Hello everyone I'm Back, I'm not dead, and neither is the story. I just had a lot thrown onto my plate and had to take some time off to collect myself, but I am back and will keep working on the story as I know people are wondering what are happening to Nick, Judy, Nathan, and Sophia. Well with this posting I'm hoping to get back to some semblance of a schedule and keep things moving forward.
Judy woke up at the crack of dawn, even with being home in Bunnyburrow her normal routine still kicked in. She slowly and quietly untangled herself from Nick and walked over to the cribs holding her kits. She gave a smile as she looked in at their peaceful sleeping faces, they gave small noises and kicks in their sleep. Completely lost in their dreams having no idea of the things some mammals have said about them. She leaned in and kissed both of them on their heads before getting her running clothes on and grabbing her iPod before quietly walking out of the room. Walking through the hallways she could hear other bunnies beginning their day, some off to the fields, other to school, while others were taking care of their younger siblings. She got to the front door and stepped out onto the front porch and began stretching.
The sun was just cresting over the low hills surrounding the Hopp's farm bathing the area in a golden hue, the low hum of her dad's tractor adding into the sounds of the birds waking up and beginning their morning songs. She closed her eyes soaking in the warmth and serenity of the place, trying to put the past day's events out of her mind. She put in her earbuds and took off down the driveway.
Back in Zootopia, she had her normal route that would take her through their neighborhood waving to all the other mammals starting their day. Down to the nature trail and the small pond that the kits liked to go to splash around in the shallow water, then up the tallest point in the area to get a nice wide view of Zootopia and the sun rose. It was a very familiar and pleasurable run, but back on the farm, it seemed somewhat foreign. She reached the end of the driveway and decided to head down to road to her families stand, figuring a nice three-mile run would get her mind off of things.
The road took her along the fields where her siblings would pop up and say hi and wave as she ran by. Judy smiled and waved back as she passed them, at least something was familiar. She reached the stand in no time at all and instead of turning back she decided to keep going as it was feeling good to just stretch her legs and run.
She left the main road behind at her family stand not knowing where her legs were taking her, but it felt as if they were leading her somewhere. She ran down the seemingly familiar road for nearly thirty minutes when over the rows of corn the top of a church steeple came into view and the deep rings of the bell rang out. The corn stopped and Judy slowed her pace down and turned down the gravel driveway of the church as if she was being drawn to it.
As she got closer she finally realized she why it looked familiar and went around to the back and stopped at the opening to the large cemetery. She took a deep breath and walked in now having a clear idea of why she was drawn there. Passing all the large headstones with the local family names stitched in them she finally stopped at the one she was looking for, Hopps.
She slowly walked amongst the smaller stones placing a gentle paw on each of them. Most she didn't know personally, some of the first Hopps to settle in Bunnyburrow to kits that passed away before she was born. There was a small group of stones that she paused at though, placing her paw on the stone tears began to build in her amethyst eyes. She fell to her knees and openly wept in front of the headstone dedicated to some of her litter mates.
"I'm so sorry, I tried to be strong for everyone but I failed. I was so worried about my kits I just ran, I wanted to protect them and couldn't think of anything else than to just get away." Judy had tears streaming from her eyes now, "why couldn't I be stronger? Why am I so weak?"
"You're the furthest thing from weak I even seen in a mammal Judy."
Judy shot up wiping her eyes, a slow smile spread across her face. "That's kind of you to say, Gideon."
The fox gave Judy a warm smile, "Well it's the truth. The way you stood up to me all those years ago, always looked out for the younger kits in school and everything you done in Zootopia. You're not weak, not by a long shot."
Judy blushed at the compliment, "Thank you." She gave one last look at the marker before walking over to Gideon, "So what brings you here."
"Visiting my folks, I come down once a week to wash their headstones and clean up the area around them." He turned to look down the rows of markers, he still had his smile but it had dropped into a sad painful one. He turned back to Judy and tried to get his normal smile back, "I'm done and head in back to town. Want me to give you a ride to your parent's farm?"
"That would be nice, thank you. My legs took me a bit further out than I expected so Nick is probably wondering where I am." They turned back to the front of the church towards Gideon's van. As they neared it Judy noticed slight movements in the front seat, "who's here with you Gid?"
"That'd be Sharla. She don't get out the house too much lately so when I come down here she likes to ride along."
Judy stopped and looked perplexed at Gideon, "Doesn't get out of the house much? What do you mean by that Gid, are you two…"
Gideon smiled as he opened up the driver's door, "Well why don't you hop in and ask her yourself." He climbed in and leaned over kissing the black sheep on the cheek and whispered into her ear.
Judy opened the passenger door to see her childhood friend slowly sliding over the bench seat, "Sharla it is you," Judy pulled herself into the van and closed the door, "it's been ages since we've seen each other. You look… amazing." Judy couldn't take her eyes off the large bump on her friend.
"Thank you very much, it just gets hard to move around lately thanks to this big lug." Sharla playfully hit Gideon as he started driving toward the Hopps farm.
"I can't take full blame that you have 3 fox pups growing inside you."
"I'm pretty sure you can take a large amount of the blame since you put them there." Sharla hit Gideon a bit harder as he let out a deep laugh.
Judy just looked on at the two and couldn't believe that two complete opposites could come together, "That is fantastic you guys. When are you due, and more importantly when did you guy get together?"
"It was soon after we heard of you and Nick getting married," Sharla looked hard into the ceiling of the van trying to remember, "I would come into his store almost every day before heading to the clinic for work. There was some tension the first few times but after seeing how much he changed we slowly started getting closer. Even on days off, I would come by the store just to see him, we finally started dating last year and hit it off right away. We got married soon after and now in about two weeks we'll have three little ones of our own." She rubbed her belly and smiled.
"I'm so happy for you guys." Judy looked at the two and remember when Nick and her started dating.
"It was you two that really showed us that we could be open and find love with each other. We're just worried that people around here may not be accepting of the little ones. We had the glances, and Gid lost some business when we got married. But luckily no one has been too overtly against us. Who knows when the kits come though." Sharla got a scared look on her face and hugged her belly tighter.
Judy shared her concerned look as Gideon pulled into the Hopps driveway. She began thinking about her own kits safety, now Sharla and Gideon will be bringing in hybrids kits to the world, and how many more are hiding the fact for fear of repercussions. Gideon stopped in front of the large farmhouse as Judy turned to them, "I took the kits and ran for fear that someone would try something to harm them, all I wanted to do was protect them. But no I realize running is not the answer, fighting it head on is." She reached over and took Sharla's hoof in her paw, "I'm going back to Zootopia and showing them we are not something to be feared and we won't take the hate lying down. I will make sure we have a safe world in which to raise out kits."
Sharla leaned over and pulled Judy into a tight embrace as she started crying, "Thank you, Judy, that has been my biggest fear of all this is someone trying to harm my kits. Knowing you're going to fight this will make me more at ease." She released Judy and wiped her eyes as Judy got out of the van.
Judy waved goodbye as Gideon left down the driveway. she turned and heading into the house more determined than ever now with her new mission. She entered the kitchen to see a sullen faced Nick at the table, he looked up and shook his head pushing the Zootopia Times newspaper toward her. "Sit down Judy and read that." She pulled a chair out and after reading the title all the color drained from her face.
"Front page, just look at that," Stan said as he hung up the page on his office wall, "granted it's just the editorial section but still front page."
Mitch turned from his computer and shook his head, "I still don't think you should've named certain mammals. Just use generalizations, going after specific mammals may backfire on you."
Stan turned around and sat back at his own computer, "how will it backfire, mammals deserve to know who's an inter and get them out of our city as fast as possible. This virus needs to be cut out as soon as possible." He opened up his email box and saw it loaded with over one hundred emails. A wicked smile grew on his face as he turned to Mitch, "See, the papers hit only two hours ago and already a loaded mailbox with responses. Mammals want this plague to go…" Stan didn't finish his statement when he saw the titles of the emails. Very few were of praise, most were slamming him for being a bigot and said the things he suggested against hybrids should be done to him.
He was about to open the first one when the door slammed open, "Stan, get to my office now!" The lynx had a look like he was about to murder Stan where he sat. Slamming the door closed the page Stan had just hung up fell to the floor.
"Damn it, what does he want now." Stan jumped down and walked down the hall to Lee's office. Opening the door he saw Lee sitting at his desk talking very quickly into the phone and seated opposite Lee was the CEO of the Zootopia Times.
"Sit down Stan." The zebra motioned to a second chair right next to him. "We have some things to discuss. I'll let Lee begin once he's off the phone."
"Yes ma'am, I understand your concern and I will be dealing with him personally." Lee gave a glare at Stan while pulling the phones from his ear so all three mammals could hear the yelling. "I'm sorry ma'am but I'm going to have to let you go, he just walked in the door. No, I can't send you his hide after I'm done with him, but I wish I could. Good bye." Lee placed the phone back down on the receiver and rubbed at his temples.
"You know how much of a pain in the ass you are to me right now." He looked through his paws at Stan, "I've done nothing but answer phone calls since the papers hit the streets either asking for your hide or why the story isn't on the front page of the paper, guess which one I've had more of."
Stan started to open his mouth when Lee yelled, "That was a rhetorical question!" He slammed down his paws on the desk making Stan jump in his chair. "Yes you are an editorial writer and got approval for the piece but actually naming mammals in your piece and going after two of the most well known and respected inter species families in the city, are you crazy!"
Stan was started to get pissed off at Lee's words, "What does the truth hurt. You're just getting all pissed off because you're a damn inter as well."
Lee jumped onto his desk with a fire in his eyes, "You piece of shit, my personal life has nothing to do with this!"
"So you screwing an intern and me using that as a reference in my piece has nothing to with your current pissed off state?" Stan just crossed his arms and leaned back into the chair with a smug look plastered on his face.
"I'm going to kill you." Lee crouched down and was about to pounce when Gabriel stood up, "Enough!"
Lee looked up and at zebra and sat back down in his chair, defeated. Gabriel gave a stern look at Lee before turning back to Stan, "Again, you had an editorial piece and could essentially say what you wanted." The look of shock Stan gave the zebra gave him enjoyment, "However, when mammals start calling up asking if we all have that stance and when in a two-hour time frame subscriptions have dropped by five percent then I take personal notice." Stan was about to speak again when the Zebra put his hook up, "I don't want to hear anything from you. From what I read in the story and the display presented here I have no problem with this decision, you're fired."
Stan was stunned, "You.. you can't do that, what about my rights! Free speech and all that."
Gabriel got a wicked smile on his face, "When it comes to my paper and with that my reputation those rights go out the window. With that drastic of a loss of subscriptions from one piece, I have to look out whats best for this company." He walked over to Lee's door and opened it, "I'm going to use one of your lines, we have to cut out the tumor before it has a chance to spread. Now, get out before I call security and have you forcibly removed."
Stan hopped down and walked out the door and looked over his shoulder, "This isn't the end, I'll make sure of that."
The zebra stepped into the door way stretching himself to full height making a forbidding sight to the hare, "You lit a powder keg no question of that. However, this is the end of you and your part in this." He stepped into the hallway and looked down to the security desk. "If you value your job then get down here and remove this hare at once or you'll be fired as well!"
The lion nearly fell out of his chair after being yelled for, "Yes sir, moving sir!"
Leaning down next to the hare Gabriel spoke quite this time, "you're through, you'll never work in any media in this town again. I will see to that personally."
Stan was about to lash back when the large paw of the lion rested on him, "Alright let's go, you're done here." The lion grabbed Stan roughly by the collar of his shirt and dragged him away and threw him out the main door where he landed hard on the pavement.
He slowly picked himself up and looked in through the glass doors to see Gabriel standing with his arms crossed in the middle of the lobby. He turned and started walking toward his apartment, "They'll pay, they'll all pay." He began racking his brain as for how to proceed when he passed a ZPD recruiting poster, he stopped and walked back staring at it as his rage built. "They are the ones responsible for all of this!" he yelled as he tore and shredded the poster of Nick and Judy smiling in their dress blues. "They will be the first to pay." He turned back down the road with increased rage knowing just what he had to do.