Chapter 8: A new beginning.
"Nick! Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick! He's going to be here soon we'll deal with that paperwork later I wanna be here to welcome him, you should be so much more excited about this" Judy Hopps was bouncing with excitement at the idea of there being another fox officer in the precinct, admittedly she was excited on the behalf of Nick Wilde, who she assumed cared, and he didn't.
"Hopps, I told you, this isn't a big deal, it was inevitable there would be another fox on the force soon enough, this isn't the ZPD of two years ago, things have changed.
"Nick, come on, he's the second fox ever to join the ZPD, and he's been made detective six months after joining the ZPD, he should be an inspiration to all foxes everywhere, especially you."
"Judy, do I make you meet and greet every new rabbit officer that comes through this place?"
"Well no, but that could have something to do with the fact that there hasn't been a new rabbit officer in this precinct, ever."
"No, but they are in other precincts, so if I was to make you go meet them it would be a rather big inconvenience wouldn't ya say?"
"That's completely different, we have to walk to the lobby and say hi, not drive to an entirely different place"
"No, you're right, but it is exactly 63 steps to the cruiser from here, and 75 steps to the lobby, and then at the cruiser, I get to sit down again, in the lobby I don't, and this is the first time in a month that I haven't been on my feet for eight hours straight, and I'm going to enjoy it."
"Well Nick you wouldn't of been on foot patrol for a month if you hadn't swapped Bogo's sugar for salt now would you?"
"He had it comin', he called me a glorified house duster with legs, I couldn't just take that sitting down"
"No, so you had to stand up for a whole month, wonderful."
"Worth it"
"Nick, we are going to meet him whether you like it or not"
"Gargh! Fine, but I'm taking the latter option"
"Good, let's go", Judy put her hands together in excitement, span around and hopped out of the office, she noticed nick was still sitting and yelled at him "Get up Wilde, you can't take it back now!", nick slowly dragged himself out of his chair, his body ached due to his month of torture at the hands of his evil boss.
Judy, and eventually Nick reached the lobby, they had a few minutes to waste before their new colleague arrived, they passed the time by talking, and at some points arguing, well, mostly arguing, but nevertheless it passed the time, after about fifteen minutes of standing around he finally arrived.
Through the front door of the ZPD came an arctic fox, well dressed, wearing a three piece suit, with a black blazer and matching slacks, with a dark grey suit vest, with red and black striped tie, though his attitude didn't match his exterior, he seemed calm and relaxed, but had a very obvious tint of an underlying sadness in his eyes, it wasn't obvious to everyone, in-fact nick was the only one to notice, he knew foxes well, and he read this one like a book.
Judy and Nick patiently waited for him to approach the desk, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible as to not alert him that they were waiting for him, and as he approached the desk he looked around but couldn't see anyone behind it, in-fact Nick and Judy were the only ones there, this was planned so they would be the first ones to speak to him, Nick didn't know this but Judy wanted to guarantee they spoke.
"Hi there, I'm new here, just promoted from Tundra Town, I was wondering if you could point me to where I could find Chief Bogo?" The new officer asked politely, knowing it would be the best way to get a response.
"Oh yes, you're officer Elmore right? We heard you were coming today, my name is Judy Hopps and this is my partner Nick Wilde, we're very excited to meet you, oh, and you'll find the chief in his office, up the elevator and three rooms down on the left"
"Well, thank you very much, and its actually an honor to meet you both, I read extensively about your work on the original Dawn Bellwether case, it was an extraordinary read"
"It was an extraordinary case" Nick took the reins on the conversation for Judy, who was too busy trying to stop herself squealing at the thought of Nick getting on with Robby, "If you ever want to get a first-hand account of the whole thing me and my partner here will be more than happy to go over it sometime"
"Oh, I wouldn't want to bother you with that, besides, that would take the magic out of it wouldn't ya say, like watching the behind the scenes sections of a movie"
"I guess you could say that, well, if you ever need anything me and officer hopps here have a specific knowledge on being the only ones of our kind in this place"
"I'll take you up on that, anyway, gotta go, I'm already running late because of the traffic, I'll seeya around", Robby gave a little smile to Judy and walked away, as he did he muttered under his breath, "Please never speak to me again".
Nick and Judy were still standing around, neither of them heard what Robby said so they were pretty happy with the result of their conversation, "I think he likes us Nick! You two hit it off really well".
"It went as well as can be expected Hopps, anyway, I have paperwork to do and a chair to sit on, so if you wouldn't mind, I'm going to go and do both of those things, and only enjoy one of them"
"Gosh Nick, never knew you enjoyed paperwork so much", Nick laughed as sarcastically as he could.
"Before I go rabbit, remember to not bother me for the rest of the day"
"As if Nick"
"I mean it, I scratched your back so you scratch mine, I wanna be sat down for the rest of the day"
"I'll think about it" Judy gave Nick a little wink and walked away from him, Nick also walked away, back to his office where he would spend the rest of the day.
Meanwhile outside chief Bogo's office, Robby prepared himself, eager to get work again after a short hiatus due to his new promotion, he knocked on the door preparing to make his entry but was greeted with a shout commanding him to wait outside, he obliged and waited to be called in.
After a few moments a wolf officer exited the room, seemingly in a rush to get back to whatever he'd been doing before, with the officers exit Robby was called into the office, he did so and closed the door behind him to keep the conversation inside the room.
"Who are you?" chief Bogo didn't even look up from his desk, he was completely concentrated on some files on his desk.
"Umm, I am officer Robert Elmore sir, well, detective now, I've been transferred here from Tundra Town and today was the day I was told I would be starting"
"Oh yes detective Elmore, you're late, I hope this won't be a regular occurrence?"
"Definitely not sir, I'm moving into my new apartment tomorrow so I had to come from Tundra Town today and got stuck in the morning traffic, it won't happen again"
"Good, now get out of my office and get to work"
"Umm sorry sir, but I have no idea where I should be going, this is my first time here after all", Bogo sighed and leant back in his chair.
"Go out the door, head all the way down, turn right and you'll see a load of brand new offices, yours will be marked with your name, I think, if you don't see your name, take whatever office you fancy, I really don't care"
"And how will I be receiving my assignments sir?"
"Once you're set up I'll have Clawhauser assign you a case, if any are available, if not, expect to be sat around doing bugger all for a while because honestly, I was fine with the detectives we have, but for some reason the mayor was right up my tail to bring in a new load, so just remember, you're not here because you're wanted, but because you're necessary, don't think it's because you did so well in your six months as an officer either, you're a glorified beat cop who doesn't have a beat, now please, get out of my office, I am very busy"
"Y-yes sir", Robby left the room, closing the door carefully behind him, "I like this guy" he said to himself as he walked away. Robby made his way to his office, and as promised his name was marked on one, he made his way in and took in a large breath, "So this is it, I made it, faster than anyone would have thought, I am a detective, ha ha!" Robby threw himself onto his office chair, he span around on it for a few seconds and then stopped, he tried to log in to his computer, luckily it was the same username and password as his previous precinct.
Robby checked his emails and his social media accounts, he was pleased to see no one was trying to talk to him, which, Robby loved more than anything, he hated being sociable ever since he was betrayed by the last person he could have considered a friend, not that he really considered himself a socialite before, he just hated to spend time and speak to others much more than he did in his early years.
Robby heard a knocking on his door, it was Clawhauser the cheetah, "knock knock detective, I have a nice bunch of files for you to go through"
"Umm, come in officer…"
"Clawhauser, don't worry, you'll get used to hearing my name, I'm the life of this place, anyway, I have some files the chief wanted me to give all the new detectives, you're the first one in so you get the first load", Clawhauser handed Robby a huge pile of neatly stacked files.
"And what are these? Cases?"
"What? Oh gosh no, these are just your release forms, your insurance, things like that"
"Wait what? I thought all that stuff was dealt with?"
"Maybe for your old precinct, but you're in a new, much more dangerous job, in a new place, it doesn't just get automatically updated, besides, you're going to be carrying an actual gun all the time now, that on its own takes up about two-thirds of the paperwork"
"All this just to be able to use a gun? Any chance I can opt-out?"
"Yeah, but it involves you quitting or retiring, and I'm sure that'll require just as much paperwork"
"Well, I guess it's not worth it then, ok I'll get to work on this right away"
"You might as well, I doubt you'll even be put on a case for a couple days, it's been a really slow week and even the other detectives are struggling to find something to do"
"Well still can't be as boring as my old position, all we ever did was drive around and cuff up teenagers for painting on buildings."
"Well, that still sounds more fun than what you'll be doing to pass the time"
"And what would that be officer Clawhauser?"
"You'll find out detective, I don't wanna spoil it for you, anyway, I'll catch ya later, I have a box of sprinkled delights with my name all over it"
"Goodbye officer", Robby nodded in Clawhausers direction, but he didn't nod back because he was fully concentrating on the thought of eating a full box of donuts in record time. Robby looked down at his pile of files and considered just running away and never coming back, but then he remembered that he wasn't a child and this wasn't homework, he was an adult, and he was doing office work.
"I should have just stayed in Tundra Town".
Authors Notes:
And here it is, the first glimpse of Nick and Judy and I've modified my writing style a little bit, nothing major just a little difference in the way I describe the scenes, anyway, I think I did a good job accurately representing the characters from the movie, but thats not up to me its up to the readers to decide if I did it well or not, I hope I did and I hope you all think so as well.
As usual, thanks for reading, feel free to like and follow, as well leave a review if you're inclined, I always seek to improve and a good criticism really helps out a lot.