Ten days passed in the blink of an eye, from Judy's perspective. She had managed to get everything done that she needed to. Barely. She'd sacrificed sleep, meals and probably a few years off her life to get it all done, but she had done it. She was as prepared as she could possibly be for what was about to happen. Her team was resting in the break room, enjoying a well-earned rest while she shared the chief's office with Snarlov and Swinton, of course. She was as ready as she could be.

Judy climbed onto the large central table and checked her stack of files before addressing her boss and reviewing interrogator across the table.

"I presume that your analysts have reviewed my research on Wilde and completed their investigation, Special investigator?"

The sow rolled her eyes and huffed a breath before replying, "Yes. He's as clean as you claimed and fit to continue as your consultant as far as we are concerned. Your pet is safe."

Ignoring the petty jab, Judy continued, "Good. Of course, you are aware, therefore of the potential civil rights case he could bring against the department?"

"What?!", Snarlov and Swinton exclaimed in unison.

Now, she had them off balance. Time to up the pressure. Lifting the first of several files from her stack, she flipped it open and checked her notes. "In the course of my investigation, I discovered that not only has he never committed a crime, but has been arrested or brought in for questioning numerous times with no reason stated other than "fox". I am sure you are aware that such actions on the part of the arresting officers constitutes a gross violation of his rights as a citizen in the form of overt harassment based on nothing but his species. If he chooses to, he could bring civil action against the city and the ZPD, as well as every officer who has arrested him. That could amount to a hefty sum in damages." Judy tapped her pen against her file, pretending to consider the implications. "But that is something for City Hall and the legal office to handle if it comes up. Let's move on."

Swinton's bravado reasserted itself, if shakily, as the file in Judy's paw was set aside. "To where you show you're an investigator, I presume."

"Exactly."

"And what, pray, have you investigated, Detective Hopps?"

Judy smiled sweetly at the offensive porcine. "You."

"Excuse me?" came the sow's incredulous reply, as Chief Snarlov choked on his coffee.

Judy wished she had a camera. "You, Swinton. I investigated you."

"You dare!" Swinton shouted as she stood.

Iron crept into Judy's voice. "Shut up and sit down, you miserable sow, or I won't waste my time telling you what I found out. I can just go to the media."

"Hah! Go ahead. I'm clean as a whistle."

"You're right. I found no criminal activity anywhere," Judy conceded.

"There! You see? Pointless," Swinton snapped triumphantly.

"I never said you didn't have secrets…" There was a tense pause and Swinton sat, obviously weighing her options. "For instance, your cousin, Alestaire. He has a neurological disorder, doesn't he?"

Any other thoughts were blasted from the pig's mind. "How did you find out about that?"

"Not important. What is important is you signed a petition four days ago in support of research into rarer neurological illnesses and their treatments, didn't you?" Judy handed over a photo. "Here's a picture from the signing. Did you think to look at the mammal offering it to you? It was me."

The shock in her expression was so intense it had a flavor. "You!"

"As was the valet at your meeting with Councilmammal Whickers at the Bordeau Hotel the following day," Judy calmly continued as she offered another photo. "See?"

"Ha- How?" Swinton sputtered, planting her hooves on the table top and leaning forward to get a better angle.

"And the waiter at your dinner with District Attorney Clopmeister, at Le Poisson Rouge, last night." Another photograph settled in front of the bewildered porcine.

Each picture showed Judy in some form of mild disguise. Clothing, fur color, eyes; all were small differences, but in each picture Judy was clearly recognizable once they knew what to look for. She continued to lay out pictures of events from the previous week, pointing herself out in each picture, until the room was dead silent. Both the Chief and Swinton were slack-jawed. Judy had more than a dozen examples of her presence in Swinton's life entirely undetected.

Judy paused after the last one to allow the reality of it to sink in. "Now, I'm sure you want to know why I did this. The answer is simple. I had to learn about each of these events in order to be present at the times. Everything from your Wednesday coffee run to your favorite hole in the wall, to that lovely date with your boyfriend on Sunday at the park. I had to learn about it all from my investigations."

"How do we know it was just you?" Swinton choked out. "That fox-"

Judy cut in, "Nicolas Wilde was absent from my presence the entire time. From the moment I left the Chief's office last Friday until now, I have had at least one officer with me at all times, fully awake and tasked with the sole duty of observing me and my movements." Judy then procured a set of log books, one from each officer, and handed them over. "In here you will find a to-the-minute account of my movements for all the time from 2:37pm Friday to this meeting. 236 hours, 53 minutes in total. In all that time, I was observed round the clock and often under either the city traffic and CCTV cameras, or the live recorded feeds inside the ZPD. You can check. My consultant has remained absent and out of touch since."

"You could have-," was as far as Snarlov got.

Judy raised her paw to forestall the immanent flood of what-ifs. "Upon leaving my briefing with the you, Chief, I had a meeting with my team. After which, I texted Wilde once to tell him not to try to contact me in any way. Since then, my phone and computer have been locked in Lieutenant Fangmeyer's home safe. The security company that monitors the safe security system will verify that it hasn't been opened. Therefore, he hasn't called, texted, or emailed me. The boys in IT can confirm, if you wish. I'll willingly submit my devices and records for their review."

The two other mammals in the room goggled at the rabbit's assertion.

"Officers Fangmeyer, Wolford and Lupins can vouch for the fact that he hasn't been in my presence either, if you care to inquire. Before you ask, I went to the washroom only in the company of Lieutenant Fangmeyer, as well. The logs will confirm that. He has not been in touch with me in any way."

The chief finally found his voice. "So, this was all you? Every shred of this report was just you?"

"And grunt investigative work, too," Judy added before holding up a digit. "But wait! It gets better." The near identicallooks of dread she got were priceless. "I did some analysis. It's just a shot in the dark, but from the mammals you've been meeting with and the times, it looks to me like you're doing more than positioning for that post in the DA's office. I think you're going political."

Swinton managed a weak, blustering laugh. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do." At this point, Judy opened up her sorcerous senses to the full and read the sow. This was going to be fun. "I think you're hoping to discredit me with this witch hunt so you can go after the Mammal Inclusion Initiative. Destroying the career of a high-profile officer would look good for you in IA and make you a good candidate for the DA job."

The truth of her words was visible in the black pall and disbelief that shrouded her target. Taking heart, she pressed on. "Once you're in the DA's office you can hit the MII. That would look very appealing to the arch-conservative politicos like Clopmeister and Wickers, making you a good candidate for the mayoral election in, oh, 5 years. Once in office, you can fund that research you're so interested in. You know, for your cousin."

Judy slid another pair of pictures across the table; one Swinton recognized as her desk, the other was a newspaper clipping of her as a piglet hugging a slightly older boar with a vase in her hoof. "The one who gave you that little hoof-made vase when you were seven and you won the spelling bee. The one that you keep on your desk. That's what this is about, isn't it? Helping the one member of your family you care about by any means you can."

The silence stretched as the significance of the situation sank in. Judy let it build for a minute before standing and plucking all the pictures from the sow's hooves. Under the flabbergasted gaze of the pig and bear, she walked to the end of the table with all her papers in tow, flicked on the paper shredder and slowly fed the pile into it until the last of it was gone.

"Hopps, what are you doing?" The Chief asked in uncomprehending awe.

"I am disposing of an illegal file, sir. All that personal information was collected legally, but, as it is not relevant to a criminal investigation, it is illegal for it to be kept by the ZPD. I have rectified the situation."

Swinton finally found her voice, though there was a obvious struggle to maintain an even tone. "Then what was the point? Why do that? There was enough in that file to end my career!"

"So? Why would I care about that?" Judy savored the blank stares from both mammals. "I'm not like you, Swinton. I'm not interested in ripping others down to get what I want. I did that all to make a point."

"I think you made it," Snarlov croaked out.

"No... Respectfully Chief, I think I need to clarify. My point isn't that the information exists. The point is I found it." At this point Judy had to take a major risk. She was prepared for it, but butterflies still filled her gut as she walked across the table top and popped her badge off her belt.

Laying it down in front of her boss and the IA special investigator, she said, "There's the badge you wanted from me. You have a choice. You can either hand it back to me and let me use my skills, the ones that unearthed all those secrets, for the good of the city as a part of the ZPD, or you can dump it in a desk drawer and tell me to fuck off." The rabbit squared her shoulders, folded her arms across her chest and gazed directly at the sow. "Now, you know how good I am and I am absolutely certain I will find a use for those skills. The question is whether it'll be here, where I might be… directed, or loose in the city making my own way. Your call."

Judy stood firm as she watched her boss' paw reach out and take up her shield. The one thing she had of value in life. As soon as that thought passed through her head, the image of Nick came to mind. It was a small, but significant, realization. Her badge was not the only thing she valued and she hadn't been bluffing about making her own way. It would take work, but she could set up a private investigation service, or work for the private sector. There were always mammals who would pay for skills like the ones she had. Either way, she could help and Nick would be there. That took the sting out of watching her boss pick up her badge and move his paw, not towards her, but his pocket.

Judy nodded and hopped down from the table top, heading for the door. There was no point belaboring the issue.

Twenty minutes later, Judy was grinning smugly outside the Chief's office. She'd left a very subdued pig and an awestruck polar bear alone in the room to recover from their meeting. Her grin deepened when she heard glass on glass and liquid pouring. Twice. Apparently, she'd done a good enough job that the Chief had broken out his emergency vodka, and even stretched to sharing it with Swinton. Not that Judy blamed them. Snarlov needed a nip and Swinton would need a couple bottles to ease the burn.

She was extra pleased that she heard the gruff polar bear through the door, saying, "I'm glad she's on our side…" However, that was neither here nor there. Judy had better things to do with her time. For a start, she had a week off to enjoy and, more urgently, she had to find out why everyone was running around.

The level of activity wasn't high enough to indicate an emergency, but it was far higher than usual for a Friday afternoon. There were no major events scheduled or visiting notables in the city, so Judy was at a loss. As no one seemed to have the time to stop and she wasn't about to delay a mammal on urgent business, Judy made for the best source of information she knew: Clawhauser.

At the front desk, the portly felid was working his usual magic on the dispatch, tracking and relay systems while tossing back baked treats. However, the treats were being consumed slower and his fingers were moving faster than typical, which was all the reason Judy needed to up her level of concern.

"Ben! What's going on?" Judy asked as she slipped behind the desk.

"What do you mean, what's go- Oh… You've been on assignment. Right…"

"Clawhauser… if you don't mind?"

"Sorry! Sorry. While you were on assignment, there was a huge earthquake off the coast. It was a long way out, so we've had time to evacuate the aquatic populace, but it's been a huge ordeal."

"Wait!" Judy was instantly on alert, understanding now why there was so much activity. Patrols would have been working around the clock to evacuate and reasure frightened mammals all over the city. With something this big, it was simply shocking that she hadn't heard about it sooner. "We've evacuated the citizens, but what about the city? What kind of damage are we expecting to the infrastructure? What'll happen when the shockwave and tsunami make land?"

Clawhauser's ears drooped and he shook his head. "We don't know. The experts estimate flooding and debris for a start, but we have no way of knowing."

Judy was out the door before the desk sergeant finished his third syllable.

She didn't need to hear the rest. In absence of facts, there was only one position to take; pure pragmatism. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. Planning for the worst meant severe damage to the city. Damage to the city meant damage to those connected to it. She knew she would likely hurt from it, but whatever was about to happen, Nick would take the brunt of it.

Images of her fox slowly decaying into city detritus or burned to a husk flooded her mind. To protect his city he would give everything, including himself. She was not about to let that happen. Not after everything she'd been through. She was not about to lose him on the heels of saving his scraggly ass. At this point she couldn't imagine life without him.

Time slowed and she accelerated as the admission she'd been keeping buried slipped out. In the face of her fear of losing him her hang-ups ceased to matter, leaving the clear, simple truth exposed. He had waited for her, cared, supported and been unconditionally patient with her. She was not going to let that disappear because of a threat to her city, let alone her own petty issues. Nothing else mattered. She was only a novice sorcerer, but if there was anything she could do to protect or help him, she would do it. Even if it meant following him into the dark.

Sprinting around a corner, Judy opened her senses to their fullest and found a blind spot. Less than a second later, she was in the wires and searching desperately for her fox.

Elvira Swinton let herself into her condo in the Meadowlands just after six that evening. She'd had a day she couldn't describe. There weren't words to for the day she'd had. Reality had been bent back on itself and then melted around her.

Her phone chimed and she glanced at the screen.

Livvie, let me know what to pick up for dinner. I'll be at the market in fifteen minutes. If I don't hear from you, I'll wing it.

She trusted her boar to figure food out on his own and turned back to trying to find a handle on any part of her catastrophe.

She had been trounced. Viciously.

That rabbit had taken her attempt to rid the ZPD of dead weight and turned it on its head. Instead of trimming fat, she'd unearthed a titan; a tiny, grey monster that had utterly wrecked her. Morally, ethically, conceptually… The implications of what Detective Hopps had pulled off were almost incomprehensible. Rather, they had been.

The further she considered, the more Livvie Swinton, future mayor of Zootopia was convinced that the rabbit would be an incredible asset. If only she could figure out how to harness her. That brought the semi-shell-shocked porcine to consider the contents of her purse.

Within the confines of her neat little silk bag was an object Hopps had given her in parting with the instruction to play it only in private. "A personal matter" had been the rabbit's turn of phrase. Livvie opened the purse and found herself distressed at her level of apprehension. A novelty carrot pen should not have intimidated her. Yet, it did.

Five minutes later, she believed she should have been terrified, in retrospect. The entirety of the conversation was there. She'd never even suspected it. The contents of that pen were enough to end her career on accusations of abuse of power, alone.

Now, she was convinced. She had to possess Hopps and she would do whatever it took to do so. She was in deep disregard as far as the rabbit was concerned, she was sure, but that was just a starting point. She was a politician. If she couldn't win over Detective Hopps, she had no business trying to become mayor.

Confidence in her destiny restored, Livvie lifted her phone and started making calls. Undercutting the rabbit had set her at a deficit as far as the smallest ZPD officer was concerned. If she was to win her over, making amends was the first step. There were few ways she knew of to even start that process, but there were mammals she knew who could point her in the right direction.

An hour later Boris Swineley walked in on his little gilt. She was on the phone, obviously a conference call. The look on her face was one he loved. She was working on something big. He loved his little 'Porkchop' and knew she would do amazing things. Smiling quietly, he slipped into the kitchen and started cooking.

Just as Boris was finished plating the food he had prepared, he heard stirring in the next room that indicated that the call had ended. The look of satisfaction on the face of on her lovely face told him everything. Livvie was pleased with herself and, judging by the twinkle in her eyes as she looked over the meal before meeting his gaze, with him as well. He did so love when things went her way.