Chapter 4 - Coffee for Couples
The large cape buffalo sauntered through the halls of the modern police station carrying a small bundle of files. His sharp, clean uniform was freshly pressed and as stiff as it's owner's temperament. Four stars gleamed on each side of his collar as he passed under the bright ceiling lights. A large brass badge slightly tarnished with age, rode proudly on his chest opposite a tag that read 'Chief Bogo' in a staunch and solid font.
A plump hippo stepped aside and crisply saluted as he passed, "Chief!"
Shuffling his files to the other arm, he returned the salute with his own brusk one, "Sergeant!" He then turned and entered a wide doorway into a large, open room filled with several desks and temporary room dividers. Only a few of the desks had officers sitting at them, studiously filing their own casework. It was to one of these desks where the dark furred buffalo was headed.
He immediately knew something was amiss when he heard the chipper voice of his dispatch officer yelling through the phone speakers near his destination.
"Hopps! Hopps!" Clawhauser cried over the phone!
His newest recruit, a small, red fox with a quick mind for detail and an endless propensity to annoy him, was seated at the desk, "She is fine Clawhauser. Thanks again for all the help. Oh, and can you remind Snarlov and Fangmeyer we still want to get prints off the gun." He hit the button on the phone, disabling the speaker before the cheetah could reply.
"Wilde!" Bogo said to the todd with as much spurious distaste as he could bring to bear. He really did like the diminutive officer and thought he might make a great detective someday, if only the fox would lose his sly, shifty and annoying attitude.
"Chief!" Nick looked up in surprise and almost jumped out of his chair, but caught himself at the last second, smoothed his ruffled fur and pretended like nothing had ever happened.
The buffalo smiled very slightly, only too happy to finally have a chance to vex the irritating fox. "What was that about?" he asked. The tall bull looked around for Nick's happy go lucky partner and not seeing her he asked in a louder, firmer tone, "Where is Officer Hopps?"
With a sly smirk, the uniformed fox turned around and looked down at the floor gesturing to a small, grey form behind him. At his toes lay a grey rabbit wearing a tight fitting blue jumpsuit and a standard issue, protective vest. She rolled back and forth on her back holding her paws to her face and mumbled or possibly chanted something incomprehensible to the large buffalo.
"Not a toy! Not a toy," he thought he heard coming from his smallest officer.
"Officer Hopps!" The sound of his great voice shook the room and rattled the windows in their frames.
Suddenly, a pair of amethyst eyes opened and the bunny was immediately on her feet with her arm up and holding an ideal, regulation salute. "Yes Sir!" she cried with the memory of all those surprise inspections from the academy still fresh in her mind. Judy Hopps stood ramrod straight and still as a statue, like the miniature image of what a perfect officer should be.
"Report, Officer Hopps!"
"Um, Sir?" she asked, still puzzled from her momentary breakdown.
"How is the robbery case going, Hopps?" the chief asked the rabbit curiously.
"Oh, yes! We're wrapping it up now. We reviewed the security footage and have found the weapon."
"That's great Hopps. I look forward to having your report on my desk as soon as you're finished with it." The buffalo's standard frown lessened slightly.
"Thanks, but sir there is a problem." Judy's ears drooped.
"What's the problem then?"
"The weapon sir. It was only a toy. A squirtgun actually!" she blurted out to the chief, sounding almost ashamed.
"So." Bogo replied.
"But now we have to drop the 'armed robbery' charges."
"No!" Stated the huge officer flatly. "Did it look like a real weapon Officer? Then in the eyes of the law, it was a real weapon." He continued to glare at the puzzled rabbit. "Let the courts decide what to do with it, that's their job, and it's our job to make the arrests and find the evidence. Not to decide who is innocent and who is guilty or who goes to prison and who goes free. Just keep serving and protecting like you always have."
"Thank you sir, I will try to remember that." said the bunny, with a little of her usual pep returned to her voice.
"Good!" he said as he turned and started to walk out of the room but stopped for a second in thoughtful contemplation. "Why don't you take your partner and go check out that address the perp gave you. I will authorize a regular stake out only for that location. Do not attempt to enter the premises under any circumstances. Do you understand me?" Both small officers nodded fervently. "I don't want any more exploded drug labs to deal with! Just find out if anyone is there, take some pictures and bring me some solid evidence. Then we will think about getting a search and seizure warrant. No heroics this time!".
"Yes Sir!" They both saluted simultaneously.
"Oh, and Hopps," the buffalo said slowly walking away.
"Sir?" she asked.
"Congratulations on writing all of those citations today. I think you may have broken a record for the most speeding tickets in one day, and before noon!" He then turned the corner and disappeared down the hall.
Nick stood there with his jaws wide open while Judy giggled at him. "Wait! Did I hear that right, did Chief Buffalo-butt just compliment you for breaking a record? That's a first, if I ever saw one."
"He is not really as tough as he looks sometimes." she assured him.
Later that afternoon, as the sun had barely begun to cast shadows on the streets of the city, Judy drove her cruiser down the main avenue. The streets were calm with only a few cars passing by, like the entire city was holding it's breath before the heavy traffic rush that would surely come at any moment.
Passing through an empty intersection Judy looked up to spot a couple of curious sticks tied and mounted to the roof of one the buildings on her right. The whole contraption looked like a crude campfire spit, like the ones her family used to use for roasting vegetables in the fall.
"Hey Nick!" She pointed up to the roof mounted rack, "isn't that where you used to melt Jumbo Pops?"
"Still is," the fox replied with an offhanded wave of his paw.
"What?" the rabbit roared slamming her fluffy toes down hard on the brake pedal, nearly bringing the car to a stop. The body of the red fox was propelled into the dash board with a loud thud. "I thought you gave up the pawpsicle trade when you joined the academy." The heartache altogether apparent in her sad, crystal-like eyes.
"Ouch! That hurt Carrots!" Nick grunted as he peeled himself off the hard, black dashboard.
"We talked about this Nick! You can't keep up your usual street hustling as a member of the ZPD. You have to stop!"
"I'm not. I mean I have. Stopped that is."
"Then please explain to me what you mean saying that rack up there is still melting Jumbo Pops?" she questioned the fox, her eyes hard and the nose twitching scrupulously.
"It's nothing." he said, trying to cover the mistake with his typical emotionless mask.
"Yeah, right! I don't believe that for one second. You're hiding something, Slick. Spill it, or so help me I am turning this car around and we are going back to explain it to the Chief!"
"Alright Carrots! No need to get violent," Nick said as he let out a big sigh and paused to collect his thoughts. "I thought Finnick might still be using it, or one of the others."
"Others?" her hard expression turning soft and curious.
"Oh, right, I forgot to mention, I heard Finnick got himself a new partner."
"Well, good for him."
"Yeah, and a grey vixen at that. Her name is Carla, I think. Their coloring matches so he looks more like her kit than he ever did with me."
"That's very cool! Oh, and that reminds me, you've never told me how you and him met. I would just love to hear that story."
"Yeah, not much to tell, and it's not very exciting, Fluff."
"You may as well get started. We're probably going to have a long wait staking out this place. So you can tell me all about it." she said with a sweet smirk, her small pink nose almost touching his big black one.
"Look out Hopps!" Nick screamed in fear, suddenly grabbing the wheel and pulling hard causing the cruiser to jump up onto the curb at the side of the road. A tall yellow and brown spotted Zooyota Zebrus narrowly missed scraping Judy's side of the cruiser as she carefully brought the car safely to a stop. The Zebrus continued down the road behind them, swerving back and forth between both sides of the street.
Judy quickly flipped her car around to speed after the out of control vehicle while her foxy partner activated the siren and flashers, then called it in to the dispatch. "Officer Wilde and Hopps in pursuit of an out of control Zebrus heading north on Hammington Drive, possible DWI, over."
"Roger that, Wilde, Hopps," came back the voice of the dispatch officer over the radio, "Do you need assistance?"
"No, I think we can handle one drunk driver, dispatch. We'll keep you advised if the situation escalates," replied the fox as he hung the mic back on it's clip next to the radio.
The giraffe sized car was traveling well under the speed limit but was obviously out of control as it kept crossing over the center line like a wobbly child riding a bicycle for the first time. With a loud screech of tires, honking horns, and yelled curses from the other drivers it ran through a red light and continued up a small incline.
Luckily the wild car had yet to hit anyone, or anything as Judy followed closely behind. The other drivers were careful enough to avoid such a large, slow-moving vehicle and the sirens helped to alert everyone to the oncoming trouble. Several pedestrians even had second thoughts before entering the crosswalk.
After sliding through the next intersection, the driver seem to suddenly notice the police car behind him, like he was waking from a daze, and finally pulled over to the curb.
Judy parked directly behind the giraffe's car, turned off the siren and ran the the plates. Once she determined the car wasn't stolen and checked the current owner's record, she climbed out and approached the driver's side door cautiously, right paw on her weapon.
When she arrived at the car door, a long neck stuck through the window and looked down at the small rabbit. "Hello officer, can I help you?" the giraffe said sluggishly before he started sneezing.
"Yes! Can you explain the reason for your reckless driving?" Judy nearly had to yell up at the driver in order to be heard.
"I am so sorry officer, I don't really know what happened."
"You were swerving all over the road, ran through two red lights, nearly hit me and several other cars, and almost ran over numerous pedestrians! I would love to hear your reasons sir!" she said with utter contempt.
The giraffe sneezed again before giving the diminutive officer his explanation. "You see officer, I've had this cold all day, so I took some extra decongestants at work before the boss sent me home to get some rest. They make me sleepy you know, the pills. I think I might have accidentally dozed off. I am really very sorry sir, um ma'am." His voice was thick and dopey, he was obviously too dosed to drive safely.
"I am going to need to see your license, proof of insurance, and registration, sir."
It took several moments for the larger mammal to collect his papers and hand them over to the tiny rabbit.
Taking the large pieces of paper, Judy looked back at the driver with concern on her face, "Please shut off the engine and wait here for us to figure out what we're going to do with you."
Stuttering, the giraffe asked with a bit of fear in his voice, "Wh-what are you going to do with me?"
"Well if everything checks out, we will probably just call a Zuber to come pick you up. For now please sit tight and wait for me to process these papers."
"Uh, thank you officer I really hope we can work this out," he said as she turned and walked back to her car.
Back in the police cruiser, Judy was entering all of the giraffe's information into the computer while Nick asked her curiously, "So what was all that about?"
"Definitely a DUI. He claims that cold meds made him sleepy, but, I am not entirely sure. He would have had to have downed the entire box to put him out like that."
"He could have been up all night and had a rough day at work too." replied the fox.
"Yeah, but I don't know. Well, he checks out. All clean!" She said as the computer pulled up the giraffe's records; name: Jeremy Flanner / age: 35 / no recent arrests or warrants. "Can you hush for a bit while I fill out these tickets?"
"Sure thing, anything for you, Fluff. I will just check furbook for any good horror flicks. I want to have something good for movie night this week."
A bright smile filled her big, bunny eyes. She didn't want him to know that she always looked forward to movie nights with the fox, so she kept her eyes focused on filling out the paperwork.
The driver of the tall, yellow Zebrus was too quiet when she returned with the fully filled out citations.
As she approached cautiously, she saw the giraffe's long neck sticking out the driver side window and his head was tilted back. She also thought she could hear the sound of snoring. Looking up there was a long red streak down the side of the door. "Was that there last time?" she thought.
"Sir!" She called up to the driver. "Mr Flanner! Wake up Mr Flanner!" She tried shaking the car to no avail.
It was then that something fell from above, leaving another red streak on the side of the yellow car. The driver's nose was bleeding, and it started coming down like rain.
Judy ran back to her cruiser, yelling fiercely at her partner, "Nick! Call the medics STAT! We have a possible OD, and tell them to bring a bus for large mammals." She then returned to the other car to try and wake the sleeping and bleeding driver.
Several minutes passed before the paramedics arrived and hauled the sleeping giraffe out of his car. They checked his vitals and loaded him into the back of the ambulance for further care. A tall female camel spoke with the two tiny officers, "His vitals seem stable. Although there appear to be high amount of drugs in his system, it also doesn't seem to be an overdose per se'. There was this small bag of pills in his right, front pocket that we thought you should know about. They look like your typical street drugs."
Judy took the plastic pouch and marked it as evidence, then let the camel continue, "We're not entirely sure yet why he is bleeding or won't wake up but will get him to Zootopia General and have the doctors there look at him." She climbed back into the ambulance before the medics rushed the patient off to the hospital.
The tow truck arrived shortly after the ambulance left, and hauled the large vehicle away to some impound lot on the other side of town that the poor driver was going to have to spend hours and hours in a cab searching for before they manage to find it, and costing him hundreds in fees.
Judy shook her head and climbed back into the cruiser and turned to Nick. "Hey, did you find any good movies?"
"Absolutely, Carrots. I found the perfect one, but it's a surprise so don't ask," he said pretending to hide the evil smirk on his muzzle.
"Oh, alright…" Judy said turning the cruiser around to head back the way they were going before they almost got hit. "Let's see if we can find the address where Mr. Longtooth said he was getting his drugs."
"I have never been a fan of long stakeouts, so hopefully we can make this quick."
"The scruffy wolf also said the dealer, this so called 'Doc' was a mountain goat who always wore a brown business suit under his lab coat."
"We here in the city call them an Ibex!" Nick said, mimicking an upper class, snooty tone.
Judy giggled warmly at this, "Ok, ok. He's an Ibex then. Don't they usually have huge horns that look sort of like a crescent moon?"
"Yep! That's them, Fluff! And they always have such a snobbish attitude, it always sets my ears on edge whenever I get around one."
"Are they all rich?" the rabbit asked curiously.
"Naw, they just act so high and mighty all the time, like they are always looking down at you from a marble pedestal." Nick said, with more than a little resentment.
Several minutes later, they were nearing the south end of Savanna Central, close to the edge of the Sahara district. The air was always hot and dry here with little sand flurries blowing through the streets.
"We should be getting close to the spot now." Nick pointed out at the same time Judy's phone rang.
She pulled over in front of an old abandoned tailor shop to answer the call, since she recognized the Chief's ring tone. "What is it Chief?" she said putting him on speaker.
"Hopps!" the Chief bellowed through the phone.
"Yes sir!" she exclaimed.
"Officer Hopps. You and Wilde need to get over to the Zootopia General Hospital immediately."
"Ok, Chief, but we just arrived at the stakeout location. Can't this wait?" the rabbit said pleading with her boss.
"No, Hopps! They called here looking for you two and said it was very urgent that you get to the hospital as soon as mammally possible! All they would tell me is there is some kind of emergency, regarding the giraffe they brought in an hour ago. Oh, and they also said not to touch anyone either."
"What is going on Chief?" Nick leaned over and spoke loudly into Judy's phone.
"I don't have any details, Wilde. Take those annoying questions to the Hospital and ask the doctors there!" The buffalo's voice continued to get louder to the fox's painful surprise.
"Yes Chief! We're on our way!" the bunny exclaimed as she turned the cruiser around and once again, headed north up Hammington Drive.
"Oh, and Hopps... Ask for a Dr. Mapleburg when you get there." Bogo said and ended the call abruptly.
When they arrived at the hospital, they were ushered into one of the smaller examination rooms right off of the main ER and told that Dr. Mapleburg would be with them shortly. Several minutes passed with Judy reading one of the convenient magazines laying on a nearby table, and Nick played with his phone.
The doctor eventually arrived. He was a medium sized honey badger, wearing scrubs, latex gloves and a mask. Entering the room he lowered the medical mask and exclaimed, "Oh good you are here. We're going to need to give you both a shot of antibiotics, but first I should probably explain the situation."
"What is going on doctor?" the bunny asked with a slight hint of fear in her voice.
"The giraffe you pulled over this afternoon, uhm, uh, Mr Jeremy Flanner, is sick, very sick. And it's not just your everyday cold either. We ran his blood work and it came back literally swarming with a virus I have never seen before, and we have no idea what it is doing to him." As the doctor continued to speak, a look of sheer horror slowly crossed Judy's face until she looked like she was in a walking dead movie. "I do need to ask if either of you came into physical contact with Mr Flanner, or touched any fluids from him. I heard he had a bloody nose when they brought him in, so I need to know if you touched any of it."
"He was sneezing a lot when I questioned him, and I also touched his driver's license and other papers when I wrote up his traffic tickets." the small rabbit explained softly.
"Did he actually sneeze on you, Officer Hopps?" the badger asked, almost pleadingly.
"I… I don't think so," Judy stuttered, her hands beginning to shake while Nick remained calmly standing in a corner, yet it was obvious he was trying to stay as far away from this doctor as he could.
"Please stay calm ma'am. We don't know how contagious these little buggers are so as a precaution, we would like to give the two of you some antibiotics… just as a precaution." A male hyena, dressed as a nurse, walked in carrying two clipboards and handed one to each of the officers. "We will of course, need you to fill out these forms first, and please make sure to list any allergies to antibiotics you may have. And then on the back, could you list everyone you came into contact with between now and when you pulled over Mr. Flanner?"
"Only the tow truck driver and maybe the paramedics who came to pick up the giraffe."
"We'll need to contact him as well, so if you could list his information, that would be most helpful. Now, I will return once you have those forms filled out and then we will see about getting the two of you back out on those streets." the badger said cheerfully, and literally skipped out of the small room.
Once the paperwork was done, the badger eventually returned with two syringes containing a clear liquid. "Now, I am going to need to inject this into your arms, so please roll up those sleeves and we'll have you out of here in no time."
After the contents of both syringes were administered, the doctor had one final word of warning before letting them go. "This should take a few hours to kick in and you might feel a little nauseous for a while or have a sore throat tomorrow, but it shouldn't be anything to worry about and will pass in a day or two. And, if you experience any unusual symptoms please give me a call. So I think both of you are ready to return to your jobs. Good luck." He waved and walked cheerfully out of the room.
"Well, that was altogether strange!" Nick exclaimed to his fluffy, tall-eared partner.
For the third time in one day the fox and rabbit drove their cruiser down Hammington Drive, heading towards the address the scruffy, strung-out wolf gave them earlier that day. Long shadows now stretched across the streets, reaching like dark fingers ready to engulf the cars parked on the far side.
The fox was silent the entire time they drove back from the hospital until they passed the spot where the jumbo pop melting rack still stood mounted on the roof. "Hey, Carrots."
A simple "hmm?" escaped the rabbit holding the steering wheel with her eyes intent on the road, wanting to avoid any further traffic incidents.
Turning to face his partner Nick continued to share his unclear suspicions, "I have been thinking, this is an awful lucky coincidence."
"Huh? What's that?"
Nick pulled out the evidence bag with the drugs they found on the unconscious giraffe. "Don't you find it a little too convenient that on the way to stake out this drug lab, we happen to pull over a giraffe who is not only stoned, but also carrying the exact kind of drugs we are looking for?"
Judy scoffed at his suspicions and shook her head. "What? You think someone just gave him to us? And maybe they should have wrapped the car up in a pretty red bow?"
"Yeah, like maybe it was a deliberate distraction?"
"Nick! That is some seriously crazy fox talk right there. If you keep thinking like that, somebody is going to get hurt!" She slowed the cruiser as they once again passed the target address and looked for a good place to park the cruiser and wait. "It was nothing more than a random coincidence, but if it makes you feel better, I will make sure to keep an eye out for any more sleep driving mammals."
They were in a very old and rundown district that may have once been lively, filled with busy little shops lining the street, but everything had been boarded up and abandoned years ago. Some mammals still lived in the area but most were either criminals or homeless, this was the perfect place to set up a drug lab. It wasn't the worst part of town, not like the ghettos of Happytown, it was more of a case where no one cared.
Someone did still care, a little. The streets were kept clean and a few businesses kept their doors open only a few blocks away, and the local chapel continued to help those in need wherever possible.
The building they pulled in front of had once been some kind of tailor shop. One large broken sign, missing most of the letters, read "LDE & S… TAILO… G", while other smaller signs offered hand made suits and various formal wear. Every window was boarded up and almost every surface was covered with the flyers and bulletins from days long past.
"Ok Fluff! How about in that alley between those boarded up shops?" The fox pointed at a narrow but relatively clean alley across the street. "It's wide enough for us to park plus it provides a clear view of the street and the alley behind the building. That way we can easily spot anyone coming or going!"
"Great idea Slick!" she exclaimed punching him in the arm. "That's why I bring you along!"
"Oh, now I get it!" he said, his voice filled with hurt and disappointment. "And I thought you liked my foxy eyes."
Looking into his dark emerald pools, she couldn't help but feel somehow drawn into them. "I do Nick," she whispered softly, but coughed suddenly when her little pink nose bumped into his larger black one. Coughing again much louder this time, she carefully backed the cruiser into the small alley. "Of course you're much better at spotting these kind of sneaky things than I am. You are a sly fox after all!"
"Dumb Bunny," was his only reply.
The sun set and the hours passed uneventfully with Nick changing the radio station after every other song, and Judy sipped a carrot latte she had picked up from the hospital's coffee shop and cafe.
"It sure has been one long, crazy day." the rabbit finally said after the third song Nick had skipped in less than a minute. The radio was getting to be very repetitive at this hour.
"Yeah, let's hope it doesn't get any crazier, Fluff."
"I can agree with that! Two long nights in a row, and I am really looking forward to a day off tomorrow."
"So, got any big plans?"
"Oh, yeah, big big plans Nick!" she exclaimed sarcastically.
"Care to indulge this poor fox then?" the todd asked and turned off the radio.
"Sure, why not." she agreed chuckling. "I will probably just spend most of the day off resting as far away from the ZDP as mammally possible. Then there are a ton of chores I need to get done and my fridge is empty."
"Wow, sounds exciting!" he said under his breath. "If your fridge is empty you can always come over to my place, Carrots!"
"Yeah, but no thanks, Slick. I've seen your cooking, many times." His offer to cook warmed her heart and made her laugh out loud. "Besides, I should put something healthy in my own fridge for once. It's all been left over, frozen junk. Plus we keep eating out at cheap diners and fast food joints."
"What!? Don't tell me you didn't like Nelly's!"
She gave him another quick punch on the shoulder, chuckling and then just as suddenly rested her head on the spot she had hit. "So what are your plans then? Since I told you mine it's only fair that you share."
"You can't hustle this hustler, sweetheart! But fine, I will tell you my plans for tomorrow. As you say it's only fair." he said reaching out to rub one of her long ears with his paw. "Finnick called me the other day and wanted to hang out. It was before I joined the academy since we last did anything together, so I let him know when my next day off is. He probably wants to just get drunk at the bar or something along those lines, but I still I owe him a lot. We were partners for such a long time..." His voice drifted off thoughtfully.
Judy didn't say anything for several minutes before she spoke again asking him to elaborate. "How did you two meet?"
"Oh, wow Carrots. It's been forever, and I can hardly remember much of that day anymore!"
"I am sure you can remember something..." she let the last bit hang in the air like a question on a cozy, old coat rack.
"Well, it was shortly after the incident with the Ranger Scouts. I was still feeling very angry at the world. He was a few years older than me and saw the hurt and anguish I was feeling and knew exactly what it meant." He suddenly sat up straight and covered his eyes as the bright glare of headlights flashed through the front window of the cruiser.
"What's the matter Nick?" her head bouncing off the back of the seat.
"I think someone is coming!" he whispered excitedly with his paw pointed at a dark SUV that pulled over and stopped a block up the street from where they were hiding.
"Is it our guy?" the rabbit asked scooting back onto her side of the car and tried to see past the glare of the headlights.
"Well, it is dark, and I can't see anyone inside, but at least the headlights aren't pointed right into my eyeballs anymore." The SUV only parked for a few moments before it turned around and headed back down the street. Turning to his partner the fox said, "That was very suspicious! Maybe we should follow them."
"Not unless you saw our goat in the driver seat."
"No, but I did catch the license plate as they were turning around. Well partially anyways. It started with 'JR3', but I couldn't make out the rest." he explained. "I still think we should go after them."
"Sorry, Nick." Judy said firmly. "We're going to wait right here until something happens with that building," she pointed across the street at the old shop they were watching, "that will facilitate Bogo getting us a search and seizure warrant. And right now, a suspicious looking car driving by isn't enough evidence."
"Ok, Officer By-The-Book! As you command!" The medium sized fox attempted to bow humbly at the waste inside the slightly cramped cabin of their cruiser, and the flash on Judy's camera went off accidently.
"Hey, Carrots! I thought we were supposed to be hiding? That flash could have revealed our position to every homeless mammal for the next 3 blocks!" the fox exclaimed jumping at her and trying to grab the sleek new iCarrot from the tiny rabbit's grasp as the car filled with wild giggles and laughter.
And as Nick predicted, three old, drunk and unkempt mammals looked up from their barrel of burning newspaper to see what all the commotion was about. "Young whipper-snappers," one of them scoffed as he passed a large brown bottle, wrapped in a paper bag to the mammal on his left.
Sometime during the long shift Judy started to doze off, the caffeine from her latte having worn off hours ago. She laid her head down in a familiar field of warm orange flowers under a dark blue sky.
There was a smoothly rising hill in front of her, like the one she and her siblings used to climb in the summer, when they were kits. As she turned around she could make out a big tractor barn in the distance, along with several silos and a lone tree far to one side, marking where the vegetable booth was. These sights filled her with joy that she was home, back on her family's farm in Bunny Burrow!
Judy once again looked up the hill in front of her and noticed another mammal standing near the crest. It was another rabbit, a very familiar rabbit, wearing a bright sun dress covered with images of carrots in bloom. She began to run up the hill towards the other rabbit, but her feet felt heavy and sluggish, and the hill was so very steep.
A five year old Judy struggled to climb the hill behind her family's farm while trying to keep the hem of her new dress from getting dirty. "Mama wouldn't want me staining my new dress," she thought, "but Jenny is waiting for me."
"Jenny, Jenny! Wait up, Jenny!" she cried to the other rabbit.
The other young doe turned to see her handsome sister and littermate calling after her, so she took two steps down the hill to let Judy catch up. Within moments they were in each other's arms laughing and giggling and dancing through the orange flowers under the dark blue sky. Judy looked up into the vast starry night to see a brass streak cross overhead.
"Look! Look, Jen. Isn't it wonderful?"
"Yes, indeed," said Jennifer who was suddenly much older than Judy. "Now, close your eyes, and make a wish."
So the young Judy closed both of her eyes and squeezed her sister's paws and skipped in a circle three times before she opened them asking, "What did you wish for?" But the other bunny wasn't there, and she was no longer standing on the orange hill...
This place was dark... very dark. Judy was back in the city and once again dressed in her ZPD uniform. She was standing in the middle of a city street near the Rainforest District, she knew it was near the rainforest because there were trees, lots and lots of trees. The trees were very dark and foreboding, and she had the eerie feeling they were watching her.
The trees were watching her, she could see the burning orange eyes glaring at her hungrily. They were only a pair of slits in the darkness, but they slowly grew larger, and larger, as did the fear rising in her stomach.
When she didn't think those burning eyes could get any bigger, a white line appeared in the dark space below them and quickly formed into a set of razor sharp teeth. The teeth snapped at her, and Judy ran!
She ran as fast as her little bunny legs could carry her, but her skirt kept getting in the way! Looking down, she saw that once again she was wearing the pretty dress her mom gave her when she was five, but now, it was torn and soiled and wrapped around her legs like a coiled viper. The eyes were getting closer and she had to get away but the tangled dress left her only able to crawl across the pavement.
A siren rang out across the dark streets of the city with a triumphant call to arms, but those burning hungry eyes would not be swayed, and the folds of her skirt would not loosen, she remained trapped, awaiting her doom.
"Carrots!" a voice called out from the trees, shattering the darkness. Along with the voice, there was a warm, comforting scent that made her feel at home. Not the distant home back in Bunny Burrow, but something much closer and more immediate. Surrounded by the rich musky scent, she felt safe, like this is where she belonged.
"Carrots! Wake up!" Nick's voice, and the sound of the alarm she had set on her phone banished all memory of the dream. She sat up, fully awake when she noticed her surroundings and remembered where she was.
"How long was I out?" the rabbit asked her partner rubbing the last grains of the nap from her purple eyes.
"Only a couple of hours. The sun is only barely starting to show now." He pointed between the nearby buildings to a faint line of grey on the horizon.
"Oh, Nick! Why didn't you wake me?"
He shrugged looking back at her, "You were just so darn c-"
"Don't even say it, Slick!" Her sleepy expression quickly turned to anger as he tried to get away with the 'C' word. "Not today you don't"
"Fine, I won't say how I didn't want to wake the beautiful bunny laying next to me because I felt she needed all the sleep she could get for all those big plans she has today." Nick chided feigning total innocence, and holding up his right paw as a perfect example of a Junior Ranger Scout.
The glare she gave him was so filled with unyielding fury, that it may have rivaled the beam of morning sunlight creeping through the car window between them.
With their eye contact broken Judy turned back to the steering wheel and said, "Let's get some coffee shall we?"
"Great idea, Carrots!"
Before she could put the car into gear, Clawhauser's voice chimed in over the radio. "Officers Hopps, Wilde. Return to base. Chief wants to see you in his office."
"Sure thing, Spots!" Nick replied to the dispatch officer before turning back to his fluffy grey partner. "How about we get that coffee first, and let's make it a double?"
Back in Bogo's office, the two diminutive officers sat together in one of the large chairs that was way too big for either of them. "So how did it go?" The eight foot tall buffalo asked glaring down at his smallest officers.
"Mostly uneventful, Sir!" The rabbit proclaimed taking a small sip from her tiny cup of coffee.
"And Wilde? Did you happen to see anything with that night vision you're always so proud of?" The Chief asked trying his best not to sound overly grumpy since his morning coffee had yet to kick in.
"No, Sir. No one entered or exited the premises last night while we were there." Replied the fox who was paying more attention to the foam in his coffee cup than to his boss.
"We did spot a vehicle that stopped about a block away before turning around." Judy piped up. "But no one else came near the building"
"Ok, as I suspected, this has turned out to be a false lead." The scowl on Bogo's brow grew even darker as he leaned over the desk to look down on the two officers who had recently pulled an all nighter. "I am calling you off this case as of now. You have both been up for over 24 hours and I am not going to authorize anymore overtime." Both the fox and the rabbit raised their muzzles to object but the buffalo cut them off with a wave of his hoof. "Now unless either of you can bring me hard proof someone is either dealing or cooking drugs in that building, then we are done here. And, once I get your full report on my desk, you can both take the rest of the day off. Dismissed!" His tone of finality left no room for further questions.
Judy was so tired after the meeting with the Chief that she almost passed out on the stairs and Nick had to half drag, half carry her to their desk. Once there she nearly downed half of her small order of coffee in one gulp before she set her mind to the task of describing the mostly uneventful stake out, being sure to leave out all the parts where Nick was being a goof.
Roughly an hour later, and not even close to finishing all the forms needed for their reports, Clawhauser walked through the large room filled with cubicles and spotted Wolford standing in the middle of the walkway with his head turned to the side in puzzlement. "What'cha doing, Wolford?" he asked, confused by the large, grey wolf's odd expression.
The wolf pointed at the desk across the room, where a very sleepy fox and rabbit sat filling out paperwork. "Just watch," he said.
As the large wolf and plump cheetah watched, the couple scribbling on various pieces of paper, the fox eventually reached out to grab a large cup of coffee sitting on the desk between them. He took a sip and placed it back on the desk where it had been. Then a few moments later the rabbit reached for the same cup, her paws shook from the lack of sleep, took a sip before putting it back where she found it.
"Aww! That's sooooo cute!" The cheetah squealed quietly with his large paws bunched up under his poofy cheeks. He fumbled with an armload of paperwork to grab his cell phone for some quick, candid snapshots. Just as he had the phone at the ready, Wolford shook his arm violently.
Both the fox and the rabbit had reached for the paper cup at the same time, and missed. They had managed to grab each other's paw instead of the much needed coffee, and were pulling on them completely unaware of what had happened. The feline's squeal of joy that followed this entanglement could be heard halfway across the precinct!
[A/N] Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this little story! It is well over 1000 views and still growing :D