Chapter 45: New Arrivals
"Thirty two. Amazing." With a bored tone, Nick read off the speed of the passing car, taking a moment to silently be amused at the fact that a car was for once traveling several miles an hour slower than the speed limit, rather than faster. His last word did earn him a chuckle out of the driver of their car.
"Nick, you know he slowed down right as he saw our car! I bet you he's going to go over the limit the very next turn he makes!" Judy tapped the digital display on the radar gun sitting on their dash. "But as long as this little guy makes sure that people are safer drivers for even two more blocks, then I say it's worth it!"
With a roll of his eyes, Nick crossed his arms and slumped over in his seat, letting her know exactly what he was feeling. "Carrots, I'm bored! We're sitting here for an hour, have several left, and it's not even at a location where we get speeders! It's not at all like our first assignment when we at least had Flash to look out for. This is literally just sit around and point the radar outside."
Judy raised an eyebrow, turning to look at him. "What's the matter? You would rather see some action again? We've only just more or less returned to a normal schedule again."
"Any why not see some action again?" Nick retorted. "It's fun! The fact that it also makes the world a better place! A baddie we catch is one less baddie walking these streets and all!"
His partner frowned. "If we're having an exciting day, it means that someone innocent is having a really bad one," she reminded him. "Or do you feel like showing up as backup to another call like the one James and Dahlia had to answer? I like having something to do just like any other cop – honestly, probably even more than most cops. But even I would take a boring day responding to careless traffic accidents, speeders, and cubs stuck in trees over a traumatized wolf deciding to go postal on a grocery store any day. Being a police officer is about preventing crime just as much as it is fighting crime, remember?"
Nick let out a grunt. "Spoilsport. I think you've been hanging around Wolfy and Fangs too much."
The frown only deepened. "Nick… Even a month ago, I would have agreed with you. I wouldn't have become a cop if I thought it would be a boring job. Of doing nothing more than sitting in a car, watching a radar gun, and getting to go back to spend the entire next day filling out paperwork about how nothing happened. Or how we stopped one speeder and told them off not to do it again with a mere warning, not even bothering with a ticket."
The fox let out a chuckle of victory. "Oh? And what happened since a month ago? What took our wonderful super-bunny and turned her into a merely good cop among many?"
Judy blinked, not even sure if he was genuinely praising her or if he was merely teasing as always. "Well? What happened to James happened," she finally answered. "He's been a cop for how many years now? And he 'finally' got his chance to see some action and shoot a bad guy, saving multiple lives in the process. And yet, despite all that, how is he doing? Between him, Dahlia, and Humphrey, the precinct has become a much more depressing place as of late. And I can't even blame nay of them."
"Fangs isn't all that different," Nick pointed out, rubbing his muzzle in thought. "Just bored at the idea of not being able to patrol with that shoulder of hers. And besides, you really think cops don't have to kill preps all the time? And I mean justified killings, not accidents. Or worse." It was his turn to frown. "And believe me, I've seen worse. Plenty of it. Don't even have to be a fox to see it all. Just need to grow up in the rougher parts of the city, that's all."
"Nick…" Judy warned.
"What I'm saying is that it says a lot about Precinct 1 that when one of us does end up involved in a shooting, that everyone takes notice. That half the shift freezes in their tracks in fright. Buffalo Butt likes to claim that we're the best in the city, with high standards. He has high standards perhaps, but we're also at a rather safe location, and we get to avoid the really rough parts of town. We have problems, I mean, which city area doesn't? But they're different problems. We do tend to get soft about violent crime, Carrots. You don't even carry a gun, I might point out. Precinct six, among others, won't even let you even think about not packing real heat on patrol, you know that. Rather surprised Buffalo Butt hasn't said anything about it yet. Not about the gun, though... About dealing with the violence that we weren't used to before. Or did he say something?"
"He did to me," Judy mumbled. "Was a lot like you – that for all of my years as a cop, that something like that was going to get to me. I didn't- err, I don't think it did, but he's sure looking at my direction a lot more since that call on Brian. Or maybe that call did get to me, because I know that Bogo's being unusually soft on me right now, and I'm not even complaining about it. It- it's like when we found that body right before… before you went savage in that underground lab. I grew up in a very large farming family, and now live in a big city. People grow old... or sick. But people die of natural causes all the time. Accidents happen... and people die. But to be so forgotten that you just pass away and your body turns to bones and fur? That, I never saw before."
To her surprise, her little rant earned her a chuckle of amusement from her partner. "Really Nick? You're laughing?"
Nick shook his head rigorously to let her know that she got it all wrong. "I'm just amazed you didn't bring up the Azbivore building incident."
Instantly, Judy's ears fell, her grip on the steering wheel tightening at the same time. "Nick! I was trying so hard to forget about that!" Despite the joking complaint, there was a hint of a tense truth to her statement hidden just beneath the surface.
Nick pointed at her, an amused but tense expression on his face. "Point stands, Carrots. You handled that call like a champ. There's a reason why a performance commendation was written about you for that one. A large house full of starving and neglected rabbit kits is not something even seasoned cops can just shrug off. And, if I may again remind you since you brought it up, the reason we only knew something was up was because a neighbor called in complaining about a terrible stench. That as you found was coming from a decomposing rabbit body. And yet all of that you handled better than anyone thought you would. Even I was surprised."
A car drove by them, the number on the speedometer flashing 41. "He's over, Carrots. Should we go after him?" He prepared to light the roof rack, but in a very usual move, Judy didn't look like she was preparing to drive after the guy.
She let out a huff, crossing her arms in annoyance even as she couldn't help but smile at the compliments. "Let him go, it's not that much faster. Also, I'm sure he saw us and will be slowing down. But that incident? That was different, Nick. I don't know how, but different… I guess… We were able to help those kits, Nick. We took them away from that terrible place and now they're all being found new homes. Most of them are already adopted out! That neighbor calling about a stench? We made the world better with that call, Nick. That's why I became a cop. To help people. But Brian? That's different. And while I always knew people like that exists, I don't think I was quite as prepared to deal with what he did, and I wasn't even there for the worst of it."
"Don't beat yourself up over it. I think you're doing just fine, Fluff!"
The two of them sat in the car in silence for a few minutes, watching the traffic go by and checking the speeds on the radar display. Something about the conversation was rubbing Judy the wrong way, and she was struggling to figure out exactly what. To top it off, there was something else she wanted to tell Nick, as she swore he wasn't aware of the immediate future plans, but she didn't want to just ignore her feelings for the sake of changing the conversation.
"Say Nick," finally, she found at least the start to what she wanted to go over. "You said you've seen worse. What did you mean by it?"
The silence coming from her partner as Nick hummed and drummed his claws against the car dash meant that just as she suspected, she was touching upon a sore subject for him.
"Happytown is not a place that is welcoming to cops driving in and enforcing the law," he pointed out. "In turn, the cops who have to go there know that they don't get any courtesy from the locals, and in turn, aren't too concerned with giving any back. I've seen… Cops do bad things, Carrots. Growing up, I had plenty of reasons to hate cops. Feel free to ask Buffalo Butt about it, as I ran the whole list through him when he was making sure that I really, really wanted to apply to the police academy. Rather than, say, get revenge or something. But you know? In a strange way, if anything, it made me want to join up even more. Not just to prove him wrong, but to be able to go in, knowing everything I know and seeing everything I saw, I wanted to show him that if a rabbit cop can change me, than perhaps I can help change others too. Show people in Zootopia that police don't exist to beat them up and drag them out of their homes to jail."
"What… Did you see, Nick?" Judy asked quietly. "Growing up?"
Nick started counting off his fingers. "Planting evidence, threats to the locals in general, beating up innocents who did nothing wrong other than accidentally be in the way... the name calling? Learned most of my slurs from the cops, Fluff. The rest from my neighbors." He raised an eyebrow. "Those cops didn't like us, and we didn't like them, let's put it that way. Should I go on?" When Judy shook her head, he flashed her a grin, although it faded as a low growl escaped his throat instead. "Especially now that I wear a badge, if there's anything I truly hate in this world," he hissed, eyes narrowing dangerously, "I hate bad cops!"
Judy could only stare out the windshield solemnly. "Nick… I don't like bad cops too," she eventually mumbled, barely audibly and hoping that she wasn't treading on territory that he felt she wasn't allowed to cross. Would have been a lot better if she sounded sincere as she said it...
But whatever Nick's thoughts on her comment were, she would never find out as he let out a loud, exaggerated grunt of dismissal. "So what's with all the negativity, Carrots? Why not talk about something fun?" He flashed her a grin from the side of his muzzle. "Hey, since I know you can't help but be worried all the time about him, guess who I saw manage a smile today? Strikes, that's who!"
This did catch Judy off guard. When was the last time she had seen Trigger smile? Did Nick know that she had stopped by Bogo's office just the day before to beg him to find a way not to ship off the pilot back to the war? Finding her voice, she played along. "Okay, do you know what caused him to be in a good mood for a change?"
The gin only widened. "Sure do!" Nick confirmed smugly. "I got to supervise him and County as they were taken downstairs to our range and make sure that their gunnery skills were still up to standard." His voice lowered to a careful whisper. "Fluff? Between you and me, but while County is a better shot than Strikes, neither one of them can hit the broad side of a barn, from the inside. But apparently that's good enough for the OADF."
For an unknown reason, that brought out a chuckle from Judy. "Come on, they can't be that bad! They must've gotten training on how to use a gun!"
Nick shrugged. "Less then us apparently. Or they don't keep up at it. We certainly didn't let them practice until now, so they might have gotten rusty."
"Is it even safe?" Judy asked suddenly with a frown. "To let Humphrey handle a loaded weapon?"
Another shrug. "Didn't seem dangerous to me," Nick remarked. "Did somehow load the bullets into his magazine in backwards the first time around – don't ask me how he managed. Clearly, he's still not quite all there, if you get what I mean. But didn't show signs of being a danger to me, anyone else…" The last part he made sure to emphasize. "Or himself. But then again, I'm a cop, so I might have missed something that is obvious. But again, I didn't see anything."
"So what made him smile then?" Judy pressed on. "Doesn't sound like they did all that well, to be honest. What did they use? Pistols, or something bigger?"
Nick grunted dismissively. "They didn't have on them, and we don't stock whatever standard issue the OADF uses, so they had to borrow a pair of standard carry pieces from our armory," he explained. "As for what made him smile? I wasn't the only one supervising them. Our resident felide marksmammal also got to supervise them. Or tease them on their lack of ability, as it were."
"Oh darn, I wanted to see that!" Judy allowed herself a grin. One of the ways Clawhauser got to earn points and stay at Precinct One despite his unwillingness to maintain the physical requirements was by more than making up for them with his uncanny ability to score bullseyes. It was always a joke they would like to play on new recruits to the precinct, to put them up against the overweight receptionist, only to watch them inevitably fail. Even Judy herself didn't get to escape the shame of underestimating him. "But what does that have to do with Clawhauser?"
"I was getting to it, Carrots!" Nick wagged a finger at her. "Don't rush! So as I was explaining, County is the better shot compared to Strikes. As far as I can tell, they're good enough for their requirements. Maybe? Doesn't matter. Buffalo Butt won't be pleased with Strike's accuracy, that's for sure. But this did mean that Spots got to humiliate County by showing him how it's done, and I guess Strikes decided to vent out his frustration in the nearest rifle bay."
Judy started to piece the clues together. "Let me guess? He didn't miss."
Nick grinned again. "Only target already set up was one of the metal gongs. Let's just say that there were a few shocked muzzles down in that range when the only guy occupying a rifle lane was Strikes, with a standard issue iron-sighted sidearm. Then just to prove that it wasn't a fluke, he went and did it again with the next shot."
"And the third?" Judy pressed on.
"Wasn't a third," Nick said dismissively. "Range officer yelled at him to knock it off and not waste bullets on the wrong lanes." He drummed his claws on the dash again. "Asked him how he did it. Says he 'just did the math' whatever that means. Wasn't able to replicate the feat when it came to scoring on the exam though. If he were a cop with us, he'd be redefining the lowest score in the precinct. And earn himself a serious lecture with Buffalo Butt over it."
"So when you say one of the rifle lanes, that must have been what? Hundred yards? More?"
"He was aiming for the closest gong, so hundred," Nick confirmed. "But still. For a lousy shot? Two in a row?"
Judy perked up. "Maybe that's how he got his name 'Trigger'", she pointed out. "Say, while we're talking about him…" She pulled out her phone, inspecting the time, and eyes widening at what she saw. "Oh shoot! Sweet cheese and crackers, we're late!"
"Late for what? Still got hours on our shift!"
"I wanted to surprise you- We need to drive to the train station. Right now!" Even as she was explaining, she was already setting the gear and pulling into traffic. "Bogo let me know that we need to pick up Mead from the Zootopia Express!"
Even as he held onto the overhead bar to keep himself from being flung around by Judy's driving, Nick raised an eyebrow at her comment. "Mead? We're rushing to the train station to pick up some fermented honey?"
Judy winced. Did she want to spoil the surprise just to clear up the miscommunication? "Err..."
"Mead. Avril Mead" the first of two timber wolves introduced herself, awkwardly reaching over for a pawshake despite having to work around her heavy luggage and a rather bulky brace running up her entire right leg. Both her tank top and baggy pants were covered in grease and all sorts of other grime, and looked and smelled like neither had been washed in years. An odd clash in comparison to her more or less clean fur. "You the officers giving us a ride?"
"Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD," Judy accepted the shake first, then letting Nick exchange the gesture as well. "And the other wolf?" She gestured at the other timber wolf next to her, also bogged down with his own luggage.
"Tabloid," Avril confirmed. "His name's whatever it says on there, but as far as I'm concerned, I know him as just Tabloid."
"Afraid so," Judy commented with a frown, accepting the two ID's Mead gave to her. Sure enough, the first one confirmed the mechanic's identity, while the second one let her know Tabloid's: Tyler Galespaw. "Tabloid? Heard of you. You two from that penal unit? Pilots?" She made sure to keep her voice down so prevent any eavesdropping in this very public location, but with all of the noise of the train station and all of the disembarking passengers, there was little chance of anyone actually being able to listen in even if they wanted to. "What did you do to get 'volunteered'?" She gave back the IDs, noting that nothing unsual struck her about these Ocelotians.
That said, the glare she got from Avril was enough to start feeling all sorts of unnerved.
"I didn't do anything," the wolf answered sternly. "OADF knew I turned scraps from rusting wrecks into a flyable jet, and made up some crap about violating air regulations because I took it up on its maiden flight the very same hour the war decided to start!" She tapped the brace covering her leg. "Souvenir from getting shot down because I didn't get around to installing an IFF on what was by all accounts a civilian aircraft. Which is what I am, a civilian. But for now, I'm the chief mechanic at the unit. That's what I do, cop."
"So you're Scrap Queen?" Judy asked, recalling the name being mentioned a few times, not to mention the story of creating a flyable F-104 Starfighter out of spares and scraps. "And Tabloid, tell me that throwing a rock at a protest was the worst thing you did!"
Avril's glare softened a bit. "Guess Count and Trigger said some things? Correct on both counts, for that matter. And where are those two morons, anyways? I thought they'd be polite enough to greet us."
"They're back at the station," Nick answered casually. "Busy getting ready to fly again and all. Endless tests and courses, and a lot of unpleasantness, if you ask me. If you'll follow us back to our car, we'll drive you two over there."
"Would appreciate being driven to our hotel first," Avril grunted, using her free paw to roughly pull out a piece of paper from her pocket. "Address is, just a second…"
Going back out of the train station, it didn't take long to load the two wolves into the car and drive out towards their destination. Letting Nick drive, Judy made sure to carefully observe their two new arrivals even as she casually chatted them up, watching them carefully. An odd sense of deja vu stayed with her as she observed at just how engrossed they both were with staring outside at the city, barely paying attention to her. As odd as the feeling was, it wasn't that entirely unpleasant, bringing up memories of driving around on patrol with James, Trigger sitting in the back of the car as transfixed by Zootopia much as Tabloid and Mead were now.
"Did you two just fly in from that penal base, or..?" Judy started to ask.
"We've flown to a different airfield for a few days," Avril answered in a bored tone, eyes will glued to the window. "Us two, McKinsey, and Bandog, whom you already met. But for all intents and purposes, this is our first day back to civilization, didn't even let us stop by home before flying here. I need to get my leg looked at, which is tomorrow, then we need to drag Count and Trigger out of this city back with us. Hmm, about time they start earning their keep again. But between all of that? Yeah, 'bout time we got some time off. Say, I hear rumors about some concert we're supposed to go to?"
At this, Judy grinned. "The Gazelle Ocelita Relief concert! All profits will go towards the international aid being sent to Bana City." She hesitated. "You… Do know what happened to Bana City, right?"
"How can we not?" Avril scoffed. "Don't you think I'd be asking about all of these Ocelotian flags everyone's flying around even though we're in Animalia? Don't get me started about the usefulness of all of these slacktavists. It's not like they weren't all screaming about not giving us help, you know, before Urusia got the confidence to drop a WMD on us?"
Despite her previous excitement, now Judy was starting to feel quite terrible, even if she wasn't the one to bring it up. "Did you… lose anyone or-?"
"I live out in the desert, rabbit," Mead hissed. "And besides, everyone I cared about are already long gone. Don't mistake it to mean that I don't care about what happened. I'm as pissed off as every else! Tabloid got off lucky too. Can't say about others. Wasn't Trigger from Bana City? I know Count isn't. But whatever. Charity concert? Leave me out of it. I'll have a much better time finding something else to do here during that time."
She let out a grunt as Tabloid jabbed her in the ribs. "Come on, Scrap Queen! It's Gazelle! We'll have a day or two to just do whatever in the city! We have phone access, eat good food!.. Get yelled at by McKinsey, but who cares? And we'll meet Count and Trigger again! Try to relax and have some fun!"
"We're here to work, Tabloid!" Mead reminded the other wolf, although her tone sounded like it was merely a reminder and that she wasn't all too eager to follow through with it. "Where are our pilots, anyways? At the hotel or somewhere else?"
Nick glanced at the rear-view mirror to look at the two passengers in the back. "You think we kept them in a hotel? Nah, they're back at the station. We'll drop your things off, then bring you two over there. Pretty sure you need to meet up with our chief there as well. And don't be surprised if there'll be some ZIA dudes there too." Now it was his turn to grin as he remembered something completely different. "Say, it's starting to become a ritual with you Ocelotians when you drop by our fair city. You two hungry? We can introduce you to our beloved Buga-burgers!"
It was a shame he was only able to see the reaction through the small mirror, but hearing Tabloid's reaction was enough.
"No, really? Yes please!"
Judy turned around in her seat so that she can stare directly at the two Ocelotians. "Miss Mead?"
"...Fine." The disgruntled tone really failed to stand up to the clear eagerness towards the temptation.
Which was why when they finally walked though the front doors of Precinct One, the strong smell of freshly made but incredibly unhealthy grease-covered fast food following the two Ocelotions as they quickly polished off their 'welcome to Zootopia' gifts. Judy personally felt it more polite for them to actually arrive at the building before digging into the food, but she figured that even if half of what Count and Trigger used to complain about the quality of cuisine back at the airbase was, then it would have been very rude to have them wait in the car with the very strong smell and not be allowed to dig in. Certainly gave the back of the car a new meaning to the phrase 'hungry like the wolf'.
Taking charge and heading straight for the receptionist desk, Judy hopped up a stool so that she can see Clawhauser. "Look who we brought over, Ben! Tell Bogo that the Ocelotians are here, he'll need to know. Are Count and Trigger around?"
Ben put down the bowl of cereal he was munching on, perking up with excitement at the two new arrivals. "Downstairs I think, Judy. Working out in the gym or something." He turned his attention to the two Ocelotians. "Hi! I'm Benjamin Clawhauser, officer, but I run the front desk here. But please, call me Ben! What are your names? First time in Zootopia? Been here long? Welcome! Staying long? If you'll need any help, just ask me! Is that Buga-Berger I smell? Judy, you know that if they were hungry, you really should have brought them over my way first. Is that leg okay, miss? I hope it wasn't because of something we did! But even if it wasn't, I'm sure that we can-" he froze as an irritated growl from Mead crossed the desk.
"Count and Trigger are downstairs? Let's head over that way!" Tabloid urged quickly, pushing Mead away, Clawhauser already forgotten. Still, Tabloid was all excitement as he, obviously not knowing the actual way, practically forced Nick and Judy into a run down the stairs leading to the server room. "Say, do they even know we're here?" he asked excitedly, playfully flashing a salute to a very confused Officer Johnson, heading the other way with a large stack of files clasped protective from the crowd practically running him over in their haste.
"They already knew you were going to show up around now," Judy confirmed. "And I sent them a text after you dropped your things off in the hotel. So they know."
Tabloid shared a knowing smirk with Avril Mead. "Ah, sharing phone numbers already? That didn't take long."
Judy let out a groan. "Don't start please!" Arriving at the final door to the precinct gym room, she hesitated, pulling away her paw from the door handle just before pulling on it. She wasn't even sure why she didn't want all of them to just barge in right away. Turning to her partner, she vague waved at the two wolves instead. "Nick? Mind waiting with them? I want to check inside first."
Whether he even understood her request or not, but her partner more than trusted her to not need her to elaborate. "Go for it, Carrots. I'll hold the fort." With a reassuring grin, he even reached over and opened the door for her, letting her slip through without Tabloid or Mead following after her.
Despite the time of day, the gym room was more occupied than Judy excepted, and not in a normal way. Several officers were standing around the sparring mat blocking off her view on what everyone were watching. Pressing her way though the crowd, she hopped up to stand on the railing between James and Grizzoli. "How's it going? Who's winning?"
The wolf grimaced. "Take a guess. Not even a competition."
On the mat, Count and Trigger were squaring off against one another. Despite the protective gear they were wearing, a small trickle of blood stained the short fur just beneath the smaller pilot's nose.
Not having noticed the new arrival, Count had his gaze locked straight at his opponent. "Come on, Trig! Again! Get me!" He beckoned for his opponent to strike him, purposely leaving himself wide open. The observing officers cheered them on, further encouraging them.
With an angry growl, Trigger lunged at Count, gloved fist swinging wide at the taller pilot. Smoothly, Count leaned to the side, easily letting Trigger sail pass him, fist missing by a wide margin. As he stumbled past, Count reward the effort with a tap to the side of Trigger's head. Not even hard, but enough to send the pilot sprawling on the mat with a pained grunt.
"Been like that basically the entire time," James mumbled to Judy. "Been here for a good ten, twenty minutes now."
Count helped Trigger up to his feet. "Again," he complained. "I know I can hit you, but we won't stop until you get a hit on me in." He stepped to the side as Trigger made another attempt. "Makes sense you can only kill as a pilot. Can't harm a mouse the way you fight on the ground," he taunted, grinning as he got another angry growl from Trigger. "You can't aim a gun. Can't brawl. What are you even good at?" He dodged another poorly aimed fist. "Unless you have a guided missile inside those gloves of yours, we'll be here all day!" As Trigger prepared for another attempt, Count leaned closer to his level. "Or are you happy with being so useless that you'll let the Urusians go off and kill whatever family you have left?"
"Count, that was uncalled for!" Even as the officers standing around winced at the poorly worded taunt, Judy was practically ready to hop over the ropes and pull him in after her.
Standing up quickly, a surprised Count turned toward her. "Oh, hey, Judy! Didn't see you th- oomf!"
If the angry growls from before were merely Trigger being pissed off, they were nothing compared to the fury escaping him as he lunged at the second pilot, sending both of them plummeting to the ground, Count only just able to protect his head with his arms as Trigger pummeled at him.
In an instant, the officers watching the fight were jumping over the side ropes, rushing over to the two pilots and pulling them apart. For all of his anger directed at Count, Trigger barely resisted them as James locked his arms behind his back. "The hell is wrong with you, pup?" the officer growled out in turn, grunts barely audible over the pilot's own anger. "Are you trying to get yourself stuck here until the end of time?"
Resisting with only the most token of effort for a few moments, Trigger struggled a bit more against his restraint before calming down and slumping against the officer. "I- he shouldn't have said that!" he whimpered in explanation, shooting an angry glare at Count. "Couldn't you have come up with something better to piss me off, asshole?"
Despite being the one on the receiving end of the attack, Count was grinning down at his fellow pilot. "I'm a pilot, not a poet," he retorted, easily shrugging off a probe from Judy. "Don't expect me to be good with words. Besides, it worked, didn't it? Finally got a strike out of you that I couldn't avoid. But you're still the one who's bleeding, not me." He checked where he received a hard punch, but didn't find anything. "Yeah, I'm fine." His grin faded slightly. "You were fine at the range this morning, but was completely out of it since then. What gives?"
James carefully let Trigger loose, but the pilot didn't try anything after being let go. Instead, Trigger bitterly tore off his gloves and head harness, letting them drop to the floor without a second thought.
"Humphrey?" With Count unhurt, Judy turned her attention to the smaller pilot. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing!" Trigger grumbled, getting himself a few chuckles of disbelief from the other officers.
"You really want to try that while surrounded by police?" Grizzoli asked. "Have you been drinking, by any chance?"
Since the answer to that was an obvious negative, Trigger shot him a nasty look.
James pulled the pilot back close to him, just in case. "Trigger? You've been doing okay so far today. Did something happen recently? You were in a good mood since the gun range, for that matter."
"I said nothing!" Trigger crossed his arms, backing away from the others. "I was in a good mood! Not anymore. Just leave it alone!"
"Humphrey…" Judy warned, tone low. Did he forget that both she and James both had quite the sway in whether he was going to be returned to flight duty or not?
"I just-" His eyes were wide as he glanced between James and Judy. Count, his own safety gear also removed, came over and placed his arms over his shoulders protective, sensing that there was something going on after all.
"Go on," she urged.
Trigger's eyes fell down to the mat. "I'm tired of failing all of these tests," he admitted. "Not that you know what that feels like." The last comment was hurriedly sent in Judy's direction before he returned to glaring at the mat.
Ignoring the cheap if not incorrect shot, Judy took a moment to ponder the implications of what he was saying. "It's not like you're still being grounded or anything," she reminded him. "I would know, for one, if you were going to stay here. And besides, you're going through a lot." She motioned at James. "You're not the only one with difficulties focusing on your work. You're not the first mammal who was asked to do a lot while dealing with a load of stress."
"Like you would know!" Trigger growled.
"As a matter of fact, I do know," Judy said sternly but calmly, crossing her own arms. "Not as severely as what you are dealing with, but I do know. Look, you really need to relax. I know it's hard right now, but you can't succeed if you don't allow yourself to calm down first. Gazelle's concert is tomorrow, remember? But before that-" She paused, muzzle slowly breaking into a grin. "For now, I have a surprise for you. You and Count."
Trigger only grunted. "Great, another surprise. Like I didn't have enough of those already. Not with one failed test after another all showing up at the same time."
Count gripped his shoulders hard. "Come on, Trig. You know they need Three Strikes back up and flying. They'll have you retake those stupid tests as many times as you'll need until you pass, you know that. So go on, Judy, what's the surprise?"
"Wait here!" Spinning around, Judy rushed back to the door where she had forgotten that Nick and the two new Ocelotian arrivals were still waiting for her.
To say that they didn't look pleased when she did open the door was an understatement. Well, Nick was fine, being used to waiting around for work. But Tabloid and especially Mead didn't seem to appreciate the dullness.
"They're inside," Judy told them. "Ready to see them again?"
"Only took you long enough, rabbit," Avril complained. "Come on Tabloid, let's go meet those two dumbasses again."
Shoving past Judy, the two Ocelotians went into the gym to where the other officers were blocking the view of Count and Trigger.
James watched them wearily, noting their civilian clothing as really clashing with the officer uniforms of Nick and Judy following close behind them. Not to mention the leg brace. "I don't recognize you. Judy? Mind explaining who these are?"
"Don't know who we are?" Mead scoffed. "I was told you know we're showing up. We're-… we're… oh, fuck..." She stopped, finally seeing Count and Trigger again for the first time. "Well boys, it's been a long time, has it not?"
It was months since they had seen each other before, at a different continent. And now they were standing with only feet separating them once more.
Braking the silence, Count, still holding onto Trigger by the shoulders, flashed a toothy grin at her. "Hey Scrap Queen! Looking just like I remembered you! And is that you, Tabloid, you magnificent bastard? Still alive after all this time? Told you that you had it in you to make it outta there! And okay, might've heard a rumor or two flying around that you two might show up. And a text or two. Still, I have to say that it's… I mean, it's great to see you again! I just… Wow!"
Pushing past the officers, Tabloid rushed forward and embraced Count in a large hug, the gesture eagerly returned with equal vigor.
In order to avoid being squeezed by the two, Trigger had to scramble away, finding himself facing muzzle to muzzle with an amused Mead looking down at him. "I uh… hey," he stammered, eyes wide in shock at seeing her again.
"Trigger? If you're wondering if I'm real or not, then you can rest easy that I'm not a ghost, dumbass," Avril told him with a very amused smirk. "And if you need to have a reminder from when we first met, no, I'm not going to bite." Spreading her own arms out, she beckoned for him. "Now come on! Show me you still know how to greet a lady!"
Seeing that the shortest pilot was still frozen in shock, Judy shared a smirk with Nick and did what she could see he was already planning on doing. Not this time, Nick. Now she will beat him to the punch.
And roughly elbowed Trigger right in the back, and sending him stumbling right into Mead's waiting arms.
