Nick shared a seat with Judy in the ZPD roll call meeting, reflective sunglasses on and large cup of coffee in hand. "Well," Chief Bogo started, " as you all know we have an officer back who was wounded in action. I would say for you all to welcome him, buuuut I'm not. Because I don't care."

"Awe Chief, you move me. I'm touched by your kind words." Snickers filled the room but came to an abrupt halt as Chief Bogo cleared his throat and picked up the roster on the podium.

"McHorn, Wolferton," he bellowed, "Petty theft in Tundra Town. Hops, Wilde," Judy looked up at their buffalo commander expectantly but Nick kept his eyes downcast beneath his glasses. He was still a bit groggy from the pain killers that Judy had practically forced him to take before they left for work that morning. The glasses helped. "Now that your both back on the beat, I want you searching for the Night Howler. We need him off the streets and behind bars before he strikes again.

"Yes Sir," Judy said, saluting smartly, "we're on the case." She hopped down from the chair and Nick slide off following her lead as she headed to the door.

"Wilde," Bogo called, "don't do anything foolish, you hear?"

In one fluid movement, Nick turned, clicked his tongue, snapped his fingers and pointed to the chief. Bogo frowned but the cocky smile on Nick's lips never left as he swiveled back around and caught the door right before Judy let it go.

"So any leads?" he asked they headed down the hall to pick up their case file from Clawhauser.

"No," Judy said as she took the coffee from his hand and sipped on it, "but I do want to see an friend about some bulbs."

"Sounds good, lets roll."

It was a surprisingly short drive to the Otterton flower shop and Nick fought back a hiss as the bells above the door chimed at their entrance. Thanks to Judy and her family, his body had healed up after his fall from the bridge in the Rain Forest but the headaches still ebbed and flowed. A motherly looking otter stood behind the counter wrapping an assortment of azaleas but when she saw them walking in, she immediately abandoned her work and ran over to give Judy a big hug.

"Judy," she exclaimed excitedly as she embraced the bunny officer warmly, "its been so long, how are you?"

"Much too long," Judy said hugging her back, "I'm fine but how are you and the kids? And Mr. Otterton?"

"Oh, the boys are fine and Emit's in the back doing inventory. Its really good to see you and how are you officer Wilde. I heard that you took a nasty accident a couple of months ago on a case. It was in all of the newspapers. I hope you're feeling better."

Nick sipped his coffee and spoke very, very, slowly. "I am doing well," he paused and before Mrs. Otterton could speak, he raised his paw, "as I can be." Judy flashed him an irritated frown but he regarded her coolly with a knowing smirk playing on his lips. Mrs. Otterton on the other hand, stared at Judy then at him and back, a concerned look plastered across her face. "Oh my stars," she gasped "did he get some kind of brain damage from the fall? He's talking as slow as a sloth."

Judy's violet eyes glared daggers into Nick as she spoke. "No more than he was before he fell. Officer Wilde," she said through clinched teeth, "didn't you say that you wanted to ask Mrs. Otterton a few questions for our investigation?"

"Investigation?" said a shocked Mrs. Otterton.

"Yes Ma'am," he said smiling disarmingly, "but I think your husband is the one that I'd like to ask the questions to. You said that he's in the back, right?"

"Yes, the store room is right past the last shelf. And he wont mind answering any questions for you, not after all the two of you have done for us." Tapping his paw against his forehead in a two fingered salute, Nick turned and headed toward the stock room.

"Oh Officer Wilde," Mrs. Otterton called out and Nick halted, "you might not want to bring that cup with you. There's spores and pollen flying lose in the air back there since Emit is sorting and separating flowers. They might get in your coffee."

Looking down at his half full cup of coffee, he took a long sip of it before handing it Judy. Nodding his thanks to Mrs. Otterton, he left her and Judy alone at the front of the store while he ventured to the stock room.

The clever fox saw a middle aged otter siting on a stool, sorting flowers and dipping their stems into some sort of clear liquid that appeared to be thicker than water. He cleared his throat and Mr. Otterton startled, nearly knocking all of his materials off of the work bench. "I'm sorry I surprised you," Nick said apologetically, " that darn sneaky fox biology."

Mr. Otterton fumbled as he fixed his glasses back on his face but smiled. "I don't know too much about biology, Officer Wilde, but I do know that sometimes I get so caught up in my work, that nothing else seems to matter. Or at least that's what the Mrs' tells me. I still wake up in cold sweats when I imagine her setting my work bench on fire once we retire."

"Ha!" Nick laughed and rubbed the red fur of his neck, "I know what you mean and hey, you can call me Nick."

"Ok, well, how can I help you Nick?"

Nick looked down at the flowers on the table and pointed to them. "I heard that every flower in a bouquet has a meaning. Is that true."

"Oh must definitely," the otter said perking up now that they were talking about his element, "or at least it is about roses anyway, here let me show you." He slinked off of his stool and Nick stuck his hands in his pockets as Emit lead him to the far edge of the table where a huge bucket of long stemmed roses sat. "Here," the otter florist pointed with his paw, "red roses mean romantic love, and yellow roses mean friendship or caring, pink ones mean gratitude or gentleness, and the white ones mean purity."

"What about those black ones?"

Mr. Otterton looked over at the black roses that sat in a corner, surprised that Nick had noticed them. "The black ones symbolize death."

"Well, that's kind of an odd variety to keep around and in such a large quantity."

Emit looked down, "Some people need somethings in abundance. Its all about what business they're in."

"I guess Mr. Big is doing well."

The otter florist fumbled with his glasses again and smiled nervously, "Now we both know that I have no comment on that."

Nick put both of his paws up in front of him, "Hey not business and I didn't see a thing."

"Thank you,"the otter breathed relieved.

"But I do have a few questions. About when you went savage."

"I paid reparations to the Jaguar driver, even though the courts said that I didn't have to because I was a victim too."

"I'm not here about that. I wanted to know, how long did it take for you to recover after you got the antidote in your system, I mean fully recover?"

"Well, I don't know that I'll ever fully recover," Emit said softly as he looked down at the floor, "The muscle soreness and headaches took about a year to pass but I still have certain urges. Some are stronger than others but for the most part they're all pretty faint."

A knot was developing Nick's stomach as he wondered whether or not he was going to be like this for the rest of his life. He kept his signature cool demeanor though as he pressed forward. "So these urges, what do they include?"

"Mostly just wanting to jump into large bodies of water but I cant swim so I'm happy that that's the weakest of them. Although my wife is very happy with certain ones if you catch my drift. Some I don't try to fight at all and she loves it."

Nick gagged on something between laughter and revulsion but continued on once he caught his breath again. "Do other things still come to you?"

"Yes, odors, more like scents. The smell of trees, dirt, fish in a stream. I know that they aren't real because I'll just be walking around downtown or clipping flower, looking at my kids and then it'll happen. Its not entirely unpleasant, I usually just wait it out, it doesn't last long."

"Uh-huh, well thank you for that Mr. Otterton, that was very... enlightening."

"Anytime and please, call me Emit. Is there anything else that I can do for you?"

"Yes, I'd like some roses delivered please. Four red, four pink and four white."

"Hmmm," Emit said as he fidgeted with his glasses and his mouth widened into a knowing smile. "A dozen roses, somebody must be special. Is there a lovely lady fox in your life now?"

Nick looked at the stock room door and then back at Mr. Otterton. " I can say that she's a lovely foxy lady, that's for sure."

Mr. Otterton laughed. "Well she's very fortunate to be courted by a gentlebeast such as yourself." Nick smiled and went to reach for his wallet but the otter waived him away. "You're money is no good here."

Nick had heard that so many times over the years, not because he had done anything wrong but simply for the fact that he was a fox. But the goofy wide toothed grin that Mr. Otterton had plastered on his face told him that the florist wasn't turning his money down for that reason. "You've helped us so much, just give me the address and I'll have Chester deliver them."

"Thank you Emit," Nick said as he wrote Judy's address on a notepad on the table and then handed it to Mr. Otterton. "But I insist on giving you something."

"Give me and my a wife an invitation to the wedding! And have a really good reception. We could use a night out from the kids."

Nick laughed hard before shaking the otter florist's paw and saying his goodbyes and headed to join Judy in the front of the store.

"Thank you for all of your help," she said as she sipped on Nick's coffee.

"I'm just sorry that I couldn't have been more helpful. And you really shouldn't do that," the motherly otter said as she pointed to the cup in Judy's hand. "You get germs that way."

"Hey," Nick said as he walked up, " I have the best germs." Judy made a wry face at him and then handed him back his cup. They both said their goodbyes to Mrs. Otterton and then existed the store.

"Anything?" he said as he climbed into the seat of their police car.

"No," Judy sighed as she turned the key in the ignition, "Mrs. Otterton said that they don't sell Night Howler anymore, nor does anyone else in the city. Did you get anything good from Mr. Otterton."

"Nope, but now I wanna see a friend about something."

"What?" Judy said as she pulled out of the parking space.

"Paw Pops."