"Today is a momentous day for our fair city."
Judy's ankle cuffs rattled as she took a step forward. She was in the middle of a very, very long processing line, but the ZPD had been kind enough to provide television entertainment. Behind her she heard Vincent being strong-armed into a muzzle, but she didn't dare turn around to look at him. That would only give the police a reason to look in her direction.
"I have been told that seventy-two arrests have been made in sweeps carried out across Zootopia. Criminals of all stripes have been brought to justice by the men and women of the ZPD."
Ahead of her the flashbulbs of the booking cameras were snapping in a crisp, constant manner. Every few moments the line lurched forward a few steps, sending a ripple of jingling chains up and down the convoy of arrestees.
There were other flashes as well. Just outside the ZPD building a line of reporters were busy snapping away with their personal cameras. Judy didn't hide her face behind a paw like some of the other animals in the line were doing. She wanted to be seen with her bruises, scrapes, and arm sling.
"And leading the charge was none other than ZPD's first rabbit officer, Judy Hopps!"
That was the signal. Judy jumped up from the line like a shot. Her manacles, which had been left unlocked, sloughed off at the first bound. Shouts erupted from the police as Judy bolted toward the door. A rhino barreled into view, charging with his head down, but the auditioning escapee' bounded over his horn and landed on his big, flat head. Prisoners hooted, howled, and hollered like they were watching live entertainment and the press outside did what it did best – took pictures.
A quick trunk very nearly caught her unawares. Judy spring-boarded off the rhino just in the nick of time to avoid being caught too soon. A rather slim wolf tried to grab her midair, but all he got for his trouble was a thump on his nose as Judy launched off in yet another direction. Blue uniforms were swarming toward the doors, closing the trap by sheer numbers. Judy finally noticed the white tuft of fur she was looking for and bolted through several pairs of grasping paws that had bent down to catch her. She twisted and turned every which-way to get closer to the one glass door that had been arranged for her. The one right by the press pool.
A slightly-bigger rabbit's foot hooked Judy's and she went sprawling. She felt the pressure of a knee in the small of her back and struggled a bit for the reporters, but there was really no need. Everything had gone perfectly.
"Now, if I didn't know better I would say you didn't appreciate our hospitality," Judy's captor said in a much-too-thick country drawl. "I can't have you checking out just yet."
Judy sneered, just like any good villain captured by the good guys would. She wanted so badly to snap something cliche' like, "You never would have gotten me without all your little friends!" or "You think you're all that, but you're not!" Chief Bogo and Oswalt both said it wouldn't be wise to say anything, though. It was enough for Judy Lopps just to be seen. Judy Hopps, though, could say whatever she wanted.
Backs to the cameras, the two rabbits winked at each other. They were the only two mammals around with an inside track.
Amanda Du'Vault – she was the Judy Hopps that Zootopia had gotten to know. The Judy Hopps from the television and radio. Really, she was just an aspiring actress who had left the little town of Podunk around the same time Judy had left Bunnyburrow. A week ago she had been bussing tables in one of Oswalt's infrequent midnight haunts near the station. When the need had arisen for a spare rabbit, she had instantly popped into mind. One non-disclosure agreement later and Zootopia had smiling, photogenic Judy Hopps to celebrate.
As the cameras flashed, Chief Bogo lumbered down from the second floor. Each step was captured on camera and if Judy didn't know better she'd say he'd gotten some makeup for the news. His horns certainly looked shiner than usual.
He smiled at Du'Vault – Judy – as she stepped up with her prisoner. "Hopps. Good work." His eyes flicked down to his actual cop and there was a tiny, buried kernel of amusement there as he schooled his face into one of rote disappointment. "Lopps. Even the most hardened criminal knows better than to try and escape from ZPD Headquarters. I see that we're going to need something special to keep you settled."
He gestured and two other officers walked up to flank. Trailing Bogo, Judy, Du'Vault, and their escorts left the media circus for the back corridors of the station. Judy still had to keep her act, but she felt much more at ease now that all the cameras were off her. She didn't have to analyze every action or facial expression now and the hand clenching her arm was merely guiding instead of pulling.
The chief stopped at a door. "We'll take it from here, you two," he told the escorts. He gave them a look when they seemed hesitant and they quickly moved along, leaving the trio finally alone. No prying eyes, no reporters.
Bogo unlocked Judy's cuffs himself. "Did you really have to turn the lobby into a circus with all the acrobatics?" he huffed. Du'Vault giggled in a very un-Judy way and the water buffalo snorted at her. "I'm pleased you find it humorous, Miss Du'Vault. Now the press with expect you to be able to do all that as well." The laughs quickly died.
"You wanted me to make a scene. I made a scene," Judy pointed out. She scratched at the faint line the cuffs had made on her wrists. "Besides, it was fun."
"Glad that we can serve at your leisure." Bogo's usual snap was tempered by the slight smirk he was unable to fully shake. He pushed open the door.
Judy was the first one in. A smattering of applause began building before she could even get fully in. A meaty shove from Bogo pushed her right into the room before she could pause.
The "smattering" of applause turned out to be a roar in miniature. There must have been over a hundred mice, rats, moles, and other small rodents of the ZPD Undercover Department filling the room, all clapping their little hearts out. Judy stumbled as Bogo ushered her to the front. She finally managed a few embarrassed waves.
Oswalt shuffled up to her. To Judy's surprise, he was wearing his service dress and didn't smell like an ashtray. His thick, wiry whiskers even looked like he'd taken the time to wax straighten them. "I'll be the first to admit that I didn't think you would be standing here," he said, low enough that only Judy could hear him.
"Did you set all this up?" Judy wondered.
"Actually, it was Bogo. He wanted to give you some official recognition." The water buffalo was close enough to hear their conversation, but he kept his eyes to the front and snorted when Judy gaped at him. "He was always a big softie," Oswalt barbed.
Judy's ears picked up a light clattering of hooves and the twinkling of a bell right before a door on the far side of the room opened. A tiny, mousy-looking ewe poked her head in. She looked around nervously at the crowd of rodents before her eyes settled on the real Judy. After that she scampered inside.
"Oh my goodness, is that officer Hopps?" The ewe had a high-pitched, scratchy voice but it seemed to suit her just fine the more she spoke. She stepped right up to Judy and captured her paw in a furious shake. "Gosh, this is just an absolute honor! When Chief Bogo told me about this little ceremony I just couldn't stay away!"
The buffalo himself leaned down to shake the ewe's hand himself. "That's right, Hopps. Assistant Mayor Bellwether wanted to be here personally." He gave Judy a sharp look at not recognizing the guest.
Judy's confused politeness sharpened into nervousness. "O-oh, the Assistant Mayor. Of course! I can't tell you how much it means to me to...to meet you personally."
Bellwether's face split in a wide smile and she furiously waved her hooves. "Oh, I'm nothing special. I still feel horrible for not making it to your graduation, but it was so last-minute. Mayor Lionheart wanted me to stay behind and take care of his meetings." Her flagging smile perked right back up. "I'm here now, though!"
It was infectious how enthusiastic Bellwether was about being there. Lionheart had been quick and perfunctory at her graduation. Judy had gotten the impression that her excellence and graduating early had been an inconvenience. Truthfully, she hadn't thought much of the lion. But Bellwether seemed almost trembling with excitement. Judy couldn't keep the proud smile off her face.
Bogo cleared his throat and the lingering applause broke off. "Well, I think we all know why we're here today," he said. "Miss Du'Vault, if you would?"
The actress blinked a few times before she figure out what Bogo wanted. Quickly, she unpinned the shiny badge on her uniform and passed it over. Judy almost laughed – Bogo pinned it right on her bright orange jumpsuit, but the weight was so comforting. Judy hadn't realized just how much she'd missed it.
Oswalt cleared his throat and snapped to attention. The entire room did the same. Even a hundred tiny rodents could look awe-inspiring if they did that. Chief Bogo straightened up and pulled a small velvet box out of his pocket.
"We all know why we are here today," he rumbled. "An officer has proven herself beyond the normal boundaries of professional or personal service. She has shown the highest personal bravery in the line of duty and at imminent personal hazard to life, limb, and personal consequence. For this outstanding service, Officer Judy Hopps his hereby conferred the Medal for Valor."
Bellwether's smile was bigger than a thousand-watt bulb as she plucked the medal from its case. "City Hall also wishes to thank Officer Hopps for her contributions to Zootopia. It is my sincerest belief that, without her dedication and job competency, we would not have made the single greatest swath of arrests in city history. It is my honor to be the one to pin this on you, Officer Hopps."
There were no television cameras and only a few smartphones went off when Judy saluted Chief Bogo, but it didn't matter. The entire ceremony had been burned into Judy's mind, right down to the individual faces of the mice on the front row. Everyone was clapping and Judy was the proudest she'd ever been in her life.
"You deserve it, Officer Hopps," Bellwether said right when Judy started to look overwhelmed.
Judy just shook her head. "Please, just call me Judy, Ma'am. I'm still technically undercover." She was babbling around her wide smile. She'd gotten the Medal of Valor! The assistant mayor of the city had pinned it on her! "I just can't believe I could be a part of all this."
"Then you have to call me Dawn." Bellwether giggled at Judy's instant surprise. "I'm just the assistant mayor, Judy. There's nothing really important about that. You're the hero of the hour!" She wagged her finger at Judy good-naturedly. "And I am just dying to know how you pulled off all those arrests and stayed undercover, though. Do you have time for lunch?"
"Lunch? But I'm…" She looked up to the chief.
He made a dismissive wave of his hoof. "Du'Vault can get you a spare uniform and keep out of sight for an hour or two. Enjoy it, though. You're going to be on prison rations for the next few weeks."
That was all the encouragement that Judy needed. In a few minutes Du'Vault had arrived with a freshly-pressed uniform for Judy. Even more than the badge, the uniform made Judy feel absolutely at ease for the first time in weeks.
As it turned out, neither Bellwether nor Judy knew where the cafeteria actually was. They wandered the halls together, not really looking very hard and chatting about this or that. Bellwether had some funny stories from City Hall to share and Judy enjoyed the simplicity of it all. She knew that today was her vacation from being undercover and simply let the ewe do the leading
As Judy had expected, no one in the hallways noticed the switch between her and Du'Vault. Even though the difference was as plain as day to Judy, or any other rabbit, bigger animals couldn't seem to tell that one rabbit's set of ears were bigger or that the ear coloring was different. It worked for the ZPD deception, but it was a bit annoying.
After saying eight 'good mornings' to mammals she didn't know, Judy and Bellwether found the cafeteria. There were only a few officers sitting around eating a late breakfast, so the two small animals had the run of the cafeteria line. After two weeks of TV dinners and whatever they had left over from the bar, a good meal from the ZPD was more than welcome to Judy. Bellwether simply got a grass smoothie (which she almost dropped twice).
Judy hopped up onto one of the too-big chairs and stifled her laughter when Bellwether had to struggle to climb up herself. "They r-really need to make these things s-smaller," the ewe wheezed as she finally got up.
"I don't think they were made with rabbits or ewes in mind, Mayor Bellwether – ah, I mean Dawn."
"Well they should, Judy. They really should. I'm going to have a talk with Chief Bogo about it." She took a long slurp of her smoothie. "Well, after this. If he's not too busy. And if it's in the budget."
Judy had to giggle. Bellwether worked herself up fairly quickly, but it was fun to watch her backpedal. Judy wished she'd paid more attention to politics so she could have seen the ewe run for office with a cocksure mayor like Lionheart. Even though she didn't know why, Bellwether caught Judy's giggles and almost swallowed her straw which made them both laugh harder.
"Hey, Hopps!" And then Bellwether abruptly stopped. A pair of wolves bounded over to her table and one wrapped an arm around her shoulder and gave her a good shake. "There's the badass bunny! We missed the ceremony, but that raid was good stuff!"
The other wolf was over by Bellwether. He was leaned over the table, not really paying attention to her, but the ewe was stock still like a surprised opossum. "I saw some helmet video from that raid and it was crazy! Hey, got any vid from your fight with that other rabbit? It must have been a crazy fight!"
"Well, it wasn't easy." In fact, it had almost been impossible to slip away from the bar and meet up with the rest of the ZPD in time for the raid. The best part had been putting the hurt on Vincent a second time. He was going to get some kind of bunny phobia if his bad luck kept up.
"I mean, it had to be like a Macaque Chan movie! Crazy bunny kicks flying everywhere and all kinds of karate moves! You should get that footage and sell it, Hopps! There's probably a dozen reporters out there who would sign over their retirement packages to you right now for it."
Judy sneaked a glance at Bellwether. The ewe didn't look good; she was blatantly staring at the wolf's teeth every time he opened his mouth. "You know," Judy blurted, "I think the chief said some new helmet cam footage was on the police network today! Since you two are so interested in it."
That was all it took. "Are you serious?! Oh man, come on! There's still some popcorn in the break room!" The wolves practically fell over each other trying to get back to their office.
Judy let the silence stand for a few moments while her lunch guest composed herself. To Bellwether's credit, it didn't take very long. She was back in full command of her facilities and only slightly twitchy in seconds. Judy doubted that anyone other than a cop (who happened to be a similarly-sized prey animal) would have ever noticed it.
"So, Dawn." Judy looked up and gave the ewe a small smile. "How long have you been scared to death of predators?" Bellwether's smoothie cup creaked as she grasped it like a life preserver, but she didn't say anything. "It's alright, I won't say anything. My parents are the same way. Dad can't even look at a fox without getting twitchy."
"Your dad doesn't have to be their assistant mayor."
It wasn't just the snappy remark from the sweet little ewe that gave Judy pause – it was the venom in her voice. Bellwether's face was marred by a horrible snarl that would have looked more at home on a criminal than the assistant mayor.
She met Judy's eyes for a brief moment and immediately looked down at the table. When she looked back up all traces of resentment were washed from her face. "Well, Judy, this has just been the best little luncheon, but I think I should get on back to city hall. Lots of work, you know?"
"No, wait." Judy slid off her seat and cut Bellwether off before she could even climb down. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything, but it's just…I know how you feel, a little bit. I still have a bottle of fox repellent."
Bellwether accepted Judy's help down and took her time quietly straightening her dress. Her little hooves fussed with her pockets and adjusted her lapel. It really did seem like she wasn't going to say anything else. It bothered Judy that the assistant mayor, her assistant mayor, had this kind of problem.
Judy reached out and grabbed Bellwether's hand. "Come on, we're going to work on this."
"Judy! W-what?" Bellwether's cute little necklace jingled as she stumbled along after the irresistible bunny on their way out of the cafeteria, drawing more than a few amused looks from the other officers. "Where are we going?"
Judy kept tugging. "We're going to give you two hours of good, old fashioned ZPD therapy, Dawn. Just leave it to me or my name isn't Judy Hopps!"
Chief Bogo had given her two hours for lunch, Judy thought. He didn't say she had to spend it in the cafeteria, now did he?
Short chapter, but it felt right to split it up a bit. Also, ignore the new character tag. Nothing to see here, not at all.