Welcome back to: Stand Together or Not at All! This is chapter seven should be a real funny one. Now without further delay *steps aside and does overly fancy bow flourish thingy*
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: (I'm doing another one of these.) I don't own Disney Zootopia or its characters. So quit asking if you can buy the rights to them.
Chapter 7
It's a good day laddies!
Lunch had been completely uneventful for the fox and bunny cops. They just talked about what they were going to do for the rest of the day. And what they were planning for their off time. They did come to the decision they were going to go and interview Grant and Ryan some time tomorrow. If that didn't go anywhere they would start back at square one and wait and see if the surveillance cameras would see anything over at the observatory. Or maybe they would get a team together to stake out the building for a week or two. The last option was not their best, because it would be hard on everyone involved and would cost a lot.
That was two and half hours ago. The duo were sat in their cruiser; bunny driving and fox just watching the city disappear behind them. The academy was outside of the city to help avoid distractions for the recruits. It wasn't too far out of town; only about twenty miles out of the city limits.
They weren't actually going to the academy. They were going to a plot of land where the recruits did drills of many sorts, and some light riot training. Funny enough even though many people got hurt there, they called it safety valley. The name was a huge joke.
Neither Nick or Judy had been assigned to one of the mock search and rescue drills before. Plenty of their friends had been. And according to them it was incredibly fun. You could pretend to be hurt in almost any way you wanted. They even herd of when Wolford was still new to the station he had acted like someone with a mental disorder. He acted like a drunken pirate who called himself Captain Wafers. The story was still referred to by the instructor to this day.
The way this worked was the recruits had to first find, then either stabilize or get you transported to an extraction point for 'medical' attention. When everyone was found the people that were 'hurt' would grade them on their performance. First time recruits usually 'killed' the people they were trying to help.
Judy had had enough of the silence in the car; she needed to hear something other than the drone of the engine. "So, Nick what do you think I should do?"
Nick turned his head away from the passing trees and looked at Judy for a second before answering. "I'm not sure Carrots. We should probably ask Casey what he recommends."
Casey was the first aid instructor for the academy. He was an easy going guy but could get serous when the need arose. Both Nick and Judy were friends with him.
"I'm thinking about doing something different than usual. Kind of like what Wolford did, but not the same." The bunny explained as she turned down the road that would take them to the academy, then up to safety valley from there.
"I never thought you'd do something like that fluff. I'm supposed to be the one that does stuff like that. You're the one that's always so serious. It doesn't matter what it is you're doing you're always so serious about it." Nick turned his head towards Judy to continue but stopped.
Judy sat across from him with the most appalled look on her face. Her mouth was hanging open and you could clearly see her buck teeth. Nick had to fall back on his best hustler skills to not openly laugh at her.
It took a second for Judy to start yelling. "I'm not serious about EVERYTHING! You're the one who's always breaking the rules! If you didn't do that I wouldn't need to be so serious to keep you in line. You should try being serious sometime! You might like it!" She was panting when she finished her little rant.
Nick just started from where he left off like she hadn't just yelled. "See what I mean? You're too serious. If you weren't so serious you wouldn't have just yelled at me like you just did. You would have laughed and said I was a slacker or something."
Judy was about to argue further but what Nick had said started to register in her head. Maybe she was a little bit too uptight and serious some times. She would have to work on that. And what better time to start than right now? She would show Nick who the serious one was!
"I'm still doing something unusual. Whether I'm serious or not! I still know how to have fun."
Nick raised both eye brows and smiled. "Is that a challenge I hear? If so; what do you have in mind?"
"If Casey lets us, whoever can come up with the most random and off the wall symptom or ailment wins dinner tonight."
"How can I say no to free food? You're on Fluff." Nick stuck his paw out for Judy to shake, but she didn't.
"Not so fast Slick. First we need to lay down some ground rules. I don't feel like losing my job for doing something stupid, and I'm sure you don't either. First we can only do this if Casey says it's okay. Second no sabotaging each other to win."
Nick had a board expression on his face. "Are you done yet? Or are you going to continue to take all the fun out of this?"
"Oh shut up. You're enjoying this as much as I am, and you know it."
"You know Carrots I think you're right."
As they were talking they drove past the main academy grounds and were heading back into the trees again. It wasn't a long drive; about two and a half miles on a gravel road. They normally made the recruits walk up here. Usually they didn't allow cars down this road because of the damage they did when it was wet, but Nick and Judy were allowed in case they needed theirs for an emergency.
The road Y-ed about half way through and turned into a path that headed up a very steep hill, nicknamed Cardiac Hill. After it crested cardiac the road continued to snake around for another couple of miles before it looped back to the main grounds.
Both Nick and Judy remembered very well how hard it was just to reach the top of cardiac hill for the first time. And that was just the beginning. They still had another two miles to go. They had gotten to the point where they needed to do several laps up and around the hill.
In front of the duo was safety valley. It wasn't a very big valley. The mountains on both sides only went up about four hundred feet and they weren't super steep, nothing like cardiac. There was a path that cut off of the road that led to the right to the safety rock. Once again the safety rock was a joke because it was over fifty feet tall and straight up. No one ever climbed up there because a fall from there could kill.
In front of the safety rock stood Casey and Brock. Brock was the second first aid instructor.
Casey was a giraffe; he wasn't the tallest one ever but in comparison to Judy he was huge. He was wearing dark pants and a light green short sleeved shirt. On his face he wore oval shaped glasses.
Brock was a hyena; he stood slightly taller than average. He wore a gray tee shirt and olive green shorts.
They both were talking with each other until the cruiser pulled up and the fox and rabbit hopped out. Brock was the first one to start talking again.
"Well look what Bogo sent us. I was hoping for Wolford and his partner." He rubbed his paws together. "That would have been fun to watch."
"No Bogo sent his newest officers here to make fools of themselves. No use in tarnishing a perfectly good record that took years to get that way." Casey rambled.
Judy's ears snapped to full attention and she pointed at Casey. "Hey! We're not going to make fools out of ourselves. Well maybe Nick might, but I'm not!"
"That's what they all say. Any way this is going to be the last drill this set of recruits will be doing before they graduate. We've had other staff from around the academy playing the ones that are being searched for." Casey explained.
Brock picked up when Casey paused. "We want you guys to think of something more," He paused to consider what word to use. "Uncommon. Something that the odds of happening are pretty nonexistent."
The stars must have aligned knowing about the bet Nick and Judy had going. Which was weird, because nothing like that ever happened. Even when it did happen it usually never turned out good.
Casey started talking again. "The reason we want you guys to do this is to make the recruits aware that anything can happen and to teach them to expect and be ready for it."
Nick and Judy were both nodding as he talked. Nick raised his arm, almost like he was back in grade school. Casey sighed and answered. "Yes Nick, what do you want?"
"Do you guys have any of those training epipens? I've got an idea of what I'm going to do." He got this wicked smile on his face. One which Judy knew all too well. One that meant he was up to no good.
Brock turned around and started rummaging through a first aid kit that was sitting at the base of the safety rock. After a minute of rummaging and not finding anything, he started digging things out.
"That's some nice organization you've got there. What happened if you needed something fast and you couldn't find it?" The fox snarked, just like he did on his first day on the job. It even had the same effect on Judy because she covered her mouth to muffle a laugh and it came out as a snort. Which made Casey start laughing too.
"This is the kit we use to train the recruits; so it's kind of a mess. If you're lucky we won't need to use it if anything goes stupidly wrong. Which it probably will because of what we're letting you guys do today. So shut up and stop laughing!"
"So you guys are planning on us getting hurt!" Nick accused, acting offended.
Brock turned around with an epipen in his paw and crossed his arms before he retaliated. "Oh yeah we do this every time a new group graduates this course. We have people come in from different Precincts. And usually we have at least one person leave with at the very least some bruises."
Nick was starting to get nervous now, but he wasn't going to let it show. As usual he just slipped behind his mask. "So what's the worst you've had happen?"
Brock looked up at Casey. "What would you say; that was Mark?" Casey nodded. "Mark is a tiger and we had three wolves try to carry him back here and they dropped him down there." He pointed to a ledge not far from the group, a little up the hill behind the safety rock. "He broke his arm in three different places, spent three days in the hospital."
Judy had a horrified look on her face. "That's horrible! How can you guys let that happen?!"
Casey smiled. "Okay Brock; that's enough. I think you've scared them enough."
The hyena sighed. "Man I had them going. And you had to go and ruin it! Fine I was just messing with you guys. The worst that has ever happened was Wolford got tackled and got a couple of bruises."
It was common knowledge that Brock liked to kid around almost as much as Nick, but that was just because Judy was around to keep him in line. If anyone let him; Brock would spin the wildest of tails just to see them squirm. Then laugh until he was blue in the face about it when he broke the news to the unlucky person that they had been played like a fiddle during harvest season.
Judy crossed her arms and tried to send Brock a glair that could make the chief sweat… but failed so badly it just made her look more funny than mad. "That wasn't funny!"
Brock just started laughing. "It's always the best part when they argue that it's not funny."
Casey crossed his arms. "Brock that's enough. Nick, Judy you'd best get into your positions. I can hear the recruits coming." He took the epipen from Brock and tossed it to Nick who caught it. "You guys got five minutes before we turn them loose. Better think of something good."
The fox and bunny turned and started walking down a path that led down the valley. It weaved through a small grove of aspen trees. "Nick what are you planning on doing with that epipen?" She was slightly nervous about it even though it was just a trainee and didn't have a needle, more so the plan Nick had for it.
"Well Carrots I'm going to…" He trailed off. "You know what I'm going to make it a surprise."
Judy crossed her arms and harrumphed. "Fine I won't tell you what I'm planning then."
"Okay." The reply was short and simple. The fox was hoping to aggravate Judy by seaming uncaring.
"Okay? Okay! That's all you got to say?"
He shook his head. "Uh-huh."
She through her paws in the air. "Unbelievable." She put her paws down and started muttering under her breath. "Insufferable, smug, big headed."
"What was that dear?"
"Oh nothing." She turned her head and muttered: "Dumb fox."
The path split to go several different directions. "Well I'm going to go over here. Bye Carrots. Try not to die without me." Nick veered off to the right and shortly after disappeared behind some trees.
Unbelievable. She shook her head. Sometimes she could not imagine why she loved him. Maybe it was because he was unbelievable. She hated being afraid of telling him how she felt. She always tried to conquer her fears. So why couldn't she tell Nicholas Wilde she loved him? It was a fear unlike anything she had ever felt before. Maybe that was why.
Judy continued walking not really knowing what she was going to do for the drill. She was really enjoying the quiet and the fresh air. She loved Zootopia; it was her home, but that didn't mean she didn't enjoy coming out to the country every once and a while. The trees around her were getting taller the farther she went.
The trees reminded her of that time Bobby Catmull climbed up that tree in the school yard; when she was seven years old. That was before he had started playing instruments. She still looked back at the moment with fond memories. She had used the teacher's laser light to lure bobby back down the tree. That's where she got the Junior ZPD officer sticker. It was given to her by a tiger officer that she could not for the life of her remember the name of.
But thinking of Bobby and high places gave her an idea. Maybe she could climb one of the trees. No, no one else would be able to climb up after her. There was the old storage shed that was at the edge of the drill perimeter. It was still sturdy it could would work.
Mind finally made up about what ridiculous thing she would be doing, she started jogging out to the shed. It wasn't far only about two hundred yards, not even enough to make the rabbit breath hard.
The shed was huge for what it was really. If was designed with medium animals in mind. and was big enough that Judy could live in it comfortably in comparison to the place she was living in now. It had a tin roof that was almost too steep for what she wanted to do, but it would still work.
It was still too tall for her to climb straight up. Even being a bunny and having the ability to jump almost twice as high as she was tall. Judy didn't have the powers of spider fox. So she was going to have to find another way to get up there. There was however a few trees that were growing right next to the building. Those will work perfectly.
A very short climb later she was right above the shed. She would need to jump a ways to get the rest of the way over. So she climbed higher than the shed so she could drop on top of it.
"Okay here we go; one, two, three." She pushed off the tree. She felt her stomach do a flip before she hit the roof. Upon impact she felt the bruise she had gotten from Jason Reed earlier that week flair with pain. "Aww man, I thought that had gone away. I have to admit that ram sure could pack a punch." She took a considerable amount of her wait off her leg and the pain started to dull.
She looked up and saw a familiar fox across the valley. He had his paws in his pockets and was just walking around, like he was taking a stroll in the park.
Over with Nick
Nick's plan was going smoothly, especially since Judy wasn't around anymore. Her being gone was going to make the act more convincing. At first he had no clue what he was going to do. On the drive over he had been planning to have fallen down one of the many cliffs, and was going to pretend to have a broken back and legs. But plans usually change, and that one certainly did.
Nick's new plan was more of a memory of something that had happened to his seventh grade social studies teacher. She had an allergy to alcohol and anything made with alcohol in it. One such thing was Tuxk spray-on sent neutralizer, which just so happened to be alcohol based. One of the students walked into the class room wearing an excess amount of the stuff, and she had a reaction to it. It wasn't a life threatening reaction; but she lost her voice for the rest of the day.
Nick wasn't one hundred percent sure if any of the recruits that he would be around would be wearing an alcohol based sent neutralizer. If they weren't he'd have to make something up. Maybe he'd just be allergic to the recruits themselves. That would save him the trouble of having to try and smell if they were wearing a sent neutralizer or not.
He nodded his head. Yeah, that would work.
Off in the distance he could hear Casey yelling out instructions to the recruits. He couldn't hear exactly what he was saying. Something about the perimeter of the drill, and not to cross it again. If Judy was around she could tell him what Casey had said. She had bunny ears so she could hear better than him.
Nick could hear some of the recruits starting to comb through the trees. So he did what any other person would do when they were out in the country, and kept walking along enjoying the beauty of the forest.
He was in a dried up creek bed at the moment. He could see several paths to get up and out further ahead. Along the old banks; willow bushes were still growing in excess. The paths he could see only smaller mammals could get through. This was the perfect place for his plan. All he needed to do was wait.
And it didn't take long as he could hear people coming just a short distance away. Soon a lion a bear an elephant and a couple wolves came into view.
One of the wolves saw Nick first. "Guys he's over here!"
The bear spoke next in a surprisingly high pitched voice for his size. "Sir are you in need of assistance?"
Nick jumped and turned around like he hadn't heard them walk up on him. He put on a smile that he hoped didn't look like he was planning something evil. "Oh hi! You guys must be the group of kids me and my partner are here to teach. Say have any of you seen her around? She's about this tall." He measured to his chest height with his paw. "Has big ears, and is probably still wearing a police uniform."
Nick was pulling out all the stops for this one. His best chance of success was if he could get the group in front of him to think he was perfectly fine. The best way to do that was to keep changing the subject.
The tiger raised his large paw. "Sir-" but he couldn't finish what he was going to say.
The fox raised both paws and waved them. "Where are my manors? What would my mother say if she were here now? Stop with the sir thing, it's way too formal." He held out his paw. "My name's Nick Wilde."
He walked forward to the group with a paw out. Surprisingly one of the wolves reached out to return the paw shake with a smile. The final piece in this puzzle had just clicked into place.
Nick grasped the paw the wolf held out for him. He sniffed once. Then twice. He could smell a sent neutralizer on the wolf in front of him. "You know, you guys smell funny. Is that?" His voice died in his throat and is eyes widened.
Nick started coughing. At first it was a dry cough then it turned more into a wheeze. While this was happening the recruits surrounded Nick. One of the wolves was holding Nick's shoulder; giving him support. Suddenly Nick dropped to his knees and is wheezing got worse.
"He's going into anaphylactic shock! Lance! Get an Epipen! Now!"
The elephant, who had been carrying the same first aid kit Brock had been digging through earlier, dropped the bag and started digging furiously through it.
Nick jerked and fell on to his back where he clutched his throat and convulsed like a fish out of water. Nick very suddenly started tearing at a pocket on his pants. Nick made the decision that to make the act more vivid he would have to rip at his pants to get the pen he had.
Nick clawed so hard at his pocket that he actually ripped through the fabric to get the pen. Once in his paw he started fumbling with the case it came in.
It was standard protocol for an epipen to come in a case, and with a safety installed to make it harder for children to accidentally give themselves a shot. But when you can't breathe, the case and the safety which was pretty complex was almost impossible to get apart.
Thankfully the wolf that had shook Nick's paw saw the pen as soon as Nick had it out of his pocket. He immediately acted by trying to get it from the crazed fox. But there was a problem with that; Nick held on to the pen for dear life. Rightly so, what would you do if someone was trying to take your only chance of survival away?
After a second of tug of war the wolf managed to get it away from Nick. The fox just started convulsing worse than ever. In steady, but shaking paws; the wolf ripped the pen out of its case, pulled the safety pen and stuck it in Nick's thigh.
It was a trainee so all it did was make a loud click. Within ten seconds Nick had stilled and was breathing again. He had never really stopped breathing but he had disguised it with the thrashing about he had been doing.
From start to finish the whole thing only lasted maybe forty seconds. But it had felt like longer as the whole group was breathing hard.
The recruits formed a circle around the fox. Eventually he stood up on shaky legs. Several of them grabbed on to him to give support so he didn't fall. He stood there for a second but started to walk. Almost as if he was walking off a pain.
When Nick was in the academy and had to do these drills they had gone over the use of epipens and what the side effects were. Immediately after injection the person that had the injection was supposed to be held down. The reason for this was clear if you knew what the eip in epipen stood for. It stood for epinephrine, also known as adrenaline. A normal amount of adrenaline usually made someone feel giddy and sometimes excited. The amount of epinephrine injected by an epipen was substantially more than what your body would release in one go.
Sometimes after a massive scare like going into anaphylactic shock and the flood of adrenaline in the blood stream could make some people have uncontrollable muscle movements. Sometimes it would also give the feeling of being intoxicated. All of these things combined could cause someone to act as if they were drunk and were having the biggest sugar rush of their life. Not a good combo.
Nick turned around and looked at the group of people behind him. Since he had gotten up a horse and a raccoon had shown up to help after having heard the commotion. Nick's tail started to twitch uncontrollably; exactly like a cat's would. A smile started to appear on his face. A smile that said; 'you just made one of the worst mistakes of your life.'
Suddenly he stood up straight, pointed a finger in the air and declared: "It's a good day laddies!" Then he turned in a flash and was running away. He crawled right through one of the small paths in the willows and was gone.
Back with Judy
Judy had watched the whole scene with Nick with only mild concern. He sure put on a convincing act. If this wasn't a drill she would have probably had a heart attack with how bad it would have scared her.
She couldn't watch the 'dying' fox for long however because a small group of people had just came into view. There was an antelope, bison and a wood chuck. The antelope was the first one to spot Judy up on the building. Very soon after they were gathering around.
The wood chuck waved his paws to get Judy's attention. "Ma'am are you okay? Do you need help getting down?"
Judy looked down with a puzzled look on her face. After she heard the question she shook her head; no.
"I'm sorry ma'am. Was that no to; 'are you okay' or 'do you need help getting down."
Judy had to try hard not to smile evilly. Again she shook her head this time; yes.
The wood chuck sighed in frustration but kept his composure and a level voice. "Ma'am we're going to help you get down from there and take you to see a doctor. Is that alright?" Judy shook her head no again, this time very slowly.
The bunny was still standing up and her hip was starting to bother her again. With the angle she was having to stand to keep from falling down.
Because of her elevated height she could still see Nick even though he had walked away from his small group. His tail had started to make some weird movements. She couldn't see it from the distance she was at, but Judy could swear he was smiling the best 'you just got hustled' smile she had ever seen. What he did next she was not expecting at all.
"It's a good day laddies!" the fox yelled.
Judy's mouth dropped open as Nick turned and ran away from the recruits that were trying to help him. It started as a snort but she couldn't help it and started laughing at the cries and yells of the recruits.
"He's getting away!"
"Get the fox!"
"Why's he running?!"
"I don't know!"
"Help!"
The bison turned around. "What in the world?"
The antelope put a hoof on the bison's shoulder before she could leave to go and chase after Nick. "Stop Becky. The others can handle it. You're the tallest of us, we need you here."
"Yeah, right okay."
Meanwhile up on the roof Judy was still laughing herself to death. She had tears in her eyes and her side was starting to hurt. The bunny was so busy laughing she subconsciously straightened her leg out.
It was sudden; it shocked everyone there; especially Judy. Her leg cramped. "aah!" she curled up and grabbed her leg. Without the use of her now cramped leg she lost balance on the roof and fell. First she hit the roof with a bang. Which hurt her hip and leg even more. Then she started sliding down the slope of the roof from the peek.
At the edge of roofs there is something called drip edge. This is installed to prevent water from rain or snow from dripping along the underside of the roof and into the building. If it was installed properly a person couldn't even tell it was there.
The drip edge was installed properly on this roof. The only thing that made it obvious was a row of tin screws on the very edge of the roof, each about two feet apart. It was one of these screws that caused many problems for the sliding rabbit. Unfortunately for Judy she slid right over one if the screws.
Falling on the roof, sliding down it and right over a jagged screw. All this happened so fast Judy didn't even really know what was happening until she was actually falling through open air. She barely had time to open her mouth to scream when just as suddenly as she had started falling she stopped.
In her fall she had managed to roll herself into a ball to maybe somehow make the impact with the ground hurt her less. Slowly she untangled her arms and lifted her head. She was sitting in a pair of hoofs. The Bison had caught her. She looked up to see her concerned face
"Are you alright?" She asked.
Judy nodded her head. "Yeah. I'm fine."
After the bison set her on the ground the back of her leg, right above her knee, started itching up a storm. When she reached down to itch it she found her pants torn from the back of the knee do the middle of her calf. Upon further inspection she discovered a relatively deep cut right above her knee.
"Huh. How'd that happen?" Despite the fact that there was a three inch cut that was bleeding rather badly, Judy remained quite calm about the whole thing. This wasn't the first time she had hurt herself, nor was it the worst. "Any of you guys have something to make a tourniquet?"
Back with Nick, again
To say Nick was having fun was an understatement. He was having the time of his life. It reminded him of his high school track days. Him and Flash sure broke some records back then. Good times, good times.
He was really having a hard time keeping himself from laughing at all the yelling that the recruits were doing in their panic to catch him.
"He's getting away!"
"Get the fox!"
"Why's he running?!"
"I don't know!"
"Help!"
Nick allowed a couple of chuckles as he ran up the south side of Safety Valley. The fox didn't want to get any of the recruits in trouble for taking them out of the perimeter of the drill. So he started running horizontal along the hill instead of up.
Nick's little sprint didn't last long because he was starting to get a little bit winded. So he slowed to a fast jog. He could still hear his search and rescue group crashing through the woods behind him. He knew he would not be able to jog for long.
While he was jogging he could enjoy more of the stunning views the valley surrounding him had to offer. It was a little bit of a drive from the city so it was nearing sun set. He would have loved to have seen it during the fall. The way Judy had told him about the trees changing colors made him want to spend more time out here. He had never really been able to truly see what fall looked like in the country. He was a city fox after all.
Maybe he could con Judy into taking him to her family's house for Thanksgiving. Why would she do that? I'm just her work partner. Nick hated to admit it but this sounded logical to him. Why would Judy want to bring him to a family holiday when he was just her partner from work?
Last night when they were at dinner he had suggested, unintentionally of course, that he might visit with her. She never said no, of course him and George were teasing her to no end, so she never really had the chance to say no. But! She never said no. Which meant there was hope.
For far too long in Nick's life he had forgotten what hope was and what it meant. For years on end he just lived day to day just accepting that this was his lot in life; his hand of cards he'd been dealt. The only thing he really hoped was to make enough money to pay the rent. And that wasn't that prevalent. He had his bridge to go back to; it was free.
It wasn't until after Judy had given up her job. (He didn't know at the time) That he wondered the streets of Savanna Central hoping to see her giving out tickets to some unfortunate mammal. He had felt terrible about the way he had reacted to her answers at the press conference and at least wanted to apologize to her.
That was how the feeling of hope seeped back into his life again. The hope to at least make amends. Now it was the smallest chance ever but he still hoped that maybe by some impossible miracle Judy might love him back like he loved her. It was that hope that made him get up in the morning. Maybe, just maybe; there could be something more.
No longer would Nick Wilde just accept that this was his 'lot in life'. He had hope in his life again. And until the time came to act on that hope, it was enough to just keep that hope alive.
Broken from his deep thoughts Nick realized he had slowed down to a slow jog. Soon enough the pair of wolves were close enough for Nick to look over his shoulder and see them. So once again he picked up the speed. He hadn't been running again for long when he decided to mix things up a bit.
To lessen the strain on his legs and to make gravity do more work for him Nick turned and started following a path straight down the mountain. Nothing could go wrong. It was just another run at the academy. Everything was going just fine for the fox until he heard a crash in the distance.
"aah!"
"Judy?!" Nick knew her voice anywhere. He knew they both were at a mock search and rescue drill and were supposed to act hurt. The yell he just heard was not fake.
Everything was a blur for the next few seconds for Nick. Everything just happened so fast. Nick's cry which, really didn't do anything to him. Then he had stopped focusing on the path he was using and didn't see the pile of rocks in it. This did two things. First Nick wasn't by any means a slow runner and he had practically been sprinting down the hill. So when he made contact with the first rock in his path, he stepped down wrong and something in his knee exploded with pain. Second the rock he stepped on rolled out from underneath him as soon as he made contact with it. The result was the fox literally rolling head over tail down the side of a small mountain.
In less than two seconds Nick was ten feet down the hill sitting on his tail wondering how on earth he had gotten down here so fast. And why his knee was hurting so bad. Luckily for him the grass had softened the fall so the only thing that was hurt was his knee and his pride.
Nick shook his head to clear the dizziness that was plaguing him at the moment. That was kind of stupid. He looked to his left and saw one of the wolves running towards him.
He held up his paws to shield himself. "Don't tackle me! I'm not playing around anymore. I've really hurt my knee. You guys need to help me get back to the safety rock."
The first wolf was still panting as the second one reached the pair of them. It was the first wolf, the one that shook Nick's paw that spoke. "How do we know you're not going to try and pull something again?"
"You should know that if I was going to try something again you guys are supposed to stop me and get back to the safety rock to get medical attention for me." Nick didn't mean to be so rude about it but he was worried about Judy.
"You know he's got a point Brandon. Let's get him back." The second wolf said.
"Alright Scott let's get going." Answered the wolf deemed Brandon.
"Next time we have to do something like this. How bout you don't go shaking paws and sending people into anaphylactic shock." Scott scolded.
Brandon's ears fell. "Sorry, I was just trying to be friendly."
As the two wolves helped Nick stand and start walking, the fox started talking. "You didn't do anything wrong Brandon. Often times the best thing you can do in a situation where someone is hurt is try to calm them down and be friendly. Sometimes it makes a world of difference to be a friend to someone that needs one. The only thing you guys didn't do was hold me down after you gave me the epipen."
"Where did you learn to run like that Nick?" Scott asked changing the subject.
"Well I used to be a track runner back in high school with my good buddy Flash…"
At the Safety Rock
Brock and Casey were both reclined in folding chairs they had stashed behind the Safety rock. They could both agree that this was one of the funniest jobs they had ever had. It never ceased to be interesting how many ways recruits could always manage to screw up one of these drills. The hyena and giraffe were busy laughing at the ruckus Nick had somehow managed to cause.
"So do you think Nick will come back hurt somehow?" Brock asked.
Casey shook his head. "Nah, I think Judy might though."
"What makes you think that? She's so by the books, she probably decided to do the heat stroke thing."
"I'm not so sure. When you push her buttons right, she can get rather carried away to prove her point. And from what I've heard that fox knows exactly how to do that."
Brock smiled. "You want to bet on it?"
Casey sat up and looked at Brock over his glasses. "What kind of bet you talking about?"
"Twenty says the fox comes back hurt in some way."
"I'll take those odds. You're on!" They shook on it and it was official.
They both sat for all of three minutes until Casey broke the silence. "You know, what have our lives come to if we're betting money that the actors for our drills are going to get hurt or not?"
"I don't know. I'm just board aaand looking to make a quick buck."
"You're always looking to make a quick buck!"
Brock lowered his ears like he was ashamed. "Yeah you're probably right."
"You're not going to stop doing it are you?"
"Nope! I don't plan on it."
"Hey would you look at that."
Brock looked where Casey already was, and gasped at what he saw. Judy and a group of the recruits were making their way back. And anyone could clearly see a bandage around her leg up from where she was being carried by the bison.
"Looks like I win pay up." Casey was holding out his hoof waiting for his prize.
"Hold up! I see Wilde and he doesn't look much better than the rabbit does." He was right. Nick's uniform was rumpled and dirty with grass stains all over. Not only were his clothes disheveled but his fur was too. He looked like he was in a fight and had lost.
"Well who wins if they're both hurt?" They both looked at each other and shrugged.
Nick's group, the bigger of the two, arrived at their destination first. Nick had an arm draped over both of the wolves' shoulders. Because they were so tall in comparison to the fox his foot paws were dangling about a foot in the air.
Even so the fox still seemed to be in high spirits. "It's true that Flash was a sloth. He's the fastest sloth you'll ever see."
Brandon rolled his eyes. "I don't know about you Scott, but I think we're having our tails pulled again."
"I swear I'm not pulling your tails. Here, hey Carrots! Tell these two I'm not lying about Flash." He called to the bunny who had just been carried into talking range.
Despite having the cut on her leg Judy was also in a good mood. She was proud of the group that had found her. They had all kept calm and had handled the situation masterfully. Being around the annoyingly hansom fox again did nothing but increase her mood.
"I'm going to side with Nick this time. Flash really is a sloth that raced track with Nick when they were in high school."
Nick laughed in victory. "See, I told you!"
"She's your partner; she'll side with you on anything." Scott pouted.
Nick shook his head and sighed. "Fine, you'll just have to meet him to believe me. Drop on by the Savanna Central DMV, ask for Flash. Then see what you have to say."
The two groups, now one big one, continued walking until they at last made it back to the Safety Rock. Nick and Judy were both gently placed back on the ground.
Casey and Brock had both stashed their folding chairs before anyone could see them. Now the instructors were both standing with their arms crossed in front of their chests. Since Nick hurt his left leg and Judy her right, they helped the other hobble up in between Casey and Brock.
Casey raised his voice to get the attention of everyone there. "Alright guys. Nice work on the speed; that was something you needed to improve since last time. Now I'll let Nick and Judy tell you how you guys did on taking care of them."
"After you Carrots."
"Well thank you Nick." She laid on the sarcasm thick. "Okay guys, I can't complain about the treatment I got. You guys were calm and collected and there wasn't any yelling. You guys handled my cut like champs even though there wasn't supposed to be any real injuries in this drill."
Becky the bison raised a hoof. "Why were you on the roof?"
"Aaaa I never really thought about why. I was just trying to make it as hard as possible for you to get me down. It would have worked better if I hadn't of fallen."
When she mentioned this she could feel Nick tense up. She elbowed him to tell him she was fine and to tell him it was his turn to talk.
Nick put his free paw to his chin. "So what did you guys do wrong?" He asked himself. "The only thing you did wrong was not holding me down after you gave me the epipen. Those things have epinephrine, also known as adrenaline in them. Lots of adrenaline and a life threatening scare like severe anaphylactic shock can make people do some crazy things. Its better safe than sorry to hold them down, otherwise they can hurt themselves; like I did."
"Is that everything you have to say?" Casey asked. Nick and Judy nodded. "Well you guys get down to the med lodge and have Jerry look at your legs. Thanks for helping us out today."
"Sure thing Casey." Judy replied.
"I'll see you later Brock." Nick gave him finger guns.
The pair then started hobbling back to their cruiser. It was actually really hard to do. It was like a three leg race where if you use the third leg you're in great pain. If they were under better circumstances both Nick and Judy would have enjoyed the excuse for some physical contact with the other. They would never tell the other that though.
Once they made it back to the road and their car they climbed in the driver's door because neither wanted to walk around the cruiser. Once Nick was seated in the driver's position he picked Judy up and set her over in the passenger's seat.
They were silent for a few seconds. Some body needed to say something. With a sigh Judy decided it was going to be her.
"Are you okay Nick?" She was rather nervous about asking. She didn't know why, but there was a tension in the air
"I'll live. But I should be asking you the same question. Did you really fall off a roof?"
"Maybe." Judy tried to hide her smile, she really did. But Nick could still see it.
"Why do you think it's funny?" He reached his paw out and Judy handed him the keys.
"I don't think me falling off a building is funny. I just think it's cute how worked up you're getting about it." She started giggling.
Nick scoffed. "I'm not getting worked up!"
"Then why are you yelling? You're getting defensive about something."
Nick looked over at Judy. The smirk she had on her face said everything she didn't. It also was making it impossible to try and talk his way out of this one. He looked away and sighed.
"Fine, I was worried, about, you." He mumbled hesitating between words.
"Well there's nothing to worry about but your knee. My leg will heal in a week or so. If you don't do something about yours, you're going to be on desk duty for a month while you recover. If you're on desk duty, I'll probably be on desk duty too. Worse yet we might even be on bathroom duty." Both the small officers shuddered at the thought.
"Okay Carrots, let's get going. Are you going to be a right?" He started the engine and started driving the opposite direction they had come.
"Yes Nick, I'll be fine." Judy was touched by just how much Nick was concerned for her. Maybe there's more to how he feels about me than I realized. She didn't know for sure, but she could hope.
Nick and Judy crept through the revolving doors at the front of the ZPD. Well crept as best they could with their hurt legs. They had taken Casey's advice and had gone to the academy med lodge. Instead of having to drive all the way back to Zootopia to go to a hospital.
While there they had gotten treatment. Judy had gotten eleven sutures and was good to do light work. Nick on the other paw was another story. He had stretched the PCL ligament in his knee. Since it wasn't completely torn there wasn't much a person could do. All Nick got was a brace and a set of crutches. He would however not need the crutches for long; four days max. But he would be wearing the brace for a while.
Now all they needed to do was inform the chief of their current state and then they would be off for the rest of the night. Both the tiny officers were not looking forward to the task.
Since it was night time the ZPD had slowed down, but not much. The main difference was it was quieter. Neither the fox or bunny were ever around at this time of the evening because they usually went home with the rest of the day shift.
Nick had been struggling with his crutches since he had gotten them. Another unstable step and he almost lost balance, again. "How do you work these things?!" He muttered in quite exasperation.
Judy cast the fox a look of amusement. It wasn't often she saw him frustrated with anything. "Don't worry; you'll get used to them in no time."
Once again he started muttering beneath his breath. "Curse your bunny hearing."
"I heard that too." She said in a sing song voice.
Nick shook his head and quit talking altogether. They continued limp walking to the elevator.
On the way up Nick grew tired of the silence. "How are we supposed to tell the chief about today?"
Judy sighed before she answered. "I'm just going to tell him what happened and that we were told to do it."
Nick tried to cross his arms but couldn't because of the crutches. "And that's supposed to work; how?"
Judy glared at the fox. "I don't know. Do you have any better ideas?" She threw her arms up and started walking around the small room of the elevator. She did have fun today but she would admit that what she did was pretty stupid and she was starting to regret it.
"Don't worry Carrots it'll all turn out okay."
Judy sighed; he was right, it would straighten it's self out. Her getting flustered about it would only make things worse; she needed to calm down. "Okay Nick. I'm sorry; I got a little excited there."
She was looking at him with the biggest most beautiful eyes. There was no way he could fault her. "No worries Fluff." He paused and looked away. "So we're just going to tell him what happened?"
"Yeah, I guess." The elevator doors opened with a ding. "Well best get it over with fast."
When she had said that she was not expecting it to happen. When Nick knocked on the big ominous glass door it opened almost immediately. It opened so fast and suddenly that it made Judy jump.
In the door way stood the looming form of Chief Bogo. He must have been on his way out when they knocked because he had a black jacket draped over his shoulder, which would explain why the door opened so fast. He looked down to see the battle worn cops in front of him. Of all the dumb things I've done. Why did I ever send those two out there? I could have sent anyone else, but no. He just looked down at them not saying a word. He could see them start to fidget as they got more nervous.
Judy started first. "Chief, look about earlier-"
He held up a hoof silencing the rabbit. He considered punishing them. Unpaid leave might do the trick. No it's still Monday they would miss a whole week of pay. I can't do that. I could do payed leave. The way Hopps is about her job, it would kill her to get payed to do nothing. I bet she will drag Wilde down with her so he can't enjoy his punishment. He had a hard time not laughing.
"I don't want to hear your excuses, nor do I care. You're on leave for the rest of the week. I don't want to hear a peep from either of you until next Monday. Got it!" They both shook their heads. "Good. Dismissed!"
He marched off quite satisfied with his decision. He just killed three birds with one stone. They would be out of his hair, they could heal and they were getting punished all at the same time. It was going to be a quite week.
Judy ran after Bogo. "Sir, what about the case?"
"I'm sure Wolford can take care of anything that comes up. If it is really that urgent I'll have him call you guys back in. Now it's past your quitting time, go home and relax." He actually smiled before he turned to leave.
Nick hobbled up behind Judy. "You know I like the part about relaxing. But we have something that needs to be settled first."
Judy looked up at him with a look of dread on her face. "And what would that be?"
He smirked. The same smirk that made Judy want to slap and kiss him at the same time. "Who won our bet?"
AN:
Hello everybody and welcome back to the part where I usually ramble. But not this time. It's going to be short! XD
First: Super huge shout out to anyone that went to camp Alexander in Colorado this summer 2017. An even bigger shout out to the staff that worked there with me. I miss you guys.
Second: the mock drill scenarios that I described in this chapter; weren't fake. They really took place in real life. I played in one of the ones I described myself. If you can guess which of the three I was in I'll give a shout out to you.
Third: a question if I may. This might influence the story a little bit. Since I don't know how to do polls on FanFiction and Deviantart just answer in the comments. Who won the bet? Who's crazy scenario won: Nick's or Judy's?
I know other authors say this all the time, and I know I say it a lot too. But thank you guys so much for reading faving following etc. I don't think it will ever fail to make my day better and put a smile on my face knowing you guys and gals like what I'm doing. Thank you guys! I'll see you all next time. :)