Hey everybody! I'm sorry for the wait. I know I'm supposed to have some sort of excuse but I don't. *hangs head in shame* Anyway! It's done now. I hope you enjoy!

Edit: 6/6/17 Big thanks Venomheart the Dreamer who has pointed out some mistakes in this chapter. I hope I got them all ironed out. :)

Chapter 3

Give me my Coffee!

Nick, Judy and Wolford followed Edward into the large building. They walked through a short hallway to a mud room, which had several hooks for coats and jackets.

"Can I get you guys anything? Coffee is about all we have right now."

Wolford perked up at the sound of this. "Sure I'd like some of that coffee. What about you guys? Judy?"

"No thanks." The bunny replied.

"What about you Nick? I know you like coffee, and this place has some of the best coffee I've ever had."

Wolford was easily excited by certain things, for it to be coffee this time there had to be something good about it."Fine, I'll try a cup. You sure you don't want any Carrots?"

"Yes I'm sure." Judy's mind was on the case not coffee. Like she said earlier both Nick and Wolford were great cops but put them together they tended to kid around too much.

They stopped in the entrance of the dome, next to it there was a small counter space with a microwave and a coffee maker on it. Edward filled some cups for them. The main observatory was very open other that the massive telescope in the middle of the room. There was a four story tower that the telescope was mounted on. Looping in and out of one of the corners was a medal spiral staircase. There was a catwalk around the entirety of the upper part of the dome which had several computers on it that ran along the walls.

"Nice place." stated Nick.

"Yeah, it's the second most powerful telescope, which is still in service, ever made."

"Damn! This coffee is amazing! What did you put in here?" Nick had tried said coffee.

"Told you." Wolford had a told you so look on his face.

"Yeah you weren't lying. What's in this?"

"I don't know. Ask Edward, he's the sciency guy." Wolford answered

"It has ganoderma in it."

"Gano what now?"

"Gano-der-ma." Edward supplied.

"Isn't that a mushroom?" Judy asked. This interested her, she's only ever read about the plant that grew in the far country of Japawn. She was starting to regret her choice of declining Edward's offer of the coffee.

"Yes it is, well kind of it's actually the spores of a mushroom. It's supposed to be pretty good for you, but I'm not sure it really is. I buy the coffee mostly because of how good it tastes without having to add anything to it."

"Cool. Now before my partner distracts me anymore." she pointed at Nick who just winked at her. "What can you tell us about the equipment that has been stolen over the last two years? What are their uses specifically?" Judy pulled out the list of stolen equipment and gave it to Edward.

"Well, all the stuff here was all custom made for our observatory but can easily be made to fit others of about the same size. They're all made for specific jobs too; which range from looking at planets to looking at the sun, or just looking in general. We store them in a large warehouse under the observatory but over the years they've all been stolen, and they aren't cheap to replace either. Lately however we've had smaller things stolen mostly charged coupled devices, hundreds of them."

"What are charged coupled devices?" Nick asked.

"Think if them as a flash drive for the telescope. We use them to record data, from anywhere to one second to several hours of it."

"Considering the number stolen last how long would you say until the next time more are stolen?" Wolford spoke up.

"I'm not completely sure but I'd say anywhere in the next few days or weeks, maybe a couple of months at most."

"What observatory is the most frequently stolen from?" Judy asked.

"Just this one. There's another in the Meadowlands but I think it's too far away for whoever is stealing the equipment to want to steal form it, ours is smaller and more remote."

"That's all I can think of. What about you Nick?"

"Where can I get more of this coffee?"

"Nick! I meant about the case." This was starting to get a little old for her.

"Oh, okay. Then I got nothing. Oh wait can you give us a tour? I've always wanted to see the inside of an observatory."

"Nick we don't have time for that." Judy warned.

"It's not just that, knowing a little more about this place might help with the case."

"Guess I can't argue with that. Fine lets go."

"Where do you guys want to start?" Edward asked.

"Anywhere is fine."

"Alright then follow me." The group ventured closer to the enormous telescope

"This observatory was built in eighteen o seven. In its time it was the second most powerful built and now is the most powerful still being used currently. It has a refracting telescope which means it works a lot like a spy glass only much bigger."

Judy spoke next. "How is it so old and still the most powerful?"

"The observatory in the Meadowlands is more advanced but the telescope is not near as big as this one. Plus we've upgraded this one over the years. The biggest upgrade being the ability to hook up advanced computers and equipment up to it, so that helps substantially."

Edward led them up the stairs to the cat walk that went around the room. "Up here we have some of our smaller control and recording computers. The bigger ones are in another part of the observatory."

"Sir I've got the finale readings archived, they can be reviewed and further studied if you feel like it." Chuck had noticed the group and had come up to report to Edward.

"Thank you Chuck. I'll look over them later."

"How you been holding up Chuck, haven't still been staying up till the wee hours of the morning?" Wolford inquired.

They had met when the case had first started. Wolford had actually tried to arrest Chuck thinking he was one of the people stealing the equipment. After a call to Edward the whole thing was cleared up and they had become friends.

"I'not going to answer that Officer, but if it makes you feel better; I'm doing fine. How are you?" he replied with a smile.

"I've been worse. Oh Chuck, I'd like you to meet Officers Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps." Wolford gestured in their direction.

"I've heard of you two. You guys stopped Bellwether!" He wasn't greatly affected by the Night howler crisis because he spent most of his time at work. It was literally becoming his second home.

"Yep that's us, but if you ask me Officer Hopps did all the hard work."

Judy elbowed Nick "Stop telling people that Nick, we did it together."

Nick grunted from the light blow, but still chuckled. "Fine I might have pulled my weight a little bit."

Edward was enjoying the conversation; it wasn't often he saw very many people. He rarely ever saw Chuck anymore with his assignment taking up all his time. Thinking of Chuck he realized stuff could turn sour quick if Chuck mentioned anything about the flair before the time was right.

"I'm sorry to interrupt. Chuck I want you to take the rest of the day off, you've been here since yesterday morning."

Chuck seemed a little dejected at not being able to help out more with the flair. But he could see Edward's point, being tired didn't help either.

"Alright sir, but can I stick around for the tour? I don't think I've seen every room this place had hidden in it."

"Alright but I don't want to see you around afterwards." Now that we got that out of the way. "Where do you guys want to go next?"

"We'd like to see the warehouse that might have some answers to how suspect got in." the bunny replied.

"Alright that's on the way." He gestured for them to follow.

The group went down the stairs and exited the dome through a second set of big double doors. They came into a hallway that looked almost exactly like a school hall, only it had stone flooring and brick walls.

"Along this hall we have mostly offices and class rooms, and three conference rooms. We even have a gymnasium for large demonstrations. In recent years we haven't had as many astronomers so we've rented out some of the offices and class rooms and the two of the conference are open for use at any time. For that reason I can't show you very many, but I can show you our main conference room. If you'd like?"

Nick nodded. "Sure it couldn't hurt."

That is where they headed next. When they got there Judy was amazed to see how large it was; it was almost as big at the lobby back at the precinct. This only made her wonder how big the gym was. It even had a second and third level full of computers, monitors and other bits of technology that she could never begin to guess the uses of. The room was quite dark, but there were various lights scattered around. In the middle of the bottom level there was a huge table that sat in front of a projector screen.

"Sorry about the heat, all of our big electoral equipment is in here and they generate a lot of it. Anyway this is where we decode the charged coupled devices to make hard copies and diagrams. When I'm not in the dome I'm most likely to be in here doing one thing or another. Though it hasn't happened in more than ten years if there is anything of great importance we'll discuss it in here too."

The group looked around for a few minutes asking various questions about what this did and how this worked before they left to see the rest of the building. While they were walking to one of the two smaller domes Nick was thinking about what Edward had said about there not being many astronomers now a days. It also was strange how they seemed like they were the only ones there.

"Mister Sanders, you mentioned there not being that many astronomers. What did you mean by that?"

"Well there are still a healthy number of astronomers, we're not all dying out or anything. There's just not many at this particular observatory. It's actually just me and Chuck here, I've been training him for a few years now."

"What are the others doing?" Judy asked. This could be part of the reason no one had ever caught their suspect before; no one was around to see them.

"They've been assigned to other observatories around the world. Our group was the best in the world. We were all trained together and worked here for many years. And before you ask why I didn't get reassigned; it was because I was put in charge of the groups and their teams."

"So you're in charge of most of the observatories in the world?" Nick was impressed.

"Not really, I'm the one they all report back to; I'm not the one giving the orders. I put their data together and form a report of sorts."

"That's still an impressive position." Wolford affirmed

You don't know the half of it. "Yeah it is but is makes getting sleep hard." He paused. "Well we better continue."

"Lead the way." Nick gave his signature two fingered salute.

"Guys we're already here." Judy had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing too hard.

"Oh." The foxes said in unison which just made her giggle more.

Edward was about to open the doors to the dome when he found his earlier placed sticky note. The note was for reminding him and Chuck that the dome was in use and they couldn't go in.

"Oh great! I forgot both of the small domes are in use right now which means we can't go in. I'm really sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it. We're actually kind of on a time limit." Wolford interjected. He hated rushing something like this but the sooner he got back the sooner he could set up some surveillance.

Edward understood right away. "Oh, you should have told me that sooner. We'll just get down to the warehouse then."

They turned around and headed back towards the main hallway. When they got there they went the opposite way that they had originally. They came to yet another set of heavy metal doors. On the side there was a pad with several numbered buttons. Edward walked up to it and punched in what Nick could guess was a twenty plus character code.

"We've seriously upgraded the security to this area but it hasn't helped much." Edward muttered more to himself in frustration than to the rest of the group.

"Don't worry. We'll figure this out and put a stop to it." Judy resolved in a soothing tone. Nick could only smile at how determined and positive she always was. What life would have been like if he'd never met her.

The heavy doors made a loud click sound as the locks disengaged. Edward went ahead and pulled one of them open, and they all went through. On the other side there was yet another set of doors but instead of being on the wall they were mounted on a cargo elevator. Once again Edward put in a code before they entered the elevator to go down to the warehouse.

The ride was like any other elevator; it even had the cliché music and everything. When they made it to the bottom and exited the medal box. The lights came on and both Nick and Judy's eyes widened mouths dropped open.

"Sweet cheese and crackers this place is huge!" Judy exclaimed.

She was right it was about the size of a football field big enough for Bogo to play on, though it wasn't very tall.

"You weren't kidding, when you said warehouse I thought you meant like a large storage area maybe a dozen feet by a dozen feet or so." Nick said still in awe.

"At one point it was; it was originally a wine cellar but my father made the arrangements to have it expanded for storage."

The room was mostly empty other than dozens of shelves that had what looked to be propane bottles on them. There were a few huge pieces of equipment that Nick could only guess went to the telescope, each standing double his own height. There were also many smaller ones that were only as tall as Judy. In the far corner there was a medium sized forklift. And in the other corner there were book shelves filled to the bursting with books. In the corner closest to them there were older computers and replacements parts for the new ones.

"This place used to be fuller but as you can see it isn't anymore. The bottles over there are liquid nitrogen dewars it's where we store the used Charged Coupled Devices. In order for them to retain their data they need to be kept at a very cold temperature. We just keep them in specially made dewars, once they're locked they'll stay cold for decades. Over there in the corner we keep our hardcopy data and records. That's what all the books are. If it helps with the investigation that forklift runs off of propane and requires a special key that only I have access to."

"That might be traceable." Judy had gone back in to cop mode and had her carrot pen and note pad out again and had been copying everything Edward had said. "Is this the only entrance to the room?"

"Yes, though there used to be another. Before it was upgraded the only way you could get in here was through a trap door in a shed that was behind the observatory but it was sealed off many years ago."

"Have you had anything other than equipment stolen? Like any of your archives?"

"Actually yes we've had one manuscript stolen. It was from eighteen fifty nine." Edward's eyes widened slightly and he seemed to become somewhat nervous.

"Why only one and why just that year? What happened?" Nick asked.

"The earth was hit with the larges solar flare in recorded history."

"Oh wow, probably one you wouldn't mind getting back." was the fox's reply

"Yeah you never know when you might need it."

Judy jumped in again as they were getting sidetracked. "Is there anything else that you think might help?"

"No not really, I know as much as you do. You guys can look around if you want." He offered.

"I don't think we need to do that. If anything comes up we'll just ask Wolford."

"Well that's all I got to show you. If you guys are ready we can head back up." Everyone nodded in return.

And so the group once again got into the elevator to leave. Once above ground again they returned to the main dome. Chuck had left the group half way there to head home for the day. While they were saying their good byes Nick had wondered off to find a restroom.

By the time they were back where they started Nick was waiting for them. Right away Judy knew something was up just from the happy look on his face. "Okay what did you do this time?" She noticed his coffee cup was full again. "You didn't. Nick that's Edward's coffee." She scolded him just like his mom would when he was a kid. Just that had his ears pressing down to his head.

"Don't worry about it I wasn't going to finish it anyway." Nick just smirked at Judy in victory.

She continued to glare at Nick for a second but relented. "Thanks for all the info Mister Sanders; I'm sure it'll help out."

"You're welcome Miss Hopps. Let me know if you need anything else."

"Thanks for the coffee." Nick offered.

"You're welcome Mister Wilde, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Have a nice day."

"You too Edward, I'll see you later." Wolford said.

Nick, Judy and Wolford then started towards the door.

"So do you think this was at all useful Carrots?"

"Of course it was useful. We know now that out suspect is using the equipment for themselves. It sounds like they have all the big equipment they need, and are just coming back for the stuff that isn't reusable. All this has something to do with the year eighteen fifty nine. We'll need to do some research."

"You got all that? You sure you're not a detective yet? When did the Chief promote you? Wolford, why haven't you figured this out already?"

"I have, well most of it. You guys could have just asked if there was a pattern."

"We know that. I just wanted to know if and or when the next theft is going to happen." Judy defended.

"See I told you Carrots was a natural detective."

There was a growing blush moving up Judy's ears. Seeking a distraction she went for the first thing that came to mind.

"Give me that!" Nick yelped as she stole his coffee.

"Hay, that's mine!"

"I don't care; I want to try some. Plus this is your second cup and you took it without asking."

"Wait what?" Judy put it to her lips and took a sip. "Stop, don't drink all of it."

"Wow, you were right Wolford this is good." She marveled after a big swig.

"Carrots, give it back." He whined. "Please, I'm begging you."

"Alright I'll give it back on one condition; you pay for lunch instead of me."

Nick currently didn't have the money to pay for lunch, he could pay for one of their meals a day and no more otherwise he wouldn't make his rent "Never mind, you can keep it."

"What, why?" It was surprising how fast he relented; and that caught Judy off guard. Something was wrong.

"I paid for breakfast; it's your turn."

"Oh… alright." She hesitated. "You can have the coffee back."

"That's fine you can keep it. It has rabbit germs in it now anyway."

"As much as I love watching you guys do whatever that was. I need to get back the station to set up some surveillance here. Would you guys mind driving me back?"

Nick praised the distraction. He knew this would come up again Judy wasn't the kind of person to let stuff that didn't sit well with her go, and he could tell from her twitching nose that this didn't sit well with her.

"Yeah sure it's almost time to get lunch anyway." Judy responded. She knew something was up with Nick and he didn't want her to know about it. Getting him to tell her what it was especially with Wolford around was going to be impossible.

The drive back was quite almost awkward; at least for Judy. Nick and Wolford were talking about this and that. Judy was in deep thought however.

Why would Nick not want to buy lunch for us? Maybe he's just not hungry? Maybe he doesn't have the money? Yes that could be it. Why wouldn't he tell me if he was struggling financially? He makes as much as me so what could be making struggle to make ends meet? I'm just over reacting like a dumb bunny, he's probably fine. Plus he is right; it is my turn. What ever was bothering Nick he would tell her if it was really serious.

"You alright Carrots? You just ran a red light." Nick asked; having noticed Judy's silence and twitching nose.

"What, I did?!" Judy whipped around to look, but there was no light.

"Nope, you didn't. I'm just messing with yo- Ouch!"

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" Judy snarled after having just hit Nick in the arm.

Nick held up his arms and cowered as close to the door as he could. "You can have the front seat next time Wolford."

"No thanks, Wilde. I still value my life, you can keep it." The wolf replied also scooching out of Judy's reach.

"You know both of you can sit in the back." Judy stated.

"I might just have to take you up on that Officer Fluff."

"And leave me here all alone?" She put a hand on her chest acting hurt.

"If you keep hitting me like that, yes I will." Nick had to stop himself from staring. She was learning his tricks and perfected them off with those eyes of hers.

"I'm not guaranteeing that I won't hit you ever again but I won't do it that hard anymore." She did feel bad for hitting him so hard. She knew she was strong but she sometimes she forgot her own strength.

"What a relief, that is going to make me sleep better at night."

"Oh shut up."

"Whatever you say, Fluff." Like he said Nick didn't say a word for the rest of the trip back the precinct…

Which wasn't very long; because it had just come into sight.

"Hey Wolford, why haven't you set up surveillance back at the observatory until now?" Judy asked.

"I did. Well the first two times I was called out there anyways. I've just quit because the thefts were so far apart and I kept having to return the equipment. I have a feeling I'll catch something this time though."

"Carrots, why do you think Buffalo Butt put us, the newbies, on this case when he's got more experienced officers that could probably handle it better?"

"I don't know, maybe it's to teach a certain fox I know how to do his job better." Judy tossed back.

"Who is this other fox you speak of? I thought I was the only fox in your life."

"Well he's tall, slim built, and has a razor sharp wit. He actually reminds me a lot of you."

"I don't like the way this guy sounds, you shouldn't be hanging out with such shady characters."

Wolford was enjoying their ridiculous banter; those two where what the ZPD had been lacking in the years he'd worked there. Judy was a reminder of what it really meant to be a cop and Nick was the missing bit of fun the station had been lacking. Together they had brought life to the hard job of the police officer, and made best of even the worst days.

Man this is going to guarantee me the win in the betting pool Clawhauser has going. Wolford thought.

Clawhauser had organized a betting pool, without Bogo finding out (no one knew how) almost as soon as Nick had joined the force. The only reason no one had won was because neither of them had told anybody that they were 'officially' together. When someone bet they had to guess a date that they would get together by or on, if that time passed their bet was returned and they had to cast a new one with a new guess.

"I'm a grown bunny I can spend my time with whoever I want." Judy argued.

"You may be grown but, you're still emotional."

"So, at least I'm not emotionally stunted like you."

"Since when was I emotionally stunted?" He asked as Judy pulled the cruiser into the garage.

"The last time I checked you were." She answered pulling the cruiser in to its parking spot and shutting the engine off.

"Okay then, when was the last time you checked? It must have been a while now."

"Well yeah it's been a little while, but I did check."

I'm surprised these two haven't gotten together yet. Maybe they're already together! Why haven't they told anybody? Oh right interspecies relationship. Maybe I can get them to admit it. Yeah that's a good idea. Wolford thought. How was he going to get them to admit to being in a relationship? I guess the direct approach is a good place to start.

Judy had just stepped, well more jumped out of the cruiser. While Nick was still climbing down. "I want to know the exact date of the last time you checked Carrots."

"How am I supposed to remember that its been a little whil- oh never mind." She huffed.

This was Wolford's chance. "You know, you two make a cute couple." Judy's ears flicked at the sound of the C-word. "When did you get together?

"Not you too." Judy groaned she was already annoyed enough that Clawhauser was 'shipping' them.

"Wait, what do you mean 'not me too'?" The wolf asked "I just want to know when you guys got together."

Nick could see that Judy's ears were about to catch fire and decided to step in. "Clawhauser thinks we're together."

Judy looked him just like she did when he told the three humped camel joke. "Don't tell him that!"

"Well aren't you guys together?"

"No!" Judy all but yelled.

She waited a second to recompose herself. "No, we're not together."

"Alright, whatever you say." He knew that they were hiding something.

Nick stepping in again and steered them away from the conversation. "Carrots and I need to go and fill in the Chief on what we've found out before we head to lunch. We could ask about that surveillance if you want?"

"Oh right, sure you guys can ask if you want," he said as he turned to leave. "I'll see you later."

Nick led Judy in the opposite direction "Come on Carrots lets go talk to good old Buffalo Butt."

"You're so sly." She moaned "And you shouldn't call Bogo that."

"Call me what?"

While they weren't paying much attention Bogo was walking down the same hall they had been.

"Nothing Chef! Nick was... just volunteering to ask you about setting up surveillance around the observatory for Wolford, while I go and get us lunch." She said it so fast they could barely understand her.

Nick leaned over and whispered in to her ear. "And you call me sly?"

"Okay Nick I'll be sure to get that. I'llseeyouinalittlewhilebye!" She countered as she all but ran away from the fox and buffalo.

Sly bunny.

I know my description of the outside of the observatory was pretty nonexistent. If you're wondering what this looks like just look up Yerkes observatory on google or something. It's not a spitting image of what I have created in this but it's close enough to give you an idea.

Ganoderma really is a mushroom that supposedly is really good for your health. I'm not sure how true that is but the coffee I had that had some in it really was amazing tasting. XD

I would like to thank everybody that has faved, followed, and took the time to read this. It really means a lot to me that people are enjoying this enough to hit those buttons. Thank you!

I hope you guys enjoyed I'll see you next time. (It won't be long I have most of the next chapter already written.) :)