It took Finnick about 30 minutes to get there. Nick sat in the passenger's side seat looking gloomily out the window. He had been quiet since getting in the car, only telling Finnick to take him back to his apartment. Nick couldn't help but continue thinking about the energetic bunny that seemed to deflate under the Cape buffalo's penetrating stare.
Finnick glanced over at him, trying to keep it secretive, but failing miserably. "What happened, Wilde, I thought you were with officer toot toot" Finnick said, in his usual grouchy attitude.
Nick looked over at him, measuring him up to see what to let on. Nick decided to tell the truth "You know how the rabbit officer booted my stroller and hustled me into helping her"
"Yeah, she hustled you good" commented the small fox next to him, repeating what he said earlier that day.
"Well, I took her to, um, the naturalist club- "
"Woah, Wilde, didn't know you were into rabbits now" Finnick interrupted again enjoying the way his friend blushed.
"What no!" Nick quickly denied "I was helping her, while also trying to get her to lay off" He explained "but, she didn't, and so, got the plate number for a limo that the otter got into. I tried to get her to let me go but she denied and asked me to run a plate for her so, to get back at her, I lead her to Flash, which lead to nighttime"
So far, Finnick had listened quietly but now he spoke up "But how does you at the DMV, get you to the rainforest district."
"I was getting to that until you interrupted me. So, she brought me to a car lot in Tundra town, I tried to get away but, she threw the pen over the fence, I tried to climb over the fence, but she dug under it in about 5 seconds" Nick fell silent trying to figure out how she could dig so fast and without him noticing to boot.
"Well?" asked Finnick giving in to the silence "what happened"
"Hmm, oh, sorry, well we arrived at the right limousine and started checking it out. After a bit I realized it was Mr. Big's, and tried to run but Kevin and Raymond caught us"Finnick had so far tried to keep his interest to himself, but now he burst out "WHAT! How did you escape"
Nick came out of his musings and raised an eyebrow at his friend's outburst. Well, if I didn't know any better, I would think you were interested in my story he said regaining some of his earlier snark.
"Shut it Wilde" Finnick snarled returning his eyes to the road
"Well, Mr. Big was about to ice us if it wasn't for his daughter, Fru Fru, which so happens to be the mouse that Carrots had saved earlier that week."
Finnick glanced over at Nick "So, Officer toot toot has a nickname huh"
Nick stopped mid ramble. "Hmm, is finny jealous, do you want a nickname? You didn't seem to like little tike or sonny boy and not finny whinny" Nick said half mockingly, half amused.
"Shut up, or I'll bite your face off" Finnick barked, trying not to make good on his threat.
"Whoa, slow your teeth my small friend" Nick continued telling his story hurriedly hearing the threat in Finn's voice. "We were dragged to part of Fru Fru's wedding and Big told us about his limo driver that had been savaged by a Mr. Otterton, the subject of her investigation, and he gave us the drivers address"
"We left to the rainforest district in her joke mobile and arrived at the panther's house about an hour ago" had it only been an hour ago "He seemed fine, if not a little scared, and was about to tell us about some night howlers, or whatever, when he just went savage"
Finnick suddenly slammed the breaks shooting Nick forward in his seat, having neglected the need of a seatbelt, and stared at the now disheveled fox beside him. "Did you say that he went savage, like, claws out savage"
"What did you do that for!" Nick grumbled, picking himself off the floor and plopping down in his seat, remembering the necessity of a seatbelt, and buckling himself in "yes, savage. Now, if you would stop interrupting and continue driving me to my apartment, I'll be able to finish"
"Yeah, sorry" Finnick replied, continuing down the road into the main city.
Nick continued telling the story. "Manchez chased us back a hanging bridge till we jumped off, and miraculously landed on a log beneath. We ran onto the gondola platform where we tried to escape but, Carrots, fell and started falling off then Manchas came after me" He left out the part about him waiting to get Judy on the gondola before he left, mainly because he didn't know himself.
"But just in the 'Nick' of time, Hopps paw cuffed him to a light post. Manchas was stunned for a bit but quickly got back up while I was trying to get past, and, um, I fell off, taking Carrots with me"
Finnick burst out laughing "Hah, ha, ha, you always were a bit clumsy, but I didn't know you were that bad!" Finnick continued to chuckle as Nick gave him the stink eye.
"We could have lost our lives!" Nick exclaimed, obviously not amused.
"Huh, you're right. I would've had to get a new, scraggly, annoying, slippery fox if you had been killed. But then again, I wouldn't have to put up with you." Finnick ended with an uncharacteristic smirk directed at Nick.
"Just shut up and drive" Nick grumbled, realizing that Finn was just joking. "Now, do you want me to finish the story, or not?"
"You can continue telling your excuse of a story" Finnick said, settling back into his usual grumpy self.
"Why, what a gentle mammal. Well, Carrots caught a vine on our way down and I caught her. We were swinging when she decided to LET GO! I mean, seriously she let go, but we landed on a bunch of vines." Nick fell silent, thinking about how he had told Judy that she'd saved his life. She came back with an idealistic 'that's what we do at the ZPD' but it was still more than anyone else had done for him.
"Hey, space boy, what's up with you? You keep on spacing out on me" Finnick said. They were almost there, and, although Finnick would never admit it, he wanted to hear the ending of the story.
"Yeah, yeah sorry. So, the ZPD found us all bound up together in vines" Finnick glanced over, trying to get his head out the gutter "so they untangled us, though it took a bit, and we started up to the platform. But when we got there, Manchas had vanished. Hopps tried to explain but her chief accused her of seeing all predators as savage and then fired her on the spot."
Nick had been getting quieter and quieter so that, when reaching the end, He just trailed off mumbling inaudibly. He still felt bad, but the main shock had worn off and he was back to his usual self, albeit a little quiet.
"Wilde, you, okay? You seem to be more shaken up than I would have thought" He didn't see it happen, but he would have bet that it reminded him of the ranger scout incident. He had helped him back then and knew how much it truly hurt him.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little shaken up after almost dying three times. Not good for the body I might tell you" Nick replied not wanting to give anymore away than he already had.
Finnick, seeing that he wasn't gonna get anything else out of him, sighed and pulled into the shabby parking lot of an even shabbier apartment building. "Here's your stop, and next time don't call me during drinking hours."
Nick stepped off and waved goodbye with an unmistakable smirk on his face. He watched as the van started down the road but not before backfiring on its way out. Nick turned around ready to forget the events of the day in peaceful slumber.