The months passed quickly for the pair. The time in between was rather uneventful. Routine patrols lead to predictable work. But the slow workdays did nothing to dull their spirits. Nick and Judy's anticipation for their leave grew each day.
Now just under two weeks until the start of their vacation, the fox and bunny find themselves spending their lunch break in a small Meadowlands eatery with Nick's mother, Mary. The waitress leaving the table Nick and Judy are sitting at as Mary briskly walks up.
"Sorry, I hope I didn't make you two wait too long," she said as she scoots into the booth across from her son and daughter-in-law.
"You didn't Mary. The server was just taking our drink orders," Judy says with a smile. "We ordered you an iced tea."
"Thank you, dear."
"I assume dad couldn't make it?" Nick says, noticing his father's absence.
"I'm afraid not. Not that he wanted to miss out on spending time with you guys. He's just been very busy with a special order and wants to make sure it's finished and the shop clean before we all go to Bunnyburrow."
For all of Nick's life and before, his father had been saving money to open a tailoring shop. Though for the longest time it was a dream that seemed impossible. Both his parents worked to put food on the table. But despite that, there never seemed to be much money left over to put into saving. On top of that, surprise expenses seemed to plague the dream as well.
In more recent years Mary and John were able to hold better paying jobs and put back more money and not have to live paycheck to paycheck. But despite that, the dream still seemed a long way off. But that all changed recently when the Hopps decided to invest in John's dream in a gesture of goodwill and friendship when Nick and Judy started dating.
John didn't take long to get the ball rolling. The modest amount of clout that Nick and Judy had from the Night Howlers incident helped to bring in a steady flow of business.
"What have you two been up to, other than making the world a better place?" Mary asked.
"Last night I dragged Nick to dance lessons. I want to make sure he's ready for all the barn dance New Years Eve" Judy said. "You should have seen him. He fell down on at least three separate occasions," Judy laughed.
"I tried to explain to her that I have two left foot paws, but she refused to believe me. Wouldn't even look down so I could prove it," Nick retorted. "I can still prove it to you, Fluff."
Nick brushed one of his foot paws against Judy's ankle and wiggled his toes against it, eliciting a small squeal from her. Judy boxes his shoulder in response. "Okay, I yield, I yield, madam," he begs.
"Oh Nick, you are such a child sometimes," his mother laughs.
"Yeah, but I'm your child," Nick says to his mother. He then leans against Judy to nuzzle against her. "And Your dumb fox, Carrots."
Mary rolls her eyes at her son. "Your father and I did a little two-stepping back in the day. The whole trucker slash country thing was popular for a bit with a few popular movies in the seventies and eighties. Though, it was just a passing fad here in the city and the dance halls moved on to the next popular thing. I'll have to see if John still has his moves."
The waitress come back with their drinks and takes their lunch orders. The conversation shifts to the upcoming holidays and Nick and Judy's recent marriage.
"Oh Nicky, Anne called me this morning," Mary says, referring to her daughter, Nick's sister. "She said she was able only able to get leave for Christmas Eve through New Years Day."
"At least she got the days that matter," Nick replies.
They sit in silence for a moment while they eat their meals that have since arrived. Mary ordered a chicken Caesar salad. Judy ate her garden salad while sneaking a shrimp or two from Nick's grilled shrimp po' boy.
"This has definitely a departure from a typical wedding," Mary finally says. "Your father and I were worried that you would miss having a big ceremony."
"Carrots and I did discuss it a lot," Nick says after licking any sauce off his claws after finished half his sandwich. "But there was really no realistic way we could get more than a few of them to attend with how farm work is."
"And it would have been unfair to my other siblings for my parents to be a part of a big wedding ceremony for us." Judy continues from where Nick left off.
Nick and Judy's wedding was just as unceremonious as the rest of her married siblings. Much to the initial dismay of Mary and John. But they understood why after a long conversation with the rabbit and their son.
Bonnie and Stu made time one weekday afternoon to drive out to the city, along with a couple of Judy's closest siblings. Both Judy and Nick worked a half day and had just enough time to change into a couple sets of nice clothes before meeting their family outside the courthouse. It was a beautiful warm sunny day, and the mood of the odd-looking wedding party was jovial.
After the paperwork had been finalized and a certificate provided, the gaggle of foxes and bunnies made their way across town to Nick's parents' house. Mary insisted that she bake the cake for them this time around to give Bonnie a break from all the ones she's made for her married children. John provided a bottle of champagne for which he put on ice before dinner.
Even though the cake was made ahead of time, Bonnie in turn insisted that she help Mary in the kitchen to make dinner. Citing the desire to learn more about preparing fish and poultry for her newly minted in-laws. The house was feeling a little cramped with four foxes and five bunnies, including Nick's sister Anne and Judy's sisters Violet and Janet. But to Bonnie and Stu it felt and sounded like another night in the burrow with the laughter and festiveness of the evening.
Eventually the night wound down. Anne returned home needing to rest for work earlier in the morning. Nick and Judy bid everyone a good night as John drove them to their apartment so they could spend their first night together as a married couple. The remaining Hopps stayed the night in Mary and John's home before returning to Bunnyburrow the next morning.
They stayed in Nick and Anne's old childhood bedrooms. The rooms were converted into guest rooms. John and Mary figured they were going to need the guest rooms considering the many new family members they acquired that afternoon.
"Unit fourteen, ten-eighty…" Judy's ears stand up as the radios on Judy and Nick's duty belts crack. "Meadowlands – eastbound on uhh… five hundred block of Saint Augustine boulevard."
"Hey, that sounds like Wolfard," Judy says.
"And it sounds like the chase he's engaged in is coming our way," Nick completes Judy's thought for her. "Well, I think our lunch break was about over anyway. I think we need to go assist that." Nick fishes a fifty-dollar note out if his wallet and throws it on the table.
"Sorry Mary, I wish we could talk a little more, but duty calls." Judy says as the three of them get up. Nick and Judy give Mary a brief hug.
"I understand. You two go do what you need to do. Just be careful," Mary says as they break the hug.
"We will mom," Nick says. "We'll see you and dad Sunday for dinner."
With that the two officers scurried out the door and into their police cruiser. Judy starts the car just in time to watch a speeding sedan fly by, closely followed by Wolfard's squad car.
"Let's get this show on the road, Carrot. We can't let Eric have all the fun," Nick flips the switch for the sirens and dons his aviators as Judy joins the pursuit.
The suspect weaves in and out of traffic, barely hitting other cars. The two police cars follow closely behind as they dodge other motorists trying to get out of the way. It's a delicate dance. Judy must be on her toes when speeding past traffic.
All too often, mammals see the flashing red and blue lights in their rearview mirrors, unsure of which way around them the cop car intends to go. This is made worse when they are weaving left and right around the slower traffic. It's not uncommon for a wrong move to be made and end up sideswiping a speeding police car responding to an emergency.
Nick's ears splay back as he watches the fleeing vehicle charge through a red light at a busy intersection. The car appears to almost clear the intersection unscathed. However, its rear bumper is clipped by a pickup truck causing it to lose control.
The car skids into a ditch where it gets stuck. Behind it, Wolfard makes passage through the intersection without incident as the cross traffic came to a halt after the fleeing car passed through. Nick and Judy close being.
From the stalled car, a weasel jumps out and makes a break for it into a nearby field.
"Unit 14 on foot. Intersection of Saint Augustine and Prairie," the radio lights up with the wolf's voice once again as Nick and Judy watch him park his car near the abandoned get-away vehicle and run after the weasel into the field.
The bunny and fox do much the same as the wolf and pursue weasel.
"Eric!" Judy shouts as she watches him trip and take a tumble into the tall grass.
She continues ahead of where Eric had fallen, jumping over him. Nick is right behind her to provide backup. Eventually, the weasel reaches the other side of the field but finds himself cornered against a large flat wall where Judy tackles him to the ground. The two wrestle while she attempts to put cuffs on him until Nick catches up to aid Judy.
They turn the weasel over to identify him. "You just can't stay out of trouble can you Weaselton?" Judy says. Both she and Nick are unsurprised by this reveal.
"This is what? The fifth time we've had to arrest him?" Judy asks. She and Nick sit in their office cubical while typing up the arrest report for Weaselton. "And that's not telling who knows how many times he's been arrested by others.
"You said it yourself, Carrots, some folks just never learn." Nick replies, though he does not look away from his terminal while busily filling out the report for the day's incident.
They then hear a knock on their cubical wall. The pair turn to see Bogo leaning over it. "You two got a minute?" the water buffalo asks.
"Sure Chief, is Eric alright? He took a nasty fall this afternoon."
"He'll be alright," the Chief replies. "This is actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Wolfard sustained a minor leg injury. Nothing serious. All that tall grass obscures any holes that might be in the ground, and he happened to step in one. His doctor ordered him to stay off that leg for the next two weeks."
Judy looks at Bogo with concern. "But who's going to fill in for him? We're in the middle of all the holidays. The department's practically a skeleton crew at the moment."
"I'm moving some schedules around, but I think I can make it work. However, I'm going to have to shift your leave back by a few days. That won't be a problem for you two, will it?"
"No sir"
Truthfully it was not going to be an issue for Nick and Judy. They'd just leave for Bunnyburrow a few days later than planned and come back a few days after New Years.
Later that evening, the two police officers retire to their home where they sit and watch the evening news. Judy is curled up next to Nick. In return, her husband curls his tail around her like a blanket while he drapes his arm around her shoulder. While the television is on, the sound is muted.
"Oh goodness, is he alright?" Bonnie asks. Judy is on a Muzzletime call with her parents to relay the events of the day and their updated trip schedule.
"Yeah. Our chief didn't specify exactly what the injury was, but that Eric just has to stay off his leg for the next two weeks. And now I leave starts three days later." Judy absent-mindedly plays with the tip of Nick's tail while she talks to her mother.
"What about Mary and John? Have you told them yet?"
Nick reaches his paw out to take the phone from Judy and point it up towards him so he can look at Bonnie. "We told mom and dad just before calling you, Bonnie. They decided to stick to their plans. They still want to help set up everything for all the partying we'll be doing. They'll just be traveling down towards you guys ahead of us instead of with us."
"Okay," Bonnie says "You two look tired, so I'll let you go so you can get ready for bed. Love you Judy, love you too Nick."
"Love you too, mom" Nick and Judy say in unison.
"And send dad our love as well," Judy finishes.
"I will, Bunbun. Goodnight."