Change starts with You
by Winerp
For Notes regarding this work and myself, refer to the bottom of this Chapter.
Chapter 2 – Hearts and Minds Pt 1
Routines tend to become a part of everyone's lives – if not their whole lives – and they tend to help in keeping them orderly and safe, if a bit predictable. Judy Hopps was no stranger to them, in fact, having grown in a farm with two hundred and seventy five siblings, they were pretty much mandatory for a somewhat comfortable everyday life: in order to make sure everyone was fed and had their chores assigned, school day or not, they needed set times for everything, from waking up to the meals and even showers (you try storing enough hot water for 250 plus dirty tired mammals…). As such she found that growing up and even after leaving BunnyBurrow for the wild and unpredictable city of Zootopia she found comfort and reassurance in a well-planned schedule. If nothing else, having everything happen when and how it should usually meant nothing potentially bad had happened. So she kept a pretty tight life, with set wake up, jogging, arriving and leaving ZPD and getting back home hours.
And then the wild part of Zootopia decided to make itself known. Or rather, the Wilde of Zootopia to be more precise…
Disregarding the couple of days during which she and Nick went about their rough introduction to each other, chasing leads and threads throughout the city during the Nighthowler Case, she managed to maintain her schedule… Until he came back from the Academy and started up as her partner.
While her morning routine remained unchanged – as Nick also needed the regularity to keep himself in check as far as his newfound responsibilities went – the fox's laid back and carefree attitude started to erode Judy's resolve to stick to a set timetable during the afternoons and especially after work. It didn't help that for some godforsaken reason she enjoyed his snarky ass' company more than anyone else's – except for her parents' of course. They'd ended up moulding their timetables to the case they had at the time, and would often crash at each other's place after a late night brainstorming and discussing leads or after a late night watching a movie or simply enjoying each other's company.
It really made no sense to anyone who didn't know them that well. She was the epitome of the expression "by the book", he was as relaxed as they came and more often than not preferred the "bend the book" approach (he never looked the other way about anything but having grown in the streets of the city, he knew that there was a lot of situations where giving a fine or pulling an arrest would only make things worse). She was a country girl, he was city born and bred.
She was a rabbit. He was a fox.
And they were the tightest and most effective partners in their Precinct.
…
But sometimes, just like any other partners, they couldn't stand the other.
This time, Nicholas Wilde had (due to reasons outside his control, although that didn't even register in the peeved bunny's mind) ruined her morning routine.
At the morning's roll call he had been given instructions to report to Records since – according to Bogo – his assistance was required to review an old case. Naturally Judy asked if she was to assist her partner in assisting the mammals down in Records. After the Chief clarified that only Wilde's presence was required she questioned what she was supposed to do while partner-less. To which the Chief responded, with his typical uninterested posture, "Parking duty." As if it was the most natural thing in the world!
So now, here she was, put-put-putting around in the Jokemobile, giving out tickets and seething at her partner. She had kept her phone on her at Nick's request: 'maybe I'll be done quickly and I'll be able to join you, so I'll need to know where to find you' he said. And maybe she'd get him stuck in a traffic jam just because…
To be fair she didn't even expect him to call her before lunch, so it was with quite a bit of surprise – and anger, definitely anger – that she got a call from him a mere fifteen minutes after she left the Precinct.
Inhaling deeply, she stopped the Jokemobile got out her phone and answered.
"Nicholas Piberious Wilde…" she started quietly "I am NOT A HAPPY BUNNY."
"YOU BETTER HAVE A VERY GOOD EXCUSE FOR WHY I GOT STUCK WITH PARKING DUTY WHILE YOU WENT TO REVIEW A CASE."
And suddenly she wasn't angry anymore.
"Hey Carrots? We need to talk."
Her nose twitched.
No snarky comment? No sarcastic comeback? A somewhat uneasy feeling to his voice? Something wasn't right.
"Nick?... Is something wrong?"
"That would depend on your definition of 'wrong'. I just got out of a meeting with the Chief and -" He never got to finish the sentence.
"Please tell me we're not in trouble… again…" Judy said, a grimace starting to form on her face.
"Easy Fluff, not yet. Look, we may be assigned a new case soon, BUT…" She was going to start cheering, but her partner's tone silenced her. "BUT, we need to talk about it first. This one is a lot more delicate than usual."
That could mean a lot of things, but it was clear Nick didn't want to discuss them over the phone. His less-than-usual-serious self didn't leave her feeling too comfortable, but hey! They were getting a new case!
"The Chief has given us both the day off, think you could swing by my place? After you return the Jokemobile of course…" Okay. Given that she could practically hear the smirk through his voice, Nick wasn't quite as off as it first had seemed.
"Sure, I'll be there in forty five minutes or so." She still had to return the little tricycle and report the few parking tickets she had actually issued during her short patrol.
"Great. See you then."
Click.
Judy was now looking at her phone with a blank expression, but wide eyes: she didn't know what to think. Whatever case Bogo had talked with Nick about, it had clearly upset him and left him somewhat at a loss – probably why he wanted to talk with her other than them being partners. But since he was still cracking the occasional joke by the end of the phone call he couldn't be entirely dumbfounded.
Guess I better go see what this is all about… She thought while turning the Jokemobile around and heading back to the Precinct.
"Great. See you then."
Click.
#
That went… better than he expected.
While he had his suspicions about why the Chief had given Judy parking duty even though he was going to give her the day off anyway, Nick fully expected the bunny to go berserk as soon as they met up. So he was pleasantly surprised with how quickly she dropped the 'rabid rabbit' act during the phone call.
It was also a pleasant surprise to realize that just that little bout of conversation with Judy had already improved his mood. At least enough for his usual punny self to come out and protect his more sensitive inside.
It never ceased to amaze him how well they understood each other. She had only needed six words from him to realize something was up and he wasn't doing that well.
Over the time they had spent working together at the ZPD, he had come to realize how their odd pairing ended up being mutually beneficial, not to mention how it benefited the city, given their effectiveness together as cops. While they were in many ways polar opposites they were not closed minded mammals (or at least they had come to become so after their 'shock and awe' type introduction). That meant that they were constantly learning from one another: even after the Academy Nick had learned from Judy numerous minute details about laws and regulations that proved useful in their line of work; he had the knowledge and street-smarts only a rough upbringing in the city could bring and which helped them to better predict and influence incidents they encountered. And to top it all off they both had a profound admiration for each other. The bunny who beat all odds and expectations to achieve her dreams and the fox who endured all the prejudice and hate of society without letting it destroy who he really was. She had shown him that prejudices could be overcome and that there was some good to be found in most people, while he had been the first mammal to fully support and cheer her on, while crushing her own stereotypes in the process.
This together with the fact that it had been said bunny to give him a chance and get him out of the gutter made Nick all the more appreciative of their friendship and partnership.
In fact he always made a point to remind himself of how difficult it had actually been to get partnered up with her in the first place.
While he had a clean record – safe for the occasional misdemeanour, usually brought about by an irate customer – and there was no proof of the only real crime he had committed (he had in fact erased the carrot pen recording), he felt like he had to come fully clean to truly begin a new chapter in his life.
To that end, after the NightHowler case was wrapped up, he had arranged a meeting with Chief Bogo, where he had, off the record, admitted to his tax evasion and explained exactly what he had been doing after High School and before meeting Judy. He had also explained he just wanted a chance to prove both to others and himself that not only was he a new mammal, but that prejudice could only get you so far and everyone could be more than met the eye.
Bogo was, naturally, reluctant to oblige, but Judy's vow of confidence had earned him a chance to prove himself. A deal was arranged with the IZRS (the Internal Zootopian Revenue Service) where if Nick paid all his fiscal debt and a delay surcharge and had Bogo vouch for him after a one year probationary period at the ZPD no charges would be filled and his record would remain clean. Thankfully, Nick had kept most of his hustling money and was able to pay the debt. As for the year of work at the ZPD he made sure to look at it as a normal working year: his goal was to help and protect the public and, in doing so, show his new self anyway.
Of course he still had to endure Bogo's less-than-cordial-bordering-on-hostile treatment for a few months, but he had eventually earned the buffalo's trust, with a little unexpected help from some less than friendly mammals who thought it wise to hold ZPD officers hostage… Though that was something he'd rather not have to live again.
After that it was his turn to come to admire their Chief and his work. He knew how the hierarchy was in the city's government and what that meant for a mammal in Bogo's position: he wasn't high up enough to call most shots, but wasn't low enough to escape the political games of City Hall. And for a mammal to endure that ordeal and STILL run the tightest Precinct in Zootopia, meant he had to be pretty special. And Bogo was indeed something…
Suddenly Nick was removed from his reminiscing by his nose, which started to pick up known comforting scents. Sure enough, he found himself just around the corner from his apartment complex.
Pushing open the door, he thought to himself Guess I better get something ready for Judy… This is gonna be one hell of a talk…
Showing his true colours was never easy, but if there was one mammal he'd do it for, that would be Judy.
A/N
Turns out fig fire water is great to get stuff out of your head and onto paper. Huh, who'd have thought…
Anyway… again sorry for the delay. Crappy internet was crappy. But here we go! Second chapter is up.
Definitely a slower more thought driven chapter… don't worry, next one will be the talk and after that we get the MR case rolling :D
Btw, anyone wanna say what MR stands for? Maybe where I got it from?
Also, two things to look out for:
Shiny chapter titles! Whoo!
The first chapter got some tweaks to ensure better story cohesion (small stuff).
As before, all reviews and PMs are highly welcome so that I know what I should improve or just change.
As promised, see you in a few days :D
Cheers!
