Author's Note:As my initial hype dies down, this is getting a bitharder to write, I'm trying to keep up, a lot of stuff is still planned out.

Chapter 9

Reunion

They took turns rowing the boat, the other curled up on the wooden floor, swayed into sleep by the gentle waves. It was a sunny and pleasant day, and the going would have been easy for any shorter journey. The rain forest district however was a far way away, and soon both Nick and Judy dreaded their turn of rowing. Judy always tried to hold on for as long as possible nonetheless, because the fox was injured, and she appreciated that he needed rest.

Nick in turn tried his hardest as a matter of pride.

Occasionally they rested. Often this was brought about by a boat passing them or a bridge they had to drift under. In those cases Nick and Judy would duck under the blanket and drift gently, their bodies pressed closely together in the tight space as they glanced out over the shimmering water from underneath the cloth. If Judy had expected the fox to be nervous, she had been sourly disappointed. He was his usual, casual, smug self, confident that his escape was in no way endangered. It was the bunny that worried painfully about being caught.

"This is what you do. If the police catch us, you claim I took you hostage and forced you to come along. You were unarmed, and I am an evil predator.", had been Nick's suggested solution. Judy was not so sure that Chief Bogo would buy the lie. She wasn't sure herself how well she could lie – although of course she had enjoyed a brief acting career as a young bunny.

"But that's a lie.", she had meekly protested, not quite wanting to force a worse image upon him. His smile had faded and he looked at here with a strange severity.

"It's a lie that's gonna save your fur. So be a good bunny and play along. We don't both have to go down. Besides", he grinned. "Who is going to proof my innocence if you get locked up with me?"

He had her swear that she'd play along, and she did, a paw on her heart that was thumping uncomfortably at this point. It was late afternoon when the sights along the shores changed. The beaches turned into muddy and moss-covered banks, the trees stood tall above them in bright green frocks, embraced by climbing plants and tickled by ferns. There was an ocean of green reflected in the water that had long narrowed into a river. The closer they inched forward through the river now, the more nervous Nick became.

Whilst his face didn't give it away, Judy noticed it through the twitching of his tail and the darting of his eyes. He smiled helplessly when she asked what was wrong.

"It's been over a year. I suppose I worry that things might have changed. Maybe she…maybe she is no longer here."

"She?"

"Honey. She is one of my most trusted friends, and the best prepared mammal in the city to help a fugitive slip away for a while."

Judy raised an eyebrow. "That sounds sketchy."

"It would be, if she wouldn't focus so much on prey conspiracies that even I can't support."

His green eyes lit up as his lips twisted into a smile. The river current was taking them into the right direction, so they only occasionally stirred away from the coast. "She is the strongest woman I've ever met. Don't get into a fight with her, she'll leave you with two black eyes. And she's damn clever."

The more the bunny and the fox talked, the more the barrier between them broke down. Judy no longer feared his presence – she turned her back towards him feeling safe, and the sight of his bared fangs didn't scare her. His smile was just that. A smile.

He spoke about friends and family the way any other mammal would, accounted for a life full of hopes, dreams and episodes of despair, that was not so different from hers. She too had grown up being told that she would never be able to fulfil her dream, and had battled against those back-minded opinions with spite and determination. Nick had just faced considerably more despair. Considerably more hardships. Was it fair? Did this fox really deserve all the restrictions placed on him? Would he ever have been a danger to prey animals across Zootopia?

Her belief in the justice of the city dwindled the more she began to trust Nick. But despite their bodies crouching close together as he started pulling them towards the coast, there was a part of Judy that reserved itself to prejudice and caution, a part that still momentarily trembled at the sight of his fangs or claws. Whether this notion was one inflicted upon her by society, or whether it was an instinctive habit, the bunny couldn't tell. Now she felt guilt whenever her body automatically reacted to his predator presence, because every time he noticed, a shadow cast over Nick's bright green eyes.

Nick reached his paws out and closed them around the bars of a large sewer pipe connecting to the river. A drizzle of liquid was dropping out of it, and the distant echo of water dropping onto metal reached the bunny's ears.

Judy couldn't quite see what he was doing, but after a few twists and turns the grit was removed from the pipe, and Nick drew them close to the river edge before climbing out into the opening. Inside, Judy could see nothing but darkness. Her nose twitched, and Nick, sensing her disgust, gave her a smug smile.

"Come on, Rabbits. Have you smelled yourself these past two days? You're not exactly a pot of roses either."

But it wasn't just the fear of smell. Judy realized with growing discomfort that she was about to enter a predator community. For nearly the first time in her life she would be surrounded by nothing but what used to be carnivores. She swallowed hard, trying to drown her nervousness in her curiosity. Nick reached his paw out for her and she took it, allowing him to pull her into the opening with him. They had to lean against each other to not fall out. Nick kicked the boat, and it drifted back onto the river and was soon taken away by the current.

"Are you sure we are in the right place…?"

"Honey has a thing for unconventional hiding spots. We are going to one of the safest places in Zootopia. For friends of honey, anyway. Now, carrots. You're gonna have to promise me not to freak out…"

"What? About what?"

"…but Honey is not exactly the most law-abiding of mammals. Not that I associate myself with criminals."

"Or break the law yourself", Judy smirked.

"Exactly. So she may have a few possessions in spirit of her safety that might…startle you."

He looked worried. Pleading. The bunny tried to battle her bad expectations and found herself nodding for his sake. "Fine. I'll keep an…open mind."

Immediately his smile brightened his features. "That's what I like to hear!"

With Nick in the lead, they crawled into the darkness. Soon there was a slight slant leading upwards. Their knees and paws were drenched in oily feeling water, and occasionally, when Judy slipped slightly in the wetness, she hit her shoulder on the side of the pipe. Every few seconds, Nick's tail brushed into her face, and her nose twitched as she shook her head to be rid of it. Without that tail, however, the bunny wouldn't have known whether Nick was still with her. Eventually the slant ended in a right angle, and Nick disappeared from before her. She used her paws to feel her surroundings until her fingers grasped the first bars of a ladder that Nick had begun to ascend.

A faint light was flooding towards them from the top. Judy held herself to that light as though it was the guiding shine of a light house by the coast. "Stay down here for a second, Carrots", Nick hissed towards her. She heard a heavy objects grinding against concrete, and the light from the top lit the sewer pipe. The fox had moved the drain and stuck his head out into the open. Judy heard steps approaching from somewhere, and saw Nick duck back down, his pointed ears twitching in anticipation. A bellowing, rough female voice shouted "INTRUDERS! SPYING SWINE! YOU COME TO GET ME? COME GET THIS!"

The voice alone made Judy flinch back, but it was the eager stomping and release of a gun safety that made her really nervous. To her surprise she could hear Nick above her laughing. "That' honey, alright!"

And he climbed out. There was a shrill scream, a few moments of silence, a dubious "…are you an imposter…" and Nick smugly clicked his fingers at her and said:

"Honey, sweetheart, it is nice to see ya. Is that a new gun? Good for you!"

Judy heard the clatter of the weapon falling onto the ground, and then Nick's tail disappeared out of the opening, and his hesitant steps approached the source of the voice.

"Wilde…I can't believe it! It's really you! You look awful! You stink! Has anyone followed you? Are you wired? No? Oh, Nick!"

Judy, her tail and nose twitching, couldn't hold herself back any longer. She clambered up the last couple of bars and stuck her head out of the opening to watch where she was. The bunker room was barely lit, a long fluorescent tube being the only source of light. The walls were covered in shelves stacked with hundreds of cans of food and bottled water, dried fruit and fish, trail rations and stale looking bread. On another wall was a map of Zootopia, clustered with notes, pins and red marker. Photos were plastered onto the wall next to the map, some of which with notes scribbled across the faces.

On the opposite wall to the sewer drain was a weapon rack, every slot stacked with guns and knives of different sizes and models. There was a suit of armour and a bee helmet, alongside strange looking spectacles and night vision glasses. Finally, Judy turned her curious eyes towards Nick and the honey badger, who were caught in a deep and tight embrace that Nick seemed anxious to let go off. Judy felt her heart soften at the sight, and the badger, too, seemed overjoyed to see the fox.

It was a heart-warming scene of reunion, and Judy placed a paw on her heart and awwww'ed silently – until the honey badger lifted her head from Nick's shoulder and saw her, and a scream broke from her lungs once again.

Honey was everything Nick had mentioned and more. She was strong and sturdy with tough looking eyes and a wary smile, promising a character that had been tested often over the years and had hardened in the daunting presence of danger and tragedy. She dressed like military, with her fur cropped short on her head and dark khaki trousers dangling around her legs. Her chest was adorned with a dark tank top and a few simple necklaces. There was an intelligent shine to her dark eyes, but they occasionally glazed with madness, making her look distracted and confused. Her gaze would dart about the room in nervous paranoia – something Nick had failed to mention.

The badger was, to an extent, crazy. And when she began babbling over sheep framing Nick and purposely letting him escape from prison so they could find his friends and murder them, Judy sunk back into the large soft chair in the living room above the bunker (the hidden door being covered with the carpet) and kept her mouth shut. The bunny herself was often object of the honey badger's conspicuous fantasies within the twenty minutes that she spoke nearly uninterrupted.

She had offered them tea and food, which was much appreciated after a long day of paddling meekly through the river. The rabbit cop couldn't deny that she had been hospitable.

The moment they got out of the bunker, honey excused herself excitedly and came back thirty seconds later with a button up shirt and tie, as well as a pair of brown trousers that she held out to Nick. "I kept some of your clothes, took them from your wardrobe. Your place was probably going to be raided anyway, so I thought, no harm in me taking them! Better me than some prey spies, and I knew of course that you'd be back one day."

Nick's face melted into a smile at the sight of his own clothes, and he drew Honey close and placed a loud peck on her cheek. "You, honey, are a star! Lemme get changed." And he did, exiting the honey badger's bedroom with the shirt mostly buttoned up and the tie swung loosely around his neck. He held it in his paws, tightening it with great satisfaction, and opened his arms to parade his new look before Judy.

"Feels good to look like myself again.", he sighed contently, and Judy meanly rose an eyebrow and commented:

"Like a scammy travel agent?"

"Like the handsomest fox you will ever lay eyes on, Carrots", the fox corrected her, completely unbothered. Now that they were on familiar grounds to him, Nick was in a wonderful mood. His fears had subsided and made room for unmoderated joy, fuelled by the relief to find that his friend had not changed, and not given up on him, and, maybe most importantly: Honey had not doubted him for a second.

"I always knew you were innocent", Honey had said whilst she poured tea into three cups. "That whole bullshit about cold blooded killer just doesn't ring right. They're idiots for believing it. It was the sheep. It was always the sheep. I told you, didn't I."

Nick assured her that she had told him indeed, but he still doubted that it was the sheep specifically.

"But you were nearly stabbed to death by a ram", Honey reminded him. They had briefly relayed the story of their escape to her, as Nick had to explain what a cop was doing in the paranoid honey badger's secret hideout.

"Yeah. Nearly.", the fox waved the topic away dismissively and swaggered towards a chair with a confidence and relaxation that surpassed anything Judy had seen up to this point. The conversation had no place for the bunny there. At first they spoke about old friends and jobs, caught up on events. Nick told a few prison stories, and made the whole experience sound like a ride in an amusement park. Judy just sipped her tea and listened silently. Only occasionally was she graced by the odd look of the honey badger, whom it took over half an hour to put her empty cup on the table and raise her claws, looking between fox and bunny.

"So let's finally address the…bunny in the room.", she sighed. "Why'd you bring a cop into my house, Wilde? You can't honestly think this was a good idea."

Nick, his fox swaying gently, lifted his paws in a shrug. "Couldn't get rid of her. As far as I'm concerned, it's safer to keep her around so I know she isn't elsewhere ratting me out."

"The longer she stays with you the more information she'll carry right back to the police!"

"Good. Because I'm innocent. She can happily go and tell the fuzz that."

Honey grumpily sunk back into her seat, one claw pointing at Judy. She was nervous, the bunny realized. Her collar was flashing yellow. And was she not right to be nervous? Was it not only fair that a mammal whose home had been intruded upon by a stranger should feel displeasure? But the honey badger could not argue her point, Judy realized. Else she'd get punished by that restricting thing around her grey neck.

"Her loyalty doesn't lie with you, Wilde! Look at her! She's a prim and proper, by the book, example of a cop. She'll get nervous around you, around all of us, and then she'll want to be back in the clean parts of town, and get back with her force. And she'll say anything to make that happen."

Nick's expression swayed between hopeful and unsure. "She won't…"

"She will!", insisted the badger.

Judy suddenly set her tea cup down and jumped up onto her chair, het feet sinking into the cushion. "She is IN THE ROOM!", she cried out. "And her loyalty lies with JUSTICE."

With a passionate fervour that was not clouded by even a shred of doubt, the rabbit jumped off the cushion and towards honey, who, despite herself, flinched back. The rabbit raised a paw and pressed a finger into the predator's chest, her amethyst eyes locked on hers.

"I will not sit here and let you tell me who or what I am! I am not a traitor, I am not unjust, and I will be unbiased! I helped Nick because he saved me once, and I am helping him now because I want to know the truth."

She stared right at the badger until she was satisfied that Honey would not talk back. Then the officer swirled around and marched right up to Nick, who would not be intimidated the same way. He sat still and comfortably, even when the bunny had jumped onto the same cushion as him and had grabbed his tie and pulled him forwards. Her words were met with a self-satisfied smile.

"And I have had enough of talk and empty words. You landed in prison because predators went savage, and you claim there was a reason for that. Well, mammals are going savage again. And innocent people are dying. So I suggest, Slick, that you start talking."

When her fit of passion had passed, she jumped back onto the floor unashamed, her arms crossed. Nick once again made a point of brushing imaginary dust off of his chest.

"The sooner we catch the culprit, the sooner I'll be out of your fur.", grumbled Judy.

"Fine, Carrots. You want me to play detective with you? Let's play. One thing first though."

Nick leant forward in his seat, his paws patiently folded under his snout. "Bringing you here was a gamble. Whatever happens, I want your word that you won't implicate Honey."

He held out a paw, and Judy shook it eagerly. "Done."

"Your word."

Judy took a deep breath and ran the words down as quickly as a machine.

"I promise on my honour as ZPD Officer of Precinct One, that I shall not implicate Honey" – the fox nodded contently, but Judy continued: "as long as my investigations find her innocent of any involvement with the murder or physical harm of the citizens of Zootopia."

"Fine. That's great."

"Well then!", the bunny smiled. She pulled her bag forward and slammed onto the table the case files she had intended to bring to a second interrogation with Nick Wilde that morning. Her face fell a little when she realized that the cardboard exterior of the case file was waved from the wetness it had endured thanks to her daring jump. The three mammals looked upon it with some uncertainty, and Judy narrowed her eyes when she carefully opened the folder.

A sigh of relief rippled through the three of them. The file was still readable. There were streaks of water here and there that had blurred the ink, but the majority was roughly distinguishable at least.

"A real police case file", Honey murmured in awe.

"Yeah. Maybe if you ask Carrots really nicely she'll let you add it to your conspiracy collection.", Nick said with wide eyes mimicking the honey badger's excitement. She nudged him in the side and he grinned with his half lidded expression, and Judy watched them wondering how these two mammals had found each other and slipped into the lives they lived now.

"Ahem", murmured Judy, loudly clearing her throat. "We have a job to do, Nick, remember? So if you'd please direct your undivided attention to the matter at hand…yes. The case file. And here, the first victim of the recent attacks."

Judy had turned the page from the introduction and contents to the victim's synopsis, and leant back thinking hard. Of course staring at a known victim she had often thought about before did not suddenly yield any new leads or discoveries, but she tried to look focused and professional whilst nervously glancing at the fox and the honey badger. The two of them took one look at the victim's photograph and exchanged a long glance. When they didn't say anything for a few seconds, Judy grew impatient and anxious. Biting her lower lip, she tapped her foot and unfolded her arms.

"So? Anything?", she prompted, and Nick stared at her long and hard before nodding abruptly.

"You're in luck, Carrots. I know the guy."