17
The best of you
Chapter 5: The Beat
Maybe I'm just over thinking this, Judy thinks. She drums her fingers on the top of the steering wheel in idle thought. "Hey Nick, we should go have dinner sometime!" Hmm, but that sounds like I'm asking him out on a date… that's really weird… and wrong. He's my friend, he's a fox… He's a fox, so I'm not asking him out, because he's a fox… Why does that sound so weird to me! Judy subconsciously scrunches up her nose. Her morning has consisted of attempting to figure out a way to ask Nick out to dinner. This should seemingly be an easy and straight forward task. Just ask him. She thought it would be fun for her and Nick to go out and eat somewhere nice to celebrate his acceptance into the ZPD. It will be a little, unofficial, welcome party, if she can talk herself into asking him, that is. Nick needs this. Its normal, its like going to have lunch with him… just its dinner, at a nice restaurant, and it'll just be us. That's not odd, is it? We're good friends, right? No Judy don't question that! We are good friends… that go and have dinner with each other… Urg! Why is this so difficult!?
Judy mentally shakes her head. No Judy, get back on track, come on. Dinner. With. Nick. Its not weird. Your overthinking this. How about we think about where Nick would like to go? That's probably much more productive. Yeah, that's right, because it's not weird. Now I just need to think of a good restaurant… for predators…
Judy's imaginary pep talk with herself does little good as it sends her into another mental frenzy. She quickly comes to the realization that she has never went to a nice restaurant meant solely for predators. She's a rabbit, of course, and going to a place made for a species practically the opposite of herself hasn't been on her to do list since she's been in Zootopia. Now that she thinks about it, she had only been to a pawful of nice restaurants more geared towards prey. She had gone out on a mandatory date arranged by her parents and a nice outing with some family who stopped by while moving. She had also been to a few nice places with the ZPD for public relation events with other officers but none of those places are anything like what she's looking for. The other restaurant she had went to with her date and family are made for prey, so that is a no go as well. Even if she did know of a good place to take a Fox, she guesses they wouldn't have much on the menu for her then. This isn't too much of a problem, since the outing would be for Nick, but she would also like to eat something as well. Judy audibly sighs.
"You alright, whiskers? You know, I've been told rabbits can think themselves to death." Nick glances over at Judy from the passenger side of their police cruiser. They are parked in a lightly used parking lot with a good vantage over a busy street corner. They have been sitting here for about an hour since lunch, waiting for something to happen. Sometimes while out on patrol things can get slow and this is most certainly one of those days. This gives Judy plenty of time to think, which maybe in hindsight isn't such a good thing.
"That's an old wives' tail Nick, rabbits can't think themselves to death, that's almost as bad as saying we can literally be scared to death."
"Are you sure about that? This one time I jumped out at a rabbit in my high school and it gave him a heart attack!"
"What!?" Judy quickly looks to her side to see the smirk on Nicks face. He is joking, of course.
"Ahh, so if it is just a 'old wives' tail' then why are you so alarmed?"
"I am not alarmed. I was just surprised that you had a rabbit in your high school to scare, is all." Judy says matter-of-factly while crossing her arms over her chest. She is an awful liar.
"Yeah and I'm green. But no, don't worry, I didn't cause any bunnies premature deaths by scaring. Scouts honor." He places his paw over his chest in a playful manner, mimicking a ranger scouts' oath. "In fact, I didn't have any rabbits to scare my high school." He places a claw to his chin thinking back to his school years, checking to see if the statement is true.
"Really? All we had in my high school was rabbits pretty much." Judy reflects for a moment on the ranger scouts' comment. It's odd to her, it doesn't seem like a very funny joke, at least not to her. In fact, it sounds more depressing, almost morbid, which is odd since it doesn't seem like Nick is the kind of guy to be into dark humor.
"In Bunny Burrow? You had only rabbits at your highs school? I'm a truly shocked!"
"Har-har, crazy, I know, you'll just have to trust me." Judy chances a glance over at him and finds he's got a goofy grin plastered across his face. She rolls her eyes and continues digging through her teenage memories.
"Well, we didn't just have rabbits, we had a few hares, and actually now that I think about it, we had a few cheetahs, a leopard, a couple of sheep and a fox… I'm sure I'm forgetting some mammals."
"A Fox? Really?"
"Yeahhh… he was kind of a huge jerk."
"Ahhh, sorry." The Fox officer repositions in his seat.
"About what? You didn't have anything to do with him. I said he WAS a jerk, he's gotten a lot better now. My parents actually sell him produce for baking, he's got quite the business going in the Tri Burrows from what I hear." Judy scans the streets again. No shifty looking mammals or anyone looking like there in need of help. In one way, a morning like this is nice, its easy going and not really dangerous, but in another way, it makes her a little stir crazy.
"Well that's good, I'm glad things worked out well."
"Yeah me too, I'm glad my parents work with him too. They weren't too fond of foxes for the longest time."
"Really? I didn't really pick that up when they were at my graduation." Nick thinks back to that. He had briefly met Judy's parents at his ceremony. He figures that they were there more for their daughter and her speech than anything, but either way he took the opportunity to at least say hi and shake paws.
"I said used to, they got better…mostly. But you said you didn't have any rabbits at your high school? Did all you have were foxes?" She looks over at him and smiles, knocking him for his slightly somber expression.
"What? No, I went to school here. It was mainly predators though, so that is different, but we had a bunch of different species. Wolves, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, bears, foxes. If it had sharp, scary teeth, it was there ha-ha."
"Really? no prey?"
"Hmm… a few. Some types of deer, I think?"
"Types of deer? You mean species?" Judy giggles at his misstep.
"Same deference, you know what I mean. Anyways, it was mainly wolves, God some of them were assholes."
"Well what did you do to them?" Judy looks at him with a smirk.
"What makes you think I did anything to them?" Nick returns her cocky smirk with one of his own.
"Because you're a natural instigator."
"Officer, I'm hurt you would refer to me as such without proper evidence." He leans his head back and places the back of his paw over his forehead, taking on his hurt Fox persona.
"Oh, don't give me that, I know you had to have done SOMEHTING to SOMEONE."
"Yeah, you'd be right, my pranks were legendary."
"Really now, legendary for always failing?" Judy ears perk up at his smile.
"This one time I dyed a wolf blue."
"You did what!?" Judy's face becomes shock-stricken.
"Oh yeah, it was easy, didn't get caught or anything."
"I don't think I believe you. How were you even able to it without him noticing? It's not easy to dye fur even IF you know you're doing it." Judy looks over at him in disbelief. Nick smiles and gets more comfortable in his seat. He looks towards the street while taking another sip of his lunch time coffee.
"The Wolfs name was Toby. He was one of the best Furball players in our school at the time, so I came up with a plan to use that against him, kind of. I planned I would sneak into the locker rooms where toby kept his stuff while he was practicing, put the prank into motion, and then sneak out. So objective number one was sneak into the locker rooms without getting caught. I wasn't the best student and getting linked to this prank would definitely have gotten me kicked out. This was difficult and high-stakes, but high reward, I couldn't resist.
"I waited until late one evening when they were out practicing Furball. The best guys would practice into the night, but the complicated part was the locker rooms were communal, so they always had some other mammals in them. I think the other wolves that were there came from another league or something, but not important. I had to sneak into the locker room, get to toby's stuff and get out without getting caught. The problem was those other mammals in the lockers, that's what I had to work around. First off, they could simply see me, but the bigger problem was they could smell me. But I had a solution to both of these problems. So, I snuck into the school that night, that was trivial. The laundry room was my first destination, it was the solution to the smell problem. They kept the dirty Furball uniforms there to be washed in these big canvas bags. So, I did what any clever fox would do. I jumped in one and rolled around in it."
"You did what!? NICK! That's disgusting! Why did you do that?" Judy looks over at him with a slight amount of concern. She can't possibly understand why he would go so far for such a simple joke. The thought of rolling around in dirty sportswear for mammals she doesn't know is gross, and Judy has seen all manner of gross things from her many siblings.
"Of course! And I did it to switch out my smell! The other wolves would just smell other wolves and not fox. Anyways, that's not even the best part, right, I had to sneak into the locker rooms and past the other wolves, find the guys bag, and then get out. I had to turn the environment inside the locker room to my advantage, there were just too many other mammals in there. But I had planned for all this. I came up with a way where I could sneak in without being caught. Man, if my mom had found out I did this she would have been pissed, not that it really mattered in the end though." Nick pauses for a moment and takes another sip of his coffee. Judy fixates on his last comment. She knows Nick and his mother had a falling out, as he called it, after he completed high school. At the time Nick had talked about it, he had said very little, other than himself and his mother not seeing eye to eye anymore. Judy didn't want to pry at the time, and she left it at that. Whatever had happened, it couldn't have been that bad, or at least not legally noteworthy. The ZPD is thorough in their background checks and if something truly horrid had happened it would have come up and been questioned. As far as Judy knows, that wasn't the case when he had had his background checks performed. Either way, whatever happened between Nick and his mother seems to have gotten better. From what little he has told her she is much happier with his life choices now and they were starting to talk again. She thinks about asking him about it, but then passes the thought up. He's quite happy right now, she thinks, she doesn't want to ruin the moment with something that doesn't seem to matter much now. Her curiosity still lingers, though. Nick finishes his swig of coffee and happily continues his story about the better days of his high school shenanigans.
"So, I knew that the fuse box for that side of school happened to be in a maintenance closet in the laundry room. I was in good with the janitor for the fields. It wasn't hard to pull a few strings, and have it just so happened to be unlocked that night. I opened the door, popped open the fuse box, pulled the fuse out for the locker rooms and popped a bad fuse back into place." Nick pauses to take another sip of his coffee. He looks out of the squad car and onto the streets in front of him. The day still seems to be going uneventfully and the rest of the day just calls for patrol.
"Wait wait wait, why did you do that? why did you put a bad fuse back…- OHH, you put the bad fuse back into the fuse box to make it look like a fuse had just blown! That's pretty sneaky, Slick… Or maybe I should say it's pretty Foxy of you?"
"Oh Carrots, you keep that up and I'll be getting a new partner." He looks over at her with a smirk, which makes a frown appear on the rabbit's face.
"I'm joking, but yes, your right, they thought it was just a blown fuse. Simple trick IF you know what's behind the smoke and mirrors, but why would I want it dark, future detective?"
"That's simple, your night vision is excellent, so I'm guessing it was easier for you to sneak about without having other mammals see you."
"Positively on her way to becoming a detective, do send your regards when you are at the top. Anyways, your right. I pulled the fuse out and popped the bad one in and the whole room went black. It took my eyes a second to adjust but soon I had snuck past a few mammals in the locker room and I was near where the teams kept their personal stuff. Sure enough, I found that assholes bag after a few minutes of looking, I knew it was his by the scent. I took his shampoo and poured more than enough dye into it. His shampoo was blue, and the dye was blue so you couldn't really notice it. Now, the only real problem I had was that apparently the whole damn side of that school ran through that one fuse! I shut off all the lights on the fields too! And the quickest way to the janitor's closet was through the locker rooms. So, next thing I know, as I'm screwing the cap back onto the shampoo bottle, old McGee and John bust through the door all pissed about the lights being out on their sports fields. I ran towards where they store the Furballs and jumped into a bin of them and got real still. Now that IS when I got lucky, because my fur color is so similar to the balls, being red and all, and with it being dark they walked right past and didn't even notice me! It was great! But after that, I put the shampoo back into Toby's bag and slipped out the back through the indoor courts. I didn't get to see the fruits of my labor until the next day." Nick smiles while idly looking out the car window, remembering the look that Toby gave him the next day.
"I don't understand why you went to so much trouble just to dye his fur blue! I mean, couldn't he have just washed it out? How did that even work? Wouldn't the shampoo just have washed the dye out at the same time it went into his fur?" Judy looks over at her partner and examines the cocky grin plastered on his face. She doesn't understand how she can find that smirk both infuriating and charming at the same time. He leans in a little, and Judy notes the excited energy seeming to radiate off of him. Playing practical jokes seems to be Nick's true forte.
"No no no, Carrots, were not talking about one-day-fur-dye-for-kits, here, I'm talking about dye dye. I mixed industrial clothing dye into his shampoo. It was permanent." Nick's smirk grows as the rabbit's ears perk upright and become rigid. Her eyes grow and she opens her mouth in shock. The shock quickly becomes poorly suppressed laughter as her paws shoot up to cover her mouth. Nick smiles wholeheartedly at the reaction from the rabbit. He finds that he takes as much enjoyment from the rabbit laughing as she does herself, it seems. The fact that he is able to pull such a reaction from her makes it that much better for himself.
"NICK! That's awful! No wonder you were so careful with not being caught! They really would have kicked you out for that!"
"Oh no, Fluff, the best part was the next day, after I got him, it was picture day! I gave him just enough time to decide if he was going to shave all his fur off or try and rock the blue wolf look. He went with blue wolf, it's hilarious!" Nick throws his head back and laughs at the memory. He had certainly gotten a copy of the yearbook that last year, just for that reason. Judy's paw shoots over to him and gives his shoulder a solid hit. This makes Nick laugh harder, getting yet another hit from Judy. He looks over to see her still trying to stifle her laugh, and still failing miserably.
"Nick! You are so awful! That is so mean! I can't believe you did that to that poor wolf; How long did it take before he wasn't blue anymore?" Nick reaches over and jokingly pushes Judy back towards her side of the cruiser. She doesn't move over very far, so he roughs up her head fur with his paw, which does the trick. She swats his paw away playfully, pushing it back down onto the center console. Her paw lingers on top of his for a moment before she pulls it away.
"Ah, I'm not sure, I think It was about a month. He tried to dye it back to gray but that just made it look worse. He got the nickname "off brand wolf" which was even better."
"You're so mean. I didn't do anything like that in my high school. All I did was study… and I guessed I played some sports." Judy repositions herself in her seat getting more comfortable. She gives the street in front of her another scan. Nothing is out of place and the mammals are going about their daily lives. This is good, this is how things should be, she thinks. She can't remember the last time a normal patrol day was this great.
"Oh, come on, there's gotta be something fun you did when you were in high school. I mean you lived on a big farm out in the middle of the woods, right?"
"Its next to some big fields, yeah, and we have woods too. Though, I don't see how that has anything to do with me having a good time in high school."
"You mean to tell me you didn't through any huge parties on all that land of yours? You didn't skinny dip in the river or play fight in the mud or do some other country bunny things?" Nick looks over at Judy in mock disbelief. He can actually see her not being a party animal or taking advantage of her family's farm.
"I didn't throw parties. My brothers and sisters did, sure, but I was too busy going to school or studying or taking exams. I didn't have time to party. I also didn't have time to permanently dye my arch enemy blue in high school either!"
"He wasn't my arch enemy, just someone I didn't like. But don't change the subject! You mean to tell me you didn't go to any parties when you were in high school?"
"He wasn't your arch enemy? I would hate to see what you did to the mammal that was!" Judy ponders this for a moment. That is actually something she finds frightening. What would Nick do to someone he really saw as his enemy?
"Ah ah ah, your 'smooth subject deflecting' needs a lot of work. Answer the question."
"I didn't say I didn't go to any parties at all, I just said I didn't throw any."
"Ohh? So, the goody two paws Judy Hopps really was a party animal? I would LOVE to see that!" Nick looks over at her and wiggles his eyebrows up and down, getting a laugh from his rabbit companion. He has got to hear this.
"I went to a few. None of them had anything I was interested in and none of the mammals that were partying were interested in me." Judy shrugs. It's a boring answer but It is the truth as far as she's concerned. She did go to a few with a past boyfriend of hers; But she would really like to forget any of that ever existed. Nick doesn't need to know about that embarrassment either.
"Aww come on, you didn't go to any, ah, what do you call them-? Hoedowns! Your telling me you didn't even go to those! You're from Bunny Burrow. You're a country bunny, right?" Nick laughs and looks over at Judy. There has to be some kind of mischief she got herself into while she was living out her teenage years in her home town.
"A hoedown is not something I'd call a party, Nick."
"What do you mean? They're like a country party, right?"
"Quick, run that license plate number! VLC-5317." Judy excitedly points in direction of the street.
"What?"
"The license plate number, enter it into the MDT, hurry, I think that cars stolen." Nick hastily reacts to Judy's command. His paws swivel the Laptop over towards himself and he quickly goes about keying in the licenses plate number he was given. While he does this Judy starts up the car and puts it into drive.
"VLC-5317, right?" He types as he talks and enters the search into the database before getting an answer from his partner.
"Yeah, that's it, got anything?"
"Nope, nothing, you sure that was a stolen car? It was a blue Mur-cedes benz, right?" Nick scrolls through the information on the given licenses plate looking for anything strange.
"Yeah that was it, I wasn't sure just checking. I couldn't remember if in the brief Bogo said that car was reported stolen or not from last week or if it was something different, thought it was worth a shot."
"No worries, better safe than sorry. Hey, actually, speaking of buffalo butt, you got that email about meeting for the case tomorrow afternoon too, right?" Nick questions.
"Nick! That's confidential! You're not allowed to talk about it outside of closed doors." Judy scolds him, although it seems to have no effect on the fox and if anything spurs him onward. He smirks while she puts the car back into park and turns it off.
"Yeah yeah yeah, super-secret, I know, but as long as you got it too, I didn't want to go alone. So, who else do you think is going to be assigned to the case? And were supposed to get case files on it tomorrow to, right? How does that work if it's not an official investigation?"
"NICK! What did I just tell you!" Judy scolds him again.
"Ok ok, sheesh! Ill wait till tomorrow don't get your panties in a bunch." There is a pause. Nick blankly looks out the window, his brain trying to reconnect to what they were previously talking about. Thoughts of the case and what the meeting could be about swirl in his head. He is nervous about it, sure, but with Judy there he should be fine, he thinks. A few moments pass before he finally hits on what they were discussing earlier.
"So, hoedowns aren't parties? How does that work?"
"Well… I guess now that you bring it up, they actually are parties, I just never really saw them like that. I always thought of parties as something some teenage kit throws at their parents' house when they are out of town and it always ends in some horrible disaster." Judy turns the laptop around towards herself in its mount. She goes about taking it back to the home screen and getting rid of Nick's licenses plate number search.
"So, you didn't throw parties like that, but you sisters did?" Nick asks curiously.
"Yeahhhh, one time some of my litter sisters threw a big party at our house when our parents were gone out of town. That didn't end well." She grimaces at the memory. So many of her brothers and sisters had gotten grounded for that one.
"Oh really? what happened?"
"I don't know, just your normal party stuff?" Judy's attempt at an easy deflection fails miserably. Nick quarks his eyebrow up curiously at her dismissive behavior. He looks at her expectantly, not saying a word. Just a moment later the rabbit cracks and begins the story of how about half of her 275 brothers and sisters had gotten grounded in just one night.
"Ok ok. One of my litter siblings, Jessica, got this idea to throw this huge party and invite a bunch of bunnies over. She was dating Taylor Dig, so she invited a bunch of his brothers and sisters over and of course word got around fast that we were having a party so pretty quickly the house was filled with rabbits from all over. Rabbits do have a bad habit of gossiping a lot, were pretty social mammals after all, at least the rabbits in the Burrows. Anyhow, this all sounds fine and good until you factor in that it was my sister's senior year in high school and all she wanted to be was a party animal. She made sure there was more than enough beer and mixed drinks to give everyone alcohol poisoning. So basically, there was a house full of teenage rabbits, pretty much unsurprised with more than enough alcohol. It got to the point where if you weren't drunk or passed out you were probably puking your guts out; Or maybe you were having sex with one of my sisters in their room! Or maybe you were setting our family's corn field on fire, because that happened, or maybe you were participating in the orgy in Jessica room because apparently it was crazy enough for that to happen too!" Judy puts her face into her paws recalling one of the craziest nights of her teenage years. "Oh, shucked corn! I will never forget that night." Nick stares at Judy, his muzzle slightly open. He tries to comprehend what she has just said.
"What?" he manages to peep out.
"I know, not my most upstanding moment, I would like to forget about it." Judy rubs her face with her paws, as if the action will scrub away the memories of her parents grounding everyone. She stops after a short moment and looks up and over slightly at Nick. He stares at her with an unreadable expression.
"W-Wha… You didn't do- uh- Did yo- Were you in the org-."
"WHAT!? NO! Of course not! I absolutely did not! I walked in on it! I don't think I'll ever be able to remove that image from my head no matter how hard I try. it was awful. I ended up locking myself in my room after that, I couldn't make any of my siblings listen to reason. I didn't want to walk in on another orgy or step in puke or have some wasted Buck hit on me either. I don't know if you know this or not, Nick, but most all bunnies are super comfortable with themselves and, uh, when it comes to… sex and stuff like that… So, this whole situation isn't too crazy… actually. If you can believe that. Now trashing the house and setting the corn field on fire, that was crazy, that's what made my parents mad, not the drinking or all the sex, pre-say."
"That's crazy… whewww… Yeah never mind, you were a party animal. I never got involved in an orgy in high school, Christ. Classic rabbit, though."
"I was not involved! and what's 'classic rabbit' supposed to mean!?"
"Rabbits are known for that stuff, I mean, you are good a multiplying, right?" Nick leans over a little towards her. His trade mark smirk and his eyebrow quirked up.
"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"
"Absolutely not."
"Oh well, but you're right, rabbits are known for being very, um, productive, in that arear of life."
"But not all, you obviously missed the memo, ha-ha, I mean you're in your early twenties and don't have 100 kids? What's up with that?" Nick jokes with Judy.
"Oh, don't even get me started, my parents are non-stop with that!"
"Wait really? I was just joking, sorry."
"Its fine, you didn't know. But they think I'm unhappy and try to set up dates for me." Judy says defeatedly.
"Damn that's a little overbearing, isn't it?" Judy sighs.
"Yeah, I guess so, I'm not sure how it is for Foxes, but getting married before your late twenties is basically an unwritten rabbit law. I think my parents mean well, they think their helping by sending Bucks my way but it's not what I want. At least not right now." Judy finds it surprisingly nice to get this off her chest. She loves her parents, of course, but they just won't listen to her. She believes they mean well and considering most all her litter mates are either married, engaged, or seriously dating it must be concerning for them. They seem to think she is getting left behind in an important part of life. Although, she lives in the city, which is a turn off for most rabbits and she has an extremely demanding job and doesn't have time for a mate, let alone a family, she thinks. She doesn't want to divulge to many details of it all to Nick, but she has to admit that telling him her feelings is nice. Pretty much all her brothers and sisters thought it odd she isn't dating too, so it didn't help to talk to them at all and this left her no mammals she could vent too.
"Damn, so what do they do? Ask some Buck if they wanna date you and give them your number?" Nick chuckles at the thought.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Really?"
"They sure do! I tell them not too but they don't listen! It's frustrating." Judy's ears drop against her head and she rubs them frustratedly.
"Damn, that's pretty awful, don't they have enough grand children already!?"
"I know! Thank you! None of my siblings understand, they all pretty much agree with my parents. And I guess not. It seems they won't stop till I'm with someone, which I don't see happening anytime soon so ill guess I'll be putting up with this for a while." Judy sighs. Maybe Nick can come up with a solution, he's pretty clever when it comes to things like this.
"You haven't liked any of the suiters they've sent your way?" The fox asks curiously. Now that he thinks about it, he finds it fairly surprising that Judy isn't dating someone. She's very determined, wants to do the right thing and wants to help other mammals. She tells the truth, tries to do what's right no matter how hard it is and will put others before herself. On top of those great traits, she has a very successful job that pays fairly well, has good benefits and she is basically a public figure. Maybe I don't understand something about rabbits? Nick thinks.
"No, not really. The first few they sent my way I went out on dates with to entertain my parents, I guess. Some of them were nice, but most all of them wanted to start a family and have kids. Which I'm not interested in. If they didn't want that, they didn't like the city and wanted to move to somewhere with more rabbits, or they didn't really like that I was a cop because it is dangerous or something dumb like that. It was pretty obvious some of them just wanted a one-night stand or something stupid too. I told my parents to stop and they slacked off some but haven't completely stopped. Now I just tell them I have something planned or I have to work over so I 'don't have time' for the dates they've sent. That's worked pretty good so far for the last 3 months or so." Judy sighs. She perks her ears up, finally having someone who would listen to her ridiculous problems is nice. She also finds it especially easy too discuss this with Nick, more than she thought it would, which is a pleasant surprise.
"You don't want to have kits? Maybe that's what their worried about and not really the dating thing? Just throwing ideas out there, as I'm sure you can guess I'm not an expert in rabbit courtship." Nick takes another sip of his coffee to hide his ever so slightly anxious expression. Judy doesn't say anything for a moment, thinking about the question posed to her.
"I mean, I guess I would like to, maybe eventually. But not right now. I've just barely started my career in policing, I'm just a year into it after all. And I'm still young all things considered. I know most rabbits have kits around my age but still."
"Don't they know it's just the job, then? I mean it's not like you've never dated anybody, right?" Judy's ear drops behind her head, her heart rate starts to pick up as the subject rapidly becomes touchy. Nick scans the street again, missing the reaction. Everything seems fine on the street. He can really get use to this, he thinks. Nothing to do but drive around, talk to Judy and help the lost kit every once in a while, seems like the dream job to the Fox
"Um, yeah, I mean kind of, I did in high school…" The somewhat dismissive answer turns the Fox's attention from the street and towards the rabbit. He looks her over, obviously something is amiss. His ears skew subconsciously while his head tilts slightly, trying to better read the situation.
"Kind of?" There's a pause while Judy debates wither to tell him the truth or a very simplified version of it.
"I-I just wasn't very popular in high school, and college. Or, I was popular for the wrong reasons. Wanting to be a cop and not being interested in starting a family as soon as possible isn't like a rabbit. I did date in high school. It just didn't end very well." She tries to suppress the glum overtone in her voice, but a fair amount slips out.
"Ah, I see. I take it your dates didn't want you to be a cop?" Judy internally groans at the completely reasonable answer Nick comes up with. She wishes his answer were actually the case.
"No, not really… It was… My senior year I just had a really bad experi-."
"We've gotten a call about a Ten-Fifteen near Grass street, their asking for police assistance, units in the 20 please respond." Clawhauser's voice comes over the radio interrupting their conversation. Judy quickly drops the subject and grabs the mic, keying it to make her response. She couldn't have asked for better timing. Nick doesn't need to know about all her past problems, she thinks. They are in the past anyways, no fixing them now.
"This is Officer Hopps, were close by and available, what's the address?"
"272 S. Orchard Street, 30809. It's a small auto parts store." Judy drops the mic back into its mount and turns the car on. She puts it into gear but doesn't turn on the sirens yet. She pulls out onto the main street and makes way towards their new destination, knowing roughly where it is. She looks over at Nick to tell him to key it into the GPS but finds he is already on it. She waits until a moment later, at a stoplight before picking up the mic again.
"You have anymore information on that last?" A few moments pass before the cheetah's voice comes back over the radio.
"Store owner is having problems with a customer. Subject is a male coyote, average species height, roughly mid 30's, darker coat color."
"Ten-Four. On our way." Judy turns on the lights but not the sirens. Even though quiet, the effect is immediate and once the light turns green cars move out of their way.
"Man, this GPS is not giving us the fast way, you're going to want to take a left up here on Hoof street."
"You sure?" Judy knows the city quite well now. She knows roughly where just about everything is, but some minor places such as the small auto parts store their headed towards now. She has always found the police GPS systems to be reliable and has only once deliberately diverged from the route it has given her.
"Yeah, will bypass that intersection near the Market, even with the sirens the other cars won't be able to get out of our way if the intersection is backed up and around this time of day it always is. You can also take another side street off Hoof and it'll drop us out near Claws Dentist, and it'll be a straight shot from there."
"Alrighty slick, I hope your right." With that Judy takes the next turn, following Nicks directions.
"Oh, so you don't trust me?"
"No no, I do, but isn't this a longer route?"
"Well technically, maybe, but there'll be less cars and we can speed with the lights on so peddle to the metal carrots! We got a coyote to arrest!" With that, Judy picks up the speed a little. While she can go much faster, it isn't needed at the moment. While a call for a civil disturbance is not a call to take lightly, it isn't a crime in progress, so speeding too much will just add unnecessary risk.
The new route Nick provides proves to be effective, and soon the pair finds themselves at the small auto parts store. Judy drives into the parking lot, lights still on, and quickly pulls the cruiser up to the side of the store. She radios into dispatch, letting Clawhauser know they were on the scene and currently looking into the situation. Her and Nick jump out of the cruiser and make their way to the front of the building. The building is made into two separate sections. The rear of the building has garages where mechanics can work. It has a small parking lot adjacent to it that currently has a fair number of cars waiting to be worked on. The front is the store itself. This is where what most mammals expect to see in an auto parts store, auto parts. Judy pushes open the door and is immediately met with commotion. A Coyote yells at a raccoon behind the counter, who she assumes is the store owner.
"I CAN'T let you return it! it's electronics! We cannot accept returns on electronic parts, it's not up to me!"
"LIKE HELL YOU FUCKING CAN'T! You took back everything else, why can't you do this too? you even took back the break pads! Why can't you take this back? It was expensive as hell! 50 dollars for a light? What is you guys problem, anyways? JUST TAKE IT BACK!" The coyote yells at the Raccoon and then slams the product down on the counter. He slides it towards him expectantly.
"I told you, WE CAN'T TAKE IT BACK! Just take your shit and get out of the store!" Nick and Judy swiftly walk from the entrance towards the counter of the small auto parts store. Judy scans the room, looking for other mammals of interests than just the two arguing. She sees a possum holding a basket with some items in it, watching the scene unfold with disbelief. Her eyes slightly grow at the sight of Officer Hopps and Wilde as they make their way up to the counter. Judy doesn't see anyone else but the possum and judging from her scared expression she seems to not be a threat. Either way, the rabbit makes sure to position herself so she can see the majority of the store incase another threat were to appear. Nick follows close behind her, letting her take the lead.
"NO! I'm not leave'n this fuck hole till I get my money back, bandit face!"
"Excuse me!" Judy loudly says, making her presence known while walking up beside the coyote. He turns his head over in her directions and upon seeing them groans.
"Really!? You called the fucking cops on me? You'n asshole. And its fucking predator rabbit with her Fox toy! They're even worse than regular cops!" Nick's ears twitch at the insults. The racoon leans forward, looking down over the counter too see the officers.
"Oh good! finally! Get this guy out of my store, please! Arrest him for disrupting the peace or something!" The raccoon pleads with them. The coyote turns his attention back towards the racoon.
"HELL NO, TRASH PANDA! You two officers tell this fucking thief to sell the right parts and that he has to refund me the cost of this damn light!" The coyote points at the officers accusingly
"Sir, how about we take a step outside and talk about this there?" Judy motions towards the coyote, giving him an easy prompt to walk outside and hopefully deescalate the situation.
"How 'bout you get bandit face over here to give me back my god damn money!"
"How many times do I have to say it, I CAN'T!" The raccoon pleads again.
"Sir, I'm just asking you to come step outside with me here and then will try and sort this out. We don't need to yell. Lets just calm down and I'm sure we can get this fixed. Officer Wilde will stay with the cashier here." Judy stands in front of the coyote as tall as she can. She points towards the door, giving the now unwanted customer an easy way out of his current situation.
"Not until I get my fucking money back, Hasenpfeffer!" He chooses the more difficult way.
"Sir, insulting us isn't going to help anyone here, I need you to come outside with me." Judy eyes the coyote. His hackles are raised, and he is obviously very agitated at his current situation, overly so. This is a precarious situation. It is best if she can remove the canine from the store before she tries to sort this mess out. The coyote flexes his digits, showing off his claws.
"This is bullshit! I'm not leaving this store until I get my money back! IM NOT THE ONE BREAKING THE LAW, HE IS, THUMPER!" the canine points at the raccoon again while looking at Judy. she sighs.
"Sir, stop yelling, I'm not asking, it's a command. If you don't step out with me now ill be forced to arrest you." Judy carefully watches the coyote. He shifts his wait from paw to paw, fidgeting for a moment before turning his attention from the rabbit officer back to the raccoon. She's seen this before; The extreme irritability and anxious movements are pointing straight towards substance withdraw. Judy wonders if Nick is picking up on this too.
"Sir, you should listen to Officer Hopps, let's have a civil discussion. We're trying to help you out here but yelling racial slurs at us isn't going to help. Let's take a step outside." Nick does his best not to bare any teeth while repeating the message Judy tried to get across just moments before. His ears are laid straight back, pinned against his head. Judy takes a glance at him. She has seen Nick mad before, of course, but for whatever reason these particular slurs seem to hit the right buttons to really piss him off. He hides this well though, and she only picks this up since she has known him for so long. She assesses where he is, in case she has to make an arrest, which seems most likely since the subject is becoming more aggressive by the second. The plan is simple, separate the two involved parties, deescalate the situation, and then try and figure out the details of the incident. This is basic police negotiation tactics they learned in the academy, and while it is mostly used for mammals that are arguing after a minor car wreck, this situation calls for it wholeheartedly. She turns her attention back towards the coyote, planning to try one more time to get him to calm down.
"THIS IS ridiculous! BANDIT FACE SHOULD BE GETTING ARRESTED, NOT ME! What the fuck is you mammals' problems! And coming from a skulker! of all the predators to be a police officer!" he points at the fox.
"Sir, if you don't calm down were going to have to forcefully remove you from the sto-" Judy gets cut short by another outburst from the Coyote.
"How about you make this raccoon pay me back and then go fuck off somewhere and play predator with your Fox, pellet eater."
"Alrighty, you are now under arrest. Paws behind your back." Judy reaches to her side and gets out her pawcuffs. She approaches the coyote swiftly. The Coyote smirks, and with a slight wobble of a step, gets lower and bares his teeth.
"Try it, cotton tail!" The teeth baring does nothing to slow the bunny and she swiftly grabs the canine by the shoulder, taking him by surprise. With the coyote awkwardly bent over to be eye level with Judy its very easy for her to reach up and grab him by the shoulders. She swiftly pulls him forward and to the side. At the same time, she places her hind paw under him, tripping him as he gets jerked forward. The move causes him to fall muzzle first onto the ground with a satisfying 'thud.' She steps to either side of the coyote, keeping him between her legs. She sits down onto his upper back and grabs one of his paws placing it behind his back, going about cuffing him.
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be…" The speed of the move stuns the canine for a moment and in that time the rabbit officer gets one paw cuffed. She starts to read him his rights while trying to get to the other paw. The suspect quickly gets his thoughts in order and shakes off the initial surprise. He takes his free paw and swipes across his back. At the same time, he rolls his body around, putting his back on the ground. The coyote gets lucky with the unforeseen swipe and smacks Judy square in the face. Rolling over also causes the dazed rabbit to fall off him and to his side. The canine quickly spins around and faces towards Judy while bringing his back legs up. He grunts as he kicks both legs out as hard as he can. The double kick lands squarely in her chest and sends her careening across the floor. Her short trip ends at the base of a cheap snack and sunglasses stand. The items are sent flying across the room and what's left of the stand and items falls forward over the rabbit.
The coyote, seeing his kick put the rabbit out of the fight, quickly gets up. He places his paws under him, muscle memory seems to take over as he gets his hind paws underneath himself. He decides to cut his losses for the day and run. The added realization that he just assaulted a police officer is more then enough to get his tail into gear. He makes for the door. He places his paws in front of himself, getting ready to push open the door so he can continue his hasty retreat.
His plan comes to a halt when he feels a heavy weight hit him from behind. Arms wrap around his mid-section and pin his arms against his side. The tackle causes him to lose balance and he face plants into the front glass door of the auto parts store. The coyote breaks through the tempered glass door, sending pieces flying out onto the side walk and parking lot. Mammals stare in disbelief as a coyote, and a fox dressed in police attire, roll out onto the side walk amongst broken glass. They skid to a stop in the parking lot.
Nick and the coyote tumble head over hind paws before stopping. Nick is able to keep himself glued to the back of him. The move proves effective, with the coyote landing on his front again and Nick ending up on top of him. Nick hastily gains control over both the coyotes' paws as he brings them behind his back. He promptly finds Judy's paws cuffs on his one arm and finishes the job. He finds it odd that the coyote isn't providing any resistance at all. After cuffing him, the Fox gives him some further inspection and finds he's knocked out cold. Nick breathes in a deep breath, the reality of the situation finally coming into full view as the now unneeded adrenaline starts to cause nausea rather than energy. He gets off the suspect and turns around, quickly heading into the store to make sure Judy is ok. He gets to the door before the rabbit practically runs into him.
"Officer Wilde's in a Ten-Ten with the suspect, Ten-Seventy-eight and Ten-Eighteen." Judy hurriedly runs through the broken door, her taser drawn in her right paw while her other calls in for backup on her radio. She runs into the Fox as she exits the store.
"Whoa, hey! Nick are you ok!?" Judy places her left paw on his chest and pushes out with it, putting some space between herself and Nick so she can actually see him. She looks him over, and after finding nothing too out of place she fires another question at him before he can ask his own. "Where'd he go!? Don't tell me you let him get away!" Judy steps through the door and onto the side walk. A few mammals standing around the scene stare at the well-known rabbit officer with her fox counterpart following close behind.
"Whoa, hey, Judy slow down, I got him, are you ok? That kick was pretty bad."
"No, I'm good, just caught me off guard is all. You good?" He checks himself over and notices some blood running down his right forearm.
"Got some blood, it doesn't look bad though, let's check out our wanna-be wolf and see if he's brain dead or not first. I'm fine for now." The two officers quickly make way over to the unconscious canine. They carefully roll him over and look him over. As expected, he has some cuts and is bleeding a little from being accidentally used as a battering ram to break the glass door.
"I'll go and get gloves from our cruiser while you watch him?" Judy looks up at the fox.
"yeah, I got this covered." Nick watches as the rabbit holsters her taser and jogs off to their car to get some medical supplies. She makes it around the corner of the building before her radio starts making sound.
"Hopps, what's your situation?" she hears Wolford's voice come over the radio.
"Officer Hopps, disregard that last, Wilde got the suspect. Although we could still use that other unit, and paramedics… Not urgent, suspect unconscious."
"Got it, were 5 minutes out, will get the paramedics on their way." The sirens in the background come over through the radio slightly, given new urgency to the situation.
"Ten-four." With that Judy puts her radio back onto her belt and make her way to the police cruiser. She opens the trunk and pulls out a first aid bag and slings it over her shoulder. She jogs back towards the scene where many more mammals are now gathering to watch the events unfold and get pictures or videos with their phones. She ends her short jog and crouches next to the unconscious canine now in custody.
"Hey Judy, let's get medical up here and…" Nick looks around at the mammals starting to gather. "… and another unit to help us out here. I'll run crowd control while you tend to him?" With a nod from the rabbit he stands up.
"EMT's and our other unit are on their way." Nick starts barking commands to the onlookers to move on their way as Judy gets her rubber gloves out of the medical bag. She puts them on and goes about checking the coyote out. She had found it somewhat odd at first how one minute she could go from fighting claw and tooth with an assailant and the next trying to save his life by applying first aid. She has gotten use to it now and it almost becomes second nature to her. She wonders if her Foxy partner will feel the same way about it? Most likely, she thinks.
Soon after Nick gets the crowd to back off a little, Wolford and Higgins pull into the parking lot. Wolford helps Nick gets a statement from the store owner while Higgins helps Judy get their detainee into their car. The EMT's arrive shortly thereafter and check on the suspect and Nick. Both just have minor scrapes and bruises with the suspect possibly having a concussion from getting tackled through the glass door. The rest of the afternoon is spent writing down details and taking statements from the other store workers while the coyote sits in the back of the police cruiser. Once medical leaves, and the proper forms and statements have been gone over, the four officers stand around Wolford and Higgins police car. They are mostly killing some time and talking about the events that just occurred before turning in the suspect.
"You really have to tackle him through the door though, Nick? I mean I know he called you skulker but damn you didn't have to use him as a glass breaker!" Wolford laughs.
"Hey, I didn't get the worse of it! Carrots here got called hasenpfeffer and pellet eater!" Nick laughs with Wolford as Judy shakes her head.
"Wait, Carrots? Judy, you hear that!? He just called you carrots! you let him do that!?" Wolford asks with doubt.
"You should hear the other nicknames he has for me, Carrots is the better one." She crosses her arms over her chest and gives Nick the stink eye.
"Awww come on, we both know you love my nicknames."
"Get over yourself Wilde." She rolls her eyes but fails to stop form smiling and laughing a little.
"Hey, we got stuff to do, we should get moving." Higgins interrupts the friendly banter between them. He glances at nick, his ears laid back. He then turns his attention to Wolford who subconsciously skews his ears a little. He can't understand why his white furred partner is acting so standoffish in their current environment. Judy seems to miss out completely on the exchange, but upon glancing at Nick Wolford sees that he has picked up on it as well.
"Yeah, your right, we got to book our coyote anyways. I'll see you all later, thanks for the help!" Judy makes her way towards their car while giving a slight wave to her fellow officers. Nick does the same and begins to follow her.
"Hey actually, Nick? Me, Fangmeyer and Higgins are going out Saturday night to Tails'n Drink, you wanna come join us? We usually try and give an unofficial welcome to new recruits that get assigned here. I thoughted it be nice to have a little get together to unofficially welcome you onto the force! Judy your more than welcome to come too of course!"
"Really? Yeah, for sure! I'd love too!" Nick says. He looks over at Judy expectantly, who seemingly is drawing a blank at their current situation. He bumps her with his elbow, knocking her from her stupor.
"Oh yeah, I'll come, as long as you don't mind having me tag along." Judy doesn't want to be a burden to their outing. If she did go, she would be the odd one out. A bunny tagging along with two wolves, a tiger and a Fox would definitely be odd. Especially since there going to a predominantly predator catering bar. She has been their once before and felt awfully out of place and hasn't been back since. Not that she didn't like her fellow officers' company, but it's hard sometimes being the odd one out.
"Absolutely, we would love to have you tag along. And it only seems right that you do so, I mean you're the reason Nick is here after all. We're planning for Saturday evening around 6:30-ish, I'll catch you guys later! Have fun with the coyote!" The officers start to go their separate ways, the two wolves getting back into their car and the rabbit and fox walking towards theirs
"I haven't been to Tails'N'Drink in a long time! Man, I'm looking forward to that, that was nice of them to welcome me like that, too. Well carrots you were right, the ZPD is starting to feel like a family."
Nick walks around to the passenger side of the car and gets in while Judy does the same. She internally curses Wolford for making her dinner plans with Nick that much more complicated. Now, if she asks, she would be asking to do the same thing just alone, which somehow makes her plan sound even weirder. Judy can't decide if she is just simply overthinking this or if there really is something weird about it as she gets into the car. She starts the car and goes about driving back to the ZPD to book in the coyote. She internally curses Wolford for beating her to the punch for a welcoming Nick party. She finds herself thinking about how she is going to ask Nick out to dinner now, which just puts her right back where she started this morning. Maybe I'll ask Clawhauser, he would probably know the answer and probably know a of a good predator restaurant or something. Judy decides that will be her next step, hoping that this wont backfire on her in some horrible way. Hmm, I'm sure it won't, Clawhauser will know of a good place for me to take Nick to dinner, I'm sure! What could possibly go wrong by asking him?
Author note: Last chapter, a guest on FF-Net said that: "I'm getting a little discombobulated over all the OC's, and this chapter was quite confusing to me. Is Serena, and everyone else who she works with drug dealers? That's the simplest conclusion I can come to." (In reference to chapter 4) Since I couldn't PM them and I can't see how to reply/comment to a review, I'll do it here. I hope you didn't get to confused, but to a certain extent being confused was the intended effect so don't worry too much. I know you don't have enough information. That was done on purpose. The conclusion you have come to is the conclusion I was hoping and intended you to come too. In other words, your right where I want you to be. That being said, since it seems you were a little more confused then you should be, I will take some extra time to better introduce some characters in the next few chapters. I need the readers to know the main characters before moving on to more complicated things. I hope not too many of you are overly confused. Either way, thank you very much for your review and feedback! (if anyone knows how to better answer questions/review like this on here, please let me know! i do read all the reviews, thank you very much for taking the time to post them!)
The next chapter really gets the ball rolling in terms of plot, that should help clear some things up, so stay tuned. Thanks for reading!