2016, September 2

Savannah Central, Zootopia

10:23 AM

Judy's eyes were glued to the road, paying attention to both the drivers passing by as well as looking at the dashboard-mounted radar gun/speed gun to see how fast the drivers are going, in case they were speeding. She had been doing this for more than 2 hours now and so far and so far no one had broken the speed limit.

Her ears started twitching at the sound of snoring. Her partners snores. Judy looked to her right to find Nick fast asleep with his aviator sunglasses slowly starting to fall to the side. Judy rolled her eyes as she sighed. It was starting to become a habit for Nick to fall asleep when they were waiting for speeders or for dispatch to relay something to all officers that something was amiss.

Judy knew that she should cut Nick some slack since there wasn't a lot of crime as of late, but that was no reason to take a nap since a crime could take place at anytime. Judy decided to end the fox's dreams and wake him up. "Hey, wake up!", Judy whispered in Nicks ear.

"10 more minutes please...", the canid groaned.

"You said that 3 times already!"

"Well I'm sorry fluff, but we foxes need 10 hours of sleep. So if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna make a deal with the *sandmammal." Nick said whilst getting as close to comfortable as he could in his seat so he could fall back asleep.

Judy sighed as she turned her gaze back to the road. "Wilde. You. Are. A mess.", she pouted.

Nick turned his head to the bunny with his signature grin and playfully said: "You know you love me."

Judy cocked her head to the side as she turned back to her partner. "Do I know that? Yes. Yes I do.", she playfully responded with a smirk on her face.

Suddenly, their police-issued radio started receiving a transmission. "Attention all units in Savannah Central, we have a possible 10-31 in progress at the Savannah Central bank on 58th Bellrock Avenue. Move in and intercept." said dispatch.

"Wait, that's not far from here!", Judy said a little giddy. This would be the first chance of action she had in a long while. She took the opportunity to tease her now-groaning partner. "Don't think for a second that you're sleeping through this one Wilde!", Judy said as she grabbed the radio on the dashboard. "10-4. This is officer Hopps and Wilde, we're moving in to intercept." Judy said to dispatch.

"Copy that officer Hopps. All nearby units will be on standby in case you need backup.", said dispatch. In three seconds, the police cruiser rolled out of the alleyway and raced down the road with sirens blaring. Soon, Judy and Nick arrived at 58th Bellrock Avenue, then saw 3 medium-sized mammals with ski-masks exit the bank with 3 bags (of what's very likely cash), get into a white van, then drove off in the opposite direction the officers arrived from. Judy and Nick looked at each other before quickly giving chase.

"This is officer Hopps and Wilde," Nick quickly relayed to dispatch, "we arrived at the scene to find suspects get into an unmarked white van and we are currently in pursuit! The van is going NE of 58th Bellrock Avenue."

"10-4. This is officer Fangmeyer and Wolford. We are following suit to provide support." said officer Fangmeyer.

The bunny and fox soon pulled up to the right side of the van. Once they were next to the robbers, Nick rolled down his window and pulled out a megaphone. "Pull over the vehicle now!", he yelled at the thieves through the megaphone. The van started to move leftward. "Wait, are they actually pulling over?", Nick exclaimed in surprise. The van abruptly jerked to the right.

Judy's eyes widened in realization. "They're gonna ram us!", she yelled. Not hesitating, she slammed the brakes making the cruiser slow down with its tires screeching just as the van missed its target by a mere foot. The vans extra momentum started to make it swerve everywhere, ignoring the red light, right onto an intersection...

...and crashed into a civilian vehicle that was emerging from the left.

"Sweet cheese and crackers! Nick, call in medical attention and let Clawhauser know what happened! I'm going to see if they're alright!" Judy called out as she jumped out of the now fully stopped cruiser to survey the wreckage. Nick wasted no time calling in an ambulance, as well as letting dispatch (Clawhauser) know that there's been an accident at the intersection of 58th Bellrock Avenue and 4th Pattington lane.

As Nick was doing this, Judy was went to the wreck to survey the damage. The van was hit from its left side, being dented and bent inwards. The civilian vehicle, which looked like a medium-sized blue sedan, had its front end crushed inwards and had 2 bloodied foxes halfway in and halfway out of the now-smashed windshield. The foxes were overladen with cuts, bruises, and gashes all over their bodies, possibly from launching through the windshield. Plus, they weren't moving so that meant either of 2 things: the first being that they lost consciousness or second...

...Judy's face visibly grew pale at the thought and hoped that wasn't the case.

She checked the fox that was in the drivers seat for a heartbeat. None. Judy's vision started to ge clouded from the tears in her eyes. She prayed to anyone that could hear her that the other fox, which she now realized was a vixen, was still alive. Judy put her ear against the vixens chest to find a pulse...

...There was none.

Her face started breaking out tears as she started crying with her ears behind her head. In her mind it was her fault all because she was tired of sitting around. Her thoughts raced with 'what if's: different scenarios resulting from different actions Judy could have taken. It was all. Her. Fault.

She had been at this for what seemed like millennia and at this point, she was at her knees with her face wet with tears.

Then the sound of groaning reached Judy's sensitive ears before perking upwards. She started to power through her tears so that focus on where the groaning was coming from. It sounded like it was coming from the back of the car. Quickly, she raced to one of the backseat doors, opened it, and peered inside to see what was making that sound.

The source... was another fox. Except this one was different from the ones in the front seat. The fox looked to be male, but was perhaps shorter than Nick yet slightly taller than Judy, so he could definitely be younger than Nick. The foxes fur color was more red than the ones in front, although it could be from blood. His body was a bit scrawny, and was currently restrained with a seatbelt, but definitely wasn't spared from harm, hinted with a bruises here and there along with a few cuts. But all in all, he was in better shape than the foxes in the front seat.

Judy put her ear against the tods chest... and heard shallow breaths and a faint heartbeat. Judy felt her heart rise from her chest and into her throat. But she needed to focus though, she needed to clean the fox's wounds, then stop the bleeding and wait until paramedics arrive.

2016, September 2

ZPD, Precinct 1

2:47 PM

Eventually, Officers Wolford and Fangmeyer arrived on the scene and helped arrest and detain the bank robbers, 1 of the 3 had to be taken to the hospital due to minor injuries, before serving jail time. The young tod, that Judy had helped given first aid to, was also taken off by the ambulance. Judy couldn't help but worry for the tod as he may have lost his parents, (if they even were his parents). Nick noticed her ears drooping as they typed out their report on the bank robbery earlier today.

Nick decided to break the ice. "Hey carrots, how are you doing?", the fox asked. The bunny's ears drooped lower as her typing slowed. Nick felt bad for his partner. He could tell she was still upset from the accident. When they went back to the cruiser so the could go back to the precinct, Nick noticed her amethyst eyes were a little red as well as her face being damp. He had asked Judy what was wrong, then Judy told him that she saw her first bodies today. He had then told her that when he was still living on the streets, it took him weeks to get some decent sleep and that her mourning was natural. At the time, she understood where he was coming from, that she would eventually get over it.

But this time it was different. Her face made it look like she had broken a vase or something expensive and now feels bad about it. "Why would she feel bad?", thought to himself. Then he understood why. "This is about the kid isn't it," Nick deduced.

The bunny started to talk but didn't face her partner. "I just can't help but feel bad for him! I mean, you've seen the casualty side on the report of that accident. Those 2 foxes were the parents of that kid! He doesn't even have other relatives to stay with Nick!"

Nick raised his paws in reassurance. "Ok!Ok!", nick said defensively, "Ok, I know you're upset fluff, but what can you do about it anyway?" Her upset expression was replaced by an expression of deep thought. "Here," the fox continued, "how about, this weekend, we go visit the kid?"

Judy's eyes widen in surprise. "Wait, how would we get to the room he's staying in? I thought only relatives or family members are allowed to visit patients.", the doe asked.

The ex-con gave the bunny his signature grin. "C'mon carrots, did you forget already? I've said that I know everyone, and I know a guy who can smuggle us into the kid's room," the fox implored.

"You mean you 'used' to know everyone," Judy fired back, " You're an officer of the law remember? You can get in serious trouble if someone catches you doing something illegal."

"Don't worry," Nick reassured Judy, "I won't pull any strings, I promise! I'm on good terms with this guy, and I'm positive he'll do us a solid for nothing in return."

"I still don't know about this Nick..."

"C'mon, don't you trust me?"

There was a pause.

Judy sighed. "Yes, Nick. I trust you."

"See? That wasn't so hard now was it?"

"I hate that you used my trust in you against me though," Judy huffed.

"Dumb bunny."

"Sly fox."

There was another moment of silence. Judy spoke again.

"Hey."

"Hm?"

"Why are you doing this for me?"

"Well, I thought that visiting the kid-"

"No, no, I mean, what's your motive for doing this?"

"Well... I guess it just bugged me seeing you down like that."

"Oh, uh... that's very sweet of you for caring about me. Thank you," Judy slightly blushed.

"Not a problem."

*Zootopia's version of the sandman(the guy who makes you fall asleep/dream)