Sick
"I'm right behind you, Fluff." Nick snatched the gift box from his fridge and briskly padded out the door. Simon, the victim of a mugging three weeks ago, was so grateful for the capture of the skunk and the return of his belongings that he gifted Nick and Judy a mystery cake. Judy passed on the offer, but Nick could smell the aroma of blueberries seeping out of the box.
He impatiently tore open the box while Judy drove to the station.
"I've never seen anyone so obsessed with blueberries until I met you," laughed Judy.
"You're really missing out. Oh yes..." Nick drooled as he caught a glimpse of the cake. Sitting there in its half melted glory was a slice of blueberry cheesecake. Its gooey dark purple syrup was spilling over the sides.
"Speedbump, Love," Judy warned. Nick greedily stuffed the cake into his mouth just as the car was climbing the slope of the bump. Syrup oozed from his muzzle and down his neck. He rocked in the seat as the car leveled off then made its descent from the bump. With the cake safe in Nick's belly, his only concern was cleaning up the stickiness from his fur as they closed the distance to the station.
"Even when you inhaled the cake, you still managed to make a mess. You gotta slow down."
"Sowwry mawm," mumbled Nick behind a mouthful of leftover cake.
"If you choke, I'm taking selfies with you panicking in the background." Nick coughed and swallowed hard.
"Oh! Don't do that. Haha!"
"No wonder you got chubby."
"Oh, right..." Nick lowered his ears, ashamed that he had let himself put on weight. A moment later, Judy parked their car in the lot behind the station. It wasn't long after Nick took his first few steps toward the station that Nick started noticing some disturbance in his belly. His tongue began to sour, and the first hint of the foul aroma emanating from within momentarily stunned him. He shook it off and ignored the sensations.
Later, on the drive to their assigned location in the Rainforest District, Nick gulped down a small bottle of water he had in the police car hoping to calm the disturbance in his stomach. Suddenly, a terribly sharp screech of tires and then a loud crash startled the officers.
"Sweet cheese and crackers, an accident!?" Judy hit the lights and siren of the car and sped around the corner. Up ahead, sticking to the corner of a wooden shop was a car with its front end lodged in the wall. Mammals on the sidewalk were scattered about. Dazed and shook up from the collision.
"Officers! Help!" A female beaver ran to Nick and Judy. Nick carefully walked out of his patrol car and sighed. The driver of the damaged vehicle couldn't be seen from his angle. He put up a paw to silence the panicked beaver and analyzed the scene with Judy.
"Come on, make some space!" commanded Judy. She was already on the other side of the incident and had a better vantage when Nick heard her say, "He's okay. Airbag and seatbelt." Nick nodded, then turned to the beaver.
"Alright, ma'am. Anything you would..." his tongue grew heavy with the sourness again. Oh no...I gotta hold out. He ignored the queasy sensations clamoring for his attention. "Did you see what..." Nick took a deep breath. Bad move. He tried shortening his sentence. "What hagkh!" In what was probably less than a second, Nick projected a stream of partially digested cake and other stomach contents at the witness.
"Aah!" She recoiled in disgust as her face and clothes were smothered in chunky barf. The baffled bystanders groaned in horror.
"What?" Judy met Nick's pitiful gaze as he was bent over, spitting on the street.
"Shlorry! Sorry!" He wiped his muzzle with the sleeve of his uniform, clearing away snot and barf and dry heaved in the opposite direction, trying to avoid worsening the situation. With lowered ears and reddened cheeks, Judy stumbled to her partner, groaning from the smell.
"Of all the times..." The noises of the crowd were a horrible mix of disapproved cries, laughter and distress.
Nick waved off Judy,
"Just go to the victim..." Thinking fast, Judy ignored Nick and tried to follow procedure as best as she could. Ever the good partner, when people were distracted by Nick's stomach-churning spectacle, she forcefully returned their focus to the accident. An ambulance was called, a report was filed, and after an embarrassing hour of apologies, making up with the angry witness, and graceless heroics on the job, Nick found himself sitting before a speechless Chief Bogo.
The silence in the room was painfully awkward. It allowed Nick to hear the crowds groans of disgust replaying in his head. Chief Bogo inhaled to speak, but only sighed and threw his arms up in defeat when he couldn't come up with anything to say.
"You saw the whole thing?" Nick squeaked.
"The dash cam of the car caught it all," Bogo said, clearing his throat and awkwardly shifting his gaze away from Nick. It was quite a shock not being tongue-lashed by Bogo.
"I had no idea that the cake I ate went bad. Just mild food poisoning..." In a rare expression of sympathy, Bogo said,
"There will be some noise made over this, but the less that is said about it, the quicker it will go away. You're obviously um...sick. And I'm sending you home early. But if there is any further disturbance, you will be required to make a public apology. Let's just hope it doesn't come down to that. And damn it, make better choices with your food." Nick fidgeted in his seat. If word got out over the media, he'd be stuck being seen as the fox that barfs on beavers. He shook his head and stifled a whimper.
"Sir, I spoke with the witness, slash victim. She said she would, 'get over it' and that I shouldn't worry." Bogo shook his head.
"Regardless. What people say and do often don't match up. Now..." The chief gave Nick an unsettling smirk and said in an unusually soft voice,
"Shut your face. Go home." Nick slowly rose from his seat, happy to leave the stuffy office.