Author's Note

Both my parent's birthdays were in the last week, so I've been pretty busy, plus fourth of July. Anyways, I proudly present, a short chapter.

Judy's POV

"Quiet down everyone! Let's take this one at a time!" Nick shouted from my side, he was sitting in the chair right next to me. The conference was barely on the subject of Dr. Harris, like it should be.

"Don't you think it's a bit ridiculous that Ivan, let alone Alex, are both walking around, treated as if there was no wrong doing?" One officer shouted, while others repeated similar things or argued the point.

"Alex saved Nick's life!" I leaned onto the table, standing up due to my height.

"What about Ivan? You let him go to the cafeteria!" I knew he was right, about that being a bit lenient, but Ivan did have a way with words. In fact, Ivan has done nothing but be nice since I took him to the cafe.

"There is no harm in letting him have some freedom." I collected myself, however, the other mammals only got slightly less noisy as they continued arguing.

"The only lead we have is the address Ivan gave us earlier." Evans said, trying to change the subject, standing up and holding a slip of paper between two claws.

"MOVE OUTTA THE DAMN WAY!" The conference halted, a faint echo bounced through the room. Everyone remained still, confused, but suspicious. A loud bang broke the silence, making all the officers jump to the feet to leave the room. I was quick to push past the other officers, knowing Alex went to fetch Ivan in the cafeteria. A horde of officers followed behind me to the cafeteria doors. I didn't even get to enter the room and I was confused, and a bit scared. There was a fox, Ivan, and Alex. Multiple officers grappled Ivan and pushed him to the floor, as Alex sat against the wall left of the entrance. An officer scooped up the injured fox and Alex was swarmed by the ZPD as he explained what happened.

I clenched my fists, knowing what had happened already. I knew who the fox was, Ivan told me. I promised not to tell anyone, but I didn't think by 'wanting to do it himself' he meant try to kill him. Ivan was taken away along with the fox, leaving a gun on the floor. The last few remaining officers walked Alex out, one taking the gun off the floor. I stayed a few feet back from the rest of the group as we headed for the lobby. Nick noticed this and slowed his pace, falling back to me.

"You okay Carrots?" He arched his back. I looked down at the floor, trying to figure out where Ivan shooting a gun came into play. Ivan, Alex, and fox were in the room, the last two being together, and Ivan was alone in the middle of the room. There was a hole in the wall near Alex and the fox, but if he missed, why wouldn't he shoot again? It didn't make sense, I'd have to ask Alex.

"Yeah I'm fine." I responded, not making eye contact. Nick returned to his normal posture, which meant he probably accepted my answer. I felt his paw drift across my back onto my opposite shoulder.

"I'm sure Ivan didn't mean it." He spoke, almost to himself it seemed. I glanced up at him, his eyes paying no attention to me. I looked ahead and saw Alex shying away the other officers who accompanied him. He stopped in his tracks and they continued to the lobby. He turned to face Nick and I, a smile on his face.

"Hey, we got an address which is apparently our only lead, not the one from before, as that turned out to be nothing." Nick began. "The address is apparently the parents of someone hired by Dr. Harris." He raised his eyebrows, saying it like it was a tease. Alex chuckled, how could they be so casual after what just happened?

"Wish we could be the ones to bust down the doors." Alex stretched his arms out with a yawn.

"No door busting, just a bit of lies and creative thinking and we should be able to find our guy." Nick snapped his fingers in Alex's direction.

"No creative thinking until you tell me what happened in there." I interrupted sternly, making Alex scratch the back of his head, somewhat nervous.

"Fine, but can we find somewhere more comfortable? My legs are killing me." Those are terms I could agree with.

Nick's POV

I threw my legs up on the dashboard of our police cruiser, Alex was in the driver's seat. We both watched as Evans made his way down the street to the front door of the address Ivan gave us, which was in the Rainforest district. The place seemed pretty familiar now that I thought about it; dropping my legs, I looked closer at the location.

"I've been here before." I said, catching Alex's attention, who was looking at Evans down the street.

"Really? On duty or...?" He dragged on, wanting me to interrupt him.

"On duty, Judy and I were at that house." I quietly spoke, regardless that only Alex could hear me anyways. I pointed at Evans who was knocking on the front door of a small home on the edge of town.

"Good thing we didn't send you to the front door!" Alex laughed, elbowing my shoulder. Yeah that would have ruined our entire plan, since Evans was acting as an old friend of whatever mammal Dr. Harris hired.

"Our speakers here should pick up." Alex said slowly, fiddling with some buttons on the police radio.

"Good evening, can I help you young man?" I heard the familiar old black panther through the radio.

"Yes I was wondering if your son is home, I was told I could find him here." Evans said, sounding somewhat smooth. If he started stuttering that'd probably seem suspicious, well, at least to anyone but a sweet old lady.

"Oh dear, I'm afraid he won't be here anytime soon." She said, Alex and I were also trying to look down the street to see Evans and her, but it wasn't of any value, as we could barely see the both of them behind the bushes and trees, let alone the distance.

"You sure?" Evans questioned nervously.

"Well my son was in a terrible car accident recently, he didn't make it." She choked on the ending, damn, so he's dead. Not quite sure it was an accident, however. "His son still visits me, however." She finished very quietly.

"Who?" Evans pushed for more.

"My grandson, Miles. Such a sweet boy, he comes over every Thursday for lunch." She distracted herself from her son's previously mentioned death. Alex and I were now both arched over the radio, impatiently waiting for more.

"So how's it finding a job for him? I heard jobs aren't easy to find at this time of year." Evans risked, maybe he didn't even consider that this kid could possibly be under the age of ten.

"Actually he was telling me about his new job just last week." She remembered. "He doesn't like to say too much, but he mentioned it was a security job, protection maybe." She sighed.

"You said every Thursday he comes here?" He asked, but caught himself from sounding like a weirdo. "I'm an old friend of his and his fathers, surprisingly I've never met you." He said with a smile. Was she buying it?

"Oh yes, every Thursday, you're welcome to join us tomorrow if you like!" She said with glee, making Alex and I both smile widely at each other. "What's your name?" She asked.

"Just call me Evans, and don't tell him I'm coming, I haven't seen him in forever and I want it to be a surprise." He fake whispered, making her laugh.

"Okay, just show up around noon tomorrow and he'll be here." The panther informed him.

"Alright, I best be going, see you tomorrow!" I saw Evans step away from the house and wave to her.

"Bye dear!" The voice of the panther faded as Evans distanced himself. After a few moments Evans dove into the backseat.

"How about a crisp high five?" He held up a paw, leaning to meet our sides. Alex slammed his paw against his and I followed.

"Ivan told us it was her son not her grandson." Alex said, "I'll make sure to scold him for that." He said, taking the steering wheel in both paws.

"Whoo!" I elbowed the seat. The three of us took off down the street, laughing at our success. We headed for the ZPD of course, as we wanted to brag to everyone. Kidding, we wanted to plan our next step, obviously. As we pulled into the parking lot, Judy met up with us as we exited the car.

"Tell me everything." Carrots insisted as the four of us walked towards the ZPD. I heaved a single 'heh', maybe I'd tease her a bit.

"Well, there was quite the stakeout." I began quietly, making Judy only look more eager to hear about it.

"What'd you find?" She pushed on, smiling wider. Evans and Alex were holding back laughter as they already knew I was full of shit.

"Well for starters, Alex almost got us caught, luckily no guns were drawn." I lied.

"Judy, he's full of shit." Evans whispers very quietly in the silence. Judy punched my shoulder, making me wince.

"What really happened?" She grouched, I held back laughing out loud as she'd punch me again.

"Nothing really, but we should find our guy tomorrow." I over simplified.

"Fine." She sighed as we made our way into the lobby.

"Good news?" Clawhauser asked, almost as excited as Judy when we arrived.

"Yeah, we should catch our guy tomorrow, hopefully." Alex said before I could. "Tell you guys what, we'll tell Bogo and whoever else asks the good news, then us four are headed to the nearest bar." He elbowed Evans and me as he finished.

"Do you even know what time it is?" Judy countered, but Alex just laughed.

"I don't drink often, but anytime is the right time for me." He said calmly, walking up the stairs towards Bogo's office, with everyone else following a few paces behind.

After the long celebration with the gang, I headed home. Alone. The nighttime sky was yelling at me to go to sleep. I trudged through the front door and stretched. I was indeed tired. I silently made my way to the couch and plopped down. Falling asleep sitting up wouldn't be a problem at the moment. I looked down at myself and almost forgot about my attire once again. I took of my uniform and hung it neatly in my bedroom closet and returned to the couch. Boxers and tank-top, my favorite. I scratched my arm roughly, digging for the itch that lied beneath. I wiped off my arm in surprise, brushing a small bit of fur to the floor; shedding wasn't always a big thing for me. I sat in silence for a few moments before springing up from the couch. Pushing through the bathroom door, I leaned over the counter, looking into the mirror. I grabbed my arm with my paw and tugged a bit here and there. I tossed a small handful of fur into the sink and washed it down. It was barely noticeable where fur was stolen from my arm.

I pulled out another tuft, then another, each time making me curious but also scared. I hunched over the sink and puked, but not much made its way out. My mouth quivered as I gasped for breath, my throat burning. I quickly rinsed the fur and puke mixture down the sink, as it wasn't a pretty sight, before taking a few drinks of water. I pushed myself up from the counter, and stumbled backwards, leaning against the wall. Blinking did nothing to rid my eyes of the blurry vision they obtained. A slamming entered my ears, making me think I was dying. I shook my head left to right to try to clear the noise. Someone was knocking on my door. I pushed my head forward, using the momentum to get off the wall. I threw an arm out of the counter and a paw on the door knob in a hope to catch myself, but I fell flat on my face. My body gave up, and I slowly closed my eyes and fell to slumber, the knocking drowning itself out in my mind.

Author's Note

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, regardless of the length, I've been busy lately, but wanted to get something out there.

Stupid Facts

1. I was originally going to make Alex say "It's happy hour somewhere in the world." as a response to Judy's time question, but I figured the Overwatch reference would be too forced.

2. Nick was originally going to have a phone call, which I won't tell you what it was going to be about, before heading to the bathroom.

3. Nick was supposed to puke in the toilet (Whoa, how interesting!)

4. Nick didn't sign up for this shit.

Quick question that you can answer if you decide to leave a review, Ivan, his family's association with the super soldier project, and 'Elliot' the fox have a pretty cool backstory, would you guys be interested in more of it being brought up in the future, maybe a chapter around it sometime?

Don't forget to review...