43... 54... 53... 56...

The red seven-segment display illuminates the dashboard of the police cruiser. It flashes with a new number as the radar gun strikes each passing vehicle. The sound of tires rolling down pavement is white noise to the bunny and fox sitting comfortably in their seats. The pattering of artificial rain taps against the windshield as it blends into the other sounds. Occasionally a vehicle motors past.

55… 55… 50… 59…

The duo has been assigned to traffic enforcement today. Their police car parked on the shoulder of an onramp in the Rainforest District, out of view of the commuters on the highway above. Ready to pounce like a stalking lion.

Judy sits in the driver's seat. She leans against the driver's side door. Elbow resting on the window seal with her head in her palm. She wears a bored expression as she watches the traffic up ahead of them while monitoring the radar gun.

56… 58… 57… 49…

The speed limit on this stretch of highway is fifty-five miles per hour. But the officers allow some leniency in their traffic enforcement. Much to Nick's insistence. On their first assignment of traffic enforcement, Judy had wanted to issue tickets for every infraction, no matter how small. Even for a single mile per hour over the limit.

After more than a few angry drivers, Nick reigned her in. He explained that while the tickets were justified, that it wasn't worth the angry encounters. More importantly, catching every very minor infraction ties them up from going after more serious infractions and dangerous driving.

55… 56… 57… 57…

Judy turns her head to the left to look out the driver's side window to watch a car accelerate up the ramp past them. She catches the gleam of the gold band on her finger in the reflection on the window. Her lips curl up in a smile as she thinks of her husband. She then turns her head to the right to look at him across the center console.

He dons his sunglasses while he suckles on the lip of his coffee cup. His gaze is fixed on the mobile data computer fixed into the passenger-side of the cruiser. While Judy monitors the radar gun, Nick keeps his eyes on the computer as it reads license plates of the passing vehicles.

"Got any ideas?" Judy asks.

"About what? Overcoming death by boredom? The only thing worse than this is parking duty."

"No, Slick." Judy rolls her eyes. She moves from where she was resting against the car door to the other side of her almost comically large car seat and leans over the center console. "How we're going to convince him to let us drop a big bunch of our PTO onto Christmas and New Year's. Maybe if we approach him all super nice…" Judy's train of thought falls off as she thinks of ways to appease the police chief.

"I don't think Chief Buffalo Butt cares much for sucking up, Fluff. Believe me, I've tried… At least a dozen times." Nick starts to count with his with the tips of his claws. "At least half of those times involved parking duty. But we'll think of something. I think our best bet is to explain the significance of the end of the year."

The winter festivities at the end of the year are exceptionally important to the Hopps family, as well as other rabbits and mammals in general that tend to have large families. The number of family members makes planning wedding ceremonies expensive and impractical. Especially on a farm where free time is a luxury that cannot always be afforded.

Weddings tend to be rather unceremonious. Usually involving a handful of friends and close family members on a ride into town towards the county courthouse. Bonnie and Stu always made sure to celebrate with the Newlyweds in the evening after the day's chores and farm work was completed.

Bonnie always keeps ingredients on hand to make a wedding cake of the couple's preference. Stu keeps a cellar stocked with wine and will select a bottle he thinks they will like. Then they will spend a couple hours with the new couple and the spouse's parents in a private setting before letting the newlyweds retire for their first night as husband and wife.

To celebrate all the new unions, the Hopps family fills the days between Christmas and New Year's Day with various festivities. Food, music, and dancing fill the week before a fireworks display to capstone the holidays and the year.

59… 54… 61… 97…

"Look alive, Hopps! We got ourselves a wild one." Nick reaches across the dashboard to flip on the sirens.

"Hopps? I thought we were the Wilde ones here, Slick" Judy smirks as she gestures between their two nametags.

"Ouch, Carrots. You need to work on your puns." Nick says as he feigns cringing. "Now put the car in to drive so we can catch our baddie. The department doesn't pay you to sit there and look gorgeous, gorgeo—Ow!"

Judy punches his shoulder as the cruiser whips out onto the freeway. "That's enough of that, Slick. Run the plate while I pull him over."

"Mean bunny" Nick mumbles as he runs the plate number through the computer. He then lets out a howling laugh.

"What?"

"Flash, you crazy hotrodder you. That speed demon is at it again."


The two small officers walk up the front steps of Precinct One. Normally, they'd park their cruiser in the underground parking garage directly underneath the building, but the cruiser was due for its regular maintenance. The ZPD is a large enough police department to justify operating its own maintenance garage. As well as its own fuel pumps for the officers to top off every morning. Unfortunately, this compound is offsite away from the city center. It's apart of the larger, sprawling compound of Precinct five on the edge of town.

Nick and Judy had to add a thirty-minute ride subway ride back to Precinct One onto their already long day. Judy remembered her ride-a-longs she did back in Bunnyburrow before she enrolled at the academy. While the town was large enough to support its own police force and not need the resources of the county sheriff, it did not have the resources to hire its own mechanics. One ride-a-long ended with the old police car being dropped off at her Uncle Terry's garage and gas station to have a leak fixed.

The fox and rabbit eventually find their way to the front steps of their home precinct. An exhausted look was painted on Judy's features.

"Never has writing a ticket taken that long. It took Flash fifteen minutes just to reach for his wallet." Judy pulled at her ears. "And another fifteen minutes for him to produce his insurance and registration!" She releases her ears and waves her paws in the air in frustration.

"Not like we could give him a warning, since we've already given him one… or three. It's a wonder he still has his license. Maybe we should open an investigation for corruption at the DMV." Nick ponders but not without an amused smirk.

Judy stops just at the top of the stairs and turns to Nick to grab his tie and pull him down to eye level. "And you didn't help at all when you told flash another joke." She glares at him. "And with Priscilla in the car!"

"You know me. Taking on the department's PR challenges, one angry driver at a time. Not that Flash was angry." Their noses were only inches apart as Judy stared her husband down. "Now let's see Bogo, Officer Carrots. Before we break department PDA guidelines."

The two of them continue inside.

"Nick! Judy! How has your day been?" The portly cheetah at the reception desk calls out.

"Long, Clawhauser." Judy said flatly.

Clawhauser leans over his desk. "It can't be all that bad, you guys looked like you were about to kiss you out there."

Judy's ears heat up. She looks back at the glass doors, forgetting that everyone inside could have seen them out there.

"Um…, is Chief available? Nick and I need to see him" Judy asks, changing the subject.

"Absolutely, honeybun! I'll let him know you on your way up."

The duo makes their way to Chief Bogo's office. The extended traffic stop with Flash prevented the two from formulating any real plan of attack in regards to asking for all the time off that they want. The door to Chief Bogo's office is cracked one when Judy gently knocks against it. "Chief?" She calls out.

"Come in," the Chief's unmistakable gruff voice answers.

Nick follows Judy into the office.

"Hopps. Wilde. Staying out of trouble, I hope." The chief says as he finishes typing on his workstation. A computer desk, separate from his more formal, oak desk centered in the room.

Judy changed her surname to Wilde when they married. All the proper paperwork was filed and a new nametag. The plaque on her desk in the precinct also changed. Legally and officially, she is Judith Wilde. But to alleviate confusion within the department, she is still unofficially still referred to as Hopps.

"Us? Getting into trouble?" Nick says with mock offense as he balls his fist against his chest. "Sir, Hopps and I always manage to stay on the right side of life."

The Chief grunts. He then moves from his computer to his desk. "You won't be if you came in here to waste my time. Sit, please." Bogo removes his glasses and watches as his two smallest officers climb onto the chair opposite the desk from him. "Now, what can I do for you two."

"We we're hoping you could give us some time off around Christmas and New Year's." Judy starts.

"I see," the chief says as he pulls out a paper calendar. Judy sees out of the side of her vision; Nick's lips curl up as he begins to make a joke about the old-fashioned calendar. Judy gives a jab to his side to hush him and elicits a slight yelp from the tod.

Bogo glances up from his desk at Nick, "did you say something, Officer Wilde?"

"No sir."

"It's a good thing you came to me early in the year. A lot of officers try to schedule the holidays off, and I can only award so much leave at any given time." With a pencil in hand the Chief asks, "alright Hopps, what dates were you looking at?"

"Well sir, we were looking at a week before Christmas until the day after New Year's."

The pair watch as Bogo scribbles something down on his calendar.

"That's quite the amount of leave." Bogo comments. "While you both have the available PTO, I typically don't schedule stretches of leave that long around the holidays because of how turbulent they can be."

Judy's ears droop after hearing her police chief's explanation. "Chief, uhh… this time of year is important for bunnies. Especially since it's Nick and my first—"

Bogo raises his hoof up to interrupt Hopps, "approved."

Judy's ears stand back up and her jaw drops a little. "Wait, what?"

"When your fellow officers nor I failed to receive an invitation to your wedding, I did a little investigation of my own." he says with a slight grin on his face.

"Oh, well, you see, Chief…" Judy tries to explain.

"You don't need to explain anything, Hopps. Like I said, I did my own investigation into the matter to understand how rabbit weddings work. So, consider this my wedding gift to you and Wilde." Bogo finishes as he looks onto his officers with a genuine smile.

"Aw, Chief you do care" Nick quips.

"Shut your trap Wilde, or you'll work holidays for the rest of your career." Bogo's brick wall stare returns to his face. "Now get out of my office before I change my mind."

Judy pulls Nick out of their shared chair and leads him out of the office "Thank you, Chief!" She hollers on their way out.

Done with their shift at work, they make their way to their personal vehicle parked down in the parking garage. Judy's practically jumping around Nick and beaming with joy.

"Slow down Fluff, where's the fire? Where'd all this energy come from? You were a zombunny on our way here fifteen minutes ago."

"I can't help it, Nick! I'm just so excited that we'll be home for Christmas! We can hit the ground running with gift shopping. We can hit Targoat on the way to the apartment."

"Really, Carrots? Right now?" Nick says with a tired look. "Christmas is a few months away."

"Well, we can't let it sneak up on us. So, no time like the present to well… get presents. Come one slow poke, race you to the car!" Judy says before hoping away. Nick chuckles before chasing after her.


I'm not much of a fan of author notes, so I'll keep this short and sweet.

This is a story, I guess. It is more of a combination of different ideas I've had floating in my head about Nick and Judy and their interactions with their families. I'm quite fond of these interactions in other stories,

especially when they are done well. However, I cannot promise that any of the characters are in character. Probably aren't to begin with, but... whatever?

It is a story with a beginning, middle, and end. It's somehow exposition heavy and plotless at the same time. I have probably eight chapters planned, five of them have been written out. And I'm shooting for 2,000 words each. It's by far the largest work I've written and first in quite some time. And all of the other things were one-offs.

Enjoy.