A/N:

Welcome to What Foxes May Come. This is a rewrite of the first six original chapters as I felt there simply needed to be more. More content, more character development, and just MORE. Sit back and relax, and enjoy the new and improved What Foxes May Come.

As always, a special shout out to my buddy Blkdragon7 for the editing. Go check out his ongoing story called A Friendly Hustle and show him some love. You can also check out his original work and link to his writing Blog, Scribblings, where a lot of it lives by hopping over to ( Direct: dcballard (remove the spaces) and my writing blog, BearSpace, at: bearspace … because the forwarding is misbehaving.)

****Also I should note that Zootopia, Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde, and other associated characters are the Sole property of Disney Inc. I do not own the rights, save a few of my own characters and those will be noted at the beginning of their respective chapters. ****

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Ch 1

Bunny Stuff

"Are all bunnies bad drivers," Officer Trainee Nick Wilde asked playfully as partner and trainer, Officer Judy Hopps, suddenly slammed on the brakes at a red light, causing the front of the cruiser to plunge.

Nick was thrown forward, and upon sitting back up he was forced to peel his Pawpcicle from his eye.

"Clever bunny," Nick intoned with a grin.

"Dumb fox," Judy quipped back, with a smirk on her muzzle.

"You know you love me."

"Do I know that? Yes, yes I do," she smiled at him with her million watt smile.

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Judy smiled everytime she thought of the first day she and Nick were partnered. It was the day she finally realized that yes, she in fact did love the goofy, russet furred dope. It took them almost a year of heartbreak and tragedy to finally admit it to each other.

One of many reasons was the fact that she was his FTO, or Field Training Officer, at the time and out ranked him. Due to policy, and a number of other ethical reasons she was forced to keep her feelings under wraps. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it. She smiled again as her thoughts turned to the bittersweet day she was finally able to act on her feelings and admit her love to the big goof ball.

She had yet to tell her family all the details, she knew they had heard the news that she had been critically injured while on patrol, and as far as she was told, they made a trip in haste to Zootopia General. She of course didn't know that at the time, having been in a coma.

Her parents, Stu and Bonnie, called daily now that she was awake, to see how she was doing and to ask if she needed anything. Judys littermate Jasmine also made weekly trips. She would always stay a couple days to help out and give Nick a bit of a break, as Judy needed help getting to and from the restroom, bathing, and getting dressed. All of which Nick could of course do, and was more than happy to help with, but Judy was grateful to Jasmine as it gave her some girl time with her favorite sister, too.

Judy didn't realize it at the time, but it was her budding love for the ex con-mammal that compelled her to visit him as often as she could before the incident, as she called it, and to call almost daily while Nick was in training at the ZPA. She was as proud of Nick as she could be, and it took all of her self control to keep her feelings in check and not hug him as after her speech at his graduation. Placing the badge on his chest was the second happiest day of her life. She smiled again as she thought of that moment, and in that moment she couldn't wait to get back to the city and start making the world a better place with her best friend and new partner.

Then, as things can and often do, their life took a drastic left turn, skidded sideways, hard, and changed in ways that neither of them could have anticipated. A change that would ultimately reveal many things.

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It had been a long day of patrolling, with several traffic stops, all minor infractions. A couple were simple things like tail lights out or lack of proper signaling, and the like. A couple speeding tickets. The normal day to day mundane details of the job; for the most part that is.

It had started out quiet, but as the day went on neither Judy, or her foxy partner, could ever have expected, or planned on how the day would end.

It was nearing the end of their shift when a drunk driver appeared out of nowhere and collided with the cruiser. As they turned westbound on the Z-95 thoroughfare, something caught Judy's eye and she didn't see the car careening at them from a cross street. The damage to the cruiser was catastrophic. The drunk driver's car impacted on the drivers side, sending ZPD 240 into a roll that lasted several seconds, and to Judy it felt like a lifetime.

What happened after that was a blur and then nothing. She could remember vague bits and pieces of what felt like dreams, but were only patches of color,light, and sound. She frowned mentally, as she tried in vain to remember the lost days and weeks, unaware that her lips had betrayed her thoughts as they turned down in concentration.

Nick looked up from the newspaper he was reading, well more specifically the comics section, seeing the frown he lifted an eyebrow.

"You ok, Carrots?" he asked.

"Hmm?" Looking up at him, shaken from her thoughts by his voice. "Yeah … I guess. I was just thinking. Guess my muzzle betrayed me again, huh?" she smiled.

"Only just a lot, what were you thinking about my bunny?" He smiled his signature smile.

At that she blushed as her ears flopped over her eyes, almost subconsciously, in an effort to hide her couldn't help it, she loved it when he called her "his bunny."

"Nothing really, just bunny stuff," she lied.

Chuckling softly, Nick knew that meant she didn't really want to talk about it. "Ok Carrots, you know I'm here when you're ready."

He went back to reading his comics and Judy went back to her thoughts. She opened Zoogle on her phone and did a search for the incident she was involved in, in a vain attempt to recall what happened after that fateful night. There were multiple articles and stories that detailed the aftermath, and even a few shakey or mostly blurry videos on Ewetube, some even appearing on ClipClop. She just wished she could remember all the details of that fateful afternoon. She'd seen the photos from the scene taken by the responding officers. It left her to wonder sometimes how they survived at all.

Frustrated, she lowered her phone and grabbed the remote. She flipped to Netflocks to see if any new movies were available. There were a few new ones she wouldn't mind watching later, but she decided to watch her favorite comedian Gerbrial Iglesias, also known as Fluffy, ( he was an Angora Hamster from right there in Little Rodentia).

She was enjoying the show for probably the fifth time when suddenly her bladder decided it was time to interrupt her laughter.

"Nick?" she said quietly, "I hate to bother you, but I really need to use the little bunnies' room."

Nick looked over, setting down his paper, stood up, and very gently picked her up, with one arm supporting her legs and another arm behind her back, and with a soft kiss between her ears, he carried her to the bathroom, while she all too briefly nuzzled his neck.

"You're never a bother, fluff." Nick said as he smiled down at her, giving her a soft kiss. Getting her settled in the washroom, he gave her privacy and waited outside for her to finish up.

When she finished, she called for him, and Nick carried her back out to the living room. Judy nuzzled Nick's neck for a moment as he carried her to the front room. After making sure she was settled and comfortable in her chair, getting all of her pillows just the way she liked them, Nick went into the kitchen and started lunch, A couple of cricket burgers for him, and a vegetable wrap for her. As they ate, they chatted about this and that, memories and regrets, as had become their habit for the better part of the last two months. They did almost everything together, even before the incident that essentially ended both their careers.

Judy frowned again. She swore to any god that would listen, but mostly to herself, that she was going to once again prove that anyone can be anything, and by the gods she was going to be walking again. Even if the doctors said otherwise, with perhaps, a little help from science.

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A/N:

I do hope you enjoyed the first chapter of What Foxes May Come. New and vastly improved.

Until Next time … have a Hoppy Day