Chapter 19: Getting out of Town
Judy drove carefully through the darkened, early morning streets. Arriving at her destination, she pulled over at an empty parking space on the side of the road, wincing to herself as she felt her borrowed plain white police cruiser tilt as her two outer wheels hit the side curb and climb up onto it. Stopping with a sudden jerk, she pondered for a moment if her pride would let her get away with her terrible parking, and deciding that she won't be parked for long, shrugged and killed the engine.
Climbing out of the cruiser, she ignored the rather unsightly appearance of her parking, and instead grabbed the box she had placed on the passenger seat before locking the doors and heading inside the mossy, worn-out building that was her goal.
It wasn't her first time over at Nick's place, far from it in fact. Sometimes, he would invite her over to watch a movie or otherwise relax together after a long, hard day at work. Other times, when she would have a ZPD cruiser at her disposal, she would pick him up before work to let them drive in together. But for this specific morning, she had a feeling that he wasn't going to be ready for her now.
Sure enough, knocking on the familiar door that was the entrance to his apartment, she wasn't at all surprised when he didn't answer. Refusing to jump to conclusions, she waited patiently by the door, figuring that if he was only slightly later at getting ready compared to normal, then there is plenty of reasons why he might miss her door knocking. Just in case though, she did press one of her sensitive ears against the door to check if she can hear any movement from inside.
It was completely quiet.
Frowning, Judy knocked on the door again, again waiting to listen in on any response. When there wasn't any yet again, she knocked again. "Nick?" And yet, still no reply from her partner. Feeling that it would be rather rood to stomp his door in, she went for option two: Pulling out her phone, she scrolled to her contacts, found Nick's number, and dialed it.
Her suspicions were confirmed when, a fair number of rings later, a groggy voice answered. "It's your favorite fox!" Judy had to suppress laughter at how odd his cheery greeting was clashing with the drowsiness that he wasn't able to hide. "Carrots, I know it's you.What's up?"
"Nick, I'm outside your door," Judy answered sternly. "You should have been up already."
"No I shouldn't-" There was a short pause. "Crud. Hang on, just a sec!" He hung up.
Judy didn't care as she heard him shuffling about through the door. Far earlier than she expected, the lock clicked and the door creaked open. "I uh… well good morning to you too," Judy greeted, caught off guard by Nick's rather awkward appearance. "A-Are you all right?"
The fox in front of her was eyeing her with still half-closed eyes, wearing only a set of boxer shorts, and fur spiked out in all sorts of different directions. "You're early," he complained instead, widening the door a little bit more to let her in. "But since you're here already, I'll get ready. Won't take long!" Letting her make herself at home, he vanished into his room to get changed.
Judy walked over to his room's door and stood next to it. "Nick, I made sure to arrive ten minutes later than usual," she informed him through the wood. "You sure you're okay in there?"
The door opened, revealing Nick in a set of loose pants and a sports jersey, looking much rather like how Finnick liked to dress. "Stiff as a board, tired as hell, but sure, still as foxy as ever," he answered simply, nose twitching in the direction of her box. "Is that breakfast?" Taking another sniff, he smiled in such a way that revealed all of his teeth at once. "For me? Carrots, you shouldn't have!" His arms reached out for the box she was holing.
Judy took a step back and twisted the box away from his grip. "Nu uh," she warned, "you'll get it in the car. I'm driving."
Nick stared at her for a few moments, blinking. "Fluff, you're in your uniform," he noted.
Judy nodded. "I'm still on a work day here," she told him, "even if you're not."
"But I thought you were taking the whole lot of us to the forest."
Judy grinned at Nick's cluelessness. Especially before he had his morning coffee, he can be quite adorable with his lack of awareness of, well, anything. "I have a set to change back in the car," she answered., lifting the box up closer to entice him. "So, you gonna get ready or not?"
Now it was Nick's turn to grin. "I am ready." He pointed at a small backpack by the apartment door. "See? Had it good to go since yesterday."
Judy's jaw dropped, head glancing up and down at his ragged appearance. "You can't go to the station like that!" She protested loudly. "At least comb yourself down!"
Nick shrugged. "Why bother? Going to get covered in dirt and dust soon enough anyways. Might as well save the wash for after we're done." When Judy continued to stare at him with a disapproving scowl, he waved her off. "Okay, fine, I'll make myself a little more presentable," he grumbled, shooing her away. "Go get the car ready, I'll be ready in a minute." A moment later. "And make sure that breakfast is still warm!"
Leaving him, she walked back to the car at a slower pace, wondering if anything was up with her partner: Nick was rather famous at how meticulous he was at making sure that he looked his best. So to see him so careless about his own appearance was rather… off-putting. But sure enough, true to his word, Nick was out of his apartment and buckling himself up hardly after Judy herself only got back in. Sure, he didn't look that much better, but better enough. Even as she started the car up, and with a jolt, got all four wheels back on the road to head off to the station, he was already eagerly digging into the breakfast she provided.
His expression of delight only increased when he dug out the contents of the box. "Aww, Carrots, you shouldn't have!"
Staring at the road ahead, Judy felt a pang of disappointment that she had to concentrate on driving, only being able to sneak a quick glance over at Nick. "Figured you wouldn't mind having the extra special blueberry muffins," she answered back, "since you're on medical leave and all, so don't expect something like this more often." She giggled when he said something in reply, voice completely muffled with food to the point that she wasn't able to make out what he was saying. "Eat your breakfast and don't talk, Nick!" she playfully scolded. "You are so sometimes like a little kit, I mean seriously!"
Agreeing to that, the rest of the drive was completed in silence apart from the occasional noise of Nick enjoying his breakfast. Parking out front, Judy was able to confirm that Nick's movements were indeed noticeably stiffer and slower compared to his usual as he got out of the car to follow her inside the precinct. Once through the large doors, she barely got to bid Clawhauser a good morning before Nick was veered away from her and back towards the medical wing.
"Don' you worry about me, Carrots," he reassured her with his usual smug grin and a wink. "I'll be outta there in no time!"
"Sure, Nick! I'll hold you to that!" But even as he wandered off down the hall, her own spirits sank as she saw his ears and tail both fall as soon as he thought that she wasn't looking. Sometimes, it her fox really did get on her nerves. Sure, he liked to play 'cool fox' all the time and pretend that nothing bothered him, but Judy knew, as she watched him shuffle down the hall, that Nick was getting rather sick of heading down the direction of the precinct's medical offices. A part of her also wondered if dealing with the nighthowler recovery really was as simple as he made it out to be, or if he was hiding that too from her.
Well, Judy decided, if Nick wasn't going to talk, the James would. Or, at the very least, if not to her, then certainly to Dahlia once Judy talked to the tiger officer about it. Hopefully though, after a nice day at the beach, they all wouldn't have to worry about that any longer. With this realization, her mood lifting back up, she hefted her backpack that she brought with her from the car and decided to go and find James and Dahlia. She can get changed after they all gather up and get set to leave.
Her new plan, though, ended as soon as she strolled through the precinct kitchen, spotting Count and Trigger at one of the tables, strangely enough joined by Agents Savage and Winters. Count, for his part, was lazily munching from a bowl of breakfast, looking over Trigger's shoulder with a bored expression. On the next chair over, Trigger was frowning at a stack of papers in his paw, the other clutching onto a steaming mug of coffee like his life depended on it. The coyote was sporting a pair of earbuds, and she could faintly hear the beat of a song leaking out into the room. "Morning everyone," she greeted, "what's with the paperwork?"
Even through his music, Trigger reacted, but with only a simpler answer of a grunt and shrug. Instead, it was Savage who answered instead. "A report from the office. Some calculations on what we think is up with that underground complex you stumbled into. I just wanted Trigger here to look over some of the equations that are way over my head."
Judy raised a curious eyebrow. "Um, okay… And what would that be, if I may ask? And what does Trigger have to do with this?" Even as she asked the questions, she noticed how the pilot continued to ignore her as he flipped the page silently, sipping out of his cup without saying a word, though despite the casual nature of his actions, he still continued to sport the expression of anger and frustration.
"Well, Winters, feel free to add anything in, but without revealing what we are not allowed to," Jack spoke plainly as he tried to answer her question. "We fear that whoever is running the show in that underground maze you found is trying to create some sort of fancy new Nighthowler aerial bomb. Just a guess and definitely do not quote me on it."
As Skye nodded in approval of the explanation, Judy winced, unsure if it was due to the implications of what he just said, or because of how casually he said it. Either not noticing or simply ignoring her reaction, he then added. "The good news is that our eggheads believe that the amount of Nighthowler needed for an effective air-delivered weapon requires a too-large container to fit effectively either in or on a drone. But that's where I wanted Trigger to take a look at the numbers, since like I said, I have no idea what they mean, and as long as he's here with us, we can put him to work on it."
Turning her attention to said pilot, Judy couldn't help but ask "And how's that going?"
With a frustrated sigh, Trigger turned another page over before looking up at the others. "Look, while I see nothing obviously wrong here, it's not like I was working on these equations for more than..." he glanced at a wall clock, "twenty minutes now. If you want my proper opinion, which I must emphasize is not an expert opinion, I will need at least an entire day with this, minimum. Equations I will need to look up, look into the base assumptions, I mean, this is just ridiculous..." he fell quiet after a heavy sigh as he went back to reading through the papers. "And of course this is all completely useless if they simply decide to build the bomb as big as it needs to be and shove it into a larger plane..."
Judy eyed him wearily. "Is that why you're so tense? Worried about-?" She could understand being worried about it. Just thinking about widescale use of nighthowlers was making herself start to feel anxious.
"I'm not tense!" Trigger snapped, only to give up with a quiet groan as he flipped another page over. "Okay, well maybe I am. A little. Just forget it."
"We don't actually think that's going to be the case though," Skye added quickly, moving the conversation along. "Too much effort went into shoving that drone, even if it ended up being just a mockup, underground. And to simply place nighthowlers into a larger container? No, I think whoever was running the lab down there was trying, and luckily for us, failing to make it work."
Jack nodded. "Damned shame you failed to capture that mouse you discovered, would have helped us learn about who's doing it all," he said, not noticing the nervous if slightly angered looks he received from both Jame and Nick for his comment. "But too late about that now. The important thing is that we get our calculations right and figure out if there's a reason to be worried or not."
Judy's breath hitched. "And if there is a reason?" she asked quietly. "To be worried, I mean."
This time, it was Count who answered. "Nuclear weapons exist, Hopps. No different than biological or chemical WMDs in this case. Even if we're wrong, this is no different than any other bomb that can destroy a city in one go. You'll have to be insane to use it, mad even, and I don't think Urusia's going to dare angering the rest of the world just to bomb us. They haven't done it yet, and for that matter, have made it part of their PR justification for the war in avoiding doing exactly that. You know, part of their 'our drones only attack military targets and reduce civilian casualties' and all of that nonsence. Besides, even if-" he stopped, interrupted from Trigger slamming a fist onto the table with a loud thud.
"Can we… not talk about that?" his teeth were clenched tightly, breathing deep and heavy. "Like, ever?" He flipped the page over, discovering that it was the last one and shoved the stack aside, still glaring at it as though he wanted to light the stack on fire with his gaze.
"Say, Trigger, didn't you plan on going to Point Hind today?" Skye asked randomly, changing the subject for them.
The pilot looked up with a jerk of his head, eyes wider than just moments before. "Y-yeah, but I guess I'm going to be busy today. So-" his gaze fell back to the stack of papers, a longing look in his eyes as his gaze remained unfocused. "...Might as well forget about going."
Jack let out a short grunt. "Simple question, really. Did you, or did you not spot any obvious errors anywhere just now?"
Trigger tiled his head in confusion. "Uh, well, no... But I hardly even looked at it! Like I said, I'll need at least-"
"Uh, you're a combat pilot, Trigger," Jack cut him off, sounding rather confused at the pilot's reaction. "And I heard plenty of times that you're a really good one. I don't know about your abilities as a aerospace engineer, but I doubt they're anywhere as developed as your flying. Plus, we've got more than enough capable mammals working at this even as we speak right now. How do you think we got even these equations written up after only a day? I only wanted your opinion, not your professional assessment." After a short pause, he spoke again. "Did you really think that I wasn't aware that you were going to be busy today? Bogo had to run the idea past us before letting you go free outside Zootopia. That's also why Agent Winters and I arrived early, so that we can catch you before you left." Jack's muzzle broke into a grin as he jerked his head at Trigger's chest. "That, and I've been around personally long enough to know that Chief Bogo would not have tolerated your choice of shirt."
Trigger gaze wandered down, but he otherwise didn't say anything, although his flattened ears gave away his embarrassment.
Judy too, stared for a moment, somehow only now realizing that sure enough, Trigger was sporting one of Wolford's borrowed shirts rather than the usual ZPD gear that he normally wore. How she didn't recognize the brightly colored shirt over the standard ZPD gray was beyond her, but it did tell her, that at least when he had decided on what to put on this morning, Trigger was still planning to go on the trip like they had planned.
"Well, it's just that I thought..." Trigger stammered, interrupting her thoughts, "I mean… with the war stalled as it is... This might be a new Urusian weapon they're building here," he motioned at the papers as he spoke. "It doesn't matter what I want to do. It's what I should be doing. And… I understand that you won't let me hop into a fighter and fly off, since that's what I'm god at, but I can't just sit around and do nothing! Or, well, going to the coast like I wanted to. But again… With these drones… it's the least I should be doing right now."
"And you'll be wasting yours and our time," Jack answered back calmly. "Trigger, "I've run through this through several mammals yesterday. Letting you out of the city is a risk we're willing to take. Okay, you'll have to wear that blasted collar, granted, but still. You want to help? Go and use the day to clear your mind so that when we send you back to fight, you'll be able to do it to the best of your ability."
"But-"
"-But nothing," Count butted in, setting his bowl down. "I know you're going to hate me for it,but it's about time you heard it: Staying here and stressing over some formulas isn't going to be helping anyone, least of all yourself." He ignored the glare of venom he received from his fellow pilot. "Think about it: how many others would kill to be in the position you're in right now? And I'm not even talking about our squad, but all of Ocelotia? You survived being shot down. As a passenger. By all accounts, we both should be dead, pulled out of the ocean and sent home in bags like the crew that flew us here. And you can't exactly be effecting the dead and buried, now, can you? Yet, despite that, how are you spending your time? Sulking and whining." He motioned at his neck where wearing his TAME collar left his fur matted and dull. "I admit, I like it here, even with this collar rubbish. But you? You're now not much better than our first night here, I would argue. If anything, even worse, if the last two nights were anything to go by." He leaned over the table, getting his muzzle right up close to Trigger's tooth-baring snarl. "So call me selfish, but I want my flight wing to be capable of flying through a tunnel for no better reason than that Urusia thought to hide a squad of planes inside a mountain. Someone who flies between cliffs through a heavy thunderstorm taking out anti-air and doesn't so much as complain about it. And I cannot stress how much I doubt you'll be able to do that the way you are now. Do us all a favor, then, okay? I want Three Strikes back, not this whiny, whimpering pathetic excuse of a ka-yote in front of me. So go and fix your nerves first. Only then we can talk about everything else."
A moment of silence followed as Trigger continued to glare at Count silently, fists clenched tightly. Without a word, he stood up and walked away, roughly shoving Count with a shoulder on his way out. In his haste to leave, the earbuds were torn out of his ears, but not before the device they were connected to was sent flying off the table. Without so much of a glance back at it, Trigger stomped right past a startled Nick, flanked by Wolford and Fangmeyer, who had to swerve out of the path of the angry coyote.
"What was that?" Dahlia asked, breaking the awkward silence that permeated the room.
"Don't worry, he'll come around!" Count answered casually, waving a hoof in the air. Then his voice lowering, he muttered, "just give him a couple of minutes to cool his head."
"Count, that was really mean, what you just did," Judy mumbled, her own ears flattened to the back of her head, though with her, because of anger and disappointment. Truth be told, a part of her was telling her that what Count had said wasn't actually wrong. And the realization that she too agreed with him, even if only a little, was rather troubling to her. Still there was one part of it that she disagreed with completely. "You should have at least not have been so rude. Kindness goes a lot way. I mean, you two flew together!" A par of paws placed themselves on her shoulders, and she looked up to a smirking Nick as he held her in place with a firm but gentle grip. It was the same smirk that he wore when he didn't want others to read his emotions, and this time, it was working on her as well.
"I don't do 'kind', Hopps," Count answered as he picked up Trigger's dropped music player. Glancing at the screen, he frowned in disapproval at whatever song was still playing on it, then setting it down on the table with a shake of his head. "None of us do. Kindness gets you killed."
Judy's jaw dropped in just how casually he said this last part. Especially since she was certain that a certain pilot who had just stormed out of the kitchen was living proof that Count's lousy attitude was wrong. But as she tried to squirm away, she felt Nick's grip on her shoulders tighten, preventing her from escaping.
"Okay, just something I gotta know more about!" Nick exclaimed. "But did I not overhear something about Strikes flying through a tunnel?" Next to him, James snickered at his excited questioning.
If she didn't know him better, Judy would have scolded Nick for being so clueless to a serious situation. But she did know better, that Nick's still firm grip on her was his way of keeping her from leaving to go after Trigger, and his oblivious change of subject was a deliberate method of easing the tension in the room instead of letting it continue to escalate.
Count grinned, Judy noting that it was a genuine, prideful gesture rather than an ironic one. "Sure has! Our AWACS just about lost it when his radar signature vanished into the ground. What was it that he called him? ...Right, 'drooling idiot', that was the term! Wish I was able to see his face when Trigger's signature emerged on the other side of the mountain." His grin faded into annoyance when Jack joined in with far less enthusiasm over the achievement, a frown on his own muzzle. "What?"
Savage shrugged. "How can I put it politely? ...What kind of pilot flies through a tunnel? I want to call it reckless, but that's too light a word. I'm honestly struggling to think of a way to describe how, well, stupid something like that is. And if he's your wing, why didn't you stop him?" Savage's frown deepened even more. "I can see now how he earned the name 'dumbass'. Pull off a stunt like that in our air force? Even if you don't crash and somehow survive, that's it! Flying career over. Grounded for life."
Count rolled his eyes. "Well good thing for us all that we're not you Animalians. All the money and equipment, but also all of the rules. Besides, I just told you: Urusia had a squad of fighters parked underground. Tunnel was big enough to fly through. Well, for Trigger at least. His Fishbed's quite smaller than my Flanker. I wouldn't dare to fly like he did, I'll give you that. As for stopping him? That's not how Four-Four-Four works. Figured you would know that after having just been at our base."
Jack simply threw his arms up into the air in disbelief. "Whatever. I do feel that the more I learn about your squadron, the less I actually understand it." Lowering his arms back down to the table, he finally glanced at the cops surrounding him. "Glad to see all of you up and about this morning. How are you two feeling?"
"Doc wants us leaving as soon as we can," James answered with a nod of his head. "Woke up with this morning with sore muscles. Doc says it can easily change into rather painful cramping, if I wait too long. And I'll prefer not to go through that." He glanced over to Nick and Judy. "What about you, Wilde?"
Nick flashed a half-grin, half-grimace. "Afraid it's the same on my end, as Carrots here can attest to." Glancing down at the bunny, he flashed her a quick wink, his paws loosening their grip so that he can use them to pat her shoulders instead. "Would still be in bed if she didn't pull me out of my apartment. You know how it goes, blueberry bribes." He jerked his thumb behind him. "But really, what was up with Strikes just now? I thought he was coming with us."
Judy also glanced in that direction, but when she went to go after wherever Trigger had stormed off to, Nick's still firm grip again prevented her from moving. Frowning, she had to give him credit, for as much as she was learning how to read him, he was also getting very good at predicting her own actions.
"Good, that's good then," Jack mumbled half-heartedly, his thoughtful expression indicating that his mind was busy with other matters. "I told Bogo, but it really was a failure to let the ZPD know about that place on our end..." Skye muttered something into his ear, and his brows lowered into deeper thought. "Right, yeah, perhaps we really should be letting you all go then and not waste your time anymore. Although, Count! You, you're not going, correct? We were hoping to use you for today again if you aren't busy."
The pilot let out a shrug. "I already had enough of, well, wherever you are planning on going to just from how excited Trigger was getting about it all last night," he commented, "this morning too, until you came along and ruined it. Who knows, though. He might already be over it and realizing that he was simply being stupid again."
Jack was busy quickly searching through his phone, but it didn't prevent him from countering Count's comment with one of his own. "Neither I nor Winters ever mentioned that we needed him, that was all just a misunderstanding. Besides, last I checked, I wasn't the one who completely insulted him right in his face."
With a scoff, Count cast Savage an unrepentant grin. "I think of it more as not embellishing with unnecessary flourish of wording. Gets the same point across, leaves out room for error in understanding just because I'm trying to 'protect feelings'. As I did say, it was what Trigger needed to hear."
"This your plane?" Whether Jack payed any attention to Count's last comments or not, he was no holding his phone out with a picture on it.
Count squinted as he leaned over to look at the screen. "Sure, that's my Su-33. Does it have a single line on its vertical stabilizers? Can't see in this picture."
"It did. Couldn't get a good angle with the camera to capture it all," Jack commented, handing over his phone so that the officers could see the picture for themselves.
"Then it's mine. What's it got to do with anything?" Count asked.
Jack shrugged nonchalantly. "Not much, I was more curious about something else." He held out a paw towards Judy, who had his phone at the moment. "May I?" Switching over to a new picture, he showed it to Count again. "And is this Trigger's plane?"
Count squinted again, and broke into a grin. "Sure is! Took you long enough to figure it out. Thought the three lines on it would be a dead give away." Without even asking, he gave the phone over to James to have a look.
Judy blinked, feeling stupid as the phone passed by her way. She knew that the whole 'Three Strikes' nickname was one given by the Urusians, as based on the several articles she read about it said. But it never occurred to her for some reason that, after seeing the thee lines splattered over what passed as Trigger's photo ID, that those same lines were painted much more visibly on his plane. Really silly of her. As she stared at the picture, deep in thought, she almost missed Jack's next comment to Count.
"That's an outdated design. Your plane is getting old enough to be retired soon, and last I checked, Flankers were designed to replace Mig-21s. You really want to tell me that that museum relic is what Trigger flew in?"
"If you want to insult Laika," Trigger's unamused voice answered from the entrance to the precinct's kitchen, "then you're talking to the wrong guy. Besides, she's not the same plane your grandpa would have gawked at. She's got new engines that no one would have even dreamed about back then. Wings and skeleton are all modern alloys, hell, even modern avionics. Just about only the airframe layout is old." He walked over to the group, but not before shooting Count a nasty glare and an elbow to the ribs for good measure. Snatching his music player back off the table, he still wasn't done lecturing Jack about his fighter. "Laika'll give newer jets a run for their money, yes, including does designed specifically to replace her." Letting out a long sigh, he stared back at Jack directly in the eyes. "Don't discount her just on her looks. And if anything else, I'm still alive. That should tell you enough alone about what she can do." With a huff, he sat down across the table from the hare, arm reaching out for the papers he left behind. "Now, about that stack of papers of yours..."
Jack stared back blankly. "You're not serious about still going over those, are you?"
Trigger flinched as he pulled his arm back ever so slightly. "I… No, I guess not," he admitted. "I guess what I really wanted to know was, um..." he glanced at the papers again, his earlier nervousness and frustration from earlier returning. "It will take me a long time to get through all of this properly-"
Count groaned as he rubbed his forehead. "Trigger, we've literally just been through this-"
"-Which is why I recognize that I will in fact just be wasting my time with this." Trigger finished in a strained tone. "Please, Count, for once, just... shut up for a moment. So yes, after your, um, 'helpful' commentary to me, I just needed to get away from you. Although that did give me a few minutes to think about it all, and, well, I guess I realized it. That if I stay here and work at these, there's a very tiny chance that I might find something. Very tiny, I doubt I'll actually find anything. But if I go on the trip like I wanted to, like we planned to last night..." his gaze shifted briefly towards Judy's direction before diverting to the ground. "It might be just what I will need to clear my head up," he mumbled. "Which is far more important for when we get back in the air. It's just asking to get shot down to go up while..." his gaze wavered at Judy's direction again, "...tense."
"It's your call, Trigger, I'm not going to force you either way with this," Jack said calmly. "But if you want to go, you might as well leave now before it gets too late."
A loud metallic squeal echoed across the room as Trigger's chair was shoved quickly away from the table. "All right, let's go then," he announced, a grin breaking out on his muzzle. One that faded as soon as his gaze crossed paths with the second pilot in the room. "Count, I know you didn't want to earlier, but you in or..?"
Count scoffed rather loudly. "Nah, I don't think so. Besides, I think I tortured you today enough already. Seriously, go and have some fun, Trigger! You really do need it."
A hint of the grin returned. "T-Thanks, Count." He scanned his gaze across the officers standing around the table. "Judy? You're in your uniform. You're not bailing on us, are you?"
Ignoring Nick's amused snort at someone else pointing out the very same thing he did when he first saw her, Judy just grinned back at the pilot, grabbing her backpack again. "I'm going, silly coyote! Just need a minute to get changed and I'll be ready." The movement caused the car keys in her pockets to jingle, and the noise gave her an idea. Pulling the keys out, she gave then to Fangmeyer. "Dahlia, why won't you all go and get settled in the car? White unmarked cruiser number four. I'll join you as soon as I'm ready."
"Sure thing, Hopps. Wilde, I'm assuming you're good? James?"
"My stuff's already in the car," Nick answered quickly.
Wolford also nodded. "I'm packed as well. Just need to grab it from my office. Go ahead, I'll meet you at the car."
Dahlia turned to the remaining member of their party. "Trigger?"
The pilot blinked away from whatever he was thinking about. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I just need to grab it from the… um, cell. Then it's just a stop by Bogo's office to grab the collar, but otherwise, sure, I'm ready. Let's go!" Without hesitating, he turned and left the kitchen.
But before he could turn the corner, Count called out to him. "Yo, Trigger! Question for you! Can I tell the Urusians that Three Strikes listens to cheesy eighty's pop?"
Trigger stopped at the doorway, ears folded flat on his head. Judy was worried for a moment that he was going to react negatively again as he pulled the music player out and glanced at it. But to her surprise, he turned his head with a grin on his muzzle. "Sure, go ahead! Who knows, might make getting shot down by me all that more embarrassing! You can go and tell them that I rather like my Peter Gerbil!" Without bothering to wait for a reply, he vanished out the door.
Nick frowned playfully, but didn't feel like chasing the pilot across the station. "There's nothing wrong or embarrassing about classic Gerbil. Whatever, I'll wait at the car, Fluff," he told Judy. "See you there!"
With everyone dispersing, the officers bid Count and the ZIA agents a goodbye and left the kitchen.
Only a few short minutes later, Judy, now dressed in a plain gray ZPD shirt and light pants that was her workout getup, emerged out of the precinct front doors and hopped over to the waiting car. As the others had said, they were all already waiting inside, with James and Dahlia occupying the front seats, and so she slid into the back row, placing herself in between Nick and Trigger.
"All set?" As soon as Judy was buckled up, Dahlia started up the engine and set off. Since she was still in the parking lot, she allowed herself the opportunity to glance all the way behind her at the passengers in the back seats. "Say, Hopps, Trigger was asking about being allowed to drive," she informed with a smirk.
"I, uh, well, you allowed me to drive yesterday," the pilot tried to argue, suddenly embarrassed and finding out that adjusting his shirt to hide the uncomfortably familiar collar around his neck was what he would much rather be doing instead. On his head, his ears poked through a ZPD baseball cap.
"Well yeah, but, yesterday was a bit of an emergency," James answered back with a huff. "So Hopps, I was thinking of perhaps allowing him a go on the way back, where we still won't be either on the highway or these busy streets." With his seat between them, he wasn't able to see Trigger grumble in complaint from behind.
Something about this rubbed Judy completely the wrong way. "But you don't even have a license!" she argued, turning towards the pilot. "It's illegal!"
"I have one back in Ocelotia!" Trigger tried to argue back, but backed away from that angle of attack when he realized that this rationale wasn't going to work on Judy. "And… Well, you're all cops. It's like an escort, isn't it?"
Nick snorted. "So why are you asking us for permission to break the law? We can always haul your tail straight back to your cell right now if you want. Save us some trouble." Despite the harsh words he used, his tone made it more than plain that he was joking.
Whether he got Nick's humor or not, Trigger was about to argue again when Judy stopped him with a raise of her paw.
"Let's talk about it when we actually are on the way back," she said firmly. "We hardly even started driving yet, so how about some peace and quiet for the drive?"
"Thank you, Hopps," Dahlia concurred from the front.
With this matter settled, and the pilot returning his attention to the music player he had brought from the kitchen, Judy pulled her own device out. The very same music player she brought with her when she had first arrived to the city. The battery was rather worse for the wear by now, and set far sooner than before, but it would be enough for both the drive out and back.
Nick noticed her fiddle with the player, and smirked as he watched her place the first bud into her ear.
"What?" Judy asked with a roll of her eyes. "Can't a girl listen to music on a road trip?" Before he could answer, she got an idea before she put on the second of the two earbuds. Wiping it down briefly against her shirt, she offered it to him instead.
Evidently, this act somehow managed to completely catch him off guard due to how Nick's eyes widened in surprise. And honestly, Judy almost expected him to decline the offer, if only due to how much hew loved to complain about her music preferences when they worked together. Instead, once he came over his initial shock, Nick's usual sly expression returned as he took the offered earbud and adjusted it into his ear. "Sure, I'm up for it," But as Judy started to search through the menu on her, he quickly realized a mistake of his and so added very quickly, "but I also reserve the right to veto any song you play." He gave a wink to Trigger when he noticed the pilot staring at the little conversation from his corner of the car.
"Hey, as long as you two back there don't start fighting over the music, you can listen to whatever you feel like," Dahlia answered from the driver's seat as she drove through Zootopia's morning traffic. "But I will have you know that I have control of the car's audio system." As if to prove her point, she switched on the radio and dialed in one of the local stations. Luckily for Nick and Judy, she did lower the volume to a level where it didn't fight too much the music coming out of the earbuds.
Ignoring the new source of sound coming from the speakers, Judy immediately scrolled for her Gazelle section, knowing that while Nick didn't actually like her at first, he had warmed up to her songs after the now almost three years of exposure to her sound. And it wasn't just from Judy herself that he got used to Gazelle: Clawhauser made sure that everyone at the precinct started to like her, whether they wanted to or not. Except that Trigger managed to slip through the cracks so far, she realized, remembering just how distraught the receptionist had been at finding out that someone was able to be as clueless about Zootopia's most famous pop singer. Especially by someone who claimed to have lived close to Zootopia for at least part of his life.
Judy was even about to offer her other earbud to Trigger exactly so that he can no longer claim not to know about Gazelle, but two issues caused her to change her mind about that: First, she herself didn't want to give up her portion of her music player, added to the fact that Trigger was already occupied with the one he brought over from the kitchen, wherever he managed to find it originally. And second, probably most importantly, was that the cable was simply not long enough to reach across the seating to both Nick and Trigger at the same time.
So with a shrug, she decided that the pilot would have to learn what the big deal with Gazelle was at a later time. And truth be told, she was finding that she was rather enjoying the drive, sitting next to Nick as they actually got to focus on the music and the scenery around them.
As they drove on one of the many bridges leading out of Zootopia, Judy saw that they were about to drive onto the Zootopia Bridge, the one that appeared on many a tourist token, picture, and poster. And, ironically enough, because it lead in a different direction than the one she needed to take to get to Bunnyburrow, it was her first time on it too. But as she looked at the scenery around them, and how suddenly the over-developed concrete jungle that was Zootopia gave way to a much more haphazard mix of city and countryside, she couldn't help but notice that she wasn't the one more transfixed at what was outside. In fact, her partner looked like he just entered another country.
"Um, Nick, have you ever been outside of Zootopia? As in, ever?"
Taking his eyes away from the window, he smirked down at her. "Nope. Told you, I'm a city fox! Zootopia through and through!"
Judy crossed her arms. "But you said that you've been to a forest with Finnick!"
Again with the smirk. "Well, yeah. Hoofdale park, which I shouldn't have to remind you is one hundred percent within Zootopia's city limits."
She let out a huff at his simple explanation. "I'm going to have to make you come with me home to Bunnyburrow one of these days," she muttered, "I can't even believe I haven't taken you there yet."
"I would like to think that I saw enough of those farms through your phone," Nick countered as he returned his attention back to staring out the window. "But if you want to, make sure it's during blueberry season. Otherwise, I will object to it. ...Also, skip this song please." His paw reached down to Judy's music player, and with a practiced flick, he did just that. But once done with the action, he didn't bother to remove his paw from the device, and by extension, Judy's own paw that was also holding it.
Whether he meant to do that on purpose or not, she didn't know. But the act alone was enough to raise a certain amount of heat to the tips of her ears, and she forced them to lower behind her head in a vain attempt to hide this fact from him. Glancing quickly around the car, she felt a wave of relief sweep over her as she saw that Nick was the only one that was able to notice either way.
Trigger was even more absorbed with staring out of his own window than Nick was, Dahlia was busy driving the car, and James was taking advantage of the opportunity given by the car ride, passed out in the passenger's seat, and snoring softly.
For the next several set of songs, the two just sat like that, Nick again going back to watching out the window. Judy herself alternating between also looking out the window, to looking at her partner. Unfortunately, glancing at him did not help with removing the heat from her ears, nor the queasy feeling that perhaps she was doing something that she really shouldn't be. Finally, to her relief, Nick removed his paw as he shuffled and adjusted himself in his own seat, puffy tail sliding out from where it had been pressed into the cushions. With the rest of his body mostly angled towards the window, it meant that the appendage had nowhere else to go but to the interior of the car.
And right onto Judy's lap.
Both of their ears perked up, two sets of eyes locking into one another as they both stared at each other with embarrassed expressions.
"Sorry, my oopsie," Nick quickly muttered as he removed his tail from her. "Don't worry about it, Carrots, I'll keep it away."
"No, Nick, it's okay," Judy hurriedly explained. "I… uh, don't mind." Perhaps it was the wrong set of words she wanted to use, but she had to say something. When Nick didn't answer, she tried to instead change the subject completely, using the fact that the town they were now driving through started to give way quickly to the untamed green wilderness of a forest. "So Nick, for a city fox, you seem to be awfully transfixed by a bunch of trees," she teased, unable to help herself from poking fun at just how adorable he looked, staring out the window like a kit. "Or does Big City Fox secretly want to live in the countryside?"
With a grunt, he was able to look away from the view outside and instead at her. "Is it different to the city?" he asked back at her with his trademark smirk, "yes, yes it is."
Crossing her arms, Judy let him go back to staring out the window in peace. Truth be told, while the greenery here was too different from Bunnyburrow to actually remind her of home, she had to admit that being surrounded by so much plan life was a rather relaxing position to be in. And one that she was finding rather rare, living in Zootopia and only getting to very rarely occasionally take a day or two off to visit her folks back on the farm. So even as her Gazelle playlist ended and started over again, she let it play on without bothering to change the music. Nick didn't seem to mind, and neither did she, content on letting the music continue uninterrupted as she two of them enjoyed the simplicity of the car ride.
And even though unlike James, while Judy didn't fall asleep, she was still completely caught by surprise when Dahlia's voice broke the relative silence around them.
"Trigger, phone says we're here. Which is the best place to park?"
When there was no answer, Judy glanced over at the pilot. But no, he wasn't asleep, and was very much awake and still staring outside, hardly blinking.
"Trigger?"
"Huh, what?" Ears flicking with annoyance at being addressed, he tore his gaze from the window and to the front seats. "Oh, uh, a little bit more forwards and to the left," he explained, both voice and expression in a daze. "It will be closest to us when we finish."
Nick yawned loudly as he pulled out his earbud, handing it back to Judy. "So this is the coast?" he asked, ironically motioning out the widow at the parked cars, and more importantly, lots of grass and trees, but no water to be seen. "Where's the beach?"
"It's that way," Trigger explained, pointing at a wide dirt path heading into the trees. Several mammals were already strolling on it in both directions, though most away from the cars. "We'll be coming back from there."
"And what do you mean by 'going back from there'?" James added, jaws open wide in the middle of his own yawn at he rubbed his eyes to wake up from his nap. "Where we heading to out?"
Trigger pointed in a different direction, at a much smaller path snaking up a hillside and also vanishing into a large group of trees. "We start by going up there."
Nick's eyes rolled towards the back of his head as he followed the hill all the way up to the horizon well above them. Not only was it quite taller than even Zootopia's central mountain, even worse, there was also no balloon or automated gondola going to the top in sight. "Strikes, are you really suggesting that we go all the way up there? On foot?"
Trigger grinned sheepishly, tilting his head down to hide behind his hat. "It's not that high," he protested. "And it gives the best view in the park. You'll like it, trust me!"
Nick grunted in disapproval. "I believe that's the first time you asked us to 'trust you'," he countered. Gaze lowing down to Judy, he smirked again. "And whose idea was it to let Strikes dictate where we're going anyways?"
Judy looked away, making a show of gathering her backpack in preparation for the journey. "I have no idea what you're implying, Nick."
Nick took another glance up to the ridge line above them, suppressing an urge to whine at just how tall it was. "Carrots," he sighed, "why do I get a feeling that I'm going to hate you by the end of today? Why do we have to go up there?"
"Because the doctor told you so," was Trigger's smug reply.
Nick's eyes bulged. Since when did... how did Count put it only slightly more than an hour ago? Oh, right: Since when did the whiny, whimpering pathetic excuse of a kayote become so cheeky? Well, if he wants to talk the talk… "Whatever you say, Strikes. Since I'm not actually that sick, if you think I can't handle it... Why are we still in the car everyone? Let's go!"
