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

…..

Penny set her purse down under her desk, it was early-early, but she needed to get started on her work. She'd gotten nothing done Saturday because her computer was down, which meant she had to get a half day's work done before 10:00 a.m. when the inventory updates were due.

Her timing had been just right, the sloth IT team had finished up and were on their way out of the building just as she was arriving. The only problem she'd had in getting to her desk, was that after letting her know that the upgrade was done, the sloth supervisor had wanted to tell her about what he thought of Miss Packler. Penny listened long enough to figure out that the IT team's opinion of her boss pretty much matched everyone else's and then excusing herself, she ran in to get started with her work.

Penny turned on her computer and was about to head to the breakroom to get some coffee when she saw the yellow sticky on the corner of her monitor and remembered that Judy had asked her to look up a couple of street names for her.

Holding off on the caffeine, Penny waited until the computer finished booting up and then did a quick search of the ZMS system. Surprisingly, the search results came back pretty quick, maybe the upgrade actually did some good this time. Yawning, Penny checked the time, and after debating whether or not to call now or later, she decided not to wait and call now.

Grabbing Judy's contact card, Penny dialed Judy's work number and waited. It was still pretty early, so as she expected, the call rolled over to voicemail. Penny waited for Judy's message to complete and then left her a message with what she'd found on the two street names. Hanging up the phone, Penny locked her computer and made a beeline for the breakroom, she needed some coffee.

…..

A very worried llama parked her sports car in the ZMS parking lot. Grabbing her stuff, Packler made her way to the building entrance. That infuriating sloth had only said the computer upgrade would be done this morning, not when. Erring on the side of caution, she'd decided to get in early so she could clean the database out as soon as the sloths finished and before anyone else accessed the system.

Making her way to her office, she saw another note taped to her door. Reading it, she smiled, 'Upgrade Done.' Good, and with all the desks empty, that meant she'd made it on time. Closing the door to her office, Packler booted up her computer, found all the records that mentioned Little Bill, and deleted them out of the system. She did another search to make sure there was still no record for Big John and then closed the search window and took a deep breath, 'Problem solved.'

Grabbing her phone, Packler dialed White's number and left him a short message that she'd removed the records which should dead-end that line of the rabbit's investigation and make it safe for White to do a pickup in the areas that those two mammals used to frequent.

Relaxing, Packler opened up her email and started to write a scathing report to the head of IT about their decision to turn over the support contract to a bunch of incompetent sloths.

…..

Judy bounced into the ZPD main lobby. She'd gotten in an early morning run and a few early texts to her fox, who remarkably, was up and responded coherently to her messages. Judy was looking forward to thanking Sunni for helping her show a nocturnal mammal what a sunrise looked like.

"Morning, Ben. Have you seen Connor yet?"

"Hi, Judy. He just came in. I think he went to get some coffee, and then he was going to go to his desk."

"Thanks."

"Hey, Judy," said Clawhauser as he grabbed a bag from under his desk and handed it to Judy, "the Chief wanted me to give these to you for your museum trip tomorrow. There's a bunch of the nice metal pin-on ZPD badges for the kits, some safety cards, ZPD pens, and, this was my idea, coupons for everyone to get a free dozen doughnuts. Should be enough of everything for all the kits on your team, with extras for any siblings or friends."

Judy lit up, "This is great, tell the Chief, thanks! And I'm sure the parents will want to thank you too after their kits finish eating all the doughnuts."

Clawhauser bent over his large desk, "Will you be taking them to the pit exhibit? I get the chills every time you tell the story about how Nick stalked you, and growled, and pretended to bite your neck. You must have been so scared."

Waving a paw, Judy said, "Pfft, of Nick, be serious, he'd never hurt me, he's a big softy," and then she grinned, "especially his tail."

Clawhauser narrowed his eyes, "His tail?"

"Yup, gotta go," and bounced away from the suddenly cooing cheetah.

…..

"Hi Connor," Judy greeted her temporary partner with a wave as she hopped into her chair.

"Morning, good weekend? How did your game go yesterday?"

"We won! The kits played great, and then we had a picnic to celebrate. I'm so glad they're letting me help coach. I haven't had so much fun in years."

Connor nodded, "Sounds like you're pretty good with kits."

"Yeah, spending most of your time around kits helps."

"Makes sense, I heard you have a lot of younger siblings."

"Yup, but it wasn't them I was talking about, it's Nick, he's like a whole kerfluffle all by himself, he's such a goof."

Noticing the message light on her phone, Judy punched in her code and turned on the speaker so both she and Connor could hear the message she hoped was from Penny, "Judy, I was able to find Little Bill in our database, his real name is Willis Honeyback, he's a Kodiak Bear, pretty old, and whoever entered this said the EMTs that picked him up didn't expect him to make it through the night. The other name you gave me, Big John, isn't in our system at all. I tried searching on name variations, but there are a lot of mammals named John in the database, and none of them were in the same place at the same time as Mr. Honeyback. Hope that helps, call me back if you need anything else."

Connor nodded, "Excellent. Assuming Honeyback is still alive, we may have another lead."

Judy tapped a claw on her desk, "Yeah…"

"What?"

Judy checked the time, they still had a few minutes before the bullpen meeting started. Hitting the dial out button on her phone, Judy replied, "It sounded like Penny has a record of where Honeyback was picked up, knowing where he was staying would be a big help."

…..

Penny was deep into one of her spreadsheets when her phone rang. She was about to let it roll to voicemail when she noticed on the caller-id that it was Judy calling. "Hey, Judy, did you get my message?"

"Yeah, thanks. Would you do me another favor and see if there is any mention of where the EMTs found Mr. Honeyback or where they took him."

"Sure, hang on." Penny opened a new window and searched for Honeyback's record. It took longer for the search to come back this time, and when it did, the search returned nothing.

"Something's wrong," Penny mumbled into the phone as she set up a new search, this time for Little Bill.

As she kicked the search off, Penny heard the tapping of a hoof behind her. Turning around, Penny saw an obviously irate llama, with her hooves on her hips glaring at her.

"Is that the rabbit from the ZPD, trying to get you to do her work for her again?"

"Ma'am, it's not like that, she was just asking me to look something up."

"Yes, it is like that, you have a report that's due by 10 am, I want it done."

Penny took a quick look at her computer screen and saw that her new search hadn't found anything either. She thought about asking Miss Packler about what happened to the record she'd seen earlier but decided that her boss was mad enough without her knowing that she'd already helped Judy once today.

"Ah, Judy, I'm not getting anything back."

Packler looked at her minion's screen and practically sneered, "Tell her the IT team that was here over the weekend probably wrecked our database and that we can't help her anymore, she needs to figure this stuff out on her own."

Knowing Judy was able to hear all that, Penny sputtered into the phone, "I gotta go, sorry. See you Friday at the camp for dinner. Bye."

Penny sat hunched over in her chair as Packler walked back into her office and then jumped slightly as her door slammed shut. Letting out a breath of air, Penny got back on her computer, and IM'd a friend of hers who had been bugging her to transfer over to the office north of Hyenahurst and asked if there were still any openings.

…..

Judy listened as the line went dead and then looked at Connor and said, "I guess we're on our own."

"Yeah, I hope your friend isn't in too much trouble," replied Connor as he pulled his keyboard closer. "I'm logged in, I'll see if our Mr. Honeyback is in the system anywhere."

Connor quickly typed out a query for Willis Honeyback, and then they waited. After a few moments, the results came back, "Nothing."

Judy thought for a minute and then pointed to the screen, "Penny said he was picked up by EMTs, add all the city-run medical facilities to the search."

Connor clicked a few checkboxes and tried again. Another few moments later, both mammals were looking sorely disappointed.

Judy grumbled, "Nothing. I would have thought his name would have at least shown up in a police or emergency services record somewhere. Penny said that EMTs treated him and they thought he could pass at any moment."

Connor lifted a finger and said, "I know someone." Pulling out his phone, he quickly tapped out a message and then slipped his phone back in his pocket."

Judy had her arms crossed and was staring at Connor.

Smirking, he said, "What? Wilde's not the only one who has connections," looking at the clock, Connor added, "come on, or we'll be late for the morning meeting."

…..

"And that there is the Edwards' place."

Nick had meant to ask Judy about the history of the Border Warren families, but with all the excitement, and emotion, going on, he hadn't had the chance. Figuring that Buckstein still owed him the rest of the Burrow tour, a tour that had been interrupted by a certain kit who shall remain unnamed for fear of being puked on, Nick successfully lobbied his country partner into showing him some of the Border Warrens.

Using a paw to block the sun out of his eyes, Nick looked toward where Buckstein was pointing. He could see a large main house with two old barns and a couple of smaller outbuildings off to one side. Taking a closer look at the barns, Nick noticed that one of them was missing most of its roof, and parts of the siding were missing too. Focusing on the other barn, he could tell that the second one was being kept up with material from the first.

Panning around the compound, Nick counted only a few trucks and a minimal amount of heavy farm implements. 'Maybe everything is in the barn?' he thought to himself as he focused on the main house. It was different than any other house he'd seen in Bunnyburrow so far, it was free-standing, and like the Gardiner's it had parapets around the roofline, but unlike Sarge's place, this one was in serious disrepair with sections of the parapet missing and several windows boarded up. Taking a closer look, Nick also saw that the building looked like it had undergone a patchwork of additions over the years, a couple with foundations of crumbling concrete, while the rest were sitting on old stone and mortar footings.

Nick finally replied, "Looks like a pretty good-sized main building, in a Franken-structure sort of way. Definitely needs a lot of work, and it's kind of weird not seeing a house that doesn't back up to a hill."

"Yeah, with those rocky areas running along the backside of the farm and that ravine cutting through the land, I don't think they had much choice on where to build."

Nick saw the hills of broken rock backed by thick forest trail off, and then he saw where the ravine started by splitting the rock hill and followed it through the land and out toward Zootopia a little over two hundred miles away.

Pointing, Nick asked, "How far does the ravine go?"

Buckstein scratched his head, "Maybe thirty miles out. I know it tapers off before getting to highway C-70, otherwise, the Commonwealth would have had to build a bridge across it. I've heard some parts of the ravine are fifty feet wide and almost that deep."

Nick grunted, "I see an old bridge over there, but it's not big enough to move heavy equipment across, how do they farm the other side without moving equipment back and forth?"

Buckstein shook his head, "Back in the day, by paw I suppose, nowadays, I don't think they farm it at all. There's barely enough of the Edwards' family to farm what you see over there, let alone all that acreage on the other side of the ravine."

"Oh, so they have a small family, around here I'm guessing that means a hundred rabbits."

"No, not in this case, last I heard there's only a double pawful of the Edwards family left."

Nick chuckled, "I thought that rabbits were good at multiplying, what happened to them?"

Buckstein shrugged, "I'm sure it wasn't for lack of trying, my understanding is that old bun Edwards wanted a large family so he could make something of the farm again, but the first doe he was mated to, died birthing their first litter, all bucks, about twenty years ago."

Scratching his chin, Buckstein continued, "I heard that Edwards raised those kits on his own for a few years and then suddenly showed up with a new mate. I remember her because it was just after I started working for Bunnyburrow. As I recall, she was a pretty young thing and not at all the kind of doe you'd expect would give Edwards the time of day, let alone agree to be his mate."

"Was?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, the rumor at the time was that it was an arranged mating. The Edwards are part of one of those sects that teaches that rabbits should keep to themselves, that other prey should be shunned, and that predators are the devil or some crap like that.

"I heard the girl had a tough time getting pregnant, and the few litters she had were tiny compared to what he wanted. She ended up only being able to have a pawful of kits over the years before finally telling Edwards she'd gone barren and wouldn't be able to have any more. I heard Edwards was pretty upset and kept threatening to banish the doe and send her back to where she came from unless she went to some quack doctor friend of his and figured out what was wrong."

Nick growled at hearing that, remembering what his mom went through at the hands of an incompetent doctor, he swore on her grave that he wouldn't ever stand by and let another mammal suffer like that if he could help it.

Buckstein stiffened at Nick's reaction and took a half step away from the fox, saying, "Yeah, I know how you feel, and I think the doe must have been feeling the same way too, because she up and left one night. Edwards was in the Sheriff's office the next morning, wanting him to find out which of the other Tri-Burrows she went to and then go drag her back to him. He needed her to mind their kits and said it was her duty to keep trying for more litters until he was done with her."

Nick nearly choked, "You can't be serious, what kind of sick, twisted animal treats his mate like that, I'd... I'd, hell you don't want to know what I would have done to him, I'd probably still be in jail for it."

"Don't worry, the Sheriff didn't try and go after her to bring her back."

"Good, I'm glad the Sheriff didn't take the bait. So, what happened to her kits?"

"They're still there, for the most part they stay on the farm, but every now and then I see the oldest doe, she's probably sixteen now, in town with her younger siblings. They're a sweet bunch compared to Edwards and his first litter. It must be the doe, I bet she takes after her mother and keeps her dad's attitudes from infecting the little ones."

Buckstein started chuckling.

"What?" asked Nick.

"I was just thinking about old bun Edwards and how he likes to keep a thumb on all his kits. It wasn't but a couple of months ago, I saw the Edwards doe canoodling with some buck in the dugout of one of the high school sports fields."

"Canoodling?"

Buckstein shrugged, "Yeah, you know, when a couple of teenagers get together–"

Nick was laughing now, "Don't worry, I got it," waving a paw toward the farm again, "Anything else, less tabloid, I should know?"

"Not really, as you can guess, that old mammal isn't well liked in town, and none of the other Border Warren families will have anything to do with him, they all think he's a blight on what it means to be Border Warren, well except the Hayes next door, they don't like Edwards for a whole different set of reasons."

Nick huffed, "Doesn't surprise me, I've never met the animal, and I don't like him either."

…..

Connor pushed open the door to the Commonwealth Veteran's Association Hospice facility with a smug look on his face. Judy shook her head as Connor held the door open for her and waved her into the lobby with an exaggerated welcoming motion.

Judy had to laugh, as they'd come out of Bogo's meeting, Connor had gotten a text with the address of the facility that Willis Honeyback was currently checked in to. Judy had been able to catch a peek at Connor's phone when he was reading the text and saw a couple of animated emojis on his screen, one was a winking cat emoji, and the other was of a cat and a wolf doing things that caused the insides of her ears to turn pink.

After a few more texts were exchanged, Judy let Clawhauser know they were going to be checking out a lead and then dragged her hormonal partner out to the garage and guided him into her cruiser.

"You haven't won yet, the guy here may be a totally different Willis Honeyback."

"Sure, there are two guys named Willis Honeyback in the city, anything you say, Officer Sore-Loser. I'm thinking I'll order the barbecue chicken wrap, by the way."

"I don't know, if it is the right guy, I should be buying Olivia lunch, not you."

Laughing, Connor replied, "That works too, I'm betting the two of you would get along really well since you both have so much in common."

Judy looked over, confused, "We do? I'm a cop, she's a nurse, I'm a country rabbit, she's a city puma–"

"Her mate is a canine, your boyfriend is–, Ow!"

Judy continued past the wolf who was now rubbing the pain out of his thigh and made her way to the receptionist's desk. After waiting for her 'if he's not careful, soon to be dead' temporary partner, they both showed their badges and asked which room was Mr. Honeyback's.

A few minutes later, Judy knocked on a partially open door and stepped into the room. "Mr. Honeyback," Judy called out as she reached the mostly open privacy curtain.

"Hello," came a weak reply.

Pulling the curtain all the way open, Judy was able to see an old kodiak bear lying in bed. His fur was patchy with areas completely missing, revealing wrinkled, pale skin underneath. Honeyback looked like he had recently lost a lot of weight, and the revealed skin looked blotchy and paper-thin.

Connor stayed back toward the door as Judy climbed up into the large chair next to the bear's bed and pulled out her notebook.

"Good morning, Mr. Honeyback."

"Private First Class."

"Sorry, sir, I'm Judy Hopps, ZPD, and this is my partner Officer Pawson. We're here trying to find out if you know Ray Simon, who's also known as Crazy Ray, or a mammal that goes by the name of Big John."

The bear turned toward Judy and focused on her with one eye, the other eye having been clouded over by severe cataracts. "What do you want with Big John? He hasn't done anything wrong, not in a long time anyways."

Judy glanced over toward Connor and saw him pat his stomach. Rolling her eyes, Judy turned back to Honeyback and replied, "Sir, we just want to talk with him. I was told that some members of the homeless community have gone missing and that Ray Simon and possibly you or Big John may be able to help me."

The old-timer shook his head, "I've heard of Crazy Ray, but I've never talked with him or even seen him around the places I've camped at."

Disappointed that he couldn't help with Crazy Ray, Judy still hoped that the old fox that had given her Honeyback's name had given her a real clue, "And Big John?"

"The last time I saw Big John was the day they carted me off to the hospital, he was right there, by my side, until the paramedics shooed him away. He promised he'd visit me, but I haven't seen or heard from him since."

"Any idea what happened to him?"

"No. I do, sort of, remember him telling me that he was going to meet with a couple of mammals, something about his family, but I'm not sure, I wasn't feeling so good when he was going on about it."

Nodding, Judy wrote down a few notes and asked, "Do you know where he was going to meet these mammals?"

"No, ma'am. I expect, if it happened, that it was at one of the camps we stayed at, but I don't know."

Judy spoke with Honeyback for a few more minutes, he gave her the locations of the two camps that he and Big John stayed at the most and then gave her a detailed description of Big John. He was a serval in his mid-sixties, also a vet, a former seaman who'd left the Navy after four years, something about cats not liking water. Big John used to work in a warehouse until he got hurt, lost his job, and then lost his savings paying for medical bills. Without any income, it didn't take long before he lost his apartment and ended up living on the street, which is where he and Little Bill met.

Judy was folding up her notebook when a nurse poked her head around the curtain and let everyone know that it was time for Mr. Honeyback's meds. Thanking the bear for his help, Judy hopped down from the chair and made to leave when she was stopped as Honeyback called after her.

"Officer, *cough*, Hopps…"

Turning back to the bear, Judy replied, "Yes, sir."

"I hadn't really thought about it until you asked about what happened to Big John, but he didn't have any family. His parents immigrated to Zootopia when he was little, and they never had any more kits. His parents passed when he was a teen, and Big John never took a mate, so I guess I don't know what he was talking about with those mammals he was supposed to meet."

Stepping out of the way of the nurse that had just come back in with a tray of pills, Judy replied, "Thank you, sir. I'll look into it."

…..

Nick and Buckstein were both leaning over the hood of the cruiser, examining a topographic map of Bunnyburrow. Pointing off in the direction they'd just come from, Buckstein said, "So, the Edwards' place is back that way," and then pointing to the map, "right here on the map, and over there," now pointing in the opposite direction, "is the Hayes' place."

Nick looked at the map and then back to where Buckstein had pointed, and shaking his head, said, "But… that…" Nick used a claw and traced out on the map, what he was struggling with saying out loud, "It makes sense for the Edwards' place to be where it is, and the Gardiner's place bookends this side of Bunnyburrow protecting that section, and you said the…"

"Bunnley," added Buckstein.

"...the Bunnley's place is next closest. Hmm…looking at the approaches to the Burrow, I'd say their place would have to be about here, the way this big valley funnels everything to here, that would cover this section and back the Gardiners up if they were being overwhelmed, but…"

Rubbing his chin, Nick shook his head, "I guess that makes sense, it's just that they'd have to sandwich a smaller Border Warren in right here to protect this section which allows these two warrens to focus here and here, it just means the Hayes family ends up with an undersized farm."

Impressed, Buckstein nodded and said, "You're right on all accounts, where'd you learn to read a topo map and be able to figure out how to set up defensive positions like that? You look a little young to have served in the Army before becoming a cop."

Nick grinned, "No, I've never served, but I've played a lot of video games. It helps to be able to read the terrain and guess where your enemy is going to put their defenses if you're looking to pacify a planet or take over a heavily defended outpost."

Buckstein huffed, "You kits and your games."

"Yup, and if you were wondering the best place to put an Ion Cannon to protect this side of the planet, I'd go with," tapping the map, Nick said, "right here."

Rolling his eyes, Buckstein replied, "I'll be sure to pass that on to the Galactic Supreme Commander or whoever is in charge of watching for alien attacks this week."

Laughing, Nick waved his paw toward the Hayes' warren and asked, "So what's the scoop on these guys, why do they hate the Edwards family?"

"As you figured out, the Hayes place is small compared to the other Border Warrens, as a matter of fact, it's not just the smallest Border Warren, it's probably the smallest farm in Bunnyburrow."

"I think that sticks in old bun Hayes' craw a little. He sees himself as some kind of mover and shaker in town. He owns the motel and one of the gas stations, and he sits on the Co-op board even though his farm doesn't produce that much. I think he sees the Edwards' place as the way to more power and prestige in the Burrow."

"So, he's jealous of the Edwards' warren and how big it is?"

"No, he's not jealous of it, he wants it," corrected Buckstein.

"Okay, so I take it that the Edwards' family won't sell their place to the Hayes, and that's pissing the old bun off."

Shrugging, Nick added, "Hating someone because they won't sell to you seems a little extreme, I mean I've seen deals go bad in the city before, and no one ended up with hard feelings. I remember one time when a mammal wanted to take over Mr. Big's business interests, and they worked it out without anyone getting upset."

"How did they do that?"

Nick paused and thought back to what he heard about that 'negotiation.' It all had happened when he was a young kit just starting to venture out on the street, and now that he thought about what likely went down between the two crime families with a more mature lens, he replied, "Uh, never mind, probably a bad example."

"Well, it doesn't matter, the issue doesn't have anything to do with the Hayes trying to buy the Edwards' place because you can't buy or sell a Border Warren, they're passed on through the family, from generation to generation."

"Really, why the special rules for Border Warrens?"

Buckstein scratched his head, "I guess I don't know, maybe something to do with them having to defend the Burrow back in the day. All I know is that the Border Warrens and everything to do with them is all Old Law, and I can't read a lick of Lapine, so your guess is as good as mine on why they're special."

Waving his hoof, Buckstein continued, "At any rate, you can't buy or sell a Border Warren, so Hayes tried to get his claws on the Edwards' place the old-fashioned way, by mating his daughter to the oldest Edward's boy and merging the families. He figured once they were mated and the boy's dad finally passed, it'd be easy enough to convince the boy to merge the two warrens into one."

"All under the control of Hayes, right?"

'Yeah, except his plan didn't work. The kits were only teens at the time, and as I said before, the Edwards family, at least the older ones, aren't the friendliest bunch, so as you might guess the doe didn't cotton to being practically sold off by her dad to someone like an Edwards. She ended up running away with some buck she met while working at the family's gas station. Evidently, the buck was passing through Bunnyburrow on his way down south and offered her a way out. No luggage, no nothing, she just got in the buck's car and was gone."

Buckstein chuckled, "That Edwards boy must be a real piece of work to make a doe want to leave him bad enough that she didn't even pack or say goodbye to her family before going.

"Hayes accused the Edwards boy of abusing his daughter and making her leave, and Edwards accused Hayes of trying to steal his warren, and they've been feuding ever since."

"Has the Sheriff ever been called out to break up a fight or anything like that?"

"No, for the most part, they just glare at each other, besides I think Hayes is probably waiting for the Edwards family to die off or maybe be wiped out by one of those alien invasions you talked about and then he can sic his lawyers on the problem and let them figure out how he can claim the old bun's place."

Nick folded up the map they'd been using and opened the door to the cruiser, "You know Buckstein, I thought there were some crazy turf wars in the city, but fighting over a field of cabbages takes the cake."

Buckstein laughed, "And if it were a field of those blueberries you like to snack on all the time?"

"Release the Kraken! Take no prisoners! The blueberries must be mine."

…..

"Well, that was a total waste," taking a bite of his lunch, Connor added with a smirk, "good wrap, though."

"You know you cheated," Judy groused as she took a bite from her veggie wrap and steered the cruiser onto the Parkway.

"Nuh-uh. I won fair and square."

"Fine, next time though, I'm going to know someone."

"Yum."

Giving up, Judy steered the conversation back to work, "I can't believe no one at that camp had ever heard of Little Bill, Big John, or Crazy Ray. Someone should have been able to tell us something."

Swallowing his last bite, Connor replied, "It probably didn't help that I was the largest mammal there and that most of the homeless mammals there were prey."

Judy chuckled, "I think it was probably the yelping more than anything else."

"Sorry, I couldn't help it, that pig rolled over my tail when he slipped."

"It's alright, Little Bill said that he and Big John spent most of their time at the Midford Gardens camp anyway. We're only about twenty minutes away, hopefully, we'll have better luck there."

…..

Connor checked the map app on his phone and looked out the window of the cruiser, "Pull over by that bench, the camp's right over there in front of the tree line."

Judy turned the engine off and looked over toward where Connor had indicated. It was late afternoon, and as the sun was headed toward the horizon, it illuminated a group of mammals gathering small branches, cardboard, and some old newspaper and piling it all near a series of small metal firepits.

"Connor, if you don't mind, I'd like to handle this group. It looks like they are mostly small to medium-sized predators and…"

"I'm not the most low-key mammal around, I got it," joked Connor.

"Yeah, thanks. Keep an eye out, if I need you, I'll wave."

Judy made her way to the group and then went from pit to pit, introducing herself and asking about both Crazy Ray and Big John. For the most part, the only answers she received were grunts, or head shakes from the mammals settling themselves down. Judy stopped at the final pit, which was also the one closest to the wooded area that bordered this camp.

"Excuse me, my name is Judy Hopps, and I'm looking for any information on Crazy Ray Simon or Big John. Neither are in trouble, I'd just like to talk with them."

Judy waited, but all she got in return were more grunts, a little coughing, and someone passing gas loudly.

Judy shook her head, and covered her nose, this group was about as helpful as the mammals at the last camp. About to turn and leave, Judy noticed a lynx nodding toward the tree line. She scrunched her eyebrows and watched the lynx motion to the tree line again. Looking past the group, Judy spied in the distance a coyote sitting by herself in front of a makeshift den made out of cardboard and small tarps.

Nodding her thanks, Judy walked the distance over to the mammal sitting by herself and said, "Excuse me, may I join you?"

The coyote shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Suit yourself."

Judy turned toward where Connor was standing by the cruiser and saw him wave when he saw her. Nodding in acknowledgment, Judy turned back to the coyote.

…..

A white van slowly pulled up and parked next to a large hedge. This spot had been picked out because it was in an alley whose entrance faced the Midford camp, and the large hedges kept the van out of view of anyone parked along the road that ran in front of the park area and the camp.

Looking toward the series of pits by the tree line, a light gray colored ram motioned to where a makeshift shelter was set up near the trees, but away from everyone else, and asked the goat next to him, "Marv, over there, is that the Coyote we're supposed to pick up?"

Checking a grainy picture in his hoof, and then squinting to where his partner was pointing, Marvin replied, "Yeah, that's her," looking more carefully, he added, "Larry, who's that she's talking to? I thought she was a loner. No one said anything about a second animal."

"The other mammal looks familiar," picking up a pair of binoculars the ram looked more carefully and then suddenly dropped the binoculars in his lap.

"Shit, you remember the rabbit cop White told us about, the one that took down the caracal his boy was trying to snatch a couple of weeks ago?"

"Yeah."

"She's talking to our target."

…..

"Hi, I'm Judy–"

"Hopps, ZPD, you're the rabbit cop that put away that crazy ewe a year ago."

Waving toward a nearby tree stump, Judy asked, "May I?"

Nodding, the coyote replied, "Name's Stretch, at least that's what everyone around here calls me."

"I spoke with Little Bill this morning, and he told me that he and Big John used to camp here sometimes, and I'm trying to find Big John. I'm also looking for Crazy Ray Simon, who was last seen a the 34th St encampment, have you seen either of them?"

Stretch shook her head, "I've heard of Crazy Ray, but I've never seen him here, and Big John hasn't been around since Little Bill was carted away. I heard that Big John was supposed to meet up with someone at the camp over by Oakfield park." Thinking for a second, she added, "I've got a friend who lives at that camp with his grandmother, Blues is his name, if Big John has been there, his grandmother would know about it."

Judy nodded as she took down some notes, "Any idea who Big John was supposed to meet?"

"No, that'd be a question for Blue's grandmother, she and Big John were pretty friendly,"

Judy smiled, "Thank you, my partner and I will head over there right away."

Judy made to stand up, but was stopped by the coyote, "You'll want to wait a couple of days before going there. The word's been out for a while that City Services was going to do a camp cleanout today and tomorrow, which means everyone has scattered and won't be back until the cleanout is done."

…..

Larry drummed his hoof on the steering wheel and asked, "What do we do, wait for the cop to leave, or come back and snatch the coyote later?"

"Neither, let's get out of here before we're spotted, we can hit the alternate location in a couple of days and pick up an animal there," replied Marvin.

"White will be pissed."

"Let him be pissed, no one said anything about there being a cop around. Get us the hell out of here."

The ram started up the van and eased forward to turn onto the street. Rolling out of the alley, he was starting to turn when he slammed on the brakes.

Putting a hoof on the dash to keep himself from jerking forward, Marvin growled out, "What the…"

Larry nodded to a ZPD cruiser parked down the street, "Another cop, standing over there, I didn't see him because of the hedge." Turning on his turn signal, something that wasn't on a moment ago, Larry carefully finished pulling out onto the street and then tensed up, "Crap, we'll drive right past him, he'll see us."

"No, he won't, not if you keep your distance as we go by… just don't look like you're tryin' to keep your distance."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"I don't know… drive casual."

Leaning against the front of the cruiser, Connor looked up from his phone as a white van casually passed by, kind of unusual to see someone driving so carefully in a neighborhood like this. Shrugging his shoulders, he glanced over to check on Hopps again and then turned back in time to see the van make a full stop, turn, and head toward the parkway. Shaking his head, he went back to reading an article on his phone, 'So much for thinking the guy was a cautious driver, his left taillight is out.'

…..

Disappointed that her search had to be put on hold for a couple of days, Judy stood and was about to thank the coyote when instead she asked, "If you don't mind me asking, why are you all the way over here by yourself, wouldn't you rather be by one of the firepits?"

"No, it's better that I'm here by myself." Huffing, she added, "Although pretty soon it won't matter what they think, the ZMS housing vouchers I applied for should be approved soon, and then I'm out of here."

Judy looked over at the pits, and the mammals sitting around them and asked, "Why don't they like you?"

Stretch shrugged, "It's not just them, ever since my supposed boyfriend took all my money and abandoned me here in Zootopia, it's been almost everyone. Blues has been cool, but no one else will give me the time of day, all because my lifestyle rubs them the wrong way, they think I'm disgusting, or primitive, or being around me is somehow indecent."

"Your lifestyle?"

"Yeah, I'm a yoga instructor…"

Confused, Judy interrupted, "So?"

"…and a naturalist."

Judy froze as a very embarrassing memory of her and Nick at the Mystic Springs Oasis club came back, and then after a moment, she started to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

Once Judy stopped sputtering, she reached over and putting a paw on Stretch's shoulder, said, "If you want a job, I know a guy."

…..

With all the kits tucked in and his carrot print jammies on, Nick sat on his bed waiting for a certain somebunny to answer her phone.

He and Buckstein had finished up their tour of the Border Warrens pretty late in the afternoon, they probably would have been done earlier except that Buckstein had wanted to stop in at the Bunnley's place, he said to introduce Nick to the Victoria Bunnley, the matron of the warren, but Nick figured Buckstein really just wanted a glass of lemonade and a short break.

On the drive over from scoping out the Hayes and Edwards' warrens, Nick had been wondering why Buckstein hadn't offered to stop in at the Hayes warren for a meet and greet between him and old bun Hayes. He continued wondering why, until he sat with Jerrod and Audra Bunnley, littermates about Sarge Gardiner's age, and they filled him in on how poorly Hayes treated the town's predator population and how the old bun refused to work with other prey mammals unless he had to.

Once Victoria joined the group, she casually asked for Nick to join her on the veranda and then spent the next half hour talking to him about some interesting events that had been brought to her attention by one of her predator employees, namely she wanted to thank Nick for intervening with Mr. Fehler on behalf of young Charlie and she was particularly gratified to hear that Miss Hayes was no longer part of the hospital administrative staff.

Nick chuckled when Mrs. Bunnley leaned closer to him and, in a most dignified way, asked him to give her a blow by blow description of exactly how that speciest creature was removed from her job.

Wiping the tears of laughter out of her eyes, Victoria took Nick by the arm and guided him back toward the main room. As they crossed into the house proper, Victoria offhandedly suggested that Nick might find it beneficial to walk through Predville before his assignment in Bunnyburrow ended.

Nick paused, but before he could ask what she was talking about, she patted his arm and finished their conversation by letting him know that he had the full support of her warren and if there was anything she could do to help during the remainder of his stay, all he had to do was ask.

Having released Nick into her kit's paws, Nick watched as the matronly doe practically bounced as she made her way to the warren's drawing room for a respite.

Nick's thoughts refocused on the present when he saw his phone's screen light up with the happy face of his favorite bunny.

"Hey, Slick," said Judy as she arranged the phone on her pillow so she could talk more comfortably.

"Carrots, you're a sight for sore eyes. You have no idea how much I miss patrolling with you."

"A long day with Buckstein?"

"Yeah, we spent the day touring some of the Border Warrens. We went by the Edwards', Hayes', and Bunnley's places, and then we drove past the Gardiner's warren before heading back to town."

Judy nodded, "It's beautiful country out that way, I remember visiting the Bunnley's and the Gardiner's a couple of times growing up, but never the Edwards' and…"

"Yeah, I heard about the Hayes' and the Edwards' families, they don't sound exactly very welcoming."

Having gone quiet, Judy stared into her lap.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No, not you. It's my dad, he's friends with Mr. Hayes, and Hayes is–"

"Not a good mammal?"

Huffing, Judy added, "I was going to say speciest bigot, but I guess that works. My dad took me over to their warren one day when I was little, and Hayes railed on how other prey mammals were moving into town and how everything was changing and especially how bad it was having predators in town." Judy shook her head, "He kept saying the most awful things, and my dad just sat there and listened. I was so upset, I went out and sat in the truck until it was time to leave and I never went back."

Not wanting to dwell on speciest mammals this late at night, Nick asked, "Tell me a little more about the Gardiner's, I've been meaning to ask about them. I thought a bunny cop was something, but hearing that there might be a bunny army ready to overrun the Commonwealth with fluffiness was a real surprise."

Judy couldn't help but laugh a little, "Don't worry, Slick, there's no hidden Lagomorph Legion getting ready to pounce on the world," Judy looked side to side and then leaning closer to her phone, she whispered, "at least none that the secret Council of Supreme Elders will let me talk about."

Nick's eyes narrowed as he also leaned in and whispered, "Secret council?"

Judy rolled her eyes, "I'm kidding, you're such a dork. There's no rabbit army anywhere, and the only rabbits I know of that have ever joined up, are the Gardiners."

Disappointed that there wasn't a conspiracy he could uncover or any super-agent toys he was going to get to help him during the adventure, Nick asked, "Are you sure?"

Shaking her head at her fox, Judy replied, "Yes, Nick, I'm sure. I had nearly the same discussion with Bogo the day after you were attacked. The vast majority of rabbits are non-confrontational, so it's really unusual for a rabbit even to consider joining one of the Commonwealth services, or…"

"Become a cop?"

"Yup. I think it was easier for Grandpa Joe to join up back in the day then it was for me to become a cop. He grew up Border Warren and even though it was a long time ago that the Border Warren families had to fight off raiders, there's still a legacy there. That history probably helped him with his family and the rest of the town to accept him joining up. Not that some in town don't whisper a little about the Gardiners behind their backs, but no one is going to give any of them a hard time about it either."

Nick nearly choked, "Oh yeah, I'd like to see the poor, dumb fool that tries to give Sarge a hard time, I think he could easily out glare Bogo and have whoever it was digging a latrine pit with his bare paws inside of a hot second."

Judy nodded, "Sarge is a good guy, I wish I'd known him better when I was growing up. His oldest kits were years behind me in school, so I never had any classes with them, and Sarge was away a lot when he was on active duty. The longest conversation I had with him was my senior year in High School, during the school's career fair."

Nick joked, "Career fair? So, are there different types of carrot farming? Or was it just one massive table with a banner that said 'Farmer'?"

Trying not to smile, Judy replied, "I'll have you know that my High School had tables from multiple colleges, IT firms, biotech companies, even a few Commonwealth government agencies came looking for anyone interested in going into engineering or accounting."

Nick smirked as he quietly looked at Judy.

Rolling her eyes, again, Judy added, "Fine, there was also a table for farming, and it might have been bigger than the others, feel better?"

"Yup, just making sure that I hadn't stepped into the Twilight Zone after hearing about rabbits in the military."

"Well, you don't have to worry too much about rabbits interested in joining the military, I found that out the day of the job fair. Sarge was manning a table for anyone who wanted information on joining the Commonwealth Army or any of the other services. Unfortunately, no one showed the least bit of interest. He didn't pass out a single pamphlet the whole time he was there.

"I was there helping set up the fair, and I hung around a little. I already knew what career I was going into, but I walked around anyway. That's when I saw Sarge sitting all by himself. I went over to say hi, and we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon talking. He told me about Grandpa Joe and his dad and some about the tours he'd done. It made me feel better listening to someone that was as committed to being in the service as I was to being a cop."

Nick rubbed his muzzle, and after thinking for a few moments, he asked, "Why didn't you join up? If Grandpa Joe was able to join the Army when he was a kit, they would have taken you. You wouldn't have had to wait for the MII to get passed, and I bet you could have gone in for a few years and then gotten the ZPD, or the Sheriff's Department, to waive their training requirements based on your military experience. Wouldn't that have been easier?"

"No, I looked into that, it wouldn't have worked. Boot camp doesn't cover everything you need to know to become an MP, they send you to Military Police School for that, and the military has the same rules against small mammals being accepted as MPs as the ZPA had in accepting small mammals for police training.

"So, just being in the military isn't enough, I still would have needed training, and I didn't qualify." Judy huffed, "You know, I still don't qualify. I checked while you were in the Academy, the military branches still don't allow small mammal MPs. I heard they're waiting to see how the MII works out and how the first few small mammal ZPD recruits do before they look into changing their policies."

"Great, so it's not just Bogo watching our every move, we have to worry about the military too?"

"Yup, you're a role model now, better start behaving yourself."

Grumbling, Nick replied, "Fine, you know you're a real killjoy, don't you? What's the point in being a cop if you can't intimidate a weasel that needs it, maybe blackmail a handsome business mammal, or incite a scurry or two?"

"Nick, you're kidding, right? You wouldn't…"

Smirking, Nick replied, "I wasn't talking about me, Carrots. There's this girl I know on the force…"

"Wait, what? I wouldn't–" growled Judy, "Aaargh, it was one scurry, not two, and that so-called business mammal–"

"Yes?"

"Just you wait, as soon as Bogo lets me, I'm taking the first train to Bunnyburrow, and I'm going to find you and, and…"

"Mmm-hmm, and what might you do to this handsome fox once you find him?"

Suddenly quieted, Judy looked closer at her phone's screen, and seeing her fox giving her his best puppy-dog eye look, she shook her head, "You know that doesn't work on me, right?"

"It does a little, especially if I do… this."

Judy groaned, "Nick, stop… please," and then giving up resisting her fox's look, she stared deeply into Nick's beautiful green eyes and imagined exactly what she wanted to do when she finally made it to Bunnyburrow.

Smirking now, Nick stopped with his look, "Told you, works every time."

Judy huffed, "Does not," and then hung up on her laughing fox, grabbed a towel and headed to the communal bathroom for a cold shower, all the while mumbling to herself, "Carrot picking fox with his pretty green eyes and his wonderful smile, wait until I get my paws on his long, fluffy…"