Carrot Farmers – Chapter 2
Written by Midnightopheliac
The sound of frantic knocking pulled Sheriff Judy Hopps from her slumber. Grumbling under her breath, she hauled herself out of bed, pulling open her bedroom door to find her father standing there, paws grasping at the straps of his dungarees.
"Mornin' Jude. I need you to run a name for me quickly, please," Stu greeted his daughter. He'd hoped that she would become a carrot farmer and join the family business, but Judy had dreamt of joining the police force. She'd spent a year training and had returned as an officer, looking over the residents of Bunnyburrow. Stu had been relieved that his little girl had been assigned their home district and hadn't been shipped off to the big city as crime was almost non-existent in Bunnyburrow, making his daughter's job extremely safe. With limited crime and few officers in the district, Judy worked her way up to Sheriff far quicker than she would have done in the city. The job came with the same perks as the city workers though, something that Stu loved – healthcare, safety, a good pension, safety, and access to all police records...
...and did he mention safety?
"You want me to what?" Judy frowned, letting her dad into her room as she crossed to her desk, lifting the lid on her police issue laptop. They knew everyone in the district, why would he need her to look up someone?
Stepping into his daughter's room, Stu closed the door behind him before he dropped his voice to a whisper, knowing that all of his kits had excellent hearing. None of them needed to know about their new guest just yet. "We had a visitor last night, he's in the barn. I want to make sure he's not a criminal."
Confused, but willing to oblige her father, Judy logged onto the secure police network. "Okay, do you have a name?" She poised ready to type, her curiosity piqued. They rarely had visitors in Bunnyburrow, and given that the Hopps farm was on the outskirts of the district it was even more unusual for them to have guests.
"Nicholas Wilde." Stu reiterated the name the fox had given him, stepping closer to his daughter so he could peer over her shoulder at the screen.
Judy typed in the name, hitting the enter key. It took a moment for the system to catch up, but soon she was staring at a photo of a red fox. "Our guest is a fox?" Judy hissed, head tipping so she could look at her father.
Stu checked the photo on the screen; pleased to see it matched the mammal in the barn. "Mhm. That's him alright. Found him in the back of the barn. The kit was soaked right through, scrawny as hell. I offered him food and lodgings in exchange for him working the farm."
"Are you nuts! We don't even know him!" Judy gestured to the screen, her gaze returning to the picture of the tod. She couldn't deny he was easy on the eyes, but he was a fox. Foxes were trouble. They lied frequently, were known to have sticky fingers, and once upon a time they'd eaten Judy's kind.
"Which is why I'm having you look into him. What does it say?" Stu asked. He couldn't leave the fox in the barn for long, and there was a lot that needed doing before he could go back to him.
Sighing, Judy started to scroll through the results. "All he has is a misdemeanour for trespass," she informed her father, which earned an amused snort from the buck. "Other than that, he's clean. Driving license says he's 28, lives in Zootopia on Cypress Grove Lane with a Marian Wilde, and going by her age I'd say it's his mother. He works for Fur-nature Ltd as a laborer, pays his taxes every year, and no fraudulent activity has been flagged on his bank account."
"So he's a good kit?" Stu clarified, eyes skipping over the information on the screen. From the sounds of it, Nicholas wasn't a bad mammal.
"He's a fox, dad," Judy pointed out, rolling her eyes. Her mother had drilled it into her when she'd been a youngster that foxes were nothing but trouble, and a confrontation with Gideon Grey, one of Bunnyburrow's few fox residents, when she'd been nine years old had cemented that idea in Judy's mind.
"True, but overall he's not as bad as some foxes can be," Stu countered. The kits record was clean for the most part, and he'd been very polite towards Stu when he'd cornered him. That didn't mean the buck trusted him, but it was enough to make him consider being a little warmer towards him.
Judy shrugged, conceding. She'd seen her fair share of worse. Gideon Grey's rap sheet was miles long, after all.
"Alright, I'm feeling a bit easier about him being here now. I want you to keep an eye on him though, Jude. If he even gives you the smallest vibe of trouble you're to cuff him and kick him out of here, okay?" Stu assigned the job to his daughter, knowing she would be able to deal with Nicholas should he step out of line. Judy's police training had involved taking down larger mammals and he had absolute faith in his daughter.
Turning to her father, Judy lifted a paw to her chest in surprise. "Why is he my responsibility? You're the one who offered him food and lodgings!" she protested.
"Because you're the sheriff and my daughter, and I trust your judgment. Besides, trouble is at an all time low during harvest season, so it'll give you something to do." Nearly all of Bunnyburrow's residents were busy bringing in the crops during the day, and by the time night came around they were too exhausted to get into any mischief. It was the quietest time of year for his daughter, and rather than having her sitting around doing nothing, watching over the fox would give her something to do and would keep her occupied. It would also ease the old buck's concerns about having Nicholas on his property.
"You're too kind," Judy responded sarcastically; paw falling from her chest to land on her desk.
"Mind your tone, Judith," Stu admonished his daughter. She was an adult, yes, but he was still her father, and he expected a certain level of respect from her.
Having the decency to look apologetic, Judy dipped her head. "Sorry, dad."
Accepting his daughter's apology, Stu gave the fur on her head an affectionate ruffle. "It's fine. I'm going to take Nicholas some food, I want you to change and head over to the Grey house, see if they have any clothes they'd be willing to lend our guest."
Frowning, Judy looked up. "What happened to the clothes he arrived in?"
"They're filthy and torn, and your mother will have to wash and fix them before we can give them back to him. He can't work the fields in his underwear." Stu hadn't had the chance to properly examine Nick's clothes, but they'd looked tatty and worn. There was only so much his wife, Bonnie, would be able to do to repair them, but the buck hoped she'd be able to salvage them. Few places in Bunnyburrow sold clothes for foxes, and they didn't have the funds to order anything from the city for the tod. Still not sure how we're going to pay for 7th litter's college tuition next year...the buck contemplated.
"What if they Grey's won't lend us any clothes?" Judy wasn't that friendly with the Grey family. They caused a lot of trouble in the district, and she was always arresting Gideon for one thing or another. Her appearance on his family driveway often led to a confrontation.
"Then you'll think of something. You're the sheriff." Stu turned and left the room, striding back towards the kitchen to rustle up some food for the fox. He'd have to get used to vegetarian meals, as there was no way on earth Stu or Bonnie would be handling fish or bugs.
Groaning in frustration, Judy closed her search, logging out of the secure network and shut down her laptop. She had some clothes to find.
Judy had managed to convince the Grey's to lend her two outfits, and with them in paw, she'd made her way back home. Her father had been waiting for her in the kitchen, and once Judy had handed them over he'd headed out, clothes in one paw and a basket of food in the other. Her mother was busy preparing breakfast for herself and her 275 siblings. "I take it dad told you about the guest in the barn?" Judy set about helping her mom, stacking slices of bread next to the toasters.
Bonnie sighed. Stu had come back home and informed her about the guest in their barn and the deal he'd made with him. "Yes, and while I'm not best pleased, another set of paws during the harvest would be useful. At least your father had the foresight to leave him in the barn."
"Dad wants me to keep an eye on him." Judy chewed on her lower lip, placing the jumbo tub of butter down next to the bread, along with a pawful of butter knives.
"There's no one better for the job," Bonnie reassured her daughter with a tight smile. The Hopps matriarch didn't want one of her babies being around a fox, but Judy had experience with the sly species, she was most suited to the job.
Sighing, Judy's response was interrupted by the arrival of her siblings, who all piled into the warren's huge dining room, organizing themselves into a somewhat neat line, ready to enter the kitchen and get their breakfast. Grabbing a bowl of cereal, Judy pressed a kiss to her mom's temple. "I'll eat and then I'll go and see our guest."
"I want a full report when you get back!" Bonnie called out as her daughter made her way to the dining room. Giving her belly a quick rub, Bonnie shifted her focus to the fluffle waiting for food.
Judy ate quickly, eager to get out to the barn and see the fox who was causing such a fuss. She already had her trusty service belt on, complete with fox repellent should he try anything funny, so once her bowl was empty and stacked in one of the dishwashers, she headed for the back door.
The journey to the barn didn't take long, but upon her arrival, she found the door wide open and their guest nowhere in sight. His clothes were still strung over a wire at the back, though, and Judy made a mental note to collect them later and take them back to the warren to join the mountains of laundry. The doe decided to snoop around, to see if the fox had brought anything with him. A quick search of the barn turned up nothing except the small area he'd set aside for sleeping, and it appeared like he'd arrived with nothing more than the clothes on his back. As Judy left the barn, trained violet eyes spotted large hind paw prints in the dirt, the telltale sign of claws making small divots with every step the fox had taken. He couldn't have gone far, but Judy still took the farm cart she'd driven to the barn. If it came to it and he tried anything funny, she could at least mow him over with the vehicle to subdue him.
Keeping her eyes on the paw prints, Judy drove alongside them towards one of the larger carrot fields. Pulling over, she climbed atop the cart to give her some height. About halfway into the field, surrounded on all sides by carrots, she spotted a reddish-orange mammal. "Bingo!" Stepping down from the cart Judy double-checked her belt, paw finding her fox repellent, and she set off into the field.
When the buck had returned to Nick in the barn, he'd brought with him two clean sets of clothes and a basket of food. The rabbit had even shown Nick where the hosepipe was, and the fox took great pleasure in washing the mud out of his fur. Once he was clean and dressed, he'd eaten the food provided, savoring every bite, thanking the rabbit profusely for the delicious meal. With the food consumed, the tod had asked to start working right away, wanting to prove to the buck, that had introduced himself as Stuart Hopps, that he was hard working and appreciative. Stu had led him to a carrot field, handed him a bag of tools and a large basket, and set him to work.
Nick was struggling, but he was determined to do as much as possible. He was a city fox, and though he was good with furniture making tools, farm tools were new to him. Nick only had a few carrots in his basket, his method of removing them from the ground slow and tiring. He couldn't find the right way to harvest them, so had resorted to using his claws and digging the carrots out, slowly revealing them before he scooped them out of the dirt. Entrenched with his task, the shadow that fell over Nick spooked him, and the tod looked up quickly, worried he'd find a pitchfork in his face. Instead, he was met with the sight of a beautiful gray bunny that had the prettiest violet eyes he'd ever seen.
Judy loomed over the fox, who was down on his knees in the dirt, picking carrots. Folding her arms across her chest as she looked down at him, Judy was surprised when the tod looked up. Objectively she'd known he was easy on the eyes, the photo on his driving license had shown her that much, but seeing him up close, being on the receiving end of those emerald eyes, it made the doe falter for a split second. "So you're the mammal causing all the fuss," Judy finally said, finding her voice after clearing her throat.
Blinking, Nick took in the rabbit's demeanor. Her folded arms suggested defensiveness and Nick sank back onto his haunches. Wiping his right paw on his newly acquired pants, he offered it out to the doe. "Nicholas Wilde, Ma'am. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Glancing down at the paw offered out to her, Judy pursed her lips. Nick, feeling the sting of her rejection, let his paw drop, and nervously he grasped at the fabric of his pants.
The tod's body language made Judy feel like a jerk, and the doe felt a flash of shame. It was her job to serve and protect, to look out for all mammals, and here she was judging the fox before her without getting to know him. Tentatively she unfolded her arms, offering out a paw. "Sheriff Judy Hopps."
Nick had half a mind to reject Judy's paw, to give her a taste of her own medicine, but his mom had raised him to be the bigger mammal, so he reached out, shaking the offered paw. Her surname told the tod that she was more than likely Stu's daughter. "I apologize if I've caused any trouble, Sheriff." Nick spared a quick glance around as he took his paw back. "Is she here to arrest me for trespassing and seeking shelter in her family barn? I can't afford to be caught up with the cops."
"No trouble so far Nicholas," Judy crossed her arms back over her chest, not entirely comfortable being out in the open with him and having no one to back her up. "But I will be keeping an eye on you to make sure you don't step out of line or get sticky fingers, and if I see anything that concerns me, I will not hesitate to arrest you."
"Please, call me Nick." The use of his full first name made the tod cringe. Only his mother used it, and only when he'd done something wrong. The mention of her keeping an eye on him in case he stole anything made the fox frown, insulted by the insinuation that he was a thief. "I don't intend to steal anything from your family, Sheriff. Your father has been very kind to me, and I don't bite the paw that feeds."
Reading the foxes body language and micro-expressions, Judy could see that he'd taken her words to heart. Her warning still stood, though. Moving her gaze to the basket of carrots and the clean farm tools, she frowned, arms unfurling and falling to her sides. "You're not using the fork and spade?" She gestured to the paw tools, noticing that they were clean.
Eyes dropping to the tools, Nick bit the inside of his lip, moving his gaze to his dirt-covered claws. "I've never used them before, never harvested anything in my life. I was just using my claws, Sheriff," he confessed.
Ears drooping, Judy silently cursed her father for not showing Nick the ropes. City mammals weren't used to country work and in the end it would only slow down the work if he didn't know what to do. The fact that Nick had been using his claws, had been digging the carrots out and exhausting himself, getting filthy in the process, tugged at the doe's heart. "Watch yourself, Judy." She dropped to her knees opposite the fox, a carrot plant between them. "Judy. Please call me Judy." Rolling up her sleeves, she grabbed the fork.
"Here, let me show you how to do it." She offered, capturing the tod's attention. "First you need to loosen the soil around it with the fork." Judy demonstrated, gently breaking up the earth around the carrot. "Then gently grasp the green top and lightly pull, wiggling a bit." She put down the tool, following her own instructions until she'd plucked the carrot from the ground. "Give it a quick brush with your paw to get rid of some more soil." Judy cleaned the carrot before placing it in the basket at Nick's side. "Then use the spade to fill the hole back in." She finished up, offering the tools out to the fox.
Nick watched Judy carefully, following every move she made, memorizing the correct way to harvest the carrots. He appreciated her kindness, offering a small yet warm smile as she handed him the tools, careful to keep his mouth shut and hide his sharp teeth. Following Judy's instructions, Nick quickly harvested the next carrot plant. "There you go," Judy grinned. "We'll make a farmer out of you yet."
AN: Have I mentioned that you should check out Midnight's stories before? Because you should.