-Nick & Judy-
-Apartment-
Judy nervously looked up at the two unexpected visitors at her front door. "How do you know where I live?" Judy questioned the two individuals, who were Agent Sparks, and his quiet colorful partner Agent Carter.
"May we come in?" Sparks asked, getting a firm stare from Judy. "C'mon; its the least you could do, I sent you the information as you requested." He said in his professional tone.
"It doesn't give you a reason to come to my apartment unannounced." Judy replied, crossing her arms, making sure to block as much of the door's frame as possible. "Maybe if you explain to me why you came over, and how in the world did you find out where I live."
Agent Spark sighed, and began to answer her questions. "First of all, I simply came to talk, maybe ask you a few questions. Second, we're the FBI; it wasn't really that complicated looking for you, and your 'mate'." Spark said, putting emphasis on the word "mate".
"Is there a problem?" Judy said, noticing the way Spark said "mate".
"There's no problem at all, I just find your relationship rather... Taboo." Spark replied.
Judy made a inaudible growl, she didn't trust these mammals one bit, yet she knew keeping them out would only create suspicion, and the last thing wanted was a bunch agents kicking down her door, and her losing Max.
"If I let you in, you must promise to never show up to my apartment unannounced." Judy said.
"Deal." Spark responded, making a slight smirk.
Judy moved herself to the side to allow the two agents inside. Of course, Sparks didn't hesitate to enter the mid-class apartment, while his associate followed close behind.
"Lovly place you have here Officer Hopps." Spark said, glancing at every square inch of the apartment.
"Dont touch anything." Judy warned.
Spark pretended like he didn't hear Judy's warning, and continued inspecting the apartment.
Spark took a quick sniff of the air. "Had any visitors lately besides the fox? Like any lupine visitors?" Spark asked.
Judy grew nervous at the question. "No, must be next door." Judy managed to respond calmly.
Spark acknowledged her response with a nod, as he took another quick sniff. "This scent smells rather familiar, like I've smelt this scent before." Spark said.
"Must be a coincidence." Judy replied.
"Humph, I guess you're right." Spark said, after finding no logical explanation for the scent.
Nick suddenly walked in. "Hey Judy, who's her-" Nick was locked in a gaze with Agent Spark. "Oh-"
"Hello Officer Wilde, sorry for the unexpected intrusion, I hope we didn't cause you both any trouble." Spark apologized.
"No worries, why don't you both come have a seat at the kitchen table?" Nick offered.
Sparks glanced over at his partner, Carter, who shrugged in response. "We'll be happy to have a seat. Spark replied to Nick, who led them to the only kitchen table in the apartment.
Spark noticed that a Monopoly board had been set up for two, he had assumed Nick and Judy were playing before he and Carter showed up. "I see you two were busy." Spark said, sitting down where Max was previously sitting.
"We're big fans of the game." Judy lied, remembering all those time Nick had beaten her.
Both the agents pulled out brown wooden chairs next to each other, and gently sat down on them. Spark chuckled. "I'm quite the fan myself." Spark said, as he reached for a silver looking tiny car lying just in front of him.
Nick gulped, as Spark examined the tiny metal token; it had been the one Max had been holding, he prayed Spark wouldn't pick up his scent.
"I've always liked using the car, sometimes when I was younger, I'd pretend I was actually driving it around the board." Spark suddenly said, catching Nick and Judy by surprise. "I would mimic an actual car engine." Spark added. "Time really does fly when you're having fun." Spark gently placed the car back onto the table after he had finished talking.
Nick and Judy were speechless, they never expected someone with Spark's stature to publicly express childhood memories.
Spark cleared his throat. "Sorry, I got a little carried away."
Judy was the first to respond to Spark. "It's fine; it happens to the best of us."
Spark scoffed. "Sadly; it's a trait I have the burden of carrying."
Judy became curious of Spark's response, but she knew asking would be obviously rude and the last thing she wanted was to invade his personal privacy, yet curiosity lingered in her head, mocking her.
"Alright, enough with the distractions, I came over to ask you a few questions that would hopefully help us with the capture of our little John Doe." Spark said, pulling out a mechanical pen, and notebook from inside his suit.
"I thought we were supposed to apprehend the pup." Judy said.
"Well, due to recent developments in the bureau, my boss has ordered me to become directly involved. In other words, you'll be seeing me and my partner more often." Spark replied, as he pressed down the pen causing a "click" to sound, as the inky tip emerged from the tip of the pen. "Please answer all the questions as follows..."
Both Nick and Judy readied themselves for the questions Sparks was about to tell them, and both planned to answer with false information to hopefully throw them off, and buy them some more time to solve the case that would somehow favor both the FBI and Max.
"Oh, and before we begin, I would like to inform you that lying isnt tolerated, and if any evidence were to surface revealing your following statements as false will lead to the termination of your current status in this case, as well as your jobs. Also, I'm ordered to terminate both of you from this case if I find that your responses aren't in any case useful to me, or the bureau. Do I make myself clear?" Spark said, catching Nick and Judy off guard.
"Uh, y-yeah!" Nick replied.
"Like we'll ever lie to you guys." Judy replied, faking a laugh.
Spark gave Judy a squinted glare through his sunglasses, before looking down at his notebook, pen at paw. "First question, have any of you encountered the pup in last 48 hours and if so, were?" Spark said, pen touching the notebook.
Nick and Judy secretly glanced over at each other, they had no choice to respond to the question truthfully, or they would lose the case; although, they had the opportunity to slip in some false information for Max's whereabouts.
"Yes, we were fortunate enough to stumble across the him, yet he slipped through our fingers." Judy said, while Spark glared down, and wrote something down in his notebook.
"And where exactly did you spot him?" Spark asked, glaring up only with his eyes.
"If I remember correctly Trip Street, but just to be on the safe side, I'd expand your search to Hill Street.
Spark looked back down at his notebook, and once again wrote down something.
"Alright, next question..."
Max was shrouded in darkness, he could hear the faint sounds of a conversation be carried out from the kitchen, or somewhere close by. He had been dragged into the restroom by Nick, and hidden inside the worst place possible... A bathtub, and left alone without any lights, or explanation. He was told that he needed to stay extra extra quiet, and to stay inside the bathroom, and if he did Nick would take him out for ice cream.
After a few minutes of standing in darkness, Max grew extremely impatient, and was itching to take a peek outside the bathroom door, which he did. Max carefully rolled back a white certain, and stepped out almost tripping as he did so, he was now going against direct orders, and was possibly facing a court-martial, but he desperately wanted to quench his boredom.
Max tip-toed over to the bathroom door. Once there, he reached for the doorknob, and carefully twisted it, until he was able to quietly open the door. Once the door had been opened, he let go of the door knob, and stuck his nose outside first, taking a quick sniff of the air, catching the scent of two other mammals, before sticking his entire head out to take a look.
"I think we're just about finished..."
Max turned his head towards the dining room, and was able to get a good view of the dining table. He could clearly see two suited individuals sitting with their backs turned towards him with Nick and Judy sitting just across from them.
Nick quickly glanced over to the bathroom's general direction, and back up to the agents, before quickly glancing back towards the bathroom when he spotted Max's head peeping over towards the table. Max smiled at Nick, who in return made a face expression that read "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"
"Is there something wrong Officer Wilde?" Spark asked.
Nick dropped his expression, and looked over to Spark. "No, nothing at all." Nick said, laughing nervously.
Max's happy expression suddenly dropped too after Spark had spoken... He knew that voice, and it wasn't a pleasant one. Max was suddenly hit with a flashback, which appeared to have Spark standing at the end of an alleyway calling out to him, while he scavenged for food and water, and identifying himself as, "No-one but your only friend."
Spark raised an eyebrow after Nick's response. "Well, I think my job here is done here... Sorry to ask, but may I use your restroom?" Spark asked, closing his notebook, and placing it inside his suit.
Both Nick and Judy responded with different answers with Nick replying, "No!" and Judy replying, "Of course."
Everyone glanced over to Nick, who faked a coughed. "Sorry, I meant to say yes."
"Uh, thanks." Spark replied, standing up from his chair. Nick looked over towards the restroom, and saw that Max was no longer peeping out, and that door to the bathroom had been closed.
Max quickly hopped into the bathtub, and was barely able to close the curtains before Spark entered the bathroom. Spark flipped on the lights, which blinded the pup, since his eyes had adapted to the darkness, and locked the bathroom door. He let out a big sigh, before he began talking to himself. "Goddammit Sparky! Why do you keep saying your damn memories out loud!" Spark smacked himself on the head. "Ugh, time to call my least favorite person, Mr. Loudmouth."
Max covered his muzzle to help muffle his breathing, as he listened in on Spark, who dug into his pocket, pulling out a smartphone in the process, before dialing a phone number. After a few seconds of ringing someone answered him. "Sir, its Sparks..." Spark leaned against the bathroom sink, and placed a paw over his forehead, while he kept the phone up to his ear with his other. "Have I done what you've told me? Yes, I did... No, I decided to let them keep it... Sir... Sir, there's no need to swear... Sir... Sir, you told me to decide... No, there aren't any metal rods here..." Spark sighed once more. "Look, if you're really that pissed about this, we'll talk once I get back to the office... Okay, bye."
Spark placed his phone back into his pocket and ran both his paws over the top of his head in frustration, as he turned to face the bathroom faucet.
Max slowly pulled back the white curtain, and peeped outside the bathtub to catch Spark in the process of removing his sunglasses, and turning on the faucet, hunching foward so he could splash water on his face. Max noticed how Spark kept his eyes shut when he removed his sunglasses, even when he searched for a towel to dry off his soaked face, which he found rather strange and unusual.
Spark placed his sunglasses back on over his eyes, and looked up at the mirror. "I could really use a drink right about now." He said to himself, as he flushed the toilet to make it seem like he had actually used it, before exiting the bathroom, turning off the lights and closing the door behind him.
The husky walked over to the table to catch Carter starring at the two Officers with a cold blank emotionless expression, getting uncomfortable stares back from them.
Spark tapped Carter on the back. "Stop scaring our friends Carter." Spark said, which caused a slight smirk to from to form on the side of Carter's mouth. "Well, we'll be on our way then. Thanks once again for letting me borrow your bathroom." Spark said, walking himself towards the front door, followed closely by Carter.
Judy ran ahead of the two agents, and opened the door for them. "It was a pleasure." Judy said.
"I'll be seeing you both on the field... Keep up the good work." Spark said, stepping outside the apartment.
Just before Judy could close the door the apartment, Spark stopped her by blocking the door with a paw. "Oh, and have a good day." Spark smiled dropping his paw, and walking away with Carter.
Judy quickly closed the door, and took in a sigh of relief. "I though they've never leave!" Judy smiled. She noticed that Nick ran off towards the bathroom. "Nick?" Judy called out.
Nick opened the bathroom door, and turned on the lights. He threw the curtains open, and was relieved to see Max standing there looking up at him with a concerned expression.
"Are they gone?" Max whispered to Nick.
"Yes, they are." Nick smiled.
Max's expression quickly changed to that of glee, as he hopped out of the bathtub and wrapped his arms around the red fox. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you!" Max apologized.
Nick patted Max's head. "It's okay, just please promise me you won't do that again."
Max looked up at Nick, and rapidly nodded his head in confirmation. "I promise, I will never EVER do that again." Max said.
"Thank you Max." Nick smiled.
Max looked up at Nick once again. "Can we still go get ice cream?" He asked. Nick sort of hesitated, but Max began making pup eyes, as he eyes widened, and he lowered his ears. Nick couldn't help himself but respond with a, "Yes."
"Alright!" Max cheered.
"Aww, look at you Nick, you're a natural at being a dad." Came Judy's voice.
Nick turned his head to see Judy leaning against the doorframe leading into the bathroom.
"Don't ever say that again." Nick warned.
"What? That you're a natural father?" Judy playful responded.
"You're lucky I've got my paws full." Nick chuckled, as he tried to pry Max off of him.
"I should consider myself lucky then." Judy replied, walking over to her two most important predators in the world.
"We need to discuss how we're gonna play this out Judy. Today was too close of a call." Nick said in seriousness.
Judy sighed. "I know, and now our jobs are on the line."
Max interrupted the couple by calling out Nick. "Nick, can we still play Monopoly?" He asked, hoping to get a positive response.
Nick shifted his attention to Max, and nodded his head. "Sure, I'll be over in a second."
"Okay!" Max let go of Nick and ran out of the bathroom, leaving the two Officer alone.
"I we'll discuss after a game of Monopoly." Nick said.
"Nah, its best that we wait until night when Max is asleep." Judy replied. There was a minute of silence between the two, until Nick decided to break the ice.
"How about you play a game of Monopoly with?" Nick suggested.
Judy shook her head. "No, I'll just end up losing to you again."
Nick rolled his eyes. "C'mon, it'll be fun! I promise I won't cheat, AND I promise to cook dinner for the week if you win. So, what do you say?" Nick said extending a paw towards Judy.
Judy placed her paws on her hips, and thought for a minute, before shrugging.
"You're on!" Judy said reaching for Nick's paw, shaking it.
Well! There's another chapter for ya! Sorry for the late Easter gift, I hope y'all don't hang me upside down for this.
Please leave behind some constructive criticism if you have the spare time! I need to feed off y'alls criticism, I'm starving!
Check back soon for any new chapters! Have a fantastic day, and happy late Easter!