Chapter 5 Will you wait for me?
Edited by BeecroftA
(Four months later)
A grey rabbit walked through bland tiled hallways. The concrete walls provided little in the way of aesthetics, but that wasn't what the building was built for. Her path met another steel gateway and the wolf next to her glanced at the camera mounted into the ceiling and waved before swiping a keycard and typing in a passcode. The steel door slide open without a sound and the two continued along their path.
"So..." the wolf stated, breaking the silence. "Is it true?"
Judy looked up at the wolf, curiosity in her expression. "What do you mean?" she asked as she they rounded a corner and met another barred gateway.
"About you and him?" the wolf asked before repeating a pattern he'd now done countless times. "You know, the whole...dating...thing..."
The bunny scowled, mentally checking her frustration at being asked this same question a multitudinous amount of times in the past few months.
"Yes," she huffed, tempted to let her foot angrily pat against the ground but managed to restrain herself. "Yes to him being assigned to kill me. Yes to him changing his ways. No to any plans being made between us and as to the other rumors...maybe."
Judy was quite pleased by the frantic expression on the wolf's face. His skin paled underneath his coppery fur, giving Judy even more satisfaction at mollifying her escort as they made their way to a final door. The doe was starting to become nervous once more. It happened every time she came to this place. Every time she came to see... him.
She didn't know why her paws would fidget, or lips would become dry. Nor why she so suddenly smoothed down her ears, or caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror above the door so she could check to make sure her uniform had no spots or wrinkles.
A final buzz from this door and Judy walked through, the wolf waiting on the opposite side.
"I think I'll be able to watch you two from over here," he stated with a wink. "No privacy is our motto."
Though the door stayed open, the wolf leaned against the wall a few yards behind it, humming to himself. Grateful for the tiny act of kindness he was giving them, Judy prepared herself for the following half-hour. A tiny seat awaited her in front of a plastic window, and a short ledge led away from it. Placing herself into the chair, smoothing out any last wrinkles she could find, the rabbit waited for the chair on the opposite side of the divider to be filled.
It didn't take long until the door leading to the other room opened. A black bear and a kudu walked in, a familiar red fox walking in chains between them. Judy felt her smile grow at the sight of him, even if the orange jumpsuit he wore clashed terribly with his fur color. He caught her gaze and returned it with one filled with just as much warmth. Judy flicked on the speaker built into her side of the counter as the guards on the other side attached Nick's pawcuffs to the counter on his side. He flicked on the speaker, an excitement in his words as he spoke.
"Hey Carrots, how's life on the rough side of the tracks?" She heard a grunt and a snort come from the two guards on either side of him. "Thank you," he said as they finally secured his cuffs to the table. "Say hello to the family for me willya Steve...and John?"
The bear turned to look at the fox with a raised eyebrow. Nick gave him a rather large smirk in return.
"Don't forget my advice about Sandra. Trust me, sunset walk in Meadowlands park about halfway down the trail. The spot between the two boulders where the sun will be setting perfectly between them. Best place to propose."
"Thanks," the bear grunted, the barest hint of a smile on his face. "I'll make sure to do that. She sends her regards, but I snarfed all the cookies."
Nick made an attempt at snapping his fingers, the pawcuffs getting slightly in the way. "Darn, maybe next time. Has she tried out the recipe for those ginger snaps I gave you?"
thump thump thump thump thump thump.
"Uh oh," Steve grunted. "I think you should be paying attention to your girl, Wilde. She's thumping again."
Nick paused, his ears dropping in embarrassment as he returned Judy's gaze. The two guards chuckled as he turned to face the smiling face of Judy Hopps. "Sorry, don't get much time to talk in solitary."
Judy's own ears drooped. "I'm sorry that I couldn't get you a better deal Nick."
Nick waved her off with his paw. "No worries. You did the best you could and frankly, I deserve to be in here for what I've done."
"But..." Judy attempted to say, only for Nick to give her a scowl.
"No, I deserve this, Judy. No matter how much right we did and what we accomplished, I still killed mammals. Their blood is on my paws and I need to pay restitution for my crimes."
"I know," Judy huffed. "I just don't like seeing you on the other side like this."
"Feeling's mutual." Nick let out a heavy sigh. His eyes momentarily lost their brilliance before he forced a smile back upon his muzzle. "So, what have you been up to? Saving the city again? Rescuing baby squirrels from trees? Oh, arrest any more police commissioners?"
The last one brought out a laugh from the bunny. "Not yet. Trials still pending on Commissioner Freemammal though. It's crazy that he could have prevented all this if he had simply not hidden those police reports about assassinations in the city."
"Reports," Nick chimed in, "that a certain bunny managed to find hidden in the secret lair of the guild itself? A building she nearly took down single-pawed, might I add?"
Judy looked a bit embarrassed. "I had backup."
"Ten minutes away from what I've heard," Nick chuckled, though the laughter soon lost its mirth. "Judy, please don't put yourself in that kind of danger again. I know you wanted to do it for me, but...I don't want you to be injured or even killed doing something that reckless again."
"But she was the one who ruined your life!" Judy stated loudly through the speaker. "I couldn't let her be free for another minute while you were in jail because of what she did. Your own mother lied to you, forced you into her service by faking her own abduction!"
"I know..."
"...And then used you to do her bidding in her 'family business', all the while threatening to kill, well, herself if you ever rejected an assignment...
"I know..." Nick growled in frustration.
"And you just wanted me to let her go?"
"No, not that...just, you could have waited for help. Not like what I heard you did from some of the guards, where you tranqed or knocked out twenty mammals including my mother...while the building was on fire!"
Nick settled a hard stare upon the bunny who nearly wilted under his gaze. "I didn't want to lose you, Judy. Not so soon after you saved my life." He leaned back as far as he could until his chains rattled, reminding them both of his limitations. "I still don't understand any of this. I might not have been happy with my life, and my decisions, but...I had accepted them. Didn't question them because of what I knew that would mean."
He chuckled to himself, eyes focused on his paws locked to the table. "And then some dumb little bunny comes into my life and for some reason, or some bun-tacular power that I have yet to divine, she upsets everything. Then with a single meeting..."
Leaning forward, he placed his head against the window. "How did you do it?"
Judy sighed and leaned forward until her head thunked against the window. Two mirrored individuals sharing similar thoughts and passions, not quite yet understood.
"I don't know," she whispered. "Your honeyed words might have had something to do with it. Didn't think a fox could be so sweet with their words. Pop-Pop always said you had a forked tongue, not a silver one."
Nick let out a rumbling laugh which Judy felt through the divider, soothing her somewhat. "I don't think that was it. Something else happened there for us to just..."
"...click?" Judy added as Nick searched for a word. Again he laughed, and again, Judy felt a wave of calm run through her. "It does kind of feel like that doesn't it?"
"Mhmm."
A silence fell between them, each leaning against the thin plastic that kept them apart. Judy, after several moments, sighed and moved away from her fox. She looked up to see his eyes cast downward.
"It's okay, Carrots," he began, his voice trembling. "If you aren't there when I'm released...I'll understand. You have a lot going for you and I don't want you to be hung up on a criminal fox." Judy couldn't believe the words coming out of Nick's mouth, feeling confused as to why he would even say something like that as he continued. "Besides, I don't think it would be good for your career as a cop to be even friends with a hitmammal."
"Former hitmammal," Judy finally said in a strong and unwavering voice. "A former criminal who was coerced into it by his mother, threatened with death if he didn't comply and who when given an opportunity to destroy the operation that had enslaved him, did so."
Judy sniffled as she smiled at the stunned fox on the other side of the plastic divider. "You are so much more than just a criminal fox, Nick. And I'd gladly give up my career to be with you."
"You...you would?"
Judy nodded, sniffling while wiping away a tear. "I'll be waiting..." she said with a soft titter of laughter. "If I can, I'll be the guard to bring you out so I can hug you all the sooner. I'm not going to give up on you, even if I have to come to your cell to drag you out of it when the time comes."
"Oh, daring rabbit, going into solitary with a ferocious fox." Nick smiled, loving the laughter coming from the bunny opposite him.
"It would be worth it to see you again...and not through this." Judy held her paw up to the barrier, with Nick returning the gesture. Though their paws were greatly mismatched, they still seemed to fit against one another.
"See you in a few years then," Nick softly exclaimed.
"I'll be waiting," came Judy's reply.
(Ten Years Later)
The clang of the cell doors reached the fox's ears, waking him from his slumber. Emerald eyes blinked open, paw going to shield his eyes from the bright lights flickering on in his cell. It was as normal a wake-up as ever after ten years in this place. This single cell had become his home, every inch of it memorized within the first few days.
"Morning John," Nick said while wiping the sleep from his eyes. The bear had been working at the prison as long as he'd been incarcerated and the two had developed quite the friendship. The black bear had even delivered the fox an invite to his wedding, glumly stating that he wished he could attend since the fox had been the reason the bear even had the courage to ask his future-wife out to begin with.
The invite still sat on the table in the corner, the couple smiling at him for the past nine years. The edges were frayed from near-constant handling, the invite always giving him a smile as he remembered watching it live from the prison after getting approval from the warden to have it televised into his cell.
"So," Nick called out, snapping his jaw several times to get the dry taste out of his mouth. "How's the missus? Getting used to the new cubs yet?"
"I wouldn't know," came a much softer, smoother voice than the one from the bear that he was used to.
Nick's eyes popped open immediately, widening at the sight of, not an enormous and powerful black bear that he'd become used to, but a grey rabbit in a blue uniform, three stars on each shoulder and a tearful smile on her face.
The two mammals stared at each other, each mesmerized by the sight of the other. Both felt a tug on their hearts as Judy stepped into the cell, a smile gracing her lips. Judy was the first to break the silence.
"It's time," she said.
Nick eyes flicked down to her paw bereft of rings.
He smiled.
"You waited."
"Did you ever doubt?" came her reply, before the rabbit rushed at him. The two embraced, tears quickly staining their cheeks and sob-filled laughter filling the cell. "I told you I'd wait forever for you," she whispered, nuzzling into his chest, finally happy to feel her fox holding her once more.
Nick wrapped his arms around the doe, placing his muzzle between her ears, relishing the sweet and intoxicating scent of Judy that he had missed for a decade. After several minutes, they broke apart, Judy grabbing his paw.
"Come on, let's get you processed and out of here."
"Sounds good, Captain," Nick rejoiced, noticing the stars on her shoulder. The rabbit smiled. She had visited him once a month for the past decade, regaling him with all the tales she could tell about what was happening in the city. She had made Captain the year before after leading a raid that finally broken Mr. Big's mafia ring, the doe herself escorting the shrew from his manor and reading him his rights.
The two left the cell, paw in paw, heading towards a new life...finally together.
Nick woke from the latest simulation, puzzled at what he could remember. By far it felt like the longest he had experienced, not that it was a bad thing in itself.
"Oh good, you're awake."
Nick turned to see Judy smiling at him, her helmet already removed and placed on the stand next to the seat. "What did you think of the choice you made?"
Nick scratched the back of his head. "It was...interesting. I mean, and don't get me wrong but, how did that ending happen?"
A look of deep thought passed over Judy's face. "I was wondering that myself. I would have expected a much different outcome from a projection called, 'Assassin', but was never expecting what happened."
"So you remember it?" the fox asked.
Judy nodded. "Bits and pieces." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Like how you tried to kill me."
"I did?" Nick replied. "I only remember falling in love with a gorgeous bunny."
Judy smiled, "Nice save, Slick, but I think you're going to need a reminder about why choosing a simulation where you tried to assassinate your wife is a bad idea, even if it wasn't you at the beginning of it like how Fitwick told us."
Nick's ears lowered as a nervous expression took hold over his face. "You're not thinking..."
Judy's grin widened. "Sparring day, tomorrow," she stated gleefully, before leaning over to pat Nick's cheek. "If either of us were going to be an assassin, I don't think it would be you."
"I have the marksmammalship for it," Nick huffed, smirking only so very slightly. "How much did I outrank you by at the sniper training for SWAT? Ten points? Fifteen points?"
"Twelve..." Judy grumbled under her breath. "But only because..."
"Uh uh uh," Nick chided, cutting off the bunny and watching how she growled at him. "It was a fair competition. And how about I make an offer."
Judy folded her arms across her chest. "An offer?"
"One that you can't refuse, might I add," Nick added, relishing the groan that his pun had gotten from Judy. "How about the next time we do a simulation like this, we both get to be the bad guy?"
Judy's ears shot up. "Is that possible? I thought the simulations were entirely random and we had no ability to craft them ourselves until we were in them?"
Nick's smirk broadened. "I may have spoken with Fitwick a few times about that and he may have mentioned he could mess around with the PIXAR machine to make it work like that."
"Really?" Judy said, surprise and excitement in her voice. Her tail flicked in joy and Nick had to suppress the desire to 'aww' at the sight.
Nick nodded. "He said it might take a few months, but he'll give me a ring when it's ready. So, how about it, Carrots? Want to both be hitmammals together next time?"
Judy gave him a wide grin. "Sounds good to me, Slick."
The pair left the arcade, making sure to buy the experience along with a second helmet so they could both relive the simulation together again at some point. As they walked out of the arcade, a nervous smile crept upon Nick's muzzle.
"So...is tomorrow really sparring day?"
Judy could only grin. "Absolutely, one hundred percent."
Nick groaned.
AN: Special thanks to Kittah4 for letting me use his OC Freemammal in this. :)
And that ends Assassin! I wanted to write a bit of a different take on these two, and after an idea from Zeronone, this is what came from it. A very different "What if...?" scenario so I hope you enjoyed it. Next up, we get to see what would happen if Judy decides that parking duty isn't enough justice for her to dole out on any given day, and decides to do a little extra 'vigilante justice' at night. ;)