Meadowlands, seven months ago…

Judy stood in front of the old brick apartment building in the Meadowlands district. It was small, only four stories high, and the mammals she had seen entering and leaving the building over the past ten minutes seemed to suggest it was primarily rented by predators, although Judy had also noticed a small elephant in a window on the first floor. She had stood outside that building for almost ten minutes now, uncertain even now if she was doing the right thing. If her guess was right, this was where Nick's mother lived. Judy still did not know anything about Mrs. Wilde, having been unable to ask Nick anything about her once she had realized her existence. She had no clue what Nick's and his mother's relationship was like; for all she knew Nick and his mother were still close and Mrs. Wilde already knew her son was going to become a cop, but Judy didn't think so somehow. The only picture of Nick's mother in his box had to be taken at least thirty years before, and the lack of more recent photos there or anywhere in his basement suite seemed to suggest they had been separated, likely estranged, for some time. However, there was also no obituary or anything like that in Nick's box, which Judy took as a hopeful sign that his mother was still alive. In any case, this was her only lead. Having looked through the city directory (which was organized by species), this building was the address of the only other fox she could find with the last name Wilde.

Finally making her decision, Judy trudged up the steps to the front door. Skirting by an old leopard couple that went out the door just as she reached it, the rabbit slipped inside. She strode through the lobby to the elevator and clicked the UP button. As she entered the elevator, her little bunny heart started pounding like mad in her chest at what she was about to do. But she had to try this. Whatever things were like between Nick and his mother, and whether or not Mrs. Wilde knew about her son's less-than-savory former activities, Judy wanted to be sure Mrs. Wilde knew what Nick was going to do with his life now. And surely she knew of her son's role in solving the Night Howler case, for that had been all over the media, even though Nick had stayed away from the cameras whenever possible for fear of repercussions from his former 'marks'. If this went south, well, she could only hope Nick would forgive her for her meddling. Sure he had forgiven her for the press conference fiasco, but this was different; this was his personal life.

The ding of the elevator jolted Judy out of her thoughts as she reached her floor, and eyeing the numbers on the doors in the hall she made her way to her target: apartment 304. But just as she reached the door and was reaching out her fist to knock, the door suddenly opened, and a fox dressed in workout clothes exited the apartment, walking right into Judy:

"Oof! Oh, I'm sorry dear, I wasn't expecting-"

And then the vixen stopped as she gazed down and saw what, or who, she had just collided with. And then apparent recognition dawned across her features as she looked down into Judy's eyes. "Officer Judy Hopps?" she asked.

Judy nodded nervously. She was sure she recognized this vixen from the photo in Nick's box, although it was hard to tell since said vixen now had some grey mixed into her red fur and wore glasses unlike in the picture. "Are you…Mrs. Wilde?"

"I am."

"…Nick's mother?"

"Yes!" Mrs. Wilde nodded. She spoke this with a great deal of emotion; something told Judy she had been anticipating this meeting for a long time. The vixen then stuck her head out of the doorway and peered back and forth down the hallway, as if expecting somebody else to be there. But when no one else appeared, her face seemed to fall.

"Forgive me; I hoped Nicky might be with you. Do you know where he is now?" she asked.

"Yes, he's…" Judy paused when she realized Mrs. Wilde didn't know about Nick becoming a police officer yet, "He's out of town for a while, he'll be back in a few days."

"I see." said the vixen, still looking a little nonplussed. But then she looked down at Judy again and put on a smile. "I'm sorry, where are my manners? Please, come in, come in!"

And she stood aside and gestured Judy inside. Judy entered, mostly pleased with Mrs. Wilde's reaction to her but still with a small amount of trepidation.

As they passed the hallway to the living room, Judy felt a strong rush of déjà vu: the wallpaper in the hall was light green with a pattern of fern-like leaves, reminiscent of Nick's classic Pawaiian shirt. She idly wondered whether or not that shirt pattern was a conscious decision on Nick's part. There were also a few framed pictures of Nick at various ages hung on the wall; kit Nick was absolutely precious.

The pair entered the living room and each took a seat on the couch, facing each other. For a few seconds, neither Judy nor Mrs. Wilde said anything, but simply sat there with paws folded and eyes gazing at each other, each full of questions but unsure of where to begin. Judy took a moment to study the elderly vixen: she looked to be about sixty, but had a trim build that combined with the workout clothes she was wearing indicated she was active and spry for her age. She was decidedly shorter than Nick, about halfway between him and Judy in height; her red fur was the same color as Nick's but age had added some grey to her appearance, especially in the tips of her ears, and looking down Judy could see the fur on the end of her tail was snow-white instead of brown. Her eyes were wider than Nick's and lacked the familiar half-lidded look, but they were the exact shade of vivid green his were, and despite her wearing glasses they now gave Judy the same feeling of being analyzed that Nick's sometimes did. Judy decided to start with an obvious question.

"So, you know about me and Nick and the night howler case, I take it?"

"I do indeed," said Mrs. Wilde. She picked up what looked like a photo album from the coffee table in front of them, and opened it. Pasted inside were various newspaper clippings, all with headlines about night howlers and conspiring mayors and hero cops; Judy saw several pictures of herself and some of her with Nick as well. Mrs. Wilde turned to page one, and Judy saw a front-page clipping of herself confronting Mayor Lionheart while he was being arrested at Cliffside Sanitarium. And there, in the background, was Nick, wearing his sunglasses and holding a cup of coffee. Judy had never gotten the chance to credit Nick by name for his part in tracing the missing predators to Cliffside, but he was recognizable in the photo, at least to his own mother.

On the page opposite was another clipping of Judy as she stood on the podium during that fateful press conference, looking markedly awkward as she tried to answer questions about predators going savage. Judy bristled in shame at the memory. Even when the true cause of the savage predators had been exposed, for months afterwards Judy had continued to receive angry confrontations from predators who had suffered because of her words.

"That was quite a day." said Mrs. Wilde, noting Judy's reaction.

Judy nodded, and looked up at Mrs. Wilde. "What happened to you? I mean, after that?" she asked. Mrs. Wilde sighed, and after a second of pondering answered:

"Well, I was better off than most I suppose. It's mostly predators living in this neighborhood and they all know me, so nobody was afraid I was going to go savage and attack them. But, where I work, there were some prey animals who already didn't like a fox teaching their classes, and once the rumors about savage predators started, they started lodging complaints with my boss and making false accusations. Eventually it got so bad, I lost my job."

"Oh no!" cried Judy, her paws clapping to her mouth. She then lowered them, her ears drooping behind her in shame. "I'm…I'm so sorry." She said.

But then Mrs. Wilde smiled at her.

"Fortunately, thanks to you, when the truth about mayor Bellwether and the night howlers came out my boss called and offered me my old job back with a very nice raise as an apology, so no harm done." She smirked in a very Nick-like fashion, "and that tidbit on the news about a fox helping solve the case didn't hurt either, even if he didn't know it was my son."

Judy's ears perked up upon hearing that. "What do you do?" she asked.

"I teach senior aerobics. Not very lucrative maybe, but it keeps me active. I was actually on my way over to a class when we intercepted each other."

"Oh; um, would you like me to come back later?"

"Oh no, I can be late. I was actually going to get there early and work out for a few minutes before starting." She leaned forward, eyeing Judy intently. "Now tell me: why are you here? And how did you find me? Did Nicky send you?" Judy shook her head.

"I'm afraid not, Nick doesn't even know I'm here," she replied. "As for how and why I'm here, well, that's a long story."

"I've got time." Said Mrs. Wilde insistently. Judy nodded, took a deep breath, and began to tell her story:

"As I said before, Nick is out of town. He actually left a few months ago, but he gave me this box of stuff to keep safe, and asked me not to open it. I put it on a shelf in my apartment, and didn't think about it for a long time. And then, two days ago I was looking for my dress blues, and while looking for the box that had them in it I accidentally knocked Nick's box off the shelf and it opened and the contents just fell everywhere."

Mrs. Wilde raised an eyebrow at her.

"Okay, it wasn't completely accidental. Anyway, it was a bunch of mementos and stuff inside, but there were two things that were really intriguing. One was this picture of you." She pulled a framed photo out of her bag and presented it to Mrs. Wilde. The vixen recognized the photo of herself holding Nick as a newborn kit, along with the frame, for she had given it to Nick herself when he had moved out to get his own place. "And the other…" Judy pulled out a familiar piece of red fabric and pressed it into Mrs. Wilde's paws, "Was this red handkerchief."

What happened next was a bigger reaction than Judy had ever expected. The elderly vixen gripped the fabric tightly in her paws and stared at it fixatedly as if she couldn't believe her eyes. And then, to Judy's surprise, Mrs. Wilde began to cry. Tears formed in both of her emerald eyes, and Judy could see a huge smile of pure joy and happiness spread across the vixen's face. And then as if on instinct, Mrs. Wilde threw off her glasses and began rubbing her cheek into the scarlet fabric, caressing it as if it were her most treasured possession. Judy began to tear up a little herself at the sight, and leaned over and rubbed her paw on Mrs. Wilde's shoulder in comfort. The vixen did not shake it off.

It took Mrs. Wilde a few minutes to collect herself and look at Judy again, her eyes still teary but the rest of her face beaming with elation.

"Where… (hic) where did you get this?"

"I…found it in Nick's memory box."

"I-I mean, how does it fit into all of this? Isn't it (hic) just a piece of cloth to you?"

"Well, that's another long story." Said Judy.

"I've still got time." Mrs. Wilde declared. Judy nodded, and launched anew into speech:

"Okay, first off, I know about Nick and what happened to him with the Junior Ranger scouts, how they muzzled him when he tried to join them; he told me that story."

Mrs. Wilde nodded, curious to know what had compelled for her son to tell the rabbit about that in the first place, but she did not interrupt. Judy continued:

"You see, back at the museum, the day Nick and I stopped the Night Howler plot, I cut my leg and Nick used that cloth to bandage me up. And after I got my leg treated at the hospital I kept it and gave it back to him. And then, two days ago, I found it again in Nick's box. If he kept it after it had had my blood on it, I figured it must be pretty important to him. I couldn't ask Nick about it of course, because I'd promised him I wouldn't look in his treasure box. Anyway, months ago, a few days after the museum incident, I was out on the street, and I ran into a pair of Junior Ranger Scouts who tried to sell me some cookies. And I noticed, the scarves-"

"Neckerchiefs." Mrs. Wilde interrupted.

"Neckerchiefs they wore around their necks looked really similar to Nick's handkerchief. Even had a pattern in the fabric just like it. But I figured it was just a coincidence, so I didn't think anything of it then. But then two days ago, when I saw the handkerchief again, I remembered, and decided to look closer. I looked at pictures of scouts online, compared their scar-neckerchiefs, and realized they were indeed the same. And then I realized, he'd been keeping this piece of his uniform around all these years, even though it was a reminder of what had to be one of the worst nights of his life. Then I thought back to when he told me that story, remembered this detail about you, his mom, scraping money together to buy him a new uniform. And then I looked over at that picture of you, and it clicked. He must have kept it because of you. Nick's never told me about you, and I knew I couldn't ask him now, because that meant telling him about the neckerchief, so I looked up 'Wilde' in the city directory and at the DMV, and that's led me here, to you."

Judy stopped, and suddenly started panting; she had said all that without taking a single breath. Mrs. Wilde looked very impressed.

"That's some detective work, dear."

"Well (pant), I did read all the Nancy Shrew books growing up."

Mrs. Wilde chuckled, and then gazed down again at the framed photo still clutched in her paw. She sighed a little, and ran her fingers over the image of herself holding newborn Nick, a sad look of longing on her face.

Judy couldn't bear it. "Mrs. Wilde, please, please forgive my asking, but I have to know," She shuffled a little closer to Mrs. Wilde, paws on her lap and her wide eyes gazing imploringly into the vixen's own: "What happened between you and Nick?"

Mrs. Wilde said nothing for a second, but instead got up, and walked out of the living room. Judy heard the sound of a drawer being opened, and then the vixen came back, and pressed what looked like a thin book into Judy's paws.

"Nine years ago, I found this in Nicky's old room."

Judy looked at it: it was an old notebook; one that looked completely innocuous. She flipped through it: on the pages she could see a series of notes, diagrams and dollar amounts. The word 'Paw-psicle' jumped out at her from one page.

"Plans." Said Mrs. Wilde, "…And ideas and figures for different hustles and money-making schemes my son came up with and used when he was in Junior High. Schemes which, I learned, he carried on doing well into todhood. Was that how you met him?"

Judy could only nod, not wanting to tell her that story now. Mrs. Wilde continued:

"I was shocked, I was angry. This explained so many things from when he was a teenager. The next day, when I saw him next, I confronted him about it. We fought, he stormed out, and I haven't seen him since."

Mrs. Wilde's face fell in sorrow, as if she were recalling the worst memory of her life. Judy placed her paw on the vixen's shoulder again.

"It-it was my fault, Judy. If I hadn't thrown it in his face, if I'd tried to be more understanding, maybe my son would still talk to me." She held up the red neckerchief. "That night, I gave him this. I tried to remind him what a good boy he was, itching to make a positive difference in the world. And now you bring it here, tell me he kept it all these years when I thought he wanted nothing to do with me…"

She clutched the neckerchief tightly to her chest.

"I want him back, Judy. So, so much. I don't care if he's a hustler or grifter or whatever, I still love him. All I want is to find him, and tell him I'm sorry."

"Have you tried to find him? I mean, really tried?" Judy asked.

"I did, but he cut off all contact with me. Changed his phone number, changed apartments, everything. It was like he vanished off the face of the earth. And when I finally saw him on the news months ago, I was thrilled, and took that as a hopeful sign that he might come to see me again."

Then she bowed her head with a sigh.

"But he never did. I waited for weeks, hoping he might show up at my door, maybe with you along with him. But nobody came, until you did today."

She placed a paw on Judy's knee, her green eyes pleading at the rabbit. "Could you tell me where he is now? Maybe…pass on a message for me?"

Judy startled; in the emotional roller coaster that had gone on over the past few minutes, she had completely forgotten what she had really come to see Mrs. Wilde for. A small smile began to form across her features as she reached for her bag.

"Mrs. Wilde, I may not know Nick like a book, but he is my best friend, and I think he feels the exact same way. I'm willing to bet anything he blames himself too, and wants to reconcile just as much as you do. And maybe he was planning to try, after this."

And then she reached into her bag for a third time, and pulled out a large brown envelope. From this envelope she pulled out a heavy blue and gold card and another photo and handed them to Mrs. Wilde. The vixen's paws trembled as she took the paper, and her eyes widened as she read the imprinted text on it:

Announcing the Graduation of:

Officer Nicholas P. Wilde

From Zootopia Police Academy

Graduating Class of 20…

Ms. Wilde's eyes burned with fresh tears as she stared at the announcement, and then at the photo in her other paw. It was of her son, in full dress uniform, standing proudly front and center among a group of other police cadets; one lone fox among tigers and elephants and rhinos.

"It's two days from now," Judy stated, pointing to a date and time at the bottom of the paper. "And they've asked me to do the graduation speech, that's why I was looking for my dress blues before. And I talked to my chief yesterday, it's all arranged – Nick and I are going to be partners. I'd take you to Nick right now, but he's still at the academy finishing up last-minute details. And I figure-"

But she never finished her sentence, for right then a pair of warm, strong arms swooped down and scooped Judy up in the tightest hug she had ever felt since she came to Zootopia.

"Thank you..." Mrs. Wilde choked, still clutching the photo, "Thank you."

Judy hugged her back, feeling her heart well up with emotion as she sat there in a tearful embrace with the mother of her best friend, knowing she had just opened up the floodgates for a reconciliation between Nick and his mother. She also sensed this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between herself and the elderly vixen. Their embrace only stopped when Mrs. Wilde looked up at the clock on the wall opposite them.

"Oh gawd, I'm really late now," she croaked. She reluctantly broke apart from Judy, and wiped her eyes with the back of her paw. "I have to go, but if it's all right with you I'd like to continue this conversation very, very soon."

"I'd like that very much." Said Judy, wiping her own eyes. She hadn't felt this overwhelmed since the day Nick had forgiven her under the bridge.

Mrs. Wilde then grabbed a pen and post-it note, and scribbled something on it. "Here, here's my number. Call me at noon sharp, I want to hear every detail of how you met my son and how you convinced him to save the city and join the police force!"

"And I want to know what Nick was like as a baby!" Judy responded with a laugh.

I'd like to dedicate this chapter to two people: first to Kulkum, whose wonderful story "Proud" was a huge inspiration and influence for this flashback and the next. And second, to an artist name of Quirky-Middle-Child on deviantart. My original plan was for Nick's mother to simply make a short cameo in this story, but then QMC published this fantastic comic last Mother's Day that inspired me to expand the story and give her a bigger role. There will be more of Mrs. Wilde, oh my goodness yes. Thank you to both of you for your amazing work.

P.S. Mrs. Wilde's apartment number refers to Zootopia's US release date: 03-04.