Words over Lunch.
(Judy POV)
On the way to the diner, I start reading the case binder to Nick. As we go through it, we find a few censored pages.
Most of the text on the pages is blacked out, but the words that aren't censored hint at the prototype weapons.
If we didn't already know about them, we would have no idea what the words were hinting towards.
We start going back and forth, bouncing theories off of each other about what the prototypes do.
Nick jokes that they're laser weapons, because two words of the uncensored text read: [overheating issue].
We finally drive into the parking lot of our favourite diner, and I feel my stomach ache for my usual salad.
We come here every morning before work, as well as for our lunch brakes.
We get out of the squad car, and on the walk to the diner. I try to come up with a way to talk to
Nick, about going on a vacation with me, to my hometown. Nick opens the door to walk through, but I dart under
his arm, and quickly zip through the diner to our usual booth. One of the few in our size.I fly into my seat, coming
to a sitting position with my paws together on the table, and a wide grin on my face.
"Again, Carrots." Nick says as he finally gets to the booth, and takes his seat just across from me.
"The usual lunch orders?" A red-panda asks, pulling our attention to her.
I quickly recognize her as May; the waitress that always takes our orders. It's nice to see a
familiar smiling face, as she holds her pen up to her gives me a sense of normalcy
after that dreary FBI building.
"Yes please." Nick and I say. Our eyes quickly meet for a moment, before returning to May.
"One fish burger with a Blueberry soda, and a salad with a carrot juice. Coming up."
"Actually." I say quickly. "Can you bring me a Blueberry soda too?"
"Sure thing hun." May replies as she turns and walks towards the counter, smiling as she rites in her notepad.
"But, you always get a carrot juice." Nick says, bringing my attention to him.
"Yea." I start. "I thought I'd try it. I mean you like it, so it must be good."
I gaze out the window, watching the dark clouds drift past, my mind turning to our meeting
with Waterwood. "What do you think of Waterwood?" I ask, tuning my attention back to Nick.
"Well." Nick replies. "I don't like that he read our files."
"I know." I reply calmly. "He didn't have to do that, he could of just talked to us." A few seconds go by before I ask. "How much do you think he knows?"
A few more seconds go by, before he responds. "Well, he knows about our Academy records' so... a lot. I'm sure."
"I wonder what's in our files? I mean, I haven't read my own, let alone yours." Nick finishes saying as he starts tapping his claws on the table.
I turn my attention to my paws, as I link them together on the table, trying to avoid his gaze.
"What is it, Carrots?" Nick asks.
I close my eyes before replying. "I-I've... looked through your file."
"WHAT?" Nick says in a low but angry tone. I can feel his glare, like the intense heat of a fire.
The next thing I hear is ceramic plates hitting the table, followed by glass cups. I look up at the
plate in front of me, and the smell of my salad makes my mouth water.
My stomach then starts to churn when the foul smell of Nick's burger creeps into my nose.
The smell of cooked meat always makes me a little queasy, however it doesn't make me as
nauseous as it did, before I got used to smelling it every day.
The waitress walks off stiffly, probably seeing the tension between us.
"Nick it's not what you think." I start. "It was before I knew who you were."
I look back down at my paws realizing what I did, was worse than what Waterwood did.
He was trying to see if he could trust us on a case, and I was trying to find something to blackmail Nick with.
"It was the day after we first met." I continue finally. I hear Nick exhale, and I look back up at him.
His ears are back, and he's now focused on his food.
"I was mean to you." Nick says before he turns his gaze back to me, his eyes doing little to hide the hurt and self loathing he's feeling.
"You needed help, and I still-"
"Nick," I say putting my paw atop his. "I already forgave you, and I'm sorry. I should have told you."
We look into each others eyes for a moment, and I pull my paw back.
I then pick up a fork, and jam it into my salad. "It's okay." Nick says.
"So how much of my file did you read?" He asks as he picks up his burger.
"Not much." I reply. "I stopped when I found... Well, you know."
"Yea." Nick says. "I've been paying them now by the way." We then both dig into our meals.
I finish with the one mouthful and ask. "Are we okay?"
Nick swallows and takes a sip of his soda before replying. "Yea Carrots, we're okay." He then takes a
slight pause before continuing. "You know right?" He ask, as his lips form into a smile.
"I know Nick." I reply, smiling back.
I reach for the soda sitting next to my plate. "Well here we go." I then take a tentative sip.
It hits my tongue and immediately starts to bubble.
"Well?" Nick asks with a grin.
"It's good." I reply happily. "I see why you like it." Nick then takes another bite of his burger.
"Hey, Nick."
"Mmhmm?" Nick mumbles chewing his food, I let out a little chuckle before I continue.
"Why do you think Waterwood didn't have any pictures of his family in his office."
Nick swallows, before replying. "He didn't?" My expression immediately goes blank, annoyed at Nick's lack of observation.
"Don't look at me like that Carrots." Nick replies. "You only noticed because, you're always on guard lately."
I begin to think back, and I find truth in Nick's words. Lately it seems like I've always been watching what I say, or do.
"You're right, I'm sorry Nick." I reply.
Nick tilts his head before asking. "So, do you trust him?"
"No." I respond quickly.
Nick tilts his head back up. "Good. Bcause in my experience, guys like him are only nice when they want something."
My ears drop as Nick continues."And he wants us to help him find those weapons. I bet you the moment he gets what
he wants, that's when we'll see his true colors."
"Nick." I say sternly "Don't judge him before you really get to know him."
"I'm just saying, don't be surprised if he turns out to be an ass like that agent Whiskers."
"Nicholas!" I shout, not caring if the other animals heard me, but seeing Nick's ears lay back I realize my mistake.
I didn't mean to shout, but sometimes Nick can really get under my skin. Nick knows I don't like when animals prejudge someone.
"Don't give me that, Carrots. Don't act like you've never prejudge someone before." Nick says with frustration.
My ears drop as Nick takes a another bite of his burger. Nick is obviously trying to remind me of how I prejudged him, before I got to know him.
"I'm sorry Nick, I shouldn't have raised my voice at you."
Nick swallows before replying. "It's alright, I shouldn't prejudge. Sorry for losing my temper, Carrots."
"You know." Nick says informatively "Your pretty scary when you're mad." Nick then takes a another
bite of his burger and smiles at me as he chews.
I feel my ears grow warm at his comment. I hate it how he can do that.
"Oh, and about our files." I say in a desperate attempt to change the topic.
"Mmhmm" Nick mumbles.
"After I found the, you know in your file. I was curious, and I looked up mine. There's a lot in there that
I don't want anyone to know about me."Nick sips his soda and takes another bite of his burger as I continue.
"And your file is much bigger then mine, so I'm sure there are things in there that you don't want anyone else to know about you."
Nick swallows. "Well, Carrots." He starts. "It's not about what I don't want someone to know, it's that they didn't
get to know me, they just read a file. A file lists off the things you've done, but not always the reason.
You can't gauge someone's emotional state from reading a file, or whether or not they regret what they did."
"Nick." I say quietly. "Everyone makes mistakes-"
"Most animals past mistakes don't have the chance of landing them in prison."
He blurts out quietly, before I finish my sentence. Nick and I decide to focus on eating after that statement.
Once we finished we split the bill, and stepped outside to find it pouring.
We quickly run through the downpour, to the car and hop in as quickly as we can.
"So, Nick." I say sheepishly.
"Yea, Carrots." Nick responds quickly, before he instinctively shakes his head and body, splattering the interior of the car with water.
"What are we supposed to do now?" I ask, flicking my paws, as my expression turns to that of annoyance.
"I think we should go meet agent Waterwood." Nick says starting the car.
"Meet him where?" I say. "He didn't-" I pause for a second when my phone buzzes. I pull it out and continue. "-tell us where to meet him."
"Who is it?" Nick asks. I open the messaging app and respond. "It's a unknown number. It says; [Meet me at 6211 OldVine Rd]."
"That's creepy." Nick says sounding like he knows who it is.
"Who?" I respond. "Do you know who it is?" I trail off when I remember the address from the case binder
"Oh... It's Waterwood. How did he know we were done eating?"
"Yea." Nick says. "Like I said Carrots, creepy." Nick then puts the car in reverse.
"How did he know we were eating in the first place?" I ask frantically.
Nick backs out of the parking place, before responding. "I don't know." He then puts the car in drive.
I remember what Bogo told us about him. "You know we probably told him things about us without realizing it." I add.
"What do you think he learned from observing us?" Nick asks as he pulls us out of the parking lot.
I open my mouth to respond but Nick blurts out. "Wait!" Before I can utter a word. "He was talking to Clawhauser this morning."
"So?" I ask in anticipation.
"He has a tendency to let things slip." Nick responds with a confused tone.
I turn to him and begin to dart my eyes around his face, as if looking for answers.
"What does he know?" I finally ask.
Nick darts a glance before responding. "He knows about your nightmares."
My eyes widen as I ask. "How did he find out?" In a frantic spurt.
Nick takes a quick breath before explaining. "Remember the night that we were celebrating my graduation from the Academy?"
I think back to that night, and run through all the places we went. "Oh yea." I blurted out quickly.
"He came back to your old apartment with us and spent the night and." I pause when I remember jumping awake, screaming.
"I had another nightmare." I continue slowly.
"How much does he know?" I ask carefully, dreading the answer.
"Don't worry, Carrots." Nick replies. "He doesn't know what they're about, but he knows that it, wasn't the first time."
I turn my head to look out the window, as I start to replay the events in my head one more time.
Some of the guys Nick was graduating with, dragged us out to a bar by the name of Marty's Wild Place.
And just about every officer at the precinct showed up to congratulate him. "Our first fox!" They would call him, quoting my speech.
I avoided drinking entirely, Nick however had a sip or two. But Clawhauser, like the other officers, got more than a little drunk.
And as a result he couldn't exactly drive himself home, so Nick offered let them stay at his place for the night.
It was only just around the corner, a pretty easy walk for a rather tipsy cheetah.
Nick's apartment wasn't very clean, I didn't really mind however.
As I wouldn't take very good care of a place that was falling apart either.
Pots and pans were scattered around haphazardly, catching the drops that fell from the aged and mistreated pipes.
The first thing Clawhauser did when we got in the apartment, was to flop down on Nick's couch, which was the
perfect size for a Fox, not a cheetah, and especially not a big one. Clawhauser, now laying on the destroyed ruins
of what used to be Nick's couch, tried to apologize, but fell asleep halfway through his sentence.
"I never thought I'd use the word lightweight when describing Clawhauser." I remember Nick saying.
At the time I rolled my eyes, but now it brings a smile to my face.
He knew I wasn't sleeping well, so he let me take his bed. An old stiff mattress, the frame of
which, bolted to the floor, wasn't the most comfortable thing.
However I found it easy enough to fall asleep on.
Since Clawhauser was sleeping on Nick's now destroyed couch, he grabbed a few blankets and made a makeshift
mattress right next to the bed. When I woke screaming from the nightmare, he was quick to pull himself on the bed, to try and calm me down.
At the time I forgot that Clawhauser was even there, the only thing that mattered, was that I was safe in Nick's arms.
That was the first time Nick was there, when I woke from the nightmare.
"He hasn't told anyone about it." I say finally, as I pull myself back to the car, where I'm still watching the rain drops slide diagonally down the window.
"I asked him not to." Nick replies pulling my focus to him.
"Thank you, Nick." I reply gently.
We then go back to talking about the case, on the way to meet agent Waterwood.
End part #3