragile state. Everything had gone back to looking like loose shapes and blurs with the fun new edition, a sharp ringing coming and going as it pleases. Quentin sits deciding what to do, ending simply on 'no matter what I need help, this won't get better on its own. I need to do something.'

There was, however, a new blurry white blob cresting over the bushes was getting closer to him. Despite understanding it was inevitable, he panicked for a second intention of getting help be damned. He wasn't ready for it to come knocking on his door so soon. 'God not again' he internally grimaced as he felt a literal flashback to this morning. A giant ball of light assaulted him for the second time today. It ushered in, overwhelming pain back, provoked by all the new sensory input pushing him to slump onto his side again to shield himself from the lights. He struggles to hear an ever so faint gasp over the shrill ringing in his ears.

Then through his eyelids he sees the lights angled away from his face at last, giving himself a moment to open his eyes and try to find the figure or figures that had found him. Grey, blue and Orange. He drew an immediate blank on what or who or what that could be. 'Things can't get much worse, can they? Things had to get better, right?' Quentin stared at the shapes with a hollow expression.

"Sir? Are you ok," a woman's voice asked with concern, 'Am I ok! What! There is no way they genuinely asked that!'

"Is he ok! Carrots come on" was the hushed follow up from the man next to her.

It didn't matter what they were saying, Quentin ignored the question, still blinking rapidly, hoping to regain his vision, so he knows who he is talking to, not wanting to talk to faceless nobodies. After a minute of almost silence, he pulls together enough to look back at the faces of the mysterious figures.

"Huh?" was the first unrestrained thought that spilled out.

'Just my fucking luck' came to mind first, looking at the figures. Reason had well and truly abandoned him, with Quentin resigning that he was living in a little sideshow. It was unmistakable. It was them. 'I'm a furry animal in the kids' film with drumroll please, Judy and Nick! Because of course why not, who's turning up next Batman? Jesus? Who next?' He was now living in a movie. He'd been wanting answers, but if he was told this was to be expected, he would have laughed, but no.

"Sir, are you ok?" said Judy? 'Again with that question.'

"Carrots, we should probably radio for an ambulance," replied what he could only guess was Nick.

"No, I am not alright," Quentin interjects venting his disbelief.

"Do you need an ambulance?" asked Nick.

Quentin only responded with a raised eyebrow as if to ask his own question 'what do you think'.

The fox picked up on it thankfully; stepping out of the bushes, radio in hand. This left him with Judy. He couldn't quite pick out her expression, but it didn't look great for him as she had since pulled out a pocket notebook and that carrot pen.

"What are you doing here at this time of night?" she queried. It was Quentin's turn to be confused now. 'Just start questioning the injured guy lying on the floor of a park while waiting for an ambulance. That's not poor taste.'

"How am I supposed to answer that? I don't know. I woke up here," she quickly scribbled down notes.

"Do you know what time you woke up?"

"No? I was more concerned with all the blurry vision and the killer migraine. Are all the questions necessary like right now?" Quentin responds. He understands taking your job seriously, but this felt a bit much right now.

"Sorry," she seemed to have snapped mostly out of the focused work trance she was in, only to lock onto something new, "What happened to your head!" concern in her voice.

She got closer to him, staring daggers at his head, making him feel uncomfortable. The pain only worsened it all, with it returning with a crescendo in his head, eliciting a whimper. Quentin barely noticed the rustling announcing Nick's return, where his steady steps turned into a jog. They scaring him now. 'What is wrong with my head?' He wanted to ask, but the ringing was back, almost completely blocking anything they were saying, replacing it with hurried mumbling about something. Quentin reached up to the back of his head and dabbed the back of his head. Blood coated his fingers 'Oh no oh no no no no no'. He had been so distracted with everything else he hadn't realised that he was bleeding and if the now noticeable warm spread down his neck was any indication, it had been at it for a while. 'Stupid, stupid.' Darkness started to encroach on his vision. The last thing that he felt was himself crumpling to the ground once again with the accompaniment of creeping darkness.

(Nick's POV)

Neither of them had expected things to go so completely wrong so quickly. Nick's bad feeling wasn't exactly what he'd expected, but regardless, things had gone wrong right off the bat. While he's thankful that neither he nor Judy got hurt, this wasn't exactly the idyllic alternative he was hoping for. Nick sat in the passenger seat of the cruiser trailing behind the ambulance, reflecting on the turn their night had taken. 'I should have called an ambulance sooner,' was the first to come to mind. He was kicking himself about it. 'I should have expected someone staring through us to stay silent, and that should have been enough to do it, anyway. There were warning signs, and we missed them. Hopefully, this doesn't get them killed'. Drugs were the first simple answer and that should have been enough, but now the guy was in critical condition in an ambulance. But no, it's worse.

"That didn't go well," Judy said, breaking the silence, "*yawn* we've go a mystery guy now that's gotta go somewhere."

"Well, let's hope it's not the morgue. He wasn't in great shape," Nick responds.

"Sweet cheese and crackers Nick, he's not gonna die, it'll be fine," Judy exclaims, giving him a concerned side-eye. She sighed. "What do you think about this? I don't think he's dangerous, just... weird."

"Why would he be dangerous?"

"It could have been a fight or they provoked someone. Then there is also a random attack or there was an argument, plus anyone could be dangerous."

"Guess time will tell. Shifts almost over anyway."

"Lazy fox." Judy rolls her eyes. "The case is just starting. We can't just leave it here! The chief will want answers and you know we'll be on it," she finishes with a smirk. "And you know he'll want answers immediately."

He knew it was true with them being on the scene and all, but they were both running on fumes at this point after nearly 9 hours on the job. It was almost two in the morning. Nick could see her smirk, knowing that she was right.

"Sly bunny," Nick muttered.

It only took about 10 minutes for them to get to the hospital and, with the excited buzz of a new strange case fading during the wait in the lobby. Sleep was trying its best to get through to them and it was close, he had to admit. 'Maybe I could sneak in 15. Judy doesn't need to know.' Judy left him in the car while she went to speak with the doctors about the person of interest, or would he be a suspect? Nick wanted desperately to sleep in the car, but knowing if Judy caught him, he'd never hear the end. 'What to do? What to do? Just need to stay awake longer.'

Uninspired, he started scrolling through Tweeter in more boredom than tiredness for long enough.

Judy had stopped by with items from the guy's pockets a while after. 'Good thing I didn't take that nap.' eventually he mustered up the strength to at least try to feel useful by sorting through the different in the mystery guy's pockets. He felt bad dipping into the contents of their pockets, with it feeling too much like he was resorting back to old habits. He only felt worse when it felt like an old reflex rifling through the guy's wallet. 'It's professional entirely professional for the good of the city.'

So Quentin, huh? The driver's licence was clearly not real, but what was strangest was that it had all the usual security features. It was strange for something so obviously fake to have all those details and to look... convincing? Just who was this guy? Then there was the fake cash that was also convincing, but not the usual counterfeit cash he'd seen, as it just wasn't Zootopian Dollars. The debit card following the trend looked real but was by a company Nick knew he's never seen before, just like with the cereal bar, but they could be real.

The weirdest of all of them had to be the phone, which was the only thing that he could actually investigate. Again, not a brand he'd ever seen before, but this was something that wasn't a fake but actually worked and seemed similar to his own. Maybe a knock-off? The lock-screen seemed to be of Quentin and a woman similar looking to him, maybe a mother or sister. 'So we have a young adult found in a park with a head injury and close family, but not missed calls or new messages. Weird.'

Nick, now curious, grabbed the cruiser's radio to get in contact with Clawhauser. "Hey Spots, have we had any reports of a missing person recently?" There was a long pause after the question.

"We've had a couple of them in the last week. We have one missing Chinchilla a Valentin Durant that went missing over near Little Rodentia from today. Aaaaaaaaand we have another, which was a bison called uuuuum Debra Hobbs, that was last seen in Tundratown."

No one he's looking for. Yet. "So no Arctic Foxes?"

"Doesn't look like there are any recent ones,' Clawhauser responds. No dice. What about a less recent time? Or how about a name if the name?" If the dodgy licence is anything to go on.

"How about a Quentin Keener? If not, any that were not found and would be in the age range 16 - 20." Nick requests trying to pick through all the options. 'A long missing child all grown up? Damn, no, they wouldn't have a recent-looking family photo.'

"No, Quentin Keener's here. The only Keeners are a Lion family over in Savannah Central. No Arctic Foxes missing either. Nick, what's this about?" Clawhauser asks clearly, wanting to get the fresh details on the fresh case.

"We found someone at Oasis Park, but we can't find any details about the guy."

"Gosh this sounds serious I'll keep an eye out"

"Thanks Spots, I'll keep you posted."

Nick slaps the radio back down, defeated. He'd gotten nowhere now with more questions. 'Far more awake now,' he thinks, slumping back into the seat.

It had been over half an hour now. Where was she? She hadn't jumped the gun and started questioning this 'Quentin' guy while he was in the car, had she? Not content to just sit waiting in the car for much longer, Nick grabbed the strange phone from the charger. Nick had hoped to get past the password and some answers. Now he was banking on Bogo, putting him and Judy on this case. 'Right, so a four-digit code. Sounds simple enough. Buuuuuut I don't know a thing about this guy.'

Yes! After guessing for only a couple of minutes, he'd gotten it. 'Thank god that the guy used his birth year for his password. Bit irresponsible though. At least it wasn't more difficult or just 1234.' There was a lot to unpack here now. There was something grander at play here. Everythingwas different. Different apps, games and pictures. There was so much to go through. While zoning out, Nick spied Judy coming back to the car looking perplexed, which was a new look on her. In a split second judgement call, he slid the phone into his pocket. 'I'm not stealing evidence, I'm just... dedicated to the investigation.'

Judy opened the door and slammed it shut, leaning back into the seat with a sigh. "You'll never guess what happened."

"No Carrots, I won't, so maybe you should tell me."

Judy rolled her eyes before her facial expression shifted over to puzzled. "So I was talking with the doctor about the guy while we waited for the reports. The guy isn't dead. But should be."

That statement alone was a slap back to reality. "What does that mean?!" He exclaimed. "He doesn't owe you money, does he?" he said, trying to lighten the dire mood.

"Jesus, Nick, no! What is it with you and this guy dying?" Judy exclaims with a hard punch to Nick's shoulder. "The doctor said that, not me. The guy has a typically lethal head wound that would kill even the largest elephant. Instead, the guy was not only was talking to us but also only in critical condition."

'That is... wow. Not what I was expecting'. The conversation quickly died out after that. It was a massive bombshell and put this case in line with the intrigue of the Night Howlers. Fake documents, a supposed to be a dead guy with no records on the police database found in a park with no lights on bleeding out of his head. What a Monday.

"We need to report to the Chief".

Questions for another time.

(14/11/22) Ok so here is chapter 3. So first off the bat based on feedback (of which thank you so much you are a godsend) I am implementing more internal thoughts. There is also the addition of a new cover which may or may not go up at the same time as this chapter FanFiction says it'll take up to 24hrs so eh idk. So college is stepping up. Yay. Like everyone else likes to say updates may slow down I don't entirely know yet hopefully not as I've not done much writing this week and this chapter was written weeks ago and I've just edited it to trim the fat and smooth out the rough draft. As an additional note I would like to say I'm not sure I have characterised Nick and Judy properly as I usually create my own characters compared to working with pre-existing ones so hopefully I am doing it right.

Also, I don't know why people say that they don't own the rights to *Insert Franchise Here* and that applies here. Or maybe I do own it and you'll just never know. So there is that. Anyway, once again feedback appreciated hope you enjoy.

Adiós