Well well, here we go again.
I'm going to spoil a little something - Primal is almost over. It'll end at chapter 18, which at the pace I'm going at will be somewhere around mid-February. Just have to push on until then!
Chapter 12, here we go!
The fox leaned over his well-lit desk, one of his paws incessantly tapping on a calculator while the other scribbled away on a packet filled with charts and tables. The sound of his black pen making quick strokes across paper was the only sound aside from his breathing echoing around his empty study, designed to make him focus on the task at hand. At times like this he had no time for free thoughts; only for business.
The fox's paw stopped moving across the last page of the packet as he did a final calculation in his head, and at the thought of the resulting number a massive smile grew on his face. He punched the same equation into the calculator to check his work and felt more than contented when its answer was the same as his. With one last swift stroke across the paper he dropped his pen and leaned back into his chair while he stretched his arms over his head.
144%. Was all he could think. A 144% Profit margin.
That meant for every dollar he invested in his enterprises he made one dollar and 44 cents off it - truly astounding results considering the recent crackdown on illegal dealings by the city's traitorous mayor.
Sometimes it pays to be quiet... The fox thought as he stood up from his chair, stretching his stiff back with both his paws as he yawned. The reflection from his desk's light eerily reflected off his metallic teeth as he snapped his mouth shut and blinked heavily, his mind suddenly yearning for the sweet release of sleep. He reached out a paw to pull his antique lamp's chain downward and let the darkness surrounding him consume the sole source of light in his study, but before he could he felt a familiar vibration in his pocket.
The fox's extended arm turned downward and reached into his pants' pocket, pulling out a phone receiving a call from a mammal that he hadn't expected to hear from for several more weeks. He growled as he answered it and held the phone up to his ear as he moved away from his desk to stare out the massive, floor-to-ceiling window at the end of his study that took the place of one of the walls.
"Didn't I tell you to cease contact with me until all suspicion passed?" The fox threateningly recounted in Zenglish, his eyes observing the flickering lights of Zootopia far off in the distance beyond the high, dark, forested hills surrounding his estate.
"You did, Prophit," A male voice responded. "But the ZPD forget about suspects relatively quickly with all the going-ons in the city. I'm safe to return to work, but I won't be able to make it out in the field for a few more weeks."
The fox growled at his counterpart as a snarl made it's way onto his graying muzzle, his free arm wrapping around the ever-so-slightly too large shirt hanging off his chest.
"I'll have your head if you're wrong," He sternly countered, his voice beginning to drain of anger as his foot began to tap against the wooden floor. "Why have you called me? I don't have much time between managing a business and running a political platform."
"I have developments regarding our favorite fox in the ZPD and his rabbit friend," The voice flatly explained, changing to a mocking tone as it continued. "Or should I say his girl friend."
The fox's foot stopped tapping against the floor and halted in mid air as his eyes widened in shock. It took his mind several seconds to process what the mammal on the other end of the line said, but when his words finally clicked his foot extended out in front of him in anger and with a massive kick shattered the glass in front of him.
"Prophit?" The voice on the phone asked, alerted to the sound of glass breaking, but the fox ignored him and moved to stand at the very edge of his study, his toes hanging off into the night as a brisk mountain breeze incessantly whipped past his nose.
"Where did you hear this?" The fox inquired, his voice filled with malice as his eye coldly scoured the city lights twinkling far in the distance.
"From Hopps' own mouth with my own two ears," The voice answered. "Does this complicate the situation?"
"Not one bit," The fox coolly replied, quickly whipping away from the window and pulling the wooden chair out from his desk before he returned to sit on it. "Nicholas is still my key to get into the mayor's office. I have to use him - not kill him out in a single fit of rage."
"So you're not mad at him?" The voice asked, stunned, and the fox bent his head back in a fit of forced and obnoxious laughter.
"My friend," He uttered between dying chuckles. "I have never been more furious in my life. I cannot stand a predator who's befriended prey, and a predator who wishes to sleep with a prey even after he's been warned deserves death. That will come for Nicholas, but only after his job is done."
"That's good to hear," The voice elatedly stated. "I was worried that you're morals were decaying."
"Not the case at all," The fox said, a smile forming on his face as he leaned back in his chair. "Any other news from the city?"
"Virtually none," The voice said. "Hopps saw you while on patrol. I thought you said you weren't going to be in the city for a few more months."
"That's none of your business," The fox growled in response. "You're not getting paid to ask me questions."
"Right," The mammal on the other end of the line replied, a small amount of fright in his voice. "I'll call you when I have more updates. Until then, Prophit."
"And you, Officer-" The fox began to say in farewell, but before he could finish a white wolf in all black clothing burst through the doors to his study a few feet in front of his desk. The fox hung up the line and slammed down his phone onto his desk as he shot up from his chair, his eyes alight with fire.
"I said no interruptions!" He screamed, but the wolf ignored him and marched up to his desk, his eyes wide with shock and his breathing heavy.
"Prohpit," The wolf began over his heavy pants. "We've bugged a line coming out of ZPD Headquarters. Wilde is dying."
"So when I met him the next day, I used the same trick he used on me the day before," Judy recounted, a twinge of mischief in her eyes. "And he looked absolutely stunned once he realized he had been hustled."
"You should'a been there, V!" Finnick exclaimed over his booming laughs, his arm nudging the fox in a bartenders suit on the other side of the counter. "It was just like his whole world ended, right then and there!"
Voltaire smiled at the short fox hitting his arm resting on the counter, his expression amused but organized just like it always was.
"If there's one thing I've learned about Mr. Wilde over the years," The middle-aged fox said, turning to look at Judy as he raised an eyebrow. "It's that he never knows when to keep his mouth shut."
"I can support that claim!" Judy comically yelled in support, raising out of her seat a little as she lifted her glass of water up in the air and Voltaire and Finnick both broke into a violent fit of laughter at her loud exclamation. Judy sent them both a huge smile, her mind so positive that she was surprised electrons weren't flocking in the billions to bond with her. As she had thought to herself before, nothing could bring down her spirits today or any day from now on.
After she and Officer Wolfenstein had booked the suspicious beaver after a long and tiring chase with a charge of attempted robbery the day had gone by painfully slow. All she had done for the past eight hours was upload the files the chief had given her as punishment for her tardiness, a job that, while necessary, was painstakingly sluggish and boring. It was only after the job was finished that she felt she could think about her partner again - and a thought popped into her head as she sat idly in her over-sized office chair. Her partner had just spoken to her - the first time in months! Years! She needed to celebrate!
The first mammal she called was Clawhauser, but all she heard from him was his outdated voicemail of him singing one of Gazelle's hits. The next mammal she called was Finnick, who answered his phone with a tired and annoyed voice but who was up for a night of celebration regardless. Voltaire, who she had called as she waited just outside the headquarters for Finnick to pick her up in his barely road safe van, was, as he had said in his own words, 'Always ready to facilitate a party of any kind'.
It almost hurt Judy that the two fox's didn't know about their not-so-dead friend. They thought that they were celebrating with her tonight because she had just finished a difficult and classified case that she couldn't tell them about.
One day they'll know the real reason... Judy longingly thought, a memory quickly repeating over and over again in her head. He loves me!
"The first time I met Nick-" Finnick stuttered out as his laughing ceased, drawing Judy's attention back to the world around her. "The first time I met Nick, I knew he was a bad apple! I was sittin' in the back of my van, readin' the paper cause the internet wasn't 'round yet and I hear this knock on my back door. So I open it up and there's this young little fox trying to sell me what he's calling 'winning' lottery tickets!"
Judy scoffed in mock outrage at her partner, a small feeling of familiarity building up inside of her. She could very easily imagine Nick doing that.
"What'd you do to him?" Judy asked, taking a small sip from the glass of water still in her paw.
"Well what'd ya think I did?" Finnick boisterously exclaimed, throwing both his paws up into the air. "I whacked him over the head with my baseball bat!"
Judy nearly choked on her water and burst into a fit of coughing as she returned the glass to the counter while Voltaire bent his head back in laughter.
"You did what?" Judy asked in disbelief, leaning forward in her stool as Voltaire bent over toward the counter.
"I whacked him over the head!" Finnick innocently repeated, throwing his arms up into the air again, and Judy groaned as she brought one of her paws up to massage her eyes.
"You know that assaulting a minor is illegal, right?" She rhetorically asked as she motioned to her police uniform and the badge pinned on her chest. "And that I'm a officer?"
"Hah!" Finnick exclaimed as he turned back to the counter and picked up his bottle of beer. "Go ahead and arrest me, bunny. I ain't afraid to go to prison!"
Judy looked up at Finnick with a half dumbfounded half disturbed expression, her eyebrow cocked and her mouth cracked open, but the small fox just shrugged as he continued to down his drink.
"Stupid fox," She grumbled as she straightened herself and turned back towards the counter where she was met with Voltaire's smiling face, his eyes full of memory as he hovered above her.
"You want to hear about a stupid fox, Ms. Hopps?" He rhetorically asked, his smile beginning to grow. "The first time I ever met Mr. Wilde was when Mr. Big had me over for a 'family' dinner. The very first thing that fox said to me was 'How're you doing, foxy?'."
Judy erupted into laughter at Voltaire's incredibly accurate portrayal of Nick's voice, and above her own laughing she could hear Finnick joining in as well.
"What?" Voltaire innocently said, raising his paws up to his sides as his normally up-tight demeanor began to fade. "Don't tell me you two haven't heard his doltish nicknames for everybody!"
"Oh, we have, we have, V," Finnick exclaimed as he picked up his beer and chugged another portion of it. Once Judy could contain herself again she rested her elbow on the counter and pointed a paw at Voltaire, a jovial smile on her face and a humorous memory playing in her mind.
"There was this one time Nick wouldn't stop calling me 'cute'," She began, a few stray laughs still making their way out of her. "It's very offensive to call a rabbit 'cute', so I thought it'd be best If I punished him a little. So one day, when he was waiting for me outside of the headquarters, I ran over hi-"
Before Judy could finish her story the sound of a phone ringing entered her straightened ears and she felt a sudden vibration in her back pocket. She quickly pulled her phone out from her back pocket and held it out in front of her. The screen read:
Incoming Call
Chief Bogo - Cell
While underneath it was an image of a slightly younger Chief Bogo asleep at his desk, his mouth wide open in a snore. Judy wasn't sure how or when Nick had taken the picture of the chief. Probably when he was supposed to be doing something else...
"I'm sorry. I'll have to finish that story another time," Judy apologized as she slid off her chair, her eyes flicking apologetically from Voltaire's curious expression to Finnick, who had only just finished his glass of beer. "I need to step out for a moment to take this."
Judy quickly walked across the wooden floor, piloting around the empty tables in the middle of the bar's main room, her thumb eagerly hovering above the Answer Call button and her straightened ears picking up traces of a continued conversation coming from the two fox's she was leaving. She pushed open the door to the outside world, letting the cool night surround her as she answered the call and held her phone up to her ear.
"Good evening, Chief Bogo!" Judy joyfully greeted, a smile coming onto her face and her eyes watching the few cars driving up and down the otherwise deserted street.
"Good evening, Officer Hopps," Chief Bogo responded, his tired and weary voice only further increasing the size of Judy's smile. He was always working too hard! Maybe he should have a good drink once in a while, just like she did. Although she doubted she could convince him to join her at a predator's bar where the bartender himself was once a criminal!
"Have you listened to the recording yet?" Judy hurriedly asked, and she heard Chief Bogo sigh on the other end of the line.
"Me and Doctor Zdanskyi both have, Officer Hopps," He said, his voice turning solemn. "He is making some improvement."
"Some!" Judy repeated, excitement beginning to build up inside of her. "Sir, some doesn't even begin to cover it! This is the first time he's talked in years - he's finally showing the world that he's getting better!"
"I know that, Hopps," Chief Bogo began, "But-"
"Does the mayor know?" Judy interrupted, her excitement getting the better of her and causing Chief Bogo to growl. "Has he sorted out what will happen to Nick once he's better? Because I've been thinking about it for a little while, and I think It'd be best if I moved in wi-"
"HOPPS!" The chief shouted on the other end of the line, and Judy immediately snapped her mouth shut. It seemed like every other time she talked with her superior officer their conversation ended with him shouting at her, but maybe that was because she was always interrupting him. She really needed to just let him speak...
Judy heard the Chief give a long, frustrated sigh on the other end of the line before he continued.
"Where are you now, Hopps?" The cape buffalo asked as he shifted his phone.
"I'm outside of a bar, Chief," She responded, looking up and down the deserted sidewalk for any mammals walking in her direction. "But I'm not drunk and nobody can hear me right now."
"Good," The chief curtly responded, and there was a moment of silence on his end of the line before he continued. "Listen, Hopps. There isn't any easy way to say this, so I'm just going to ask that you take a seat. Officer Wilde is dying."
As soon as the Chief's words left his mouth, Judy's ears fell limp behind her head and she felt something shatter into a thousand pieces inside her chest. All strength in her body suddenly faded, and she fell backwards to lean against the brick wall just beside the bar's entrance, her eyes firmly locked with the tires of Finnick's van
Dying? She thought, confusion and fright filling every inch of her body. That couldn't be right! Nick was fine this morning - more than fine! The Chief was just playing some sick joke on her. Nick couldn't just go from talking to dying in a matter of hours!
"Dying?" She worriedly repeated, her eyes widening a little more at the word.
"Dying," Chief Bogo confirmed, "Doctor Zdanskyi's confirmed it."
"I can't believe that, Chief," Judy cheerlessly replied, slowly shaking her head back in forth in disbelief as panic overcame her. "He was perfect this morning. He can't have just given up!"
"Hopps," Chief Bogo said, his voice suddenly filled with comfort. "Your partner hasn't given up. Zdanskyi's been with him for the past few hours and he's said that he's never seen a mammal fighting harder to live. And your partner isn't dying quickly - Zdanskyi says he still has a few more weeks left before it's too late. We can still save Wilde."
Judy took a series of deep breaths to try to calm down as she straightened herself, tilting her head backward to rest on the brick wall behind her and closing her eyes. She still had time. There was no reason to panic. Nick wasn't dying quickly - she didn't hope that meant that he would be in more pain, but it gave her time. She'd have to double, triple, quadruple her efforts. There was still a chance. She had already lost her dumb fox once. She wasn't going to let him go so easily again.
"Does Zdanskyi know why this is happening?" She calmly asked, her eyes moving to stare up at the night sky poisoned yellow by the city's lights.
"He thinks that it has to do with his age," Chief Bogo explained. "Remember what the report about Turnklin said? How a primal mammal's lifespan may be that of it's un-evolved counterpart? According to Doctor Zdanskyi, an un-evolved fox's lifespan is seven years at most. And with Officer Wilde is thirty six-"
"-seven," Judy interrupted, her voice lacking any emotion whatsoever as she continued to gaze above. "He turned thirty seven earlier this month."
"Of course," Chief Bogo politely acknowledged, not snapping at her interruption like before. "The point being that given his age and the hypothesis Doctor Elandrew came up with after Trunklin's death, the best assumption we can make is that Officer Wilde is dying because of his age."
Judy slowly nodded, all worry and doubt fleeing from her in an instant. She couldn't have any disruptive thoughts right now - she had to behave like she had a job to do. And she did! It wasn't to protect the city or its citizens like it normally was. She didn't want to give up her place fighting crime, but other officers could always take her place in her absence. What they couldn't take the place of was as Nick's partner. That was her duty and hers alone from now on.
She had to protect him.
"Alright," Judy determinedly responded as she gently pushed herself off the wall and turned, her eyes staring at the door to The Fox's Den. "I'll be there in twenty minutes."
"Officer Hopps," Chief Bogo began, his voice full of command and warning. "I don't think it'd be for the best if yo-"
"Chief Bogo," Judy carefully began, trying to sound formal but not domineering. "Two years ago, Nick left Zootopia to interrogate a prisoner. The last time I ever saw him was when a pixelated picture of his body was on the front page of every newspaper in the city, and his last words were recorded on a gift I gave to him as a joke. After everything I've gone through, I'm never letting go of him again."
There was silence on the other end of the line, and for a moment Judy thought that she had lost connection. But she eventually identified the shallow breaths of the Chief in the midst of the background static, and within a moment he was talking to her again.
"You're a good mammal, Hopps," Chief Bogo honestly and warmly said, his voice laced with a twinge of what sounded like pride. "Nobody's asking you to do this. I can see you really love him."
Judy's eyes widened a fraction at the Chief's words. She didn't know how he had figured it out, or if he was just making an educated guess, but she really didn't care if he knew about the feelings she was feeling for her partner. Not when she had a job to do...
"I do, Chief," She simply responded.
"Good," Was all the Chief said, his voice hard again. "I'll see you here in twenty minutes."
And with that their exchange was over. Judy hung up and slipped her phone into her back pocket and pushed open the door, ignoring the laughing coming from the two fox's sitting at the bar and instead wandering up to the counter and jumping up onto the stool, her mind solely focused on retrieving her bag and leaving for the headquarters.
As she closed her open knapsack laying on the stool beside her she heard the laughs coming from the two foxes behind her dying off, and with careful attention she focused her ears toward the two of them.
"Anything wrong, Ms. Hopps?" Voltaire politely asked, and over the sound of his voice Judy heard Finnick taking a drink from what sounded like another bottle of beer.
"Regrettably," She answered without turning towards the fox, her paws still hard at work closing the latches on her knapsack. "A situation's come up at the ZPD."
"Ahhhh," Finnick said, his voice filled with disinterest. "She's leaving us, V, so she can go work the night shift at the Zootopia Pediatrics Department."
"A necessary loss," Voltaire replied, and Judy could imagine him slowly shaking his head back and forth. She threw her knapsack over her arm and turned towards the two foxes, forcing a polite smile onto her face as her gaze flicked between the two mammals.
"Have a good night," She flatly, almost coldly, said as she slid off her chair and began to swiftly walk towards the front door, her thoughts not focused on being polite
"You too, bunny!" Finnick shouted after her, his voice lacking happiness or joy, and Judy heard him mumble something to Voltaire under his breath. "Geez, what killed her vibe?"
"I don't know," Voltaire responded dumbfounded. A small trickle of guilt began to fill Judy's mind, and when she reached the door leading out to the abandoned sidewalk all she could do was stare at it, her brain not allowing her to leave just yet. Here were her partner's two best friends, mammals he had known and worked with for years, who still thought that he was dead from an ill-fated trip. And here she was with them - someone who knew the truth about her partner was very different than what mammals thought.
Judy cast her gaze behind her shoulder, keeping her eyes locked with the two foxes quietly talking with one another by the counter. If she told them about Nick, that'd be a direct violation of the Mayor's orders. That was a criminal offense - she could lose her job! But as she continued to stare at the two foxes, she slowly turned the lock to the front door to ensure their privacy and began to walk back towards them. She knew exactly what she had to do.
"Can I tell you both something?" She politely asked as she jumped up onto the stool at the end of the counter next to Finnick.
"Of course," Voltaire respectfully answered, leaning in her direction.
"Go ahead, bunny," Finnick chimed in, resting his glass on the counter as a hard and curious expression came onto his face. Judy took a deep breath and swung her knapsack off of her shoulder, resting it on the counter.
"What I'm about to tell you, you can't tell another living soul," She said, her voice full of honesty as her paws rested in her lap. "I'm breaking a direct order from my superior officer by telling you both this."
Finnick and Voltaire both leaned in, their eyes brimming with curiosity. A small, awkward smile made it's way onto Judy's face as she stared at the two of them, her mind hard at work trying to figure out how to reveal their friend's continued existence.
"Nick..." She carefully began, clasping her paws together in front of her as if she was pleading with them as the awkward grin on her face grew tenfold. "...Isn't as dead as you might think he is."
Talk to you all again after Thanksgiving!
Primal: A Zootopia Fanfiction Chapter 12 - November 30
A Fox in Shining Armor: A Zootopian Fanfiction Chapter 3 - November 30
Fourty Thousand: A Zootopia Fanfiction Prologue - TBA
Guilt, that Monster: A Zootopia Short Story - TBA
Dire Situations: A Zootopia Short Story - TBA
This chapter was last edited November 15, 2016