Chapter 5: Koala
"Well, here we are," Nick says with a smile, holding his arm out to a glass door, supporting the door in his grasp.
"Thanks," Judy enters under his arm. "You're being nice to me now?"
"What do you mean?" he asks playfully, entering after her. "Trust me, Carrots. My genuine kindness doesn't show – ever."
Judy looks toward the ceiling, shaking her head and smirking as the door closes upon them. A nimbus of cool air encompasses them. The frigidity of the room is unsurprising, considering the emptiness of the main lobby. Blue, cushioned chairs wait in a large portion of the room; a large counter with a black countertop, housing a single administrator, stands quietly; and a large fish tank sits on a large wooden counter. The black counter accommodates a small sign, reading "Welcome to the Zootopia Marine Biologist Lab". Nick looks around, and finally the air penetrates his fur. "Wow, it's cool in here, Carrots."
Judy looks around at all the machines scattered around the room. "Tell me about it. It's awesome."
Nick shakes his head. "No, I mean it's cold. You know – frigid, wintry, freezing – those words."
Judy rolls her eyes. "Oh," she says. "I didn't notice," she smiles, turns her head from him, and approaches the lone administrator. Nick trails behind her with his paws folded behind his back. The administrator glances up as they approach, saying with a cold, raspy voice: "How can I help you? Hurry up and get on with it."
Clearing her throat gently, Judy smiles politely and stands erect to face the administrator. "We would like to speak with the head administrator, please."
Oblivious of Nick, the administrator, a koala bear, stands from her chair and leads Judy into the back room. "She's right there," she points to a biologist, whose back is turned to them. The administrator notices Nick suddenly, eyes widening, and returns to her lodging without a word.
Exchanging glances with her friend, Judy approaches the biologist and gently taps her on the shoulder. She jumps and whips around. "Oh, you gave me a fright," she says, her eyes tracing over to Nick. "Holy fishface! Why did you bring a fox in here?" she mutters in a thick, almost unintelligible accent, lifting a single finger at a posted on the large aquarium printed in a large black font - "FISH-EATING MAMMALS ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED IN THIS FACILITY."
Judy nervously eyes Nick, his face flushed with fury. Judy nears the koala, inches away from their noses touching. "What did you say? Nick is a mammal like everyone else here."
The biologist's eyes dart around the room. "Well, I thought he might try to..." she trails off from the sentence. "Well..." she stutters, again pointing at the sign. "I'm – trying to go by those rules, okay? He might, uh, w-want to eat our fish," she eyes him carefully. "And, well, there are much fish who are going to die soon," she keeps her eyes fixed on Nick. "And we don't want anybody to cause harm to them."
Nick's eyes widen. "Uh, no thanks. I wouldn't eat a raw fish to save my life," he smiles, licking his lips. "However, since I'm thinking about it, it would be nice to eat a cooked, seasoned salmon…"
A weight presses down on her stomach. She takes a forceful breath, struggling for another. She closes her eyes, resumes normal breathing, and looks at Sheryl. "Not now, Nick," she dismisses, looking at the marine biologist with a smile. "Sorry, he's like this all the time. If you don't intimidate him too much, he's harmless. In fact, he was afraid of the dark before he turned fifteen," Judy laughs awkwardly, looking at Sheryl's apathetic glare. "Anyway," Judy shakes her head rapidly and puts on a warm smile. "I didn't catch your name."
The marine biologist, a koala bear, holds out her hand. "S-sorry. I forgot to tell you. I'm Sheryl Pandyril. What is your name?"
Judy takes her hand. "Officer Hopps, ZPD," she pauses for a moment. "Again, I apologize for my friend's immature behavior. He's harmless, nonetheless."
Without a word, Sheryl smiles and nods at Judy before Nick approaches her. "I'm Officer Wilde," he takes out his notepad and flashes his badge at her, to dismiss her suspicion. "I need to ask you a couple questions. First, we both received a notice that a kidnapping occurred under a day ago. Do you believe this?"
Sheryl nods. "Yes. I saw it with my own eyes."
"Do you have any information of what happened?" Nick says while Judy looks at him.
Sheryl smiles. "Yes. They moved very fast. They wanted to get out very fast because I saw him - he moved very quickly. He looked like koala bear - like me. He moved very fast - I can't see him when I did. That's all I know," she says, and Nick smiles at Judy for the koala's poor English.
Nick places the small pocketbook into his pocket. Judy heads toward the door, gesturing for him, but he interrupts with a soft-spoken, unintelligible phrase. She whips around to ask for a repeat of the phrase, and he has disappeared. Judy looks around, repeatedly calling his name, but instead receives a cluster of eyes pointing in her direction. Unwilling to abide by the "No yelling" sign on the wall, she exits through the door, yelling her friend's name in vain. After a short duration, she retires to a table at the coffee shop, located inside the building - silently looking for Nick.
"Carrots?" Nick asks.
Judy looks up, jumping at the sight of Nick sitting across from her. "Sweet cheese and crackers, Nick," she says, exhaling sharply. "You gave me a fright," she retires to placing her paw on the table, about three inches from his paw.
Nick raises both hands in the air. "What? I told you I was going to the bathroom and getting a coffee. Didn't you hear me?" he gestures toward the beverage near his left paw. "Do you want anything? I didn't ask you."
She smiles. "No to both questions," her face changes as soon as she processes what Nick had said. "But the bathroom again? You went half an hour ago!"
He smiles. "Now you're forgetting," he points at himself. "Remember? Diuretics? Water pills?"
She sighs. "Right," she pauses, waiting for the right moment to say something. "How can we catch this perpetrator if they can move so quickly?" she frowns.
"Well," he takes a sip of his coffee. "The only way for somebody to move that fast is to drink 50 cappuccinos and be on diuretics, and not going to the bathroom for a month."
Judy laughs. "That was not relevant to the question," she smiles at Nick's comment. "You're funny, but I want to be serious and we can be funny later. Let's be serious –" she pauses, placing the palm of her right paw over her left fist. "How do you think we can catch this perpetrator? He's getting on my nerves."
He grins. "First, you ask him to stop climbing on your nerves," his smile doesn't fade when Judy's glare augments. "And two, we should get to the police station and do some research," he stands and skillfully shoots the Styrofoam cup into the trash can.
She walks to his side. "Couldn't finish it?"
He shakes his head. "No, I finished it, all right."
She rolls her eyes, smiling. "You're disgusting."
He smiles. "Thanks. And Carrots, you still want something? This is your last chance."
"Really, Nick," she smiles and leads him back into the shop. "You got me. Get me a donut."
A donut, a short car ride, and thirty minutes later the two arrive yet again at the Zootopia Police Department. The air in this location differs from the town thirty minutes away - much less humid. Sweat ceases to develop on the mammals' fur.
"Hello, Hopps," Bogo greets. He smiles and looks at her, smiling humorously. "Still liking Dory the Explorer?"
Judy frowns, eyeing Nick, pulling him around the corner into an empty meeting room. The odd smell of the room does not deter her from her purpose. "When you said you would tell everyone my secret, I didn't know you would," she says, slowly, voice rising. She gently pokes her friend in the abdomen, and he attempts to shove it away. She quickly forms her hands into fists and cast them to her sides. "You jerk!" she storms away, leaving the fox stranded in the small meeting room.
After about ten minutes of self-rationalization, Nick slowly maneuvers himself over to where the main offices sit. He walks through curves of cubicles until his subject catches his eye.
"Judy," Nick grinds his teeth as he dawdles into her cubicle. He carefully scans the cubicle for any darts implanted into a picture of his face, and fortunately, finds none.
"What?" she snaps, her eyes still glued to her computer. She shoves from her desk and turns her chair toward him. "Can't you leave me alone?" she shakes her head, turning from looking at him and returning to her desk.
"Carrots–"
"Would you stop calling me that?" she barks, noisily slamming her paws onto the desk. "Really!"
"Okay, Judy. You'll never hear this come out of my mouth again, but I..." he coughs. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry? You spilled my secret to everybody! The very secret that bound our friendship! You swore you would never tell anyone, and guess what happened?"
"Well, Judy, I did, and that was wrong. I should never have gotten so angry at you telling those names. On the bright side, we're both even."
"But you let everyone know! Something I can't accept, now that I'm grown. You have it easy."
"Easy? Are you serious? Your situation is way in the past. Judy, my grandma died, my brother left, both of my parents embarrassed me, and then one of my friends announced one of my private names. Has anyone in your family died? Has anyone left you alone? Has any member of your family embarrassed you beyond your realization? Not that I'm aware of."
"I shouldn't've taken it so hard."
"Trust me, Judy, I know how it feels to be embarrassed. Remember the locker room incident?"
"The one?"
"The one everybody talked about at the Academy? Yeah. There wasn't a day that didn't have public embarrassment. I even remember going home one night and threatening to leave the academy. But, I got a phone call. It was somebody who encouraged me. Guess who helped me?"
"Well, it –" she sighs, looking up at him. "It was me."
"Yes, it was you. You helped me through this embarrassment and changed how I thought of myself. You motivated me. Every day after that, I thought you knew how to handle embarrassment. Now, I know how you act when you're embarrassed. And I can identify that. I got your number the first day of meeting you, and every time I associated with you after, it added to what I thought about you. Now, I got both the good and the bad."
"Yeah, I know, Nick," she looks up from the ground. "But it was my fault. I started all of this. I made you angry, so I think it is my fault both our secrets are now known publicly."
"Don't tell anybody we did this, though," he holds out his arms. She embraces the fox, rubbing his back, avoiding a passionate tone. She looks over Nick's shoulder.
"Uh, Nick–"
"No, it's okay. You're okay."
"No, I didn't mean that," she separates from him and gestures toward the entrance of the cubicle. Five officers stand there, attempting to hold back their vexatious gossip between one another. At any one time, at least one enthralls at the two mammals, dissuading another from doing the same.
Nick stands from his position, staring at the group in vexation. "Why, hey, guys," he says. "I was just here apologizing. Would you care to ask why you're all here watching?"
Officer Fangmeyer, the leader of the temporary crowd, emerges from the crowd. "We're here to record this precious moment."
"Must you?" Nick stands, moving his neck from side to side until a few satisfying cracks emit. "Are you challenging me, Nick Wilde, to a wit battle?"
"Yes, I am," Fangmeyer looks both directions and stares directly at him. "Yes, I have to know about this. I have to know everything around here."
"Wow," Nick smirks. "That's surprising. I mean, you should be working." After this remark, a couple 'oohs' emerge from the crowd behind them.
"Me? I'm just working to outwit you," Fangmeyer smirking also. The reaction from the crowd is much stronger now.
"Outwit me? You're sadly mistaken. I'm standing here working, too. And if I add to your little comment about knowing about everything – I don't think you know this – Bogo's standing right behind you."
Fangmeyer's eyes widen, and he turns to the infuriated boss behind him. "Chief!"
"Fangmeyer! What is this nonsense?" Bogo shouts, folding his gigantic arms across his broad chest.
"Uh, nothing, sir! I was just talking!"
"I don't believe conversation, especially your conversation, is exciting enough to have a crowd, Fangmeyer. Office, now!" Bogo says, pointing away from the business area. Bogo looks at Nick after a moment. "Wilde, explain yourself!"
"Sorry, sir," Nick fades from his smirk, and now wears an emphatic smile. "Fangmeyer came up to me and challenged me to a wit battle. I didn't want to get in trouble, though, since I knew you were coming over. Don't worry, I'm over here working with Hopps."
"Good. I thought I heard otherwise," Bogo points two fingers, in a 'V' shape, at his own eyes, then at Nick. He turns and walks away.
Without any reaction, Nick smiles and walks over to Judy. "Let's take care of business, Carrots," he kneels at her computer, glancing at the small screen. "Did you find something?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Nick. Don't get ahead of yourself. You just won a wit battle against Fangmeyer and got away with lying–"
"First of all, Carrots, I did win a wit battle. So, what? He stepped in. Second, I did not lie. I stretched the truth. I worded the question specifically to get him in trouble. I didn't say, 'I challenge you to a wit battle.' I said, 'Are you challenging me, Nick Wilde, to a wit battle?' You see?"
"All I wanted to say is you did great. You didn't even get in trouble."
"Remember the day when you tried to arrest me?"
"So that's your reply?" she smirks. "Oh, I get it now. You're implying that you avoided even my attempts to outwit you."
"Bingo, Fluff. Do you want to hear my tactic? Okay, here it is: I create the cheesiest and most sandbagged comments to deliberately underperform, and then I hit them with my best. Now, that I'm not getting ahead of myself in a business perspective, I'm going to ask the same question: 'did you find something?'"
She rolls her eyes. "Yes. I was looking into the directory for the marine biologist lab, and, well, it has all koalas for employees. A koala was also our witness' claim of the perpetrator's species. If all the employees are koalas, then–"
"–The perpetrator is one of the employees," Nick cuts her off.
"Yes. But wait – our witness claimed the perpetrator moved fast. What do we do from here?"
"You have access to the security cameras now?"
She nods. "What's that supposed to do with it?"
He chuckles. "Hey, you complimented me as 'Junior Detective' the day we cracked the case of the Night Howlers. This implies that you're a better detective than me. You should know by now."
"Oh, hush," she says, considering the screen once more. "Ooh, Nick! You may have found the secret to this case!" she opens the program to the footage and opens the section for the marine biologist lab. "You remember what time he was kidnapped?"
Nick looks up from his phone. "What?"
She frowns. "Nicholas Piberius Wilde, I am so close to taking that phone away."
Nick does not set his phone down. "Hey, take it easy on the middle name. I don't know yours – you're lucky that you know mine. Nevertheless, I was just looking up when he was kidnapped. Here, I'll read it to you off ZNN: 'The abductor was reportedly known abducting the suspected abductee today at approximately 2:08 AM.'"
She enters the time and date, and the screen appears. The video shows a figure, and the figure disappears. Judy raises her eyebrows. "What happened?"
Nick waves her hand away, "This may seem a little déjà vu here, but if I wanted to spot someone moving quickly on a video, I'd slow it down," and he configures the settings to play at 2% speed. He plays the video, and the figure is there in a couple of frames, and another, koala-shaped figure passes over the figure, and they both disappear. Throughout the entire tape, no other koala bears are in the room. Nick reverses a few frames back and forth until arriving at the most quality frame. He hits the print command. After a moment, he collects the photo from the printer. "Here, look."
After a couple of seconds of close consideration, she looks up at him. "I think we've got our perpetrator."
Nick smiles. "Yeah, I know who did it."
Judy nods. "Me too."
Nick grins. "Okay, then. We both say the suspect at the same time, when I count down from three. Ready? 3, 2, 1."
"Sheryl Pandyril."
Now back at the Zootopia Marine Biologist Lab, Judy eyes the administrator. "I already told you, put the entire building on lockdown. We are law enforcement. Do as we say."
The administrator frowns. "We can't do that without the manager's permission."
Judy rolls her eyes. "Where is Sheryl Pandyril?"
"In the lab, like she always is. Why?"
Judy walks away, ignoring her question. Nick follows suit, looking at the administrator. "Sorry, I guess she doesn't want to chat right now. I'm a police officer. We won't hurt anyone," he performs a sympathetic grin and follows the impatient rabbit.
"Alright," Judy snaps, walking over to Sheryl, Nick on her side. "Freeze! You are under-"
Sheryl quickly spins around. "No, you freeze," she mutters and elbows Judy in the stomach. She falls to the ground, clutching her stomach. She lets a heavy groan emit from her and she slowly stares at Nick, who looks at Sheryl, pure fury emitting from his eyes. He darts over to the koala, and she roundhouse kicks Nick in the head. Nick falls to the ground, his awareness fading. He considers Judy's violet eyes.
That went so fast…
Then everything goes black.
Seeming moments pass. His eyes shoot open, and he only can register his perception by waving a paw in front of his face. The cold cement floor sends a wave of frigidity up both arms and legs, meeting at his midsection and slowly fading up his back as he accustoms to the feeling. He jolts at a sudden wave of pain locating at his ankles, only to find a rope generously tied around them. He moves his wrist up, but his other wrist follows. The same pain, now locating in his wrists, travels down his arms and jolts him again. He shivers, rolling over and ends with his back to the floor.
The rope prevents his paws to shake, and instead his body vibrates multiple times. He manages a wavering breath and struggles for another. He finds it difficult to swallow, but manages to choke down a few milliliters of his own saliva after a moment. Moving his tongue inside his mouth, he shudders after finding the inside of his throat sticky, as if he had held his mouth agape for a long period of time.
His attention shifts to his head, and he lifts both paws up to his right temple. Pain radiates from this area, and he clenches his molars together to help endure the pain. This pain is so intense that he feels his respiratory system cease for a moment. He finds himself only capable of sitting without air, and he does so until he feels as he might pass out. He places his paws up to his mouth and winces at a foreign material adhered to it.
He holds his paws up to his mouth and picks at the edge of the material atop his mouth. He almost yells out in pain after pricking his cheek with his claw. He retreats his paw from his mouth and dexterously attempts to peel back the material yet again. He manages to puncture the material with his claw and pulls the material from his mouth.
Air rushes into his body, and a confusing bout of lightheadedness overtakes him, so much so that he comes very close to going unconscious. He recovers quickly, and he again grimaces at the recurrent pain locating at both his ankles and wrists.
I need to get out of this.
Fearfully, he moves his hands in a complicated motion, but still, the rope fails to release from his wrists. He sighs, disappointed that his fierce studying on the very technique so many months before had yielded nothing but two painful wrists. He returns his wrists back to the normal position and tries again, but still, the rope refuses to release its indigent grasp. He hits his back to the wall, closing his eyes. He winces as the pain in his head doubles, and he makes a mental note to be aware of pain in his head before ramming his head into a concrete wall.
It's all over, the thought inside of him comments. You're just going to sit here in this dark room and starve to death, or worse. He cannot bear to imagine the torture Sheryl would put them through if he and Judy fail to escape.
When he opens his eyes again, he notices a shiny edge of something about his height. As he adjusts his viewpoints by barely two degrees, it disappears. Nick moves his head back and forth to find the glare moving up and down the object. He looks over at the door, finding a small gap between the door and the ground, permitting the light to shine directly on the object. He hobbles over to the location and holds his paws up to attempt to cut the rope, but still cannot reach the sharp object from his kneeling stance.
Sharp object. A smirk encompasses the lower portion of his face. Bingo.
He twists the bottom of his palms in opposite directions, so the fingers of his right paw hover over his left arm. Adjusting the location of his right paw, he releases a claw on the index finger of his right paw. He focuses on his wrist as accurately as possible in that dark room, and accidentally slashes his wrist, making an awkwardly vertical incision of his fur and top layer of skin. Pain radiates from this area, and he forces himself to avert his attention to the task at hand. Again, he focuses the claw of his right index finger to the rope. Useless to look anyway, he closes his eyes and moves his finger quickly toward his palm.
He opens his eyes to a lack of pain where he imagined pain would appear at that moment. In fact, relief only exists because the rope no longer remains tied on his wrists; instead it hangs loosely over his left arm.
He shakes the rope free, massaging his painful wrists with his other paw and doing the same with the other wrist. He cuts the rope on his ankles with his claw, and he massages those also. He contemplates his courage over attempting to cause serious flesh damage to his wrist or free himself, and almost laughs over the fact of accomplishing both.
Before approaching the door, he holds his paw up to the accidental laceration on his left arm, then touches it with his right forefinger. He lets out a breath of relief upon finding no blood on his finger, and, mind on the cut, instinctively directs himself toward the door, reaching his hand toward the door and his paw lies upon a furry round object. He rubs it and the object slowly ducks from his reach. Through his night vision, he can see a ball with a nose and two long ears protruding from the top. It connects to a slim body, much like a bunny.
Nick immediately recognizes the shape and grins. "Carrots?"
She looks up. "Nick," she squeezes his waist. "I couldn't see well, but I think I tripped on a bucket or something before coming over here."
"Uh-huh," he replies inattentively. He examines the room, and arrives at a shelf. He collects an object, noticing the silhouette of the thin object is capable of fitting in his palm. "Hey, Carrots. I found a key."
Judy smiles. "Isn't it a little bit cliché that somebody put the key inside the room?"
"Maybe," he tries the lock and opens the door. "I got it," he says, the light of the outside penetrating his eyes. The room outside never had changed, the lab they had gone to earlier, and the empty fish tank illuminates the room. "Hey, Carrots, there's no fish. There goes my chance for a nice dinner..." she eyes him. "I was kidding. Now let's get out of here before something else happens."
The two partners walk through the dark hallway, down the stairs and out the door of the establishment. The alley is dark, and even with his night vision, the darkness prohibits sufficient visual perception.
Nick brushes his hands on his uniform. "Well, it was strange that nobody noticed us escape," he waits for a reply, but Judy has now disappeared from his sight. He slowly prances around the pavement, assuming her location. "She's probably already in the car," he mutters to himself.
Through the darkness, his vision perceives a vague shadow, one of which he cannot recall the shape of. As he attempts to make out the shape, his mind draws him to thinking of Sheryl. She had made them think she was innocent and foreign, unable to communicate or behave in any logical way. But they were wrong. She had expected them to return after finding her as a suspect, and she had known exactly what to do.
In this darkness, a figure appears. This figure is short and has ears of unintelligible shape; Nick cannot tell if their ears are either tall or short. This figure, through careful studying, appears to have a chunky build, but their movement is nimble. Moments into the careful studying of the mammal, Nick steps back at a sudden movement of the mammal, appearing sudden and dangerous. Without thinking logically, Nick curls his paw into a fist and throws it upward in hopes of hitting his supposed target – Sheryl.
His body fills with a cold chill of fright after a grunt, one very light and innocent, emits from the figure. Realizing the flashlight on his belt, he sighs to himself, retrieves the device, and clicks it on. Light shoots in a straight line onto his victim.
Judy, barely conscious, is sprawled on the pavement. Her jaw appears slightly irritated, and through closer inspection he finds inflammation. Scooping up his partner, tears develop in his eyes as he cradles the unconscious officer in his paws and maneuvers ungainly to the police cruiser, where he lies Judy gently into the back of the cruiser.
He shuts the door to where Judy lies. Fear shakes his body, and he can barely focus on the task of transporting her to – where?
Where should he take her?
If he should take her to the hospital, they would treat her, and the security unit would get involved in her injuries and ask Nick how this occurred. He'd surely be arrested, fined, and in the most severe case, fired. They would jail him for misconduct. His already blemished record would become dirtier than ever.
If he should take her to the police station, he would be scolded for not taking her to a hospital. He'd be prosecuted further for her injuries, and surely suffer identical consequences of the previous situation.
With a groan, he slams his paw on the metal door and gropes for the handle of the driver's side door. He pulls it open, then heaves himself onto the seat by pushing the car door. In seconds, he moves the car from where it he had parked it.
"Is she okay?"
Nick asks the question to the doctor, who repeatedly gives irrelevant information. He's distracting me. He's waiting to tell me the bad news. Finally, after Nick repeatedly and hesitantly tries, the doctor answers him.
"She's… okay. A mild concussion because of extreme pressure to the jaw. Other than that, she's okay. We have her on medication for the inflammation to her bleeding tongue – called glossitis – from the force of that punch."
He hadn't told anyone that he had caused this injury. Nobody had questioned him yet.
Now, ungrateful of her survival, he glances at the floor of the waiting room. His vision becomes wet, and soon closes his eyes. Tears peek from under his eyelids and run down his cheek, and he does not bother to remove them. He lets no sound escape from his mouth, and instead keeps his eyes staring directly at the ground.
Minutes pass, and the doctor invites Nick to Judy's room. Nick stands and follows the doctor to Judy's temporary residence. At the beginning of the hall, the doctor verbally directs Nick to Judy's room, and Nick starts down the hall.
He whispers the room numbers as he passes each placard outside every odd-numbered door on the left side of the hallway. His steps slow as he recites Judy's room number to himself: "147." After a moment, he returns to reciting the numbers after passing each door: "139… 141… 143… 145…" he looks ahead, and the next door frightens him. He walks up to the door frame and looks at and recites the number of the placard just beside it. "147."
He places his back on the wall to the right of the door, then stares at the wall directly across from him. He'd never contemplated how she would react after she came to, and now is the time to meet with her. He takes in a weary breath, then closes his eyes. "Nick. She enjoys your company. She won't get too mad – what's the worst she can do? Besides, does she get mad often? No!"
"Nick?"
Before mustering another word of his hesitant pep talk, Nick freezes in place. He now focuses on hearing another letter of the source of the sound. It takes a moment before he realizes who had spoken. Why do rabbits have to have such good hearing?
He proceeds into the room, then looks at her. She lies comfortably, no visible bandages or gauze anywhere on her person. Her eyes stare at him as he approaches, and a smile spreads across her face and her ears perk up.
Her reaction stuns him that she had managed to look excited in his presence. Her life had been changed because of him, but she still managed an excited look as he approached.
"Carrots–"
He finds her finger placed over his mouth. "Nick, I know ith was an axthidenth. I forgive you."
Footsteps.
The footsteps become louder and louder until two officers barge into the room, fully dressed as Nick is. The officers, without delay, look to one another and silently decide on who must speak. One officer, who Nick knows best as Officer Wolfard, looks to Judy in her bed. "Good evening, Officer Hopps. Do you mind if we question you a bit?"
Before Judy can muster a word, Nick looks up and interrupts her. "Uh, guys, Judy can't really talk that well, so do you mind if I talk for her? I'll let her correct me if she needs to."
"Okay?" Officer Wolfard says, looking down at his sheet fastened to the clipboard. "Officer – Wilde, on behalf of Officer Hopps, how can you best describe the person who injured you?"
Nick closes his eyes, refusing to answer for a moment. He turns his head to Judy, and their eyes meet instantly. She nods, opens her mouth, and again, Nick interrupts her. "Wolfard – I have a confession to make. I did it. I hurt her. Accidentally."
Instantly, Wolfard and the other officer exchange skeptical glances. The other officer stands up and stops beside Nick, carefully watching him. Wolfard proceeds with the investigation, looking at Nick again. "And, Wilde, can you please describe this accident?"
"Yeah. Um, it was late, and Judy and I were both outside the Zootopia Marine Biologist Lab after Sheryl Pandyril, the CEO of the Zootopia Marine Biologist Lab, kidnapped us, and of course, this was after we had escaped. I thought I saw Sheryl outside with us, so without thinking, I punched Judy. I meant to hurt someone other than Judy – I mean, I thought it was someone other than Judy, but I couldn't see who it was."
Wolfard, looking especially concerned, holds his communicator up to his mouth. Seconds pass, and another officer proceeds into the room, taking Nick by the paw and arresting him. Nick, looking to both officers in confusion. "Hey! Guys! You've got the wrong guy! I mean, I didn't do anything wrong! I wanted – I wanted to help, but it was an accident that I hurt her. C'mon, hear me, guys!"
"Officer Nicholas Wilde, you are under arrest for misconduct," the officer on Nick's right asserts, unfazed. "You have the right to remain silent..." his voice trails off as all three mammals' footsteps fade into the hallway.
The only word Judy can muster is, "why?"
If only he hadn't done this. If only they hadn't gone to that establishment, none of this would have happened.
I guess it's fate.
