"Hnnnh..."
Judy let out a large, unrestrained yawn as she stretched upright in her bed to welcome a new day. Hopping out of bed, she threw a small, tired smile at her mirror, sort of a tradition by this point of her existence in Zootopia.
The novelty of being the first bunny in the ZPD had worn off, sure, but she was still energetic enough to give each day all the enthusiasm she could.
After a brief shower, she ran her fur dryer and brushed her teeth simultaneously as she got ready for work. As she was putting on her uniform, though, an unusual sight caught the corner of her eye.
A tiny gasp caught in her throat as she walked over to her desk and the extra item on it. It was a decently-sized red gemstone, smallish, but big enough to occupy most of the palm of her paw, which she almost instinctively reached out toward it. Shaking her head, she decided better of it; instead she took out her phone and took a few pictures.
Confused, Judy wondered several things. Why was there a gemstone in her apartment? Who had put it there? How had they gotten in? When was it laid there? And where had the gem come from? Judy checked to make sure her door had no signs of forced entry and that her window was secure. She even checked her bathroom for anywhere a small mammal could have come from.
"Hmm..." Judy mused out loud. "Weird..."
Chief Bogo was rattling off the assignments of the day in the bullpen when he glanced up and saw Judy's insistent paw raised and wiggling.
"Hopps, this isn't a classroom," Bogo mumbled, "what is it?"
"Something unusual happened in my apartment," Judy explained. "A gemstone appeared last night, seemingly out of nowhere. I was wondering if I could investigate what had happened."
"Let's see..." Bogo looked at his notes. "Staff is busy, Wilde's on leave... no other important work for a bunny to do... yes, I suppose I can let you investigate a precious rock in your own apartment, unless you're uncomfortable with that prospect." This statement got some mild chuckles from the department.
"Hey, it could be hot," Judy twisted her mouth. "I have to wonder why someone would plant a gem in my apartment..."
"Since Wilde isn't here," Bogo looked through his assignment one more time. "Skippel. You work with her on this."
"Wh- me, sir?" Karen Skippel, an arctic hare sitting near the back of the room, gestured to herself. "Chief Bogo, sir... I'm- I'm not exactly trained for field work." Judy looked back at her, a mild, bright look on the gray bunny's face, whereas the white face of the technical officer was in a slight cringe.
"But you are versed in the theory, yes?" Bogo declared gruffly, barely looking at her. "Go with Hopps, and see what can be seen."
"Yes, sir," Karen's voice sounded defeated.
"And here we are!" Judy proclaimed brightly as she threw open her door, letting Karen into her apartment.
Karen looked around with a clearly skeptical, disparaging face. "This is it...?"
"Sure," Judy chirped. "I don't really need a big place to stay. Just a place to crash and eat between adventures."
"Jeez, I could never live here," Karen remarked, dragging in a bag of supplies for the investigation. "Too... cramped. I've got to be comfortable."
"Eh, you get used to it," the gray bunny shrugged, "it's cozy!"
"Mhm..." Karen half-frowned. She walked over to the gemstone on the desk. "So, it's still here."
"Uh huh," Judy nodded. "I was wondering if whoever left it here might come back for it, so I decided to leave it. Just to check if I had any sort of small-mammal breaking and entering."
"Any signs of that?" Karen asked, to Judy's head shake. "Really? No structural weaknesses in a place like this?"
"I already checked, but we can go over it again," Judy nodded. "We can also get some fur samples."
The two went over Judy's apartment, testing the walls for weaknesses or hollows in both the bedroom and bathroom. There appeared to be no significant damage in the apartment despite its shoddy appearance. Next, the two went over her floor with tweezers, picking up fur of various colors.
"Gray, white... these are probably mine," Judy smiled bashfully, placing each kind of sample in a different bag.
"You've got plenty of others..." Karen looked around with a thoughtful look on her muzzle. "This one's red-orange... cream... brown... did you have a party here?"
"Oh, those are most likely all Nick's," Judy laughed mildly. "He's been over here a few times. Heh, I probably should vacuum at some point."
After the two poked around for awhile and found nothing else unusual, they turned their attentions to the gem itself.
"So uh... I wonder how this got here," Judy pondered over the gem. "It's not like gems are naturally-occurring."
"Technically they are," Karen droned dully, getting out a pair of tweezers and a small magnifier, "but not cut gems."
Karen meticulously picked the gemstone up and started looking at it through the magnifier.
"It's got nice clarity and color for its cut," Karen remarked. "Not to mention it's decently large."
"You like gems?" Judy didn't know too much about the technical officer, who seemed to keep much to herself.
"Mhm," Karen nodded, then tried to keep her head still while she examined the gem further. "My father once took me to the Natural History Museum and he couldn't get me out of the gemstone exhibit."
"Huh."
As she internalized this fact, Judy stood there in uncomfortable silence as Karen examined the gem.
"So uh," Judy blinked as Karen worked, "is it a ruby or a garnet?"
"Oh, definitely a ruby," Karen said distractedly, "Garnets can't be this red."
"You think we should take it back to the station?" Judy mused. "Maybe put it through the mass spectrometer?"
"No!" Karen shrieked with a look of horror that melted into a grimace. "Not only did we just get that precious machine, but it would damage this gem to put it through it! If you want to know what it's made of, I can take a wild guess! Corundum, also known as aluminum oxide."
"Okay, okay!" Judy held up her paws close to her chest. "Didn't mean to offend!"
"I can see if there's anything unusual about it at the lab with a microscope, even though that's not as fancy as you might like," Karen grumbled.
"Whatever works," Judy nodded with a wince. "I'll go ahead and look around for any news stories about missing rubies."
"I doubt you'll find anything from this decade," Karen noted. "While well-kept, the gem appears to be old. It's also cut with a classic single cut; these days you usually see more elaborate cuts on gems, especially since the business has a lot of smaller mammals in it."
"Huh, curious..." Judy scratched her cheek. "I just- I wonder how it got here..."
"Well, thanks for your help, Karen," Judy said, taking the evidence bag containing the ruby and putting it away. "If we have any more gem problems, I'll be sure to come to you first."
"I'm sure you find that amusing," Karen scoffed dryly. "Nerdy hare likes looking at shiny rocks."
"Gems are pretty," Judy smiled. "We all need some sort of indulgence."
"Guess so," the arctic hare nodded once. "See you tomorrow, Hopps."
Judy made her way to the Zootopia Central Train Station after work, checking the time.
After a brief period, a familiar fox made his way off one of the trains, ambling down towards the subway.
"Oof!" Nick exclaimed as Judy plowed right into him for an energetic hug. "Jeez, Carrots."
"You're back!" The bunny observed. "Hi!"
"Ouch, lay off, bunny!" Nick winced affectionately as Judy squeezed him. "Good grief, I was only gone a day. Fervor help me if I take a longer vacation than that."
"Well, you're kinda getting a long weekend anyway, what with your strategically taking a day off right before our day off, you sneaky animal," Judy let him go and gave him a sly look.
"Some well-deserved R&R," Nick nodded with a placid smile.
"Shame I couldn't get off too..." Judy whined pleasantly. "I would have loved to visit your mother with you..."
"You've already met her, Carrots," Nick shook his head. "We had fox business to discuss."
"Oh, right, fox business," she rolled her eyes, "sor-ree."
"Anything interesting happen in the short time I went missing?" The fox idly shoved his hands into his pockets as the two walked down into the subway.
"Actually, yeah," Judy nodded. "It seems like someone got into my apartment and left a gem there. A ruby."
"Oh really?" Nick tilted his head a few degrees.
The bunny nodded again to confirm, joining Nick as he waited for his train to his apartment.
"Karen, of all mammals, helped me investigate," Judy nodded decisively. "She's kind of fun to work with, at least as long as the topic is about gems. I learned more about gemstones in that one day than I think I ever have. Once I got her talking and assured her like five times she wasn't boring me, she just went on and on. Like, did you know that there's a gem called ametrine that's an amethyst half-treated into a citrine, so it's purple and orange? Isn't that neat?"
"Hm, yeah, that is cool," Nick casually nodded. "So you opened a whole investigation, huh?"
"Well, duh," Judy sucked her teeth. "Someone got into my apartment and left something there. Something that, by the looks of it, has some history behind it."
"Yup, all that is technically true," Nick nodded sagely with his eyes shut. "I should know, because I left it there. Case closed, Carrots."
"What!?" Judy flinched. "You left a ruby at my place? Why!?"
"Can't tell you that, darlin'," Nick casually gestured with his paw as his train arrived and he got onto it. He leaned his muzzle out right before the door closed to stare at the baffled-looking bunny. "Let me know what the investigation turns up."
He darted back into the train right as the doors closed; and it looked like his tie was centimeters from being caught on the door. The train zoomed away, leaving Judy bewildered and sputtering. She groaned in exasperation and decided to make a stop back by the station to clear some things up.
Mentally, she cursed Nick's antics. Why on earth would he have carelessly left a valuable old gemstone in her apartment? And if he wasn't going to tell her why, who would?
"Hmm..." Judy was a getting the ghost of an idea as she hopped back on a train for the precinct.
The next day, Judy gathered her wits about her and stepped onto the welcome mat of a cozy Rainforest District home. The mat read: "This home welcomes all paws", which she found sweet. She softly knocked on the door, then a little louder. She was about to go for a third round when the door opened.
The middle-aged vixen on the other side smiled warmly as she looked down at her visitor.
"Why, Judy Hopps," Mary Wilde said, her voice marveling, "and after I just had a visit from my son. What a treat!"
"Hi, Mrs. Wilde," Judy waved, leaning over with an almost shy smile. "Sorry to bother you, but could we talk...?"
"Of course!" Mary invited her in with a sweeping arm gesture. "But only if you call me something other than 'Mrs. Wilde'. You can call me anything but 'Mary Melody'!"
Judy chuckled at Nick's jovial mother. "Did you have a good time with Nick?"
"Oh yes, yes," Mary nodded with almost a devious glint in her eye. "We had some important... fox issues to talk about."
The bunny immediately looked puzzled by the mischievous smirk on her muzzle and the casual flick of her tail. There was no doubt about it; Nick was his mother's son.
"Now, would you like some tea?" Mary asked with her paws daintily held up. "Maybe with a little lemon or lime?"
"Sure, how about both?" Judy shrugged, taking a seat on her couch.
"That's the spirit," Mary cooed, pouring them both a cup.
Judy carefully sipped hers, thoughts buzzing through her head. Mary carried herself with that air of mystique that Judy often sensed around Nick. Even at that moment, the vixen's eyes seemed to be carefully studying the little bunny as she worked out what she wanted to say.
"Now, what brings my son's favorite firebrand over to my humble little den?" Mary chirped.
"I uh, I had something that you might want," Judy rustled around in her coat and produced the ruby from it, held in a protective, small plastic bag. "It belongs to your family, right?"
"Ooh, goodness!" Mary's eyes lit up and she placed a paw to her mouth, but Judy noticed a smile sneaking across her muzzle. "Well... my my. Yes, that does belong to the Wilde family."
"You should probably take it back, then," Judy held her paw out. "Nick just left it over at my apartment, the careless clod."
Mary giggled. "Well, technically, it is his to do with what he wishes."
Judy's brow knit as a confused expression popped onto her face. "Uhm... I mean, isn't this ruby pretty precious? Y'know, for Nick to be treating so frivolously?"
"Oh, now Judy," Mary bat her paw, "you know Nick nearly never does anything on accident." She tilted her head in a charming way, her tail draped across her lap.
"Why would he leave a family heirloom at my dingy little apartment!?" Alarm flashed across Judy's face as she shook the bag lightly.
"Well now..." Mary barely seemed to think before replying, "you're a policemammal, aren't you? I guess you'll just have to figure that out...!" The tip of her tail twitched impishly.
"Creamed corn, Mary," Judy looked crestfallen. "You're just as bad as he is."
"Oh dear," Mary placed a paw on her cheek, looking playfully insulted, "I don't know what to say to that, Judy. I raised Nick the best way I could... so anything he does beyond that is a mystery to me."
"And me," Judy muttered. Her arm got tired, so she went ahead and placed the ruby back in her coat after giving it a lingering look, as if she was willing the gem to speak to her.
Mary giggled into her paw again. "Judy, you are just adorable."
The bunny made a face, narrowing one eye.
"Can I not say that?" Mary smiled brightly. "How about... precious, then? You're just precious."
"Thank you, Mary," Judy sighed, getting up. "I guess I'll have to passive-aggressively bother him about this until he fesses up to why he left it at my place."
"I can show you a little something, if you'd like" Mary said, getting up and taking an old album from a drawer. "Now where- ah, here we go." She sat next to Judy and pointed at a weathered, black-and-white picture. "That's Nick's great-grandfather, Paul Wilde."
"Cheese and crackers, he looks just like him..." Judy marveled. "Oh, he's holding the gem, isn't he?"
"Paul was the one that found it!" Mary nodded. "He dug for gems all day and every day, and upon finding the prettiest ruby he ever saw, he had his wife Margaret cut it, and decided to keep it in the family."
Judy read over the tight, cursive script on the photo album.
"Paulie and Margie with the Wilde Heart," Judy read aloud. "The 'Wilde Heart'...?"
"Mhm," Mary smirked. "That's what they decided to call it."
"The Wilde Heart!" Judy gasped shrilly as a thought occurred to her; her ears launching up as if she was jolted by electricity.
"Sure is," Mary grinned with a wink.
"Um, Mary, it's been great visiting, but I gotta go!" Judy exclaimed hastily, getting up and looking around to make sure she didn't leave anything. "Um, bye! I'll visit again soon!"
"Bye, sweetheart," Mary waved each of her fingers as Judy as the bunny scrambled out the door, leaving it open in her haste.
Mary walked over to the doorway and saw the bunny racing toward the nearest subway station at incredible speed, keeping one paw holding her coat shut protectively.
A gentle, pleased sigh escaped Mary's nose as she went to shut the door.
"Simply precious."