I opened my eyes blearily, awakened by the harsh noise of Judy's alarm. She was curled up into a little ball, pressed against my chest. Aching and sore, I groaned and began to stretch as Judy stirred.
"Why do we keep falling asleep on couches?" I asked, fighting back a yawn.
"Mm, good question," she replied, drowsily shaking her head in an attempt to wake up faster. "You wanna shower first? I can get some coffee going."
"Yes, pleeeease," I replied, lazily slinking back down from my stretching. I nuzzled the spot between Judy's ears briefly before hauling myself to my feet. She responded in kind with a little peck to my cheek, and I grinned sheepishly.
Humming a little to myself as I made my way to Judy's bathroom (much nicer than mine and never out of hot water), I felt a lot lighter than I had the past few days. The way Loxley's case shook out still bothered me, but a lot of my demons had been put to bed. Judy loved me, and I wasn't going to just get kicked off the force at any second.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, pulling me from my thoughts. A brief text from Bogo awaited.
Special assignment today, do not report to bull pen. Proceed to Peace Fountain.
I responded with a saluting emoji, something I hoped would cause him to snort heavily out of disapproval. I laughed at myself and got ready to shower.
"What do you think Bogo's special assignment is?" I asked as we started off towards the precinct. One of Judy's only requests when I offered to find her a new place was to be within walking distance of Precinct 1, which I'd mostly managed. It was maybe a twenty minute walk, but still doable.
"Peace Officer Memorial Day, don't get your hopes up," she replied.
"Isn't Memorial Day at the end of the month?" Judy shook her head.
"Not the same thing. Peace Officer Memorial Day is specifically for local, state, and federal police. The capitol does a whole Police Week, but even in a city as big as Zootopia it mostly amounts to just today." I was a little stunned by Judy's seemingly cavalier attitude to what practically amounted to a holy day for die-hard police like her.
"Seems to me like you'd be more excited for that than you currently are, Fluff," I remarked, paws in pocket. Her smile became thin and brittle.
"The Nighthowler attacks were really starting to ramp up by then. I barely even remember what the precinct did for PO Day, but…" Her voice trailed away briefly. "I'll never forget the riot at Peace Fountain later that week during the Pred Rights Rally."
I gave Judy what I hoped was a loving squeeze on the shoulder.
"It feels like forever ago to me," I said softly. "Another life." She smiled brightly at that, and a lot of her previous pep went back into her step. "Would you mind if we took lunch in Happytown on Friday?" I asked. "My mom wants to meet up again, she works at a diner there."
"Of course, Nick," Judy replied, taking my paw in hers. "That sounds great!"
"I'd ask if you'd be all right at a primarily pred diner, but I think you might be more carnivorous than me," I joked. She gave a little huff, the insides of her ears turning a deeper pink. "Have you talked with your family since Sunday?"
"A little," she answered. "On Monday, when you slept at your place. She hasn't told Dad yet, thankfully, but we'll have to deal with him at some point." She slowed a little. "Maybe in person?"
"What, you mean like, visit Bunnyburrow?" I asked. Mental images flashed of pitchforks and torches and angry mobs, and I shuddered.
"Yeah!" Judy began to hop a little with every step she took now. "I'd love for you to meet my family and see where I grew up!"
"We're talking about the same mammals that sent you to Zootopia with Fox-Away, right?" I asked sarcastically.
"Actually, they tried to send me with a lot worse but I talked them down to the repellant."
Wow, that made me feel better.
"Ah, I guess it'll be fine," I relented after a moment. "Who's gonna attack me when I'm with super cop Judy Hopps?" Judy gave me a little shove, laughing.
…
I've lived in Zootopia my entire life; never even left the city, in fact. I've seen and been a part of many different festivals, fairs, farmer's markets, parades, and everything in between. But PO Day, as Judy had called it, was…not much, to be honest.
"What's with the low turnout?" I asked, nudging my rabbit partner with an elbow. "You probably have more siblings than there are mammals here, and that includes Bogo and the others from the precinct." She slapped me lightly.
"That's a bunny stereotype, Nick, we don't all have huge families with hundreds of kits!"
"How many siblings do you have, Carrots?" Judy's ears turned red again as she mumbled something into her collar. "What was that?"
"…Twenty-one." I nodded sanctimoniously.
"Your poor mother," I said. "Maybe we should visit the old 'Burrow, get a restraining order put between your mom and your dad."
"Stop it!" Judy exclaimed, giggling and slapping lightly at my side. One swift look from Bogo, who was seated onstage a platform that had been erected in front of the fountain, sobered us both up, and we shifted back to attention.
The massive but equally wrinkled bull elephant at the podium, a retired former police commissioner, had been waxing on and off about duty and sacrifice for the past half hour and the small assembly gathered had been checked out of his speech since minute three. His watery eyes darted from mammal to mammal as he spoke, as though he were profiling each one to determine potential threats.
"But seriously, though," I half-whispered. "Is this really it?"
"It's not exactly a street fair, Nick," Judy replied. "It's to honor officers who died in the line of duty. And you know sentiment towards the police isn't exactly…great right now." I shrugged, conceding her point.
"…and it is thanks to model officers like Officers Hopps and Wilde, here, that both the citizens and peace officers of Zootopia remain safe!" The police commissioner's speech dragged me away from my conversation with Judy as a hundred or so pairs of eyes turned to look at us.
Judy abruptly sprang into a bright smile; I adopted a much more awkward, pained grimace. I don't think I've felt so on the spot in front of so many mammals since my graduation from the police academy. Judy waved a paw and I followed suit.
"These two officers, while greenhorns in most senses, are a perfect example of the spirit of Zootopia and the pledge of service we take as police officers," the commissioner continued, and I groaned internally, hoping he wouldn't go on a long tangent that would keep us in the spotlight. "We thank all our officers, both living and deceased, for their tireless and often thankless service to this great city. With that, I'd like to turn the time back over to Precinct One's police chief, Atticus Bogo." A polite smattering of applause briefly filled the square as the elephant returned to his seat, replaced at the podium with Bogo.
"Excellent words, from our former police commissioner James Nyugen," Bogo spoke, his voice booming even without the microphone. "We would like to remind everyone gathered that this is a memorial service and that a respectful decorum is appreciated. That being said, we are also here to celebrate the achievements of our peace officers, and will open up the buffet lines now."
The quiet trickling of the fountain was very quickly replaced by the drone of a hundred murmured conversations; the assembled crowd beginning to move towards a long line of folding tables stacked with catered food for all diets.
Several mammals stopped close by us long enough to give us broad smiles or a quick "thank you for your service", before rejoining the throng of people in search of free food. A few, however, peeled off and asked to take pictures with Judy, mostly smaller mammals.
A large paw came down heavily on my shoulder startling me.
"The mammals of the hour," a somewhat familiar voice drawled, their breath heavy with the bad coffee from the precinct. "Officers Hopps and Wilde, city heroes." I turned to find an unfamiliar grey wolf at my shoulder, grinning at me and my partner. As a more familiar red wolf appeared at his side, I suddenly recognized the voice.
"Detective Howlton," I said, suddenly feeling the weight of his paw on my shoulder even more acutely. "Nice to meet you in the fur."
"Likewise," he replied, though his ear jerked slightly to one side as he did so. "My partner insisted we come speak to you two once the rabble went for the grub."
Judy's presence felt ice-cold at my side, and her expression was stony and professional when I chanced a quick look her way.
"I wanted to apologize again, Hopps; I didn't mean to imply nothing about your partner here. I was just talking statistics, that's all. Nothing but data and numbers, nothing personal." Lowell cut in as the stoic look on Judy's face quickly became stormy the more Howlton spoke.
"Hey, Pete, why don't you grab us some hot dogs, huh? And a pickle on the side for me." Howlton gave out a short bark of a laugh.
"Don't know why you won't just put relish on the damn thing, like a normal mammal," he said, chuckling and turning away.
"I like the crunch!" Lowell called out to his retreating partner's back. Turing back to us, he sighed. "Some speech, huh?"
"Yeah, it was great," I responded. "Should've recorded it and thrown it on a white noise machine; could have put anyone to sleep with it." Lowell gave an uncomfortable laugh as Judy slowly began to deflate at my side, the fire in her eyes fading somewhat.
"Sorry again about Howlton, guys. He's—he's really a good mammal, we both just been raised in the city. It takes a while to get out of a bad mindset, you know? But he is trying, I promise." I shook my head.
"Water under the bridge. Isn't that right, Hopps?" Judy flinched at the mention of her name; she'd still been watching Howlton as he piled two plates high with food from the buffet tables.
"What? Oh, yeah. Bridge," she agreed absentmindedly. Lowell scratched at his neck anxiously.
"I, uh, heard that your two-one-seven got shut down by the feds. That's rough," he said commiseratingly.
"Oh?" Judy exclaimed, her attention finally dragged away from the source of her ire. "How'd you hear that, the chief?" Lowell shook his head, his posture easing up slightly as Judy stopped watching Howlton like a hawk.
"Nah," he answered, shifting his weight, "got a friend at the Bureau, said Morsen and that jagoff Antlerson had to throw 'exceptional means' at you to get you to lay off." Judy huffed indignantly.
"Your friend is right," I said. "Antlerson is a jagoff." Judy and Lowell laughed at that as any remaining tension drained from the air.
"I can't believe that the Bureau is willing to toss out a good case against a possible attempted murderer just because he might turn evidence against a guy selling cheap soda pop." Lowell gave out a gleeful laugh.
"Haha, soda pop, I love it," he said, smiling broadly now. "Can't take the country outta the bunny, huh?" He wiped a nonexistent tear from his eyes. "I should let you guys get back to it." He turned to leave before spinning quickly back around. "Want me to fix you guys a plate or something? Before all the grub's gone?" I shook my head.
"No, thank you, Detective Lowell," Judy answered. Lowell smiled.
"I told ya, Hopps, it's Matty." Once he was out of earshot I leaned in towards my partner.
"You just didn't want to explain why you'd be asking him to grab you a hot dog too, huh?" Judy swiftly punched me in the side. Hard.