Nick dragged his feet as he approached their cubicle, his ears drooped with exhaustion; the press conference must have gone on for at least an hour and he was well and truly bagged. Mayor Ketchikan turned out to be a real sport…in front of the cameras, anyway; not that it mattered, damage control had been attempted, only time would tell if it stuck. Judy sat silently in her corner of the cubicle, staring intently into a flickering screen.

"Well, thanks for throwing me to the army ants like that, Carrots. I hope it was worth it." Nick plopped down onto his chair, desperately wanting something cold and profoundly alcoholic.

"It was," she replied without turning around. "The techs found it to be totally inconclusive. As in, they don't know what it is, what it does, how it was made, or what its vector is. All we know is that it's not explosive. Needless to say, they're on it like flies. We should have something more to go on by tomorrow."

Nick gave an impressed whistle, across the various animals species and the advanced nature of Zootopia's health agencies, the ZPDs library of hazardous materials was beyond extensive; anything that stumped them was sure to cause a ruckus. "Still not hearing an apology."

"Hmm?" was the response, she still hadn't turned from the screen. "Oh, you did fine. Better than I would have."

Nick chuckled and nodded. "Well, I find the trick to a good press conference is to not generate tensions across racial lines."

'Now comes the part where she laughs and tells me to shut up, or throws a plushie at me, or something,' he thought to himself, blinking in surprise when nothing happened.

"Hmm." was the response.

That tore it. Nick spun around and got to his feet, walking over to her. "Whatcha reading, Carrots?"

"Everything there is," Judy said, her voice low and flat, "about Finnegan McNulty."

Nick sighed and shook his head; he'd given the little beast's file a cursory glance before, and what he had seen only contributed to his need for a stiff drink. "I could suggest other, more upbeat literature. C'mon, you're not doing yourself any favors."

"Two years ago the police department of Desanimaux found the body of a leader of a major political movement three days after he had been reported kidnapped," Judy summoned a grisly picture with a click of the mouse. "Evidence suggested that he had only expired a few hours before being found. They had to use his dental records to get a positive ID. McNulty was arrested under suspicion of kidnapping, but was cleared when someone else confessed to the crime. And here, three years ago in Bygone, a notorious crime boss was found missing all his fingers and toes along with most of his face, toothmarks suggest a smaller obligate carnivore; McNulty was noted to have been in the city at the time. Five years ago, six gangsters were found dead in a warehouse in the Canary District of Hanuman, COD determined to be mastication on the back of their necks resulting in fatal trauma to the brainstem. This was the only crime he did time for, and even then he was let off when some of the evidence showed signs of tampering. Six years ago the CEO to the Emerald Islands branch of Bug Burga, a male elephant, was found dead of mysterious causes: massive internal trauma including a ruptured lung and a 'exploded' right coronary artery, but with no discernable external injuries. Autopsy reports mention what appear to be teeth marks on the heart, and aspirated mustelid fur–"

"Judy," Nick said sternly. "Stop."

"Stop what?" Judy snapped, her eyes bright and blazing. "Stop doing my job?"

Nick shook his head, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Stop doing this to yourself! It's not your fault."

"What's not my fault?" Judy said flatly, shrugging his hand off, turning back to the computer. "Maybe you were right, maybe he was just leading us on and I got caught up in it because he took summer acting courses and knew how to cry! Maybe there's nothing in that vial but koolaid!"

Nick knelt down next to her and draped a friendly arm over her shoulder. "Hey now, there's only room for one cynical skeptic on this team, Carrots. It wasn't your fault Richie got pinched. You can't blame yourself. He left us some evidence and gave us the names of his buddies, that's miles ahead of where we were and we wouldn't have gotten any of it without you. The best we can do now is wait for the lab results; you're not going to make any headway scaring yourself with horror stories."

"I'm not scared!" Judy said, defiantly. "…It's just hard to believe that there are people like that out there, you know?"

"Not really," Nick said, knowingly, looking off into the middle distance. "Met a few. Anyway, it's getting to be that time of day. What say we have another case review? You look like you need it."

Judy sighed and smiled. "And by 'case review' you mean…?"

Bucky and Pronk sat around their tiny table, cards in hand as they tried in vain to ignore the racket next door as it rattled through the thin drywall.

"Hah!"

"Uhnn-no! Ah!"

"Take it, foxy! Take it!"

"Stoppit! Uhn! That's not fair!"

"Gitsuuum! Huhn!"

Bucky sniffed and shifted in his seat. "Got any twos?"

"Mercy, Hopps! Mercy!"

"You love it!"

"Argh! Ahn~!"

Pronk cleared his throat. "Go fish."

"No…no! No! No!"

"Bite the pillow, Sly, I'm going in dry!"

"AAAAAAHHH!"

Bucky sipped from his glass of water. "D'you think they're messing with us?"

Pronk scoffed and tossed a peanut into his mouth. "Please! If they actually were going at it, Judy would wreck that fox. He wouldn't even be saying words."

"Hah! He'd be ball-gagged!" Bucky laughed, scanning his cards. "Got any sixes?"

"KO~!" The dry, patchy voice of the announcer crackled through Nick's headphones. "Spring Trap wins! Flawless beat-down! Savagery!"

Nick grunted in disgust, pulling off his headphones as he tossed his 86-X controller aside, Judy did a victory dance on the bed next to him. "A freak. You're some kind of freak!"

"Freaky good at kicking your lily-haunch!" Judy bellowed, shooting up into a power stance. "Bunny supremacy! Fluff power! Fluff power!"

Nick smiled affectionately and flicked her tail. "Where on earth did you learn to trash-talk? It's next-level!"

Judy giggled and sat down next to him. "Hopps Family tournaments, duh! Nearly three hundred contestants and yours truly is the undisputed champeen eight years running! Of course I've mastered the psychological aspects of utter domination!"

"Careful with that kinda talk, Carrots." Nick smirked and waggled his eyebrows. "You just might get me all hot and bothered."

"Psssh!" Judy swatted his nose playfully. "Another one of your kinks?"

"Ohhh!" Nick said dramatically fell to his knees and bowed pathetically. "Hit me again, Mistress! Punish me, I've been a bad, bad foxy!"

Judy rolled her eyes and kicked him lightly on top of his head. "Up. Down for round four?"

"There's an innuendo there," Nick mumbled coyly, still prostrate before her. He rose up off the floor and straightened out his shirt, brimming with sarcastic dignity. "But I'm better than that."

"I'm hearing a lot of talk," Judy said, dangling the controller. "C'mon. I might let you hit me this time!"

"If it's all the same to you, Imma pass on that, Carrots." Nick leapt onto the tiny bed and stretched out. "My pride can only take so much in one night."

Judy huffed and folded her arms, plopping down next to him with an exaggerated pout on her face. Nick simply smirked and nudged her with his foot. "Feeling better?"

"About what? The fact that our only informant is in the clutches of a demented psychopath or that the city may or may not be in mortal peril?" Judy said disinterestedly.

"Uh," Nick faltered, hearing it out loud all at once made the situation seem more than a little dire. "Both?"

She reached her arms over and behind her head, stretching her shoulders with an audible pop. "A little, actually. Once we get results back from the lab, we'll be able to piece together just what it is they're planning to do, and from there we can work on actually finding and stopping them."

Nick sat up and scooted next to her, staring out at the corkboard. It had been updated with various bits of data, including mugshots of the three suspects, pictures of the locations listed by Richie in addition to the Rikko Warehouse, and those location's corresponding places on a greater map of Zootopia. "If we can get all that stuff done before the population reaches 'ideal saturation', whatever that means."

"We'll need at least three days to get a search warrant on those other locations, now that City Hall isn't pushing this case through. Especially the mansion in the Rainforest District." Judy groaned and rolled her neck. "And then we have to look for something we've never seen before wherever they put it. Needle in a haystack."

"Well, the explosives test turned up negative, right? My guess is that it's aerosolized, a toxin or something, so the dispenser would be somewhere high," Nick offered, watching as Judy tried to work the kinks out of her neck.

"But what kind of coverage could it get from those locations? Not to mention we're dealing with a limited amount of substance, it has to be ferret-portable, remember? How could three locations so far apart be that big of a threat?" Nick reached over and grabbed her by the shoulders, kneading her tense muscles in his skilled hands; Judy only tensed for a moment before relaxing, moaning softly as he dug into the tenser areas. "It's frustrating, we've only really been given enough to get a basic idea of just how screwed we all are a week from now, but we still don't know how or why."

"Suppose they's gonna poison the well?" Nick said, jokingly.

Judy chuckled. "Be serious! What could a warehouse, a mansion, and a grocery store have to do with the water?"

"Let's jot that question down for tomorrow. For now, let's focus on getting you in a right headspace," Nick whispered into her ear, rubbing up and into her neck. "We'll need you perky and bouncy tomorrow if we're going to make any headway."

Right!" Judy said with an eye-roll. "Please, you've been carrying this whole case, you and your connections and blackmail and blah blah blah. This case had been all Wilde and no Hopps."

Nick smiled serenely, pushing his claws out just enough to prick her skin and make her start. "Enough of that. I wouldn't have gotten boo out of Richie, Carrots, that was all you. I probably would have pissed him off or something and where would we be then?"

"Dunno," she grunted, savoring the way his strong, warm hands seemed to chase away the tension. "Tsk! Figures the only person I can form a connection with is a world-renowned terrorist!" Nick cleared his throat behind her. "You know what I mean, Sly. Mmmm…remind me to send your masseuse ex-girlfriend a gift basket or something, because this is a side of Nick Wilde I could get used to."

"You and a hundred other women." His thumbs began to move down and between her shoulder blades.

Her ears perked up as a wry smile spread across her face. "Oh-ho? A hundred? Sounds like someone's quite the heartbreaker!"

Nick snorted, kneading a little too hard, making her flinch. "That's a laugh coming from Ms. Fifty First Dates!"

'Dammit…that's pretty good,' Judy sighed and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her thighs. "Thirty! And that's not funny. Did you know I was seeing someone earlier this week?"

"Yes."

Her ears shot up and she peered over her shoulder at him. "How?"

Nick tapped his nose and winked. "He wore middle-priced cologne and had a fondness for asparagus. Also, he might want to cut back on the garlic, it's starting to show in his BO."

"Well, you'll have to be the one to tell him," Judy grumbled, holding up her phone. "I got a 'Dear Jane' text a few days ago."

"Carrots…" Nick said softly. "You didn't say anything."

"I keep my work life and my social life separate, thank you very much!" Judy said, before groaning and slouching over again. "Or, at least, that's what I thought I did."

"Oh?" His hands drifted back up and over her shoulders, massaging the renewed tension that settled in at the onset of the 'boyfriend' conversation. "What do you mean?"

"It means that On-Duty Judy and Off-Duty Judy are one and the same!" Judy said in an overdramatic superhero voice. "All my 'exes', if you could call a bunch of first dates exes, seem to think that I'm too career focused to be in an involved relationship. Also, that I'm scary."

Nick found himself in a losing battle against the tension, and soon the little rabbit in his hands was a bundle of nerves and sinew. "They said that?"

Judy chuckled; it was bitter but also invested. "No. I took all twenty-three break-up texts and all seven transcripts from the face-to-face break ups and plugged them into an index, I then took all the correlating points and concepts and–boom!–at least sixty percent of the participants mentioned a 'dedication' and 'perseverance' to my job, whereas another twenty percent also implied possible intimidation."

Nick scratched his head and chuckled, the fact that Judy was framing this embarrassing information with a joke was encouraging, albeit somewhat out of character. "A correlative data chart for break-up texts? That's just about the saddest thing I've ever heard. Well, what does the other twenty percent say?"

"That I already have a boyfriend at work," she said, turning around to meet his gaze with her large purple eyes; Nick felt a jolt race up his spine when he met those eyes. "That's the only one I think is actually true."

"Y-yeah?" he said, trying to play it cool despite suddenly noticing how warm her body was, how soft her fur felt in his hands; the room was becoming uncomfortably warm, despite the break in the heat wave. "Have I met him?"

"Oh, once or twice," Judy said casually. "His name's Badge."

Nick blinked in confusion, had he missed a step in this conversation? "Badge? As in, badger? Do we have a badger on the force?"

Judy giggled, a soft tinkling sound that for some reason made his heart race; she reached into her pocket and pulled out her badge. "Badge! Badge! I'm dating the job! Duuuuh!"

"Oh!" Nick said, laughing to hide his embarrassment. "I knew that."

"Derrr!" Judy continued, gently bopping him on the snout with her badge. "Derp derp derp! The Great Fox Detective!"

"Okay, okay!" Nick said swatting her hand away playfully. "I deserve that!"

"And I didn't say you could stop!" she said, rolling her shoulders in his hands. "I won at Fatal Fight, I call the shots tonight!"

"Bars," Nick said sarcastically as he resumed the massage, not that he particularly minded, he just needed to make seem like he did, for reasons. He looked over her shoulder and saw that she was typing away on her phone, inputting something into a chart. "Okay, what are you doing now?"

"Just inputting the new data while I'm thinking about it. My 'break-up chart' won't fill itself out!" Judy didn't look up from her phone, her nimble thumbs tapping away. "New entry: Basil Stag. Age: 27. Species: Hare…"

Nick peered over her shoulder, his ears shifting back as his eyes widened in disbelief. "Oh my God, you were serious about that thing?"

Judy shrugged. "Well, yeah. I wanted to know why they kept calling it off. It was either this or get a few of the guys at the precinct to bring 'em in."

"No! Nope!" Nick reached over and plucked the phone out of her hands. "This is some seriously stupid science going on here and I will not abide it! Oh God, you have a Venn diagram and everything!"

"How else am I supposed to note areas of overlap?" Judy said clambering on his lap to grab at the phone. "And give it back! It's not done!"

"And it will never be!" Nick exclaimed, holding the phone well out of reach as he held her back with his elbow. "This is for your own good, Hopps!"

"Give it back, Nick!" Judy said sternly, trying in vain to reach for the phone. "I'm serious!"

Nick swept her under his arm and pinned her against his body. "So am I! I will not let my best friend chart her break-ups with some psycho dating software! What are you trying to do, find the mathematical equation for misery?"

'Best friend?' Judy struggled against the much larger mammal, surprised at how easily he was holding her down. Nick had never been fat or unfit per se, but all the training and exercise as part of their shared fitness routine had surely tightened him up and even added some bulk that wasn't there before. Judy was becoming uncomfortably aware of how solid he was underneath all that fluffy fur as he pressed her into his side. "Yes, and I just found it! It's called 'Nick's paws + my stuff = total misery' now give it back!"

"Oh, for the love of–weight, height, eye color?" Nick sighed in disgust. "What does any of that have to do with them breaking up with you?"

"Any correlation is potentially relevant! If you were a good detective, you'd know that!" Judy growled, noticing that he was accessing the file's data. "What are you doing?! Nick, let me go, right now!"

"Aaaaand deleted," Nick said with satisfaction. "You're welcome CarrrRRRAGH!"

Judy levered his arm up and behind his back, twisting at the wrist as she brought her foot up on his back. Nick shouted in surprise and pain and leaned forward. "Give it back, Wilde! I'm absolutely fucking serious, if you don't give me back my phone I'll twist your girlfriend clean off!"

"OW! Okay! Okayokayokay!" Nick cried, handing her the phone. "I didn't actually delete anything, you dumb bunny!"

Judy grabbed her phone and reviewed the data, it was all still there. "You didn't?"

"No!" Nick said, rubbing his arm. "There's three things you just don't do to your friends, one is mess with their phone, and another is eat their food without permission. Since you're a weed-muncher, I'd say the chances of the latter are fairly slim."

"What's the third thing?" Judy said, not quite sure if she should smile just yet.

"Rutting a family member," Nick said glibly. "Father, mother, siblings. Cousins are a grey area. The odds of that happening are…well, middling, anyway."

"Middling?" Judy said, allowing herself to smirk. "Well, Mom was certainly interested. In your teeth, anyway."

"So I'm not the only one who noticed!" Nick said, smiling. "I kinda wanted to say something but, y'know, it would have been awkward."

Judy regarded the phone for a moment, her smirk fading as her ears drooped. "Is it really that weird?"

Nick paused, gesturing noncommittally before giving up and nodding. "Yeah, it's kinda really weird. Sorry."

Judy sighed and buried her head in her hands. "I can't stop looking at things like a cop! Seeing patterns, data, trying to tie the two together with whatever's on hand; it's all I ever really focused on as a kid." Judy cleared her throat, embarrassment clear in her voice. "…I've never actually had a boyfriend."

Nick blinked and recoiled in surprise, feeling like the biggest haunch this side of the Pachyderm Prefecture. "You mean, you never…?"

Judy scoffed and leveled an incredulous look at him. "Nick. I'm a bunny. There were guys, not many but some, just no boyfriends and no actual relationships. Hah! You know, my mom would probably get a kick out of you calling me Ms. Fifty First Dates! For the longest time I think she assumed that I, uh, preferred the burrow to the carrot, if you know what I mean."

Nick nodded and forced a chuckle, still feeling like a fool; he'd given her a hard time for not knowing how to do something she literally had no experience with. And really, was he anyone to judge? "Hey, Carrots…I'm sorry for all that crap I gave you just now."

"It's okay, Nick," Judy smiled, patting his arm.

"No, it's not!" He pulled away from her. "At least you try! And, who knows, maybe you'll get it eventually, unlike some people. Heh! You wanna hear something really pathetic?"

"Not really," Judy said calmly, he was getting into one of his moods again. "Nick, you don't have to try and make me feel better. I know you didn't mean anything by it."

"Three months."

Judy arched her eyebrow. "Three months?"

He nodded, a bashful smile on his face. "That's the longest relationship I've ever been in. Ninety days, and it stopped being fun after twenty. We were just young and stubborn, I guess. But most of them didn't last half that long, though, and recently they've all been fairly abrupt affairs. Stands of the one-night variety."

"Yeah. No offense, but I can't really see you getting intimate with anyone," Judy said, she looked over and caught the decidedly nasty glare Nick was directing at her. "Emotionally! I can totally see you getting on well with the other side of things, but the smarmy, romantic, fluffy stuff…I just don't see the Nick Wilde I know opening up to anyone like that."

"The Nick Wilde you know, huh?" Nick turned away from her, is that how she saw him? Did Carrots of all people still think that she was dealing with Slick Nick? Part of him reveled in the fact that he'd managed to keep her under that impression without even trying, but another part of him, a part that had been growing steadily ever since he'd met her, found it unbearable. "Remember that story I told you? You know, waaaay back, during the Nighthowlers Case and the uh…" he brought his hand up over his snout, his fingers making a cage.

Judy nodded, her expression questioning. "The muzzle. Yes, Nick, of course I remember!"

"Yeah, well, you're the only person I've ever told about that." Nick twiddled his thumbs awkwardly. "I never spoke about what happened that night to anyone. Not even my mom."

Judy drew back, her eyes widening. "Why?"

He sighed and shrugged. "Dunno. It was kinda the whole big thing, you know? She saved up all that money to pay dues and get me my uniform. I just didn't want to disappoint her. Heh! I actually got into the scamming business while trying to keep her from finding out. I'd head out every week, pretending to go to ranger scouts, I learned how to tie knots and do all kinds of camping stuff from books and whatnot, to really sell the front to her. I even told her to give me the monthly checks to give to the scout masters, told her to leave the name blank so whoever was there could fill it out. I was nine, and I actually remember thinking to myself 'she's trying to spend all this money on me, I might as well put it towards something worthwhile instead'. So I cashed each check and put the money in a safe place until I could decide what to buy her.

"This went on for months, I had a decent chunk of money put away when I saw it; a Singer 4423, top-of-the-line heavy duty sewing machine. Mom was a seamstress by trade, and a damn good one, but even back then her arthritis was getting to her, so she couldn't fill out as many orders as she used to. I was about a hundred bucks short, funny how much bigger that number seems to a little kid, huh? So I figured I'd put that scout uniform to use and make some money. I knew a kid at a bakery, and I knew a kid at a grocery store, and I had some dirt on a kid with a printer. Between the three of them, I had stale throwaway cookies, old cartons from expired Oreos, and a whole mess of homemade logos; combine that with a ranger-scouts uniform and smooth-talker like yours truly and you've got a license to print money! So, I bought the sewing machine and paid them to deliver it and ran on home, happy as could be. Turns out 'my' scout troop visited my mom's work that day, so, naturally, she asked after me and, well…she was waiting for me when I got home. She didn't even ask about the money, not even once, she just wanted to know what had happened. She wanted to know why I lied to her. I couldn't tell her; my mom, she'd blame herself for what those awful kids did, because that's the kind of person she was…is. When the sewing machine showed up and she signed away for it, well, I guess she put together what I'd been doing all that time. We never spoke of it again."

Judy stared at her feet, a hot flush building in her ears; Nick really trusted her that much, to tell her all that? "Do you still talk to your mom?"

"Oh, yeah," Nick said, sounding convincingly casual. "Not since I became a cop, though."

"What?!" Judy exclaimed, turning to him. "Nick, it's been over a year! Why the hell not?!"

Nick shied away from her gaze, turning his eyes down to his badge as it peeked out of his pocket; if there was anyone he could tell, it was Carrots. "She's always been supportive of me, always happy to see me, always…glad I was alive, to be honest; but never proud. No, she was always a little sadder each year to see what I was doing with my life. If she saw me now, actually making something of myself, I'm afraid that she'll just be waiting for the front to fall, for the con to come out. That'd…I don't think I could stand that, Carrots."

"But she's your mother," Judy said, scooting closer to him on the bed. "Call her tonight, Nick. See her as soon as you can. You've done so much; you're so much more than you were. She'll be proud of you, I know she will!"

Nick reached out for her; she grabbed his hand up in hers, his bright green eyes locking with her violet ones. "Could you come with me, maybe? I don't know if she'll believe me."

Judy smiled and nodded as a relieved expression spread across Nick's face, their eyes lingering for a moment. Judy found herself getting lost in them; he was the only person in Zootopia that knew her, really knew her, not as On-Duty Judy or as a 'hero cop' or whatever, but as Judy, as Carrots, as a friend. And she was the only person in the whole world that he could trust. Whatever it was between them, whether it was friendship or something else, it was precious.

Then they blinked.

Nick's went wide, his ears flattened against his skull, and he pulled his hand away. He scooted further down the bed and barked a laugh, mortified at his emotional deluge; once again he'd shoehorned his vast and sundry list of personal issues into Judy's life. The whole point of tonight was to make her feel better, but he had, as usual, made everything about him! "Heh! Uh, sorry about all that. I guess did say 'wanna hear something really pathetic', and boy, did I deliver! All aboard the pity-party wagon! I hope you're big into schadenfr–"

Judy leapt across the bed and looped her arms around his neck, pulling herself in and squeezing tight. Nick sat in silence for a moment, blinking in surprise when she began nuzzling the side of his face. After a moment he was able to assemble enough pride to at least attempt to sound grouchy. "Y'know, Carrots, if I wanted a hug, I would have asked."

"Shush," she said, her voice stern but loving. "This is for me. Hug me back, Nick."

Nick smirked and complied, hugging her gently. "Ah yes, please permit me that faux-pas in hugging etiquette."

"Unforgivable." Judy pulled herself closer.

"How, exactly, is this for you?" Nick said, beginning to feel a little uncomfortable.

"It's just nice, you know?" Judy muttered, nuzzling into his surprisingly soft, warm neck fur. "It's nice to know you trust me that much. That you feel you can tell me anything. It means a lot to me, Nick, because I know just how hard that sort of thing is for you. It's been a really bad day and knowing that I have you in my corner is just so–" her voice began to crack and hitch, she practically nestled into him, squeezing his neck and shoulders even tighter. "I just really needed that. Thank you."

Nick said nothing and instead returned the favor, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. Judy shivered as his strong, sinewy arms embraced her, drawing her closer to his warmth. She inhaled sharply, catching a noseful of his scent. It was…different from that of a Prey mammal, sharper, more pronounced, as close as she was to the source it was almost tangy. Judy found herself becoming engrossed in his scent, the long-forgotten instincts of her ancestors exercised their diminished control over her as her heart began to race, a hot flush burned in her ears. The smell of a Predator was all around her, but she wasn't afraid, far from it.

"So…" Nick said after a long while. "Not that I'm complaining, but are you going to let go at some point?"

"Mmm?" Judy mumbled, grasping a handful of his luxurious fur, letting it run through her fingers. "No. You live here. This is your home now."

"Oh," Nick said, sounding convincingly nonchalant were it not for the fact that she could hear and feel his heart thundering away in his chest. "In that case, could I grab a beer from the fridge?"

Finnegan pored over the sheets of paper splayed out on the desk next to his new laptop; half of them marked with Burga and OmniGreen logos, the other were data sheets of his own devising. On the papers were bar graphs and chemical formulas, projected saturation rates and the corresponding official documents accounting for the sales of certain food items. Finn snorted to himself, the whole plan reeked of perfectionism; saturation-rates needed to be in the 80th percentile before they could be given the go-ahead to complete the mission, or about five days if his calculations and the provided information held true. It didn't make sense to him, the need for such extensive coverage, because even if only two-thirds of the population were affected, which was the current estimate, the end-result would be more or less the same. But no, everyone had to get in on Boss's party, every last mammal in Zootopia had to get up and dance when the bell tolled; it had to be perfect.

He grinned; someone must really have it in for this city, to want such total and utter devastation. A shiver raced up his spine, imagining the shock and confusion that would grip the megapolis for those first beautiful hours, then the unmitigated terror and despair that would suffuse its final days. Even if most were unaffected, they would be totally helpless before the throngs that were. It was going to be a wild show, and he was going to have front row seats.

"…Hnnnnhhn…" a groan carried from the room over, a certain special someone had just regained consciousness.

Finn casually looked over at the door adjoining his makeshift room, it led to what must have been a janitorial closet or something, because it had a handy-dandy little drain in the center and a mildly concave floor, perfect for his hobbies, easy to clean. He'd taken exceptional care not to hit any major vessels, though so cleaning up thus far wasn't too much of a consideration. Still, he hadn't been going easy on his old friend, far from it, but the little ungulate was still sharp and responsive despite several consecutive hours of playtime. Finn could respect that, it made him want to push harder, to hook up the saline drip and really start to have fun. But sometimes you had to let the toys season a bit, to sit and stew, to understand just what was happening to them. That way they'd appreciate every new nibble and gnaw for the life-affirming gifts that they were; the dead don't feel pain, after all. Finn found his jaws flexing, a hot tingle in his mouth as saliva flowed. He set down his pen and hopped off the chair, skipping over to the door.

Work could wait.

Judy awoke the cry of her alarm clock. She reached over and tapped it, groaning as she sat up and stretched the sleep from her limbs. Another day on the job, another day waiting for a lead to fall into her lap like some sort of gift from above. Everything that had happened yesterday felt like a distant memory, a 'case review' with the irreplaceable Mr. Wilde tended to have that effect. The sting of Richie's disappearance was dulled and far easier to accept. Of course, part of her worried that he had been abducted by his former teammates, but the irrepressible optimist that was the rest of her hoped that he had simply lost his nerve and run away. She was happier with that; even if leaving the vial behind was the true extent of his heroism, it was certainly preferable to the alternative.

She conducted her morning ritual with an almost mechanical precision; light calisthenics, a two-mile jog followed by breakfast, all rounded off with a shower and some oral hygiene. Judy sped down the highway towards the precinct, debating with herself if she should stop by a Starbucks or just grab an extra coffee off Nick as he gossiped with Clawhauser.

"Live dangerously, Carrots," she muttered to herself, smirking. That sounded like something Nick would say. "Venti mocha latte, here I come!"

A few minutes later and she was stepping out the Starbucks with an extra large coffee in her hands. Judy fumbled with the key to the car door when a little brown goat stumbled into her, knocking her coffee to the ground in a splatter of foam.

"M'sry mam," the goat mumbled, leaning against the hood of her car. "Ma'liddle drunk, dunno where I'm. Say, would y'know shumplace a guy could sleep?"

Judy sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Dispatch, this is Detective Hopps," Judy said into the speaker. "Inbound with intoxicated subject, individual is a brown goat, three-eight, unwilling or unable to provide proof of identification. Open up the drunk tank, over."

"Understood, Detective," Clawhauser responded. "Getting an early start on the day? Over."

"Affirmative, dispatch," Judy said with a smile. "Detective Hopps, out."

Judy turned back to the goat in her back seat, struggling with the dollarstore finger-traps she had put on him. "You okay back there?"

"Yes'm," he slurred, tugging at the cardboard tubes with a perplexed expression. "These tings're like a medafor f'life. Th'more ya pull away, th'harder they grab. Say, iss real nice a'you to gimme a lif' to th'sleepin' place, you a real mensch, lady."

"Yeah, don't you worry, sir," Judy said, smiling a friendly smile. "We'll get you where you need to be, get some food and a lot of water in you, then you can go back home."

"Heh! Thass a deal, n'no misstake!" the goat said, before grimacing. "'Cept th'wadder thin', tho. Not gunna do that."

"You don't like water?" Judy asked, somewhat concerned.

"Nup! Dump tell no mandy, but I neffer tush th'stuff!" the goat said, proudly. "Yawanna know why?"

"Fish Eff in it?" Judy offered, chuckling.

"They do?" The goat looked astounded and disgusted. "Anudder reason, then. Nah, I dun drink wadder cause they put stuff innit."

"They?" Judy said. "Stuff?"

"Yeh! They come in this grade big truck. They come and they kick us outta the Bridge an' start wheelin' their barrels in'eir. Greggers an' Pete tryna stan' up to'em, but they kilt 'em, the little guy an' the bigger guy! Bit their nesks up and turnt their heads on backways! No'un beleef me!" the goat deflated into the seat, sniffling. "S'why I'm out here, where iss warm, 'cause m'home got took. Up in Tundra Town…"

Judy took this with a grain of salt, but felt compelled to ask. "What's the 'Bridge'?"

"Th'ol' Bridgeway wadderpump station," he slurred, beginning to lose consciousness. "They got shut down 'cause they was too big and 'spensive. They use liddle-folk access tunnels now, see? I was gonna look for th'one they had here in S'vanna, but they gon' an' tore it down, pudda buncha stores werrit was."

Judy's eyes widened, a revelation seized her as her fingers dug into the soft covering of her steering wheel. "Oh…oh, my God. They's gonna poison the well."

"S'what I tol' you," The goat said, scrunching up his nose, "Do fiss ack'tully fuck innit?"