Nick sat outside the operating room for the third time in the past 18 hours. He rubbed his face and sighed; hating himself for letting this happen to Judy. He looked around and noticed Judy's parents at the end of the hallway; waving them over as he stood up.
"So you must be her partner Nick Wilde." Mr. Hopps replied as they reached him.
"Yes sir." Nick replied.
"Is she alright?" Judy's mom asked him.
"This is the third surgery Mrs. Hopps." Nick replied. "The doctors have said that they should be able to remove the bullet fragments now that they have stopped all of the major bleeding."
Nick had to look away as he spook because he couldn't bear to see the looks of grief on the faces of Judy's parents.
"I should've been there…" Nick muttered.
"Sweetie, you don't know if you would've been able to help…" Mrs. Hopps told him.
"I would've been able to keep her from having to be in there alone." Nick replied.
"Then what?" Mr. Hopps asked him. "You both would probably be in the operation room."
"Then she wouldn't have had to fight that rhino by herself." Nick said to him. "If only we hadn't split up, then we would've had each other's back and maybe she would've been alright."
"You were doing what you thought was right." Mrs. Hopps replied.
"But it wasn't the best thing to do." Nickk replied somberly.
Mrs. Hopps got on her tiptoes as much as she could and took Nick's face in her paws as she looked him straight in his eyes.
"Now listen here Nick, from all that Judy has told us about you, there is one thing she never said that you were." Mrs. Hopps told him. "She never said you were a quiter, and I know she wouldn't want you to beat yourself up over this."
"I'm her partner, I'm supposed to have her back." Nick responded.
"She knew what she was getting herself into Nick, and she took each day by stride." Mr. Hopps told him. "Let me ask you something, if you were working through this case with Judy what would she do?"
Nick's eyes widened slightly and he nodded.
"She would most likely note that rhino's have their brute strength that is about it so there would have to be someone behind the scenes; telling them exactly what to do." Nick muttered to himself.
He hugged Mrs. Hopps gently and shook Mr. Hopps paw before running down the hallway.
"Nick, where are you going?" Mrs. Hopps yelled after him.
"I just thought of a lead that I could look at." Nick replied as he turned around.
"What should we tell Judy if you're not back by the time she wakes up?" Mr. Hopps asked him.
"Tell her that I'm doing exactly what she would be doing if it our positions were switched." Nick replied before he ran out of the hospital.
Nick and Clawhauser walked toward the bank and Nick looked around for any cameras.
"So what are we looking for Nick?" Clawhauser asked him.
"Cameras." Nick replied.
"How would they help us?" Clawhauser asked him again.
"If we can get the license plate from the car or if the car robbers were dropped off in had any distinguishing characteristics; then we could lessen the number of possibilities of cars it had to be." Nick told him. "With that information we could find the owner of the vechicle."
Clawhauser nodded and started to look around as well.
"Ben?" Nick asked him.
"Yeah Nick?" Clawhauser asked him.
"If anything ever happens to where I can't be there; I need you to protect Judy." Nick told him.
"Nick, what are you talking about?" Clawhauser asked him.
"Whoever did this could be the guy targeting all the smaller mammals, so he may go after Judy again." Nick replied. "I'm not going to let him get away with this; he will pay."
Clawhauser backed up slightly before he spoke. "Nick don't do anything you would regret."
"Ben, I can't look at Judy now without hating myself…" Nick told him.
"Nick, she wouldn't want you do what you're thinking." Clawhauser replied.
"She is in the damn hospital because of me Ben." Nick growled.
"But she cares about you Nick; she wouldn't want you to get hurt." Clawhauser told him.
Nick sighed and leaned against the wall behind him.
"Look, Nick, Judy really does care about you." Clawhauser told him. "She told me not to tell you this but she does seriously care about you."
Nick sighed and placed a paw over his left shirt pocket. Clawhauser watched as Nick pulled a picture out of his pocket. Clawhauser looked and saw that it was the picture of Judy on Nick's graduation day from the Academy.
"She was the first person to show me that I could something other than a sly, untrusting fox." Nick muttered.
"You care about her a lot more than you let on." Clawhauser replied.
"We would never work out." Nick retorted.
"You never know that Nick." Clawhauser fought back.
"I'm a fox and she's a rabbit." Nick replied.
"You are both the first of your species to have become cops, some of the best cops at that." Clawhauser replied.
"Your point being?" Nick asked him.
"You both knocked down some barriers with what you two have done so far." Clawhauser replied. "You shouldn't let it stop you now."
"I just can't." Nick muttered, putting the picture back into the pocket.
"Why?" Clawhauser asked him.
"I don't want to hurt her!" Nick growled.
Clawhauser just looked at Nick as he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye.
"Nick, some people just went into the side of the bank." Clawhauser told him.
"Stay here." Nick replied before sprint towards the bank.
"NICK!" Clawhauser yelled.
Nick snuck into the side of bank and slowly followed the figures throughout the halls. When they stopped Nick crouched down low in the shadows praying that they didn't see him.
"So what is the plan?" One of the three figures started.
"Well the rhinos did a good job taking the attention off of us so that we could get in." The second said.
"Jaquece, Walker, shut it." The biggest figure growled.
"Yes boss." Jaquece replied. "So what's the plan?"
"Well, our original plan was to just crack open the vault and retrieve our money but with all this cops around that may be a little difficult." The boss told them.
"Why don't we just use the cop who has been eased dropping as a hostage so that we can get away?" Walker asked the boss.
Nick cursed and rolled out of the way as Walker trudged towards him. As he got into the light he finally noticed that the three burglars consisted of a tiger; who was the boss, and two henchmen lions. He jumped out of the way as the other lion leapt at him. He barely dodged out of the way but then the tiger grabbed him by the throat and picked him up.
He gestured to the two lions. "You two get the door open."
They nodded as they rolled out two propane tanks and started to burn away at the locking mechanism on the vault. Nick struggled and tried to get out of the tiger's grasp but the tiger cracked him across the jaw with a fist. Nick felt his vision blur and he slumped for a second before pushing his feet into the ground and slamming the top of his head into the tiger's jaw. The tiger just cracked him across the jaw two more times and Nick tasted a little blood in his mouth. Nick watched in disgust as the two lions got the vault door open slowly.
"So what do you idiots plan to do once you have the money packed away; by that time the police would have already surrounded the place." Nick growled. "You won't get out of here alive."
"Oh, is that so?" The tiger asked him.
One of the lions slammed the stock of their rifle into Nick's stomach and the tiger let him go so he dropped to the ground coughing up blood.
The tiger walked to where he was in front of Nick and used a foot to slam Nick's head into the ground. Nick scratched at the ground as he scratched at the ground, trying to get a hand on something to use as a weapon. Where did he put his gun? One of the lions stomp on one of his hands and Nick felt several bones snap and he cried out in pain.
"Walker, we need him alive and conscious." The tiger roared as Jaquece carried out the last bag of money.
The tiger pulled Nick to his feet and shoved him forward; when Nick spun around and tried to swing at the tiger he was greeted by a pistol whip to the jaw which sent him sprawling back to the floor. One of the lions pulled him back to his feet and the tiger got in his face.
"Try that again and you will die." The tiger growled. "Now be a good hostage and lead the way."
Judy flashed through Nick's mind and he only turned around and stumbled forward.
Judy woke up slightly in a hospital bed and saw her parents sitting beside her.
"What happened? Where's Nick?" Judy asked them as she tried to sit up.
"Judy, please lay still." Her mom told her.
"Where's Nick?" Judy asked them again.
"He went to follow a lead about the bank robbery." Her father replied.
"On his own?" Judy asked.
As her mom nodded Judy grabbed the t.v. remote and turned on the news station; what she saw made her drop the remote. Nick was being shoved out the front door of the bank in the Rainforest District and his face was a bit swollen as a tiger and two lions followed behind him. She saw that the tiger had a gun pressed against Nick's back and the cops didn't even move as the thieves walked down an alleyway; taking Nick with them. Judy only felt the tears pouring down her face as her mother hugged her. They had gotten away; with Nick; with her partner. How could this have happened?