Nick POV

Judy and Ben were leaning over a map together. I noticed an article pulled up on the computer. The bottom corner of the article had an old photo of the restaurant she had asked about earlier.

As I approached the front desk, both of them whipped around to face me. Judys face lit up. "Nick, you were in there for a long while. Everything go okay?" She asked. Ben started to fold up the map and shove it sloppily into the top drawer.

"Yeah, I think so. Some of his questions were a little weird." I glanced back towards the office but the door remained closed. I half expected him to be standing there with his arms crossed and a stern look on his face.

Ben leaned back into view now that the map was gone in the somewhat closed drawer. "I wouldn't worry about him too much. That's just kind of how the chief is sometimes."

Judy checked the time on her phone and felt her pockets for her keys. I remembered seeing them sitting on top of her desk just before I went to talk to the police chief. Without a word, I pointed in the direction of her desk with a sly grin. Catching on, Judy jogged off in that direction to retrieve them.

When she made it back to where the Cheetah and I were standing next to the front desk she had also pulled on her jacket. "Well, I don't think there is anything else we can do at the precinct at the moment. Ready to go home, Nick?"

I was more than ready. I was already tired from the back to back early mornings but the whole night howler thing seemed to drain the little bit of energy I had left. With the goat still being out on the streets, the chances of us being up early again tomorrow seemed pretty high.

Before we left I turned backwards to wave to Ben but I didn't even have a chance to raise my hand when I was suddenly enveloped in fur. Before pulling away, Ben quietly said, "it's really really good to finally meet you, Nick."

I offered an awkward smile in return as I jogged to catch up with Judy who was already walking out the front door. I waited until the doors swung shut before I spoke up.

"That was also a little strange, wasn't it?" I picked a loose cheetah fur off of my shirt and watched it flutter to the ground.

"Not really. Clawhauser is just a bit of a hugger." She started the car and turned in the direction of my apartment. I noticed that she wasn't using the gps on her phone this time like she had in the past.

I had a pretty good sense of direction but still being new to the city, I was impressed that Judy already seemed to know the route.

As soon as Judy put the car in park outside of my building her phone was back in her hand. She was typing something quickly, her brows knit together.

"Well, I guess I will see you tomorrow morning then? Carrots?" She didn't look up until I poked her arm.

Her eyes tore away from the phone and surveyed the car around us with a look of surprise. "Sorry, what did you say?" She seemed to just realize that I was still in the car with her.

"I said I will see you tomorrow. Unless you wanted to come in now? I was thinking of taking a quick nap but we could watch a movie or something instead. Unless you have to go back to the station." I opened the car door and stepped out but kept the door open so I could lean against the seat.

Judy clicked her phone off and set it on the center console. "That actually sounds like fun, Nick. Maybe I could come by later tonight? I don't need to go back to the station but I do need to run to the gas station and I wanted to check on something really quick. How about I text you when I'm done?"

Her eyes wandered back to her phone but she didn't pick it up. I shrugged and swung the door shut. Before I disappeared into the apartment lobby, I waved back at Judy but she was back on her phone and didn't see me.

That was fine. I would have time for a quick nap and maybe a trip to the grocery store. Upstairs, it took me way too long to sort through the keys on my key ring until I found the right one to unlock my front door. I only had six keys but I was so tired I was practically falling asleep standing up.

Because I was so tired, Judys behavior didn't strike me as particularly odd right away. She seemed a little distracted but it was a pretty big case she was working on. It wasn't until I was in my bedroom with my head hitting the pillow that it clicked.

"Fuck," I yelled out loud to the empty room. As quickly as I dropped onto the bed, I was back on my feet fumbling for my phone. I pulled up Judys contact and immediately hit 'call'. It rang twice and then went to voicemail.

Without waiting I switched to Finnicks contact, calling him instead. He picked up after the first ring. There was a dull traffic noise in the background.

"Nick, what's up, man? I'm working right now, can we talk a little later?" I grabbed a jacket that was draped over the back of the couch and threw open my front door.

"Fin, I think Judy is in trouble. She was asking about that old restaurant we used to go to on the outskirts of Rainforest District. The Barn? She said it had something to do with the case we were working on and then she dropped me off at home and said she needed to check on something."

I slid down the banister instead of taking the stairs, landing at the bottom in the lobby in minutes. "I didn't piece together what she was saying until after she left. I think she is going to that old building alone to look for a very dangerous mammal. Fin, she isn't answering her phone."

There was a beat of silence before Finnick spoke up again. "Okay, let me throw this shit into the van. I'm just around the corner from your place, I'll be there in two minutes."

While I was pacing the parking lot I tried calling Judys phone again and again but it went straight to voicemail every time. She must have turned her phone off. By the time I was ready to just start walking, Finnick's van pulled into the parking lot.

I didn't even wait for him to come to a complete stop, swinging the door open and climbing in while the van was still moving. Finnick hit the gas as soon as my door clicked shut.

While we drove I filled him in on the important facts of the case, I probably wasn't supposed to be sharing any of this information but I wasn't actually a cop so I didn't really care. I wanted Finnick to be prepared for what we were walking into, even if I didn't want him getting directly involved.

Finnick was quiet for the most part while I spoke, glancing my way at a few key moments in the story like when I mentioned Sara. He didn't say anything until the very end when I recapped the events from today. "Wait, you were shot with that night savage stuff again? Today!"

Suddenly his eyes were wide and he glanced away from the road long enough to look me up and down. I'm sure he was remembering what happened when he picked me up from the hospital.

"Yeah, I was shot again but I'm fine now. Judy drove me to the hospital right away and they gave me more of the antidote. Stop looking at me like that, I'm fine."

He turned back to the road. "She drove you to the hospital right after you were shot? In her car? Like in the front seat or handcuffed in the trunk?"

I rolled my eyes, he was obviously trying to make a joke but it still stung a bit. "Yeah, in the front seat. It didn't affect me as much this time. It was weird and we're not entirely sure why but that's really not the point."

I pulled my phone back out of my pocket and sent a quick text to Judy, hoping and waiting to see the little "read" notification. It never showed up. "Judy was reading the transcript from the interaction we had this morning. That was when she asked about The Barn but I don't remember it being brought up when we were there so I don't really know the context."

We crossed the boundary from City Centre to Rainforest. I knew Fin was driving really fast but it also felt like we were moving in slow motion. I didn't even have a plan for what to do when we got there, I just knew I wasn't going to let Judy do this alone.

I was sure she didn't tell me about this plan because she didn't want me to get hurt again. That didn't make it okay for her to put herself in harms way, especially alone. I thought we were partners on this.

Judy couldn't have been too far ahead of us, she did say she needed to get gas and I knew that was the truth. When she dropped me off at my apartment I noticed that the gas light in the police cruiser was on.

Hoping she hadn't made it to the old restaurant yet, I scanned the roads around us for her car. The further we drove into Rainforest, the more anxious I became.

Finnicks voice broke my focus. "Hey, uh, Nick? You know I'll be here by your side no matter what but are you sure you're actually fine?"

Tuning back into the van and myself I realized my body felt like it was burning but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been in the past. My heart pounded in my ears and I spared a quick glance at my reflection in the mirror. As expected, my eyes were thin slits.

Before answering Finnick, I took a deep breath to try and assess how in control I actually was. All of my senses felt heightened but at the same time, I felt more in control than I had previously.

"I am fine. I promise, Fin." I cracked the window a bit to let the cool air wash over my face. Over the rush of wind I just barely heard Finnick say, okay. I appreciated that he left it at that and didn't keep pushing.

The condemned old building came into view just before I saw the familiar looking police car parked out front. Again, I jumped out of the van before Finnick put it into park. I was scanning the front of the building trying to figure out where to get in when I felt a familiar yank on the back of my shirt.

Whipping around, I found Finnick standing behind me. I hadn't really thought about how he was around the same height as Judy. Finnick was still holding the edge of my shirt, he gave it another yank.

"Nick, focus man. We're here but we can't just go barging into the building. You said there were probably a lot of dangerous guys in there and we don't even know where Judy is at. It's a pretty big building. So, what's the plan?"

Right. I did need a plan. I wasn't going to do anyone any good by running in blindly. Another quick scan of the building showed me that the boards over one of the broken windows on the second floor were almost completely missing.

There was enough damaged wood leading up toward the window that I could probably find footing and scale the building easily enough. "Okay, here's the plan. I am going to climb up to that window over there and slip inside. From there I guess I will just try to stay out of view and look for Judy."

I hadn't been inside the building in many years. From what I remembered it was a big open space with the restaurant part to one side, a huge play area in the middle and then tables and chairs around the edges.

There was a loft area with more tables and chairs that overlooked the play area but I could not remember what side of the building it was on. I would either climb up to the loft or to a two story drop onto old play equipment and arcade games.

"You are going to climb up there? Sorry, bud, but you aren't going in there alone." Finnick began buttoning the shirt he wore over his t-shirt, probably to avoid it getting caught on anything.

I didn't want to put him at risk but I also wasn't going to waste time so I started to jog over to the building. "Fin, I need you to just stay here. I don't want you to get hurt and this guy is pretty dangerous. Just wait in the van in case we need to get out of here fast."

A quick glance over my shoulder showed him rolling his eyes as he followed me. Fine, I knew Finnick and I knew we would be here arguing for hours if I didn't just let him follow me. Instead I turned my attention to the building rising up in front of me. It looked a lot taller when I was right next to it.

It was now or never. I found a good spot where I could get my claws into the wood and started to climb. Half way up I realized this may be one of the most dangerous things I had ever done. Probably only second to stealing a train full of toxic flowers with Judy.

My hands and feet slipped a few times when the rotting wood fell apart but eventually I managed to pull myself up to the window still. My jacket was nice for the chill in the evening air but I was particularly grateful now as I pulled it off to wrap around a closed fist. With my hand protected, I knocked away the few large pieces of glass still hanging onto the wooden frame.

A few of them fell inside with a sharp ring. My hearing was far better right now than it has ever been. I held my breath and listened for voices inside. I heard nothing but Finnicks breathing as he hoisted himself onto the wooden ledge with me.

I gave a thumbs up and slipped inside. Luckily we must have been on the loft since my feet made contact with the damp, moldy carpet almost immediately. The edge of my toe nicked a bit of glass and I inhaled sharply. "Careful of the glass," I whispered as Finnick joined me.

After I pulled my jacket back on, I crept on all fours to the edge of the balcony. With the large gaping holes in the ceiling there was plenty of natural light filling the large space. Tables and chairs were turned over and in various states of disrepair. Graffiti covered most surfaces and every other surface was coated in a thick layer of dust.

There were no signs of any mammals having been here in a while aside from Finnick and I. Which meant it would have probably been safe to enter from the ground floor. Oh well, we were inside now.

"Well, where's this dangerous goat and army of otters?" Finnick whispered to me. I really wasn't sure. Judy could have been wrong about this place but then where was she? It was definitely her car outside.

"I don't know. Hang on for a sec." I stood slowly and crept to the rickety staircase. On the main floor I closed my eyes and focused. Whenever I had felt a savage episode I fought it by calming my breathing and thinking about anything other than how I was feeling in the moment. Now I leaned into the strange feeling.

It hit me like a sharp wave at first. Everything was too loud, too bright, and I could smell everything from the wet carpets to the decades old grease in the kitchen. I could hear the wind whistling through the broken windows and the small creaks of the building settling as it cooled down outside.

I wanted to go back to tuning it all out and find a different way to track Judy. But, after a second I was able to somewhat isolate certain sounds or smells.

There was a very distant hum of voices mixed with the constant water drip in the kitchen. A sharp chemical smell wafted from that direction as well. Turning to motion for Finnick to join me, I found that he had followed me down the stairs.

Fin's eyes were wide and locked on me, he looked like he was ready to run the other way. "Nick, you still doing okay?"

I rolled my head back on my shoulders and took in a deep breath. The air in the building was putrid but it did help bring me back to myself. "Yeah, I already said I'm fine. They are this direction, in the kitchen I think." I pointed in front of us.

Finnick nodded and followed my careful steps across the building. "I'm just asking because, well, dude you were kind of snarling."

I stopped in my tracks and turned to look at him. "I was? Was it very loud? Do you think anyone heard me?" The voices hadn't seemed to change at all but I still didn't want to give away that we were here.

Finnick continued walking and slipped past me. "Nah, it was really quiet. Just sort of creepy." He smiled over his shoulder. "You remember sneaking into the kitchen once to find ice cream when we were little. The kitchen is not very big. Are you sure they are in there?"

I was sure, but he made a good point. We were really little and my mom took us out for dinner after our first day of kindergarten. She said no ice cream since we had to go to bed soon. Fin and I snuck around the play structure and into the kitchen. We managed to find the ice cream machine but were caught before we got anything from it.

The kitchen was pretty cramped and could only fit seven or eight mammals comfortably. There were also not a lot of great places to hide. Maybe it was just a place to meet or another spot to buy Nite Bite from?

The voices didn't seem to get any closer by the time we were right outside the decaying plastic doors. I tried to peek through the crack between the two doors. It looked completely empty inside. Some of the equipment was still there, rusty and broken while most areas looked bare. There were no signs of life from what I could see.

Finnick raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side as if to say' "well, now what?" I shrugged and very slowly inched one of the doors open. Once the space was large enough to push my head in, I put my ears back and peeked through.

The kitchen was absolutely abandoned but I noticed there was far less dust leading from the door and around a blind corner. More notable, there were hoof and paw prints in the dust. One set of small prints looked very much like they were made by a rabbit.

Without giving Finnick a warning, I moved completely into the kitchen and followed the prints. No one was around the corner but there was a large gaping hole in the floor with a relatively new looking ladder leaning out of it. Focusing my senses again I could tell the voices were coming from inside the hole. Between the greasy kitchen smell and sharp chemicals, I could just barely smell Judy. She was down there somewhere.

There was a small shuffling sound next to me, I turned quickly to see Finnick had continued to follow me. With an anxious breath, I stepped onto the ladder and began to descend into the hole.

At the bottom, my eyes seemed to adjust twice as fast as they normally did in the dark and they normally adjusted pretty fast. I blinked rapidly a few times to make sure it was actually my eyes adjusting rather than it being brighter down here.

When Finnicks feet planted on the ground next to me I gave him a second to adjust to the dark before I made my way down the now apparent stone tunnel in front of us. As we walked further into the tunnel the voices became slightly more clear. I could now make out that there were at least eight mammals.

We came to a stop when the tunnel split in two. FInnick was starting to look a little bit annoyed and kept glancing in the direction we had come from. "Are you sure they are actually down here? We've been walking for a while now."

We had only been in the tunnel for about five minutes but I could understand his frustration. There were no more visible footprints anymore. The ground below our feet was rough gravel that echoed a bit with each step. The cold stone walls were bare and made the whole tunnel feel completely void of life. The only sign that we weren't here alone was the occasional voice off in the distance. "Yeah, can't you hear them?"

Finnick shook his head and then pointed to the two different tunnels. I could tell he was asking which one we should take. Closing my eyes once more I could tell the voices were coming from down the left tunnel but Judys scent was coming from the one on the right.

Judy might be here trying to find the goat, but my only focus was finding her. I pointed to the right and Finnick gave me a thumbs up. We continued in silence through the long twisting expanse of stone. The smell of the restaurant faded away and it was becoming much easier to focus.

I could hear Judy before I saw her. Her steps were slow and deliberate, but the gravel made it impossible to be completely silent. Especially to my ears.