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

…..

Judy, with her half-caf and a carrot Danish, pushed her way into the precinct lobby. Seeing that Officer Pennington was manning Clawhauser's usual spot, she walked over and greeted her large friend, "Hey Francine, how are you this morning?"

"Great, Judy. Happy Saturday, I saw you were on the schedule for today."

"Yup, I've got a little research to do for my case. I figured I'd see what I can get done this morning and then get caught up on paperwork if I have any time left."

"Sounds boring," Francine looked side to side and then leaned down to Judy and whispered, "Jackson's out today because of his youngest kit's baseball tournament, so if you want, when you're done with your real work..."

Judy got an excited look on her face and fist pumped, "Street racers, cool!"

"Now, Judy, nothing too wild out there, otherwise Bogo will have my hide."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! As soon as I'm done with my research, I'll be back."

Pennington laughed, "Judy, you are one crazy doe."

Judy quickly walked to her desk, turned on her computer, and started to organize her notes from last night. On the train ride home, she'd written down a few pages of notes on her conversations with the mammals she'd met at the encampment. Unfortunately, except for the two street names, Big John and Little Bill, the old fox had given her, there wasn't anything else she could use. Setting her notebook down, Judy sipped her half-caf and waited for her computer to finish booting up.

Humming to herself, Judy logged in and brought up the ZPD search page.

Typing in the first street name, she waited for a few seconds only for the search to come back without finding anything, typing in the other name, Judy got the same result. She tried a few tweaks to her searches, used variations of the names, and made sure all the ZPD databases were being searched, still nothing.

Judy grabbed her phone and sent a quick text to Nick to see if he knew of anyone that might recognize either of the names and be able to tell her their real names or where they might be. A minute later, Judy received a garbled text back from Nick, letting her know that he didn't know of anyone and that he was covered in soap bubbles and had to go.

Not sure what was going on with Nick, and really not wanting to know, Judy drummed her claws on the desk until she remembered talking with Penny last night. Penny had said that she'd be in at work for a few hours this morning to document the supplies used during the dinner, and place orders for supplies they would need for the next meal. The ZMS partnered with volunteer organizations to support the homeless, but that didn't mean there was any less paperwork involved.

Dialing Penny's number, Judy waited.

"Hello, this is Penny."

"Hi, Penny, this is Judy."

The two girls chatted a little about the dinner last night, and Judy described in more detail some of the mammals she met and passed on a few housing and sanitary issues that she'd heard some of them talk about. Penny, in turn, thanked Judy again for coming out and let her know that none of the workers she'd talked with had heard anything about Crazy Ray or any other missing mammals.

Once done catching up, Judy asked Penny for help. "I'm trying to find information on a couple of mammals. I've got their street names here, but I can't find them in the ZPD database. Would you mind looking in the ZMS system and seeing if you can find them?"

Penny groaned, "Judy, I can't right now. The IT guys are doing an upgrade to the system. They were supposed to have been done early this morning, but they just announced that they were going to need at least the rest of the day to finish. I can look the names up first thing Monday and then give you a call if that works?"

Judy was disappointed, but it wasn't Penny's fault the ZMS computer system was down. "That sounds good, let me give you the names."

Judy passed on the street names, and Penny wrote them down on a yellow sticky-note. Pressing it to the bottom of her computer screen, the sticky would be a reminder to do the searches for her friend. Judy also let Penny know that she would be in early Monday and to give her a call as soon as she had anything.

The girls were in the middle of chatting some more when Penny heard someone clearing their throat behind her, "Ah, Judy, I've got to go, talk to you Monday."

Penny hung up her phone and then turned around, "Good morning, Miss Packler, how are you?"

"Were you talking with that rabbit cop again?"

"Yes, ma'am, she wanted me to look up a couple more names for her."

Packler glanced at Penny's monitor, and her eyes narrowed when she saw the names on the sticky note. Swallowing, Packler said, "Penny, it's not our job to be at the beck and call of the ZPD. Officer Hopps should be able to do her own work and stop bothering you."

"Ma'am, it's no bother, besides the system is down for the rest of the day, so I can't look anything up until Monday morning anyway."

Packler pursed her lips, "I still don't like it. If this keeps happening, I'm going to call the ZPD Chief myself and put a stop to it. We have way too many important things we're supposed to be doing to be wasting our time helping the ZPD do their job."

Penny stared as Packler grabbed her phone and said, "I'll be in the break room for a few minutes, cover my calls for me while I'm gone."

Penny shook her head as the llama walked away, 'Way too many important things, yeah, right, like secretly going off to talk to your boyfriend all the time or playing with that 'Dancing with Gazelle' app all day.' Penny turned back to some paperwork she'd been working on and hurried to finish it. Without a working computer, she couldn't do much, and she wasn't planning on wasting a beautiful Saturday staring at Miss 'Too busy to help.'

…..

Nick yawned as he sat at the kits table with Sunni and her littermates. As a group, they'd all come into his room to get him up for breakfast. He'd tried to explain that growing foxes needed lots of sleep, but all that got him was a place at the kit's table so the litter could make sure that Mr. Nick didn't try and sneak back into his bed.

Janae had decided to join the group too. Nick wasn't sure if it was to check up on the kits or to make fun of his carrot print pajamas some more. Whatever the reason, Nick stopped caring as soon as she slipped a cup of coffee in front of him.

Bonnie had been making the rounds checking in with a number of the litters spread around the dining room. Most were quick conversations, but a few lasted longer and even involved lists that she went over with them. Nick wasn't sure what was up but figured he'd find out soon enough, especially since Bonnie was now headed over to the kit's table.

"Good morning, Nicholas, I'm glad to see you're awake, we have a busy day."

"We do?"

Janae leaned in and whispered, "Saturday chores. Every litter gets a list."

Looking around the table, Bonnie continued, "Everyone needs to strip their beds and put their dirty laundry in their laundry bags," looking at Nick, "Nicholas, would you and the boys please gather up all the kit's bags and any other's you can carry and take them to the laundry room."

"Yes, Mrs. H."

"All your rooms need to be cleaned, Sunni, you're in charge of making sure everyone dusts and vacuums, no one is allowed to go outside and play until everyone's room is spic and span."

Looking at Nick, Sunni narrowed her brow and then pointed two of her fingers at her eyes and then at Nick to let him know she would be keeping an eye on him. Nick retorted by sticking his tongue out at Sunni.

"And then I need all of you to tidy up the playroom from last night's movie. The couch cushion fort looks fun, but everything needs to be put away."

"Aww, Mom, it's not a fort, it's an Ice Palace," said Sasha.

"That's nice dear, but it's going to be warm today, and I don't want the Ice Palace to melt all over everything, so I need all of you to clean it up before that happens."

"Okay," came the sullen reply.

"Lastly, it's this litter's turn to clean the south bathrooms, and that includes you too Nicholas, Steven will show you where the kit safe soap and the cleaning supplies are, and how best to clean everything."

Bonnie paused to a chorus of grumbling, 'Yes, Moms,' including one from the largest kit of the litter.

Looking back at Nick, Bonnie asked, "Nicholas, when you're done with your chores, would you mind going to the General store for me, I've got a small list of things I need for dinner tonight."

"Sure thing," replied Nick.

Bonnie tapped her muzzle and turned to the oldest doe at the table, "Janae, would you be a dear and go with him, I just remembered that Katlynn needs some feminine products and a few things for her new litter, and I know how males are about going down those aisles."

"Sure mom, it's probably a good idea I go anyway; if you send Nick by himself, he'd probably come back with a stack of new video games and a tub of Cheesy Poofs."

"Will not!" and then he whispered to Janae, "Do they really sell the big tubs of Cheesy Poofs here? They're like a dual-use snack, they taste great, and the round ones are fun to shoot at people."

Janae's eye roll was interrupted by Sunni and her littermates as they all yelled out, "Can we go too? Can we, can we?"

"I need Spencer and Scotty here, but the rest of you can go if that's okay with Nicholas," replied Bonnie.

"Sure guys, the more, the merrier, just as long as we leave enough room in my car for a tub of Cheesy Poofs."

…..

Packler made her way to the breakroom. She needed to find a private spot so that she could call Mr. White and let him know what Hopps had found. She didn't want to call him, but if Hopps found Big John because of Little Bill, a mammal that she thought was dead, White would blame her. If only there were some way to delete every reference to Little Bill in the system before she talked to White, then he'd never have to know about her mistake. Damn that rabbit.

Pulling out her phone, Packler pushed open the breakroom door, stepped in to make her call, and… stopped dead in her tracks. The room was filled with mammals.

"What's going on in here, who are all you people?"

One of the mammals slowly looked up from his phone and replied, "I…T…support."

Packler groaned, "Oh, no. You're all sloths. How in the hell did a sloth firm win the city's IT support contract?"

"Guaranteed…fastest…response…time."

"If that's the case, what are you all doing in the breakroom surfing the internet on your cell phones?"

"Data…migration."

"Data migration? What in the hell are you talking about? It was the workstations that were supposed to be upgraded, not the data servers. MY COMPUTER IS DOWN, AND I NEED TO USE IT!"

"Trouble…ticket?"

"No, I don't want to submit a trouble ticket, I want you to tell me when the computer system is going to be back up, moron."

"I…need…to…escalate…your…issue–"

Packler balled her hooves at her sides and stomped her feet on the ground, "Aaargh, what do you mean escalate my issue? Are you some kind of idiot? How in the world do you even have a job? I NEED MY COMPUTER WORKING NOW!"

"…to…my…boss."

Packler fumed as the sloth, ever so slowly, called his boss. When the phone connected, the llama wanted to scream when she saw that the sloth had misdialed the number. Dialing again, Packler breathed a sigh of relief when the right mammal finally answered the phone. Unfortunately, it took another ten minutes of excruciatingly painful waiting before the sloth ended the call.

Shifting from hoof to hoof, Packler watched as the sloth imitated swimming through molasses as he put his phone down on the table and then just as slowly looked up at the now enraged female.

"Just tell me what time you'll be done!" yelled Packler, throwing her arms up in the air.

"Boss…says…five–"

"FINALLY!" Packler shouted as she stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. 'Thank god for small miracles, now all I have to do is wait until they're done tonight, delete everything on Little Bill and then call White and tell him that Hopps is asking around about Big John.'

"…a.m. ….Monday…morning,…" slowly turning back to the game on his phone, the sloth finished by mumbling, "…bitch."

…..

Sunni was skipping down the sidewalk with her littermates as Nick, Janae and Dalton followed. Everyone was talking and laughing in between bites of their ice cream cones.

Somehow the quick trip into town to pick up a few things for Bonnie had turned into a kit's outing. Said outing started at the general store, meandered its way to Fehler's hobby shop, and had just finished up at the ice cream shop. What amazed Nick the most was that while the group was at the toy store, Dalton had spontaneously shown up with some 'fire safety' information that he and Janae had been talking, and occasionally giggling, about for the last hour. And now, Nick was having fun watching everyone as they all tried to finished their ice cream cones without dripping all over themselves.

The group came out a side street and headed to where Nick had parked his car near the general store. They all needed to get back home, and Dalton had to get back to work at the Department store. Of course, Dalton had gallantly offered to walk the group, especially a certain doe, back to Nick's car before going back on-shift.

Seeing a trashcan a few yards away, Nick munched down the last of his blueberry swirl ice cream cone and then deftly threw the cone wrapper into the trashcan with a hook shot, "Yaaaa, nothing but net, the crowd goes Wilde." Nudging Janae with his elbow, "Get it, 'Wilde,' pretty good, huh?"

Janae rolled her eyes as Dalton added a little, "Woot, woot," to the celebrating fox's antics.

"Tell me again exactly how Judy puts up with you?" Janae asked.

"What can I say, I'm irresistible."

"I think you meant immature or maybe infantile."

"Ouch, feel the burn, Wilde," Dalton said, laughing.

The three mammals continued to laugh and enjoy themselves as they neared Nick's parked car. None of them were paying close attention until a question from Sunni stopped the group.

"Mr. Nick, what kind of fox is an 'F', 'U', 'C',…"

Janae looked to where Sunni was pointing and gasped, "Sunni!" and then covered her sister's eyes.

Dalton rushed up and grabbed the other kits while Nick ran to his car. Rubbing his paw across the spray-painted graffiti on the driver's side door and side panel of his car, he looked back at Janae and moaned, "Oh no."

Sunni squirmed out of Janae's paws and stomping her foot, yelled, "What's wrong? Mr. Nick, what happened to your car?"

Steven pulled away from Dalton and stood closer to Sunni, "Someone wrote bad words on Mr. Nick's car."

Bunnies out shopping and from the square started to congregate around the small group as everyone whispered amongst themselves. It was pretty unusual to see this kind of vandalism in town, and the looky-loos began to gather.

Nick put his paws on his hips and shook his head, "What the hell!"

Most of the whispering rabbits were shocked that someone would tag a car with profanity, and the volume of discussion grew as more rabbits joined the crowd.

As Janae, Dalton, and the kits made it to the car and joined Nick, a middle-aged buck started laughing and yelling from the front of the onlookers.

"Whoever wrote that is right! Go home fox, we don't want your kind here!"

The crowd of bunnies pulled away from the heckler leaving him more exposed. Most in his situation would realize that they were on their own, but this buck was only emboldened.

"You heard me–"

Sunni broke away from Janae, who was trying to scoot the doe toward the car, and like a missile, Sunni jumped feet first into the chest of the loud buck trying to stir up the crowd against her friend.

The buck, quite a bit larger than the small doe, was caught off guard by the attack, lost his balance and went to the ground in a heap. Sunni rebounded straight up, and when she came down, she landed on the buck's large stomach knocking the wind out of him.

Waving a finger in the buck's face, just like she'd seen her mother do, Sunni yelled loud enough for the whole crowd to hear, "You leave my friend alone! He's a nice mammal, not mean like you!"

The buck sputtered as he looked up at the doe on his chest in terror, "Help, *cough* somebody get *cough* this animal off me!"

A few of the bunnies in the crowd started to laugh at the fallen buck as Nick walked over and picked Sunni up off the buck's chest. Sunni squirmed in Nick's arms and yelled out, "Put me down, I haven't given him a piece of my mind yet! Just you wait, you big meanie, I'm gonna–"

The buck rolled onto his side, coughed again and then said, "I want that little beast arrested, she assaulted me, just look at what she–"

*Crack, pop, crack*

The buck's tirade was silenced by the sound of Janae cracking her knuckles as she looked down on the rabbit trying to lift himself off the ground.

"What did you call my sister?" asked Janae, now balling her paws into fists.

The buck stopped moving and gulped as he looked upon the face of pain in the visage of a doe about to end him.

Nick set Sunni down next to her sister and then leaned toward the buck and whispered, "I'd think carefully about your next move, I've seen a Hopps doe take down a rhinoceros with one hit and right now, you've got two of them pissed at you."

The buck looked back and forth between the does and Nick and the crowd and then suddenly leaped up and bolted away in a zigzag pattern across the park and out of sight.

Nick gathered up the kits and herded them into the car while Janae and Dalton had one last fire safety conversation and said their goodbyes.

Nick paused and rubbed his paw over the paint damaged door. Shaking his head, Nick got in and then maneuvered the convertible away from the remaining rabbits gawking at his car.

…..

Everyone in the car was silent as they processed what had just happened. Nick was gripping the wheel tightly in his paws, rehashing the last few minutes over and over. He let a quiet growl escape as he shook away the thoughts of the vandalism to his dad's car, and the buck Sunni had silenced.

"Mr. Nick, are you sad about what happened to your car?"

Nick glanced over at Sunni, who had a paw on his leg as she tried to console him. "Just a little bit, Sunni, but don't worry, I'm sure it's not too big of a deal to get the car fixed."

Pouting, Sunni replied, "You should have let me beat that buck up, he wasn't saying nice things about you."

Nick nodded, "I appreciate you standing up for me, but you could have been hurt, and that would have made me way sadder than someone spray painting bad words on my car."

Sunni balled her fists and huffed as she started to reply, "But–"

Nick gently stopped her, "No buts, Sunni. This car is just a thing, it can be fixed, or I can get a new one. You, on the other hand, are very special and can't be replaced, and it's my job to protect you and keep you from getting hurt." Pausing for a few seconds, Nick added, "I'm sorry that any of you kits had to see that. It had nothing to do with you guys, it was all about me."

Janae spoke up, "Nick…"

"It's okay Janae, I don't want to talk about it."

The car was silent for another minute or so until, from the back seat, Susan said, "Nice leaping dropkick though, Sunni."

Sasha added, "Yeah, he never saw it coming."

Steven squeaked out, "Can you show me how you did that when we get home?"

Sunni looked sideways up at Nick with a smirk on her face as Nick tried to keep from laughing. Finally giving up, Nick put his fist out and said, "Yeah, they're right, that was a pretty sweet takedown."

Sunni fist bumped Nick and then folded her arms across her chest, dawning a look that clearly spoke to what would happen if anyone else tried to mess with her friend again.

…..

Francine was behind the reception desk fiddling with her phone, pressing a button on the screen she tried rerunning the app. Nothing. Clawhauser made it look so easy. One more time, she loaded the picture, merged it, and then gently pressed the start button.

"Woo-hoo! Look who I caught racing through Sahara Square."

Francine set her phone down and almost laughed at the sight of a small bunny pushing two handcuffed marsupials toward her desk. Francine made a quick call to holding and then greeted the group. "Hey, Judy. Hey Luke, Decks, long time no see."

"Good seeing you too, Francine," replied the muscular kangaroo. "What happened to Jackson, I thought he was on duty today?"

"Yeah, whose idea was it to send the rabbit out after us?" asked the smaller wallaby.

"Jackson never would have been able to slide his car under that concrete beam hauler."

"Or go up on two wheels to fit through that alley."

"And he definitely wouldn't have used that ramp to jump the barrier the way she did."

Seeing Francine's eyes start to narrow, Judy waved her paws at the two prisoners, "Guys, guys, Officer Pennington doesn't really want to hear all the details, right?"

The wallaby leaned toward Judy and whispered, "Nice Bootlegger's turn in front of that cement truck. I couldn't believe you were able to get around me that way."

Judy facepalmed, "Please, stop."

The kangaroo reached out and shook Judy's paw, "It was an honor to be arrested by you, Officer Hopps. That was an epic chase, and I can't wait for a rematch."

"Yeah, can I have your autograph?" added the wallaby.

Francine was now giving the bunny a stern look as Judy passed her prisoners over to the escort mammal from holding.

Once the miscreants were out of sight, Judy smiled her best buck-toothed grin at Francine and waited.

Flapping her large ears, Francine said, "Judy, you know these work as well as yours, right? What was that about a cement truck?"

Judy put her arms behind her back and, as cutely as she could, said, "Uhm… nothing."

Shaking her head, Francine replied, "You know that only works on Wilde, I'm immune to doe-eyes."

"Please…"

"Fine, finish your report, but give it to me, I don't need Bogo asking for any details on what happened."

Judy bolted away as Francine shook her head, mumbling something about Wilde being the only one able to keep his bunny partner out of trouble.

…..

Pulling up the driveway, Nick looked for a place to park. There were a few spots around the front door, but no way could Nick leave the car somewhere where the small kits could see the graffiti. Nick slowed down and then spied a good, out of the way place on the backside of the house near a tree.

Parking the car, Nick got out and pulled his seat up so the kits in the back seat could get out too. Once everyone was out, they all congregated around the driver's side door and watched as Nick stood with his arms folded across his chest, shaking his head.

Nick rubbed his muzzle as he thought, probably his best bet would be to call Mr. Hunter and see if he knew of someone that would be able to sand and repaint the car. The more he thought about it, the more he swirled, his dad had been proud of the fact that his convertible had the original paint job and had always made sure to be careful when they worked on it. All those years, his dad had taken care of the car, and in less than two weeks, he'd pissed it all away.

Whispering to himself, or so he thought, "Nice Wilde, good job taking care of your dad's car. He'd be real proud of you now."

As the kits listened to Nick quietly berate himself, Janae started to usher them toward the house, hoping to give Nick some privacy. Unfortunately, the arrival of the tagged car had been like a beacon to all the rabbits in the warren to come out and take a look.

Colton and Cody were the first to walk up and were about to greet Nick when they saw the graffiti-covered car. "What happened?"

Sunni shook off Janae and answered, "Some mean animal wrote bad words on Mr. Nick's car, and now he's sad."

More rabbits started to assemble. About a dozen teens, a few of the older does, and Lucas all stood around and surveyed the fox's trouble.

Cody nudged his littermate, "I heard you can use toothpaste to take off spray paint, how about we try that?"

One of the does in the back of the crowd yelled out, "A friend of mine said claw polish remover would work."

Colton shook his head, "We've got some rubbing compound, that'd probably work. No matter what though, that's the original paint, and anything too abrasive will wreck it."

Nick let out a loud breath, "Guys, I appreciate the ideas, but don't worry about it, I'll call around tomorrow, see who in the city can repaint it." Tossing his car keys on the dash, Nick patted the soft top lightly and then turned to the small crowd, "I'll, um, I think the best thing to do is cover it with duct tape or something and get it fixed later. But, if you guys don't mind, I really don't want to deal with this right now. I'm going to head inside for a little while, I'll worry this later."

Nick gave the car a last dejected look and walked back to the house with his tail dragging on the ground. Rounding the house, Nick passed Bonnie, who was standing at the edge of the porch with her arms folded across her chest.

"Nicholas?"

"I'm sorry, Mrs. H., I'll get that mess covered up in a little bit."

Bonnie gave Nick a soft look, "I wasn't worried about that, I'm worried about you. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, nothing I haven't seen before. I'll be in my room for a bit."

Bonnie watched her newest kit drag himself into the house and then turned to the small crowd, still standing around the car. Wishing she knew enough about cars to help, she shook her head and walked back into the house to work on dinner.

Sunni stomped her foot, trying to get all the bigger kits to stop arguing and help her friend. Yelling at the top of her lungs, she silenced the group, "Stop it, stop it now! Someone needs to help Mr. Nick. We have to fix his car!"

Colton went to one knee, "Sunni, I'm not sure we can, anything we do might just make it worse."

The frustrated doe started to cry, "Please…"

Lucas huffed and pushed his way through the crowd of his younger siblings and stopping next to Sunni, asked, "He's a fox, why do you care?"

Looking up at her brother, she sniffed and said, "He's my friend."

Lucas looked at Sunni and then at the car. Walking over to it, he rubbed the spray-painted spots with his paw and sighed. Turning back to Sunni, he said, "I'll take care of it."

Sunni wiped her eyes as she stepped back and watched her older brother grab the keys off the dash, start up the car, and maneuver it into the large barn. A moment later, Lucas looked back at the small crowd as he shut the big doors, dismissing all the watching bunnies.

…..

Janae came into the kitchen and sat down at the counter just as her mom was putting the last pan away from dinner.

Bonnie could see the worried look on her daughter's face. Wiping her paws off, she padded over to Janae and asked, "I noticed that Nicholas skipped dinner, is he still in his room?"

"Yeah."

"It's a shame what happened to his car."

"He didn't make too big of a deal about it on the way back, probably because Sunni was there, but I can tell he's pretty upset." Shaking her head, Janae added, "You know Sunni decked some buck that was giving Nick a hard time, one hit, and the guy went down hard."

Bonnie nodded, "Good for her, Nicholas needs a strong doe to watch out for him."

Janae sat quietly, chewing her lip in thought, and then her face lite up, "You know, Mom, you're right, and I think I know just the right doe to straighten him out."

Walking out of the kitchen, she pulled her phone out and headed down the hall to Nick's room. Reaching his door, she softly knocked, "Nick, it's me, can I come in?"

Janae heard a muffled response and let herself in. Nick was sitting on his bed leaning against the wall, not really doing anything except staring at the ceiling.

"You doing okay?"

Nick sighed, "Sure."

"You want to talk about it?"

Shaking his head, he grunted, "Nah, I'm good."

"For such an articulate guy, you don't sound very convincing."

Nick quickly sat up as Janae smiled and handed him her phone. "Thought you might like to talk to a friend." Patting Nick on the arm, Janae left so that he and Judy could talk.

Nick perked up as he saw his bunny's smiling face on the phone's small screen, "Hey, Carrots."

"Hey, Slick, heard you had a bad afternoon, sorry about your car. You need me to come home and beat up whoever tagged it?"

Chuckling, Nick replied, "Nope, Sunni's got that covered, I had to pull her off some buck that was laughing a little too hard."

"Janae said you seemed pretty upset and she thought it was something more than just your car, you want to tell me about it?"

"It's nothing."

"Nick…"

"Seriously, I'm alright."

Judy quietly waited without saying anything.

"Really, I'm fine, you need to save that look for someone that needs it."

Judy's eyebrow slowly went up, and her head tilted.

"Carrots, come on, I'm not some emotional bunny that needs to talk about everything."

Judy continued to stare at her fox, waiting.

"You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"Nope," and then Judy waggled her ears for effect.

Nick sighed, "I know, all ears, I got it."

Nick tried to resist his bunny but finally gave up, "Fine, it was my dad's car, and we used to spend time together working on it when I was a kit. And when we weren't working on it, he used to like to drive me around the open spaces in the Meadowlands. I thought it'd be fun to bring his car with me and maybe do a little of that around here. Unfortunately…" and then Nick's voice trailed off to silence.

Judy continued for Nick, "So, it brings back memories of your dad, and someone messed that up by tagging it?"

"Yeah."

"You've hardly talked to me about your dad, I'd love to hear about him if it's not too uncomfortable for you."

Nick rubbed the back of his neck as Judy waited and then nodded, "Well, I already told you, uh…"

"I remember, and I'm so sorry, no kit should have to go through that, it must have been terrible for you and your mom."

"Yeah, a few seconds either way and that drunk driver's funeral would've been the only one that happened that week."

Taking a breath, Nick pushed away the memories of that terrible accident and instead focused on the happier times, back when he was a little kit and his dad would take him for a walk in the park, or they'd go to Sister Mary's so he could play on the jungle gym.

"He would have loved you, Carrots, probably a lot more than me."

"Nick…"

"No really, he was the optimist in the family. My mom was the planner, always kept things going, my dad though, he could always see the best in everyone. If a down on his luck mammal needed some new clothes for a job interview, my dad made it happen. Clothes for kits that only had rags to wear, he'd figure something out. My mom used to play like she was giving my dad a hard time, but whenever he needed her to find a little something extra in the budget to help some mammal, she'd always figure it out. They were an amazing team, and he was so happy, that was until I screwed everything up."

Nick closed his eyes and went quiet again.

"What happened?" Judy gently asked.

"Junior Ranger Scouts."

"Oh, Nick…"

"Yeah, I broke his heart. Everything those mammals did to me, I took out on him. I pushed back on him and started hustling and getting in trouble in school, and I pushed him away. I knew I was hurting him, but he kept trying to reach out anyway.

"A little before my tenth birthday, my dad found that car, it ran, but it needed work, and he convinced me to help him fix it up. We'd be out in the garage together, and whenever he was working on it with me or driving me around, he was happy again, it was like before the Ranger Scout's happened. I think working on that car was about the only thing that made him happy after I'd become a problem, and now I've gone and messed even that up."

Judy shook her head, "Nick, did you ever stop to consider that it wasn't working on the car or driving around in it that made your dad happy, but doing those things with you because being with you is what he wanted most? I'm guessing working on the car was just an excuse, he had to know what was going on with you, and that was his way of reaching out and trying to reconnect."

"I don't know, Carrots–"

"Well, I do. If your dad is anything like his son, he forgave you a long time ago, the same way you keep forgiving me after every time I do something stupid and hurting you."

"Carrots…"

"No Nick, you forgive everyone else all the time, how about you forgive yourself for once? You need to let the past go, you're not that mammal anymore, you're my partner and my best friend. Listen to me and listen to your dad, forgive yourself, and let it go."

Nick closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths as Judy silently watched.

"I'll try."

Judy waited for a few seconds and then said in a low voice, "No. Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try."

Nick was confused for a second, and then he snorted as Judy was doing everything she could to try and keep a serious look on her face until finally, Nick broke out laughing, "Oh my god, Carrots, what have I done to you? My most emotional fox moment ever, and that's what you go with?"

Looking incredibly proud of herself, Judy replied, "What? Did you think I was going to start singing that song from Floatzen?"

Shaking his head, Nick snorted, "Oh please, don't even joke about that, we watched that movie yesterday, and the kits have been walking around singing that song ever since."

"Lucky kits, I've really been missing our movie nights together, popcorn, blueberry soda, and um, snuggling up with my favorite fox." Sighing, Judy continued in a quieter voice, "You know, if I were there, I'd be giving you a hug right now."

Nick nodded, "Yeah, I'd like that. Speaking of in-person hugs and having to solve a case before a certain fox gets one, how'd it go this morning, were you able to find those names in the ZPD system?"

"No, I ended up calling my friend at the ZMS, but their system was down for an upgrade, so she's going to look them up Monday morning and let me know what she finds."

"So, a forced day off while you wait for the computers to be fixed? What will you do? Pine away for a certain fox I expect."

"Yeah, right, more like a kit's soccer game and then laundry."

"Crush the poor fox's heart, why don't you."

Judy hummed and thought for a moment, "I suppose I could work in a little 'fox pining' after dinner. Would that be good enough?"

"How about some while your clothes are drying?"

Laughing, Judy replied, "Okay, I'll pine a little then too."

"Thanks."

Judy could see that Nick seemed better, "Are you going to be okay, Slick?"

Nick nodded, "Yeah, I am. Thanks for the talk. I needed it, I mean not that I'm like you emotional bunnies or anything, but thanks."

"Mr. Nick, Mr. Nick, come quick!" came Sunni's voice from down the hall.

Judy, seeing Nick look up, said, "Sounds like you've got visitors."

"Yeah, I should probably get going."

"Nick, you know I'm always here for you, no matter what," pointing up at her waggling ears, Judy smiled at her fox, "Miss you."

"Miss you too, Carrots."

Nick was holding the phone in his paw, looking at the still image of his bunny on the screen when Sunni turned the corner into his room. Sliding to a stop in front of Nick, with her littermates almost bumping into her from behind, she held out a set of car keys.

"Here you go, Mr. Nick."

"What are these for?"

Sunni rolled her eyes, "They're your car keys, silly. Lucas fixed your car and made it all pretty again."

Nick did a double-take, "Lucas?"

Grabbing Nick's paw, Sunni tried to pull him off the bed and out of the room. "Come on, slowpoke."

Nick followed the kits out of the room, and as soon as he stepped into the hallway, he saw Janae coming down the hall, trying to catch up to her younger siblings. As he was being pulled down the hall past her by Sunni, Nick handed the laughing doe back her phone, "Here you go, thanks."

Janae nodded and was about to pocket her phone when she stopped and looked at the frozen image of Judy on the screen leftover from the call. Janae furrowed her brow as she examined the picture more closely, there was something about how Judy looked, the softness in her eyes, a glow to her face, like–

Steven ran back from the small group and grabbed Janae's free paw, "You have to come too, Janae, hurry," and dragged his sister along to catch up with Sunni.

…..

Bonnie was in the kitchen as she saw a litter of kits pulling a confused Nicholas through the entryway and out the front door. Not sure what was up, Bonnie wiped her paws off on her apron, tossed it in the sink, and followed the group outside.

Bonnie saw Nicholas surveying his car, it looked completely restored, all the graffiti was gone, and the car sparkled with a fresh coat of polish. Nick bent down to the driver's side door and rubbed his paw across the shining surface.

Looking at Lucas standing with his arms folded across his chest, Nick went over and put his paw out, "Thanks, Lucas. I owe you a solid for this. I really appreciate what you did."

Lucas leaned forward away from the post he'd been leaning against, and replied, "You don't owe me nothin', didn't do it for you."

Sunni ran up to Lucas and hugged him, "Thank you, Lucas, for helping Mr. Nick, he was very sad."

Lucas gently rubbed his sister's head fur until she giggled and then pulled out of her hug to go into the house.

Nick turned back to his car and rubbed the spot that had been marked up, still not believing that Lucas had cleaned off all the spray paint.

"Mr. Nick, take us for a ride, please," yelled out Sunni and all her littermates.

Nick looked up at Bonnie, standing on the porch, and saw her nod. "Go ahead, just have them back before bedtime."

Nick opened the door and let the kits pile in. Once in, Nick put the top down for the bunch of squealing, happy kits. Lucas smiled as Sunni was practically dancing on the back seat. As the car started to move, Sunni faced the back of the car and waved to her big brother all the way to the end of the driveway.

Lucas sighed as he stopped waving at his sister and then made his way past his mother to get something to eat. Bonnie watched her son pass, and just as he was pushing open the door, she said, "Lucas, your dinner is in the warming oven, and there's a tray of your favorite strawberry mousse tarts cooling in the refrigerator for dessert."

Lucas nodded to his mother and quietly went in to eat.

…..

Packler slammed the door to her apartment closed behind her. Throwing her purse down on a table, she wanted to scream, instead, she kicked a metal trashcan in her living room, leaving a deep hoof print in it.

"Those horrid animals, they want a trouble ticket escalated, well, I'll escalate one, I'll escalate it right up their asses. Wait till I get into work on Monday, I'm going to write a memo to their boss and get that entire team fired. How dare they lie to me."

Packler stomped around her apartment for a few more minutes, and then once she'd worn herself out, she sat down at the table and putting her head in her hooves, groaned.

She'd waited all day in her office for the computers to be fixed, and when 5 p.m. came and went without a peep from the IT mammals, she went and looked for that fool of a lead technician to find out what was going on. Instead of finding the sloths, she'd found a note taped to the breakroom door that said they'd be done Monday morning and to have a nice day.

'Monday morning, what the hell!' Now she had to call White and not only tell him that Hopps was asking about Big John, but that she was also asking about Little Bill, Big John's 'supposed to be dead,' best friend who probably has a record in the very system she can't get into because it's down.

Packler pulled her phone out and stared at it. Gritting her teeth, she willed herself to relax, "I will survive this, somehow, someway, I will. None of this is my fault, he has to understand that."

Dialing the number, Packler waited and just before she thought it was going to go to voicemail, a gruff voice answered, "White here, it's late, this better be important."

"Sir, this is Pink again, we have a problem."

"Wait one."

Packler heard muffled voices, a door closing, and then a moment later, "Alright Pink, what's the problem?"

"The rabbit, sir. She's got the name of another one of our experiments. She called one of my people earlier today and asked her to find any information on Big John, the serval we grabbed six weeks ago. She also has his buddy, Little Bill's name, too. I could have sworn Little Bill was dead, but now I don't know, and if she finds Little Bill, she may figure out that we snatched Big John."

"What do you mean, you thought he was dead? I pay you enough to know, not guess. If that rabbit starts connecting the dots and finds out what we're up to, Brown will have both of our asses."

"I know sir, I'm sorry I made a bad assumption."

"Are you sure the record on Big John has been deleted?"

"Yes, sir, I did that the day he was picked up."

"And Little Bill?"

"The computers were down all day today, so I couldn't delete his. I know we have something on him because whatever I saw was why I figured he was dead or was about to die.

"The system is supposed to be back up Monday, I should be able to delete any mention of Little Bill out of the system before anyone comes in."

"Good. I need everything on him gone, our entire operation depends on keeping that damn rabbit from finding out about our test subjects."

Packler rubbed her temple, White was already pissed, and this wasn't going to help. "Sir, about that, I think we may have another problem."

"What now?"

"Sir, do you remember my former associate and how he selected mammals to be picked up?"

"Yes, hardcore drug addicts don't make good test subjects, that's why he's gone."

"Yesterday, I heard from the Director of one of the ZMS facilities that Hopps was there a couple of days ago asking about that raccoon your people picked up about five months ago. The Director let me know that I might be copied on a request from the ZPD legal liaison to ZooRyd for a copy of the billing that was used to pay for the raccoon's exit ride, a ride that never happened.

"Sir, she may not suspect anything yet, but if she gets that billing record from ZooRyd, she's going to know something happened to that raccoon."

"Damn."

"Sir, this isn't really my area, but you need to do something about Hopps. She seems to be the one figuring everything out. Right now, she doesn't have anything solid, but I'm worried that's she's going to find Crazy Ray, and if that happens, we are in real trouble. He's seen the lab and been through a few courses of testing with the drug. And…, I don't want to be the one that has to tell Brown that he escaped."

White slammed his hoof down on the table he was sitting at, "Damn it. We're so close, I don't need this right now. Alright, for now, let me know if Hopps asks about anyone else, and I'll start working on a more permanent solution to our rabbit infestation."