As Skye, Jack and himself made there way to the medical examiner to learn what they could from the body, Nick couldn't help but think to McCabe. What are the chances for his father to be a target of this malicious group of bastards? He supposed as likely as Judy being one, though she has some fame within the city. some seeing her as a good person, others who sided with Bellwether not so much. But why some random wolf? According to that insane Speaker guy, its because they think he's done something worth executing him over. But what could it be? And going off on another tangent, where the hell are they gathering all this intel from? Nick could see them having dirt on low life street thugs, and maybe some politicians, but some of the people that have been executed seem to have done some pretty obscure things that your common everyday mammal wouldn't know.

He's thrown this idea out before to others in the precinct, but he thinks there's some kind of leak coming from high up. Not necessarily from within the precinct itself, though he couldn't rule that out. Still, if there is someone high in power helping out this group that could spell disaster for the entire city. Then again, Nick figured this could just be him being paranoid. However, in times like these Nick didn't see that as a bad thing.

Sweeping that away from his mind for the moment, Nick thought back over to McCabe and hoped he was doing okay. They may have only been partners for a short time, but Nicks grown fond of the young wolf. They seem to share a lot of the same views about life, though not all. That's to be expected though, the two of them grew up in different places in different times so of course they'd have some differing opinions, but that didn't bother the fox much. He could tell that the wolf has his heart in the right places and that's really all that matters. Its pretty easy to see how big of a heart McCabe has, as many of the other officers have pointed out to the fox officer. Plus, that wolf has just impressed Nick many times with his knowledge of things. He's got a pretty good knowledge about the streets and about the law and just about how everything seems to work. The lupines smart, Nick could see that. He has a very bright future in both the precinct and in life. That's why he's so worried about him.

There are a couple reasons the fox fears for the wolf. First off, Nick knows how easy it is for something to quickly go south. McCabe could get into an unfavorable situation and not come out of it. That's pretty obvious, every cop knows what can happen when they sign up; it doesn't make things any less scary to think about. Having such a loving bright young mind taken away from this earth so early would just be a travesty that Nick didn't want to think about. Its just hard not to when everyday might be any of their last, especially in times like these.

Then theses his other fear. This life is not an easy one in many ways. One of those is how hard it can be on your mental state. In Nicks short time hers he's seen a large number of officers break down in many different types of ways. These included such things as uncontrollable sobbing, uncontrollable rage, to just completely shutting off from reality; all of which are not pleasant to witness. Nick himself has done all three things in the past month; mostly in private. With everything going on it would be easy to do any one of those things, among many others. So far, Nicks seen the wolf manage to keep everything under control. The fox had to admit he was strong both physically and mentally, but everyone has their breaking point. Nick just hopes that it won't ruin McCabe's life. Nicks heard of a few stories where officers have lost control and done things that he'd rather not dwell on.

Nick shook his head again, really needing to get these thoughts out of his head and focus on what was important; doing anything and everything to bring this sick terrorist group down. He knows why he's having these thoughts about his new partner. It's because he still feels guilty about what happened to Judy. He really likes McCabe, there is no lie in that statement, but every time he sees him, Nick can't help but wince on the inside as thoughts of his true partner flood into his mind. It's been torture, and he can not wait for the day when he reunited with Judy. He just hopes its under happy circumstances.

The elevator the had gotten on came to a stop and opened in the basement of the precinct, leading into a bland white hallway. The hallway was quite short as the basement area only held two rooms. On the left side was the precincts archives of all the cases that have been worked on over the many long years this place has been operating for. Nick and Judy have put quite a few files in there themselves.

On the right side of the hallway was the room where the three of them would be going. The autopsy lab which held possibly the beginning of many answers that they needed. Nick was about to go in but was stopped by a paw landing on his shoulder. He turned around to see the paw belonging to Skye who wore a worried face. Jack had the same expression. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going through their heads.

"Guys, I'm fine," Nick assured them with a small smile. He was glad they cared for him, but he was done being felt bad for. Now wasn't the time for that; what they needed to do was get to the bottom of everything.

Jack and Skye shared a look then looked back at the other fox, "We know that's not true, Nick." Skye said with a sympathetic look. "Its fine that you don't feel fine, because who would with all this going on and especially with what's happened to Judy. Its understandable, and honestly quite obvious, that your more than upset. We just need to hear it from your mouth that you won't let your emotions negatively impact the investigation." Both the agents looked seriously at the cop. Nick may have become pretty good friend with the two in the past, but these two took their jobs very seriously more so than possibly Judy which is saying a lot. So, he knew them asking him this wasn't meant to insult him, they just wanted to make sure they could rely on him and not have his emotions get the best of him.

Nick gave the two a warm, genuine smile, "Guys, I'm fine. Trust me I've had plenty of time to get my emotions under control," Nick thought back to the hours he has spent over the past couple weeks unloading mags in the firing range, and the hours he has spent beating on punching bags to relieve his rage. Its help partially; not completely, but enough that he's got everything under control. "You can count on me to have your backs," he assured them with confidence.

That seemed to make the other two happy as they smiled and gave a nod of approval.

"So, shall we continue?" Jack asked, bringing everyone back to the reason they were all down here in the first place.

The three of them entered the examination room and was met by a cheerful greeting from their chief medical examiner. Don Lallard always seemed strange to Nick. The capybara seemed to be a little too comfortable around the dead. Even though, Don was also one of the genuinely nicest mammals Nick has ever met. A little creepy? Yah. Still kind nonetheless.

"What have you got for us Don?" Nick questioned.

"Straight to business then, I miss our little banter Nick," Don said with slight disappointment in his voice.

"Sorry Don, but now is not really the time. Once all this is over then we can get back to the good old days." Nick said.

"Fair enough. Its always a pleasure to see you two again. Now, to the topic at paw." The capybara walked over towards the examination table where the body of a member of The Tides of Change was lying with a sheet over him. Don uncovered the top half to reveal a male bobcat with a hole in between his eyes just as Nick was told. Then Don started giving his report.

"The deceased is lynx rufus, male, in his mid-30's. The cause of death was a single gunshot to the head killing him instantly. The time of death was sometime between 10:00pm and 11:00pm when they entered the victims house and was met with resistance. Dental and fingerprints have been taken and sent down to forensics so they will tell us if he can be identified." Was that all? Because honestly, they already knew all of that. But by the smile on Don's face Nick figured that wasn't all.

"What's the surprise?" Don smiled, Nick knew him too well.

"During the autopsy, I just so happened to find this," Don joyfully expressed as he reached for a container behind him. "I didn't send this down to the lab yet because I thought you'd like to get a look at it here." Don extended the object towards nick and Nick took it from his paws. He brought it close to his face and examined the small, metallic looking thing that slid around in the container. Nick had no idea what he was looking at, but Don seemed to think it was important.

Jack and Skye were also examining it from behind Nick and were also kind of clueless to what it was. Skye did have an idea to what it could be but wasn't exactly sure to what it could be.

"Alright Dom, what are we looking at?" Nick question with interest. If Dom was this excited, then it had to be good.

"I can't be for sure, but if I'm correct I believe this is some sort of tracking chip. I noticed an interesting anomaly in his skin while examining him and was able to pull this out. Now, I'm no detective or anything, but it seems this organization likes to keep a close eye on all its members."

That being said, a thought immediately flew into my mind. "Can these be reversed tracked?" Dom just shrugged, saying he was no tech expert and that Nick would have to talk to someone else about that. The group exchanged a few more words, but at this point there was nothing else Dom could do for them. Dom told them he'd send the object up to the lab after he was all done and tell the forensic analyst to call them when they had an answer.

This excited Nick. Though not a lot of answers came from the autopsy, there brought a lot of opportunities for something big to break this investigation wide open. Things this big take time and one thing could shift the tides of an investigation for the better or for the worse. Hopefully this would be for the better.

"So, what should we do now?" Jack questioned.

Nick thought for a moment. He'd like to standby for forensics to get done, but who knows how long that could take. Also sitting around here doing nothing wouldn't be productive in any way. The only thing they could do made the fox somewhat uncomfortable. Going to his partners dads house to examine an attempted murder on the father's life felt weird. But there was not anything else the group could do.

Nick relayed his thoughts to the others, and they agreed, obviously not as uncomfortable about the situation. They weren't really connected with McCabe in any way so why would they have a problem investigating something related this close to him. He had felt similar feelings when he first investigated Judy's apartment. He had a feeling this was not going to be fun.

Man, its been awhile since I've touched this story. Well over a year. Let me tell you, college just sucks the life out of you. But a recent comment got me to look back at the story and got the old gear going again. Maybe not my best work I've done but that's fine.

Depending on if anyone wants me to, I'll continue on with the story. I still have some ideas of where i was heading with it. Thanks for reading and comment what you thought of this chapter and give me any feedback you may think I need. Thanks again!

Keep on Keeping on

Peace Out