A/N

Took me long enough. I didn`t joke when I said that I prefer to listen to something when writing. And while I know what I want to write, finding the appropriate song takes longer then expected. This chapter is brought to you by a new finding. Thanks to youtube with its suggestions.

I also switched a bit the way I write dialogues, due to pointed out fact that text processor from a multibillion corporation still can't correctly predict what symbol I want to put where. As well as the fact that I am too lazy to recheck my stories before posting. And the fact that no one else was using that style here anyways.

So, without farther ado, look up Darkwater – Why I Bleed, and enjoy (or suffer, I don't care).

Chapter 3

"What? Knocked out just like that?" One could almost hear the slight growl in Nick's clearly surprised voice. The fox was absolutely livid underneath his mostly calm exterior he learned to present to the outside world since his early childhood. That was the age he started to show others they didn`t get to him. How to be truly emotionally detached from the outside world, presenting a snarky and constantly smirking front, was something that came much later, a second layer to his psychological armor.

A layer that was apparently melted away buy one scorching bunny with her sincere care, optimism and trust in others. And there his partner was exhibiting that kind and caring nature once more, only for it to be used and abused by some lowlifes, whose goals were so much different from those of the noble bunny sitting opposite from him. With the smallest officers on the force were Francine, Fangmayer, Wolford, McHorn, Del'Gato and Whitefang – the ones from the dayshift who were assigned to the call in about a small gang fight in the warehouse were Judy was at. Their group sat at a corner behind a round table, adapted to host a variety of differently sized mammals, chewing on whatever kind of appetizer each of the mammals preferred.

"Well… I couldn't hear a thing aside from the coyote's voice and his supposed friend's screams. But yeah. It happened, as you so equivocally put it, just like that." Judy was a bit embarrassed at how easy she got caught. She was supposed to be an experienced cop, and experienced cops didn't fall into such simple traps. Traps that were meant for five year old kits, whose parents haven't taught them not to come over with strangers no matter what said strangers proposed or claimed.

On the other hand, both as a cop and someone who dreamed of making the world a better place, she couldn`t make herself regret her decision even for a moment. That was simply in her nature, to be trusting and trying to help almost anyone if her small bunny posture could manage it.

Nick, more so than anyone else, understood this. Her idealism was something the initial idea of Zootopia was founded on. A place where everyone could find peace, understanding, acceptance and care. Predators and prey alike. Side by side, with no reservations, no bias or judgment for what they were. Free reign of their destiny to shape themselves and the city around into whatever they wished. A place where anyone can be anything. A dream and ideal that died within a young fox so long ago to be revived from the ashes by the actions and believes of his joyous partner. As such, it was Nick who always encouraged the first bunny officer of ZPD to stay that way. Since they started working together, he often joked to have enough suspicion for the both of them, and he would still be able to spare some for Bogo (though the gruff chief had his own in spades). The fox silently promised himself to shelter Judy away from the worst the world could throw at them, constantly looking out for the signs of the storm to come, while his partner was allowed the luxury of seeing the bright blue sunlit sky. For her to experience something Nick had to constantly encounter (though in others, much subtler forms) throughout his life… it left him with a feeling of a mission failed.

"Anyways, what happened – happened, and I will not be able to change it. What I will be able to do, is be more careful in the future and also finish this story if there are no more interruptions." The last part of her second sentence was directed at Francine, who opened her mouth in order to ask a question, but quickly stuffed it with her grass-fruit salad under the bunny's pointed glare. Judy made a point to slowly look around the table, to dissuade any other breaks in her story.

Her gaze held slightly on the only fox on the force, and her partner. It looked like Whitefang was trying to somehow comfort the fox, his large white paw holding Nick's shoulder as he was silently offering support. It was an interesting relationship, between the white wolf and the red fox. It wasn`t a conventional friendship that Judy enjoyed with Clawhouser or Fru-Fru, since they rarely even conversed with each other outside their line of duty. Still, the both clicked straight away, showing mutual respect and willingness to back each other up in different situations.

Judy's ears threatened to drop at her partner's distress, but she held them high. Nick was far more caring than he wanted others to know. That the outburst came from him didn`t surprise Judy. Somehow, during their partnership she found herself able to see him without his artfully crafted emotional armor. It was still as impervious as ever when the fox donned it, but he learned to trust her enough to drop it in the bunny's presence.

Nick saw her looking at him longer then was necessary, and gave her a slight twitch of his left ear to tell her to go on and that he would be fine. Through the year since Nick`s induction into the "Blues", the pair has developed their own language to communicate in different situations, loosely based on what her fox has picked up while preparing to be a junior scout (or so he told). In return, the bunny twitched her left ear to the side and finished her round of intimidating others into silence.

"Apparently, I wasn`t out for very long. The first thing to register when I regained consciousness was the eerie silence and pitch black darkness..."

A/N

Next chapter should be out faster, cause the next song is already found and awaits when I will translate it into this story. No promises though.