Disclaimer: Zootopia and all related characters are owned by Disney. All other characters, product names, trademarks and copyrights belong to their respective owners.

…..

Judy sat at her desk dressed in pajama shorts and a light t-shirt. She'd been sitting staring at nothing for over an hour.

Judy tapped her radio and a melancholy love song started to play, tapping it again a country western song about a lost mate or a trusty lizard dying started up. In no mood to hear her neighbors yell through the wall to shut off the depressing music, Judy thanked the gods that they were both on travel.

After she left work, Judy had stopped at one of her and Nick's favorite parks. Some nights after work they'd sit under a tree and watch the sunset over the city. Then they'd walk back to her place and watch bad movies. Tonight, she'd sat and watched the sunset by herself wishing this whole week hadn't happened. Most of all she'd wished that she'd never pushed Nick away.

Now here she was, trying to figure out what happens next. For a week, all she'd heard was that Nick was a crook and a cheat and she was a joke, heck, according to Bechtail she was an internationally renowned joke. Then it was that someone at the ZPD didn't think it was worth gearing up a pathetic rabbit that was only suited to be a meter maid. And finally, the icing on the cake, Bogo dressing her down for almost everything she'd done while on duty this week. Holding her head in her paws, Judy was trying not to start crying again, so far this had been the worst week of her life and not in a million years could it possibly get any worse.

As if on cue, her phone started to ring. She flipped it over and saw her parents' picture showing. "No, not tonight." Judy rejected the call and then balled her fists up. "Please don't call back, please leave me alone."

The phone rang again.

"Why are they calling tonight, they usually wait until Sunday?" Staring at the phone she wanted to reject it again, she absolutely did not want to talk with them right now. Staring up at the ceiling and groaning, she knew they would just keep calling and calling until she answered. Finally, Judy shut off the radio, put on a fake smile and accepted the call. "Hi, it's my parents, why are you guys calling tonight?"

Judy did a double take, it was just her dad on the screen. Her first thought was how did he get the phone to work, then she wondered what was going on, he never called without Mom.

"Judy, it's just me. Sorry, I couldn't wait until this weekend to call, I need to talk with you about a Zootopia Times article that came out this morning. The article was on Bunnyburrow, have you seen it?"

"Dad, no, I haven't seen anything, but I haven't had time to look either. It's been a tough week." Then adding with a slight smile, "Besides, I didn't realize papers were still printed anymore."

Stu huffed, "Hey, I know how to Zoogle an article if I have too." A little more business-like he followed up with a summary of the article. "So, basically the reporter is telling everyone that Bunnyburrow doesn't accept predators and that since the town is predominantly rabbits, a few of us aren't that accepting of mammals that aren't rabbits either."

Stu spent a moment nervously rubbing his chin with his free paw before continuing. "Judy, as head of the Co-op, the Mayor called to let me know that she is concerned about the bad publicity this article could generate. She's worried that the Commonwealth may deny the grant funding the town has applied for if we are branded as being anti-predator. She's also concerned about mammals protesting and how that may impact tourism, especially with the upcoming Carrot Days festival." Stu started fidgeting again "The mayor wants to talk to the board tomorrow and I was hoping you'd give me your opinion on the article."

This was not a conversation Judy wanted to have, "Dad, Bunnyburrow is a small town, and I haven't been there for a while, no one cares what I think, do we really have to talk about this now?"

"Please, Judy, I'd like your opinion on if the article is accurate."

Judy shook her head, "Dad, please stop, you don't want to know what I think."

Stu focused on her, "Of course I do, I read the article a couple of times and I think it's a load of pellets. I think rabbits here, treat predators properly, I mean they all seem fine, the predators working the farms seem happy they're being taken care of. And the public service issues the article talks about sound more like bureaucracy problems, not examples of speciesism."

"Dad, please…"

Stu paused for a moment and then continued. "Judy, I'll admit that when I was a young buck, some of the families in town weren't as accepting of predators, but that was a long time ago. So, it would help me to know if you think we have a real problem or if this article is just a hack-job like maybe someone in Deerbrook County hired the reporter to smear us?"

"DAD, STOP!"

Of course, he'd try and deflect the blame onto someone else. Judy had lived with his attitude long enough and with the constant speciest drumbeat against Nick from half a dozen mammals at the ZPD she had had enough. With the whole week suddenly crashing down on her, she lost it.

"You want to know what I think, well I'll tell you! Bunnyburrow isn't exactly a shining example of inclusion and neither are you. Trying to load me down with Fox Away products when I left for Zootopia was about as anti-predator as you can get. I should never have let you talk me into carrying that fox spray around. The only thing it did was nearly cost me my best friend when they saw it on my belt."

Shocked at her response, Stu jumped on her words with an indignant tone, "Judy, giving you that spray was justified. After Gideon clawed you when you were little, I was so scared I couldn't sleep for days. When you left to be a cop, I was afraid for you, a small bunny in a big city filled with predators."

"Like foxes?" Judy interrupted.

"Yes, especially foxes because they're the worst of the lot." Taking a breath and calming down Stu continued, "But I will have you know that thanks to you, we permit Gideon to buy some of our produce for his bakery and I even occasionally talk with him when he is on our property. I think you will agree that I might have had a problem with foxes, but it was only with foxes and that I'm much better now."

Judy was shocked at what her dad had said, her mouth hung open for a moment and then her eyes narrowed in anger. "Fine, even though I don't really believe it, I'll take your word for it that you think you're getting better with foxes, but sweet cheese and crackers, how can you sit there and tell me that you haven't had problems with other mammals too?

"I can remember it like it was yesterday, I was 11 years old and you railed on David and me about Cynthia Longear. David was helping me with some homework when you went off about how wrong it was for Cynthia to date a bunny buck just because she was a hare. As young as I was, I couldn't understand your problem with her, but I do remember you spouting psalm and verse about how hares are so different from rabbits, and rabbits and hares should never be allowed to get together.

"I liked her, she was always super nice to me whenever she was over studying with David. She was the only one in town who didn't think my dream of becoming a cop was a waste of time. It hurt when you said Cynthia being friends with David would hurt the family; I cried when you forbid her from coming to our house, and I still remember how sad I felt when the Longears moved away."

Judy sniffled and then continued in a softer voice, "Later, when David got sick, it felt like I'd lost the only one in the family who understood me. First Cynthia and then David, the two mammals that supported my dream the most, both gone."

Now it was Stu's turn to be shocked. "Jude, that was years ago."

"Don't Jude me! That was just the beginning. You started giving the few friends I had a hard time especially my predator friends. Bobby Catmull and Howie Jaguar stopped coming over to play because of the looks you gave them and I felt like I had to walk on pins and needles to play with Sharla just because she was a ewe. No sleepovers, no parties, no meetups, no concerts, no hanging out at the park. Every time I tried to bring someone home that wasn't a bunny from school, you made sure to make them uncomfortable enough that they'd never come back."

"Judy you're exaggerating, sure I worried about some of the kits you wanted to play with, but I don't remember keeping you from having friends over."

"Dad, don't you dare tell me that I just imagined what happened. You chased away any of my friends that weren't rabbits, I was 11 years old and none of them could stand to be around me because of your holier than thou attitude. You have no idea how bad it was for me growing up." Judy was in tears now, she was unloading on her dad and she couldn't stop.

Stu tried again to reason with his daughter, "Judy, there were still plenty of bunnies to play with and you played soccer all those years, what about the bunny kits from your team?"

Judy shook her head, he seriously didn't know, "Dad, you don't get it, because I was working so hard to become a cop, no bucks were interested in me and all the does thought I was weird for not wanting to settle for being mates with a buck and pumping out kits. With no bunny wanting anything to do with me and you effectively chasing everyone else off, I had no friends."

The memory of being humiliated by that buck she tried to ask out flashed into her mind again as did the decision she'd made later that night. "I decided the best thing for me to do was to stop worrying about boys or friends or any of that stuff and to just focus on the things I needed to do to become a cop; school, athletics and ZPD training."

Judy wiped her eyes, sniffled and in a softer voice, she continued. "Did you know that I actually got asked to the senior prom, the only time in school that any guy ever asked me out. You know what I did, I turned him down. I turned him down because he was a chipmunk and I knew you would freak out. Instead, I stayed in my room and cried while studying a ZPD manual."

Judy paused again, lips pursed together and her eyes closed tight she gathered herself before continuing, "Ever since I was 11, I haven't had a close friend. I finally found someone here in Zootopia, someone who I considered my best friend and then pulling a page from the playbook you used on Cynthia, I pushed them away because I was worried about hurting the family."

"Judy, everything I did, I thought I was doing for your own good. I needed to protect you. I didn't know I was hurting you."

"Dad, I just spent an entire week at work with speciest, bigoted mammals thinking, in their own twisted way, that what they were doing was protecting people, and you're just like them, you always have been.

"I've had my fill of them, and I've had my fill of you."

"But, Judy—"

"Dad, what I really need right now is for you to stop talking to me. You think you're better now, but you're not and you know it. And until you change your attitude and I mean really change, I don't want to have anything to do with you. Don't call me and don't try to visit. We are done."

…..

Judy hung up on her Dad, put her head down on her folded arms and cried. She'd never laid into anyone like that before. She'd held all that hurt and pain in so long she'd forgotten it was there. Then, with all that had happened this week and his holier than thou attitude she'd gone off on him.

A few minutes later, Judy sniffled and wiped the tears out of her eyes. She turned around in her chair and stared bleary-eyed at her empty bed. Bunnies were not solitary mammals, they lived in tight-knit family groups and had an instinctual need to touch and be close to others. For all the problems she'd had growing up, Judy hadn't ever felt truly alone, until now. She'd just closed the door on being with her family, and without Nick, she had no one.

Wringing her paws together, she started to feel a dull pain in her chest, as the pain grew and her heart started to pound, Judy felt like things were crashing down around her. She needed to calm down and get control of her bunny emotions, but she couldn't figure out how to make it all stop.

Judy spied a large bag under her bed and remembered that she'd put all her plushies away when she'd sterilized her apartment. Grabbing the sack, she dumped all the stuffed animals onto her bed and then crawled into the pile. Judy was squirming around in the plushies to get comfortable when she felt a plastic bag under her back.

Seeing the bag, Judy sniffled and wiped her eyes, she'd forgotten about this plushie. Looking at the stuffed red fox inside the bag, she recalled the night, a few weeks ago, when Nick had seen it on her bed. He'd teased her about it and then as a joke, he'd thoroughly marked it. Of course, a fox's mark is pretty strong so she'd punched him in the arm and zipped the scented plushie into an airtight bag so his scent mark wouldn't get all over her other plushies.

Chewing her lip, Judy held the bag in front of her. She looked at her door to make sure it was locked and then at the curtains to make sure they were drawn closed. Confident that no one was going to catch her, Judy gently pulled open the bag and was instantly surrounded by the powerful smell of her fox partner. Breathing in deeply while holding the stuffed fox to her chest, she rolled back into the plushie pile and felt herself relax as the pain in her chest began to fade. A few minutes later, Judy fell into an exhausted, dreamless sleep.

…..

Stu started to reply but realized that the connection was dead and all that was left was the final freeze frame of Judy with streaks of tears running down the fur of her cheeks.

Stu continued to stare at the phone sitting on the table when he heard the thump-thump-thump of a rabbit's foot rapidly hitting the floor behind him.

"How much of that did you hear?"

With arms crossed Bonnie replied, "Enough."

Stu sighed and continued looking down.

"She's right you know."

"Bon, I really don't want to talk about this."

Bonnie walked around Stu's chair and took a seat across from him. "I know you don't, but we've needed to talk about this for a long time now."

Shaking his head with a bit of frustration. "I can't believe it. Out of all the things I've said to Judy over the years, she had to remember that conversation."

Bonnie nodded, "Sometimes parents forget that occasionally our kits actually do hear what they say."

"You know, for years I blamed that Longear doe for what happened to David."

"That Longear doe? Stu her name was Cynthia, she was a sweet, kind hare and our David was in love with her."

"Bon, I know that now, but at the time I didn't believe it. I thought going along with the Longears' decision to break them up by forbidding their daughter from seeing David was the best solution for both families. It surprised me that they went as far as moving out of Bunnyburrow, but I was secretly pleased, I thought them leaving would solve all our problems. I didn't realize until it was too late that David would fall into such a deep depression and never come out of it. I thought it was an old wives' tale that rabbits could die from a broken heart, to actually see it happen tore me up inside."

He looked at Bonnie and put his paw on hers as he quietly spoke. "I love you and all our kits, but I wasn't ready for David and the rest of our first litter. We were so young and unprepared. I didn't know how to be a father, so I took the easy route and defaulted to the way that my parents raised me."

Bonnie huffed, "Growing up like that must have been difficult. I remember being around your parents when we first became mates, they were so hateful toward anyone that wasn't a rabbit and the fact that they, along with so many others in this town, think of hares as outsiders is sad, to say the least."

Stu nodded, "I never meant to be like them, it's just that too much was changing in town and in society at large. We had our first litter about the same time old Mayor Burns convinced the ZTA to make Bunnyburrow a train stop. When that happened, more species than ever before started to move here and make Bunnyburrow their home. Seeing all the newcomers around town, their kits going to our schools, stores carrying new products, and even the new sounds and smells, was a lot of change for me.

"When Judy was clawed by Gideon I didn't take it well. I remember losing it with the Greys over the attack. Seeing Judy scratched and bleeding hit me harder than I thought and reinforced what my parents had taught me all those years about strangers, especially predators.

"What Judy just said about me was right, when David passed away, I blamed the Longears, the newcomers, and all the change I was seeing. I became even more overprotective and isolationist than I was before and I started trying to discourage our kits from being friends with anyone that wasn't our kind. I thought I was protecting the family, but instead, I ended up hurting everyone, especially Judy."

Bonnie nodded as Stu went silent. Ever since David had passed, she'd run interference on his attitude with the family trying to keep the kits from developing his biases, but it would have been so much easier on everyone if Stu would have talked with her about what he was feeling and where his prejudice had come from. If he had, they could have avoided so much hurt and pain.

Pulling her paw back from Stu's, Bonnie asked, "Stu, do you know why all of David's littermates moved away?"

Stu sighed. "Because of me?"

"Yes. They knew the real reason David passed away and they waited for you to take responsibility for your part in what happened. Instead, they watched as your attitude got worse, first, as you tried to isolate the family from anyone that wasn't a bunny, and then as you started to become involved with one of those speciest groups in town. Dennis was ashamed to be around someone so prejudiced and Danielle and Daren both felt you were betraying David's memory with your behavior. And Diana, sweet little Diana, she told me that she forgave you, but she couldn't stand by and watch what you'd become.

"They all swore that they'd never set foot in our warren again unless you'd changed and I haven't heard a word from any of them since."

Stu twisted his paws together, he knew David's littermates had been angry with him, but to hear Bonnie say it out loud hurt. "Bonnie, I'm sorry about David, I didn't know what to do."

Bonnie took a breath, his speciesism had been blinding him for too long. "I'll tell you what you could have done. You could have supported your son and found a way to help him."

"But Bon, what would everyone have thought?"

"Stuart Hopps, do you think I give a load of pellets about what the people in this town think? Well, I don't! Growing up, my family wasn't anything like yours. No one in my hometown cared about who played with who, bunnies, hares, ewes, deer, even predators, we all got along just fine."

Standing up, Bonnie moved closer to Stu sitting in his chair. Glaring at him, she waved a finger in front of his muzzle and growled out, "Your prejudice has been a blight on this family for years. I forgave you when we buried our boy out by the lake and I forgave you again when his littermates moved away, but now that your speciest attitude has hurt Judy so badly that she's stopped speaking to us, you need to understand that I am done forgiving you for hurting this family."

Taking a breath, Bonnie continued, "I'm only going to say this once, so listen to me carefully Stuart Hopps. I will not lose any more kits over your prejudices so you will fix this. I don't care what you have to do or how hard it is, but you will figure out how to make things right with Judy and then you will do whatever is necessary for me to get my daughter back."