Chapter 3 - The Best Day Ever
Written by Zanrok
Edited by Cimar
Artwork by Mr. Punctual
Judy sat in the precinct briefing room amid the noise of the other officers and concentrated on looking professional. Back straight, paws clasped in front of her, a 'let's make the city a better place' smile beaming as she waited for Nick and the meeting to start. She was sure that Nick was simply waiting until the last moment to make a dramatic entrance and rolled her eyes at the thought… in a completely professional manner of course.
And because she was professional, she fought back the urge to tap her foot impatiently (as well as to bounce in her seat excitedly, continuously look at the door in anticipation, or let her professional smile turn to that of a giddy-teenage-high schooler grin).
She was concentrating so hard on not doing any of that, that she even managed to ignore the loud din of all the other officers boisterously chattering in the room.
"-really think you can beat her, Delgato? Fangmeyer destroyed you the last time you challenged her at arm-wrestling."
"-you hear about the Gazelle concert? I hear that Clawhauser can get us VIP tickets…"
"-totally gonna beat her this time! Been using that strength supplement vitamin pills the TV commercials have been raving about!"
"-we have an issue, my packs been starting to ask questions about where I've been at night, I think they suspect that we're togeth-mmmhph"
"-shhh! Not so loud or someone might hear! And do you really think they suspect that you'd be dating a tiger?"
"SQUEEEEE! YES! Already got tickets for the entire precinct to see The Angel with Horns! Did you doubt this cheetah's speed to snatch those spots?"
"-He has to know those infomercials vitamins are just a scam right? She's gonna wallop him again-"
Judy flinched at Clawhauser's squeal but wasn't really paying attention to any of the conversations in the room. Instead her ears were up and swiveled around towards the door listening to the sounds outside the room. She could hear Bogo's heavy hoofsteps as he clopped out of his office a few stories above her and him slamming the door, but more importantly she heard the slight, almost silent, click-click of foot claws tapping on the floor as a predator walked toward the briefing room. Judy stopped herself from looking toward the door but grinned even more and couldn't help but think that even the way he walked had a lazy, self-assured pace like he was leisurely strolling through the precinct without a care in the world.
"20 to 1 odds on Delgato? Oh I'll take that, the underdogs gotta win sometime."
"-Front row! Front Row tickets! SQUEALLLLLL-" Judy flinched again but kept her ears turned toward the door as the lazily confident click-clicking and irritated stomps of two set of footsteps got nearer.
"-wouldn't it be undercat, not underdog? Or is it underlion? Cats not P.C. right?"
"-been using the deodorizer right?… Stupid wolves and your stupidly good noses... Your pack didn't catch my scent on you did they?"
click-click-click Stomp Stomp
"Bogo even authorized everyone the night off! Said Precinct two 'agreed' to cover our shifts!"
click-click-click Stomp Stomp
"-didn't catch our scents, they noticed some orange fur on my clothes. I don't think it's gonna stay secret much longer."
click-Click-Click Stomp Stomp
"-going to be a nightmare when it gets out. *Sigh* maybe the fact that the bunny's foxy boyfriend is starting here today will make it easier for us- oh crap, Delgato's headed our way! He didn't overhear us did he?!"
Click-Click-Click Stomp Stomp
Judy was so focused on the sound of footsteps that it took her mind a moment to process the phrase 'bunny's foxy boyfriend'. Her head snapped over to where Delgato was approaching Fangmeyer and Wolford by the door and gaped at them.
Bunny's foxy boyfriend?! They can't be talking about- they don't think Nick and I are-
Judy's train of thought was derailed as the door to the room was slammed open by the Chief with one arm, his other holding a stack of folders while Nick casually walked in right under the chief's outstretched arm just as the sudden hush broke with the normal table pounding, foot-stomping-hoots that always accompanied the Chief's arrival.
"Well, that's quite the first day reception," Nick said with a confident smirk to the room as he waved for everyone to quiet down and the noise came to a confused and amused stop. Nick took a casual sip from his coffee and tilted his sunglasses down just far enough to send Judy a wink.
Head rocking a bit from the sudden start and stop to the deafening noise at his entrance Judy, realized that she was still gaping from the foxy boyfriend comment and snapped her mouth shut.
Bogo though, was looking down at Nick, with a half bemused and slightly irritated look of surprise while the other half looked like he was considering squashing an annoying fly when Nick cleared his throat to get the rooms attention.
"Thank you all, but I'm afraid that welcomes are going to have to wait," he stepped to the side of the door his posture changing from laid back to one of attention and saluted the Chief shouting out, "Room, Attention!"
Judy snapped her ears down against her back just in the nick of time as the halted hooting and table pounding started up even louder and more enthusiastically than before.
The Chief, still staring at Wilde like he was debating the 'squash him' option, let out a snort that seemed to nearly knock the fox off his feet before saying, "Wilde, take your seat before I decide to help you find one." He grinned down at the fox, though his grin looked more terrifying than helpful. "I've been wanting to try out that new SWAT breaching technique you started, though I have to warn you my aim isn't the best."
"Sir, yes Sir!" Nick said rather quickly, with another more hasty salute before hurrying toward the front of the room right past a few open seats before hopping up onto the chair Judy was sitting on.
"Are you intentionally trying to aggravate the chief?!" Judy hissed in a low whisper even as she scooted over to share the over sized seat with Nick. "Because he's going to eat you up and spit you out and it's only your first day!"
"Right," Nick said almost sounding apologetic, for about a second. "That would be bad. I could survive the chewing out but his breath might kill me." Nick wrinkled his nose making a phew gesture, "I swear there seems to be an epidemic of halitosis with all the large herbivores." He raised his coffee cup up and sniffed at it like he was using it as a fumigator for his nose before sighing in relief.
"Nickkk," Judy practically whined in exasperation as she tried not smile, "Can you atleast try to be professional, it's our first day on the job as partners and I'd like to impress Bogo...not irritate him. We want to stay partner's right?"
Nick turned looking at her and smiled; not a smirk or grin, but really truly smiled, as his chest with his meticulously polished new police badge puffed just a bit.
"Right you are Fluff," he said still smiling... actually, really, smiling... "You ready to make the world a better place?"
Judy didn't quite hear him, the sight of Nick in his well fitted uniform smiling at her caused her breath to catch in her throat and for the first time in days - possibly weeks - every other sound around her that had been assaulting her ears seemed to fade to insignificance. It was like everything but the sound of her suddenly racing heartbeat and Nick's voice was muffled and unimportant.
Then Bogo's thunderous bellow for the room to quiet as he slapped his folders down on the podium broke the spell and knocked her off the chair.
"You have to admit," Nick said with a snicker, waving his pawpsicle he'd convinced Judy to stop for. "That Chief Buffalo Butt really got you good." He smirked over at Judy teasingly and she groaned again. An absolutely, adorably, cute groan of embarrassment that made Nick want to tease her more just so he could see it again. He leaned back enjoying himself, glad for the fact that due to the size modifications needed for them to reach the pedals, they'd gotten a brand new cruiser, one that still had that just out of the factory smell instead of the stale donuts, old coffee and overworked mammal smells of so many of the other cruisers. Nick could pick up faint traces of the ZPD mechanics that had worked on the car's modifications and another of the drive that must have dropped the new cruiser off at the precinct, considering the faint traces of other distinct new car smells that hung to that scent. But for once, those didn't bother him as the smell of their new cruiser and him and Judy buried all those trace scents.
In the best mood he'd been in in months, Nick let out another snicker, saying, "I thought when the Chief said 'Parking Duty' that you were about to fall off the chair… again!" He hid his smile as Judy made more cute noises and thumped her head against the steering wheel. He didn't even need to look at her to see that her cheeks had brightened a bit because he could smell the slight hint of embarrassment which tinged her giddily happy scent that was permeating the cruiser.
The combination of those two scents was actually quite pleasant and Nick breathed without fear of his surroundings' affect on his nose for what felt like the first time in ages. And for the first time since the train crash, Nick stopped trying to ignore every smell around him.
Then he caught the faintest hint of what he could only describe as 'smug anticipation' tinge Judy's scent. He looked over at her in time to see a hint of a sly smile on her face... right before she hit the brakes harder than necessary and he went flying forward. His seat belt stopped him right before he fell off the large police cruiser's seat, but caused his paw and pawpsicle to smack himself in the face
"What was that about falling off seats, Slick?" Judy asked, now the one grinning as Nick sat back up, his pawpsicle stuck to his fur.
He blinked for a second looking over at the smirking bunny, before a slow smile formed as he carefully peeled the pawpsicle away.
"Oh, you know I'm going to get you for that, you Sly bunny," he said with a snicker, giving her a roguish wink.
"Dumb fox," Judy smirked back at him confidently as if challenging him to even try, her scent emanating a sense of pleased, unabashed enjoyment at the exchange.
Nick chuckled, making a touché gesture with his pawpsicle before waving it at her teasingly, adding a taunting snicker in hopes of getting a rise out of her. "Dumb fox eh? Well dumb fox or not, you know you love me."
As soon as the words had left his mouth Nick, smirk and all, froze for just a fraction of a second. He instantly worried that his playful gibe had come out sounding wrong, and a thousand worries about how that might have been pushing his budding friendship with Judy too far rushed through his mind... only for him to freeze completely as Judy turned her head in a contemplative gesture and another subtle shift in her scent permeated the cruiser.
"Do I know that?" she asked using the mock interview voice he'd been helping her with for her public speaking. "Yes," she turned to look right at him, her eyes full of teasing mischief, "Yes I do."
Nick's heart which had stopped dead, suddenly seemed to be beating rather fast and irregularly and he had to work hard to force his next breath to come in normally. Nick thanked his lucky stars that his fur hid his sudden blush while his hustler training kept any other visible signs of how those words had affected him, hidden.
One of Judy's long ears twitched in his direction while Nick's heart still hammered away and the slight shift in her aroma from before suddenly wasn't so slight or subtle anymore. Judy's eyes got a little wide and she snapped her head back forward to the intersection they were stopped in front of.
"Well… I, um… we'd uh better get back…" the red light shifted to green and Judy hit the gas hard, only to slam on the breaks as a red convertible thundered across the intersection before them.
The shock of it seemed to break the unexpected awkwardness that filled the cruiser and Judy turned to him, her face shifting to full cop mode. He nodded as she revved the engine, flipping out his shades to put them on before reaching for the lights and siren controls just as Judy floored the pedal.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Judy shouted above the squeal of tires as Nick hung onto the door while she swerved the cruiser hard, correcting her over turn as they roared away from the intersection. "Siren startled me!" she said cringing a bit and trying to press her ears further into her back as the wailing noise right above her made her ears ring.
"You did know that was going to happen when I reached for the switch right?" Nick asked, his eyes a little wide as he watched the road, still clinging to the door handle, his pawpsicle stick now somewhere on the other side of the cruiser where it had been thrown by the violent turn.
"I mean, I thought we were totally in sync there, what with the look and nod and everything!" Nick said taking one paw off the door only long enough to adjust his askew shades.
"We were! I just wasn't expecting the sirens to be that loud!" Judy replied, squinting her eyes a bit as the blaring of the sirens seemed to beat on her head and started to make it pound with an all too unwelcome headache. "The sirens on these new cruisers must be even louder than normal ones!" she shouted as she squinted at the road in front of her, trying to catch sight of the convertible that was now out of sight. She could still make out the sound of its engine somewhere ahead. She floored the accelerator, practically growling at her mistake… if they lost that car, messed up their very first assignment… but she could still hear the convertible's engine even above the roar of their own cruiser and sirens blaring and all the other noises of the city and traffic around them. Judy thought it was a convertible, a six cylinder Furrari in need of an oil change by the sound of the engine, she'd always had a knack for recognizing engine noises, what with having worked on so many vehicles on her family's farm, though she was surprised she could make out the details from so far away and with all the other noises assailing her pounding head.
The sports car's tires made a squealing sound somewhere ahead of them and the engine noise shifted to the left and dimmed behind a building.
"Nick! They cut left!" she shouted weaving around another car as she leaned forward, ears up despite the pain of the sirens, trying to find where exactly their query had turned.
"You sure?!" he said giving her one glance clearly having failed to spot the car.
"Yes!" she said dodging another car, "Do you know any shortcuts-" she didn't even need to finish the question before Nick was pointing toward a side street.
"Take Haymarket street! Then cut onto 7th!" he said sounding more confident now that she seemed to have the cruiser under control, he even looked over at her with a terrified exhilarated little grin, and with a nod of his shades like they where on some action movie added, "And floor it!"
Judy sighed with relief as she put the cruiser into park behind the red convertible and Nick finally shut off the sirens. She forced a smile onto her face, even as the pounding in her head from the noise continued, despite its absence, while she got out and walked over the driver's side window of the car with Nick.
"Sir you were going a hundred and fifteen miles an hour," she said as the tinted driver's window started slowly rolling down, "I hope you have a good reason..."
The window finally lowered all the way to show a worried looking sloth of all mammals, and a sloth she recognized to boot. Judy gaped for a second, but Nick just laughed and then leaned in sounding delighted.
"Flash, Flash, hundred yard dash- ghaaa!" Nick had startled to lean casually on the car's window sill before quickly grabbing his nose as he gagged, and with his arm no longer supporting his casual lean, flopped ungracefully to the ground.
"Dear Karma, Flash! When was the last time you bathed?!" Nick said getting back to his feet, his eyes watering as he held his nose, only to gag again as his head got to the level of the window.
"Llllllaaaaaasssssttttttttttttt…." Flash started saying slowly, and Judy wrinkled her nose a bit, now smelling a wiff of the smell of fur that had gone to long without washing, "Mmmmmmooooonnnnnttttthhhh." Flash finally finished turning his head toward Nick who turned a little green and gagged again doubling over.
"Flash…" he wheezed, almost hurling before recovering. "I know you sloths like to do things in your own sweet time, but really-" he put his paw over his mouth and looked like he might be sick for a second before taking a step back and gagging again. "Really… a month?! Gah! And when was the last time you brushed your teeth?! You've been eating those onion and garlic kababos from Benny's!"
A slightly embarrassed look was crossing onto Flashes face, "Ummmmm…. Llllaaaaasssssssttttttt… Wwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkk" he said to Nick who stopped gagging long enough to look up in surprise and catch the garlicky breath full in the face.
Judy watched in mild shock, her own head still pounding with her headache from the sirens, as Nick's nose crinkled. His whiskers seemed to go crooked and then his eyes crossed before he fell back onto the road out cold.
"Ugghhh…" Nick groaned, his vision coming back into focus as he stared at the police cruisers ceiling.
"What happened?" he asked a bit groggily looking up and seeing Judy rubbing at her ears with one paw as the other finished typing in the ticket details on the cruisers computer.
The awful, hideous, life leaching, garlicky, antivampire-and-everything-else smell that was all Nick could remember from a moment ago was gone, replaced by something comforting, something that smell nice… something he wanted to bury his nose in to smell and let it wash away all the other heinous scents that had battered and abused his nostrils recently.
"Well," Judy said giving him a slightly pained smile. "I put you in the cruiser after you passed out and then ticketed Flash for speeding. Wasn't sure if bad hygiene is grounds for a charge of assaulting an officer but I told him that he'd better keep to the speed limit or we'd see if it did."
"Oh…" Nick said and blinked, his head still feeling a bit groggy. Then he let out a short laugh. "Using a bit of stick and carrot there eh, Officer Hopps?"
He took in a deep breath of the pleasant smell, then another, letting it calm his roiling stomach and muddied mind and tried to figure out what exactly it was, because whatever it was he like it. Liked it a lot. He sniffed the air a few more times, turning his head and following the scent till his nose bumped up against Judy's hip. Something clicked in his still slightly dazed mind and he realized just what that smell was. Or rather whose smell that was.
Nick sat bolt upright in his seat, half panicking for a second and hoped like hell that Judy hadn't seen him sniffing her, but her attention was on the cruiser's computer as she finished typing.
"Glad to see your sense of humor survived your first assignment, Officer Wilde," Judy said, giving Nick a bit of a relieved smile now that he was sitting up. "You feel up to continue or do you think you need to go see the precinct's doc?"
Nick blinked and used all his self control learned from years of hustling to calm himself before he shook his head in negation. "No, no... I'm good to go, just wasn't expecting to get punched in the nose like that, caught me by surprise." He looked at her, smiling as confidently as he could. "Won't happen again, promise," he finished making a junior ranger scouts salute.
Judy smiled, but a note of worry flashed through Nick as he noticed the slight pained wince in it and how she was rubbing at her ear. But before he could ask about it the radio crackled.
"-domestic disturbance report over on Magnolia street-"
Judy looked at Nick questioningly and he grinned back confidently. "Only a minute away if we cut over on Ridge avenue."
10 Hours Later...
"Oh great, I hope every day isn't like that…" Nick groaned as he helped Judy up the stairs to her apartment, her arm over his shoulder for support, though she might have been supporting him nearly as much as he was her.
"Owwww… not so loud, Nick," Judy whined, leaning a little more onto him, one paw holding her ears.
"Right sorry…" he whispered, then grabbed his stomach as another wave of nauseous swept over him. He'd barely been holding it together since they'd responded to the domestic disturbance report which had been a lovers quarrel gone nasty between two skunks. Nick nearly threw up again just at the memory of that nightmare, though their chase later in the day with Duke Weaselton and his attempted escape through the sewers was almost as bad.
Judy still winced at the sound of his voice though, and he had to admit that she might actually be feeling worse at the moment. What, with their last call for the day being a noise complaint. The rather vocal and irritable elephant had trumpeted his innocence at her at point blank range. By the time they were finished Judy looked like Bogo had stuck her in an old brass bell and hammered on it. Nick had wanted to take her to the hospital, but she'd assured him that she was alright and just needed to get home to rest.
They reached the landing and Judy pointed down it. "Fourth… fourth door on the right." She managed with another wince and Nick helped her towards it though he almost fainted as they passed the old, moldy smelling bathrooms in the hallway.
He was concentrating hard enough on staying conscious, staying on his feet and holding Judy up (or was she holding him up?) that he barely registered the sound of her unlocking her door and them entering.
There was the sound of the door closing, a few steps, then Judy let go of him and flopped onto her bed sending up a splash of stuffed bunny dolls with a loud groan.
Nick stood there for a second his head spinning as he looked around the shoebox room and took in its scent. It was old and slightly musty but over all that it was filled with the smell of bunny, of one particular, familiar bunny. Comparatively, it was like a small oasis to his nose amid the hellishness of smells that had assailing him today. It was so different from the rankness of the hallway and that pawsawful moldy bathroom they'd just passed that the sheer difference and rapid change was the last straw for his abused nose and stomach and had him scrambling, grabbing for Judy's waste bin.
Judy groaned from the bed at the sounds of his retching and with a pained sound raised her head to look over at him.
"N-Nick, you okay?" she asked and then winced, a paw going to her temples and rubbing at the migraine that spanned from ear to ear.
Nick looked up, and trying to smile confidently, "Sure Carrots, just… just-" his stomach gurgled and his complexion paled right before he ducked his muzzle back into the waste bin and heaved again. That was followed shortly by a rather less confident, "Not really…" and a dry heave.
"Nick…" Judy started, looking at him with concern, "I… I don't think you should be trying to drive back to your place if you're feeling like that." She tried to sit up then grabbed her head and ears and flopped back on the bed with a groan. "I've got some extra blankets if you just want to stay over for the night," she said gesticulating weakly at her dresser.
Nick looked up from the waste bin he was holding onto desperately. "You sure, Carrots?" he asked and after another second fighting back down the urge to retch again, tried smirking (only partially successfully) and said, "I mean, you know that this is literally the bunny inviting the fox into their den right?"
There was a groan from the bed and Nick barely managed to duck the stuffed bunny that came hurtling at him.
"Bunnies have burrows, not dens," Judy said, voice a mix of pain, irritation and humor, "and if you're staying at my burrow, you follow my rules, Mr. fox."
Nick looked at the window then back at the bed. "We're five floors up; for it to be a burrow doesn't it have to be underground?"
This time the thrown stuffed bunny doll hit his tail causing him to yelp in surprise.
"Rule number one," Judy said with a small laugh, that then caused a groan of pain, "no being a sly fox tonight, I'm not feeling well enough to keep up with your wisecracks right now."
Nick's gut rumbled angrily and he winced. "You might be in luck then," he said with a groan of his own. "I don't think I'm up for 'tease the bunny' tonight either."
This time the thrown bunny doll didn't even come close to hitting him and he thought he might have heard an amused snort from the bed.
Nick spent another minute with Judy's wastebin before he felt like he might be well enough for the epic trek to her dresser and stumbled the three feet over to it. Grabbing it for balance he opening the first drawer, then stopped dead.
After staring for a few seconds he couldn't help but snicker.
Judy rolled over on the bed and gave him a long suffering look of 'what now?'
Nick pointed down into the drawer and Judy's eyes furrowed for a second before going wide just as he spoke.
"Carrots, really? You have carrots on your unde-offt." His snickered comment was cut off by a stuffed bunny doll to the face that knocked him over, followed by a flurry of several more in rapid succession as Judy squealed, "Stop digging around in there! The blankets are in the bottom drawer you stupid fox! Ow ow Ow!" she flopped back onto the bed holding her head.
Nick for his part, with his stomach still roiling, decided that his position on the floor was probably the safest spot for the moment. Even so, he couldn't help but snicker once more, muttering, "Carrots," to himself.
He apparently wasn't quiet enough, because he got smacked in his upturned muzzle by another stuffed doll while Judy grumbled darkly on her bed amid her pile of stuffed bunny ammunition, mumbling about foxes, tasers and something about her father being right.
Nick couldn't help but smile at her mutterings, even as he laid there on the floor, felled by bunny dolls. And after a few moments just listening to the soft sound of her voice and taking in the comforting smell of Judy's room, his stomach seemed to finally be settling slightly. Nick turned his head to watch her grumble, his noses bumping against the stuffed doll she'd thrown and took another subtle breath through his nose letting the room's smell cleanse it... and was almost knocked over by just how strong Judy's scent had suddenly become. The scent surrounded him, buried him, it was like being hugged by Judy and it made him momentarily forget about the torment his nose had been through that day and the state of his upset stomach.
Nick smiled, his thoughts wandering pleasantly for a second before it dawned on him that overpowering scent helping with his nausea wasn't coming from just the general background scent of Judy's room/burrow but from the stuffed doll that had whacked him in the muzzle.
He picked it up from where his nose was resting against it, wondering briefly why this doll in particular smelled so strongly of her then blinked and looked at it again to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Then he looked at the other stuffed dolls she'd thrown around the room; stuffed bunny, stuffed bunny, stuffed bunny… then he looked at her bed; whole pile of stuffed bunnies... and then Nick looked back at the doll he was holding above his head in perplexity.
"Um… Judy?" Nick asked, still confused, and the dark mutterings from the bed trailed off before there was a sigh and with immense restraint Judy replied.
"Yes, Nick?"
Nick looked at the doll again just to make sure one last time he wasn't seeing things.
"Why do you have a stuffed fox plushy?