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

…..

A few rabbits in the dining hall looked up from eating their breakfast as a giggling group of does pulled a sleepy-eyed fox into the room. Most of the rabbits in the room, however, had grown used to the red-furred addition to the warren and ignored the morning ritual the same way they would ignore any of their other siblings coming in for breakfast.

Nick sat down next to Janae with his plate and stifling a yawn said, "Good morning."

The pawful of teenage rabbits at the table with Janae had already finished their breakfast and stood up shortly after Nick arrived, "Back at you, Nick."

Nick put up a paw and let each of them give him a high-four as they left. Once they had all hopped away, Nick shook his head, "Waaay too much energy for this early in the morning."

Janae smiled, "You know what they say about the early bird catching the worm, right?"

"Yeah, except in the city, the early bird calls in its worm order for a noon delivery and then goes back to bed."

Janae snorted and went back to eating her breakfast.

Nick took a few bites of his pancakes, and then seeing Janae was almost done, he leaned her way and quietly asked, "So, have you called him yet?"

Janae coughed and almost choked on the bite she'd just swallowed. Recovering, she whispered back, "No."

"Why not?"

"I just haven't."

"You said he's really cute, so call him."

"Nick, keep your voice down…"

"Call him!"

Looking around the room, Janae pulled her phone out and held it under the table so no one could see her, "Fine, I'll text him, but if he doesn't text me back, I'm done. He's probably out doing something anyway."

A few taps later, Janae set her phone down next to her plate and ate the last couple of bites of her breakfast. Waving at her phone, she turned to Nick and said, "See, he's not interested."

Janae's phone buzzed. Grabbing it off the table before anyone noticed the noise, she unlocked her phone and opened the message. Seeing that it was a text from Dalton, Janae hummed, and then as Nick leaned over to sneak a peek at the screen, she hid the phone from him and said, "He wants to know when and where we, I mean, you want to meet for lunch."

Nick thought about the morning's duty with Buckstein and then replied, "Tell him to meet both of us at the 'Hoppin Good Eats' diner at 11:30."

"Alright," replied Janae as she typed furiously for a few moments and then sent her message. Quickly looking at Nick and then back at her phone, she held the phone against her chest and waited.

About a minute later, the phone buzzed again, and Janae quickly opened the app and read the reply. Smiling, she scrolled down to see the whole message, and then when she was finished, she locked her phone and held it in her lap as she sat and stared at her empty plate with the happiest smile on her face.

Nick waited and watched Janae for a few seconds and then cleared his throat, "Well?"

Janae, startled out of her thoughts, replied, "Oh, uh, he said 'okay.'"

Rolling his eyes, Nick picked up his and Janae's dirty dishes and left the doe to her thoughts as he went to change into his uniform and head into town.

…..

Coming out of the morning bullpen meeting, Judy and Connor were walking together while continuing their conversation about the afternoon they'd had yesterday. After meeting with Penny at the ZMS, Judy had hoped to have time to brainstorm with Connor some ideas on how to proceed with their drug case. Unfortunately, as soon as she'd picked up Connor, they were sent on a domestic violence case.

Judy was assigned the duty of talking with the couple since all the mammals involved were groundhogs. She wasn't sure if she got the task because they were all small mammals or because a rabbit could talk burrowing techniques with them, but drawing on her ZPD training and her experience having listened to over a hundred broken-hearted siblings, Judy felt she could handle the situation.

Judy was making good headway calming the couple down, and it looked like everything was headed toward an amicable solution until the boyfriend showed up. All hell broke loose after that. First, the claws came out, and then the boyfriend pulled a knife. Judy pushed the couple out of the way and tried to talk the boyfriend out of making the situation worse than it already was. Unfortunately, the boyfriend was drunk and pissed off at being dumped and ready for a fight.

As Judy had continued to try and calm the situation, Connor had moved closer to the group and positioned himself behind a shrub in the yard. Judy, seeing Connor give her a signal, turned and put the couple on the ground with her on top. A moment later, a shwaap and a yelp told Judy that the boyfriend had been darted, and when she looked over at him, she watched as he stumbled a few steps, tried to take a halfhearted swipe at her, which wasn't even close, and then collapse in a heap on the ground.

The groundhog couple held each other, crying, forgiving each other, and pledging their undying love. Of course, threatening another mammal with claws and Connor discharging his tranq gun both meant that the rest of the afternoon would be spent doing lots and lots of paperwork.

Passing through the lobby, Judy refocused on the drug case, she'd been too tired to think about it last night, but this morning in the shower, she'd come up with a plan of action.

Connor interrupted her thoughts and asked, "So, I saw you talking with Bogo after the meeting, have you got something in mind for the morning patrol?"

Judy led Connor to her and Nick's shared desk as she replied, "I got an idea this morning, and I let the Chief know that I wanted to search the cold case files for any predators that have been reported missing over the last year. I figured if Thorn was worried enough to mention that a few old-timers had disappeared, maybe others have been reported missing too." Judy shrugged her shoulders, "Worth a shot."

Connor nodded, "Makes sense." Judy hopped up in her chair, and Connor took a seat at the empty desk behind her. Judy turned and saw that a picture of Olivia and a few other personal items had shown up on the desk. She was about to ask if he'd decided to move in when Connor beat her to the punch.

"I figured I'd transfer my phone here and take over this space while Wilde is out, it'll be easier for us to work this case if I don't have to walk from half a building away to meet with you."

Turning on his computer, Connor turned to Judy and asked, "Are we searching for any mammal that's gone missing or just the homeless ones. I'm asking because I'm not sure how many homeless would get reported missing, I mean that's kind of the major problem, no one really keeps track of all of them."

"Yeah, I know. Let's look at all the cold cases and see if any of them stick out as something we should look at more carefully."

Judy pushed her chair over to Connor's desk as he brought up the case file search screen and started typing. "Alright, past twelve months," looking at Judy, he asked, "any district?"

Judy thought and then replied, "Just City Central and the surrounding sub-districts for now."

"Males only?"

"No, include both sexes and include any small to large-sized mammals, which means leave out anyone from Little Rodentia."

Connor submitted the request and leaned back while he waited for a response. Turning to Judy, he asked, "So how goes it with Nick, is he surviving your family, or should I be asking if your family is surviving Nick?"

Judy smiled, "Yeah, in between watching movies with the kits, he's connected my brothers up with Finn and another fox family here in the city, and they're all going to get in on his Pawpsicle business." Laughing, Judy continued, "I couldn't believe it when he told me. If the plan pans out, it'll probably add 10% to the warren's bottom line, and if my brother has his way, our warren is going to team up with the Gardiner's warren and expand production into markets outside of Zootopia."

Connor smirked as he replied, "Foxes and rabbits going into business with each other, what's crazier than that?"

Tapping his muzzle with a finger, Connor seemed to be talking to himself as he added, "I mean, the only thing crazier than working together would be if a fox and a rabbit were to, oh I don't know, spend a lot of time together and talk all the time on the phone and…"

Judy suddenly whisper-shouted, "Connor." Waving her paws to distract the wolf, Judy pointed at his screen, "Uh, look, the search, it found something."

Connor chuckled and started typing on his keyboard, "Mmm-hmm."

As Judy leaned in to see the list of hits on the screen, she whispered to the wolf, "You're as bad as Clawhauser." Pointing at the screen, Judy focused Connor back on their work. "Four unresolved cases, open up the first one, and let's take a look."

A couple of clicks and Connor was reading the case summary. "A kit, ten years old, the mom thinks the dad took their son because he wanted full custody. The dad was born overseas and reportedly left the Commonwealth about the time the kit went missing."

Judy shook her head, "Nope, doesn't fit, too young." Looking closer, Judy noticed a notation, "Yeah, this has already been sent to the ZBI and the Commonwealth State Department, it'll be marked closed as soon as they send the ZPD their final report."

The next record looked like it was the result of a domestic abuse case, a male bear's mate had disappeared after she had called the ZPD a half-dozen times over two years. The black bear was a high-ranking corporate executive, and every time charges were filed, a veritable army of lawyers would get them thrown out. The bear filed the missing mammal report, but when the investigating officers interviewed the girl's family, they either refused to help or gave dead-end statements that made no sense.

As Judy finished reading the summary, Connor chimed in, "I don't think this one fits either, I've heard of families helping get their mated kits out of bad situations like this. I'm betting this girl is as far away from the city, and her ex, as possible."

Judy wasn't so sure she agreed with Connor until she saw a notation from the investigating officer that the girl's dad had bought a vacation condo way north of the city and refused to disclose its location or why he bought it. The officer had gone on to include a comment that basically parroted Connor's assessment. Judy waved a paw in agreement and had Connor open the next file.

Connor read aloud the case details, and Judy nodded as he finished, this one sounded like a better match to what they were looking for. An accountant had disappeared on his way home from work. His mate had reported him missing and explained that he'd never been gone this long before, and she was very worried about him.

Judy chewed on her lip, the guy's mate had said he'd had a meeting with an important client the day he disappeared, but the investigators could never find any client lists, books, computers or anything else in his office. The entire space had been cleaned out as if he'd moved out of town, and without any evidence of foul play, the investigators had marked the case 'Voluntary Missing,' but kept the file open just in case new evidence surfaced.

About to give up on this file, Judy looked at the guy's office address and had an idea. Grabbing her phone, she quickly tapped out a message to Nick with the guy's name, species, address, and a couple of details from the report and then asked him if he knew of the guy.

Hitting send, she looked up at Connor, who was staring at her with a smile on his face, "What? Nick keeps saying he knows everyone, maybe he's heard of our missing accountant."

A dinging noise from Connor's pocket had him pulling his phone out and check an incoming text. As he read the message, a smile crept across his face. Connor typed a response, sent it, and put his phone away. Still smiling, Connor noticed Judy watching him. "That was my girlfriend, we're having dinner with her parents tonight."

Judy smiled, "That's nice, does that mean things are getting better between you and her mom?"

"We'll see, if my name gets added to this list tomorrow," pointing to the screen, "I expect you to be the one who comes looking for me."

Judy's phone pinged, and she looked at the text from Nick. Reading it, she nodded and then said, "Nick says that he's heard of the guy, and he kept the books for a couple of medium level organizations. The word on the street was that he relocated suddenly because he was skimming from one of the organizations, and they found out about it."

Sliding in front of the computer, Judy added a couple of notes to the case file and then sent it to Bogo so he could decide if he wanted someone to look into it or give it to the ZBI. Judy closed the file and then waved Connor back over.

Connor opened up the last entry on the list. "Male raccoon, early twenties, went missing about five months ago. His grandmother put in the missing mammal report."

Judy nodded, "Okay, where was he last seen?"

Connor scrolled down, "Here's the address, it's near Park and Dry Creek, southwest part of Sahara Square."

Judy pursed her lips as she looked at the address, "I know that address." Grabbing her notebook, she flipped through a few pages until she got to her notes from her ZMS visit yesterday, she pulled out the shelter list Karen had given her and scanned down the list, "Here it is, that address belongs to an overnight shelter run by the ZMS." Judy nodded as she continued, "I want to look at this one more carefully. Who did the initial investigation?"

Connor scrolled down to the officer's comments, and as he used the mouse to highlight the officer's name, he groaned, "Garrison."

Judy shook her head, "Great." Taking a deep breath, she asked, "What did she find out?"

"Looks like she made a call to the family and then," clicking again, "she put here that the boy's grandmother was worried because he had finished rehab and was supposed to have been home the night before the report was filed, but hadn't shown up. Since it hadn't been 72 hours between the guy going missing and the report, Garrison marked it as Voluntary Missing with a note to follow up later."

Connor clicked another link and then grunted, "That's it, I don't see any follow up notes."

Judy got an angry look on her face, "Unbelievable, what kind of cop lets something like this drop?" Looking at Connor, Judy continued, "I don't know if you've ever patrolled with her, but she's a real piece of work."

Connor shook his head, "Yeah, we partnered up together once, but our patrolling together ended a few minutes after she found out about Olivia. Garrison isn't exactly the most tolerant officer at the ZPD." Motioning toward the record, "So, do we talk to her about this missing mammal report, or check it out ourselves?"

"We check it out ourselves, Garrison has a problem with small predators like raccoons, anything we get from her at this point will be biased or useless." Standing up, Judy pointed at the report, "Send me a copy of that, I may need it if I have to talk to Garrison about what happened on this or I end up taking it to Bogo."

…..

Nick knocked on the Sheriff's door and poked his head in, "Sir, Wendy said you wanted to see me before I went on patrol."

"Wilde, yes, come in," said Sheriff Hoofson as he stood and motioned for Nick to take a seat. "How are you feeling? Is your arm healing up?"

Nick nodded, "Yes, sir. I've been trying to take it easy, you know, keeping the gunplay to a minimum and only using my right paw to carry my coffee, stuff like that."

"Well, I can see your sense of humor hasn't suffered any." Grabbing a note off his desk, Hoofson handed it to Nick, "Two things for you. Your doctor at the hospital asked me to give you his number and remind you that he'd like to see you tomorrow. And I got a call from the Mayor, she's rescheduled your PR event at the hospital for tomorrow too. So, it looks like you'll be spending most of your day tomorrow at the hospital."

"Lucky me," Nick deadpanned.

Hoofson chuckled, "Son, the hospital ain't that bad. Just think of all the kits that have never met a fox before, it'll be fun for them."

"I thought parents around here used to tell their kits to behave, or a red devil fox would come and eat them up."

Hoofson shook his head a little as he thought about what Nick said for a moment and then replied, "I think if you skip the part where you eat the kits that misbehave, you should be okay."

Nick groaned as Hoofson smiled at the dad joke he'd just inflicted on the fox.

"Thanks, Sheriff, sounds like good advice."

…..

About forty-five minutes later, Judy and Connor stepped out of their patrol car and made their way to a small house in an old neighborhood that sat on the south edge of the Meadowlands just north of the Rainforest District.

Connor knocked on the door and stepped back. A few moments later, the door opened, and a raccoon boar in his late twenties poked his head out. With a surprised look on his face, he stuttered out, "Hello."

Judy stepped up and replied, "Hello, I'm Officer Judy Hopps, and this is Officer Pawson; we're with the ZPD, and we'd like to talk to you about Griffin Rogers."

The boar got a disgusted look on his face, "What has he done now? Hang on a minute." Turning, the raccoon yelled back into the house, "Grandma, there's a couple of cops here asking about Griffin." Motioning to Judy, "Why don't you both come in. My name's Baxter, Griffin and I are cousins."

As Judy and Connor stepped into the house, Baxter led them to the living room as an older sow, wearing a light robe and slippers, walked in from another room. Putting her paw out, she introduced herself as Doreen Rogers, "Baxter said you're here about my grandson. Have you found him?"

"Grandma, why do you keep worrying about him? He's probably strung out on drugs somewhere, trying to figure out how to get his next fix."

"That's enough from you, Baxter! Griffin is part of our family, and he finished rehab. He promised me that he was all done with drugs and that he had a job and was ready to straighten out his life."

"Grandma–"

Judy interrupted the argument, "Ma'am, we're investigating your grandson's disappearance, and I was hoping you could tell me a little more about what happened to him."

Shaking her head, she sat down heavily on the couch, "I told that officer that called everything I knew." Wringing her paws together, the elderly raccoon looked down as she said in a quiet voice, "I take it, you haven't found him yet."

"I'm sorry, ma'am, no, he hasn't been found yet. Would you please go over again what you told the officer that called."

Sighing, the raccoon replied, "Griffin called, it was in the morning, and he was leaving an overnight shelter in Sahara Square. He'd finished his rehab program earlier in the week and had been checked out by the doctors. He needed a place to stay as part of his program and asked if he could stay here with me."

Baxter grumbled, "I told the loser to find another place to go, but you told him he could stay here. You know it would have only been a matter of time before he asked you for money to buy drugs."

"I said enough, Baxter." Turning back to the Officers, she said, "He told me that the shelter would call him a ride, and he'd be here in a couple of hours, but he never showed up. I called the number back, but all the person on the other end said was that he'd been picked up and was gone. I waited until the next day, and when Griffin still hadn't shown up, that's when I called the police and filed the missing mammal report.

"He promised he was better and he was supposed to come stay with me. Something happened." Starting to sob a little, she added, "It's been months, even when he was sick, he'd never go this long without calling me."

Judy moved next to the elderly mammal and put her paw on her shoulder, "I'm sorry he's still missing, we'll do our best to find out what happened to him."

Mrs. Rogers sniffed, "You're that police officer that found all those missing mammals that Bellwether poisoned, aren't you?"

"Yes, ma'am, my partner and I found them."

The sow turned to Judy and hugged her, "Thank you for looking for my grandson. He's been in trouble for so long, and I just want him back home."

Mrs. Rogers let go of Judy and then opened the drawer to a side table next to the couch. Rummaging around for a moment, she pulled a picture out and handed it to Judy, "Here's a picture of Griffin, he's the one with the hat. He never took it off, that hat was his dad's, and it was all he had left of his parents from when they passed."

Judy took the picture; it was of Mrs. Rogers and a small group of younger raccoons.

Baxter leaned over, "That picture was taken maybe three years ago, Griffin wasn't as messed up then, but it wasn't too long afterward that he went downhill and started wandering the streets."

Judy and Connor thanked Mrs. Rogers and her grandson and promised to let them know if they found anything out. They both walked out to the squad car in silent thought. Just as Connor was about to start the engine, Judy said, "I think our next stop is the shelter. Griffin was picked up, but he never made it here. Since it was the shelter that got him the ride, maybe they have a record of who picked him up and where they actually took him."

…..

Buckstein pulled the patrol car into a parking spot in front of the diner, shut off the engine, and looked at Nick, "Lunch!"

Chuckling, Nick got out of the car and followed the enthusiastic buck into the diner.

Nick stopped at the entrance and took a look around. It had been a week since he'd been here, and the change had been amazing. All the booths were full, the majority of the tables were occupied, even most of the counter seats were taken, which, as Nick watched, was where Buckstein was settling himself in.

The smells coming from the kitchen were delicious, Nick could smell one of his mom's old dishes being cooked, and he also took a whiff of a couple of the veggie meals he and Brian had made up when he was here last.

A rabbit doe in a retro pink waitress' uniform with a black apron came up to Nick and greeted him pleasantly, "Good morning, Officer Wilde, please take any seat you'd like, and I'll be right over to take your order."

Nick smiled at the doe and replied, "Thank you, ah, Miss…"

"Brianna Leapwell, I'm Brian and Brenna's littermate, it got so busy here, they put out the word they needed help, and now the whole litter is helping out."

Nick watched as Brianna went back to making her rounds, and then he surveyed the room again, looking for Janae.

"Nick, over here!" Seeing a paw waving from one of the booths, Nick waved back and headed over.

"Hey Janae, hi Dalton," putting his paw out, Nick and Dalton shook paws. "Nice to see you again and thanks for taking the time to come talk with me, you know fire safety is of critical importance." Turning to Janae, Nick gave her a quick wink and heard a quiet growl in return.

"No problem, Officer Wilde, anything I can do to help. How is your arm feeling? I saw you at the Mayor's press conference, that was awesome what you did to help those kits."

"All in a day's work, besides, I had a lot of help."

"Speaking of help," Nick felt a paw on his back and turned to see Brian in his cook's uniform standing next to him, "I could use an extra paw in the kitchen, and I really need you to show me how to put together that last recipe you emailed me." Turning to Janae and Dalton, he added, "Okay, if I borrow Nick for a few minutes?" Without waiting for an answer, Brian handed the fox an apron and guided him into the kitchen.

Dalton scrunched his eyebrows as he watched Nick and Brian walk away and once the two were in the kitchen, he leaned toward Janae and said, "His arm doesn't look like it's hurting him that bad."

Janae huffed, "Oh, trust me, the pain in his arm is killing him, and later, I'm pretty sure his leg and a couple of ribs will be hurting too."

…..

With traffic, the trip to the shelter was about an hour and a half from Mrs. Rogers' house. Connor parked the cruiser, and the two Officers crossed the parking lot toward the building entrance.

Connor stopped while still standing on the sidewalk. "Hopps, take a look," waving his paw toward the building's facade, "no security cameras."

Judy turned and looked at the surrounding buildings and added, "Yeah, none over there either. You'd think they would have at least one covering the entrance. Without any cameras, I guess we'll have to hope someone saw something and they remember what happened.

Once in the lobby, the two officers looked around until they saw a coyote female coming out of one of the side offices. Judy waved to get the mammal's attention as she and Connor walked over. "Good afternoon, I'm Judy Hopps, ZPD, I'd like to speak with the facility director or someone that might know about one of your residents that stayed here about five months ago."

"Sure, I'm Director Knowles, Winnie Knowles. Who do you want to know about?"

Judy pulled the picture out of her notebook and handed it to the coyote, "His name is Griffin Rogers, he's the one wearing the Brother Grump hat. He called home from here and told his grandmother that you guys had arranged a ride for him. He never made it home, and we're trying to find out what happened to him."

"I remember who you're talking about, he stayed here for a couple of weeks after his rehab, first step in transitioning back to the real world. We typically call them a ZooRyd and charge it to our account. I'm not the one that makes those arrangements though, Dellie does that." Waving for Judy to follow, Winnie led the two officers down the hall to an office.

Knocking on the door, Winnie asked the aardvark sitting behind the desk, "Dellie, these two officers are asking about Griffin Rogers." Motioning for Judy to show her assistant the picture, she continued, "Do you remember setting up a ride for the boar in the picture, the one with the hat?"

The aardvark smiled wide, "Oh yes, I remember him," looking up at Judy, "mostly because he always wore that hat, I loved that movie." Handing the picture back, she thought back, "Let's see, I set up the ride with ZooRyd, and I remember he was going to somewhere on the south side of the Meadowlands, I think he said it was his grandma's place."

Judy nodded, "Yes, but he never arrived, is there anything you can look up that would show us the trip ticket, who picked him up or anything like that?"

"Hang on." Dellie logged into the shelter's credit card account and went to some of the old statements, "We had two that week, what day was Griffin's ride?"

Judy flipped to the report in her notebook, "Thursday the 12th."

"Okay, it's this one," turning the monitor around so everyone could see it, "right here. What's weird is this amount isn't nearly enough for a ride all the way to the Meadowlands, this looks like a bill for a short ride or maybe the penalty fee they charge for a missed ride. I'm not sure which." Dellie paused and then vigorously shook her head, "No way is it for a missed ride, I saw him get picked up. I remember because I was coming back from getting a Snarlbucks, and I wished him luck as one of the mammals picking him up was helping him into the car."

Connor furrowed his brow and spoke up, "Ma'am, did you say mammals?"

"Yeah, two guys in coveralls. I wasn't really paying much attention; I remember my boyfriend had called and I was on my phone talking to him."

Judy asked, "Did you get a good look at the two guys?"

"Sorry, no. I think one of them had short antlers or horns, but the other one was behind the car, I just saw enough to know that they were dressed the same."

Judy and Connor looked at each, something wasn't right with this. "Dellie, would you please print out the charge record you have," turning to Miss Knowles, "I'd like to have one of the ZPD legal liaisons contact ZooRyd and see what kinds of records they have for this pickup. I agree with Dellie, that fee is not enough to cover a ride all the way to the south side of the Meadowlands."

Judy thanked the Director and Dellie for their help and gave them each a card in case they thought of anything else that might be helpful. Judy also mentioned to Dellie that they might need to talk with her again, depending on what they found out from ZooRyd.

…..

"Good morning, Mr. Hayes."

Hayes was grumbling to himself as he walked down the sidewalk. He'd just left Fehler's hobby shop and wasn't happy. There was a filthy pred kit working there, and even a couple of preds in the store wanting to buy toys. And then when he went to confront Fehler about it, he'd gotten the brush off, 'Best worker I've ever had,' was the response, disgusting.

The older rabbit just grunted in response to the greeting he'd received. He was hungry, and the drive back to the warren was going to take a while, that was the problem with living in a Border Warren and having to check up on the family's motel and gas station here in town, he wasted a lot of time driving every time he had to come into town.

He always enjoyed visiting his old friend Owen Leapwell. He ran a decent, upstanding eatery, the food was a little basic, but the atmosphere and the company made up for it. He remembered the old buck's funeral, most of the Leapwells were there and a few rabbits from town made it, not many though, he'd heard that the old bun rubbed a lot of folks the wrong way with how he treated those that weren't rabbits. A pox on them, they just didn't understand him, he was one of the few voices of reason in this town.

Hayes came up to his friend's diner, he figured Leapwell would have gone to great pains to make sure his place was turned over to the kits in his family that would be the ones to carry on his legacy. About time he met whoever Leapwell trusted that much, and maybe together, they'd be able to keep the town on the right path.

Opening the door, Hayes stepped in and his mouth dropped open. 'What in the sam hills is going on here?'

The diner was filled with rabbits and prey mammals of all types, sitting and eating and laughing. 'How is this possible?'

As Hayes' eyes adjusted to the dim light, they went wide, and he almost gasped, 'Oh my god,' there were predators in the dining room. There were predators sitting at tables in the dining room. There were predators eating food, talking with rabbits, and all of them were in the same dining room.

Hayes waved his paws and took a small step back. And then the smell hit him, from the kitchen he could smell. 'Oh no, what have they done to the place?' He could smell bug patties being cooked!

Hayes' stomach started to churn, he wasn't going to stay in this horrible place one second longer than he had to. Turning to go, he scanned the room again and stopped as he saw a disgusting sight, something he hadn't seen in years, in one of the booths there was a rabbit doe talking with a hare buck.

Hayes' eyes narrowed as he looked more closely and recognized the doe as one of Stu's kits. He'd thought that Stu had taken care of that kind of deviant behavior a long time ago. It was too bad about Stu's boy, but the kits in town needed to know that that kind of behavior wouldn't be tolerated and now to see it happening again. He and Leapwell should have run all the hares out of town instead of just the Longears.

As he was about to leave, Hayes stopped when he saw Nick, with an apron tied around his uniform, coming out of the kitchen with a couple of plates of food for the Hopps girl and the hare. The fox placed the plates in front of the kits, and as Hayes watched, they both took a taste and then he could hear them gush over the dishes. The fox made a theatrical bow waving his paw toward the food and then rushed back into the kitchen.

'That pelt, he's to blame for all of this.'

A doe came up to Hayes and pleasantly said, "Good afternoon, sir, please take any seat you'd like, and I'll be right with you."

"No," giving the place a last look of distaste, he said, "I've lost my appetite." Pushing open the door, Hayes left the ruined diner. The Mayor invited that animal to Bunnyburrow, the Sheriff likely won't do anything about him, and Stu is letting him stay in his warren, put all together, it meant that it was going to be up to him to figure out a way to teach that fox what a predator's proper place was in this town.

…..

Judy came out of the female's locker room and walked over to where Connor was standing by Clawhauser's desk. Connor was dressed nicely for dinner with his girlfriend, whereas Judy was dressed in her workout gear, ready to chase kits all over a soccer field for a couple of hours.

Clawhauser smiled as Judy came up to his desk, "Where are you headed, Judy?"

Judy adjusted her small backpack and replied, "To the Twin Pines Soccer park, I'm helping coach a team of kits for the summer."

Connor spoke up and said, "Hey Judy, that park is on the way to the restaurant I'm meeting my girlfriend and her parents at for dinner, I can drop you off on the way if you'd like."

Pulling his car into the soccer park's parking lot, Connor stopped near two fields where a couple of prey teams were practicing. Nodding toward the fields, Connor asked, "Which field is your team on?"

"Field #4, right over there," said Judy pointing out the other side of the car.

Turning, Connor raised an eyebrow at seeing a kit's team made up of mostly foxes with a lynx, a couple of weasels, an otter, and walking toward the group, what looked like a pudu buck. "Looks like a nice bunch of kits."

Judy smiled, "Yup, we're playing the second-place team next game, lots of work to do if we want to beat them. Thanks for the ride, see you tomorrow, Connor."

Judy hopped over to the group, and Connor watched as she stopped in surprise as the pudu buck came out of the group and gave Judy a big hug. Judy put an arm around the buck's shoulders as they both walked back into the group, followed by a round of high-fours from the rest of the players.

Connor put his car in gear and pulled away. With a last glance toward the team on the field, he hoped that one of these days, he'd be as good with kits as Judy was.

…..

A/N: Any and all thoughts are appreciated, the next chapter will be out in a couple of weeks. Stay healthy and be safe!