"Nick, we are sorry about this, it's procedure and all." Wolford looked back at Nick who just kept his head down not saying a word. "Once we get to the precinct it's just a matter of a bit of paperwork and you'll be back home with Judy and the kits."
Nick didn't look up or even move, lost in his own thoughts of what he had just done. Normally he would've just left and been done with the specist mammal, but when he insulted his kits and Judy, that is when that cheetah stepped over the line. He did mean he would do anything to protect his family, he just didn't picture going to jail over it.
"Are you kidding me? Wolford, look behind us." Delgato had stopped the cruiser at a red light when he looked in the rearview window.
Wolford spun around and couldn't believe what he saw, "Is he seriously following us to the precinct?" Behind them was the cheetah from the restaurant sitting in his car glaring at the cruiser.
"It would seem so. Sorry Nick, looks like this is going to get a bit more complicated than we thought." Delgato shook his head as he started driving again, making their way to the underground parking lot at the precinct.
"So we are going to have to make a bit more of a show out of this Nick, but at least we will be able to remove the cuffs." Wolford opened the door letting Nick out, who turned around to get the cuffs removed. Rubbing his wrists he followed Wolford, who took a slightly different route to processing. Instead of going straight there from the underground lot he led them all to the counter in the main lobby, timing it just right for the cheetah to be walking in the main doors.
"Why is he not in cuffs?! He and his freak family come barging into my restaurant demanding I serve them, causing a huge commotion which will probably hurt my business now! He even tried to use his position as a police officer to get away with it!" He was yelling the whole time, making his way over to the three at the processing counter. Nick was digging his claws into the wood using all his willpower to not turn around and punch the cheetah for calling his kits freaks again.
Delgato noticed Nick's entire body tensing up like he was about to pounce and quickly spun around and intercepted the cheetah, "Sir, this is the police's property, not yours. You will drop your voice and come with me and leave the other officers alone. If you have more information about the event you can give your statement to me."
"Why? So you can just push it under the table to protect your friend? No, I will be speaking with chief Bogo and no-one else."
Delgato bore his gaze "Chief Bogo does not have time for small issues like this. I am the lead officer for this incident so any statement you have to make will be done with me. Now if you come this way I can take your full statement of the incident."
Delgato led the cheetah away leaving Wolford to finish the paperwork on Nick, "What else could possibly go wrong today?" After saying that Nick wished he had kept his mouth shut.
"Nick!" Clawhauser's voice spun Nick around just in time for him to try and brace himself from the large cheetah's hug, "I'm so sorry, this is all my fault." He hugged Nick so tightly he began struggling for air.
After hitting Clawhauser several times in the arm to get him to let go he was finally on his own two feet again gasping for breath. He finally stood upright and looked at the tears coming from Clawhauser's eyes, "Ben calm down. What do you mean this is all your fault?"
"Well, I ah..." Ben looked down at the ground hunching his shoulders and rubbing his paws together in front of himself.
"Ben! What did you do!" Nick lifted Clawhauser's face to look him right in the eye. The burning look made him take a few steps backward. His eyes were narrow slits, paws low but ready, and his mouth was flickering like he was about to snarl.
"I, I, ah..." Clawhauser completely broke down under Nicks gaze, dropping to his knees and bawling his eyes out, "I shared the video of your kits crawling around."
Nick was shocked, "You shared it, without asking either me or Judy if it was okay? That video was supposed to be private for only family and friends, why do you think I had the settings set like that?"
Clawhauser tried to look up at Nick but cowered again under the smaller mammals gaze, "I am so sorry Nick, if I had known things would end up like this I would never have shared that video. I was just so happy and proud of you two I thought others would be as well."
"Well the wrong mammals got ahold of that video and now I got arrested and am getting charged for trespassing!" Nick was furious, his screaming bringing most mammals in the main lobby to a standstill. The only sound that could be heard was Clawhauser's crying. Nick glanced around at all the mammals nervously staring at him, he looked down at his paws and saw all his claws were fully extended and ready to strike. He retracted them in and felt his whole body suddenly relax, his ears dropped back down onto his head and his tail lowered.
"Nick, are you okay now?" Wolford's voice made Nick look back at him, his paw was on his taser ready to pull it out.
Nick lowered his head and turned back to Clawhauser who had slowed down his crying, "I'm no better than they are. Yelling at my friends, causing more problems for my family, what good am I?"
Wolford placed a comforting paw on Nick's shoulder, "You're just trying to protect your family and stand up for them. That's what being a good father and husband is all about." He walked over to Clawhauser and helped him up, "Now Ben, go to the locker room and get yourself cleaned up and presentable. I'm sure you two will have time later to fully talk about this."
Clawhauser wiped his eyes one last time and turned toward the locker room, "Ben." Nicks voice caused him to stop and slowly turn around, "I'm sorry, we'll get this all sorted out." Clawhauser gave a weak smile and nodded his head before turning and walking away.
Wolford came back to Nick, "Alright Nick, all the paperwork is in order. Depending on what the owner says in his statement it will end here or it may have to be investigated further if you did try to use your position as a cop to sway the situation." Nick opened his muzzle to speak but Wolford put a paw up stopping him, "For now, I believe you have a very upset bunny at home waiting for you. I'll give you a ride as I'm off duty now." He handed Nick the bag with his personal items taken when he was arrested.
"Thanks, buddy." They began walking toward the main door and Nick pulled out his phone from the bag. Unlocking it his eyes widened, "change of location, I need a ride to the train station."
The ride back home was even more nerve racking than when she first came to Zootopia. Back then it was an excited type of nervousness, a new beginning in the big city to try and change the world. Now the world was changing but not in the way that she expected it to be. Instead of welcoming her growing family she was being shunned and treated like an outcast, even now riding the train out of the city she could see some mammals staring and whispering. The natural instinct the run and hide she had fought down all these years was now coming back to the surface. Pulling the diaper bag closer to her chest with one arm she reached behind it and felt at her waist to make sure her taser pistol was snugly in its holster under her shirt, she didn't want to take any risks with the threats she saw online. Looking down at the sleeping kits she began to wonder what kind of life they were now going to have. She dreamed of one with hope and dreams that they could accomplish anything, and now they were being crushed under fear of them being hurt. She was lost in her thoughts when the announcement of their arrival to Bunny Burrow made her jump, gathering her things she made her way to the door as the train slowed to a stop.
The doors opened causing Judy to shield here eyes to the setting sun that shone right at her. Stepping out she took in the beauty that it created on the vast fields around the station, the hues of red, yellow, and gold bathed the new growth. The light wind making the small plants look as if they were dancing without a care in the world, she truly did miss the scenery. "Judy! Over here." Snapped back to reality Judy smiled and waved as her mom came walking up to her, "It's so good to see you."
"Thanks, mom." She let her mother pull her into a tight hug, "Thank you for letting us stay with you guys for a while."
Bonnie broke the hug but kept her paws on Judy's shoulders looking her in the eyes, "It's no problem at all, you are always welcome back home. I just can't believe everything that's been going on so suddenly."
"I know, neither can I, I just hope everything is okay with Nick." She thought back to seeing him riding past in the back of the cruiser with his head hanging low. "I do feel bad about just leaving him, but I did need to get out of the city for a while. We were planning on coming for a visit anyway, this incident just made that visit come sooner."
"Well I'm just glad to see your alright and that your boss allowed you to take the time off on such short notice." Bonnie had taken the diaper bag from Judy and was pushing the stroller down the platform toward the car.
"He has the tough exterior but inside he's just a big softie, he's tough on all of us but he always looks out for what's best for all his officers." They made their way to Bonnie's van and got the kits buckled in before heading off toward the farm.
"So how long are you going to be staying with us?"
"I'm not sure mom. Bogo gave me two weeks off to try and sort this through. Hopefully, that's enough time for things to settle down and we can get back to our normal life." Judy stared out the window watching the fields go by. The reds and gold slowly replaced with hues of purple and blue as the sun set below the hills, it truly was beautiful here.
They pulled up to the farmhouse just as Stu walked out to call everyone in for dinner and smiled seeing Judy sitting in the passenger seat of the van. "Hey Judy, you're just in time for dinner."
"That's good because I didn't eat anything on the train, and with the incident at the dinner I didn't even get any lunch either," Judy called out to her dad as she got the kits out and carried them inside. In the house was the normal hustle and bustle of the farmhouse, little kits being corralled by their older brothers and sisters to the dinner table. The adults grabbing plates and moving to the elder room or to their own rooms to eat in silence.
Judy set the Nathan and Sophia in a playpen to enjoy some time with their cousins and grabbed a full plate herself. Sitting down to eat she was stopped by her phone notifying her of a text, picking it up she breathed out a big sigh of relief.
"What is it, Judy?" Bonnie looked quizzically at her daughter.
"Nick just texted me, he didn't get sent to jail and is on the train here now. Will be here in a few hours." She messaged him back and began to eat her dinner.
"Well, thats good. I'm sure the kits are going to be excited to see him again."
"Yes they will, they were looking around so confused when they didn't see him on the train with us. He's so good to them, he only wants what's best for them." Judy was hoping he would get to the farmhouse soon as the kits really were confused without Nick. Also, he was the best at getting them to sleep at bedtime so she was going to be in for a long night if he didn't show up by their bedtime.
As it happened he walked in the door just as Judy was trying to get them down to sleep. As he walked down the hall to Judy's and his room he could hear the crying of their fighting sleep from behind the closed door. He opened the door and saw Nathan in his crib with huge tears rolling down his face and Sophia in Judy's arms squirming all over the place as Judy walked with her trying to get her to sleep.
Upon seeing Nick Sophia squealed in delight and shot her little paws in Nick's direction, he smiled and bounded over to her and Judy. Judy smiled at Nick and let him take Sophia from her paws. She instantly calmed down and just stared at Nick who walked over and took Nathan in his paws as well. Sitting down in a rocking chair in the room he slowly rocked to get them to sleep.
He looked over at Judy who sat on the end of the bed just staring at him, "I'm sorry Judy."
She got up and kissed him on the forehead, "No need to apologize, I know why you did it and I can't be upset over that. I'm just glad your back with us again. So what is the final verdict?"
"Well depending on what the owner told Delgato it could be over or move into a further investigation if he tries to push that I used my place as a cop to get out of it."
"That's crazy, you just said we were cops. You didn't try to use that to get him to do anything." Judy was getting her pajama's on to sleep herself.
"I know, and they know that as well. But if the owner pushes it internal investigations has to look into it. At least for the time being Bogo has put us both on leave until this whole matter clears up." Nick slowly rose to place the kits in their cribs as they had both fallen asleep.
Judy looked over at the sleeping kits, "You really do have the magic touch, you know that?"
Nick slipped off his pants and shirt and crawled into bed with Judy, "Not sure what it is, they just seem to fall right asleep with me. I can't explain it."
Judy slid over and pulled Nick's tail to cover her, "Well use some of that magic on me to fall asleep and forget this horrible day."
"As you wish." Nick pulled her tight into him feeling her slow deep breaths against his chest. Soon light snores were coming from his bunny. He kissed her on the top of her head and closed his own eyes. He hoped sleep would find him soon as well.