Hey, all! I'm back! Sorry for the wait. Between finals and some other stuff, it's been busy. Here's another installment of "A New Life"! And yes, Males Like Females is a Zootopian equivalent to Boys Like Girls. Enjoy!

Chapter 11: A Little Bit of Faith

Judy and Nick were thankful that Ashira and Lucas's other friends were there to calm Lucas down. Pulling the squad car into the parking lot of the chapel of their wedding, Judy made a request to Nick. She asked, "Can you please wait here and come grab me if we get trouble?"

"What are we doing here, Carrots?" Nick asked curiously.

Judy, as she was getting out of the car, looked him in the eye and said, "I need to talk to God about this…"

"About what? Lucas? And I knew your family was religious, but I never took you for the religious type," Nick commented, flipping up his aviators.

"I prefer faith over religion, personally. It's faith that gets people through the hard times. Kind of like when I had faith in you on my first case," Judy replied with a reminiscent smile as she closed her door, recalling Nick's snarky aid in the Emmitt Otterton case.

"Or when I had faith in you during the Mad Cow incident," Nick added, thinking back to when Judy risked her life to save his mother from a gang. "Now we both need to have faith in a higher power…"

"We don't need to," Judy called out as she went into the chapel. She muttered to herself, "It just helps…a lot…hoping that someone is going to make sure it will be okay…" She walked down the aisle, thinking back to her wedding briefly, before taking her place at a pew fit for a mammal of her stature. She folded her paws and mumbled, "Please…I know time heals all wounds, but time doesn't seem to be healing fast enough for this…I won't abandon him, but…I can't do it on my own…"

"You know, the morning services ended forever ago," a familiarly sweet voice informed Judy. The bunny turned her head to see none other than Mrs. Otterton. With delight, Judy's amethyst eyes widened. The otter greeted, "Hello, Officer Hopps-Wilde."

"Mrs. Otterton, it's so good to see you again!" Judy exclaimed and hugged the otter, who reciprocated with a hug just as strong. Pulling away, the bunny cop asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to say a prayer for my mother-in-law," Mrs. Otterton replied. "How about you?"

"A prayer for my son. Nick and I adopted," Judy informed the otter.

"Oh, how nice! How old is the little guy?" Mrs. Otterton asked curiously.

"Fourteen," Judy sheepishly confessed, scratching the back of her head.

"If I may ask, why would you adopt a teenager?" Mrs. Otterton asked, finding the adoption of an older child, as many would see it, a tad strange. It was at this point when Judy, with her ears drooping, burst into tears as she fell to her knees and wept into her paws. Mrs. Otterton, feeling alarmed and guilty about Judy crying, wrapped her arms around the police officer once more and asked, "Has this boy been through a lot?"

"T-t-too much…!" Judy sniffled, trying to calm herself down. "I want to love him…to help him…to make him feel at home…"

"Well, do you love him?" Mrs. Otterton asked. When the bunny nodded, the otter said, "Then the first step is already taken care of. He needs your love, Officer. If he has that, he has something to go back to."

"Y-yeah…" Judy stuttered as she sniffled and wiped her eyes.

"You know, my older son is thirteen. Maybe our boys could become friends," Mrs. Otterton suggested cheerfully.

"Well, I'm happy to say he's coming out of his shell a little bit at a time. When we first met him, he barely said anything to either of us. He's talking more and more…and he's branching out more, he's learning to trust other mammals… The past still stings, though… He's been through a lot for anyone, especially a kid his age," Judy informed the female otter. "I guess that's a sign… And I know who's responsible for turning his life upside down in the first place."

"Oh? I suppose you used your investigative prowess, then," Mrs. Otterton guessed.

"Well, only a little. Nick called on one of his friends to look into it," Judy sheepishly admitted, scratching the back of her head. "And…the ones behind my Lucas's parents' deaths…they're already incarcerated. I'm going to have a chat with their leader first chance I get."

"Officer, are you looking for revenge?" Mrs. Otterton asked in disbelief.

Tearing up again, Judy answered, "I just want to know why… Why him…? Why such a sweet, innocent kid who had never done harm to anyone? Is it because he's a fox…? His family grew potatoes… He's really shy, loves comics and music, has a crush on a girl… He's just a regular kid with a really traumatizing past. Why him…?"

"Life's not always pretty, but I like to think that it all works out for the best somehow. God knows what he's doing," Mrs. Otterton consoled the upset bunny officer. "I mean look at his situation now. He has a loving home. It sounds like he's making friends. Things are working out for him already."

"That's His plan, I guess," Judy hypothesized with a rejuvenated smile. Her ears perked up when she heard Nick honking the horn on their squad car. "Excuse me. I think we have activity."

"Well, if you ever want to talk, you still have Emmitt's number from when you asked us to provide the flowers for your wedding," Mrs. Otterton reminded Judy with a wink.

"Thank you so much, ma'am," Judy excitedly thanked the otter and ran out to the car, hoping that Lucas would go the rest of the day without incident.

Meanwhile, Lucas was humming "The Great Escape" by Males Like Females as he was taking notes on geometric proofs. Proofs were a pain… Lucas knew that the logic behind them was important, but that didn't do anything to help the subject usurp his excitement. He wanted class to end soon. Memorizing theorems seemed tedious, but the way the theorems worked made sense.

Ashira was on his right. She glanced at him and spared him a smile, making his heart go aflutter. Lucas smiled back. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a ram repeatedly glancing at the two of them, twitching as if he was holding back anger. Lucas wasn't sure what he did to anger the ram, but every time he saw a sheep, no matter what the emotional context was, he thought of one of his foster siblings.

Ewelina.

Ewelina was two years his junior. They had been together in the first and second foster home. Their second foster father, the one who had abused Lucas and catalyzed his cutting, had been responsible for putting Ewelina in a wheelchair. That injury to the one who had been his little sister for two years at that point was when Lucas had finally snapped and called the local authorities, enduring an undeniably brutal assault all the while. He hadn't seen her since. He hoped Ewelina was well.

"Don't worry about him," Ashira softly whispered to Lucas.

"Hmm?" Lucas's thoughts returned to the classroom.

"Don't worry about him," Ashira repeated. "He's wary of predators ever since the whole Night Howler thing went down. Some garbage about how ex-Mayor Bellwether was arrested on false charges. It's a load of hogwash. He's a conspiracy theorist of sorts…"

"Oh…" Lucas mumbled. He remembered it was Judy and Nick, his own adoptive parents, who had caught Bellwether with her confession. With such heavy-caliber evidence against her—the evidence that is Bellwether's own voice, how could anyone believe Bellwether was innocent?

Lucas took a deep breath and focused on geometry. Geometry… And the occasional whiff of Ashira's scent that he would get. He enjoyed everything about her. Just being near her made him genuinely happy to be alive. His tail would always give a small wag to her presence.