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

…..

Nick laughed as he was being pulled into the kitchen by Sunni and Sasha, each holding one of his paws. Sunni looked very proud of herself as she said, "We found him with Cody, they were getting ready to play one of their dumb games."

Nick pouted, "Was not, he was just showing me something."

Janae, dressed in old jeans and a t-shirt, shook her head, "Nick, the Sheriff didn't give you the day off so you can play video games, you were supposed to be getting changed into your work clothes so that we can go."

Waving his paw down his front, Nick huffed, "What do you think I was doing?"

"Nick, you're wearing one of those awful Pawaiian shirts with a tie, you can't be serious."

Amy came in from the dining room with her littermate, Allison, and looking Nick up and down said, "Be nice, Janae, I think he looks… fine."

Janae rolled her eyes when she saw her boy crazy sister bat her eyes as she defended the overdressed fox and then looking at said fox, she huffed, "I suppose since we'll be doing some painting at the train station, that shirt makes sense, but I think you may want to lose the tie."

Amy pulled Allison closer to her and said, "We want to help too."

Allison quickly shook her head and whispered, "No, we don't, painting is gross, and I just brushed my fur out."

Elbowing her littermate, Amy loudly said, "We're in!"

Nick pulled off his tie as Amy cutely nibbled her bottom lip and observed carefully as he removed the small bit of clothing. Setting the tie aside, Nick gulped, seeing Amy slowly lick her lips as if she were evaluating her menu choices at a fine restaurant.

Stepping back from the hungry doe, Nick quickly went over to where Janae, Sunni, Steven, Spencer, and Scotty, all dressed in old clothes, were sitting, and said, "Uh, I'm ready. As soon as our ride gets here, I think we should go."

About to go grab a set of vehicle keys, Janae stopped and asked, "What ride? I've got a truck picked out."

A knock on the door silenced Janae's confusion and prompted yells from Sunni as she rushed to the front door.

"Right on time," whispered a now smirking fox into Janae's ear.

A moment later, Sunni led a buck into the kitchen.

"Dalton! What are you doing here?" squeaked Janae.

Dalton's smile dropped, "Uh, Nick invited me to help clean up the train station with you guys. I've got my parent's big van, didn't he tell you I'd be by to pick everyone up?"

Nick coughed, "Oops."

Glaring at Nick, Janae growled, "It must have slipped his mind."

Before Janae could follow up with Nick by punching him, Bonnie walked in and joined the group.

Dalton quickly spoke up, "Good morning, Mrs. Hopps, I'm Dalton Diggar, nice to meet you."

Bonnie paused for a second, she hadn't expected to find a hare buck standing in her kitchen, but then she remembered… "Nice to finally meet you too, Dalton. I seem to remember when Janae was in high school she talked quite a bit about a handsome hare buck and how she wished–"

"Mom!" Janae broke in and quickly said, "We have to go, lots of work to do, come on kits."

"Us too," added Amy as she dragged her grumbling littermate behind her.

Bonnie hummed as she watched Janae usher everyone outside, and then stood at the door as Dalton's van was loaded up and the group left.

"A hare?" asked a gruff voice from behind Bonnie.

Huffing at her mate's tone, Bonnie replied, "No, a boy our daughter is interested in."

…..

Judy stretched her fingers as she walked toward Clawhauser's desk. It wasn't fair that even with being off yesterday and not patrolling or doing anything else, she still had hours of paperwork waiting for her. Halfway through the pile of reports she'd been reviewing, she began to suspect that it was a canid conspiracy to let the bunny do all the paperwork when she found a crayon stick-figure drawing of a mammal failing a DUI test, signed by Nick and Sunni, stapled to the back of a traffic stop report.

"Hey, Ben, have you seen Connor, we're supposed to head out for our patrol pretty soon?"

Looking up from his lunch, Clawhauser checked the time and replied, "He's downstairs on the range, Gunny Hartbull called him down for his firearms recertification this morning. He should be done pretty soon."

"Okay, probably best he's testing now, his fingers might not be working as well later."

Clawhauser chuckled as he fished around his desk and handed Judy a copy of some more artwork, "Don't be mad at Connor, Nick sent us all drawings yesterday. Your little sister is very talented."

Judy snorted as she looked at the drawing of Clawhauser with his mouth overflowing with doughnuts wallowing in a pile of empty boxes. Handing it back, she said, "Yeah, she really captured your essence there."

Clawhauser nodded, "You should have seen the one of the Chief," looking upstairs toward Bogo's office, Clawhauser shuddered, "on second thought, maybe not, there was a lot of yelling, and a few colorful ideas on where a fox might be able to store some crayons."

Before Clawhauser could elaborate on anyone else's response to Nick and Sunni's artistic prowess, Pawson joined the pair of critics, "Ready to go Hopps?"

Judy turned and was about to reply when her phone alerted. Pulling it out of her pocket, Judy checked her messages.

"My brother and sister are running errands and want to take me to dinner at the 'Seasoned Salad' after work tonight."

Pawson nodded, "I heard that place has a great buffet and excellent desserts." Thinking for a second, he added, "You know, it isn't too far from Oakfield Park, why don't you have them pick you up at the park and go from there? We're not supposed to be there until late afternoon, so we'll be at the end of our shift anyway, no sense in spending a bunch of time in rush hour traffic driving back here just to go back out there."

Ben added, "No problem if you want me to mark you as ending your shift at the park."

Judy typed out a message to Torrie and waited. A moment later, she got a thumbs up emoji and put her phone away.

"Thanks, Connor, that was a great idea. Let me go grab my bag and I'll meet you at the cruiser."

…..

Dalton pulled the van into the train station parking lot next to a few farm trucks and a couple of smaller vehicles. Opening the sliding side doors, Janae and Dalton watched as first Nick, and then the kits burst out of the van and ran up to the station platform. Janae chuckled as Nick turned the corner of the building with Amy and Allison hurrying after him.

Closing one of the side doors, Dalton nodded toward the excited mammals, "They sure seem thrilled about getting started."

Janae laughed, "Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen Nick move that fast except when my mom puts out one of her blueberry pies."

Dalton smiled and said, "I don't know if he's excited about helping or afraid for his tail. I mean, it can be pretty scary having a Hopps doe after you."

Janae put on a pouty look and asked, "So you're afraid of all the Hopps does?"

Leaning over, Dalton gave Janae a quick kiss on the lips and said, "Nope, not all of them."

Janae pushed up on her toes and kissed Dalton back before he could fully straighten up and then taking Dalton's paw in hers, she slowly led him to the train platform and up the stairs to the station house.

Once the couple reached the side of the building, and before they walked around to the front, Janae paused. She could hear everyone talking and running around, and knew as soon as they stepped around the corner, everyone would see her and Dalton holding paws. After a moment of frozen indecision, she felt Dalton let go of her paw and lean close to her, saying, "Our little secret, for now."

Janae's initial disappointment turned into a smile as she lightly boxed Dalton in the arm, and the two of them walked to the front of the building and joined the rest of the workers.

"Alright, Bunny Scouts, and friends, take a seat, crisscross apple sauce, ears up and mouths shut," hollered a doe in her thirties. "For those of you that don't know who I am, my name is Mrs. Mackenzie Burns, Mac to all the parents, and I am the Bunny Scout, troop 18, Scoutmaster. For the young kits, your group leaders have lists of jobs that need to be done, and for the teens, you'll be broken up into teams for repairs and painting. We'll take a break for lunch around 11:30, and we should be done by 3 pm. Are there any questions?"

"Are there snacks? I like snacks."

Mac silenced a few snickering kits with a look and then replied, "Yes, Officer Wilde, there are snacks. We have coolers in the parking lot with water, juice packs, and vegetable bags. Everyone, help yourself if you get hungry or thirsty. Anything else before we get started?"

Nick started to raise his paw again to ask another food-related question when Sunni gently elbowed him in the side and gave him a look that would have made her sister Judy proud.

Mac nodded at Sunni, thanking her for controlling the errant fox kit and was about to clap her paws together to get people moving when a wave of bunny ears shifted toward a new noise behind them.

Nick twisted around, struggling to move being as he was sitting crisscross applesauce, but once he was able to free his legs, he saw Doc Stoan and a group of predator kits, teens, and some parents standing on the end of the platform.

Doc Stoan and the group made their way to where the Bunny Scouts were all sitting, and just as he came to where Nick was now standing, Mac bounced over and greeted the skunk with a hug, "Derek, you made it."

Nick was confused, Doc Stoan kept a low profile in Predville, but…, "Doc–"

With a pawful of parents within earshot, the skunk shook his head slightly and interrupted Nick, "Derek, uh, Derek Stoan," and putting out a paw, said, "Nice to meet you, Officer Wilde."

Nick slowly shook Derek's paw and replied, "I'm Nick, nice to meet you too."

…..

Slowly making its way down a one-way alley, a white van came up to a familiar spot, "Park, so I can take a look," said Marvin as he reached under his seat for a pair of binoculars.

Easing the van in between a dumpster and another white van that was doubling as a billboard advertising a strip club that wouldn't be open for another few hours, Larry made sure his partner could see what they needed to in the homeless camp before shutting off the engine.

"Alright, what's the plan? Are we running the genealogy shtick again, or do you want me to change into my wolf disguise?"

Scanning the area with his binoculars, the goat grunted, "Hang on. Okay, there's the target."

"Anyone else around?"

Another grunt followed by, "No, we're good, Pink calling for the cleanout worked like a charm." Lowering the binoculars, Marvin said, "I think we're good for a tranq and grab on this one, so you can lose the office mammal getup if you want."

Pulling off his clip-on tie, the ram replied, "Good, I hate wearing these things, they make me look fat."

Trying to ignore the buttons about to explode off his partner's straining shirt, the goat reached behind his seat and grabbed a weapon's case. Opening it up, he handed a gun and a magazine of darts to the ram, "Here you go, remember, these are medium mammal darts, so don't shoot the fox more than twice."

Slapping the magazine into the dart gun, Larry started to open his door when he heard his partner call out, "Wait! We've got company."

"Shit, don't tell me…"

Tracking the new arrival with his binoculars, the goat groaned, "Yeah, it's her again."

…..

Connor parked on the street within sight of the park's homeless camp area, "Do you see anyone?"

Judy scanned the open space but wasn't seeing any activity. Getting out of the cruiser, she put her paw up to her forehead to block the sun, looked toward the treed area, and said, "I see someone hanging a tarp behind that tree, looks like a fox."

Judy led the way toward where she'd seen the activity, and once they reached the edge of the park where it turned into a more lived-in area, Judy turned to Connor, "Why don't you hang back here and I'll talk with Blues and his grandmother."

Walking the rest of the way over to where the Bengal fox was finishing hanging his tarp, Judy spoke up, "Excuse me, I'm Judy Hopps, ZPD. Are you Blues?"

The eighteen-year-old tod turned a little and nodded as he finished tying the final piece of rope that was holding up his shelter.

"I'm looking for your grandmother. I'm trying to find Big John, and Stretch told me that she might be able to help me."

Blues' shoulders slumped as he turned and said, "My grandma passed about ten days ago."

Judy's paw went up to her muzzle, "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Nodding, Blues motioned Judy to the log in front of his tent and then sat next to her. "It was pneumonia, she hadn't been feeling well for a while. Watching out for her was why I stayed so long, I kept trying to get her to go to the shelter clinic, but she was too stubborn and never would. I found her right over there. She must have wandered out in the middle of the night and fallen asleep near those bushes."

Closing his eyes, Blues' lips trembled as he continued, "An ambulance came, but there wasn't anything they could do, she'd already passed."

Reaching over, Judy put a paw on Blues' arm, "I'm so sorry."

Wiping a tear away, Blues replied, "Thanks," and then took a deep breath, gathered himself and continued, "You said you're looking for Big John. Yeah, he and my grandma were friends. I haven't seen him around for a while, maybe six weeks ago was when he went off to meet with his family."

"I heard some about that from his friend Little Bill, it would be a big help if you could tell me anything about who he met and where they went."

"Well, there's not much to tell, Big John told my grandma that a couple of prey mammals from some genealogy service were hired to track him down and bring him to some sort of a big family reunion. He said one of the mammals had a clip-on tie, and he waved a bunch of charts and graphs in front of Big John's muzzle and wanted him to go with them right away to meet one of his cousins.

"Of course, he refused to go anywhere with them, the proud old fool, he wanted to look more respectable if he was going to meet family for the first time. Big John spent the rest of the day cleaning up, he went to the shelter, got a shower, and then spent the last of his money at the thrift store for some better clothes. When he got back here, he bagged up everything he had left and went to meet those two mammals, and that was the last time that either me or my grandma saw him."

Flipping back in her notebook, Judy asked, "Did Big John tell your grandmother anything about the two mammals that he met with, species, fur color, horns, claws, size, anything?"

Blues' muzzle scrunched up as he tried to remember what his grandmother had said the night she came back from visiting the old serval, "Uh, she might have mentioned something about horns or maybe that Big John was glad he didn't have horns to polish, I don't remember.

"For sure, I remember her saying he went off on how classless the clip-on tie was," chuckling a little, Blues added, "funny what some mammals care about."

"Did Big John tell your grandmother the name of the genealogy service?"

"No, she never said, sorry."

Tapping her notebook, Judy sighed, nothing much on Big John, so she said, "I'm looking for another mammal, Crazy Ray, have you seen him around here?"

Blues shook his head, "My grandma knew him, said he was okay with foxes, but she never talked about him, and I haven't heard of him being around this camp in a long time."

Judy folded up her notebook and grabbed one of her contact cards and was about to hand it to Blues, when instead she asked, "Would you like my partner and I to take you to a shelter?" Waving her paw around, she continued, "You're the only one here right now, wouldn't it be better to be with some other mammals?"

Blues shook his head, "Thanks, but no. It wouldn't do any good to just show up, besides I filled out a bunch of ZMS paperwork when my grandma passed, they're supposed to let me know when a spot opens up in one of their long-term residences. I should be okay until then."

Judy sighed, "That could be a while, have you tried reaching out to the community?"

Blues looked away, "What do you mean?"

Judy huffed, "My partner is a fox, and a bunch of my friends are foxes, so I think you know what I mean."

Blues coughed, "Yeah, no, I haven't. My grandma wasn't one to trust others much, no matter what their species, so we never really connected with any other foxes, and now I guess I don't know how."

Judy flipped her card over and wrote a phone number and an address on the back and handed it to Blues, "Here you go, this is a friend of mine's place, his name is Finn, he's a Fennec fox," reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a twenty and gave it to the fox, "take this and use it for a Metro ticket to Foxburg, when you get there, tell Finn I sent you, he'll know what to do. My cell number is there too, please call me if you remember anything else about Big John or Crazy Ray," and putting a paw on Blues' shoulder, "or if there's anything else I can do to help."

…..

Nick stood off to the side of the platform and watched as Mac worked with each of the group leaders and made sure they had their task lists. After making sure that all the young kits were taken care of, she gathered together all the teens and their leaders to pass out the more challenging assignments.

Waving Nick over to the group of mammals, Mac addressed the crowd, "Alright, there will be three groups, first group, you'll be patching and painting the Bunnyburrow sign, second group, same thing for the front of the Station house and the third group you need to break into pairs and do trash cleanup along the train tracks."

Nick felt a soft paw lightly touching his back as Amy said, "Nick and I can pair up and walk along the tracks."

Followed immediately by Allison whispering, "What about me? I don't like painting."

Mac shook her head, "Ah, thanks for the offer, Amy, but I need Nick to help with the Bunnyburrow sign. We need someone strong to help with the big ladder."

Nick pulled away from Amy's touch and replied, "Yup, that's what foxes do, we lift heavy things and eat blueberries, sometimes both at the same time." Quickly walking over to where there were a couple of ladders stacked, Nick picked up the larger one, yelled for his group of teens to each grab some supplies, and then quickly headed over to the bunny-eared sign.

"And Amy, as for you and Allison, I have a special job I was saving just for the two of you. The restrooms, they all need a thorough cleaning."

Allison groaned, "Great! And I just painted my claws too."

Amy was about to object to the assignment when Mac added, "Oh, I forgot, the large mammal restroom's toilet is severely clogged with something no one can identify, so you guys will need to unclog and clean it out first."

"I hate you," said Allison as she poked Amy in the side and walked over to the pile of cleaning supplies and picked out some gloves. "I could be home watching EweTube videos if it weren't for you."

…..

Nick and his team set up the ladder and started their prep work. Breaking the teens into pred-prey pairs, Nick had them scraping the old loose paint off, and patching some damaged spots. While another pair caulked any cracks or gaps they found. Two boys, who didn't mind heights, scrambled up and down the ladder, patching and scraping as they went, and in no time, the 'Welcome' side of the sign was prepped and ready for painting. Nick moved the ladder around to the 'Leaving' side for the teens to use and then stepped back to watch all the activity.

"Looking good there, Wilde."

Nick turned and saw Janae with Dalton coming up behind her, pulling a cooler of water bottles.

"Not me, it's the kits that are doing all the work."

Dalton handed Nick a bottle and then wheeled the cooler over to where the teens were, yelling out, "Water break everyone!"

As Janae stood next to Nick with her arms folded watching Dalton's every move, Nick looked at her from the corner of his eye, smirked and–

"Not one word from you, fox."

Nick chuckled, "From me, nope, I wasn't going to ask anything about fire safety or being hot. Speaking of," Nick nodded toward the sign under repair, "Eighty-two million rabbits and counting. How does that happen?"

Janae smirked, "Well, when a girl bunny and a boy bunny like each other, and they decide that they want to have baby bunnies, they–"

"I think I've got that part, I'm talking about that counter on the sign, is that for real?"

"Hey, Janae! I need your help."

Janae looked over toward Dalton, who was dealing with the cooler, and then patted Nick on the arm, saying, "I think you need to talk to Judy about that, she's the math expert in the family."

Nick shook his head as he watched Janae help Dalton and then looked back up at the sign's rolling counter, the population count had gone up by over a hundred since he'd asked Janae about it.

…..

Judy was sitting in the passenger side seat of the cruiser with the door open and her phone out. She'd been Zoogle searching genealogy companies and hadn't found any that doubled as investigative firms that would send someone out to find a long lost relative.

Closing her search window, Judy was about to slip her phone back in her pocket when it buzzed with an incoming text. Reading it, she turned to Pawson in the driver's seat, who had his phone out researching something to do with his mate. Judy smirked, Pawson had been acting weird about Olivia for a few days now. "Hey, Connor, my sister just texted, and they'll be here in a minute."

…..

"What are they doing now?" moaned the ram.

Moving his binoculars to the cruiser, the goat said, "Just sitting there."

"Is the fox still all alone?"

A quick scan with the binoculars and the reply came back, "Yeah, but he won't be for long. I give it another ten or fifteen minutes before the rest of the camp's homeless start showing up, and we have to call it for today."

"I think we should call it now."

"Wait one, the rabbit's getting out of the cruiser."

The ram whined, "That's the opposite of leaving, let's go."

"Hold on, an old pickup truck just pulled up." Watching the action, the goat saw doors on both vehicles open, and then the wolf cop got out of the cruiser while… "Great, more rabbits."

"Now what?"

"Uhm, they're shaking paws with the wolf and… the rabbits are hugging, and um," the goat rubbed his eyes and lifted the binoculars back up and groaned, "now a teenage rabbit doe is taking selfies with the two cops."

After watching for a few moments, Marvin lowered his binoculars and shook his head in disbelief, "Now I think the doe is trying to get the wolf to turn on the cruiser's lights for more pictures."

"Seriously, we're trying to solve the city's predator problem, and we're being held up by some hick teenager with a camera who's never seen a cop before."

"Shut up, the doe and the bunny cop are arguing and… yeah, the wolf is laughing his ass off. Wait, now the wolf is getting back in the cruiser."

"He better be leaving, because if I see the lights come on, I'm going to scream."

…..

Torrie huffed, "I can't believe you wouldn't let him turn on the lights, it would have made a cool picture."

Judy turned from watching Pawson leave, "No."

"Fun sucker."

"Am not."

"Are too."

Paul yelled at his sisters, "Come on, you two, stop arguing and get in, I'm hungry."

Judy glared one more time at Torrie and then went around to get in the truck. As she stepped up, she took a quick look in the truck bed, "Whoa, what's with all the vegetables?"

Paul replied, "Those are for you, Mom's afraid you aren't eating enough, so she had Colton drop off a few crates for you before he went to meet with his new," making air quotes with his fingers, "business partners, so they could play video games together."

Judy huffed, "I eat plenty, besides that's enough food for ten rabbits."

Staring at the crates, Judy got an idea, "Help me unload these."

…..

Looking at his partner, Larry said, "I can't believe it."

"Believe it, they're unloading crates of vegetables from the truck," groaned the goat.

"It's not supposed to be this hard, Pink tells us which animal to grab, and then we tranq him and throw him in the back of the van, not all the rest of this stuff."

"Stop your moaning, they're almost– too late, more animals are showing up, and they're helping with the crates."

"Damn it, we're boned, let's get out of here, we'll snatch the fox tomorrow."

…..

"Okay, now we can go," Judy said as she brushed off her uniform.

Torrie smirked and said, "Not so fast, I need another picture." Pointing over to a car parked a little ways away under a no parking sign, she said, "Over there, let me take a picture of you doing something cop-like."

Judy looked to where Torrie was pointing, "What?"

"That car, it's illegally parked, go give it a ticket, and I'll take a picture. Everyone back home will be so excited to see you in action."

Judy shook her head, "That's silly. I do way more important things than ticket cars."

"That's not what Nick's been telling all the kits, they really want a picture of you doing something cool, pleeeease."

Paul spoke up, "Come on Judy, a couple of pictures, and then we're out of here."

Judy grumbled, "Fine, but I'm going to punch that fox when I see him next."

Stomping her way over to the car, Judy pulled out her ticket pad and quickly wrote out a warning and then reached over to slip it under the windshield wiper as her sister tried to direct her.

"Come on Judy, be the ticket, you need to put more feeling into what you're doing, otherwise no one will believe that this is your thousandth ticket of the day."

Judy stood up straight, "What! A thousand tickets, that's impossible."

"Nick told Sunni you set the precinct record for tickets in one day, so..."

"Fine, she wants a thousand tickets, she gets a thousand tickets," mumbled Judy as she hunched over, let her tongue hang out, her ears droop, and then leaned against the car like she was about to pass out from exhaustion.

As Torrie moved around, taking more pictures, Judy saw a white van pass by her while she was fake languishing over the hood and slipping the warning under the wiper blade for the third time. Rotating to watch as the van slowed down to make a turn, Judy noticed its left taillight out, and for just a moment, she debated running after the van and pulling them over, on foot, just to get out of having to be photographed any more by her sister.

"Judy, face the camera, five or ten more, and we're good."

Groaning, Judy turned back, fake smiled, and tried her best to channel her inner runway model while simultaneously dusting off that list of fox punishments she'd so meticulously worked on a couple of weeks ago.

…..

Nick loaded up his plate with tofu salad, macaroni, and coleslaw as he made his way through the food line. Reaching the dessert table, he heaved a sigh of relief, he'd almost fallen prey to the classic buffet-line mistake of not leaving enough room on his plate for pie, fortunately, he was an expert and deftly maneuvered the blueberry delight in between the piles of what his mom used to refer to as 'growing food.'

Admiring his handiwork at being able to pile so much food on such a small plate, Nick scanned all the groups eating and looked for someplace to sit. A paw wave to his right caught his eye, but a tingling fox sense kept him from looking over to where Amy and Allison were sitting, as Amy, like a Venus flytrap, was trying to get his attention by waving one of her tentacles.

Focusing away from certain doom, Nick spied Derek and Mac sitting by themselves at a small table off to the side and made a beeline over to safety.

"Mind if I join you?" asked Nick.

Mac snickered and waved a paw at the empty seat, replying, "Any port in the storm, eh?" as she nodded toward where Amy was sitting with an unhappy look on her face.

Nick sat, "Yeah, thanks. My regular bodyguard is a little preoccupied at the moment." Waving toward Janae and Dalton who were trying, and failing, to appear platonic as they sat together under a tree sharing lunch together.

Doc Stoan chuckled, "Yeah, cute couple."

"Derek!"

"What? Do you prefer, 'Damn cute'?"

"Shh, stop it, or I'm calling Lou."

"Fine."

Chuckling, Nick turned to Mac, "So, Bunny Scouts," and then looked at Derek, "and an all predator Junior Ranger Scout troop working together?"

Derek nodded, "It was Mayor Burns' idea, actually, so was cleaning up the train station as a service project. He got hold of Mayor Ackerbunn and arranged everything. He figured that if we talked up the fact that Nick Wilde, recent recipient of the Burrow Meister Award, would be helping here, that none of the more predator squeamish parents would object if the two groups worked together fixing up the train station."

Mac leaned in and said, "Yeah, and it worked too, look around."

Nick leaned back and scanned the picnic area, the kits had broken themselves into mixed pred-prey groups, sharing lunches, and talking and giggling. The young teens were also gathered into groups, rabbits, weasels, felines, all talking or playing games on their phones, Nick even saw Charlie with a couple of rabbit bucks talking about their favorite superheroes.

Nick smiled as he whispered, "It worked better than you thought, look over there."

Derek and Mac turned and saw all the parents sharing a large picnic table, talking, comparing notes on their kits or exchanging phone numbers, even the two dads in the group, a buck and a weasel, looked like they were talking about last night's ZBA basketball game.

"So, Mac, is Mayor Burns your dad?"

Mac scoffed, "Teddy Burns mated? That'll be the day. It'd take an awfully special doe to settle that old buck down." Chuckling a little, she added, "No, he's my uncle. Well, actually, Uncle Teddy is more than just my uncle, he's been like a second dad to me, and the best great-uncle ever to my kits, since my dad passed away."

"Sorry," said Nick.

"It's okay, I just wish Uncle Teddy had settled down and had his own family, he would've been a great Dad."

Derek patted Mac's arm, "This town is his family, he's done more good for Bunnyburrow than anyone else ever has, and he's been especially good for the mammals in Predville."

"Will he be stopping by to visit the kits to see all their good work?" asked Nick.

"No, he can't make it today, Uncle Teddy's in Zootopia for a couple of days doing some fundraising."

"Oh, what for?"

Mac hesitated, and then Derek replied for her, "You remember that x-ray machine I mentioned? They run about $300K, and Mayor Burns has been trying to raise enough funds so we can buy one."

Nick nodded and wanted to hear more about some of the things Mayor Burns was involved in, when he heard Mac groan and Derek start to chuckle.

"What?" said Nick as a dark shadow passed over him.

About to turn and see who was behind him, a familiar voice said, "Hi Nick."

Nick cringed, and his whole body froze, even his tail stopped wagging as he looked at Derek and pleaded with his eyes for the skunk to save him from certain doom. Instead, all Nick got back was another chuckle and a non-verbal promise that someone would look for his body later. Bowing to the inevitable, Nick straightened up and without turning around, said, "Hi, Amy."

Grabbing a plastic fork off the table, in case he needed to do himself in, Nick stood and faced the doe he'd been avoiding all morning. Just as he was about to create a distraction and run away, a whole group of kits, led by Sunni and her littermates, swooped in and surrounded him.

"Mr. Nick, come with us now!"

"Mr. Nick, hurry!"

"We need your help, Mr. Nick, we need you now!"

Nick looked at Amy and shrugged his shoulders as the kits grabbed his paws and pulled him away from her, all the while bouncing around and yelling, "Mr. Nick, Mr. Nick!" as they guided him over to where Janae and Dalton were waiting.

Once the kits had successfully presented their prize to Janae, the now laughing doe nodded toward her sister and said to Nick, "Better than a squad of Commonwealth Marines, eh?"

Nick turned and saw Amy, with her paws on their hips, staring daggers at Janae and her 'Marine troop' and replied, "Yes, yes they are."

…..

Paul pulled his truck into a spot across the street from the Grand Pangolin Arms and shut off the engine. Opening the door, he stepped out and went around to the back of the truck and unloaded the two crates of vegetables left there. Once Judy was out too, Torrie grabbed the to-go bag with Judy's leftover dessert and, reaching under the seat, pulled out another bag she'd been asked to give her sister.

Judy went to give Torrie a hug goodbye when she saw Paul pick up one of the crates and walk toward the front door.

"Paul, I can get those."

Paul shook his head, "Come on, grab the other one. Torrie, get the door."

Judy grabbed the other small crate, and as quickly as she could, she led her siblings up to her room. Setting her crate down in the corner, she had Paul put his down at the foot of her bed, where she wouldn't trip over it.

Torrie came into the room last and went over where Judy's microwave was and said, "Jude, I'm putting the rest of your pie on top of the microwave."

"Thanks."

Torrie scanned the room for where she should leave the bag from Janae when she saw something on Judy's desk. Seeing that Judy was busy with Paul, she padded over to take a closer look at the impossible. Not believing her eyes, she reached out and touched it. Gasping in disbelief, Torrie put her paw up to cover her muzzle and turned to look at her sister like she'd grown a second head.

Hearing Torrie, Judy turned her head, "Everything okay?"

Coughing, Torrie quickly composed herself, "Yeah, uh, Janae sent this for you." Holding out a bag so Judy could see it, she said, "I'll put it here on your desk."

Judy thanked her siblings again for dinner, gave them both hugs and nuzzles, and then ushered them to her door. "Good night, you guys."

After closing her door, she breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't seen Critterly anywhere on the walk up and hoped that he was out and wouldn't see Torrie and Paul leaving.

Seeing the bag from Janae on her desk, Judy walked over and opened it up. Typical Janae, always trying to expand her wardrobe. Judy pulled out two pairs of short shorts and a pawful of midriff-bearing tops.

Holding one of the tops in front of her, she checked herself out in her mirror, "Yeah, that's gonna show off a lot of fur." Smoothing out the shirt, she refolded it and put it with the rest of Janae's gift in her drawer with a couple of other things she was saving to wear later when she met up with a certain fox."

…..

Torrie was particularly bouncy as she walked down the stairs from Judy's apartment. So bouncy, in fact, that Paul stopped in the lobby, put out his paw to halt his sister, and asked, "What's with you, too many cherries for dessert?"

"No, I think Judy has a boyfriend."

"What, no way, not Judy, she's only about being a cop."

"No, really, I saw an ear bangle on her desk, purple and green, so you know she's already got someone picked out." Putting her paws up and holding them next to her cheek, Torrie continued in a dreamy voice, "I can't wait to tell everyone, I bet Mom and Dad will drive out here to meet her buck, and then everyone will come here for the mating ceremony, and I'll get to be an Auntie taking care of all her kits. Won't that be great, you'll be an uncle, like a hundred times over."

Paul shook his head, "Torrie, stop. You can't tell anyone what you saw."

"What? Why?"

"This is Judy you're talking about. You need to cut her some slack, she's never had a boyfriend before, and if you out her, especially with our family, you may scare him off. And even if you didn't, having a bunch of family around bugging her about him may cause her problems at work, do you really want to do that to Judy after all she's done for us lately?"

Torrie's face fell.

"You know I'm right."

Sighing, Torrie walked to the lobby door, "Fine, I won't tell anyone, but if I see a picture of her and her mate on Muzzlebook before I can post something, I'm going to smack you."

As the two rabbits exited and the door closed behind them, a mammal stepped out from the shadows under the staircase and stared after them. The t-shirt clad red panda grunted and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his rolled-up shirt sleeve, lit one, and then went out front to make sure the rabbits were actually leaving.

…..

"Ow, that hurts."

"Well, hold still then, you've got some, I don't know what, stuck in your fur," said Allison as she tried to brush her littermate's back.

"I hate Mrs. Burns, she made us clean those disgusting bathrooms on purpose, just so I couldn't be with Nick."

"Give it up, Amy. No way are you ever getting Nick in your bed. Remember, Raven said he has a girlfriend back in Zootopia."

"Pfft, I want him, and I'm going to have him. Whoever this girlfriend is, can have what's left over after I'm done with him, assuming, of course, he's even capable of remembering her name after experiencing… this," replied Amy, waving a paw down her body.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry.

"Look, he's not like the bucks in town, you can't just bat your eyes or wiggle your tail and expect he'll come running, if you want to hook up with him, you're going to have to come up with a better plan."

"Fine, maybe tomorrow I'll– Ow!"