October 5, 2017
With the prisoner he was escorting next to him, the wolf guard knocked on the warden's door.
"Come in," a male voice said from inside.
The guard, followed by the prisoner, entered the warden's office.
"Warden Tian, I'm John Wilde," the prisoner said. "I was told you wanted to see me."
"Mr. Wilde, yes," Tian, a giant panda, said from behind his desk. "Please have a seat."
John sat down in the left of two chairs that faced the warden's desk. The guard remained standing near the other chair.
"Do you know why I've summoned you?" Tian asked.
John slowly nodded. "I believe I do, sir. Even though she caused so much terror in Zootopia, I still shouldn't have used my tailoring skills—"
Tian cocked his head. "What are you talking about?"
John quickly realized the warden was not referring to his unauthorized alterations of inmate Bellwether's uniforms. "Uhh ... the sewing machines in the uniform shop are so ancient they terrify us to use. As a former tailor, I tried to improve the machine I was working on by changing a few settings without permission of the shop supervisor."
"Hmm," Tian said. He put a paw to his chin and thought for a moment.
A few seconds into the silence, John had a feeling the warden did not buy his story.
Suddenly, Tian picked up a pen. "I am making a note to see if some new machines can be added to next year's budget."
John smiled with a quick nod. "Thank you, sir."
"Now, as for you, Mr. Wilde," Tian said as he put down the pen and picked up a manila envelope, "an officer from the Capitol Police Department stopped by this morning to deliver this order from Albaany." He handed the envelope to John. "Congratulations."
John looked at the state coat of arms at the top left of the envelope for a moment and then turned it over. He pulled out a letter-size piece of bond paper, which had the same official emblem centered at the top.
He couldn't believe the words that he read:
STATE OF NEW YAK
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
AN ORDER OF EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY
WHEREAS, John Joseph Wilde Jr., born April 11, 1953, of the Meadowlands, Zootopia, New Yak, was arrested on July 14, 2017, in a sting operation conducted by officers of the Zootopia Police Department for practicing without a medical license; and
WHEREAS, said John Joseph Wilde Jr. pleaded guilty on July 20, 2017, in Superior Court for the Third District of Zootopia to all nine charges stemming from said arrest; and
WHEREAS, said John Joseph Wilde Jr. was sentenced on October 2, 2017, in said court to imprisonment terms of twelve years, three years, and one year, to run concurrently and with parole eligibility after six years, and fines of fifteen thousand dollars and five thousand dollars; and
WHEREAS, said John Joseph Wilde Jr. was transported to Osbun Correctional Institution on October 2, 2017, to begin serving said sentence.
NOW THEREFORE, I, Mary D. Virginiana, Governor of the State of New Yak, by the power vested in me by the Consolidated Laws of the State of New Yak and the Constitution of the State of New Yak, do hereby grant said John Joseph Wilde Jr. a full, free, and absolute pardon for all crimes charged and pleaded guilty to stemming from said arrest and absolve said John Joseph Wilde Jr. of all legal consequences of said crimes and said pleas.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my paw and have caused the Great Seal of the State of New Yak to be affixed at Albaany this fourth day of October in the year of our Lord two thousand seventeen.
Mary D. Virginiana
MARY D. VIRGINIANA
GOVERNOR
Below all the formality and legalese of the order was a paw-written message in blue ink:
John, I was the recording secretary for the Zootopia Board of Education in 1992 when my three-year-old son accidentally started a fire that cost him his life and badly burned my six-year-old daughter. Despite your lack of formal medical training, you helped ease her pain, saved her appearance, and quite possibly saved her life. Today she is a teacher at Ronald Preygan High School. I am forever grateful.—Mary
John's paw shook as he put the paper back inside the envelope. "She was my first patient," he said, his voice breaking. "She made me believe that if I could do some good while being a fraud, I wasn't entirely bad." He dried his eyes with the sleeve of his cotton-poly jumpsuit. "But I don't know if I deserve this."
"Mr. Wilde, I will grant that the governor pardoned you for purely personal reasons. She'll face criticism for it, and might even lose next November. But I'm familiar with your case, and I can tell you that your continued imprisonment would serve no purpose. I've been in this chair for thirty-four years, and I can tell in three seconds who's going to be a recidivist and who had already reformed the moment the cuffs went on. You're the latter. A good mammal who made a mistake but who never hurt anyone."
"Only members of my own family. Fortunately, being arrested led to many of those wounds beginning to heal."
"Then may your release lead to the healing of the rest." Tian stood up and walked around his desk. He extended his paw to John. "Good luck, Mr. Wilde."
John stood up and shook the warden's paw. "Thank you, sir."
— § —
March 4, 2018
Riding with Judy in a gondola in the Rainforest District, Nick pointed down at a clear highway they were about to pass over. "Wow, look at all the traffic down there. It's not even rush hour yet."
Judy looked down but didn't notice any great congestion. "Where?" she asked, scanning left and right until they had completely passed the highway. She turned to Nick. "It looks pretty clear to—" She stopped when she saw that Nick was in the middle of tightening his tie. "Nick, what are you doing?"
"I like being relaxed and comfortable, but you know I still tighten my tie on special occasions," Nick said with a warm smile as he finished his adjustments. "And I can't think of one more special than this." He reached into his right pants pocket and took out a small purple velvet box that perfectly matched Judy's eyes. Getting down on one knee, he opened it. "Judith Laverne 'Carrots' Hopps, will you—"
Nick hadn't even finished asking before Judy hopped up at him with arms wide open, wrapping them around his neck.
"I'll take that as a yes," he said as he embraced his fiancée.
— § —
July 27, 2018
Unlike some of her sisters had been, Judy was no bridezilla as her wedding day approached. She had requested only a few basic and decorative alterations to her dress, which she had purchased in Zootopia and had taken to skilled paws in Bunnyburrow.
"So, what do you think?" the tailor asked as he brought out the strapless but modest trumpet silhouette gown. He had altered some wedding dresses before but didn't specialize in bridal attire.
Judy gasped. She reached out and touched the flowery lace color accent that had been added near the bottom of the white dress, which was mostly the same blue as her ZPD uniform top but had small areas the same purple as her eyes. She smiled. "This is beautiful, John."
Her future father-in-law, who was now living with Gideon and employed at the same tailor shop his son had mentioned a year ago, smiled back. "I knew you'd like it."
"I love it!"
The fox smiled again. "And I know Nick will too. But as nice as this dress looks on the hanger, it would look even better on you. Go try it on."
Judy took the dress from John and headed for the changing room.
Just eight days to go before the wedding.
— § —
August 4, 2018
12:17 p.m.
Wearing a dark gray tuxedo with a tropical Pawaiian pocket square, a white shirt, and a white bow tie, Nick entered the church's small meeting room and walked over to its only occupant. He took a moment to admire her light pink dress. "You look beautiful, Mom. Come on. The photographer's ready, Judy's ready, I'm ready, Stu and Bonnie are ready—"
"I know, I know. And he is ready. Everyone's waiting for me."
Nick put a paw on his mother's shoulder. "If you can't, we understand."
The vixen shook her head. "No. I'm going to do this for you and Judy. It's just so hard to have to see him again."
"I know. But it'll be over quick. Just a few shots of the bride, the groom, and the parents together. The four of us will be between you and Dad. You don't have to say even a single word to him. I'm not going to ask you to dance with him at the reception. I'm not going to ask you to be in photos with Gideon."
"I'd rather be in photos with Gideon," Elizabeth said as she stood up. "Gideon did nothing wrong."
"Gideon hurt Judy when they were kids. He also regrets it, and Judy forgave him. It's only because I love Judy and trust her judgment that I didn't bake Gideon into one of his own pies when I found out. Mom, you don't have to forgive Dad or pretend that he didn't hurt you. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't regret what he did. I wouldn't want him in my life if he didn't."
— § —
3:50 p.m.
"I do," Nick said.
"And do you, Judith Laverne Hopps," the Rev. Daniel Pawlowski, a middle-aged light brown bunny, said, "take Nicholas Piberius Wilde to be your lawfully wedded sweetheart, your husband, your partner on duty and off, and do you pledge to love him, cherish him, serve him, and protect him, in good times and in bad times, in health and in sickness, in happiness and in hustles, until the twelfth of Never do you part?"
Judy said nothing. For a few seconds—hours to the guests and an eternity to Nick—she just stood there, her paws and the fox's still joined. Then suddenly, she let go and reached under her dress to pull out an object that she had secured to her leg with her garter. She handed it to Nick.
The fox looked at the carrot pen for a moment. Though this part of the ceremony hadn't been rehearsed, he instinctively knew that he had to play a recording.
"I do," Judy's recorded voice said.
Nick looked at his bride even more lovingly than after he had received his badge from her. He pressed the button to record. "Sly bunny," he whispered into the microphone before handing the pen back to Judy.
Judy smiled. "Dumb fox," she recorded as a whisper of her own before putting the pen back.
"Well, that was unscripted," Pawlowski said with a laugh. Many guests chuckled as well. "But it still counts!"
Nick and Judy exchanged rings and then held each other's paws once more.
"Before God, family, and friends, Nicholas and Judith have pledged themselves to each other," Pawlowski said. "Therefore, by the power vested in me, I hereby pronounce them husband and wife, and I invite the couple to seal their commitment with—"
The clergymammal had only four more words to say, but Nick and Judy couldn't wait. For the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Wilde, fox lips and bunny lips met.
"—their first wedded kiss."
— § —
7:43 p.m.
Gideon chuckled. "Another one, Dad?" he asked as John passed the dance floor on a repeat trip to the wedding cake table. Most guests and members of the wedding party were currently shaking their tails—some more gracefully than others—to the tunes of DJ Finnick. Gideon himself was dancing, quite well, with Sharla, one of Judy's bridesmaids.
John smiled. "It's not raspberry, but what can I say? You made a great cake."
The baker returned the smile.
When he reached the table, John picked up his fourth piece of light-purple-frosted goodness of the evening, his second with a confectionary rose. Roses had circled the sides of each of the five tiers except the topmost, which instead had blue flowers unfamiliar to most: Midnicampum holicithias—night howlers—a subtle reference to the flowers involved in Nick and Judy's first case. Standing on top of this tier, which was now on display and which Nick and Judy would save for their first anniversary, were wooden figures of the partners for life wearing their ZPD uniforms, which had been carved by Judy's grandfather and painted by her grandmother.
John turned around to head back to his seat just as Elizabeth was approaching the table. She moved a little to her right so she could walk by him but John went a little to his left, accidentally keeping them in front of each other. She then made a quick step to her left but John simultaneously stepped right. He then stepped a little more to his right, with Elizabeth once again moving like a mirror image.
John chucked. "Shall we dance? It is a wedding." He was only trying to chip the icy awkwardness a little.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Ugh." She stayed still and gestured to her left so John could walk past her.
John raised his plate a little. "This is very good cake," he said as he stepped right alone. "This will be my fourth piece."
"I'm getting my fifth," Elizabeth said, barely looking at her ex.
"Well, don't overdo it. You remember what happened last time."
How could she forget? Like Nick and Judy's carrot cake with blueberry frosting, the blueberry cake with raspberry frosting she and John had had on their wedding day also combined their favorite foods. It tasted great, and they didn't think twice about overindulging—ten pieces for John and twelve for Elizabeth. At least not until later that night when they had to stop the consummation of their marriage early after several of those twenty-two pieces were lost between them, vomited onto the hotel bedsheets. They were able to laugh about the experience later, but they never told a soul.
Elizabeth now looked directly at John. "That's not a concern of mine," she said. "More likely you shouldn't overdo it. You're the one who would find an attractive young thing by the end of the night and take her back to your room. I even saw a few vixens who work here as maids."
"I'm not interested."
"Hmm?"
"I'm not interested," John said as he stepped back into Elizabeth's path. "Do you know how many vixens I've been with since Cinza?"
Elizabeth just stared.
"Zero. The same number of vixens I've asked on a date, the same number of vixens I've kissed, and the same number of vixens I've even thought about."
"How noble of you. It's the same numbers of tods for me. Get my heart broken once, shame on you. Get my heart broken twice, shame on me."
"No, shame on anyone who would break your heart, and that mammal only. You shouldn't let my mistakes harden your heart to others. I should be the only one hurting every day, not you."
Elizabeth shook her head. "Even more recently you've affected how much I can trust others. Would you believe that I had an appointment booked with you? I was scheduled to come in for a consultation on August 25, exactly six weeks after the day you were arrested."
"No, I don't believe it. What would you have needed a consultation for?"
Elizabeth ran her paws up and down her cheeks. "Wrinkles." She sighed. "I saw your ads—your photo next to photos of some of your patients before and after. I didn't recognize you at all. My own ex-husband! I almost let you touch me."
John shook his head. "No, I wouldn't have."
"What do you mean?"
"You didn't recognize me, but I would have recognized you. I performed a lot of surgeries I thought were unnecessary because mammals were willingly paying for trivial cosmetics. We were all adults, so I kept my personal opinions out of others' decisions. But I would never knowingly harm a patient, which is what I would have been doing if I had performed surgery on you."
"It's too late for silver-tongued pick-up lines, John."
"It's never too late for the truth. Everyone gets older, but that doesn't mean they get any less beautiful." John set his plate down on the floor in front of him and took his wallet out of his back pocket. He flipped past his license in the first clear plastic pocket of the multi-pocket organizer in the center and pulled a slightly worn, slightly faded color photo of two formally dressed foxes out of the second pocket. He held it up so he could see it and Elizabeth at the same time. "Yup. Still just as beautiful as the day I married you." He handed it to his ex-wife.
The last time Elizabeth had seen that photo was when she had destroyed all the copies she had. It had been twenty-eight years. She stared in silence.
"The eleven years we shared. When we welcomed Nick into our lives. When I met with Cinza. In the divorce court. In my new apartment. The night I tried to kill myself. When I was beaten. Each time I turned into someone else. During my interview at the hospital. When I opened my own practice. During every surgery I performed. When I was arrested. When I was forgiven by Nick. When I was forgiven by Gideon. When I went to prison. When I was released from prison. When I watched Nick say, 'I do.' Every day. Every breath. Every heartbeat. You have always been with me."
"John, it's been twenty-eight years. Isn't it time to move on?"
"That would be asking me to do the impossible. An affair of the flesh was never an affair of the heart. I loved you then, I love you today, and I will love you forever. And I will never forgive myself."
Elizabeth held the photo up so she could see it and John at the same time. Except for the color of his eyes since he no longer wore the false blue contact lenses of Dr. Cunningham, there were no similarities between 1979 and 2018. All the features she had once loved were lost ultimately because their marriage had been lost, in skills discovered only after his life was nearly lost because he had lost everything else. John Wilde of the past and John Wilde of the present were different foxes in so many ways, but one thing had not changed: the love he had for her. Rather than turn to bitterness over the years considering everything he had endured he had ultimately endured only because of the dissolution of his marriage, it remained as strong as ever, even though he must have known that loving her was in vain.
It was every bit as strong as her hatred. Maybe stronger.
It was every bit as strong as the love she had once had for him.
She looked at the eyes of John in the photo: honest and full of life. She looked at the eyes of the fox in front of her: honest but full of pain and regret. The governor may have let him out of prison, but he would never be free.
Though he had made a mistake she had thought she could never let go, deep inside she liked the eyes of the old John better.
"I can't move on either. You only get one love of your life." Without warning, Elizabeth tore the photo in half. "I hate you, John Wilde." She thrust a torn piece at him. "I hate you because I loved you. I hate you because I still do."
John took the piece from his ex-wife. It was the half with Elizabeth in it.
"I'm sorry, John." She collapsed against him, crying.
"Sorry?" John said as he held her for the first time since 1990. "What do you have to be sorry for?"
"For not listening. For refusing to give you even a chance to explain. For hurting our son by keeping his father out of his life. For driving you to nearly take your own life. For—"
John sniffled. "No. None of that. I am responsible for everything. I brought everything on myself."
"But—"
"But nothing. If you're trying to ease my pain, Elizabeth, the only way you can do it is by not blaming yourself."
But Elizabeth's next words cut John even more. "I forgive you."
"No. Stop. You're rushing things. I don't deserve that. Not now. Not ever."
"Twenty-eight years isn't rushing. And it's not your decision. It's mine."
John could say nothing. He just held on to Elizabeth tighter. His collar began to feel damp from all the tears that had run down to it.
He was so lost in the unbelievability of the moment that it was through his sense of taste, not sight or touch, that first told him that Elizabeth was kissing him. The flavor was like the fuel to a time machine, transporting him back to the happiest moments they had shared.
Across the room, Nick walked back to Judy after seeing Finnick for a moment, tears in his eyes. "I never thought I'd see the day," he said as he pointed toward his parents. "Our love has brought more than just us together."
"The Electric Slide" came to a sudden end on the dance floor at the request of the groom. Most guests wondered why Bleat Loaf's 2006 recording of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" replaced it.
One, and then two, understood.
"Come on, John," Elizabeth said as she took her rekindled love's paws and looked toward the dance floor. "What's a wedding without a dance from the parents of the groom?"
More than 2.5 years after its first words were written, my first true multi-chapter Zootopia fanfic has now been fully published.
This story is the result of two ideas I had in 2016. First, a "what if" idea that Nick and Gideon are half brothers. Nick's father being absent from the movie and Gideon only briefly mentioning a family without naming specific relatives meant this was at least plausible in the world of fan fiction. Second, the idea that Nick's father had changed his identity to Dr. Frank Cunningham at some point after no longer being in the lives of Nick and Mrs. Wilde. This idea came to me after seeing an "ad" for Cunningham in The Official Zootopia Handbook, which heavily reuses concept art and which portrays this doctor with a drawing of the cut character Mr. Wilde, who is often called John and shown to be a tailor. I changed one thing about Cunningham, however. In the ad, he appears to be a dermatologist, promising "a beautiful, thick, shiny coat" without surgery, whereas I made him a plastic surgeon to better make use of the skills John would have already had as a tailor.
John is probably the most complex character I've ever written. In my earliest thoughts, his downward spiral originated from being falsely accused of burning down his tailor shop for insurance money, but I soon decided that an affair would make for a better, more dramatic story. Despite his serious mistakes, though, I always wanted John to be a character who readers could feel for too.
Although I've never been in a relationship and have no plans to be, I believe in monogamy. While sometimes forgiving infidelity can happen quickly, Elizabeth isn't a villain for having chosen divorce or for taking decades to forgive. The "right" choice is often incredibly complex and deeply personal—there really isn't a one-size-fits-all approach.
If you enjoyed how I write in the Zootopia universe, you may also enjoy my collections of shorter works, Zootopia Scenes and Shorts and One Hundred DrabbleZ. I also hope to write more Zootopia material in the future.
Thank you for reading, and an especially big thanks to those who provided feedback—the only true currency of fan works.
—GrandOldPenguin (a.k.a. SJF_Penguin)